J*A*S*M

My friends say I should act my age…

I went to the 9:30 pm screening, after a very physically exhausting day, and I told myself that if this film manages to entertain me enough to keep me awake, I will give it five stars, and here they are. Now seriously: Avengers is a perfect blockbuster with great sense of humour, incredible chemistry between the characters and amazing action. If you are not looking for the brooding of Batman or the ambition of the Wachowskis (or anything “more”), and you only want good fun at the cinema, you can’t do better than this, it has no competition among the light summer blockbusters. And I’m saying this as someone who didn’t like too much the previous Marvel films and is also not a member of Whedon’s fan club. But there’s one little quibble: Next to the other superheroes, Black Widow and Hawkeye look so out of place and meek. And it’s also weird to see Auntie Robin in SHIELD’s control centre. Hulk/Banner rulez.

A great example of a film where you can not spoil the ending because there isn’t one. The Devil Inside is very poorly written, the characters behave in unlikely ways and the plot, rather than a complex story leading somewhere, is a sequence of unrelated scenes. Despite all these problems, which are a lot, in the second and third act, the film manages to hold some semblance of atmosphere. The horror scenes, which aren’t intended to move the plot forward, are well executed and feel unpleasant; they are effective. That’s mainly because, with the documentary style it uses, which looks almost abnormally ugly with its washed out colours, it’s pretty easy to conjure an unpleasant atmosphere. When they are performing the exorcisms or the possessed start jumping, it’s quite good... Unfortunately though, it’s mostly boring blabbing about nothing, it’s not worth recommending.

A horror film that is unnecessarily long, without anything to say and uninteresting in every way.

I can’t understand why creators who are clearly working with a low budget and a found-footage format (which lets you make a scary film that feels naturally realistic for hardly any money) would include in their film a plane crash, something that can not be shot in a way that would feel realistic on a shoestring. The found-footage format somehow blurs the fall, but the impact, which looks awfully artificial, ruins the impression of “real images”. But whatever. The main problem is that the rest of the film, when things finally get going, is hardly scary, doesn’t have any creepy moments and it can’t even rely on likeable characters, because there are none. The “villains” are good, though, and I’d love to see a classic format film with them.

The screenwriter must be a pretty creative chap, because thinking and writing something so unlikely stupid has to be a form of art. On the other hand, it is at least (and for that reason) quite fun. Horror-wise, Truth or Dare is tame, they play with guns, shotguns, knives and acid, things that nowadays won’t impress anyone. I wouldn’t recommend it, but there’s much worse stuff out there. 4.5/10

The trailer attracted me. But it’s a pity that it attracted me with something that the film doesn’t reveal until the middle as the “main surprise”, so my impression is distorted because I didn’t watch it the way I should. Regardless, The Hidden Face was fun and I’m really satisfied. Nicely put together.

I’m a fan of indie filmmakers, but this is so incredibly uninteresting and unoriginal that not even the overall fine technical aspect can save it. I don’t expect creators to come up with great surprises in a redneck slasher flick, but here there is absolutely nothing! Desolate, empty. Not a hint of tension or atmosphere, not even interesting murders; nothing.

One of the films of last year’s Midnight Madness at the Toronto Film Festival that’s been flying way below the radar of the Czech fans of the genre (although in Rotten Tomatoes it has 100% positive reviews, with a 8.1 score). Hopefully this will change because it’s really good. In a nutshell, this is a French thriller about a police officer trying to rescue his son from kidnappers, a drug gang. The important thing is that most of the plot takes place during one evening and in the premises of a night club, which the protagonist crawls from roof to cellar. The director is very successful at conveying the feverish situation the protagonist finds himself in (together with the many other characters) and this makes the film almost surprisingly action packed, though the action is not the kind you would expect from an “action thriller” tag. It just keeps running from room to room, plus a couple of effective fights. Thumbs up, this film really deserves more attention.

I expected the Spanish clone of Paranormal Activity and it is the Spanish clone of Paranormal Activity. Unfortunately though, it’s weaker than the weakest PA (edit autumn 2012: not anymore), and that for me means two stars, though the haters of found-footage will likely go much lower. I’m really disappointed that the creators didn’t come up with almost any interesting ideas, so you just watch something that you’ve already seen a million times before. But the worst is that the performances and the atmosphere aren’t good either. This time the Spaniards have disappointed, what a shame.