J*A*S*M

This was a massive stress test for my habit of not turning off (apparently) good films because of an irrelevant feeling of boredom. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. This time, unfortunately, I regretted it because A Tale of Two Sisters didn’t satisfy me in any aspect. I don’t mind intricate films, provided the plot is also intricate, what I don’t like is nonsense that pretends to be interesting with non-traditional and almost indecipherable narrative techniques. That’s not genius, that’s posing. Disappointment, I liked the bland American remake a lot more .

A bit too contrived, perhaps, but still a thriller fully focused on generating tension. An impressive play on nerves set in one room, or one flat. From a certain angle, Wait Until Dark can be reminiscent of Hitchcock's Rear Window (also five stars), but at closer inspection, it’s clear that each film works with the viewer in a totally opposite way and therefore, they can not be put into the same pigeon-hole. Wait Until Dark actually fits better in the pure thriller one.

If the proportion between scenes that made me tremble in fear and utterly pointless moments was at least 1, I would be thrilled. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The Curse does have moments that made me feel quite scared, but they are few and far between, I reckon they cover less than ten percent of the runtime. Besides, it doesn’t feel very good technically speaking, even the filler isn’t nice to look at. If it was longer, it would have been very boring, as it is, it’s a decent ghost story, but there are many better ones.

At midnight at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, this could be great fun, in the comfort of home, however, it’s just bullshit.

In the first fifteen minutes or so I was already saying that it is unbearably over-styled, tasteless, bullshit… and wasn’t far from turning it off. But then – and I didn’t notice exactly when it happened – I realised how much I was enjoying it. I don’t think I ever had such a total change of opinion while watching a film. I can’t provide a sufficiently reasonable explanation why I’m giving five stars to this piece of kitsch, but I just can’t help it.

Perfect direction and performances (Richard Attenborough!) but the script felt very naive, especially considering it’s based on real events – I don’t think it would have hurt the film if the story was more realistic. If the entire first half was as uncompromising as the climax, I wouldn’t hesitate to give it the highest rating, but the impression that, instead of a German prison camp, they were fleeing from an easygoing boy scout camp bothered me quite a lot. Otherwise, I’m satisfied.

It’s such an incredible piece of shite that even Nova put it on as filler between other shows (I don’t think I ever saw it scheduled). It’s hard to imagine something less funny!

I can’t remember when was the last time I saw a film this funny. Brilliant! Edit: It’s a lot weaker after a second viewing. To my surprise (and memories from the first viewing notwithstanding), it’s not that brilliant.

Amateur stuff unsuitable for wider distribution, but there are many scenes that show that the creators have at least some understanding of the horror genre, so they could make something better if given a bigger budget.

A tense thriller that runs like a Swiss clock. Unfortunately, though, the outcome is very easy to figure out. 9/10