EvilPhoEniX

After the first episode, it’s clear this is not for me. You look forward to another post-apocalyptic story with a rather interesting hybrid idea and you get a drama with fantasy elements but without fantasy? The family-children feel doesn't fit at all. I wish the hybrids would grow up and start a proper hunt, this will stay very much away from perhaps everything. Filmed quite nicely, but that’s par for the course for every Netflix series. Maybe for families, but I'll pass on this one. 5/10.

Quite nicely shot, with a beautiful jungle and a good Jonathan Rhys Meyers, that's it. It's extremely slow, nothing much interesting happens, the story didn't draw me in at all, the action is almost absent (at least there is one severed head at the end), and the suspense and atmosphere are also lacking. For me it was actually a pretty useless film that I didn't need to see. Jungle adventures with the indigenous people have been done elsewhere and better. This is a film that my grandfather would put on in the evening on TV because there is nothing else on. 4/10.

The main character notices an abandoned wardrobe that someone has thrown away and decides to take it to her apartment, but soon strange things start happening. After a slower opening, a pretty solid and chilling haunting arrives on the scene that is surprisingly effective and sufficiently creepy. Better than most contemporary horror films. 7.5/10

Another overrated cheap oddity. Watching Caveat, I thought it could have half an hour less, because the two hours running time is just too much, and when it was over I realised it was only eighty minutes long. Yeah that's a bad calling card. Caveat is a kind of slow burn easy going atmospheric drama about a man who takes a job for a few days to take care of a mentally unstable woman on an isolated island in an isolated house. Not everything goes according to plan and soon he wants to get out of it all, but it's too late. It's very minimalist, set in a single house that's pretty ugly. There is a twist, but nothing major. There is no gore, not much in terms of scares, I think there is only one. There are a few atmospheric sequences (walking through the house in the dark with a torch), but it's all marred by a completely weird and nonsensical ending that buries the film one level down. Plus for the stuffed rabbit, which is pretty creepy, but could have been there for more than five minutes. Most of the time it's this a weird walk around the house with nothing significant or interesting happening, and I just don't like that very much. The film may find its fans. 4/10.

One of the most anticipated horror films of the year is over, so how did it turn out? I think it's pretty clear that without top director James Wan, the third installment won't be revolutionary and it was obvious a year ago that there would be a clear drop in quality. On the other hand, even though it's worse than the first two films, it's still the best thing to come out of voices in a haunted house genre and I'd love to hear the arguments of anyone who disagrees! That 40 million budget is way over the top for a horror film, so the technical side is once again awesome and to see such an "expensive" and beautifully made horror film after a long time after cheap shit like Djinn, The Night, Unholy and Saint Maud made me happy. After La Llorona, Michael Chaves redeemed himself a bit, though the scares are quite uninteresting and few – on the other hand, everyone is grumbling about them, why complain now that they are absent? The atmosphere is solid most of the time, the acting is again spot on, the crime plot with its mystery and supernatural overtones is intriguing, there were a few minor plot twists, and the finale in the catacombs has a decent pace. The lackluster music is a bit of a downer, and Wan's string accompaniment and creative camera forays are slightly lacking, too. I was also a bit bothered by the fact that compared to the second film, which had the Crooked Man, there is no distinct villain here, though the hulking guy in the morgue was pretty creepy, but he was only there twice. The third installment of The Conjuring still has its interesting moments (the opening exorcism and the wink at The Exorcist is awesome!), and I take the occult-witch touch as a nice change. A black sabbath, faith, innocence, a lover!! It has its merits and it's definitely above average in the genre even with the times being what they are, so those two star reviews are totally out of line. More ingratitude and disrespect for the genre similar to Army of the Dead. 7.5/10.

My prayers have been answered in the Barcelona Cathedral and finally the Spanish have a great action thriller that takes the best of John Wick and Korean gangster films! It may be a straightforward revenge of two brothers that gets half the people in Barcelona screaming, but I don't mind that at all because the film serves up exactly what an action fan wants, and that's a bunch of dead bodies (triple digits!) and one action scene after another (there's like 12 action scenes!). There's a great main character, a guy you can smell the fear and death on, he's tough, his punches hurt even me, and he's definitely a great guy to root for. Also a great villain a sort of mix of a Spanish Yakuza with great henchmen (a Japanese!). The action is nicely varied, alternating between interesting locations and a different weapon each time. I liked the fight in the toilet, the one in the parking lot with knives, the finale with the katana, the fight in with the Japanese guy, the fight in the narrow corridor, and in the house, and the highlight is probably the workshop, with screwdrivers instead of knives, pliers and an angle grinder! There were a few Wick-like headshots and plenty of R-rated action. It goes from one action scene to the next, there is no room for anything else and thanks to the Spanish package, it doesn't look as stupid and naive as an American action movies. The visuals, the blistering pace, the fine music, the great main character and bad guys, and the well shot action make Xtreme a proper action flick that won't disappoint fans. Anyone expecting drama, emotional blackmail, philosophizing, romance, melodrama and other shit is in the wrong place. Netflix scored and the best Spanish action movie ever. 8.5/10.

After three years of wait, Timur Bekmambetov’s (Wanted, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) Profile has finally seen the light of the internet and as expected it's decent, but I was expecting it to be at least a bit more frantic and crazy at the end. I liked the similar Searching more, but I like these Skype thrillers, and this one has an interesting topic, Islamists! The story focuses on the beautiful Valene Kane who, as an investigative journalist, sets up a fake Facebook profile and poses as a Muslim. Soon she is contacted by Bilel, a member of ISIS. Her job is to get from him details about the recruitment of girls converted to Islam is going, but of course things go quite wrong. The whole film takes place entirely on Facebook and via Skype, which may not be to everyone's taste, but it's got a decently oppressive atmosphere, a few minor twists and turns, some pretty decent emotions, and it's well acted and even slightly uncomfortable at the end. Those who have seen Caliphate and similar films about Islam won't be surprised by much, but the uninitiated viewer may be surprised by the reality. I was a bit disappointed by the occasional lack of clarity, at times the plot moves forward really fast and there is a lot on screen (Facebook messages, subtitles, notes, three different calls at once! ), and the finale felt too rushed, but satisfaction prevails. The film is also based on true events and definitely worth the time. 7/10.

A fan-made short based on the famous game “The Last of Us”. It has beautiful cinematography and scenery and quite a bit of violence. There's an unexpected amount of blood spurting in places. Decent value. 8/10.

Quite a likeable action flick that would have been a solid hit in the hands of a more experienced director. It's got a pretty interesting story about an underground club conducting fights to the death, where the police break in and find seven floors of corpses and a sole survivor who is taken to the station and interrogated. In flashbacks we follow the main character as he fights a different opponent on each floor. The protagonist is a decent fighter to root for, and there's no doubt he has martial arts skills. The opponents, mostly big scumbags that no one would want to fight, are also interesting. I liked the novel stylization, the dark country-blues music was also fitting, and there are a few minor twists. It's a bit of a shame that there's no gore, it would have been a great addition to this B-movie, but fortunately, there are a few nice fractures and the elevator fight is awesome. If the whole film was focused on going through floors like in The Raid, I'd go even higher with the rating, unfortunately as result the film suffers from unbalanced pace in places. 6/10

Out of nowhere, a historical big movie from China came out and it's surprisingly solid. I didn't really believe in it. The director is a newcomer, there aren’t any well-known actors, and China releases 50 similarly-tuned films a year, but you have to admit this one is a decent job. The story is set in the 12th century with a classic dynastic struggle between emperors, but the film focuses more on a young hero who rises up against the emperor with a few villagers. The plot didn’t blow me away much, it's the kind of historical film that will please history fans. On the other hand the spectacular visuals are a delight, the money really goes to show, and when it came to the battles they were both bloody and superbly shot. The main character runs in there almost alone against everyone and his fighting skills are superb. So the visuals, the costumes and the action are all very good, the downside is the slightly unbalanced pacing, where the film has a few deaf passages, but once they start fighting it's all forgiven. 7/10.