adrian-rugina Reviews

It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010)

Sweet movie.

[6/10 · 1 February 2011]

This is a slightly fun movie, but do not expect laughing your guts out. It's a almost a teenage romantic comedy placed in a different environment than the regular college movies. It has good characters and decent casting,and they will grow on you easily. Also, I appreciate such characters that are very enjoyable even if they don;t have more than 2-3 lines, such as Muqtada or Solomon. You may not remember this movie next year, but you might be hearing a friend sayin to you "get up, Muqtada" if you don;t want to get up from your bed :). This is a good 2010 movie, with a low budget,low commercial expectations but with great feedback. Despite dealing with depression issues, the atmosphere is positive and delivers a good feel at the end. Nice to see this kind of movies from time to time.

The Tourist (I) (2010)

What a terrible waste!!!

[4/10 · 1 February 2011]

The script is weak and the twist is to be seen from miles away. And when the director gets it wrong (and oh, he gets it so wrong), at least the actors should have been able to save the day. Angelina is just waking around with her head held up high (the only pretty view in the entire picture), while Johnny is plain, with no interesting or entertaining features. If they were to make him goofy, Pirates of the Caribbean style (which i guess they tried to avoid), at least he would have a chance to save this movie. Instead, there are minutes of Angelina driving boats and a Paul Bettany who doesn't actually has a real part.

Gamer (2009)

Waste of resources

[5/10 · 10 April 2010]

Gamer combines several good but old ideas with some new ones, but most of them are already done for the screen in far more better versions. The accent is put on the visual execution (although the visuals have sometimes the tendency to overwork the eye and the brain) and it doesn't manage to hide the weak plot, stupid twists and the lack of a solid drama. For example, the part with alchool the main character drinks in order to be able to start a car, is just too much. Ending is also weak, people reaction is bad, the happy ending in totally poor. Too many body-parts and blood, too many unnecessary sex scenes (although is understandable that people would use these games for actually living their perversions). Shootouts and fight scenes are also exaggerated without being too spectacular. Sorry, this is a looser.

Armored (2009)

Waste of actor talent

[4/10 · 20 January 2010]

Dillon, Fishbourne, Reno, should have teamed up for a much smarter effort, because this one slides in the B-Category and could have been done with no-name actors and a much smaller budget, since anyway, 2 armored trucks and a wasted warehouse could not have coasted too much. Since the writers did not manage to come with a smart heist plan, they targeted the dramatics of the situation, but there was not much to exploit there either. Fishbourne and Reno do not bring anything to this movie except the media interest, they're only expensive advertising. Dillon is OK, but this was a walk in the park. The choices of the main character, Ty Hackett, are quite uninspired and the final, with the "reward" is quite childish. Waste of time, money, actors and so on.

Couples Retreat (2009)

Sort of a waste

[5/10 · 20 January 2010]

I keep seeing a lot of movies with a good idea going to waste because of bad writing. I'm pretty sure that any of those who resisted up to the end of the movies, could find, without too much thinking, at least one or two ideas of jokes, gags, situations, dilemmas, that could have been more fun. Vaughn and his co-writer may have been thinking that the "shark-drama", the "powerpoint" and the Salvadore character are enough for this movie but they're awfully wrong. Jean Reno's Marcel is also weak, almost childish, and a waste of a good talent. I'm sorry to say, but the trend of romantic-comedy wrote in US the last few years is mediocre to say the least.

The Concert (2009)

Beautifully sad and funny altogether

[9/10 · 17 January 2010]

I liked Le Train De La Vie, but i loved Le Concert. Mihaileanu keeps things simple and withholds just a couple of info, in order to reveal the actual truth at the end of the movie. He creates a drama without forcing you into tears from the beginning, consolidating every dramatic moment with a gag, joke or just a funny face. He builds funny characters, that you can enjoy seeing without being worn off by their problems or issues.

He was able to make a 2 hours film that envelopes so much about drama, failure, communism, music and dedication that is quite impossible not to appreciate. This movie was quite a joy.