denis888

IMDb member since June 2006
    Lifetime Total
    500+
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    IMDb Member
    17 years

Reviews

Shade
(2003)

Surprisingly Good
I never heard of this movie and came across by chance. And man, was I surprised. I was, and in a good way. Shade is a very fresh and well-done film with a great casting and excellent plot twists. I really enjoyed the well-paced tempo and great changes in plot, making the watching a really good time.

Do not expect huge masterpiece but instead glide along a very entertaining story with excellent crescendo and cool denouement.

The actors are so good and efficient in their casual approach that it makes a huge pleasure to peruse.

Very nice and elegant setting adds a lot, as well as cool music and smooth delivery.

Good effort.

Movie 43
(2013)

Tasteless Reprehensible Trash
What was the shortest review ever written? Remember? SHT - just like that. One word, about a band I liked in fact. Anyway, short and to many listeners, to the tee.

To me, Movie 43 is such an example of tasteless mess, from A to Z it is vulgar, lowered down to the most possible level of juvenile tennage night camp laughs. It is acne-ridden, teenage boy-driven, abominable mess of low taste beyond any excuse.

No excuse can be given here. No "Listen, you just do not get the fun" moments. Here is no fun whatsoever here. Just a shameful, embarrassing display of silly vulgarities of a cringeworthy moments that are pain to watch and no fun to embrace. They are just bad in smell, look, taste and idea. No. SHT.

So Undercover
(2012)

Much Better Than What Critics Said
Put angry critics aside. This is a fun little movie, easy, light, brisk, fast, funny and very honest. Miley does a great job and in fact, she is very good here as an undercover FBI agent in a sorority. She is no Sandra Bullock, but come on, she does not attampt to be the one.

The portrayal of sorority types is very clever and hilarious, I really enjoyed the silliness and shallowness of many of them depicted right and well.

The detective line is very clever, too, and the real baddie is a huge surprise here, so the whole plot unwinds well and the final makes it great and cool and fun to watch.

Do not expect real depths here, just relax and enjoy and let it go smooth and nice.

Nerve
(2016)

Not Perfect But Cool
Emma Roberts is such a beauty here, she is slim, tall, long-legged and cool. She is deep and decent actress, too. Vee, her character, is a brave and daring girls doing things that are often so dangerous or risky that one must hold their breath watching it.

Nerve is a great example of a film showing real threat of video chats or games, real idiocy of dares and real shallowness of people playing them.

It depicts very cleverly that internet can become a true danger zone, a true threat amd not a mere playground.

Good cast and fast tempo help to build up a tension and create a real unsafe and unhealthy vide that surrounds main heroes.

Not a perfect movie, sure, but goes fast and gives a smart answer to many burning questions.

Svidetel
(2023)

Worst Example Of War Propaganda
This abomination must be given a rating of 0(zero), or just in case of such awful poorly made flicks, this is to be awarded even -100 (minus hundred).

This is so poor, so foolishly shallow, badly executed, so lop-sided and so biased. This is a shameful example of Putin's propagda that does not deserve to be watched bit only mocked at, ridiculed, traduced and then discarded for ever.

War cannot be excused and no film ever would serve as any sorry attempt of war crimes.

This flick will be forgotten, it already is a huge flop even in Russia, and such films must be shown to criminals as examples of terrible horrid propaganda efforts to whiten a black wolf.

Watch it at your own will, but remember, this is a lie, black and blatant fascist lie at its worst with all the traces of poor plot, awful script, bad actors and terrible dialog.

Greenland
(2020)

Extremely Cliche-Ridden Predictability-Fest
Why are all disaster movies so similar? Why is there always a sick kid? For us abroad it seems that All American kids are sick and need either a pomp or some strong painkiller.

Then, why are these kids so notorious and always making trouble?

Why are main heroes always need to suffer through an endless ordeal instead of just of doing a right thing and flying to a destination point in time?

There are all these and numerous laughable predictable moments that we have seen time and again.

Gerard and Moreena try their best but with such silly script it is hard to make any sense.

The overlong stroy is only to prolong needless misadventures of the main heroes to make it big and long and silly.

Waste of time.

Machete
(2010)

Beyond All Limits Of Poor Taste
I understand that some people try to persuade us not to take this flick seriously and watch it as some fun.

It won't do. Even as fun, this awful ploddy film is simply beyond any limits of taste. This is so bad it is not good, it is that bad. All roles are laughable efforts to put on a poker face where a roaring laughter would be best. Openly tasteless, simply silly, utterly idiotic, this film is a fest of gore, stupidity and plain poor acting.

The faces they pull are worse than my niece when she was 5 and she was monkey-playing near a mirror.

I watched it, trying to get a single good thing. It ain't here, folks. It is just shallow, vapid, bland idiocy.

Danny, Jessica, Steven, Michelle - are they any good here? No, never. I feel they felt shame while doing this fallacy of a film.

Hansan: Yongui chulhyeon
(2022)

Excellent South Korean War Epic
My wife turned me to South Korea movies, but while she loves doramas, I am very much into war epics, as I like good war films. I watched all the Korean Civil War mvoies, but this time it is a history piece and a great one!

Epic war movie about 16th century battle in the open sea between Choson Empire and Japanese Empire. It could easily be just another war effort with little sense, but what makes this film a real good try is a very deep and decent portrayal of several main heroes with their inner and outer weaknesses, fears and struggles.

There are no super heroes here, no one flies in the air or breaks walls, nay. Here, real people fight and die either valliantly or cowardly.

Both Japanese and Koreans are depicted like real flesh and blood, sweating and bleeding, afraid or brave.

Final Hansan naval battle is a sheer eye candy but the horrors of war are here, too. People die, ships sink, mistakes are made by both sides during the battle.

The CGI are excellent here, but they are not the main It, the It-thing gere is the human struggle, the huge battle between two great admirals and their wills. This is played so weel and so decently that little doubt remains.

I recommend this tremendous epic film to all history buffs.

My Week with Marilyn
(2011)

Hmmm, Quite An Uneven Result
I bumped into this movie almost by accident and decided to try it. After all, Michelle, Eddie, Kenneth, Emma, and all other are excellent and deep decent performers, aren't they. I must admit I am never into Marilyn and her life, sorry, she always left me cold and indifferent. Anyway, a biopic is a very good genre that I love. At the same time, as we see it numerous times, a biopic can be quite a disaster, as it was with ones of Hendrix, Elton John, Queen, Doors, among all. Well, Nixon was great albeit with some flaws.

Back to business. This film tries hard, but... Is Michelle any good? Well, I'd say, no. She seems to be so one-dimensional, so flat and bland at times, that I believe a real Monroe was far from that.

Is Eddie any good? Hmm, he is lame, mumbling and so unispiring that one can marvel how such a humble person got into such high tiers of cinema.

Is Is Emma any good? She is OK but her role is small to show better width.

Is Kenneth any good? He seems to be good but rather repetitive in his ways.

Is Judy any good? Oh yes, old school. She is warm and awesome.

Is Julia any good? Too little screen time, hard to tell.

All in all, a very much of a curate's egg - good and bad, sleek and meek, slim and witty. Generally, uneven.

Barbie
(2023)

Awesome
Leave all the bile and criticism aside - Barbie is an excellent shiny movie with tons of wit and wisdom. Margot, Ryan and all other do their great jobs, but my personal Big Thumbs Up goes to America Ferrera who is such a pleasure to watch and her performance alone deserves a huge appraisal and all the best reviews as she adds a certain pinch of earthly delight to the story and gives a splendid commentary to the plastic world of dolls.

I do certainly recommend this great film and set all the anger of some critics aside - they simply did not get it.

The perfect witty picture of feminism and struggles provides a sheer pleasurable time to watch and enjoy.

Expend4bles
(2023)

Better Than The 3rd part, Worse Than Other Two
I mean, come on, are you serious? Expendables with almost no Sly involvement? Statham is OK, but not more than that. 50 Cent? Bland and colorless. Megan Fox? Mannerisms and silly grimace. Other two new guys? Nothing. Terry...wait - he is not even here.

Randy? Alright, as well as Dolph, but not enough of both. Too little time for them, pity.

Result? An okay action movie, with a very weak baddie and a very weak plot. And sure, CGI are incredibly...incredibly awful. So bad thay are just cringeworthy.

The anchor scene is just one huge J-O-K-E. I mean, I am far from nauticals, but hey, it is way too silly.

Let's be fair - this flick is even better than the third one which was a shame. But a far far cry from the first two.

Watch it and go, forget it and delete it. It deserves the oblivion.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
(2023)

Awfully Poor
I wanted to write a larhe review, making many details, but then I thought - why? Does this awful movie deserve it? Nope.

Let me be short, to fulfil the amount of words and to say the main gist of what I want: 1. No humor. That is why this movie is so awful.

2. Repetitions - we saw it all in previous parts. So, why bother?

3. No depth - so, all the characters are one-dimensional and shallow.

4. No sympathy to any hero - so, the demise of some of them make us vapid and indifferent.

5. No plot - so, the whole idea is just a joke.

6. No control - so, this even First part drags on forever.

7. No sense - so, this part is just a huge waste of time.

Tom Cruise must stop this for ever. Pity this part makes the whole franchise sour and spoiled. I am very dissapointed. Could've been great but now - nope.

Bland and silly.

Leave the World Behind
(2023)

Tedious Mess
What seems to be a great plot on paper was made into a two-hour plodding tedious mess with no real jumps, twists or turns. Instead, it goes slowly, barely making any evolution, making a miseable plop and no essence.

Julia, Ethan, Kevin all seem to be lost in dire mire with no real spark of inspiration. The movie goes so badly and so painfully slowly that all scare is lost altogether.

Anyway, even the resolution is so threadbare and vapid, that it tastes tasteless. A bold effort that brings no fruit or yields no ripe juice, just a yawning shock.

Real, that is so bad and boring, so do not even try to catch any meaning behinf that sloppy soap.

365 dni
(2020)

Zero For This Abominable Horror
I like good Polish movies. I like serious Polish war dramas. But I cannot and will not in any way try in my sound mind to protect this piece of manure, which falls on several wrong plates - it romanticizes what cannot be so, it is flat, it acts poorly, the casting is awful, the tempo is all wrong-set, the main idea is as if scribbled by a teenage sex-hungry idiots who never saw real life... shall I go on?

This is a poor man's version of awful 50 Shades, and what can be achieved if you take a terrible movie and make it even worse?

You get this 365 Dni abomination that cracks and sizzles and fizzles and hisses and is torn at seams. Main actors act so bland that I can do it better... Erotic? Nay - all the wrong angles, sounds, cliches and laughable ideas are used here to no success.

I used to teach a female teen who was in awe with 50 Shades, I guess she will puke at this flick.

Never bother - it is a crime and a waste.

Memphis Belle
(1990)

Pretty Uneven But Still Rather Nice
I can't believe I never heard of this WWII movie before but now I have finally gotten a chance to watch this movie. Memphis Belle is a pretty uneven movie, it has a grandeur and basics of a very epic film but then it gets strangely short and therefore it leaves many gaps unfilled and many hopes unfulfilled.

Mind you, as I usually say, the cast is excellent and Stolz, Modine, Austin, Lithgow as well as Zane do a marvelous job here, they deliver very decent amount of reality, with Sweeney adding agreat amount of weakness which adds to a endearing truthfulness.

Then, there is a very cool realism of war scenes, dogfights and chilling brutality of swift death and its merciless outcome.

It makes the whole thing very very scary and then add sa huge dose of hope.

Then, sadly, there are weaker dalog lines and emptier moments as well as some cold touched that prevent from feeling more about the crew of a plane. Pity, a deeper look would have been a better sentiment that we could've felt.

All in all, this is a very hearty effort and it leaves much more of a better feel than that of sour. Which is great.

The Bunker
(1981)

Ah, No
Mind you, folks, Anthony Hopkins is a genius and he can deliver any role. He is a tremendous Adolf Hitler here, with his serious and very successful attempt to portray this despicable monster as a more human being, and man, does he deliver! He does, indeed.

Apart from that, the rest seems to be a atal flaw - the whole cast seems to be a dnagling tag to the part of Hopkins - actors play flatly, very languidly and very lazily. They seem so funnily offbeat and with their haircuts so out of place and time that nothing can persuade us to watch it seriously.

The very tempo is a huge flaw here as well as the sheer tonality of speeches and the whole array of bloops.

The most fatal drawback is that the movie does not give us anything new. Here in Russia we had a huge epic movie series about WWII calles The Liberation where the great late Fritz Ditz plays a part of Hitler so well that we could not see anybody...till The Untergang came and gave us Bruno ganz.

Sorry, Mr. Lector, er, Hopkins, but Ganz did it better, much much better.

Scream VI
(2023)

I Thought Hard What Score To Give To This Movie - I Give It Two. Pretty Bad
Mind you, guys, I do love Scream franchise. I enjoy re-watching all 4 classical parts, with all four being my favorite and not one being the best. All are good. Then, the 5th part - well, it is a bit unusual and at many angles debatable, but still, I like it a lot, too, as it was a real pleasure to see all veterans in action, albeit with some sad losses, too.

Then, the 6th part has come. I have watched it very thoughtfully and with all my untmost attention, getting all the hints, links, flashbacks and all. Did it succeed? With all my heavy heart, I must admit that I did not.

New stars - Jenna and Melissa - do a fine job, sure, as well as other younger guys and gals, with Jasmin being probably the most endearing, she is somewhat a link to the previous geeks in older parts.

Courteney? Let's face it, eople, her part is so small that it does not add much flavor.

But the worst two insults come with a very poor script and very poor villain choices. I will not reveal plot details, sure, only say the villain part is by far the weakest here. As well as the pacing, sheer brutality without any sense, as well as lack of any sympathy to the lost.

Several plot holes and obvious laughable ideas only make matters worse, to a larger scale. And the very unreality of several wounds and injuries add to the weak broth, making the whole item inedible to say the least.

C'mon,l men, make it a bit more realistic - I mean, no plot revela here, but a slight hint - sometimes with wounds like these... nay, hard to grasp and chew.

My verdict - by far, this is the worst part, and I do pray they will never do another one... even with Neve. Neve may save it, but even now not for sure - given the weak plot or something.

Yumieui Sepodeul
(2021)

So Awesome And Funny
It could have been a typical love story soap dorama but thanks to cartoon Yumi's Cells it has become a huge fun fest with excellent mild humor and great jokes.

All the Cells are so cute and funny that you cannot resist their sheer charm, while Yumi herself is a loveable and gentle lady with great sense of self-worth and respect.

Great dorama with all the correct elements and perfect timing, so the series never get boring or dragging, plodding or sad. Soft touches of humor and lush nature add a lot to this nice and peaceful love story with all the hilarious details and smart dialog lines.

I do certainly recommend to watch it with all your due attention.

Im Westen nichts Neues
(2022)

Above Average, But Is It really That Necessary?
That old, 20's black and white, stark raving mad honest movie was excellent - it already showed all the sheer brutality of that war, quite enough to depict all the freezing horrors of trench madness.

Why are the remakes made? I guess, film industry suffers a lack of fresh ideas. I feel it to be so. Then, why on earth did they make All Quiet again? Well, sure, in full color the brutality of war is seen more vividly, and sheer fragility of human life too. But then, what is in tis new version that was ot so masterfully shown in the older one?

More blood and tanks? More negotiations and loud noise? Only this? Well, surely it is not satisfying enough. Well, even Oscar win does not change the fact that this movie, with all its antiwar rhetoric, is a mere repeat of old formula.

Minuscule: La vallée des fourmis perdues
(2013)

Incredible !!
Wow, this is a real masterpiece and this is such a hilarious 3D cartoon that I was laughing like crazy all 90 minutes - so great and so funny this feature was. Excellent animation, great voice work, extremely clever plot, superb nature, very lovable characters and excellent choice of tropes make it big. Real Big. The very appearance of Ladybug is a huge triumph, as well as the looting scene. All the insects are so cute, so endearing and so cool, and at the same time so human and also humane (not mentioning evil ones, of course) that the whole cartoon looks like a real drama epic movie. Great war movie, too!

Great work, clever and very funny.

Devotion
(2022)

Slow At Times And Slightly Uneven But Still Strong
Johnathan Majors and Glen Powell do a marvelous job here, they portray two real Korean War US pilots who were fighting in Korea to help the South allies. Good movie, very deep and with excellent character development, which is surely shown here well and pretty thoroughly. Another great feature here is a very correct depiction of racism, hidden and obvious, which leaves a very painful and fairly bleeding scar on our hearts. Sad as it was, it was there, too.

The movie is not about war and thus contains only a few battle scenes albeit very epic and very scary, realistic and ruthless. The movie is about real people fighting but what is a bit sad, the tempo is dragging at times and then, a bit uneven mood makes it a curate's egg.

I expected a bit more but then, you never know. What we got is a pretty fine movie but not a masterpiece.

Anyway, this having said, we still should play respect to filmmakers for their valiant effort.

Moonfall
(2022)

Well, Another Weaker Rolandism Here
Roland Emmerich is an incredible uneven filmmaker, so he can make a real masterpiece like Day After Tomorrow, or. The Patriot, or, most recently, absolutely stunning Midway, and then he can produce silly duds like 2012 and now, Moonfall.

What seems to be main issue here is the hectic, rushed and chaotic pacing, so the movie, especially the first half, seems to be a cut and paste hotch potch of several movies which hold together rather badly, ad only later on it catches on and gets better, but so much.

As a result of this rushes tempo the character development suffers significantly. They all seem to be rather bland or one-dimensional, and never are ready to be appreciated or embraced or liked.

Both Halle and Patrick seem to try their best but they fail many times, as the cliche-ridden plot and faulty tempo make it all a real mess. What is more offensive, obvious shallowness of a script and huge scientific errors make it a very unlikely movie to enjoy.

As a result, what we have here is a strange concoction of bizarre science, poor pacing weak dialog, laughable character underdevelopment and general lack of cohesion.

Humor sometimes shines here but not much and there is No any deeper insight here at all. Just huge budget and awesome CGI. But pity, they often do not help to make a one good movie.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye
(2021)

Very Thorough Depiction
Oh my, where do I begin? Very delicate and painful topic is here, and what is good, the movie has managed to depict it quite well. Jessica Chastain did a marvelous job as Tamy Faye showing extremely nervous, very tight, high-strung, emotional lady first on the rise then on the deep plummet. She does a very good job here, showing us all the vulnerable parts and all the greedy parts, all the violent parts, all the bravura parts et al. She is very true and deeply persuasive in her deep and decent delivery.

What is a bit unnerving, is Andrew Garfield's delivery - he seems to be often at odds with his part and his performance sometimes lacks both depth and truth, you just feel awkward watching him play or outright nervous.

The whole narrative seems to go very well, and all the main important events are here. What again is a bit frustrating, is certain feeling that obvious chunks of vital info were lost somewhere thus making the plot a bit wanting.

Anyway, what a decent movie, very thorough and sincere at many angles.

It is an important topic and it needed to be addressed.

The Bone Collector
(1999)

Eerie, Creepy And Menacing
Notwithstanding what critics said of wrote, this movie is excellent thriller - Angelina, Denzel, Queen Latifah, Michael Rooker, Ed O'Neill and Luis Guzman are all awesome and very well suited in this great dark brooding New York crime horror film. The tension of the plot is palpable, whilst the brooding atmosphere is visible, the pre-thunderstorm shots outdoors only adding to the excellently chosen scenery. New York itself is a great setting here, with all its old metro lines, basements, libraries and railroads.

Perfect combination of suspense, thrill, humor, gore, shock and great final that makes it very good to peruse.

Top Gun: Maverick
(2022)

Utterly Forgettable Cliche-Ridden Formulaic Bombastic Schlock
Utterly Forgettable Cliche-Ridden Formulaic Bombastic Schlock - this is the best description of this awful movie. What can go possibly wrong here? I say - seemingly everything in thus eerie cheesy childish silly shallow jingoistic war-mogering too patriotic to be true effort. Tom Cruise is just him again - same look, same pathetic style. Not even a touch of good self-deprecating humor like he does in Mission Impossible franchise.

The casting is OK...but the dialog is so bad, you cannot believe your own ears. Callous, dry, pathetic, kiddish and shallow. The plot is just a patriotic game to the excess. The aerial shots are the only great things here. The very utter impossibility of the whole premises seems laughable. Not even Jennifer or Val could save this from a bombing down utterly.

Tom is wrong here, very wrong and on the false slide. Trajectory chosen is fairly silly. Watch it once and discard.

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