Brief Story Line
Tim (Matthias Schweighöfer - Elio, Army of the Dead etc) and Olivia (Ruby O. Fee - Army of Thieves, Polar etc) had been together for several years and living in an old unit of apartment. One morning, the two of them were shocked when they found the building was blocked by mysterious brick structure that could not be opened.
There were few other people who were also trapped inside the building such as the emotional Marvin (Frederick Lau - Victoria, Rising High etc) & his girlfriend Ana (Salber Lee Williams - Ghost Island etc), the old man Oswalt (Axel Werner - My Führer etc) & his grand daughter Lea (Sira-Anna Faal - Druck TV series etc) and the cynical Yuri (Murathan Muslu - 7500 etc).
So what was the brick that was blocking the building? And what would happen to the people inside? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As I said above, the premise of this movie was what made me curious. And from the beginning, the mystery surrounding the brick was really interesting and I was looking forward to find out the what & the how. Little by little, we were given more info which amazingly did not reveal too much and I was kept wondering till middle of the movie. However, there were times when I felt the intensity not consistently maintained. Some moments I felt focused more on the drama side. Only towards the final third that the film began to raise its tension again (even if the twist was rather predictable).
The ending was something that I thought was pretty good and satisfying. The only thing that could have been done better was the CGI which looked too obvious at certain times (especially on the outside). Nevertheless the movie was not a big budgeted kind that require a really impressive special effects cause the intention was more on the dramatic & psychological torture of being trapped in a confined space by mysterious surrounding. With duration of 99 minutes without any mid or post end credit scene, it felt just nice to cover the full picture.
This movie was written & directed by Philip Koch creator of the interesting but sadly short-lived Tribes of Europa series. I did not see anything this movie was based on during the opening and closing credits, which meant that it was from the mid of Koch himself. I am not sure yet whether this is well received by critics or audience, and whether it's going to be a success remains to be seen. The cast understandably was limited to the people inside the building. Since I have not watched that many Germany production movies/series, most were unknown to me except for Matthias and Ruby (who had worked together in that entertaining heist movie Army of Thieves). Their performance in general was quite decent, although I still think the best would be their two lead cast.
In the end this was a movie that had interesting story with an OK enough execution. The premise was intriguing and the ending was nice, with some intense moments in the early part and towards the end, but less memorable in the middle. So if you are looking for a mysterious sci-fi movie and do not really mind the not too spectacular special effects, you should be able to enjoy this one. It's not exactly extraordinary, but I believe it's still watchable.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment