johnny-08

Modern America is like Murray show where opinions are created for greater masses & every difference is looked upon with contempt. Such is mindless campaign to boycott a movie because it will provoke violence in a country where gun can be bought while shopping for groceries.

Joker is examination of people's behavior towards those in need, sick individuals who are pushed to the margins just because they need help. While city is choking in garbage, funds are being cut on social help & medical care, elite in suits are smiling while watching Chaplin. Wayne is not different then the others and he's finally given human approach rather then all good hero that tried to save Gotham in all other creations.

There are no heroes in this movie, there is no light at the end of tunnel & there is no sympathy for titular character but rather a big punch in the face from Todd Phillips to all of us who are actually living in our own Murray show day in day out without ever taking time to reflect what surrounds us.

Joker is a must see movie that will make you think about times we live in, about our role in the system & the ones on top never liked ordinary thinking people. Burton took his Joker straight from comics as he fell in acid, but Phillips only needed to put his protagonist in today's world.

So who's laughing now?

'Død snø (Dead Snow)' is a Norwegian horror movie about group of students on Easter vacation in mountains, only to find that they're not alone. Zombies are here, but not regular zombies, Nazi-zombies! Yes, pretty crazy.

Now the good parts of this movie are most of the killings, they're done in convincing and sometimes crazy-cool way (like probably the best scene in the movie when Martin and Roy confront the Nazi-zombies). And Wirkola keeps the tempo of his movie right until the end; there is no stopping of action or slashing once that Nazi-zombies reveal themselves. As you probably guess these are all the good parts. The bad ones include illogical story about zombies; I know it doesn't matter in this type of movie but how did they actually become zombies? How much soldiers are there (cause it seems like there are hundreds of them and that doesn't work with the part where they tell us that villagers killed some of the soldiers and some escaped in the mountains)? To put these questions aside, 'Dead Snow' deals with typical slasher movie problem, where there is no room left to work on character development and so we end up not being sympathetic towards the characters, but it seems like that was the intention of the director (slash first, talk-questions second).

Nazi-zombies are well made, they act like tougher versions of Barbossa & his crew in first 'Pirates' movie where their curse needs to be broken with pieces of gold - here zombies search for the same thing. In all this slashing and killing there is time for some funny moments which I particularly liked and presumably slasher lovers won't be disappointed with this title, because it is better then most new American slash movies, but 'Dead Snow' doesn't add anything new to the genre but it does make a fun, maniacal 90 minutes of your life.

I had to see absolute winner of Pula Film Festival (best director,actor,music...) so I had high expectations about this one and I must say that I'm not disappointed at all. Since I also saw play "Niciji sin" from Vinko Brešan in theater in Rijeka, I was familiar with the script.

In short description, this movie is about Ivan, ex-singer and war veteran who lost both legs in war. Ivan also has to face with his broken marriage and son that he doesn't see. Ivan has no future, just like lot of his colleagues from war (who either kill themselves or end up in institution). His father, Izidor is political candidate and he wants to win on elections desperately. His campaign is disturbed when Serbian refugee Simo comes to his house and starts to blackmail him. Soon, all secrets will come out.

This movie is very interesting to people from this areas, who are familiar to events that happened in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia during the war and after it. Foreigners who are not familiar with situation here in the war can easily learn something about it because the whole point of the story is about ex-soldiers who have obvious problems from war, and no one can help them. They are left to die alone and misunderstood (same story with American soldiers in Iraq - greatly told in "In the Valley of Elah"). Also I have to say that Ostojic movie is better then Bresan play because it's deeper in characterization (ironical parts are strong in both play and movie). Events are told retrospectively and the whole movie is carried by Alen Liveric in the main role. Liveric is brilliant and this is definitely the best acted role in Croatian movie for 2008. Liveric has support from legendary Mustafa Nadarevic and actors like Biserka Ipsa, Zdenko Jelcic, Goran Grgic and others. Everyone is great in their roles and I think this is the best Croatian movie in 2008. "Niciji sin" is Croatia's 2009 Academy Awards official submission to Foreign-Language Film category and it fully deserved that because it's a story about a family that is condemned to doom cause of stupid war. Recommended, especially for audience who likes festival types of movies rather then blockbusters with no brains.