Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

I just watched a criminal action with a bit of drama - “Smokin’ Aces“.  And I liked it.  There were some really good things about.  The photography was creative, fresh, and interesting.  Costume design as a part of character development was outstanding.  Especially those Nazi punks … they looked and behaved like they were no less than “Rammstein” band.  Bloody scenes were as bloody as they should be in such a movie, and the humor had a nice black scent to it.

One other thing that well was the cast.  There are a lot of characters in this movie, and there is not much time to develop them or to go into depth with each.  But it wasn’t a problem - everyone performed really well.  Sometimes it felt like the good old “Lock, stock, and two smoking barrels“.  It wasn’t that good though.

Overall, a very decent movie for the fans of the genre.  7 out of 10.

I just watched “Alpha Dog“.  It wasn’t the movie I was looking for, I just grabbed it by accident.  It had a cheesy title, way too many people on the cover, and an overall B-movie feel to it.  I got it anyway, just to have some extra movies to watch over the weekend.  I’m glad I did.

I think there should be more movies like this. And then, hopefully, there will be fewer cases such as the one shown in the film.  Nobody wanted for things to go bad.  But those people who could have kept the situation under control, weren’t near enough.  Then things started spinning down.  Then they continued.  Then nobody knew what to do and how to get out.  The result - dead teenager and a few more broken lives.  Who’s fault?  Everybody’s. The kids themselves are guilty of what happened.  Most of their parents are guilty.  The society as a whole has the part of that guilt…

The film like this, with all its messages, thoughts, and story developments could have easily survived with weaker technical sides.  Gladly, the film was done excellent on all levels.  The cast was very good, and even though Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, and Justin Timberlake are in, they aren’t the highlights of the film. OK, maybe with the exception of Justin.   The photography was very interesting at places, and helped to create the atmosphere (especially that scene with parents waiting for the kidnapped child at home).  The soundtrack was great too.

Overall, a strong 8 out of 10.  A must see for parents with kids, fans of criminal drama, and those who simply like good movies.

I just watched “Live Free or Die Hard” DVD, also known as “Die Hard 4.0″.  I was trying to catch it in the cinema, but somehow that didn’t happen.  I’m glad I finally caught up with it.

I was something anxious and worried about this new “Die Hard” episode.  After all, the previous parts were so good, and it’s been more than 10 years since the last one (the last one was “Die Hard: With a Vengeance” dated 1995).  With this new one be as good as those parts?  Isn’t Bruce Willis too old for this?  I had no clue, but follow-ups to some other films of the past proved to be worthy (*cough*Rambo*cough*) - that gave me hope.

“Live Free or Die Hard” turned out to be as good as the previous movies.  And maybe even better.  For one, special effects and the whole visual craft went a long way since John McClane had a gun in his hand.  Even watching it on a 15″ screen gave me shivers sometimes.  I imagine how impressive some of these scenes looked in the cinema!  Sometimes, of course, it goes a bit too far - like in that scene with a fighter jet, truck, and bridge - but in action movies with Bruce, Sylvester, and Arnold it is always better to go a bit too far rather than not come close enough.

Another thing that I was worried about before watching this film was the computer theme.  The 4.0 is the title of the film suggested that there will be a lot about computers.  Plus I saw the trailer, and it was obvious that we are back to square one with graphical user interfaces for searching, tools with progress bars for password breaking, and all sorts of communications, security, and general IT terminology.   Well, the computer side of the film was as bad as you can get it.  But, on the other hand, it was so unrealistic from the very beginning, that I had no problems abstracting it away from the real life.  Meaning that in my mind there was this natural separation of how computers work in real life and how they work in this particular movie.  So that wasn’t a big problem.

Overall, the film was very nicely done, entertaining and in the same mood as the previous ones.  So I got what I expected and even more so.  I’ll give it a firm 7 out of 10.

The other day I watched “Carlito’s Way: Rise to Power“. I was hoping it would be at least in some way comparable to the “Carlito’s Way“, but it was not. It is not a bad movie, but it ain’t a good one. It promotes some good values (friendship, loyalty) as well as some bad ones (crime, violence, drugs). It mixes things in such a way that made me wonder if the film makers have their priorities in order.

As to the technical part of the film, I haven’t seen any huge holes or mistakes, but I haven’t seen anything special either. A simple story, average acting, average soundtrack, average photography, although I have to say there were a few attempts of improving that last bit.

Overall, an average movie - 6 out of 10. Watch it only if you feel an uncontrollable urge to see every crime movie out there. Otherwise, you can easily avoid it and spend your time and money on something more worthy.

A random pick off the shelf this time - “Mr. Brooks“.  Once again, I’ve been proven to miss lots and lots of nice movies that were released in the last two or three years.  Gladly, I am catching up.

This film features some of those actors, who I know very well, appreciate, but will try to avoid.  I don’t know why I am not a bigger fan of either Kevin Costner or Demi Moore.  They are both very talented and all, but somehow I find myself trying to skip a movie if it has one of them in it.

Since I took a random movie of the shelf, I wasn’t checking the cast or the pictures at all.  I have to say that I should do it more often, since I tend to end up with better movies than those that I pick after careful consideration.

Acting, story, and photography are the strong sides of this film.  7 out of 10 (or 7.5 if you like fractions)