J*A*S*M

Horror is usually built around a clear contrast between good and evil. Either something good enters an evil place (hixploitation, haunted houses), or something evil enters a good place (most slashers and zombie movies). One of the problems (though it doesn’t necessarily have to be seen as such) of Halloween II is that it basically overturns the above mentioned rule. Rob Zombie’s “good” Halloween world looks so lawless that the masked bum Michael Myers fits almost perfectly and doesn’t feel like a great menace. I’d say that the “good guys” there must be used to stuff like this. Add to that the dodgy dream sequences and the only conclusion is that Zombie’s second Halloween is not classic horror, and certainly not classic Halloween. As far as I’m concerned, it was a very unusual film that got on my nerves throughout, to the point that only by the end I realised that it isn’t so bad.

A decent idea with several parts that reminded me of Nightmare on Elm Street, but with an execution that limps a little.

Law Abiding Citizen had great potential and at the beginning I thought that it would exploit it brilliantly. Unfortunately, however, it soon turns out that it’s nothing but a decent thriller that tries to look smart (and manages it to a certain extent). The screenwriter gave up all attempts to explain certain things, choosing a deux ex machina principle instead. And the claim, that a smart film doesn’t need to explain everything to a smart viewer because they should be well able to figure things out themselves, doesn’t apply. Solid fun, but better not speculate too much about it.

Quote: “Is it possible not to like this?” (Noviik) Response: "Yes" (J*A*S*M)

Five minutes of fun are always ruined by half an hour of boring and incredibly dull bollocks. Where are the days of Independence Day and Godzilla? They didn’t have such megalomaniac destruction, but their stories held together and they were fun and tense throughout. If we consider the contents, the runtime of 2012 is so excessive that by the end (or rather, the last hour) it was hard for me to refrain from doing something else and leave the film on as background noise. Maybe it’s good for the undemanding audience craving for a CGI orgy, but I’m unable to turn off my brain thoroughly enough to say the same.

I think it’s impossible to review this film without spoiling it (at least a little). Broadly speaking, I like the idea the creators came up with and used, but I liked a lot less the way they executed it. This film bored me terribly for an hour, I was almost ready to write something along the lines that Adam Mason is tuned to a very different horror wavelength than I, and that I will not bother with any of his other films, but then this one switches to a completely different style and I started thinking “yeah, this is it, this isn’t bad at all...” The 100 minute runtime (and especially that awfully long introduction with the cards still hidden), however, kills it. What a pity!

A long-winded and depressive urban legend. It was nice, but I’ve almost forgotten what it was about.

Nothing to write home about, but I’m looking forward to the feature version. There can never be enough science fiction with alien robots (unless it’s Transformers, that is, there’s been too many of them already, even when there still weren’t any).

Terribly stupid when it comes to the dialogues, surprisingly badly directed and with dodgy digital effects, it almost reminded me of the awful Wrong Turn 3 several times. I wasn’t expecting an original or interesting plot, but such poor execution was a very unpleasant surprise. The ending was a bit tense, but it was not enough to improve the overall impression. And when in the last scene the protagonist says the following with a mysterious tone (spoiler): "What if it was planned from the beginning?", I couldn’t avoid laughing. It’s evident that even after the third sequel (or remake?), the creators still don’t have the rules of the game clearly set, the characters just pull “solutions” out of their asses and the whole thing looks increasingly ridiculous. Please, put an end to it already.

An interesting and well executed horror short. It seems that Czechia is finally seeing a generation of horror fans-creators, like it happened a few years ago in Northern and Western Europe (see for instance, Seance). Thanks God for that!