stamenkovickosta Reviews

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Visual masterpiece that lacks soul

[8/10 · 2 March 2024]

Well, this really was a breathe of fresh air.

In ocean of big, dumb, driven with awful CGI blockbusters that polluted the cinema over the last few years, it's pleasing to finally see something that's appealing to both eyes and ears. In visual department, "Dune 2" outdoes it's predecessor in every way (and that movie was already one of the most gorgeous movies ever made). The worms, the action scenes and the world of "Dune" feel grand without feeling overbearing and are accompanied by equally epic soundtrack. Villeneuve, Zimmer and whole visual department deserve infinite credit for their work here.

Then there are performances. Timothy Chalamet completely destroyed my doubts by delivering a powerful performance as Paul the leader. This is definitely the guy that I would follow into the battle. Bardem and Fergusson are also excellent in their respective roles (although latter doesn't get nearly enough screen time that she should). Brolin doesn't appear much in the movie but he's still entertaining as always.

Unfortunately, not all performances are great. Poor Zendaya really tries her best here, but it just doesn't work. She and Timothy have no chemistry and her acting just looks unnatural.

Contrary to popular opinion, I absolutely dislike portrayal of Harkonens. Despite getting more screen time than in the previous movie but still feel flat and are not fleshed out. Skarsgard is still doing his impression of Brando from "Apocalypse Now" and completely lacks energy, charisma and determination that you'd expect a planet leader like him to have. Butler overacts way too much for me to take him seriously while Batista... Well, he is just Batista.

The title of worst offender, however, goes to Christopher Walken who brings nothing interesting to the role of emperor. He just looks old, tired, confused and like that he doesn't want to be there, which is shocking knowing that Walken is a type who usually gives 110% in all of his roles.

Another problem is pacing and story. While the first half is excellent, second half feels rushed. There's suddenly so many things happening at the same time and there's not nearly enough time to flesh any of that out. We also get some pointless storylines that just choke the movie and go nowhere, such as Chani acting like a contrarian for no reason whatsoever and completely pointless side plot in which Feyd impregnates Farring (who, by the way, is male in the book).

Finally, there are changes from the book that damage the movie. I already mentioned changes in Chani's character and pointless gender swapping, but key characters such as Alia, Thufir Hawat and navigators are completely absent. OK, not completely, as Alia spends whole movie in her mother's womb, but she should have been there whole time and properly fleshed out, which is something they definitely had time for. The combination of all these factors contribute to a very anticlimactic climax in the end.

And also - what's up with all those close-ups?

That all said, this is still a movie worth watching. Most of the takes in this review are purely subjective so take them with grain of salt. I fully encourage everyone to go see this movie and make their own opinion. If nothing else, the visual and audial experience makes it worth watching.

8/10.

The Critical Drinker (2012– )

A more neutral take

[8/10 · 10 September 2023]

From what I have seen here, people either give CD 1s or 10s. And, to be honest, I understand why.

The thing (AKA the gimmick) with Critical Drinker is that he presents himself in his reviews as that kind of drunk guy you'd find sitting at the bar, rambling about all sorts of topics, while also using humor to keep his story interesting. But, most importantly, his opinions are honest. There's no sugarcoating, pretending to like something just because everyone does or pretending that he hates something just because everyone does. All the things he says feel genuine (unless he really is that good of an actor, which I doubt). And, as with all honest opinions, people are either going to agree or disagree.

Is Critical Drinker hard right contrarian? No, he makes an argument that just because something is considered to be progressive, diverse or has strong female protagonist doesn't automatically means it's good or should be shielded from criticism. At the same time, he still praises those movies that do things such as diversity or strong female protagonist right. For him, storytelling comes first. If storytelling is good, those things aren't problematic. If storytelling is bad, then they're part of the problem.

Now, do I necessarily agree with this philosophy? No, of course not. He thrashed some movies that I liked and praised some movies that I didn't. But that doesn't mean his show is automatically bad. It's normal for people to have different opinions.

The only criticism that I can kinda agree on is that he does sometimes can go too far. For example, calling actor or actress names because the character they play is bad and/or obnoxious. Calling out actors and actresses feels wrong and is, in my opinion, something that critics should always avoid. Even those actors and actresses that are unlikeable, condescending or bad people. As a movie critic, your job should be to criticize their acting and their characters, not them as people. Of course, you can have a channel that is fully dedicated to mocking celebrities, that's completely fine if you're into that kind of thing, but if you're criticizing the movie - then criticize the movie. And that is the reason why I'm not giving this 10/10.

Beside that last point, Critical Drinker is still an entertaining series, one that I do follow and look forward to new reviews. Because what beats a drunken Scotsman thrashing movies? Not many things, let me tell you.

8/10.

The Last Guerrilla (1974)

Two movies are fighting in a war... And neither side is winning.

[5/10 · 5 August 2023]

This movie is a rather unique case when compared to fellow partisan movies from that era. For once, it actually tried to have an emotional story besides usual action shenanigans. Sure, other movies also had some emotional stakes in them, but never at this level. So, on one hand, this is a good attempt to do something more.

Unfortunately, it fails. The reason for that is that, because this is a partisan movie at it's core, which means that we need to have an action sequence every ten or so minutes. Because of this, main love story is never allowed to breathe, as every attempt at emotional scene is quickly undercut by shot of German army accompanied with loud, intense music. Side characters, despite having interesting storylines themselves (such as underdeveloped love story between commander and a nurse, turncoat soldier from rival faction looking for redemption or sickly young man who wants to fight in a war even though he really shouldn't be there) also end up suffering, since their stories kept being pushed aside and end up being given an unsatisfying resolutions.

At least action is good, right? Well, no. There is only one decent action sequence in the movie (the one in which partisans are attacking German tanks at the road), while others range from mediocre (attack on factory) to straight up amateurish and comical (attack on skis). It is clear that director had no experiences with action scenes, and because of it you just can't wait for them to be over, so that movie could just move on.

Because of this, it feels like there are two movies fighting for dominance. One movie that tries to be a tragic, human story and one that tries to be an epic war "blockbuster", like some other partisan movies from previous years. Result is that in this "battle", neither side is given the time that it really needs as the movie constantly keeps going from one to another (mediocre editing is certainly not helping) that it becomes hard to invest in either part.

As for performances, they are for the most part fine, which is to be expected in most of partisan movies. Rod Taylor is surprisingly decent and manages to make his character likeable enough for audience to not want to see him dead. Adam West, who plays German officer, seems to be trying way too hard in few scenes which is why he can come off as corny sometimes. As for Farrell... Well, let's just say thank God she looks absolutely beautiful in this movie. Most of the Yugoslav actors do a good job, although an actor that plays German general hams it up a little too much.

The biggest issue with this movie is the soundtrack which is just obnoxious. Main theme of the movie feels completely out of place and gets more and more irritating as the movie goes on, especially when, out of nowhere, off-screen voice starts singing. It's unbelievably corny and takes you out of the movie completely. Then there is also a supposedly menacing theme that always plays when German army appears on screen, but it really is just a bunch of annoying "dun-dun-dun" noises (but at least it's funny).

Overall, is this the worst partisan movie? No, not even close. For all it's flaws, it's at least good enough to keep you interested for two hours and there are enough unintentional "so bad it's good" moments to, if nothing else, make you laugh.

5/10.

House of the Dragon (2022– )

Season 1 summary

[9/10 · 24 October 2022]

I have to say, this series turned out to be better than I expected. While I don't think that it's perfect or in the same league as "Game of thrones", it still managed to be very enjoyable and rather compelling at times.

Smith and Considine were the biggest highlights of the first season (I'm definitely going to miss the latter). I wasn't fan of Ifans as Otto at first, but he took me over as the show went on. Special praise goes to actresses that played young Rhaenyra and Alicent. While they seemed a bit unconvincing in first episode, they vastly improved and I hope both of them will have bright future in cinema and TV.

Music and sets were amazing and probably the most enjoyable part of the show. CGI for dragons was, while not great, satisfying enough for a TV show.

However, there were few flaws that I found difficult to overlook. First one being the pacing. At times it went too fast which really damaged some of the episodes, and nowhere was it as problematic as in episode 6, which was by far the weakest episode of the series so far. In this episode, both Rhaenyra and Daemon lost their significant others but their deaths lacked the impact they should have had because of how little time we spent with them. I also wasn't fan of some of the performances. Actors who played Rhaenyra's sons were insufferable at some points, although it can be excused due to their age. Biggest "stinker" was Larys Strong, whose character came off as way too cartoonish for a show with such serious tone.

Than there was also an issue with race swapping of Velaryons. While, to be fair, actors that played them all did good job, race swapping completely removed any ambiguity over the identity of Rhaenyra's sons, ruining that plotline and making Viserys and Corlys look like oblivious idiots. It was a move that obviously wasn't well thought out by creators and it shows.

Despite this flaws, I still liked this show and I'm definitely going to miss it. Hopefully, season 2 will iron out all of season 1's flaws and become even better.

9/10.

House of the Dragon: The Heirs of the Dragon (2022) Season 1, Episode 1

A solid start with room for improvement

[9/10 · 22 August 2022]

First (and most obvious) thing to be noted is how gorgeous the show looks. From costumes to CGI dragons - it's top notch. As for acting, it is a bit of a mixed bag. While, on one hand, you have. Paddy Considine and Matt Smith absolutely owning their roles, on another hand you have Emma D'Arcy who is a bit unconvincing as a Targaryen princess and heir to the throne. Several other actors also seem a bit dull, but then again, not all of them were given "A" material in this episode, so they will probably improve as the series goes on.

For now, I'll say that I have hope in this show and that I will definitely continue to watch it.

9/10.

The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

Perfect adventure movie

[10/10 · 22 December 2020]

I was a huge fan of Tintin comics when I was a kid and I have to say that the movie captured the comic's spirit perfectly. While there are some changes between the movie and the comic story it was based on, those changes work in movie's favor. I won't go into spoilers here, because there isn't really much to say about plot, given that it's simple well paced. Voice acting was good and animation is gorgeous.

I definitely recommend this movie to everyone.

10/10

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

That surely was... something

[5/10 · 27 July 2018]

When this movie came out, at first i didn't want to see it. I'm not a fan of the fact that Disney is trying to milk Star Wars as much as possible with pointless spin-offs. Especially the one that is about one of my childhood heroes, Han Solo. Since then, i constantly kept seeing two kinds of reviews: ones that said it sucked so badly and ruined everything, and those that said that it's harmless adventure film. So, i finally saw it. Did i regret?

Yes. And no.

Let's start with negatives. Plot. What plot? Characters are just moving from place A to place B and not much interesting things happen to them. Movie actually has interesting start with Han being Imperial soldier. His introduction to Chewie and Beckett's crew is a bit sloppy, but it's tolerable. Crew than raids the Imperial train, and I'm not gonna lie, that part was a lot of fun. Even though we know that Solo and Chewie aren't gonna die, it still kept me invested. And as far as I am concerned, that part should have been the movie's climax. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

Instead of following the story of these five smugglers, we lose two of them in previously mentioned scene and soon after that we are introduced to whole bunch of new ones. There's Solo's girlfriend (who also appears at the film's very beginning), who is completely wooden, bland and uninteresting. We also meet her boss, who is your typical obvious villain who they try to pretend that he is not obvious villain, but then they keep giving us "subtle" clues that he actually is our villain. It's so poorly done and that's a bit shocking given that this movie is directed by veteran Ron Howard, who should be above this kind off cliches.

But it only get's worse. Than we meet Lando and his sex-buddy, feminist, droid rights fighter droid - L3. This character is, by far, the worst and most annoying Star Wars character ever. She's worse than Jar Jar, Trade Federation guys and Rose, even worse than Holdo. Character is obviously another example of Kathleen Kennedy pushing her feminist agenda, without even getting that done right. It's not even subtle. Best part of the movie is that stupid trash can getting blasted. But it's immediately followed by the worst one: our heroes inject her navigational system into Falcon, meaning that the reason why Falcon is the greatest ship in galaxy is... because of this trash can.

After that part, i lost my interest in the rest of the movie. And that was good, because final act is so messy and sloppy. Suddenly, Beckett is also villain and there is some boring action at the end in which Han shoots Beckett, while his girlfriend kills "obviously not a villain" villain. And then it just ends. That's it.

This was the first Star Wars movie where i felt absolutely NOTHING. I didn't care about any of the characters. Even though most of the actors (even usually dull Emilia Clarke) do a good job, they aren't given much to do, nor are their characters given much development. It's a shame, because good actors like Woody Harrelson and Paul Bettany are completely wasted. I'll say it again: why wasn't this movie about initial five members of the crew? If movie sticked to them, than maybe reveal of Beckett as villain would be shocking. This way, it wasn't. They should have cut Han's girlfriend, Mr. Obvious Villain and that dumb Fembot. First two brought nothing to the movie, and the third one just completely destroyed it.

But, as i said, there are things to like. Alden is good as Han, action and locations are amazing and I did enjoy seeing infamous Kessel run. Add Darth Maul cameo to that, and you have a fine film. Unfortunately, it's cons brought it down, and now it's, in my opinion, worst live action Star Wars movie. It's really a shame, given that many talented people were involved in this, so kudos to them - they are not the ones to blame.

It's Disney to blame. They need to realize that Star Wars is something much more than just another movie franchise they can milk infinitely. Even though Rogue One was better than i thought, it was still completely pointless, just like this movie. I wish Disney would abort this side projects and focus on finishing their trilogy. If they want to keep making Star Wars movies after that, that's fine. But, please, respect this franchise, stop pushing your political agenda and think about real audience for once (and those are not critics and civil rights activists).

Incredibles 2 (2018)

Don't let some negative reviews fool you

[10/10 · 27 July 2018]

It's a good movie. Not as good as the first one, of course, but it's still a good movie. I think that we all knew that there is no way that the sequel is gonna live up to the original, which only few movies accomplished. But that fact doesn't mean that the movie is bad or disappointing. I went to the theaters with my 8 year old cousin and we had a good time. There was a lot of good action and good humor. True, it didn't have as much character moments as the original one, but ones it had was more than enough.

Negative reviews say that "Disney turns everything into comedy". Most of the comedy in this movie comes from the baby, which was supposed to be comic relief, so i don't see what's the problem with it. All other main characters also had their funny moments, but not enough to turn them into blatant comic reliefs.

Plot isn't too complicated and it was easy to guess who was the villain. But still, even though not as good as Syndrome, it proved to be entertaining and dangerous foe.

Overall, if you don't expect this movie to be as good as the first one, you'll probably have a good time. Watch it for what it is: a sequel to one of the best animated movies ever.

I won't recommend this movie to those with epileptic problems, since there are few very flash scenes that might trigger attack.

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

A true spectacle

[8/10 · 21 January 2018]

Attack of the Clones exceeds it's predecessor in every aspect. Acting is better, action is better, villains are better, effects are better. But there is one problem everyone seem to have with this movie, so let's get it out of the way immediately.

Anakin and Padme scenes were boring. While i think that both Natalie and Hayden are good actors, they were bad couple. There was no spark, no chemistry and cheesy dialogue didn't help much. But none of this matters on long terms. Why? Well, it's because...

Obi-Wan is the biggest star of this movie. There is so much going on with him and it never gets boring. Ewan was perfect choice for him. He is full of charisma and energy and steals every scene he is in (even though he is mostly surrounded by CGI characters). We also get to see more Jedi. Samuel L. Jackson plays badass Mace Windu, and even Yoda managed to get his 5 minutes of glory.

Villains are also much better this time around. As much as i liked Darth Maul, he did lack personality. That's why Count Dooku (masterfully played by Christopher Lee) and Jango Fett are amazing baddies. Every scene with them is immediately great and both of them are absolute badasses. Federation guys are still around, but they are pushed into second plan.

CGI also improved a lot from Phantom Menace. Most of the aliens look spectacular and i have to say that i had no idea that all clones were CGI until i looked it up (and now i can't unsee it). That's how good it was.

And action was easily the best in Star Wars saga. Obi-Wan and Anakin chasing bounty hunter, Obi-Wan VS Jango, Anakin VS Geonosians in that factory, colloseum scene, clones VS droids battle, fights against Count Dooku... it's impossible to say which one was the best. Attack of the Clones was meant to be spectacle and it surely was.

8/10

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

Weakest Star Wars movie, but still enjoyable

[7/10 · 21 January 2018]

Many people have grudge against this movie (and prequels in general). Even though i think that most of them are over exaggerating, this one is still the weakest installment in Star Wars history. But it's not a bad movie.

Movie's biggest problem seems to be some annoying performances. This comes down to little Anakin, Jar Jar, that fat Naboo chief and those Federation guys. All of them come off as very annoying throughout the whole movie. They can be distracting sometimes, but aren't enough to ruin good stuff (at least for me).

Other problem is CGI creatures. Some of the aliens look really bad, as if they just came right out of cartoon. This improves in future installments, though.

There are some great performances here. Liam Neeson steals the show in every scene he is in. Ewan McGreggor is great as young Obi-Wan. Natalie Portman also gets few moments. Samuel L. Jackson and Ian McDiarmid are a bit underused, but they play their parts well.

Special shout-out goes to Ray Park A.K.A Darth Maul. He was easily the best and coolest character in this movie, and one of the coolest in Star Wars in general. Whenever he is on screen, there is always something exciting happening. His action scenes were amazing and he was really intimidating. He did lack personality, but he was a secondary villain of the movie, so it's forgiven.

Action in this movie is amazing: from the opening scene, through pod-race sequence, to final battle(s). They are always entertaining and are never boring, despite Anakin and Jar Jar appearing in them.

Overall, this was a fun movie. Weakest of the franchise, but still worth seeing.

7/10

It (I) (2017)

This movie demonstrates why hype is a bad thing

[5/10 · 21 January 2018]

This movie war hyped up big time: it's trailer was excellent, it was promoted all over the internet and TV as a huge, game changing horror. Having read the book it was based on, hype seemed reasonable. But i decided to ignore the hype and postpone reading the book so i could see this movie without bias.

It wasn't that good.

On bright side, all actors do good job (especially kids that play Bill and Beverly). Movie looks nice and on technical aspect, it is better than 1990's miniseries. But when it comes to bad stuff... Oh boy.

First big problem that is easy to notice is time period change. It was completely pointless and seemed more as a cash-in on Stranger Things and other 80's nostalgia crap. Due to this change, story loses a lot of it's important elements, like racism. It was definitely much stronger in 50's than in 80's.

Second: characterisation. Bill has lost his brother and wants to find him. OK, that makes sense. What about everyone else? What do we get to know about them? When it comes to Eddie and Richie, they are more comedy duo than characters. At first they were funny, but they got annoying after some time. Beverly is the closest one to having some form of character arc, but it remained mostly underdeveloped. Her relationship with Ben started out as very sweet, but then, all of sudden, she loves Bill. Where the hell did that come from? Characters of Mike and Stan are pointless, as they do absolutely nothing of importance throughout whole movie. No, wait, Mike pushed the bully down the well. Yay! But so could anyone else.

Third: Pennywise. In older adaptation, Pennywise was your typical monster with unknown origins and without any backstory or explanation of what it is. But he at least had personality, thanks to Tim Curry. From being joyful, he turns into monster within seconds. And that's great. In this movie, on other hand... It was just a generic, dumb monster without any character or personality. I honestly couldn't understand how he managed to lure children to come to him. Even though he was intimidating in the opening scene, he got more and more annoying with each next appearance, up to the point where you don't even care. And the fact that he was mostly CGI didn't help him.

Fourth: CGI. How can 2017's movie with multi-million budget end up with such bad and unrealistic effects? None of the CGI monsters looked real, and therefore were not scary nor intimidating. The most annoying part was that they would always show up followed by annoying loud sound effect, which only ruins suspense even more.

Fifth: plotholes. Yes, there were those too. Like: why the hell does Henry Bowers wants to kill Ben at the beginning of the movie? Did any of the bullies notice that one of their friends is missing? If one kiss brought back Beverly from lifeless state, could they also save other kids? What happened to Georgie? Was he also among the floating kids? Why are those kids floating in the air, anyway? Isn't it more logical that they float on surface of the water? Did director just wanted a cool visual? Why does Beverly kiss with Bill even though Ben kissed her just 5 minutes ago?

If you can overlook these issues, you will find this movie good. Myself, i could tolerate some of them, while others would just piss me off. And now after reading the book, i have to say that IT fails as an adaptation too. Even though it has some fun parts, IT is very forgettable movie, and definitely not a game changer in horror genre.

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)

Come on, guys, it wasn't THAT bad

[8/10 · 21 January 2018]

Well, it seems like many people here don't like this movie. Honestly, i can understand them. Some of the changes and moves in this movie may seem a bit radical. But that's actually a good thing.

Star Wars is now 40+ years old franchise, it needs to change in order to survive. Some people won't like this changes, some other would. Myself, I'm in the second group.

Action and visuals were amazing in this movie. Most of the actors did excellent job with their roles (with shout-outs to Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver). I was worried that this movie is going to be predictable, but i was honestly caught off-guard several times. I really didn't expect Snoke to die in second episode, but he did. That's probably for best, Kylo Ren is much more interesting villain than him.

Rey's story continues to be intriguing, especially now when she is joined by Luke. It was very interesting and that planet itself was interesting place (although those lemming-birds-whatever were a bit overused at times).

Poe, wonderfully played by Oscar Isaac, is the biggest star of this movie and is probably the best character in this trilogy. Even though the plot on the rebel's ship wasn't that interesting, he made it watchable. Kudos to him.

Subplot involving Finn and Rose was probably the weakest one, mostly due to it's shoehorned political message. It was still enjoyable at times (like when Rose went full fangirl on Finn), and it was nice to see Benicio Del Toro in Star Wars (even though he was underused). Romance between Finn and Rose was completely unnecessary.

The biggest problem i have with this movie is that it forgot some stuff that were set up in previous installment and that it didn't explain some things. For example, i was really looking forward to see Knights of Ren, whom we saw in Rey's vision, but they don't appear nor are mentioned. Another problem is that we still don't really know what First Order is. Who created it? What do they want? Are they offspring of the Empire or are just copying them. I don't say that Snoke needs a huge and complex backstory, but it would be nice to at least know where did he come from and where did he learn to use Force. Is he Sith Lord? Or something else? My guess is that Rey's parents will be revealed in next movie.

Overall, this movie was a lot of fun, despite some of it's issues. It isn't the best Star Wars movie, but it isn't the worst one either.

8/10