wooozie

Britain is the country of Shakespeare, Churchill, the Beatles, Sean Connery, Harry Potter, David Beckham's right foot, and, speaking of which, David Beckham's left foot, and BBC's Sherlock, you might add. After three absolutely perfect seasons, I can safely say that there will only be one Sherlock Holmes. You’ve just got to love Benedict Cumberbatch's performance. What’s more, Martin Freeman complements him in an absolutely brilliant way, and few characters have ever represented the audience's emotions so precisely. Freeman’s Watson perfectly mirrors how the viewer feels when watching Sherlock in this masterpiece. A spectacular series which makes it a torture for any fan to wait two years for the next season. PS: It’s been mentioned a hundred times before but let me say it anyway. “A Scandal in Belgravia” belongs to one of those moments that justify the invention of television as such. Absolute precision in every detail. And the conclusion? Perfection, sending shivers down my spine.

Wolverine played by Hugh Jackman is, as always, amazing. I have already said it in my reviews of previous X-Men movies and I say it again. He was born for this role. This movie definitely looked great on paper and the result is not bad either. I don’t have any major complaints concerning The Wolverine. Still, I can't help feeling (and, reading others’ reviews, I'm probably not the only one) that this installment of the X-Men saga was essentially pointless.

For me personally, Inception is the most perfect movie experience that the film industry can provide. Nolan achieved something that no one had ever achieved before, namely that we can see something we can't even imagine, except in a dream, and probably not even there. In other works of sci-fi or fantasy, we can always at least partially picture the particular setting or atmosphere - when reading a book, for instance, or whichever way a story is mediated. But if someone is trying to explain Inception to you - that is, what exactly it is about, it is virtually impossible to describe a world in which things don’t work the way they normally should. No one can even begin to describe how you fall asleep and then fall asleep again in that dream and then fall asleep in that dream, too... It is simply beyond words. You just have to see it. Which is where Nolan comes in with his ability to transfer all of the above onto the movie screen in such an incredibly intelligible way that you can enjoy the most amazing gem of a movie of all time. However, Nolan is not just about perfect visualization and Zimmer’s brilliant soundtrack. On top of all that, it’s a story which any other director would turn into a confusing mess in which you would probably get lost in less than an hour. The production design is simply magnificent and used to the utmost detail. The actors perform as if their lives depended on it. Especially DiCaprio is, hands down, the best of the best. The two and a half hours of the movie feel damn too short, because you just can’t get enough and savor every second of it. A movie you never even dreamed of, but Christopher Nolan managed to make that dream come true. A movie that makes you think, no matter what you think about it. Inception is simply a film revolution!

Captain Phillips is a demonstration of Greengrass’s masterful directing, or an example of how nothing can be turned into something. It makes you wonder how a movie that’s more than two hours long can keep the audience on the edge of their seats with a story whose ending must be obvious to everyone. However, fifteen minutes into the movie, the first action scene starts, followed by the most action-packed 2 hours imaginable. Nobody but Greengrass can do such a brilliant job. It’s bursting with thrilling scenes, even during moments when a (normally boring) conversation takes place. Simply an awesome movie, one of the best this year.

Total disenchantment and a return back to reality. Tolkien deserves better. I'm not entirely sure what went wrong. The feeling of nostalgia after The Lord of the Rings which was still strong when watching the first part of The Hobbit is definitely gone, and instead came the biggest disappointment I've ever experienced at the movie theatre. Where is the breathtaking New Zealand scenery and the absolutely brilliant music from the first installment? What you get instead are garish green screen “pictures” (I felt the same way about The Lone Ranger). The music, after the bar was set so high by previous Tolkien films, is below average. When it was announced that The Hobbit would be a trilogy, it was clear that the exaggerated length would necessarily have some negative consequences. But the fact that out of the 161 minutes, over 140 is just pointless filler, considerably threw me off. And I'm a Jackson fan. I would have loved to evaluate the acting performances if there were any, but they are barely noticeable in all that CGI nonsense. Freeman is brilliant as usual and the scenes that are focused on him are the best of the whole movie. Unfortunately there are few of them. I hate to say it, but Legolas as a killing machine - unnecessary. The scenes featuring Tauriel (presented as an emancipated elf, which I don’t think makes much sense) were simply excruciating. The bond formed between Bilbo and the dwarves in the first part somehow disappeared, and it’s back to square one. The character of Beorn, the spider massacre and Gandalf’s journey, all of that is superfluous. It breaks my heart to say this, but this movie is a total disaster.

The first half of the movie is great, maybe the best comedy of this year. Unfortunately, in the second half, the comedy turns into a tragicomedy, which is where the movie starts losing steam. Although I expected a little more, it is quite a relaxing comedy/drama set on a small Croatian island. 5 stars for the first half, 3 for the second, so a 4 overall seem fair. “It's either a tycoon or a Mafioso.” – “It's the Bishop.”

Verbinski has officially lost his sense of proportion, and, honestly, who can blame him? Disney provided him with a budget the size of Somalia's annual budget, and Verbinski splurged it all on digital effects that are beyond saving. And if there was anything left, he transferred it to Depp's bank account, which means everyone is happy. Depp is an excellent actor. His astonished look, straight out of the Pirates of the Caribbean, is just awesome and some of his lines (especially in connection with the horse) are good. But his overall performance (actually, the whole movie) felt terribly artificial. Anyway, 151 minutes? You’ve gotta be kidding me. The first hour was the most boring hour of the entire 2013 film year and the rest of the movie was below average. Some scenes were downright embarrassing (bloodthirsty rabbits, oh, come on!). All the scenes with Bonham Carter were the most tedious moments of the whole movie, only confirming that I’m really not fond of this actress). Plus, it is obvious that the movie purposely didn’t reveal certain things to keep the door open for the second installment, but that was a gross miscalculation on the part of Verbinski and the Disney studios. And if it wasn't intentional, it was some seriously sloppy directing. Either way, I’m afraid we have the winner of the biggest flop of the year.

Just like The Perks of Being and Wallflower, this is an incredibly feel-good movie which will leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. The did go a little overboard with all those cool philosophical questions and attitudes at the beginning. But over time, especially when Emma Roberts is on the scene looking gorgeous as always, it sets a great mood and the movie flows at a nice pace. The script is interesting, and a lot of teens will identify with it, but the ending turns out to be a classic cliché. I knew what I was in for when I decided to watch a romantic comedy, though. It may not be a memorable movie for me, but it created a positive vibe.

If I had to choose the absolute best single from all of Foo Fighters' amazing work, it would be “The Pretender” without a doubt. A song I listened to almost 200 times according to last.fm (in that short time I have been registered there), not counting dozens to hundreds more views on YouTube. It is their only music video (perhaps with the exception of “Best of You”) which is made in a serious way, but most importantly, it's a work that is absolutely perfect and completely absorbing, with incredible lyrics. You can't give it a 10/10 rating or 11/10 and even 12/10, it is beyond any scale. It’s just one of those moments when David Grohl was struck by pure genius. PS: With this single, and not just this one, Foo Fighters beat Nirvana, no matter what anyone else says.

The reason why I love this video is that, thanks to it, I discovered a band I hadn’t been very familiar with until then, which found its way into my heart and will stay there forever. It was the first of January, in the early hours, and I couldn’t think of anything better to do than to check what was on TV. There was a compilation of the best video clips from the past year. It was quite a surprise since they didn’t show just modern pop stars’ music videos but all kinds of genres. Most importantly, there were some highly original and good quality videos. My excitement was building up when, finally, it came. At first, I didn’t really get why Foo Fighters – “Walk” was number one, because I didn’t have a clue about who I was looking at. Gradually, I realized that I was watching something extraordinary. I looked up some more info about this band and found out what brilliant songs had completely escaped my attention. Now I never miss any news about this band, I love David Grohl's work and his enthusiasm for rock and music in general. As for the list of my favorite bands, the first place is forever taken. And why am I telling you all this? I felt like it was my duty to comment on the video which made me turn into a diehard Foo Fighters fan. Whenever I watch “Walk”, it's still as great, original and entertaining as the first time I saw it.