If Eddie was only using 20% of his brain before he began using the fictitious "superhuman" drug NZT, he is using even less after taking it. The drug compels him to live a risky and should I say outright brainless lifestyle: committing adultery with his landlord's wife (it is no wonder we find out later Eddie has an ex-wife, in addition to his present failed relationship with a girlfriend) seeking a loan shark for "financial services," forgetting to deal with said loan shark, going into the stock market as a day trader (which is essentially legalized gambling, with more plenty of smart losers for every smart winner) and betting "his" money on it for success, attracting a ton of attention in the process, wildly partying, and consuming other drugs on top of the experimental NZT... My guess if the movie were made in today's age, he'd be investing in crypto, since that is the latest financial gambling fad. Put simply, the drug turned a harmless nobody into a hyperactive pretentious yuppie. The film does get some points though: it moves at a brisk place, includes decent performances from its cast, and does make an effort to show some of the negative consequences of performance-enhancing drugs. Unfortunately, the ending leaves much to be desired, as Eddie is depicted to have suffered essentially no medical consequences - he is in fact shown retaining the positives of the drug, while having none of the negative side effects. The fictional NZT itself is some sort of miracle drug, almost as if it was concocted from the fantasies of real drug culture... The kind that, for example, claims drugs like cannabis can do everything from curing cancer, treating every mental illness under the sun, to "enhancing" one's intellect or creativity. While cannabis (marijuana) is an unfair comparison as it is not a performance-enhancing drug and doesn't tend to kill its users (being less dangerous than the likes of alcohol), I think you get the point. FYI, odds are you already use 100% of your brain. The only 10% or 20% claim of brain use made in the film is fictitious. You are stuck with the brain you got, so treat yours well and don't take drugs.

The premise might've worked if it were a comedy that made fun of sci-fi cliches, except it's not. It's a "serious" film, about who are essentially "hillbillies" managing to put up a Red Dawn-esque fight against advanced extraterrestrials - packed with lots of corny and cliche-ridden dialogue. I got through as much of the film as I could, but I found it impossible for it to "occupy" my attention long enough to get through it all.

By the end of their regime, the Khmer Rouge had killed around a quarter of Cambodians under the direction of psychotic mass murderer Pol Pot. Their attempt to build a back-to-the-land "classless" society led (even at that time) predictably to absolute horrific disaster. Communism, as it always does and always will, failed, and at the cost of more than a million innocent lives - preventing countless future generations of Cambodian families. Angelina Jolie's historical thriller, based off the written accounts of Loung Ung, who survived the "Killing Fields" as a child, presents a heartbreaking humanistic visual account of the atrocities from a child's perspective. It feels like a live-action nightmare, although it does seem to linger too long in some scenes, with particular focus on the facial expressions of child Loung Ung, played by Sareum Srey Moch. The film has few faults however. Everything feels large and dangerous, as it should considering it is from the perspective of a child. The murderous fanaticism of the Cambodian communists is presented up close and personal as Loung Ung tries to survive the genocidal chaos of a totalitarian communal-system born straight out of hell. In this communist reality, everything and everyone has been rendered equally worthless, children are converted to mere weapons of destruction in the name of a socioeconomic and political fantasy that could never be achieved in practice - almost everything this regime touches dies or suffers greatly, from the people it enslaves to the very soil that lies under its bare soles. You know things are really messed when you actually feel some relief when the main character comes across troops from the People's Army of Vietnam, who compared to the Khmer Rouge, felt like liberators in this film.

This is a decent adaptation of the Lovecraftian horror short story. Unfortunately the film is all over the place in mood, at times being terrifying, and at other times comically absurd, thanks in part to Cage's trademark eccentric performance. At many points in the film, the characters behave excruciatingly irrational, even before the effects of "The Color" take shape. I found myself praying for the quick and swift demise of the characters... Not out of spite, but rather mercy for themselves. It felt like watching someone navigate a room full of upward-facing thumbtacks while blindfolded, except also oblivious to both the blindfold and whatever obvious mysterious danger lies around them... In general, the film just feels confused about itself... Or maybe for whatever reason it just didn't click with me. It does have very majestic visuals and the special effects is very well done! The use of magenta is a suitably outlandish choice and one that hasn't been done much from my memory as a way to convey an alien threat.

Hyena Road is a war film that represents a scarce supply of genuine portrayals of combat and diplomacy in Afghanistan. It does not oversimplify the struggle to bring peace to the Afghans with pretentious Western-centric patriotism, it respects the region's complicated history and difficult cultural issues. Modern war in this film is not shown to be a series of Michael Bay explosive pyrotechnical sequences, but rather a delicate matter of strategy and sensitive attempts to form some manner of understanding among a people radically foreign to the Western World. The romantic subplot does seem however melodramatic and improbable. What is really the downside of this film is the extremely irritating soundtrack that spikes during the moments of action. It feels like the film is screaming at you. For a war film, this is completely unnecessary. Combat is already loud and uncivil, there is no need to smother it with a generic Middle Eastern vocal track. Nonetheless, the film achieves what many war films do not: that to fight any conflict in Afghanistan cannot rely on emotional manifestations of brute force, but rather intelligent understanding of their cultural values and tribalistic disputes. No matter the case, no foreign power should enter that region with the expectation that they will overcome what thousands of years of history have proven insurmountable. The film's perspective of Canadian troops and its own military struggle is handled unapologetically, without condemnation or excessive glorification. Their armed forces are shown to be imperfect human beings in a distant world that for all extensive purposes, takes place on an alien planet. You may be better equipped, trained, and educated, but the rugged social and geographic terrain of Afghanistan makes that essentially worthless without intimate knowledge and understanding of the country's history.