D.Moore

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.

Gillian Anderson reigns supreme in this series, though she's certainly not the main character – but that doesn't mean the others aren't interesting. Quite the contrary. The main character and all those who revolve around him like some kind of solar system are great, and it's funny that although most of them fall into previously seen and well-known character boxes, they somehow evolve within those boxes as well, climbing out of them and back in again... The creators also have a pretty decent supply of surprises up their sleeves (like the ending), so I've easily enjoyed absolutely every episode and look forward to the second season.

It felt like I was watching one slightly above average TV movie or series pilot after about fifteen minutes, but certainly not that I was watching an entire series. That said, the main characters were good, the subject matter was original, and it often had a nice comedic swing. I just missed some proper story.

King's Christine is one of his (few) books that I didn't enjoy that much, but what John Carpenter has done with the story is admirable. It's still a B-movie, but it's a proud one. Entertaining and suspenseful, stylish from the opening credits to the very end. It doesn't matter that one might cringe at some of the scenes or the actions of some of the characters, because that's the kind of thing that fits here. Scenes like the first "self-correction" or the one in the flames are unforgettable.

The first two short stories are not great at all, but the third one Jaroslav Soukup really managed to write and especially film well. No buffoonery, just a believably chilling atmosphere and suspense.

Slightly weaker than the previous film (what wasn't in the comics and what Frank Miller invented just for this film is really extraneous), but still a very good and stylish spectacle. It's not playing at anything, it wants to be gritty noir trash full of inner monologues, fatality, sex, and blood... and it is.

A great finale literally brimming with surprises. Don't let anyone give anything away, go for it and then don't give anything away either, because it's really worth it. Along with the constant twists, though, Endgame has thrilled me with how it not only continues the story fromInfinity War, but also makes various full stops, exclamation points, and question marks for the stories that preceded it, somehow uses just about every worthwhile character (even from a series), and punctuates one joke from Age of Ultron with an incredibly epic scene so awesome... it's a must-see.

If it had avoided a few stale clichéd moments, it would have been even better, but I still had a very good time. Chevy Chase and Richard Dreyfuss are great, their jokes are funny, and I would even trust Dreyfuss in particular to have a career in stand-up. I don't want to neglect the disarming musical number, though, which brings me to Greg Pritikin – because in addition to being able to direct with just the right sense of comedic timing, he's obviously an excellent musician.

I haven't seen a sadder comedy in a long time. The main character is severely depressed and you don't doubt for a moment that he would like to commit suicide, completely uncomedically, and he even makes several completely uncomedical attempts to do so. His life is just a series of depressing stereotypes interspersed with encounters with the eccentric inhabitants of a small town who will do anything to get in the papers – combing their newborn baby like Hitler, playing two flutes with their noses, making strange rice puddings (not to mention bread)... If Gervais's Tony is lucky in anything, it's that he has a dog and that the others haven't yet broken the stick on him. The answer to the question of whether he hasn't broken the stick, too, may not be surprising in the end, but who cares when it's so pretty to watch.

It's a big movie with everything. Anthony Hopkins gives yet another great performance, and the then budding Brad Pitt also does some pretty impressive things with a relatively simple character, and certainly doesn’t lose his way – when his Tristan is supposed to be just sweet, he’s sweet, andwhen he comes back from the fight bloodied and festooned with scalps and he’s supposed to be terrifying, well, he is. Zwick's sweeping direction makes this story from the Red Library an epic with some unexpected and very suspenseful moments, all of course with the hearty help of James Horner's bombastic score.