Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome; science-fiction action, Australia / USA, 1985; D: George Miller, George Ogilvie, S: Mel Gibson, Helen Buday, Angelo Rossitto, Paul Larsson, Tina Turner, Bruce Spence

An aircraft pilot steals Max's vehicle in the desert. Max reaches a post apocalyptic town called Bartetown and demands entry to get his stuff back. He is brought to the female town ruler, Aunty Entity, who makes a deal with him: the town's energy is created by methane, fueled by pig feces, stored in the underground storage led by a dwarf, Master, and his strong henchman, Blaster, who challenge Aunty's authority with energy embargoes, so Max has to kill Blaster. During the fight in the Thunderdome, Max spares Blaster's life and gets expelled from town. He is found in the desert and mistaken for the messiah Captain Walker by a group of nomad kids who want him to lead them to the Utopian big cities, but Max explains they don't exist anymore. Some kids leave anyway, but Max finds them and is able to sneak into Bartetown and free Master from the dictator like Aunty.

The third and final installment of the popular post apocalyptic trilogy "Mad Max" is definitely the weakest, but it still has enough virtues to pass as an interesting film. Just like in the previous film, "Beyond Thunderdome" has also estranged itself a lot from the story of the original film, and the story here is truly chaotic and shaky: the first third, revolving around the backward-modern town Bartetown led by Aunty (poorly acted by Tina Turner) is typical "Mad Max" stuff with gritty details, like the clerk selling radioactive water or the underground power plant fueled by methane of feces of hundreds of pigs, and even though the motivations of the characters are confusing and some plot holes annoying, the thing has it's logic in portraying once again the primal, primitive actions of people on the edge of existence, something a lot of idealistic viewers would rather choose to avoid. But then the story shifts radically when in the second half Max is deported from town and finds himself in an oasis led by a tribe of kids who believe he is their savior - this unusual and sudden switch to a "Peter Pan" like plot is truly untypical and many "Mad Max" fans will find it too sentimental, but it's a welcomed and refreshing surprise because it has heart. The third act, that combines the first and the second story into one, is uneven but solid, executed with a few good chase sequences, even though the violence was rather trimmed down and more gentle than in the previous films - in one of them, a bad guy is hanging from a bar attached to the primitive train with which Max and the kids are escaping with. The bad guy avoids every obstacle when the train is passing on a bridge, dodging with his legs a few traffic signs, but just as he thinks he made it, a kid saws the bar and lets it fall down with him - and the final song, "We Don't Need Another Hero", nominated for a Golden Globe, is amazing.

Grade:++

Mad Max

Mad Max; action-thriller, Australia, 1979; D: George Miller, S: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns

Australia in the future.The police is unsuccessfully prosecuting Night Rider, a psychopath who is endangering other people on the street with his relentless fast driving. But then police officer Max enters his car and starts the chase, causing Night Rider to die in a car accident. Max is loyal to the police, but is shocked when outlaws Toecutter and Johnny kill his colleague Goose by setting his car on fire. Max becomes disappointed with the police and quits, leaving with his wife Jesse and child to live in peaceful nature. But then Toecutter and his motorcycle band strike and kill his child and leave Jesse paralyzed. Max becomes mad with rage, enters his car and finds and kills Toecutter and his gang, while he leaves Johnny handcuffed to a car that explodes from ruptured gas.

Vicious and brutal action B film with a half-futuristic and quarter-post apocalyptic charge, Australian "Mad Max" surprisingly achieved a huge success worldwide and promoted Mel Gibson as the new star. Filled with car chases, frenzy suspense, nervous mood, unusual camera angles and drastic shots (the outlaws put the wrecked vehicle on fire with alive police officer "Goose" inside; Max uses his car to smash the motorcycle of a psychopath...), "Mad Max" is a good low budget film and a product of an enthusiastic author, even equipped with an interesting context where the hero Max lives in a devastated world up until it doesn't devastate his family. Clearly, one of the themes is that of a quiet, patient man who will tolerate atrocities of outlaws for a while, up until he reaches the point where he looses his patience and becomes mad with explosive fury. It's a simple, straightforward revenge story, but despite the virtues, the movie is not on the same level as the more successful campy achievements, like "RoboCop" or "Conan", due to it's shaky, ephemera and superficial tone.

Grade:++

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior; science-fiction / action, Australia, 1981; D: George Miller, S: Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Vernon Wells, Michael Preston, Max Phipps, Emil Minty

In the future the shortage of oil and fuel hit the world, causing different gangs to fight each other for it. Max, former police officer who lost his family, is now aimlessly driving through the desert with a dog. After repelling a gang who attacks him, he encounters a pilot with a snake and forces him to tell him the location of a unknown oil refinery. He soon arrives there and joins the men from local attacks of a gang lead by Lord Humungus. He manages to get a truck that can transport a tanker-load of fuel and in exchange gets as much fuel as he can carry. He meets the primitive Feral Kid, kills the gang and becomes the hero of the compound.

Crude and brutal "Mad Max 2", the sequel to the equally dark original, is a realistic film, but pretty much just an inversion of "Bambi" - it's an film that emphasised the overall simplification of the world towards the bleak vision that, unlike the first film, showed the future as apocalyptic and backward. For many, "Mad Max 2" is even better than the original, but it seems many are giving it more credit than it deserves since it's a one sided story that doesn't hesitate to exploit the trashy side of it's iconography. In the interesting exposition, documentary shots of unrests due to the shortage of fuel are shown, together with scenes from the first movie, the director George Miller once again directs the story with a raw and wild style, while the primitive Feral Kid is especially disturbing. The movie is actually so intense that even today most TV stations tend to cut some of the most violent scenes, like the one where a man raises his hand to catch a metal boomerang that is flying in the air, but it just slices the upper parts of his fingers. It's a cold film that's not for the too sensitive, and Miller should be criticized for his tendency to maintain the viewers attention more with violence and excess and less with quality and style, but the macho version of "The Seven Samurai" story about the title hero who helps save a outpost from bandits has it's moments, among them even the amazing finale, a 15-minute long car-truck chase realized almost without any dialogue. "Mad Max 2" is something like a hot paprika: many people will simply not like it, but there will also be those who enjoy it's spicy, bitter flavour.

Grade:++

Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road; action, Australia / USA, 2015; D: George Miller, S: Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

In a post-apocalyptic desert world, Max is kidnapped by War Boys, the army of the dictator Immortan Joe, and held captive for blood transfusion in Citadel. When Joe's female warrior Furiosa escapes in a truck with five slave women, to free them, Joe sends the War Boys to catch them. In the pursuit, Max is freed, and he joins Furiosa and the five women, together with ex-War Boy Nux, to find a green valley. Upon realising that the green valley became a swamp, Max, Furiosa and the five women turn around and head back to Citadel before Joe's army gets there. They blow up the canyon and thus block the entrance, killing Joe. Once in Citadel, Furiosa and Max are treated as liberators.

For all the hype, "Mad Max" reboot called "Fury Road" is principally one thing: a 2-hour 'Monster Truck rally' - and once that is understood, everything else falls into perspective. For all the great action stunts and chase sequences, they can only go so far. Not that the previous instalments were great pieces of art, but they at least had some sense for a story and characters. Here, already in the opening, Max narrates: "I was reduced to only one instinct: survive." And unfortunately that sums up every character in the film: they are all reduced to one-dimensional ploys for the action, the only personality development being that one character beats the bad guys differently than the other one. The cinematography is crispy clear (the fog in the swamp at night), the set designs and costumes are imaginative, the action is done with a lot of effort and thus has its moments (for instance, while chasing the truck, the bad guys swing on poles over to the back seat to pick up one of the women; in another instance, they shoot a harpoon into the steering wheel, thus jamming the truck) whereas director George Miller manages to insert a few comical touches here and there, which help alleviate the mood (one vehicle of the bad guys has a rock star playing a guitar bass, while another one has an accountant with a fancy suit (!), in all seriousness lamenting about the expenses of the chase).

Still, the story is disappointingly thin: Max and Furiosa escape with five women in a truck, chased by Joe's army; they stop and turn around to go back, chased by Joe's army. That's it. One could lament that Keaton's "The General" was also basically just one giant train chase, but that classic operated on so many levels, while "Fury Road" operates only on two: action and some vague allegory. Also, it is detrimental for being so sadistic, vile and crude (a pregnant woman falling out of the truck and getting ran over by a vehicle; Max spending the first third of the film strapped to a car with a metal jaw on his head...), with pointless, grotesque mutants, compared to which not even the events in Bosnia in the 90s were that primitive. A plus point is the refreshing feminist subtext (Furiosa and the five women trying to escape from Joe's Totalitarian society, where women are treated as things and only called "breeders"), yet it is in disparity with the film's approach itself: the authors are ostensibly feminist, yet on the other hand the female characters are so one-dimensional, they are treated as things as well, as mere extras. The five women have no personality, no traits or features, and after the film is over, the viewers will not even remember their names: one stands out because she is pregnant, but that's it, the rest lack any depth, humor, wit or charm. This is a revealing error, and is a inherent to the storyline. "Fury Road" conjures up an extreme pace to cover up its plot holes, yet the action and thrills cannot compensate for the lack of soul.

Grade;++

Superman: The Mad Scientist; The Mechanical Monsters; The Arctic Giant

Superman: The Mad Scientist; The Mechanical Monsters; The Arctic Giant; animated fantasy shorts, USA, 1941, 1942; D: Dave Fleischer, S: Bud Collyer, Joan Alexander, Jack Mercer

Clark Kent is a seemingly ordinary reporter for the Daily Planet newspaper, but in reality he can change into Superman and use his superpowers to stop crime and save people, mostly his colleague, Lois Lane. 1st story: a mad scientist wants to use a laser gun from his laboratory on a hill to destroy the city, but Superman stops him. 2nd story: another scientist uses his inventions, a dozen 10ft tall robots, to rob banks and jewels. 3rd story: a giant, frozen Dinosaur is found in Siberia and brought to Metropolis. However, the machine keeping it frozen malfunctions, the ice melts and the unleashed Dinosaur starts wrecking havoc in the city, until Superman stops him and brings him to a Zoo.

Not even three years after its debut in DC Comics, Superman already enjoyed its first media adaptation in Dave and Max Fleischer's eponymous animated series in 1941, which paved the way for numerous superhero films, while also establishing some of Superman's trademarks, including his flying abilities. The three short animated films, each with around a 10 minute of running time, are an interesting example of Fleischers' skills, though with a restrained imagination, since they seem to have a rather too simplistic, too schematic storyline: a villain shows up; Lois Lane is in trouble; Superman saves the day, the end. It thus leaves only 2-3 lines for each of the characters, which feels like a 'rump' edition of their characters. The traces of rotoscopic animation have their charms, yet not all scenes are equally as fluid: for instance, the green Tyrannosaurus in "The Arctic Giant" is as goofy looking as a Donald Duck cartoon, especially in its "rubbery" interaction with a bridge or a dam. The Fleischers' do not reach their high levels from "Popeye Meets Ali Baba's 40 Thieves" or "Gulliver's Travels", yet some moments here display their "director's instinct": for instance, "The Mechanical Monsters" starts off in medias res, showing a broken window of a bank and the shadow of the perpetrator, a plane-robot, flying over the city until the door opens to invite him into the castle of the bad guy. The 1st film, "The Mad Scientist", is done with the most care, carefully establishing the set-up, while also featuring at least one memorable image (the laser ray, fired from a laboratory on a hill at night, chops away the bottom of the building, but Superman prevents its fall), yet all these adventures lack humor, wit and energy to truly come to full expression, in the full sense of the word.

Grade:++

Network

Network; satire, USA, 1976; D: Sidney Lumet, S: William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, Jordan Charney, Beatrice Straight, Ned Beatty

The UBS TV news anchor Howard Beale is fired because of the low ratings. When he hears that, Howard proclaims, on national live TV, that he will shoot himself on the air in one week. The TV management is shocked, but the new producer Diana is fascinated by the high ratings so she gives Howard his own TV show where he won't kill himself, but will instead insult everyone and lament about the injustice in the world. The show is a hit while Diana starts a relationship with the middle-aged producer Max. But when Howard starts criticizing an Arab conglomerate for buying UBS and urging the audience to protest, he crosses the red line and Arthur Jensen, CEO of UBS, convinces him that the whole world is one big company. From there on, Howard changes and preaches how the individual is dead. In order to get rid of this "depressive" Howard and his low ratings, Diana hires a few revolutionaries to kill him live on TV.

The 70s where probably the most daring decade of the 20th Century cinema. Even movies today that are considered great seem rather childish and soft compared to the sheer restless spirit of the 70s. That said, "Network" seems more like a great movie for today's than for the 70s standards. Frankly, it's a mixed bag. The screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky is undeniably one of the best screenplays of the modern cinema with some of the greatest (unknown) quotes ever, lines so beautifully and intelligently written that they seem like music to the movie buffs ears, but the execution by director Sidney Lumet is somehow too dull and conventional, never rising to the high creative level of the screenplay. Moreover, it seems the focus of the movie is entirely wrong: Faye Dunaway's character is boring, William Holden's character is boring, the Mao Tse Tung revolutionaries subplot is useless (save for the ending)—but whenever Peter Finch's excellent character of the insane anchor Howard Beale is on the screen, the movie is so brilliant it brings down the house. If Howard was the main—instead of a supporting character—the movie would have been a masterwork, but this way it is hard to comprehend why Chayefsky was wasting time with the story by pushing the hollow relationship of producers Max and Diana in the foreground, which never seems right, and Beale's story in the background.

Still, some of the dialogues are among the most quotable ever because they ridicule the establishment with sheer satirical power. We are all used of having anchors tells us news on TV in a fancy suit and a mechanical posture, and thus it is subtly funny when Howard is on TV without a tie, all sweaty and visibly insane ("Well, I'll tell you what happened. I just ran out of bullshit!"), standing up from his chair at one point and ordering the viewers to lament about the unfair world by shouting: "I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!" Dry, static, dialogue-heavy, "Network's" story is first and foremost a satire about the media and their negative impact on people, which is neatly summed up when Max says a genius observation about his relationship with TV producer Diana, the one how he can't be sure if she is capable of any real feelings, because she learned them all from TV. But as Diana says, the Americans "have been clobbered on all sides by Vietnam, Watergate, the inflation, depression", and thus need "somebody to articulate their rage for them". Beale thus becomes a sort of a prototype of Alex Jones, a person who is only there to attract the audience by letting out anger and outrage, which is a dark observation how many viewers don't react to neutral, objective or calm media personalities, but actually need someone primordial who can ignite the only primeval emotion they can feel—hate. This marks the shift in the media from an era when education was the product to an era where rage became the product. The 5-minute cameo by Beatrice Straight as Max's wife is somewhat too meagre, but the 5-minute cameo by Ned Beatty, in the role of the UBS CEO Jensen, is so fantastic it almost matches Howard's antics when he explains him the true nature of the world: "There is no democracy! There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today!" It's a pity Finch's character was just a supporting character, and not a leading character, but he was so powerful in his role he actually won several awards as best actor in a leading role.

Grade:+++

The Postman

The Postman; science-fiction drama, USA, 1997; D: Kevin Costner, S: Kevin Costner, Will Patton, Olivia Williams, Larenz Tate, James Russo

The year is 2013. The US is devastated while some wondering man and his mule Bill get food in villages by performing Shakespeare's plays. Then the evil tyrant Bethlehem shows up with his army and drafts a few people, including him, while his mule gets cooked. The man manages to escape by jumping into the river, finding a bag full of letters. From there on, he calls himself the Postman and goes to a small town telling everyone that the government of the US is established again. There everyone gains new hope while some Abby sleeps with him in order to get a baby since his husband is sterile. The Postman starts delivering mail and runs away from Bethlehem with Abby. When he returns, he is surprised by the development of the postal service and kills Bethlehem. 30 years later the Postman dies but his daughter enjoys in peace and raises a monument for him.

Bitter and rather pessimistic version of post apocalyptic future will probably detract some, even though "The Postman" is an acceptable and solid adaptation of the award winning novel with the same title, in the end becoming much more optimistic than "Mad Max's" trilogy, though distributors Warner Bros. was rather shocked due to it's poor results at the box office. At 3 hours, the movie is definitely overlong, the postmen are naively exalted into superheroes while Bethlehem is a stereotype bad guy who annoys a lot of the time with his nonsense ("Peace is for the weak!") yet one shouldn't look for mistakes with a microscope because there are quite a few virtues here. Even though it's watered down, the story is actually clever while Kevin Costner once again shows how he knows how to direct some scenes, especially in the ironic moments, like when the Postman claims that the new president of the USA is Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr's real name), his "fencing" with the mule that has a sword in it's mouth or when the evil army rather likes to watch the musical "The Sound of Music" than sci-fi "Universal Soldier". Olivia Williams is wonderfully sustained as Abby, but after his masterwork "Dances with Wolves" people simply expected more from Costner.

Grade:+

Waterworld

Waterworld; science-fiction adventure, USA, 1995; D: Kevin Reynolds, S: Kevin Costner, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tina Majorino, Dennis Hopper, Michael Jeter, Jack Black

In the far future, Earth's polar caps have melted and all of the land was flooded with water. The remains of remains of the human race resides on various ships and sea platforms, among them Mariner, a mutant who has developed fins and lives on his boat. He dives far to the sea ground and picks up land, which he then sells. When "smokers", pirates led by Deacon, attack a market, Mariner helps Helen and a little girl, Enola, flee to safety on his boat. The "smokers" kidnap Enola because she has a map tattooed on her back which shows Dryland, a small patch of land in the ocean. Mariner rescues Enola and sinks the ship of the "smokers". With Helen, old Gregor and other people, he flies on a balloon and truly finds land suitable for living.

The most expensive film at the time of its premiere, with a budget that soared to 175 million $ due to various delays and technical difficulties, "Waterworld" holds up surprisingly well today if one likes these types of films, acting as some sort of "Mad Max" on water, and is an apocalyptic, bitter warning with implied ecological subtext of the hypothetical consequences of global warming and climate change. The film starts out clever: the typical Universal logo starts, presenting Earth in space, but then starts to modify as it illustrates how the ice caps melt and the sea levels flood entire continents. The main protagonist, Mariner (Costner), is also introduced in a sly way, in the scene where he urinates into a cup, only to immediately put his urine into a distillation unit which then filters it back to drinkable water, already setting the tone for this world. More care should have been taken of the characters or the versatility of the storyline, since the endless fighting of people on rusty boats and ships in the sea can only go so far, which makes the film, ironically, "dry" at times, yet its entire setting on endless oceans already gave it a stylistic touch, some ideas are clever (a pound of land is worth a fortune), Dennis Hopper is effective as the sardonic pirate commander Deacon ("You can't kill me, you promised!", says one of the captured men who just gave him a valuable info, so Deacon simply gives the gun to another villain to kill him instead) whereas there are some refreshing instances of charm and humor which lift up the mood, mostly revolving around arguing between Mariner and the little girl Enola ("You talk too much!" - "That's because you don't talk at all!"). The sequence when they first discover land is also almost magical, because, just like "Soylent Green", this film also shows what the humanity has now and what it might lose if it continues a path of mindless selfishness and greed, indifferent to all the consequences.

Grade;++

Idiocracy

Idiocracy; science-fiction satire, USA, 2005; D: Mike Judge, S: Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, Terry Allan Crews, Justin Long

The most average man on Earth, Joe, accepts participating in a military hibernation experiment, together with a prostitute, Rita. However, the experiment in forgotten, and instead of staying frozen one year, the stay for 500 years, awakening finally in 2505. Joe and Rita are shocked to find out that people actually became more stupid in the future. This makes Joe the smartest man on Earth and he is drafted by the US President, Camacho, a former porn star, to help save the economy. Joe suggests to start watering the plants to save the crops, instead of pouring a sports drink on the field, but the people rebel and punish him by throwing him into a monster truck show. Joe manages to survive when the crops start to grow. He is elected the new President of the US, and marries Rita.

"Dumb and Dumber" meets "Mad Max" - Mike Judge's 3rd feature length film, "Idiocracy" is a shocking twist to several utopias that envisaged an ideal future thanks to human progress, by pointing out that dysgenics may cause a decline of the human IQ and that the 20th century may have been the human highlight, though, as it is often said that almost every film is a product of its time, it may also be a sly commentary on the Bush administration and where the society may take a wrong turn when stupidity is presented as something cool. The opening is brilliant: it highlights two couples - an intelligent one and a dumb one - and then shows that the intelligent lose their spot in the Sun when they rationalize too long about having their first kid while the dumb couple just simply has several kids, without any thinking or planning, who in turn again have several kids, until the dumb ones become a majority. The main plot, where Joe and Rita become the smartest people on Earth in 2505, is great, but the execution is far weaker since too many jokes are delivered only at first glance - i.e. dumb people doing dumb stuff - and only few of them actually carry something sophisticated to them (one great exception is when Rita asks Joe: "Do you think Einstein walked around thinking everyone was a bunch of dumb-shits?" or when the movie makes fun of the TV shows of the future that consist only from people farting or getting kicked in the crotch, pulling parallels with today's simplistic entertainment). The sloppy and underdeveloped storyline, equipped with an anticlimactic ending, makes the viewers wish for a better format of the concept, yet its cult status is assured, since too many of those characters seem eerily familiar with the people around us.

Grade;++

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!

The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!; animated-live action comedy series, USA, 1989; D: Dan Riba, S: Lou Albano, Danny Wells, Harvey Atkin, Jeannie Elias, John Stocker

Animated segment: Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi help Princess Toadstool and her sidekick Toad in stopping evil King Koopa from attacking various lands, including crime land, rap land, jungle land, caveman land, river world, the Wild West... Live action segment: Mario and Luigi are living inside their Brooklyn apartment, and are visited by various guests: Alligator Dundee, Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, Vincent Van Gook, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pam Matteson, Magic Johnson, Cyndi Lauper...

An early prototype of a Super Mario animated show, this late 80s extravaganza doesn't quite hold up, though it is a sight to behold due to its sheer audacity. Its main problem is that the authors, led by producer Andy Heyward and writers Bob Forward and Phil Harnage, were only scarcely inspired in conjuring up the adventures of Mario and Luigi, and thus out of 52 episodes, only four are good, near the beginning and the ending of the series ("King Mario of Cramalot", "Butch Mario & the Luigi Kid", "Crocodile Mario", "Robo Koopa"). A lot of blame should be attributed to their wrong "translation" of the video game: instead of building up a clear narrative, they instead resorted to different parodies for each animated episode, which leaves a very inconsistent and intangible feeling. They could have written a stable storyline—as it was the case in the improved follow-up "Super Mario Bros. 3" where the heroes are always on one location—and not resort to lazy, empty spoofs of "Indiana Jones", "Star Wars", "Three Men and a Baby", "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior", "The Untouchables", "Godzilla" and what-not, all of which form a (very protracted) low point of the series. Why would Koopa be disguised as Genghis Khan or as Darth Vader, for instance? It makes no sense in this bizarre patchwork of disparate stories and styles.

Surprisingly though, while overall a weak series, there are still some "isolated" moments of greatness that can cause a smile on the viewers' face. When they put some effort into it, the authors come up with a few really good moments of humor, and a large part of them involves Luigi being just plain silly. The live-action pilot episode is a good example: even though Luigi wants to help Nicole Eggert, who was splashed by water from the sink, she just gets messier by the minute in a series of accidents, when she gets dirt from the oven, steps on a cake, sits on a pizza and is then placed under a garbage disposal. Another good episode is the one involving the intimidating wrestler Roddy Piper, who assigned Luigi to fix his bagpipe. Mario then has this exchange with Luigi: "You meatball, we're plumbers, we don't fix bagpipes!" - "I know that, but try telling that to Roddy Piper!" It then turns out that Mario turned the bagpipe into a vacuum cleaner. Several animated episodes also shine when Luigi is in top-form: in "Crocodile Mario", Mario and Luigi toss a Crocodile-repelling statue between themselves, as they try to run away from Koopa who is trying to steal it back. One golden moment of pure hilarity has Mario returning to the city, the Crocodiles want to attack him, but just then Luigi throws the statue at him and the reptiles flee. As Luigi runs behind him, the Crocodiles return to try to attack him, but just then Mario throws the statue back to Luigi, and the reptiles flee once again. "King Mario of Cramalot" also has a delicious joke: Mario summons Luigi to swim across a lake and lower a bridge for them to enter a castle. Just as Luigi is in the middle of the jump, Mario adds: "By the way, watch out for the killer-Piranha fish!", as Luigi backs up and tries to dodge the water. Unfortunately, this "funny Luigi" vanishes in later episodes, and all we are left with is a "routine Luigi" who just acts as an extra who walks after Mario. Despite these underwhelming features and thin writing, some guest stars are amusing (Magic Johnson and Cyndi Lauper standing out the most) whereas it is rare to find such contagiously optimistic and happy characters as Mario and Luigi in modern TV shows.

Grade:+

Kin-dza-dza!

Kin-dza-dza!; science-fiction satire, Russia, 1986; D: Georgiy Daneliya, S: Stanislav Lyubshin, Levan Gabriadze, Yury Yakovlev, Yevgeny Leonov, Irina Shemyova

Moscow. Construction manager Vladimir and violinist Gedevan meet a man on the street who asks them what galaxy he is on because he got lost. Thinking he is joking, Vladimir presses the button on the man's remote control - and is teleported together with Gedevan to a desert planet Plyuk in galaxy Kin-dza-dza. The two Earthlings thus start their quest to find a way back home. They meet Uef and Bi, two humanoid aliens in a flying pot who explain them that matches are very valuable here and that the society is divided to the upper class (chatlanians) and the lower class (patsaks). After numerous misadventures, including playing a violine in order to earn some cash, Vladimir and Gedevan are returned back in time to Moscow. Their memories are erased, but they recognize each other on the street when they perform a ritual from Plyuk.

Even though it enjoys a cult status in some circles, Georgiy Daneliya's science-fiction satire "Kin-dza-dza!" is a massively overhyped, overlong and overbearing film that seems like a Monty Python sketch on hold, a bizarre patchwork with long pauses between jokes, unless you think that people wearing bells under their nose or constantly saying "koo" is something very funny. The movie has a great opening sequence: two ordinary people, Vladimir and Gedevan, meet a man on the streets who claims he can travel to another galaxy thanks to a remote control. Thinking he is joking, Vladimir presses the button - and in the next scene, he and Gedevan are in the middle of the desert planet Plyuk, reminiscent of "Mad Max" and "Dune". Unfortunately, the movie does not go anywhere in particular after that, instead just presenting random bizarre people and cyberpunk technology in the desert, aggravated further by sometimes confusing editing or stale music. However, there is one aspect where the story truly gains some momentum: in the satirical views on the  society on Plyuk, that mirrors our own division between the upper class (bourgeoisie) and lower class (proletariat) in such scenes as the one where the people who wear yellow pants are treated with the ultimate respect, which some have interpreted as clothes from certain brands, like Gucci, that symbolize the status in society. This culminates in the best joke, where Bi rebels against Gedevan's view because "a society with pants without a difference in colors has no goal". An uneven achievement that would not have been only for certain tastes had it articulated its satire and comedy better.

Grade;++

Jackie Brown

Jackie Brown; crime, USA, 1997; D: Quentin Tarantino, S: Pam Grier, Robert Forster, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, Chris Tucker

Los Angeles. The 44-year old stewardess Jackie Brown is practically sentenced to a monotone life, working for a measly salary of 16,000 $ a year for an airline. So she is smuggling money to the US for Ordell, up until ATF agent Ray catches her and forces her to bring her boss into a trap so that he can arrest him. Also, bail bondsman Max bails Jackie out of prison and becomes fond of her. In the end, she tricks them both: she tells Ray she will hand over Ordell, and at the same time she tells Ordell she is cheating Ray. She steals half a million $, Ordell kills Louis while Ray kills him. And she gets away, kissing Max before she leaves.

When Quentin Tarantino took three years to make his 3rd film, assembled an all star cast, both stars like Robert De Niro and stars of long neglected blaxploitation films like Pam Grier, and adapted Elmore Leonard's crime novel "Rum Punch", the expectations were high and many thought he will top the success and hype of his first two films, but in the end the audience didn't find the film that "cool" and it subsequently grossed only modestly at the box office. Still, "Jackie Brown" is excellent, one of those classic, juicy crime films that lean more on details and directorial interventions than on cheap action. Some were taken aback by a more "normal" Tarantino here, with less humor, who introduces long camera shots, and in the finale shows the money exchange three times, each time from a perspective of a different character, which is effective despite the fact that it's a trick that has been done already in numerous films. It really seems Tarantino became more mature here: he is able to show such scenes like the one where Ordell and Louis are watching TV clips of women in bikinis promoting guns and make them look original even though they were stolen from "Beverly Hills Cop 3", whereas the mood is contagiously calm - despite violence, the story is much gentler than Tarantino's first two films because this time the main protagonist is a woman, the great Pam Grier who was finally given a worthy role in her career, after a long absence. Maybe it's a pity that actors like Michael Keaton and Bridget Fonda are slightly underused, maybe it's also a pity the audience prefers the "typical" Tarantino in excess because he comes to full expression in such a mad state, but the story here is very smooth, while the excellent Robert Forster, who was rightfully nominated for several awards for playing Max, became the most sympathetic character of all Tarantino's films.

Grade:+++

The Seventh Seal

Det sjunde insglet; fantasy drama / art-film, Sweden, 1957; D: Ingmar Bergman, S: Max von Sydow, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot, Nils Poppe, Bibi Andersson, Maud Hansson
Sweden, 13th or 14th century. Antonius Block, a knight, has returned from the Crusades with his squire Jöns. On the beach, he meets Death in human form. In order to save his life, he challenges Death to a chess match and wins, returning to his village. At the same time, Jof, a traveling entertainer, spots what he thinks is the Virgin Mary in the meadow, but his wife Mia doesn't believe him. Together with their little child, they are traveling through villages to perform acts. They meet Antonius and join him, together with blacksmith Plog and his wife Lisa. On their journey they witness a mob preparing to burn a "witch". Antonius plays once more with Death, distracting it so that the couple can get away. At his home, where his wife awaited him, Antonius and his gang meet Death who takes them all with them.

The legendary image of Death personified by a pale man with a dark cape and a hood in Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal" became one of the most quoted characters in 20th century cinema. Besides creating an icon, Bergman also offered a surreal essay about the search for the meaning of life, once again questioning God's existence and the mad religious rituals of medieval traditions that have stayed even today. Despite its incredibly high reputation, "Seal" is still a little bit overrated: it is very good, yet placing it among the greatest masterworks of cinema is rather overblown due to its monotone rhythm, tedious mood, some banal moments, weak structure with a vague storyline all over the place (just as Antonius meets Death, this encounter is interrupted and he wonders across the country, meeting too many characters who are useless for the plot) and cold approach. Still, through heavy symbolism Bergman manages to create an ambitious and clever metaphor about some existential questions in life which reveal its contradiction: for instance, Antonius has spent ten years fighting in the Crusades for God, but when he returns home, the only reward he sees is the Black Plague and death all around him—why is there such a divine indifference towards suffering on Earth? Bergman decorates the film with great little details: in one of the most imaginative, Death is sawing a tree with a character called Skat on it. The tree falls, but a squirrel seemingly instantly jumps on the newly created log. 

In another one, a long row of religious crowd passes right next to the still camera. And Antonius is constantly saying bleak statements: "Faith is a torment. It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call." The whole film is a giant "memento mori" allegory, depicting the fear of death and emptiness. During the episodic story, Bergman displays the struggle to accept a cruel reality, in the end stating how compassion is the only salvation in life. Antonius disappoints several times, since he is a too passive character—for instance, he doesn't even try to help stop a poor girl from getting burned at the stake for being accused of cooperating with the devil. On the other hand, his squire Jöns is much more active, willing to intervene against injustice—in one sequence, the ex-theologian Raval, who persuaded Antonius to join the Crusades in the first place, wants to either rob or rape a girl in a barn, but Jöns stops him: "I suddenly understand the meaning of those ten wasted years. We were too well-off, too satisfied with ourselves. The Lord sought to chasten our smug pride. So he sent you to spew venom and poison my master's mind." Jöns stabs his knife on the log and lets Raval go unharmed, but warns him: "Next time I catch you, I'll mark up your face like they do with petty scoundrels of your kind". Sometime later, Raval is seen bullying and humiliating an actor in a pub, but then Jöns interupts and slashes Raval's face: "Remember what I said I'd do if we met again?" Among the demanding films for intellectuals and serious movie goers, this is one of the most famous ones, ironically avoiding becoming too morbid, yet its is hindered by sometimes overlong, ponderous monologues and a couple of uninspired sequences (Raval dying in exaggerated fashion from the plague in front of everyone; the anticlimactic final scenes).

Grade:+++