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Barfly

This is an announcement for you and a challenge for me at the same time. Every time the main character drinks on screen, I take a sip of Templar rum along with him. If I make it to the end, I'll write a review. Considering that I've already downed a quarter of a liter of rum, it won't be easy.

A good movie, I enjoyed it back then.

Whew, I finished watching it. There's a little over a quarter of a liter bottle of rum left, but honestly, it could have been worse. In fact, almost finishing a liter bottle of strong (38%) rum was quite a feat, considering I barely weigh 80 kg. But this is still about the movie, not my drinking exploits. In general, the movie can be easily broken down into quotes and screenshots, and that alone is enough to say: it's not a waste of time. "He's just like all of us." "Nothing ever works out in this life." "I never understood that world." But if you abstract away from that, the movie is quite good. What does a good dramatic film need? A charismatic protagonist – check. Basically, that's all. Everything else is just a complement to the central character, helping to reveal him. The film leaves a feeling of emptiness, incompleteness, but that's how it should be, because it has no ending, and its meaning lies in the process, not the result. This is almost a liter of rum, and I'm not quite capable of reasoning. I'll say one thing – the movie is good. Realistic and at the same time positive – that's quite rare.

Agora



It's a decent movie, I liked it.

Gemini ("Gemini Man", 2019, USA, China)
It's not particularly captivating because the message and the film's purpose are unclear. It's just another action movie about another super-cool soldier, with stunts, chases, and shooting – the usual stuff. A familiar situation. They saved money on the number of actors. The girl is okay.
5/10, but it's more watchable than not. You can simply find more efficient ways to spend your time.

After Life



It's okay, a bit depressing. But it doesn't quite reach "excellent." There's some positivity, especially at the end.

Fifty Shades of Black (2016)

It's quite funny))))). At the very least, it's better than the original.

a movie about black people?

You thought you were joking, but actually, yes, you were talking about them.

I didn't think so, but I like movies about black people; they can be funny.

Venom (2018)

Another mediocre Marvel movie.

Added 21 minutes later
Instead of this movie, watch this video – you'll get much more enjoyment.

The New Pope



I didn't think there would be a second season. But it appeared and turned out to be simply excellent. I liked it even more than the first one. The intro with dancing nuns and the Pope emerging from the sea is just amazing. And a question arose: why is Jude Law so good?

I thought it was about cuckolds until I saw the picture.

The Shining (1980)
I have to be honest – I initially watched this movie half-heartedly, spending the other half farming in a gacha game, and about an hour and a half before the end, I even turned it off and only came back 20 minutes before the finale. Some might think that everything I've said means I'm not qualified to judge this film, but I disagree. I firmly believe that I saw everything I needed to see. My verdict: another piece of garbage from Kubrick. The scenes are drawn out and boring, the dialogue either dumps exposition on us or tries to "build suspense" (which doesn't actually happen), or is just pointless. The editing is like something from BadComedian; if I didn't know who made this film, I would have trashed it and been right. It feels like the editor didn't know what to do with the mess that the various scenes created, and just strung them together hoping they would form some kind of logical sequence. Special shout-out to the ending. The plot: the film is 146 minutes long, but the plot can be described in one short sentence. You might ask, "But what about the atmosphere and suspense?" I didn't see them, except maybe the atmosphere of gloom. There's also not much logic in this film; for example, at the end, Nicholson could have simply walked out of the maze by following his own footprints, which he left earlier. They're even visible in the frame. However, the problem with the logic isn't even that the events themselves are illogical, but that the viewer, as is expected in an "elite" film, isn't supposed to understand anything – and they don't. The acting? Yes, the actors are trying, but the extremely unpleasant face of the main character prevented me from appreciating her performance. I just wanted her to disappear from the screen as soon as possible. Nicholson is making faces like crazy; it seems like he also felt the dreariness of the film and tried his best to lighten it up, but unfortunately, he couldn't do it alone. What does this film have? It has a bunch of shots with perfect symmetry in the center. Is that not enough for you? It should be, because in the opinion of many people, that's enough to call the film and the director – geniuses and promote them everywhere. Fortunately, this isn't my first time encountering Kubrick, but the pain of disappointment when I realized that he was making garbage for a specific category of viewers will never leave me.
As a bonus, when I was looking for the release date of the film to properly format the post, I came across this:

Despite the many negative reviews upon its release

Despite the fact that this film is one of the most famous adaptations of King's work, the writer himself considered it one of the worst film adaptations of his books.

"Geniuses are not appreciated in their lifetime," you might say. I have a different opinion: when garbage dries up and turns into a fossil, it's no longer garbage, but a valuable archaeological find with cultural value.
Of course, this is just my opinion, and it shouldn't be taken as an attack or an attempt to present myself as an absolute authority.

There's a version of "The Shining" in the form of a mini-series, and it's said to be approved by King because it better preserves the atmosphere and conveys the subject matter as it should. But this is just a rumor, as I haven't read the original or watched the mini-series.
Kubrick's film evoked mixed feelings in me. Essentially, it's a pretentious film with a scary woman, a freaking-out child, and Jack Nicholson playing himself and suffering from nonsense just for laughs.
I wouldn't call the movie complete garbage, as mentioned above, considering the subtly veiled advertisements for Heinz and Oreo (this isn't as blatant as in Russian cinematic masterpieces that truly keep you entertained). But it's also not a 10/10.