Let's get down to business:
A - A great start. It cleverly contrasts the glamorous fantasy with the harsh reality in the life of a professional assassin, and has a terrific ironic payoff, to boot. ***1/2
B - A little too much shaky cam, but a funny ending makes it worth it. ***
C - Gruesome and brutal miscarriage of justice. ***
D - Great claymation, but I did not understand the "story" at all. **1/2
E - Imaginative direction, WTF ending. **1/2
F - Well-done, sad tale, about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (!) The woman in this one gives one of the strongest performances in the entire film. **1/2
G - The first complete dud. Ugly and disgusting, and not in a good way, either. Ugh! 0
H - A curious little animation piece. **
I - An one-joke premise (old matriarch won't die no matter how many times her inheritors "kill" her) that can barely sustain even three minutes of running time! *1/2
J - A disturbing, effective anti gay-intolerance parable, though I don't quite "get" the title (J is for Jesus). **1/2
K - Artistically made, with a beautiful leading lady and hypnotic imagery, but also a nonsensical story. **1/2
L - Poorly put together and disjointed. *1/2
M - Hard to believe THIS was voted the best entry in the long-running open-for-public competition that was held for choosing who would get to do this particular letter. *1/2
N - A creative N.Y. love story, with a macabre end. **1/2
O - Sounds better than it plays (zombies judge and condemn people to death for killing....zombies!). **
P - Awful sub-Three Stooges "comedy", though slightly more bearable than "G" above. 1/2
Q - Smart and funny. In America, can you marry your widow's sister? ***
R - Very suspenseful, but a frustratingly incomplete ending. Probably the short most in need of expansion. **1/2
S - Good use of the split screen(s), some unexpected stings in the tail of this tale. ***
T - A disappointing throwaway, I expected more from the Soska Sisters. *1/2
U - One of the best entries. Eloquently tells a complete story in three minutes - without any dialogue! ***
V - A bold and creative technical experiment - largely successful. ***
W - Wickedly funny and thoroughly perverse (wait till you see "Fantasy Man"!) ***
X - Far from the most graphic, but probably the most extreme and sickening of the shorts, in terms of what happens in it. **
Y - Trademark Japanese wackiness - but with a point! **1/2
Z - Astonishingly gruesome "body horror", for the strongest stomachs only. Others might be advised to finish the movie five minutes earlier. **
On the whole, "ABCs of Death 2" improves upon its predecessor; the production values / special effects / camera work are superior, there are a couple of shorts that surpass any of those in the first film, and only two - G and P - out of the 26 are completely skip-worthy, IMO.
A - A great start. It cleverly contrasts the glamorous fantasy with the harsh reality in the life of a professional assassin, and has a terrific ironic payoff, to boot. ***1/2
B - A little too much shaky cam, but a funny ending makes it worth it. ***
C - Gruesome and brutal miscarriage of justice. ***
D - Great claymation, but I did not understand the "story" at all. **1/2
E - Imaginative direction, WTF ending. **1/2
F - Well-done, sad tale, about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (!) The woman in this one gives one of the strongest performances in the entire film. **1/2
G - The first complete dud. Ugly and disgusting, and not in a good way, either. Ugh! 0
H - A curious little animation piece. **
I - An one-joke premise (old matriarch won't die no matter how many times her inheritors "kill" her) that can barely sustain even three minutes of running time! *1/2
J - A disturbing, effective anti gay-intolerance parable, though I don't quite "get" the title (J is for Jesus). **1/2
K - Artistically made, with a beautiful leading lady and hypnotic imagery, but also a nonsensical story. **1/2
L - Poorly put together and disjointed. *1/2
M - Hard to believe THIS was voted the best entry in the long-running open-for-public competition that was held for choosing who would get to do this particular letter. *1/2
N - A creative N.Y. love story, with a macabre end. **1/2
O - Sounds better than it plays (zombies judge and condemn people to death for killing....zombies!). **
P - Awful sub-Three Stooges "comedy", though slightly more bearable than "G" above. 1/2
Q - Smart and funny. In America, can you marry your widow's sister? ***
R - Very suspenseful, but a frustratingly incomplete ending. Probably the short most in need of expansion. **1/2
S - Good use of the split screen(s), some unexpected stings in the tail of this tale. ***
T - A disappointing throwaway, I expected more from the Soska Sisters. *1/2
U - One of the best entries. Eloquently tells a complete story in three minutes - without any dialogue! ***
V - A bold and creative technical experiment - largely successful. ***
W - Wickedly funny and thoroughly perverse (wait till you see "Fantasy Man"!) ***
X - Far from the most graphic, but probably the most extreme and sickening of the shorts, in terms of what happens in it. **
Y - Trademark Japanese wackiness - but with a point! **1/2
Z - Astonishingly gruesome "body horror", for the strongest stomachs only. Others might be advised to finish the movie five minutes earlier. **
On the whole, "ABCs of Death 2" improves upon its predecessor; the production values / special effects / camera work are superior, there are a couple of shorts that surpass any of those in the first film, and only two - G and P - out of the 26 are completely skip-worthy, IMO.