EvilPhoEniX

Kong Skull Island remains unsurpassed in this modern Monterverse. If I were 15 I'd be cheering with joy, today it's just a pure washout that, while it doesn't hurt to see in the cinema and doesn't outright offend, there can be no question of any great enthusiasm. When the film kept it down to earth, it was fine. The clash of the apes was quite reminiscent of Planet of the Apes and visually it's quite nice, unfortunately the human characters once again trip it up, they're redundant and slow the story down. By the end, the film was a digital mess, with lights flying from pink to white, and I'm not really into that anymore. Too bad the whole movie didn't take place in the Hollow Earth with no humans, just Kong and monsters, that would have been nice! 6/10.

I was actually quite surprised. It's definitely the more acceptable mainstream for me, not as obnoxiously generic and clichéd as say Night Swim or Imaginary, but going for a slightly different route that's reminiscent of the recent Talk to Me. A girl inherits an ancient house from her father that hides a secret in the basement, there's a witch who has the ability to turn into someone dead, but only for a certain amount of time and there are rules to follow. The look of the creature is great, technically the film is on the level, I was intrigued by the whole mythology around the witch (I have more affection for them than for ghosts), the scares don't work and it's not scary, but it's quite suspenseful, it's not boring and the ending is definitely unexpected. Decent. 6/10.

Streams of blood are replaced by streams of tears, but the fact that it's so emotionally charged that it even took down Evil! It's a good idea not to find out anything about the film beforehand, it hits the unprepared much harder. While it's not quite the kind of film I seek out and the central theme is not one of my favourites, it has to be admitted that the film holds the attention (the excellent child performances pull it up a lot!). The whole film has a very heartbreaking mood and the sadness is conveyed to the viewer in a really respectable way. I wouldn’t recommended to mothers, there is a risk of emotional breakdown, seizure and lifelong consequences! Sometimes I need something this touching and strong after all my favourite twisted hogwash and martial arts flicks. 8/10.

I was honestly expecting a bigger bang, but it's fine. For me, it's better than the two-part Japanese film, and the series is only 6 episodes long. The theme of the world being invaded by alien parasites that can impersonate humans is very cool, and the make-up effects and the CGI of the parasites look great. It's pretty much action packed, even pleasantly brutal, the characters are fine, the plot could have been more nutritious, but I had fun and it went by quickly. It's between 3-4, but I'm leaning towards the better mark.

Winner of the Czech Lion for animation and a progressive revolutionary form by Daria Kashcheeva. It will leave you with your mouth open! Electra recalls her 10th birthday and awakens a series of family traumas. It's a deep probe into the female mind, with the “Electra complex”, the opposite of the “Oedipus complex”, comes into play. The stop motion animation is breathtaking (form wins over content for me, but never mind), you won't see 25 minutes this impressive in Czech cinema. 75%

A nice feel good genre film with good performances. It’s the story of an autistic boy with above average intelligence, but he is a laughing stock to his classmates, and his parents have a rather difficult time with him as well. The turning point comes when he wants to go visit all the football stadiums in Germany with his father to choose his favourite club. The first half is even quite funny and has some pretty chilling situations, I personally don't know if I could handle something like that mentally. Towards the end I thought it was pure drama, so I won't go up to 4 stars, but it's okay. 6/10.

Beautiful. The first proper action flick of the year from the inexperienced Dev Patel, who shines both in acting and directing, and to come up with such a great debut in this day and age, takes my appreciation and compliments. Even if the 5 stars aren't entirely pure, I'll happily give them to Monkey Man, this is after all my favourite genre and a film I'll happily watch with friends again, so why not! At its core, Monkey Man is a classic revenge actioner, but thanks to the Indian realities and culture, it has a very different vibe and actually feels very fresh. I loved the contrast where one scene is slums and utter poverty and squalor and the next is skyscrapers with rich scumbags doing coke instead of shots and banging Miss World. There are only three action scenes, but they are nice and long. The first lasts at least 20 minutes, it’s where Dev Patel doesn't know how to fight that much yet, so he gets a decent ass kicking too. Halfway through, the film switches a bit into spiritual Indian mode, where Patel gets a workout and they nicely show India from a different direction, so that we can then get a look at the Ring, this is where the film is most reminiscent of the Ong-bak, and it’s all wrapped up with an ultra brutal long finale that combines both John Wick and The Raid. The finale is again long, pleasingly brutal, with great cinematography (Patel nicely switches camera angles: bird's eye view, first person camera, close up and distance), and I like that the film has virtually no shooting but relies on melee weapons, and I liked the innovative element of rocket firecrackers!! The Indian assassins at the end were a delight, they were pretty damn cool, and the ultimate boss fight was a nice cherry on top. I had a great time, visually properly dirty and brutal, the action scenes are polished, Patel has charisma to spare and, as I mentioned, the Indian culture suits the film very well. It could have had a little more gore, there's less of it than I wanted in the end, but I'll rise above that. 85%

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this at all. An incredibly slow drama where nothing happens. There are two or three nice atmospheric horror visions that I thought were above standard, but the rest of it is nothing. Weird characters, a story about nothing, that dialogues that I didn't enjoy, no suspense or atmosphere, the whole thing is so weirdly Italian. Don't waste your time. 35%.

The beginning of a New French Wave of extremity of 2024 is here! After the awesome Meandre, the talented Mathieu Turi becomes the guarantee of France and his new release is definitely a rewarding creature feature film, actually the best we can see so far this year. A group of miners go into a cave with a professor to collect some samples, only to discover a crypt and awaken an ancient evil with a Lovecraftian twist! The story is pretty simple, but the attractive and novel setting doesn't make it a problem at all. The cave is properly dark and claustrophobic, the characters are cool and don't show any logical flubs. But the big plus is the monster itself, with practical effects and a nice mythology around it, it looks properly creepy and unpleasant, even if it's a bit of a shame that it doesn't appear until an hour into the film. There's some decent gore, of course, and as always, it there could have been more, but it's sufficient. The atmosphere also works well, the most atmospheric sequence for me was the one where they use a photo-camera, a proven sure thing! For me, a very fine monster survival flick with miners that shouldn't offend anyone. So far this year a clear horror number one, so show your gratitude and sprinkle those 4's! 75%

I was tempted by the perverse violence, shocking and sexually twisted, it sounded like the Chilean version of A Serbian Film featuring colonists and I couldn't miss it, but the result is a heavyweight borefest, where I was bored to the point of hallucination! The actors, the dialogue and the story were very uninteresting, really zero interest, it went absolutely off the rails and that one rape of a guy by a guy really didn't get me out of my seat. There was one more brutal scene, but that's really pathetically small. I was kind of hoping for some proper carnage in the finale to pull it up to at least average. I'd describe it as a True descent into the Madness of Boredom ! Historical cheaply made art from Chile. It made me boil with hatred. Audience ingratitude. Fuck those settlers! 3/10.