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mvbdirector
Reviews
Extracted (2012)
A stunningly strong debut feature
I'm a professional screenwriter and director, and I can tell you how monumentally difficult it is to get a first feature film off the ground and into production... let alone to make it any good.
With Extracted, Nir Paniry has done an absolutely stellar job.
He has managed to tell a big story that could easily have cost millions of dollars on a modest budget. There's great credit due to the script for that. The film itself is compelling, well cast and acted, emotionally involving and commercially appealing.
This deserves a huge amount of credit to Paniry together with his cast, crew and producers. I hope they're as proud of this as I was impressed by it.
To pick up on a minor flaw, I agree with a couple of other reviews that have pointed out that the plot comes a touch unstuck in the final denouement when all the details are revealed. But I'll more than forgive it this for its otherwise great strengths and commendable execution.
If you haven't seen Extracted and you enjoy sci-fi, then you must give it your time.
The Four Warriors (2015)
Knows exactly what it is and has fun with it
OK, so this isn't a big budget production. In fact, it's probably a 'micro-budget' production. But what I really enjoyed about it is that the filmmakers didn't let that limit the scale of their story.
The people who made this film obviously love big, epic fantasy films... and they decided to make one despite the budgetary limitations. And they did a really good job!
Some of the baddies makeup effects don't quite come off and let it down a little, but this is an enjoyable ensemble film with some very nicely written bits of buddy-movie dialogue that could very easily be in a Hollywood blockbuster. And the relationships between the four warrior characters are nicely drawn, with the characters well acted.
It's also nicely shot, with good use of locations - which usually let lower budget films down.
If you only like fantasy films with $100m budgets and thousands of CGI warriors going into battle etc, then this probably won't be for you.
But if you enjoy fantasy stories and buddy movies give it a try.