June272011
A Serbian FilmTagline: Not all films have a happy endingDirector: Srdjan SpasojevicStarring: Srdjan Todorovic, Sergej TrifunovicRuntime: 104 minutesRating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 5/10 A Serbian Film is about an aging porn super-star named Milos (Srdjan Todorovic) that gave up a lucrative life of sex, women and money to settle down and start a family with the woman he loves. While they are poor, they enjoy a good life. Out of the blue, an old porn-star acquaintance of Milos’ calls him and says a director is offering a ridiculous amount of money for Milos to do one last film, but Milos cannot know what they are filming. After meeting with the director, Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic) Milos agrees to make the movie. It soon transpires that not everything is what he thought it would be. I won’t give away any plot details but this film has extremely graphic scenes of physical violence, drug abuse, murder, necrophilia, rape, incest and paedophilia. This could have been a genuinely good film, if not for the torture-porn aspect. The plot itself could be compared to Oldboy (a classic film, go watch it if you haven’t already), but as I said, it’s just way over the top. Where Oldboy is disturbing, A Serbian Film is downright wrong. 5/10 as it is, 6/10 if it wasn’t so extreme.

A Serbian Film
Tagline: Not all films have a happy ending
Director: Srdjan Spasojevic
Starring: Srdjan Todorovic, Sergej Trifunovic
Runtime: 104 minutes
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 5/10

A Serbian Film is about an aging porn super-star named Milos (Srdjan Todorovic) that gave up a lucrative life of sex, women and money to settle down and start a family with the woman he loves. While they are poor, they enjoy a good life. Out of the blue, an old porn-star acquaintance of Milos’ calls him and says a director is offering a ridiculous amount of money for Milos to do one last film, but Milos cannot know what they are filming. After meeting with the director, Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic) Milos agrees to make the movie. It soon transpires that not everything is what he thought it would be.

I won’t give away any plot details but this film has extremely graphic scenes of physical violence, drug abuse, murder, necrophilia, rape, incest and paedophilia. This could have been a genuinely good film, if not for the torture-porn aspect. The plot itself could be compared to Oldboy (a classic film, go watch it if you haven’t already), but as I said, it’s just way over the top. Where Oldboy is disturbing, A Serbian Film is downright wrong.

5/10 as it is, 6/10 if it wasn’t so extreme.

A Serbian Film Review 

4AM
Green LanternTagline: One of us… becomes them.Director: Martin Campbell.Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong.Runtime: 114 minutes.Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆☆☆ 7/10 Green Lantern tells one of the many Green Lantern tales. The writers decided to choose Hal Jordan rather than the original Lantern, Alan Scott. I can’t remember why they did this, but it was probably because Hal Jordan is a test pilot, an exciting, modern profession wrought with danger. One day Hal messes up a contract at work, and goes to his nephew’s birthday party, but on his way home is suddenly picked up by a mysterious ball of energy and transported to the crash-site of an alien craft. The alien in question is Abin-Sur, the most powerful of all the Green Lantern Corps. Jordan is then chosen by Abin-Sur’s ring to become the next (and first human) Green Lantern.  What follows is a slightly muddled tale of growing up, accepting responsibility and ultimately overcoming fear. The pacing is a little off, but all movies are these days as 90% of them are written as trilogies, which Green Lantern quite clearly is. The casting is excellent, Reynolds is perfect as Hal Jordan, and Mark Strong as Sinestro is spot on as an antagonising protagonist. There is also a slight nod (in my opinion, but my cousin also agreed) to the upcoming Captain America/Avengers movies during a sparring scene involving Sinestro and Hal Jordan (look out for it). The visual effects are superb, not quite as good as TRON: Legacy, the benchmark for which I set visual effects (as far as creating entire CGI worlds goes, anyway), but still excellent. It should be noted that I saw the 2D version, as I am not a fan of 3D. My only two complaints are that one major plot point is left unsolved (writing for trilogies, remember) and that the film could and should have gone in a different direction, without giving too much away.

Green Lantern
Tagline: One of us… becomes them.
Director: Martin Campbell.
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Mark Strong.
Runtime: 114 minutes.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆☆☆ 7/10

Green Lantern tells one of the many Green Lantern tales. The writers decided to choose Hal Jordan rather than the original Lantern, Alan Scott. I can’t remember why they did this, but it was probably because Hal Jordan is a test pilot, an exciting, modern profession wrought with danger. One day Hal messes up a contract at work, and goes to his nephew’s birthday party, but on his way home is suddenly picked up by a mysterious ball of energy and transported to the crash-site of an alien craft. The alien in question is Abin-Sur, the most powerful of all the Green Lantern Corps. Jordan is then chosen by Abin-Sur’s ring to become the next (and first human) Green Lantern. 

What follows is a slightly muddled tale of growing up, accepting responsibility and ultimately overcoming fear. The pacing is a little off, but all movies are these days as 90% of them are written as trilogies, which Green Lantern quite clearly is. The casting is excellent, Reynolds is perfect as Hal Jordan, and Mark Strong as Sinestro is spot on as an antagonising protagonist. There is also a slight nod (in my opinion, but my cousin also agreed) to the upcoming Captain America/Avengers movies during a sparring scene involving Sinestro and Hal Jordan (look out for it).

The visual effects are superb, not quite as good as TRON: Legacy, the benchmark for which I set visual effects (as far as creating entire CGI worlds goes, anyway), but still excellent. It should be noted that I saw the 2D version, as I am not a fan of 3D.

My only two complaints are that one major plot point is left unsolved (writing for trilogies, remember) and that the film could and should have gone in a different direction, without giving too much away.

Green Lantern Review 

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