Pasha's Film Reviews Etc.

* * * * TV is not what it used to be and the level of violence allowed on the small screen has increased dramatically. But THE FOLLOWING takes us on a whole different gory level with bodies piling up by the dozen with each new episode. But there’s another creepy thing about THE FOLLOWING. It is how normal it treats the killers. In a way it is soap opera for psychopaths. It is not trying to understand them, but instead offering us a daily routine of the crazies. They befriend each other, fall in love and break up, go shopping and cook dinner - all just like us “the normal” people. For those who had not seen the first season the premise is a simple one - a good cop Ryan Hardy is trying to catch charismatic leader of the serial killers cult - Joe Carol (names Hardy and Carol are of course references to the classic literature). Joe Carol had died in the end of the first season and the biggest twist this year around is to introduce us to a new threat. Is Joe’s cult

* * * * Cade Yager is a mechanic and an inventor who lives on a Texas’ farm with his teenage daughter. When he buys an old truck he discovers that he, in fact, got himself a transformer - Optimus Prime. His decision to keep it a secret triggers series of events that put him and his family in harms way and right in the middle of an ancient battle between Autobots and a new mysterious threat. It is not a surprise that AGE OF EXTINCTION is a slick, exciting and beautifully executed production. What comes as a surprise is, that apart from some lousy dialogue (“I love you dad”   “Thank you for saving me” etc, blah blah), it has an decent script that brought some fresh ideas to the story. The visuals and battle scenes in the film took as much thinking and inventing as the plot itself   and successfully so - a forty something minutes finale in Hong Kong is inspired. The other difference of this instalment from its predecessors is that its very brutal. Transformers die in th

* * * Roberto is a criminal lawyer who is estranged from his wife. He is worried about his kids leaving to Spain with their mother, but his fears are going to multiply when the children suddenly disappear while running down the stairs somewhere between the 7th and the ground floor. What had happened? Is one of the residents involved or is it someone from Roberto's work tries to settle the score? The claustrophobic paranoia insures. 7th Floor is a thriller confined in a claustrophobic space of the apartment block with a promise of a great mystery. Unfortunately the great concept comes undone when when the script runs out of ideas half way through and presents the most plausible, and rather obvious ending. The things go from bad to worse when awkwardly (and unnecessary) we are being taken beyond the premises of the crime, which breaks the atmosphere and pushes the story where we did not want it to go. Argentinian super stars Racardo Darin and Belen Rueda make a fine du

* * * * Fred and Simon, detective partners, get into a serious car crash that leaves 3 people dead (including a child). Simon, who was behind the wheel, looses everything: his job, his family and his self respect. Six years later he is working for a private security company and things seem to look up a little,  when his teenage son becomes a witness to the mafia murder.  Believing that mafia does not leave loose ends Simon asks help from the one man he could always rely on. But Frank has his own secrets to keep. Will the two be able to reconcile their past and face a new imminent danger? French director Fred Cavaye creates another adrenalin ride with two of his favourite actors Vincent Lindon and Gille Lelouche as the stars. Stand alone elements of the film are not original. In fact they can be called cliches, but assembled they make an edge of the seat experience that will keep you glued to the screen. Interesting element of MEA CULPA is how character development goes throu

* * * * Bill Cage is not a soldier, but through bad attitude and some bad luck he ends up in the middle of a decisive battle with an alien race that humans are about to lose. Killed moments after the landing on French shore, he wakes up twenty four hours prior to his death. Pretty soon it is clear that he is doomed to re-live the same day again and again. No one believes him, until he meets a war veteran, a woman everyone calls Full Metal Bitch. Together they are going to use Cage's ability to the battle advantage. EDGE OF TOMORROW is based on the Japanese light novel ALL YOU NEED IS KILL by young independent author Hiroshi Sakurazaka. The book sums up what Japanese SCI-FI is about: action for thinking people and intense violence designed to highlight the even more intense human drama at its core. THE EDGE OF TOMORROW successfully manages to transpire it all to screen, adding an element of humour, that compliments, but doesn't dismiss the dark tone of the film.