The Birth of a Nation 2016 movie review

This film is about the rebellion against the cruel and terrible acts of white people against their slaves, that are shown in the film.

Nat Turner - black priest, who was born and raised in slavery, all his life he belonged to the Turners. He grew up and received an education, allowing him to read and preach in a small Church in order to inspire the slaves to work. He had a childhood friend Sam, with whom he had an almost equal relationship, and when they grew up, Sam in most cases, protected and treated him like a friend, with respect. The movie shows how the slaves live in this world, especially those who belong to bad owners. The film is very philosophical, it shows how the Bible affects a person, how unfairly sometimes, that slaves must obey against their will. And it is unfair, when the preacher is pointed to read only excerpts from the Bible about the approximate obedience of slaves, and not other parts, in which slavery is condemned. This film is about the strength of faith of one person. 

I liked, that this movie didn't try to be 12 Years A Slave. It was realistic enough, but did not have that kind of emotional impact from the story. It is more like a smaller tale, people never heard about. This mutiny was bold and foolish, but inspired by a great idea. The history doesn't remember this, that is why this story must have been told and heard. Nate Parker did such a wonderful job in directing and acting. He was so believable, and his character was so masterfully done. I deeply enjoyed his work, which makes this movie feel significant. Armie Hammer was also very very good in this film. He portrayed his character on a master level, I felt and understood him, he appeared to be one of the best parts of the movie. I actually loved the relationship between Nat and Sam. It was remarkable and amazing, and I deeply felt emotional connection between two of them.

The film has a very smooth and consistent tone. I really liked the pace of the storytelling of the first two acts. But when the time came to the third, the movie could not adapt and adjust to a complete change and transformation into a murderous revenge streak. At the last forty minutes, the movie became ugly and bloody. Director's choice to go for such a drastic change seemed sudden and soon. Sometimes I did not feel emotional importance of some very significant events. I think, this movie lacked something in building emotional connections between some of the characters and the audience. Probably, there was not enough time to do that, the movie lasts only two hours, so the story felt short. And so I did not feel the drama fully at the end.

Overall, this movie works as a historical and relevant for the society, but it failed to reach the level of important and recognized. I liked the first hour very much, I thought it was masterfully done and told. The character of Nat touched me by his belief. The depth of the movie was very important and it worked. I heard the message and it was a very interesting point. It is an artistic movie, made for telling a relevant story. 

Collide (2017) movie review.

Collide (2017) movie review

This is the type of movies that has big names in it, but do not cause any improvements and only add a question: "What are they doing in this film?". Every great actor, who is in this film is worth more than just an average action movie with cheap chase scenes and written in haste scenario. I'm not saying this movie is bad. It is very very average. 

This is just a simple story, filmed with a sufficient quality. Nicholas Hoult obviously tried, he seemed good in the film, he was its best part. The rest of the cast just did it for the paycheck. For me, that is just a waste of their time and talent. Ben Kingsley played the same type of character as the Mandarin from Iron Man 3, Anthony Hopkins played the stereotypical drug lord, and Felicity Jones probably did not even notice that she was in this movie, just bringing her talent to it, but nothing more. She was in a nice shape, probably due to her Star Wars shooting. 

It's a love story, and one day she gets ill, and he returns to his old life of theft in order to save her. The love story adds emotion and even some pleasure watching this movie. Felicity Jones and Nicholas Hoult have some nice chemistry together. Their performances in general work for this movie. Most of which I watched with interest, but the plot is very predictable and sometimes dull. That the ending completely lost my interest, after a rather silly turns in the plot. It just did not deliver, considering how poor some scenes were. And overall, having a weak plot and average action scenes, combined with the lack of satisfaction, this movie can definitely be called not bad, but very average. It is forgettable, but it's not a bad film after all. 

Trespass Against Us 2017 movie review

Trespass Against Us is a small independent film, starring Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson. It has inherent independent feel and proper atmosphere, but overall it is not entertaining enough. This is a story about relationships between fathers and sons.

Cutler family lives as outlaws in their own anarchic corner of Britain's richest countryside. Chad Cutler (Michael Fassbender) is heir apparent to his bruising criminal father, Colby (Brendan Gleeson) and has been groomed to spend his life hunting, thieving and tormenting the police. But with his own son, Tyson (Georgie Smith) coming of age, Chad soon finds himself locked in a battle with his father for the future of his young family. 

Chad's relationship with his father is very important in the film, it creates the main plot and brings depth to the story. 

When Colby learns of Chad's dreams for another life he sets out to tie his son and grandson into the archaic order that has bound the Cutler family for generations. He engineers a spectacular piece of criminal business involving a heist, a high-speed car chase and a manhunt, which leaves Chad bruised and bloodied and with his very freedom at stake. With the law cracking down and his father tightening his grip, Chad is forced into increasingly desperate measures. 

This movie is deep and realistic. It shows difficulties, with which people encounter in this part of the world. The story itself is simple, but powerful and touching. Performances are great, Fassbender fits the role of a rustic uneducated thief who is incredibly good at driving. This role required him a complete transformation into a very different character for him with a change of an accent, and I think he almost succeeded in this. This movie accomplishes its goal to be artistic and well made, but there is something boring in this film, what makes it average and forgettable. 

Assassin's Creed 2016 movie review

Cal Lynch - a criminal with a difficult childhood, who was executed and than revived by a very strange organization, which is in search of an artifact called 'Apple', which is able to heal humanity from violence. And of course, to find it they need to kill a few people. 

From the very beginning, the film shows itself as a tedious and in most cases meaningless. Some shots and scenes are so long and boring, that you don't appreciate the story or the characters. The dialogues are so banal that they don't satisfy in any way. This movie clearly suffers from trying to be philosophical and intelligent, but appearing to be stupid and vague. 

Reborn, Cal (Michael Fassbender) meets up with Sophia (Marion Cotillard), who manages experiments with people, which are helping her and her father (Jeremy Irons), the head of the organization, to find the 'Apple' and provide discovery to some secret meeting. Each of these three actors I mentioned are talented and brilliant, but I've never seen such a waste of talent, as it was in this film (there somewhere was Brendan Gleeson too, for a couple of seconds ) . No movie needs these kind of actors to do stone faces and speak simple dialogs all their screen time. 

Experimentation are held on a futuristic machine that allows a person to connect his mind with his ancestor and see the past through his eyes. Sofia wants to find the 'Apple', talking some idealistic nonsense to her patients, that through their participation they will make the world a better place, but after all they only get sick of using this machine. As it turns out, the main link in search of this 'Apple' is Cal Lynch, who is a descendant of Aguilar - the last person, who knew where the artifact is. In this machine, Cal, suspended on a robotic installation, must connect to his ancestor and repeat Aguilar's running, jumping and fighting, so the scientists around would see through the past. Aguilar was one of the assassins, sworn to defend the 'Apple'. They were trying to protect it from the world, so it's probably not meant for healing, but rather bad things. That is why assassins were trying to keep it a secret. Because in this movie they are the 'good guys', doing everything for the good of the mankind. 

By the middle, the movie starts to fall apart. It just doesn't entertain, due to it's poor execution. Scenes of fighting in the fifteenth century are the only good in the film. But they were messed up too. Despite an excellent stunt work, cool fighting scenes are ruined by constant switching between Fassbender, spinning on the machine and scenes in the fifteenth century. Even in those moments, in which the scenes of fighting are shown consistently, the shots are changing so quickly, that it is very hard to understand and enjoy what's going on. It is literally unwatchable. Actually, there are some nice and entertaining moments in this movie, Fassbender tried to be great as always, and I liked Aguilar's sidekick Maria (Ariane Labed), she was really good, at least tried to do something exceptional in a given her short time. But all these moments were overshadowed by a huge amount of negatives about this film. 

It could have been such a good idea, but overall it appeared to be terribly executed and misunderstood by the people, who created it. I think it is sloppy, boring and senseless. This movie is so disappointing and poorly done, that I just want to ask people who made it: - "what were you thinking?". 

Top 10 movies of 2016 Part One.

This is a list of my top 10 movies of the year. I didn't see a lot of movies such as: La La Land, Manchester by the sea, Moonlight, Fences, Monster Calls, Silence, due to my location. These movies might make my list, so when I watch all of them, I will make the second part. This year was a little disappointing in terms of big summer blockbusters, but I think this is one of the best years in movie history, it was rich and exciting. We had got (just think of it): Star Wars, Avengers (whatever), Batman vs Superman, Harry Potter franchise movie Fantastic Beasts, Bourne movie, Star Trek this year. Despite the quality of some of these movies, we have had an insane amount of highly anticipated movies in 2016. 

And I think that I have had one of the best movies of all time for me this year, I spend hours watching it again and again. This movie really became iconic for me, so I am so glad that I loved it. And this movie made №1 on my list. 

№ 10. The Accountant.

Starring Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick and J. K. Simmons. This is a movie, which I so unexpectedly loved, that it deserve number ten on the list. It may not be the best in terms of art, but in terms of fun and enjoyment it beats a lot of movies for me this year. Click here to check the full review.

№9. Hacksaw Ridge.

One of the best war movies I have ever seen. This movie is heartbreaking and heavy for the audience, sometimes it was hard to watch. This is a great story and brilliant execution. Mel Gibson made something special. Click here to check the full review.

№8. Moana. 

My favorite animated movie of the year. It is a wonderful, charming and adorable movie, filled with classic Disney style songs, creating a beautiful and adventurous atmosphere. It brings a lot  of fun and happiness. Click here to check the full review.

№7. Hell or High Water. 

A modern western with a very deep meaning and amazing execution. Performances are great, directing is very smart and powerful. This film leaves behind a true movie enjoyment feel. Click here to check the full review.

№6. The Magnificent Seven. 

One of those films that I didn't expect to be good. But when I saw it, it appeared to be very smart and even artistic. I love this types of movies a lot. This film struck me by the fact that it was something bigger than just being entertaining and funny. Directed by Antoine Fuqua. I loved the cast and their performances. Overall it was mind-blowing for me. Click here to check the full review.

№5. Deadpool.

Super funny and entertaining. Deadpool brought me so much fun and joy, that it definitely deserves to be number five. This movie blew me away by its boldness and crazy jokes. It was something very special. Directed by Tim Miller and written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.  Click here to check the full review.

№4. Arrival. 

This is the movie, that can win an Oscar. It is so powerful and original that I think Denis Villeneuve deserves to win Best Director. This movie is deep and artificial, performances are just stunning and professional. This film is revolutionary and has so much talent behind. And I love it that much for that. Click here to check the full review.

№3. Captain America: Civil War. 

I think everybody loves this movie. This is one of the best superhero movies of all time. It has a unique feel and atmosphere, it is a very different from previous Avengers and Captain America films. I felt so thrilled and entertained, that this movie became one of my favorites comic book adaptations of all time. Such a great introduction of Spider-Man. Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo. What an amazing cast, what an amazing movie. Click here to check the full review.

№2. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

My most anticipated movie of the year. I waited it as a huge Star Wars fan and always put it higher on my list of 2016 movies, just because I am a big fan. But it appeared, that this movie blew me away anyway, despite me being a big fan. The cinematography, the story, connections with The New Hope are just masterfully done. The third act of the film is one of the best in movie history, I loved this movie. But, this year there is one movie, that I loved and anticipated more after all. Click here to check the full review.

№1 The Nice Guys. 

And that is a masterpiece. I love it so much, that I would put it on the first place, even if The Force Awakens would come out this year. I love the atmosphere, the feel of this movie, Ryan Gosling is a genius, playing Holland March. Overall, the characters are the best for me this year. This movie made my summer, I lived by it, I admire it, I watch it when I am happy or sad, to improve my mood. The pace is brilliant, the comedy, which is so precise, makes it feel like this movie is made for true movie fans. Joy I had, just watching trailers before this movie even came out, made me happy every time. Thank you Shane Black, Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe for doing it.

This is my Top 10 list, it was a plenty year, I loved it. It was amazing in every way!

Mad Max: Fury Road 2015 movie review

An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and almost everyone is crazed, fighting for the necessities of life. 

Within this world exist two brave people, who by the twist of fate must go on the run together. Max (Tom Hardy) , a man of action and a man of few words, who seeks peace of his mind following loved ones, whom he promised and failed to protect in the aftermath of the chaos. And Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a fighter and a woman, who believes, that her path to survival might be achieved if she can make it across the desert back to her childhood homeland. She just as Max seeks escape from the doom place of Citadel, where is no hope or justice. Everything about this place is creepy and disgusting.  

One of the best action movies of all time. Mad Max: Fury Road stands out as a well made movie about the post-apocalyptic world, where everyone is mad and strange in their way. From the beginning, the movie impresses with its quality and immediately sets the tone and creates an emotional impact on the audience. 

I love the atmosphere, the region in which events take place, due to its despair. Action is the best part of the movie. We rarely get this kind of action, which simply grabs the viewer and gives us one of the best action movies of all time. This action is built on brutal music, violence and atmosphere of madness, created by a wonderful cinematography, editing and score. The pace is very quick and rapid, there is no slow and boring parts in the film. 

The story itself is very simple, but it does not matter. All entertainment forgives the lack of a great story. The movie still has connotations of philosophy, which is expressed in the desire to escape from the terrible reality. Some people choose to forget or not see the cruelty of the world, and this movie is about hope and redemption. George Miller did a fantastic job in this project. It combines previous Mad Max idea with modern technology and well founded film. 

Inferno 2016 movie review

The latest movie in Da Vinci franchise about professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), who specializes in art, history and symbols. Inferno has a terrific cast, very respected director, but even that does not save the film from destruction by the critics and bad reviews from the audience. And in financial terms the film flopped, in comparison to the previous two. It belongs to the category of 'OK' and even a little entertaining, mostly for lovers of antiquity and mystery, but for me Inferno is the weakest of the three films. 

Quite a fine mythology, but, overall, this movie as a whole does not make the most good impression. Due to unstable pace, bad editing choices and cinematography with shaky camera shots, this movie feels like other two, but more with the sense of boredom, especially in the second act, when the plot already revealed and there is no intrigue, because it is cliched and predictable and even riddles didn't entertain me. But, on the positive side, this movie is quite adventurous and good looking in terms of views, there are a lot of beautiful places and works of art to look at. 

The plot itself is not as bad as the overall movie, which is not awful bad, but more average. (I just do not mind this trilogy and understand why so many people hate it). Robert Langdon wakes up in a hospital with a head injury, having lost memory of events in the last 48 hours. He doesn't know what is going on, what he was involved into. Langdon escapes from the hospital from the assassin with the help of doctor Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), who helps him remember what is going on and solve the riddle that has some relevance to Dante's Inferno and the plague, which is able to destroy half population of the planet. Now they are on the run from the police and secret organization, which has something to do with it, led by Harry Sims (Irrfan Khan). The plague, created by Bertrand Zobrist (Ben Foster) makes sense in terms of current issues of the world. 

This movie is not necessary, but it has some entertainment, may be for some boring evenings. It is enjoyable for some people, but for me it seemed like no one cared except Ton Hanks. He is one of the few actors who respect their work, despite the lack of motivation in a good performance. Actually, I think that Felicity Jones's and Irrfan Khan's performances were good as well. This year is the busiest in Felicity Jones's career and now she became a good action star, thanks to Star Wars and even this movie.

The film shows a pursuit for unraveling the path that had been left by Zobrist to get to the plague. The issue about the world's population increasing to an insane amount is the principal in the movie, it's something like global warming for many people: one of the reasons of the destruction of the mankind.

A lot of negative reviews coming from critics and deservedly, but this movie is not for the theatrical viewing, rather for home. Towards the end I just wanted it to end quicker, but overall there was something interesting in this movie. I guess, I'm not one who hates those three films.

Ant-Man 2015 movie review.

Five years ago, in the Marvel cinematic universe it would seem to be no place for such unknown properties as Ant-man or even Guardians of the Galaxy, when nobody heard of them. In fact, Marvel owns a huge number of unique characters, about which some people do not even know. Everyone knows Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, but not Ant-Man. Marvel, as always, is very tactical and skillful with their projects, even changing the genre sometimes to the most suitable. Ant-Man turned out to be a heist genre, with a light family tone and atmosphere of an entertaining adventurous film. It's not a big blockbuster, this is one of the smallest movies in the MCU. Therefore, the heist comedy is a very suitable choice for this project. The tone also fits the character of Scott Lang. He is very funny and likable guy. So this is the film, which combines perfect concept and quality execution alongside cool action and great characters. The humor is really well put. It doesn't hurt the story, it works as a little distraction for the film not to feel serious and dramatic.

The movie begins with a meeting between Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Howard Stark in S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, after which Hank promised to keep his formula secret from anyone else. 

Scott Lang (Paul Radd) is an electrical engineer, a robber and a father of a little girl. He just walked out of prison and now he is trying to rebuild his life. Getting a not prestigious job, because of a conviction, attempting to improve relations with the family, he has to pay child support to see his daughter. Realizing that he can not see her in a year, because he have to pay a lot of money, Scott agrees for the robbery of a house, which, according to his friend Luis (Michael Pena), contains a huge safe inside. Cracking the door Scott doesn't find anything, other than an old suit. In surprise, that the safe didn't contain any money or jewels, he steals the suit and discovers its secret, pressing the button on the suit, diminishing himself to the size of an insect. 

At the same time, Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), a former student of Hank, reinvents secret Pym formula and wants to sell it, as a weapon, to the most dangerous people in the world. Actually, for me, Corey stall made a good villain. He has vision and motivation. He is smart and harsh. Of cause Pym can not allow that to happen and he comes up with the plan to steal Cross's suit and destroy any research data. That is why he needs the best burglar, who is up for the superhero job. 

Hank Pym is a scientist and a loving father, trying to protect his technology, so it is not to fall into the wrong hands. He has difficult relationship with his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly), mostly because of the death oh her mother and Pym being secretive. A parallel between Hank and Hope and Scott Lang and his daughter is a very strong and important part of the film. Relationships between fathers and daughters. Scott still has a chance to fix the situation, but Pym doesn't. Old and young generations. 

Overall, the movie is very entertaining and funny. Characters are perfectly matched, given that the movie contains a huge amount of talent. This film is for all comic book and movie fans, and it will be also enjoyable for the casual audience, because of its light tone, which adds more to the story and makes this film likable and family friendly. I must mention Michael Pena as Luis. He is remarkable as a sidekick.  The soundtrack is pretty awesome by Christophe Beck, it is strong for this kind of movie.

The directing by Peytone Reed is great, he did it just as good as it could have been. The movie really hooked me by its comedic and funny atmosphere. The pace of storytelling is proper for the genre. The most advanced technology and awesome studio direction allowed this movie to happen. I didn't love this movie, I liked it a lot. There are moments in the movie, when I laughed and clapped, but it is a little too forgettable to be something special in my heart.

Mud (2013) movie review

A quiet town, beautiful river. Life flows quiet and easy in this place. Two boys, Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) love to take a boat and float down the river. Once on the boat, they find a remote island and a hanging boat on a tree. In it lives a man Mud (Matthew McConaughey). He tells his story that he is hiding and looking for his girlfriend. In exchange for the old hanging boat, boys begin to float to the island every day to bring him food. And then Mud began to involve them in his business.

This is a wonderful story about mostly love, but also relationships with parents and determination of what is good. This movie is beautifully directed. Every shot is made for a reason, showing difficult situations, a lot of powerful and important issues. The composition of good and strong storytelling also adds a nice feeling, thus you just enjoy the action.

Mud is a very mysterious man, he needs some help. The police is chasing him for murder of a man, who has beaten his girlfriend Juniper (Reese Witherspoon). Mud's love to her is obvious, he admires her and does everything for her. This story on the examples of Mud and Juniper and Ellis's parents shows how complicated love can be. Ellis's conversations with his dad about love and how it is to be a man, and his parentless pal Neckbone, who never knew his  parents shows a huge input of simple life relationships in this movie.

This film can be called brilliant. It perfectly shows relationships between fathers and sons, even uncle with his parentless nephew. Beautiful cinematography, this movie is very nice to watch. Performances are great, whether it is McConaughey or Witherspoon, huge breakthrough for Tye Sheridan. This movie is perfectly done. Independent feel brings a lot for the movie perception. This is that kind of movie, that you  can call art.  

Suicide Squad 2016 movie review.

Quite primitive script, lack of good dialogues, rare effective phrases some may even find cool and creative, cool pop music and unnecessary scenes just to add awesomeness is not an indicative of a good movie. It's not for everyone, based on the tone they used and direction they choose, but many people really enjoyed it, and I'm very happy for them. But, I'm afraid, at the second viewing, I fully realized the senselessness of this movie. I'd say it works as a collective view on the opening day, when fun exceeds the importance of good quality of the film. 

I completely agree here with critics, Suicide Squad is not a good film. It succeeds as an entertaining and focused on a very specific audience film. So I would not evaluate this movie as something serious. Because if I would, than by all means, this movie is trash. But due to the large number of people, who really like these kind of movies, including me, despite the fact that I prefer quality films, without pathos (and this is the part it reminds me of Transformers), Suicide Squad was very successful in financial terms. For a benefit of the movie adds also the fact that the characters themselves, however, turned out to be very well made. This project has a great potential in the future, but I would prefer a little more respect for simple movie fans and not wasting that potential next time. 

The story is very simple. Captured villains forced to go on a very dangerous operation, about which they know nothing. They have a good chemistry between each other.  So this whole idea to have the most crazy and dangerous people and meta-humans together works. 

The movie has flaws. The storytelling is very choppy and sketchy. Enough good directing still darkened by poor script. The villains are just not interesting and very ridiculous, especially brother's full CG look. This movie is for people, who doesn't mind this things and just has fun of this kind of tone and stories. The characters turned out great, even Joker. My favorite character is captain Boomerang. Simply because he has less pathos than anybody else. And Jai Courtney's performance is just wonderful. He is just a supporting character and had little screen time. May be this is why he worked so well for me.  

Overall, the movie is for a very special category of people. I personally do not like the tone and style of storytelling. The whole movie seemed to me too vague. Still it's obviously not the best movie this year. It is clearly worthy of such low ratings from critics.