Ediebalboa

This worked out pretty much as expected. The film may look nice, but it would have looked exactly the same with a $100 million less budget if there hadn’t been any filming complications ranging from bad weather to Verbinski's profligacy. For the first two hours there’s not much fun, the occasional jokes are mostly stupid without an idea, the plot has no unexpected twists, and overall there is an excessive elementalness everywhere. It's only in the last half hour that it picks up momentum to match the good old Pirates. Like the naval battles, the train scene has an intensity that the rest of the film is sorely lacking in all respects. Even with Zimmer, it seemed to me that the film slacked off the whole time and only at the end with the "Finale" from Willem Tell did things heat up.

They picked a very good topic for a film. There have been very few motorsport films made so far, and perhaps only Le Mans, which was conceived in a completely different way, is of good quality. That's why this film had the perfect prerequisites to attract attention. And it succeeded. The creative team consisted entirely of seasoned professionals, and they were able to firmly grasp the subject matter and select the most compelling parts of Hunt's and Lauda's lives in a reasonable running time without a single weak moment. The actors were spot on, both in appearance and character – you could really see it in Hemsworth. Hans Zimmer built up the atmosphere with his dynamic music, Morgan created great scenes with dialogue full of banter between the two leads, and cinematographer Mantle added some perfect race scenes. Ron Howard's best film contains everything that can be expected from a proper drama.

I don't know of many shows that have been able to successfully recycle the exact same scheme for so long. Two and a Half Men certainly was one of them, at least during Charlie Sheen's tenure. What happened afterwards, I’m not including that in my rating. Unlike Kutcher, who plays an artificially contrived dimwitted role, Charlie had absolutely no need to transform himself while playing his eponymous character, with whom he had so much in common, because he was to some extent performing himself and his wild life. Jon Cryer aka Alan was also a solid backbone of the show in the earlier seasons, but they gradually started making him more and more of an idiot that it wasn't even funny anymore. In contrast, Angus T. Jones as Jake maintained his high standard throughout. Seasons: 1. 80% 2. 85% 3. 75% 4. 75% 5. 70% 6. 65% 7. 70% 8. 70%

A big surprise for me. The Americans finally make fun of themselves too, and it has to be said that they do it very well. Emmerich has made an utterly easygoing action film that, while it has, as always, a dire plot in the background, is otherwise taken with a lightness I've never seen from him before. Thanks to this, even Jamie Foxx, whom I normally don't like very much, is really comical as the president together with his bodyguard Tatum. It's a pity about the somewhat uneven pace and the related contrasting transitions between genres, when sometimes the fun is lost. The plot then has to be handled by bad guys with nerves to spare, led by Jason Clarke.

Zack Snyder has made a film where he goes his own way again. Throughout the film, his signature is completely legible, and you can see that Chris Nolan's meddling was completely unique. While watching the perfect opening on Krypton, I kept thinking of Watchmen. The action after that is really crazy and monstrous, but it gets slowly monotonous over time. For example, the scenes at the beginning, where Crowe deals one punch after another, had much more impact on me than Superman's fight against Zod's henchmen on the road, with trains flying through the air. The storyline suffers a lot, too. It is evident that quite a lot was cut out in some passages. Most of the actors were well chosen, but Crowe and Shannon are on another league.

Kevin Spacey back in form. Even though his character is rotten through and through, he has such charisma that it doesn't matter in the end. But the others, like his wife Robin Wright and especially the manipulated congressman Corey Stoll, are no less worthy competitors. The start was great, so we can only wait for the next season of politics without gloves. The next season adds to the pace and benefits from being much tighter, you enjoy Underwood the most, and it doesn't even give you as much reason to hate him by his standards. But that just brings me to the third and final season so far. Surprisingly, the plot is again disjointed. We follow the fates of several characters whose decisions sometimes teeter on the edge of what the viewer can bear. It's "rough" entertainment, but I can't shake the impression that it's just a drawn-out prelude to the last stage of Frank's politics....Unfortunately, the last stage hasn't arrived even after 5 seasons. Thanks to Spacey, but mostly because of Netflix's haste, we now have the least dignified ending to a series I can remember. That’s America for you.

I have to admit that while this is indeed one of the most talked about films I've ever seen, I wouldn't have expected much else from Lincoln. Daniel Day-Lewis made the most of himself, the props to evoke the atmosphere of the time were definitely not spared and despite the lukewarm course, you could see a proper climax in the end. Of course, if you have at least a passing knowledge of American history, the experience is immediately a bit more rewarding. Spielberg simply chose an unrewarding subject for a film treatment that is only able to fully score with Americans. Had he taken a less expensive and patriotic route, like the John Adams series, he might have succeeded far more.

Tense, well acted by the aptly chosen cast, believable; Argo really deserved that Oscar. Ben Affleck had already proved in previous films that he could eventually make it as a director more than an actor, and here he has once again taken it to the next level. Throughout the film, you really believe the hopeless situation the American diplomats in Iran were in. By the end, though, I thought it was a bit overdone with the last-minute chasing of everything as they escape. After all, it couldn't realistically have been that intense, and I don't think the ending had to be so eye-popping and happy. Despite this, I would still call the film one of the highlights of the year, thanks to the brilliantly chosen premise.

In the end, it wasn’t such a disappointment. I was skeptical about the Bourne sequel from the beginning, but after it was announced that it would be a different agent with his own storyline, it looked promising after all. The result is only good and a bit drawn out, but the action scenes with their inventiveness still haven't lost their sparkle, including the location shooting (beautiful Alaska at the beginning). The problems begin when the film starts to connect to the events of the previous trilogy with a well-rounded story. It's quite disruptive, because it's pretty obvious that the writers could drag the series out indefinitely with this kind of dissection. The ending, which I have the impression was naively set up for a sequel, is related to this. Even the new version of "Extreme Ways" at the end seemed a bit stale this time.

It's not a great action flick, but I have to be extremely grateful that this film with the biggest action stars of the last century was made. At the very least, the scenes with Arnold ripping the door off the Smart and the arrival of Chuck Norris will stay with me forever.