Blood Punch

I had various friends and blogs recommend this movie to me, but I kept avoiding it, mostly because the title and poster made me certain that I would be getting just another brain-dead horror movie gore-fest. Boy, was I wrong.

What I got instead was one of the best low-budget indie movies that I've seen in years. I know, I know. It feels weird to be lumping those kind of lavish praises on a movie like this, but what can I say? This movie took a somewhat bitter and skeptical viewer like me and converted me into a believer with an incredibly ambitious and clever script, three really solid performances from the lead actors, and a fun sense of style that somehow made the movie feel both classic and modern at the same time.

I really don't want to give away anything specific when it comes to the plot and story. It's much better going into it cold and knowing as little as possible. It's a blend of film noir, horror, science fiction, and black comedy and yet somehow comes together almost perfectly, blending and juggling all these familiar genres into its' own incredibly unique and distinctive vision. I watch a lot of movies and often feel like I've seen it all and know where most stories are headed, but this is a movie that really keeps you on your toes. The script was always one step ahead of me and had me guessing right up until the very end.

In general, the look and production values are quite good, but you could definitely feel some of the movie's lack of budget and resources in some areas. But I found myself way too swept up in the story to ever really mind or care. And the three main leads, who are playing very familiar and almost cartoonish archetype characters, do an incredible job of making these characters come across as totally believable and real human beings.

This is an amazingly underrated and totally overlooked little movie. I highly recommend it.

I saw this under-the-radar low-budget gem at the New Orleans Horror Film Festival a couple weeks back, where it pretty much blew myself and the entire packed house away and went on to walk away with that festival's Best Feature Film award.

It's such a difficult movie to describe, especially without giving too much away. The story begins as a classic Film Noir Love Triangle. Regular guy Milton is lured by the scorching femme fatale Skyler into a scheme to cook up a gargantuan batch of crystal meth for her psychotic corrupt cop boyfriend, Russell. You've seen this story many times. But just when you think you know exactly where the whole thing is going, it begins taking delightfully clever supernatural twists and turns that keep on coming and coming, right up until the end of the movie.

But unlike a lot of movies that try to take you on a ride like this one, the twists and surprises that keep unfolding here never feel forced or unmotivated. The movie is incredibly smart in its storytelling and direction and really respects the intelligence of its' audience, challenging them to put two and two together on their own rather than spoon-feeding them information. The three young actors who play the leads are also really impressive and convincingly carry the movie, keeping their characters grounded in reality and believable as real human beings, no matter what inexplicable chaos or craziness is berserking around them.

In some ways, some might consider this more of an art-house movie than pure horror, more early Cohen Brothers than Sam Raimi--but it somehow manages to maintain that sense of rollicking good fun and attitude that is definitely rooted in the very best tradition of low-budget horror flicks.

If you told me that a little movie like this could come along out of nowhere to seamlessly and successfully blend horror, film noir, and black comedy, I would have scoffed. But Blood Punch has made a believer out of me. See it if you can--highly recommended.

Kind of tiresome time loop flick. This entire cast is from New Zealand (OK, there's one Australian), and it is obvious from the get-go. I had to look it up less than 10 minutes in, because it was so distracting. The girl who played Skyler was the worst offender of slipping into her native tongue. Here's an idea: Have a movie with New Zealand accents. Plenty of great movies come from New Zealand! I understand this was an American production, filmed in California... But why the entire cast has to do accents they're obviously uncomfortable with... It's baffling. Also, this movie serves as a 105-minute commercial for smoking. It's so ridiculous it becomes comical. They tried REAL hard to be stylish on what appears to be a shoestring budget. That gets an extra star.

This is a very well done time loop movie that I was pretty impressed with considering that they were obviously doing it on a budget. The acting is not up to hollywood par but the storytelling and other aspect of film making are pretty much there. I really love time loop movies and have seen a lot of them, and this is an especially good one. It is 1 hour and 45 minutes and in that time I felt like so much more time had gone by because so much happened in this movie. It is a very elaborate story that just keeps unfolding more and more and more as it goes on. I kept feeling like it was going to end soon and then checking to see how much time I had left. It is a very good story that keeps surprising you. It's also got a lot of entertaining killing in it, but it is not over-the top and ridiculous like a lot of b-movies. I'm giving this a good solid 7 here, and thats a hollywood rating, not a b-movie rating. If I was rating it in terms of b-movies it would be a 10. And if you love time loop movies its a must see.

Okay, first and foremost, I would humbly suggest that you do NOT read the other reviews here. I KNOW that sounds a little self serving, but as usual, a number of these witless reviewers totally give away the primary concept in their titles, so just trying to save you entering Spoiler Territory.

So, what we have here is a very clever concept that if it has not already been Spoiled for you, you will come to understand as the story progresses. It is a concept that has indeed been used in a few other also really good Science Fiction movies, but of course I'm not going to name them as others stupidly have done here even in their titles.

I, on the other hand, and HOPING that the idea behind this clever film has not already been ruined for you, do NOT wish to give away anything but simply as I usually try to do is give you my impressions about how well I think the film is made and if it is worth watching.

The characters are very well developed and in many cases quite amusing. The ONLY thing that honestly drove me almost totally insane is that I SWEAR at least one tobacco company must have foot the entire bill for this movie. I mean literally EVERY 2 minutes if not more often, someone, mainly the girl is lighting up. I mean, it is done to the point of total absurdity. Seriously... There must have been like 200 cigarettes lit in this movie. I personally found it REALLY annoying and somewhat insulting. I honestly saw absolutely no point in it, so FWIW there you go...

So, yes, this is a very good, clever concept that is ultimately very entertaining. If you have been fortunate enough to avoid Spoilers so far, then I think you might find this film a fun ride... I gave it a strong '7'... I KNOW I haven't given a lot of details, but there is almost no way to do so without ruining the story.