Cleopatra

Cleopatra; historical drama, USA, 1934; D: Cecil B. DeMille, S: Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Henry Wilcoxon, Joseph Schildkraut, Ian Keith, Gertrude Michael

Ptolemaic Egypt, 48 BC. Cleopatra is the joint ruler of the kingdom with her brother Ptolemy XIII, but his assistant Pothinus has Cleopatra and follower Apollodorus kidnapped and tied to a pole in the desert. When Roman General Julius Caesar arrives with his army, Cleopatra manages to return to Alexandria, hiden inside a rug, and seduce him. Thanks to his inclination, Roman soldiers defeat Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra becomes the sole ruler. In Rome, just as he was about to be declared emperor, Caesar is killed in an assassination, and thus Cleopatra returns to Alexandria. Roman proconsul Mark Antony meets Cleopatra in 41 BC, and they start a relationship. Octavian sends Roman soldiers to attack Egypt under the charges that Antony is disloyal to Rome and controlled by Cleopatra. At the Battle at Actium, Antony is defeated and commits suicide with a sword. Cleopatra kills herself with a snake bite.

Cecil B. DeMille's 7th sound film and the 5th film adapatation of the life of Cleopatra in the history of cinema, this historical drama did not age well and feels, just like most of DeMille's big epics, rather dated by today's standards, and even rushed, yet it still has enough charm and spark to engage the viewers. Most of the appeal is found in Claudette Colbert who is an unusual, yet still charismatic and energetic choice to play the famous last queen of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty. The best comparison could be made with Mankiewicz's twice as longer film "Cleopatra" filmed 29 years later: both follow the same story, yet while Mankiewicz was stronger in quiet drama and weaker in staging scenes of spectacle, DeMille is stronger in his sense for the epic, yet weaker when just following the drama which feels less exciting. The intro is stylistic (a woman stands in front of the camera in a semi-silhouette, seemingly topless, whereas the camera rotates around a statue of a bird with the pedestal holding all the opening credits engraved on it from all sides), while the opening sequence of a kidnapped Cleopatra being brought in carriages to be tied to a pole in the middle of the desert also has aesthetic shot compositions which surpass Mankiewicz. However, this is followed by a rather boring dialogue-heavy middle part of the film, when "Cleopatra" starts to run on 'autopilot' and everything becomes too routine and standard. There are still some interesting moments left, such as when Cleopatra shows her funny side in one scene with Antony (she is drunk and has a hiccup, but insists that "a queen can not have a hiccup"), or her tough side when she has a criminal executed by having him drink poison, yet the movie doesn't lift-off again all until the fantastic, excitingly staged sequence of the battle between the Roman and Egyptian forces in the finale (great images of attack carriages arriving over the desert horizon while the defenders are crouching on the lower side of the frame; dozens of spears passing by a statue; soldiers fighting and falling dead in the desert sand).

Grade:++

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; animated fantasy, USA, 2023; D: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, S: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Vélez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soi, Greta Lee, Daniel Kaluuya, Mahershala Ali, Oscar Isaac

In the alternate universe of Earth-65, Gwen Stacy is Spider-Woman, while Peter Parker is a nerd pushed by a bully. Parker takes a magic potion, transforms into a giant Lizard and attacks the bully, but Spider-Woman kills him in self-defense. The Lizard de-transforms into Parker, and her father, a police officer, thinks Spider-Woman killed him. Gwen becomes a member of the Spider-Society, which unites all different versions of Spider-Men across all known alternte universes, and so she brings Miles Morales, Spider-Man from Earth-1610, with her through the portal. They save a police captain in Mumbattan, an alternate Manhattan populated by Hindi peope, from the carnage caused by villain Spot, but are then summoned to the Spider-Society headquarters. There, Spider-Miguel explains Miles that police captains are meant to die in each alternate universe, forming the "cannon event" which forms Spider-Men, and that Miles' dad is destined to die, too. Miles rebels and escapes, trying to save his dad, a police officer. Miles returns to the wrong dimension, Earth-42, where his dad is already dead, Spider-Man never happened, his uncle Aaron is a criminal, while the alternate world Miles is a villain, Prowler.

The sequel to the surprisingly quality-made "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse", which aligned with the trend of several movies from that time focusing around the multiverse, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" is surprisingly equally as good, though less funny and much more dramatic and contemplative in its final, third act. The screenwriters Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Dave Callaham send Miles Morales / Spider-Man on a complicated, wild ride through alternate universes to pose some universal life questions about fatalism, determinism, destiny and individuality, yet they also don't forget to make the whole storyline entertaining and just plain fun. The opening 20 minutes are weak, confusing and autistic, with a very rushed transformation of Peter Parker into a giant lizard, yet after the opening credits, the film rises to the occasion and becomes much better. The fight between Spider-Man and Spot, a villain with foot-long black spots on his body that have the ability of creating portals to different locations, is wonderfully creative and playful: Spot wants to rob an ATM machine by placing a black spot on it to simply reach with his hand inside and get the money, Spider-Man asks how much he owes for the beef patty he is eating, so the store owner replies: "Spidey, if you catch him, it's on the house!" Spider-Man tries to battle and catch Spot in the store, but he has trouble, and even at one point gets his hand with the spider-web glued to his head, so the store owner changes his mind and says: "Maybe just pay me now." 

The fight goes outside to the streets of Brooklyn, where at one point Spot places two black spots, one near him, the other near Spider-Man, and then Spot just thrusts his fist inside his own black spot and it emerges on the other side, hitting Spider-Man in the head. Some of the best bits happen during the human 'slice-of-life' moments and character interactions: in one of them, Miles arrives late to the outdoor party of his parents, and they start arguing, louder and louder, so the DJ "subtly" increases the volume of the music, as for the guests to not hear all the arguing. In the Spider-Society headquarters, where hundreds of Spider-Men from different alternate universes work together, Miles / Spider-Man decides to escape, so the alarm voice goes: "All stations, drop what you're doing and stop Spider-Man!" Cue to the movie recreating the classic Internet meme of three Spider-Mans pointing at each other. At one point, Miles even has to fight a Spider-T-Rex (!) from an alternate universe. Some ideas were dumb, though (alternate dimensions with live-action people and Lego people). The theme of the radical Spider-Society leader Miguel is poignant—each goal followed exactly to the extreme ultimately becomes evil in itself—while there are a lot of neat visual touches and ideas throughout, as if every animator decides to add something in the sequence. The high impression is debased in the rather disappointing "cliffhanger ending" which is an anticlimactic let-down, forcing the viewers to wait for the 3rd film to see how this already long story will conclude. Still, "Across the Spider-Verse" is a much more multilayered film than it appears, speaking about people's aspiration to be something more in life, someone special, and proves that sometimes popular entertainment and high art don't necessarily have to be two different things.

Grade:+++

Love Actually

Love Actually; romantic comedy, UK / France / USA, 2003; D: Richard Curtis, S: Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Laura Linney, Keira Knightley, Lucia Moniz, Liam Neeson, Thomas Sangster, Gregor Fisher, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Martine McCutcheon, Andrew Lincoln, Rodrigo Santoro, Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Rowan Atkinson, Claudia Schiffer, Ivana Miličević, Denise Richards

London, five weeks before Christmas. Mark tapes the wedding of Juliet and Peter with his camera. When Juliet insists on seeing the recording, she finds out Mark only taped her face and is in love with her... Writer Jamie falls in love with his Portuguese maid Aurelia, but she doesn't speak English... Harry, the director of an agency, decides to buy a necklace for Christmas for one of his attractive employees, Mia, but his wife Karen spots the gift... David, the British Prime Minister, falls in love with his assistant Natalie... After the death of his wife, Daniel tries to help his 10-year old son Sam gain affection of the girl he is in love with, Joanna, by having him play the drums on her school concert... Sarah finally asks her coworker Karl out on a date... Colin doesn't have success with women, so he travels to Wisconsin and meets three American girls at a bar who fall for his British accent... Stand-ins for a sex scene in a film, John and Judy, decide to go out on a date...

The feature length debut film of screenwriter Richard Curtis is definitely weaker than his previous screenwriting-exclusive works, such as "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "Bridget Jones's Diary", but it still has enough of his specific charm and heart-warming humanity that it is able to stand on its own. "Love Actually" has a major problem: it is overburdened by its 9 different stories which are of uneven, disparate quality, since at least four of them are weak and should have been cut (Daniel and Sam; Harry and Karen; Colin; Sarah and Karl) for the sake of a more fluent pace and narrative. These four are simply subpar. The story of Sam, a 10-year old who is in love with a girl, so his dad Daniel tries to help him and persuades him to even run through metal detector control at the airport, so he is chased by several security guards, only to say goodbye to the girl before her flight, becomes so naive, sugary and cliche that it is embarassing. And no joke in said story is able to outweigh the cringe factor in that airport finale. Another missed opportunity is the Sarah and Karl story: it starts off great, with the boss Harry and Sarah having this exchange: "Tell me, exactly, how long it is that you've been working here?" - "2 years, 7 months, 3 days and, I suppose, what... 2 hours". - "And how long have you been in love with Karl?" - "2 years, 7 months, 3 days and, I suppose, an hour and 30 minutes." Sarah and Karl finally go out, they go to bed, start kissing, but all of a sudden her phone rings—and instead of ignoring it and enjoying the person she loved and is right there with her now, she stops and picks up the phone to have the call. After the call, they try to resume kissing, but then the phone rings again—and instead of taking a hint from Karl's angry reaction, she again picks up the phone and talks for minutes, until the momentum is gone. This is anticlimactic. 

Colin's story is the most preposterous. Having no luck with British women, he concludes that he has better chances with American women, as he hilariously declares: "I'm Colin, God of sex, I'm just on the wrong continent". He indeed travels to the US, to Wisconsin, goes to a bar, and then meets three attractive American women who find his British accent charming. They invite him to their home, to sleep over, in the same bed, without clothes, because it is "too hot inside" the bedroom. Throughout, you expect that this will turn out to be a parody or some sort of a satirical dream sequence at the end, and expect a cynical punchline. But no. This exaggerated, ridiculous situation is presented straight-forward, in all seriousness, as something realistic. It's a parody that doesn't know it's a parody, something like Poe's law. Luckily, other stories are better and charming, with great performances by Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Bill Nighy as the cynical rock star. The story where Jamie and his maid Aurelia fall in love, but cannot communicate because they only speak English and Portuguese, respectively, but in the end learn each other's languague to ask each other out, is sweet, as is the one involving Juliet realizing Mark filmed only her close-ups at the wedding, and completely forgot about filming her husband, because he is secretly in love with her. There are too many stories here, but the Christmas finale is emotional, optimistic and uplifting, believing in the kindness of people. Curtis combines all these characters by a common search for love, and although he is actually more inspired during the more sarcastic-cynical moments than during the syrupy ones, "Love Actually" is a feel-good fairytale that gives idealistic energy to its viewers.

Grade:++

All Those Sensations in My Belly

Sve te senzacije u mom trbuhu; animated documentary / drama short, Croatia / Portugal, 2020; D: Marko Dješka, S: Matia Anna Plešo

Matia, a transgender woman, narrates her life: born as a boy, he started using lipstick at the age of 12, was beaten by school students, while the teacher told him: "Do you have to dress up as a fag?" He started feeling attracted to men: he expressed his feelings towards his friend, a guy, but the latter just started "ghosting" him. At college, he had longer hair and tried dating other men, but they would all just disappear. He contemplated suicide with pills. He dressed up in a skirt and long wig, but was almost raped in a night club. Finally, he decided he was a woman. She surrounded herself with nice people and friends, and continued with her new life as a woman.

A rare quality Croatian animated short film with a rare topic about transgender transformation, Marko Djeska's "All Those Sensations in my Belly" is a story that somehow hits you hard. The animation is "caricature" and simplified, but that emotional experience that it is presenting is incredible. In only 13 minutes, it chornicles the heroine's account of slowly coming to terms that he was born as a boy, but wanted to be a woman. The visual representation of her feelings is creative: in one sequence, while she was still a teenage guy, he gave a birthday present to his friend, but as he kissed him, he experienced "sensations" in his stomach, depicted with thousands of red blood cells floating in a "river", going through his hands or through his stomach, as the whole background becomes white, transporting him into "another world". Djeska shows this story as it is narrated, objective, and yet with understanding. This is the path the heroine felt was honest to her, and she decided to take it, regardless of all the obstacles. She simply felt it needed to be this way, even though she herself didn't understand why. The heroine went to several dates during college, but all of them abandoned her and never called back, depicted in such scenes as she having a drink in a bar with a man who "disappears" while his glass falls down, or going out with a man who "disappears" while his ice cream falls on her trousers in the middle of the walk. The pivotal sequence is the surreal illustration of her transformation to a woman: her arm emerges from the ground and she exits, looking back at her male body lying there in the forest, with a hole in the chest, as if she shedded her skin and went on to be a woman from now on. The story is sad and depressive, but Djeska showed it in a beautiful and poetic way, with all those abstract colors and cinematic depictions that expressed her emotions.

Grade:+++

Don't Look Up

Don't Look Up; science-fiction black comedy / satire, USA, 2021; D: Adam McKay, S: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Ariana Grande

Astronomers Randall Mindy and Kate Dibiasky discover a 6-9 km wide comet and calculate that it will hit Earth directly in six months. They inform the authorities, but get a lukewarm reception from the US President Janie Orlean in the White House, who doesn't want to scare the voters. They appear at a TV news show, but the audience is more interested in their looks and reactions than in the danger approaching. The US launches a rocket with nuclear weapons to blow up the comet, but billionaire Isherwell cancels it because he found out the comet is composed out of valuable rare-Earth minerals, and thus he intends to let it approach Earth, to then blow it up into small pieces and collect the debris in the Ocean. Naturally, the drones launched at the comet malfunction. Mindy spends his last day with his ex-wife on a family dinner. Orlean, Isherwell and numerous other celebrities escape in a spaceship with cryogenic sleep to space, while the comet crashes on Earth, causing a mass extinction.

After several light and fun comedies, screenwriter and director Adam McKay turned towards more pessimistic, socially critical films which criticized human flaws, which culminated in "Don't Look Up", a movie where those flaws cause the extinction of the human race. However, unlike the razor sharp "The Big Short" and "Vice", where every scene had its purpose and inspiration, here McKay lost his sense for the concise and turned slightly banal and heavy-handed in preaching its message across. "Don't Look Up" shows once again that themes alone don't make a movie. The themes here—modern people became so lazy that they rather ignore a pressing problem than to tackle it in time; denial of an inconvenient truth (ostrich effect); the superficial masses interested more in someone's appearance and distracting Internet gratifications than real-life problems; obfuscation of truth; Capitalism and profit getting in the way of an expensive, but necessary solution—are noble and valuable, especially since they allegorically talk about the climate change, but the execution is far below them. There are too many silly, trivial caricature moments that don't ring true. 

Also, it seems it is impossible to make a comedy out of a doomsday event—even the similar "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World" tried, but was only semi-successful. One of the best moments is when the two protagonists, Randall and Kate, appear on a TV news show and warn people of the impending comet crash, but the reactions of the audience is only focused on irrelevant stuff, like making an Internet meme out of Kate running away from the studio in anger, and inventing a hashtag A.I.L.F. ("Astronomer I'd like to f***") for Randall. Another good moment is when the US President Orlean speaks in front of an audience, to try to incite them to ignore the comet visible in the sky: "They want you to look up because they want you to be afraid! They are looking down their noses at you!", which is a sly jab at ignoring the common sense in the name of political spite, fake defiance and contrarianism. The "killer ending" would have worked better without the bizarre post-credits scene, though, and the running time is overlong, without the great humor we were used from McKay from before. "Don't Look Up" is a good film, a cautionary tale about self-inflicting ignorance, though it is disproportionately more dedicated to its theme than its writing, ingenuity or style. "Queen Millennia" is still the best story about a possible reaction of the people to a hypothetical collision of Earth with a foreign object. 

Grade:++

Rembetiko

Rembetiko; drama, Greece, 1983; D: Costas Ferris, S: Sotiria Leonardou, Nikos Kalogeropoulos, Michalis Maniatis, Spyros Mavides, Giorgos Zorbas, Nikos Dimitratos

Smyrna, 1 9 1 9. Panagis is a musician of Rembetiko, a Greek music. His wife, Andriana, gives birth to their daughter, Marika. During the Greco-Turkish War, Smyrna is burned and numerous Greeks flee to Greece, including Panagis, Andriana and Marika. Angered and jealous that Andriana sleeps around with a night club owner to secure their gigs, Panagis kills her by throwing a chair at her. Decades later, Marika has a fling with traveling Yiannis, but when she gives birth to their daughter, Andriana, he feigns he needs to find another job as a sailor and disappears. Marika herself becomes a Rembetiko singer, and performs with Yorgos and bouzouki player Babis. World War II strikes, but the band continues playing, while Andriana is given to foster care. Marika is in love with Babis, but their relationship never works out. A grown up Andriana performs in a bikini in a night club and rejects Marika for abandoning her when she was a child. Marika performs in America for Greek diaspora in the 50s, but the Rembetiko music is dead and out of fashion by this time. Marika returns to Greece, where one night a random stranger stabs her in the stomach and she thus dies.

Even though the Greek Film Association included it in its list of 10 best Greek films of all times in two polls, "Rembetiko" is a melodramatic and syrupy soap opera with overlong music numbers of the Rembetiko music which may be appreciated by Greek culture, but for everyone else in the world it will be a chore. A chronicle of the life of the fictional singer Marika, this saga traverses routinely from one historical benchmark to another, from the Smyrna pogrom, through Metaxas' dictatorship up to World War II, yet without much care, inspiration or justification for bringing them up, and thus Angelopolous did it better in his similar "The Travelling Players". The movie simply lacks highlights. It is strangely straight-forward, without some humor, creativity or ingenuity that would enrich this conventional story. One good moment is when Marika is encouraged to try to sing for the first time in front of the audience, and thus she has flashbacks of her formative events (her father hitting her with a belt when she was a child; her mother dying on the floor; two doves flying into the frame, as symbol for the birth of her daughter), and thus finds inspiration in them to give a very heartfelt performance. There are some parallels between her and her father Panagis, as much as she hated him—both were Rembetiko performers; both became estranged from their daughter; both were forgotten—which are well done, yet most of the film is simply boring, one-dimensional and grey. Some scenes are exaggerated (after Marika's daughter declares she doesn't want to see her, a performer randomly hits a mirror with his fist, breaking it and leaving a bloody spot, to underline their "break up"), but none as much as the stupid, ridiculous and unconvincing finale involving a man randomly stabbing the heroine, which wrecks the film. There are random episodes plastered throughout the film, yet they never align into a harmonious whole, nor are they that interesting to watch to endure the film's running time of 150 minutes.

Grade:+

The Favourite

The Favourite; historical black comedy, UK / Ireland / USA, 2018; D: Yorgos Lanthimos, S: Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman, Nicholas Hoult

England, 1705. The British are at war with the French Empire, while the poor Abigail Hill arrives to the court of Queen Anne in search for a job. Abigail isn't satisfied with the job of a maid, so she decides to climb up the ladder by presenting herbs that help Anne's sick legs. However, Anne's favorite is Sarah Churchill, who also uses the Queen to influence politics, and Abigail spots them in a lesbian relationship. Abigail tells Sarah that she knows her secret, but Sarah ignores her. Abigail becomes friends with politician Harley. Abigail puts drugs in Sarah's tea, causing Sarah to fall unconscious during a ride on a horse, until it is stopped at a brothel. In her absence, Abigail becomes Anne's new favorite and gains a noble status. Sarah returns, but Anne expels her. When Anne wakes up, she orders Abigail to massage her foot.

"The Favourite" seems like someone decided to take a dry historical story and make it as bizarre and grotesque as possible, and thus the strange director Yorgos Lanthimos was a good choice, managing to enrich the story with unusual camera angles, wide-angle lenses or distorted fonts of subtitles that stand out from the rest of such costume dramas. Despite all these bizarre interventions, the sole story is actually a rather universal "rags to riches" tale in which two women (Abigail, Sarah) are fighting each other for the affection of Queen Anne, trying to use her power to rise through the ranks, which is easy to understand. Numerous films were made about employees fighting for a promotion in a company or to please their boss, and thus this tale isn't that far off from this trend, despite centuries of difference. Emma Stone stands out as Abigail, whereas Lanthimos adds quirky ideas here and there (a duck race in slow motion; nobles throwing pomegranates at a naked jester for fun). However, the dialogue is not that strong, and the jokes are not that fun. Most of the humor is just grotesque (a servant holds a metal bucket while Queen Anne throws up, but then she just resumes playing cards and even takes another bite; the 17 rabbits as "replacements" for Anne's dead children), instead of also being more uplifting or triumphant. Lanthimos conjures up a rather realistic environment at times (for instance, the night scenes are only partially illuminated by candles, to illustrate how it was during that time), yet the story never really takes off on a higher level, among other due to the weird, incomplete ending. Sometimes bizarrities don't always translate into quality.

Grade:++

Cutey Honey Flash

Cutey Honey Flash; animated fantasy series, Japan, 1997; D: Noriyo Sasaki, Hiroyuki Kakudou, S: Ai Nagano, Susumu Chiba, Makiko Ohmoto, Ginzou Matsuo, Chiho Ookawa, Shizuka Okohira

Honey Kisaragi thought she is just a normal teenage girl in an all-girls academy, all until the day her father, who is absent for long time periods due to unknown trips, is kidnapped by an evil organization named Panther Claw, and their house is found burned down. Honey is contacted by Prince Zera who gives Honey a necklace which enables her to transform into various identities, including superheroine Cutey Honey. Honey is joined by inspector Seiji, and is supported by friend Natsu. A new transfer student, Seira, announces she is Honey's lost sister and that she hates her. Honey finds out her father once worked for Panther Claw, creating a universal matter transformer, but used it to create Honey, who is an artifical lifeform. Seira was seperated from them and is killed by the Panther Claw. Father is also killed. Finally, Cutey Honey battles and defeats Sister Jill and panther Zora. The students escape from the vilain hideout in a Zeppelin. Three years later: Honey and Seiji have a daughter and get married, despite Sister Jill showing up to try to attack them.

24 years after the first anime adaptation of Go Nagai's 'magical girl' story "Cutey Honey", a new version appeared, "Cutey Honey Flash", which is an improvement. Just as "Sailor Moon Sailor Stars" concluded in 1997, several staff members of said anime—including directors Yuji Endo and Takuya Igarashi; screenwriters Katsuyuki Sumizawa and Ryota Yamaguchi; and animators Shigetaka Kiyoyama and Miho Shimogasa—picked up right where they ended and continued their work on this anime, which gives it a similar feel, including a more romanticized mood and genuine emotions as compared to the rather grotesque original '73 anime. "Cutey Honey Flash" embodies the classic 'magical girl' traits—a teenage girl is given superpowers to fight against the forces of evil, and in the process grows up and finds love—which touches upon some universal human archetypes, such as coming-of-age, realizing that there are dark sides to the world which come with growing up, self-actualization and discovering hidden potentials within. Sadly, as with most modern anime series, the first couple of episodes are great, only to then "give up" and settle for ordinary stories when routine comes to dominate the narrative. The pilot episode is indeed fantastic: the heroine Honey is shown winning in a fencing duel, while all the school students around her cheer, to give a sly foreshadowing of her destiny as superheroine Cutey Honey who also uses a sword to fight the villains, and as the camera pans up, it stops at her head, Honey takes the sabre mask off, reveals her face, the background changes and becomes illuminated by a glow for a second, and then it returns back to normal as Honey wipes off the sweat from her face. 

A few episodes after it are still inspired, such as #3 where the Panther Claw wants to steal a wedding dress of a woman with jewels on them, so Honey and Seiji decide to lure them in a trap by staging a fake wedding with themselves in the church. The priest pronounces them husband and wife and tells them to kiss, causing an awkward feeling between the two "actors", and as Seiji leans forward towards her, Honey thinks to herself: "Where are you Panther Claw? Hurry up, already, damn it!" Sadly, other episodes are a lot weaker, and mostly revolve only around Panther Claw trying to steal diamonds or jewels from somewhere, or Honey's matter transformer. The second season introduces a new character, Seira, Honey's lost sister, but it doesn't work (she proclaims how she hates Honey and wants to destroy her, yet, for some reason, nobody reacts in the academy nor threatens to expel her), and thus it is welcomed when she is removed again in season 3. Here and there, a few good ideas appear that stand out, such as in episode #33, where Panther Claw hijacks a space station, so Seiji asks Honey to simply transform into "space shuttle Honey" and fly into space, upon which she replies: "Don't talk nonsense!" And #37 features a suprisingly tender, albeit brief and subtle "sex scene" when Seiji wants to leave, but Honey hugs him from behind, and they are shown separately naked later. But most of the other episodes are standard, when the story needed more highlights to justify its running time of 39 episodes. However, the closing credits' song of Honey standing alone on a meadow on a hill is a chef d'oeuvre of magical and endearing melancholy, and is even more fascinating in the penultimate episode #38 when all the students, Seiji and the three teachers appear with Honey on the same meadow, in a unique finale. A follow-up wedding episode #39 is solid. There is only one "Sailor Moon", but in its absence even a lighter 'magical girl' version like "Cutey Honey Flash" is a good substitute.

Grade:++

Apocalypto

Apocalypto; adventure thriller; USA, 2006; D: Mel Gibson, S: Rudy Youngblood, Raoul Trujillo, Mayra Sérbulo, Dalia Hernández

Central America, 16th century. Jaguar Paw is one of the Native American hunters living with a tribe in a jungle village. His pregnant wife Seven awaits his second child. One night, Maya warriors attack the village, kill many and capture a dozen villagers, including Jaguar Paw. They tie them up by the nack to several sticks and walk them to the Maya capital and start sacrifising them on the pyarmid thinking it will end a plague of their crops. When an eclipse happens, the human sacrifice is stopped. Captives are released to be hunted and killed by a Maya warlord. A wounded Jaguar Paw escapes into the jungle and kills the Maya warlords hunting him. Jaguar Paw saves Seven and his child who were stuck on the bottom of a pit during the rain. Spanish ships arrive at the beach, revealing conquistadors.

Mel Gibson's 4th directorial work, "Apocalypto" is a disturbing and brutal depiction of life of the Native Americans in the 16th century, showing once again Gibson's major problem: his fascination with blood, gore and violence rivals Tarantino at some points. On the one hand, it offers a rarely explored cinematic theme of the Maya civilization which, though inaccurate at moments (the Aztecs were actually practicing human sacrifice, the Mayas much less so), should be viewed as a meticulous attempt to reconstruct a long-gone pre-colonial world, including the clothes and the language of the Native Americans. But on the other hand, several mistakes were made in the storyline, which is a banal depiction of the hero being kidnapped by the Mayas, and then escaping from them, the end. The first act is the worst, since 18 minutes are spent on a stupid, lame subplot of the tribesmen mocking a hunter who cannot impregnate his wife, culminating in a terrible sequence where a man gives him a special leaf, the hunter rubs it on his penis, but as he goes to make love to his wife in the cottage, he screams and runs outside to jump into water to cool of his crotch, as everyone around him is laughing since they tricked him to rub an itchy leaf on his skin. This is more of an attempt at "Native American Pie" than some good writing. The rest is more serious and naturalistic, though, yet many viewers will be shocked by the cruel, vile, dark world depicted (a Mayan warlord unties a captured villager and throws him down a cliff; a Mayan priest cuts out the heart of the captured villager during human sacrifice, and throws his decapitated head rolling down the stairs of the pyramid; the protagonist uses three thorns to dip them into a poisoned frog to be later used as darts against his hunters). Some plot points are illogical (why would the protagonist hide his wife and child down a deep pit from which they cannot climb out of? Wouldn't it be better if they had fled into the jungle during the raid?), and it sends a questionable message: these people are depicted as so primitive, both in rural and urban areas, with almost no reedeming features, that the arrival of Spanish/European colonialists almost seems like a liberation and an upgrade from this quagmire, or it could be Gibson inserting a thought that the arrival of Christianity saved Mayans from these false religions of human sacrifice for harvest. It still has some other features which work, since its theme is intruiging: a civilization is not conqeured from without until it has destroyed itself from within.

Grade:++