петък, 14 октомври 2011 г.

In Bulgarian Cinemas from October 14

Тримата мускетари / Three Musketeers - If you ever wonder how a movie could be so appallingly bad that at the end it's (deliberately or not) funny, look no further than the latest version of The Three Musketeers. Even prior to its cinema arrival, the film was plagued by its awful trailers, even more awful posters and the not-so-good reputation of director Paul W.S. Anderson. So, I doubt that there was someone somewhere expecting anything serious to come out of this. And believe me, if you take the film seriously, you'd regret any penny spent for watching it. On the other hand, if you take it as a parody of the genre, of acting, of even cinema as art, you wouldn't be able to stop laughing at its ridiculousness. Of course, all Dumas purists will be furious as the story has only threads related to the source novel, while the writers have taken such liberties in terms of script and action which would make even the Fast and Furious team envy. Furthermore, given the director and his muse (real life wife Milla Jovovich), it's not surprising that some scenes are directly reminiscent to the Resident Evil franchise. Speaking of the cast, yes, they all overact to a point that you'll ask yourself whether this is intentionally or not. Logan Lerman as D'Artagnan is not as horrendous as many would like you to believe (and his final show-off with Rochefort is actually quite entertaining), Orlando Bloom sizzles with the awfulness of his character, Christoph Walz should have been a little more threatening, while the cherry of the cake is of course Milady. Jovovich's character is so overblown, that you'd only say WTF every time she shows her action chops. As it's often the case with Anderson, his visuals are spectacular, his eye for action good, while the 3D gimmick really works. At the same time, everything is absurdly polished - you won't find Paris so clean and tidy even nowadays, let alone in those dark times, while the costumes are, let's say, just ridiculous. And the less said about the fashion-obsessed king and his queen, the better. To sum it up - it's a total trash but on the verge of becoming a cult (Van Helsing) one. (A+) ** 1/2


Островът / The Island (Bulgaria) - October sees another Bulgarian title hitting the screens. The Island comes after Eastern Plays, the praised by critics debut of director Kamen Kalev. Unfortunately, many say Kalev's second feature is a step back for the young director. The movie starts well but its second (big brother) half is misjudged and doesn't work. This, however, is the opinion of many people who saw the movie at its premiere. No bloggers were invited there, so no rating and no recommendation by me. The trailer looks really good, though. 
 
The ratings:
***** Perfect
**** Unmissable
*** Fine
** So-so
* Stay away

Няма коментари:

Публикуване на коментар