EvilPhoEniX

The return of Dario Argento did not turn out well. In the 1980s he reigned supreme, now he's stagnating and it's amazing how poorly he made a Giallo, the genre that made him famous. The Last Matinee two years ago was considerably better in every way. The overseas reviews already suggested that it would be nothing significant and they were right. Dark Glasses is thankfully only 80 minutes long, but given that nothing much happens, it comes across as lengthy. The film has a simple plot about a prostitute who loses her eyesight, we watch her struggle with this disability for half an hour, and the other half hour we watch a little Chinese boy guide her while they run away from a killer who is introduced quite early on, which again is a mistake. There are only two gore scenes and that's in the opening and the ending, so very weak, a killer who doesn't murder – great. There is only one nude scene and the styling looks low budget. There is no attention to detail, no beautiful colours, no pure Giallo elements (maybe the opening with black gloves and a rope), the atmosphere doesn't work, the suspense doesn't work either, overall a useless, very weak and naive horror film. Story 1/5. Action 2/5, Humor 0/5, Violence 2/5, Fun 2/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 3/5, Atmosphere 2/5, Suspense 2/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 2/5. 35%

For me, the most disappointing series of the year so far. Amazon lured us with an attractive sci-fi mystery with Josh Brolin, but unfortunately the series just skims over this and doesn't focus on the subject at all, instead it becomes a lengthy soap opera. The series definitely had potential, it's set on a nice American ranch with few inhabitants, there's good acting from Josh Brolin and Imogen Poots, and I was pleased to see Tom Pelphrey (from Banshee). There are decent visuals and one mystery hole that should have been the main pull of the series, but is more of an extra, which wasn't the intention. The first three episodes are set up cleverly, the end of the first episode is a decently suspenseful, and surprisingly I was quite entertained (solving a murder, the fight for the ranch, the mystery loop hole), but it all soon fades away and somewhere during the 5th episode I was getting bored and I finished it more out of obligation and curiosity than satisfaction, and I have to say it's kinda a waste of time. Nothing much gets solved, the mystery line is very much secondary, one murder is solved for maybe six episodes, there are few characters and nobody has much to work with except Brolin. The closer the series gets to the end, it stopped making sense and the insanely slow pace really didn't add much to it. There's nothing really interesting to see or anything downright noteworthy, everything I've seen elsewhere and handled better, so 3 stars for a decent start, the last few episodes were gravitating more towards 2 stars. Story 3/5. Action 2/5, Humour 1/5, Violence 1/5, Fun 2/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 3/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 4/5. 5/10.

I was looking forward to it, but in the end I'm quite disappointed. The Poles have been rolling out gangster films lately in a style that dominates Europe and this one definitely had potential, but among the recent Polish efforts, it comes out as a loser. I was expecting something along the lines of the French film Public Enemy, but that is not the case. The protagonist is considered to be King of Escapes, he holds the world record and has escaped from prison 29 times, but the film doesn't really focus on that. There are no elaborate prison escapes, there's hardly any action, I found the protagonist uninteresting, and the whole thing is so lacking in pace, with a weird sequence of scenes not really following each other, I almost didn't enjoy it. This guy definitely deserved a better film. I don't get the comedy genre classification either, this is pure retro-style drama. 5/10.

Poland did not disappoint again. Maciej Barczewski delivers a great debut, combining two attractive themes into one: a historical war drama set in Auschwitz and a boxing drama in an unconventional setting, and it works brilliantly. The main character is a former boxing champion from Warsaw who is transported to a newly established Nazi concentration camp where he fights for his life. A very powerful story where the horrors perpetrated on the Jews are well depicted (mass entry into the gas chambers, mass shootings, the Nazis are shown in the most horrific and inhumane form), and when one Nazi (a boxer) notices the main character, he gives him the opportunity to box with his fellow prisoners for the amusement of the Nazis. The fights in the ring are decently shot, the film is only 90 minutes long so it keeps a good pace, the atmosphere of the ugly setting works very well, and the acting is great as well, so definitely a good film. Story 4/5. Action 3/5, Humour 1/5, Violence 3/5, Fun 4/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 3/5, Emotion 3/5, Actors 4/5. 7.5/10.

Louis Leterrier can do better, but I'm still not offended. I skipped the first one, but this one is easy to follow. Omar Sy and Laurent Lafitte are a fine duo, I laughed a few times and enjoyed it as a crime drama (a very original and crazy imaginative murder!). The action is only average and cutting it by half an hour wouldn't have hurt, but I certainly wasn't bored, I enjoy this French stuff. 6/10.

The hit sequel to Sonic is a gaming success both financially and qualitatively. It's hard to think of a more entertaining family filmin recent memory. Jim Carrey is absolutely off the rails here, it's great to see him in a role he's thoroughly enjoying after a long time, and his grimaces, wisecracks, and gags are properly wild again. Sonic is endearing, the one-liners and allusions to various films are a delight, the action is cool, the finale packed with references references to the game is fine, and there's one very unexpected twist. Really great fun for me. 7.5/10.

An unconventional action-crime film from South Korea on an unusual theme. The Koreans wanted to take a different take on gangster flicks and focused on the so-called voice phishing scams, a criminal organization that focuses on scams that dupe people through phone calls and rob them of insane amounts of money. I think everybody has experienced something like that and getting a glimpse into the inner workings of the system was quite interesting. The idea that 150 people in a company have the job of ripping off as many victims as possible is definitely scary. The film focuses on the main character, a former police officer, now a supervisor on a construction site, who loses almost everything and decides to get revenge by infiltrating the organization and tearing it apart from the inside, but he finds out that it's not going to be that easy. There are a lot of familiar stars, every single actor has been in at least five major Korean films, so this is definitely an A-list production with traditionally good visuals, a novel theme and solid action, which doesn't come until the end, but the final half hour offers decent fights (though nothing that would make me fall on my ass, a Korean standard). There's not much violence and the pace is kind of quieter. For a higher rating I missed some decent twist and definitely more frequently dosed action. Better average. Story 3/5. Action 3/5, Humour 1/5, Violence 2/5, Fun 3/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 3/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 4/5. 6/10.

I'm not familiar with Creepypasta, so this is new to me, but quite interesting. The infinite maze feels cramped and uncomfortable at times, the entity looks quite strange, but it's got something going for it. I don't like the found-footage form and it's unnecessarily long for my taste, but for atmosphere and setting an okay 6/10.

Somewhere in the multiverse, there's a better movie version of Doctor Strange. Marvel is fading and you can feel it. Spiderman was still a cool coda for the Avengers), but Black Widow and The Eternals are just mediocre concoctions in my opinion, and so far it doesn't look like it's going to get better in the future. In contrast hand DC with Suicide Squad 2 and The Batman are on a better path. Personally I wasn't too happy with the first Doctor Strange either and was hoping the second would grab me more due to the horror feel and multiverse madness. It's a hair better, but as a whole still not entirely satisfying. The performances are fine, Benedict Cumberbatch does his thing, Elizabeth Olsen is probably the best thing about the film, and the new character of America Chavez unfortunately didn't impress me much. Visually the film is without a doubt solid (although some of the CGI craziness was a bit not- so eye candy for me), the action again is not much but it is shot decently (the duel with the music was very original and imaginative, the Illuminati, the opening fight with the demon and the jump through different worlds was visually great). The humor is completely absent and the cameos seemed a bit unnecessary. In a few scenes you could even tell that Sam Raimi was directing the film (references to Evil Dead, the demon scene, a couple of jump-scares and one badass action sequence). Story-wise, the film doesn't have much to surprise, it lacks proper fatality and the MCU is not really moving anywhere unfortunately. Personally, I was hoping for more insanity in the multiverse, it's surprisingly not used that often and when it is it only gets interesting towards the end. I have nothing downright bad against the film, I enjoyed it, it goes by quickly, but I have no desire to watch it again. The trailer for Avatar 2, however, is amazing Story 3/5. Action 4/5, Humor 1/5, Violence 2/5, Fun 4/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 3/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 4/5. 6/10.

Mayor of Kingstown is a real manly gem!! Sitting in the director's chair is current king tough guy movies Taylor Sheridan (Wind River, Yellowstone, Hell or High Water, Sicario), with Antoine Fuqua assisting as producer and a damn fine Jeremy Renner in the lead role. With that combination, there wasn't much to go wrong. The film is set in the fictional town of Kingstown (similar to Michigan), which has 7 prisons and 350 murders per year, so crime rates are incredibly high. Starring Jeremy Renner (quite possibly the most impressive performance of his career) who officiates as the "Mayor" in all the criminal mayhem, acting as a middle-man between the prisons, the police and the drug dealers. It took me two episodes to get into the characters and the story, but very soon the series won me over and I got through it in one breath. The series has top notch direction, great actors, thick atmosphere, a decent soundtrack, interesting characters – there aren’t any good guys, they are all corrupt bastards – plenty of violence, solid action (an awesome SWAT raid), and an amazing two-hour prison riot where the body count is unknown! I'll probably never forget the scene with 27 dead bodies buried in the bus. Great! No one does these manly gritty crime gangster dramas better than Sheridan. After Gangs of London and Your Honor, my next favourite. Story 5/5. Action 5/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 4/5, Fun 5/5 Music 5/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 5/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotion 3/5, Actors 5/5.9/10.