Swastika over Puckingham Palace

To no surprise, Gary Oldman excels as Winston Churchill. Europe is losing the battle against Hitler and nazi Germany, the British parliament with Neville Chamberlain at the helm are bunch of peace-negotiating pussies, so the right people have to step up and fight against the fascists. In Darkest Hour probably the most vital earth-changing moments of the World War II are told with great detail. Without Winston Churchill, we'd be living in a hell of a different world now.

Red wine with fish

The second James Bond film, directed by Terence Young in 1963, starring Sean Connery as the agent 007, Daniela Bianchi as the Bond girl Tatiana Romanova, Bernard Lee as Bond's superior M (the head of MI6), Desmond Llewelyn as Boothroyd or 'Q' (the head of Q division), Lois Maxwell as Miss Moneypenny (MI6 secretary) and Anthony Dawson as Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Number 1 of SPECTRE, as the main antagonist. Title song sung by Matt Monro. SPECTRE wants Bond dead for killing their agent Dr. No and use Russian cipher machine and beautiful Soviet consulate clerk as a decoy. There's just about everything you need in a James Bond film.

Only you and Rock and Roll

Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät is a Finnish punk band consisting of people with developmental disabilities. The first documentary (Kovasikajuttu) was about introducing the band and make them known, whereas in Tokasikajuttu the band is on the brink of breaking up and still represent Finland in Eurovision Song Contest. The disabilities make members unpredictable as hell, but at the same time they are honest to the bone, without any pretentious bullshit. Not that they are the greatest artists of all time, but their willpower and love for their craftmanship is amazing.

Weak chin and soft underbelly

Big names (Mel Gibson, Will Ferrell, John Lithgow, Mark Wahlberg) gather up to launch jokes from left to right in a Christmas comedy, but too bad they are terribly out of date and mostly just not funny.

The other side of sunshine

Began to read Friedrich Dürrenmatt's novel The Pledge: Requim for the Detective Novel and the next evening the movie adaptation courtesy of Sean Penn is on TV, so I felt obliged to see it. The film is probably better than I remembered, a stomach-turning murder investigation with a truly ominous atmosphere occupying at all times.

The blues from nowhere

Neo-Nazis blow up Katja's husband and son to kingdom come, but there are overwhelming difficulties to get them convicted because the trial is ludicrous. The bereaved wife's only option is to unleash revenge and make the Nazis taste their own medicine! Nothing outstandingly spectacular, but decent enough thrills.

Unspooling brains

Nick and Amy seem like a such a perfect couple, but then Amy goes missing and when the police dug out their past, secrets come out. David Fincher masterfully peels out the excitement layer by layer, but wasn't as good as I remembered it to be.

Playing a poor hand well

A former Olympic-class skier, Molly Bloom, organized semi-illegal poker games for the ultra-rich famous people in Hollywood. Nothing too suspicious or peculiar happened at first, but when the Russians got the hang of the poker business, things got rough and the FBI had to deal with it. Pretty good while it lasted, zigzagged back and forth between different timelines and that always downgrades the outcome.

This is the one life

He is my favorite illusionist. Usually his quick-witted fast-tempo tricks blow up my mind. Miracle wasn't quite out there. At times the magic was absent and the performance looked like a Richard Dawkins lecture.

Ghosts for the deceiver

Three people's lives are intertwined through a corpse. Set in northern city of Oulu, Finland, the story is built patiently and it dissolves into a satisfying finale. Although couldn't help getting bored midway of the movie.