The Demolisher (2015)

Just perfect...

Best movie ever!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

There is nothing to say than - painfully bad. It is a sorry excuse for a movie. A waste of time and possibly very bad for your nerves. There is not enough substance for 10 sentences. At times it is an immature attempt to a suspense. No substance whatsoever. Too long with not enough story. Demented and unrealistic. Stupid to the core. Awful. There is nothing to say than - painfully bad. It is a sorry excuse for a movie. A waste of time and possibly very bad for your nerves. There is not enough substance for 10 sentences. At times it is an immature attempt to a suspense. No substance whatsoever. Too long with not enough story. Demented and unrealistic. Stupid to the core. Awful. There is nothing to say than - painfully bad. It is a sorry excuse for a movie. A waste of time and possibly very bad for your nerves. There is not enough substance for 10 sentences. At times it is an immature attempt to a suspense. No substance whatsoever. Too long with not enough story. Demented and unrealistic. Stupid to the core. Awful.

Not nearly as bad as critics say if you're not expecting much. Very cyberpunkish without any cyber to it,- the atmosphere is there. Brutality, mindfk, several epic scenes, slomo, but not that overused matrix style. With all that, does it have much to say? I'd argue not too much, like most of cyberpunk without cyber. :) Acting is OK for an indie (which is not a quality label for me). Fight scenes reasonably well done and the protagonist does look cool. Female role as such is strongly present, dilemma of which sex dominates is there, though not central and not in a way of a conflict. Absurdity of modern day knighthood with its madness, brutality, subservience and yet heroism and almost inbuilt core values.Writing this one in a stream of thought to balance, in my opinion, unfairly negative reviews.

I wanted to like this. In fact, I wanted to love this. An homage to John Carpenter and the action revenge films of the 1970s and 80s? Sign me up! Unfortunately, director Gabriel Carrer is not nearly skilled enough to helm this kind of project. In fact, this is the most amateur film I've ever seen screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival. I understand what Carrer was going for with this take on the vigilante justice gone too far, and the idea had potential. But every scene was so heavy- handed, there's not a single moment where a character acts in a natural manner. Every line of dialogue is horrendously written, it's hard to know if the actors are terrible, or its just the script. I'd like to give the actors the benefit of the doubt. But despite the amateur script and direction, I was OK with The Demolisher being a "too ambitious for its own good" disaster. That would have been fine. But then came the 40 minute chase scene, which had our heroine running frantically through the streets of downtown Toronto at night. Instead of going directly to the police or even, say, a car with people in it, the girl runs past police cars, past groups of people, and past open businesses. She opts for the safer route, an abandoned shopping mall, the upper level no less, then an underground parking lot, a gang of murderous thugs who can "smell that she's a virgin", and finally a desolate rooftop. This was the most unintentionally hilarious chase scene I've ever witnessed. Audience members were cackling with every insane decision she made. And it would have made for great comedy were it not so deadly serious about its intentions as a serious film. And that's really the fatal flaw with The Demolisher. It should be a grindhouse exploitation classic, tongue-in-cheek and self aware, something akin to Hobo With A Shotgun. Instead, the director tries to give us realism and gritty raw emotion, which he proves hilariously inept at doing. Clocking in at just under 85 minutes, this somehow manages to be the longest and most aggravating excuse for a movie I've seen all year. 1/10

Done as a B-movie. Presented as a series of vignettes, sometimes with art movie overtones. Extremely violent towards the end.The direction of the film felt a little amateurish. Did not splice the two story lines in a convincing way. The violence was over the top. The dialogue was disappointing. That said, the cinematography was good.A policewoman is crippled after she intervenes in a ritual sacrifice. Her husband is deeply disturbed by her anguish and frequent nightmares. He dresses up in riot police armour, stalks and brutally beats the gang members.In the end, he is so traumatized by the violence that he goes berserk. Does not end well.It was unfortunate that the editor put in an up-beat ending. Quite unnecessary. Cannot recommend the film.