EvilPhoEniX

This year's first horror swallow, and it earns 4 stars. Out of Darkness was one of the dark horses of this year and while it is not a big hit that will be remembered, it stands reliably in the category of an adventurous dark survival horror film. I have to praise the excellent technical aspect and cinematography, the scenery is very nice and it doesn't look cheap, which is always a big plus. I appreciate the fact they speak an indigenous language, which adds to the authenticity. The atmosphere is also good, the fear of the unknown works well, and the music is probably the best element of the film, because the sound engineer does a masterful job here, with the musical score enhancing the atmosphere of every suspenseful twofold. There is also a bit of gore and the actual reveal of the "predator" might piss some people off, but for me it was an interesting twist and I didn't mind it. Considering that Stone Age horror is a rarity and nothing better has come out of the horror genre this year, 4 stars is absolutely spot on.

Anyone can be a hero! An unexpected gem from South Korea on their popular topic of bullying in schools, and it's awesome in every way. The main character is played by the likable Shin Hye-sun, he plays a former boxer that starts working as a substitute teacher at a school run by the bastard Lee Joon-young, who has big connections (his mother is a lawyer, his father sponsors the school), so he totally gets away with everything and nobody can do anything about him, really a first class scumbag! Fortunately the main character is no pushover and decides to take action, but outside of school and wearing a cat mask. Word of a new cat vigilante begins to spread around town! It has great pacing, good fights, enjoyable characters and the actual finale in the ring has a great atmosphere, great choreography (awesome slow motion sequences) and surprisingly there was even a goosebump moment with some drive. Fortunately, the inclusion of comedy is only very marginal. I liked it. 75%.

The trailers of Desperado promised a bombastic action flick from China, but the final impression is only barely satisfying. The protagonist is a former hitman who, after being released from prison works as a clown in disguise and takes care of a little girl (I didn’t the sentimental element with the child, which detracts from the seriousness and at times unintentionally falls into a light drama instead of a gritty and dark action film, the contrast just never worked for me). Danny Chan, who starred in Ip Man, certainly has some fighting skills, and Xing Yu is also good, it's just that the action itself didn't blow my mind away. Visually and choreographically it's decent, but I missed the hardness of a proper punch, and the R-rating could have been exploited better too. So, in the end I'll scrape to a better average. My expectations were much higher. 6/10.

Crazy boring! A conversation drama in a car between two unlikeable characters about bullshit. The only survival was watching this film. If only the Wendigo was there, but nothing. Cheap, uninteresting, boring! 3/10.

For me, a totally watchable action B-movie with a likable Orlando Bloom and a great Andie MacDowell, who was excellent as the mafia godmother. It's suspenseful, there is some torture, and the action is only average, but serviceable enough. Entertaining, not offensive. 6/10.

Romcoms are back! Take two extremely likable and young Hollywood rising stars with great chemistry, stuff it with humour, make it not just an emotional romantic blackmail and this recipe can't go wrong, and judging by the decent box office returns it worked. Never mind that in terms of plot it is nothing write home about, but it has a very feel good vibe, I love Sydney Sweeney (that cleavage of hers oh my God!) and Glen Powell is a likeable guy here too. The humour works, the emotions worked for me at the end and it's definitely a film I'll be happy to watch with the ladies. Enjoyable stuff. 8/10.

Watchable, but nothing special. The chubby main character is a likeable guy and giving him the role of a babysitter is pretty funny, but it came in handy because a masked cult of intruders invades the house and you trust him to fight more than you would a 40-kilogram woman. It's quite gory and quite action packed, but it's a B-movie so you don’t get to enjoy the gore that much (it’s far from realistic), and the humour could have been played better. It didn't offend but I'll forget it tomorrow. 5/10.

Zone of disinterest. One of those films that the teacher puts on in history class, but 80% of the students would rather pull out their cell phones and scroll through Instagram because it's almost as boring as regular class. The film is completely empty in terms of information, so it doesn't even serve an educational purpose. We follow the banalities of the daily life of a concentration camp commander and his family. We learn nothing about the characters, the dialogues are cut down to the minimum, Auschwitz is not shown, so again a film for book readers, where the viewer has to figure everything out (fck you!!), it has no script, the atmosphere doesn't work at all, there’s no build-up, no tension or escalated drama between the Nazis, the emotions below zero, and in the end, instead of showing a pile of corpses, they show only shoes. The film is so empty, slow and boring that even if you skips twenty minutes, you won’t miss anything crucial. Son of Saul was thematically similar, but somewhere else. An intimate arthouse of the highest order. 3/10.

A martial arts historical gem from China! The blind bounty hunter is back in perfect form. The first one was already excellent and this is on a similar level. Miu Tse really is a very skilled dude and the grace and style with which he defeats his enemies is a joy to behold. Visually it looks perfect and even though it's just a revenge road movie in terms of plot. The cinematography, the choreography and the fight scenes elevate the film to a high above average. The first one had more limb breaking, here he uses the sword more often, but I had a great time. It needs a trilogy. 80%.

This film was touted as a British queer revenge thriller with rave reviews, but the result is queer drama, where there’s no revenge at all. It was all too queer for my taste, with perhaps no straight characters. That feeling you get when you want violence, murder, and thoughtful revenge and instead you get drag queens, gay porn, and gay sex scenes. Fuck this. George MacKay is good as the asshole, but that's about it. The film promised something else entirely. I guess only queers can rate it positively, otherwise I don't know what to give it plus points for, because it's not great in terms of plot either. Not for me. 3/10.