POMO

This brief shocker stands out thanks to its unique location on a remote Greek island, powerfully atmospheric soundtrack, terrifying killer and one or two extraordinarily gross bits of disgustingness, which made it a classic of the genre. Italian horror trash with courage and an irresistibly distinctive face.

A good half of It’s Alive is taken up by empty talking and unnecessary scenes. Cohen was a proficient Hollywood practitioner, and he was able to engage Bernard Herrmann and put together an attractive poster, but constructing an interesting story and engaging the viewer were beyond his abilities. The film has an original idea with a born murderous mutant and parents who struggle with remorse on the one hand and parental attachment to the child on the other hand, but none of this is utilised as a functional psychological motor for the film. And the horror scenes are B-movie cheap.

Kathryn borrowed the crew of the spaceship from Jim’s Aliens and turned them into ruthless vampires. Near Dark is a nice mix of drama, romance and vampire horror set in the American desert. The soundtrack alone brings the pain. Where did those composers get that stuff back then?!

Amundsen is a nicely told story with an explorer’s spirit, high-quality CGI and make-up, and a remarkable performance by Pål Sverre Hagen. However, the film is a bit sluggish in depicting Amundsen’s complex nature, primarily through the character played by Katherine Waterston, who, together with Amundsen’s brother, guides us through his story. It's as if she was plugged into the screenplay as an unavoidable female element only to vindicate Amundsen’s positive human qualities. However, the film tells us the minimum about her relationship with Amundsen and rather depicts his relationship with another woman.

A properly filled-in plot template that’s entertaining, especially thanks to its characters. With its good villain(s), one dramatic moment and one joke that will make you laugh out loud, Spenser Confidential is fine a diversion, better than you would have expected.

Geostorm is an extraordinarily bad and silly disaster blockbuster in which absolutely nothing works. It lacks Emmerich’s perspective and empathetic work with the characters. The scientific dialogue and the plot in general don’t make even a bit of sense and the political conspiracy plot line is laughable, as are the nonsensical weather elements (a cold wind-driven mega-wave flash freezes people in bathing suits on the beach in tropical Rio? Huh?). It’s been a long time since I’ve had trouble finishing such a well-cast film.

Though Chaos is a bit of a guilty pleasure, it’s a nice film with an original sci-fi world, imaginative “dialogue” and a very likeable central duo. The motif of revealing heartfelt thoughts and revealed wishes is magical for sparking romance. Daisy’s shyness and unkempt blond hair won me over more here than in Star Wars, and Holland is perfect as a simple adolescent boy with no awareness of the truth, nostalgia for his mother and his relationship with his dog. Only Mikkelsen isn’t well suited for these negative roles; I simply don’t believe him.

Mortal Engines is a grand farce of colossal proportions with an exceedingly large multicultural cast. The tangle of characters and secondary motivations makes it impossible to focus on the main dramatic story line, let alone on the emotional experience, which is sketched out so well in the promising opening. That’s a shame, because the film’s fantastical world and its visual richness knows no bounds, and Junkie XL serves up an epic Ben Hur-esque soundtrack. It’s hard to say if it’s dragged down by the screenplay, the directing or both, but coming from Peter Jackson and the entire LOTR team, such a stumble is quite a surprise.

PVT CHAT is like the dissertation work of a New York Film Academy student who is not afraid to go a bit over the edge. There are plenty of penises and semen in this film about the manipulation of a young submissive by an internet dominatrix. The theme itself strives to create controversy through the open approach to it. However, the immaturity, naïve attempt at a thriller-style plot and mainly the empty dialogue are rather more evidence of the filmmaker’s frustration with the absence of a meaningful topic that he would have shot with real interest and enthusiasm. The scene of a long and spasmodic (as if friendly) fight at an art exhibition only confirms this.

Red Dot offers up the familiar theme of tourists hunted like wild animals in the wilderness, but spiced up with new twists. The unique Swedish locations and the film’s climax significantly improve an otherwise absolutely standard experience with at least one instance of illogic. The directing is sufficiently good and everything fits well psychologically, but in more experienced hands this could only have been a real hit, like the British film Calibre, for example.