DaViD´82

At first, it has the most Dickensian atmosphere I have ever encountered on screen. It is therefore a crying shame that ultimately the whole thing falls flat from lack of atmosphere. Because of all the running around, the atmosphere gradually disappears until it vanishes completely. Where the original leaves the right Christmas mood in the reader even long after reading, Zemeckis merely leaves excellent impressions of the almost unreal fidelity to the illustrations in the original edition and perhaps even better impressions as they are “pulled" into three dimensions. There’s just no trace of Christmas spirit. Unlike the original, this will not become a Christmas classic beloved by many generations, but hopefully it will make at least one Christmas more pleasant for you. Assuming you have a 3-D IMAX in your area.

There was a time when I didn't go anywhere without a book about "Little Nicholas" in my hand. Those days are long gone, but Little Nicolas still has a special place in my heart. And so I didn't expect much from the adaptation. But I was mistaken. The adaptation is both unusually successful and, at the same time, unique. A pure embodiment of non-infantile family entertainment, which will often get more laughs from adults than from kids. Moreover, Nicholas’ misadventures in both forms have the special power to return you to your childhood, which is something that very few books and even fewer movies are able to do. And the fact that the film doesn’t compare to the original is not so relevant in this case, because I didn't even realize it until loooooong after I left the movie theater and had wiped away the last tears of laughter.

Amelie on a date with Ocean’s Homeless Eleven in grotesque trappings. Or Jeunet different again in his own inimitable way. Sometimes he overdoes it a bit, but you can’t be mad at him when even the "useless and redundant" ideas are so original. Although it is true that in the end it doesn’t all fit (a prime example is the football field full of mines). The result, however, is not a mish-mash; on the contrary, it is a gala presentation of originality grafted on the classic scheme of a relaxing pissing contest movie.

The whole trilogy is more or less about a girl who makes no compromises. Never and nowhere. And about a journalist who also makes no compromises in his professional life, unlike in his personal life. Never and nowhere. The whole trilogy is a feet-up watch which won’t make you want to put your feet up even a long time after reading it. And it’s adapted in a movie that makes compromises everywhere and in everything and it’s no problem to take a quick nap during it. Although part one is certainly the most difficult to adapt of the entire trilogy, the number of storylines being murderous. Oplev fails in not being able to decide whether to cut back the wealth of material in the book, just leaving the thrilleroid element or not. It would have been a shame, but it’s nigh on impossible to transfer what’s “extra" onto the screen. Where it flounders is that it includes a little of everything, but everything is just touched upon and nothing is investigated in depth, so it all just fizzles out. Which is a shame because those “post-Lingren" characters are crying out for a quality adaptation. But what is almost unbelievable is the casting of Lisbeth; I couldn’t believe it would be possible to cast her so that she both looks the part and can act too. Too bad the same can’t be said of Blomkvist. P.S.: I saw the movie before reading the book and even after doing so the overall impression was basically identical in both cases.

Flashy, but not enough to be effective. Silly, but not enough to reach guilty pleasure status. A mish-mash of everything, where in the end there is nothing. Most of all, though, it is not fun. It’d be OK if it was dull and cheap, but at least if it was something.

I believe that if an un-loquacious version of this existed, it would work equally as well as the “silencing" of Blade Runner. However, this way it is an outstanding movie that is utterly wrecked by overuse of the narrator. Even though quite soon there is no longer any reason for his existence, he drivels gloomily on and on. This absolutely ruins the atmosphere which is given a chance to pervade only in a few rare moments when at last there’s silence. And at those moments I would willingly award both Mary and Max five stars. But then the narrator opens the flood gates again and lets flow his prattle about nothing and the atmosphere is gone. Oh dear.

A portrayal of what a very good summer feels like: it warms you up, entertains you, but before you know it, it's over and all that's left is the everyday grey. But those memories, nobody can take them away from you.

Snow Cake does honor to its name. Beautiful on the outside, a sparkling cast, but inside the atmosphere is cold and immediately the first mouthful confirms the expected. And that is that you can’t expect any particular taste from snow. Simply a forgettable movie about forgiveness and simple mutual understanding that we’ve seen thousands of and just during the time it took to write this review, a few more have been come into existence.

In the end it just doesn’t have what it takes for the legendary status enjoyed by milestones in intelligent sci-fi such as Space Odyssey or Blade Runner (the screenplay holds it together, but there are a couple of screaming lapses of logic), but a few times while I was watching it did occur to me that it isn’t that far off. Plus, Moon has huge potential to mature with time. And who knows, maybe there will come a time when I will have to change my comment at the beginning. P.S.: Lots of those lapses of logic may be solved by the theory about radiation sickness, but not all of them by far...

I know that Olivier Marchal only acts here, but still I believe that more than one viewer will be convinced that he was standing behind the camera too. The dismal atmosphere, the hard stares instead of empty blabbing, a vicious dog and suspense; it looks like it came out of his movies. And the chance he took hooking up the Lindon - Kruger duo paid off big time. With this movie Cavayé joins the ever-growing ranks of French filmmakers who have been successfully resuscitating the seemingly dead soul of the dark French crime/thriller wave of the sixties and seventies. Just too bad that we find out right at the start the truth about Lisa. Julien’s determination wouldn’t have wavered even if the opposite were true, and for the viewer the uncertainty (if the truth had remained unrevealed for the entire movie) would have been far more intriguing.