Lima

Beauty. An absolute beauty, packed with content in all 3 parts. Full of period footage, examples of propaganda films, whether they were feature films or from Walt Disney, full of examples of posters of the time (for films, or pin-ups with girls for soldiers), examples of soldiers' backgrounds on the battlefields, or TV sketches promoting "true values" and inviting young men into the army and women across generations into the service of the factories where weapons were made. The whole thing is brilliantly structured, from mentions of the military service of Hollywood stars (e.g. Clark Gable as a combat instructor, or James Stewart as a bomber pilot), to examples of the monster projects of the studios that roused the nation with their films. And most importantly – it's all free of pathos, even if the material would suggest it. I recommend it to everyone, currently available on the archive of Czech Television.

Peter Berg finally graduated as a filmmaker with flying colours, spoiled only by Wahlberg, whom I didn't believe as a policeman. A lot of people here are praising the shootout, but I would single out other moments. In the beginning Berg gives a great dose of suspense, when you know what is coming but you are still on your toes, the insight into the FBI investigation was interesting (the whole reconstruction with hi-tech gadgets) and the scene of the interrogation of the wife of one of the terrorists was excellent. I didn't mind the pathos, that's just the way America is, proud. The final soaring speeches were somehow superfluous, I could have done without them. PS: Extra points for assuring us that terrorists are idiots who believe 9/11 was a plot by the US government. You don't have to go far to see that there are plenty of such morons walking around the world. Just read the reader comments on Novinky.cz and you’ll see that yes, this is a clear demonstration of the "flowering of the intellectual elite of the Czech nation".

It's not the best Rasputin movie, but Christopher Lee is the best movie Rasputin – captivating, charismatic and with a devilish twinkle in his eye. His healing and hypnotic abilities are quite exaggerated, and in the second half (Rasputin's becoming part of the Tsar's court) the plot flows rather choppily, but you can forgive the film for that as soon as Lee starts throwing his amusing maniacal looks at you. Add to that a nice studio production design, as was customary for Hammer (with the exception of 2-3 minutes of footage, the entire film was shot in a studio), throw one severed hand, an acid-stained face and horny ladies into the cauldron, stir, and you have a tasty treat that you won't want to overindulge in, thanks to Lee, who "made" the entire film with his charisma. PS: I don't understand why there are so few good film adaptations of Rasputin's life. Such an interesting figure deserves a proper film.

These old black and white classics have such enormous charm. The story of a woman who’s so consistently mentally tormented by her husband who wants to take away her sanity has a clever script (I'd love to see a remake by Fincher), the cinematography is fantastic with light and shadows, Chareles Boyer is a villain you'll honestly hate, but the biggest trump card that everyone here praises so much, Ingrid Bergman, was the only weakness for me. Her performance was sometimes too theatrical, sometimes I didn't believe her, sometimes her emotions gave me a pleasant chill; an inconsistent performance that I probably wouldn't reward with an Oscar, but the film itself is excellent.

Poster tagline: IT WAS THE DEADLIEST SECRET... THE MAN WITH THE RADIOACTIVE BRAIN!!! What can you say when a premise is so interesting but it’s completely unused. The sci-fi premise that the protagonist, with high levels of radioactivity in his body, lives with a sort of 7-second head start on everyone else, is drowned in a routine spy story where the low budget and apparent inability of the cinematographer to light scenes couldn’t be more evident. This film is terribly, terribly dark, 80 percent of the runtime is drowned in darkness, all it needed was for everyone to take a drag from a cigarette, like in period noir films (but very cheap ones). Actually, I wouldn't even call it sci-fi, it only lightly touches on that, it's more like a spy plot with shooting towards the end. It's a shame, the original idea with the time paradox could have been used much better in the hands of a more capable filmmaker. The English just didn't know how to make science fiction in the Golden Age (save a few honorable exceptions).

Blaxploitation to the bone, with a rudimentary plot that plays second fiddle, the most important thing is constant action, with one action sequence after another between one-minute pauses, with the three big stars of the time: Jim Brown as the most sensible, Fred Williamson, on the other hand, draws before he thinks, dropping one ironic line after another, and the short-lived Jim Kelly (who was riding the wave of popularity of Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee at the time) doing something like martial arts moves (he's not very good at it, it looks rather comical). Of course, the white population is again portrayed as a backstabbing race (as commanded by blaxploitation genre rules), united in neo-Nazi battalions with red berets and the SS symbol, the main villain is so pathetic that even his maid would slap him. You can count the dead (especially the white corrupt cops and red berets) by the dozens, with IQ's generally below freezing. The abrupt ending is more like deliverance for the viewer.

Vincent Price was in incredibly likable guy who could sell even the dumbest line with his charisma and 26 year old ear Jack Nicholson was .... well still a rookie, although he does show his proverbial devilish sparkle in one scene. Corman vehemently rapes Poe's short story, treating it more like a grotesque (the duel of the wizards at the end is hugely entertaining and by far the best thing about the whole film) and fleshing it out into laughable drivel, all within the B-movie confines he was never able to leave.

The beginning of the gradual decline of a once great actor in a serious sci-fi flick that, thanks to shoddy direction, becomes a parody of itself. Heston is only here to run around with his hairy chest bared, while the evil infected inspire terror with their white wigs, white contact lenses and powdered faces. You'll laugh at the awfulness of the script and marvel at the clumsily shot action scenes with clearly visible stunt stand-ins. Even Bert I. Gordon would have made a better film. Send Sagal to the gulag, and Douglas to a mental institution!

A mop's thorny journey into American households. I confess that I found the synopsis so dull and uninteresting that I wasn't tempted to watch it. At first the film was "quite interesting but nothing special", sometimes quite bizarre with characters behaving strangely (a classic malady of Russell's films), but by the time Joy meets Bradley Cooper's character midway through I was firmly hooked to the final impression of "excellent". The actual scene of the mop being introduced by its creator in the TV commercial was five-star, as was Jennifer's immersion in the role, as she emotionally drove it in like a snowplow. And by the way, winter was a good move, the flying snowflakes gave the narrative an attractive atmosphere, along with the music, which Russell always knows how to use in a film.

It took a long 33 years, but we finally got it. After Episode 6, the best film in the Star Wars universe. It doesn't feel contrived, it doesn't tell the story through bridges for morons, and it treats the main and episodic characters in a brash and bleak way, like in a real war. The beginning is perhaps too slow (my only complaint), but otherwise it's pure fan joy. I'd love to have a beer with Gareth Edwards, not only is he one of the few to understand the poetry of the original Japanese Godzilla films, but his rendition of Star Wars doesn't look like a cheesy coloring book either. Give him Star Trek, too!