EvilPhoEniX

Nice surprise. The movie has a fun premise, where Kryštof Hádek has a sick mother, she probably doesn't have much time left, so he decides to please her by introducing his pregnant neighbour as his girlfriend and also by being a father, only it all gets classically out of control. Kristína Svarinská was divine, she played great, it's funny, sweet and touching and nicely made. I enjoyed it I'm happy to rate it. 7/10.

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.

It's not a groundbreaking horror film that is shockingly violent or scary, but it gets points for its original concept (and they say it’s not possible!) and for being different, definitely a film that can't be compared to anything else. The film manages to win the viewer over from the beginning with an artificially contrived Talk Show that is simply fun, and once it gets into the horror gear, it’s fine too. I liked the faithful 70's retro feel, the performances from everyone involved (Dastmalchian shines for perhaps the first time) and the decent atmosphere. Surprisingly, it's also decently brutal at the end, and there's an interesting twist. So even though it's not a genre film that should be attacking the top rungs of the horror charts, it's definitely something that should be supported for being fresh and different. Paranormal a little different. 75%.

Jason Kwan delighted me with his debut Chasing the Dragon, so I gave him a chance, since he has all Hong Kong veterans and it’s a joy to see them together. Plot-wise it's admittedly clichéd, we have cops trying to catch a drug boss played by Andy Lau of course, alongside him is undercover cop Gordon Lam, and they have an interesting relationship. The commander of the cops is Simon Yam, but he can't take on another role, and the lead detective is my favourite Eddie Peng, the only main star who knows martial arts, but he only gets a chance to perform once, luckily they set him up with Philip Keung, so that one knife fight was really cool and nicely shot. I also liked the Mexican mercenaries shootout with the attack on the wedding and a very nice virtual hacker fight where he starts selling drugs online on the Darkweb and the cops try to bring him down. I found the finale weaker, the shootouts didn't really grab me that much, but I had fun. 6/10.

I like Alex Garland's work and even though he makes films that aren't exactly audience friendly, he hasn't stepped on my toes once so far, so I was curious to see how he'd handle a slightly different material, more audience friendly, with a blockbuster format and on a very topical subject, and it's great, though not without its faults. It's a war road movie set in a war-ravaged America with an apocalyptic tinge that has a very slow pace most of the time, but thankfully it works thanks to convincing actors, decent dialogue and an uncomfortable atmosphere. I was a bit bothered that we don't see the birth of the conflict but are thrown somewhere in the middle, and also that the whole film is from a journalists point of view, I would have liked to see what's going on in other parts of America or some behind the scenes from the government on what the president is currently dealing with/planning, but never mind. The highlights are two scenes: the confrontation with Jesse Plemons, which has a very chilling atmosphere and a great build up, and then the finale – I was worried Garland would give us a three-minute shootout but he surprised us. We actually get more than twenty minutes of military action! A massive attack on the White House and it has it all: amazing sound of weapons, perfect cinematography, gripping atmosphere, in short it looks really dense and authentic, a perfect dreamlike action war finale. Of course, the few naturalistic shots are nice, but there could have been more of them. 80%

Tasteless, infantile and almost unwatchable. The humour is in the style of Charlie Chaplin's worst work with a brain aneurysm, so if you're 10+ enjoy. It's a series of gags with no story and no wit, creativity or intelligence. It's all about beavers, sorry people dressed up as beavers and is it funny or does it lead to anything funny? It doesn't. A laughably unconvincing farce where lasting two hours was almost a superhuman feat. I was praying for Jigsaw to walk in the door and end this torture. In a sentence, black and white silent crap. I have not been as embarrassed watching a film as I was here in a long time. The film is lucky I don't give Boo! ratings and I appreciate that it must have taken quite a bit of work to create, but that's all – never fuckin more (maybe under the influence of various substances it can work). 3/10.

Brutal, chilling, distressing, uncomfortable, dark and very realistic. It's fucking awesome!! It's a bit like End of Watch, but with paramedics and I have to say, I was pretty engrossed. The story is very simple, but luckily here it’s not about the plot. We have the likable Ty Sheridan who starts out as a Rookie paramedic and gets the seasoned veteran Sean Penn as his partner (a decent return!) and the whole movie we watch him go from case to case in the tough city of New York and it is a doozy! From junkies to drug addicts. According to the film, it seems like a very unenviable job where patients fuck you hard, colleagues make pranks putting a dead dog in your locker, you get into very difficult and challenging situations where you sometimes have the opportunity to make life decisions. The brutal atmosphere of New York City is laced with violence through and through. Gunshot victims, heart attacks, dog bites, premature births, gang violence, schizophrenics and victims of domestic violence. Add to that great acting, solid dialogue and some twist and turns! Great stuff. 8/10

I found it even weaker than the first one. I liked the first one better because of the fun recruiting team with a vibe like The Magnificent Seven. Charlie Hunnam was there, the monster spider was awesome and Ed Skrein played the Nazi great, here there’s just nothing. The first hour there's not even any action, it just focuses on the background of the characters, which nobody cares about now. The monsters are completely absent, no new interesting characters are added, the action is okay, but I don't think there's much room for R-rated, I can't even imagine where gore could be, there's no big fight. I didn't really enjoy it and I like mindless carnage. Weak, I'd rather have an Army of the Dead sequel than this dead franchise. 4/10.

It was a hard film to get, but in the end it was a success. The film had the makings of being the action flick of the year and after 20 minutes I was even sure of it because the hospital sequence full of awesome fights, top choreography and a ruthless sniper was awesome, but then it starts to stagnate a bit. It bothered me a lot that there were comic interludes, I really hate it when I have an action dark movie and there are these Asian comic interludes that don't fit here at all and are awkward, it kind of spoils the impression of an otherwise solid action movie. Technically it's otherwise decent, the female protagonist is likeable and definitely has skill, story-wise it's obviously very weak and sometimes the weaker CGI hurts especially during the explosions. I was expecting a more intense finale, so that's why only 3 stars in the end, but it's good fun. Had I seen it 5 years ago, I would have probably gone crazy. 65%

The first South Wind is a Balkan gangster film with all the European trappings and quite possibly the best film from Serbia (I recommend it), the second one is much weaker because it lacks interesting characters, is less violent and doesn't have the right narrative swing. It improves a bit in the second half (the junkie den scene is believable and unpleasant) and the final action shootout was fine, but it needed more action. Technically still good and it's definitely watchable, just a noticeable drop in quality after the first part. 6/10.