EvilPhoEniX

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, from Radio Silence, deliver their tried and tested recipe once again. Why change something that works. Here we have a group of thieves who kidnap a little girl and are tasked with guarding her for 24 hours in a huge mansion, but what seems like an easy job soon will cost them their lives – they have no idea whose daughter Abigail is. A very likeable cast (I enjoyed the original introduction to the characters, where Melissa Barrera uses details to identify everyone like Sherlock Holmes), the big surprise is Kevin Durand, who is a very funny insert throughout the film, and it was nice to see Dan Stevens as well. The film has a very fast pace, nice visuals, effective jokes, it's decently suspenseful, there a few twists and turns at the end, and it's also decently gory (the house ends up painted in blood from the roof to the basement, so evil can't be pissed) The final explosion was literally a gore epic!!! Too bad the atmosphere doesn't work much and some of the vampire rules change to serve the script, but never mind that, it's the cool ride that they promised, and delivered. Quite possibly the best Vampire movie of recent years? And if you doubt about it, give me a better choice. 8/10.

My expectations were high for this true crime series from the makers of The Tinder Swindler, but it didn't quite live up to them. The fact that I fell asleep to it three times is one thing and even though it has some interesting sequences, as a whole it drags a bit and lacks twist and turns. But I liked the similarities to Gone Girl and the first episode is probably the most interesting. Kidnappings aren't as schocking as murders, after all. 6/10.

A nice little post-apocalyptic intimate survival drama with nice monsters! You could say it's a low-budget little sibling of A Quiet Place, which is of course a level above, but the effort counts. The planet has been destroyed it's a bit annoying that we don't get to know why or how, but immediately the film focuses on Nicolas Cage, who survives with his two sons following a routine during the day as the monsters attack at night. The first half is quite slow and intimate, but it gets noticeably better as the monsters arrive. I commend the original design of the monsters and the use of practical effects (the way they knock their faces off was excellent and creepy, and the sound!). The finale is pleasantly action packed, so definitely an enjoyable monster genre film. It could could have more gore and Cage could could have started a chainsaw by the end and played Ash from Evil Dead – I would have jumped for joy, but I'm satisfied. Emotionally on a strong 3, but I'm feel generous given the current rating, and also for that crazy jump-scare at the 20 minute mark, that one really got me. 65%

Matthew Vaughn is a favourite of mine and I love the KIngsman series, but Argylle is his first big misstep so far, where even his trademarks don't work and the whole thing is just so weird and dysfunctional. A lot of the film is hampered by the fact that there is no R-rated action, if he had sprinkled some gore in there and spiced up the film with some decent humour, the whole thing would have worked a lot better, but unfortunately the casting alone isn't worth much. The most interesting acting trio of Henry Cavill, John Cena and Dua Lipa are rather just cameos, and Sam Rockwell tries his best, but I'd rather see someone else there. Bryce Dallas Howard is completely miscast for me though, as the bulge in the action doesn't work for me at all (Dua Lipa and Sofia Boutella would have been much better suited there). The plot twists are quite overwrought and none of them are very interesting or shocking, and even the action this time is not typically playful, creative and inventive, except for two quite original action scenes in the very finale – the dance using colored smoke bombs was interesting and visually nice and the oil skating was mad, but it was one of the lighter moments of the film. That said, I have to criticise the opening scene on the train, where the switching between the two actors was very annoying even to me, and it's a shame no one told Vaughn that this really isn't cool. Overall a big disappointment, but I didn't suffer, it's watchable. 55%.

A pretty nice movie with Mark Wahlberg going on an adventure race in the jungle where he meets a dog and becomes a full-fledged member of the team. I'm a bit disappointed that the race itself lacks any sort of typical survival parameters, there was no significant thrilling obstacle apart from the cable car, and the whole thing is mostly about the doggie's relationship with Marky, which can stir up some minor emotions at the end, but I won't scratch for a higher rating. Nice but ordinary. 6/10.

Another big series surprise this year, which escalates in the end in such a way that I almost had a heart attack. The series has a very interesting story about a young teenage girl who involuntarily inherits an illegal gun shop from her dead uncle, where only a select breed of people (assassins, cleaners, etc) are allowed to do business, and a bounty is put on her head, i.e. all the shop customers go after her, and it's an action-packed home invasion as fuck. I was a little worried about how a series set in one house being attacked by a bunch of nutters would work, but luckily it works and it ended up being a little different too. It has a very unconventional narrative that creates plot twists through flashbacks, and we learn more about the protagonist and the other characters – some of the twists are cool and it's definitely a well thought out show. MInhye is excellent as a female assassin who protects the young teen (btw the teen knows muay thai and guns so she also lends a hand). After the first five episodes I was happy with an above average series, but from episode 6 onwards it's pure carnage! Episodes 6 and 7 are pure flashbacks where we learn the background about the deceased uncle, who was a mercenary, and that was a real action packed massacre. It also introduces the main villain, a cruel ruthless bastard who kills innocents for pleasure (I haven't seen a bigger motherfucker in a long time!). I was screaming with happiness and excitement and thinking that if the whole series was just about him, he'd probably drive me away fast. The finale is another decent action-packed load that closes all the necessary loops, serving up uncompromising action and twists and turns and making the series the action event of the year. The choreography is top notch, it's exactly the rough, fast, brutal and contact style that I love from South Korea and, most importantly, everyone pulls out a knife, so there are at least five knife fights that deserve a spot on YouTube! Any lover of action, great stories and most of all Korean work can't miss this. Awesome! 8.5/10.

Flashback with mercenaries. Now that was something!! The spectacle of Ulta the evil cold and ruthless bastard killing innocents for fun, plus one of the best knife duels I've seen. !!!I had a good time. 100%

With the title Baby Reindeer and the genre classification drama-biopic, I can't think of anything less attractive than this at the moment. I gave it an immediate pass as it sounded like a series version of Father or Nomadland. No thanks! But this is so fucking deceptive. This ain't no talky drama for intellectual fuckers, I'm adding tags here immediately! stalking thriller, true crime, and adjectives like over-the-top, twisted, unreal, compulsive, emotional, depressing, challenging, uncomfortable, traumatic, disturbing, and emotional Psychological carnage!!!! Sounds and looks more interesting now doesn't it? It's based on true events and it's unbelievable what kind of hell the main character goes through and that he can't really do anything about it. He really only meets strange people in his life. On the one hand, he's a poor guy, on the other hand, some things are his own fault. The highlight for me was episode 4, experimenting with different drugs and being abused by a guy! The final speech on stage about his life in front of everyone had power and depth. You just don't want to experience that. The big surprise of the year that came where I definitely didn't expect it. I'm raising the score at the end because this will resonate in me for a while. 85%.

I originally thought it was a TV series, but in the end I'm glad it's a movie, and a fun post-apocalyptic romp at that. It is supposedly a sequel to Concrete Utopia, but the only things it takes from that movie are the single tower block and the fact that there was some sort of earthquake that destroyed the world, so there's no need to watch that talky, boring utopia. It's everything I expect from a quality post-apocalyptic film. There's a mad scientist, a Korean Mengele, super soldiers, mutants, zombies, a street gang, a pretty interesting scientist with a vision of the future, decent gore, and likeable characters. Ma Dong Seok is always incredibly likeable and when he gets going a shotgun, a machete or his fists you can't help but jump in joy. It was great to see the warrior girl doing some decent martial arts stunts. Overall, the final 40 minutes are a really decent action inferno with good choreography. As a bonus, there is a nice catchphrase every now and then, and they even chop-up a crocodile. I had a great time. A brutally entertaining Korean romp. 80%.

Too bad that era of quality hixploitaion and exploitation films is sadly irretrievably gone and I'm glad I caught it in my horror heyday. Butchers Book Two: Raghorn is not even a B-movie, it’s cheap C-flick, and while it tries to pay homage to better pieces with its classic proprieties, it's not enough. We have two brothers, one is a proper Hillbilly (here I have to admit the guy played the sleazy redneck perfectly and is probably the best thing about the film), and the other is a classic inbreed grunt. After running over a deer, three unlikeable protagonists (who unfortunately can't act at all) get stuck, and the have a transsexual person tied in the trunk (?!) and of course they cross paths with the rednecks. It has a pretty nice dirty look, but there's very few characters to slaughter and overall the inventiveness of the deaths and the gore are lacking. There's one nasty penis snip and one half-shot head, but that's it. There's no rape, no proper dismemberment (why is there such a nice cleaver on the poster if they don't even use it?) and the cannibalism is only skimmed over, so we're sadly deprived of the best bits. It was watchable, but when I think back to movies from 15 years ago, it's really a bummer. Is it so fucking hard to make a proper rape and revenge flick? 4/10.