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smilingdevil
Reviews
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
Stop motion animafion
This was a wade of my time and the time I worked for the money I spend:: Sorry, Keanu it's either his timing; or the editing that makes you almost see the guy with the take board vanish at the side of the shot, it does not as all look like a continuous fight, but a "aaaaand action" stop on every change of the camera angle... Keanu got old, and I think I grew old of John Wick... the only time some class was shown, was the matrix quote "what do you need... Guns, lot's of guns ..." sorry, no to part 4 or more
Il mio nome è Nessuno (1973)
A total different movie in the German Dubbed Versio
Funny enough, this has been a childhood memory for me of being a goofy and funny movie, watching the undubbed English Original Version it tries so very hard to be a tough and serious western, but it can't be for me ever again, very interesting effect. In the german dub, nobody constantly is having a loose lip, where in the original version he is trying to intimidate, I like the comical approach a lot better..
The Crossing (2018)
Just ran across this Series last night
So after watching the first 2 Episodes It feels promising, I like the chracters presented and (probably due to the need to first dubb this) it's been released in Germany with a delay to you guys in the US... so far I picked up in the comments the Series was discontinued... that is sad news, given I liked the setup so far.
Willkommen bei den Honeckers (2017)
An Old confused man, and a Rebell without a cause
The Story deals with the aftermath of the GDR going down and it's leader with it. As far as I can tell (from memory, not fact checking) the time line displayed is accurate, so the Movie has a certain historical value. It is laced with well placed original cut outs from the media of the time.
The few main characters are Johann, his Girlfriend Jenny and his best Friend Maik.
All Actors play their roles extremely well, and it's sad watching Johann fail as a human in the midst of trusting and friendly people.
Johann is first portrayed as nice an witty character but soon turns out to be an opportunist, lying and taking advantage of his friends,family and everyone he meets.
He feels driven to gain access to celebrities in general, with his main goal being Erich Honecker, former leader of the GDR with no remorse or regret for the consequences .
By achieving this (and being "rewarded" with the long desired position as a journalist) he is left for the viewers as a ethical questionable figure who in the end seemed to have achieved noting. He Drags Honecker into the public view, with no gain whatsoever.
Honecker is being portrait as an old, broken man. Caught up in his Solcialist-Ideas with no connection to the real world, guarded and shielded by his Wife. All but understandable from a human point of view.
Johann never really challenges Honecker with the reality (as he promised his Girlfriend), his only attempt is subtle and weak cause he fears to blow his cover too soon to get away with the grand prize.
In the end he is only a moral-less liar who conned an old man, who loses his girl and his best friend (who does not take his bribe) and moves to the west and becomes basically what the despicable Achetype of a "West-German" may look like to people of the former GDR.
Cargo (2009)
The weakest link in a chain detemins it's strength
OK, Fist of all: I was severely impressed by the fact that I could not find an (what I thought to be) English original Soundtrack.. I was misled by the looks of this movie as to be a lower budget Hollywood offspring.. whoa, OK, so the Original Soundtrack is German.. interesting! Actually (as I learned now) it's swizz made.. Well Swizerland is famous for cheese, and the main feature of most cheese is.. holes in it! To bad the went with that..
First, I must say the props and the looks are very very good, and I must also say more CGI would not have been necessary for me... but even in the first 20 minutes I start noticing Logic holes that are just not right.. Like: The Space station consists of rotating rings (the rotation creates artificial gravity), but when our main character enters the axis of such a Ring, she does not become weightless or anything.. she just walks through there, OK, Door passed, thank you.. Although the Bulk door (and the camera zooms in on that to show this nice detail) has a sign saying "beware of change of gravity (or such..) But. Aaaahhh!! Logic! If I make the effort of creating such a nice setup and details as the Rotating station (which use was explained back in Stanley Cubricks 2001 Space Oddyssey), why don't I stay with it? OR put in a feature that explains why she's not floating around..
.. and irrational acting of the characters.. Like in the scene where she discovers the "Maschinenstürmer" Activist who is a stowaway on board.. They Struggle, and someone shoots him, and the FIRST thing she does is like taking a good look around.. going through the stuff she finds.. not asking herself who just saved her life maybe? (the question kind of comes up about 2 Minutes later.. but is never really given much weight) Then, The oppressive regime that is obviously creating this whole lie about Reha is not monitoring the data streams? hello?? Opressice Regime 101 is what? Like she can upload her (what must look like from the perspective of the Regime) terrorist message right to the Newsfeed of the Spacestation back close to earth to kick off a riot ? Like she can share(via what i take as an equivalent of a cellphone) very very confidential about what they just found in the Cargo section (that they are not at all allowed to pen, but hey..) information with her Sister, and no one notices this? The Ship has NO movement sensor whatsoever to actually monitor the crew on the ship while only one person is supposed to be on watch? And, yea, they travel 4 Years to an ass end of Space, blow up some communication device.. and no one can actually go there and Fix it, just to declare this another failed attempt of the (from the oppressive regime POV) Terrorists..? There is more of these Logic errors in there, Like Message traveling Time: It was used at some point in the plot, and then totally ignored at another. She notices the response time of her sister is increasing and therefore that they are closing in on reha. She even discusses this with the tech engineer who says "it usually takes months", but later her Message from Reha back to earth about the truth of Reha is received there almost instantly..
... and so on... I must say this really ruined the movie for me. It could have been Great, the looks and the feel is super, the Story setup is good, Nice twist in the story, the revealing of the true evil is kind of foreseeable but still good, the acting is kind of stiff sometimes, but OK... but the logic.. I can't go with that. And the discrepancy between the bad Script writing's missing logic and the rest of the movie is so huge! Like usually crappy scripts also have a crappy looking movie and bad actors.. here. One aspect messes it up for the rest.
So sad Axel
One Hour Photo (2002)
Most of the people take your work for granted, till you snap
..watching this move had a wonderful down note from begin on, there is this photo clerk, taking an awful pride in his work that no one notices. He does not care about that, but he is the one who has an eye for pictures.. the whole film is made of great pictures and the great acting of Robin Williams just fits in the frame. A little disturbing is the theme from "American Beauty" in there, since that music already was used on a very emotional film of the same kind, I can't stop thinking about the Pictures connected to that decent Piano. It takes me away from what I 'd like to keep my eye on. The music totally fits in there, but it was already used. Its like seeing someone familiar talking with a different voice, it distracts and should have really been avoided. Of course, you could say that is the whole trick.. everything is a copy, is a copy, is a copy ....
Anyway, there is a close connection to the pictures, and the text, the way these two media go together here is brilliant. I wonder about the last frame in the movie, is it Sy's imagination?
Go get the Picture.
SmilingDevil
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
A wonderful example for why not to dub movies
This movie is a wonderful example for not to dub movies like they do in Germany. The innocence with which Jack and his townpeople mess up Christmas by trying to do something great is lost in the german dub. For example: The townfolk sings " It's our job but were not mean in our town of Halloween.. in german the sing something completely different, not telling that they are not mean in their inside. So much is changed that makes them look evil and bad, and I think this is really said.
I like the original best..