Movies - Last Seen

Wonder Woman, USA (2009)

Fast paced action, violent battles and brutal deaths. Not much blood, though, probably to make it suitable for the PG-13 rating.
This animated film is very entertaining, with nice images and good story, and the content is more mature than you may think.
Everything, of course, is in the spirit of comics universe, so don't expect too much, but the imagination and serious approach are there. Nice dialogs, thoughtful character's descriptions and sense of humor - there is something for everyone. Good ride.

7+/10


Ice Pirates, USA (1984)

Grotesque and ridiculous space adventure with absurd costumes and wacky storyline. The film is a cult classic B movie, mixing post-apocalyptic with futuristic, and it's quite entertaining and watchable, if only to see Anjelica Huston in funny costume swinging a sword and fighting bulky robots. Many other famous actors here too.
Very amusing movie with many jokes and memorable moments, from the times when special effects were done manually, therefore people tried harder.

7/10


Frozen Days (Yamim Kfuim), Israel (2005)

I could label this movie as a bad rip-off of Polanski's The Tenant, but I guess there is more to it. The movie is very experimental and enigmatic, officially it's been branded as "psychological thriller", but I think it's not entirely true. This movie is rather political statement about the state of individual and about human existence in the current Israel, country that is always under a threat.

Anyway, this movie more suitable to be a 20 minutes short film, because this is all its potential can actually hold. Awful dialogs most of the film, long and boring scenes that suppose to create the mood, but most of them really unnecessary. The movie takes off a little towards the end and the actual ending is good, but it's not worth to suffer 60-70 minutes before that.

This is example of the dialog, when the actress is talking on the cell phone: "Hello? Where are you? Hello? I can't hear you. Hello? I am going out, hello? Are you there? Hello?"

I mean, come on! And it's like that for 5 minutes. Not the only example for terrible conversations, the little strength this film has is in its visuals, not dialogs, not characters and not even weird story.

I can also compare between this film and 13 Tzameti, which is similar in spirit and because both were done with very low budget. And when 13 Tzameti is very thoughtful story, painfully rational and meticulous, holding the attention from the start to finish and very suspenseful, Frozen Days is mostly unfocused and amateurish, with very few strong points, mostly boring and fails to create big interest, just a little bit.

The creator of this film may claim that this alienation and the bland feeling of the movie is intentional and suitable for the clean and simple aesthetics (the movie is called Frozen Days after all), but it's bullshit. The days when director didn't want to involve the viewers are long gone, and Danny Lerner is certainly not Michelangelo Antonioni, not even close.

If anything, this movie, despite many praises it received, is a perfect example of Israeli cinema - existing in its own bubble and completely disconnected from the rest of the world.

6/10


Devil's Game (Deo ge-im), South Korea (2008)

Original and interesting story, great acting and great ending. This is another proof how strong Korean Cinema can be with such films.

Recommended to everyone that likes Asian films and movies with twisted sense of reality.

8/10




Body Of Lies, USA (2008)

Leonardo DiCaprio proves once again he is one of the best actors of our generation, if not the best. What he can do with mediocre characters and unoriginal story is amazing. And on the other hand the movie is additional proof how old fashioned Ridley Scott actually is.

The movie is very well done, big production with enough action and suspenseful plot to stay tuned. Russell Crowe is very amusing and goofy, the film has certain satirical feel to it and it's generally entertaining and watchable.
The problems starts toward the end, when there is a need to finish this story and to tie all lose ends. As usual for such Hollywood films, everything falls down and all achievements so far just crash into small pieces. Why do we need a classic direct confrontation between the good guy and the bad guy, including dumb ideological conversation? Only Ridley Scott knows. The Kingdom was much better film if only in that sense.

Average and not memorable movie that ok to watch once, and then it just vanishes by itself.

7/10