J*A*S*M

This is an example of how an untraditional approach to narration serves only as an effective gimmick to turn a film into something more interesting than it actually is. I’m quite surprised at how many people say that 21 Grams is very emotional, I think it would be almost impossible to deal with a similar topic in a colder way.

After the initial intense feeling of dismay and cringe, the second half brought a satisfactory, four-star worthy experience. If I ever watch it again (which I doubt, it’s more like a snack), maybe the experience will be more fully positive, but until then, I can’t give it more than three stars. In any case, there are tonnes of one-liners, likeable protagonists, and it’s fine overall.

Raw British horror that replaces slow zombies with fast infected people, influencing this horror subgenre for many years to come. The casting of Cillian Murphy in the main role was an interesting move, his face has both boyish and girlish features and his transformation from “someone who’s being dragged on” into “the one that saves everybody” was also interesting. Great.

It’s well made, the attack on the house at the beginning fills you with optimism, but then it gets bogged into a screenwriting quagmire. Have you noticed that whenever the American Army shows up in a horror film, nothing good happens? It’s no different here. The only cool thing is the helicopter mowing zombies. Technically speaking, there’s very little to reproach, and the music score is also worth praise, but even though it’s fairly good fun, it lags a bit behind its predecessor. The ending hints clearly at 28 Months Later… Yeah, why not?

Simple horror silliness, but bloody effective, yuck! :-D

Kormakur should go back to his mum in Iceland, he’s being wasted in these routine genre flicks. It’s been two days since the screening and I’ve already forgotten what it is about and how it turned out; only that it starred Marky Mark, which is far from the best thing a person can remember about a movie.

A fight to the death between two crazy actresses. They play with eggs, electricity and a chainsaw. I wish someone would make a Czech remake with Iveta Bartošova a Agáta Hanychova in the main roles.

I really like Zack Snyder for Watchmen and Dawn of the Dead (and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole and Suckerpunch look very promising, too), but 300 is unfortunately a very big misstep. A visually fancy historical carnage (a bit too digital and artificial for my taste) that to it’s own chagrin takes itself way too seriously. Gerard Butler is one of the least likeable actors and his heroic speeches almost made me burst out laughing. This is not Sparta, this is a bad joke.

Fussy and awfully narrated nonsense, unfortunately. It begins quite good, with a mysterious horror episode and a weird creepy baby born from a cow (!) in a remote, historical small town in Spain, but in the episodes that follow it becomes clear that Álex de la Iglesia knows no bounds, which is a bigger problem in a series format than in a film. In the span of eight episodes, he manages to squeeze in a lot, including several CGI monsters, as well as Islamists in Aleppo, and it doesn’t take long for horror to become overstuffed fantasy, which has a nice premise about some sort of biblical Vatican conspiracy, but I would have much rather seen this treated more seriously instead. Moreover, the show often looks really awful, with unconvincing locations and terrible CGI.

I liked Hard Candy, but 30 Days of Night almost took my breath away. Why almost? Because the ending was not very believable and the last scene doesn’t fit the film at all. But I have no complaints about the first half: perfect atmosphere, terrifying vampires, effective jump-scares, sharp axe… One of the best horror films of the year and a well deserved 85%.