MrHlad

As someone who has never watched the series, I unexpectedly enjoyed the film's conclusion. Downton Abbey is a great piece of work in terms of costumes, cinematography and music, but most importantly it also works as a collection of small and large stories of twenty characters, each of whom gets a chance to shine. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes tragic, and then poignant, but it holds together beautifully and is very enjoyable to watch.

If it wasn't almost three hours long, it would be stupid and boring. As it is, it's a stupid, boring and long.

Israeli agent Chris Evans and his team are determined to save Ethiopian refugees. How? They get a hotel in Sudan, look after tourists by day and help evacuate hundreds of people by night. And they know it's only a matter of time before it all goes wrong. Red Sea Diving Resort looks decent, has good actors and a reasonably interesting plot, but there's little suspense, emotion or anything to elevate it above average. There have been plenty of better films made in this genre. But there have been worse.

An action B-movie about a KGB assassin who must unleash a secret service war to win her freedom. And the whole thing is unfortunately mediocre fun at best. Two good action scenes and a seductive Sasha Luss in the lead role can't hide the fact that it's all surprisingly stupid and ultimately not very entertaining.

Grace has just got married and she realises it wasn't a good idea. Her new in-laws want to play hide-and-seek with her. If they don't find her by morning, she wins. If they find her, she'll probably die in a cruel ritual. It'll be fun. Ready or Not is a blackly humorous horror film that alternates fairly brutal scenes with a lot of gritty humour, but also some solidly suspenseful moments. It has a great main character, and the only problem in the end is that they didn't step it up a notch. As a whole, though, it's pretty good.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood may not be quite the movie for me. On the one hand, I appreciate that Quentin Tarantino can make a film that looks good, has great music, is nice to watch, and everyone who appears in front of the camera pushes themselves to the limit. In this case, however, we may not have completely met at the story. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood follows a bit in the footsteps of Inglorious Basterds, unfortunately, however, this time Tarantino is not making a variation or homage to a specific genre, but rather to a time and industry. And truthfully, I know more or less nothing about the television industry in 1960s America, and of the shows discussed here, I've heard of about one in three. Of course, I don't want to say that this is Tarantino's fault – he said himself that this film was going to be very personal to him and it shows. But in short, he's dealing with things I'm not familiar with, and frankly don't even care much about. I felt similarly "off" with his Jackie Brown years ago, because the blaxploitation subgenre didn't do anything for me either. As a result, with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, I often sat in front of the screen and thought that what was going on was probably cool, it was based on something and referencing something, but since I don't know what it's referencing at all, I can't quite get into it. That's more my fault than the film itself, but the fact remains that I'll probably never watch it a second time.

I got what I expected. Hobbs and Shaw is a spectacular action film in which reality has nothing to do, and the closer it gets to its end, the more elaborate, insane and bigger it gets. And given that the power plant here blows up somewhere around the 70th minute, you probably have an idea of what it looks like at the end. David Leitch has approached this Fast and Furious spin-off as a modern adrenaline-packed Bond film, but unlike, say, xXx, it works brilliantly. Jason Statham and The Rock are great in both the action scenes and the moments when they're bantering. Idris Elba also nails the bad guy, and Vanessa Kirby is not only sexy, but she manages to keep up with the heroes in the action scenes as well. The only thing that bothered me is that Hobbs and Shaw didn't take the opportunity to be significantly different than the franchise it came from. I was hoping that they the film would push the envelope a lot more, and that the kind of futile attempt to look serious and earnest that we've been seeing from Vin Diesel for a few years now would disappear. Hobbs and Shaw have the chops to put their own face on it and step in a slightly different direction. But they were a little afraid to do it the first time, and when they did, they were a little clumsy. On the other hand, that's also why I hope they get at least one more chance.

Thirteen-year-old Andy has a new toy, a supermodern doll called Chucky. And Chucky's a little broken, so he starts killing people to make Andy happy. This new version of the horror classic doesn't scare too much, but it entertains with comic brutality, decent actors and a Stranger Things-style atmosphere. Nothing great, but as a horror one-off, the new Child's Play holds up.

A new version of the classic Disney story about Simba, who grew from a little lion cub into the king of animals and avenged his father's death. The new Lion King looks incredibly realistic, but the moment the animals start talking and singing, it starts to fall apart. The fairytale atmosphere where no one bothered with the chatty animals is gone, and in its new form it all feels a bit out of place. Still, it's an inoffensive adventure that will appeal to older viewers with its nostalgia and younger ones with its songs and lots of animals. But it is far from an exceptional film.

I enjoyed the first Spider-Man, and I recently watched it a second time. Tom Holland is great, Michael Keaton creates an interesting villain and the whole thing moved along nicely. In Far From Home, though, things are a little shakier. Holland keeps trying and the action is good to watch, but the whole thing feels kind of pointless. Whether it's the rather off-kilter antagonist with strange motivations and Bond villain appearances, the excessive running time, or the fact that Parker's classmates get a too much space and they're not particularly interesting. Oh, and it's also too long. There's action, there's humour, there's some suspense or romance (Spidey's strongest in that, ironically), but there's nothing outright exceptional, breathtaking or extra interesting. Spidey's second solo effort often feels tedious and tired. It's as if this is the fifth film where they didn’t quite know what to do next, so they send the hero to Europe. It's still okay, it's just hard to find anything "wow". But Holland is likable, Zendaya as a plucky high school femme fatale is too, and the burning Liberec city hall made me happy as a local. On the other hand, I don't think I'll give it a second viewing.