EvilPhoEniX

A nice farewell to Robert Redford's career about an admirable criminal who broke out of prison countless times and robbed over a hundred banks. The heists are fun and Redford as the smiling gentleman is great. Casey Affleck as the cop trying to catch him is also entertaining. Too bad the jailbreaks were summed up in only five minutes and the comedy is pretty underused. Still, a decent retro film that has charm and heart. I have it between 3 and 4 stars, but given that this is Redford's last notch I'll round it up. 70%.

A nice little festival thriller with the lovely Maika Monroe and the likeable Bill Skarsgård (Pennywise!). A couple of amateur thieves break into a house where two strange psychos happen to live, and getting away won't be easy. What we have here is a home invasion turned inside out, and it's rather a shame that the director didn't dare to step out of the standard. It's nicely shot, occasionally suspenseful, well acted and a couple of times pleasantly funny, but it could have done with some spicing up on both the violence and the atmosphere. In the end, just an inoffensive one-off that could have been a successor to Funny Games, but won't. 6/10.

A dense psychological thriller with an original concept. The story revolves around Vincent, a very ordinary guy who works in an office, but all of a sudden he is attacked by random people who want to murder him and he has to adapt to a new lifestyle. Danger lurks at every turn and he learns that there are more like him. Vincent is literally living a nightmare where no one can be trusted – even small children will want to kill him. It's clever, it's pulled off by the lead actor's performance, it's got quite a disturbing atmosphere, it's entertaining, and the ending builds to a finale of apocalyptic proportions that was pleasantly gritty. A French metaphor for violence in society and I enjoyed it. It's a shame the film leaves questions unanswered, I certainly wouldn't be angry for a twist here. 75%

No, really not! The rape and revenge subgenre is my favorite, and there hasn’t been a proper representative for quite a few years now. Violation gave some hope, but no. It continues the new trend in the horror scene, which is more annoying than the previous one (found footage), now it is about turning horror into drama and this year there is so much of it that I'm really starting to get fed up with it. Violation is a typical drama, it’s slow, nothing happens there, the actors are unlikeable, and the plot is even dull and uninteresting for a drama. In foreign reviews mention words like shocking, disturbing, and brutal, but maybe that's for people for whom cutting a throat is the maximum threshold of tolerance. There was only one brutal scene, the sawing off of a leg, which I would applaud in a five-minute short, but not in a two-hour feature film where most of the time is spent staring into space or the camera focuses on lengthy empty shots. Disgusting. One star for the leg, the second for the relatively decent technical side, otherwise it's completely pointless and an insult to the genre!! 3/10.

Seasons Beatings! A beautiful film. Exactly one of those movies that highlights why I love movies. Tommy Wirkola reaffirms his status as a tough butcher off the rails and has quite possibly made one of his best films; at the very least he made a film that has the potential to become a Christmas classic and will definitely not be missing in my living room every Christmas in the future. Of course, for the introverts, weirdo entities, puritans and outcasts of society, this will be and American piece of shit without a story that is unnecessarily filthy and brutal, and I'm glad that the code of decency suffered incredibly in the process, I really enjoy torturing this bunch like this, probably like David Harbour, who played the best role of his career. Violent Night is one crazy, fun, perverse and brutal action ride that takes Christmas traditions, John Wick-like action, twisted humour and references to Home Alone and together it works incredibly well and cool. The story may be simple, but there's beauty in simplicity, and all the other filmmaking aspects and details are important; the work they have put in is very evident and I appreciate it accordingly. Apart from the excellent Harbour, for whom this was a tailor-made role (his flashback was also awesome, by the way, and I hope we will learn even more about him in the eventual sequel), the villains are also a delight, John Leguizamo plays a surprisingly decent bad guy, but his henchmen also have their bit of glory, and I looked forward to every disposal, which are brimming with original and entertaining ideas. I was sure of a decent 4 stars, but once it came to the barn scene, it was a done deal. It was such a carnage!!! Santa, with a skullcracker and skates for knives, performs the Christmas ballet of death, and for me it is without a doubt one of the best scenes I have seen this year. I'll be playing this before bed every night. This whole glorious sequence is then built up with traps like in Home Alone, and I was roaring with laughter and joy. I'm glad Wirkola put something like that, those were two top notch sequences (read orgasm) right after each other. The Christmas music was good too and of course I couldn't fail to mention the properly twisted and bawdy humour, which was perfectly fitting. The emotions worked on me at times thanks to the cute little girl and there were a few minor twists and turns, so very satisfied. A properly entertaining, crazy and brutal film like this year's Bullet Train. 9/10

An interesting film thanks to a novel idea, but I expected more. The main character is a cop who gets involved with the drug mafia and learns code talk by whistling. It is very original, but nothing much of interest happens in the film. Praise should be given to the gorgeous Catrinel Marlon, who shows up naked, and the final shootout has something going for it, but it's not enough for me. It lacked verve and I don't understand the comedy label. Story***, Action**, Humor>No, Violence>No, Entertainment***, Music**, Visuals***, Atmosphere**, Suspense*. 5/10.

An unusual mystery mindfuck that has a fine idea and premise, but hits a slower pace. Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots have another joint role after The Art of Self-Defense, and once again their performances are very good and likeable. The main characters find themselves in a labyrinthine suburban sprawl from which there is no escape, and they also have to raise a strange child. The film moves at a slower pace, as I mentioned, but it manages to disturb and even chill a few times, and I consider the finale to be very good with a good twist. All in all, decent, but I don't need to see it again. Story****, Action>No, Humor>No, Violence*, Entertainment***, Music***, Visual***, Atmosphere***, Suspense***. 6/10.

A perfect heart attack-inducing ride from Spain! This is high-quality that I will remember with honor. The film is based on a quite interesting story, which becomes increasingly interesting and, above all, sinister towards the characters. We haven’t had a horror film that is so uncompromising with the main characters for a long time. The twist in about a quarter of the film is absolutely unexpected and, above all, very welcome. I liked the cinematography, the visuals are at a very high level, the performances are solid, the music is literally fantastic, and the final reckoning is also great, which again brings a nice twist. And as for scaring, I have no objections here. There are a lot of scares, I haven't experienced such a barrage of jump-scares since 2008 with Drag Me to Hell. They are effective, deceitful, unpleasant, heart attack-inducing, and above all, imaginative and sometimes downright unexpected. I also liked the car accident, which brought back memories of the death scenes in Final Destination 2. After it ended, I was sweaty as if I had just finished an hour of physical education, and ready for a shower, although I'm not sure if I'll make it there. The horror genre is not dying, only the fans are dying. As for ghost stories, a new genre gem!! Story****, Action>No, Humor>No, Violence***, Entertainment****, Music***, Visual****, Atmosphere****, Tension***. 8.5/10.

I'm surprised I hadn't seen the film until today. A great comedy at a time when Adam Sandler was still making funny and decent films. The film impresses mainly because of its idea and the humour that derives from it. I had a good laugh. 80%.

Czechia has Pavel Soukup and the Slovaks have Rudolf Biermann!! Scumbag was already a good gangster movie and Cop War is great. It reminds me a lot of European gangster films, especially French ones, so I'm very satisfied. I didn't even mind the longer running time of 150 minutes because I wasn't bored for a second. It's got a very faithful 90's period setting, with corruption on all sides, and an excellent Rytmus as a mob boss, and he could have easily had more space because he was very fitting. It's gritty, atmospheric, manly, authentic and there are some unexpected twists.  Just the way I like it. It's a pity the ending is so inconclusive, I guess a sequel is in the cards and I'd happily take a second helping. For me it is one of the best Slovak films. 80%