jondav2006 Reviews

Hunter Hunter (2020)

Nonsensical film

[2/10 · 25 February 2021]

The film starts off well; it's atmostpheric and mysterious. Then it slows down and stops making any sense. And then in the last act, goes straight tumbling downhill.

As several reviewers have pointed out, several actions of the characters are highly questionable. The first and arguably the biggest issue is Joseph's incredibly stupid behavior after finding the corpses of women in the woods. He doesn't call in the police; in fact, goes back to the crime scene the very next day. It does appear, as per dialogues towards the end, that catching the psycho (the "wolf") was indeed his intention. But then, what exactly is the point of returning to the crime scene and sitting in the *middle* of it ? Even if he wanted to hunt down the killer (as stupid as that idea was), why not set up an ambush (like he used to do with wolves) ? Exactly what does returning to the scene of murders and sitting in the middle achieve ?

Moving on, after Joe's disappearance, Anne remains unusually calm even after Joe being missing for (apparently) 4/5 days. She's worried alright but only mildly. Given the situation - husband missing for 4/5 days in the woods (clearly he wouldn't have carried food to survive for so long in the wilderness) - I found it hard to believe that Anne wasn't seriously losing her mind.

Sadly this was the least of the film's problems. The final act is a total letdown. As someone rightly pointed out, it appears that the director came up with a gory, shocking scene and wove the last act (or quite possibly the whole film itself) around it. Once again this scene makes no sense. By mutilating the killer, Anne just paints a target on her head for law enforcement. The crime scene as it appears at the end of the movie, would make Anne the prime suspect of the case, including the murders in the woods.

All in all, a disappointing film.

The Mortuary Collection (2019)

Absolute rubbish

[1/10 · 25 February 2021]

I cannot believe that this trash passes off as horror these days. First off, the tone of the movie is clearly aimed at juvenile viewers - the halloweeen crowd; who pretend to be scared of "creepy" stories and think that's fun (I'm not a prude either but to me the idea of fun in horror is closer to evil dead than trick or treat nonsense). The second issue are the anthologies themselves; none seem to be definitively connected to the main character (mortician) or to each other. The last story is the absolute worst of the lot - the director goes all in with the standard horror tropes! The twists, which is supposedly fun according to our usual halloween crowd, just make the story lamer and lamer. By the end, I was furious of having wasted 1.5 hours of my life on this pile of junk which I'll never get back.

A quick word on the ratings. It's mind-boggling to see this film enjoy a 6.5 rating as of this writing, while more decent efforts (e.g. Bryan Bertino's The Dark And The Wicked) get rated lower. It's really a pointer to the intellectual maturity of the contemporary audience, or lack thereof, in general.

SMH.

Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within (2010)

Really ? Propaganda ?

[1/10 · 30 August 2018]

*** WARNING: Some spoilers follow...

Don't believe the hype. Film pushes a propaganda that Human Rights activists disrupt police from meting out justice. They are portrayed as cunning, sly folks who connive with criminals and vice versa to deprive the poor common public of justice. A thug involved in the prison riot at the beginning of film demands a human rights activist (NOT a lawyer) in his defence! The activist himself is portrayed as a scheming individual who either sneers or acts bossy in front of police officials. Outside, he rants against the police in front of press with ghoulish aggression, eyes protruding with fictitious rage, leading to our protagonist's young son question (and, if I remember correctly, confront) his father's ethics. I turned off the movie as soon as the ridiculous nonsense started.

This sort of propaganda is typical of oppressive regimes which rely on police excesses and fake charges of terrorism etc. to oppress vulnerable minorities and suppress dissent. In many countries across the world, common people esp. those from vulnerable groups targeted by the dominant community (or political party) live in fear of police rather than respecting them precisely because they abuse the very people they were meant to protect and get away due to institutionalized impunity. NO, an armed police/army is NEVER a victim in an overwhelming majority of cases as being peddled by this film.

I don't know much about this director, but he seems to be a naive person full of jingoistic tendencies. Rather sad, as artists, including those in the movie industry are supposed to be vanguards of free speech/expression and champions of civil rights.

Hobo with a Shotgun (2011)

Forgettable trash

[3/10 · 15 May 2011]

Now I may really have lost the taste for b-grade action flicks or maybe this film was just poorly made. Either ways, I found it hard to enjoy for several reasons.

Firstly, the sets looked way too artificial with monotonous wallpapers and colors all around. Adding to the distraction was the bright colored lighting (typically red or blue) used throughout the film. Basically, it failed to imitate the classy (and trashy) look of the 80's low-budget films (Machete did get this right, though) and therefore it feels more like cheap "quickie" by film-school dropouts on a shoe-string budget than a respectable homage to the former. Further letdowns were witless dialogues, the climax (especially the "Plague", which made no sense whatsoever) and one scene of violence in particular which was just way too much shocking for my taste.

3/10 (I'm giving these points only because of Rutger Hauer, otherwise there is no redeemable quality on this film.)