POMO

Bad Country is an average crime film without an original touch. It looks like a made-for-TV production, recycling what we’ve seen a hundred times before. The narrative dynamics are there, but the characters lack more distinctive features. It’s enough if you watch it just once, mainly thanks to Willem Dafoe, who is the most convincing in his role. Matt Dillon seems unsure at first, which turns out to be a possible intention not to show emotions and not to reveal the character’s nature. Tom Berenger’s big mafia boss is questionable. He seemed more like a drunken uncle from a retirement home than a fearinducing villain. A TV film for viewers who like to remember the good old days.

Do not expect an action flick just because it’s Liam Neeson. The only action scene takes place in the first minutes. This film is closer in spirit to Joel Schumacher’s 8MM, but it’s afraid to become too dark and heavy. For incomprehensible reasons, it lightens up and mocks the aura around the main bad guys, who should chill you to the bone. Philosophizing over guilt and redemption does not work very well either – in one of the final scenes it sticks out like a sore thumb. Neeson is OK, but Ólafsson is the best, albeit in a smaller role (he was also the best in Walter Mitty). [Cinemark 18, Howard Hughes Promenade, LA]

The film that kick-started Keanu Reeves’ illustrious career. A police thriller that takes place in an attractive surfing environment. The pace speeds up only in the last third, as everything that happens before is about getting to know the characters. Their relationships are well-developed, although today they seem a bit cliché. The last third, however, is surprising with unpredictable twists and its skydiving scenes complement the surfing ones in creating the pleasant poetics of a free lifestyle (which defines the characters of the film). The ending adds a bit of depth, but it was obviously added as an afterthought half a year after the film was originally completed. What is hard to swallow in this film today is Mark Isham’s terrible “action” music (a motif-free mess of percussion), which makes one realize how dramatically Hans Zimmer and his disciples changed the face of Hollywood action-movie music.

Despite their stunning performances and perfect filmmaking craftsmanship, biographical films about the rise of famous musicians or athletes usually do not get anyone too excited and quickly fade into oblivion. The real stories of the personalities portrayed usually lack the attractive plot twists and climax that a proper film experience requires. Body and Soul is constructed like a biopic, but it is not based on a real story, thanks to which it can contain the necessary genre twists and a bold climax that lends it the grandeur of Hollywood classics and makes it full-fledged movie hit. Nice.

The Big Heat is a delicate crime film about a cop who dares to destroy the leaders of a mafia syndicate linked to politics. It is intelligently written, superbly cast, fast and dynamic, even using narrative shortcuts in places. No wonder the film made Glenn Ford a star. His likable but strict and uncompromising avenging hero is a balanced counterpart to the repulsive, anxiety-inducing gangsters. The clash of their worlds pins the viewers to their seats. Putting diverse female characters in the story – from a nice wife, through a gold-digging widow to martyr-like “companions” (one of whom plays a key role in the story) – is also surgically accurate. It is a Hollywood masterpiece that, among recent movies, is thematically closest to Brian Helgeland’s Payback, for example.

Panic in the Streets is a decent thriller in which time is of crucial importance and everyone screams at everyone else – even the one who doesn’t yet know what a disaster he has at his door. Jack Palance’s bad guy attracts more attention than the main character, a doctor fulfilling family ideals. Palance’s twisted gangster is a clever allegory of the pursuit of gold, which actually means unsuspectedly getting closer to a deadly plague. The occasional witty dialogue works well to lighten up the dark atmosphere of the film.

Though not very original by today’s standards, 99 River Street is still cleverly narrated, with a fast pace and characters that are easy to navigate despite not being played by more distinctive actors (which is a pity). The best scene, which is truly great, though unrelated to the central plot, is the rehearsal in the theater. It reminds of Naomi Watts’s similar performance in Mulholland Drive.

Formally brilliant, but without any driving force or tension. I plan to give it another chance one day.

A textbook example of poor film direction. Though the movie is visually captivating, the casting and dialogue are simply bad. It’s as if it was filmed by the second crew, which normally works only on the supporting technical scenes without any acting and doesn’t care the slightest bit about the dramaturgy of the story (the last Transformers suffered from the same failing).

The movie’s characters are a bunch of unconventional heroes with believable team chemistry, who do not take themselves too seriously and are played with gusto. Chris Pratt, whose star is on the rise, is a super cool guy, Zoe Saldana would be sexy in any color and Groot is too cute for words. The plot is a total cliché, but the relaxed mood of the film, which shows that nothing is meant seriously, makes that fact less grating. However, I was unpleasantly surprised by the lameness of most of the jokes. Hilarious, imaginative catchphrases with a lot of pop-culture references, were supposed to be the main attraction of the film, and there are almost none of those. Even Seth MacFarlane had more in his recent, rather inane A Million Ways to Die in the West. The crucial scene is foiled by Tyler Bates’ inability to compose an escalating melodic musical theme. The technical aspect is, however, perfect.