El muro negro

Warning: Brief bright light flashing, a little gore

The trailer had me curious as it seemed thrilling but the movie didn't deliver it. The actors were overall fine nothing praise worthy. The dub isn't so bad either... but how the plot unraveled was just a let down add to that the blurring zooming in out they keep doing just made me dizzy.

They could've done more with the Escape room concept if they actually created an atmosphere of suffocation but they were all barely stuck there. They didn't mention it but it just felt like only 1 day has passed? Maybe 2 days if I'm being generous. That's just not enough to create that sense of dread of "I want to get out! We're all going to die here! We have no food!" crazy moment. Now instead of a thriller of humanity going on survival mode it's just a mystery. So you're basically just watching them solve the puzzle and that's it...which isn't that good anyway because by the end it's just a sense of coincidence the right characters were there at the same time and not actual smart play on solving. I guess if you just like watching them literally just "solve" how to get out then it's a tolerable watch but overall not really something I'd recommend over other movies.

I'm a bit surprised at the number of one-star reviews for this film. "Bad acting," "Dumb script," etc. I actually thought this was the time of storyline that Rod Serling would have written for a Twilight Zone episode and certainly intriguing enough to hold my attention throughout. The story centers on the husband and wife whose relationship is now in ruins. The other characters suffer from lack of development. I'm wondering if some viewers watched this film in the dubbed version -- where the English speaking dubbers are indeed bad and the translations awkward. I watched the subtitled version and I so no problems at all with the acting. Certainly the basic plot arc is not original -- it is similar to films like Saw, Escape Room, Cube and even Poseidon Adventure: characters must work together in order to escape and survive. But I found the film atmospheric and engaging. Granted the whole creation of the impenetrable wall and what has caused it is far fetched, but so what. There is also in interesting visual correlative throw in -- the fly. I wish there had been more visual moments like this, but just sit back and enjoy a "Twilight Zone" style story.

52/100

The film starts with a promising premise - a mysterious black wall trapping people inside their own apartment, creating a claustrophobic and tense atmosphere. Unfortunately, the story quickly loses momentum as the characters remain underdeveloped and fail to engage emotionally. The acting is flat and unconvincing, making it hard to care about their fate. Visually, the movie looks decent, with some well-composed shots and a fitting soundtrack, but these elements alone aren't enough to save it. The plot feels repetitive and drags in the middle, leaving the viewer frustrated rather than intrigued. Overall, it's an average thriller with interesting ideas that aren't fully realized. Not something I'd recommend or revisit.

Brick is the ultimate grandmother of all bad movies ever made. So bad you can hardly believe it. Incredibly lame with a stupid story that leads nowhere. Who writes this stuff? Who at Netflix thinks, "hey this sound really cool. How much money do you need? I mean, we are Netflix, we swim in money." The entire 2nd act, (if one can call it that) is so painfully boring. Every character is undeveloped, has no goal and is totally unappealing. What a waist of time. The director (also the author) behind this drama has no idea how to build suspense. Do you see any fear, sweat, tears or anger in the characters? No. The whole thing was probably shot on some soundstage in Eastern Europe (because it was cheap). Just an embarrassing movie.

I liked it. The premise is original, and if you can overlook the several gaps in the logic of the story, you'll have a pretty fine scifi thriller. There's a good pace, with some nice jump scares and some modest violence. The various residents are sufficiently different, with each their own background, so that you can care for them. The way the main characters gradually found out how to operate the walls was cleverly done, and together with a few plot twists, it kept me entertained till the end. Maybe that ending wasn't too convincing, but the CGI of it was visually pretty impressive. The acting was overall good, I especially liked Matthias Schweighöfer, with his sturdy kind of charm.