murder

Review: I Saw The Devil / Akmareul boatda (2010)

Friday, June 24th, 2011 | Movies, Reviews | No Comments

It’s been a while since I wrote a little review of a film I saw (@see Wild Target). This is mostly due to the fact that as a cinema enthusiast it gets harder and harder to see something that is new/interesting or even noteworthy – a lot of films just bore the crap out of me these days. Anyway, “I Saw The Devil” was different.

When his pregnant fiancée becomes the latest victim of a serial killer, a secret agent blurs the line between good and evil in his pursuit of revenge. (IMDb)

So yes, this is some kind of rape and revenge plot, a genre that I normally avoid. In this case I was eager to finally see this Korean film because I had already read a few quite promising reviews and ratings from Fantasy Filmfest screenings. Some said it was boring, some said it was a masterpiece. I have to agree with the latter. The film has three major ingredients imho: beautiful slow shooting (which may bore fans of fast paced action), interesting and well acted characters (loved both Oldboy‘s Min-sik Choi and A Bittersweet Life‘s Byung-hun Lee) and last but not least quite explicit violence. I read the rumour that it had to be cut several times even in Korea to prevent it from getting a “Restricted” rating which would have had it rendered impossible to screen or sell. Believe me, what’s left in there is still stomach twisting and quite enough to support the plot.

8.0/10 – Get prepared for beautiful yet nasty game of cat-and-mouse.

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Review: Dolan’s Cadillac (2009)

Sunday, July 19th, 2009 | Movies, Reviews | 1 Comment

Dolan's CadillacScience teacher Tom methodically plots revenge against Las Vegas crime boss James Dolan (Christian Slater) who is behind the murder of Tom’s wife Francey, a witness to a mob execution.

I like Stephen King adaptations, even though they are often TV only or straight to VHS/DVD productions, some of them a really enjoyable on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

This one was quite nice, but it hasn’t the potential to become a low budget classics such as The Stand, It or even Sleepwalkers (90′s trash :D , yeah! Don’t take me wrong: one of my favourite films (and IMDb’s #1!!) is a 90′s King adaptation. Can you guess what it is?).

I guess the absence of a Stephen King typical evil force / parallel reality is condemning this flick to just another crime story. This is *not* a mystery or horror film!

6.5/10 – quite nice, but nothing special

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