Eye In The Sky (2016) movie review.

There is an important issue, that never been discussed in cinema, before this movie. It is a political thriller, which raises the issue of morality in terms of people who whether gives authorization to strike or people, who pull the trigger. But it is not an ordinary military operation, as we know it from elder times. Now it is a drone, which can destroy targets from the sky. This is why the movie called Eye In The Sky. In modern times this is an option, how the government of the UK (or other countries, which has this technology) eliminate key members of terrorist organisations. And those pilots and commanders, who are responsible for these launches to destroy targets from the sky, are doing their jobs and encounter moral and mental issues, when it is time to pull the trigger  

Members of states, who are working together to destroy the terrorists, also face the same problems. They discuss and come to the conclusion, which is then transmitted to the headquarters, where commander of the operation gives direct order to the drone pilot to make a shot. Of course such situations require a carefully considered decision, and if there is a problem with the law or regulation, it might be reconsidered, otherwise it will lead to a negative result. It can either be the death of many innocent people, or the defeat in the propaganda war. 

Anything is possible, and the movie thus shows the human factor. Even in a time of modern technology, when the person who pulls that trigger is sitting on the other side of the world, there is a huge portion of real human problems with murder. This film is a political thriller. It contains a large number of discussions, arguments and disputes about the destruction of a single house, in which sit three important persons in the list of priorities for elimination. But there is one little girl, who sits in the blast radius, selling bread. And this movie shows all the emotions and problems that arise when such a difficult decision to be made, in case, when there is a choice between sacrificing one person to dozens. 

In general I can say only positives about the movie. It perfectly shows all points of view, moral and other issues faced by the characters in the movie. This film, directed by Gavin Hood, perfectly tells the story of a Colonel (Helen Mirren), who runs the operation and the pilot (Aaron Paul), who must pull the trigger. The pace of the film is very favorable for this genre, it also has a very intriguing tone, by which the viewer cares for the characters, their choices and what each one of them sees to be important. Of course, there is no tragedy for the main characters, it's just their choice what to do and deal with the aftermath. 

Overall, this movie touches on so many different issues and fully reveals their essence. Whether it is an issue of war casualties or moral and human principles of the characters. This film is very interesting as an art. Performances of actors are great, the movie was brilliantly shot and edited, it really deserves attention. And, this is one of Alan Rickman's last roles, so this is definitely a great reason to watch it. 

Nocturnal Animals (2016) movie review.

Nocturnal Animals is a cruel thriller. It is intense and creepy, but some parts of it are not just dark, but fascinating as well. This movie is directed and written by Tom Ford. The story is very complicated, it contains three different timelines. 

In the first one - present, Susan ( Amy Adams) is an owner of an art gallery, living in Los Angeles with her rich husband (Armie Hammer). Their relationship is cold and it looks like they are about to break off. Her life is full of disappointments, but still, she achieved stability and even behave like it is all right. She receives a manuscript of a new novel called Nocturnal Animals, which is dedicated to Susan, written by her ex-husband, Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) , with whom she poorly broke twenty years ago. And now she decides to read this novel and we visually see, what she learns. 

This is a second timeline - fictional. A story of a man and his wife and daughter. They are on a trip to some little town in Texas, they drive on a lonely road at night. Before this part of the movie, events have already been rough and harsh, but it gets even more, when this poor family was forced of the road and intimidated by three impulsive freaks, who are no more than just local bandits. They stop this family, start blaming for nothing, then playing with them, which makes these three so bad and annoying. And Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who plays one of them, does a good job of making the audience nervous. So the husband who was also played by Gyllenhaal, just can not protect his family and they got kidnapped after all. Reading that Susan, in present day, is shocked by the content of the novel, how dark it is, and we see it, as the tone of the movie goes tougher. 

In the third time line we see relationship between young Edward and Susan, before and after they married, it explains a lot for two other timelines and adds character development for Susan. She is so different after twenty years. So these three stories are connected and supplement each other and make each one another more understandable.

The story within the story is the main part in the movie. It has Gyllenhaal( as Tony, the husband), Michael Shannon (as the policeman) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (as the bad guy). This story is so dark and interesting, that it really thrills. And overall, it is so sad, that even feels tragic. But, in the same time it is well told, makes you think and touches you. 

Maybe the contents of this story sometimes creepy, but it is a good combination of dark and intimidating tone with amazing performances by everyone in the movie, which makes it even great, but overall, I didn't like this film. For me it is too much, the tone of the movie is too scary. The opening thing is just way too much, so overall, I am not a big fan of bad and ugly stories. This movie is just not for me, but I really appreciate the story, it is something. 

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story non-spoilers review.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. This review will be non-spoiler, because I do not want to affect anyone, before seeing the movie, so I will just describe my feelings and non-spoiler related thoughts. 

Firstly, this is the best action-adventure movie this year. I am a big big Star Wars fan, I may consider myself that, because how personal I feel watching new Star Wars movies and much more, I just love it, it is half of my life. And as a fan I adore Rogue One. It is just the best. What a way to combine the galaxy together, add this story to New Hope, that we would appreciate it so much more, because very soon, after hundreds of hundreds of views, everyone would see this, (I would say episode, but it is a standalone), as an organic story, not even noticing that Rogue One was released decades later. 

Being a standalone means a lot. It doesn't have particular Star Wars saga episodes feel, but it certainly doesn't need to. It is as good, as it could have been, but I would love it much much more, say a decade later, just because right now I think of this movie as a brand new, but I would prefer see it as an all time settled part in the Star Wars timeline.

So far I wrote enough, but it is a tiny part of what this movie is worth to be told about. It is a different style of storytelling, pretty risky, but brave move. But as much as the studio wanted to separate a standalone with the saga, Rogue One still felt like a Star Wars movie. The music, effects, dialogs, lore, everything, even little cameos of known characters, some of them gave me chills and made me cry of happiness. 

The music by Michael Giacchino was not as good as John Williams's score, but it was good enough to say that this is Star Wars. It haven't got this unrepeatable feel, as saga films had, in terms of soundtrack, but still, Rogue One score is atmospheric and good. 

This is a war movie, it felt like a war movie all along, it was an amazing point of view for me to perceive the universe. There are a lot of new and interesting characters, they are all great. It is Jyn's story all the way, it is about her family, Erso's family. This is already enough said. The movie enjoyable at every part, I am so happy that battle scenes were as good as possible, but last twenty minutes are better than every war movie ever.

"Sully" 2016 movie review

Captain "Sully" Sullenberger ( Tom Hanks) landed a plane on Hudson in 2009. This is a miracle to happen, he and his second pilot ( Aaron Eckhart) lost two engines on the lowest altitude in history, and still every 155 passengers, including the crew, survived. This is a big event in US history, so there is only one person for the job - Clint Eastwood, who recreated the event so well, that every little detail was counted in and then shown. This movie stands out for me as a great biopic, told in a documentary manner. The drama of this event is very complicated. Sully landed a plane and saved everyone, but there is still doubt that he did a right thing, that didn't try to land in the airport. So the investigation of this water landing is to reveal the true circumstances, which leaded for the decision to land on water. 

This is a story of an old captain, who was a pilot for 42 years. He is experienced professional with a talent to fly. This movie shows what is he going through after the accident. His thoughts, feelings, emotions - this is what the movie is about. And of cause the hearing to determine if he made a mistake. 

The movie gracefully connects the past and present, shows us the link between Sully's thoughts and feelings with the present. This investigation and the accident worries him a lot, he has nightmares, he is under a lot of stress, after all this popularity he gained, and it all influences him. 

All story spins around the investigation and the landing. These events are shown masterfully, this is a good storytelling. Everything felt so natural, due to Tom Hanks's performance you feel like it is happening for real and it is not some action stunt, it is a real life. If you are well familiar with piloting yourself, than you going to love this movie. It is filled with so many technical details and thoughts, that you are going to find it very entertaining. And this movie is not long, only an hour and a half minutes . This a very compact story, but in the same time it is complete and so well told.

Warner Brothers is changing their creative development and production chief.

Yesterday was announced that Warner Brothers studio have had major changes in the management. Greg Silverman, who served in company on the post of the creative development and production chief will be replaced. Variety reports that New Line's Toby Emmerich will replace him at this post. It is also reported that the resignation of Silverman is due to the box office failures of some projects including Pan and In the Heart of the Sea, as well as poor critics reception of the latest DC movies. The new chief will take office after new year. These changes are made by Warner Brothers CEO Kevin Tsujihara.

These changes is a big step for the company, it also takes a lot of risks, but with a good luck it might change things for better. Either way Warner Brothers are still remain one of the hugest studios in business and they always deliver at some point. 

Mark Wahlberg confirms, that he is no longer attached to an Uncharted movie.

Uncharted movie had a lot of trouble with the director for the movie and as for now the final choice is Shawn Levy, who is ready to start filming.(which is great, he is a remarkable director) 

For some time, Mark Wahlberg was cast in the main lead role - Nathan Drake. And now, it is confirmed, that he is no longer attached to the project. Actually he could work as Nathan Drake, but I agree with the studio and the director, that they need someone, who is more Drake, because, for a lot of people, this character is so iconic, that you can not screw this one up. This is very important that Uncharted movie to be great, at least not worst than games, because how cinematic they are and how important for fans to keep the quality on the certain level. So they must finally cast appropriate actor for the role of Nathan Drake and make an amazing movie.

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi(2016) movie review

13 hours is a likable movie with some cool action in it. I like this type of action, when it is shown a little bit more realistic with well combined set pieces, so it is not confusing and satisfying in the same time. The story didn't hit me, it is too Bay type epic, so it got me away from the main content of the movie for just a little bit. However, close street action and slow pace of battles is a great addition to the "heroic" story of the people, who didn't fight for anything, while having families and more important things to care about. So why did they keep coming back to the field again and again over these long years? That is kind of a philosophical question. Can't answer that. This movie does show us a lot to this contract operatives type of characters, the way they live and what job do they have, and for me the first hour and a half were entertaining, because of that. And than in the last hour we did get this great street skirmishes and then assault of the CIA department. 

The movie starts with an arrival of the main character played by John Krasinski. He was the best part for me in the movie, even besides the fact that James Badge Dale, as his buddy and another operative, was just amazing. These two were a mountain of this movie as far as performances go. There are so other characters, mostly other operatives. Actually they do not serve as an official military of the US, they are hired ex-operatives from different agencies, so they are basically mercenaries. They do their everyday job in Benghazi, protecting VIP's and other CIA agents on the hostile streets. These were kind of cool, especially when it sometimes turned into solid action . But one day, on the eleventh of September, in Libya some of the terrorist movements decided to destroy the US embassy. 

Getting to the main event, the squad of the the operatives from the CIA base are going to save all these people. who is left in the embassy. And after that, it gets to the main base assault, which will continue all night. The main question is, will they survive it, before reinforcements arrive? The story doesn't necessarily has this huge patriotic feel to it, it more focuses on main character's families and values of simple life. Bay impresses with his work on this one. But I still found this movie too over the top Bay epic, than realistic action movie. Still it has a good action. Actually, it feels like this story is sucked out the finger, especially the third act. Maybe everything possible, but it felt unrealistic and fictional towards the end, but it is likely, I am wrong. 

Overall, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi(2016) is the best Michael Bay directed movie since the first Transformers(2007). This movie has good action, characters to care about and touching ending, that brings even more epicness for this story, that was told pretty good. 

Snowden (2016) movie review.

Edward Snowden - the man who in 2013 unveiled the very secret information about NSA surveillance over citizens around the world. These events had a very great effect on the society, so three years later, Oliver Stone released his new biopic based on those events.

The movie tells the full story of Edward Snowden from his days in the military to the present day. The story begins with a meeting between Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and journalists Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) and Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto). They are going to interview Snowden about NSA surveillance over citizens. 

All the action in Hong Kong takes place in the atmosphere of a spy movie, when the three of them were hiding from possible observation, to go to the room in the hotel. Then they are joined by Ewen MacAskill (Tom Wilkinson), who would later write the story. The situation is very similar to real, the film completely captures the spirit of a spy movie in the hotel scenes.

In addition to the scenes in Hong Kong there is a storytelling about Snowden, his vision of the world and just about his life. It really adds nobility to his act. But the film does not impose opinions about what happened. Everybody can decide for themselves correctly he did or not. The movie just explains why he did it, and by what principles he was guided. A very important aspect of the film is Snowden's relationship with his girlfriend (Shailene Woodley) and his mentor (Rhys Ifans). As Edward progresses in the service, he learns more about methods, by which his government operates and it certainly affects his understanding of the ideals, that he follows. 

The movie is good but has nothing special. It hooks and entertains, because of the performances and a great story. The storytelling itself is very well gone, enough for the most important exposure of the decade. Edward Snowden is shown very well, especially his life. It was very entertaining to see a conflict inside him, all the aspects that forced him to do such an important thing for freedom in the world.

Moana(2016) movie review.

Moana is a beautiful family friendly animated movie with a lot of singing and dancing. It has a wonderful spirit and pure kindness. It starts with a legend of an ancient God who can create life. And the heart of this God, which is on an island, where this God rests, was stolen by a demigod Maui. And ever since the life changed, and if no one returns the heart, which was lost in deep ocean, along with Maui, then nothing will grow eventually in the world. So the ocean, which is a character in the film, chose Moana as a person to do that. But she is a future leader of her people and she is bond by the duty to them. She has to choose between an adventure in the ocean, which she loves so much, and staying on the island, where her people live. This is such a difficult choice for her, so it takes her time to gather her strength to do it. 

The storytelling process is filled with songs and humor, it is definitely a kids movie, but it is also proper for everyone. Moana finds out that she is a chosen one and gets to Maui to make him put the heart back to fix everything. 

The characters are done very well, voice-overs are fantastic. Moana's adventure is interesting and funny, the movie has such a beautiful and charming tone, entertaining and kind atmosphere. Dwayne Johnson is really great as Maui, his character is funny, bully and very different from what I have seen before. Interactions between Moana and Maui are amazing, this is a nice buddy element of the film. 

The movie is smart, it has a clever plot and this is just enough good for the kids movie. 

Overall, Moana is a great adventurous movie with an original mythology and beautiful talent behind it. It is a celebration of happiness.

Hacksaw Ridge (2016) movie review.

Hacksaw Ridge is a brilliant movie directed by Mel Gibson. It is a war movie with a lot of realism and drama. Battles look terrifying. And in the middle of bloody and violent scenes there is a guy Desmond Doss, who doesn't even carry a rifle, because of his true belief in God. His pacifism always made his life more difficult. His fellows-soldiers beaten and intimidated him for their misunderstanding of his reasons. But he was so strong that didn't break and went to the war with everybody else. This is a story of a true hero of mankind, who saved dozens of wounded people caring them out from the battlefield under enemy fire. 

The movie starts out with a fight, when main hero is wounded himself. It basically tells us that he is already a hero, that he did his feat. I am stunned how Gibson creates this bond between the viewer and the characters. This is why the movie takes its time to tell a backstory of Desmond Doss, who was a real person, masterfully played by Andrew Garfield, who will be nominated for an Oscar this year, but no one is sure for which film. 

The whole thing about religiousness of his is well told and described in the movie. It explains how Desmond became a pacifist and shows his relationship with his future wife, played by Teresa Palmer, who gives a strong performance in the movie. Characters are alive and perfectly done. Especially Tom Doss, the father, played by Hugo Weaving. His performance really touched me. His character is a war veteran, who saw all ugliness of the battlefield. He is also very sorry for himself, for what he has become as a person, but he doesn't deserve what happened to him. Vince Vaughn's character is very different from any other in this movie. He has a nice sense of humor, which is very important for the story in my opinion. I just love everything about acting in this movie. Sam Worthington is good same as Luke Bracey, who played a role of the main bad guy and then friend for Doss.  This is this type of film, when everyone is good. Maybe this is Mel Gibson's talent to take everything best from the actors. 

Everything ties up: relationship between Desmond and his father, between him and his girlfriend, events that caused other events. This movie has everything to be called a masterwork. And the whole story is very well told. You can understand why is he so religious, why his father is a drunk and why it is so important for him to go to the war, but not carrying a gun. 

And the story just begins, when he has arrived to the military base where he is supposed to get training for battle. After his officers find out that Doss doesn't want even to carry a weapon he becomes an outcast, everyone started to ignore him and even beat. No one agreed with his beliefs. He was threatened to be imprisoned for disobeying orders if he doesn't complete his weapon training or leave the military. All these hard things he has been through just to serve for his nation to help to defend everything what he believes in.  

The war is shown so terrifying, so ugly, that it is so emotional and sensitive when it starts. The atmosphere in the movie is so dramatic. I really felt like every last thirty minutes of it made me cry. The emotional impact it has is so huge, every shot of the backstory of Desmond Doss had a purpose, it made us care for everyone in it, so it would be even more dramatic, when it will be over. 

The film is a masterwork. It is a very effective and passionate movie. It glorifies the bravery and courage of a man who fought a war without a gun. This movie is so important. It has such a message. Message that if every one in the world would have been like Desmond Doss, there would not be need for a weapon.