DaViD´82

It has little (if anything) to do with reality, and it's stylised to the point of being over-stylized in places, but what the hell, it's actually better than most regular Bond films.

Plot away, plot away, maybe the plot will work someday... The events occurring over just a few days before the vote for a successor to a deceased mafia boss, when everybody tried to gain the greatest possible influence. Interested parties include the police and various factions within the mafia. Although it heads inexorably toward the expected conclusion, it’s about the journey taken to get there. And here it luckily strides along a stylish and nicely twisted path that knows no compromises or pity.

Gibney filmed an excellent, many-layered documentary, the weakness of which lies paradoxically in Gibney himself. If as a documentary maker he summarizes and puts into context Armstrong’s rich (in controversy) career and behind the scenes of professional cycling, he excels and looks at everything from various angles. But he fails in the one-to-one passages, when he had unprecedented access to Lance before (2009/2010) and after (2013) and got nothing from it. Before he was taken in by the powerful comeback story and after he avoided confrontation and difficult questions. He does try to make up for this with “thought settling" commentary, but the horse had already bolted; he should have stood up with that on set. But maybe this is a woeful consequence of the fact that this was released barely six months after Lance’s confession. In any case, Armstrong and cycling (fascinating how all convicted former cyclists point their finger, but never assume any responsibility) extraordinarily rewarding, colorful subjects for a documentary filmmaker and the end result reflects that.

A touching film with a heart, where everything is tailored to the awards season and to the audience's "oohs and ahhs". Take it as it is or cynically leave it alone.

A glimpse behind the scenes of the biggest ice hockey show in the world. It doesn’t fully use the potential, but it’s pretty interesting anyhow. You just have to get over the markedly melodramatic tone of the thing; the player expecting his daughter to be born on the day of the match, Canadian players on the day of their nomination for the Olympics, Broeder’s first match in his birth city after his father’s death, etc.

An attempt at a ticklishly hardcore version of Orange Is the New Black. But it is really just an experiment; there is no porn and no drama. The girls just have a little cuddle now and then, and then they make love, and... And that’s pretty much it.

Godard's posturing "in spite of everything and everyone", reveling in his own creative, relational and existential crisis, which is as captivating (at first) as it is annoying (after a while).

If the twelve episodes were cut into the shape of a miniseries with much fewer episodes, this would be an extraordinary and good and solid crime movie from the tough “lone wolf of a policeman versus corrupt political system" category. It has the potential for it. It’s just a shame that it’s more of an inkling of potential instead of anything tangible and applied in practice, because like this it’s like you’ve seen it a hundred times, but even though quite a solid and thrilling genre movie, which is unfortunately spoiled by one (here more and there less) annoying cliché after the other and a fluctuating tempo.

A slow-moving conspiracy spy thriller (from the world of independent analysts working for big state agencies) maintaining a pleasantly down to earth style common to most British productions or genre movies of the seventies. Over the moon? I was too, but... But there are just too many “buts". The first problem is that in the opening episode the main hero is shown as an unparalleled genius, but in everyday life he is more of a clumsy idiot living in his own world. As of the second episode the very same hero is suddenly very practical, cunning and focused, but incredibly stupid (in fact during the whole series, except for the crossword in the prolog, he doesn’t solve anything on his own) not able to fit together painfully obvious information. And what’s worse: the first couple of episodes it seeks a style of its own, an inner fervor and tempo, and there is more mysterious hinting rather than real action. Instead of showing the essential stuff (Will’s search on his own and the everyday routine of his team) it sinks into dead-end trifles like “an assistant trying to solve her personal life". And when it finally finds its style, half of the episodes are gone and it slowly gets to the finale, when we find out that it’s not as clever as it seemed all this time; or in this case, as it was pretending to be.

It isn’t usual for an expensive blockbuster (and especially a remake of an action movie of the eighties) to put its money on ambiguous characters, a moral dilemma about the limits of “humanness" or a criticism of America as the self-proclaimed “global policemen who should clear up their own mess at home"; all of this of course (unfortunately) toned down to large-budget proportions and diluted by the mandatory (and superfluous) SFX action ingredient, but all in all the course they chose was still entertaining, I tell you.