EvilPhoEniX

Is this the same Sollima who did Sicario 2 and is an expert on European gangster movies? The beginning still looked promising, the protagonist is at a disgusting gay party full of drugs and alcohol, where he is tasked with filming a minister, blackmailed by the cops, only he fails to complete the task and goes on the run. And then the whole film staggers in place, offers nothing of interest (no action, no violence, no twists) it doesn't go anywhere story-wise and as a result you are so fed up with the film that you just want it to end. It wasn't fun. 3/10.

I just got through the highest rated Korean series of last year (8.3 IMDB) and it's another quality Korean ride full of violence, great actors, a packed story, emotions and twists. Honestly I'm not a fan 12-episode series, too long for my taste, I prefer 8 episodes but when it's a Korean gangster series you can take anything. The story is set in the 90's where we follow the rise of a new drug syndicate, where a disco DJ works his way to the top in a short while by eliminating the competition and becoming the biggest capo in town. Soon, however, an undercover cop infiltrates the gang and undergoes an incredible transformation (the scene where he's covered in blood and slashes his enemies with a machete while being watched by his wife, who thinks he's a decent cop, was insane! Nice example of how violence can change a person). The acting is perfect, both actors are very young, the future of Korean films, so I'm a big fan in that respect. Visually, it's sheer cinematic peak, the cinematography is top notch, the music is amazing, the action is breathtaking. The sequence from episode 9 is like cut from The Night Comes for Us, there's a whole house and absolutely every Korean soaked in blood! Machetes, knives, axes, baseball bats. There was also international drug trade, so both Japanese and Chinese get involved and that made it nicely spiced up. The series doesn't lack decent plot twists and plenty of suspense, with the viewer keeping their fingers crossed the cop doesn't get caught every episode. I was a bit annoyed by the romantic line with the gangster and the policewoman, but it had its merits. I was expecting an action climax in the finale and unfortunately they peaked in episode 9, so in the end only a strong 4 stars, but it's very good. There's a tear at the end and that counts. Fans of Korea, gangsters and violence should definitely not hesitate.85%

I haven't seen a worse film this year that's for sure, so there's no point in commenting on the film at all, rather I'll comment on the making of it as it might have been. A little girl is unhappy that her father spends his time in a dingy lonely house for a few rupees rather than spend time with her, so she sells his gold watch on the sly so she can at least get a camera with it. With that, she approaches her uncle to see if he'll make a film with it, of course he'd be behind the camera and occasionally add some sound design. He tries to talk her out of it, but the girl has a good argument. The script is only two sentences long and we won't need any dialogue at all, we won't need any make-up artists because we won't have any gore here, we'll give them everything out of frame, we won't need to pay any actors because the main actors will be me, my little brother, my dad and my mum and what will the film be about? My uncle asks... Well, nothing really, I'll be running around our house for 80 minutes hiding from my dad. I'm gonna fulfill my dream that my dad will spend some time playing hide-and-seek. And that's how the indie film Monster was made. Enjoy!!! 10%

I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised with this historical actioner, while it doesn't dazzle story-wise there's another Ming Dynasty, a crown prince, protecting the heir to the throne, etc. This comes up over and over again, but the action is executed brilliantly in my opinion. There are usually two things that bother me about these historical Chinese films, namely the Wu-xia elements and the frequent wirework during fights, thankfully that doesn't happen here. There is in fact my favorite martial arts star Max Zhang (for me he is the successor to Donnie Yen!) and the guy with the sword performs downright martial arts mastery! Great choreography, he does everything with absolute ease and the action scenes are also very polished thanks to the awesome visuals (I even enjoyed the princess/assassin in the white robe). I also praise the finale where the two-meter giant with the dwarf on his back was downright Boss of Dreams and the final duel with the huge MO sword and the bad guy with two swords against him was delicious, I enjoyed that. For me, a decent action flick, which is a bit dragged down by the uninteresting story and the more boring passages outside the action, otherwise I'm satisfied. 75%

A solid oddity and quite surprisingly a perverted film that probably won't appeal to everyone, but you have to appreciate the original premise, but at a price that may not be digestible for everyone. The film has no plot and no dialogue, we follow the Sasquatch family and their daily life through the seasons. It has a comic touch and you can laugh a few times, the perverted undertones are a testament to that (there is sex, collective pissing, genital sniffing, feeding fish guts, a perverted childbirth and even one gore scene with a cougar). I was worried it would be boring but it goes by pretty fast, it's so weird, bizarre but interesting at the same time. I would have liked more survival from the point of view of other animals or a clash with humans. As a Sasquatch experiment though, pretty cool. 60%.

The creators of Wyrmwood have already delivered us the second spider of this year, which is presented in a more light-hearted way and unfortunately doesn't give much trouble to arachnophobics, in this Infested was more aggressive and successful and here they could have tightened up in many things, but for sure Sting won't offend. Once again we have a block of flats, lots of people, and one egg from outer space that turns out to be a spider with an ever-increasing appetite. The little spider was pretty exotic, and the scene where it crawls into a woman and starts messing around in her body was solid, but it was not enough to make it the gore scene of the year, they could have gone three times bigger here. It's more reminiscent of the monster horror B-movies of the 90's, which have a lighter touch and it doesn't totally matter, it's just that the humour doesn't quite work and the kills are rather out of frame, it could do with more intense kills because the atmosphere doesn't really work and the fear of the spider even less so. Watchable and enjoyable, but I won't scratch for a higher rating. Infested was elsewhere. 60%

Indonesia also adds its hand this year with a decent adrenaline action flick. Angga Dwimas Sasongko is one of Indonesia's more aspiring filmmakers, but only now has he made a film that I can appreciate above average, even though his Stealing Raden Saleh has had a decent amount of success abroad. Here you can see a very decent budget and it looks like a nice A-list production, the best this country can produce. The story focuses on terrorists who cause chaos in Jakarta when they plant 13 bombs with the threat that one will explode every 8 hours, they want 100 Bitcoins as a ransom. This terrorist attack is the result of a fight against the financial mafia and oligarchs, and is quite interesting and novel. The film has a solid pace, there's always something going on and it moves forward very quickly, the action scenes are decent, it's R-rated and the shootouts have that proper military feel. Midway through the film the pace calms down a bit but the ending kicks in again, there's an unexpected twist and some knife duels as well, so a very pleasant surprise for me. I love fighting terrorists and when a decent budget is added to it, the fun is taken care of. 75%

I'm glad I caught up on this one. The combination of Robert Zemeckis and Denzel Washington sounded good and it worked. The opening 30 minutes with the plane crash is a decently intense beast and I liked the aftermath, the investigation and the subsequent trial where the protagonist is tried for alcohol and drugs. I had fun and Denzel was excellent as always. 75%

A likeable and fun action B-movie on the theme of virtual reality and the classic Battle Royale. A group of people are in the woods in a survival game, where a lot of obstacles await them (even one CGI monster). The action is decent, though drastically lacking the R-rating, but otherwise the choreography is imaginative and the fights are well shot. I was most impressed with the finale where the main character uses a katana and a knife, that's where the blood was just supposed to spurt and the twin bad guys as the final boss were fine. The potential was definitely higher, but I like this kind of genre movies and the effort is definitely there. 6/10

Francis Galluppi, like Sébastien Vaníček, comes through with a superb debut, and both have earned themselves a new Evil Dead. Nice. Almost everything I love in movies is here. There's the attractive setting of rural Arizona, one remote rest-stop (reminiscent of popular hixploitation movies), and a group of random people who find themselves in one place at the wrong time. There's a salesman, an attractive waitress, a pair of robbers, a couple of retirees, a Bonnie and Clyde-like couple, a young cop, and a gas station owner. Gorgeous cinematography, confident direction, a well-developed script with no shortage of twists and turns, well-chosen actors, solid dialogue, a taut atmosphere, suspense that could be sliced and a proper Mexican stand-off like something out of The Hateful Eight. The violence and humour could have been worked on better, but this mix of Tarantino and Coen evoking 70's Thrillers is more than a good genre film.8/10