hill-derek7's reviews

I went in with high hopes, as I'm a fan of just about everything zombie, especially South Korean. I wasn't really feeling it after the first couple episodes (maybe 6 stars), but as the characters and story developed it got significantly better. I was hooked by the end of it. Would have probably given it an 8 had it started as strongly as it finished, so I'm splitting the difference with a 7.

No movie has made me feel what this movie made me feel. I hated every second of it, but, like, in a good way? Never really experienced anything like it, which is why I'm rating it as high as I am. It wasn't at all what I was expecting it to be.

Right off the bat I'll just have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this film. I was hooked when I saw the trailer, and then finding out Tarantino claimed it to be the "Best Movie of the Year" pretty much meant that I needed to watch it immediately. It was brilliant. However, the trailer is sort of misleading. The trailer sets you up for what seems like a nice, long torture fest. Yes, that is a large part of the movie, but there is so much more going on. And as far as gore goes it's reasonably mellow. Much of the focus is on the suspense. So much so, that at one point I had to pause the movie and was like "I need a beer." The cinematography is great, the audio/soundtrack is SUPERB! It's one of the very few movies where I found myself saying "I have no idea what's going to happen," and I found myself saying this the entire time I was watching the movie.

As I was researching this movie a bit I came across a review on rogerebert.com that I would like to share (and destroy):

"On the face of it, Quentin Tarantino declaring the second-rate Israeli torture thriller "Big Bad Wolves" the best film of 2013 is patently ridiculous, especially given how seriously inferior it is to Tarantino's own work in the grisly exploitation field." - Godfrey Cheshire (rogerebert.com contributor)

First of all, claiming this movie is "second-rate" totally ruins one's credibility as a critic. It is far and away not a second-rate movie. But what gets me even more worked up is not the fact that Mr. Cheshire claims this movie is inferior to Tarantino's work, but for his categorization of this movie into the grisly exploitation field. I love Tarantino and his movies and I wouldn't dare compare Big Bad Wolves to any of them, as Big Bad Wolves is largely different. IT IS NOT A GRISLY EXPLOITATION FILM. Maybe the critic only saw the trailer — I wouldn't put it past him — But this film, while it does include some torture, is much more in depth than any "grisly exploitation film" I've seen.

With all that said, I would just like to reiterate that I loved this movie, and would recommend it as a must-see to anybody who appreciates good filmmaking (and doesn't mind reading subtitles).