EvilPhoEniX

A must for fans of samurai, history and Japanese culture! Age of Samurai tells the powerful story of the unification of Japan during the Sengoku period, with the most famous Daimyo Oda Nobunaga, Ieyasu Tokugawa and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The series has great sets, naturalistic brutal action scenes, and for the fact that it's semi-documentary style, there's blood aplenty. The story itself is also riveting, with classic intrigue, betrayal and politicking, all delivered in the highest quality. I enjoyed it very much, I liked the explanation of several important Japanese terms, it's suspenseful, informative enough, and pleasing enough action. 8/10.

This short was made after the feature film and it's an unbelievable blast. In 7 minutes, it serves up an intense carnage with blood spurting in liters. The main character acts like an MMA fighter and she doesn't fuck around with anyone, the visuals are excellent, the gore is top-notch, the make-up effects are awesome, and there’s action from start to finish, I have nothing to complain about here. Perfect! 9/10.

Not fun, absolutely not fun at all. The nice visuals are par for the course, but the light form didn't suit me at all. For one thing, I didn't find the film funny at all, except for one scene that was also in the trailer, the "Indiana Jones" elements are so few that it's almost a shame to consider this an adventure film. There's almost no action, the characters didn't interest me and the suspense didn't work for me. Well I haven't suffered like this with a South Korean film in a long time. Two stars with reluctantly for the plot and for the actors who played their parts well, but otherwise I'm glad it's over. 3/10

Emotionally, it's between 3* and 4*, but I'm leaning towards 4*. The music is cool, the concept of a time loop is fun and welcome in a fairy tale, the princess and the witch are babes and I laughed. I liked the castles and the costumes, but the film slightly stumbles in the finale. 😃 Of course it can't be compared to Maleficent, but it's fine by Czech standards. It's definitely the best Czech production in the last 10 years as far as fairy tales are concerned. 7/10.

I looked forward to The Toll quite a lot and in the end it's relatively OK, although it has far fewer horror elements than I would have expected before watching it. The film is presented in a more or less intimate style with two characters, with a strange Uber driver picking up a young girl who I found incredibly paranoid in places (the guy compliments her photo and she's already pulling out the pepper spray). On the way through the deep woods, their car breaks down, they lose signal and find themselves in a vicious circle ruled by a supernatural entity called Toll Man who wants them pay his toll and the only possible payment is blood. I wasn't bored, it's nicely suspenseful in places (the final 15 minutes have a decent atmosphere as well) and there were a couple of scares where at least one works. What's disappointing, though, is that the Toll Man isn't on the scene much and when he is, it's only for a few seconds. Also, I would have definitely welcomed more characters, if there were five people in the car and they were gradually dying in an interesting way, then the final twist would have had more impact, and there’s also the fact that the film is more thriller than horror. However, it's definitely watchable and certainly not a waste of time, but they would have had to try harder to get the four stars. 6/10.

The Germans have done a decent job of making a nice high school series that is sort of a grittier version of The Social Network, where instead of Facebook, the main character creates a smart black market drug store out of a room and it's a huge hit. Thanks to the 20 minute episodes, the show has great pacing, very likeable and intelligent characters, occasional humour, and even suspense and intense atmosphere at times. The second season is even better, I think. Very good and entertaining stuff with a great opening theme song. 8/10.

A nice little independent sci-fi flick with a good idea and not entirely bad execution. Millions of alien doorways start appearing around the world and people start disappearing in large numbers. The government calls in the “Knockers” to investigate the doors. The film is told in an anthology style, that is, from four different perspectives, and the 80 minute running time makes it go by quickly. The craftsmanship is fine and I liked the mysterious and slightly paranoid atmosphere, especially in the second sequence, which I found the best. Fans of small sci-fi might find it to their liking, the rest probably won't miss anything. 5/10.

La Casa de Putas! A three hour male erection and a ride like hell! The creators of Money Heist swapped the bank and the robbers for a brothel and hookers and it's excellent – though nothing for feminists as the women here are only prostitutes and the men are pimps, so they'll find plenty to dislike, but for me it’s proper guilty pleasure. At times the series reminded me of the 1970s rape and revenge films from Spain with the occasional wink to Grindhouse, and it's safe to say that it portrays a certain exploitation of women in its dirtiest form. The story itself is simple, three hookers escape the clutches of their pimp and he sends his goons to catch them, but the script is of a very high standard. The dialogues are awesome, if you were fascinated by the dialogue in Money Heist, you'll enjoy it here too. There are detailed analysis of the lives of prostitutes at their worst, loads of interesting information that I had to get a piece of paper and write out some of the lines, yes I was that fascinated, and the main character of the pimp takes the best of Berlin in terms of performances and wisecracks. I spotted a few easter eggs on Money Heist while watching and the director's signature is simply evident. The intensity, the build-up, the tension, the music (after the series ended, my playlist grew by another 20 titles), the visuals, the style, the panache, the attention to detail, the nerve-wracking cliffhangers, and of course the gorgeous Spanish-Argentine prostitutes, who are simply impossible to get enough of. Thanks to the short episodes, the whole thing goes by very quickly, and by the end of it I just said to myself. I want more and that's the only reason I don't give it full marks, three hours wasn't enough. 8.5/10. !!

A slow thriller from France that drags on for the first hour to the point where I almost gave up, but fortunately the second half is a bit more interesting. Nothing much interesting happens (suspense and violence are completely absent), but it's not badly conceived. Those who are happy with the story and don't mind the slow pace might be satisfied, but it wasn't my cup of tea. I'll have to wait for my favourite raw, unpleasant and brutal France. 5/10.

Guy Pearce joins forces with a priest to cleanse the city of evil. After a long time, a properly unusual film on the subject of exorcism that takes a slightly different route, which is welcome. Unfortunately even on that level it feels so half-assed. I was happy with the first half hour, I liked that they were going from case to case, but once they hit the possessed boy, the film carried on with him until the end and honestly it wasn't very interesting. There are no interesting make-up effects to speak of, they rely on voice changes, and that's not good enough for me. There’s also hardly any gore and, apart from one atmospheric scene in a police station, there's not really anything memorable. Pearce does a good job, it’s not badly shot, and there is one interesting twist, so the film is stronger on the story side than the horror side, which will please drama fans but not me. A watchable film and fans of exorcisms might be relatively comforted, but I was expecting something more intense. 6/10.