unbrokenmetal की समीक्षाएं

'Resident Evil' from 2002, meanwhile over 20 years old, begins as a classic exploration flick. A team is sent into an underground lab after a virus outbreak that killed all the scientists there to find out more about the nature of the disaster. Room by room, they open doors to new dangers. We find all the typical plot elements here: a countdown ticking, a traitor within the team, an infected person everyone still tries to save, but looking really good with stylish pictures (cold blue delivers the background for Jovovich's red dress), it's all in all a watchable movie, elegantly preparing the ground for the sequel already.

I know about half of the games, played some old ones on PS1 long ago and some new ones on PS4. However, I will strictly ignore that and rate the 6 movies only as movies, not judging whether they are close to the games or wildly different, because they have to stand for themselves as movies. A cinema-goer is not tested for gaming knowledge before taking a seat. Besides, there'll surely be bigger experts than me around for the games. That in mind, I voted 8/8/9/6/4/6 for the six movies.

The wonderful cliffhanger from episode 1 introduced us to the apocalyptic scenery of episode 2 already, and that the Nemesis would appear to challenge Alice. Out in the city, there is more action, but we get better characters, too, because it's more about the team, less about Alice. Sienna Guillory as Jill Valentine and Oded Fehr as Carlos are added to the cast as well as a comical sidekick (Mike Epps). The rescue mission, when a scientist sends them to fetch his daughter, is a clear objective, so the plot is less mysterious or convoluted.

This sequel is at least as good as the first one, although one might argue it is less horror, more action flick. I voted 8/8/9/6/4/6 for the six movies.

Visually, the third episode takes a totally different approach. After the underground lab corridors of part 1 and the dark night-time streets of part 2, we are now facing the zombies in the sunlit desert. The story is well developed further with the whole world conquered by the virus, while Umbrella attempts to control 'Project Alice' via satellite. For me, 'Extinction' is the most underrated part of the series, not only because of the new look. Some ideas are great, for example the bird attack, the conflict between Isaacs and Wesker adds suspense when the bad guys aren't on the same side anymore, or the convoy through the desert which brings a Mad Max vibe to the movie. 'Extinction' feels more real than the later sequels because it used mostly real sets: Las Vegas in the desert is amazing. I voted 8/8/9/6/4/6 for the six movies.

'Resident Evil: Afterlife' from 2010 kicks off in Japan with hundreds of bullets fired in the first 15 minutes already. It feels like we get a kind of 'best of' compilation from the first three episodes here, namely the lab scenes from part 1, the fights from part 2, the search for survivors from part 3 - but nothing really new. Part 4 deals with familiar themes while getting more detached from the games than ever before. It became the Alice superhero show, and 3D effects were used excessively which didn't add anything substantial to the story. When it was released, it was clearly the weakest part of the series so far, but the worst was yet to come. I voted 8/8/9/6/4/6 for the six movies.

'You're all going to die down here', says the Red Queen, and Alice replies: 'I've heard that before'. Indeed, we've heard it all before. 'Resident Evil: Retribution' (2012) definitely reached the point when the series started to get silly. Michelle Rodriguez returned as Rain although she was killed in episode 1. Basically everyone could return as his or her own clone copy now which makes death meaningless, and we couldn't care less if somebody is shot. Talking about shots, the number of bullets fired in this flick is ridiculous. In most wars on this planet, probably less ammo was spent. However, so much action doesn't make it less dull. I voted 8/8/9/6/4/6 for the six movies.

The 6th part of the series, thankfully entitled 'The Final Chapter', evolved more atmosphere than the sterile previous installment. Alice is needed to fight Dr Isaacs again, who assembled an army of the undead and massive tanks to support his chase. After the ridiculous overuse of clones in the previous episode, here everything is making a bit more sense again, their numbers are reduced to the ones relevant for the story telling. 'The Final Chapter' is a far cry from the beginning of the series, but at least attempts to tie the loose strings together for a solution. I voted 8/8/9/6/4/6 for the six movies.

Rarely a movie is so bad that I'd call it annoying, but that's the case with "Duchess". It tells us the story of a female pocket thief who manages to steal a wallet and then tries to eliminate gangsters of an international diamond cartel, boldly ignoring that's 10 difficulty levels higher up.

The ridiculous story aside, the pseudo-cool style with its text inserts, off-screen narration, slow-downs and speed-ups is almost unwatchable and a poor imitation of people who poorly imitated Tarantino.

Funny thing is the final showdown was shot in a valley in Tenerife which I chose in 2015 for a photo session. A couple of years later, Neil Marshall decided to shoot the key scene of his movie in front of exactly the same rocks. "Duchess" may have bad taste in some respects, but not the location choice.

Anyhow, I love a lot stuff Neil Marshall shot in the past: "The Descent", "Doomsday", "Dog Soldiers", some "Game of Thrones" episodes when the series was still great. But "The Lair" and "The Reckoning" were only "meh" and now "Duchess" is the first serious disappointment.

I watched Jurassic Park episode 7 in a nearly empty cinema today, and it wasn't as bad as I'd heard. The characters include a group of mercenaries and an unprepared family who accidentally ends up on the island-a decent starting point.

As the movie goes on, it dives into some truly ridiculous moments. For instance, the scene where the T-Rex "chases" the yellow rubber boat-he treads so slowly, it's like he's begging the humans to escape. "Please run, I can't walk any slower than this!"

Once again, they've unnecessarily abandoned science, which was a key part of the original Jurassic Park novel. They could've simply said dinosaurs survived on an island; that would've been enough. But instead, they made them mutants, likely to give more creative freedom to the creature design team. The thrill used to be about showing us how dinosaurs really were, remember?

In summary, episode 7 is much better than part 6 ("Dominion"), which I consider the nadir of the series. Still, it's just a silly action movie with none of the original trilogy's qualities, apart from the occasional impressive monster. The Mosasaur was my favorite.

Ivanna is employed as a chemist at the laboratory of Baron Janos. The baron is suspected of several brutal femicides in the area, but she doesn't worry about that. She doesn't really mind, either, to be drugged in the night and carried away to the torture chamber. After all, her scientific work is all that matters to her, and the rest is minor obstacles. For some strange reason, the baron asks her not to open a particular door, never, under no circumstances. Sure she opens the door one minute later, and then the real trouble begins...

Laughable story, totally ridiculous main character, but great gothic look and altogether it's quite some fun - maybe not in the way the makers intended. Not to be missed by lovers of weird European gothic cinema.

Doctor Garondet enters the castle of the infamous professor Orloff who managed to create an invisible creature and trained it to - well, close doors and carry a torch. Soon invisible creatures like this will rule the earth, the professor claims - yes, he is a very, very mad scientist. His guest attempts to rescue at least the professor's daughter from the claws of the monster.

Simple, but visually effective low budget Frankenstein spoof from the hands of Pierre Chevalier according to the credits, although rumours don't die that Jess Franco directed it uncredited. Safe to say is that one of his favorite actors, Howard Vernon, delivers an impressive performance here as the professor.

Venice during the renaissance period. A masked man with black gloves kills several influential noble-men at night and escapes every time by a gondola across the canals. The crime investigation story is handled in good balance with a love story between a poor girl and a rich boy, not suitable for their status.

Well staged in this beautiful city with splendid costumes, even if shot most likely on a modest budget, just a year after the war. Although it's a historical drama on the surface, you might as well call this a pre-Giallo because it introduces some elements that would later become typical for the Giallo genre. Interesting and surely worth a look.

This comedy 'Ciao nemico' ('Hello, Enemy!') was directed by Enzo Barboni, who also directed several films featuring Bud Spencer and Terence Hill. Such a top level is not reached here. With a running time of 112 minutes, the film is definitely half an hour too long; a comedy should have more pace, not let you wait for something funny to happen. Instead of gags, it relies more on its bizarre characters. Giuliano Gemma as an American lieutenant and his Italian counterpart (Johnny Dorelli) face each other in 1943 at an old Roman bridge in Sicily and have to choose between fighting to the last drop of blood or retreating - and consider retreat to be the better, above all: healthier idea. But they first have to convince their superiors, who tend more towards a glorious battle... Not as abysmal as some reviews made me expect, but not a must-see either.

In search of emeralds, gangsters have to shoot a lot of hungry giant beetles in abandoned mine tunnels. Meanwhile, their guide, who has been unsuspectingly lured into the adventure, has to fear for his family, who are being held hostage by the baddies. He needn't worry, for Mum likes to grab the big shotgun and clean this place up.

Cheaply produced, but halfway exciting TV action that is watchable compared to the competitors from the same factory line, I've had worse. Fun fact: in the German dubbed version, the flick was called "Deep Threat" which is either innocent or mischievous. With Christopher Atkins, Colm Meaney (DS9) and Angela Featherstone (Dark Angel).

I liked it. Not to a degree that I would urge everyone to see it immediately, but I was satisfied. A couple of noteworthy ideas include receiving a different chip and suddenly acquiring new directives. What a remarkable challenge for an actor to transition from the helpful best friend to the calculating, potentially dangerous android. And back again.

The colony with its modern form of slavery was a convincing background, the dark side of future society. Also the looks were great, I liked the traditional practical creature effects.

Then again, the whole thing was a bit too predictable, if you know the previous movies. Alien creatures of the various types, from chestburster to facehugger, appearing as if they ticked off a list.

Altogether it exceeded my expectations (which were rather low though, given the long running time of the franchise).

"Star Knight" ("El caballero del dragon") is a weird little movie. It doesn't work as a comedy, it doesn't work as a sci-fi movie, and it doesn't work as a love story, yet it is a little bit of all these.

The alchemist Boetius (Klaus Kinski) tries to summon a demon, but instead the alien Ix (Miguel Bose) lands with a space-ship on earth. The knights of the country think the space-ship is a dragon, but fail miserably to "slay" that dragon. The local priest (Fernando Rey) wants to hold Boetius responsible for the probably not related event. When a local princess is abducted, her father agrees that Boetius and the invincible alien warrior must be fought and sends his the best knight (Harvey Keitel), but the princess is now in love with Ix and asks Boetius to save him.

The comedy elements like the Green Knight who wants to fight everyone crossing "his" bridge are terribly unfunny. The love story, why the princess should fall in love with an alien who can't even speak, is inexplicable. The movie has a lot of good ideas, also the casting of Klaus Kinski as the good guy is a rare choice, but nothing works in this movie. Except that this mess is somehow entertaining because it's definitely unusual and you won't have seen something like this before.

I saw this movie at the cinema back in the day, and I remember I was slightly disappointed then because there were no actual alien monsters, just humans making metallic noises and stiff movements. However, rewatching it today I'm impressed what a clever little movie this is. Going into a genre which is clearly beyond its budget, arming its heroes only with a bucket of water, it plays virtuously on the classic doppelganger theme. Again and again, aliens and their flying saucer appear, but who will believe the eyewitnesses that they are among us? Cruchot and his team on their 5th mission (of 6 in total) are fighting an amusing battle, dedicated to the max. The flick was definitely better than I remembered it.

Asylum flicks were always cheap, but oftentimes fun nonetheless. This one, unfortunately, was quite annoying. Trying to exceed previous Megalodon movies, The Frenzy doesn't show one or two, but five of those beasts. Can't say it's 5 times as scary, though, when CGI never makes them more than cartoon characters. Eric Roberts stars as a captain commanding 2 "marines". He always shouts like a whole crew stand before him, but the next shot will mercilessly reveal the same 2 guys. They didn't have money for 5 extras in uniforms, so I presume Mr Roberts was as embarrassed as the audience. The same surely goes for the "scientists" pretending to read instruments while staring at an empty wall. Nope, this flick definitely crossed the borderline between cheap and ridiculous. In several scenes, characters just invite sharks to kill them and thus take them out of this movie. Although these, uh, 'heroic' death scenes make you cringe, one can't blame them.

'Prey' takes the Predator centuries into the past for an early first visit on planet Earth. As we know from previous episodes, the Predator lives to hunt, and thus he gets to fight bears, lions, a bunch of American Natives and white trappers. The story is told from the perspective of one young woman who learns that warriors who face the Predator openly die very quickly, so she tries to run, hide, and then find new ways to fight.

I really liked this movie, but reading the reviews, they are divided and some viewers were disappointed by the movie, so I tried to understand why. I suppose the reason is that this is not much of a sci-fi flick. The first half could as well happen without any extraterrestrial being, just getting to know the characters, their daily life, and their hunt for a supposed lion or bear. Beautiful shots of nature, hardly any dialog. This slow exposition might not be for everybody. The second half makes up for that and includes quite a lot of brutality, arms, legs and heads being chopped off. But the action fans may be missing realism here, asking questions how the girl understands laser beams, invisibility and the alien's gadgets. Well, it's all rather a fantasy then sci-fi then, but still a movie that shows a story I haven't seen before, a real bliss in a time of mostly uninspired sequels.

If you are new to the Predator franchise, don't start with this one, because it doesn't explain the alien creature at all, assuming you know it from earlier episodes.

From the producers of the TV series 'Relic Hunter' which successfully ran for 3 seasons, 'Adventure Inc.' was intended to captivate the same audience with more treasure hunts and mystery, but lasted only one season. Michael Biehn as Judson Cross played a different type of researcher than Tia Carrere was, though. She was following her curiosity and instinct, he was more of a hired hand who gets a job done. The stories of 'Adventure Inc.' are said to be based (loosely) on true events which still left enough space for ghosts and fantasy, though. It seems I watched edited versions, cut a few minutes each to make them suitable for afternoon TV. Cross' team consists only of Karen Cliche as Mackenzie Previn and young Jesse Nilsson as Gabriel Patterson. Unfortunately they didn't show a pilot which explains how the team got together, that would have been interesting.

My six favorite episodes: 3) Beyond the Missing Link The prehistoric bones of the 'Sunda Man' are causing a deadly fight for the highest bid. However, the most eager participant has a personal motive beyond the scientific interest. Interesting episode, in which not only cats have 9 lives.

7) Curse of the Neptune Cross discovers the wreck of the passenger vessel Neptune which is said to be cursed. Soon deadly accidents happen. The trio decides to dive again nevertheless. They find that the reason why the ship sank was quite different from the history known so far. Atmospheric story with believable characters and a lot of suspense.

9) Fatal Error And now for something completely different: a mission to Mars. Cross and his team are asked to find the reason for the mysterious disappearance of an astronauts team during their training. Probably inspired by '2001 - A Space Odyssey'; the red eye of the computer surveillance cam makes that obvious. Exciting episode that makes escape from a trap very hard for the heroes.

12) The Angel of St. Edmunds Cross and his team are searching a golden angel buried with a saint's body. Actually it's hidden somewhere else, and Gabriel has to go an ususual way to get there. With a guest appearance by Christien Anholt of Relic Hunter fame - as a monk who swore an oath of silence, but talks quite a lot.

16) Wave of the Future The inventor of an underwater breathing device is held in a lunatic asylum. Maybe that is a protection against gangsters chasing his invention? Mackenzie and Gabriel try and get him out. The storyline is quite unusual, an entertaining episode where Mackenzie's diving skills pay off.

22) Trapped An under siege situation like this didn't occur in any other episode, good variation from the usual stories. Judson's team is locked in a chateau, not knowing why special agents are observing them, and they are even shooting the postman which is illegal in most countries, although they bring so many bills.

"Grandpa" Jonathan Carver is released from prison after 20 years, which arouses the keen interest of all kinds of scoundrels, because back in the old days, grandpa had stashed 28 (!) sacks (!!) of gold (!!!) as a kind of 19th century funded pension plan. And he shouldn't have to squander all his wealth alone, right?

After an enjoyable first half, in which one often wonders how the slow old man will manage to escape from his numerous faster pursuers, the second half is Western business as usual with a lot of lead flying around. Properly cast with Anthony Steffen, Daniel Martin and Fernando Sancho, among others, I would therefore only describe the film as average.

Soldiers fighting genetically engineered slimy creatures - it's a kind of mix between John Rambo's mission in Afghanistan with the second Alien movie. From the director of "Dog Soldiers" and "Doomsday", another monster flick which is decently entertaining. Funny enough, for Neil Marshall's previous "The Reckoning", I had high expectations and was a little disappointed. For "The Lair", exactly the opposite: I didn't expect much, but was actually pleased.

The movie is obviously influenced by the mercenary and sci-fi flicks of the 80s and 90s, and well constructed in three acts at 30 mins each. Act 1, the bunker is discovered. Will the army take heed of the warning of an unknown enemy? Act 2, battle at night with the creatures, then more information is gathered, from obduction of a creature's body to unexpected help from a local guy. Act 3, trying to stop the invasion from below. Because also Taliban forces attack, really an action-packed situation. The movie has a few weaknesses, some characters remain shallow as cardboard, some scenes are "we've seen it all before", but it was fun.

Agnes sees her best friend Lily burned to death in a stage show effect that goes wrong. One year later Agnes gets a job offer from the same company. Because she needs the money, she returns to the place of horror which is called 'Bates Motel', coincidentally. Soon further deadly accidents happen, and Agnes begins to investigate...

A good mixture of imaginary horror and true crime. For a low budget flick, it's well filmed and scripted, even with a good sense of humour. The actors are naturally on different quality levels, some almost professional and some very amateurish. Altogether I enjoyed watching it.

A 3 hour TV movie, broadcast in two parts, based on the SF classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956, remade 1978). Six brave citizens discover that insectoid aliens have infiltrated humanity, and since they apparently already control the police and administration, they fight the invasion on their own, armed only with a few knives and a pistol.

That's all kinda smart so far, considering how many other invasion movies have an entire army going in to bombard the aliens. For a manageably budgeted TV movie, the smaller scale works better. Still, we're not talking about a masterpiece here, just an average genre flick.

I was impressed by the performance of Daryl Hannah, who actually plays three roles: the calm astronaut, the concerned mayor's assistant, and the evil alien queen (as shown on the cover artwork, so I don't consider this a spoiler of mine). Extremely different shades, from friendly to demonic, needed to be portrayed here, and she was capable to do that.

It felt so good that dinosaurs - after the increasingly silly movies of the last 20 years which ridiculed and humiliated them - are restored to what they were in the first Jurassic Park: the brutal and scary rulers of their world. Apart from that, I want to praise the makers not for what they did, but what they didn't do.

First, the movie is 90 minutes long. They have a simple story to tell: two people get stranded on this hostile planet, and need to survive. Thankfully that simplicity was not stretched to epic 120 minute length, thus the tension is kept high, with only few flaws in between.

Second, the typical horror stereotypes are avoided, you know the kind of flicks where you have maybe six survivors and then they are killed one by one, usually you can predict who is next. No waste of superfluous characters here.

Third, they always warn actors not to play along a child co-star, because either she steals all the attention from you, or she is annoying and ruins the movie. But neither has happened here, the action is well balanced and gives Adam Driver enough opportunity to shine. The back story about his daughter also explains why he feels so protective.

Agreed, the movie has its weaknesses too, and you wonder why the two haven't been killed at least 5 times, but altogether it was very entertaining.

"The Devil of Cape Town" (1962) tells the story of the young tourist Frank who finds some white powder on a trip to Africa, whereupon police commissioner Wilke asks him to lure the drug dealers (who are most likely looking for it) into a trap. Frank immediately agrees to this suicidal proposal, gets abducted and beaten up by the gangsters - and just loves this adventure, happily asking Wilke if he may help some more. Utter nonsense which is stretched to 80 minutes with several tedious dance performances in a bar and African archive footage. It may have passed as a 45 minute TV episode, but as a movie it's extremely poor.

Directed by Alfredo Medori, officially, yet Hermann Kugelstadt and Wolfgang Schleif are reported to have been supervising the German version.