Tag Archives: Violence

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Bellflower (2011)

Bellflower review

The rise of technology has had a big impact on the world including the world of film. Digital cameras are now of the quality that it is possible to make your own low-budget movie in HD. Even special effects can now be done on you PC at home and this has resulted in some interesting low-budget movies in recent years. Bellflower has been made with a tiny budget of $17000 and shot on a camera that director/editor/producer/writer and actor Evan Glodell made himself. He made the camera because he wanted a unique look he might not get out of “normal” cameras. It’s an interesting approach, but is the end result worth watching? Continue reading →

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Manda Bala (Send A Bullet) (2007)

São Paulo, Brazil. A city in which an estimated 17 to 20 million people are living and a place where a lot of poor Brazilians move to in the hope to start a better life. It’s a city with a lot of skyscrapers, but a lot of favelas as well. The difference between rich and poor is very big, which has resulted in an extremely high number of kidnappings. Not a day goes by without at least one happening and the ransom is usually very high. To prove that the family needs to pay the kidnappers use violence and it’s “normal” to cut off an ear of the victim and mail it to the family. Continue reading →

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Bastards of the Party (2005)

Gangs have been around for several decades. Especially at the beginning of the nineties, when gangster rap was listened to all around the globe everyone started to learn more about them. Various movies were made about these groups and outside America gangs were formed with the same names as the original American gangs (in The Hague, Netherlands there is a Crips gang as well, which was subject of the 2009 documentary Crips, Strapped ‘n Strong). Bastards of the Party is a documentary which investigates the history of gangs and what caused these groups to form. Continue reading →

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Lady Vengeance (2005)

Lady Vengeance is the third film of Park Chan-Wook’s revenge trilogy (the other two are Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy). The protagonist is Lee Geum-ja (Lee Young Ae) who has just been released from prison after she was sentenced to go there for murdering a little boy. She’s innocent though and has been able to plan her revenge on the real killer (played by Choi Min-Sik). During her prison sentence she made a name for herself and after her release she can use the friends she made there to execute her plan. Continue reading →

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Animal Kingdom (2010)

After the death of his mother teenager Joshua Cody (James Frecheville) is forced to move in with his grandmother, Janine “Smurf” Cody (Jacki Weaver).
She lives together with her three sons, who are all criminals and suspected of various criminal activities like armed robberies and dealing drugs. The police is constantly keeping an eye on them. It doesn’t take long before the Cody boys involve Joshua in their way of doing business. Will Joshua be able to resist the temptation? Continue reading →

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The Chaser (2008)

An agent that has become a pimp, Women that disappear and a serial killer are the ingredients for The Chaser, a South Korean crime thriller. Joong-ho (Yun-seok Kim) runs an escort company and notices that a couple of the women he is using are not coming back. When he sends one of his girls, Mi-jin (Yeong-hie Seo), to a customer he finds out that he has sent her to the same customer the other girls went after they disappeared. He decides to track him down as he’s worried about Mi-jin. He managed to find him (a role excellently played by Jung-woo Ha), but there is no trace of the woman. When both of them are arrested it’s the start of an exciting search for the missing woman in a race against the clock. Continue reading →

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Sucker Punch (2011)

When I first heard about this movie I thought it sounded pretty interesting. A movie with dragons, zombie nazis, samurai, robots, helicopter, beautiful women and action sounded very good. After watching about 10 seconds of the trailer I stopped watching it as I knew I just had to see this movie. I went to see it as soon as it came out. Question is whether this film is just as fantastic as it sounds? Continue reading →

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I Saw the Devil (2010)

Revenge movies. It’s a genre in which South Korea seems to be specialised. At least that’s my conclusion after having seen several of them. These films are not afraid to show violence in all its gruesome detail and manage to shock and make you feel something while you are watching it. I Saw the Devil takes the revenge idea a bit further than expected as just getting revenge once does not seem to be enough. While you are watching you will feel uncomfortable about this story in which Kim Soo-hyeon (Byung-hun Lee (The Good, The Bad, The Weird)) wants to have revenge on a serial killer, Kyung-Chul (played by Min-sik Choi (Oldboy)), who has murdered his wife. Continue reading →

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The Mechanic (2011)

Just like Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham is an action star whose movies I’ll always try watch. Most of them are not masterpieces, but his cold stare, cool image and his fighting techniques make most of his films very enjoyable. In the Mechanic he’s one of the best assassins in the world. He lives alone, works alone and his only person he could call a friend is the person that gives him his assignments.

When he’s forced to train someone else (Steve McKenna, played by Ben Foster) who has a connection with one of his victims, things get more complicated. It’s a situation he has to handle with a lot of care.