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I didn't realize this was a Predator movie the first time I saw the poster and thought this was some random horror movie but the positive buzz certainly didn't pass me by so here we are again. After watching it I'm certainly... shocked?
From the get go this did very little to pull me in, be it the CG animals, one-dimensional plot or the the selfish attitude of our heroine. Now obviously one can argue how much that all matters when the action is good but it didn't really scratch that itch for me either... the Predator fighting with the animals was certainly entertaining but random guys biting the bullet with mostly offcam/unclear CG gore not so much. Would have been nice if they showed some wits when they fought him at the camp but somehow him going invisible is enough reason to lower their weapons and start talking to each other. She saw how the camouflage works multiple times in action already..?!!
What all those scenes, and the movie poster for that matter, certainly established, is that our protagonist has little to worry and that a showdown was coming but I would never have predicted the amounts of bullshit that would contain:
- Somehow becomes a baller and expert in alien technology. Knows when the Predator is coming, takes her magic herbs to immediately lower her blood temperature (but is not shivering and still standing up) and is in the Predators path who obviously doesn't see a standing corpse right in front of it or notices her moving out of the way...
- Never used the gun but knows the right angle to shoot and remove his mask (betting on this being a weakness when this did little to stop it before).
- Gets to conveniently escape for the n-th time and has enough time to finish up some traps (which the Predator even hit on some random tree lol).
- Gets hit to the head twice from the shield that cut through the Predators limbs, spear and even stone but is unscathed.
- Can easily remove a fang attached to it's face to save herself just in time.
- GPS dog that always magically reappears is ready to bring her the tomahawk...
- Manages to sit on top of the Predator and even pull him into the bog with a tiny rope and a much much smaller statue.
- The Predator obviously submerges immediately, but little does it know of her the grand plan to have him placed at that exact LOS of the mask in anticipation that he is gonna fire from his gun (despite not having had his mask for the whole time) while he is already targeted by the laser the entire time... b r a v o. Obviously that one shot was also enough to kill it.
...
Honest to god - how does a movie with such a contrived finale get so much praise, or even leave the script writing phase??

I was a bit shocked when I first clicked the IMDB to see it's deep red metacritic score but thought that just maybe it was just pissing of some reviewers... but they are right. This movie sucks.
Unfortunately it's not just a few things that went wrong but the whole thing throughout. First there is the "plot" - haha, just kidding? The survival game scenario can nowadays hardly be called original but never before was it done as superficially as here. None of the characters are worth giving a damn about either because they do not get any development. What we ended up with here is a boring framework for killings, which aren't even worth your time. While they can be considered violent, they lack any punch due to the storytelling but also because it mostly happens off-screen (but not even gore could have saved this). All but the "final" killer in the movie are just time wasters as they absolutely fail to be a threat to the group and are solely defined by their costumes or speech... having just watched the most recent Purge movie I gotta say even that one packs more punch and originality. And if anything screams creativity then it's dark lit pipe-rooms which make up for most of playing field in this.
So yeah, this looks like a passionless side-project for Zombie and I'm sorry for anyone who supported him during it's funding.

I guess I'm contrarian when I look at all these high ratings but what ever.
The plus side is that there is more time with the 'characters' this time around as they're already "assembled" and the action scenes and CG is well done but that is all it's going to get.
The movie is long, really long - despite there being a gaping editing hole already. You still could cut an hour off this without loosing anything important though. It's depressing how something this shallow has been blown up like this.
How great is that we're getting superheroes instead of some other generic action movie. Let's just do all the standard stuff with CG anyways. Some yadadada in some slave country, a trip to Manhattan, South Africa and lets not forget a derailing train action scene in Korea. It's also quite dumb how random the powerlevels are in this (not that the group makes any sense like this anyways).
The big bad? The more he opened his mouth the worse it got. No one said anything about a degenerating A.I. His plan was shite and so was the execution but otherwise someone had to actually write a compelling story that is more than action sequences (or beepbeep to quote Black Widow). You better not be poking for holes in this as it's littered with them.
Too make matters worse the ending was actually the worst part. I don't think we need 20 scenes of them saving a family from the 10th floor or a lady out of her car when countless other people get fucking crushed. A sleazy guy like Stark is already the most popular one of the assemble anyways so why would anyone need confirmation that the guys are not evil? The fighting goes from one-shotting robots en masse, punching them a lot and even drop-kicking a single one - these guys sure are effective (it's amazing how much attention those copy paste robots get). I'm really glad tho that Captain America's spidey senses can feel the "waves" they're attacking in so he can do more drops.
Too bad the Marvel's circle-jerk isn't going to stop anytime soon (with Disney joining in). I rather have the other ones back because they do not get hyped like these movies so I can ignore them more easily. I wonder how many directors more they're going to burn down the road.

Thanks to some wonderful poster artwork and being billed by Noé the movie already earned itself the "artporn" joke. While this isn't true for most of the movie there are indeed some pointless sex scenes to be found.
The story is told from the perspective of Murphy who isn't happy with his current relationship, partially forced on him by an unwanted pregnancy. As he gets a call from his Exes mom worried that she'd done something to herself he starts to reminisce about their old relationship... while doing the opium he got from her "for when he's down". Those segments sometimes carry a Before Sunrise vibe to them but mainly depict what went wrong for the two and sex.
It was sort of nice getting the personal views from the main character (which fit his persona really well while being sort of misogynistic) and Noé adds his directorial flair to many scenes. The music is also really diverse from classic pieces to doing drugs to Salem or a lengthy guitar improv song over a threesome.
While I enjoyed myself in the first half it got rather tedious later on. I don't think we really got into their " love" and some parts of their characteristics were missing; Murphy for instance studies filmmaking (he is an exchange student and came to Paris for this) but this never plays into the plot except for countless movie posters in his room and some dialogue calling 2001 a must-see! Noé also references himself a lot in the movie from naming the MC after his mom, the couples son Gaspar and casting himself as a character called Noé into the movie while calling himself a pedophile...
As for the sex scenes, they're not a big deal mostly and shot well. As the couple gets into their experimental phase however this escalated quite bit with a visit to a swinger club or inviting over a trans only to handle that immaturely. The money shot is obviously also in this in 3D.
The movie had potential but it just doesn't deliver what's needed.

Aw yeah! This is a proper sequel for fucking nazi zombies!
I have to admit that I did't dig the first one all that much but with the zombie battalion moving from the get go it's a lot more fun.
Content wise this gets a lot more absurd which allows for some interesting setups and a battle between German and the Reds. The story continues where the first movie ended but there is a flashback so you get at least the gist of what happened if you haven't seen it (and we all know there isn't a deep story here).
It seems like after having directed a movie in Hollywood that Wirkola's budget for this one was a lot bigger. The zombie fx are all consistently good and the gore is fucking everywhere.
They also went out of their way to break plenty of taboos with holding no restraints when it comes to the nazi decimating the villagers on their final mission. You better not be offended because there are some hilarious deaths thanks to that.
The biggest weakness are probably the members of the US zombie hunter squad whose characters are written a bit too comic-ey but thankfully their screen time is balanced enough. I take it they were added to appeal to a wider audience since whenever they're involved the whole cast is speaking in English.
I can only recommend checking this one out as its funnier, gorier and even has cuter zombies than the first one!

This movie tells your typical love story of two people meeting, falling in love, going through conflict and meeting again one day.
Yes, like you havn't seen that before.. - but there is a twist! It's told using footage of 450+ movies. It often doesn't take more than a couple seconds to jump to a different movie and thanks to the great editing job this flows pretty well and isn't as distracting as it sounds. The scene arrangements even allow for certain in-jokes depending where they have been taken from. The whole thing is also more involving since there is not only the story itself you're putting together but also the context of the scenes and the quiz that runs in your brain about where it's from, where it's at and if you know X, Y or Z. The entertainment value further raises by the amount of the movies used you have seen. It certainly makes for a boss level super-cut.
The director György Pálfi (Taxidermia) put this movie together with four editors over the course of three years. It is the result of the Hungarian state funding not giving new grants for projects for a year and his reshuffeling of post-production budget he got for previous movies.

I wanted to attend a screening of "Grave" (now re-titled to "Raw") almost a year ago from today but it was canceled so I have been looking forward to it's regular release ever since. The general press continued to hype this up, the trailer looked quite dope and even Mondo jumped on the wagon doing the OST pressings... expectations high [✓] (check).
As one can already see by my rating they were not met at all... I was even more so offended that it got that much praise. Frankly put: the movie sucks.
I don't quite understand what it is that some people saw in this... maybe they're vegetarians or just got distracted by the shlock.
The so-so concept which consists of elements all done before is terribly under baked. The changes occurring in the main girl are not really grounded in her character but rely on music or shlock scenes to progress but even with those I feel duped. Nothing in the setting helps to support the story (and it's nonsense) and instead makes the whole thing seem even more unrealistic and distracts with some overly edgy bullshit.
As the movie progresses it just falls apart even more and looses it's focus, building towards a tonally misguided ending. It almost felt like a joke.
The only positive thing I can say that the cinematography is quite good for the most part ¯_(ツ)_/¯...

You can't call out the ABCs of Death for not being an ambitious horror anthology! Featuring shorts for every letter in the alphabet made by directors from all over the world with a budget of 5000$ each. This might be a bit much so it work's best on the small screen, giving you the chance to think about them or just taking a short break (it's clocking at a bit more than two hours). There is bound to be difference in the quality of the segments when it comes to anthologies but overall I found it to be an enjoyable project. Some shorts failed the mood a bit and "M" was a major disappointment (no idea what he used the 5000 bucks for). If you're a horror fan, nothing should stop you from watching it. I would not recommend it for casual viewers.

Standouts: D is for Dogfight (Marcel Sarmiento) / L is for Libido (Timo Tjahjanto) / N is for Nuptials (Banjong Pisanthanakun) / P is for Pressure (Simon Rumley) / T is for Toilet (Lee Hardcastle) / U is for Unearthed (Ben Wheatley) / X is for XXL (Xavier Gens) / Y is for Young Buck (Jason Eisener)
Bads: G is for Gravity (Andrew Traucki) / J is for Jidai-geki (Yûdai Yamaguchi) / M is for Miscarriage (Ti West)

Pretty much agree with @randompadley except that the last 20-30 minutes weren't much more exciting either.
The movie seems to have been written around one core idea but failed to even setup a believable "celebratory weekend get-away" to make up the runtime. Add in tons of classic facepalm horror moments and shitty characters et voilà.
I'd honestly have skipped this seeing who directed it but with the other poster variant it made it appear like there might be something cool going on (with the flipped perspective of the house and the figure in the sky). :thumbsdown:

And while I don't need a resolution to a movie necessarily the reveal that it's just a random stranger doing this only left me with more questions in how this all played out. Kinda hard to believe this setup over a weekend and I doubt the MO should just have been that he likes watching and then killing strangers. I mean he rents the place beforehand to set it all up so just how many places could he possible have "sliced up" by this method... His plan was also far from foolproof. They could have easily have made it away (as shown by the stupid chase scene in the forest)... there is also evidence on their phones, etc. so why even bother removing all the cameras :rolling_eyes:.

There was an Interview with Tow Ubukata on ANN a while back where he talked about the limitations he had when working on Psycho-Pass 2 given that it was squeezed in front of the movie... as it turns out that isn't a good excuse as to why it was so lackluster then the movie works really well as a standalone entry. The existing characters besides Akane and Kougami get very little screentime so they had plenty of freedom.
Anyways, the plot isn't all that movie worthy but the export of Sibyl-"Lite" adds some needed world building as to there the system stands in the world. Since this all plays out abroad in a tropical setting it feels different from the show and the action focus is a lot bigger. It is sort-off filler (depending on Kougami's future role) given that there isn't much lasting impact to the general "universe" from these events.
The animation and action is done well and an upgrade compared to the show plus the dominators wreck a lot more havoc with extra focus on the guts.
All-in-all it's a solid action flick for me but not much more.

(If you haven't seen the show you could watch the movie anyways as the gist of it gets explained in the OP but I can see some head-scratching without any previous knowledge of the show).

Gnaahh~ here we wait again.. the third movie should be fun with the Eclipse finally happening. I even went back to see if there have been some more manga chapters released since I last read up only to realise that in the last 5 months only three new ones came out. I sure hope we don't have to wait another 20 years for it to complete >_>.

As for the movie itself: While I still enjoyed it overall there are plenty of issues. The CGI is still present but it feels like they amped up the use. While sometimes this works, there are many scenes where it looks choppy and ugly as hell. This is rather unfortunate since Berserk is known for Miura's awesome visuals. The other major drawback is the pacing/adaptation. The movie is too short given that the 25-episode anime for the same arc wasn't enough.. how are three movies supposed to work? They skip a lot but still have some scenes running longer which results in a weird pace. The biggest drawback because of that is the lack of character development. Their connection to the Band of the Hawk isn't really there as they hardly get any screentime (which lessens the impact the Eclipse will have), Griffith's determination is played down and Gut's just the muscle. For people new to the franchise it'll just be a medieval action story without much depth...

It would be great if it actually sold well in Japan but that doesn't seem to be the case. It would have been awesome to get the other arcs animated aswell although they would have to make improvement's to their CGI (I don't dare to imagine how the battle versus Ganishka would look).

In my never ending naivety of trying out not too shabby looking found footage movies I gave this one a try. As @kingkon_nl already pointed out this isn't one for the highlight reel. My problem isn't necessarily with the poor FX or the bad acting (Jamal is just as bonkers behind the camera) but the way this all plays out. Instead of devoting time to the process of finding the three supposed specimen the movie cares more about setting up the internal drama of the crew. Their "amazing" project then ends up being 1:1 interviews with each of them in a creepy location. It's no surprise to anyone that things obviously go wrong but even this is in sequence; ohhh nooo, the skinwalker is running after us ---- ohhh noooo, the vampire is attacking ----- oh noooo, there's a demon here. The time devoted to the "ohhhh noooo" part of the movie is actually quite lengthy but also what was the final turnoff for me... how the hell do you make those so boring? It's like 40 minutes of night vision and just running from things. The only semi interesting moment was with the demon (the fog was a cool effect, not the CG however) but even that resulted in nothing.

The fuck is this movie? I was expecting voodoo... but hey, that's not really on the cover ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

Like many of the bad found footage films nothing interesting is happening until 2/3rds into the movie however in this particular case it goes absolutely bonkers. I mean I was sort of impressed at their attempt to create the hellscapes but a low budget production and clumsy film making aren't going to cut it. They built their own set (which was quite obvious) and they certainly liked it thus it got reused non-stop, just like the mediocre lead actress's "range" (just doin' some screaming y'all). Many of the scenes ended up being more silly than anything but still quite unpredictable and thus still interesting to watch. The included obscenities and ending helped the atmosphere of the setting but it's also part of why I'm highly confused... the mythology is non-sense. There is some pseudo voodoo in this - probably - I don't know really because last time I checked you do not use a philosopher's stone in voodoo... there are also ghosts(?) and once everything goes to shit there is just every random satanic imagery at play you can think of but then Satan himself sits on a throne with a philosopher's stone??? I give up really. You probably shouldn't watch this.

I went to see Eden mainly as a time slot filler but I honestly expected more out of it. Loosely based on the experiences of the director's brother as a DJ (who also co-wrote it) and spanning 20 years this could have been interesting and personal. Unfortunately it's over two hour run time is mainly due to the time frame of the story and not because it has any depth (I was a little scared when the "part two" card appeared). It's hard to care for a guy who can't give up on his garage music and coke for 20 years, burning through his little money he has and stacking up debts. There is also no apparent consistency in his relationships... his "true love" goes back to the USA, his then immediate next in line becomes a thing once again when she already has two kids all while he has another GF anyways with whom he seems to be happy and another one exploits him financially for three years (while he fails to get in her pants)? The actor playing the main character also wasn't very good and his crying and DJing scenes cringe worthy. Really... nothing is fleshed out or has a point. At least the characters should have been written properly if you don't have any plot. Since I'm ranting I might also mention the "Daft Punk" thing. They started out the same time as the brother whom this is based on and they shared the same circles but the early focus on them was really unneeded. Seems like a way to boost it's main stream appeal I guess. Too bad they queue their (imho) horrible music over the protagonist's "important" concert he had in NYC.

I've put this on my watchlist quite some time ago and did not bother to check on it's ratings again... unfortunately as they are a fair indication of the quality here.
This is a South American take on hillbilly horror that is at times blatantly derivative of the classics without adding onto it (and nothing supernatural as the poster might have you believe). While the setting of Epecuén with it's tragic past was a good choice for this it ends up kinda wasted. Now I don't expect an indie to be perfect but without a story or tension to show it's hard to glance over the issues.
The characters are stereotypes if they even got that level of "attention" as some are plain interchangeable, the supposed documentary backdrop does never really come into play nor did they do any planning for this and the use of location/space is terrible with a lot of the events feeling disjointed. Part of that is also the editing as I even paused the film to double check if this was really the uncut version*. Not that additional runtime would have necessarily made it better but maybe there is something missing that would have prevented my initial irritation with it. Still plenty of shots lasting for too long or stuff like unnecessary drone shots included though.
When things (finally) go awry it fails to build any tension in part thanks to terrible music choices, shit sound design and choreography. They apparently also enjoyed some Giallo movies recently so they added in red monochrome still frames at one point but never utilizing them again after that (one guy is even wearing a "Francesca" shirt)...
Their final trump card would have been the cruelty showcased from the bad guys but all those scenes are framed in such a way where it's very clear that you're watching a not so great movie and thereby not carrying much weight. Besides the scene where one girl is strapped onto the rack they are also far less graphic than anticipated (and folks are disposed "quickly" otherwise).
Disappointed.

*The "German" uncut version is 93 minutes and so are streaming versions but IMDb lists this at 98 minutes which is also what the Sitges Film Festival had it at in it's archive (where the movie premiered). I'm curious to know if the recent Unearthed US edition is actually at the full runtime?

That's a strange one but since it's for the 4th of July it's not the worst idea to take on political hot topics. These days most of the media produced with a message is usually a left leaning and this one could also just have been that too but despite some easy jabs at Trump it actually also questions the idealization of the "American Dream" of those looking to cross (&the "nice people"). Now don't get me wrong; this is far off from being grounded in reality which also makes it hard for me to accept this as anything relevant to the discussion but it's worth pointing out that it isn't just a "you have to think" lesson.
From a fictional movie standpoint it was a weird mix of previous ideas (ie. "The Stepford Wives" or "Sleep Dealer") which were decently executed but also not without it's heavy "horror" label. I'm sort off glad it didn't go the "Undocumented" route which was sort-off implied from the intro (and given her previous works not unexpected).
It's OK to pass the time but anything else concerned with the morality of the topic was not really coherent to me thus only a 5 (no idea how we are supposed to read Shawn Ashmore's character or them getting really violent to get out of an "assimilation" facility and her killing her rapist and their baby being the reinforcement needed to go back DESPITE all of this happening BECAUSE she wanted to get away from that)...

That's a strange one but since it's for the 4th of July it's not the worst idea to take on political hot topics. These days most of the media produced with a message is usually a left leaning and this one could also just have been that too but despite some easy jabs at Trump it actually also questions the idealization of the "American Dream" of those looking to cross (&the "nice people"). Now don't get me wrong; this is far off from being grounded in reality which also makes it hard for me to accept this as anything relevant to the discussion but it's worth pointing out that it isn't just a "you have to think" lesson.
From a fictional movie standpoint it was a weird mix of previous ideas (ie. "The Stepford Wives" or "Sleep Dealer") which were decently executed but also not without it's heavy "horror" label. I'm sort off glad it didn't go the "Undocumented" route which was sort-off implied from the intro (and given her previous works not unexpected).
It's OK to pass the time but anything else concerned with the morality of the topic was not really coherent to me thus only a 5 (no idea how we are supposed to read Shawn Ashmore's character or them getting really violent to get out of an "assimilation" facility and her killing her rapist and their baby being the reinforcement needed to go back DESPITE all of this happening BECAUSE she wanted to get away from that)...

Dear god, this is such a bad movie. I don't even know why I had it on my watchlist. Inspired by the real life rampage of Elliot Rodger that happened in 2014 it has had it's release delayed due to outrage over it's production. While I do not agree that this was necessarily just, it was probably the best for everyone because this is one of those "inspired by" that can be reduced to "something bad could also happen near me" with superficial motivations. Not renaming the movie was a stupid decision because the director has made some really bullshit statements about what this was going to be about.
"Del Playa" turns out to be an uninspired slasher that fails at it's job... I thought of shutting it off in the first minute where you hear one of the worst acted screams in cinema history. The focus for most of the movie lies with his desired spouse and her campus live so if it couldn't get any more generic then IDK. The backstory is quite cringey with an extra dose of edge added. "Asking the hard questions" the director decided on a visionary direction for the future killer that is unrequited love, bullying and trouble at home. But it's not like this matters all that much since there is a monologue from him later on as well as a voiceover by one of the victims in which they're throwing more possible motives at you. Once the killing starts it doesn't really amp up either... the bad guy moves and fights quite autistic and all the kills are super dark (where you can tell nothing is put on screen) or offscreen. When it's not then still terribly edited (which is a running theme). The climax (happens on Halloween ;;;)) is also of the super "special" kind of dumb.
I could rant on about the music and all but let me just reinstate that this is a bad slasher flick and has NOTHING to do with Elliot Rodger.

It seems really odd that Contracted has gotten a "sequel". The ratings on trakt and on IMDB are not exactly high (and I didn't dig it much either http://trakt.tv/comments/7163) but according to the Producer IFC basically handed them money and let them do what ever they wanted (the original writer and director probably had little to do with this movie).
Being titled " Phase II" one would expect a large scale infection following what happened to Patient 0 in the first one but this isn't the case (yet). The story follows Riley who had the pleasure of poking some worms in the first one and the investigation into the multiple deaths surrounding him. Let's just say this one isn't surpassing the first one in any way.
The investigation is boring, not done proper and conducted by a Canadian cop who doesn't even try to put on a different accent. Parallel to this Riley also tries to find the culprit known as BJ on his own (played by a Barrett look-a-like as he didn't return for the role) because of the changes to his body and the fact that he received threats from him for giving away his license plate number to the cops.
Unfortunately the outbreak is reserved for a different movie along with a conspiracy as they decided to let BJ behave stupidly for no good reason making him the worst person to spread "hate".
We learn nothing really new except that it isn't a STD as spit is already enough to transfer the disease. There is little consistency to the rules: Riley gets well over a week where as another girl he kissed barely makes it a day (his sister who drank a chunk of his blood also lives longer). They also can just infuse the disease with a needle so this sort of ruins the main aspect of the first movie.
As with the one before this, the body horror is the main enjoyment factor for this and there are a few cool scenes for that. It is however very obvious that they were heavily reliant on makeup when it wasn't a closeup.
If you watched the first and didn't hate it it doesn't hurt to see this one too. For those who are torn there isn't much to see here.

I'm always a bit weary when it comes to movies from my country as they tend to be lackluster or made for TV productions (especially when it's sci-fi)! Luckily this wasn't the horror I imagined.
Being a cross media project there is an augmented reality game this movie builds on but not relies on (I haven't played it as it's city based). That is also the main theme the story builds on: an engineer built machine that allows you to blur the line of what is real and virtual. He disappeared as he realized the danger of his invention leaving it up to his wife to stop said release to the public.
The movie has a strong weabonism to it (I made that word up). The opening shot is what looks like a field in the alps with Mt. Fuji in the background and two people in a kimonos walking down the hill. He met his wife in Japan who was cosplaying as "Tokyo Heidi" and she frequently speaks Japanese with their son. The evil lady in the game is also a western rendition of the slith-mouthed woman (an urban myth), and so on. Apparently this is because Japan is already doing more of these kinds of media projects and had thematic influences given.
The film looks good for it's budget and the story was ok. The first half feels rather exposition heavy though and the dialogue is "overwritten" giving it a bit of a theater feel.
By Swiss standards this certainly is a good sci-fi movie it's just something I've personally seen done before better.

Despite Oshii bring a somewhat renowned director it helps to be careful when it comes to his live-action works. There is Avalon which is great but then there's also something like Assault Girls which is just plain horrible. Coming from a series of Live-Action Patlabor films he is back to something less known. I was under the impression that this was actually based on a manga but I'm not sure where I read that. Screenplay and story are not done by him though.
The story follows an art student who was once hailed to be a genious. For reasons unknown she suffers from PSTD and gets quite the special treatment from the school staff, much to the anger of her classmates. She of course gets bullied with no one doing much about it. As she slowly gets her body healthier she also gets her mind back (to quote her doctor)...
The first two thirds of the movie are really slowly paced with slow camera movements and little revelation about the main characters trauma. It isn't until the last third that shit goes wrong and she does exactly what you expected her to.
With the scenario and clues dropped I didn't quite understand the ending, leaving me more questions than answers.
While this isn't as bad as AG it is still a clunky mess.

Uugh... that didn't turn out as expected.
I guess this it is partly my fault as I usually avoid details about a movie before I watch it but due to boredom hit up a review from Fangoria via IMDB anyways. I'm once again reminded that the bigger horror sites nowdays seem to be very prone to shilling... This certainly wasn't the contemporary horror masterpiece they promised:

But for many, there remained a glimmer of hope that the subgenre would find an original, engrossing story that would act as an adrenaline shot to the dying heart of the slasher. And now, that film has been found with Adam Egypt Mortimer’s SOME KIND OF HATE, which, under the right circumstances, could hit contemporary audiences with a brutal, cringe-inducing and legitimately frightening rush in the same way Freddy Krueger did over 30 years ago.

The movie makes bullying it's central theme which is totally new and contemporary... the really misscast emo metalhead gets sent to a reform school for fighting back against his bully - disregarding the fact that this shit was recorded and that his blood is on the ground too. Rest assured that the esoteric school lead by a guru, a weird nobody and the "hot" gym teacher in the middle of the dessert isn't free of that either.
Instead of doing something about the new bully the MC deceides to wish everyone dead in an abadoned cellar where that gets heard by the ghost of a girl who cut open her veins. Bla bla bla, revenge on everyone up to "I DON'T NEED YOU ANYMORE" x2...
The movie unfortunatly isn't blessed with tension and you would be hard pressed to give a damn about anyone. You're left with the money shot only. The killing mechanics for this are actually not that bad but it never follows up a certain angle shown early on leaving the ghost to be a major annoyance only.
I might be rather harsh on this but the social commentary is merly a plot device and the same movie wants to get empathy for a guy who dreams of crushing everyone's skull with a tank when he listens to metal (did anyone ever do that really?) and steals back his phone to impress his crush with his playlist for her of doom and death metal (she might have black hair but she was a cheerleader..).

As apparent by it's trailer, Danger Dolls does not set out for high art. This was also reinstated by the directors video announcement before the screening, stating he wanted to make a movie with "kawaii" girls who are fighting with swords (before he went on to rant about Japan's nuclear energy politics). Unfortunately it's not a very good movie.
The setup goes like this: The Reagan Administration stops the global use of nuclear energy (and weapons). The ever so popular President George Bush manages to dispose of guns world wide. Come present day, guns might be gone but there is still criminal activity with swords being the weapon of choice these days. Enter the bad guys from an alternate reality, looking to rule the world that does not have nuclear weapons... It's obviously the job of the Danger Dolls to put an end to this.
My main issue with the movie is easily the fighting. There are plenty of (repetitive) battles but they're not particularly exciting and despite the sword action there is no blood at all except for the one time a "normal" human got hurt. Despite it's ridiculous setup (and FX) it's all played straight but some more humor would have been welcome.
The idol part of the movie was really clunky and seems to be for milking only as the inserts to the alternate reality Danger Dolls "idol group" were distracting and the whole undercover operation as idols was really dumb.
Given that the director Shusuke Kaneko did his fair share of movies I was bound to expect more (I enjoyed his "God's Left Hand, Devil's Right Hand").
There is already an english dubbed trailer for the movie which suggest they want to market it. So if you are going to watch it I can only recommend to keep your expectations in check.

There are things you can only find in Japan and I would count Puzzle to them.
Surprisingly this whole affair is based on a book by Yûsuke Yamada who also sees a different novel adaptation of his this year by Noboru Iguchi (which I sadly missed) and already had some in the past like "When I Kill Myself" which apparently no one watched... Speaking of things no one watched, the director Eisuke Naitô's previous film with the eye-catching title "Let's-Make-the-Teacher-Have-a-Miscarriage Club"! You bet your ass that this is going to be relevant here.
The movie can be put into the "death game" genre as some students wearing super cute sunflower masks terrorize their school with morbid games. The scenarios are all darkly comic ranging from snatching puzzle pieces from RC cars to collecting bicycle bells to extend the timer on a ticking bomb. The one device on the poster is an obvious spoof of the first Saw but does have it's use despite looking cheesy.
As mentioned before it is rather dark sometimes and even a bit misogynistic but it's playful and weird side help to make it lighter. Before anyone thinks "sick Japanese", the American representative of the genre - Saw - is in the same boat but tries to play everything straight.
It should be really easy to judge from the trailer if it's for you. I certainly got my money's worth. I wasn't a big fan of the ending though but you can attribute some of that to crazies. Since the lead actress is also an idol you also get some odd free dance scene at the end with a confrontation to an iguana (or some reptile) which is about a fitting closing scene...