D.Moore

I wish Rocketman had been as well attended as Bohemian Rhapsody, because it's actually just as great – despite how different the two films are. However, I don't think Elton John has the same fan base here. But about the film – Elton is in rehab, addicted to just about everything he can be, and reminiscing. Or rather, "reminiscing". After all, his life is a string of amazing musical numbers. Colorful, exuberant, loud, but with plenty of room for silence, stuffiness, and gloom. And his hits have been given a new coat of paint in exactly that vein (for example, when Indian dancers appear in the scene with Saturday Night's Alright, Indian musical instruments are heard, and in other scenes the otherwise driving hits have become downright ballads thanks to the intimate delivery). It's all very imaginatively filmed – what the concert scenes and Live Aid finale are to Bohemian Rhapsody, the musical numbers are to Rocketman, but they're not just about entertainment, they're also about emotion, because... because the actors who do it all are perfect, and that finally brings me to Taron Egerton. If there's one thing I like more than last year's Bohemian Rhapsody, it's definitely his performance. The admirable transformation, the singing talent, the ability to smile and yet make it clear that he's not really into laughing at all. Hats off to him, it's great and completely unforgettable.

A very pleasant viewing, light and not playing at anything... but even stranger is the way in which the ending is perhaps unnecessarily dramatized, weighed down. Lída Baarová is beautiful, Hugo Haas is hilariously funny, Věra Ferbasová is almost useless, and Frič's direction is reliable. I was also impressed by the pleasant music.

It's a mess of all sorts of things, and it's not funny. When he quotes both Jurassic Park and Alien in the kitchen scene, it's watchable, but such scenes are woefully few and far between. Moreover, the main child characters act like they’re ten years older, but it's not funny... Whether I liked it or not, I had to compare them to the heroes of Stranger Things, though they could barely measure up to their ankles. As for the direction, McG is my favorite music video freak (and he has already made the fine The Babysitter for Netflix), but this time he's noticeably hampered by budget – the special effects are downright bad during the first encounter with the aliens, and later they're skimped on for good measure, leaving the film, sadly, with nothing to offer.

I am unreservedly enthusiastic about the first season. Perfect casting of almost every role, especially Elizabeth, Philip, and Winston Churchill (literally and to the letter a brilliant transformation by John Lithgow), and the honest conversational script, which nonetheless does not feel theatrically stiff at all, but on the contrary is (like, say, The Queen) perfectly designed for such a riveting spectacle. On top of that, there's the spectacular set design, unadulterated (big) cinematicity in every second, and the believable feeling that we're watching "the way it really was", even though it's clear that many things could have been (and probably were) different. Truly amazing._____In the second season, everything is like the first one – again a great show in every aspect, you feel that you really get to know the royal family up close and experience everything directly with its members. It was a great challenge for the creators to keep the bar so high without Winston Churchill, who was key to the first season,yetthey pulled it off without a hitch. On the other hand, more space could have been given to Margaret, Phillip, and others._____The third season keeps the bar where it was – it doesn't move it higher or lower, it's just as great. I'd say that the cast changes are taking away from the ratings, especially for those who saw the third season right after the second, then you might be able to tell the difference. But I didn't notice it in hindsight, on the contrary I can't help but praise Olivia Colman, Tobias Menzies, Helena Bonham Carter... But what surprised me the most was the character of Prime Minister Wilson, played by Jason Watkins, whose performance and development fascinated me as much as Lithgow's Churchill in the first series. Of the episodes, I think Aberfan and Moondust stand out in terms of quality.______The fourth season of The Crown is based on a trio of strong female characters, Elizabeth – Thatcher – Diana, and it's a good thing. Not that their male counterparts have nothing to say, but it all revolves around those three and it's clearly right – they're all superbly written and acted, unforgettable. The actresses and actors I've grown to love will be missed in the next season, but I believe their successors will be just as good.

So I’m wondering if this action series isn't the best I've ever seen... and it probably is. John Wick is still hugely entertaining, honest, and a notch up again in terms of story and surreal carnage. Imagine if Bud Spencer and Terrence Hill's comedies had blood spurting by the gallon and their classic two-against-a-hundred slaps had ended in a pile of corpses... Or imagine Buster Keaton's slapstick, which, like the last episode, also makes a cameo appearance. That's exactly what most of the action in John Wick 3 looks like – endless ideas, choreographed to the last detail, and a pitch-black humor that's impossible not to succumb to. At the same time, I must add that the film is once again not all action, and that without interesting, well-acted characters and lots of twists, it would hardly be half as good.

If Tim Robinson had been an annoying comedian, it would have been good. But he's just annoying. The writers of this show seem to have produced the sketches from templates they tried out with more or less success in the first episode, with no interest in changing or perhaps improving anything. Yes, there were the occasional funny moments (a scalping gorilla, a sci-fi Dickensian Christmas story, a man dressed as a hot dog), but the worse to bad scenes that always led to the supposed climax and thus failed to surprise, offend, or heaven forbid, amuse me, were unfortunately in the majority. This is what I call "American" humor, and it abounds on Saturday Night Live. But if you're a fan of SNL, I think you'll enjoy this one.

If someone accuses Hans Zimmer of being a musical titan, he reiterates that he doesn't really have that many ideas, but somehow manages to get something right from time to time... Well, he's right, and this concert will confirm his unpopular opinion. Two hours (plus) of Zimmer's music from different films simply proves how often the music is similar, and when you get a mixture of different soundtracks, you wouldn't know it's not one song... But on the other hand, they also let the tracks that are more original, the good ones, stand out. For example, the very opening with Driving Miss Daisy, Madagascar, and Sherlock Holmes is great, it looks very nice on stage too. The Lion King is nice to listen to and the performances of Gladiator and The Thin Red Line (with minimalist projection) are also impressive. I probably would have liked the almost conclusive “Aurora” a lot more too, if Zimmer hadn’t literally beaten me to the punch with, say, Pirates of the Caribbean beforehand. Yes, I like pirate soundtracks, it's just this rendition... a kitschy show, more overwrought than amazing, more extravaganza than music. And it wasn't just the Pirates, it just seemed like the show lost its flair somewhere from the middle onwards and I had a really hard time following it. So Hans Zimmer in Prague is much better for me to hear than to see – not least because the audio version (which I would have rated better) thankfully lacks his mostly uninteresting and stalling conferencing.

They told me I was going to be scared, and they were right. At night and with headphones on my ears, nothing was more believable for me than that frantic panic that gradually increased in [Rec], until finally erupting to the fullest. All this performed by unknown actors and shot by a TV camera... The zombie horror according to the proven model made it even more intense than I expected.

In the book's premise, Ricky Hawthorne is a fan of old Hollywood and at one point he muses that the likes of Fred Astaire would be a great fit for their company. Well, guess who plays Ricky Hawthorne in this film! It's a decent piece of television editing that reflects the book fairly faithfully despite all the changes and cuts to the various supporting characters. It's not as subtle, and the point isn't really mysterious at all, but the main point – it's a ghost story made up of ghost stories that only make proper sense together – remains.

Kiss has always been as much about the music as the spectacle for me. But for a long time I only knew this concert from a two-CD recording and a few photos, I have only now gotten to the video... And so... for two whole hours I just stared at what I was missing, fascinated and smiling from ear to ear. The imaginative arrangements of the songs (I can't imagine “Shandi”, “I Was Made for Lovin' You”, “Detroit Rock City”, or “Great Expectations” any other way, and the "ordinary" versions pale in comparison) are highlighted here by a riveting stage show, where the whole orchestra has Kiss painted faces and is clearly having fun in the clouds of smoke, flashes of lasers, spotlights, and fireworks (those who aren't playing are singing or at least stomping their feet). Just when you think you've seen it all, Gene Simmons soars high above the stage during a bass solo like some sort of crazed bleeding bat, and before a final shriek in sparks and confetti, the band is joined by the Melbourne Children's Choir for the wonderful “Great Expectations”. What a way to do it, again with painted faces. Meanwhile, thousands of people are going wild in the auditorium and I don't blame them at all. I can think for the hundredth time that symphony orchestra concerts have become a fad and everyone is doing them, but when a concert goes like this there's nothing to worry about.