leon-smoothy Reviews

It Comes at Night (2017)

Failed try at horror "art-movie"

[2/10 · 4 March 2019]

It can not be that bad with Edgerton in the lead role, right? We want to kkow what it is thats coming at night, right? Well, after a slow but fairly promising beginning, the wait for answers get more and more annoying. You realise you've spent 50% of the movie waiting for something. Then 75%. "Hmm, it's gotta pan out soon, lots only 10 minutes left"...

Suddenly you've been robbed of nearly 2 hours of your when the aftertexts start to roll. It's like buying a puzzle and realizing all the interesting pieces did not come in the box, so you have to fill it in with your own images.

Avoid.

The Alienist (2018–2020)

Promising, professional -high class!

[8/10 · 25 August 2018]

I avoided this series at Netflix because of the name. "The Alienist" is maybe not a selling title for those liking serious criminal thrillers with great actors...

But after now having watched the first episode, man, was I wrong!

This is an intriguing and gruesome Jack the Ripper-style thriller in a turn of the century New York, it's main character the brilliant Daniel Brühl as an "Alienist" - an early title of a Psychologist. No aliens here. He gets involved in solving a series of horrible gruesome murders on young runaway boys, which the often bribed police are not so inclined to really solve.

This is a high class production from top to bottom, and I can't wait to see the rest of the series, but you'll probably as I did get hooked from the first minutes. One of few really good series on Netflix now.

Hemlock Grove (2013–2015)

A First season fairly short review - some spoliers!

[8/10 · 17 July 2018]

For those of you not yet seen it and wonder: "What differs this from all other monster series (mostly crap) that's been the last 5-8 years?" Well, first it's produced by Eli Roth (you know, the Hostel-movies?). That means: do not eat at the same time you watch, and yes, it is hyper-gory. This shows every brutal detail: eyes popping out, people consuming festered corpse-fluids, several people cut in half, or skinned alive, faces chewed off, showed for all to study in detail.

It is damn exciting though, because you'll be sitting guessing who's the main crook, of many evil people, who the first seasons chase is about? You'll probably find that the classic stereotypes of vampire/Werewolf movies are a bit thrown aside here. Of course the perpetrator attacking teenage girls in Jack the Ripper-style × 5 has to be a man, right? Hmm...who could it be? The settings are a combination of hi tech genetic abominations and monsters, and I cannot really understand some of the very low ratings here. I caught me after about 15 minutes and I could not what to get to the end of the first season; now I've started s2.

Not for all, but far better than any True Blood or Walking Dead ever was.

Stranger Things (2016–2025)

The Future is here: The past!

[9/10 · 13 July 2018]

Let me just; this just blew me away!

Had just read the Netflix short intro and thought "well, another one with some kid mysteriously disappearing...yawn"

But then slow night when I couldn't sleep I gave it a shot, and I was soon sucked in to this weird story, and that it was actually about MK-ULTRA program in the 70-80's, and the acting from both the kids who are the centre protagonists and the adult actors is top notch. It's a complete flashback to the 80's, with all from music, cars and everything else. The main plot centres around a mysterious girl stumbling out of the woods in Indiana, dirty and with an abnormally short-shaved hair. She gets shelter at a family's home and it soon turns out she's seriously traumatized and some freaky mental powers not to be trifles with. Another small boy from the same town goes missing in the woods and cannot be found. Strangely acting people start turning up in the town under different disguises, asking questions, making seemingly ordinary electric installations around town. The search for the lost boy and who the girl really is falls upon a group of 3 young kids who makes stunning discoveries; something really dangerous lurks in the woods and the governement seems to be involved.

It's well worth the high ratings here, can't wait for a third season. A really good Netflix experience!

Ghost Wars (2017–2018)

Different series in an overcrowded genre

[7/10 · 11 July 2018]

Appeared recently in my countrys Netflix library and I just took a shot and started watching, though sceptic after seeing other similar series like "Oucast" etc I och I did not like..

Turned out to be very intelligent exciting though, with its connection to Accelerelator/Hadron Collider-fears and the conspiracy nut-theories about punching hole is to parallel dimeminsions through science experiments. There's said by many "religion and science/scientific research are not compatible, religion is for nutjobs and the 'intelligentia' concentrate on scientific research".

Well, a few hundred years ago the earth was flat according to science (it's sailed up AGAIN!), an a few thousand years ago it was flat but resting on 4 giant elephants resting on 1 huge turtle (Babylonian/Medo-Persian/Assyrian science).

Anyway, all in all its about a remote village in Washington outside Seattle, housing a hi-tech company (not unlike the "Umbrella Corporation" in Resident evil but with more down do earth goals, having some device to collide small particles, and it goes horribly wrong, starting up before finished, opening up gates wherever and letting people in the city but not out. But evil things are definitely getting in.

If the subject interests you it might well be worth a watch, says me having seen about 80% of the available season so far. Cannot say if the end will pannout good, but it definitely has got the potential yet.

Alone in the Dark (2005)

OK, WHY did I watch this movie through?

[1/10 · 5 July 2018]

I'm a real movie afficionado, as many of you are. I like quality movies, regardless of plot. I'm no snob. But you can't fool me, because I know you've done the same mistakes I have as an adult: Watch complete crap til the bitter end! What's my defence, you ask? Just got Netflix. It just appeared there. I had time to spare.

This starts as a standard horror movie, and no spoiler, this is the lines written before the movie starts; about ancient forgotten native Americans nobody remembers but they screwed up and opened a portal they FORGOT to close, to a dimension with horrible being wanting to take over earth. Good job there! But it's got Slater and Dorff in it, it could not be...that bad, right? AND - it's got lots of artefacts! Artefacts are cool, right? (20 Of them!!)

About 15-25 minutes in you realise this is just not a sub-par horror flick, it's a punishment, it's actual abuse of adult viewers. I mean, I'm putting my rep on the line here telling you I've seen this. Can I write a best seller about this at least...and get some money? "I saw Alone in the dark - How I got back to life".

But...maybe...maybe it will get better? Then the monsters enter the stage, and if you like man-sized dinosaurs, this is your gig! But then they start playing Marilyn Manson and a SWAT team comes into the picture and it's in slow motion and pale weirdos appear too. I didn't want this!! I want to be happily scared a bit.

People - we got to fight this kind of abuse of horror film lovers around the globe. Unite!

PS. Do not watch this. It may cause serious trauma.

American Poltergeist (2015)

How can a movie be this bad? And: Get NETFLIX for this quality!!!

[1/10 · 29 June 2018]

I would not review this if it was not to save people from 2 hrs of wasting their lives (and several more hours wishing they had not). First: Donna Spangler rivals Tommy Wiseau in "The Room" in acting performance here. Though The Room and Tommy is entertaining. Better things to do for 2 hours: *Intensely pick your nose for no reason at all. *Hammer a nail through your pinkie toe (I know, it HURTS!) *Prank call the Police 100 times. *Poop in your new (beige) 10.000 $ Barcelona sofa. *Hit your kind, loving mother with a metal soup spoon on the nose for no reason.

Ok, that was the most brutal thing I've ever written about a movie, and I'm a mellow, kind man. But please, do not watch it...

Ash vs Evil Dead (2015–2018)

Free your mind and your ass will follow...

[8/10 · 11 June 2018]

Having seen the original in my early teens and never really thought the follow ups had much to offer, this was a positive surprise. Cool, great acting, excellent special effects, brutally great monsters and also off course stomach turning comedy, this has all you will expect from an Evil Dead follow up. Favourite scene so far? The "Ayuhuasca-trip"...

Rebirth (I) (2016)

A great potential turned into a disappointment

[3/10 · 4 June 2018]

I thought this was going to be a good flick, and for once not a 9 season dragout like many Netflix stuff. It was wasted. It's like a combination of Herbalife success pyramid and Scientology, maybe. Money, money, money - "you can leave right through that door, man!" A brick wall/another door/another room etc...could have been good, but the older I get (I'm not THAT old a fart, kids!) I just more and more prefer documentaries, because reality is so more frightening than fiction nowadays. A reasonably successful guy get invited to a "Rebirth" weekend by an old college mate, and...its Not really healthy and it's not really just a weekend. It's a mix of a new age/Jim Jones camp, thoigh the ending is sadly disappointing. The last, maybe, 35 minutes, is like someone got the message on a Friday: "The darn movie must be finished by Monday, get it?!!"

The Invitation (I) (2015)

Will keep you on the edge of your seat!

[9/10 · 23 April 2018]

I had no high expectations for this one. It quickly changed. It made me wonder: Is this just another movie about a psychopath, or a mentally ill man with traumatic memories or what? It twists and turns. Who is sane and who is no...so sane. But I will say this; it is one of the best indie thrillers I've seen the latest years. You cannot really see where it's going at all until the very end, even partly until the last 30 seconds, and it's a bit of a shocker in its scope. Forget all bad slasher, predictable "mad man at party"-movies you've seen - and see this.

Pusher II (2004)

A brutal masterpiece about the modern underworld

[9/10 · 24 March 2018]

As a fan of all of Winding Refn's movies, this is up there with Pusher (1) and Bronson. A painfully realistic picture of the Scandinavian crime underworld, with very few winners and many, many losers ruining their lives. This movie does not hold back on anything - it's not the Hollywood glorifying tale about "career criminals" - it shows the reality of this life, with no honour and so many betrayals. Tonny is a character from the first Pusher movie, this time just out of a jail sentence, returning to his former associates, with no money, no real friends and no assets whatsoever, seeking refuge at his crime boss father, who has always despised him and humiliated him.

Desperate to make some kind of livelihood and impress his dad, "Smeden", he turns to some old companions, only to find betrayal in return. He's not "tough enough", more sensitive and unsecure than others in his crowd, and pays a heavy price for it. There's no winners or losers here; It's the real world, and it will leave you emotionally drained after seeing it, but if you are looking for a realistic depiction of a modern criminal's haunting, gruesome and stressful life - look no further.

Stalingrad (1993)

A terrifying great film that will shake you

[9/10 · 23 March 2018]

For those interested in WW2 or not, this movie is a masterpiece and for a change not made by Hollywood, but a high budget film made by one of the the nations that has had to deal with the madness and suffering of this pointless slaughter at the eastern front. It may frighten American/British viewers not used to subtitles, but do not miss it because of that. It has among the greatest younger generation of German actors in their early roles before Hollywood careers (Thomas Kretschmann!). This really brings out the futility of this campaign and focuses mainly on the Wehrmacht, not psychotic Waffen SS-stereotypes.

It is painful to watch, yes, mostly focused on a platoon, certain character portraits from the German side, not the Russian side, but is in no way glorifying or justifying the Nazi ideology. It's just a very realistic, gruesome portrait of the insanity of war and waste of human lives.

Do not miss out on this one!

Mama (I) (2013)

A dark and unusual faery-tale like horror flick

[8/10 · 17 February 2018]

Seemed like a pretty standard run-of-the-mill horror movie when I first read about it and saw the trailers, but as I saw it (about 3 weeks before official release) it's actually one of the new millenias most unusual film in its genre. It's has a very dark and strange theme and feel to it, but at the same time an old school Grimm-brothers-like storyline and keeps on surprising. Truly unique and a must see for any horror movie fan.

The Butterfly Effect (2004)

Well worth seeing, and Kutchers only watchable movie

[7/10 · 17 February 2018]

This might seem a cheesy plotline, but is actually very entertaining. To make things short, it's just what the title reveals; small changes, if you could do them; and who has not ever thought of what would had happened if you just kicked that horrible bully in the teeth/took that seemingly amazing opportunity/ stood back from taking a certain step, intervened when you never did, would have resulted in 20 years later? A better life, or a worse? In all its silliness, it's a damn entertaining movie.

The Infiltrator (2016)

A masterpiece about the 80's drug cartel business in the USA.

[8/10 · 27 January 2018]

This movie will leave you on the the edge of your seat from beginning to end. If you know anything about the beginning of the South American drug cartels, and their way of operating, or not, this will be a rewarding experience. Cranston is, as usual, excellent in his role as a US Customs agent posing as a major money laundered to get the big fishes on the hook during the 80's blooming cocaine trade in Florida. As a former accountant, a family man with children, he soon realises he is in over his head, but raises to the task and do an excellent, but constantly life threatening job. Adapting to an increasingly brutal environment he does a great job, despite not getting really good support from his superior officers. A movie based on true events, and one I wished actually were longer than it's 127 min running time. A must see.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

Horror fans - do NOT miss this one!

[8/10 · 9 January 2018]

Found this in a bargain DVD-crate at a local store, thought it was rubbish as about 90% of these kind of movies. Then I saw Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch starred, and as I like both actors I bought it for 2$. And, man, it was well worth it! This is a bit of an odd, quirky horror movie, set in a real uncomfortable place; an old funeral home/coroner's office, with some great gutwrenching twists and great acting. The end part is not how you think it will go down, and in a dark room at night, you'll be sitting on edge just about all the way through.

American Horror Story (2011– )

2017 AHS Cult crosses all the lines

[1/10 · 10 November 2017]

Having watched most episodes of the series since start, the info that the latest season, Cult, would be "grounded, non occult" and being based on the 2016 election seemed like a better, fresh idea. Having seen this, being quite a fan of horror movies, and especially "AHS Freak Show"I've made one real disturbing reflection, and want to include a warning to both previous fans and new watchers; this is almost worse in every way than anything put out so far. Why?

Well, it depicts such extremely detailed brutal, deranged, scenes of perverse violence and mindless, senseless murders and torture it makes previous seasons, and almost every heavily censored horror movie, or other, ever publicly available seem like a nice family comedy. I'm not easily phased or judging, but this crosses the line of what should be done, especially as a TV series.

The main reason I say this is that I believe this could be like a lighted match thrown on barrels of fuel for those already violent, and/or mentally unstable with violent tendencies. I've seen documentary clips from Nazi camps experiments easier to watch than much of this.

It's no joke. A few examples: if you don't feel turned on by extreme detailed close ups of people being slowly executed by castration, nailguns through their head, hung in skin-hooks from the ceiling and stabbed in the heart and genitals etc, etc...do not watch it and do not have your kids watch it. I hope this is not taken as a teaser, or a spoiler, because it's not. It's just a small piece of a small part of an episode. And it made me not wanting to recommend it for anyone, or want to watch it anymore.

Meet Joe Black (1998)

A disrespectful ridiculement of death and sorrow.

[2/10 · 3 November 2017]

A ridiculous movie in all aspects. If this movie should have worked, it would probably needed someone like Kurosawa to pull it off. A more dreamlike, bizarre setting. The Angel of Death, taking people's lives personally, doubting his own role and falling in love with a beautiful woman? Has he not seen beautiful women yet? A ridiculous question, about a scaring subject matter. This movie had to have been more dreamlike, absurd, to work at any level. Then it could have been a serious tale about loss and loss of life... But it becomes like a bad comedy instead. Do not waste your time on this.

The Recall (2017)

It do not get much worse than this. Ever.

[1/10 · 6 September 2017]

I did not know what movie I had zapped to on my TV screen, but then Wesley Snipes popped up, and I thought, he can be cool on a good day. But, man, was I wrong. This is some C-movie "Independence day in the forrest" trash. Acting is bad, story's bad, effects are bad, everything is baaad, mm'kay!?

Avoid at all costs. Time spent more wisely includes: Eating nails, throw yourself of a high chair, go on vacation in Syriah. Among other things.

I Am a Hero (2015)

Wow - The Japanese have done it again!!

[8/10 · 4 September 2017]

Personally, I'm tired of zombie-films/series now, too many bad ones has been made, it's time for something really different. Then the Japanese do what they have done so many times before: taking a genre and tweaking it, perfecting it, making it exciting again. This movie is a real gem, but I doubt one many westerners have heard of as yet. Made by popular Japanese director Shinsuke Sato, a Director of many popular Japanese films in his country to these Days, this film shares a lot of elements with 28 days later, and this is the best zombie film since. The main character is Hideo, a 30-something Manga artist out of luck, his girlfriend/wife is fed up with his lack of success. Then reports of a new virus spreads around Tokyo, making people act, at first too late, then erratically, all the time trying to calm the public and so on. And from there this great movie takes off like the opening of Pandoras Box. It's a high budget production, with great action scenes and special effects, the most scary and diverse zombies ever to hit the screen, but also with more personality than other zombies (the high-jump athlete zombie is a masterpiece only a Japanese horror mind could have come up with!). If you're one of those thinking:"Dude, I've seen like THE worst AND the best zombie death scenes there is, so, don't bother me"....You should see this one. It's a story containing both humour, warmth and great character development, not just the random slasher. It has got some very fresh plot twists and some really nasty moments. It's blended with some real tranquil sequences, and then all hell brake loose again. Made in great environments, it has a genuine Japanese cultural feel to it and excellent camera-work, making it far more interesting to watch than any other western zombie/horror film nowadays. The soundtrack is great too. If you are a horror movie fan, a zombie aficionado, or just like action movies, here you've got something far more exciting to spend time watching than another episode of the (sleep) Walking Dead, and most other horror movies right now.

So, thank you Shinsuke Sato for renewing this genre and constantly showing the rest of the World what great filmmakers you Japanese are. Don't miss it, it's a no brainier!

Leon Smoothy

The Atticus Institute (2015)

Above average mocumentary you'll wanna see more than once

[8/10 · 24 August 2017]

It surprises me the low average rate this movie has. The multitude of films out there that's not even watchable to the end about similar subjects are huge, yet many has got a higher rating. I don't know if the crowd watching this "low/middle-budget" film are expecting more blood and guts or what? This is quite a scary movie in the way that it deals with a subject actually practiced on a large scale by the CIA in the late 60-mid 70's. It's no fiction, Clinton even apologized for "the hundreds of thousands of civilians, mental patients, prisoners and military personnel abused by the government's in experiments" (among other projects the s.c "MK-ULTRA"). There is a lot of lies flying around the net about these experiments, but what makes this movie interesting is that even Reagan admitted to consulting mediums and (I don't really know the American term for it) "far-seers", people who claimed they could see Soviet activity from USA through their minds, and had used it for his decision-making. That's more than a bit worrying, and it's basically what this movie deals with.

It's a well made movie, scary for those knowing what dealing with the occult from a "scientific" point of view (or any other) could result in. The actors all do a credible job, and it deserves being watched. One of the better movies on this subject made.

Satanic (2016)

Another great subject destroyed by sloppy script/direction

[2/10 · 22 August 2017]

I just stumbled across this movie. It's another of these kind of movies that really could have been chilling, but is so filled with, in this case, not actor failures (they're OK) as the script/director failures. Why destroy a descent outset with people not asking relevant questions at all, anywhere in the movie. F.e right after your friend died in a weird horrible way, your other friend are seriously injured in a weird way, then calls 911 because a person is hurt, then when the THIRD friend is 10mtrs behind is asking: "Is everything alright?", answering "YES"?? And this is where things already taken a bad turn, any serious individual would have called the police long ago. Then things like a person right in front of another, stand w his back to a portapotty, explaining what went wrong, and in the next instance have disappeared, apparently just in front of two of the other main characters without them even reacting!

It's one of those movies some of you talented people sit thinking: "Man, I could have done this so much better, why did they destroy this?", and you are probably right (It's a low budget movie, but not that low budget).

It begins better than it ends. Watch it in no other purpose than an educating one. (How not-to).

Black Sea (2014)

A disaster with plot holes deeper than the title

[1/10 · 19 August 2017]

I'm an avid submarine fan and love these kind of movies, but though also a fan of some of the actors, this is a movie to avoid at all costs. I was baffled to see a 6.4 average for this on IMDb. It contains so many plot holes, not just for a person familiar with the operation of underwater vessels and diving (just 1 example: how about sonar pings from a 50's sub making no sounds?), but will most likely be unbearable to anyone because of this. Whole segments are just as if they were left out, and the whole concept was down right stupid on top of that, and the reasoning among the characters is amazingly weird, and not in a good way. I will not go into any more details, not to spoil it for those still wanting to waste almost 2 hours of a Saturday night as I did, but heed my advice - avoid it.

Outcast (2016–2017)

Scary? Not even close...

[3/10 · 3 June 2017]

The writer/director of this series stated he genuinely wanted to scare people in a new way, keep them on the edge. Well, dealing with this subject matter, it's not really scary. For anyone knowing what's going on around them in this world I can say this; To portray this threat in this way - keep a person tied to a chair and then some chosen people "fix them", is a preposterous approach, and not scary. If you want scary about this subject matter, watch a documentary - it's a LOT more scary in reality - but my advice is stay clear of it all together...

Legion (2017–2019)

A total mess and complete disappointment

[1/10 · 9 February 2017]

Being a hard core Marvel-fan I had high hopes for this first episode, but it turned out to be out to be a complete mess. I get what the director/writer tries to produce here; a psychedelic, dreamlike nightmare description of a mutant not aware of his powers. It could have been excellent, but after the first episode I was so disappointed I just wanted to stop watching at halftime. It tries so hard to jump between dream- sequences, chock effects, different settings in an epileptic-attack causing (I'm not kidding here) blur of flickering, weird colour schemes and a constant change between slow-mo and fast-forward scenes for one hour I just felt a combination of boredom and nausea at the end. It tries so hard to be "arty" and, I suppose "ground breaking", trying to be Kubrick/Winding-Refvn/von Trier-strange and "mind blowing" (three excellent directors btw), but falling so completely flat it's embarrassing. I just can't comprehend all the 10-ratings it's gotten here...I love quirky, different, ground breaking, daring series/films, but this just seems like a drab film student project with unlimited funds gone completely haywire.