Some movies I have watched lately!

There are couple of movies I have seen lately and I would like to write something about them, whether they were good and fun to watch or bad.

First off, THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT 2 was a giant surprise that it came out at all, because I remember the first one not being so good, rather boring stuff, and they made a sequel.

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In this one, the girl that I guess survived the first one and the movie documentary crew travel through America visiting hunted scary attractions and hayrides looking for some which could scare them so two thirds of the movie represent some kind of weird commercial for haunted fair attractions across the USA. The last third of the movie turns into some kind of mindfuck psychological horror or at least it tries to be and in the end leaves you with bitter taste in your mouth not really knowing why or what happened to the characters. This one was a shot in the blank space and it is definitely not worth your time.

Going to the next one, or the next two to be precise. as I watched both JOHN WICK movies back to back. Many call these movies mindless shootout , nothing intellectually worth, but I guess they didnt make them to be mentally challenging, on the contrary, they made them to be action packed fun flicks for no brain pressure release fun watching.

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In the first one, John Wick(Keanu Reeves) is a retired mafia super hitman, whose wife Helen just died of cancer and left him a dog as a last token of her love?! and to have someone with whom he can share his grief. While one day shopping for fuel, the son of Russian mobster sees his Mustang car, decides it must be his, breaks into Johns house, steals the car and murders his dog. Unfortunately for the whole Russian mob organization in town, John Wick decides to move out of retirement and settle the score. This one has a pretty excessive bodycount and attractive action scenes that kept me attracted to the screen for the whole duration of the movie, so I really loved the first movie.

As for the second, tentatively called Chapter Two, the story continues in the same way. Upon hearing that he went out of retirement to settle the score in the first movie, Italian mafia boss burdens John with a hard task, but the one he must do, in order to stay alive and retire out of the previous life once more. Not all goes according to the plan, so once more there is bloodshed and general shootout all through the movie, so it is very similar to the first one, the only difference is that this time it went international in the story, not only in one town like in the first movie.

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In my opinion, the first one was somehow better. I cant really tell why, because in the second one, the bodycount is bigger, the action scenes are even more attractive but it just somehow didnt work for me.

Anyway, I am glad to see Keanu Reeves doing again what he did best in the past and that is making great action movies. I kinda missed him since the Matrix glory days.

 

 

Now is the time for some Asian, to be precise Korean flick. AGE OF SHADOWS is a Korean movie set in 1920-ies when Japan Empire occupied Korea and small band of resistance fighters played cats and mouse game trying to outwit and do some serious damage to the Japanese, who also had Korean collaboration police on their side.

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As it usually goes in those movies, the story is action packed and tense, but what fascinates me the most are the characters. The characters in such movies are so greatly written that they are usually so to say larger than life and you actually feel regret and happines and sympathize with them during the movie. If you expect action blockbuster here, dont watch this one, because, while it has many action scenes, this one is in its core spy drama movie. This movie was great and it only proves how much Korean film industry rose in the scene and somehow became I would dare say leading force in the Asian movie theatre with due respect to Chinese and Japanese movie industry. Anyway, if you are interested and like such movies, see Age of Shadows, you wont regret it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

(record review)STAGE OF REALITY-“S/T”(Rock Avenue USA)

Finally, the new studio album by Stage of Reality became reality! This Italian band plays some kind of melodic metal with some hard rock(less) and prog influences(more), but mainly it stays in metal waters not to become boring, as some prog bands are. I dont care much about prog bands, they may be playing with great skills, but I find their music lacking energy and usually avoid that kind of bands.

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Fortunately, that is not the case with this band. The album contains 10 songs and one cover. I will say something about the cover first, it features guest vocals by Amanda Sommerville of Avantasia, Epica plus more fame and it is nicely done. But I dont get one thing, why Amy Winehouse cover? Maybe I am the scene purist but I still dont think that Amy Winehouse and mainstream artists belong in metal underground, no matter how good covering their songs may sound.

Second guest on vocals is legendary Blaze Bayley of Wolfsbane and Iron Maiden fame, but mainly known for his excellent solo melodic but also dark metal albums. The song “Warlord” featuring Blaze is one of the highlights on this album and I would love to hear more Stage of Reality material heading that way stylewise. As for the other songs, some worked less and some more for me, I can not say that I liked the whole album equally. In my opinion the best song on this album is “Legitimate Rage” which hit my metal anthem button for sure. I would also love to hear a bit stronger vocals on the next album, because the vocals sounded a bit too mellow and weak on this album, they could have been done much better.

Not to bitch and whine, this is still a good album and I am sure the next one will be even better.

6,5/10

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(record review)LACRIMOSA-“Testimonium”(Hall of Sermon)

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I always had sort of warm/cold relationship with this Swiss gothic rock metal institution. Some of their albums worked for me fine, some just didnt. Now we are into their thirteenth studio album. Mastermind Tilo Wolff paid respect to all of the famous musicians that were somehow his role models and which passed away in 2016.

The album is supposed to be divided into four acts. All of the ten songs were written under feelings of sorrow, loss and it is one of the most emotional albums ever made by this band. The opener “Wann unsere Helden sterben” is gentle nod to the music heroes saying that the part of us died with them. As always, Tilo and Anne Nurmi provide excellent vocal interplay on all songs. “Nach dem Sturm” has a beautiful sad main melody and it brought goosebumps on my skin. “Weltenbrand” is probably the most metallic song on the record and one of my favourites. Other highlights of the album for me are “Herz and Verstand” and “Black Wedding Day”. This concept of hommage in symphony and emotions is the best Lacrimosa album in this decade for sure.

9/10

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