Pethushka

Yeah, so this one went completely over my head. If I had read the summary more carefully, I would have saved myself some time. Unfortunately, whenever it started looking promising, it turned into something that said absolutely nothing to me. As a comedy, it doesn't work at all. I'll try not to be so conservative as to give it a "boo!".

If there's one thing I've been enjoying about European film and TV lately, it's the characters. Ironically, I usually don't click with them immediately, I have to get used to them, but it's terribly refreshing. Even here, I'm still on the fence about some of them after the first season, but the visuals, the pleasant humor, and the romantic storyline, which is not always to my liking, have drawn me in so much that I would never dream of not watching this series. I suppose it really could be christened the Spanish version of "Sex and the City" (of which there is plenty, by the way), except that Valeria (an unfortunate name for me) is a bit more down to earth. So much from a girl who is surely the target audience. 3.5 stars.

I get the feeling from Space Sweepers that the Koreans are blazing a new trail with this one. A little uncertain, cautious, maybe with the promise of great things in the future. They're using tried and tested characters and plot and only taking risks occasionally, just a little. I'm not exactly their target audience and if the film weren't Korean, it probably wouldn’t hit the mark, but in the end I enjoyed watching it quite a bit.

Unpretentious romantic comedies from the US have been getting the shaft for years (and yet the people who yell Boo!, eager for more targets, keep watching anyway), so the low rating doesn't surprise me. Especially when the film copies and mines practically every Christmas movie (and then some) and offers almost nothing new except the staples of the times. For me, I don’t mind treating Love Hard as a one-off diversion of the Christmas season. Still, it wouldn’t have bothered me if there had been at least a hint of chemistry between the main couple. As it is, it's just a nice enough movie. Full of the Christmas spirit, but why not. 3.5 stars.

I had originally planned on avoiding this film based on the title alone, which gives me hives. The cinema passed me by, Netflix didn't. And I'm actually glad, because the finale was way better than I expected. If it weren't for some extremely unnatural scenes and some pretty awkward dialogue, I probably would have gone even higher with my rating. They were on the right track... 3.5 stars.

What I enjoyed about this series was the choice of actors and characters. No polished cream of the crop, but normal imperfect people. I enjoyed almost every character that came along. As far as the predictability of the story and the suspense, in my opinion the creators didn't fall short there either, since I thought I knew what was going to happen but was proven wrong in the end. I liked that each episode revolved around a single character, so we as the audience could get to know some part of them more deeply. Pretty good in my book.

In the end, what moved me the most out of the whole movie were the closing credits, or rather the videos embedded in them. A nice reminder that we all live our lives, experience our loves, leave, forgive, are forgiven. Sometimes we regret our choices, sometimes we wish we could turn back time. The film that preceded those last few minutes was shot with an eye for detail, it was nice to watch, but the story touched me almost not at all. I didn't like the personality of the main character, who was supposed to be playing an easy-going woman, but I didn't believe her one bit. I was also hurting for some chemistry between the actors. From my point of view, it was more the story of two friends and I still don't really understand how they got to the point of having a fight in the first place. Maybe it was my lack of experience with Chinese culture, but that's just how I’m rating it.

I don't even know what I will say. That I'm grateful for the country I was born in? That it shocks me that living in a democratic country doesn't necessarily mean freedom? That I can't even imagine a life where my family is my worst enemy? Iram Haq knew exactly how to take a story and make it utterly believable without exploiting the viewer. For me, this really hurt.

I'm happy to boost a film's rating again, since lately I’ve been the one dragging them down. But since I don't care if my laughter is caused by more or less intelligent humor, I can't follow the crowd here. Laughter is just laughter, and the girls made me laugh uncontrollably several times. I don't even like Rebel, but on the other hand I admire how she can make fun of herself, and combined with the wonderful Anne Hathaway she didn't even bother me much. 3.5 stars.

They say Eternals didn't pull in the audience in Czechia, and in the end there are a grand total seven of us in the theater. The timing of the premiere was sadly not ideal, and the competition had nothing to do with it. But I don't want to talk about that, let's get to the film. I don't think I've ever been this bored and disappointed by Marvel. I don't understand the need to make a movie into something that the typical viewer definitely isn’t looking for. Why try for depth when the characters are so simplistic? Next time you’d do better to send in a few extra monsters and pick some cooler dudes. I don't much care for these experiments. Of the characters, I think I liked Kumail and his cameraman the most, he made me laugh at least twice. I was looking forward to Dong-seok Ma, but I still like him a lot better when he's actually doing a bit of acting. If you want action and emotion, go see Bond, he's a real super hero.