EvilPhoEniX

Probably Patryk Vega's weakest piece of work. I miss the classic Vega stuff, this film has absolutely no humour, gore or nudity, which are his specific features. On the other hand, this is one of his first films and maybe he wasn't such a pervert then, but that's why I like him. The film itself is otherwise not bad, visually the action is okay, but some of the storylines felt redundant and didn't bring anything very interesting. Only 6/10 this time.

Quite an interesting story of Tonya Harding, and the only reason I watched the film is because I like sports dramas where the underdog kicks everyone’s asses. The opening met my expectations and I wanted to praise the excellent Tilda Swinton as the mother, but now I realise it was actually Allison Janney, well never mind she was perfect and to remove her after half an hour is a reprehensible mistake. That's like someone removing J.K. Simmons from Whiplash, without him the film definitely wouldn't have gotten the recognition it has now. As for Tonya herself, unfortunately there's not much skating, the rivalry is mostly nonexistent and she performs the same tricks over and over. The film focuses more on her personal life and her relationship with her husband, which at times was reminiscent of The War of the Roses, but I wasn't really interested in that. Pros: Margot Robbie and Allison Janney both solid, an interesting story. Cons: slow pace, humour only in the first 30 minutes then absent, lack of skating and o an intense finale like in Borg vs. McEnroe, for example. 6/10.

A solid ghost story from South Korea. The film has quite an interesting theme about a mysterious closet that hides something supernatural. A father and daughter move into a new house and soon the daughter mysteriously disappears. The father, with the help of an exorcist, will do anything to get his daughter back. The visuals are solid, the cinematography is fine, the scares are good (one of them is heart-attack inducing, I thought my heart stopped and I almost kicked the TV), and the scene with the dead children without eyes is a downright horror treat. The atmospheric finale is also captivating. It's a pity that the film moves at a very slow pace and the scares, though effective, are not that many. A fan of ghost stories and a viewer who is looking for scares will not be disappointed. Pros: solid visuals, interesting premise, the dead kids are quite unpleasant in their own right. Cons: Slow pace, boring when there are no ghosts. 6/10.

Patryk Vega is back! Poland's craziest butcher, known for Pitbull - Exodus, Women of Mafia and The Plagues of Breslau, delivers a bit of a gangster drama that won't disappoint fans of his previous work. Based on true events, the story focuses on a cop who plans to get rid of all the pimps far and wide and build his own brothel with Ukrainian girls and go big. Vega is once again off the rails and most of his familiar characters are back (the katana-wielding cop called Ninja is awesome). The main character undergoes an absolute physical and mental transformation, literally the disintegration of a man in the worst possible way. There's no shortage of raucous humor, WTF scenes, drugs, an incredible amount of sex, lots of beautiful naked women. The gore is tamed this time, but at least the falling silicon implants will stick in my memory. The first half is an adrenaline rush that goes from one scene to the next and almost doesn't let the viewer breathe, but towards the end the film runs a bit out of breath, but it’s still decent. Pros: Lots of naked women, crazy absurdist humor, dynamic pacing, interesting story. Cons: The best ninja character is absent in the second half, slower finish to the finale, not as brutal as usual for Vega. 7/10.

The anticipated Train to Busan-style horror film with rats ends up being a disappointment with untapped potential. The fact that the rats are digital was to be expected, after all the hordes like in World War Z could not be filmed any other way, but I didn't expect the whole thing to be so bland. There’s no gore, zero tension, and when they don’t manage to create tension in the confined space of a train where the passengers have nowhere to escape, it's pretty bad. Overall, it's kind of a boring TV-movie that doesn't really please with anything. Visually, it's not exactly cheap and rat lovers will survive unscathed, but as a horror film it doesn't stand a chance. Pros: passable visuals, hordes of World War Z rats. Cons: no gore, no suspense, too much not-so-good CGI. It's not even very entertaining, unfortunately. 3.5/10:

The best Hong Kong movie in the last 10 years! Herman Yau has made a lot of movies, but in the action genre he hasn't really shone until now. Shock Wave 2 is such a load that even John Woo himself would bow. I don't remember much of the first one and I know I wasn't that interested at the time, so I approached the second one on its own and it's a great film full of spectacular action and a wonderfully interwoven plot. The very opening with a spectacular airport explosion is such a visual mayhem that it almost blew my balls off, and little did I know that the next forty minutes would go from one action scene to the next. The film then stops for a while, otherwise I would have needed an ambulance, and culminates in another thirty-minute intense finale where I was screaming all the swear words with excitement probably across the house. The ageless Andy Lau gives one of the best performances of his rich career, and at 50 he does a Tom Cruise style job. The action is superb, there are great bloody and realistic shootouts, contact fights, scenes with bomb squads trying to defuse challenging bombs, and spectacular explosions that are among the best the genre has ever produced. The finale is so monstrous and spectacular that I couldn't believe my own eyes. To make matters worse, there's also a brilliantly thought out, intricate and convoluted plot with a twist every ten minutes or so and it all clicks together like a puzzle at the end. Rightfully the highest rated Hong Kong actioner in a long time. Pros: perfect and spectacular action, great actors, impressive visual effects, dynamic pacing and never-ending tension, challenging, twisty and intelligent script. Cons: at times it’s so complicated that inattentive viewers can get lost, a quieter middle. 8.5/10.

Quite interesting and nicely shot, nut I expected more information. The second half focuses too much on politics and conspiracy theories, I was more interested in Facebook and Google. But it is worth watching. 6/10.

Perfect, original, funny, wise and very entertaining. Tarantino probably drew inspiration for The Hateful Eight here. Anyway, the story takes place in a saloon where everyone present hears the narrator's voice and reacts to it, culminating in a Wild West Ballet of Death as it should be. I have to give it full marks for that brilliant idea. I recommend it to everyone, it's a must see. 9/10.

Decent, but I have my complaints. For a documentary, there's a decent pace, great music and it's surprisingly quite suspenseful. What bothered me, though, is that it focuses on amateur detectives, i.e. internet nerds who have nothing else to do but follow someone else's life. That's a bit of a turn off for me, I'd rather watch real detectives whose work is definitely more interesting. It's also disappointing that they don't explicitly show the content of the video when everyone in the documentary could see it, I don't know why the viewer can’t see it too. And one last complaint, I don't really like why a man who killed one person is called a butcher and serial killer, what was Night Stalker then? The finale is quite interesting and quite unexpected, I enjoyed it, but I liked Night Stalker better. 7.5/10:

A great, original, brilliantly imagined and atmospheric thriller from China that almost took my breath away, and probably the Chinese too when it won the Best Picture award. A relatively poor family is thrilled when their daughter is accepted into a school they can't afford, but they have no idea that one of her classmates is a notorious bully, he is the son of the town's police captain, and will rape their daughter and film it on his cell phone at the first opportunity. When the bully comes to blackmail the daughter an unexpected horrific act happens and from that point on a crazy ride full of twists and turns, shocking surprises and script tweaks begins, and I was downright excited about the film. The father will try to protect his family from the dark side of the law and since he has watched a little over 800 movies (mostly crime and thrillers), he decides to use his knowledge to create the perfect bullet proof alibi that the will have Police literally shitting themselves. Out of nowhere, China debuts a crime drama that is entertaining, suspenseful, superbly acted and literally packed with twists and turns. Pros: excellent premise, great actors, decent pacing, striking atmosphere. Cons: not very brutal, slower pacing. 8/10.