EvilPhoEniX

Probably the most original comedy of the last few years and surprisingly from the Germans. Two best friends drunkenly bet that they will give up all their possessions for 100 days, with the understanding that they can get one thing back every day. A great premise that makes for a number of comical situations and when you add in the two likeable protagonists you've got a winner. The film manages to mine emotion towards the end as well and I was both pleasantly surprised and pleased with the whole experience. 80%.

The most praised film of last year from South Korea is finished and it is a very important historical work for country. 1979 was a very dark time in Seoul, where a coup was carried out after the assassination of the president, with various military factions fighting for power over the Korean state. It's a dense atmospheric political-war piece that will grip even the uninitiated viewer. There are two top actors on both sides of the barricade, with Jeong-min Hwang playing the bastard who wants to take over the state and Woo-seong Jeong the good guy who wants to stop him. I'm not a big fan of political thrillers, but this one has such a sinister and uncomfortable atmosphere woven throughout, where the tension builds and builds incredibly, that I almost didn't breathe. Top craftsmanship, top actors, top dialogue, top atmosphere and there was some action (not much of that though), and all the intrigue and power struggles are rendered very believably. A scary and crazy night on 12.12.1979, where the ending quite pissed me off. 8/10.

A likeable and fun action B-movie on the theme of virtual reality and the classic Battle Royale. A group of people are in the woods in a survival game, where a lot of obstacles await them (even one CGI monster). The action is decent, though drastically lacking the R-rating, but otherwise the choreography is imaginative and the fights are well shot. I was most impressed with the finale where the main character uses a katana and a knife, that's where the blood was just supposed to spurt and the twin bad guys as the final boss were fine. The potential was definitely higher, but I like this kind of genre movies and the effort is definitely there. 6/10

A madcap and occasionally slightly awkward horror comedy set in a hospital with a hunt for a kidney. Of the cast, Angela Bettis, who we all know from the horror film The Woman, and David Arquette from Scream in a smaller role are good, the rest are basically numbers. The funny scenes are unfortunately few, I enjoyed the policeman the most. and the few gory shots won’t faze anyone nowadays either. It's not great, but it's watchable. Story**, Action>No, Humor**, Violence***, Entertainment***, Music**, Visuals**, Atmosphere*, Suspense**. 4/10.

This year's second visit to the cinema. Another modern war flick set in Afghanistan, where a 12-strong group of soldiers are tasked with taking down the Taliban with the help of an Afghan warlord. In terms of the cast, the film is packed: Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Peña, and for a debut it has very solidly executed action scenes, with explosions like Michael Bay, plenty of rawness and the combination of horses with M4s against tanks has something going for it. I'm not as intense as 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, but still a decent affair that I enjoyed in the cinema. 75%

Japan pleasantly surprised me. The story focuses on twelve random young students who meet in an abandoned hospital to perform a protest against birth – suicide. The problem arises when someone else is lying dead in the room and no one knows who they are, and it's quite possible that the killer is among them. I liked the gradual unraveling of the mystery, everyone has an interesting reason for wanting to commit suicide, everyone is hiding something unpleasant, and no one counted on the fact that there is a boy among them whose biggest hobby is thinking. A stifling atmosphere, a constant load of surprising twists, well-chosen actors, an unexpected ending. I had fun. 7.5/10.

A Norwegian survival blast from World War II! The war was cruel, harsh and unpleasant, but it had one positive, at least it produced countless quality films and breathtaking stories and this is one of them. Twelve Norwegian saboteurs are caught by the Gestapo, but luckily one of them manages to escape and that doesn't sit well with the main Nazi played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who is famous for never letting anyone escape and will do anything to find them. Hats off to the main character, Jan Balsrud, what he manages to survive is almost unbelievable, and kudos to all the local people who helped him even at the cost of being threatened with death. The film is perfectly shot, superbly paced, suspenseful from start to finish, supported by excellent performances from both the main character and the main villain, who plays the Nazi on a similarly solid level to Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds, and there is no shortage of action and nerve-wracking scenes. For me, The Revenant 2, only instead of a Western, we have World War II.

A film with a strong theme, but unfortunately nothing for me. The acting is very good, Michael Fassbender, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong'o give solid performances. Unfortunately, even though the film has a strong story it ends exactly as you expect. It's funny that the supposed 12 years in the film feel less than a week, one would think that much more happened in those 12 years than the film presents. But I didn't care much for the characters, the emotions left me cold and it has a very slow pace that drags on perhaps even more than the main character's 12 years. That blacks were slaves and had it tough back then everyone knows, but I don't know why I would watch a two hour movie about it. 5/10.

Indonesia also adds its hand this year with a decent adrenaline action flick. Angga Dwimas Sasongko is one of Indonesia's more aspiring filmmakers, but only now has he made a film that I can appreciate above average, even though his Stealing Raden Saleh has had a decent amount of success abroad. Here you can see a very decent budget and it looks like a nice A-list production, the best this country can produce. The story focuses on terrorists who cause chaos in Jakarta when they plant 13 bombs with the threat that one will explode every 8 hours, they want 100 Bitcoins as a ransom. This terrorist attack is the result of a fight against the financial mafia and oligarchs, and is quite interesting and novel. The film has a solid pace, there's always something going on and it moves forward very quickly, the action scenes are decent, it's R-rated and the shootouts have that proper military feel. Midway through the film the pace calms down a bit but the ending kicks in again, there's an unexpected twist and some knife duels as well, so a very pleasant surprise for me. I love fighting terrorists and when a decent budget is added to it, the fun is taken care of. 75%

A film based on real events. A bus full of children is hijacked by Somali terrorists just outside the Somali border and a French special unit is sent to the scene to resolve the situation. The first hour is slower and offers a couple of moments we've seen before, but the last half hour breaks down into a solid action-packed carnage full of headshots and some nice sniper shots. Definitely decent and the beautiful Olga Kurylenko is always a delight. 65%