J*A*S*M

It wants to be a sharp satire about the unquenchable desire for (not only) media fame for which some people are willing to sacrifice anything. It also wants to be a dramatic dark comedy, like something from the Coen Brothers, where ordinary people get involved with real criminals and become entangled in a maze of lies they can’t escape with their honour intact. The efforts to achieve this are very evident, but it doesn’t work and the film feels stuffy and outdated. The cast is good, the characters not so much, everyone is either evil, fake or stupid.

I like films with a time loop and I enjoyed this teenage take on it, though it doesn’t really deviate from the standards of similar films. What holds it above water is mainly the very likeable main couple. The wider plot is replaced by the “simple” search for perfect little stories in a normal life and the contemplations of one’s own hardships and joys. The ending is very well put together. As far as the subgenre goes, I’ve no reason to complain.

A weird, independent sci-fi film about cable laying. It was quite interesting and I was curious about where it would all lead in the end – alas, to nothing interesting.

As a series of weird, dark comedic scenes set in a block of flats, where a malevolent landlord fucks with his tenants in various perverse ways, it was fun. The craftsmanship is top-notch and the film manages to generate tension, disgust and amused grimaces. The problem is that it’s almost two hours long, with a weird ending that comes out of nowhere and a dim twist that leaves and even bigger mess than before.

The coronavirus has made me miss a lot of things, but mindless CGI blockbusters like this is certainly not one of them. It can hardly be considered a movie, Paul W.S. Anderson has stopped making them, now he makes expensive long videos where his wife can play the action heroine, that’s the only reason why Monster Hunter exists. Seeing Ton Jaa and Ron Pearlman contributing to this in their less than dignified roles is just sad.

I saw the trailer, so I could guess what I was getting into: a film with a silent Nicolas Cage fighting against bloodthirsty animatronic puppets. You can’t expect anything sophisticated from a movie like this, but I still looked forward, I even believed I would be able to appreciate this nonsense if it was refreshing, had swagger, pace, gore, and humour. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Willy's Wonderland it’s utterly unable to exploit its insane premise in any way that would be attractive to the viewer.

It’s a paradox that this very well executed film with a fairly good and original premise (for the standards of the “group of people confronted by forest rednecks” subgenre) feels the need to carry the name of the Wrong Turn franchise, which turned into unwatchable shite after the first two entries, when it basically doesn’t have anything in common with it. In fact, I don’t think it’s a benefit, quite the opposite, because for those few people still interested in that dumb franchise, this will be a boring and pointless attempt at some sort of socio-political insight. In contrast, for me it was a bit of a pleasant surprise, and about a month ago, the news of a reboot had caused tremors of resistance in me. There are a lot of things that need fine-tuning, for instance, if they had a more likeable group of characters and explained more about The Foundation, it could be very good. Like this, it’s just good.

An average Nordic survival flick. That part with the laser sight touted by the trailer, and after which the movie is called, is almost ridiculously short and unexploited. That also applies to the rest of the film, if you’re looking forward to atmospheric horror, you’ll be very disappointed because that’s not what this is about. The shabby ending doesn’t help much, either, it’s a twist that has been brutally overused (I watched something similar about two weeks ago) and is no longer surprising, especially when here you can see it coming at least twenty minutes before it actually arrives.

The only thing I knew about Sator before watching it was that it currently has 90% positive reviews in Rotten Tomatoes, so I was quite excited. ‘Twas a mistake. Thanks to the beautiful forest setting, the film doesn’t lack a decent atmosphere, but other than that, it’s a search for the inner feelings of a beginner filmmaker made on a shoestring that will be shown at a few festivals, where it will receive the praise of a few critics that only appreciate viewer-unfriendly movies, and then it will be completely forgotten. I’m not bashing Graham, you can see some skills there, but this should have been a short.

I think this is a fairly smartly put together true crime documentary that at the end of each episode has the viewer exactly where it wants them. It guides us through the stupid internet conspiracy theories spawned by this case and, in the light of all those weird coincidences and mysteries, it makes you wonder whether there actually isn’t something supernatural or an insane conspiracy behind it. The youtubers and other influencers are fair game, of course, and fortunately, in the fourth episode the documentary uses them to make a point: that the real problem is that today every uneducated moron has an opinion about everything and is not afraid to use the internet to share it. Poor Death Metal fan.