Log: week 4 / 2025
I didn't know what to expect, except that this was a musical (and that it was doing well at festival/award shows). It's not my favorite combination, but the result was pretty interesting. The staging of the songs and the choreographies were more modern and cinematic than I'd expected. And who am I to deny myself some maximalist pleasure? The performances are good too, the drama is melodramatic but fits the genre and the story is interesting enough to warrant the long(er) runtime. The film never goes into full overdrive as there's a strong, core focus on the drama, but it's certainly one of the more interesting general-praise films of 2024 I've seen so far.Read all
It was a bit of a surprise seeing Nikki Hsieh again. She used to be a very promising film actress, but in recent years she seems to have traded the big screen for a more prominent TV career. She certainly still knows how to pick her projects, because even though Suffocating Love looks a bit plain on the surface, the film hides a few neat secrets. The setup is nice enough and the first 30 minutes are pretty predictable. The execution is solid and the mix of drama and romance is effective, but it's nothing new. Around the halfway mark things are shaken up and the second half offers a more interesting take on the romance angle. A neat little surprise, but not quite refined enough to be a personal favorite.Read all
If Pang and Law would've teamed up for a film 15 years ago I'd have been more than excited, but it's a good thing I kept my expectations in check for this one. It's one of those real-life hero-type movies mixed with a bit of Die Hard, set in a plane. It's not bad, but rather lackluster and not very memorable. It was nice to see Andy Lau again, and the directorial duo haven't lost all of their tricks. But High Forces is very much a Chinese blockbuster, with a bit too much melodrama and an unnecessarily long runtime. The finale is spectacular and there are some nice action scenes, but it's not enough considering the talent involved.Read all
The Pangs went to the US and ended up with this film. I liked it a lot when I first watched it, but almost two decades later I find it hard to see anything out of the ordinary. It's still a pretty solid horror flick, with some tense scenes here and there, but overall it's too cliché to deserve a spot in my list of all-time favorites. The performances are a bit wonky (safe Stewart), the scares are generic and the premise is as basic as they come. The Pangs knows how to build up tension and the film has a bit of extra visual flair, but it's not enough to create something truly memorable. The Messengers is decent horror filler, but the Pangs are capable of so much more.Read all
An interesting premise that puts a small crew in a tiny metal cage far above Earth when nuclear war breaks out. The setup of the film is tight and the first half hour is pretty exciting, after all the chess pieces are on the board the film falls into more standard patterns and the second half isn't quite as thrilling. The effects are proper, the actors do a solid job and the dilemma is an interesting one. My main issue for me was that the paranoia-based tension wasn't strong enough to keep me on the edge of my seat. I've seen enough similar films and the interior of the ISS is too dull to spend a long time there with just a couple of actors. Still, decent fun.Read all
A remarkable fake doc. The first time I watched this, it was weird seeing a story about the death of a reigning president while he was still alive. This time, I was mostly weirded out by the fact that I was thinking "Bush wasn't so bad after all". Not that I believe he's a lovely guy, but comparatively, he wouldn't want him back now? The documentary style is adapted perfectly. The first half of this film is tense and uneasy, very hard to distinguish from an actual docu. The film loses some of its grip during the second half, where things get a bit more meandering. It's still good, just not quite as tight as the opening. It's worth a watch, certainly around this time of the year.Read all
The first Eye for an Eye was a fun Chinese take on Zatoichi, the sequel offers more of the same, just that little bit slicker still. It's an upscale iQiyi production that offers the same core genre elements as their other films but does so with a bit more class and eye for detail. And that's not a bad thing at all. The setup of the story is simple enough, this is all about the road trip and the cool action scenes, and in that sense the film absolutely delivers. If you've seen a couple of these types of martial arts films then there's not quite enough to make it a true standout, but fans of the genre are sure to have a good time with Eye for an Eye 2.Read all
After about 10 minutes it should be easy enough to predict where this plot is leading, but that's what you get with core genre cinema. It's a post-apocalyptic tale that puts the characters on a planet that no longer supports life. Much like the zombie films of the past two decades, what follows is humans making each other's lives harder than necessary. The budget was limited but the styling is pretty decent, the performances are fine and even though the plot is predictable, the pacing is solid so it never drags too much. Could Bristol have done more to make his film stand out? Certainly, but if you're looking for proper post-apocalyptic filler, this film has everything you need.Read all