kolo-5 Reviews

Bal-Can-Can (2005)

Good start, disappointing ending

[6/10 · 14 August 2010]

I could have given an 8 for the first half hour, and an 5 for the rest of the movie. It starts well and funny, but ends in a Rambo style. There is quite a lot of laughter in this movie, but when it comes to tears, it is of bad taste. As of the two main characters, one of them, Genovese is resolved badly, you never get the real essence of this character, he seems as a self-confident guy in one moment and a villain in an other, a man of connections now, and a man unable to resolve an easy option later. His death serves the plot, but is unrealistic an unjustified. While Trendafil, the other main character, is more stable although unbelievable in his Rambo style transformation. The end, with killings, is all predictable and it changes the style of the whole movie. I guess it is for these, that the movie didn't make it in major festivals. Worth watching, anyway.

Pravo cudo (2007)

Powerful movie

[9/10 · 12 August 2010]

This movie, has a powerful opening. A long shot opening scene. The plot is intriguing, although it loses force somewhere in the middle of the movie. It's the story of an Impostor which uses psychic talents of his son to win privileges (sex and money) from people. But, the story enters later in some unnecessary developments which minimize its initial force and the expectations of the viewer. Cast, lead by Rade Serbedzija is very good. The director also shows a lot of skills in directing. If adjusted the plot and the script here and there in certain points, this could have been a superb movie. I gave it a 9, because Croatian cinema never stops amusing me. It has the special touch only Croatian movies have. If it was a Hollywood production, I could have given it a 7. I believe it'S a movie that will be appreciated by cinematographers, but deprecated by general public.

Zivi i mrtvi (2007)

Out of hatred

[9/10 · 16 April 2010]

I believe Mila's review is politically charged and don't fit to this movie. I've seen it and it is one of the best movies I've seen about ex-Yugoslavian wars. It makes out the point that there is no way to escape these wars. It's a circle killing everybody at the end. It goes on for centuries. The way war is depicted is so realistic, the director, Milic, has been himself in the war. There is no single woman in the screen, because it is a war movie, and no romance can fit in. All the craziness of the war is there, driving those soldiers mad. The craft of doing that movie is amazing. No wonder why Croatian school of film is probably the best in the Balkans. If you can, go see that movie. And you wan't need to see any other war movie in your life.

Baaria (2009)

This is a movie, not a fast food

[9/10 · 8 April 2010]

"Baaria" is definitely a movie to be seen. It's not Jet Lee. It's not Brangelina. It's a movie, not fast food. Tornatore has put all his nostalgia and memories in it. There is a lot to explore and to understand. The movie is full of interesting characters, there is a little magic too, with the old woman that appears just in pasta time. What we see is not the saga of a boy, but the saga of a whole country. Its run-time is more than the usual, 163 minutes, but once you get in the movie you won't mind unless you have Big Brother to watch at home. There is a bit of "Cinema Paradiso" in Baaria, there are bits that remind you of "The Starmaker" there is something of "Malena" too. But Baaria stands of itself. If you like Tornatore, this movie is not gonna let you down.

The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991)

die die my darling

[2/10 · 1 February 2010]

This was my first, and probably the last Angelopoulos movie. I was eager to get into it, as it featured Mastroianni, one of my favorite actors and was a film By Theo, of whom I've heard a lot. The opening was promising, a long shot over a jeep of soldiers across the Albanian-Greek border. OK! but that was all. Nothing left. The movie had big holes and I don't know which to mention first. The main plot of the story is revealed to the journalist by the old woman. during a long walk. It's like a 15 minutes monologue, killing the action and viewers patience, nothing happening on screen for 15 or even 20 minutes, apart this old lady telling a story. All that is presumed to be shown through action, was simply told to the camera by the old lady. In a moment, the equippe of TV was heading to the bar. They turn the corner and immediately the winter begins! Probably, shot in different days, continuity leaked. A lot of problems with the story-telling, it went from absurd to irrational never sticking to a style, making the viewer asking questions that never got answers. Poor Mastroianni, given a role which lacked integrity or charm. On the other hand, as many Greeks or Albanians or Balcan people would agree with, the movies showed lot of historic, ethnic, or politically incorrectness, just for the sake of making a movie about "humanity" as a red in another review. A lot more to say, but no time to lose on a poor movie, which was not movie at all, but lunacies of a person impressed on film and paid with state money.

Honeymoons (2009)

A movie full of clichés

[2/10 · 24 December 2009]

Despite my expectations on the production and on Paskaljeviç, the movie was deeply disappointing. The dialogs were poor, full of clichés, more than offering art it seemed like the authors were trying to offer a politically correct movie for the foreign festivals. But the "politically correct" mostly turned into false and cliché characters, dialogs, venues, happenings, realities. Than, comes the wedding! 2 weddings, indeed. There seems to be this myth that Balkan weddings are fascinating for foreign audiences. Therefore one every two Balkan movies has a wedding going on. You see people shooting in a wedding happening in the main hotel of Tirana, which is ridiculous, the bride singing opera pieces in a wedding, and followed up by folk songs. By the end of the movie, a Serbian song is sung, which is simply an invention to serve the "politically correct" and to force a plot which does not exist. The way the director used close ups, more than an invention, felt disturbing. There are movies who are fine for the general audience, there are movies who target a finer audience, there are movies made for festival purposes. "Honeymoons" isn't any of those three, sadly.

She Hate Me (2004)

Why did Bellucci accept to play in it, whatsoever?

[2/10 · 25 September 2009]

So stupid movie. There could be 3 different movies from this story. Bad script, bad solutions, bad plots, bad seks scenes. Why, Monica, Why? Why you did this? I have to fill 10 lines of comments for this stupid movie, what can I do? Spike tried to solve all the problems of the world with a single movie. But, being socially responsible, doesn't mean you are making a good movie. The whole lesbian pregnancy theme is so fake, comprising the final with the 2 lesbians kissing each other and the father of their children. The trial was treated in such a naive script, as if reading a school play written by the math teacher. I guess I did 10 lines. Fine. Why Monica, Why? Why you?

Palermo Shooting (2008)

Better if this was a silent movie

[5/10 · 27 August 2009]

I just saw the movie in International Film Festival of Durrës, eager as I was for another Wim Wenders experience. And I left the theater with mixed feelings. Images were so good, bur the story was so cheap. The apology of Death at the end of the movie was awful, as if written by a 15 years scholar. So was the dialogue with the shepherd. Cheap and cliché ideas about death and life. The presence in the story of G. Mezzogiorno was senseless and not justified at all. The story of a photographer that takes a shoot of Death, is not bad, whatsoever. But it surely didn't to be treated as in child books, with death coming towards you and moralizing about life and death. And above all, the pregnant Milla, pretending deeper art in VIP Photo shooting, gave a sense of pity. No worth seeing it twice.

Raci (2009)

Nice movie, very good directing, interesting characters

[8/10 · 25 August 2009]

Raci, or Crayfish, by Bulgarian director Ivan Tscherkelov, is a nice movie, with a temptation towards philosophical, of which directing is very good. The characters are nice, sometimes gloomy, the dialogs is provoking, sometimes more poetic than necessary.

This is for sure not a commercial movie, but a real moviegoer will not leave the seat before the ending.

It resembles fairly to David Lynch, but in a Bulgarian style.

It is the Bulgarian representative to be chosen for Oscars, definitively won't make it.

At least, this movie will remind you of your mother.