Malarkey

The Polish once again strike back with a truly unprecedented example of high-quality filmmaking, which looks like a spy thriller, but while watching it you find out that it’s a very good family drama. The entire movie I was in suspense about what would become of Marian Dziędziel’s character and I’m really glad that I waited for it until about an hour after midnight. The Mole is a model example of the current Polish stigma, which is as close to us as Poland itself is. That is a lot. That’s also why I give the film a decent four-star review, which proves how well Polish cinematography is doing these days.

While watching this film, I kept feeling at odds with the acting performances of the actors portraying the main characters. Only after the movie did I find out that Clark Gable died of a heart attack shortly after he finished working on this movie. Marilyn snorted pretty much anything that was available and the whole thing was topped by a whole number of other actors who I probably don’t even want to talk about. The whole thing seems quite rough for early 1960s and even the characters aren’t too lovable and you won’t be watching them with any interest. Too bad that John Huston encountered the actors at a bad time in their life because they managed to fuck up a good premise with their arrogance.

I spent my childhood with The Visitors so I was really looking forward to this official third episode. I grew even more excited when I found out that most of the film was shot in the Czech Republic and even in the vicinity of Mladá Boleslav. And you can see it in the movie for sure. The authors used the locations up to two thousand percent. In this respect, the movie’s qualities are quite high. But the situation is worse when it comes to the premise, which has been illogical ever since the second part, so it’s good if you don’t think too hard about this one. The thing is this is easier said than done because the authors keep alluding to the French Revolution and so on and if you’re not familiar with the history, you will have a hard time trying to keep up. I wanted to enjoy the film so I kept googling facts while watching it, which shouldn’t be a standard thing to do while watching a film, which might be the reason why the film is getting so many scathing reviews at this site. But it’s not only about not being informed enough. Even the humor, I believe, is not for everybody. The authors could have saved themselves some of the disgusting bits that are easily on par with Kevin and Perry Go Large and they could have focused more on the craziness of the main characters, which is something the French are quite good at. This way I have to admit that the third part isn’t a bad film, but it has a whole number of scenes that you could easily do without. If the creators had employed a French historian, it would probably have helped a few things as well.

If this movie had been made a few years later, Jessica Chastain would have visited Prague sooner than she managed to with the movie Zookeeper’s Wife. I’m sure of that. You see you can feel Prague’s good old architecture from this film, which is also quite similar in Budapest. That’s why they use Budapest to shoot East Berlin every now and then. Nevertheless, I watched this movie mainly because of Jessica, who once again put in an incredible acting performance. It was a bit worse with the story that tries to look very interesting, spy-like and fateful, but it’s actually about one botched operation and the related lie. Nothing too big, nothing too complicated. The atmosphere is definitely good, but you sort of suspect all the time how things will eventually turn out and you have no reason to yearn for the ending from the very start, which is a pity for a movie like this.

I really like stories associated with good music. That was one of the reasons why I played this movie. But the initial madness about New York and the subsequent discovery of little August’s genius confirmed my idea that this is not a good movie. When I was watching the scene in which August plays the guitar for the first time, I felt like throwing up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a pathetic movie. I’d love to see somebody just pick up the guitar and start playing like that at the age of ten. And the way the director filmed it was actually irritating and unpleasant for me. The only good thing about this film is Robin Williams and that’s only because his strange character had something to it. But I want to forget the rest as soon as possible. The film’s ending is like it was cut out from a documentary on the Jehovah’s Witnesses, where all’s well that ends well and everybody lives happily ever after until they die.

This supermarket cop was as dumb as a bag of rocks. And the worst thing is that in his stupidity, he was sometimes funny. All in all, however, I’m trying to think about how it is possible that Adam Sandler keeps selling these comedies because there’s almost nothing about them other than that some private TV channels can use them to fill up several hours of uninteresting time. Do not be mistaken, I do like Sandler. What I don’t get, however, is his idea of producing good, average and bad films. And what I find shocking is that these average comedies manage to make some money for him…

I would never have played this film on my own but my attention was caught at the very beginning by Steven “Beefy Belly” Seagal, whose truly manly moustache made the impression of a macho guy who doesn’t scare easily and whom nobody can hurt. Maybe he himself if he grabs a machette because that’s the only thing he’s still quite good at these days. But other than that, he only appears in the movie for about ten minutes and the lead part is portrayed by some Rudi Messner guy. A Dumbass from Dumbasstown to whom the authors added a Cow from Cowington. I haven’t seen a stupider bullshit movie in a long time.

Having watched this movie, I am not surprised at all that I’d known nothing about it until the moment I watched it. It does feature appearnces by both Jack Black and Ben Stiller. Something beautiful to look at is then provided by Rachel Weisz, which means that the movie has a dream cast for an American comedy. However, for the movie to be any better, the main topic of the movie would have to be different than dog poo.

The third part of the Pusher trilogy is definitely the roughest of all the three parts. The roughest and the most brutal that is. Mainly in the sense that it tells the story of the gangster Milo, who has two different faces, but who doesn’t allow you to see the brutal terror that he is able to create on either of them. The last thirty minutes are from the world of filmmaking genius, when I was silently staring at the screen and slowly and very unsurely realizing how crazy this world can be… Once the final credits started rolling and a very interesting and depressing tune started playing, I realized what a crazy look I had been giving my TV. Quite an unbelievable and very rough film experience.

Danish cinematography keeps a high standard of stories which any other filmmaker from any other part of Europe would not have the balls to make into a film. Rosita is once again one of those stories that will attract your attention with its quality, but I have to admit that it tells something about Danish culture as well. You can see that the Danes with their stacked wallets no longer know what to do with their lives, and thus out of a certain debauchery, they try to look for happiness in love slightly differently than any of us could ever think of. So, even if this is a rough topic to handle, the Danish can easily shake hands with their own ennui and thank themselves because it is very much of their own doing. I think that a story like this would be quite unimaginable in our country. However, it still is a proper drama and it’s taking the best of Scandinavia as well. I mean the behavior of the characters isn’t easy to understand, but the movie certainly has its qualities.