Dersu Uzala by Akira Kurosawa (1975.)

Dersu Uzala is a product of Japanese-Russian coproduction. The film is based on a book, written by Vladimir Arsenyev , based on a true story. Vladimir Arsenyev is a Russian explorer, ona mission to explore the remote part of Russian wilderness, eastern Siberia. He's send on a mission, along with a handful of soldiers, to mark the forests, mountains, mountain tops, rivers, lakes... Most of those regions have never been explored by any human, or so they thought... On his mission he meets a hunter named Dersu Uzala. Dersu's Russian is not that good, but they learn to understand eachother and Dersu becomes their guide through the Siberian wildreness. That's where an atypical friendship between a Russian military captain and a hunter who lives within the forests starts. I believe this is all I can say about the story without spoiling it.
I should say that Kurosawa is one of my favorite directors. This film, however, isn't typical Kurosawa, or a typical Russian film. It tells a hearttouching story of an encounter Vladimir Arsenyev never expected to happen. It is not a high budget film and one can easily see that, but when it comes to acting, directing and screenplay writing, this film is top class. Vladimir Arsenyev wrote a book based on his memories and it all seems natural. One can easily see that the only motive for writing this book is the friendship itself, not an agenda of any kind. That is one of the things that make this film so good. Kurosawa's directing is perfect, as always. He still uses his own style, even tho it's not 100% his film or Japanese. Being that the film is in Russian, all of the actors are Russian, or from Russia. They all seemed natural and good at what they did. It's a damn shame west didn't pay much attention to this film, because it was made in USSR, their sworn enemy. This film is so innocent and lovely, just like Dersu's soul, and it deserves everyone's attention. It's a definite must see for every living filmlover. If I was to rate this film I would give it 10/10 without spending 2 seconds thinking.

Shitlist 2011. vol. 1

I heaven't yet reviewed everything worth watching in 2011. but I feel like I should give you a headsup on what you shouldn't even bother seeing. Oscars are coming and I will make a post about the nominees, but not just yet.

Just Go With It (2011.) - I'm pretty sure I haven't yet seen a worse film in 2011. and I have seen three films made by Uwe Boll. The only thing I can say about this is "predictable and stupid". Duh, I know it's "just" a comedy, but even for a comedy it's too damn stupid. 

Jack and Jill (2011.) - Don't really feel like saying anything about this one. Is it worse than the previous one? It really doesn't matter. Just stay away from it and you'll be fine. 

Johnny English Reborn (2011.) - As much as I respect Rowan Atkinson, this film isn't even worth mentioning. If I was him I'd stop acting after being in a film such as this one. Get your shit together, Rowan.

Conan The Barbarian (2011.) - First of all, why would anyone go as far as remake the original film, second of all, it's one of the worst films that I've seen this year. Forget about it. 

Straw Dogs (2011.) - Another remake. This time, someone decided to remake Sam Peckinpah's classic, starring Dustin Hoffman. I'm gonna write a review about the original in the next couple of days. Remake of it made it to my shitlist because it's dumb, shallow and it really doesn't say anything. Seems like they took all of the story, but forgot to steal what really mattered in the original.

No Strings Attached and Friends With Benefits (2011.) - Didn't wanna waste time writing about these 2 films separately. Well, both films are about a couple that decided to have sex without being in a relationship and how both of those couples failed. Nothing new, nothing original, nothing funny. So, unless you're in love with one of the actors, you should burn the DVD and forget all about it. 

Transformers 3 - I believe even kids hated this shit. The story is dumb, acting is terrible and it's directed by Michael Bay (again). So I don't feel like I should say anything more.

Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Well, it really isn't possible to make a good film out of a shitty book. And those books are fucking stupid and shallow. If you've already seen any of the films from the series... I feel sorry for you.

Zookeeper - Don't wanna waste words. It's everything but funny.

Idi i smotri (Come and See) by Elem Klimov

OK, decided to leave English speaking zone and show you something out of the "box". This is a war film, made in today's Belarus. One would expect a film full of communist propaganda, but this film is nothing like it. I've seen 'Enemy At The Gates', an American film about WW2 eastern front, but that film focuses on all the wrong things. This film, however, focuses on what war really is, not what govenments want you to see.
This film follows a life of a boy, in the middle of the German occupation of his homeland. I don't want to spoil much, so I'll just leave it at that storywise. Every aspect of this film was made ingeniusly. I don't really know where to start. Elem Klimov didn't make many films in his liftime (which is a shame). The way he presented the war and everything that follows hasn't yet been seen in an english speaking film, so some people are right to call this film the best war film ever made. It doesn't have cheesy comments, military power propaganda, or lies... It's just raw perfection, served cold. Don't have predjuces about it because it's in Belarus, it's worth reading them subtitles.
bob. 

Lemmy (2010.) by Greg Olliver and Wes Orshoski

Once I believed that it was impossible not to know who Lemmy was. Since then I've talked to a bunch of people who had no idea about Motorhead's work, not to mention Hawkwind and Lemmy as a persona. If you're one of those guys who spent most of their life living under a rock, this documentary is a nice way for you to get to know Lemmy, find out who he is and what he did.
I'm kind of new to reviewing documentaries, so I'll just focus on what I think matters. This film follows Lemmy Kilmister's daily routine, shows interviews with friends of his, regular people whom he encounters, ex band members (he was a member of a space rock band called Hawkwind before founding Motorhead.)... Personaly, I can't think of a more suiting way of showing who Lemmy really is. Both him and the interviewed people speak openly about everything. Noways it's quite popular to talk cleanly, excluding the dirty details when it comes  artist's life. Lemmy just doesn't do it. For him, everything that he's done is a part of himself in one way or another. Drug use, sex life, music... One can just see that he speaks nothing but the truth. He doesn't care what people will think of him, he let's everyone know that that's who Lemmy is and if they don't like it they're gonna have to learn to deal with it. This documentary made yours truely more of a fan of Lemmy as a person than ever before. I used to enjoy what he did in both Hawkwind and Motorhead. Both of those bands play kind of unique music, different and inovative in so many ways.
I hope you guys found this useful. If you're not fans of Lemmy to begin with, I'd go with this documentary as a good introduction to what Lemmy made in his lifetime. His music had a huge influence on what was later called music, but shamefully not as much influence to a music today (implying that music today sucks). Give it a shot and you won't regret it. Cheers!

Bob.

Il grande silenzio (The Great Silence) by Sergio Corbucci

When speaking of Corbucci, the first thing that comes to most people's minds is Django, famous spaghetti western, staring Franco Nero. This film is a lot like Django. Well, in a way all of Corbucci's westerns are alike. There is a central figure, Franco Nero, and there are the bad guys that need to get asskicked, and good guys that need help. Now, that is just basic knowlege when it comes to spaghetti subgenre. What happens inbetween is what matters.
The main difference between classic American westerns and Italian "spaghetti" westerns is the fact that Italian films spoke more freely about political stuff, what American directors didn't even think about doing. They were too general when speaking of it, while Italians didn't really have a good reason to hide all of that. They just let it flow through their films. In this case, it's not a typical spaghetti western. They're usually set in remote parts of the west, desert-like plains, with small towns, saloons.... This is a genuine snow western. Here, riders fight the snow rush and not the heat. A new gunman is in town. He doesn't speak, he just kills. He's filled with anger and is in pursuit of vengeance. Who is he against? Why? What's everyones agenda? Well, that's the only thing you can actually spoil in these films, so I'll skip that part. If you've seen one spaghetti western and you're used to the general voice over thing, you won't mind. Some of the actors spoke english, but were still voiceovered. It doesn't sound perfect, but it's something that makes those films unique. Feel free to also check out Django, if you already haven't.
One can hardly call this film ingenius or Corbucci a master, but it's still quite entertaining. If you enjoy seeing one Italian western, you'll easily enjoy them all, including this one. I was talking about political things in Italian westerns, but don't think that this is a political thriller with deep message and stuff like that. It's just a western, made Italian way. Check it out!

Shock Corridor by Samuel Fuller

Guess I'm gonna stick around in some older films that didn't get the attention they deserved when they came out. The same can be said for Samuel Fuller, who is probably one of the most underrated filmmakers in American history. Why were his films widely ignored, it's puzzle to me, but the quality of his work speaks for itself and this "film giant" doesn't require much to be said about him, because all you need to know is in his work. You probably won't find his name in infamous top 10 lists, neither in those that declare themselves official, or those that just spawn on youtube, and get 90% dislikes.
Enough about the filmmaker, let me focus for a while on what this great film has to show. This film was really unusual for its time. Scenes in it were never before seen in such maner. People were truely schocked, but that was the directors intention from the very beginning. It's a story about an ambicious reporter, who goes through a lot of shameful effort to get inside of a mental hospital in order to solve a crime. Film is generally about what he finds there and how he handles it. Schock Corridor is a hallway of that mental institution, where some of the scenes take place. I really don't wanna spoil it for anyone, so I'll stop here. I'm just going to say that this film makes "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" seem... can't find a proper word so I'll just stick with "bad". Why is that the case? Watch this great film to find out. Just becaus you can't find Fuller in top 10 lists doesn't mean that his work is any worse than the work of  "top10ers". Fuller's writing and directing is flawless. This cannot be said for many filmmakers or films, but in this case I can say it without feeling one tiny bit of a doubt. Sure, many films were made after this one, with scenes more explicit and more painful to watch, but none of them do it with taste. Do your filmself a favor and introduce your self to a wonderful world of Sam Fuller's films (yes, feel free to watch others as well) and see what you've been missing on because somebody somewhere doesn't want you to see this film.

In Cold Blood by Richard Brooks

Ok, back to history. Haven't really seen that many 2011. flicks worth watching, so brace your selves for a trip in the past (yay!). In Cold Blood is an interesting movie, because it speaks of something that was a taboo back then. It focuses on death penalty, and a background to a crime that shook America. Most of the Americans back then were all for hanging those two guys high. This film, however, is focused on what Truman Capote found out, and then wrote in a book, about two criminals awaiting a death penalty. There isn't much to say about this film without spoiling it hard. My advice is, don't watch the remake, and even if you feel like watching the film "Capote", you should see this one first. This film did in no way deserve to be remade. The directing, acting and writing were pretty much perfect for this kind of a film. The main problem with it was the fact that people thought of it all wrong. America wanted to keep an illusion of a perfect justice system, when in fact it really wasn't (not saying it is now). This film is interesting to see as a history film and as a thriller with a number of interesting characters and a unique way of presenting the characters and a story. Might not blow you away, but it surely blew me away. Don't miss it!