Log: week 13 / 2023

The area between Naples and Caserta is home to one of the most influential Mafia organizations, a network of smaller clans that created the Camorra, a system that everyone involved has to obey. For the people living in the area, there's no escaping these criminal influences.

There are some more modern touches in the cinematography and score, but they aren't as prevalent as I'd hoped. The performances are decent, but the characters can get quite annoying (certainly the two wannabe crooks who go against the clans) and the film's a tad too long. Not all that bad, but I have no idea what all the fuzz was about and the second half lost my attention.

When his insurance isn't coming through, Will has to find another way to pay for his wife's experimental surgery. He seeks out his brother, a professional criminal, and together they plan a heist. They get away with the money, but the police are right on their tail. To escape, they hijack an ambulance.

The camera work is dynamic, which helps the action scenes a lot, but that's a given with Bay. The scope of the film is rather small, yet it still ends up feeling pretty epic and grand. The thing is, this is just another heist flick with some cool action scenes and a couple of police chases. The execution is solid, but that's all there is.

When Dina's father is murdered, she uses her professional skills to track down the killers. The clues take her to a remote island, where she learns about her father's secretive life. His enemies quickly become her own, and she'll have to team up with her father's former team to keep them at bay.

There's plenty of action, the comedy keeps things light and Tjahjanto's horror background shines through from time to time, but somehow the film never quite reaches the level of cool it so desperately chases. 140 minutes is also way too long for this type of film, even though the pacing was solid. Fun, but I was hoping for more.

Jake and Neytiri are still living on Pandora, where they created their own little family. The peace is only short-lived, as an old threat returns to Pandora, and Jake is forced to flee the forest and build a new home near a reef. The people there are quite hostile toward Jake, but he won't back down and he'll fight anything who tries to touch his family.

Technically it may be quite impressive, but it's such an aesthetic eyesore that I simply couldn't enjoy a single thing of it. The CG looks utterly ridiculous, Pandora is the worst kind of color barf and the creatures look like they were designed by old AI. Add to that some cheesy drama, a bland plot, a terrible score, and a runtime crossing the 3-hour mark, and you have yourself one pretty bad film.

A widow moves to a cottage near the sea, where she plans to make something of her life. The house is haunted by the ghost of a sailor, but rather than deter the woman to stay, his presence is appreciated. She does meet another man, a livelier specimen, meaning that some tough choices lie in front of her.

The classic British vibe is quite dusty, the romance and the drama aren't too interesting and the fantasy elements are downright disappointing. At least the mood is quite light, and the drama isn't too pervasive, but a shorter, more concise, and somewhat more dynamic film would've been a lot easier to stomach.

Three years after the events of the first film, the feud between Oya and Housen is still going strong. New gangs are on the horizon though, and when they team up to take on Oya, Oya is forced to revise its old bonds to make sure they come out victorious. Cue a big fight to determine who is the toughest gang in the neighborhood.

The characters are a fun bunch, the fights are chaotic and dynamic, and the pacing is pleasant. The cinematography isn't quite on the same level as the previous films though, and there's a bit too much drama, messing up the balance with the action scenes. I had a good time with it, but I was hoping for a bit more.

Four people meet up after getting to know each other on an internet forum. They plan to commit suicide together, but their plan falters and the bomb goes off way too early. To the leader's surprise, he is transported back in time, repeating the same events until he can stop the bomb from going off.

The repeating day structure is nothing new, the small group of people "stuck" in a small room is pretty familiar territory too, though the spin on it is quite nice. The drama didn't work for me though, and it made the film look like a suicide hotline-sponsored warning video. A pretty interesting experiment, just not entirely successful.

A gang of robbers plans a successful heist and gets away with the safe. They find shelter in a nearby village, where they terrorize the villagers and force a locksmith to help them get the safe open. Luckily, there's a group of noble heroes who is willing to stand up against the bandits, but it'll come to a battle to the end before the dispute is settled.

People who've seen a handful of Shaw Bros films should know what to expect. There's really nothing exceptional about The Savage Five, which is both good and bad. It's fun martial arts filler that won't disappoint fans of the studio, but it's not exactly memorable nor essential in any way. And if you have no idea about the whole Shaw Bros niche, there are better films to start with.

Yoo-mi has no way to care for her younger sister, so she drops her off at the hotel of one of her mother's friends. It's either that or the orphanage. The woman convinces her to stay for a couple of days, and Yoo-mi obliges reluctantly. It doesn't take long before she starts seeing strange apparitions.

The setting is lovely and the cinematography is above par. The performances are solid too, but that's where the good critique ends. The story is rather dull, the scares are boring and the drama takes up too much space. It's just way too generic to leave any kind of mark. Not bad, but extremely forgettable.

Noera is an aimless guy, Marcia a very carefree woman. They meet by accident when they pass each other on the freeway, only to be interrupted by a heist on a military truck. The situation spirals out of control, but they are able to leave unscathed, with a mysterious object to boot. This object puts a big target on their backs though.

The American comic book-like touches are an interesting stylistic choice, not in the least because they are part of the animation, giving the film a very detailed and lush look. The plot is trivial, simple, and unfinished, but it's a good hook for some cool action sequences. Certainly not the most memorable anime, but fun filler nonetheless.

When her mother decides to sell her house, Ellie returns to see it one last time. But once she's there, old traumas resurface and she starts seeing the ghost of her sister, who died there when she was still very young. Piece by piece the events that transpired all these years come back to Ellie.

The performances aren't that great, Mahaffy does his best to build up a mood, but never quite gets there, and the mystery elements are poor and derivative. It's a pretty short film and as pure filler, it's certainly not the worst, but I'm not the biggest fan of the niche to begin with, and even then I've seen this executed way better.

Ranma et all are enjoying some time off at the beach. Enjoying might not be the best word though, because they love to argue among themselves. A little further down the shore, a sailor finds himself stranded with his women friends. There's also a prince who apprehends the entire lot and wants to marry one of the girls. Just another day in the Ranma universe in other words.

The characters are fun, the animation isn't anything special but not too bad for this type of thing and while the plot might be just a little too thin, it does provide ample opportunities for the usual Ranma weirdness. I did like the first film better, as it was a little more padded with oddness, but if you're looking for light filler, this is a pretty safe bet.

Five people, not knowing who they are, come together for a heist. They rob some gangsters who are holed up in a love hotel, stealing a large sum of cash. They get away with it initially, but the Yakuza want their money back and a detective is brought in to figure out who planned the heist.

The cast is pretty cool, Ohmori mixes contemporary and classic gangster elements and the story has some solid twists and turns. It's all pretty damn good, but it never becomes great or outstanding. And there's no lack of gangster films in Japan, so this one simply didn't stand out enough for a higher score. Still, fans of the genre owe it to themselves to give it a whirl, they won't be disappointed.

The plot is like an umpteenth mix of familiar elements from like-minded films. The monster realm and the human realm are in constant battles with each other. This time around we're dealing with a bad guy named Cheng Shang, and his plot to rule the world. Enter some heroes who are tasked to save the world, and that's about it really.

The CG is less than great, but it is often used in a rather aesthetically pleasing way, so it's definitely not as bad as some of its peers. The demon worlds are pretty fun, the action is solid and the pacing is perfect. It's another solid genre film, the kind China is producing en masse these days.

A bag full of cocaine lands in a forest, where it sits until a bear runs across it. The bear makes a great meal out of it and becomes addicted, if not violently mad. The people who just happen to be in the neighborhood are in for the fright of their life when they cross the bear, who is looking for his next hit.

The characters are pretty over-the-top, everything is played for laughs and the pacing makes sure that whatever joke doesn't hit doesn't linger too long. The weirdest thing though is that the film isn't quite as crazy as it sounds, and the second half felt a bit more pedestrian because of that. Still, good fun, as long as you don't expect the world from it.

Sebastián tries to make ends meet as a graphic designer. The problem is that his dog misses him a lot when he's from home, and his neighbors complain about the constant howling. Sebastián takes his dog to work, but there he's given an ultimatum. Either the dog goes, or Sebastián goes. He picks the latter.

What you get are small vignettes, parts of Sebastián's life as he takes on the odd job, or just chills with his dog. There is an absurd streak here, which surfaces during a cataclysmic event, but it remains very understated. Not the worst of its kind and it's a difficult film to hate, it's just not all that memorable either.

Five kids are on a school bus when the driver has to take a little detour because trees are blocking the road. A little further down the road a dead animal forces them to stop again. This time, the driver is overpowered by a serial killer on the loose. When the bus stops in a dimly lit tunnel for a third time, they have no idea what's waiting for them in the dark.

The cinematography is cool, the score is moody, and director Liguori's decision to go full-in on the atmosphere is one I wholeheartedly support. It's just that the film is a bit loud and messy, with makes it hard to build up tension, and the monster really looks pretty ridiculous. Other than that, I liked this quite a bit.

When Abdel's younger brother dies, he is fed up. He riles up the people of the Athena district, robs a police station blind, and returns with weapons to turn the district into a fort. He finds himself at the heart of a stand-off between them and the police, but he won't just be facing outsiders.

The camerawork (lots of long takes) is impressive, the performances are great, the cinematography and score are well in sync and the pacing is excellent. Maybe it slows down just a tad too much in the middle, other than that I was fully immersed. Quite brutal and unsubtle, but those are positives in my book.