Vengeance Is Mine

Fukushu Suru wa Ware ni Ari; crime drama, Japan, 1979; D: Shohei Imamura, S: Ken Ogata, Mayumi Ozawa, Rentaro Mikuni, Mitsuko Baisho, Taiji Tonoyama, Toshie Negishi

In 1 9 6 4, the police interrogate serial killer and truck driver Iwao, who recollects his life. Born into a Christian Japanese family, Iwao was always rebellious. After he stole an American jeep and was sent to prison, his parents, Shizuo and Kayo, hoped Iwao would calm down after they find him a bride. However, Iwao married Kazuko and got two kids, yet she left him. Kazuko only came back because she lusted after Shizuo, which infuriated Iwao. After two truck drivers picked him up, Iwao stabbed them to death. In order to hide from the police, Iwao presented himself as a professor and was hiding at an inn equipped with prostitutes, run by Haru, who became his mistress. After he killed a lawyer, Iwao strangled both Haru and her mother. After he was hanged, Shizuo and Kazuko, now a couple, throw Iwao's bones from a hill.

Shohei Imamura's magnum opus is a biopic about a serial killer, but at the same time a thorough analysis of a slice of Japanese society, as well: despite a running time of 140 minutes, every single second of "Vengeance is Mine" is engaging, and there is something organic, genuine in the way the storyline unravels. Imamura's fascination with the theme of rebellious outsiders who would rather honestly indulge in their wild passion rather than lead a conformist, bland life seems to form a part of the movie's appeal. Similarly like Fengler's-Fassbinder's "Why Does Mr. R Run Amok?", "Vengeance" also presents the murders of the seemingly normal looking antagonist as sudden and perplexing, defying logic, almost as if there is something that caused Iwao to "snap", so it depicts his life in great depth, hoping to "accidentally" stumble upon some clues. So many details in the story are surprising. For one, Iwao comes from a minority, a Catholic Japanese family, and the Catholic's neurotic relationship with sexuality may explain why he would want to rebel against the authority and simply run away at Haru's inn to have sex with a prostitute all night. However, his murders defy any such explanation. His reasonable rebellion quickly got mixed with unreasonable rebellion, since his five victims are strangers, except for the last two, which is even more shocking.

While hiding from the police at the inn, Iwao seems at times like a really nice guy. Many supporting characters shine and say a lot about local mentality, including Imamura's fascination with the power of erotic sensuality. In one sequence, Iwao's father Shizuo tries to persuade Iwao's wife Kazuko to return to her husband. She agrees—but only because she lusts after Shizuo (!), and not her husband. While in the spa, the naked Shizuo and Kazuko scrub each others back, and sense erotic chemistry. Later, after Iwao is on the run, Shizuo tells Kazuko to find another husband while he will just be "drooling in the sun" of a retirement home. But Kazuko tells him: "I will visit you every day, and lick the drool off your lips until they are clean". Another astounding character is the innkeeper, Haru, who knows Iwao is the wanted killer, but accepts him because she has "experience" due her own mother being a killer (!) who spent 15 years in jail. Haru hires prostitutes at her inn, but they are scared of her mother, so Haru complains: "Now that the girls are gone, the customers are gone as well." Two murders happen off-screen, but Imamura reveals what happened due to stylistic means: in one sequence, Iwao goes to a store and buys 30 small nails. In the next scene, it is revealed why: he goes to the lawyer's apartment, sits, while the door of a closet opens by itself, revealing the killed lawyer inside, so Iwao bolts the doors shut with nails. Imamura paints a large picture of his society, revealing and accepting all these contradictions in it, from suppressed rage unleashed against innocent bystanders up to clumsy situations (during a rainy night, a police officer enters the inn and gives Iwao wanted posters of Iwao to display them, not even paying attention whom he gave it to), delivering an essay about the effects of nihilism applied in life.

Grade:+++

Profound Desires of the Gods

Kamigami no Fukaki Yokubou; drama, Japan, 1968; D: Shohei Imamura, S: Kazuo Kitamura, Rentaro Mikuni, Yasuko Matsui, Hideko Okiyama, Kanjuro Arashi

On the Japanese Kurage island, the Futoris are the oldest family, but have now degenerated due to incest. After fisherman Nekichi Futori returned from war, his wife died, so he became deviant, used explosives to catch fish, and had sex with his sister Uma, a noro. When a giant rock fell on a source of water, the people thought it is a punishment from the gods, and the Futoris were thus shunned: Nekichi was chained to his leg, having been ordered by leader Ryu to excavate the rock until it releases the spring again. Nekichi's father Yamamori is also his grandfather, since the latter had sex with his own daughter. When the married Tokyo enigneer Kariya arrives to the island to drill a well for a future sugar plantation, Nekichi's mentally disabled daughter Toriko seduces Kariya, who abandons his duties and marries her. Kametaro, Nekichi's son, is ordered to bring the pregnant Toriko to an abortion clinic, but the girl simply jumps off the ship and swims back to the island. When a lucrative tourist investment appears, Ryu begs Nekichi to abandon the rock drilling and sell his estate, but Nekichi refuses. Ryu tries to blackmail Uma into lying to the people that the gods wish for Nekichi to be punished, but Ryu dies from a stroke. The people think that Nekichi killed him and thus kill him while he fled in a boat with Uma. Kariya returns to his Tokyo wife while the saddened Toriko disappears.

Shohei Imamura's peculiar allegorical movie has several problems—with a running time of 3 hours, it is somewhat overlong; its skewed themes are overburdened due to three different directions taken, one of which revolves around the bizarre notion that love can overcome every obstacle, even incest (!)—and yet, it has some sort of direct honesty while presenting the director's fascination with exploring the "margins of society" which were usually avoided in cinema of his era. By setting the story on the fictional island, Imamura presents two different approaches at finding happiness in life: the rational, which takes a "secure" backtrack (embodied in engineer Kariya, an intellectual who finds love in Toriko, but abandons her to return to his old routine and comfortable Tokyo wife), and the irrational, which embraces ones own passion and goes with it, regardless of all the opposition or bitter challenges (embodied in the "wild" fisherman Nekichi who never abandons his forbidden love with his sister Uma). Imamura displayes his fascinating philosophy that some of fundamental truths in life can only be found through the lower class, which is passionate, but alive, as opposed to the upper class, which is sophisticated, but dead.

"Profound Desires of the Gods" abounds with bizarre, grotesque moments juxtaposed to calm, poetic images of the sea and the island nature: the opening is already comical, where (grand)father Yamamori scolds Nekichi for having an affair with his own sister, but Nekichi replies that Yamamori had sex with his own daughter. Grandfather answers with: "Ushi's husband rejected her, so I loved her". In another, the camera takes a bird's-eye view of a room, but only has the hanging chandelier with a lizard on it in focus, while a naked Uma is "conveniently" out of focus, lying on the ground, while Ryu is on her, pushing her to follow his orders. There is also a surprisingly emotional sequence where Kariya just promised to the aroused girl Toriko that he will meet her tomorrow at the beach to get rid of her, but is amazed when he hears from her brother that she is lying there for two days, will not eat nor talk to anyone until he shows up—so Kariya shows up, and they share a passionate kiss. The subplot involving superstitious traditions of the vilagers leads to a dead end, whereas the ending kind of "lost" Kariya as the protagonist, meaning that Imamura's tight "Vengeance is Mine" is still superior, yet the film has some unique personality and vivid spirit that makes it stick even today.

Grade:++

A Sunday in the Country

Un dimanche à la campagne; drama, France, 1984; D: Bertrand Tavernier, S: Louis Ducreux, Michel Aumont, Sabine Azéma, Geneviève Mnich, Monique Chaumette

Mr. Landmiral is a retired painter in his 70s. He lives in a secluded mansion in the countryside with his maid. Since it is Sunday, he is looking forward to the visit of his two children: his son Gonzague, who brings his three kids with him; and his daughter Irene. While Mr. Landmiral is polite towards Gonzague, he lacks love for him, and feels distant towards the latter's wife, Marie-Therese. On the other hand, Mr. Landmiral clearly adores Irene, and they take a car drive to a nearby festival in order to dance. Back in the mansion, Irene gets a phone call about her lover and hurriedly leaves the estate. Gonzague is persuaded to stay a little longer, but in the evening he departs with his family, as well. Back in his mansion, Mr. Landmiral is left alone, observing his unfinished painting.

A gentle, quiet, unassuming little art-film, "A Sunday in the Country" is an unusually minimalist film for director Bertrand Tavernier. At first glance, it is puzzlingly simple: a family visits their grandfather at his mansion, they leave, the end. Indeed, this is not a 'high concept' film, and even if the viewers missed it, they would not have missed something important in life. And yet, just by being there, this film has some sweetness and fondness, which enriches cinema, despite being a dime a dozen. Tavernier offers observations about these characters, almost as if he presents his family video during a picnic. Beneath the surface, a lot of clever truths about life and human relations are told, mirroring the film's themes of missed opportunities and a quiet sadness about the imperfect life. The main protagonist, grandfather Landmiral, clearly favors his daughter Irene over his son Gonzague, and seems to be disappointed with himself that he acts like that, instead of loving them both equally.

In one departure, during a festival, Landmiral admits to Irene that he contemplated changing his style in order to try to make it as a painter, but thought it was already too late at his age. He then tells her: "I painted as I felt, with honesty. If I didn't achieve more, I at least glimpsed what I could have done." It seems he only could have confessed this to her. Tavernier shows this exception of a family visit, presenting it as the majority of the storyline, in order to highlight the real routine of the protagonist, who at the end of the day returns to his lonely existence in the empty mansion, waiting for the next Sunday when his family will visit him. Some vignettes are occasionally amusing, such as the one at the table, where grandpa Landmiral tells the anecdote how Canius Fannius forbade people of raising chickens in the open in Rome, causing his granddaughter to burst in laughter. "Sunday" is a little bit overhyped. Too many of its sequences seem thin, episodic, vague, some of which even as 'throw-away' material. However, Tavernier did craft at least one masterful scene: in it, Irene is silently standing on the balcony, with the garden in the background, the camera drives back into the room to the image of her deceased mother, sitting on the chair, who tells her: "When will you stop asking so much of life, Irene?" That moment is a small gem, not only due to its purposeful technique (the camera driving back symbolizes driving back in time), but also due to it capturing some universal feeling of a confined existence in humanity, and clearly displays how big moments arrive from small things in life.

Grade:+++

Deadpool 2

Deadpool 2; fantasy action comedy, USA, 2018; D: David Leitch, S: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller, Matt Damon

After assassins storm his home, Wade, aka Deadpool, is devastated that his girlfriend Vanessa died in the ensuing assault. Deadpool tries to commit suicide by blowing himself up, yet is reassembled by the 10ft tall Colossus who wants him to join the X-Men. When Cable, a man from the future, travels to the present to kill the 14-year old orphan mutant kid Russell because the latter will grow up to become a mass murderer who will kill Cable's family, Deadpool assembles his own team, X-Force. However, all of his team members die when descending with a parachute, except for Domino who battles Cable in the convoy. Russell escapes and team up with 15ft tall Juggernaut in order to kill the abusive principal of the orphanage. Deadpool and Cable strike a deal to try to change Russell before the kid can become evil, and they succeed.

The sequel to the refreshing "Deadpool" works, yet it does feel strangely calculative and standard at times. The 1st film surprised precisely because it risked by presenting an R-rated superhero (satire) movie that defies the "safe" formula—the 2nd film follows that same formula, so much, in fact, that it becomes formulaic in its own way. Or maybe the 1st film just caused the viewers to get use to the Deadpool character, making the 2nd one less of a surprise when we come back to him. Several jokes are still great and prove that the authors gave a worthy sequel that does not need to be ashamed of itself, whereas Ryan Reynolds is again deliciously comical at times. Some of the best jokes are just sight gags: in one sequence, Cable shoots at Deadpool, yet the latter blocks the bullet with his sword. Cable then shoots dozens of bullets at Deadpool, who swings both of his swords to stop the bullets—but as Deadpool stops, he notices that he has several holes in his suit, anyway. In another, Domino approaches the scene to help Deadpool, but when she sees that the villain Juggernaut is 15ft tall, she just opens her eyes, gasps, turns around, and walks away.

A small problem is that "Deadpool 2" throws so many dialogues at mechanical super-speed, which makes them appear and disappear too fast, without time for the viewers to simply absorb them and enjoy them. Some of the pop-culture references do not work all the time, neither: for instance, just randomly mentioning M. McCounaughey. Matt Damon's "disguise" cameo as a hillbilly who rants about toilet paper is not particularly funny, either. Luckily, numerous other jokes are a blast, such as when Deadpool mentions that his movie is the 2nd highest grossing R-rated movie—after "The Passion of the Christ". In another, after regenerating himself, Deadpool's lower part of the body is growing out of his rump, so he sits there in a shirt, on the couch, with tiny legs, and Weasel describes how Deadpool looks: "It's like he's a Muppet from the waist down, but this time, you can see the Muppet's dick!" Unfortunately, the women characters do not get nowhere near as much of good lines. Vanessa is sadly murdered off in the opening act, without a reason, whereas Domino is underused and has very little dialogue, though Zazie Beetz makes her more charming than some other actress could have. The time travel plot is good, but it does trip over some typical clichees. Regardless of that, "Deadpool 2" delivers another example of wacky (albeit sometimes bloody) fun, whereas the closing credits are especially inspired and abound with the character's full energy.

Grade:++

Assassination Classroom (Season 1)

Ansatsu Kyoushitsu; animated science-fiction comedy series, Japan, 2015; D: Seiji Kishi, S: Jun Fukuyama, Mai Fuchigami, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Shizuka Itou, Tomokazu Sugita, Aya Suzaki

Students of classroom 3-E have a strange assignment: the mysterious yellow octopus-humanoid creature, Koro-sensei, claims to have destroyed 2/3 of the Moon, and that he will destroy Earth in a year, unless the students are able to assassinate him—while he is teaching them. The teenage students, including Nagisa, Karma, Kaede, Yukiko, Rio and others, accept the task, using bullets which are harmless to humans, but the problem is that Koro-sensei has a speed of mach 20, and is able to dodge thousands of shot bullets with ease. The reward, if they succeed, is 20 billion Yen, and government official Karasuma, is there to oversee how they are doing. A new teacher shows up to try to seduce and kill Koro-sensei, Serb Irina Jelavić, but to no avail. During a school trip to an island, an ex-teacher poisons the students with an artificial virus in order to blackmail them into giving him Koro-sensei, now shrunk in a small ball after an assassination attempt, to kill him, but Nagisa is able to knock the teacher out in a battle and prevent the transfer.

"Assassination Classroom" seems like someone wanted to take the teacher sub-genre and give it a Sci-Fi twist by turning the main teacher into a mutant in order to make it more interesting for the viewers already used to these kind of high school stories. The result is the kind of anime which half-way into watching it you still do not know if it is good or not, because it is just so bizarre. The concept of students having the task to assassinate their yellow octopus teacher seems like some sort of weird upside-down logic in a black comedy akin to "The Addams Family"—it is obviously not to be taken seriously, yet it does leave a strange ethical contradiction: since the teacher Koro-sensei is so nice, it is hard to root for the students to actually kill him, let alone to ponder about the questionable idea of teaching teenagers to become killers. One of the more creative jokes of how to assassinate him is when the newby Karma jumps from a cliff with a pistol in his hand—he knows that Koro-sensei has to protect his students, so he will have to catch him from the fall, and then Karma will simply shoot him from close range. However, Koro-sensei simply outsmarts him by transforming into a giant net with glue, thereby catching him and glueing his hands so that Karma cannot move and shoot. The addition of the new busty teacher Irina Jelavic is comical because the Japanese cannot pronounce her last name, so they simply give her the nickname "Bitch"-sensei. She also has an amusing moment when she draws a "smiley" face on her cleavage in episode 9.

However, despite dozens of wacky gags being thrown from every direction, the story surprisingly takes a few more serious de-tours here and there. One is definitely in episode 14, where school bully Terasaka was teasing the "nerds", but then has a sudden bitter realization that these "geeks" are going to become future CEOs of a company, while he will have to serve them because he never learned anything, sadly concluding that those who have a goal will dominate over those living their lives aimlessly. Episode 7 even enters a very dramatic territory when two girls are kindapped by a couple of bullies in Kyoto, and—while it is never explained what exactly they intended to do—kept them tied up in a basement while they invited "photographs". Koro-sensei is also a remarkably good teacher, with "motherly" care for his students, and helps them improve their grades and even win several contests, since the E class is considered the worst, while classes A and B are considered the best. This speaks about institutions and how students are treated: instead of only focusing on the "elite" students, the school should do something constructively to help the worst, as well. The finale is, unfortunately, very chaotic and 'rough', with several inconsistencies and skewed directions throughout. The class has to secretly infiltrate the top of a building, but as they approach and meet several henchmen, wouldn't the latter simply sound the alarm to warn others? We have serial killers using some sort of tranquilizing gas, but it just affects only Karasuma, and not all the other students, even though they are all in the same hallway, in an enclosed location. There is even a ridiculously cliche killer who uses his pistol as a spoon to eat from a bowl of ramen (!), even though the scene of him sucking from the cannon is really unaesthetic. The resolution of the final battle is unconvincing, whereas it is a pity that the authors failed to give some explanation to Koro-sensei's origin. "Assassination Classroom" is something like trying out eating ice cream upside down: it is different and new, but does not seem like you got something more out of it.

Grade:++

Theory of Tiger

Teorie tygra; comedy / drama, Czech Republic, 2016; D: Radek Bajgar, S: Jiří Bartoška, Eliška Balzerová, Tatiana Vilhelmová, Jiří Havelka, Jakub Kohák, Pavla Beretová

Jan Berger, a veterinarian in his 60s, feels that his wife Olga controls his life too much and does not give him any freedom. When Olga's father dies, she decides to bury him with a church procession, despite the explicit wishes of the deceased that he wants to be cremated. Since Olga is horrified at the prospect of a divorce, Jan thus decides to pretend he suffers from Alzheimer's disease: he fakes forgetting stuff and cuts thuyas by a half. When Jan is placed in a elderly home, he thus finally has free time to escape and go biking in the countryside. The only two people who know the truth, and join his relaxation in nature, are his son Erik and son-in-law Pepik. Jan's daughter Olinka tracks them down via GPS on their mobile phones, and thus exposes the trio. Jan leaves Olga and establishes a veterinary office on a boat and tours the river.

"Theory of Tiger" is a strange and peculiar allegory on the 21st century people who have, for some reason, become "fed up" with marriage and only want to escape to live a free life in the countryside. The weird concept of the protagonist Jan who fakes having Alzheimer's disease in order to have more free time away from his wife is one of the more bizarre ones, even for Czech cinema and their specific sense of humor, yet it does not make sense: Jan did not really think it through, since he ends up locked inside a home for the elderly, and thus has to escape, which causes a police search for him. There are some comical moments: for instance, Jan gets the idea when a customer brings his pet for inspection, a parrot who ostensibly suffers from Alzheimer's disease. In another sequence, Pepik tries to bargain with Jan about what to do with the cremated ashes of Jan's father-in-law, and tries to find a compromise: half of ashes are to be buried in his empty grave, while the other half is suppose to be scattered in the river, as the deceased wished for. Pepik also uses Jan's words against him: by claiming that "everyone" should enjoy freedom, even cows, Pepik goes to a farm and releases all the cows ou in the open, much to Jan's confusion. However, a good deal of the story feels forced and overstretched, not quite thought through, making "Theory of Tiger" a good film, but not among the best examples of Czech comedy.

Grade:++

Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 3)

Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 3); science-fiction series, USA, 1989-1990; D: Cliff Bole, Les Landau, Robert Wiemer, David Carson, S: Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Wil Wheaton, Whoopi Goldberg

In the 24th century, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is commanding the Federation spaceship Enterprise, with the goal of exploring space and seeking out new civilizations. He is assisted by Commander William Riker, android Data, Klingon Lt. Worf, Dr. Beverly Crusher, Counsellor Deanna Troi, engineer La Forge, and others. They have to be careful of not to interfere into the development of other, less advanced alien cultures, while they also have to keep up the fragile peace between the Federation and the antagonistic Klingon and Romulan Empires.

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" is arguably the best version of all the ''Star Trek'' TV shows, while its third season is sometimes ranked as the best season of the overall ''Next Generation'' series. The appeal of the series lies in its concept of a 'sneak peek' into the possible future, and the message that human reason in the future could prevail its problems and limitations of the present, offering some sort of idealism and optimism. However, even in this edition, some problems still remain. One of them is a lack of an overarching arc, a unified goal, since "Star Trek" is constructed like a tale of explorers who randomly travel around from place to place, which makes the story feel very episodic, isolated, and sometimes even lost. When compared to ''Star Wars'' or ''Sailor Moon'', the latter have an advantage, since their stories have a clear overarching arc that leads them, an ultimate goal, in their case how the good guys want to stop the bad guys. This goal may seem simple, but at least it is clear and serves as a unified guideline. Another problem is that "Star Trek" is sometimes very dry, schematic, humorless and stiff, while trying to present this humanistic future. The third one is that these characters are not as refreshing as they could have been, and do not quite come off as three-dimensional. Patrick Stewart is a great actor, charismatic, with authority, but his character Picard is somehow often below his capacity, rarely managing to rise to the occasion and feel alive. The characters are polite, strong and smart, but they lack personality and wit. Ironically, android Data is the only one who manages to insert some humor here and there, with his ironic observations about human contradictions. Unfortunately, Picard rarely interacts with Data, and thus they never quite reach the chemistry between Kirk and Spock. This restrained approach of characters hinders the drama. 

Several episodes of Season 3 are outstanding, though, some of which even manage to turn philosophical and pose some universal questions about life. One of the most notable ones is the excellent 3.4, which presents an "Ancient Astronaut" theory told in reverse, by telling a story of the Enterprise crew accidentally injuring a man from a Bronze Age alien race, and thus teleporting him to the Enterprise to heal him, but rumor quickly spreads, and the alien people eventually start their own religion, worshiping Picard as their god. This serves as a double commentary, both as a satire on religion and a cautionary tale of breaking the controversial Prime Directive, which may contaminate a culture that is still not ready. The way Picard resolves the issue, by teleporting an alien woman to the Enterprise and explaining to her that the Enterprise is just a technologically advanced version of their civilization, is fitting. A brilliant episode. The episodes preceeding this one are also good, though not as great as some claim they are: 3.2 is a neat commentary on the concept of ‘historical right’ on land, with the Sheliak being one of the most realistic looking aliens in the ‘’Star Trek’’ universe; 3.3 is an interesting mystery, presenting Picard in Sherlock Homes form as he tries to figure out why only two people survived on the entire planet which experienced an alien extermination of the entire colony, yet the resolution is kind of underwhelming. Episodes 3.6 and 3.7 are ‘throw-away’ fillers, even though they have a few good moments: 3.7 plays out like Peterson’s movie "Enemy Mine", forcing La Forge to cooperate with a Romulan in order for both of them to survive after being left behind on a storm planet, which turns out rather grey, but it does feature an interesting insight into Romulan irredentist mentality, since the said warrior brags how "in a few centuries, humans will go extinct, and then Romulans will spread across the Galaxy". Episode 3.10 is interesting in presenting a defector from the Romulan Empire, who gives a very emotional speech in front of Picard: "There comes a time in a man's life that you cannot know. When he looks down at the first smile of his baby girl and realizes, he must change the world for her - for all children. It is for her that I am here. Not to destroy the Romulan Empire, but to save it." Certainly, the Cold War parallels are obvious in the story, and the dissidents' motivation rings true, while the ending is rather well done. Episode 3.13 is rather overrated: having Q lose his powers is amusing, but it does not quite exploit all the rich potentials to the fullest. It does have a moment worth of gold, though, the one where a grateful Q grants a wish to his temporary friend Data, who erupts in uncontrollable laughter, and for the first time gets to feel something. Truly a delicious moment.

Episode 3.14 is excellent, an Agatha Christie-like 'whodunnit' murder mystery where the Holodeck is used to try to recreate what happened, to the best of the knowledge of the witnesses, who accuse Riker of killing a scientist and blowing up his space station. This gives the episode almost a metafilm touch, since Picard, the prosecutor and Riker himself watch the holographic 3D recreation of Riker on the space station, while the two parties are disputing the flow of events. Episode 3.15, "Yesterday’s Enterprise", is often hailed as one of the best episodes of the entire series, and it truly deserves praise, since it is very cinematic, with wide lenses and shadows depicting an alternate universe with subtle differences of this Enterprise caught in an endless war. An excellent episode – but isn’t it basically just a remake of the "The City on the Edge of Forever" from the original "Star Trek" series, with the same theme of a double effect and the identical dilemma of a sacrifice of one (or few) to save many? Episode 3.16, where Data "creates" his own android daughter is remarkably touching, especially in the ending where she thanks him for giving her life. Data replies that he cannot feel anything, but she counters with: "I will feel for both of us". It is a pity that she is never mentioned again, indicating the schematic nature of the show where everything must return back to square one after each episode. Episode 3.18, which shows some sort of alien experiment involving a kidnapped Picard and three other aliens, who find themselves in a room and have to cooperate despite their differences, is another good story, but is overshadowed by the excellent 3.21, with a story reminiscent of "American Beauty" where official Barclay is dissatisfied with his life on the Enterprise, so he finds excitement in creating escapist fantasies in the Holodeck in which he beats up Riker and kisses Deanna Troi. This parallels the modern addiction of people to virtual reality and the internet, making them lose track of reality. Too bad the producers were not willing to go the full step in this story: in one scene, Deanna enters the Holodeck and makes a shocked face when she sees her own 3D holograph wearing an ancient toga, and realizes she is Barclay’s object of desire. If they had shown her wearing a bikini or some more really provocative clothes, this would have been much more logical. Other episodes are more routine, including 3.24, yet the said episode also has an ending that is comedy (and meme) gold: when the Ferengi Daimon forces Deanna’s mother Lwaxana to be his concubine on his spaceship, Lwaxana "accidentally" phones Picard that she does not love him anymore, and thus Picard secretly accepts the ploy and starts theatrically reciting Shakespeare’s love sonnets in order to feign that he is a madman and will destroy Daimon’s ship if he cannot have Lwaxana, causing a freightened Daimon to quickly return her back to the Enterprise. The finale episode, 3.26, "The Best of Both Worlds", conversely gave the storyline an overarching arc of sorts by presenting the bad guys, the Borg, who kidnap Picard. The episode is great and suspenseful, indicating that the authors had a much higher rate of inspired episodes than other seasons of "The Next Generation".

Grade:++

Rocky III

Rocky III; sports drama, USA, 1982; D: Sylvester Stallone, S: Sylvester Stallone, Carl Weathers, Mr. T, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Burgess Meredith, Hulk Hogan




Rocky Balboa enjoys his success as the boxing champion. His alcoholic brother-in-law Paulie accosts him for not finding him a job, so Rocky tries to oblige. Rocky also accepts a "charity match" between Thunderlips, a wrestling champion who goes mad and even starts attacking the audience during the match. But an even bigger challenge awaits him: Lang, who insists on fighting Rocky. During the match, Lang defeats Rocky with a knockout, while Rocky's manager Mickey dies from a heart attack. Apollo Creed trains Rocky for a rematch, but it is not until Rocky's wife Adrian gives a motivational speech that Rocky gains interest. In the rematch, Rocky exhausts Lang by prolonging the battle to three rounds. Rocky defeats Lang.

With the 3rd instalment of the series, the "Rocky" franchize started to lose its luster: the repeat of the same old formula of the hero losing, and then training and then winning in a rematch started to get repetitive and tiresome, whereas some of its character seem as if they are barely in the movie at all—this is most indicative in Adrian, who played a crucial role in the first two films, only to appear as a mere extra in "Rocky 3", save for one sequence where she gives a motivational speech to the hero, which is too little. A certain sense of a story going past its prime is felt by this point. Even Rocky, who was initially a funny guy, seems to have lost his sense of humor and has been reduced to just a boxing machine. One rare moment where that old spirit from the first two films emerges again is when Rocky is trying to persuade a reluctant Mickey to train him one last time. Mickey refuses, so Rocky goes: "If you don't, I'm gonna tell everybody you ain't bought a new pair of underwear in 10 years." - "You would, wouldn't you?", says Mickey to him. Another is when the team goes to a shady neighborhood to be trained by Creed, and Paulie comments: "Even rats would have more self-respect than to be caught dead here!" Paulie's subplot, where the alcoholic lands in jail and is angry at Rocky, is resolved so fast that one wonders why it was necessary to be brought up in the first place, whereas it is especially insulting that Rocky needs to be trained again, from the start, as if he became a boxing champion without absorbing the basics a long time ago. At least Mr. T is effective as the arrogant challenger Lang, whereas the song "Eye of the Tiger" surprisingly became a classic. Despite its lack of inspiration, "Rocky 3" was such a huge box office draw that it was even more successful than the 1st and 2nd film, which, together with "First Blood", made Stallone dominate the box office in 1982.

Grade:+

Wadjda

Wadjda; drama, Saudi Arabia / Germany, 2012; D: Haifaa al-Mansour, S: Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah, Abdulrahman al-Guhani, Ahd Kamel

Wadjda (12) is a girl living in Riyadh. Her mother, who had a difficult labor, is in a strained relationship with her husband who wants to have more kids, and thus plans to marry another woman. Mother's official driver is very impolite. Wadjda is friends with Abdullah, a boy with a bicycle. Wadjda wants to buy a bicycle herself, despite the tradition which entails that girls are not allowed to have one, and thus, even though she was always uninterested during religious class, enlists into a Quran contest and wins the first prize, with money included. However, when Wadjda tells that she intends to buy a bicycle in front of the public, the teacher gives all her money to Palestine. The mother surprises Wadjda with a newly bought bicycle and the girl uses it to drive with Abdullah on the streets.

Excellent 'slice-of-life' drama "Wadjda" is not only the director Haifaa al-Mansour's first feature length film, but also the first feature length film in the history of Saudi Arabian cinema. Al-Mansour depicts the life in Saudi Arabia from the female perspective, with a sixth sense for the mentality of the area, unobtrusively delivering messages about injustice by showing how the girls are constantly stiffled while trying to live their lives by being told that they cannot do this or that, but the film also has a certain aura of sweet innocence and ends up as a celebration of life, anyway, with the final scene showing how the title heroine symbolically became "equal" with boy Abdullah and managed to achieve at least a small piece of happiness. A great support is the wonderful character of independent, sometimes even feisty heroine Wadjda, played refreshingly by Waad Mohammed, whose spirit also becomes the film's spirit.

"Wadjda" is directed in a minimalist manner, except for its surprisingly humorous moments which are sometimes unexpectedly tongue-in-cheek. In one scene, for instance, Abdullah and Wadjda are watching the poster of Abdullah's uncle, a politician, and they both comment how the uncle's moustache is so big that even "a falcon could land on them". In another, Abdullah mentions how a man strapped explosives and blew himself up: "Boom, 70 virgins in heaven!" Wadjda, who is interested in something else, just says: "Boom, 70 bicycles!" When Wadjda falls while trying to drive a bicycle on the roof, she goes: "Auch, I'm bleeding!", but her mother, who is behind the wall, is shocked: "Take care of your virginity!", causing Wadjda to clarify: "I'm bleeding from my knee!" The whole story is crafted in a remarkably elegant way, with several stylistic touches (in the opening during a choir in the school, after the teacher called her name, the camera shows two pair of shoes moving both left and right to reveal Wadjda's shoes in the middle, who takes a step forward), delivering a beautiful little film, a small cinematic miracle, with a smile.

Grade:+++

Starcrash

Starcrash; science-fiction, Italy / USA, 1978; D: Luigi Cozzi, S: Caroline Munro, Marjoe Gortner, Joe Spinell, David Hasselhoff, Judd Hamilton, Christopher Plummer

Stella Star and her friend Akton are chased in space by the police. They are caught and sentenced to forced labor for piracy. Stella is annoyed by hard work in the labor camp, and thus escapes. A spaceship with robot Elle picks her up and unites her with Akton again. They are informed that they will be given amnesty if they find Prince Simon, the lost son of the Emperor of the Galaxy, who is fighting against the evil Count Zarth Arn who threatens everyone with a new weapon in the shape of a giant hand in space. Stella finds Simon shipwrecked on a planet of cavemen. They find Count Zarth's underground base, but his two robots kill Akton. Stella and Simon flee with the help of Emperor. Stella flies a giant space-city into Count Zarth's space station, destroying it. Stella and Simon fall in love.

This peculiar Sci-Fi extravaganza combines elements of "Flash Gordon", "Barbarella" and arguably even "Star Wars" (the lightsaber and the droid Elle, who is a C3PO surrogate of sorts), but all this is done in such a humorless, charmless, lifeless, emotionless and bland way that the expected fun never really ignites. However, the director Luigi Cozzi at least has enthusiasm, which is why the movie enjoys cult status. On one hand, being produced in Italy, "Starcrash" shows the unfair competition between independent productions in foreign countries when compared to big-budget Hollywood spectacles, with the latter clearly having an advantage in the science-fiction genre. But on the other hand, when they only had weak visual efefcts (the lame stop-motion sequence of a giant robot chasing Stella on the beach, while an Earth-like planet is seen in the sky) at their disposal, the authors could have at least made these characters interesting, quirky and colorful, which would have given "Starcrash" something going for it. Unfortunately, the story is without much creativity or ingenuity, and is often confusing and difficult to follow.

For instance, heroine Stella and her robot Elle land on a snow planet, while green alien Thor and Akton wait behind at the spaceship. All of a sudden, Thor rebels and hits Akton from behind, who falls unconscious. Now stuck on the snow planet, Elle and Stella lie on the ground so that the robot can keep her alive in this cold. In a time lapse, snow covers them both, implying that days, maybe even weeks passed. But back on the spaceship, Thor is still waiting to start the spaceship, when Akton wakes up and now beats up the alien. Akton then brings back Elle and Stella on the spaceship. There seems to be two different time zones in these two sequences. On the spaceship, only a couple of minutes could have passed, but on the planet, days or weeks went by in order to cover Stella and Elle in snow. In another sequence, while on his space station, villain Count Zarth brags: "By sunset, I will rule the Galaxy!" In space, there is no sunset. The protagonists go from episode to episode, meeting characters (such as the Amazon women who capture Stella) who appear and disappear never to play any role in the story again. In the finale, a torpedo is launched at the bad guy's space station, it crashes through the window—and then the hatch opens and two soldiers emerge from the torpedo (!) to fire lasers at the evil soldiers. The ending is exhaustingly routine, to the point that nobody really cares how these Lego toys attack each other in space anymore. If there is one redeeming feature, then it is the supercool actress Caroline Munro, who is charming and terribly underrated, and one wishes the movie would have given her at least something more to do than to be in this.

Grade:-

Henry Danger (Season 3)

Henry Danger; comedy series, USA, 2016; D: Steve Hoefer, Adam Weissman, Mike Caron, S: Jace Norman, Cooper Barnes, Riele Downs, Sean Ryan Fox, Ella Anderson, Michael D. Cohen, Jeffrey Nicholas Brown, Kelly Sullivan

Teenager Henry Hart secretly works as a superhero Kid Danger, the assistant of Captain Man, the alias of Ray. Together they battle crime on the streets of the city of Swellview. Henry's friends Charlotte and Jasper know of his secret identity, but his little sister Piper and his parents are oblivious of this. Several misadventures happen: Jasper wants to use Henry's speed and recruit him in a dodgeball game; a female villain uses "love muffins" to make Captain Man fall in love with her so that she can enter his secret hideout; Ray's assistant Schwoz helps Charlotte by making a teleportation device for her science project; Captain Man and Kid Danger need to save astronauts from a space station; Schwoz's artificial disease accidentally infects the kids, so he has to quarantine them; Piper takes anger management therapy...

The third season of Nickelodeon's comedy show "Henry Danger" is, thankfully, better than the disappointingly forced second season, and improves the writting with better jokes, though some problems still prevail. One of the major problems is how overstretched some episodes feel. A scene comes to mind from the movie "The Big Short", where it is explained how a limited amount of actual cash in a CDO is used to feign a back up for a 20 times larger amount of fictional money. A similar "comedy-CDO" tactic is used in "Henry Danger": the writers come up with one truly great joke, but then write an entire story around it, and overstretch it to 20 minutes in a given episode with a lot of empty walk and empty improvisation, when in fact they only got a one minute sketch. Episode 3.11 is a good example: a crisis happens, and Henry has to transform into Kid Danger to help save the day, but cannot because he is stuck writting a test in school, while the teacher simply will not let him leave the classroom. Enter assistant and freelance inventor Schwoz, a surrogate D. DeVito of sorts, played by comedian Michael D. Cohen who consistently delivers the funniest moments of the show. Schwoz invents a hologram of Henry writing a test and plays it in a loop in the classroom, while the real Henry goes out to save the day. The good punchline shows up when the teacher always has the urge to talk to Henry, and even shouts right in front of his face, not realizing that she is talking to a recorded hologram. The joke is good, but the rest of the episode feels as if nothing worth mentioning is happening besides that.

Compared with Nickelodeon's other superhero show, "The Thundermans", season 3 of "Henry Danger" feels inferior. "The Thundermans" were careful to avoid a downward graph since they only made 2-3 bad episodes in the entire show, thereby crafting a rather balanced trend of quality. "Henry Danger's" graph of quality is far more eccentric, with several bad episodes (3.15 or 3.17, for instance) just in this season alone, yet that also means that when its line chart is up, its wacky jokes can even surpass "The Thundermans" in terms of hilariocity. Episodes 3.18 and 3.19 offers these kind of moments which are comedy gold. In 3.18, villain Dr. Minyak keeps Piper hostage in her house, and tells Captain Man and Kid Danger, whom he is watching on a live video call, to not move anywhere from their headquarters while Minyak's henchmen rob for the next three hours. Captain and Kid thus cannot move, since Minyak is watching them on the screen, but Schwoz, who was hiding behind the camera, has a genius idea. While Charlotte distracts Minyak pretending to be selling cookies, Schwoz makes a giant copy of the background of the headquarters, puts it on a canvass, attaches it behind Captain's and Kid's back, and puts the camera on a stick in front of them. When Minyak resumes watching the screen, he does not see anything suspicious, while in reality Captain and Kid are slowly walking and heading to beat him up in the house, with the "disguise background" behind them. Episode 3.19 has an insane, demented joke of the short Schwoz disguising himself as the little blond girl Piper and have him dance on the TV reality show "Swellview's Got Talent", featuring dance moves which are howlingly funny. When they invest some effort into it, authors Dan Schneider and Dana Olsen can come up with a few charming moments. But it works better when they are not so dishonest in overstretching things beyond its point of quality: for instance, "Space Invaders" is a two part episode, but in reality, they could have done it in only one episode. While it is amusing to see Piper feeling angry that her lobster commercial is constantly interrupted by breaking news, it is not necessary to prolong this to two episodes.

Grade:++