Marigold

A film with one of the most beautiful, saddest and most inconspicuous characters in history - Donny Steve Buscemi. Alongside the noisy Walter-Jeff duo, the poor, pinned-down Donny barely gets a word in (shut the fuck up, Donny!), yet he's a silent testament to the Coen brothers' genius as the creators of the characters. I personally vote to rename the film from "The Big Lebowski" to "Quiet Donny" because I am moved to tears by Steve Buscemi's humble face. A beautiful comedy, beautifully constructed and with humor you can't get wrong.

This film seems to be setting the scene for the infantile boom from Episode 1, yet the ending and fateful duel with Darth Vader and the Emperor are among the highlights of the series. It is simply clear that Lucas was slowly succumbing to the size of his fiction world and its possible flexible adaptability to viewers of different ages. A slightly weaker link, yet he still has enough to keep in touch with the peak of science fiction...

How can I express this concisely? If the first film was a classic, this is a classic of classics and quite possibly the best sci-fi adventure of all time. Everything that graced Episode IV is polished to perfection herein! The big kids are playing so nicely...

Before the film, I seriously considered "withdrawing from the Star Wars race," but I took my chances. And look, it paid off! The children’s nonsense has disappeared, the power has returned, fate has returned, darkness has returned. I particularly liked Hayden Christensen, inside of whom two irreconcilable opposites, the dark and light side of power, are at war. His balancing act is often escalated by John Williams' great music. The atmosphere is more reminiscent of the Jedi Knight computer series (it's darker, more fatal, less fairytale compared to the original films), which is not at all a bad thing. Ewan McGregor is also good, who, along with a restless and emotionally charged "Padavan", makes the excellent second film. The love plot is somewhat forced and overly stylized, but luckily, it quickly drops off to give way to the action. Yes, the second film moves from the fairytale of the first films to a more serious tone, which may not be endearing to those who love the originals, but for us younger people who have already experienced the birth of computer processing of SW (starting with Dark Forces), this world is close to us after all. Still, I think Attack of the Clones is the rightful successor to Episodes IV-VI...

What was cute in the original films is infantile here, what was thrilling in the original films is infantile here, what was charming in the original films is infantile here. George Lucas simply sewed up a teddy bear for big money, put a lot of stupid episodes in it that are hellishly melted, a demented eared reptile that pissed me off more than any other hero, and, by the way, there are moments spread out in there that are worthy of Star Wars. I am pleased only by the cast (but not the acting performances) and the excellent duel with Darth Maul. But as a whole, an almost perfect flop, and it’s better not to compare it to Episode IV and Episode V - otherwise there is the risk of cardiac arrest...

Respect for Annaud, the futility with which he handles with monumental scenes. It doesn't make sense that all these spectacular mob attacks and massive explosions are just a sauce in which float the fates of a politician, a USSR hero and a German Wehrmacht Major. The modest Soviet boy Vasilij is a prime example of political propaganda that can turn a gifted pawn into a symbol. Likewise, Vasilij and politician Danilov's relationship is an illustration of the Western view of the Stalinist machine, in which a devout communist can come to his senses and see through the ideological masquerade in a matter of minutes. It’s a bit of melodramatic sci-fi ala Hollywood. However, otherwise it is an excellent intimate thriller with magnificent backdrops, a very nice camera, riveting tension and excellent actors. The fact that in the end the Soviet hero comes out the same as the American one is probably the expected tax to be paid by the audience. But notice the silent distancing Jude Law maintains in the face of painted Stalin... Correct, but overly so.

A very disillusioning sight of the Battle of Stalingrad through the eyes of those who lost it. There's no room for heroism, no room for ideals and faith in the Empire. All that matters is survival. But that's more of a fiction in Stalingrad. The fact that not only heroic Red Army men suffered on the Volga, but mainly German troops in the final stages of the battle, is captured here with all openness and relentlessness, but there is no unnecessary heroism. On the contrary. In a battle in which tens of thousands of men were sacrificed, the paradox of war was most manifested – those who lead them suffer the least, only innocent figurines die on chessboards. That's exactly what Stalingrad captured perfectly. It’s better than ten Saving Private Ryan’s in terms of content, but unfortunately, technically it’s "just a German film". And you can see that – especially in the first third, when the mass scenes do not give a convincing and breathtaking impression. But once the focus really is on the desperate crowd of "living dead" soldiers, Vilsmaier's film is one of the best the war genre has to offer.

Yes, I like war films. Yes, Spielberg's technical processing of the film seems to bring fiction as close as possible to the reality of war. Still, I consider this film to be only slightly above average, because it says nothing about the war as such. It's a nice recruitment drive on the subject of all of us in the army are friends and we love each other, which is nice, but it feels just like the colored drawings on the promotional posters from World War II. I don't believe even a syllable of the story, so the film only gets points with me for the fight sequences (which are truly riveting) and excellent acting performances. I prefer to overlook the agitation subtext...

The best of Cameron’s work for me. Excellent direction, perfect atmosphere and a rather pleasant story, which is spoiled only by the stupid open conclusion, apparently made to order "to make it work". Otherwise, however, I consider this underwater variation on Close Encounters of the Third Kind to be one of the best adventure films made in Hollywood, to which the excellent Ed Harris in the role of the manly captain of the undersea station certainly contributes. To the aforementioned conclusion – in a special edition, it is extended and drawn into a very naïvely proclamational, but still better form. At least you'll know why these little transparent men do it all.

I read somewhere that we don't have a film to balance with normalization. What about Smoke? This unique "musical", which, in the condensed environment of one industrial complex, offers reflection of almost all the essential components of totalitarianism! It is a pity that this Vorel film fit in so well, because among the flood of demented capitalist satires, it was a well-done project in every way, which easily processed normalizing morality and aesthetics and effectively transferred the poetics of the Sklep theatre into film life. At the same time, Vorel, with a penetration so typical of the masters of sarcasm, revealed the then almost neglected tones of false theatre in enthusiastic velvet-revolutionary code and incorporated them into the script during filming. One cannot overlook the clairvoyance of the film finale, in which the old mixes with the new according to a strangely harmonious script, and the swine suddenly put on masks with a human face. The revived air of the factory still carries a strong smell of totalitarian smoke. An unpleasantly far-sighted vision of the future. I'm sorry, but compared to Smoke, Pupendo's message feels like a cheap band of humor for the whole family. A film that should not be forgotten. A film that should be REMEMBERED!