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Reviews
Coldblooded (1995)
One of the gems - just one of its kind
I saw this by recommendation from a buddy in 1993 and was like seriously? Jason Priestley? In the first Minutes i really had a strong Beverly Hills 90210 prejudice, but for some reason, the story derailed quickly in such an excitingly unconventional way... Everytime i watch it again, like, after recommending it to friends in need of ... guidance where to point their gun at, i feel the same astonishing and pleasant disorientation that i felt when i watched it for the first time. How was this movie even approved to be made? It has nothing that Hollywood audiences would ask for. It doesn't even appeal on an obvious intellectual level. It just vibes, the same way Men At Work vibes. I was really surprised not seeing Emilio Estevez involved in the making of this. And the Soundtrack sounds so much like Stewart Copeland, but it is by Steve Bartek. One of my favourties in the top 10 of "Misc, but must have seen".
Summertime (2018)
Everything is wrong
First of all, i wouldn't cast Carly Brooke anymore. She breaks camera all the time. Possibly too much Instagram. Secondly mostly everybodys hair and makeup is all wrong and people behave unauthentic all of the time. The 80s have a very easy to grasp and strict set of rules. Camerawork is terrible to say the least. Script is leading nowhere, like streetside stream. People don't relate and don't connect, emotional arc is sub-par. This movie has like one good, but useless actor and a few potentially nice shots that were just wasted. Props look like stuff from a scrapyard. Actors have no idea how to handle them, producers have no idea how to feature them. Choice of music screams "we had no budget". This movie should not have been made and you should not watch it. It is boring, adds nothing to the 80s legacy and leads nowhere. 1 of 10. Please don't try again.
Crisis (2021)
Almost perfect cast, terrible script
There lots of capable people in this, but at times script and execution are just incredibly bad, which is at times even amplyfied by meager direction, which comes in waves. At times it is a mixture of real high potential, but then again it just comes down to your very average 90s TV Soap directing.
This could have been a real treat, but clearly the minds in charge were not capable of making the script work. Potent story, very promising cast, but then there are these sudden waves of absolute meaninglessness and insincerity. Cinematography is okay, music/ost is acceptable. Worst cast choices: Veronica Ferres, Duke Nicholson (moments when the viewing experience really tanks).
Armie Hammer needs to make careful career choices now, because he is actually an actor with very high potential, but in the crosshairs of cancel culture.
Ya no estoy aquí (2019)
A true gem
At first i was sceptical, - just another coming of age flick - but from some "far away" place? I am happy to say i was totally wrong. And while speaking of happy: the music! I am hooked. I was so satisfied when the music, which is a central element of this film, turned out to be something uniquely different and not just some popular garbage. Anyways: this is not your run of the mill teen drama. The movie has it's own angle at a very complex and difficult reality, all sewn together by one strong belief - which is convincingly believable due to the protagonists age. And belief it may be, faith even, that makes this story so unique. And i am absolutely not a religious person. Fernando Frías is straight on the way to the Academy Awards if he continues this path. And i hope he digs up an even bigger diamond. Thank you!
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
If
This reflects what the current audience expects, then we have arrived at the termination of cinema. This, hopefully last installment literally terminates what was once the leading thread of dystopic cyber tech what have you futuristic machine versus man.
Now, it has come down to internship level editing and camera work, second hand lighting and story, oh we don't need that, we'll do that in post. Oh actually some interns from elsewhere will deal with all of everything in post production and then multiple heads of's will stir up everything a little. Whatever is in these moving images, surveys already projected the returns so, NEXT. How much can we earn on this Billy Eilish guy and Bond something something? Pass me the powder.
The Highwaymen (2019)
Post production ruins immersion
Such a great story, so much potential. Awesome cast and lead. I was really looking forward to this.
But then... the color keying and mastering is so jumpy, it almost looks like the film was edited inserting untouched material in a final rushed run. Windshields not depolarized, no dust, no dirt, all just clean strait out of the package. Also the editing is so wishful, almost hysterical at times, it feels so cheap with this heavy topic. The sound is terrible. Shots and music just blast out super loud, unnecessary - unless this is supposed to be a retro gun advertisement while dialog mumbles away in poorly recorded mess of on-set-reverb.
I don't get it. It is a recipe with an almost fail-safe outcome and yet, the immersion is denied because the editing, post and also lots of the camera work are sloppy? Is this a message like "that's what you get, when you turn away from big picture studio movies?".
I sense a pretty decent fan-edit in there. This could have been a solid 7 with a bias towards a straight 8, if it had been done right.
But this edit is just really annoyingly poorly executed. Sad!
Thunder Road (2018)
Strong
Like waiting for rain after a long drought, i have been waiting for the gems of this years dream factory releases. It has been a pretty dull year, to this pont. But Thunder Road is one of the gems. Actually this movie marks the beginning of the season, as i hope. It almost feels like a perfect mixture of End Of Watch and The Florida Project. I was stunned to see that the budget was so limited, but it has the feel of someone aiming to hit real hard. Surprisingly intense lead acting, not seen for a long time, i was really thirsty for something like that. The story and writing takes a fresh path, that takes much appreciated unexpected paths. Cinematography was all the way i enjoy it. I'll recommend this to my peeps. The mixture is just right. Keep up the great work! (I was very happy that a certain branch concerning a certain person was not taken, although it was hinted at to almost happening.)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Follows the lead, but...
This might actually have worked, if only some very bad CGI decisions were not made and most of all, now, a 15 years later, it is clear that the soundtrack is absolutely horrible. The score messes up everything. Not only does it not match the size of the picture (scenic size, music is too static and too close, making the image look small) but also it is wishful, meaning that the score is trying to add emotional aspects that are improper and unfitting to what is actually displayed. Someone might have been really really excited to do this score and might have had an overenthusiastic producer, but the central idea of the movie was not understood. If the score had been more traditional and not overexcited, the whole title could have been a decent 7.8
(Also there's been some unfortunate casting, but... We cannot change it. I just try to do some therapeutic analysis here.)
Zeit der Kannibalen (2014)
Another among the very few good German movies.
Most of the German movies are unbearably bad. Thats because the German cinema is without any vision or braveness. We (i am German) do have good cameramen and good lighting, perhaps even good stories. But the execution is mostly suffocated by the horrible public media (oeffentlich-rechtlich) ideological dictate. Most of the good german movies come from Austria, also. So they're technically not even german. But there are a few, like a handful of good directors in Germany, like Detlev Buck, who seems to have lost his teeth a while ago, and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck or Michael Haneke. Vicco von Bülow was our pendant to Woody Allen, but lacked depth and output. Helge Schneider made a very nice movie together with true genius Christoph Schlingensief. Peter Thorwarth made one brilliant movie. But most of the German movies, let me repeat this, are just poor and weak in so many aspects. So i congratulate Johannes Naber - you made it! A very nice Zeitgeist movie with a slow but nasty suspense. Acting and Language that has the right view on Germans - not wishful thinking. Very well chosen sound. For me it made the 7+1. Actually the movie "No Escape" seems to pick up something from this one - if i got the release dates right. I will not hesitate to recommend this to my friends and will surely add it to my "special" top 50. Thanks for capturing my full attention!
Jupiter Ascending (2015)
Facebook age hate?
You might be stumbling upon this movie by browsing through recent releases, checking the Wachowski works history, being attracted by the media vortex, or even because you follow up one of the main characters' careers. I went to watch the movie because i was like *what*? 5.9 rating? For a movie like this (Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi)? In a time when cinema is so strongly in the grip of corporate influence that the plot-line leads you directly into the sh*t-storms of open social media sea? Why does everyone think their unreflected meaning counts today? And why don't people have no proper cultural education anymore? Have we arrived in "Idiocracy", finally? I went into this movie with zero expectations. I tried to fire my bullets of criticism at everything i suspiciously spotted, during the first 15 minutes. And then i just noticed: this movie is not about the plot. This movie is about the message. Its a nice (almost exciting) collection of quotes from the top sci-fi movies of the 90s and all time, it even has scenes that looked like they were borrowed 'on purpose' to look exactly like certain intense legendary moments. It is visually absolutely stunning, and has such an overwhelmingly good flow of action that you know: the story is so basic, this is not what the movie is about. The story is just a vessel for something far more important. Look at this as a sensual spectacle, that features something that all the other (gruesomely overdone) visual feasts like Star Wars EP 1-3, Transformers and whatnot, or even the new Star-Trek movies (which i actually applauded to, because they were so strongly compensating what was done wrong in the past) did not have, or if it was there, it was unbearably, disgustingly false: a message. This movie might have a story which has been told many many times. We have seen them all. Even the message is not new, but it is there!
And to *anyone* who dares discrediting buckaroo banzai in this context - please, you might seriously need to check your humor and satire detectors.
Spoiler warning: * there are a few very beautifully placed, genuine moments of refreshing laughter in this movie, that feel good when you hit them. not as if someone slammed a corny line on the table and pushed a button that forced you to laugh now, as it seems common for nowadays cinema.
If this movie doesn't at least plateau at a solid 7.6, IMDb has finally degenerated to what most of the people i know always warned me of: the bad breath of the opinion of the unskilled moviegoer mainstream.
Special (2006)
Good.
Honestly, this movie is in no way funny - although it could have been, and although it sometimes really made the impression that it was somehow intended to be funny. But it was just tragic. And what was really annoying, was the soundtrack, which was so entirely depressing and really got me close to turn off the movie at times, because it added such a thoroughly negative atmosphere. I couldn't help thinking "if anyone laughs at this, they have a serious empathy problem". Plus i believe, because of the way the story was told and the emotional bias thats created, this movie really drowned somehow. And it surely could have been, fore-mentioned negatives put aside, a pretty good one.