Stanislaus

Stranger Things is undoubtedly a pleasant surprise and a random revelation in today's glut of TV series and miniseries. In my case, I can't speak of a certain nostalgic return to the 80s, as I didn’t experienced them and secondly I am not as familiar with the scifi-horror filmography of the time as others (however, I have seen The Thing and The Evil Dead, which are referenced more than once here, alongside numerous mentions of “Lord of the Rings” or “The Hobbit”, which I also enjoyed, even if I've never read the books). In the first place, I have to praise the idea and the story itself, as I was really tense from the first minutes about how everything was going to unfold, and the tension eased (though not completely) only at the end of the last episode. Another plus point is the believably built up atmosphere of the 80s, from the clothes, to the cars, to the music to the overall mood and "feel", which managed to bring me very well closer to this (unseen by me) era. The cast was generally well chosen – I personally didn't mind Winona Ryder's acting too much, I was more focused on the child actors who played their roles very well, and even managed to evoke emotions when the characters interacted – anger or indignation at the bullies, smiling at the boys' humorous discussions, or sadness at someone's death. At the moment, I can't think of anything else to highlight about the series, as I'd be repeating myself a lot with other reviews here (which I've already violated above, then). In short, a decently made genre series that grabs you in its clutches right at the beginning and doesn’t let go until the end, so definitely both thumbs up from me.

Rather than the humorous aspect, which is of course present, but not to the same extent as in the older Scrat shorts, I have to appreciate the great imaginativeness regarding (not only) the formation of the solar system. The poster touts a parody of The Martian, but the short is a mix of space adventure films, basically another and exceedingly crazy chain of events started by a prehistoric squirrel.

In terms of visuals, music and story, this is a well-made short film that makes you think about yourself. We all make mistakes, they are in our human nature and it is good to learn from past mistakes so that we don't repeat them in the future. Besides, there is nothing more precious than memories, especially good ones.

Code 8 plays out a ten-minute story with a good and really imaginative plot, so I'll definitely be looking forward to the feature film if it actually comes to fruition. It would be a shame not to tap into such potential, which was noticeable even in those few minutes.

A humorous four-minute short about little Agnes, the Minions and the relentless pursuit of ice cream, which will surely earn an extra star from unicorn lovers. I commend the hilarious references to other films.

A short about prehistoric Minions who experience first-hand that babysitting a small child is definitely not a piece of cake, especially when the little one is a real clown.

A hilarious short about how much a simple contest of skill can go wrong, which benefits especially from the grimaces and "physical acting" of the Minions.

A nice short that doesn't reach the quality of Inside Out, but still entertains and impresses with its idea. The best parts were, of course, the insights into each head and the behaviour of the emotions.

The third installment in the modern Star Trek series falls slightly short of its predecessors. Compared to the first one, it lacks the wow-effect (at least for me), while the second one had a somewhat more charismatic and demonic villain. That's not to say that Into the Unknown is a bad film, it's definitely not. It's not lacking a good dose of action, comic atmosphere (which was mainly provided by Spock and Bones), a touch of unconventional romance (Spock and Uhura), all wrapped up in such an appealing audiovisual execution, in which I was most impressed by the "bee swarm" and the appearance of Yorktown. In short, a sequel that, while not quite reaching the quality of the previous installments, still holds its own high within the current sci-fi output, and is definitely worth going to the cinema for.

As the first computer-animated film with an R-rating, the aptly named Sausage Party aroused quite conflicted feelings in me. As far as the premise goes, it's certainly an imaginative piece of work, but it flounders in the final execution. Personally, I don't mind when profanity is abundant in films, but here most of it just flew thoughtlessly and ineffectively through space. What struck me most were the references to famous people (Stephen Hawking) or films (Terminator 2) and especially the final "group" scene, during which I was pretty much rolling on the floor laughing (making me wonder if I was a bit of a "pervert", but the whole cinema was laughing, so OK). In short, a film with obvious ambition, which would have been more suited to a medium-length film, and where it's a shame about the untapped potential that was definitely there.