EvilPhoEniX

How did the anticipated French horror film Pandemonium turn out? Disastrously! My eyes are playing tricks on me! I was expecting a twisted walk through hell with monsters crammed with gore and guts, a little brother to tthe Turkish Baskin and a kick-start to the French Wave this year, and I got a drama where nothing fucking happened for the whole movie. It's not until the last 10-15 minutes that the rather interesting stuff appear, but that's really late.I thought I was going to burn down a barn with my nerves (not that I had any). I don't know when the last time something pissed me off so much, an absolutely uninteresting bore that has about as much in common with horror as KFC has with shoes. In the end it turned out to be an anthology, which has no strong story arc, can't rely on any interesting scenes, script or actors and not to mention the atmosphere. The biggest disappointment of the year. 3/10. One star for the ending, the other for the mutant with the little girl, who did not do anything

Okay, strong stuff giving a clear message against bullying!! The Koreans have once again stepped up and made quite possibly the best series on the subject of education and bullying, and as the 90% here says, it's well deserved. After all, the series is also garnering praise around the world (8.5 o IMDB, quite possibly the highest rated Korean series in years). The main character is an intelligent and quiet boy, a bit of a typical nerd, who is the target of bullying by his classmates, but thanks to his intelligence he has a chance to overpower them. (in the opening episodes the main character acts like Sherlock Holmes, who intelligently maps out his surroundings and the situation and tries to solve it). That was great! He also makes friends with the local school dude who does MMA, but at the same time he's not an asshole (he's quite possibly the best character of the show, who wins the viewer over with his character and his fighting skills). The series doesn't just take place in the school, it also deals with problems outside the school (getting involved with the local drug dealer etc). The big win is the unpredictability, somewhere in episode 4 I had no idea what direction the series was going to take. The quality and sharp fighting, the strong story of friendship and betrayal, and the final episodes tug at the emotions so much that no face is left dry. It's catchy, gritty, funny, emotional, all the quality ingredients come together here in a quality cocktail of a series. Recommended. 90%

Czechia has Pavel Soukup and the Slovaks have Rudolf Biermann!! Scumbag was already a good gangster movie and Cop War is great. It reminds me a lot of European gangster films, especially French ones, so I'm very satisfied. I didn't even mind the longer running time of 150 minutes because I wasn't bored for a second. It's got a very faithful 90's period setting, with corruption on all sides, and an excellent Rytmus as a mob boss, and he could have easily had more space because he was very fitting. It's gritty, atmospheric, manly, authentic and there are some unexpected twists.  Just the way I like it. It's a pity the ending is so inconclusive, I guess a sequel is in the cards and I'd happily take a second helping. For me it is one of the best Slovak films. 80%

David Leitch pays homage to the stunt craft and filmmaking, and it's enjoyable entertainment that won't offend anyone in the cinema, but it just doesn't live up to his previous effort Bullet Train - that was far more substantial in terms of action and humour, and more importantly it was R-rated, so I liked it better. It's quite ironic that the film's strengths don't include the action, which is more creative and interesting than excellent, and the humour is only mildly amusing rather than a loaded comedy ride, but the film gets plus points elsewhere. Like the great chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, it had emotion and this whole romance thing works great, but what I liked most was the behind the scenes of the filmmaking, where Leitch shows a lot of things from the other side and I enjoyed that. There are also a lot of movie references, I really liked the action scene on LSD at the disco (probably the most original fight ever) and then the finale, which is decently spectacular and fun. The icing on the cake is the trailer for the final film which is reminiscent of Honest Trailers (the same guy speaks by the way), I was very pleased with that. Fun, playful and heartfelt. 8/10

Enjoyable CGI cinematic action from Japan, where a group of mercenaries fight space bugs on a spaceship. The plot is very simple, but the visuals are nice, even if you have to take into account that the film is 12 years old, so it's more PS2-PS3 graphics than PS 5. It's R-rated, so all the ladies show up naked, and the soldiers also squirt a fair amount of blood, while the bugs are oozing slime. The spaceship setting is properly claustrophobic and the atmosphere is similar to Alien.Too bad there aren't more monsters and it's all limited to the bugs and the queen, it gets a bit repetitive after a while, but not many movies like this are made (which I'm surprised such movies aren't released in cinemas), so I'll round up to 4 in the end. 70%

I don't see any major differences in the direction and I don't trust Wes Ball much, but for me it's another sheer blockbuster spectacle that meets the highest criteria, it's setting itself up for another excellent Trilogy (there aren't many of those in the works right now) and it will definitely be in the top 5 among blockbusters this year. Plot-wise, I like it better, the apes are in control and the humans will gradually fight to take over. The new hero Noah is likable, Freya Allan is adorable and acts great (another female star looms here), Proximus is a solid villain, visually it's a VFX gem! The action scenes have drive, tension, emotion and a thick atmosphere, in fact I was almost breathless during every scene, it's that gripping (the home invasion one was almost horror) and the whole grand finale has the necessary gusto. 100% immersion in the story with a world that still has something to offer. 85%

Not as good as the first two films, but considering how barren comedy is these days, it's more than decent entertainment that won't offend fans. Moving Ted to a school is a fine idea, once again he's getting stoned, is foul-mouthed to everyone and dispenses wisecracks, and it's again properly incorrect in terms of racism, politics and LGBT. I found the character of the father very funny, he was a proper redneck and gave it all a nice twist. The finale, where Ted's best friend would like to lose his virginity, is just fucking hilarious. It reminds me a lot of comedies from 10-15 years ago, so I enjoyed it a lot, and it also has a bit of a sitcom feel to it. I don't think anyone will go wrong. 75%.

A family friendly adventure that surprisingly isn't as annoying as I suspected before watching it. Kumail Nanjiani gives a comedic undertone to the film and I found the whole freezing apocalypse thing fine, in fact even the orb villain looked very nice, kind of a mummy mix. Kids will like it a lot and parents at least won't be completely annoyed while watching it. As a teen fantasy ghost story, it's actually okay. 6/10

I caught up with this rather praised crime drama-thriller that surprised me with its shocking and unpredictable conclusion. It's an intimate film with a couple of characters, where a daughter commits a nasty crime and the parents try to cover it up from the police. The hopeless and heavy atmosphere is woven throughout the film and works well. Although it's nothing groundbreaking, it's stuff that can keep you entertained and those who like police investigations will definitely not be bored. I was sure of a strong three throughout, but the final twist had me sitting on my ass, it was shocking as fuck and earned an above average rating. 7/10

Another Korean action romp that grabs you right from the beginning and doesn't let up until the end. The protagonist is a young cadet at the police academy, he is a model student, but he stops liking that the law doesn't apply to everyone, most criminals don't get a proper punishment and after a while they run free to do more evil and the law is short on those influential people. He decides on weekends to take the law into his own hands and punish those who are above it. It may be a classic avenger theme, but the Koreans can make even such a simple theme complicated and excellent. Soon a fanboy shows up on the scene and starts imitating the vigilante, and a new captain arrives in town to hunt down the avenger. Ji-tae Yoo from Oldboy plays an incredible beast here and a psychopathic asshole that dishes out punches that make everyone fly two meters, he really made me feel scared, respectful, I really bought into that psychopathic look. The series has a great pace, it has great action scenes (perfectly choreographed fights, the main young hero can swing nicely and delivers some nice punishment), there are a lot of fist fights and it wouldn't be Korea without knives. You end up liking all the characters, a bunch of different criminals come together, and it has a pleasantly intense pace. The finale is a downright epic action scene with a fight where all the characters of the series come together. The series is more fans for martial arts and South Korea. PS: The episodes are only 40 minutes long. 8/10.