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I have no idea why everyone is raving about this movie. It's the usual tired sequel of an original horror film, just with a bigger budget. It doesn't expand on the lore, it doesn't even try to do something original with the curse: like having maybe two persons be cursed at the same time, that would make matters more complicated to get rid of it. Instead we get the same story again just with a pop star who is a recovering addict. The addiction angle has been a tired trope in horror films for some time now and this movie didn't do anything creative with it either. The worst offense is that the movie is less scary and goes all out on gore instead. I was bored because every beat of the downfall of our protagonist is completely predictable, you see both twists coming from a mile away. When you have an entity that can create entire scenarios and characters from scratch than you can basically show any wild event and end it with the "it was all a dream" gimmick. This gimmick was used appropriately on the first movie for the ending. Here it gets repeated a zillion times from the beginning and it gets old real fast. The rules how the curse works are very blurry, they say the demon spreads and takes over after a couple of days or a week. Judging by the first twist though, the demon already had full access to the memory and head space of our protagonist and there was less of an escalation happening here. The ending didn't hit as hard as intended, I was bored because the running time was stretched thin over two hours for a familiar premise that could have easily been 90 minutes. This movie did absolutely nothing for me, it's basically a rehash of the first movie with a cliché celebrity point of view.

Jackdaw is a solid indie action thriller. The first twenty minutes are top notch, the way it is shot and the vidual ideas are better than most big budget films nowadays. Unfortunately it isn't able to sustain that high momentum and becomes a bit more like a mundane gangster story. It it is obviously a low to mid-budget movie, but that never bothered me. You can tell that the crew put a lot of heart into it, the good lighting does make this look better than the standard DTV fare. The weakness lies in the writing, especially he protagonist is not very interesting on paper. The brothers relationship seems only sketched out, the family angle started intriguing but I expected more. In terms of action, the best parts are at the beginning and I wished they would have done more with the motor bike and the uneven terrain. There is too little vehicular action, especially when the poster or the trailer are suggesting otherwise. Most action set pieces fizzle out and it felt like there is always that final piece missing to make it memorable.

Still, there is something about this movie and it's simple premise that kept me entertained and even stayed with me after the viewing. The locations and the vibe gave a nostalgic John Carpenter-esque atmosphere that really stood out, and although it has some problems with bland characters it was a good enough ride to recommend. At the end of the day it's a solid crime thriller with a few action elements, and it has heart.

When we saw this back in the day, it was edgy, new and sexy. But for some reason I never really wanted to watch it again for over 25 years. Revisiting this with a certain distance and as a different person it seems to me that the movie has indeed value a'd something to say. Yes, the anti-consumer rants are still used as memes today. But I think a movie should be able to make you FEEL this, in Fight Club it's always a character telling you this and it feels very preachy whilst trying to be edgy. That combo feels a little bit dated. And it's probably the reason why so many chads misinterpret the movie and think Tyler Durden is the second coming of Jesus.

This movie marks the beginning of a lot Fincher trademarks, like the advertising shots, the floating typography or the free flow camera. But Fight Club and Panic Room also have those annoying flashy CGI camera tracking shots that just feel like empty posturing. I'm glad Fincher matured and dropped those gimmicks in later films. It's fine doing it as a cold plunge in an opening scene, it's kind of a hommage to the Mission Impossible intro (1996). Fight Club isn't without merits though, the cinematography is still great and probably the reason this movie still holds up better than it should be. Fincher is so creative with every sequence he's tackling and there's no doubt that he was a huge influence on the renaissance of Korean cinema: a lot of their top directors have talked extensively about how much of a big deal his movies have been.

He's also the reason why the original author of the book calls this adaption an improvement over his book.

What makes this a bit of a disappointment to me is that none of the characters are likeable. Furthermore the movie gets very plot-driven towards the last act, mixed with the absurdity of blind followers that's very reminiscent of Life of Brian. Then the movie doesn't commit fully to this idea and instead the ending goes more for shock value and a nice image. When you think of Life of Brian or movies like Network or Trainspotting (which have a similar attitude towards consumerism) you think about how the ending of those films are driving the point home or do something clever. Fight Club makes interesting observations about repressed masculinity, violence as our means of communication, the battle against our wants VS what we need. Given how much of our world is going down the drain because a few Tyler Durdens feel the need to shape the world like their inner decaying worlds, it might be an accurate depiction. And although I enjoyed all of that in the movie, it still didn't grab me like it should.

Maybe it is because the movie doesn't even offer a counter-point to Tyler's viewpoints and it feels dishonest or cynical in an artificially way.

I still feel the same indifference I felt when I watched it in cinema, and I'm not really sure why it doesn't resonate with me much more because the themes and topics still shine bright as neon lights. It's an entertaining ride thanks to the great directing, but I regard it as one of the 'lesser' Fincher movies.