Malarkey

A very nice final performance by Vlastimil Brodský. With a story as wacky as this one, the result couldn’t have been different. With the second half of the movie you can clearly see how hard our significant other can affect us and how much we’re able to get isolated in ourselves afterwards. But in the end, the ending was good, so all was well. Autumn Spring contains a beautiful story-telling magic and it presents the fact that you can live your life to the fullest regardless of how old you are. All it takes is not giving up.

Kevin Spacey plays the part of a poor guy beset by tragedy and the atmosphere of the film is really bleak and depressing. But in the setting of Canadian Newfoundland, it all comes together to form such a magical whole that even when not much was happening in the movie, I was really enjoying the shots of the countryside, which literally took my breath away.

I do admit that at first I didn’t really feel like watching this flick. It was somehow getting under my skin that animals in a real, non-animated world could speak and that they spoke English. But after about ten minutes and several nice shots, I decided to bear with the film to see what would come out of it. I mean the book itself, written by Rudyard Kipling, had a very clever plot. And well, what eventually came out of it was one of the most beautiful digital films that I have ever seen. I don’t think you will be able to see such beautiful shots of the jungle anywhere else. It might be because of the digital effects. But it is a treat to watch it and once you’ve watched it, you will realize that you will never see a better adaptation of Kipling’s book in your lifetime.

I could probably complain a bit that the film’s overall positivity about everything reminded me of Kameňák or Babovřesky. But I felt so great while watching the movie that it would be a pity to bring it down to average with a single sentence like this. You see, Ondřej Vetchý once again puts in a great performance and Petra Hřebíčková’s character provides him with great company. And on top of that, the remaining actors create great caricatures and elevate the good-hearted atmosphere of the film even higher. So, I walked home from the cinema with a crazy-man’s smile on my face, which didn’t disappear even on the next day. That’s the kind of impact this movie had on me.

There used to be times when nobody would take German films seriously and there were endless lamentations about how bad those movies are. That is naturally no longer true today, but The Black Brothers reminded me why I used to think that the odds of coming across a good German movie were similar to looking for a needle in a haystack.

It’s as if nothing was happening at all in that hotel. The premise may be interesting, but the execution is as cheap, poor and uninteresting as the toilet paper that used to be available during the communist regime – it ripped rectums off and tore piles open.

While making this movie, the authors used the film budget to buy a house, remodel it and then sell it. And since the actors are amateurs from Hicktown, USA, who acted in the movie in exchange for a hot dog, we can officially say that this is the only movie in history that made the money it cost to make without it ever being sold anywhere.

If it weren’t for the beautiful Alaskan landscape, this movie would deserve a Boo! review. I simply can’t understand how they got so many interesting actors to play in such a bullshit movie. I mean who is it worth for to act in a movie that is pretending to be a horror movie where the main antagonist is a bear? That poor bear… those morons he had to deal with were definitely not something to be envious of.

I’m really glad that Guy Ritchie was given an espionage farce screenplay to turn into a movie. I said ‘farce’ on purpose because it really does come across like that. The term definitely fits better than the usual term ‘comedy’. At the same time, I’m a bit sad that I didn’t enjoy the movie as much as I’d hoped I would. I was quite unhappy when giving the movie a three-star review after watching it. You see, there are some great scenes in the movie – Guy Ritchie sure is good at those. The fact that Guy Ritchie’s movies are supposed to make a certain impression, but that he is not as good at story-telling is simply true, but on the other hand, he managed to create a great retro atmosphere and a whole number of great action scenes (the final action scene, or the scene at the base near the sea). You simply need to put up with the fact that in terms of the plot, this movie is dead and buried at the bottom of the lake. And Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer don’t really help things either. I really had to work my way towards their characters; nevertheless, I feel that the second time around, it would definitely be a lot better, which is not me saying that I won’t give the flick another chance in the future – I might even change my opinion. If nothing else, the absolutely fabulous Alicia Vikander had so much charisma that it helped heal some of the film’s wounds. So, if nothing else, she definitely was a pleasure to watch – more than anybody else in any other movie for a long time.

I must say I was quite surprised by the pretty negative reviews this movie has been getting here. I didn’t think The Fantastic Four was any worse than the last Avengers movie. The fact that the plot is as silly as a pair of trousers with holes in them does not surprise me at all. That is essentially true about every other Marvel movie (or DC Comics, they’re pretty much the same) that is being made these days. But I do have to say that I liked the way they depicted other dimensions and planets. You can clearly see that some grumpy digital effects specialist really had a great time playing with those in this film. I didn’t have any problem with the actors, either. For instance, I’ve really enjoyed Miles Teller’s performances lately. I don’t need to point out that this movie is useless. In my opinion, any contemporary comic book movie is useless – they keep recycling the same things over and over again. A three-star review is adequate. What I got was superheroes, a beautiful and colorful digital world and an average villain who has his better moments. So, I got pretty much everything these movies are able to offer. You see, these movies hardly ever manage to deliver more than that.