El muro negro

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.

I liked this movie but it was not without problems. I thought the plot was intriguing enough as contained films are good, and its not to say this is bad it just needed something more. Tim and olivia live in an apartment complex, they are having troubles but they wake up one morning to see a strange black magnetic wall has fitted itself into the building and stopping them from leaving. The stakes could have been higher. There is much threat here and the wall could have been utilized more than the three points of horror we see from it. But still its acted well and the thrill are enough to keep it going.

The premise had promise. The idea if being trapped inside a building by a wall that covered the building in an instant, trying to figure out how it got there, what it is, and how to get out, was intriguing. Unfortunately the dialogue was weak and in many cases unbelievable. In some cases I expected a person to react in one way, maybe with astonishment, but instead the reaction was hum drum as if this was an every day occurrence. In other circumstances certain people were full of bravado and a take charge attitude, but when they really needed to come through they did nothing. A 180 turn from their character. The movie is not bad enough to enjoy as a really bad movie, and it's not good enough to take it seriously or recommend it to a friend, unless they have nothing else to watch. It does have a few redeeming qualities. When you don't lose focus in the parts with bad dialogue, it's intriguing enough to watch till the end.

Tim and Olivia discover an occurrence: their apartment has been surrounded by strange bricks and a black substance that surrounds the entire block.

The very first thought that came to my mind was, 'Is this a remake of Await Further Instructions?' The initial premise was very, very similar. In terms of originality, the film didn't quite cut it; I've seen a similar concept done better.

Perhaps not original, but it is a formula that does work: a nice mystery, some good characters, it's well acted, and I wasn't bored. I really liked the final scene, and despite some dodgy special effects, the final act looked pretty good.

The film badly needed more of everything: more tension, more horror, more panic, and more threat. Were it not for Yuri, there wouldn't have been much of any of them. I thought Frederick Lau was good fun; his character seemed to have the right mindset for survival and was quite entertaining.

On the whole, it's not a bad film; just keep your expectations in check.

6/10.

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.