The backstage boogie setting the pants on fire

Spenser is an ex-cop and ex-con. After he gets released from the prison, he investigates the double homicide of police officers. A crime movie of the corrupt Boston police and an action comedy tailored for Mark Wahlberg, entertaining but essentially bloody useless and forgettable.

The flower of light in the field of darkness

I was told the character Eli is blind, hadn't registered it before so I had to rewatch the depiction of the miserable post-apocalyptic world from different perspective. Everything is dusty and dirty, the resources are sparse, people kill for food and fresh water. And there's 'a book' that holds the secrets of the world.

Fruit of the poisoneous tree

Teenagers meddle with the black arts, cast spells and learn a few magic tricks. The harmless pranks on school friends are kind of cute at first, but fooling around with magic ain't wise because the danger of invocating something sinister is just one spell away. Corny fantasy crap. Even David Duchovny seems to be bored out of his tits.

Untenable, inflexible, intolerent and unforgiving

With 53 years of television work, during seven decades, thousands of programmes, 3,500 million viewers, Hannu Karpo (born 1932) was probably the most influential reporter in Finnish TV. He was the spokesman of the common man who were mistreated by the bureaucrats. The purpose of his programmes was to uncover all kind of injustices. Hence people trusted him more than the Chancellor of Justice. He is an iconic figure. A phenomenon.

Voice of the war and pain

In post-WWII America, a woman suspects her neighbour is an SS officer who tortured her in the past, so she returns the favour. The thriller speculates whether she is a crazy sadistic bitch or he a nazi pig, and it's nail-biting suspense. Noomi Rapace at Joel Kinneman's throat.

The bomb that didn't go off

It's funny how everything is so motherfucking tip-top, but the story is ridiculously far-fetched and quite impossible to decipher. You'd need at least three or four runs to figure out what the fuck is going on, but who wants to watch a 150 minute movie over and over again. Christopher Nolan has done shit like this before and he's kind of forgiven because the finished piece looks like a work of art. Irritating as hell though.

Firing two guns whilst jumping through the air

I uncorked a bottle of Fernet-Branca and thought a comedy would work out well with it. Hot Fuzz (2007) fires laughs at breakneck speed. A supercop Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is reassigned to a serene small town of Sandford because his efficiency makes the other police officers in London look bad. However, officer Angel has his hands full unravelling the town's ghastly secret. Cleverly written fun.

Always take the high road

Family Cash are bunch of hippies. They're self-educated outcasts living in the woods, intelligent as hell, but forced out of their comfort zone to bury a woman they love and the journey goes through the society and the rules and regulations they hate so much. A feelgood comedy-drama at its finest.

Elaborate carnage candy

A while ago I watched Scream (1996), the first one of the series, and after all these years it was rather an invigorating experience. Scream 2 (1997), it's kind of like all the same. Enjoyable tongue-in-cheek 90s pop horror. And it's still courtesy of Wes Craven.

Wolves do anything to avoid contact with mankind

It's close, but Liam Neeson quite ain't a genre of its own because he's not typecast like, say, Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris or Jackie Chan. He does other stuff as well. In fact, Liam Neeson's body of work speaks volumes. It's diverse, massive and impressive from serious drama (Schindler's List) to western genre (Seraphim Falls), romantic fluff (Love Actually) and epic pieces (Gangs of New York, Kingdom of Heaven) and so on. Also, his apperance on Ricky Gervais' Life's Too Short is one of the funniests shits ever created. It's fascinating that the man of his talent spends so much time with somewhat trivial action films. But kudos to him. He makes them better. In Honest Thief he's in-and-out bandit, a bank robber who wants to turn himself in. Some crooked cops to deal with first. A hopelessly flawed piece, but it's still great. Bless his soul.

You should never meet your heroes

Moose is an overenthusiastic movie freak. He's particularly obsessed with Hunter Dunbar, a horror movie star and Moose's admiration takes a dark turn. John Travolta in a Dumb and Dumber mode playing the autistic Moose and the movie is silly and confusing as shit.

In search of disgusting gratifications

The police are hunting down a serial killer known as The Necktie Murderer. But they are after a wrong man and the real killer is creeping happily around London strangling women with ties. Alfred Hitchcock's next-to-last film (1972).

Dogs with human names

It's expensive to keep a retired hitman alive, so they want him eliminated. Mads Mikkelsen excels as Duncan Vizla, the button man, who everyone wants dead. He, of course, doesn't go down very easily and it all escalates into a bloodboth of epic proportions. Despite shitty reviews, Polar was pretty funky and hilarious. Directed by Jonas Åkerlund.

Running on dead air

Panu teleports from one place to another, every other day. He just vanishes from one place and wakes up in another. It isn't all that bad though. He at least momentarily gets away from the ordinary shit in his life as a glue factory worker in Kitee, Finland. Sounds wicked fun, but isn't. Shot in 30 countries, but only quick glimpses of the world and the story merely relies on one idea.

Live fast, die young

A film maker Craig Foster visits, observes and follows an octopus in Western Cape, South Africa, as it goes about its business, and eventually these two become friends. It's a lovely story, captures a few amazing moments in the life and death of an amazing animal.

When the sun drowns in oblivion

A desperate man wants to break his convicted wife free from prison. She apparently murdered her boss, but the husband is the only one convinced of her innocence. The escape from the iron claws of justice calls for ingenious plan and preparation. This is the original piece, Hollywood did the remake Next Three Days (Paul Haggis. 2010) with Russell Crow and Elizabeth Banks starring. Pour elle (2008) is a French film, with Vincent Lindon and Diane Kruger and it's whole fucken exciting.

We all go a little mad sometimes

Scream from 1996 by Wes Craven (1939-2015). It refined the horror movie genre, rekindled the spirit of Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, franchised itself as well and brought horror back into mainstream. Classic slasher shit, an entertaining serial killer story filled with lots of horror tidbits and inside jokes.

A mortal man who fell in love with the elven princess

For someone who hasn't read any of J. R. R. Tolkien's works - i.e. The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings or The Silmarillion - a biopic of the author wasn't too appealing to get into. Even the renowned movies based on the books, by Peter Jackson, weren't that big a deal. But to acknowledge a great mind is a bloody good reason for closer inspection and scrutiny. According to Tolkien, by Finnish director Dome Karukoski, the inspiring years that initially launched Tolkien's career included his fellowship with the other Oxford University students, the love of his life and The Battle of the Somme. Everything was rounded up nicely.