EvilPhoEniX

Another Korean action romp that grabs you right from the beginning and doesn't let up until the end. The protagonist is a young cadet at the police academy, he is a model student, but he stops liking that the law doesn't apply to everyone, most criminals don't get a proper punishment and after a while they run free to do more evil and the law is short on those influential people. He decides on weekends to take the law into his own hands and punish those who are above it. It may be a classic avenger theme, but the Koreans can make even such a simple theme complicated and excellent. Soon a fanboy shows up on the scene and starts imitating the vigilante, and a new captain arrives in town to hunt down the avenger. Ji-tae Yoo from Oldboy plays an incredible beast here and a psychopathic asshole that dishes out punches that make everyone fly two meters, he really made me feel scared, respectful, I really bought into that psychopathic look. The series has a great pace, it has great action scenes (perfectly choreographed fights, the main young hero can swing nicely and delivers some nice punishment), there are a lot of fist fights and it wouldn't be Korea without knives. You end up liking all the characters, a bunch of different criminals come together, and it has a pleasantly intense pace. The finale is a downright epic action scene with a fight where all the characters of the series come together. The series is more fans for martial arts and South Korea. PS: The episodes are only 40 minutes long. 8/10.

This new horror short is a big hit on YouTube right now, featuring a horror version of Spider-Man, and it's good! The main character is Peter, who gets bitten by a spider, only this time he doesn't put on a costume, because he starts turning into an ugly shape. A good short with Cronenberg-style of body horror and excellent make-up effects. The final image is really amazing! Good premise. 7/10.

The first season is excellent, a nice mix of horror and social drama with a touch of Jordan Peele. The second season is completely different and may disappoint a lot of people. It’s much more crime drama with elements of the supernatural, and there is much less horror than expected, but when I step back from that I still found it very fitting. It's reminiscent of the best serial killer hunting crime dramas with a nice 90's vibe, a gritty Los Angeles setting full of gangs, nasty murders, honorable mentions to Bundy, the Night Stalker, Son of Sam and more, an attractive main character to root for. The short episodes also make it nicely paced and I really enjoyed all the detective work. I enjoyed a lot the line of the eternally rejected actor who found a liking for serial killers and inhabited the role perfectly, to the point of being totally absorbed. The horror ending was directed by Ti West himself and it's satisfying. 7/10.

It's a debut, so I wasn't expecting miracles, but it's one of the better action movies to come out of China in a while. A criminal organization is about to have a change of president and all branches are trying to get involved and fight for power, only there's a personal revenge line that puts a decent damper on things. There's a people trafficking thing theme, which I love in movies. Of the cast, NIck Cheung is great, even if I don't consider him a brawler, but Ethan Juan and Darren Wang are definitely alright. The action is decent, I liked that there is almost no shooting, but everything is solved with hammers, baseballs or knives (the scene in the hospital or the final 3 vs everyone were very nice), but again nothing that made me fall on my ass or that I would like to come back to. 6/10

With the title Baby Reindeer and the genre classification drama-biopic, I can't think of anything less attractive than this at the moment. I gave it an immediate pass as it sounded like a series version of Father or Nomadland. No thanks! But this is so fucking deceptive. This ain't no talky drama for intellectual fuckers, I'm adding tags here immediately! stalking thriller, true crime, and adjectives like over-the-top, twisted, unreal, compulsive, emotional, depressing, challenging, uncomfortable, traumatic, disturbing, and emotional Psychological carnage!!!! Sounds and looks more interesting now doesn't it? It's based on true events and it's unbelievable what kind of hell the main character goes through and that he can't really do anything about it. He really only meets strange people in his life. On the one hand, he's a poor guy, on the other hand, some things are his own fault. The highlight for me was episode 4, experimenting with different drugs and being abused by a guy! The final speech on stage about his life in front of everyone had power and depth. You just don't want to experience that. The big surprise of the year that came where I definitely didn't expect it. I'm raising the score at the end because this will resonate in me for a while. 85%.

Quite possibly one of the best Czech productions of last year, this is a surprisingly solid crime drama. A strong and uncomfortable premise, where a vet becomes paralyzed after a horse accident and his wife has to deal with her disabled husband. Soon, though, various secrets start to surface and the police start poking around. Good interrogations, fine acting (Jana Plodková is great) and the finale, while not all that shocking, is certainly not entirely expected. If it were a foreign film, I'd rate it a better three stars, but I'm happy to round up here. A must for fans of psychological crime dramas. A situation none of us would want to experience. 7/10.

South Korea at its BEST! Korea has mastered most of the film subgenres on a world level, only with horror it's not quite the top yet, but for me this is probably the best Korean horror I've ever seen (sure top 10 this year!). It's a film that wins the viewer over right from the start, it downright grabs you by the balls and doesn't let go, it's very important to get the viewers attention very early on and not lose it once throughout the film. Exhuma has a very original premise. A very wealthy family is plagued by a series of paranormal phenomena and they call in two experienced shamans to help them. They discover that the curse can be broken by moving their ancestor's grave, and they enlist the help of a seasoned Korean veteran, Min-sik Choi, the ultimate expert at the job. But from the start, something doesn't sit right with him. The ground is cursed, foxes are swarming everywhere, the smell of death is in the air, and as it turns out digging up the old coffin will have fatal consequences. It is a genre masterpiece in terms of direction and execution, indeed the whole film looks magnificent, it has very good dialogue, great acting, a well thought out plot with no shortage of interesting twists and turns, in short a very ambitious spectacle that is certainly not common in horror films. What rises from the grave is downright AWESOME!!! (One of the best villains in horror in a long time!). The connection to Japanese history is simply magnificent. Surprisingly, the film is also very well paced, it goes from one atmospherically scary scene to another, the whole thing is spiced up with Korean folklore, local curses, mysticism and rituals (the ritual with the pigs was really amazing), I read that they called in real shamans to make the ritual as authentic as possible!! An unbelievable blast, which sweeps you away with visuals, atmosphere, plot, twists, actors and the concept. I enjoyed it immensely. 9/10.

A sober drama set in rural Belgium about children coming of age and teenage trauma. There are two storylines, with surprisingly the most being the flashback from childhood, which also takes more time. All in all it's more of a three star affair for me, where the final impression is improved by the ending in the barn, which won't be very pleasant for the girls, but isn't as explicit and brutal as other users mention. Anyway, a film about how children's games can result in tragedy. The acting was good, shot okay for a debut, didn't get boring, so I'll throw in a weaker four. 70%

A nice little post-apocalyptic intimate survival drama with nice monsters! You could say it's a low-budget little sibling of A Quiet Place, which is of course a level above, but the effort counts. The planet has been destroyed it's a bit annoying that we don't get to know why or how, but immediately the film focuses on Nicolas Cage, who survives with his two sons following a routine during the day as the monsters attack at night. The first half is quite slow and intimate, but it gets noticeably better as the monsters arrive. I commend the original design of the monsters and the use of practical effects (the way they knock their faces off was excellent and creepy, and the sound!). The finale is pleasantly action packed, so definitely an enjoyable monster genre film. It could could have more gore and Cage could could have started a chainsaw by the end and played Ash from Evil Dead – I would have jumped for joy, but I'm satisfied. Emotionally on a strong 3, but I'm feel generous given the current rating, and also for that crazy jump-scare at the 20 minute mark, that one really got me. 65%

Definitely overhyped abroad, but it certainly has its moments. We have a girl on the run carrying a mutated strain of the Ebola virus, so any contact with anyone is fatal (she doesn't know it though) and then we have a woman who is tasked with catching her before the apocalyptic consequences occur. The budget wasn't the highest, but I've seen worse. The first half is quite tedious but once it gets to the first infected it had my attention. The make-up effects were nice, everyone's face decomposes nicely and the infected are quite aggressive, so the moments with them are fine, but there aren't that many. The potential was definitely higher, but not many contagion horror movies are made, so this one is fine for me. 55%.