EvilPhoEniX

Ready Free Guy One! The surprise of the summer and Shawn Levy at his best! I tipped Free Guy at around 60% before the premiere, and I'm really happy that it turned out to be an unexpected hit that will please all the nerds, fanboys and gameboys who grew up on GTA – this target audience will be the most excited, but the rest will have fun too. Ryan Reynolds is in his best role since Deadpool and fits in really well here – I think he took his performance here up another level. The film has a likeable world and story, an interesting plot, with countless ideas and references that had me thinking, this must have been thought up by a genius. Most of the game's Easter eggs are fun (Trolls exists ?), and the Marvel references must be making the rounds in memes all over the internet by now, because they had the whole cinema laughing. Apart from the playful and awesome visuals, the excellent and clear action, the leads have great chemistry, and the romantic line is warmly delivered. By the end I was literally crying with so much emotion that I could have sunk the Titanic with my tears. And then there is the shocking final twist (there are other twists, of course, but the final one had me on all fours, almost crawling out of the cinema). I was expecting a silly and entertaining movie, but I got the full package with everything and the big screen suits it. I enjoyed the whole two hours, and Taika Waititi as the bad guy was awesome. Story 4/5, Action 5/5, Humor 4/5, Violence 0/5, Fun 5/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 5/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 4/5, Emotion 4/5. 9/10.

I had the film sitting on my disc for a long time and out of necessity I committed it, and it's surprisingly better than I had hoped. Megan Fox is gorgeous but she is a very had actress (sort of like Chris Rock in the recent Spiral: From the Book of Saw), but I can get over it. It's got a pretty nice original premise. Megan Fox is chained to her dead husband as part of an interesting revenge, in the middle of nowhere in winter, with 2 hitmen after her. It's nicely shot, quite suspenseful, with a stifling atmosphere, a few minor surprises, and there was a bit of gore, so probably more than I expected. Not enough for a higher rating, as it doesn't really stand out on either level, but for a solid average. Till Death is entertaining thriller for a fine evening. Story 3/5, Action 3/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 3/5, Fun 4/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 3/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 3/5. 6/10.

After a long time another fine comedy from France. It has a novel idea about a con man who goes to prison, where he meets a man who calls himself Putin and is obsessed with everything Russian (the best character in the film!). Once he gets out he changes his identity, gets a rich girlfriend and a good job and starts doing great, until his former cellmate comes back and starts to make his life quite annoying. The digs at Russia are great, the humour is on par, there are solid laughs to be had, the music is good and the characters are likeable. The film gets more serious and action packed towards the end. A good one-shot. Story 3/5, Action 1/5, Humour 4/5, Violence 0/5, Fun 4/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 2/5. 7/10.

Acclaimed Chinese director Yimou Zhang (House of Flying Daggers, Hero) already has a hall of fame career and his new spy film is pretty decent. It has its qualities, the foreign reviews are happy, but I didn't enjoy it completely. It's set in the 1930s where four special agents return to China on a secret mission, but they are betrayed and danger lurks at every turn. Filmed very nicely, 80% of the film takes place in a snowy setting, the action is pretty good (no battles fights, more like gunfights), though nothing too gripping or wow. The R-rated action is used normally, but it doesn’t look cheap, you can see it is an A-list production. I did like one torture scene that was reminiscent of Hostel in its setting, and there were a few twists and turns, though I have to admit that at times I got lost in the plot and wasn't engrossed enough to be able to fully immerse myself in the film, which is probably the fault of the material. It's not a bad film though, it's worth seeing and it will definitely find its fans. Story 4/5, Action 3/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 3/5, Fun 3/5, Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 3/5. 6/10.

Visually impressive with a biblical overlay about a giant monster on which an entire civilization lives. An interesting minimalist idea that can be debated and is definitely fun to watch. 7/10.

After almost a year's delay, I finally got to see this film and the result is quite unsatisfactory. I wanted to be nicer, if only because I don't have a horror film with locust on my menu every day let alone every year, but it took the least attractive route. It should be noted that this is a strong slow burn drama (nothing interesting happens for twenty hours), and the finale didn't completely convince me either. It's more of a drama about family and the relationship between mother and children, which is not what I ordered – if it was about anything else, so be it, but if the makers are serving us flesh-eating locusts, why go down such an intimate and boring route about three characters? That swarm was supposed to fly into the city and eat half of France! Oh yeah, if anything was going to happen, the camera obviously preferred to angle and the result is The Swarm is a useless film with an attractive premise, quite passable visuals and an OK cast that lures you to something that is definitely not coming. One of the disappointments of the year. Story 2/5, Action 1/5, Humor 0/5, Violence 2/5, Fun 2/5 Music 1/5, Visuals 3/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 2/5. 4/10.

Yum yum! The best movie in five years! And a wonderful revenge by James Gunn's revenge for getting fired from Marvel, which he a raises middle finger and serves up a gritty comic book style The Boys and it's AWESOME!! It satisfied all my twisted, wild, sick, unhinged dreams! I have to admit that the trailers didn't really grab me and I went into the cinema cautiously, but from the opening minutes Gunn won me over and pulled off one excellent scene after another that had me literally melting in my seat. The central five of Harley Quinn, Price, Elba, Kinnaman and Shark shine the brightest, they steal the whole show for themselves, but the rest don't lag behind and everyone gets plenty of space. The music is great, banging in the action scenes, the gore is amazing, and I'll say it three more times: gore, gore and more gore, because the movie world has never seen such carnage! Army of the Dead is so humiliated this year. The wisecracks are good too, the banter between Elba and Cena amused me the most. There is plenty of action (the finale is maybe an hour long, bugger me!), and surprisingly the dramatic and emotional moments have the right punch and timing. The body-count is also surprising, it's unreal and I really liked the different signs pieced together from the surroundings. It's a really playful and original film. The whole thing has a breakneck pace and a likeable story, and is properly kinky and slightly perverted, so weaker characters might have some complaints – I was, however, as high as I've been in a long time. This hit my taste perfectly, and anyone who gives it two stars or less is uncompromisingly my enemy number 1! (Jacques Mesrine!) Story 4/5, Action 5/5, Humour 5/5, Violence 10/5, Fun 10/5 Music 5/5, Visuals 5/5, Atmosphere 5/5, Suspense 4/5. 10/10.

The wow effect of the first 2 seasons may be gone, but it's still an enjoyable afternoon. I'm really enjoying this series not only because of the topic but also because of the nice characters. I was interested to see how it would turn out and I'm happy with the outcome. I don't know if there will be a 4th season, but I certainly wouldn't mind. 7/10.

Before the highly anticipated 5th season of Money Heist, the same creators serve us the second season of Sky Rojo and it's once again a fine, fun, stylish and sexy ride. I liked the first season a bit more, this one has lost some of the charm of the brothels and there is a little less philosophizing and main pimp, which is quite a shame. But there is more action, it still has a great pace, the characters are great again (a bit of a bummer that there are no new ones), and thanks to the short episodes, the whole thing goes by like water and I didn't get bored for a minute, which is the main thing, though one would expect a something bit more ambitious from the creators of Money Heists than just a chase between hookers and pimps. If you weren’t impressed by the first season, don’t expect much of an improvement here, but if you were impresssed, you will probably enjoy this one too. Story 3/5, Action 4/5, Humour 2/5, Violence 3/5, Fun 4/5 Music 4/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 3/5. 7/10.

It’s good that we have Netflix. This is a beautiful ending to the Samurai epic series, which ends with a prequel, which is how it all began. This is the episode I was looking forward to the most, because it takes place during the time when Kenshin was still killing people, thus finally satisfying my insatiable taste buds for blood (unfortunately he doesn't kill people in the previous episodes and that was my biggest problem with the whole series). When it comes to action, it's pretty much a big deal, with blood spurting aplenty, it's properly raw and uncompromising, Kenshin is a great and fast samurai, and invincible machine, and watching him in action is a joy. Unfortunately, his enemies are not as diverse and don't have the pure anime/manga elements as in the previous episodes. It must be said that there is a lot of emphasis on story, romance and melodrama, which is a problem with me, but others will probably be happier, because after all, nobody cares about action and blood anymore, right? Visually it's amazing again and the snowy finale in the forest is beautiful. I probably won't watch this again, but I'm really happy for the uncompromising R-rated action. It's a nice ending to the series. Story 4/5, Action 4/5, Humour 0/5, Violence 4/5, Fun 3/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 4/5, Suspense 2/5. 7/10.