EvilPhoEniX

The second part of Han-min Kim's trilogy about the famous naval battles in South Korea, which takes place before 2014's The Admiral, but which I enjoyed a bit more. For one thing, it had an R-rated treatment and featured bigger stars, this one felt mostly similar to me just without the gore (there's really very little blood). For Koreans this is a major historical event and from what I've read the film is very historically accurate, but that will be appreciated more by Korean audiences. The first hour is slower, but I enjoyed the strategies and planning tactics on both sides of the barricades (espionage, intelligence gathering, battle formations). The final half hour is a classic action ride and the epic scale is definitely not to be denied. Visually the film is of a high standard with good CGI, I'm just not that into naval battles, it doesn't do anything for me and it's not often that I get slightly bored with action. With some more rawness, I would probably be more interested. Just a better average for me, the film has its qualities, but I won't be going back to it. I'm sure it will find its fans. 6/10.

Ghetto War from France! Athena is a relative of films like Les Miserables and Short, and anyone who has a soft spot for films like this will be pleased. Director Romain Gavras engulfs the audience with a dense atmosphere from the very beginning. The opening ambush of the police station is really intense, ruthless and quite chilling (filmed in one take!). The tragic death of a boy in a housing estate triggers utter anarchy, chaos and civil war in the streets, which throws three brothers into a nasty situation. Not much of a story here, it's pretty simple, but it works. Sami Slimane's young thug capo was perfect, he puts on an incredible performance for an unknown actor and I totally bought the whole role (I enjoyed his image and speech). The great cinematography that shows all the chaos almost in one take, the wonderfully haunting music and the bleak atmosphere worked wonderfully here. Towards the end, the film shifts more to drama and the pace slows down slightly, but this can be forgiven. An adrenaline ride as it should be. 75%

Medieval, dark, violent, brutal CARNAGE!!! If you're well-read, bookish, superior to everyone else, and a critic, you will not enjoy this film. Everyone else can look forward to proper and uncompromising medieval carnage, which has little competition in this respect even in the world. It's one of those movies that critics will hate and normal people will love. The story isn't the strongest point and I'm glad that Jakl didn't serve up a historical drama but concentrated on action, atmosphere, violence and nature. There is a lot of effort to please Hollywood and I understand and respect that completely. If there were 20 such films a year coming out in the Czech Republic, I could understand the local bitterness, but the first film of its kind made in this country, which we finally don't have to be ashamed of in the world, certainly doesn't deserve the kind of dirt that is being heaped on it. Personally, if I meet Mr. Jakl on the street, I will shake his hand and say that he is amazing for what he has done and I respect him greatly. I appreciate very much that he chose the most attractive settings in our region to show the whole world how beautiful our nature is. (the Adrpašské rocks, the Velká Amerika quarry, Czech Switzerland, Prague and many of our castles, deep oak forests and lakes); nature lovers will be squirming in their seat with delight. The casting is good too, with Ben Foster as Žižka being a likeable character and I trusted the lead just fine, but Roland Møller wins here. I personally stand by my opinion that a great villain is more important than the protagonist, and in this case Jakl couldn't have picked anyone better than Møller. The guy was born for villain roles (I wouldn't be surprised if he's a bastard in real life too, because he has the chops for it), his previous films R, Northwest, Papillon, Land of Mine, are exemplary proof. He's steals every scene, he commands respect, he's evil and you wish him dead. I also enjoyed Matthew Goode, who played a sleazy snake, Sophie Lowe as the only female character, but she's a wonderful, strong female character who also cares about emotions, and Michael Caine can put a smile on your face even in a small space. The Czech actors don't have as much space, you could say they are rather cameos. I liked that Jan Žižka was aptly portrayed as a dude through intrigue and subterfuge (the great combat strategy and battle tactics work nicely). I also liked the cinematography and the atmosphere of the time is captured very believably. It's dirty, brutal, uncompromising, raw and very naturalistic (even the tits!). It’s reminiscent of a recent Northman. The gore is of a very high standard with severed heads and limbs, slit throats, blood splashing in all directions, especially on me, so that the euphoria reaches a climax. I screamed in delight at the lion scene, it was such carnage that I immediately thought of the tiger from Army of the Dead. Hats off, that was one hell of an epic scene. I was also pleased with the wonderfully epic battle during the action scenes, which fit perfectly and added to the tension. How historically accurate the film is I have no idea, and only idiots can complain about itit, but I had a great time. 8.5/10

Esther is back! The prequel obviously falls short of the cult-classic original and was a losing battle beforehand, but I still have to admit that as a psychothriller it works relatively well. William Brent Bell has made his second best film after The Boy, and the effort certainly can't be denied. We follow Leena Klammer, who escapes from an asylum (a pretty decent massacre right off the bat) and cleverly infiltrates another family posing as their missing daughter. Visually it looks B-ish, but it didn't bother me that much. The acting is passable, and the family is pretty twisted, which I liked (some of the dialogue is unexpectedly quite sharp). The main twist that comes in the first half is cleverly contrived and the whole film immediately takes on a different tone, with the psycho atmosphere building up nicely. The film is spoiled a bit by the fact that it's a prequel, so we know nothing can happen to Esther. The gore could have been more nutritious, but that's not really the point. I had fun, there were elements I liked a lot, some things could have been better, but in the end, satisfaction prevails. Slightly above average. 65%.

A decent and inoffensive thriller from Netflix. I find director Babak Anvari to be a total bum. I suffered through his two horror flicks (Under the Shadow and Wounds), but his third film is relatively satisfying and maybe he can surprise in the future. The film focuses on a young man who breaks into rich people's houses and paints them graffiti in the living-room, but he stumbles upon something unpleasant in one gentleman's basement that could endanger him and his loved ones. Though not very original, the film is a combination of several others like Don't Breathe and various home invasion movies, but it is definitely entertaining, suspenseful, nicely shot with a fine villain (though we don't get to know as much about him as desired) and a delightful twist in the middle that is definitely unexpected. There were a couple of scares that worked well, but it's slightly disappointing that the finale isn't intense and tense enough, it's a bit of a let down. I was quite disappointed that the film avoided violence (there was one scene calling for a butchering). Anvari still has room for improvement, but for a boring evening, I Came By is good enough. 6/10.

Unpleasant anxiety and intense survival vertigo! Fall is an unexpected surprise that can rank among High Lane, Gold, Frozen, A Lonely Place to Die and more. Scott Mann isn't that good of a director, but he's good at B-movies and can occasionally conjure up some fine stuff in those waters. (The Tournament is guilty pleasure as fuck and Bus 657 was good too) and Fall is definitely among that. In terms of story, it's straightforward, but that doesn't matter at all, there are other attributes at play here and they work flawlessly. Becky and Hunter are best friends who decide to climb a 610-foot radio tower, and they have pretty compelling reasons to do so. The opening is slightly slower, but it doesn't significantly matter, because as soon as the girls get close to the tower a very uncomfortable and anxious spectacle begins, where people suffering from acrophobia will get sick and wriggle their toes. Both girls are likeable and quite smart, so any rescue attempts are very believable and make sense. You'd think the director would just make a pure mountaineering survival film, but he managed to incorporate other elements (two unpleasant and atmospheric nightmares), some brutality and vultures – they get quite a bit of space and are very unpleasant – and there was a very good twist. The atmosphere, adrenaline and suspense work practically throughout the entire runtime and thanks to the great cinematography and especially the very intense music, it makes for a beautifully nerve-wracking thriller for little money that works and entertains, and that's plenty enough for me. 7/10

A reenactment of the 2019 national disaster where Notre-Dame, a symbol of Paris, burned down. Jean Jacques Annaud is an experienced director, though it must be admitted that his best years were two decades ago, but this he chose a rather attractive subject matter that begged for a film treatment, even if he took his own way of doing it, and that didn't sit well with me. There's no main character, so there's nobody to root for, and the film lacks any emotion because of it, which is a pretty major problem. It's shot in a modest way, it looks quite made-for-TV at times, but that didn't detract significantly. The beginning of the disaster itself is handled decently and there is definitely a high level of negligence on the part of the workers. Something like this could definitely have been avoided with the right attitude. The running time could have been shorter, watching firefighters put out a fire for an hour gets a little tiresome, especially when there's no one there to yell. It should probably be seen, but I can't say that I enjoyed watching it. 5/10

I found the first part funnier and more interesting, but still better than average in Czech comedies. Langmajer enjoys his role, but at times he was borderline awkward, which is to be expected given the premise. I found the passage at the construction site the funniest, I laughed a lot there. It’s neither too bad nor very good, but it did entertain. 55%.

Netflix surprised with a decent Danish thriller about infidelity. The film starts out as a classic drama/thriller about a married couple where everything seems to be going fine until the wife starts suspecting the husband of infidelity, and of course the husband does have a mistress. I like the fact that it doesn't behave like a classic infidelity thriller, but unravels a much bigger and more interesting mystery that makes the film appropriately quite unpredictable. It's interesting what direction the film eventually starts to take, and the outright first twist manages to properly shock (and the ones that follow are very good as well). You can say that the atmosphere and suspense works too; there is a little crime investigation and a pretty intelligent decision by the wife. Thanks to a playful script, decent actors and a fine atmosphere, this is an honest genre film that shouldn't offend anyone, on the contrary it can please most. Despite the slower pace, I enjoyed it very much. 7/10.

Best UFO movie in decade? Nope. Actually god damn YES! Jordan Peele is back and will once again divide audiences into two camps, though this time he'll get a bigger ovation than he did with the overrated Us thanks to the awesome material. Peele is a bit unconventional here, the social undertones aren’t as intense as in his previous films, there is a fair amount of humour and there are considerably fewer symbols and metaphors, yet he's made a unique and impressive genre film that again isn't as horror as it could have been, but I'm very pleased. Nope is definitely a horror film that manages to win the audience over with its strong cinematic aspects, and it looks really beautiful, especially in IMAX. The cinematography by Hoytema is a masterpiece in itself, some of the shots are breathtaking (and that's not something you see often in the horror genre), and the casting is great. Kaluuya is good, but next to Keke Palmer he seemed slightly like a shadow, because here she gives perhaps the strongest female performance in 15 years (emotions, screaming, speech, voice), an absolute acting tour-de-force from an unknown actress, whom I immediately want to see somewhere else. The music is well chosen and especially the atmosphere works fantastically, it's very uncomfortable, creepy, weird and unnerving in places. There are quite a few exciting and spectacular horror scenes that I will remember in the future (The chimp, a house covered in blood, a horse's head in a car, the digestive process of the villain and the screaming of the dead still ring in my ears). I'm perhaps only the final act away from a full score, which ironically is weaker than the previous ones (most people complain about the action-packed finale, but I wouldn't call it so, you can immediately imagine a spectacular Secret War style alien massacre and it doesn't really happen). I just wasn't sure if I liked the final scene or not, but you can't deny the creativity. Peele will definitely be making horror films in the future and I'd quite like to see a slasher or pure ghost story from him. Better than Arrival for me. Story 4/5 Humour 2/5 Violence 3/5 Fun 4/5 Music 4/5 Visuals 5/5 Atmosphere 4/5 Suspense 4/5 Emotion 4/5 Actors 5/5 Total: 8/10.