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.

The Guardian (2006)

Another Kevin Costner 'hero' movie. This time as Coast Guard and Coast Guard teacher. I think the best would be that Mr Costner makes a complete 'hero' type in every possible field of life so we can watch it or screen it when we ask for funds. I'm curious about any sort of intellectual type jobs since it seems to me this type is under-represented; or try 'The Writer', 'The Watch Maker' and my possible favourite - "The Lazy". I would love to see how sitting around and wasting time can become thrilling. In fact, I think I would try myself to do that one.

The Lake House (2006)

This one it's a love story between Sandra Bullock (MD) and Keanu Reeves (Architect). They are in love with each other but also have quite a problem on their hands: They are apart 2 years in time. Try to manage that one. Around here distance relationships are not easy but what do you think about a 2 years distance 'in time'? So trying to set up a meeting work for her "tomorrow" and for him "two years from now, tomorrow". Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' and an old mail box help. You'd better believe it. It's definitely not a great film but my heart melts when so many relationship myths are touched.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

It's what I call a popcorn movie (not worth seeing if you don't have a big bag of popcorn). An easy job for Meryl Streep, a clichéd story and a dull happy ending. If you watch it in the cinema, it's a waste of money. If you watch it at home, you might run out of patience before it ends.