Saturday, September 27, 2025

No mind, no soul

Fantastically weird, visually stunning and, as a zombie feature should, disturbing and gory. But halfway through the movie it lost its focus. Sure then it introduced Ralph Fiennes's character which is great, but at the same time the movie switches its tone and the entire story starts falling apart. Danny Boyle's 28 Years Later is not bad in any sense, it's disgusting horror as it should be, but it's still the weakest of the three films in the series.

Friday, September 26, 2025

Everybody's getting laid after lunch

Brian De Palma's erotic thriller.  The thematics of the film owe a lot to Alfred Hitchcock. Although this is a predictable murder mystery, it's quite interesting and enjoyable to watch because the story is not paced with quick editing and it flows smoothly and the brilliant actors (Michael Caine, Nancy Allen, Angie Dickinson and Dennis Franz) follow along.  

Thursday, September 25, 2025

An avalanche of indifference

It's still the best shit right now. It's almost impossible not to watch the next episode. A true TV series royalty. A thrilling British thriller. 

Monday, September 22, 2025

Death is a relentless son of a bitch

Death is the fate of each of us. It will reach us all sooner or later. But imagine Death who, just for his own pleasure and amusement, throws a bunch of people at the mercy of his sadistic pursuit. Sixth installment in the Final Destination film series, Final Destination Bloodlines is a nice modern horror film, the first few scenes in particular were brilliantly diabolical and executed to perfection. 

Sunday, September 21, 2025

Fear lives in the guts

Jackson Lamb, the leader of the rogue agent organization Slough House, played by Gary Oldman, is a completely contradictory character: a foul-mouthed, ruthless, untidy, booze- and cigarette-hungry bastard, and on the other hand an incredibly smart, in his own way caring professional who seems to be one step ahead in everything. He is a Cold War relic who cares little for the sophicated methods of modern MI5 terrorism investigation. But he, with his team, gets things done. Slow Horses is a fantastic agent series. Unbelievably good. It's based on the series of novels by Mick Herron, created by Will Smith (English-born comedian).

Friday, September 19, 2025

Acts of violence don't win wars

This Gillo Pontecorvo film (1966) is said to be one of the best of all time. It's rare to see why, but once a film is labeled with classic status, it's not easy to shake it off. Still, The Battle of Algiers is arresting and impressive. A touchingly realistic black and white depiction of the fight of Algerian partisans against the French invaders. 

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Don't get lost in the clouds

Pretty good. Perhaps a little more than that. Nothing excellent though. A CIA decoder has a lot to do, he has to find and kill his wife's killers and at the same time expose the bad apples in his organization. In addition, he has to protect himself from those people. But no worries, he's smart. Not a physical deterrent, not a gunslinger, but his strength lies in his intelligence. A good movie, but ultimately a rather narrow story. 

Saturday, September 13, 2025

Conscience won't let him sleep

In the sleepless nights of Alaska, a detective, investigating the death of a local girl, finds himself in a dead end and digs his own grave deeper and deeper. Insomnia (2002) is Christopher Nolan's masterpiece featuring Al Pacino at his best and Robin Willians in a rarely serious role. A remake of the 1997 Norwegian film by Erik Skjoldbjærg 

We are all fucked to hell

A horror film constructed with an excellent sense of style. Based on a short story by Stephen King, so there's a lot of his typical black humor here, which pops up in the strangest and most unconventional places, and it's certainly not for everyone. The story centers on a wind-up toy monkey, a death-spreading bastard. The film's wildness wanes a bit towards the end when the story doesn't really have much more to offer, but a hilarious piece nevertheless.  

Lethal on the losers

In this Marvel film, the heroes' opponents are not so much overpowered anti-heroes or fire-breathing villains, but human emotions such as depression and loneliness. But there's still action and excitement here. Quite enough. And in places, it's quite fun. Entertainment worth watching at least once. 

Thursday, September 11, 2025

Obscure plains

A failed sequel to the 1999 film Häjyt. Both directed by Aleksi Mäkelä. The film features petty criminals' escapedes and experiments in the international drug trade. At the same time, family and friendship life are put to test. This is by no means a solid and exciting crime story, it's an exhaustingly long-winded piece which you get nothing out of. 

Two of everything

What? A Mel Gibson film? It's such rubbish that it's unreal. In this story, everything is as shitty as it could ever be. And the actors? How about some respect for the profession? Movies where you just turn your brain off are sometimes quite funny, but this is an embarrassment.  

Under the canopy of heaven

At times this is outrageously funny. Still, bodies pile up and things get hysterically violent. Ma Dong-seok's portrayal of detective Ma Seok-do, with his old no-shit methods, is a delightful addition to the somewhat overly stylized police characters in modern movies. 

Tuesday, September 09, 2025

Conscience can drive you nuts

The life of longshoremen is violent and corrupt. The port is dominated by organized crime. Former boxer Terry Malone's (Marlon Brando) - working for gangster boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) - conscience begins to bother him because he gets involved in a murder and becomes aware of inhumane working conditions and shady employers. Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954) is a powerful depiction of the crumbling of the golden age of criminal organizations.

Monday, September 08, 2025

Sooner or later someone gets a bullet

The stars were probably not aligned here. There's been talk about Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt's crappy chemistry. And how the movie isn't what was initially promised because the script was revised during filming. And, indeed, there's a bit of an unfinished feeling here. But a decent late 90s thriller about an IRA operative traveling to the United States to get some firepower for his homeland's battles and his own personal revenge. Directed by Alan J. Pakula

Wednesday, September 03, 2025

Suffer in illusions

A standard thriller with a comedic undertone. There's nothing terribly bad to say about this, but nothing good either. A movie that you might remember seeing years later and say it was probably okay, but you don't want to watch it again. A young man thinks he witnesses a kidnapping, but the cops don't believe him, so his next-door neighbor helps him finding the missing person. Pretty useless entertainment. 

Tuesday, September 02, 2025

Red sky at night

In the hustle and bustle of Tango Festival in Seinäjoki, Finland, the former tango singer meets a ministerial entourage, including his daughter, the personal assistant to the Minister of Economic Affairs. This mixed group spends a long weekend in Ostrobothnia and they each have their own worries and dreams. Perhoset, by Jenni Toivoniemi, is easily digestible deadpan Finnish humour. 

Uncovering the secrets of ourselves

This was incredibly boring and infuriatingly slow-paced already from the beginning. It just slowly rolled forward but never really took off. A drama film about a 19th-century French winegrower and her difficulties in both her private life and her work. Could have been informative at the expense of entertainment at least, which is sometimes a nice compromise, but it wasn't even that. 

Monday, September 01, 2025

So we all become extinct

Arcadian, by Benjamin Brewer, should have been longer. The story could have been made into a 3-hour long movie or even a series. Because it's interesting and exciting, worth watching. It feels like the story of aliens who have come to cleanse the Earth of the human virus was told too narrowly. And too quickly. These creatures look like amazing, cartoonishly distorted monsters, as if ripped straight from the depths of hell. One of Nicolas Cage's better recent films. 

Look at those who are burning

A strangely conventional yet completely unique thriller. A widowed mother goes on a first date to a high-end restaurant where she receives a message that the lives of her child and her babysitter sister are threatened. Of course, you can't tell anyone or call the police, especially since this crazy person sending threats seems to know everything the woman does and says. What's stupid about this movie is that no mother in this world would act so restrained when the life of her own child is at stake. Hair-raising and spine-chilling excitement, though. It's cheesy and plotholed, but you'll like it. 

No mind, no soul

Fantastically weird, visually stunning and, as a zombie feature should, disturbing and gory. But halfway through the movie it lost its focu...