No person is without a shadow

Not the best detective reasoning in the first part of the Wallander film series. It seems that the entire Ystad police department, both young and veteran detectives, are stupid beyond belief. Logic at least is often missing. Maybe this is just a case of straightening out the curves, because Henning Mankell's stories tend to be chillingly great. However, the execution of this one was also decent enough. In the story, disciples who believe in the name of messianic cult leader Jim Jones commit a series of horrific crimes.

At the top of the dial

An English hitman is in exile in Los Angeles. He teams up with his new employer's son. To show him some manliness, actually. Then they keep killing. And it's so much fun. Reckon London Calling is some kind of buddy comedy. But it's exceptionally poorly acted - and not funny at all. 

Eclipsed by revenge

Somehow this feels fake and something doesn't add up. There are indications that this competition has been managed in some way by the production. Not as obviously as in the first season, but there is more than meets the eye. Survival is just a platform and the drama between the contestants feels fake. And it is tiring. Still once you start following it, it's addictive enough that you want to watch it to the end. 

Eat less slugs

These have been repeating themselves for a long time. Nowadays, they're always in the fucking Fiji. This is season # 48. There's no sense of danger that's needed to survive on a deserted island. No real hunger because there are food prize competitions all the time. No one is withering away from thirst or starving to death. The conditions are not excellent but rather easy and comfortable. The same annoying puzzles. In the good old days, we were in a real wilderness somewhere in a world, eating everything we could and falling over a campfire from exhaustion. Real survival. No joyful and playful competition. But still, Survivor is the best survival show. It looks good, you identify with the contestants when the drama arc is so skillfully created.

We suffer more often in imagination than in reality

A feel-good film. Fortunately, the friendship between a 58-year-old undertaker and a mentally disabled man he meets by chance was not made into a difficult and taboo-breaking story, but Bernard Campan and Alexander Jollien's Beautiful Minds is a very nice film even though it deals with difficult topics - like death. But mostly, it's just about laughing and quoting Stoic philosophers. 

Save yourself from Hell

The initial cut of the film ran 130 minutes, and they say it was so violent that the test audience and the studio demanded it be cut. And you can see that. The film is too fast-paced, which makes it erratic and confusing. Still a fantastic sci-fi film brimming with claustrophobic horror, but not enough time is given to the narrative. This 1997 Paul W.S. Anderson piece stars Sam Neill, Laurence Fishburne, Kathleen Quinlan, Jason Isaacs, and Sean Pertwee, among others.

Hope is not a strategy

A magnificent display of technical cinematic storytelling. All the things related to Formula 1 racing are made to measure, with an incredibly realistic effect. However, it's far from the truth that a 60-year-old guy would jump behind the wheel of a F1 car out of the blue and outsmart all the young professionals. On the other hand, that's exactly the idea of ​​this film. The only idea, unless you count a little narrative softness. An entertaining movie, though. 

Inventing reality

A thought-provoking exploration of Russian power dynamics and the mental landscape therein. Jude Law doesn't humanize his portrayal of Vladimir Putin, nor should he. He is excellent in his role. The other lead actor, Paul Dano, as Putin's henchman Vadim Baranov is also good, although his face starts to get boring over time, there's just too much of him in the film. And after the cornerstones, stumbling blocks, and various catastrophic twists of Russia's recent history have been quickly presented, the film's narrative begins to drag. Still, better than what is being said and written in the reviews.

Singing the sorrows to the swamp

One of the most important rules of entrepreneurship and product development: don't fall too much in love with your product. Two middle-aged sisters in a Finnish village who brew sahti beer have never heard of such a rule. They promise to brew 100 liters of sahti for a wedding and it turns into chaos! Teemu Nikki's slightly farcical comedy describes the Finnish landscape of the soul well. Even if it is a tad exaggerated.

We are old and still work

 

An easily spreading fungal organism turns people into deadly zombies and they must be killed. And the fungus isolated. Liam Neeson is one of the veterans specializing in bioterrorism and he knows what to do. Hopefully it's not too late because the preservation of the fungus has been handled a bit carelessly. Cold Storage is a really funny, entertaining and somewhat charming horror comedy.

Never desert a lady in trouble

An elderly woman disappears on a train journey and her traveling companion is led to believe that she is imagining the whole thing! Classic Hitchcock, his early production (1938), but undoubtedly one of his masterpieces! An interesting story interpreted and acted wonderfully, and the tension is present throughout the film.

What we leave behind

Maybe there is a category for these flicks that are educational and that arouse interest in history. Quite often that is the most important value of these films. After Patricia Font's The Teacher Who Promised the Sea, you want to study the Spanish Civil War and history before World War II. Yet it works perfectly as a movie as well. 

A first class cunt

This is actually pretty damn brilliant. You can say whatever you want about Take That or Robbie Williams or all that boy band crap, but you can't help but be moved by Michael Gracey's Better Man. A great story from obscurity to stardom and Robbie Williams is played by a CGI monkey, a wild idea that works brilliantly.

A rite of passage

It's quite disgusting to be chased by a sadistic serial killer. Of course, it would be easier if you could escape using logical reasoning. However, quite often in film art, that is impossible. Baltasar Kormákur's Apex (2026) stumbles upon infuriating little mistakes and goofs. It could be a very exciting survival film, in the style of John Boorman's Deliverance (1972), because the right kind of atmosphere has been sought here, but unfortunately the execution falls short.