EvilPhoEniX

This praised new Irish film has impressed critics and Damian McCarthy certainly has the potential to bring interesting things to the table in the future – though Caveat, his debut, was an ordeal for me and I didn't have high expectations here. In the end, I wasn't offended by Oddity, it has interesting and strong moments, but the horror side is a bit lacking, which is a shame. McCarthy is going a bit in the style of Mike Flanagan, i.e. both enjoy a slow pace, with minimal scares and more emphasis on the characters and the story. There's one pretty intense and creepy jump-scare that had a very strong effect on me, there was an interesting twist and the finale has a nice atmosphere too, just a shame the Mummy was very underused, it deserved a lot more space. The craftsmanship is fine, too, but this is not the style of horror I'm looking for. The effort is worth it, though. We'll see what happens next time. 65%

The creators of New Kids Turbo and Summer of 84 have had a weaker moment. We Are Zombies has a promising theme that looks at zombies a little differently, they are among us in society, they don't crave our brains, they are simply a nuisance. With a more skillful director this could have been a big hit, but it’s left somewhere halfway. The characters are quite unlikeable, the humour rarely works (they definitely could have pushed the envelope more here), and it doesn't become a proper horror movie until the last 15 minutes, where there is a bit of gore and one very nice zombie monster – it looked really very good, but is it enough for a good movie? No, but it's okay for a passable average. 55%.

Paul Feig probably won't surpass Spy, but this is good fun. The idea of being able to kill the winner of the lottery and legally take the jackpot is very cool. Awkwafina is mostly annoying but I didn't mind her here, and John Cena is as fun and fine as always, even Simu Liu one is cool. The action is rather fun and interesting, but it’s a shame that it’s not R-rated, if there was also some nice gore I would definitely go higher with the rating. In terms of humour it could have been better too, but there were a few laughs. It goes by nicely, there is always something going on, for me a good stuff. 6/10.

I must say that I feel a little disappointed. I had hight expectations for Alien: Romulus, as it was expected to be the horror film of the year and the experienced Fede Álvarez with his spectacular trailers had a promising start, but unfortunately it didn't deliver. Admittedly, if I let go of expectations, this is solid sci-fi horror, the likes of which hasn't been around for a while, with some very impressive elements. But there were a few things that bothered me. The actors didn't wow me all that much, David Jonsson as the Android is the most interesting character, but the vaunted Cailee Spaeny didn't grab my heart. The opening is quite slow and by the time the Alien appears half the film is gone. Audiovisually it's great, the ship looks awesome and the music is also very effective, the cramped atmosphere is good and the gravity/acid scene is a highlight for me. The final monster was a bit over the top for me, though, I could have done without it and the Alien was perfectly fine. But what I see as the biggest problem and disappointment is that we get almost no gore. Álvarez made one of the most brutal horror remakes with Evil Dead, so I was expecting a proper Alien carnage, but the body-count is too low for that and most of the deaths are out of frame or simply don't stick in the memory. I didn’t expect Ridley Scott's Alien: Covenant to have twice the carnage of Alvarez. Even compared to Prey, Alien: Romulus falls far short. That I would leave the cinema feeling that seeing it once was enough is something I really didn't hope for. Four stars it deserves without a doubt, but the expectations were simply elsewhere. 7/10.

Marcus Dunstan, the director of The Collection, is here with a new slasher and it's nothing to write home about. It's a classic slasher that won't offend fans of the genre, but at the same time it doesn't add anything interesting and sticks to stale clichés. The group of main characters is not very entertaining or interesting and you have to survive the opening 40 minutes before the first kill. The murders are fortunately erotic and some of them are nicely inventive, which is good (sometimes the blood is clearly CGI, but it can be tolerated), and the unmasking of the killer is not bad either. That said, the whole thing is rather silly, the humour is a bit lacking, I didn't like the mask of the killer very much and the setting is not so great either. Watchable yes, but so easily forgettable. Dunstan should do better with The Collector 3. 55%.

An anticipated Korean thriller praised abroad (7.1 on IMDb is a decent score for a debut). It's a true story set in 1971, when a plane is hijacked by a terrorist who demands it change direction to North Korea, a very scary thought for South Koreans. It's not bad, it's quite suspenseful, it's nicely shot, it moves along quickly, but it's unfortunately not anything downright gripping that I'll remember in a week. Those who like airplane hijacking thrillers won't be bored, but there are better films on the subject. It's quite underdeveloped for my taste. 6/10.

The trailers for Trap were awesome and it was tempting to see two comebacks: M. Night Shyamalan and Josh Hartnett, but it only half came to fruition, unfortunately. The film is a bit too basic for Shyamalan, everything is quite clearly laid out, there are not enough surprises and, most importantly, it lacks the typical Shyamalan twist, which is probably the biggest disappointment. The concept with the killer at a concert is pretty cool, Saleka Shyamalan looks good and sings well, but nothing really happens and everything interesting is already in the trailer. It's not even as suspenseful, smart and intense as it seemed at first glance. But it’s not all is bad, Hartnett gives a decent performance as a psychopath and thankfully the film never gets boring, I just won't it film again for sure and streaming would have suited it better. Too bad there weren't some murders and a mind fuck twist. 55%

The Boys has managed to maintain the quality for the fourth time. Although there is no significant villain and Homelander is again carrying it (well, it's easily noticeable when he's not on the scene at all). The characters, however, are still interesting, and when it comes to the gore it's a really effective delight, and they've added quite a bit to the perversion, which I applaud. The flying sheep and chickens were the best, that was a really brilliant idea. The ending is shaping up to be pretty big stuff, the connection to Gen V will be nice and the finale of season 5 will be a properly epic slaughter with probably a lot of dead on both sides too. 8/10.

I just love Deadpool! :) Insanely funny and packed with wisecracks, funny cameos and nice brutal action, what more can a viewer ask for from a summer blockbuster? As an added bonus, there's the return of everyone's favourite character Logan, with Hugh Jackman delivering some decent acting as well. It's got a great soundtrack, Shawn Levy does the best job of his career and serves up some fun eye candy moments (right off the bat the opening action sequence is like something out of “Mortal Kombat”), and that Deadpool and Wolverine fight in the car or the fight with a bunch of Deadpools were peak as hell (brutal paint job with amazing camera watching all this carnage from afar). The cameos are very entertaining, but the villain is a bit weak. Story-wise, Marvel isn't really going anywhere and I don't think Deadpool will be the saving grace, I'm more worried that it will be the last good thing from Marvel. The wisecracks and one-liners are again brilliant and I'm looking forward to a second screening so I can properly take them all in, because the cadence is insane and intense. All the ingredients I love in movies are here, so my rating is long decided. Nicepool and the ugly dog were great! 9/10.

A decent Action flick on a train with bandits, not quite up to the quality of Indonesia, but actually pretty good by Indian standards. It's the first action movie from India that isn't downright over the top, crammed with CGI, dancing and the like, and the plot is too simple for the often twisty India, but it doesn't matter. The film has a likable protagonist, benefits from the train setting that you can't escape from, the villain is a decent nutcase too, and in one unexpected twist, the emotions kick in. From the incident in question, the protagonist switches to berserker mode and starts killing his enemies quite spectacularly. The decent brutality is a big upside, it is also quite unprecedented for India, as far as choreography is concerned. It's not too challenging and the bunch of thugs are martial arts experts, so you can't expect miracles from them, only the giant downright floored the protagonist. Outside of the action though, it's sadly boring, the actors overact weirdly and what was quite annoying to me was that every dead person has to be mourned by half the bad guys because they were some relative or another, it was a bit of a distraction but it was bearable. Overall a fine action flick, but I don't have much need to watch it again because it dragged unpleasantly outside of the action, and if it was PG-13, it would go down a star with the rating. 7/10.