TheEvilTwin

The Stronghold is a story based on a true event about a police unit and its leadership that carry out an illegal raid in a French ghetto, and when that comes to light, the arrest of all the actors begins. The three leads are proper corrupt cops who certainly don't respect the law much, and it's quite a joy to watch the events unfold around them. The first half is excellent, about halfway through there’s the raid at the ghetto in and those twenty minutes of action where one member of the unit is left trapped in an apartment block alone against everyone is one hell of an intense ride where I couldn't breathe. The second half, on the other hand, is more of a wrap up of the case and closure of the story along with the fates of the main characters being painted out, and, although I understand that it's "based on a true story" and needs to end the film, I would have much preferred if we got another action set-piece at the end. Anyway, the French show once again that they are good at these ghetto films and that building tension, atmosphere and portraying a pretty gritty and uncompromising environment is no problem for them. A comparison with the recent Les Misérables is probably in order, as that one is a class better, with more action and the tension didn't let up for a moment, and that's why The Stronghold deserves "only" a better three stars. It was great and even if it lags slightly behind Les Misérables in some aspects, it still keeps up with it. A must for fans of the genre, for others a solid recommendation that they should definitely be satisfied with.

A film based on a true story that I hadn't heard of, but I'm certainly glad I know about it now. From a cinematic standpoint, however, there's not much to go on. Romania in general goes beyond me and I went into the movie blind just based on the solid 80% on imdb. The visuals are mediocre, the acting is thankfully believable (which was my biggest fear), and the emotional aspect didn't work for me at all – I somehow couldn't empathize with the character of the father and live through his suffering with him, which is probably the main goal of the film, as visually there is a drastic lack of footage of the harsh mountain environment. In the end the film is a mere drama that is a bit too down to earth in places. Overall, it's a story about a father's sacrifice to save his son, but if I were to consider whether the film is worth watching, the final verdict would be NO. Cinematically, it doesn't have much to offer and it's a bland film with no great directorial qualities.

I'm surprised that directors enjoy making the same thing over and over again with absolutely zero innovation. Another revenge story, with the same template, just with a different lead actress. The Tokyo setting is passable, the action is mediocre, the story is cheesy and really nothing more. Sure, some may argue that we wanted revenge and we got revenge, but for another addition to the genre to be of any interest to me, it has to be at least special andits own thing, and Kate is not even close. It’s alright, but there are far, far better pieces in the field of similar films. You can skip it.

The new, American version of The Guilty is out, and since I don't remember and don't want to compare it to the old, Danish version, I'm rating the film separately. I have the feeling that the film sticks too close to the original, copying the plot, script and emotions and I don't want to over-rate something we've actually seen once before, but I can't help but simply enthusiastically state that this film has done well. A one man show by Jake Gyllenhaal, who steals all the glory, you will be digging their your into the seat because not only will you be emotionally wrung out, but at the same time you can see that Gyllenhaal is fully wrung out too and his comeback to the screen after a long time is fantastic, action-packed, thrilling and just plain damn good, even though I was terribly sceptical. The Yanks tend to ruin remakes of quality films, but this time it's the complete opposite and compared to the distant and bland original, this is solidly above average.

Yeah, Money Heist was always that series where you cheered how terribly logical, intelligent and surprising it all was, but season five is the exact opposite and the creators were probably on drugs when they came up with it. Illogic, nonsensical, and anyone who can accept that is a fool.

After the opening fight, which pissed me off in that typical Asian style, I was holding my head and thinking that if it goes on like this, it will be a disaster. Thankfully nothing like that happened and for how scared I was of this solo fight, it turned out pretty well. The action is top-notch, there's a nice blend of Marvel style with Asian fighting and everything works perfectly. The humour works brilliantly and there's a reasonable amount of jokes. Story-wise it's nothing groundbreaking and it often takes classic clichéd turns, but it can be forgiven. The main character is likable, his buddy jokes relentlessly (kind of like Ned next to Spiderman or the three stooges next to Ant-Man), Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin is a delight, he doesn't spare the humour either, the visuals are captivating and all the more enhanced in the 4DX IMAX theatre. In short, a decent film that pleasantly surprises, but it lacked a more spectacular final action set-piece, one I would like to see again and at which I would scream with euphoria, and a bit more connection with the MCU (we will probably see that in the future, in any case, they could have prepared something now). That said, I still can't shake the impression that it felt too fairytale-like compared to other "darker" Marvel movies. Still decent in the end, though.

Wow!!! The film by James Wan is out and it’s something  nobody expected from him and absolutely goes beyond everything we thought. It’s about a woman who sees murders as they happen, only that the killer is not a man, but something supernatural - I don't think I'll go into any more analysis, because the less you know, the better you will enjoy the film. It must be said that Malignant is a royal surprise that has everything a horror film should have: a decent story), a suffocating and mysterious atmosphere, a likeable cast, an excellent soundtrack from the opening credits, decent scares, wholesome and dense murders, and most importantly an explosive finale that rips your balls off. Plus, I haven't seen a similar style of horror – mix of genres – in months, which only adds to the satisfaction and finally a fresh breath in the horror field. The murders are the best things, they are both terribly entertaining and uncomfortable, you look forward to them and wish they'd never stop, but the clear highlight is the gorefest , where the body-count is higher than anywhere else and which ambitiously caps off this whole ride. At any other time I would shake my head at the individual elements, but here they are presented in such a wonderfully systematic, logical and interesting way that together they form a horror film that is simply its own and unique. It has to be said that the whole film has to be taken with a grain of salt in places and you have to fully immerse yourself in it, which is the reason why so many viewers (not only here) are dissatisfied and grumbling. Simply an unexpected boom that came out of nowhere, I give it every thumbs up and would happily watch it again.

A pretty okay B-movie with no higher ambitions than to entertain a certain group of people, but I'm probably not one of them and I demand more. More of everything: suspense, action, authenticity and acting. An uninteresting forest survival drama of a group of tourists against two armed dudes, nothing more.

A sequel that literally nobody asked for, but when it was announced, we were actually all looking forward to it because the first one was a blast, a nice revival of the genre that managed to entertain in an original way. But that can't be said for the second one. The first half runs like clockwork and thanks to the constant load of action you don’t get bored, but as the film continues into the second, it starts to drag. In between, when there is too much story going on, you realise how many things don't actually make sense, often being beyond the edge of reality, and the final action set-piece does nothing to save the film, as it can’t match the level of the first half. Stephen Lang is still a tough guy for his age, the main storyline isn't bad, some of the murders are quite good and bloody, while others are terribly sterile and out of frame, which I don't really understand... It was also a good move by the film to put a war veteran in the role of anti-hero, where in the first installment we wanted him dead, but here we more or less root for him, even though we learn some unpleasant things from his past. All in all, an inoffensive flick from which we expected more, and for fans of the first one it's rather a step backwards, but it's more than enough to kill an evening.

This year's cinema flop, which stayed on the screens for barely a week before it was pulled out, is finally over and I am glad I didn't go to the cinema, because it is not great. On the other hand, though, it is not as bad as one would think with 50% of it. The biggest assets of the film are the quite interesting story, the occasional entertaining characters of the clan and Iko Uwais and Tokio from Money Heist in a supporting role, but the downsides probably outweigh them. Where the film wants to build and shock the most – and that's in the action – is paradoxically where it stumbles the most, as it's often so poorly and clutteredly shot that you get pretty lost in it, and the often dark backdrops of the fight sequences don't add to the clarity, and the already terrible cinematography gets even more lost in the darkness. Another problem is that I see Snake Eyes as having very little in common with the original G.I. Joe film and you wouldn't even know it was the same franchise apart from the main character. For a fourth star, the action is drastically lacking some basic believability, and even for those who wouldn't totally care about authenticity, the PG13 rating is a big stumbling block, if the film had gone into theaters with R-rating oozing blood and guts, we probably would have been happier. As it is, it's a bland flick that falls short in every way and the 2-hour running time is pretty excruciating.