POMO

This pleasant chill-out movie deservedly became a bigger American box office success than what it strived for. It is a lower-budget version of Ocean’s Eleven, bursting with youthful energy and music, and video-like editing combined with cool songs on the soundtrack. It also offers well-written and portrayed characters plus some kind of a wholesome message. In short, it is a little film worthy of a better three stars.

This film’s creators didn’t aim to please the masses with action or traditional thriller suspense, but conceived it as a minimalist, intimate drama about the feelings of two unexpectedly separated lovers. The Clearing is a nice film about a love that lasts a lifetime and forgiveness, relying on three excellent acting performances and a wise director who knows what he’s doing here.

A yellow-haired Franka Potente in a yellow floral-patterned dress runs through the tunnels of the London Underground, and instead of the date with George Clooney that she had planned, she’s on a date with a disgustingly deformed human mutant who enjoys raping women on a gynecological chair with a big, sharp machete. Christopher Smith fails to create even a hint of the oppressive atmosphere of the environment created by John Landis in only a few minutes of his An American Werewolf in London; and the first emotions come only with the onset of disgust and brutality. So it’s a similarly sad case as the more recent Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, in which we at least didn’t have to wait through the first two-thirds of the film for these “rewarding” audience emotions.

Fourth instalment of Indiana Jones franchise gets off to a great start and the rest of the film is decent – except for the last 10 minutes, which entirely undermine the whole thing. “We seem to have reached the age where life stops giving us things and starts taking them away.” The Indiana Jones universe has never taken itself too seriously and its possibilities are great, but they are not boundless and there are certain things I simply don’t want to see there. Who will we meet next? Mulder and Scully are knocking at the door... who is going to open it? Black-haired, flat-chested she-wolf Irina from the Soviet Union? The fourth Indiana Jones is a crazy cross-over with way too many pop-cultural references and a mediocre villain (Cate Blanchett’s only memorable moment is the line “You fight like a young man” :). May it be that the visionaries that used to show others the way have taken leave of their senses? This time, Spielberg has made me about as “happy” as Jackson with his recent King Kong. These blockbusters achieve equally amazing epicness, but they can never become true film classics.

Imagine Me & You is a decent, tasteful romantic flick made according to the time-tested recipe, but it is “different” only due to the fact that this time it involves two lesbians who are trying to find fulfilment in a romantic relationship. And these lesbians are more beautiful than you usually get to see in porn.

In Bruges is a stylish, strongly un-American, irresistibly incorrect, ultra-cheeky gangster flick that amazingly straddles the line between tragic tears and boisterous laughter. No wonder Martin McDonagh is a theater director. His remote Belgian town is just a makeshift backdrop for a well-acted play featuring twisted nut-jobs portrayed by actors who relish their roles, which are not very typical for them. A must-see for the fans of Tarantino, Ritchie and my favorite, Sexy Beast. Were it not for the villain Don Logan, played by the genius Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes would not have played his best character since Amon Goethe. In Bruges has the potential to gain well-deserved and lasting cult status.

After Derailed, this is another clever premise botched by a not so clever director. Weinsteins once again tried to skimp on the director and thought that in order to have a big hit, they just needed an interesting screenplay and good cast. And once again they ended up with something between a box office bomb and a direct-to-DVD release. Awake has a unique atmosphere, which is nice, and we have seen Hayden Christensen in worse roles, but the “dramatic twists” that are supposed to turn the plot upside down are just as awkward as in Derailed, and what’s worse, they are sometimes predictable. The fewer dime-a-dozen American thrillers you’ve seen and the more beer you drink before watching Awake, the fewer problems you will have with that.

This schematically and dramaturgically simple documentary consists of interviews with climbers interspersed with videos from their journey. As a climbing enthusiast, however, I was happy mainly because of the sheer number of those videos, through which we gradually get to the top. That’s because in other documentaries, such original shots are just a rare bonus, not the cornerstone. And I was really amused by one of the guys, who commented on the ascent to K2 with these words: “It’s like climbing in the High Tatras mountains, but it’s harder to breathe and everything takes three times as much time and effort.”

For a dime-a-dozen commercial product, this movie is well thought out and engaging from the first minute to the last. In the end, it doesn’t really leave the audience with anything deep and doesn’t invite repeated viewing, but it will keep your eyes glued to the screen for those 90 minutes. And the only people irritated by the ending might be those who have never seen a single American mainstream action movie.

Iron Man is silly but fun flick that won’t rivet you to your seat with the dynamics and spectacle of X-Men or Spider-Man, but it will amuse you with Robert Downey’s showing-off (the whole film rises and falls with him) and surprise you with its interesting cast. It’s not often that you see Jeff Bridges as a bald villain and Gwyneth Paltrow as a superhero’s assistant. Otherwise, however, Iron Man is super harmless and family-friendly, bordering on childish. It could have used more cynicism and an ironic adult perspective.