DaViD´82

Jack is back! A shame that, apart from the different setting, everything is just like in the last two seasons. So basically good, but forgettable. Apart from Jack Bauer, of course. Kiefer still has that charismatic pissedness about him. No doubt about that, although here his storyline remains considerably in the background. This is nothing more than two run-of-the-mill, uninspiring episodes fitted together. For the upcoming seventh season, they need a quality screenplay (which, going by this offering, is unlikely) and a change of concept (yes, throw out all CTU passages and leave LA for good). Otherwise not even the “evilest" good guy in America can save the series.

I can believe that this became a cult movie overnight for MMORPG players who will proceed to flood discussion forums for a long time into the future. For me, apart from a couple of laughs here and there (the stripper with the kids, the Hindu/Jewish guy’s mom) but nothing more. If it weren’t for that cute Felicia, I don’t think I would have lasted out to the end.

For me to be able to announce that the filmmakers had thought up this movie on the spot, they would have had to have thought a little about it. They didn’t. But despite the obvious shoddiness, the non-existent screenplay and miserable production design, it has a nice smack of exotic adventure and dime novel. And apart from this it is even funny in places, with pleasant detachment. Both intentional. It comes nowhere near the original King Kong, but otherwise, like father like son. Apart from knowing how to show his middle finger, here everybody behaves and expresses themselves like the protagonist of O človíčkovi! However, as a whole, this is, using today’s terminology, more of a “direct 2 DVD" affair, because there is much more talking (the first forty-five minutes) than action (the closing barely twenty minutes on Skull Island).

A socially dangerous movie due to its naivety which can’t even be fully excused by the year it was made in. The filmmakers’ notion of alcoholism is about as realistic as a five-year-old’s. In fact they are saying that you are irresistibly attractive if you drink like a fish from morning till night, destroying everybody’s lives around you. But nobody cares of course, and everybody from barman to lover take loving care of you and still think of you as “Mr. Incredible". Then everything turns out well, you become a famous writer and, as a bonus, you can see terribly cool animals (a bat!) during your delirium tremens. No damage, a great ride. So why not become a lush for a couple of years? P.S.: Ray Milland overacts outrageously and his every gesture is charged with “gimmeanOscargimmeanOscargimmeanOscar". And what do you think? Of course, he got one.

Even a comedy satire by Bergman is Bergman. Interestingly initiated (and completed) themes, but it’s so crazily d-r-a-w-n o-u-t that it harms the movie. But the opening and closing quarter hour get A+ star in my book. P.S.: Jarl Kulle’s evil laughter is the essence of perfection. Without any hesitation, I would cast him in some B-horror about a mad scientist who wants to rule the world.

A classic romance, but from a boy’s, immature viewpoint and a British perspective. The cameos are great and welcome, the supporting roles are cast perfectly, Kirsten incredibly cute (and like in Eternal Sunshine, she looks best in a tipsy pose) and evidently everybody is having a great time and making the most of it. Of course, if everything had been exactly the same and the main role were played by somebody other than Simon Pegg, it would have collapsed quicker than a house of cards. But it’s played by him. And those sort of “boy from next door, one of us" roles suit him better than anybody else since the days of the Britcom Spaced.

A movie parable that pretends to be a “slightly different" war movie, while in fact it is closest to a mystery thriller, despite lacking even a hint of the supernatural. Although I can’t clearly remember a single scene, it still managed to wrap me around its finger with its captivatingly hypnotic atmosphere. The strange thing about it is that although all scenes are absolutely unspoken (and offer as many opinions and explanations as viewers that watch it), it holds together coherently. And the strangest thing about this is that it isn’t strange at all. I intend to embark on an active search for the novel. The second-hand bookshops are calling.

Compared to both its younger brothers this is significantly weaker. Bailey makes things up on the spot, doesn’t open up controversial topics, goes around in circles and he’s a tame as a spring lamb. The jokes a rather few and far between, and most lack any real punchline. The music isn’t integral to this, like it was to Part Troll and Tinselworm, but it’s just added on, so nobody can complain that the instruments are just on stage to look pretty. It’s not exactly boring, Bailey is too funny for that, but Bewilderness remains very much in the shadow of his future projects. A great disappointment, because of all stand-up comedians he has more in him than just a thousand and one variations on grins and grimaces.

From a musical perspective this was perhaps a little weaker than his four years younger dvd of his performance at Wembley, but a little better after seeing the one with all the talking. The result is classic Bailey. Jabbering away, occasional parodical humming or throwing one of his typical grimaces. A simple, almost cheap combination. But who cares, when half way through the movie due to a deluge of tears of laughter I ran out of Kleenex.

I can’t remember when I last exercised my jaw muscles that way. Nothing and nobody is sacred for Bailey and although it takes him until the first intermission before he gets going properly, what follows goes right off the scale. Hearing a Hindu cover of the banjo duel from Deliverance or the ingeniously texted Starbucks staff emo hymn is an experience not to be missed for anything. Not even for all the gold stolen by the Nazis. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Shame I don’t live in Britain. I’d include some of his wisecracks into my repertoire. Yes, way!