Thale (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Aleksander Nordaas
	Actors: Morten Andresen, Erlend Nervold, Silje Reinåmo, Jon Sigve Skard
	Country: N
	Genre: Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 02.09.2012, CITY Kino, MFFF2012
Synopsis: A duo of cleaners finds a girl in the caban of a dead man in the woods. She seems to have been subject to experiments.
Review: Not much happens in this movie. More accent is put on the discovery of the girl, and the progressive understanding of who she is. Actually the whole point of the movie is about her nature. The two main characters are funny to watch: one a bit lost and emotive, and the other completely imperturbable, whatever the event or the discovery. It is a small movie in which the director Aleksander Nordaas occupies many posts, slow-going and pleasant to watch, if you like this genre of course.
Rating: 7 /10

The Suicide Shop 3D (2012)

	Also Known As: Le magasin des suicides
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Patrice Leconte (Les bronzés)
	Actors: -
	Country: B, CDN, F
	Genre: Animation, Black comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 01.09.2012, CINEMA theater, MFFF2012
Synopsis: In those times of crisis, the suicide business is booming for the Tuvache family and their shop where they sell all the accessories for a succesful death. Their life will change with the arrival of their third child who is ... always happy and smiling!
Review: The concept for this movie is quite funny, and all the possible declinations of suicide are reviewed with an offbeat humour. I also enjoyed all the small details that often appeared in the background for a split second like street names (Death alley...), road signs (Cemetery in the same direction as School) or newspaper headlines. But the story sometimes staggers, and the songs and too long and not very good, neither music nor lyrics. I didn't find the 3D useful, only bringing a little depth barely noticeable.
Rating: 5 /10

Sushi Girl (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Kern Saxton
	Actors: Tony Todd (Candyman), Sonny Chiba (Kill Bill), Dany Trejo (Machete), Michael Biehn (Aliens, The Terminator, Planet Terror), Jeff Fahey (Machete), James Duvall (Donnie Darko), Noah Hathaway (The Neverending Story), Mark Hamill (Star Wars IV, V, VI)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 01.09.2012, CINEMA theater, MFFF2012
Synopsis: Five gangsters meet on the day one of them gets out of jail, six years after they did a diamond robbery. Nobody knows where the diamonds are. For this special occasion, they are having a dinner yakusa-style: sushi on a naked girl laying on the table.
Review: The list of actors back from the 80's in this movie is impressive, and quite enjoyeable. Tony Todd is beautiful is his dark blue suit, black shirt and red tie, and Mark Hamill is surprising. But unlike in Machete or Expendables, humour is not part of this movie. This is more a gangster movie limited to one room (i.e. many dialogues) with few flashbacks six years in the past. The mood within this group is quite special, orchestrated by the Tony Todd character who enjoys staging and japanese traditions. What I didn't like in the movie were the intense and realistic torture scenes.
Rating: 6 /10

To Rome with love (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Woody Allen
	Actors: Woody Allen, Jesse Eisenberg, Ellen Page, Roberto Benigni
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 27.08.2012, Schauburg, OV
Synopsis: People living or visiting or moving to Rome.
Review: Typical Woody movie. He still plays a hypochondriac speaking a lot. There are still lots of women making the men crazy. It is entertaining, but there is nothing original. The actors are really good, especially the Italian ones, Alessandra Mastronardi and Alessandro Tiberi. The music used is not jazz, but classic. And very good parts, like Turandot (Nessum dorma) and Pagliacci.
Rating: 5 /10

Eva (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Kike Maíllo
	Actors: Daniel Brühl (Good By Lenin, Inglorious Basterds), Marta Etura, Alberto Ammann
	Country: E
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: 31.08.2012, City Kino, MFFF2012
Synopsis: Alex, genius in robotics psychology, comes back to the city where he studied in order to design a new kind of robot child. He will meet his former colleagues, teachers, his brother who married Alex's ex-girlfriend, and the daughter of the couple, Eva.
Review: This is what I could call an efficient spanish SF movie with a heart. The questions raised are close to some ones in A.I. and the comparison cannot be avoided, as the first topic encountered in both movies is the creation of a child robot with feelings. But the comparison stops here, and the Spanish movie shows no intention of rivalry against the Hollywood blockbuster. While Spielberg placed his movie in a rather far future in which men have a paradoxal relationship with robots (they hate them but need them at the same time), here the environment is much more familiar, and the advances in technology are discrete and displayed with parcimony, very much like in Children of Man (only mobile phones, cars and some home appliances look futuristic, and of course a few robots). The choice of the location (a small Swiss-looking city, covered in snow during the whole movie) is a bit disturbing as all the cast speaks spanish, but is actually very good to help the reader immerge in the story and identify with the characters. The actors are pretty convincing, like the little Eva, Alex (whom I learned can play as well in Spanish or German) and the butler-robot. I also found the story very well written, although predictable at times, and slow at others.
Rating: 9 /10

Cockneys vs. Zombies (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Matthias Hoene
	Actors: Michelle Ryan (Cleanskin), Georgia King, Honor Blackman
	Country: GB
	Genre: Comedy, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 31.08.2012, CINEMA theater, MFFF2012
Synopsis: Two brothers decide to rob a bank to save the retirement home where their grandfather lives from demolition. Meanwhile, a zombie infestation spreads out in London.
Review: The german director of this British movie was present at the Festial to introduce his work. He said that his movie is different from the many existing zombie comedies (Zombedies), as it is rather a zombie adventure (Zombventure). For me it is still a Zombedie, and not a funny one. I didn't like the acting, directing, editing, music and action special effects. The only good things I found in this movie are the idea of elderlies fighting zombies, and the large number of inventive ways with which zombies are killed.
Rating: 4 /10

Cleanskin (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Hadi Hajaig
	Actors: Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings, Black Death, Game of Throne), Charlotte Rampling (Swimming Pool, Babylon A.D.), Abhin Galeya
	Country: GB
	Genre: Action, Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 30.08.2012, CITY Kino, MFFF2012
Synopsis: An agent fails to prevent explosives to be stolen, and they are used in a suicide bombing in London. He is then asked to find and stop the terrorists by any means necessary.
Review: The nice thing about this polar is that we get to experience the point of view of the terrorist, a young clever man that is recruited by extremists, so we get to understand his motivations. I found interesting the construction of the movie, in which you learn to know in parallel the terrorist and the agent thanks to flashbacks. Also it is good to see Sean Bean in another role than a Middle Age knight with long hair. But the movie fails to keep the pace in the second half, and the ending was not fully satisfying to me.
Rating: 6 /10

Grabbers (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Jon Wright
	Actors: Richard Coyle, Ruth Bradley, Russell Tovey
	Country: GB, IRL
	Genre: Comedy, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 29.08.2012, CINEMA theater, MFFF2012
Synopsis: On an isolated island, a freshly arrived female inspector will have to team up with her alcoholic partner to save the population from a monster attack.
Review: There are some funny characters in this monster-movie, which provides some good laughts. The idea that people have to stay drunk in order not to be eaten by the monster is also good, but the movie takes some time to start, and remains slow in its second half. The special effects for the monster are very good for this B-movie.
Rating: 5 /10

God Bless America (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Bobcat Goldthwait
	Actors: Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr, Mackenzie Brooke
	Country: USA
	Genre: Black comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 29.08.2012, CINEMA theater, MFFF2012
Synopsis: A man with nothing to live for anymore decides to punish all the people that are "not nice", especially the ones seen on TV.
Review: I found that the idea for this movie was good but feared that it would be limited to that. Hopefully it was not the case. The main character (who reminds me Dan Aykroyd) and his young "side-kick" are well written and their motivation well presented throughout the film. You can find in this movie a bitter criticism of many things, but mainly of the trash we are being served on TV. The action takes place in the US of A, but the examples we see from TV shows could come from European ones. Beyond that, a deeper message in the movie is people's behavior in this new society where the lowest human qualities are advertised and the weaks get ridiculized for the entertainment of the masses. The main character compares this behavior to the ancien Rome Colliseum in an interesting quasi-monologue at the beginning of the movie, and he says that in a society this phase always preceeds a downfall...
Rating: 8 /10

V/H/S (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, David Bruckner, Ti West (The Innkeepers, Cabin Fever 2) and 7 others.
	Actors: Calvin Reeder, Lane Hughes, Adam Wingard
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 28.08.2012, CINEMA theater, MFFF2012
Synopsis: A group of young vandals is paid to retreive a videotape from an old house. To find the right one they will have to watch segments of videos more bizarre one than the other...
Review: I found that the format of the anthology (film à sketch, like The Theatre Bizarre or Body Bags) applies well to the found footage genre (REC, Diary of the Dead), especially because you don't have to stand the same actors in front of a shaky camera for 2 hours. In the case of V/H/S you have different actors in front of a shaky camera for 2 hours. The variety of stories and supports is however interesting. There are old video cameras, webcams, "helmet"-cameras and even miniaturized ones in glasses. The stories are about monsters, killer in the woods, haunted house or home invasion. Don't be annoyed by the awful 10 first minutes (shaky camera, poor image quality, saturated sounds, inaudible dialogs), the variety of stories will keep you awake for the rest of the movie, and even pretty scared! Note that the image quality is VHS-style throughout the film, and not at all HD and clean like you can see in other recent found footage movies, which helps you believe more in it.
Rating: 6 /10