Category Archives: 100 word review

“Choose or Die” (2022) #100WordReview #NetflixReview

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Think “Horror Jumanji”

After starting up a previously undiscovered survival horror video game from the mid-80s, “Curs<r”, a young programmer’s world is torn apart as the game unleashes real world horror. Think “Horror Jumanji” or “Ring + Saw”.

Choose or Die is the feature debut from British director Toby Meakins, and stars young and old British talent such as Iola Evans, Asa Butterfield, Eddie Marsan and, err, Robert England Englund (well, he did go to RADA).

The film is tense, genuinely horrifying, and one of the trials is truly disturbing. It’s a bit different, but nothing revolutionary. There are some weaknesses in the plot and acting.

A strong and enjoyable horror flick.

3/5

© 2022 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Las Elegidas ‘The Chosen Ones’ (2015) #NetflixReview #100wordreview

100 word review, 3/5, film review, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

disturbing

Las Elegidas (‘The Chosen Ones’) follows a fourteen year old who gets kidnapped into sexual slavery by her boyfriend who is himself under the duress of his people-trafficking older brother and father. The boyfriend begs his father but is presented with a stark choice: his girlfriend will be released if he finds another girl to fill her space. So we spend half the film with him seducing another girl, ultimately successfully. His girlfriend is changed forever, however, and is “released” but only to live with the family and under their supervision at all times.

The film was moving. The sex scenes were disturbingly shot, but featured no actual sex. But this made it all the more disturbing as the sex is in our minds.

However, the film ends rather abruptly. Just as a plotline develops about one of the patrons of the brothel being an undercover would-be liberator of the girls, credits roll.

3/5

© 2020, 2022 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Film Review “Hypnotic” (2021) #NetflixReview #100WordReview

100 word review, 3/5, film review, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

entertaining bit of brain bubblegum

A young woman overcoming a broken relationship begins seeing a renowned psychotherapist. However, when he cracks open a can of hypnotism in their intense sessions, things go dangerously off the rails.

The publicity photos and tag line (“His wish is her command”) essentially give away the story. However, the moment we lay eyes upon our hypnotherapist, we know what’s going to happen; his motives are transparent, his sliminess obvious.

This is an entertaining and capably acted flick. It’s no classic, though. A nice light entertaining bit of brain bubblegum.

3/5

© 2022 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Film Review “Below Zero” a.k.a. “Bajocero” (2021) #NetflixReview #100WordReview

100 word review, 4/5, film review, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

[we’re] parts of an essentially uncaring machine.

Prison Officer Martin (Javier Gutierrez) is driving across country to deliver a batch of prisoners to another facility when, suddenly, him and his partner Montesinos (Isak Ferriz) find themselves under attack by an unknown assailant (Karra Elejalde). Face almost certain death by leaving their armoured vehicle, or remain locked inside as the inmates threaten to riot?

Below Zero is an action-packed crime story that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The ending, particularly the last moment where we see Martin look at his locker, brings home how everyone involved — officers and prisoners — are just parts of an essentially uncaring machine.

4/5

© 2021-2022 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Film Review “Anna” (2019) #100WordReview #NetflixReview

100 word review, 3/5, film review, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Despite the unbelievability of the premise… entertaining

An action-espionage-drama following Anna, a poor woman from Russia with a heavy burden of suffering who is ready to give up on life. At her nadir, a man swoops in with an unlikely offer — become a spy, in exchange for a decent life.

Despite the unbelievability of the premise, the film is otherwise quite believable. The movie’s made up of several segments which end in a twist, the scenes then rewinding to show us what really happened. Entertaining and shocking, but this shtick begins to wear thin by the end.

An entertaining and exciting flick with good acting all round.

3/5

© 2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Film Review “Mama” (2013) #100WordReview #NetflixReview

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sounds like countless other films

An evil apparition increasingly menaces an emotionally damaged family while itself apparently only clinging onto this Earthly realm due to its own unresolved trauma.

This sounds like the outline of countless other films. However, Mama really is fresh-feeling and impressive. This formula is refreshing by the use of this feral child motif which recalls the real case of Genie.

Good acting from all. Very creepy.

But there are some downers. Aunty only exists to be knocked off and never feels like a danger to the nascent family life of our protagonists nor as a fully fleshed out character. Also, the CGI is a little ropey, though not ruiningly bad.

3/5

© 2020-2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Series Review “Unorthodox” (2020) #NetflixReviews #100WordReview

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Powerful

Unorthodox is the story of Esther (Shira Haas), a nineteen year old from a Hasidic Jewish community in New York, who tries to flee her arranged marriage and authoritarian community to build a new life for herself. But will her community, or her husband, let her escape?

Unorthodox is, I believe, the first Netflix series shot in Yiddish, which makes it notable. It’s an engrossing story which paints a powerful picture of a repressive community without ever getting into Judaism-bashing. The limited series was infused with realism.

Powerful.

4/5

© 2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Film Review “Retribution” a.k.a. ‘El Desconocido’ (2015) #100WordReview #NetflixReview

100 word review, 4/5, film review, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

a 102 minute long white knuckle ride

When Carlos (Luis Tosar) decides to take his kids to school one morning, he imagines that the breakfast time argument with his wife Marta (Goya Toledo) is the worst thing that would happen to him. Little does he know that his car is rigged to a bomb which will explode when they leave the car. But who is this mystery stranger responsible, and what does he want?

Retribution a.k.a. El Desconocido (‘The Stranger’) is a 102 minute long white knuckle ride, a crime-action-thriller so tense that I found myself agitatedly yelling at the screen. Believable, and with good performances from our leads including the stranger (Javier Gutiérrez).

Taut.

4/5

© 2020-2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Film Review “Pieces of a Woman” (2020) #100WordReview

100 word review, 3/5, film review, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Not so much a slow-burner as a slow-flickerer.

When a home birth goes tragically wrong, Marta (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean’s (Shia LaBeouf) marriage and lives spiral viciously downwards as they struggle to deal with their awful loss.

Pieces of a Woman features powerful central performances from Kirby and LaBeouf. The film was realistic and often crushingly depressing. But it also dragged. Slow to move, it wasn’t so much a slow-burner as a slow-flickerer. It was missing that little something extra. None-the-less, the brilliance of the cast, the direction, the editing, and the realism of the script make it one worth seeing.

Not so much a well-structured narrative but rather well-drawn characters.

3/5

© 2020-2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Netflix Review: “Fractured” (2019) #100WordReview @netflix @thefilmreview @kermodemovie @fracturedfilmUK @_SamWorthington @lilrabe

100 word review, 3/5, film review, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A kind of horror Flightplan

A troubled couple, Ray and Joanne (Sam Worthington, Lily Rabe), stop at a petrol station where their daughter’s arm gets Fractured in a fall. They rush to the nearest hospital, but something is terribly amiss. Pushy staff keep mentioning organ donation. And when daughter Peri (Lucy Capri) and Joanne disappear during an MRI, the hospital deny they checked in — or even exist at all. Ray must fight to save his family and prove his sanity.

A kind of horror Flightplan, we are kept guessing until the end: abducted family, or imagined family?

Unsettling, thrilling, but slightly shlocky. A good romp.

3/5

© 2020-2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

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