J*A*S*M

American football is all Greek to me (like almost every sport, really) and as an uninitiated viewer, this film utterly failed to explain what the rules of the game are exactly (meaning the draft), what’s at stake, what would success mean, etc. And it also feels at least a bit weird that the end presents the performance of Costner’s character as the victory of a good tactician who kept a cool head, when, in reality, he basically had a stroke of luck and throughout the film everything was falling apart for him. The performances and the craftsmanship are alright, but, due to the reasons enumerated above, I wasn’t able to get into the film, not even a bit.

James Bond survives a terrible car crash and then learns that, besides surviving it, it also seems that the accident has mysteriously duplicated him. His friends tell him they saw him at the billiards, but he doesn’t remember anything. A beautiful young woman says he’s her lover, but he doesn’t know her. Is he suffering from a personality disorder or does he really have a doppelgänger? And if so, what are his intentions? The film plays very smartly with the sense of uncertainty and paranoia, it escalates the tension and the performance of Roger Moore is a lot of fun.

Classic anthology film, or, in this case, the pilot of a TV series, so the quality of each segment is inconsistent and the overall rating doesn’t say much. The first part is the most effective with regards to horror, it escalates nicely and even in spite of its age it’s relatively scary. The second story is the most interesting in terms of filmmaking, even at a young age Spielberg knew what he was doing. The third story, unfortunately, isn’t interesting in any aspect whatsoever.

If everything really happened the way the film presents: earnestly, alive and without any plan or script, the filmmakers had more luck than sense, because this excellent topic for a documentary basically fell out of nowhere on their laps. But these doubts don’t diminish the impact of the documentary as a whole, or the tension (before the meeting) and the emotions (after the meeting) that it manages to arouse.

I wasn’t expecting Lord Voldemort :-D By the end (and not only by the end) the logic suffers so much that it becomes almost funny, but it’s still well made and the atmosphere is effective, so for the time being I won’t go hard on Margheriti. Starring Adolf Hitler.

Another obscure old rarity that serves as proof that even in the 1960s horror and thrillers didn’t have to be as stupid and naive as most of them were. Twisted Nerve relies on excellent performances (the leading psychopath is quite a memorable character), an original premise and a fairly chilling and tense atmosphere. Imagine this: you take in your home a kind-hearted, slow-witted person who actually is a cold-blooded psychopath. The excellent music is a bonus (if you don’t read it here in another review, you’ll probably be very surprised with the famous melody you’ll hear in the film). In any case, the film deserves a lot more attention than it’s got so far (only 31 reviews!), so if you’re into old horror thrillers, don’t hesitate.

Probably the best movie entertainment of the year so far. Six stories packed black humour (and surprisingly brutal at times) with the common theme of the exasperation and the rage of ordinary people in ordinary situations that lead to situations that are not at all ordinary. The stories are uniform in terms of quality – of course, there are some that I liked less than others (the best for me were, redneck, the bomber engineer and the ruined wedding), but I wouldn’t say any of them is a significant drop in quality. If I had to complain about anything, is that some of the twists and turns were predictable a bit earlier than they should. A point less for that, but highly recommended nonetheless.

Like rubbing sandpaper on bare skin – the female protagonist was so insufferable, unfunny and cheaply vulgar. The story follows the classic indie template, nothing surprising.

Every time I came across this film, the name “Torture Chamber”, the amateurish poster and the director’s filmography consisting of not very well known or well received movies discouraged me completely. But today, after randomly reading several positive reviews on renowned horror websites, I decided to give it a go, and I’m really happy I did! I’m very pleased and I’m almost giving it five stars. The film is illogical; rather irrational, overall. To judge it on the basis of the complexity or coherence of the story would be a very bad idea. It’s better to judge it by its intensity (there isn’t a SINGLE scene that is not either terrifying or at the very least disturbing) and at all costs avoid taking it as a stupid allegory, the meaning of which can be fully seen in the ending (and maybe also in that very intense sequence of the conversion of one image). Torture Chamber blends the best of European old-school horror (Argento and especially Fulci), complementing it with that evil aura around the main villain – the burnt boy, Jimmy, is the pure embodiment of evil, just like Michael Myers was in Carpenter’s Halloween. In short, a horror movie from another era; if it was made 30 or 40 years ago, by now it would have at least five sequels and a remake from Platinum Dunes. I wouldn’t have given a toss before watching it, but now I can’t wait to see what Dante Tomaselli will do next.

A notch less dark, a notch less interesting, a notch less scary. You have to wait long for any action scene and when it finally comes, the director turns on the slow-mo. The relocation to India seems utterly pointless – the first one was greatly helped by its untraditional setting in Africa, which the creators used with skill, but the sequel lacks any proper use of the Indian setting, and the poetics are too similar to the first one. Bugger! If there’s a zombie outbreak in a poor and overpopulated city of an overpopulated country, what I expect is chaos, filth and hordes of zombies everywhere. But instead of that, the only thing pointing to the Indian location are the terrible Indian actors (you almost expect them to start dancing at any moment). But not to be only critical, there are some visually nice scenes and well executed atmospheric sequences here and there, but overall it’s an uninteresting and weaker copy of something we’ve already seen and, therefore, a pointless sequel.