Stanislaus

Bridge of Spies is more or less a conversational drama in which the space is not limited to one room, but its pillars of are the dialogues and the performances of Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance. From a technical point of view, it is also an average piece, with a successful recreation of (not only) 1950s Berlin and a brilliant scene of a plane being shot down. Afterwards, you can only watch with suspense how the different parties proceed to get their man back, and there is nothing to do but wait to see how it all turns out, whether the spies are exchanged or not. In short, a quality period drama that, apart from a decent story and actors, offered me a nostalgic return to the Glienicker Brücke, which I know all too well from my Erasmus days in Potsdam.

The Minions are good for short format and animated piece is proof of that. A funny five minutes about a slightly wilder routine of sorting mail, during which parcels are eaten in bulk and yellow alternates with purple as if on a treadmill – fun guaranteed.

This is probably the first time that a short accompanying a feature-length animated film was qualitatively somewhere else. The amazing Inside Out was preceded by this weird thing about a singing volcano professing its love to another volcano. As nice as the animation was, the story just killed it all, and besides, the theme song felt like a rip-off of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.

A cute animated short before The Good Dinosaur, mainly intended to teach (not only) the kids about the values in life, which include family, faith, fun, etc. In terms of animation, it was decent, but plot-wise it was rather average.

I've been pleasantly surprised by Nordic cinema more than once, so I thought I'd check out Ragnarok, but the rating here isn't too far from my personal opinion of the film. It was definitely a good idea, I liked the intertwining of the two timelines at the beginning of the film for example, but, the other hand, I was quite annoyed by the cast (especially the kids) and the fact that the mythical monster shows up properly twice and basically only to say “boo-boo!”. A film I was expecting more from, as a lover of monster-movies, and therefore I was disappointed at the end.

A very thrilling and technically skillfully made four-minute sci-fi short set in the future, in which, besides hunters, giant monsters called Leviathans also run through the sky. It would definitely be interesting to make a feature-length film as well - the visuals are already solid, so it would all depend on some kind of story that wasn't completely stupid.

A crazy assemblage of a few dozen Hollywood celebrities gathered in one film "under the baton" of Jimmy Kimmel seems on the one hand imaginative, but on the other hand it was a rather dry and slightly embarrassing scream into the ether.

WolfCop makes an average impression as a horror comedy, but it still has drive and doesn't shy away from the dark humour that is appropriate for such a film. The main character, Lou, is an unreliable jerk, alcoholic and troublemaker all rolled into one, something that doesn't really change even after his transformation into a werewolf, except perhaps for his more bloodthirsty behavior, so he doesn't take any shit from the criminals in the small town where he lives. Overall, the film had a hardened and raw effect on me, which was underscored by the choice of grittier music. An unconventional genre hybrid with pros and cons that balance out in the end - hence the pure average.

The Normal Heart is an ambitious TV movie, whose pillars of success lie in a very good cast and, above all, in a thorny subject. It's really interesting to see what things were like in the LGBT community in the early 1980s when the unstoppable evil of AIDS came to light. Everyone dealt with the issue in their own way back then - some tried to deal with it early on, others ignored the threat until their horrific deaths or simply stood idly by. The film covers quite an extensive period and gives a fairly authentic account of what was going on at the time. In the context of TV movies, it is definitely an above-average piece that deserves audience attention and critical acclaim. A truly evocative trip into a period of one of the greatest milestones of medicine but also of humanity itself, offering dense material for reflection.

Frankecreepy is a bit of a different Scooby Doo in its conception, as all of the main characters find themselves in a life situation not at all like their own (Fred and his grief over the loss of his car, Velma and her overly crazy ambition, Daphne and her surprisingly sagging self-esteem, plus Shaggy and Scooby who aren't afraid). The funniest part was probably the repeated references to the unfortunate fate of the Mystery Machine, which ended up in flames. Otherwise, this is a completely average affair with a typically mysterious and slightly creepy feel. In short, a likeable pice that doesn't impress but doesn't offend either.