Directed by Olivier Megaton
Written by Karl Gajdusek based on the graphic novel by Rick Remender and Greg Tocchini
In the near dystopic future, the US government had developed a loud debilitating signal called the API (American Peace Initiative) which could prevent anybody from committing crimes. Therefore, several criminal groups want to commit one more big caper before their "happy days" are over. One of these rich crime brats was was the brash and crazy Kevin Cash (Michael Pitt) who conscripted Irish gangster Graham Bricke (Edgar Ramirez) to be his muscle -- the same Bricke who just so happened to have been casually involved with Kevin's hacker girlfriend Shelby (Anna Brewster).
The title of this movie immediately grabs you when you see it. There was simply a lot of promise in that title as to what its story may offer. However, it would not take you that long into the movie to know that this was not going to be a smooth ride at all. This was obviously going to be B-movie affair from the first act, and seeing on the timer that it will run 149 minutes (almost 2 hours and a half) long, may make you give up sooner than later. Michael Pitt was so over-the-top in his cartoonish portrayal of Kevin Cash. That scene where Kevin met his tycoon father was the ultimate in hammy acting. The storytelling was so unclear, such that the curious few who hang on to see how the story would just be riding along with what they see without really understanding what was happening. There was even that additional character of a cop Sawyer (Sharlto Copley) which was not well-developed at all. Ultimately, it turned out that its bold title was already the best part of this thing. 2/10
Written and Directed by Barbara Bialowas and Tomasz Klimala
Based on the novel by Blanka Lipinska
The marriage of hotel director Laura Biel (Anna-Maria Sieklucka) from Poland with her boring husband Martin (Mateusz Łasowski) was on the rocks. They went to Silicy on a holiday trip to try to resuscitate their relationship. One night, Laura was kidnapped by young Sicilian mafia boss Massimo Torricelli (Michele Morrone), who had been obsessed with her since he caught a glimpse of her years ago on the day his father was murdered in his presence. Massimo promised Laura that he will not touch her while she is his prisoner, but guaranteed that she was going to fall in love with him in 365 days.
The so-called "story" of this Polish film was merely a flimsy excuse of a plot on which to display the two lead stars in various degrees of undress and engaged in multiple explicit erotic encounters. One scene of Massimo's aggressive seduction was a scene early on when he actually chained Laura's limbs to the four posts of a bed, immediately reminiscent of the sado-masochism of the "50 Shades" films on which it was probably inspired. There was no suspense at all if sexually-frustrated Laura will fall in "love" with persistently dominating Massimo in her captivity, which made Stockholm Syndrome seem disturbingly attractive. To fill in the other empty minutes without sex scenes, there were repeated scenes of luxurious shopping which Laura indulged in care of Massimo's wallet. Its current Netflix popularity is due to its hedonistic prurient voyeuristic type of entertainment, which was its primary aim in the first place. 4/10
Written and Directed by Alejandro Montiel
Inspector Juanez and his novice detective Pipa were involved in the investigation of a mousy young woman Minerva who had confessed to killing of her best friend Gloriana. However, evidence seemed to point to a mentally-disturbed young man who lived next door. Meanwhile, Pipa was also secretly assigned to investigate the involvement of her boss Juanez, whose work ethic had recently been erratic, in the roadside murder of a young man from a gypsy family involved in the murder of Juanez' wife.
We first met the character of Pipa in the 2018 Argentine film "Perdida" (also on Netflix) where she was investigating the dormant case of her long missing friend Cornelia. "Intuition" was supposed to have been the prequel when Pipa was just a new cop, however, none of the characters in the previous film were here (the name of the missing Cornelia was dropped only once) nor did we get to know the character of Pipa more. Lead actress Luisana Lopilato (real-life Mrs. Michael Buble) is competent as Pipa, while co-star Joaquin Furriel (with his dark brooding eyes) did well playing the secretive Juanez. Everyone else in the supporting cast turned in unfortunate amateurish performances. You can surmise from the synopsis that there are several cases thrown into one complex mix-up here, so it can get confusing what clues, suspects and red herrings belong to which case. However, despite all its incredible leaps of chance, this crime drama does grip you while it lasted. 5/10.
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