carlkevad

This 2009 short called "Übermensch" is one of the better Übermensch adaptations I've seen. I'm developing a film of my own of the ÜBERMENSCH so I was glad to see some other views on it.

Though I was expecting to see more action, believe it or not, I was expecting action in a low-budget indie short, the dialog between the two leads was so gripping that I forgot I wanted action.

My adaptation will definitely have more action, but I recommend anyone who is interested in filmmaking to check out this one. The connections to Hitler are very well thought out.

Great work!

Anyone who is a fan of the original "Conan the Barbarian" with Arnold Schwarzenegger, will most likely be disappointed by the new, totally unnecessary 3D version.

"Conan the Barbarian" stars Jason Momoa of "Stargate" and "Game of Thrones" fame, as the title character Conan.

The movie opens with an introduction of the film's mythical world, as tradition with sword-and-sorcery films. I didn't see the movie in English. I saw it at an Italian theater where they dub films. I understood the dialogue, worry not. So I have no idea how the Morgan Freeman-narrated introduction sounds. Probably all epic and stuff.

After the introduction, we cut to a very gory battle where a woman gives birth to Conan. She dies in childbirth, and her husband, Corin, will raise Conan by himself.

Then we see Conan as a teenager. His father gets killed, kinda, by some evil sorcerer-dude (Stephen Lang), and he swears to avenge his father.

Then, as an adult, he is a dirty, smelly, strong barbarian, who still hasn't got around to killing Stephen Lang, who has now found all the pieces of some evil snake-helmet that is supposed to revive his wife, but one ingredient is missing — the blood of Tamara, played by Rachel Nichols.

So he sets his daughter, a very creepy-looking Rose McGowan, to track down the girl with the blood. She succeeds in finding her, but Conan soon rescues her after a string of confusing action sequences. And, of course, they fall in love, because Conan is a strong man, and Tamara is a beautiful woman.

Then they set out to kill the sorcerer, whose name I now recall, Khalar Zym. There are all kinds of unmemorable names here like Ela-Shan and Fassir, etc.

The main problem with "Conan the Barbarian" is the title character himself. I mean, how am I supposed to rout for someone who just kills a lot of people. Granted, bad people, but nevertheless. He is smelly, ridiculously strong, inexplicable agile, and just downright silly.

The original Arnold Schwarzenegger character was pretty much the same, but Arnold's wooden acting was better, plus he's just fun to look at and hear, than Jason Momoa's, which I wouldn't even call acting. In fact, I'd rather go with "extended stunt-work."

The other problems include its running time, almost two hours, which I wouldn't normally mind, but this is just a bad movie; its never ending string of confusing action sequences that don't tie the remains of a plot together; disturbingly much gore; average 3D; and just horrid acting from everyone around. Except maybe for Ron Perlman.

Actually, I wouldn't call it good acting, but Ron Perlman is the best part of this movie. Maybe it's just me, but I love seeing Ron Perlman saying or doing pretty much anything. Whether he's dropping knifes at people (Alien Resurrection) or smoking a cigar and delivering clunky lines while completely red and grown horns (Hellboy), or just killing people and pouring lava on himself (here).

But he's only in it for 20 minutes tops. And the running time is 112 minutes. So that is about 18% of the movie. 18% of the movie is fun. The rest, is confusing, unnecessary, and did I mention? Boring! It's boring! I usually tend to enjoy a cheesy action flick, but "Conan the Barbarian" bored me a lot.

Exclude all those bad things I said, a devoted sword-and-sorcery fan might enjoy "Conan the Barbarian." Just to make it clear, it isn't horrible. It's just plain bad. I'd recommend it to fans of sword-and- sorcery movies only. Not to fans of the original movies, nor to fans of the Robert E. Howard-created character himself.

If you want a good sword-and-sorcery movie, watch "Clash of the Titans," and don't try to tell me it's bad, it is not bad. If you want a good Robert E. Howard-created character movie, then watch either the original "Conan the Barbarian," its sequel "Conan the Destroyer," or my personal favorite, "Solomon Kane."

Rating: ★½ (3.75/10)

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"The Beaver" doesn't sound like it's gonna be a heartbreaking drama. It is. And contrary to the film's supposed genre, it isn't a comedy-drama, at least not fully.

Walter Black, played by Mel Gibson, is a depressed middle-aged toy company owner. He's got a wife, Meredith, played by Jodie Foster, and two sons.

Walter is depressed. He's sleeping most of the day. He rarely does anything apart from trying to kill himself. Though this depression, or where it comes from, is not fully explained, I didn't feel it needed to.

Like about 99% of movies, "The Beaver" has three acts. The genre shifts as the film progresses. But not to a more happy tone as you'd expect. It goes from the happier act one to the emotionally gripping act three. It ends on a rather sour note.

I wouldn't normally have anything against this sort of anti-progression, but the way it's dealt with here is slightly disturbing. The second act is supposed to tie the film together. It does, but not fully. I felt the third act was way too sad compared to the second act, and vice-versa with the first act. What I'm trying to say, is that the first and third act of "The Beaver" are perfect. The second act Not so much.

Mel Gibson does some of his finest work ever as both Walter and the title character, who is a "prescription puppet," someone who should help Walter overcome his depression. He does not talk directly to anyone, he uses the beaver, as if it is him in a second body.

Gibson does a magnificent job. At moments, you might even find yourself looking at the Beaver as Walter's talking through it. Anton Yelchin as the rebel son and a kid whose name I don't know as the younger son are also perfectly cast. Jodie Foster, who is also directing, also does a great job, in both acting and directing.

"The Beaver" has been labeled a comedy-drama or dark comedy. It is neither. "The Beaver" is a psychological drama with a first act that is quite humorous. That's the best way I can describe it.

There is a twist late in the movie that happens a bit too suddenly, and as I said before, the second act is not as notch as the other two, but thanks to magnificent performances from its cast, including Jennifer Lawrence who is one of the best younger actresses around, slick direction, and a very engrossing and thought-provoking third act, "The Beaver" is a surprisingly un-silly, and overall excellent film.

Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)

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Let me start off by just saying that "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" is much more better than its predecessor.

I'm not what you'd exactly call a fan of the Michael Bay-directed Transformers film series. I didn't particularly like the first film with it's excess of cheese and CGI. I hated "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," which was even with it's action sequences less interesting than watching paint dry in a dark room. It was muddled, and after 30 minutes of watching the movie, I started to begin to have chronic headaches. Luckily though, Michael Bay has picked up the pieces, and directed the awesome "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."

I'm not gonna bother writing a detailed plot description, since it doesn't really matter a lot, but the film is practically the following Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) has to once again save the world from total destruction. He once again needs to help his Autobot friends. He once again has the hot girlfriend, this time a new one, Rosie Huntington- Whiteley, who's replaced Megan Fox. She is what Megan Fox was, hot and not getting too much dialog. She's effective at what she is supposed to do.

Thankfully, there's less and more humorous humor here. Coen-favorites John Turturro and Frances McDormand star alongside John Malkovich to provide us with subtle humor. Turturro's character, the retired agent Seymour Simmons, who tried to laugh us in the previous films, actually succeeds here. From it's cast to the amazing special effects put to display here, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" is a carefully made action picture. It succeeds as one on every level.

That said, there are still mistakes in "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." The plot is too complicated for the adolescent 12-year-olds it's mainly made for, and it drags quite a lot in act two, but "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" was the fastest two and a half hours I've ever experienced. I mean that in the best possible way.

There's a huge cast in "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Frances McDormand, John Turturro, John Malkovich, Hugo Weaving, Kevin Dunn, Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and even Patrick Dempsey as Whiteley's boss.

Bay is known for directing bad movies with great action sequences. He doesn't create a good movie here, but he creates a movie that's action sequences are so good, that we don't really care about anything else. He's obviously done a lot of work here. Remember all you haters, Michael Bay doesn't write the dialogs of his movies. Ehren Kruger does that in "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," and I give Bay extra credit of making the action so good that we forget about Kruger's horrible dialog writing.

Apart from the action sequences, the 3D is amazing here. It's as good as I've seen in a long while. In fact, I believe that the only movies with good 3D I've ever seen are "Alice in Wonderland" and "Tron: Legacy." I didn't see "Avatar" in 3D. The second act dragged a bit, but the engrossing act one and the frantic act three with the epic destruction of Chicago in amazing 3D, more than make up for act two's mistakes.

He said it himself, Michael Bay wants to "entertain the summer audience". He will with "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," which is the best film I've ever seen that he directed. This isn't a great movie, but it's wildly entertaining. It's got the explosions, it's got the frantic action, it's got the Victoria's Secret model, it's got robots beating the **** out of other robots, and it's got the amazing third act of total destruction. What more could you ask from a summer action flick?

Rating: ★★★ (7/10)

Zack Snyder directs this very surreal film about girls in the Lennox mental institution for the criminally insane. „Sucker Punch" stars Emily Browning as Baby Doll, a supposedly 20 year-old girl whose mother, after her death, writes in her testament that all of her property would go to her two daughters. Baby's evil stepfather is outraged and on one faithful night, beats the crap out of Baby's sister, killing her. Baby witnesses this, grabs a gun, and shoots her stepfather. He lives and sends Baby Doll to the Lennox mental institution for the criminally insane. That's when the movie really begins.

Upon arrival to Lennox, she meets with fellow inmates Rocket, Sweet Pea, Blondie, and Amber. All you Vanessa Hudgens fans, Blondie is played by her. It is then that we come to understand that Lennox isn't a mental institution, more of a bordel. We also meet Carla Gugino as Dr. Vera Gorski, the „coreographer" of the girls' dances, which they perform to men who eagerly expect so. Baby Doll befriends her fellow inmates and while performing for the first time, comes up with a plan to escape the facility. That's when all the crazy action sequences begin in the film, which is contrary to popular belief, actually pretty good.

Most critics have panned this film. Richard Roeper gave it a D and it's received a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That's just 2 percent higher than what the site gave to „Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," so you know „Sucker Punch" should be bad. But movie critics aren't always to be trusted, and as much as I respect them, I've gotta say that I believe they're horribly wrong to rate „Sucker Punch" negatively. I've read reviews for the film and most of them say that the film never explains what the crazy action sequences are about. It actually does, but nobody ever pays attention to what's going on in an action film, and then afterwards they complain why they didn't understand anything that was going on.

I don't want to spoil anything, so I'd rather have that you go out, see the movie, pay attention throughout the film, and then tell me whether you got it or not. I certainly did, or if the Snyder meant something else, then I didn't. Whatever I got, however, was enough to make me interested in the movie throughout.

I think that the reason why many didn't pay attention throughout the movie, was because it was directed by a man who is primarily known for directing „mindless" action flicks such as „300," which is actually a very good movie. In „300," Snyder catches our (or at least mine) attention with gorgeous visuals, here he does the same. All the action sequences are masterfully choreographed and you always know where the enemy is, and the protagonists are.

That said the movie does have its flaws. The dialogue is often a bit too corny, the film was perhaps a bit too stylistic, and it is definitely not to be compared with Snyder's masterful previous work. But in overall, „Sucker Punch" is whether you get it or not, an undeniable visual treat with a jaw-droppingly epic soundtrack, and if any of you dare say that it just looks like a video game, I'll reply: „Well, I like video games."

Rating: 3/4

Kenneth Branagh, the man who brought us Shakespearean masterpieces such as 'Hamlet' and 'Henry V', directs 'Thor', a marvelous summer-starter (even though there's still one month till summer begins).

'Thor' stars Chris Hemsworth, a relatively unknown actor, as, you guessed it, Thor. Now from the trailers, it seemed to me that this was going to be yet another wannabe superhero flick with kick ass special effects and fight scenes, lacking any depth, and starring a talentless six-pack. Well I was wrong. 'Thor' is probably Marvel's best film, and I'd even go as far as saying that it is the third best superhero film of all time (right behind Christopher Nolan's masterpieces).

The plot is as follows... Thor, the bloodthirsty warrior and heir, is banished from the eternal kingdom of Asgard by his father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), after disobeying his command, to a distant realm... called Earth! Now he needs to get back, but his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who was previously living in Thor's shadow, is proclaimed temporary king after his father collapses on a staircase, or something, and he doesn't want to let his cool brother back home, so Thor has to stay on Earth, with all the puny beings. He then falls in love with Jane (Natalie Portman), who is somewhat of a scientist, and changes his mind from "kill everybody who threatens my well-being" to "now wait a second, let's reason a bit here".

The movie's directed by Kenneth Branagh, the director of masterpieces such as 'Henry V', in which his also starred in, and received two Oscar nominations for both directing and acting. He may also be known to some as the goof-ball professor Gilderoy Lockhart from 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'. Here, he takes a break from acting, or producing, or writing, and just directs this masterpiece. Hollywood is really heading in the right direction with hiring artsy directors to direct explosion-explosion films. Another great example would be the upcoming 'Captain America: The First Avenger', directed by Joe Johnston, who brought us the very good coming-of-age story, 'October Sky'. I hope 'Captain America' is gonna be as good as 'Thor'. A part inside me somehow doesn't want it to be better, I don't why though.

Alongside Hemsworth, star Jane's friends Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård), and Darcy... something (Kat Dennings); Thor's friends Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Sif (Jaimie Alexander), and Fandral (Josh Dallas/Cary Elwes-lookalike); and the nosy SHIELD agent, Coulson (Clark Gregg). The ensemble cast all give great performances, which aren't meant for you to remember, aside from Ray Stevenson, who is always awesome.

The movie references a few other superhero films/comics, which is quite appropriate given the fact that 'The Avengers' movie is getting closer and closer. We can also see Jeremy Renner in a cameo probably as Hawkeye, he's also gonna play Hawkeye in 'The Avengers'. And, I didn't stay in the theater until the credits were over, but IMDb tells me that Samuel L. Jackson has a cameo after the credits as Nick Fury. - How exciting! I'm thinking of seeing it again just for that.

'Thor' is the second superhero film out this year so far. The previous one was 'The Green Hornet', which was just a horrible attempt at mixing comedy with action. 'The Green Hornet' was however the first 3-D superhero flick. 'Thor' is in 3-D too, but I'd rather go with 2-D on this one, since there are too many shiny lights in the Asgard scenes, which would make my brain explode with 3-D glasses on.

There are five superhero films in 2011, three of them are still unreleased. They are: the crappy '...Green Hornet'; the amazing 'Thor'; the comes-out-on-my-birthday 'X-Men: First Class'; the gonna-be-awesome 'Green Lantern; and my most anticipated film of the year, 'Captain America: The First Avenger'. I sincerely hope that they are all on the level of 'Thor'. I don't like repeating myself here, but something inside me forbids me from wanting the other films be better than 'Thor'. Maybe I'm crazy, I don't know.

'Thor's special effects are spectacular, and deserving a Best Visual Effects Oscar nomination. From the epic battle scenes between the almighty gods, to the amazing scenes in Asgard, 'Thor's special effects are probably the greatest ones I've seen since 'Avatar', yeah! Plus, 'Avatar' kinda sucked from the story perspective, and 'Thor' is good on every level, so 'Thor' > 'Avatar', that's probably gonna set a certain individual off, I hope.

Anyway... Under Branagh's gentle direction, 'Thor' is by far one of the best films of 2011, and right behind Nolan's Batmans as one of the greatest superhero films of all time, featuring a star-making turn by Chris Hemsworth - a Hollywood newcomer with a six-pack, and brains!

Rating: ★★★★

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