J*A*S*M

Simon Barrett has hung around a number of hilarious films in the past as a screenwriter, but his feature directorial debut is an utterly bland supernatural slasher. It’s a shame.

Unless I'm forgetting something (and I don't think I am), Oxygen is definitely the best sci-fi film the VOD networks have offered us so far this year, which, with competition like Outside the Wire and Chaos Walking, doesn’t say much, but still... Alex Aja proves once more that he has the a knack for the craft, but again with a screenplay that is a bit off, so it again doesn't reach the red colour on Filmbooster. When you start breaking it down and analyse it, you get, to put it mildly, problematic moments in logic. On the other hand, the film can surprise, some of the twists were unexpected (although in hindsight they might have occurred to me), Mélanie Laurent is excellent and there are few uncomfortable scenes with mice and needles that were a delight. A nice little movie.

As a light horror flick that can be played to first grade elementary school kids to introduce them to the genre, it’s alright. But even within this category there are pieces that are more playful, fun and interesting for adult audiences. There's, however, one thing I'll probably remember the film for, it’s a new winner in the category of the most stupid place to hide when escaping a killer in a movie: a stalactite cave.

They've gone crazy again at Rotten Tomatoes. A pointlessly overrated low-budget indie ghost film that apparently garners praise, mainly because it's essentially a one-boy-show whose main character is a small, mute, traumatized kid that almost never leaves the screen. I mean, nothing against it, the kid tries, but it doesn't work horror-wise at all, and there's nothing else in it. There's so little action in The Djinn that even at a moderate runtime of less than 80 minutes, it struggles to crawl at all. At times I was telepathically pushing the film to get it the fuck moving a little. Or, if you don't know what to do, throw in a red filter and randomly move the camera around the room for a few minutes.

A nicely visually conceived psychothriller that will make you expect some kind of elaborate mindfuck, because all the characters behave from the beginning as if they came from another world. But in the end it just alternates unsurprising twists we've seen a hundred times with slightly surprising ones – but that's only because they're so stupid that no one would seriously think of them. On other occasions, I would have waved a hand over this film, but considering the filmmakers – for the umpteenth time in a short period – it has to be said that it's pretty crap.

I wonder if I've ever seen a more inept duo of killers in a movie. If they were clumsier, Those Who Wish Me Dead could have been a comedy. Otherwise, I don't really understand why a film starring such big names turned out to be so mediocre. It’s watchable, but it doesn’t stand out in anything. I prefer Sheridan as a director in the snow, and Angelina... well, nowhere really.

At first I let myself get intoxicated on the gimmick of the nicely photographed exotic nature, but after some time it became a borefest on a boat. A group of castaways simply face a man-eating shark, something we've seen many times before, and better. The characters are unfortunately unlikeable and the film as a whole lacks the necessary tension. No big thrill.

Hm, still shot great, but I'm probably going to have a major problem rooting for the type of character played by Justin Theroux. These selfish, alternative radicals who put everyone around them in danger for their deranged ideals deserve to be beaten with a shovel. Perhaps a more detailed reveal of his past will help.

Quite a buffoonery this was. And the more serious/harsh/fateful it tries to look, the funnier it gets. When those terribly acted characters in funny outfits don’t say anything, it's watchable – so I see three stars as an improvement in a situation where not many great films are still coming out. That said, forget about any fancy fight choreography, I though they were pretty ordinary. If Gareth Evans had taken over, it would have been a different story.

I'm not going take cheap shots at the participants, they are clearly successful at what they do on social media, so good luck to them. Moreover, at least some of them might even be quite likeable in real life (note: please take Kajumi out of the consideration of which ones I consider likeable). I'd rather focus on how stupidly Prima has handled it. This definitely needed a more diverse group of people, because these seven obviously know each other and work more or less amicably outside the house; they are very similar and interchangeable. If instead we had – if we stayed on TikTok – for example beztrika, klukskamenim or anet_vitk, it would be far more interesting. The second incomprehensible decision is the use of a completely normal house somewhere in Beroun, with the TV crew obviously there with them all the time. Compared to Big Brother, then, it's completely obvious that the performers don't act naturally in the presence of the crew; there is simply no natural conflict to expect from Like House, nothing interesting that one would expect in this type of TV show. And the third thing is total dramaturgical cluelessness. Maybe it’s premature to judge after only two episodes (but honestly, I don't think I'll watch more), but what the hell, the completely basic "tasks" and liking and disliking "just because". Basically, nothing happened in those two episodes. You can't get more out of this than the clumsy, nervous and insincere gossiping of a bunch of friends in front of a TV crew.