Shelter a.k.a. 6 Souls

Adam, a young psychiatric patient with multiple personality disorder, seems to be exhibiting personalities of those who actually lived - all murder victims.  As his doctor, Cara Harding, digs into his pasts, it starts to appear less psychiatric and more supernatural...

This film was made in 2008, released in Japan in 2010 as Shelter, then released in the U.S. in 2013 as 6 Souls.  Apparently it was considered so bad that a name change was warranted before release in its home country.  I agree.

Shelter a.k.a. 6 Souls
2010, 112 minutes, directed by Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein

Redemtor (Redeemer)

Marko Zaror is the Redeemer.  Meting out forgiveness - or punishment.  Trying to atone for his sins.  Hunted at all times by the Scorpion, his mortal enemy.

This festival has lacked martial arts action, so the Redeemer is a refreshing relapse.  The film lacks the raw, real feel of Zaror and Espinosa's early films, nor does it have the noir polish of Mandrill.  What it does have is three kick-ass one-on-one fights with skilled opponents, brought forth from Zaror's dabbling interest in MMA.  The styles of each fight are distinct - a pro MMA fighter, a genjikai karate master, a kickboxing champion - so relish in those and worry less about the hum-drum mook slaughter.

Redentor (Redeemer)

2014, 88 minutes, directed by Ernesto Diaz Espinosa

Tombville

I don't know very much about Belgium.  Apparently some of their filmmakers follow the French style of cinema, which in my experience often involves existential madness, poor lighting, and melodramatic music.  Tombville delivers on all of the above.  David finds himself in a town sort of, or at least a place with some buildings (it's very dark).  He doesn't remember anything at first, including his name, but quickly finds himself on the run from the town's inhabitants, unable to escape until he remembers how he arrived.  Memories of his childhood, with his verbally abusive prostitute mother, are intermixed, tracing through his life up to it's defining moment.

Tombville

2014, 69 minutes, directed by Nikolas List

Everly

Salma Hayek.  Mother.

Everly

2014, 92 minutes, directed by Joe Lynch

Wyrmwood

The result of a four-year, self-funded shoot, Wyrmwood looks and feels like a classic ozploitation film, complete with badass zombies, a colorful cast, government baddies, and a kick-ass brother-sister duo in Barry and Brooke.  Both immune to the Zombie Infestation, the siblings take wildly different paths to find each other, acquiring friends and special skills on the way.

I can't wait for the sequel.

Wyrmwood

2014, 92 minutes, directed by Kiah Roache-Turner

The Raid 2

Prisons are horrible places.  But that's where Rama must go to work his way into the crime family that killed his brother, expose them all, and bring them down.  If that's not enough - - what is?

I loved the audio track of the first Raid.  This time upgrade your screen.

The Raid 2
2014, directed by Gareth Evans

District 9

I'm impressed that a South Africa production was so eloquently able to disguise apartheid critique under a thick gory blanket of sci fi, the way it's meant to be done.  Plus Wikus Van De Merwe is such an awesome action hero, it's hard to not root for him as both a speciesist mid-level manager and a blood-thirsty killing machine.

For more commentary see my original review from 2009.

District 9
2009, 112 minutes, directed by Neill Blomkamp

Kill 'em All

This is insane.  After a brief exposition featuring a few world-class assassins, eight find themselves waking in a rusting, industrial wasteland.  Set to fight against each other by an unknown mastermind, of course those featured in the pre-show survive the early slaughter, team up, and set out to escape - or seek revenge.

Kill 'em All
2012, 86 minutes, directed by Raimund Huber

The Expendables 2

I was going to say something like, "This film would be okay if they'd just stick to the action scenes and stay away from the sappy dialog and contrived cameos."

But then I watched the closing fight, between Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme.  It may be the worst choreographed man-on-man fight to the death I've ever watched.  Wow.  Even the awful denouement with more Chuck Norris, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't match the terribadness of that fight.

The Expendables 2
2012, 103 minutes, directed by Simon West

O'Apostolo

Based on Spanish Catholic mythology, O'Apostolo delves into the story of a cursed village, where the dead walk the streets at night, claiming the souls of traveling pilgrims.  Ramón, an escaped prisoner, just needs to slip in, grab some stashed loot, and make his escape toward a simpler life.  It won't be that simple.  Steeped in Catholic mysticism, corruption, and occult, and wonderfully animated in clay and ink, the film hits all the right notes for an excellent story.

O'Apostolo
2012, 80 minutes, directed by Fernando Cortizo

Monshoot Shootout

Boo hoo, cops have to play by the rules.  A rookie cop chases down a man fleeing the scene of a shooting.  Is he involved or a terrified bystander?  The cop has a choice: shoot the man, arrest him, or let his escape.  Each of these is explored in sequence, showing the ramifications for his choice as they play out.  Or is this even his choice to make?  I struggle to enjoy this; it seems despite the choice his fate was sealed.

Monsoon Shootout
2013, 88 minutes, directed by Amit Kumar

Yet again, I failed on the Q&A lotto.  This sucks.

Jigoku de naze warui (Why Don't You Play in Hell)

It's hard to explain the type of crazy that only comes from Japanese film.  Laughable plots, guttural rage, inexplicable motivations, nonsensical action, all are woven together to form the core of many a weird import.

In this installment, a yakuza boss's young daughter has her toothpaste commercial torn from the air, after her mother kills several rival gangsters who invaded their home.  Ten years later, mother is about to be released from jail for her crime, and the father wants to reward his wife with a feature film starring their now-rebellious upper teen.  Meanwhile, a young group of friends want to be filmmakers, making a vow to die happily as soon as they've made a great movie.  They happen to film a yakuza  soldier fleeing the boss's home - a solder who became infatuated in a really creepy way with the rival's daughter.

It's all set up for the final, crazy encounter - the filmmakers are "hired" to stage and film a massive fight between yakuza groups, one featuring the boss and his daughter, the other now headed by the man who "loves" her.  It's hard to describe what happens next, but assume it's insane.

Why Don't You Play in Hell
2013,  126 minutes, directed by Shion Sono

Kick-Ass 2

I have mixed feelings about this franchise.  While I have nothing against the films per se, my experiences with Kick-Ass were less than idea.  Moreover, the existence of these led directly to the cancellation of Defender, the U.S. remake of the excellent Mirage Man with the same director and star.

But then, there's the badass that is Hit Girl.  Really, the series is better every minute she's on screen and in action.  In this installment, several years have passed since Dave a.k.a. Kick-Ass retired.  He's in high school now, as is Hit Girl (Mindy).  She's never given up her father's purpose, and still roams the streets, more dangerous than ever, dodging the oversight of police detective / guardian Marcus.  Other vigilante masked heros have emerged in Kick-Ass' absence, inspired to carry on his mission.  One team, which calls itself Justice Forever, is led by Colonel Stars and Stripes, a former mob enforcer cum born-again Christian.

As Dave and Mindy interact, she pulls him back into a life of crime fighting, while she eventually promises Marcus to "retire".  Kick-Ass joins Justice Forever and helps in their quests to bring down human traffickers.

Meanwhile, Chris ("Red Mist" from the first film) accidentally kills his mother, and thus becomes a multimillionaire orphan, still obsessed with Kick-Ass' identity and hope for revenge.  With Dave back on the crime-fighting scene, Chris don's his mother's old bondage gear and becomes Motherfucker, a superhero whose power is Wealth, which he immediately uses to hire a group of actual villians who wreak havoc on the town in their search of fame and Kick-Ass.  Much violence ensues, until Kick-Ass and Motherfucker must meet for a final confrontation, and Hit Girl decides if she can truly fit into society or accept her role as perpetual outsider.

There's a dearth of kick-ass heroines, and in this series the existence of Hit Girl shines as its brightest contribution.  This could easily be the end of the series, or a bridge story; it's difficult to say if it will work with them both as adults, but if it does, I'll be there to see it.

Kick-Ass 2
2013, 103 minutes, directed by Jeff Wadlow

You're Next

I missed this at Fantastic Fest a few years ago - it showed once and then disappeared from the schedule, one of the legendary screenings that got away.  Now it's back in all its glory.  A family gathers for reasons both complicated and unknown, while masked terror lurks.  When the horrors unleash, a family guest reveals her true nature.  It's pretty damn awesome.

You're Next
2011, 95 minutes, directed by Adam Wingard

Encounter at Raven's Gate

Close encounters in the Australian outback, filmed and set in the 1980s amidst small-town drama.  It baffles me.

Encounter at Raven's Gate
1988, 94 minutes, directed by Rolf de Heer

No habrá paz para los malvados (No Rest of the Wicked)

I've watched several films this week featuring good-cops-with-a-side-business, where they're put in a bad situation and need to bring forth their best side to save the day.  Santos is not one of those cops.  He's downright evil.  Set in Paris ahead of a G-20 summit, this feature finds him very quickly murdering three people late night at a strip joint.  A witness escapes, forcing Santos to ditch his G-20 surveillance responsibilities and take on investigation of the club's contacts.  Meanwhile, Chacón, a police investigator, takes on the murder case, forging ahead into the same investigation from a different angle, thinking terrorism.  Can she catch Santos before he eliminates the witness, or is something more going on here?

No habrá paz para los malvados (No Rest of the Wicked)
2011, 114 minutes, directed by Enrique Urbizu

Graceland

Marlon, driver for a dirty Congressman in the Philippines, is taking both his and his boss' daughters home from school when a kidnapping attempt goes wrong.  Rather than take the Congressman's daughter, the kidnappers kill her and take Marlon's by mistake.  He has to find a way to get his boss' help to get his daughter back without him knowing his daughter is already gone.

This is a very dark and gritty film, with almost no one coming out untainted.

Graceland
2012, 99 minutes, directed by Ron Morales

King of Pigs

Children have limited filters for emotion, and while at their peaks they are angelic, at their depths their brutality is sickening.  This Korean animated film starts by sticking a knife in your gut, and then just keeps twisting for two hours.  Kyung-min, seemingly calm after an unexplained opening scene, contacts old friend Jong-suk.  It's been 15 years - since middle school - since they've talked, and it's time to catch up on old times.  Prepare to be depressed.

King of Pigs
2011, 97 minutes, directed by Sang-ho Yeon

Grup 7 (Unit 7)

Late 1980s: Ceville, Spain.  The city prepares for the 1992 world expo.  A group of four narcotics detectives - from a rookie to a brutal, hard-nosed detective - work the streets to clear them of heroin ahead of the world's attention.  Their actions quickly get out of hand as they try to stay one step ahead of internal affairs and the drug traffickers.

The plot in this film is, let's say, subtle.  Think of it more as five-years-in-the-life of four detectives.  A strong, quality film.

Grup 7 (Unit 7)
2012, 95 minutes, directed by Alberto Rodriguez

The Book of Eli

I knew this film had religious undertones, but whoa.  Still, this was a good story of the re-emergence of hope in world where it had long passed.  And there's a decent bit of knife combat.

The Book of Eli
2010, 118 minutes, directed by Albert and Allen Hughes