Category Archives: movies

Godfather, the Far East version (Film: Blood and Bones – Yôichi Sai, Takeshi Kitano, 2004)

Blood and Bones is a violent epic story whose hero is a Zainichi Korean which is the name of the ethnic Koreans settled in Japan, many of them during the first half of the 20th century when Korea was under … Continue reading

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Separation Wall (Film: La Zona – Rodrigo Plá, 2007)

In a world subjected more and more to violence, with the established societies not able to provide appropriate answers to social and political conflicts, ordinary people try to protect their normality by building walls. Tall, barbed wired walls, with armed … Continue reading

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A Hell of a Retirement (Film: RED – Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Morgan Freeman, 2010)

When actors who played spies in action movies get older they have an option. They can start playing roles of retired spies in action movies. At least the best and the luckiest of them. Same is true for westerns or … Continue reading

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When Almodovar was a Punk

While some of my friends watched (and were delighted by) the latest movie of Almodovar the cinematheque in my village screened his second movie, made almost 30 years ago – ‘Labyrinth of Passion‘. A couple of months ago I had … Continue reading

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Film: The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009)

With a new director (Daniel Alfredson) taking charge of the second film in the Scandinavian version Millennium series, The Girl Whi Played with Fire is not at all a disappointment but is less striking and less memorable than the first … Continue reading

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Film: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Stieg Larsson was an interesting character, worth a novel or a movie by himself. A journalist and a writer of science-fiction, a left-winger who spent part of his youth training guerrillas in Eritrea, he wrote three crime novels as a … Continue reading

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Film: Valkyrie (Tom Cruise, 2008)

The plot to kill Adolf Hitler put together in July 1944 by a group of military was the last in a series of attempts to kill the head of the Third Reich and save what could be saved of the … Continue reading

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Film: Source Code (Jake Gyllenhaal, 2011)

Source Code is a rare kind of a film nowadays. A techno-thriller with brains and soul. No easy task, but apparently not a first for director Duncan Jones whose previous film Moon (which I did not see yet) has a … Continue reading

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Film: Knight and Day (Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz – 2010)

Knight and Day was one of the 2010 summer blockbusters. With a plot line that is one of the less credible action stories ever seen on screens there was not much alternative left for director James Mangold but to play … Continue reading

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Film: Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (Emir Kusturica, 1981)

The first scene of ‘Sjecas li se Dolly Bell’ (‘Do You Remember Dolly Bell’) happens in a tern meeting room, where old people debate the dire state of the morals of the youth and decide that what they need to … Continue reading

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