Goldbeater

After Sucker Punch, it was said that Zack Snyder should not have written his own screenplays. After this movie, however, it will be said that he should not have written his own screenplays, however, more importantly, he should never get behind the camera again! Army of the Dead is an incredible piece of crap, and a movie so visually boring and hideous, that the lack of visual stimulation makes one wonder about the logic behind all the action in the movie, and it is a disaster. It makes no sense at all, the characters are terribly written, the storylines are left unfinished, the attempts at humor are just not funny, and any attempt at drama does not work. I also did not feel any sort of horror at all. If I give this turgid crap any credit at all, perhaps the only thing is that even with its unnecessarily overlong length, it never gets boring, something is constantly happening. However, at the same time nothing really happens that would drive you crazy. So, those are the damn few positives for a movie maker who years ago gave us one of the best zombie horror movies of the new century. Today, unfortunately, he is a parody of himself.

It is not that I have anything against tarantulas, or suffer from arachnophobia, however I still got rather unpleasant chills down my spine whilst watching this movie. Respect to the actors who had dozens of spiders put all over them. However, if you are sensitive to this issue, and against hurting these furry arthropods, this movie is not for you - few are trampled or run over by cars in the movie. Otherwise, Kingdom of the Spiders works well for a movie of its genre. If you can get past the somewhat slow pacing and the overly literal anti-DDT message, you are in for a fairly decent experience of a horror movie in the end.

This is a sweeping documentary essay about Los Angeles, the most photographed city in the world, a bastion of American movie culture and a place whose diverse cultural, architectural and social microcosm lends itself richly to a 170-minute documentary movie that never stops for breath. Told through a variety of movie clips and Thom Andersen's subjective monologue, the narrative will captivate you, whatever your opinion of Los Angeles is, or even if perhaps you hold no opinion at all. It is a movie about the city, about the people, about the movies made there, it is about everything.

This is a typically enjoyable William Castle romp, unfortunately also one of the most transparent and least satisfying in its denouement. Certainly, this movie surprises more with a few scenes that are quite daring for the mid-sixties than with what I am reluctant to call a plot twist. However, with a likable cast and a generally old-school feel, it is still a very enjoyable watch.

The Empty Man is an admirably sprawling affair with great creative ambition, confounding most conventional audience expectations. The question though, is does it all go somewhere? David Prior would obviously very much like to be the next Ari Aster, but he is no match for him just yet, and he perhaps bit off more than he could chew. It is however an interesting movie to analyze, technically very well made, engaging up to the last quarter, and completely free of cheap modern horror props like self-indulgent violence and jump scares (thumbs up for that), but in the last quarter just was not comprehensible, or maybe it simply tried too hard to sell the illusion of profoundness, which just wasn't there.

The new Mortal Kombat is my biggest guilty-pleasure of the year so far. I cannot say that I have ever been a fan of this game franchise, yet I have always wanted to feel some satisfaction watching it on the big screen, which I certainly did not get from Paul W.S. Anderson's 90s Hollywood crap and that EdWood-esque awful John R. Leonetti sequel. However, it has finally arrived. In fact, I cannot imagine how it could have been done any better – maybe just a little. It has its faults, of course, and I could list them, but I am not going to do that to a movie that I enjoyed so much with its boyish attitude and creative action scenes. A no-brainer action movie with heart cannot hurt once in a while. Give me a sequel as soon as possible!

This is British B-movie director Norman J. Warren's attempt to rip-off the legendary movie Alien. Here, however, there was apparently not a big enough budget for the "alien", and so the space crew members are mowed down by their own stupidity. I mean, really, I haven't seen such a desperately inept ensemble of characters in a long time. The titular inseminoid does show up to prominently star in one filthy psychedelic sex scene, but it was nothing to write home about really.

For the vast majority of its running time, Saint Maud is a very well-made and imaginatively shot slow-burning horror art movie that seems to pay tribute to (and also quote) the classic Sunset Boulevard and entertains us with its premise and strong characters. In addition, if it were not for the last five minutes, in which Rose Glass, unfortunately, decides to go off in a slightly different direction than I would have liked, I would almost be impressed. Still, I was satisfied with it and I also appreciated the very audience-friendly running time, which means that no scene in the movie feels longer than it needs to be, or extraneous.

The Power is a movie that manages to deliver a perfect period setting and backdrop according to the horror genre, unfortunately, we have seen its denouement a million times before, and its ghost movie tropes could satisfy perhaps only very unsophisticated horror audiences. Moreover, the movie forces an unnecessarily literal message illuminating what is actually the secondary meaning of the title The Power. As a result, the ending wallows in its own pomposity and did not work for me at all.

Hunter Hunter is a subtle, yet a surprising thriller set in the woods that packs a decent amount of suspense and a few treats typical of its genre at the end. My relatively positive feelings about the movie were in conflict with my antipathy towards the nimrods, the fur trappers, and characters similar to that, so I cannot say I was exactly rooting for the main characters or cared what happened to them throughout the movie. In any case, Devon Sawa deserves more good roles, as the actor has some serious chops.