2013 Top 10 Best & Worst Films: No. 7

No.7 Best - Big Bad Wolves dir Navot Papushado, Aharon Keshales

From the directors of Israeli’s first horror film Rabies (2010), comes their follow up film that again delves into the genre, this time taking on a crime thriller element thrown into the mix. Big Bad Wolves takes place around a brutal series of murders that brings together the lives of three men; the father of the latest victim, a detective gone rogue and the most recent suspect who’s been released due to a police blunder. Now it’s well known that for quite sometime that a certain Quentin Tarantino has been quoted as saying Big Bad Wolves is the ‘Best Film of the Year’ and to be honest you can see why he’s come out with such a bold statement; the film plays out very similar in tone and dynamically as the recent crime thrillers that have come out of South Korea, with I Saw the Devil (2010) being the obvious comparison to be made; the film is rather violent and darkly laugh out loud funny, there’s never a dull moment throughout the film, you’re either wincing through violence, laughing out loud or racking your brains trying to unravel the mystery of the suspected killers innocence or guilt. Big Bad Wolves is wonderfully paced and is absolutely stunning to look at. The three main characters are all very well crafted allowing you to really connected with their story and be taken for a ride as they search for their individual goals. I really don’t remember there being any plot holes during this film and if I’m honest, I’d be pushed to throw any negative comments towards this fantastic movie, though I guess if I was to be very nit picky, I would probably say that Big Bad Wolves does pretty much follow the mould of the genre films coming out of South Korea, but to be fair to the directors; Big Bad Wolves never feels too much of a rip off or even a homage of them, as it’s certainly got it’s own distinct character and vibe at it’s core; it’s funny, violent, engaging and highly entertaining, what else can you really ask from an intelligent crime thriller?

No.7 Worst - Welcome to the Punch dir Eran Creevy

For an action film to have Ridley Scott’s name attached to it and starring a pretty solid cast with the likes of James McAvoy and Mark Strong in leading roles, you’d expect the film would deliver at least on some level, but unfortunately Welcome to the Punch is not only generic, but is riddled with caricatures of movie heroes and villains and isn’t helped further by the fact that the relationships between characters are so heavily underdeveloped that you really couldn’t care less for the plight of James McAvoy’s character as he hunts down the bad guys – as for the script and plot, it’s very convoluted and a bit of a mess for which the film attempts to clear up in a short space of time right towards the finale, which feels very rushed and a panic reaction to try and explain everything that has lead up to the big closing shoot out. Quite simply Welcome to the Punch seems too reliant on trying to replicate the structure of the Bourne films, that it forgets to actually do it’s own thing, it’s just dull and boring throughout and the twist ending is so predictable that the film really does end up being a damp squib.