Die Hölle - Inferno

Centring around fast paced action, but leaving ample room for genuine character development that adds weight to the inevitable violence. Violetta Schurawlow's heroin is a dead pan badass who's easy to root for whether she's navigating personal drama or a vicious psychopath. The film commits to a cool, noir style through it's dreary score and dark but stylish visuals that nod to vintage giallo.

And I mean that in the nicest sense possible. Really I do! Of course if you feel that is an insult, you probably don't like movies like that. Sleazy thrillers, made a couple of decades ago. They were very successful and had charm to them. Very comparable to this one, which has flaws in many departments and you could argue that the characters are not all around likable (especially the police man who gets drawn into the center of it all).

Still this is very empowering to women, even when it doesn't look like it at the beginning. There's still nudity and action and gore and all that. But there's also a lot of humor in it. Of course not everyone will find the same things funny, but the movie does not take prisoners and goes some extra miles ... even when introducing characters and giving us a "father-figure" who almost feels out of place in this. So again, it is messy and it is far from perfect ... but that is what makes it so enticing.

Ozge, a young Turkish born taxi driver, who is also a Thai boxer. She keeps to herself mostly. One day she witnesses a murder and also the one who is responsible for it. The events that takes place after this is the basic plot of the movie.

The movies main positive is the lead actress violetta schurawlow. She is just amazing. We can see the anger, fear, intensity, just everything in her performance. You can just watch this movie for her performance. The action sequences were really good, especially the one in the metro train. The cinematography, the sound design and all the other aspects were good. The writing was really good in some places, the thrilling elements worked really nicely. I loved the sequences towards the climax very much.

The only issue i had with the movie is, i felt we could have spent a little more time with the character before the inciting incident. Rather we get to know the character more after the inciting incident, which makes the movie little slow in few places.

The movie is a solid one time watch. Give it a try if you love action thriller movies.

You better damn well tip this Taxi Driver.

I love kick-ass women who can surely kick any ass, but this one...such depth, so much history and so little words, she is the ultimate antihero hero. I loved her.

Get your blenders on, this movie is all parts: Death Wish, The Transporter, I Spit on Your Grave, The Bourne Identity, Rear Window, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Taxi Driver, just to name a few. But, don't worry; the film just borrows from them. The real story is: the Fantastic Not-Angelina Jolie.

There is a central plot thread, but it's almost overshadowed by the lives and drama of Not-Angelina Jolie. The basic story: troubled loner (with very good reasons) witnesses a brutal murder from her bathroom window. That would be bad enough, but the killer surely sees her see him and the threat is on. Almost comically - but really, sadly, she spends a good chunk of the film trying to crash at someone else's place over and over only to remember why she didn't involve herself with these people since they previously wronged her.

With no one to help her and the killer stalking her, she's pretty much on her own. I wouldn't worry too much, though. Not-Angelina Jolie can seriously mess you up.

She's not Supergirl. She's absolutely human even though she's got a pretty good shield: drive. What she's been through in her life - and you'll learn pretty much all of it from extremely clever writing and the show/don't tell acting and scenes - nine out of ten people couldn't handle. This makes her thoroughly interesting and captivating.

Now, it does help that through a lot of the drama here, there's some awesome action scenes and an incredibly satisfying final act. Contrary, some of the slower and definitely predictable scenes do muddy the waters. Mercifully, they don't linger on too long and we get back to the character worth watching the whole movie for: Not-Angelina Jolie, of course.

***

Final thoughts: I love extremely strong characters in cinema, namely smart female leads with the odds stacked against them and their fists/wits prevail. So much so, I constantly give passes to other flaws, plot-holes or clichés in the films they're in. So, know this: Cold Hell isn't perfect. It does have one unintentionally hilarious "Oh, that's where he is!" revelation that I wouldn't knocked down the movie more so, but damn, they did correct themselves almost instantly and all is forgiven.

Positive:

• thrilling and entertaining
• acting performance (roles well selected and played)

Negative:

• too much family drama
• actions partly illogical/incomprehensible