Unexpected or more so after abysymal BO performace and Reviews. Definetly not a film for 2026. A combo of Flash Gordon and Guardians of the Galaxy (vol. 1), overlong (2h20 !!!; really?), some good humor and sexual innueundos in a PG fare, a dumbo Skeletor (unrecognizable Jared Lato with weird accent and Dr. Evil laughter does his bet job in many years here).
Camila Mendes as Teela is hot, Idris Elba supports bravely, Roboto is voiced by Kristen Wiig, James Purefoy is the King Randor, Morena Maccarin (the) sorceress in white and the lead Adam/He-Man- Nicholas Galitzine is funny and charismatic, also Alison Brie is fun as witchy Evil-Lyn.
Coming from a line of legendary toys (that I was never fammilar with), cartoons and comics which I never saw my only reference was the 1987 very B and B budget cult film of the same name and franchise (it was a Golan-Globus Cannon production). More so than then, this film doesn't take itself seriosusly for an even odd moment, it knows it's silly and plays it straight on.
Added value: the score is Fabulous, Power Rock pounding heroic symphonica metallic, another great one from Daniel Pemberton, one chord to rule'm all, Queen style, even features a Highlander song and puns, plus a clone Queen song by The Darkness and surely the sound was familliar because yes, the guitarist it's Brian May !!! That in itself raises the bar (and the volume) one notch (and a star of my review here). A Dolph Lundgren cameo (hero of the 1987 version) makes it even more tongue in cheeck. For the grown-up children ;)
The world of Blüesferatü – Eine Symphonie des Blues expands into animation through a special collaboration with acclaimed visual artists Costin Chioreanu & Olivia Chioreanu. @twilight13media This short animated piece explores the imagery and atmosphere of Blüesferatü — a unique live cine-concert project that reimagines F.W. Murnau's silent-film masterpiece Nosferatu (1922) through an original soundtrack of psychedelic blues performed live by musicians from Brașov, Romania. A glimpse into the dark, psychedelic universe of a project that continues to transform from one edition to the next.
As we prepare for our return to Bran Castle on June 27, 2026, this animation marks the beginning of a new visual chapter in the ever-expanding universe of Blüesferatü.
Marjane Satrapi is gone. They say she died of a broken heart...at 56.
She was the author of the great graphic novel Persepolis, about her childhood in Iran, filled with bleak humor, which also criticised the regime and made a plea for women there (and anywhere). That was made in a feature animated film in black and white (like the novel), co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud. Persepolis was ipart of Cannes Competition in 2007, it won ex-aqueo the Grand Prix and later on she was nominted for an Oscar, actually the first woman director to be nominated in the animated feature category.
She continued directing with Poulet aux prunes, The Voices, Radioactive and Paradis Paris.
statement:
“Marjane Satrapi died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,” members of her family said in a statement sent to Afp. Ripa, a Swedish producer, actor, and screenwriter, died on April 8, 2025. A series of posts on Satrapi’s Instagram page in the weeks before her death spelled out the message: “For I Lost the love of my life.”
It starts with Somewhere over the Rainbow, it goes into the Wicked
songs with the freakish Cynthia and Grande.
Conan O'Brian (hosting for the 1st time), is actually very good, natural with a good sense of
pacing. With a little help of Adam Sandler and John Lithgow. Then
surprise, he sings s a song, “I won't waste time”, featuring
dancers,
the sandworm from "Dune" on piano doing “chopsticks” and
Deadpool.
Robert Downey jr. presents supporting actor and the least
deserving guy gets it, Kieran, who is the same in life as in A Real
Pain, as in Succession, kinda same part. Nice speech tho, talking to
his wife.
He also looks like a young Kirk Douglas. Glowing eyes.
(commercial break #1)
Wow ! For Animation FLOW wins. Wonderful, Touching ! Lithuania
enters the Oscars. Great film, now in Romanian cinemas, go and see it
!!! Absolutely sensational, it beats Disney, Pixar and The Giant
Robot.
The short animated category I didn't follow. “In the Shadow of the Cypress” won. The two Iranian
directors are great ! They just landed in L.A. Three hours ago, they said.
(commercial break #2)
Costume design, no surprises there, Wicked, the first black person to win for costume design.
Another commercial break, # 3
Original script. Sean Baker wins his 1st Oscar for writing Anora. Adapted, Conclave. No surprises here.
Surely The Brutalist and The Substance and September 5 were better choices but I'm happy for Baker.
Commercial
break, # 4, man, there's more breaks than show...
June
Squibb and Scarlett Johansson present the makeup and hairstyling
award to The obvious The Substance.
Then
we get Halle Berry to let us know the Governer Ball's Awards (November 2024), from
Quincy Jones (posthumous) to the Bond producers of EON, Barbara Broccoli and
Michael G. Wilson (who gave a way bond to the sharks from Amazon :() -Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award.
and
then we get a 007 tribute clip followed by a dance extravaganza with
a superb Margaret Qualley (as I said before, on her way in becoming
a A-lister, after OUATiH, Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness, The Substance, Drive-Away Dolls), in a red dress, then we get renditions of Live
and Let Die with Lisa , Diamonds are Forever with Doja Cat, Skyfall
with Raye, all in good taste, channeling the originals.
Commercial break, # 5
Nice
joke of Cinemastreams, Conan featuring Marty Scorsese.
And a
anniversary of Kill Bill puts Daryl Hannah on stage. She looks great,
presents the award for best Editing. Again, Sean Baker rocks (2nd
award !), Anora for editing ! Deservingly.
Divine takes the stage for the supporting actress award presentation. Zoe Saldana wins. Emilia Perez was here, will she win for International film too ?
Commercial break, # 6
Ben Stiller on stage with a joke stolen from SNL Vincent Price skit (& Peter Sellers & more), present the Production Design Award. Wicked". May the Biggest budget film win. And a film about architecture, nem...
Then on the sound of Sympathy for the...who ?, Sir Mick Jagger shows up. Best Song award. Making Bob jokes. El Mal from Emilia Perez win. Sorry, I couldn't care less. The nominations this year for song were awful.
Commercial break, # 7
Conan does the second Dune Sandworm joke, playing harp ! Sam Jackson (L.) and Selena Gomez (M.) present short documentary film. The Only Girl in the Orchestra wins. Feature: No Other Land. Political moment speech.
Commercial break, # 8
Conan
& the L.A. Firemen Dpt. Firemen jokes.
Miles
Teller & Miley Cyrus (in Europe Kilometer & Kilometry).
Sound. Dune 2.
Gal
Gadot, herself a special FX, in a red dress present the Visual
Effects Award. Dune part 2 it is.
VO/announcer (in my heydays it was Peter Coyote ;) -Nick Offerman, who's voice is kinda off (booze?).
Commercial break, # 9
Ana de Armas and Sterling K. Brown present the last short award.
Morgan Freeman presents an homage to Gene Hackman. He played together in Unforgiven and Under Suspicion. That introduces the In Memoriam montage I had no clue Fred Roos and Adam Somner. died ..).
Commercial break, # 10
An actor presenter from each film nominated for Cinematography: Joe Alwyn for the Brutalist. Alba Rohrwacher salutes a Ed Lachman in a wheelchair for Maria. Willem Dafoe for Nosferatu, Zoe Saldana for Emilia Perez, Dave Bautista for Dune part 2. Lol Crawley wins for The Brutalist. Fair enuff.
Penelope Cruz presents for Best International Film. I'm Still Here/ Ainda Estou Aqui wins (Walter Salles, Brazil). Another big loss for EP, due to bad PR mostly.
Commercial break, # 10
Conan makes another Russian Joke via Anora. Mark Hamill (!!!) presents the award for best Original SCORE. Daniel Blumberg for The Brutalist. Well deserved for a Grand, epic score !
Whoopy and Oprah introduce a Quincy Jones musical tribute. Queen Latifah sings a song from The Wiz.
Commercial break, # 11
Conan: "If you still enjoying this show you have what it's called Stockholm Syndrome".
Cillian Murphy takes the stage for best actor award. He won last year for Oppenheimer. And...Adrian Brody wins his 2nd Oscar (22 years after 2003's The Pianist) for the part of architect László Tóth in The Brutalist !!! The most touching moment of the evening. Brody is entering a cool restricted club. Egészségedre !
Enter QT, Quentin iz in ze house ! Best director -ta-dam, Sean Baker for Anora ! His 3d Oscar, suddenly a small struggling indie director becomes a Monster Superstar in the biz. Phones will be ringing, snakes will be crawling, emails will be flowing, agents will be waltzing around & mirages will be presented to him but I have the feeling he won't sell out. Kudos !
Commercial break, # 12
Emma Stone (who won last year for Poor Things) presents Best Actress award. Aaaand surprise, Mikey Madison (Sadie in OUaTiH) wins !!! Anora's fourth Oscar ! Mikey is 25 !
Meg Ryan & Billy Crystal present Best Film. And Anora wins !!! Five Oscars out of Six ! Sean Baker is also co-producer so he gets his fifth award. Bravo !
And they even finished earlier this year ! Sorry for Demi, that was this edition surprise for me. 62 vs. 25. Baby Jane or All About Eve ? Again the SAG proof that no one guesses is perfect. The acting awards were again different from those of the guild. All in all it was a calm and cool edition with the most indie films in an Oscar race, two foreign directors, and wins for Anora 5, Brutalist 3.
Nicolas Cage Award of the Year: Longlegs (not seen The Surfer yet)
Bonus: a grand barf for the grand guignol of The Substance (will see it again in theaters soon and conclude)-Later Edit, yep, much better, I swallowed the last 1/2 hr. ok)
"The Joker directed the movie. The entire concept, even him (Phillips) spending the studio’s money — he’s spending it like the Joker would spend it, all right?” Tarantino said. “And then his big surprise gift — haha! — the jack-in-the-box, when he offers you his hand for a handshake and you get a buzzer with 10,000 volts shooting you — is the comic book geeks. He’s saying fuck you to all of them. He’s saying fuck you to the movie audience. He’s saying fuck you to Hollywood. He’s saying fuck you to anybody who owns any stock at DC and Warner Brothers […] And Todd Phillips is the Joker. Un film de Joker, all right, is what it is. He is the Joker.”
just obscene to have Barbie nominated for adapted screenplay...not to mention "best film". It's not that I'm sexist, but also this is not That Feminist Movie (TFM) that changed the world. Just the Box Office, as in "the most succesful film directed by a woman". Well, if Bigelow, Kathryn would've directed Avatar 2 or something, this would've been done b.fore..
Emma Stone, "Poor Things"(they tell me, again, I read that Emma will win, haven't seen the film yet, will get back to it *** saw it and yes, Emma Stone it is, my review here)
Great names for Directing...best ensemble from all noms... not a fan of Justine Trier film but it's absolutely spot on directed. Then Yorgos Lanthimos together with Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese (a record for the Oscars, his 10th nomination!!!) and wow, Jonathan Glazer, who's film, The Zone of Interest I'm still expecting to see. Out in limited (or very limited) Romanian release Feb. 16th. Saw it and WOW! one of the best of 2023, and much more than that. See my review here.
I would
put these two ex aqueo I guess there are very important films that will
stay on. Cillian Murphy should win his Oscar (but there's the Giamatti factor and I go for that), as Nolan, Downey jr., Gorranson and all involved. It already started well, all Critics society, Golden Globes, BAFTA and Guilds awards included. For Killers it's again Scorsese's losing streak (Irishman style).
----------------------------------------- not seen yet (at that date):
The Zone of Interest, Perfect Days, Monster (saw it in Feb. 2024 and it's not my cup of cinema), Io Capitano, Poor Things. Waiting for them in theaters, yet.
*Later Jan. 28th Note: Just saw Perfect Days, in the cinema, an Ozu film by Wenders :), and it would've made the top of the top, it's clearly one of 2023's best films and more than that. My review here.
**Later later note -Feb. 13-saw Poor Things in the cinema, it's a curio and a stunt but fascinating nonetheless arthouse shock Cinema ! My review here.
***Later later Later note (Feb. 20th) -The Zone of Interest, clearly one of the year's best, a true masterpiece of avant-garde and essential cinema. My review here.
-----------------------------------
*Kaurismaki's Fallen Leaves -I wasn't so impressed, it's the same film all over again, but with lesser cultish actors, liked better Le Havre and The Lights of Dusk. I mean, good, warm, heartfelt, uberminimalistic, but same tour of Aki's pub we know so well. Also, didn't do much with the dog....and the fact they watch The Dead don't Die :( when on the posters there's so much better films...
& the rest:
Xmas film if there was one: The Holdovers-Alexander Payne-Paul Giamatti and Payne at their best.
guilty pleasure? Babylon -though technically it's from 2022, saw it in 2023, January. My review here.
Film romanesc/Romanian film: Libertate-Tudor Giurgiu (at the time i had no Jude screening) -here's the review in Romanian, and here in English !
Thriller: The Killer-David Fincher,
if Fassbender's character would've listened to a different band than The Smiths I would've liked it better-like if he listened to The Pixies for ex ;), -also discovered a really cool comix through this ! -my review here
Dream Scenario , I saw in cinema and wasn't too impressed, Cage did it before in Adaptation, it's like a sort of Beau is Afraid 2 (no wonder Ari Aster is involved), film ain't too funny and loses breath fast,
rather liked him in Butcher's Crossing, with his shaved head.
Comedy: Beau (mostly, when he is not
afraid :), Next Goal Wins -Takia Waititi with a great Michael Fassbbender, also having the time of his life, The Holdovers.
Disapointment of the year -Napoleon-Ridley Scott, totally miscast , out of breath, all over the place but nowhere where it should be. Beau is not Nap...
*** gotta mention Paul Schrader's Master Gardner -which even played in Romanian Theaters for about...a week :( , I saw it in 2023 but the film is from 2022, premiered at the Venice film Fest. It's Schrader's best since Auto Focus (2002) and Better than The Card Counter and First Reformed, his last two films which were also wriiten by Schrader. A great Joel Edgerton performance too.
The Boy and the Heron /Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka /Baiatul și stârcul/ is playing in Romanian theaters (distributor's communique here) . Amazingly. I guess it's a also the first film by Hayao Miyazaki to play here (well, Ponyo played also in theaters). I saw it (in Japanese, with Romanian subtitles) on Friday, opening night and was enchanted & mesmerized.
The other one I saw on a cinema was Spirited Away / Chichujiro at a festival I guess, in Elvira Popescu in Bucharest. But his films are avaliable to stream on Netflix, also in the subtitled Japanese version, not dubbed in English, from Porco Rosso to Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle, Nausicaa, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Ponyo to Spirited Away, his best film imo, and The Wind Rises, his last film up to Heron, in 2013. I mean it's a golden treasure, espcially for those who looked for these films years and years, before streaming and internet downloads.
Heron it's one of this year best films, best soundtracks (beautiful score by Joe Hisaishi, legendary Japanese composer which I personally know from Takeshi Kitano in the early 90's), and it will win the Oscar for animation for sure. And the Golden Globe. But more so, it's one of Miyazaki's forte, his comeback after 10 years, at 82. He could only animate about one minute of film per month so the work on the film took more than 5 years (he started it in 2016). A very sensible film, hand-drawn as all Ghibli films, and Japan's most expensive film to date. Also a world box office record.
I empathize all these facts because I was amazed of how many people who like films haven't heard of him and/or don't wanna go see this cos it's an animee. Get a grip and get to the cinema ! Then talk to me. ok?
The Japanese title/n /Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka / (translated as "How Do You Live?") is the same as a 1937 novel by Genzaburô Yoshino, writer of children's literature, the book has significant meaning for the main character in the film.
new composers (Michael Abels, Colin Stetson), as the old Usual Suspects :)-Burwell, Zimmer, Pemberton, Desplat, Holkenborg, Elfman, Reznor/ the order is not ascending or descending...
