EvilPhoEniX

The creators of Wyrmwood have already delivered us the second spider of this year, which is presented in a more light-hearted way and unfortunately doesn't give much trouble to arachnophobics, in this Infested was more aggressive and successful and here they could have tightened up in many things, but for sure Sting won't offend. Once again we have a block of flats, lots of people, and one egg from outer space that turns out to be a spider with an ever-increasing appetite. The little spider was pretty exotic, and the scene where it crawls into a woman and starts messing around in her body was solid, but it was not enough to make it the gore scene of the year, they could have gone three times bigger here. It's more reminiscent of the monster horror B-movies of the 90's, which have a lighter touch and it doesn't totally matter, it's just that the humour doesn't quite work and the kills are rather out of frame, it could do with more intense kills because the atmosphere doesn't really work and the fear of the spider even less so. Watchable and enjoyable, but I won't scratch for a higher rating. Infested was elsewhere. 60%

Indonesia also adds its hand this year with a decent adrenaline action flick. Angga Dwimas Sasongko is one of Indonesia's more aspiring filmmakers, but only now has he made a film that I can appreciate above average, even though his Stealing Raden Saleh has had a decent amount of success abroad. Here you can see a very decent budget and it looks like a nice A-list production, the best this country can produce. The story focuses on terrorists who cause chaos in Jakarta when they plant 13 bombs with the threat that one will explode every 8 hours, they want 100 Bitcoins as a ransom. This terrorist attack is the result of a fight against the financial mafia and oligarchs, and is quite interesting and novel. The film has a solid pace, there's always something going on and it moves forward very quickly, the action scenes are decent, it's R-rated and the shootouts have that proper military feel. Midway through the film the pace calms down a bit but the ending kicks in again, there's an unexpected twist and some knife duels as well, so a very pleasant surprise for me. I love fighting terrorists and when a decent budget is added to it, the fun is taken care of. 75%

I'm glad I caught up on this one. The combination of Robert Zemeckis and Denzel Washington sounded good and it worked. The opening 30 minutes with the plane crash is a decently intense beast and I liked the aftermath, the investigation and the subsequent trial where the protagonist is tried for alcohol and drugs. I had fun and Denzel was excellent as always. 75%

A likeable and fun action B-movie on the theme of virtual reality and the classic Battle Royale. A group of people are in the woods in a survival game, where a lot of obstacles await them (even one CGI monster). The action is decent, though drastically lacking the R-rating, but otherwise the choreography is imaginative and the fights are well shot. I was most impressed with the finale where the main character uses a katana and a knife, that's where the blood was just supposed to spurt and the twin bad guys as the final boss were fine. The potential was definitely higher, but I like this kind of genre movies and the effort is definitely there. 6/10

Francis Galluppi, like Sébastien Vaníček, comes through with a superb debut, and both have earned themselves a new Evil Dead. Nice. Almost everything I love in movies is here. There's the attractive setting of rural Arizona, one remote rest-stop (reminiscent of popular hixploitation movies), and a group of random people who find themselves in one place at the wrong time. There's a salesman, an attractive waitress, a pair of robbers, a couple of retirees, a Bonnie and Clyde-like couple, a young cop, and a gas station owner. Gorgeous cinematography, confident direction, a well-developed script with no shortage of twists and turns, well-chosen actors, solid dialogue, a taut atmosphere, suspense that could be sliced and a proper Mexican stand-off like something out of The Hateful Eight. The violence and humour could have been worked on better, but this mix of Tarantino and Coen evoking 70's Thrillers is more than a good genre film.8/10

While it's nothing groundbreaking, it's still a fine, stylish and entertaining Guy Ritchie film with excellent casting. The British army recruits a group of mercenaries to cause trouble for the Nazis and killing Nazis is always fun, just a shame it's not R-rated, because once Alan starts working with his knife, the blood is painfully absent.The caste acting is impressive. Henry Cavill and Jack Reacher (who gets better film by film) rule the roost, sex symbol Eiza Gonzales never gets boring, Til Schweiger as a Nazi is a delight too. It's got a very entertaining pace, nice fun and stylish action and there's plenty of it, the plot isn't great and the tension and atmosphere aren't as intense as Inglorious Basterds, but I had a good time and it's impossible not to like this bunch. 75%

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