A dissident under communist regime

Anti-Russian anti-Putin author Viktor Erofeyev spekas his mind. He's not too volatile or offensive to be considered a threat, just a left wing liberal who is intellectual and objective enough to go roundabout ways with his criticism. We all realize though that it's too great, the mother Russia, that anything would change in a heartbeat.

The are screaming Kumba-no!

Five young adults find themselves inside a cheesy 80s horror/slasher movie and get out! Even if they know the script inside out, they've difficulties chancing the outcome that a threat of Jason Voorhees -type of character begets. Loved this more than I should have.

A murder just for the experiment of committing it

A masterpiece of a warped sense of humour. It's been years since I've seen Rope - a story of a 'perfect' murder unravelling to pieces - before and, damn, it's still as chilling and funny as ever. Classic Hitchcock.

30 ghosts

French skinhead goes on his nazi-loving business in Paris until he realises he's a bit wrong in the head and the ideology is shite. Surprisingly lame for a movie of this concept, but a decent story even if it took time to get used to its gallopy pacing.

Fates intertwined, cosmic coincidence

Because I had nothing better to do, I caught this from Netflix. Seen it a few times already. And it's still great. Tom Cruise's best work and just amazing cinematography courtesy of Michael Mann.

Better friends than people

Well, I read the novel when it came out and absolutely loved the story. A recovering junkie street musician adopts a street cat, or vice versa, and it feels like it all was written in the stars. None the better, these lovely little creatures and the cat Bob looks like the one I was honored to call my best friend for number of years until his untimely death last December. Miss you buddy.

Not a shirker, a scrounger, a beggar, nor a thief

Even with the matters of the heart of his own, Daniel Blake is a jolly good bloke. Already good to his friends and neighbours, he ends up caring for total strangers; a mom with two children who recently resided from London to Newcastle. Don't know what's up with British drama, it seems to generate with bottomless ease to those people.

Public life is afterlife

I truly fucking hate these hipster shit movies that try to be clever and intentionally low key. Extremely irritating. It took a better part of the movie to figure out what the fuck's going on. A shit movie anyways with a confusing and, quite frankly, infantile script. Though serves well for cringeworthy acting.

The little line between the numbers

I liked how this story unfolded. An assorted group of people living their ordinary lives in London; a retired rugby player trying to live up his past glory, a small-time gangsta wanting to leave criminal lifestyle behind, a singing taxi driver facing a terrible ordeal, and so on. Rather easy on the eyes the whole drama, very well performed and can't remember seeing the city of London presented so coolly for a good while.

Non-vital limb loss

It's not a too cool a place to hang out in the desert where no one can you hear you scream standing on a mine that will explode if you make a move. Buried, 127 Hours and even Phonebooth were something of a similar nature of claustrophobic thrills. Even worst of the lot, it's still decent, albeit flawed, cheesy and clishéd.

The fastest man on the earth

Jesse Owens ran (and jumped) like a motherfucker. It wasn't easy for the black folks in America in the 30s, but to even contemplate joining the 1936 Berlin Olympics hosted by the nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler and his buddy Joseph Goebbels was pure bravery. This was ok stuff, altho the racing events themselves were a bit too hastily depicted.

Head of snakes

Lampedusa is an island located perfectly (200km off Italy's southern coast) for the African and Middle Eastern migrants who are on they way to Europe. This documentary is about the leisurely life of the inhabitants of the little island, particularly two kids, the town doctor and radio host. I suspect, lots of the material was dramatized solely for the wellbeing of entertainment, however the issues with refugees were all too horrific to be nothing but true.

Live with the good

One of those feelgood family drama comedies. A man (John Krasinski) goes to his childhood neighbourhood to see his mom whose taken ill and all the other loved ones, old friends and family members. And so the reminiscence of yesterdays begins. Done a million times.

Debutants are sluts

There is the real life where artist Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) is reading a novel and there's the fictional life; the novel. The novel reads like a terrific thriller and the real life in its everydayness is nothing out of ordinary.

The cold song

Don't know how something so ordinary can be so captivating. Romanian movie focused on the life a doctor who is pulling all the strings he can muster to put her daughter to college. Can't remember, let alone name, any Romanian movies that I have seen, so this is a fucking good start. Great acting, direction to perfection.

Body-hopping demon on the loose

Of course, this is stupid as shit. There's an evil spirit roaming about and contaminating people who go on a murderous rampage. Jebediah Woodley (Dolph Lundgren) is a demon hunter after this heinous beast. Silly and stupid, but they knew what they were doing and, admitted, oftentimes it made me smile.

Kingi you wanker

Ricky Baker is put into foster care of a married couple living deep in the New Zealand woods. Some unfortunate things happen, and the dad and the boy have to go into hiding from the local police, bounty hunters and child welfare people. It's a bonding trip, a full-blown manhunt and a crazy adventure surrounded by majestic nature. A nice thing to watch, at times outrageously funny.

Grounds for hatred

I've said it before, I watch the worst movies solely for the reason that I want to know what to hate. This was absolute fucking rubbish and I love to hate it dearly.

A thing called the soul

Not bad. By the looks of the DVD-cover I thought it would be a slow-moving story of a war time romance between French Resistance fighter Marianne Beauséjour (Marion Cotillard) and a Canadian intelligence officer Max Vatan (Brad Pitt) with everything that's seen before. Turned out Allied is an interesting take on the WWII espionage where everything looks suspicious and downright deadly.

Life slipping through fingers

They said this is the best comedy of recent years and I liked it when they said that Germans have finally found a sense of humour. But I have to disagree. To certain extent at least. A white collar German woman is making business in Romania and suddenly his bohemian dad pays her a visit. Pretty enjoyable and easy-going the whole deal, but still a long way off from anything special.

Lord of the plains

Something else. A laid-back story of two brothers robbing banks in Texas and a couple of marshals chasing them. Wonderfully captures the rhythm and pulse of the Texan way of life. And when things get hard, they get real hard. The great suspense is backed up by cool soundtrack and amazing performances by Chris Pine, Jeff Bridges, Gil Birmingham and Ben Foster.

Dark is the reich of the dead

World War II, two German officers and their Norwegian prisoner are lost in Norwegian woods until they find a comfy looking mansion. However, to their misfortune, the house is haunted and all the horror breaks loose. Should be right on my alleyway, but can't really pinpoint the reason I didn't like it that much.

Some grand theatrics

Eight South Korean soldiers inflitrate inside the North Korean borders to gather information for the U.S. military so they can execute a successful attack on their enemy. Liam Neeson as General MacArthur and unfortunately his towering presence takes a little away from the perfectly average and overly dramatic war movie.

Streetfighting in wigs

Season two of Broadchurch. A small coastal town thriller, some people die, investigations ensue and a whole lot of people are under scrutiny. There are lots like these around, but gladly this one stand above most of them, wouldn't have watched it otherwise.

Every ritual has its purpose

It isn't a routine autopsy, the autopsy of an unknown young woman found buried in peat. As they dig deeper, her body reveals more and more secrets, and seems like the pathologists summon up evil spirits while cutting into her. A pretty macabre horror movie, but I wish the gifted director André Øvredal had fooled with bits of the black humour he did with the amazing Troll Hunter.

The natives hound and pester you to death

Blinded by gold, three mining buddies are constantly paranoid and suspicious of each other. And it's particularly dangerous in the Mexican jungle infested with wildlife, mountain police, bandits and indians. A b&w semi-classic I'm told.

Girls cry boys lie

A creepy I.T. guy is obsessed with his bosses' family, so crazily that's its downright scary. Different environment, but ultimately it's the Cape Fear story filmed again. Not bad, but nothing special either.

It was dead, but it opened its eyes

I reckon this is the first part of the rewriting of the Night Of The Living Dead movie. Not much to tell, only a handful of graphic novel pages to get the story going and that's it. Decent stuff though.

Time is nonlinear

12 alien spacecrafts ('pods') land upon earth on different locations and no one can interpret the reason for their arrival because the alien language and writing is quite impossible to decipher and, also, it's uncertain do they understand anything of human means of communication. Professors and military analysts all around the world try to figure out the answer to one simple question, do they come in peace. Can't say there's that much happening most of the time of the movie, but nevertheless one of the greatest contemporary directors Denis Villeneuve has a flair for doing everything in interesting and entertaining manner.

Punished for magic

I have no idea why and how I had the patience to sit this through. Not that this fairytale is bad or it's a children's movie, it's just that it's a little too close to both claims. Thankfully, I liked how it looks, liked those animated little creatures, and it was somewhat funny sometimes.

Aggression channeled

Well, it's almost too funky and crazy, if it weren't so cool. Tom Affleck plays an autistic accountant, a mathematician insanely good with numbers, and doesn't care the slightest who his clients are. And he's also a seriously effective hitman, just plain deadly. At first, I ridiculed the whole thing until I realized, flaws forgiven, that these are the type of action movies that rock my boat.

No one is laughing here

A war documentary from a Finnish standpoint - the Winter War and the one that quickly followed, the Continuation War - emphasized on the letters those boys wrote back home. The lads went through hell and way too often their psyche cave in. Like historian Jenni Kirves put it: 'They had no right to vote or go to a restaurant, but they had the right to die in the war'. Lots of archaic footage, a few historians speak their minds and, as always, it's disturbing, the whole concept of the unnecessary deaths.

Darker side of Sarasota

A news reporter is desperate for promotion and ever so juicier news. And because she is a bit wrong in the head, so gets way too devoted to her profession and is gradually losing her wits. All too average based-in-a-shocking-true-story.

Just a private enterprise operation

A little oldie ('70) for a change. A group of allied soldiers decide to do a bank robbery worth of 16 million in gold bars. Trouble is the bank is located behind enemy lines. But luckily Kelly (Clint Eastwood) has a plan. More or less a hidden gem with a stellar cast (Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Harry Dean Stanton, Don Rickles, Len Lesser, Carroll O'Connor), a war movie to the core, spectacularly shot, looks not a day old.

Walk down a lonely street

The guy's got a terminal cancer and goes through the process of arranging his own death basically. Not a very uplifting a concept and too often these things are too syrupy, but I reckon this did alright.

Just a switch that gets flipped off

Once again, out of nowhere, a new TV series that beats everything else. And, once again, it comes with practically unknown actors and it's still seriously convincing. A veteran Mac 'Quarry' Conway (Logan Marshall-Green), after two tours in Vietnam, returns home to find changes in the political climate of his country and his private life as well. He gets involved in gun-for-hire business and it kicks off an intense story of eight episodes.

Born to dream

Right there on the living dead bandwagon. While it's still trendy, it's quite frustrating to go through dozens of new zombie features and find nothing to write home about. But you feel somewhat privileged to witness a fresh yet traditional thing. And this is rather close to that with hundreds of zombies ('hungries') popping up everywhere and it's frightening. Cool shit and it's great to see the more established and renowned actors such as Glenn Close and Paddy Considine doing it.

Hatred drowned by weakness

Fritz Bauer was a public prosecutor in Germany in the 50s, specialiced in bringing down escaped nazi officers from WWII. It didn't help that he was a gay jew and the government office was still occupied by nazi symphatizers. He's still determined to do justice with his new enthusiastic and naive assistant and the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad to capture the notorious Adolf Eichmann and that, in turn, would reveal more war criminals still walking free. An excellent film of Germany's path towards democracy and its citizens ordeal to meet with responsibility.

If no one sees you, are you really there at all?

Things are bleak in Conor O'Malley's world. He lives in England, he's bullied at school, dad's away, grandma is not too cool and his mom is dying of cancer. His escape route is the fantasy land and its thousand year old tree with three stories to share. Them aside, it's a beautifully told tale of one horrendous disease and the grief and consequences within.

A bear wearing people's clothes

Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai has endured many renditions before, so another one won't hurt. A little western town is harassed by an evil gold digger, so the simple peace-loving townsfolk ask for brave gunslingers for help. Little nuances to the original, bodycount hundreds greater, and purely on technical details this is cool enough on its own right.

Magnificent prophecies

The aging Tom Cruise is more fitting to the role as a semi-retired rogue military officer Jack Reacher than superagent Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible franchise. Despite little flaws and ridiculous plotholes here and there, Never Go Back is a fine action-packed thingy of good military officers of the law beating the hell out of the bad ones, and vice versa.

Like going to your favorite cafe

Tower Records, the most powerful record store of our time. Established in San Francisco in the 60s, expanded all the way from L.A. to N.Y., even Japan, eventually up to almost 200 stores worldwide. Survived and flourished four decades until the music world digitalised and inventory became obsolete. Solid documentary by Colin Hanks.

A master plan

Just straight-to-DVD crap Bruce Willis has churned out the recent years. FBI agents, plain cops, bank robbers and all sorts of vigilantes in an awfully confusing plot. Bad as hell, nothing more.

Embodiment of true love

Rachel has issues. She's alcoholic, she's got temper, she's depressed and sad because her ex-husband has a new family. She becomes obsessed with the disappearance of a young woman she's spied out of jealousy before. Emily Blunt is terrific as the crazy drunken person who is afraid of herself. And there are some truly disgusting features that are almost too nauseating to watch, hence a pretty unforgettable film.

In war fathers bury their sons

Desmond is a nutter. He enlists in the army to join the forces in WWII, but refuses to touch a rifle. Stuck deep in his religious blindness he's stubborn as fuck, so he has to conquer several obstacles to get to the war he dislikes so much. It's decent enough a war flick, particularly doin' the intensive action sequences where bullets fly and people die, the director Mel Gibson is on his element. However the portrayal of the god-loving pacifist vegetarian war hero is borderline pathetic.

Not the business of the living

A widower runs a fortune-teller scam with her two kids. She decides to enrich the business by adding an ouija board to the collection. However the board is the real deal, so they call the local priest for help. Somehow I think I've seen the same thing before. Clichéd to hell and back.

The war ain't over

Newt (Matthew McConaughey) deserts his regiment in U.S. civil war to bury his nephew in a family graveyard. He likes his home just fine, but being a Confederate army deserter, he has to retreat even further in the swamp where he develops a taste for a slave girl and meets other people like him. And soon they grow in numbers and team up as a Robin Hood kind of jungle partisans, altho' U.S. army and government see it as a community of terrorists run by a traitor. The movie feels like a fast-forwarded history lesson, after the fighting's done, it's a political game with constitutional rights stepping in, therefore there's too much to deal in really.

Accept the fact that there is no God

Stephan Lang makes an excellent psycho and, without a doubt, Don't Breathe is one of the greatest contemporary horror cuts. Everything goes sideways when burglars choose a wrong door to break into. Simple effective thrills where excitement turns to fear turns to stupendous terror.

Take us to the great beyond

An animated feature (for adults only) of grocery store products that sit and wait to be purchased so they can travel to the great beyond which, to their minds, is the ultimate place to be and where they meet God. A little accident occurs and a sausage, a bun, a taco, burrito and several others adventure in the product partisans hideout to learn the truth about consumerism. A pretty funky cool feature, although the joke pretty much died out after 30 minutes or so.

The sea of humanity

On 15th of February 2003 was the biggest global anti-war demonstration and still U.S. ja U.K. (president Bush and prime minister Tony Blair) executed the Iraq war on false pretense. Good people like Hans Blix found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction, no one did, there was not one single piece of evidence linking Saddam Hussein on 9/11, but the western warmongers went out and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. So who were the real criminals?