All showmen are snowmen.

The life of American music icon Elvis Presley, from his childhood to becoming a rock and movie star in the 1950s while maintaining a complex relationship with his manager, Colonel Tom Parker.

The $85 million dollar budget shows: the costumes, sets, everything is spotless, the acting is fantastic, both from Austin Butler, and from fat Tom Hanks, as well. The storytelling is all over the place, and the pacing is poor as well, at some points it feels like TikTok videos stitched together.

The music doesn’t need any mention, of course, as some Elvis songs save the general perception from this point of view. However, Baz Luhrmann likes to throw in some modern shit into the mix (remember Jay-Z & Kanye in “The Great Gatsby”?), so some appearances by Denzel Curry, or Doja Cat were easily noticeable, off-putting and destroying the mood of the movie at some places.

The movie is a decent watch, but don’t even try to compare it with masterpieces like Ray, La Vie En Rose, or Bohemian Rhapsody. Austin Butler might get an Oscar for his performance. The costumes/set/music awards also might be on the table. But that’s all about it, four popcorns.

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The little yellow fellas are at it again, in a story that tells a bit about Gru’s child years. The movie looks great, the animation is really realistic, Gru’s a pretty decent character and the minions are insanely funny. Plus, there are a ton of 70’s references. A great bonus are the voices, which are not only well done, but the cast is filled with A-listers: Steve Carell, Michelle Yeoh, Pierre Coffin, Alan Arkin, Russell Brand, Jean-Claude Van Damme (as Jean-Clawed), Dolph Lundgren, Danny Trejo, RZA, and many others.

Maybe it’s not a great movie, but definitely a good watch with the kids. Six popcorns.

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Moscow, 1953. After being in power for nearly 30 years, Soviet dictator Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin takes ill and quickly dies. Now the members of the Council of Ministers scramble for power.

This movie is insane, it’s filled to the brim with absurd, but realistic jokes, and it’s based on true events. There are so many good things that can be said about this movie, but it’s best if you see for yourself, as it’s one of the best dark comedies out there. Five popcorns.

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In the oppressive 1980s communist Romania, the smuggled VHS tapes of banned Hollywood films become an inspirational ray of hope. A hybrid feature about the magic of film and the power it has to change lives, about the voice behind all the great movies we saw during the communist regime and the great person that Irina-Margareta Nistor is.

If you’re over 30, you’ve definitely saw a movie on a video player, and this will definitely strike a chord. I remember seeing it when it was released, and re-watching it now gave me the same nostalgic feeling. This documentary is fine if you’ve never lived those times, but if you did, it’s a masterpiece.

Six popcorns.

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The Sea Beast is a great movie for kids and for the old ones as well. The characters, the world building, the seafarer music, everything about this movie is excellent. Just watch it and hope that it becomes a series. Six popcorns.

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In the near future, William Geld, an insurance fraud investigator, receives orders to unmask a forger of “papelles” (visas) operating in Shanghai. However, his life takes a turn for the unexpected when he falls in love with the perpetrator, Maria Gonzalez.

Espionage, a good story, cyberpunk to the level where they record their memories, they use custom-made viruses to improve themselves, like being more empathic, speaking Mandarin and so on, in a globalised world. The setting is good, place like Shanghai, Dubai and Rajasthan giving it a futuristic enough setting. The music is good, the story is very nice, and it gets pretty twisty. Four popcorns.

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I know what you’d spend 500 billion dollars to see.

What seemed like a breezy idea for an engineer to net him millions of dollars, leaves him on the run for his life and piecing together why he’s being chased.

It’s directed by John Woo after a short story by Philip K. Dick, so it looks and feels a bit like the younger brother of Mission Impossible and Minority Report. And that’s not at all a bad thing. The story is interesting enough, the pacing is great, and it feels like an early-2000 movie. Even the poster yells “2003”.

Four popcorns.

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If you’re going to make a weird fantasy movie, there are literally only two options available: Guillermo del Toro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, Big Bug, Alien: Ressurection). This is the work of the second, along with Marc Caro. A good weird fantasy movie, starring a Ron Perlman whose hair is not white, with a good strange soundtrack and a very interesting story. Plus, there’s a brain in a jar, connected to a microphone, camera and speakers which is the main villain. Or hero. Hard to tell. The movie is a visual masterpiece, but feels odd and pretty hard to watch. It reminded me a bit of Brasil, or a less-fun version of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. The soundtrack eventually saved it. Three popcorns.

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How do you know a movie was made at the turn of the century? Ryan Philippe? Check! Claire Forlani? Check! Has cyberpunk-ish semi-futuristic gizmos? Check! Stereophonics, Elliott Smith, or Massive Attack on the sountrack? Check, check and check!

Corporate spying, closed-source code, conspirations, and building video-calls phones in 2001. The movie is pretty predictable, but the story is well paced, the acting is okey and the music is (once again) a life saver. This could have made the Movie Vault, but it resembles too much to Hackers. Or to Silicon Valley. Good, enjoyable movie, four popcorns.

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An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.

A great movie by PTA, director of many other great movies (Licorice Pizza, Inherent Vice, Hard Eight, Phantom Thread), with a solid A-list cast (Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Philip Baker Hall, and many others), a great story with excellent pacing. This is a three hour movie but you won’t feel them, as it’s packed with a lot of stuff happening. It’s lovely to see stories unfold and blend and seeing them interacting with each other and turning into a single one. Oh, and the music is unbelievably good.

This is something that happens

Six popcorns. 🐸

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This is not a movie, this is an experience. At 4 hours and 47 minutes, the Director’s Cut adds a lot of more depth and meaning, which the director stated is for him the only valid form of this “ultimate road movie”. This cut significantly expands scenes, motivates Claire’s romantic involvement with Sam and keeps it from seeming less frivolous and more the expression of a wounded heart, additional scenes in Japan, and in San Francisco, and numerous other expansions/additions.

Filming this masterpiece lasted eight months and was done by a relatively small core team, working in 9 countries across 4 continents, supported by large local crews in each country.

In 1999, Claire’s life is forever changed after she survives a car crash. She rescues Sam and starts traveling around the world with him. Writer Eugene follows them and writes their story, as a way of recording dreams is being invented.

The cyberpunk component is amazingly done, the technology foretelling many things we now use every day, like GPS and computer-assisted driving, VR goggles, video calling, animated street billboards, micro cars, digital addiction, and many others. However, I think we’re better off that the face recognition database Bounty Bear software is not real yet, or is it? Of course, it is.

The cast is great, William Hurt, Solveig Dommartin, Sam Neill, the story is well written and perfectly paced , but what hits best is the soundtrack. Music written before 1991, but still giving the feel that the soundtrack is made of late 90’s songs, with great performances by Neneh Cherry, Julee Cruise, Talkin Heads, Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode and many many more..

I’ve been postponing to see this movie for a few months, and it was a bad decision to do so. You need to see this movie and enjoy the story it unfolds.

Six popcorns.

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This is a slow burning movie, and it seems to start even slower. However, once the tension and suspense start to build up, they never go down. The movie is very visual, taking advantage of the grittiness of Bucharest, presenting a realistic view on the world, going hand in hand with the main character’s feelings and slow descent into madness. The scenes where she’s laying alone in the room remind me a bit of “Lost in Translation”, and sometimes the “lost” feeling lingers in the air.

I loved Maika Monroe’s acting, with a small bonus that the blonde hair and red dress sends great Caprica Six vibes. The story is good, and the music is excellent in setting the mood and keeping the mood. And the pretty broken Romanian spoken by the foriegn actors was actually refreshing, adding an extra layer of realism. All in all, a very good movie if you like slow burns, and if you watch the movie not to see what happens, but more to see how the characters act and feel. One of the best thrillers seen in a long time. Six popcorns.

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