The western formula cannot be overlooked. A mysterious stranger in a town where the law is interpreted by its protectors, an inevitable confrontation, a helpful friend, the expulsion of the intruder beyond the town's borders, a buildup of injustice, and a final reckoning. The only difference is that the stranger…

Everything is pretty much the same, Alexandre Aja continues to waste his talent on contrived scripts. The absurd premise predictably evolves towards a single meaningful non-absurd denouement. This then arrives, relatively timely, so that for a while the film seems to build to a rather chilling ending on top of it. But…

Spoilers/History – The unexpected gift in the form of a director's cut raises the biggest question: are three and a half hours enough for a comprehensive look? Not even close. At least not for something with the gigantic scope that David Scarpa's screenplay was seeking. Ridley Scott thus faces the traditional drawback…

Damian Nieman may be a card magician, but his directorial skills belong at a school recital. By the end, it was basically irrelevant who would have whose urine on their clothes, as the card table never once brought the nose out of the shadows of moments when Felix Leiter orders the same thing as Bond, but without the…

A released convict, a fugitive, and a loser, all completely stripped of innocence, clash in a red circle. The robbery scene, which would take place in the first half of other films and leave the second half for plot development and resolution, is held off by Jean-Pierre Melville until the final third. That’s how…

A Nightmare on Baker Street. The investigation storyline isn’t the most interesting aspect in my eyes; after all, aside from a ballistic lesson and some interrogations, it’s more about a joint search for the key to a recurring dream. What’s remarkable is the performance of the ailing Jeremy Brett, who, under lithium,…

It turned out to be much easier to come up with a dubious story set in real time than to meaningfully frame it within the constraints of time and space from a filmmaking perspective. The slightly monotonous Karel Roden spreads ambiguity and harsh truths through the ether (don’t underestimate the influence of money on…

The theme of the hitman agent for the hundredth time that ends with a hunt by hunters after him, the locations shift frequently, and the highly praised action gets lost in smoke, darkness, and cones of light, offering only a slight upgrade over the Bulgarian productions of Steven Seagal, aside from the opulence of the…

A released convict, a fugitive, and a loser, all completely stripped of innocence, clash in a red circle. The robbery scene, which would take place in the first half of other films and leave the second half for plot development and resolution, is held off by Jean-Pierre Melville until the final third. That’s how…

Damian Nieman may be a card magician, but his directorial skills belong at a school recital. By the end, it was basically irrelevant who would have whose urine on their clothes, as the card table never once brought the nose out of the shadows of moments when Felix Leiter orders the same thing as Bond, but without the…