J*A*S*M

In the first half (or rather, the first two acts), it’s a rather uninteresting, though well made and acted found-footage borefest, interrupted by only a couple of scenes with a little mystery and about two effective but cheap jump-scares. It finally gets interesting in the last act, where the atmosphere thickens and the last two night sequences really scared me. I also liked the last scene with its rather unexpected black humour, even if I wouldn’t laugh very much if I was one of the characters. I’m not jumping in joy, but it deserves a weak three stars for the ending.

I’m really unsure about how to rate this film. Every effective moment is followed by an unintentionally funny to embarrassing one, so at times I felt that two stars would be fair. But it does have a pretty unique atmosphere and an original “face”, which is not something very common today. It looks like something from the 1970s (the mobile phones felt out of place from the beginning) and its poetry is quite similar to Rob Zombie’s first movie. Really, these days when we are being force-fed one forgettable horror movie after another, I don’t feel like being too hard on this one (even though it’s not very much my cup of tea). So, the result is three stars. But believe it or not, I even considered a fourth start for a moment, but for a completely different reason than the other enthusiastic users. Gore, blood, violence, blah, blah, blah, that’s fine, but what else? What I did like about the film were those few moments of interaction between the (half)dead leading female and her boyfriend who’s looking for her. Those three scenes (phone, motel, grave) had an unexpected emotional depth that, among other things, are proof that this film wanted to be something more than a simple, grindhouse splatter-fest to please only the bloodthirsty, and it could have done it. Such a shame.

Mutant, from the same director, was also incredibly hyped abroad, but for me it was an unwatchable, stupid piece of crap, so I went into Snowpiercer with some healthy apprehension. The result, however, blew me away. There are some shortcomings, like the almost video-game like special effects (when we see the train from the outside, or the frozen landscape), or the ending, which I personally would cut three minutes earlier, but I’m willing to forgive them. At first I was afraid that the premise of a post-apocalyptic train riot wouldn’t be enough for a two hour film. But it is. The passage from one car to the next is a little monotonous, but it’s saved by the dirty atmosphere, the sharp action and the excellent performances (especially Tilda Swinton’s, while I felt Octavia Spencer was the weakest link of the ensemble). About half-way through, we start getting a relentless barrage of directorial ideas, plot twists, brutal and unexpected deaths (the film doesn’t go easy on its stars, in this regard Joon-ho Bong is quite uncompromising), brutality and slightly philosophical thoughts, and I was purring in satisfaction. I have a weak spot for dystopian sci-fi and this movie checked all the boxes. And, as a Czech viewer, I was happy to hear that one sentence in Czech, and the Czech names in the credits. The film was made in Barrandov Studios :)

I felt downright disappointed immediately after the screening. Unlike other films with unsatisfactory and unclear endings, Enemy woke in me a desire to know what is really hiding in the back. And the more I think back about it, the better I find it. In any case, it’s been long since a film messed with my head so much.

For a moment I considered a third star, but that would have been for the Alps rather than the film itself … and we have other experts for that. Technically, it’s pretty well made, and some of the moments with the monster are also good, but after some time it begins to get more and more unintentionally funny, mainly due to the utterly absurdly overacted interactions among the members of the scientific team. Kren’s previous film, Rammbock: Berlin Undead, was better.

If it was an original film, I would give it a weak three stars, but it’s a remake of Thai film from eight years ago and I’m not giving it more than two. When the film is true to the original, it’s terribly weak (the intensity of some of the tasks), and the occasional differences go mostly in the wrong direction (for instance, unforgivably leaving out the task with the unpleasant food). The creators try to explain a bit more the background of the “Game”, but unfortunately, they squeeze it into the story in a clumsy way. And then… when it comes to the nonsense, it’s better not to even try to explain it. 13 Sins basically weakens what was good about the original movie and strengthens what was bad. So, a pointless film.

I’m not a Sionist :), I’ve watched a couple of his films and never gave them more than three stars; and I almost didn’t survive Guilty of Romance, but this one was good. It’s an incredibly fun meta joke that at times will make any film enthusiast smile like an idiot. Needless to say, it’s really insane, but this time also somewhat accessible for western audiences. 9/10

An irrational and tense thriller that unnecessarily throws sticks at its own pokes with regularly occurring WFT moments and the unconvincing, and often incomprehensible, behaviour of the characters. The male lead is such an idiot at times that I began to suspect that the creators wanted the viewer to suspect whether he isn’t actually the villain. But in none of those hints, weird decisions and incompetence could I find any sensible system. The climax fizzles out quickly without any interesting outcome. Yeah, the atmosphere and the tension are effective, and the cinematography is good, but I can’t say it left me with a satisfactory impression.

LOLhouse.

I envy the colleagues here who’ve enjoyed this low-budget chase in a tower. I like monsters in horror films, and I also like derelict buildings, but this one didn’t make it for me. It was an utterly unscary stroll around a carousel of terrors with a monster jumping out at every corner. You can appreciate the decent make-up, but I can’t say I felt even a hint of tension or atmosphere. The script is almost non-existent and the performances not only are weak, but also downright irritating. Compared to the low-budget Irish-British production Citadel, this tower comes out as a clear loser. And that’s not due to financing, but due to its inability to tell a story and the important fact that it’s just a monotonous series of gimmicks. For me it feels like 1 star, I’m giving it the second one out of goodwill for the make-up. But I understand the others. It reminded me of that time when at a certain Asian restaurant I spent about 120 crowns on a “fried ice-cream fruit mix” and then I tried to convince myself that it was actually quite good, strange and untraditional. But it wasn’t. It was inedible, actually.