EvilPhoEniX

An excellent abduction thriller from South Korea with my favourite actor Hwang Jung-min. For a debut, it's a really great work. The film has an offbeat story where Hwang Jung-min plays himself and is abducted by three aggressive kidnappers. He soon learns the difference between film and reality firsthand. The film picks up an incredible pace from the opening minutes, it's very engaging, Hwang's acting is excellent. The whole thing has a very realistic feel to it, you get the feeling that this really happened in Korea a week ago. I was worried that the film would feel monotonous, but it's full of interesting surprises, it goes in a very unexpected direction at times and has a lot of suspenseful scenes. The whole thing builds up to an intense finale like a pressurised hydrant and thanks to the very powerful music, I found myself gasping for breath. The trio of sleazy nutters the villain roles are also great. A great one man show and a thriller with all the ingredients that belong to the genre. Story 4/5, Action 3/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 3/5, Entertainment 4/5 Music 5/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotion 3/5, Actors 4/5.

Now that's what I call a pre-finale. Dethronement, and inspiring queen's speech and home invasion and assassination with a horror atmosphere. I don't think I'll survive the finale.

A black and white depressing nightmare from Hong Kong! Director Cheang Pou-soi already has quite a rich career and after the excellent actioner Kill Zone 2 with Tony Jaa, he tries a dark crime drama with the essence of Fincher's Se7en that over into exploitation, and it's a depressing film for the strong-minded. For me, anyway! A veteran and a newcomer join forces to catch a maniacal serial killer who is brutally murdering young women on the streets of Hong Kong with a hand-cutting fetish. A woman who caused the death of the veteran's wife shows up and offers to help, but not everything goes as planned. The black and white format surprisingly is not a problem at all, it has a bit of an artsy feel, but the tone is darker and definitely more shocking. It's a two hour show of violence, humiliation against women, dead bodies and filth that makes Hong Kong a downright Sin City. There is one downright brutal knife action sequence that gave me a boner, and the film doesn't let the viewer breathe, throwing one raw scene after another. The killer himself is disgustingly sleazy and his lair is a downright disgusting place that reeked of death all the way to my living room. The atmosphere is awesome and the denouement is also interesting. This is what I call proper, gritty, raw, bleak and cold crime drama that wipes its ass with everything I've had the pleasure of seeing in the genre in recent years. Story 4/5, Action 3/5, Humor 0/5, Violence 4/5, Fun 4/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotion 4/5, Actors 4/5. 8/10.

The Hong Kong comeback from the now sadly deceased director Benny Chan, who brought hits such as New Police Story, Invisible Target, Shaolin and The White Storm, and ends his career with the scorching Raging Fire, which could be described as the Hong-Kong version of Mann's Heat! RIP. For the first time in a while, a really cool action ride where you go for a traditional martial arts brawler with Donnie Yen and get a complex story packed with twists and emotions and a bad guy who is already iconic. Good cop vs bad cop, yeah! I enjoyed the whole two hours immensely. The movie captivates with an attractive story with one interesting twist, very good visuals, and an amazing soundtrack. Donnie Yen is traditionally excellent, and Nicholas Tse is a downright elegant villain, I loved character terribly. The action isn't as much as I would have liked, but when it comes to it, it's great. There are car chases, great shootouts, fights (though it's easy to see that Donnie is getting old, so he saved his fists for the finale), it's bloody, dark, and unpleasant. The finale is less than half an hour long (the shootout on the street with civilian casualties is awesome), and the final duel deserves a place on YouTube in the TOP 10 fights of All the Time. Nicholas Tse is a very fast machine and with his speed with knives he surpassed even the The Man from Nowhere – I didn't breathe, instant goosebumps for 10 minutes!!. Excellent film, which I'll gladly repeat, it was great and I'm glad I got to see a proper guy's movie. Story 4/5, Action 5/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 3/5, Fun 5/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 5/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotion 4/5, Actors 4/5. 9/10.

David Bruckner is a director I like a lot. With The Ritual he surprised everyone, and with Southbound he blew me away. I was looking forward to his upcoming horror film, but I didn't expect him to deliver it in such a Flanagan style! Rebecca Hall acts convincingly, but I wasn't really into her digging into the past and uncovering the truth. I was hoping for some kind of mindfuck with parallel worlds, a peek behind the curtain to the other side, and not an indirect rip-off of The Invisible Man, which is how it feels in places. It's pretty complicated and confusing and I'm not sure if it's quite fleshed-out. I didn't notice any jump-scares, and there’s certainly no gore, so it didn't work for me at all. I don't know how to rate this film, I didn't enjoy it enough to give it 3 stars, on the other hand 2 stars don't seem enough, and I like Bruckner so I'll stay on neutral ground. But I am not thrilled. Story 3/5, Action 1/5, Humor 0/5, Violence 0/5, Fun 3/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 2/5, Emotion 1/5, Actors 4/5. 5/10.

One of the disappointments of the year? The film is a prequel to the cult series The Sopranos, which unfortunately I haven't seen, but I was hoping that the film could stand on its own, and since I like gangster movies, I was expecting a contender for gangster movie of the year (there wasn't much competition, but I'm not very satisfied with the final impression). Alan Taylor, has Thor and the last Terminator to his credit, so you would also expect a more action-packed film in the style of Gangster Squad, but he made something more in the style of The Irishman and that doesn't quite do it for me. The setting of New Jersey in the 1960s is great, the costumes, the fashion, the beautiful women, it all has a proper gangster look, but that's about it. One brief gunfight in the whole movie is not good, especially when the Punisher is available - he is woefully underused. There's no proper villain, no proper lust for power, no war in the streets, not enough dead bodies, the pacing is slower, it simply lacks drive and feels more like the opening episode to a series where big things are about to start happening. Those who have seen the series will complain even more or, on the contrary, will be satisfied. Despite the flaws, I wasn’t bored, it's the kind of stuff that can’t make me suffer, even if it's just a bunch of guys in hats drinking whiskey and smoking cigars, but it's definitely wasted potential. In terms of craftsmanship and performances (Ray Liotta) is decent, but easily forgettable. Michela De Rossi is, however, a fierce babe! Story 3/5, Action 1/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 2/5, Fun 3/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 2/5, Emotion 1/5, Actors 4/5. 6/10.

This review may contain mild spoilers, but nothing that would do significant harm. Timo Tjahjanto stole the show again! I want to see a "Mortal Kombat" Special Mode with Tjahjanto with a chainsaw vs Flanagan with a bible and a cross! I'm satisfied. The first segment called Storm Drain will please fans of The Tunnel and The Blair Witch Project type of horror. It's about a reporter trying to do a story on a mysterious creature and goes to do some research into a really nasty and dark sewer, but nothing nice awaits her there. The cinematography is rubbish and the grainy image doesn't add much to it, but the atmosphere is very decent, there is one scare, the look of the monster is solid and there is an unexpected ritual with an interesting twist – 70%. The second segment called Empty Wake takes place in a funeral home, where nothing interesting happens for the first half, but then comes a decently atmospheric inferno. An open casket, a storm, a creepy setting and a dead man with half his head gone. Brr... 70%. The third segment is The Subject, a clear winner. Tjahjanto outdoes himself once again and made a sort of cross between “Bioshock”, Silent Hill, The Raid and Frankenstein, and it's a perfectly twisted gore Fest that's half an hour long and I wished it would never end. This is the only short story that also has good cinematography. It’s about a mad scientist who crosses people with mechanics in his basement and produces really scary creations. Of course, a SWAT team gets in there and they all have a wonderful fight, so much so that blood and limbs fly everywhere. Hell of a gore fest. Yes, this is what I've been waiting for all year. Thanks man. 100%. The fourth segment is Terror, a pretty boring and cheaply made story, but with a great finale. Good monster and decent gore. 60% The fifth segment is Holy Hell. It’s an odd short story as it always starts with a segment before another short story, so it's a bit inconsistent, but there was some nice gore here. 50%. Some people probably won't enjoy this, it's a bit unrewarding to watch because of the distracting camera, I had fun though and the Subject totally blew me away. Story 3/5, Action 4/5, Humor 0/5, Violence 5/5, Fun 4/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 3/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 3/5, Emotion 1/5, Actors 2/5. 7.5/10.

An entertaining slasher flick from Netflix that comes up with an original idea in a sub-genre where nothing much new can be invented. It features a killer who wears the mask of his victims and at the same time wants to reveal their dark secrets, and I liked that. I'm glad the film isn't PG-13 in the end as I feared, and that there is thankfully some gore. The murders could have been more brutal and there could have been more of them, of course, but they're quite inventive and unadorned. The high school characters are likeable, no one really bothered me here, I missed a wisecracking character, and there are no boobs again, but otherwise I had a good time for the whole 90 minutes + I commend the solid soundtrack. Story 3/5, Action 3/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 3/5, Fun 4/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 3/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 3/5. 6/10.

A dark, unpredictable, at times shocking, raw, evil and uncompromising revenge-abduction thriller from New Zealand that has an atmosphere that is at times uncomfortably dense. A school teacher must confront the dark sins of his past when he and his family are ambushed and kidnapped by two vagrants and the ugly truth slowly begins to surface. The film may have a slower pace, but it managed to keep my attention. It manages to be suspenseful (the twist at the 15 minute mark is downright shocking), the villain is a proper sleazeball (even if his accent is downright awful), the craftsmanship is fine and even though there is no explicit violence (if there was, I would go even higher with the rating), the film still managed to feel realistic and uncomfortable. Solid. Story 3/5, Action 3/5, Humor 0/5, Violence 3/5, Fun 4/5 Music 2/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 4/5. 7/10.

A potentially interesting premise that could have been a psychological variation on Funny Games, but instead we got a boring intimate film without a shred of invention or anything interesting or shocking. The film is only 80 minutes long, but since it takes place in one house with three characters and nothing much happens, it makes you feel like it's two hours long. The ordinary life of two siblings is disrupted by the arrival of their half-sister who demands a share of the inheritance from their recently deceased father. The siblings don't like this and start playing mischievous games. It sounded interesting and maybe if the Spaniards were behind it, they could make an engaging, suspenseful and gripping thriller, but in its from Argentina and it didn't grab me at all. Occasionally there was some interesting dialogue and the atmosphere was slightly claustrophobic, but I couldn't get into it. A fan of cheap conversational flicks might find a taste for this. Story 3/5, Action 1/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 1/5, Fun 2/5 Music 2/5, Visuals 2/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 2/5, Emotion 2/5, Actors 2/5. 4/10.