EvilPhoEniX

Martin McDonagh is back and he has once again come up with another original, funny, gritty and entertaining story that will grab you by the heart. The acting is absolutely superb: Woody Harrelson as the sheriff, Sam Rockwell as the sidekick cop, and the excellent main character played by Frances McDormand, who doesn't give a shit about anyone, talks like hell and still starts a war with the police. The film has a nice retro American backwoods vibe, some funny yet powerful scenes and keeps a decent pace that thankfully prevents you from getting bored. Personally, I would have liked more violence similar to Seven Psychopaths and perhaps a more escalated finale, but otherwise it's undoubtedly quality filmmaking in every respect that shouldn't be missed this year. 80%

I haven't seen The Room and this kind of film is not exactly my cup of tea, but James Franco manages to impress with his exceptional acting and I even had a few good laughs. I enjoyed the behind the scenes during filming and a few familiar faces in shorter roles. An interesting film. 75%

I was expecting it to be much better based on the trailer, but still the film didn't offend me in one viewing. The make-up effects are good and the gore is delectable, everything else is not worth mentioning. Mediocre acting performances, an ordinary cliched story and the pace slows down considerably in the middle. I haven't seen any zombie movies in a long time though, so I'll be more generous with this one. 60%

A Pixar movie as it should be, but Zootropolis is still unbeaten for me. Coco has solid visuals, a nice story, nice songs, decent pacing, a good dose of humor, and one very good plot twist. The emotional finale left me cold this time, but otherwise satisfied. Good fun for the whole family. No wonder Coco is a hit in Mexico. 80%

Russia's answer to America's Gravity. The Russians are certainly not doing badly at all. Technically they're excellent, the acting is decent too, and there are a few tense scenes. But there was something missing for a higher rating for me. A solid 65%

A decent directorial debut. Four high school kids are hanging out in the woods as usual, but a terrible accident occurs and one of them dies. From that moment on, it leaves a psychological impact on all of them and increasingly stranger things start happening in the town. Decently filmed, very well acted, decently suspenseful in places, and a pretty intense slasher-like ride towards the end. Not a big hit, but an enjoyable watch no doubt. 70%

The anticipated Escape from Cannibal Farm is out and we have our first bummer and disappointment of the year. A cheap rip-off of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that does more to shame than pay homage. The film is very shoddily made, the actors are unsympathetic, overacting, screaming (the fake crying is so annoying), they don’t even get the chainsaw started, the shotgun blasts sound like airsoft, there is very little gore, mostly out of frame, and apart from one severed hand, nothing worth mentioning. And most of all it's all so boring, monotonous, uninteresting, without any idea and atmosphere, practically nothing works here. A failure from top to bottom. I miss Leatherface. 30%

One more little action flick before the end of the year, starring the excellent Max Zhang against the great bad guy Shawn Yue. Decent work for a debut. Plot-wise, it's a classic crime drama that doesn't impress with anything, but the dynamic fights definitely stand out and have some oomph thanks to the excellent protagonists. Max Zhang is a likeable guy and an incredibly fast machine. There's quite a bit of action and a lot of knife use, so for me, I'm satisfied. I had fun. A movie in an old-school style with interesting locations. 75%.

David Ayer sometimes makes me happy sometimes not, here it's about halfway through. This mix of fantasy in our world is certainly interesting, but not exploited enough. Story-wise it's very flat, Ayer doesn't know how to work with suspense much, at least he has Will Smith and an unrecognizable Joel Edgerton. The action is very decent, the elven trio perform some nice acrobatic stunts and it's pretty brutal too, but I couldn't enjoy the film to the full, there was something here that distracted me and I can't figure out which one it was. Anyway, decent work for Netflix. 65%.

Paco Plaza, the director of REC, took a break from zombies and threw himself into exorcism, which is perhaps an even more hackneyed subject than zombies, and came up with absolutely nothing new. Technically, the film is on a decent level, but that can't be taken too much as a upside considering the director, it was was par for the course, otherwise it follows the classic template. For me, this kind of horror movie is very uninteresting, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all, and since there are no scares and no gore, I found nothing to take away from it. The look of the demon is okay and the ending is quite action packed, so it's not an outright ordeal. A tolerable and watchable affair for fans of the genre, more of a waste of time for me. 55%