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Reviews
Circle (2015)
An interesting concept but no real substance?
So after watching the movie i was like:
Ok.. so.. what?
It is an interesting piece about human psychology/behavior/self preservation and what we are willing to do to survive but.
That's about it.
If you like just that, i guess that is a movie for you i can see the intent behind the idea but i just couldn't really get behind it.
Especially the end leaves a lot of questions like:
So what now? What exactly was the purpose of this.
But everything is left open, i don't really see any reasoning behind the actions taken. To be honest the movie would have been (at least for me) better with on open ending not revealing who did it and what actually happened to the last person.
But the way it actually ended made the movie worse for me.
A Haunting in Venice (2023)
Mystery with a dash of Horror
First of all: No clue about the original Material, so i can only rate the move on it's own.
I personally was thoroughly entertained by the movie, especially after the crapfest that was the last one.
The characters are decently explored, the setting is rather haunting and mysterious and really creates a nice atmosphere.
I believe the acting is really good and the story is good too.
As you try to puzzle all the pieces together you might get an idea here and there, but i at least did not predict the end nor could i deduce the real murderer, so i would say: Well done for that, it wasn't (at least for me) obvious.
War of the Worlds: The Attack (2023)
The most boring version i ever saw.
I can basically sum up this movie as following:
The 3 main characters are at location a, talk for 20 minutes - meet tripod - so they relocate to location b.
The talk for 20 minutes meet a tripod and thus go to location c.
Guess what they meet a tripod after talking for 20 minutes and go to the next location. Where again they talk for 20 minutes, go to sleep and awake to all the tripods being dead from bacteria.
It's very rough but seriously: Nothing really happens in this movie.
There are a few scenes with the military where you see tanks rolling but thanks to the bad CG you can't actually differentiate between the lasers from the martians and the gunfire from the tank so it looks like the tanks are just rolling towards the tripods doing nothing...
There is also a bit inconsistency: At first a soldier tells them that non of their weapons had any effect on the tripod but when we meet a tripod the next time a few Helicopters take one down pretty easy...
And at the end of the movie we even see a handgun going through the shield...
The martians also never really felt threatening they were just there sure, they were firing their lasers and London was devastated but you never really had the feeling that they were scary.
Though one thing i will give the movie is that it wasn't atrociously bad like the Fox Series from 2019, or the BBC series from 2019. That's why i give it 4 stars: Boring but at least it isn't a perversion of the material.
Nobody (2021)
Very enjoyable and rewatchable
I usually do not rewatch movies, but i have rewatched this movie already 2 times.
And i do have to say i absolutely love this movie.
Bob Odenkirk does a fantastic job as Hutch, the characters are actually fleshed out. You get introduced to the boring life to a seemingly simple man in a boring job with a marriage that is all but routine. And then the meme "wow that escalated quickly" applies so much. We get to see the past and hidden side of Hutch former life before he got married and it absolutely fantastic.
I especially like his first fight in the bus, he is no superman that goes in and just beats up everyone without a scratch, no he gets beat up himself quite a bit. This movie is gritty and i dare say more realistic than many other action movies of this sort. Of course there are scenes where realism is thrown out the window for cool shots, but overall i like it.
The story overall is rather simple and there aren't really any twists or turns or "subverting of expectations", you get exactly what you paid for: A gritty action movie where the good guy gets to take out the bad guys.
On the Line (2022)
Interesting movie
I have to say the movie really got me hooked the cat and mouse play the psychotic villain that is out for revenge and the plot twisting in the end really got me.
I think the actors did a really good job.
Since there aren't too many people in this movie the few that were in got to have a bit of a flashed out character, though the focus lies on the main 3 characters: played by Mel Gibson, William Moseley and Paul Spera.
Since it all plays in a building at night you can tangibly feel the oppressive atmosphere.
I honestly never expected the ending but i am not sure if i am happy about it or not. On the one hand i think i would have preffered the more devastating ending option but then again this ending was fine too in its own right.
But wether i am happy with the ending or not, it got me hooked and surprised so it is worth a watch.
The Sea Beast (2022)
Extremely predictable with a weird ending
When the movie started i got really excited, a Movie at Sea at the "Age of Sail" with monsters? That sounded like an amazing concept.
But from the very start when we got introduced to the orphans i knew: Okay this little girl will somehow befriend one of the monsters. Didn't know how exactly but that much was clear from the very first moment.
And this exact thing happened, she talked to the most famous hunters, stowes away on their ship and gets "saved" by one of the monsters they were hunting and befriends it..
So far so predictable.
And of course the captain of the ship goes of the deep end Ahab style in his thirst for revenge against the monster.
The movie itself is good, the characters are loveable and they have personality, the action is good, the animation lovely, the design of the monsters really cool and it has some catchy tunes, however i have a very big problem with the ending.
When the monster (Red) is brought before the King and Queen and rampages a bit, the little Orphan basically questions why they hunt monsters and that they should leave them be....
Even though a crab monster just earlier tried to eat her without any provocation and red itself immediatly attacked a ship without any consideration whatsoever.
Sure red might not be too bad and leave humans alone when left alone itself, but the other monsters? I very much doubt it!
It brought down the enjoyment of the movie significantly for me...
Death on the Nile (2022)
Very much current age movie
I don't know the original so i can't compare it to that. Because of that i will simple judge it on it's own.
It is a rather interesting mystery/crime movie on it's own with interesting characters and a thrilling plot.
I couldn't tell who the killer was until the reveal and the actors do a rather good job.
Now why did i rate this 1 Star?
Because it is drenched in so much current day political agenda that i find it sickening.
The black buisneswoman gets hyped into high heavens by Poirot and in return gets shamed by her.
The female sailors do all the work on the boat, the white men are all incompetent and bad with money, while the women are all excellent at everything.
It was so in my face that i couldn't enjoy the movie.
It may not be a problem for you but it certainly was for me and took me out of the movie. Hard!
The Bible: A Brickfilm - Part One (2020)
Just lazy
There are many good Brickfilms out there that really try to do their best.
This is not one of them.
This is so lazy and unprofessional it could have been made by a 10 Year old.
Instead of actually building backgrounds the Lego Minifigs are used in some random background that may or may not fit the story.
Jungle Cruise (2021)
Nice and entertaining movie
I went into the movie not expecting much, especially after seeing that it is a current day female lead Disney movie. Aka i was expecting a Mary Sue.
But while Emily Blunts Character is capable she is not a Mary Sue.
Now for the Movie, while the plot is somewhat generic: "Go to the Amazon, find mysthic flower that can do X" it is very nicely setup.
And setups are a common theme here: Something is set up early in the movie and actually leads to a payoff later in the movie.
The Character actually have depth to them and some development and aren't just tropes or one off characters.
They all do their job pretty good and the bad guys actually speak the language they are supposed to speak 95% of the time.
One major flaw for me is the CGI.
It just looks cheap.
Like 2010 B Movie cheap.
But overall i have to say i enjoyed watching the movie.
Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)
Terrible try for a sequel
Where as the Original Movie had a really cool spin to it combining the Toon World and the Real World this movie just...
stinks.
First of all LeBron doesn't have any charisma or acting skills what so ever
second where as the first hat an intersting premise the premise of this is just terrible.
Furthermore this movie feels like Warner Brother just wanted to Jam every single Character they own into one movie for the sake of nostalgia.
Just: No.
The Forever Purge (2021)
Just aweful
I have recently rewatched all the Purge Movies and while they are certainly not cinematic masterpieces they always made you feel for your main characters and they had tension.
This on the other hand...
I couldn't really feel for the main characters... maybe because the mexican main characters speak spanish 90% of the time and i didn't understand anything.... Yes sure there are subtitles and letting mexicans speak spanish surely is authentic but if 50% of a movie is spoken in another language you seriously have to consider if this is actually an english movie.....
That problem aside
While in the other Purge Movies you always felt some kind of terror from the Purgers because they were unpredictable and you never knew what could happen, here...
the Purgers are 1 Dimensional, for much of the time they are just background noise that the main characters just kill without anything to fear.
The explanation why the NFFA is back in power is lacking at best and i feel this movie was just made to mirror some current problems into a Purge Movie just to send some kind of political message... just the wrong one for this movie...
The Purge movies had always a somewhat timeless political message Poor vs. Rich but noooo we couldn't continue with this, we just had to take another current day issue and force it onto a movie unfit for it.
The War of the Worlds (2019)
I had high hopes... that was the first mistake
I recently watched some Youtube Videos about the HMS Thunderchild which was featured in the original Book and then i found this Series.
I saw that i was set at the apropriate time and had high hopes.
But i was thoroughly dissapointed.
Let's first get out the good points:
- Set in the correct time
- They took their time to build up the characters and actually make them Characters and not just cliches by just jumping into the action
- The costums look good
- the martian Tripods look really good and the CGI is looking good
- they have the black smoke from the original book in it.
Now to the bad
- Of course it's a BBC production so the Main Character had to be a Strong Female Character that's a scientiest and is soon getting a Masters degree.
- They obviously had to tack on an unnessecary Love Story
- Of course the Old White Men don't see the danger until it is too late
- Of course on of the Characters had to make an Anti-Colonialist/Imperialist Rant about how the Evil White Man invaded America and just shot the Natives and that the Martian Attack is punishment for that
- Of course the female Lead is the one that has the Idea that the Martians and their terraforming attempts may be undone by using Bacteria because "Female Scientist" and when encountering a fallen Tripod the Old White man thinks: Yeah obviously it was our Gunfire.
While i sadly have never read the Original Book i can not compare it to it to that but i read up enough on Wikipedia to know that it has not much to do with that. Yes London gets covered in Black Smoke, yes they flee at one point to the beach but they do not follow the refugees onto the ocean, they go back Inland after the Navy destroys 2 of the Tripods with their artillery. I had really hoped for the Charge of the HMS Thunderchild...
The Plot itselfs mostly focuses on our Heroine, her Husband and for a while her brother in law and the Martians appear to be Side Characters that sometimes add a bit of tension into the Plot and serve to kill of the White Men. What really threw me off was the inclusion of a After-The-Invasion Plot where the survivors have to deal with the Consequences of the Terraforming. While that sounds really interesting it is interwoven into the actual Invasion. Invasion happening - cut to period after - back to the Invasion - period after where a guy is violent against our heroine - back to the Invasion. I mean seriously? Why show that the Invasion was repelled DURING the Invasion....
All in if you have had never any contact with the original War of the Worlds you might enjoy this, if you know anything about the Original beside that the Bacteria will kill the Martians you will surely be dissapointed.