Lima

A masterful study of paranoid behaviour. Basically, it is a horror story in which, thanks to many grotesque and absurd situations, there is no lack of humour. Polanski plays also the main role and very well at that. He himself doesn't like this film very much, but I think he has nothing to be ashamed of.

The true story of two young people who massacre a family of four for a few bucks. Thanks to the black-and-white camera, the story feels like a documentary. The recollection of one of the killers about how the crime happened is extremely compelling. The director avoids direct depictions of violence, making do with hints, but these themselves are frightening. Everything is crowned with the final execution scene. Well, it wasn’t very good for my soul.

Gabin loves a girl who is under the negative influence of a charismatic liar and cheat, and in an argument Gabin kills this man. After the murder, he barricades himself in his apartment and the viewer learns in flashbacks what preceded the tragedy. Watching a Jean Gabin as a young, honest worker is an unusual experience, because films from his early work are never shown here. The script is by the well-known French poet J. Prevért, the dialogues are often funny and Gabin is charming.

The true story of the first Prime Minister of the then (1960s) nascent democratic Congo. A political drama, the kind I’ve seen many, that brings nothing new to the table, but at least watching it makes you realise that it is almost impossible to establish a democracy in African states due to the interdependence with former colonialist countries and tribal intolerance, in particular. What I enjoyed a lot in this film is the excellent, accomplished acting by unknown black actors, including the lead.

Hollywood remakes of French films are mostly crap, that’s a well known fact, and Father’s Day is no exception. The humour is lost, replaced by awkwardness and hamminess. Billy Crystal is boring Robin Williams embarrassing.

The reliable Al Pacino is probably the only memorable thing in this film. I wasn't very interested in the theme from the tobacco industry, and Russell Crowe deserved his Oscar nomination only by his significant physical transformation, his performance here is rather bland. The result is a not very exciting, slightly tedious and emotionally bland film.

A very nice series with a famous Australian actress who was my platonic love in my childhood years. The first season was very good, a nice story in a beautiful setting, free of banalities. The second season wasn’t so good, or rather, not good at all.

Rambo with a police badge and in the jungles of Los Angeles. Sly massaged his ego with a script in which he cast himself as a self-appointed judge, a "cure" for criminals ("You're a disease, and I'm the cure."...... "This is where the law stops and I start, sucker!"), he introduced an awful actress and his then wife Brigitte Nielsen, whom he divorced shortly after filming, and the result is an awfully stupid affair with a very rudimentary plot and incredibly banal dialogues, which thankfully are few and far between, so there's more room for action, especially the final set-piece, where the motorcycle bastards fall like bowling pins and Sly gets to show off his muscles in a tight T-shirt. In a nutshell, the essence of the 1980s.

Daniel Day Lewis's method acting, where he lives his character even in the pauses between takes, seems to be bearing fruit, and in this film it’s really incredible! I'm always rather critical of actors' portrayals of physically handicapped people because a more often than not it's just overacting, but with Day Lewis, it's different, his performance blurs the line between acting and reality.

It’s a sloppy mess. Yet the premise, a lone predator amongst a pile of human delicacies, is so audience-friendly that it could easily yield several sequels. Of course, under the hands of a capable director, which this film’s certainly isn’t. The direction is utterly unimaginative; much more could have been squeezed out of the moment when a group of young people tie the boats together to better face the danger. It was also sorely missing a charismatic character like Robert Shaw’s in the first film. Roy Scheider alone couldn’t save it.