Reviews

I did not have many expectations going into this with my daughter, I've seen the main Shrek movies but noon of the other Puss in Boot's spin-offs. I was shocked at how good a movie this was when the credits rolled!

The story itself is functional, but all characters are given meaningful and relatable arcs. Between the melanchonic Puss reaching the end of his days as a great hero, his always positive dog sidekick and the 3 antagonistic parties trying to reach the magical macguffin there is a lot going on and none of it feels forced in.

The two greatest assets the movie brings is it's humor and the stunning action scenes. First of all, this movie has bite, it is back to the tone of the first Shrek movie with lots of jokes that are working on a children and adult level of understanding. While the story is easy to follow for kids, the themes explored are relatively mature and will keep adults engaged.

Secondly, while Disney/Pixar movies lately fail to make action exiting with their polished CGI style, Puss in boots goes full Into the Spiderverse once a fight breaks out. Glorious 12 frames per second, hyper stylized with all the filters and gimmicks necessary to elevate the big set-pieces to something truly special and memorable. Especially Puss's duels against a mysterious bounty hunter are the highlights.

While not entirely original, the Puss in Boots: The Last Wish combines the edgy humor of Shrek with the visual wonders of Into the Spiderverse and strings it along a relatively matured heroes journey coming to it's end tale that is closer to Logan than any other animation I can think off. Oh and just in case (not that I personally care much about it) there is zero political agenda to be found here to be a distraction of the perception.

I love to watch low-budget horror movies, there are always positive surprises, and even behind some pretty bad movies there have been good ideas and intentions.

After suffering through Clinton Road, I fail to see any positive aspect, I am talking not just about the completely uninspired cinematography, the painful dialogue, the absence of acting or the uninspired story without any functional set of rules or structure. No, the faults of this movie go deeper, there seems to be no interest in making a good movie or a movie at all. While in other bad low budget horror movies normally good intentions and aspirations are countered by a lack of budget or skill to bring the vision to life, Clinton road seems to be a collaborative effort by a everyone in front and behind the camera having no interest in the material they were working on. Who pushed this to completion, why? Who wanted to get this done, what was their intention, I really want to know...

This movie is remarkably bad, not in a fun way, more in a "I can't believe that got finished and people where okay to put their name in the credits" kind of way. One of the worst movies I've seen (and I have seen many low budget horror movies over the years). Avoid at all cost...

What a fantastic Animated movie! An imaginative world, likable characters, great monster design and some of the best visuals that are on par with what Disney and Pixar's best productions, all wrapped together in an engaging and well paced story.

To be fair, the premise is not the most most original one, half Moby Dick, half How to train your Dragon with a good dose of Pirates of the Caribbean mixed in, a lot of plots and themes feel very familiar and safe, but they are executed well and expert;y mixed together.

The technical side is a true highlight, the underwater shots are amongst the best I've ever seen in an CGI movie. The voice cast is really good without exception, helped by the fact that the dialogue is kept in a consistent tone fitting the depicted period (no distracting modern language if a few fun exceptions).

The movie should work best for older kids , teens and adults, there is not enough humor in it and some central themes (revenge) are a bit heavy for younger kids. It is tonally closest to the How to Train Your Dragon sequels, which I loved.

The best animated movie I have seen in a while, I hope Netflix can keep up with this level of quality in the future to shake up the Disney/Pixar monopoly a bit!

I had no interest in this initially, when I was reluctantly dragged to the theater by my 7 year old daughter. To my surprise, we booth left equally entertained.

League of Super-Pets is a really good action comedy that perfectly balances humor, action and character moments. It does so seemingly without effort, importantly the vast majority of jokes land, there is a substantial amount of adult-humor sparkled in that will go over kids heads, much appreciated.

There is really not much negative to say besides a rather unremarkable soundtrack and a bit tired selection of licensed songs that didn't do it for me. If they make I sequel I would want to watch it!

I had no expectations for this show, I don't watch any of the CW DC shows besides some snippets I caught on TV every once in a while. I like the Teen Titans Go cartoon, so I just put this on out of curiosity.

After one episode I was thinking: better than expected. After 3 episodes (which is the max I would watch if I'm not hooked) I was thinking: much better than expected. After the first season was over I was think: significantly better than expected!

Titans manages to balance the episodic structure with the ongoing story really well, is centered around interesting characters even in the smaller roles. The effects work is not great though and even for a TV show I do expct better CGI nowadays, however this flaw doesn't weigh to heavily against the shows strengths. The tone is dark and serious without much levity and the fact way the plot is structured like a road trip allows all kind of cool guest characters to appear.

Really enjoyed this in the end... (8/10 for the first season)

...until I watched the second season. This was much closer to my expectation of a CW superhero show. The quality of writing really took a nosedive here and there is lots of forced internal conflicts between the protagonists and comically underdeveloped villains. While the second season packs more action compared to the first, none of that is standing out. I will give the 3rd season a shot, but they better get back to the quality of the first if they want to keep the viewers.

Didn't enjoy this very much... (5/10 for the second season)

I surprised that this movie turned out so divisive, while certainly not everyones cup of tea it is certainly very memorable and interesting. I like simple set-ups like this, classic battle royal setup, clearly communicated rules for the audience and participants to understand and a diverse range of characters from all ranges of life.

The Human Race cleverly avoids offering a clear protagonist to root for allowing you to pick your own champion or play the "what would I do" game in your head. All of that achieves one thing: it makes the movie more engaging, if you are willing to engage with it. It helps that the pacing, editing and cinematography move things along quickly without much downtime.

The performances are a bit hit and miss, some are terrible (cyclist guy) some are okay (one legged guy) and some are really good (especially the deaf girl). The effects are serviceable, some digital blood effects look better than others, but overall a good production for its budget level. So even without going into the aspect of potentially pretentious commentary on the human condition, the movie works fine just on a surface level, if you want to interpret it deeper, that's okay, there are some interesting observations sprinkled in.

Without spoiling it, the ending did not work for me, the movie should have ended 3 minutes earlier and it would have been better. Despite that, I recommend it, it's better than Circle or The Belko Experiment which had a similar setup...

Island Zero did surprise me in a positive way. For the most part the movie looks more expensive than it's actual budget, it makes great use of it's isolated New England Island location and is centered about pretty decent performances. Don't get me wrong, some of the side characters are pretty bad and the movie uses well worn tropes but the setup is a good one.

The first hour is really good, going for a slow burn mystery on why the islanders can't contact the outside world and the tension when nightly attacks ramp up is ever increasing. However that only works up to a certain point when the movie needs to show us some horror, there is a clever way to get this done on a low budget (we actually see most of the monsters only on thermal cameras). I don't blame the movie for this, but if you come for creature effects you will be disappointed. What did not work for me is a late reveal of the true identity of one of the survivors that allows the movie to spill a lot of exposition on the nature and origin of the threat. Island Zero deflates at this moment, from a very solid B-Horror to a low-effort Si-Fi original.

Overall I recommend this to horror fans, good hook, some decent gore, some good actors, well paced, but unfortunately over-eager to demystify itself at the cost of tension.

I was expecting something far more campy, but the Sand takes itself relatively serious (for the most part) and it kind of works. This is a solid 80 minute, one location, simple concept, horror movie. Couple of college students have to find a way to get of a beach where the sand is basically lava and if you touch it you die.

The acting talents on display range from completely absent to serviceable, the pacing is solid and the premise interesting. It plays more like The Shallows and a si-fi channel absurd horror premise (that I expected) The dialogue on the other hand is pretty bad throughout, especially when people bring up relationship issues during life or dead situations. The effects are home-made after-effects, pretty terrible in comparison to the actually high end looking camera work.

So for fans of low-budget horror, this one is definitely worth a watch, don't expect great acting or good effects, but the creators get enough tension out of the good setup to make it worth your time.

I like to watch low budget horror movies, you never know when you find a hidden gem. Night of the Demons however is none, quite the opposite, I really struggle to come up with some redeeming qualities here.

The cameraman can keep scenes in focus, mostly, unless he needs to keep things chaotic to distract fem the cheap creature effects. Monica Keena is workable as the leading lady. Everything else is pretty much terrible, the rest of the cast is visually embarrassed to be in this and rightfully so given the dialogue. The soundtrack is terrible and destroys and actual sense of horror or tension. I know the movie aims for a fun horror experience, but misses that mark by a mile. i have vague memories of the origial, it wasn't very good either but had some respectable effects for it's time. This one, has rubber masks fake fingernails chasing people through an empty house for 40 minutes. The gore effects are nothing to write home about either.

As a trash movie it's not silly enough, as a horror movie it's not intense enough, and as a horror comedy it's not fun enough. I can't recommend this to any audience at all.

Man, this show was something, I definitely recommend it to every horror fan out there. It's a fresh take on the tired zombie-siege formula with a great set of characters, great performances ans most importantly fantastic monster designs used in creative set-pieces.

If I would have rated this after the first 3 episodes, this would have been an easy 9, unfortunately the show can't keep the pace and sharp writing of it's opening up and deflates to an extend. The best monsters and set-pieces are delivered up-front, while we are getting more character focuses later on. This by itself wouldn't have been bad, since the human stories are good ones and the investment in the peoples fates is definitely there, but the show really struggles to move the plot along after things settle. The writers really struggle to give people something to do and random side quests pop-up that are almost immediately dropped after an anti-climatic resolution. There is also a weird editing structure at place I never got used to, where the show would give us flashbacks to past conversations or basically extended versions of prior scenes where something was said or done, that only becomes immediately relevant after the flashback. There seems to be no faith in the audience to keep track of character motivations and relationships over multiple episodes. Also rules are very inconsistent, first it's a big deal that monsters can't be killed, plenty of monsters are killed. Wearing headphones should alert you to monsters presence, people with headphones get jumped by monsters all the time and so on...

Lastly, it becomes a pity party quite often, I was worried the besieged apartment building would sink in the lake of tears generated by the people trapped inside. It is standard for Asian cinema, but still a bit too much some times.

That sound overly negative, but make no mistakes, the show is good overall, you come for the monsters, you stay for the survivors. The creature design is great throughout, the CGI holds up most of the time (whit a couple of bad shots, mainly involving a hulking monstrosity) and the practical effects are top notch like the overall production value. If we get a second season I hope the overall plot is paced much better and the emotions will be dialed back a bit

You have to be aware of what you you are about to watch before you hit the play button! The Corrupted is an amateur movie made for the money they could scrape from their sofas. However it is a feature length movie, with everything that entails.

I like watching movies like this to see what aspiring filmmakers come up with, but again, don't expect a polished production. The results of this one are mixed, it is competently made and edited, has a good idea to center the story around and pretty decently written characters. The few effect shots are serviceable but nothing to watch the movie for. Unfortunately the pacing is off and the slow burn does not really fit together well with the rushed finale. But the movies greatest flaw are the actors. I would say there is one good performance here (Samantha), the rest are really hard to watch at times, with terrible timing and line delivery.

In summary recommendable for people into checking out these kind of semi-amateur movies, maybe to lean on what to do better. If you want to see an actually good horror movie without this caveat, move somewhere else.

For people that really enjoy trashy low budget horror movies that don't take themselves serious, there is definitely something here. However Bug Busters is too inconsistent to fall in the cult classic or hidden gem category.

Rany Quaid as gun-tooting, ex-military pest exterminator is on fire, unfortunately he only appears on the scene in the last 25 minutes (besides some funny commercials), the rest of the cast is a bit hit and miss, especially an early performance from Katherine Heigl. The tone is inconsistent here while some actors go for camp, others play it straight, it's neither here nor there until the movie finally commits for the third act.

Don't expect too many memorable effects either, the practical effects look dated and where not really great back when this was released either. So I recommend it to trash fans, but you might want to fast forward quite a bit during the first our.

This is all around a very good little horror movie. Banshee Chapter doesn't strife for achieving it's goals via blood & gore or plenty of monsters chasing our our heroine, but focuses mainly on building an atmosphere of suffocating dread.

It's a great take on Lovecraft's From Beyond that borrows more from movies like Ring and Kairo (Pulse) than Steward Gordon's blood soaked take on the same source material. Wile the supporting cast is a bit shaky at times, the movie is carried by two great performances from Katja Winter and Ted Levine.

As long as you don't expect a monster movie (that this unfortunately was marketed as) and are willing to commit to a proper horror movie watching experience (alone in the dark, without distractions) I can definitely recommend this.

It's hard to hate this movie, yet it's difficult to sit through it. This might have worked as a super campy low budget Godzilla rip-off, but the movie plays it completely straight and tries to be a dramatic war movie. It can't keep up with this pretense with it's ultra-cheap sets and abysmal CGI effects. The plot is actually not bad, neither is the pacing and the performances, but it feels like an amateur movie pretending to be a blockbuster. This works great for the Asylum Mockbusters, but these have one vital ingredient, they are self-aware. Can't really recommend this to anyone.

This is a must see for trash fans, the title and poster tell you all you need to know. Not much else to say about this movie, besides it exists and the world is a better place for it!

To set expectations, this movie had a 1Mio dollar budget, so keep that in mind. That being said, it uses every cent of that to craft an atmospheric, slow paced horror thriller with a scary and memorable creature. The movie keeps to tone serious throughout and focuses on the struggles of two brothers to deal with the monster under the bed that haunts them for years, while they can't turn to adults for help.

There is only a small number of locations, mainly we stay inside the protagonists house and it takes a long time until we get to see some actual horror, but that works in the movies favor. The performances, especially the kid's, is excellent and way beyond what you would expect in this kind of movie at this budget. At the end I was rooting for all characters to get a happy end.

When the creature is on display, the camera goes very wild, seems like they wanted to hide the practical effects to an extend. That wouldn't have been necessary, the monster is expertly lit and makes all appearances count.

Only real critizism I have is the unclear rules under which the monster operates, sure, the brothers are guessing as well on what the monster is or wants, but it changes it's behavior significantly later on, without any explanation given. It's okay to not explain the origin of the creature, but it should follow some consistent rules in what it can and can not do, otherwise anythings goes and it's hard to think along for the audience.

In summary, very good little movie, worth a watch for horror fans.

Memento, The Prestige, Inception and Interstellar had something in common (besides being Christopher Nolan movies), they demanded and appreciated an attentive audience, paying attention to every second on the screen and they rewarded multiple viewings with added detail and hidden puzzle pieces.

Tenet differs from those great movies in one regard, it doesn't try to bring an engaged audience along, it tries to outsmart it in a way that comes of slightly arrogant. It doesn't only reward multiple viewings it requires them. And this I have to hold against the movie.

Cinematography, acting, soundtrack and set pieces are all spectacular, as expected, the sound-mix on the other hand is following Interstellar in that the voices are relatively muted against the soundtrack and the soundscape. This movie is 100% plot driven and it is essential to listen to every word said, but often the movie makes it intentionally hard to understand the characters. There is a scene with 3 people sailing on boat while negotiating a deal, I did not understand a word that was said there. There is also a major turn in the story midway to the movie where the protagonist has to make a tough decision under pressure and a lot of new characters appear arguing for and against the next cause of action. This scene contains significant amounts of information on how this world works, yet it is incredibly hard to follow since people are talking over each other and it is not even clear on who is talking all the time.

I walked out of the theater unsatisfied, while I think I got most of it, there is a major plot point that doesn't make sense to me. Yes, a lot of people say it's better on second viewing and I will watch it again when it hits VOD one day, but not in theaters (especially during pandemic) and maybe it will be better. The way it stands it comes of as disrespectful for the audience.