EvilPhoEniX

Rob Zombie could make up for this year's dearth of gore, and it's a surprise that a lot of the murders go out of frame or can't be seen properly due to the frantic camera, which I give a thumbs down for, but other elements were nice. The villains are great, except for the crazy dwarf repeating puta and mierda, he was annoying. Schizo-Head and Psycho-Head offer motorbike games and more significant gore, but the biggest surprise is Doom-Head, who played the sleazy madman very convincingly and deserves a solo. On the plus side, there are great make-up effects, a very dirty look, very unlikeable characters, one redneck next to another – I missed this quite a bit, hixploitation doesn't really work nowadays. A lot more could have been made out of the idea, though. Even though it's more of a 3*, there hasn't been a more sick twisted movie here this year, I’m going for a weaker four stars. Story 5/10, Atmosphere 7/10, Gore 6/10, Visuals 5/10, Action 7/10, Suspense 7/10, Humor 4/10. Entertainment 7/10, Scares 0/10. 70%.

France again on top in the best comedy of the year!! I liked the Five from the very first minute, where the film introduces us to the five protagonist, a well-chosen line-up where everyone excels in something, there’s a black guy who constantly fucks women, a hot chick, a guy suffering from phobias, a stoner, and a rich young man. The film impressed me not only with its colorful and off-kilter humor – at times I laughed really loud – but also with a very solid story that dropped a twist every five minutes – I was shocked at how much bad luck everyone has. Surprising and highly recommended. This doesn't end with a single screening for me. The less you know, the better. 95%

Korea's hit of the year and the best zombie movie of the year. Train to Busan is really a mix of two excellent movies, World War Z and Snowpiercer, where my only problem is that the Koreans didn't go for brutality, because they are the only ones in the world who have no problem cramming violence into their movies in a big way, but here they had to go PG-13 for profit purposes, like World War Z. That's the only complaint, otherwise it's a very adrenaline-pumping, thrilling and tension-filled zombie tornado set on a train that's hard to escape from. The zombies look great, they are very aggressive, their movements are awesome, I haven't seen better looks and movement from them. The film is pretty much uncompromising with the characters, which makes the viewer sympathize with them all the more, while rooting for them. The best is the leading duo Dong-seok Ma, a very famous star in Korea, and Yoo Gong, who instead of being the best agent controlling the system here plays a snooty financial manager. Ee-seong Kim is completely unbearable here. The supporting roles are also gratifying, with every single one having appeared in a solid Korean blockbuster. The very intense soundtrack is also a plus. Great stuff. Story 7/10, Atmosphere 9/10, Gore 4/10, Visuals 8/10, Action 10/10, Suspense 10/10, Humor 4/10. Entertainment 8/10, Scares 5/10. 85%.

Friend Request is the surprise of the year for me, surpassing both The Conjuring 2 and Lights Out combined, and is also the best representative of the cyber-internet genre. It's a great pity it didn't go to the cinema instead of the naive Unfriended, because everything works here. Superb atmosphere, heart attack-inducing scares (there’s one that kept me up all night, I've never seen anything more intense in my horror career), elements of the occult, a social network mystery, decent brutality, perfect make-up effects and top notch visuals. It doesn’t matter that the story is the weakest element of the film when everything else works perfectly. Moreover, the female protagonist is very likeable, and the villain is properly sleazy. It's been a long time since I've had such anxiously uncomfortable feelings during a horror movie as I did here, quite possibly caused by the premise, because the idea of writing a review on my FB page and it being fatal to me is quite chilling :D Headphones mandatory. Story 6/10, Atmosphere 9/10, Gore 7/10, Visuals 9/10, Action 5/10, Suspense 8/10, Humor 3/10. Entertainment 8/10, Scares 10/10.85%

The Collection has become a minor cult-classic and Marcus Dunstan probably naively thought that if he cast the same actor and chose a similar plot, he would reap success again, but there is no gore and the film is much poorer visually. What I did like were the bad guys, I immediately thought of Storm Warning, but it's all too cautious and lacking in intensity. I wasn't bored, so I'll give it an average rating, but next time it needs some improvement. 50%

A nice surprise and perhaps Jean-Claude Van Damme's best comeback since The Expendables 2. For a full half hour Van Damme rants about his career intertwined with an interesting story and solid action. Great stuff. If there are more episodes, I'll gladly bump it up to five stars.80%

I watched and liked Jackie Chan when his action movies were hot, but then I started to discover Asia (South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia) and better fighters with better action came along. Jackie has always had action scenes combined with humor and nowadays I don't find that too much to my liking. After the amount of rough, violent and brutal fights I've seen, Jackie's action seems infantile and uninteresting, which goes beyond me. Skiptrace is okay, it makes you smile at times, as for the story and action, I'm not satisfied. Pure average. 50%.

The protagonist moves to Los Angels to start a modeling career and, as everyone is impressed by her natural beauty, her career grows at a tremendous rate, which some of her competitors can not tolerate. The film has a slower pace, not much talking and there are some very long takes, but it's a fantastic cinematography and audiovisual experience. It’s horror maybe in the last 15 minutes or so, the rest is more of a hypnotic and audiovisual drama, but it has a lot going for it. PS: I didn't like the main character. 60%

in the 90s Kickboxer was a hit and the fight movie of my childhood. I was curious about the remake, the trailer looked good, but unfortunately it didn't work out too well. The protagonist is not likeable enough, I didn’t like Jean-Claude Van Damme, I found him annoying, only Dave Bautista is great. The fights don't have enough grit, there is a lot of editing, but luckily the camera doesn't move, so it’s not that big an issue, but you don’t feel the grit and rawness like in other action movies, so you don’t cheer or experience the fights, which is a shame. I wasn't bored, it was easy to watch without pause, but nowadays this won't stand a chance. 50%

The turtles are just a passable one-off for me. It bothers me that it's too infantile, I would have appreciated a harder R-rating and a darker atmosphere. Megan Fox is still a top-shelf babe, the action is rather mediocre, but at least it's clearly and entertainingly filmed. The film goes by quickly, but the age range is unfortunately around 13-17. Rocksteady and Bepob were properly wacky, which is the film's biggest plus. 65%