EvilPhoEniX

Nice surprise. I wasn't expecting miracles from Land of Bad, but it's a solid military action flick with an A-budget and a fine cast that keeps a great pace and is pleasantly intense. We have five soldiers who are sent on a mission, only for things to go classically wrong and they will have to fight for their lives. Liam Hemsworth runs through the jungle from enemies and is helped by Russell Crowe on a wire, using drones to fire bombs at the enemies. The film has a great pace, the dialogue between Crowe and Hemsworth is fine, there's no shortage of tension, and there are some one-on-one fights and shootouts at the end. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it certainly doesn't put the genre to shame, and those who like this kind of military stuff won't go wrong.

A Czech unconventional black-humor home invasion. The film is strange in that the genre classification of horror is a misnomer, but what the main characters experience could be called horror, because it’s something you just wouldn’t like to go through. The star is Simona Pekova, she does a very good job. There is a kind of light psychological terror that carries through the whole film and to my surprise I quite enjoyed it. Fucking squaters! The finale could have been handled better, unfortunately no satisfaction comes in the end.

An enjoyable feel-good sports film by Taika Waititi with likeable characters and a very good Michael Fassbender. Story-wise, it's a stale tale, but it doesn't matter that much as the film flows on a pleasantly positive mood throughout. Don't expect fits of laughter though, but it held my attention very well. 70%.

I was looking forward to it, but I'm disappointed. I usually like sports dramas a lot, but this one just missed the mark. It's an ungratifying slow-burn that is only two hours long, but feels like three, because I thought several times in the cinema that it should have ended long ago and it just kept going on and on (things that could be summed up in like ten mintes minutes are dealt with for an hour, etc.); I just wasn't enjoying it at all and by the halfway point I was looking at my watch. The performances were okay, Zac Efron and Allen White were the best, I like them both, but the backstage of wrestling was a lot less entertaining than I expected. You don’t really get to enjoy the fights, the whole thing is uninteresting and the family drama didn't work for me either, I found it emotionally cold. It's also shot quite amateurishly and the story based on true events is interesting, but it somehow goes without any significant surprises or drama. Again, I don't understand the positive general reception, a pure festival film for a fringe audience that is annoyingly long and drawn out. 55%

Bloody awesome! The Dutch, outsiders on the film scene, are absolutely shocking with this series, crushing the competition and winning by a landslide. Amsterdam is overrun by organised terrorist attacks by Muslim scumbags and it's done so realistically and authentically that you'll shiver like never before! I haven’t been as uncomfortable watching a movie or series as I was here, part of the reason for that is that European terrorism is quite topical and here, watching it, you get the feeling that it's really happening and you are in the thick of the action and the chaos itself. I really appreciate that the series doesn't once slip into family drama or any other plot digressions, and we don't have just one attack here, but several! The protagonist is a detective, originally from Afghanistan, who learns that his childhood friend has come to Amsterdam and immediately afterwards the city is in chaos, so he searches for him on his own, only he becomes the main suspect in the case – The Fugitive and Hotel Mumbai in one! The highlight is definitely the 2-part massacre at the mall, where they fire uncompromisingly and coldly at everyone with a Kalashnikov. The hopelessness, helplessness and fear is unbelievable. The atmosphere of all those corpses rolling on the ground, including children, is uncompromising! I was a bit annoyed by the rules of the police waiting half an hour for a commando while the terrorists shoot 200 people, with the police waiting outside, but that's the lame protocols. For me, excellent stuff that keeps the pace, the tension, is uncomfortable and action packed enough. Quite possibly the best series or movie on terrorism I've ever seen. 10/10.

A very pleasant surprise that took my breath away. I like animated films with animals the most and I honestly didn't expect much from this one, but I'm even more surprised what a hit Migration turned out to be. Honestly Universal and Netflix are knocking it out of the park and kicking the ass of Disney and Pixar, who both suck lately. Migration doesn't have revolutionary visuals and plot-wise it doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it features a very likeable duck family that decides to leave the nest for the first time in their lives and emigrate to Jamaica specifically, having wild and unseen adventures along the way. So yes, even though it's only about getting from point A to point B and also about parent-child education, I didn't mind that at all because the humour is awesome. I really don't remember when I've laughed as hard at an animated movie as I did here and to my surprise it's also pretty suspenseful – the scene with the heron is actually pretty creepy, it might scare the kids, and the kitchen heist has a bombastic build-up. After the arrival of the parrot (Keegan Michael Key) my excitement increased even more and the duck paradise with meditation, water slides and massages was a nice touch. Very funny, enjoyable, beautiful and touching. 8/10.

A pleasant Spanish surprise. The film has a very original premise. The protagonist is a Projector, he has the ability to create illusions in the minds of others and it's very original. His father is also a likeable Berlin from Money Heist and he has a nice friend, Maria Pedraza (coincidentally the teen hostage from Money Heist, who then grew up to be a proper babe). A secret agent agency is after them and another Projector appears on the scene. It's very well paced, there's a lot of action (the fights are very stiff and have a lighter Matrix feel to them, so I'm not too put off by them), but I liked the well dosed twists and turns, and overall, thanks to the novel premise, it's an interesting film that got my attention. Fine for me and pleased with the playful and cool ideas (the spider illusion!). This needs an American remake with a proper A-list budget. 7/10.

The Danes are putting together a decent trilogy. The first part was more The Punisher style, but the second was also very good. The first half hour takes place in a Danish prison and it manages to hook the viewer to the screen immediately. Then, after a deal with the police, the protagonist is tasked with infiltrating an Arab gang and is released. Here the pace slows down slightly to kick things up again with a decent action packed final 40 minutes. Dar Salim's performance is excellent, and even though the plot is predictable, you still eat it up, and the bad guys are good, with the viewer wishing nothing but death for those Arab scumbags. There are some decent suspenseful sequences and the fights are also nicely rough, so for me again, satisfaction. 75%

Minimalistic, simple and straightforward, but at the same time inoffensive and cool for one viewing. The whole film takes place in a police station where a policewoman is alone with no backup. She becomes the target of rednecks, only two, though, so forget about carnage and body-count. The film relies more on suspense, the actors and the atmosphere and that is never enough to make me happy. 55%

I knew after a few episodes that I wasn't going to be the target audience. I like Greek mythology and fantasy, but this was just too childish for me, even if it's not the creators fault, but I couldn't get over the 12 year old kids in the main roles, because seeing all those overpowered monsters facing a bunch of dumbasses who can't really do anything interesting; it seemed like they always got rid of someone more by accident or luck (and seeing a little kid fighting with a sword is just boring). Visually it's pretty ok (the final two episodes of Underworld are probably the best), but the rest of it didn't really entertain me. There's too little action, the humor is absent and the characters didn't win me over. Fortunately, it's all short episodes so it doesn't get tedious, but nothing special for me. 55%