Pan´s Labyrinth

This sad, brutal and mystical story is taking place 1944 in the north of spain, directly after Francos victory. Ofélia, a littel girl, arrives with her pregnant mother at the place where her stepfather got the order to fight the republic rebellions. She starts to dream herself away from the unbearable reality into a world, where fantastic creatures are searching for the lost soul of the princess, Ofélia. But she has to prove that she didn´t change after the long time she was living among the human beings. Ofélia has to go through three tests. So while the horror of war goes on for the girl the fantasy becomes more and more part of her real life. This movie is a dark and powerful. Somehow it is very close to the characters, to their fears, wishes, or hopes. The stepfather that punishes rebellions with a cold satisfaction, the mother that suffers because of the pregnancy, the brave servant Mercedes. Watch it.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004)

This movie is Mary McGuckian's adaptation of Thornton Wilder's novel ( I noticed I have so if you want to read it...). Cast includes impressive names: F. Murray Abraham, Kathy Bates, Gabriel Byrne, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel. This time the names do not help: the movie is not a thrilling experience, I would argue also because of the great actors. The movie gave me the impression that it could be good but I find this version wrongly paced and the acting out of rhythm. The 2004 version is the last one with the first made in 1929. I would be curious to see the other versions as the story has static...dynamism hard to find around these days and full of unexplored resources. 'The Bridge of San Luis Rey' won the Goya award in 2005 for the Best Costum Design.

The wind that shakes the barley (2006)

I don't understand why Loach spends the movie with people killing each other in blind feuds if his point apparently is to show violence doesn't solve the problem. The plot is so schematic that I can't find another point to it. (The English are senselessly and cruelly killing an Irish guy, the thus founded IRA group breaks apart after the 1921 peace treaty and the previously good guys start killing each other, too.) You leave the movie thinking "violence is bad" and searching for something to smash.

X2 or Xmen 2 (2003)

One thing I learned from this film: even in the year the action takes places, even in a school for (presumably progressive) mutants...well... bier is NOT allowed in school. Meaning in the kitchen. - Logan (the guy with special steel claws coming out from the back of his hands) asks for a bier and a student (able the cool-freeze stuff) is utterly surprised, This is a school, said he implying 'you won't find bier miles around, and I realize neither the school nor the teenager are European. I liked the transformations and the fights, as well as the way various 'powers' combined. Most of all, the Magneto demonstration as well as his assistant transformations. PS: Is it possible that Jean simply died? This smells like a followup. Indeed...in 2006

Borat! (2006)

"Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan". I have something against slapstick comedies but this one is particularly brainless. There is nothing funny in it except for drunken high school teens or people remembering that mindless period of their life. I could not find any line or situation worth mentioning. I am not especially against Jews jokes unless they are really tasteless and completely predictable like the rest of the 'jokes' in the movie. It definitely was a waste of time to watch it.

Hartia va fi albastra (2006)

"Yeah, another movie about the '89 Revolution, what else is there left to say?" i've been told. Actually there is. And it's not a matter of historical facts but of human emotions, of the impact the revolution, as well as the communist era had on people. It's abou the confusion, the hope, the uncertainty and the enthusiasm of those days. I simply loved it, especially the dialogue which, in my opinion used to be one of the greatest drawbacks of Romanian films. Unlike other similar movies (where characters talked either too formally or too slangy), the dialogue in this movie is very realistic. One small comment on the set design: the shabbiness of Dr. Andronescu's house is not at all plausible, even (or better, especially) for communist Romania.

Underworld (2003)

There is a war between vampires and werewolves, there are beautiful women between vampires (it seems women, or beautiful women cannot be werewolves) and they are all immortal. Relatively immortal. Do you know what kills vampires? Light? Well, it is actually the UV rays in the light. I know this because the Lycans (Werewolves) developed some UV bullets to kill vampires. The 'treatment' for werewolves is silver - so you know, just in case. The movie doesn't have an unbelievable plot or anything but it is clean and it has a nice mystery atmosphere. I also liked the nice cars, the empty, sort of medieval city - generally the mixing of modern technique and ancient books in wood-and-silver covering. The movie successfully ignored humans - it made me believe that, even if there might be humans around, a completely parallel history with that specific rhythm and problems, where days (as daylight) are negligible and where full moon is a significant thing. Talking about 'possible worlds' - I found this believable.

I, Robot (2004)

Read the user comment at http://imdb.com/title/tt0343818/ for this one. It's revealing. For my part - get to read Asimov (the movie is supposed to be 'inspired' by his writings). Not necessarily the short stories that are said to have sparkled this movie...Asimov is really good and he helped me develop in my head much, much, better movies than this one.

Chaos (2006)

The one thing I thought would be interesting to study closer (not in this movie though) is the shifting of heroes. The way that a guy is established as a hero at the beginning only to have someone else gradually take the focus. I can imagine a number of ways to do this and I've seen something like this in several films. In this one it is so disappointingly obvious that one should think of how to avoid doing it like this. The blueprint for this movies goes something like this: the initial policeman-hero, naturally blamed by the whole world, is called back to duty one more time for an extraordinary case - a bank robbery where the robbers asked specifically for him as a negociator. We know he is the hero because everybody gives him lots of attention and he is openly blamed only by people we don't like. Coincidentally a new guy, with pedigree, enters the police force as his partner. In the end the initial hero turns out to be the bad guy and the new guy turns out to be smart enough to find that out. Oh...and it looks like Lorentz's Chaos Theory is very popular with the American police right now.

Behind Enemy Lines (2001)

Interesting for me: it's about the war in former Yugoslavia. Oh..no...That is not accurate: the movie is about how happy should we be that Americans go to rescue other people with the risk of their own lives. And also how smart they are and how good will, eventually prevail. I know better movies about such things that this one could possible be - I watched it just because they decided to have that specific conflict as a background - but the reference to it is nothing more than superficial. Cheap propaganda.