Only God Forgives

Only God Forgive is about Julian, a drug-smuggler thriving in Bangkok's criminal underworld, sees his life get even more complicated when his mother compels him to find and kill whoever is responsible for his brother's recent death. 

What still puzzles me about this movie is the reception of it at Cannes this year. It was booed, and critics almost unanimously called it the worst movie of the festival. Surely, I did not have a chance to see Blue Is the Warmest Colour, the absolute winner this year which received an impressive amount of accolades and seals of approval from everyone. But the more I think of the movie, the more I see its ingenuity and, simply put, greatness.

Something to wait for

Two trailers released soon one after another. Both look incredible, stunning and jaw-dropping; I have been waiting for the sequel to 300 ever since I first saw it. But the trailers look amazing particularly if you compare them with their predecessors:





Compared to


And

Time flies quickly

Iron Man 3

The third installment of the popular franchise, the Iron Man 3 follows the events described in Avengers. “Nothing has been the same since New York”, claims Tony Stark as he battles with anxieties, panic attacks and insomnia. His arrogance and over-confidence leaves his life shattered, his girlfriend in danger and the world on the brink of collapse – and thus he need to start to put himself together piece by piece to save those he cares about.

Even though I generally like the Iron Man franchise – I even remember watching cartoons about him when I was younger – it was never my favourite. It is not as serious, dark or severe as some of the other superheroes movies are. It never attempted to provide a food for brain, however little the comics books can give; jaw-dropping was also not its strongest suit; its goal was solely mindless entertainment. Surprisingly enough, the movies didn’t have a lot of action or explosions. The Iron Man trademark attractions always were badass jokes and charismatic main character who could easily and with a charming smile find a way out of even the hardest situation.

Movie 43

Just a horrible film. Several sketches which attempt to be funny but fail miserably. The plot tries to be politically incorrect, but quickly degrades into bad tasted jokes. The only truly hilarious bits are the first three - the rest just calls for epic facepalm. The jokes tell volumes about a particular lack of sense of humour of screen-writers, and I cannot see how any actor, however brilliant, would possibly be able to pull of a decent performance.

Well, at least they actually do enjoy it, as is obvious from the closing credits. Hugh Jackman plays his part nicely, as does Kate Winslet. The rest of the cast is failing miserably, and it is a shame to see so many good actors in such a failure of a movie-making.

Do not waste your time on this, unless you want a revenge on your girlfriend who forced you to watched Twilight.

1/5

Arbitrage

Arbitrage has solid plot: the story about tough life of high-flying financier entertains. The rich also cry! It remind me of Wall Street 2, but without much of the fluffy staff about good people and worthy causes. Graydon Carter, by the way, played in both movies. The development of the story is grievously slow though, with only a couple of nice unexpected plot turns. Some of the scenes are simply brilliant, like the negotiation in the cafe with Mayfield.

Richard Gere is back into shape; well, he is in a better shape here than he was in Movie 43. Tim Roth plays Lightman again, but still delivers! Funny enough, Monica Raymund is there too.

Overall, smart movie that does not attempt to paint bankers as idiots. 

3/5

Django Unchained

Former dentist, Dr. King Schultz, buys the freedom of a slave, Django, and trains him with the intent to make him his deputy bounty hunter. Instead, he is led to the site of Django's wife who is under the hands of Calvin Candie, a ruthless plantation owner.

There exist certain features which, if found in a movie, point out that the director is Quentin Tarantino. You can always tell the Tarantino film apart from the rest – he is absolutely unique in what he is doing. He is in love with films of 80’s and 90’s; he devotes a lot of time to the work with camera, and he is able to mimic the camera work of almost any era he wishes to; his characters are charismatic and memorable; he loves to think that he films the advertisement of Heinz ketchup by the looks of the amount of blood that is spilled. But most important of all are the dialogs – you will never find this kind of dialogs in a movie by other directors. They can be empty in substance, they may not convey any message or lead the plot sequence, but they are interesting to listen to, they are witty, smart, sharp and effervescent. The dialogs are Tarantino’s trademark, and his contribution to the cinema (at least for now) is definitely putting the art of writing dialogs to the next level.

Life of Pi

Life of Pi is a magical adventure story centering on Pi Patel, the precocious son of a zoo keeper. Dwellers in Pondicherry, India, the family decide to move to Canada, hitching a ride on a huge freighter. After a shipwreck, Pi finds himself adrift in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, all fighting for survival.

The film is based on the best-selling novel by Yann Martel, and it is difficult to think of a book which will be harder to transfer to the big screen. Life of Pi is so multi-faceted, so multi-layered, that it is just the question of how much is lost in translation rather than how to transfer everything accurately. And the real achievement of the filmmakers is that they managed not only to keep the atmosphere, the storyline and the main idea intact, but they actually enhanced the experience considerably.

Best movies of 2012

It is January 1st, and I guess now is the right time to draw a line and make some conclusions about 2012. It was a hectic year, year full of fantastic movies and disappointing failures. Overall it was a good year, inspirational and interesting.

And here are the movies that I liked the most:

1) Amour
Those who watched it will understand: it is the most emotional and touching movie of the year. Amazing play by actors, suspense and drama. Must see.

 2) Life of Pi
Mesmerising and fascinating story of the Journey. Unique masterpiece, great book skillfuly translated into the language of the big screen. Philosophical story wrapped up in beautiful 3D.

3) Moonrise Kingdom
Feel good movie of the year. Heart warming and simply a pleasure to watch, not least because of charming Bruce Willis.

4) Argo
Simple story with so much suspense you will sit on the edge of the chair all 120 minutes.

5) Skyfall
Bond got the second birthday. Stylish, action-packed, interesting, smart - James Bond we have been waiting for.