EvilPhoEniX

A bit of a disappointment for me, only the awesome finale pulls it up to a higher rating, but otherwise a bit of a letdown. The light-hearted concept bothered me a bit, unfortunately it isn't very funny and most of the actors overact disgustingly theatrically (Andrew Koji downright pissed me off here and doesn't perform anything). I was also quite bothered by Bill Skarsgård's inner voice and the humour was surprisingly lacking, but the action scenes were good, there’s a decent portion of gore, where heads and limbs are not spared. But then comes the finale, where the final 2 in 1 fight is the new ceiling of the action genre!! It was a like out of The Raid 2, with top choreography, nice slow-motion shots, fatalities; it made me scream and sweat like few have done before, this scene will definitively be in the TOP 10 fights on YouTube. 70%

A decent, manipulative European oddity on an interesting subject, where Mia Wasikowska (she looks terrible!) shows students new dietary trends, which soon leads to kids stopping eating and parents being sick of it. Too bad it doesn't go into further extremes and there's probably only one properly unpleasant scene. The finale is quite unexpected, but I could imagine it being more shocking. Not Bad. 6/10.

George Miller is a god and serves up another excellent post-apocalyptic blast. If Fury Road was a 10, this is a very solid 9! Another great visually lavish cinematic experience, of which there won't be many this year, so don't hesitate any longer and head on over! It tells the revenge story of a young Furiosa in an attractive post-apocalyptic world. All the factions and how they work is very fun and interesting (I liked the costumes and the visuals of all the characters, they were properly insane). It's got an intense and adrenaline-packed pace, and even though the first big action scene comes somewhere before the halfway point, it's decently suspenseful and engaging until then, there's simply no danger of boredom. Anya Taylor Joy is excellent as always, and here she doesn’t even have to speak properly, her look was enough to express all the emotions perfectly. Thor a.k.a. Dementus gives the best performance of his career, he really enjoys the madman perfectly. Visually it's again very intense, the music is beautifully ear-splitting, the action scenes surprise with more and more crazy ideas, and you enjoy every shot and moment. There’s even one delightful small cameo, and the ending with the living tree was awesome! Furiosa with Dune 2 and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is clearly the king of this year's blockbusters. There are plenty of epic moments that will make me very happy to watch Furiosa again. 9/10.

Atmospheric found footage inferno!!! I didn't think I'd ever be scared to go to the toilet after watching a horror movie, but here I was, like, super uncomfortable. I don't mind ghosts or demons, I don't mind heads and dicks being cut and guts flying around, but I downright hate mannequins and clowns and this combo is deadly to me. Also adding a lot to the atmosphere was the fact that I watched this film at 3am and when you are going back to your hotel at night it can sometimes be scary, I almost took out my torch and the walk up to the second floor was almost reminiscent of Silent Hill! Already in the first story you could sense that the filmmakers have talent despite the limited budget, but I was bothered by the chaotic camera and the distracting images, it was still kind of The Blair Witch Project style with an epileptic touch, where you can't see much and the camera shakes like pensioners in front of a supermarket at 7am, but here all these flaws are absent. The cinematography is beautifully polished, and visually it's immediately a more attractive film, and to me, more likeable. Plus the film has the potential to be an interesting crime mystery, based around the wealthy Carmichael family of the huge mansion I have a soft spot for. So here we have a group of three investigators who decide to spend five nights in this mansion, as they suspect it is haunted, and it is! From about 40 minutes onwards, it goes into full horror mode with the scariest clowns I've ever seen, and every shot of them gave me chills and uncomfortable anxiety. The camera work is downright masterful and I can say the same for the sound design, where some of the scares tingled with me properly, as they should. The atmosphere is bleak and very much evil, the pacing by the end is so intense that I wished it was already over, because I was afraid that I might not be able to physically handle any more revelations! I also praise the very innovative haunted attractions (for example the scene where we only watch a sequence of photos that start to get progressively more creepy was brilliant), here even James Wan would give a standing ovation! A found footage gem with proper creepy vibes. I'm bumping it up to full score because I haven't had a more intense horror experience since The Conjuring and The Host. An underrated masterpiece that is downright hell to watch. 9/10.

I like sports dramas and I was really looking forward to Challengers since the first trailer. Luca Guadagnino is a guarantee of quality filmmaking and he delivers a solid sports romance that, although a little scrappy at times in the second half, but Zendaya pulls all the attention to herself. The finale is nicely suspenseful, nice camera work, decent performances and overall a good film, but one I won't be watching again (I enjoyed the Williams sisters with Will Smith a tad more, there were stronger emotions there as well). 70%

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%.