Saturday, 19 January 2013

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.

Monday, 7 January 2013

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.




Tuesday, 1 January 2013

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.