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Bluegull99
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Goo-hae-jwo (2017)
Really good - wirh some minor flaws
I found this drama really gripping, so much actually that I spent several nights binge watching it because I just could't turn it off. It it rather dark themed, so nothing about romance or any typical, lightweight thing you often find in K-Drama here.
The storyline is interesting as there indeed seem to be problems with cults in South Korea. The actors are quite good in here, with Woo Do-Hwan as Seok Dong-cheol standing out for me as the best from the group of young men trying to save a young girl from the cult and its leader.
I really enjoyed the series until the end, although it did have some little flaws in the last episodes. The girl, Im Sang-mi, has been caught and locked up within the cult for full three years. The most powerful female cult helper takes away her cell phone in the very beginning. So three years later she finally finds this cell phone locked in a drawer in the woman's room, - and turns it on and it works? After three years in a drawer? The phone of course would not work, the battery would have been empty for years and she also didn't have a charger then but steadily uses the phone. That was quite a blunder for me and annoyed me.
Also, the real hero of the four young man trying to save her is certainly Seok Dong-cheol. He risks everything for her actually from the beginnig of the series, and later even more. They also look at each other in a certain way in the very first episode. He saves her several times in different situations and obviously really cares for her. Still, in the very last episode, the politician's son, Han Sang Hwan, who does rather foolish and even unhelpful things throughout the whole series, is suddenly shown as the hero she thanks and Seok Dong-cheol is quite forgotten in that respect. That was a weak ending for me and the focus was set wrong on the wrong person here.
Still, it was rather gripping most of the time, the topic was interesting and I would even watch it again.
The Last Kingdom (2015)
poor decision to make the main character suddenly look like a blueprint of Vikings' Ragnar
I just watched some of the series, not every episodes, as firstly, the actors are mostly not convincing, secondly the whole attire is very B-movie-esk, and thirdly, now as I have watched one of the newest episodes, why did they think it was a good idea to try and make a visual exact blueprint of 'Vikings' Ragnar Lothbrok? The hair, the clothes, even suddenly the way the actor speaks? How lame is that? 'Vikings' was there first, 'Vikings' was fantastic concerning the actors, clothes, just everything. This is a very lame copy trying to jump the bandwagon
Mestari Cheng (2019)
Stereotypes and fairytales
This movie has beautiful pictures, warm humour, nice actors in it. And it's a lovely story too. Sadly it is quite unrealistic.
Let me put it like this: not every one from China is able to cook on a chef level and not every Chinese person does Chi Gong and Tai Chi. Also, having lived in Finland for quite some time (and I loved it there and still love it today!) I can tell you one thing: Finnish people are special for many reasons, and I like their general way of mostly being calm, sensible, and totally non-hysterical in any thinkable way. Also I personally liked that people quite keep a distance there, that there was no pressure of socialising like mad all the time, hugging and kissing strangers on the cheek etc. All that is quite to enjoy if you are like that yourself, like I am. But it also means that you do not simply make a ton of friends in Finland easily, it's quite the opposite. People remain quite reserved for a comparably long time there and that is even if you speak Finnish, look Caucasian and are competely included work/leasuretimewise. And that goes for the bigger cities with comparably many people. So I personally seriously doubt that a Chinese cook unable to speak Finnish would simply win over a complete remote Finnish small town and have 'many friends' there. In reality this simply wouldn't happen.
That said it is a nice fairytale idea that it would happen like that and if you blend out reality you can enjoy this as what it is - a fairytale.
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020)
what I expected
I adore the original series with Eva Green. This however, is just nonsense. I do not really understand why they had to put the name tag Penny Dreadful onto this mix of bad police/detective story in combination with some uncoordinated supernatural phenomena and highly political agenda.
What I love about the original was the language, beautiful end century English, the poetry in the words, the clothes, the houses, the magic and the excellent cast, one better than the other. It was (and is again these days especially!) wonderful reality escape, totally diving into this magic mood.
There is NOTHING of this in that new show, it has NOTHING to do with Penny Dreadful, not with the original little horror books it was namend after, neither with the original fantastic show.
They could as well have made ten episodes of homeshopping channel and suddenly name it Penny Dreadful - same dif.
28 Days Later... (2002)
starts fantastic and gies completely downhill later
I'm almost sorry I can give this only three stars, but what started so promising ended so ridiculous.
The beginning of the movie was quite impressive, the scenes with totally empty London with all its landmarks and symbols, all empty with that poisonous looking yellowish sky and the main character stumbling through the rubble in his hospital shirt (and I forgive them that it is totally unrealistic that someone who had severe head injury and was ina coma for four weeks just stands up and walks like a fit and healthy person. They showed that one way better in TWD when Rick tries to get up from his hospital bed and just falls down because his muscle power is simply gone after that long time and he needs some time to get some strength back) .
Also then, when he finds two kind of short term companions and they have to run and hide from the zombies, well done (and also here I forgive them that it is unrealistic that any kind of virus could spread in the body under 10 seconds like they showed it for the panic effect. If someone gets a droplet of infected blood into a wound in their arm, it would simply take a longer time until the infected blood is pumped through the body and arrives in the brain to make symptoms show - that can't happen within 10 seconds).
Then, when they meet the father and the daughter, also the almost claustropobic atmosphere in that multi-storey, I was still fixed in my seat and tense watching.
So then when looking for the source of the mysterious voice from the radio, the father dies and suddenly these soldiers turn up and take them with them to this kind of manor house.
And there it goes downwards, and quickly. So from being tense and at least halfway realistic the movie ends in the group of soldiers being sleezes who just want to have the two women, and our main character (still only past some weeks from his head op and previously being just a normal boy who certainly wasn't in the army or did any kind of self defence) turns into half naked Tarzan who outwits and kills many fully armed trained soldiers with automatic weapons - yes, alright! So this turn of events from decent to ridiculous comes rather quickly and I was just annoyed that they runied the movie like that. It almost seemed like one part was made by one director and screenwriter, and that last part was done by completely different people.
So, really a promising start of the movie with great scenery and atmosphere, and then a turn to total ridiculous Stallone style and logic movie.
Song to Song (2017)
Not even...
... Gosling can safe this one. I am all in for experimental, special movies, but sorry, this here, is just tosh. And no, I won't say it in nicer words, it is hedonistic nonsense.
It looks like someone with an extremely shaky hand fulfilled their plan to film some rather bad acting class students who have gotten the instruction to 'try and look artistic, alternative and be just as artsy as they can get'.
It was almost fascinating seeing actually brilliant actors like Cate Blanchett making fools of themselves, every scene looking so forced and awkward it was hard not to look away. Same goes for Natalie Portman, she is probably as credible as the poor rednecky pink dressed, boobed out waitress as Queen Elizabeth II would be as a prostitute.
Ryan Gosling normally is a guarantee to find a great movie, even if you dislike the movie (for me 'Blue Valentine' - I really disliked the movie itself for its depressimg mood but I have to give it that it still was a brilliant movie with brilliant acting). Here, no, here I have a camera experiment and quite good actors making fools of themselves all in the name of 'art'.
Another interesting thing for me is Michael Fassbender. He has the strangest effect on me. He is visually a beautiful man, he really is for my taste. And he also is a good actor, but I have seen four movies with him in it, and they all had the same freezer cold effect when it comes to the movies itself and also his characters. I had this with 'Shame' (it was like watching frozen linoleum, and it goes for every charater in the movie. Even the otherwise lovely and talented Carey Mulligan seems just like another Borg). Same goes for 'MacBeth, visually beautiful, stunning even, but, again the same effect of Fassbender and the otherwise lovely Marion Cotillard)
And the same here now, only that 'Song to Song' is completley missing any kind of plot, it's just gibberish on camera. I found myself thinking of Kindergarden, when back then, to relax us kids we had those free 10 minutes, where the teacher said things like 'and now everyone can run around in circles, and make strange faces, and laugh out loud and jump etc.' This movie pretty much looked like this memory to me.
So, if you want to spend around two ( it felt like 5) hours watching something like that, enjoy ;)
Normal People (2020)
Good acting, good cinematography, but why is this so popular?
I have to give this that it is interesting to watch, as in the charcaters do seem very realistic to me - sadly. The two lead actors are really good, and it is interesting enough to want to know what is going to happen next.
That said, this show really left me kind of angry and hopeless. That is what is supposed to be normal? Well, that is very sad then.
When there was this scene in the disco, where Marianne is bullied beyond belief, even attacked by Connel's so called friends, and he does - NOTHING? When again, his so called friends openly call Marianne the worst names at school, and he just sits there and does NOTHING? Not even peer pressure explains this, he simply is a coward and a whimp and no matter the general attraction Marianne might feel towards him, that would have been the end of everything further for me. A man who acts like that in such situations, how could you ever trust him, how could he ever be reliable? And that is normal? Goodness, really sad.
Maybe I'm spoilt as I myself had a situation in my life, when my now husband of 16 years stepped in for me when I really wasn't able myself and rescued me, he stood up to people and was just brave and kept that line, yes, that is non- feminist, that is not a modern view but it was darn romantic and we are still in love so many years later in a comparably very strong and positive relationship.
I could trust him because he proved to me I could. I could never ever trust a man like Connel, being such a coward and totally unreliable in his feelings towards Marianne. And if this is really normal, I am very glad I am not.
It (2017)
No!
I make this one short: it's the first time I use this phrase but seriously, if I could give minus-stars, I would in this case! What was that? It has nothing, and I mean NO THING to do with the book and even less with the wonderful original movie of the 90s.
Actors - bad and unconvincing, locations - bad, violence - grotesque, graphic level, clown - ridiculous! nothing of the really scary Tim Curry clown who worked with expression, voice, psychological fear, no, here we have ever screaming kids, (and not for a second did I believe these were kids of the 80s, I am an 80s kids, and it was all just off, the haircuts were just not really like they were etc. and these kids had a way of talking, no one used back in the 80s), oh, and a totally overanimated clown-thing. Storyline - none, plotholes - lots! I could go on for ages, I just can say I have not seen such total tosh in years, an insult to any viewer with half a braincell left.
The Shape of Water (2017)
Me and Guillermo del Toro - won't happen
After having seen 'Pan's Labyinth' many years ago and really disliking it firstly for its awfully detailed violence scenes and the general mood in the movie which was just not nicely melancholic but somehow off for me, I now watched 'the shape of water' and well, what can I say? Same thing again.
B. del Torro seems to have a fascination with sadistic, brutal male characters, in the Pan movie it was the stepfater of the girl, here it is exactly the same character with just a different name, here now torturing the aquatic man. Also, although again the movie was somehoe beautifully equipped with old-fashioned furniture and a kind of nice 50s/60s vibe, it again had this unpleasant nightmare-like vibe to it I already disliked in the other movie.
I watched the whole movie and I must sadly say it left me completely cold concerning all the characters, it just didn't get through to me at all. And no, I'm no generally not into these kind of fantasy movies, I was one of the few who really likes 'Lady in the water' which had me crying. So it really is just this particuar del Torro-vibe that puts me off completely.
I would have still given the movie four stars but what botherd the heck out of me was the del Torro had quite the cheek to just badly copy from 'Amelie' - (a wonderful movie I still cherrish after almost 20 years!). A mute main charater, almost the same haircut, the little detail stuff she does and he even used French music instead of English music? I had watched the first five minutes of the movie and already thought, common, that's from Amelie?
So, sorry, me and Benicio, it really just won't happen. I find his movies unpleasant, kind of nighthmarishly vibed, and for my taste he even steals from other great movies. I don't like it, I will never like it.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
not as good
I absolutely love the first part of the series, I don't know how many times I've watched it and I cry every single time. After years now I bought the second part and watched it and hmmm... emotionally nothing happened. The only thing still super touching is Toothless, who is quite in the backround in this movie. But for the rest, well, it just get's too unreal. It of course had a touch of unreal when in the first part Hiccup's father understood his son in the end, said sorry and changed his behaviour. (in real life that is something that probably doesn't happen ever, but we all wish it did)
But in the second part now, they just overdid it for me. Hiccup meeting his lost for twenty years mother, who is of course the wise dragon lady. Both are not awkward but HIccup just makes flapsy jokes and the mother is all wise and in no time they smile at each other and everything is fine. Next, HIccup's dad finds out his wife is still alive. And after these two people parted in anger twenty years ago, they just kiss and then dance and again - everything is fine?
And apart from that I couldn't help myself but getting annoyed of Hiccup with his behaviour. His father tells him, and rightly so, that there indeed are people who are evil and won't change their views and ways. He underlines this with telling him a story, that Mr. Bloodfist caused a whole hall of vikings to die in fire, and Hiccup still doesn't care and goes onto this mission to just talk the evil master out of his evilness? In in doing so, he endangers his loved ones, Toothless several times and with his behaviour, he actually causes the death of his own father, who tried to warn him. What is the message of this movie supposed to be? Just talk to psychopathic terrorists like Bloodfist and they will understand and from then on be nice people? Sorry, but that was just too much, and instead of touching me that movie annoyed me mostly.
Also the actually wonderful soundtrack themes of the first part go totally under in the second movie due to too much action sequences for the sake of it.
I understand that they want to have a positive message in these movies, and in the first part they did it so perfectly. But in the second part they just overdid it and made the shown emotions between people seem totally unreal and kind of forced.
I still have to watch the third part and really hope they get back on track with it.
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
difficult to rate
Oh well, this one is difficult for me to rate. On the one hand I have a fanatastic memory of this movie, of 1996, me being 18, sitting in the late night smoker cinema (yes, something like that existed back in the 90s, a cinema where the audience could smoke while watching the movie - unimaginable today ;)) with a friend and through all the smoke we watched the really intense pictures this movie offers, the darkness, the many candles, paired with the classic and wonderful poetry of Shakespeare. Then and now I was impressed by DiCaprio and Danes, both gave such a believable and intense show of the doomed romance. And yes, in that last scene in the church it is hard not to cry.
Back then, being 18, I was totally impressed and amazed by the movie, coming with the described cinema setting and the fact I was just 18.
Now, almost 25 years later, I watched the movie again last night. Weirdly enogh I got kind of annoyed now by the fact that the wonderful Shakepeare language is a bit, well, stained by the fact it is spoken in slurry American English. I have meanwhile seen English Shakepspeare plays with British native actors, and I guess that's the reason it just bothers me now in the movie as it kind of cheapens the beautiful language and at several times the pronounciation is so bad that it's hard to comprehend.
Another thing is, that these over the top party scenes with all that screaming or the screaming and shooting scenes annoyed me now too. I fast forwarded here and there as the pronounciation was so bad and it was all screaming so it didn't matter anyways.
What still really makes the movie worthwile is the scenes with DiCaprio and Danes, they are so lovely and intenses, they alone make it worthwile and still worth seven stars.
The Punisher: The Whirlwind (2019)
General review
I was really impressed with season one, it was psychologically smart, the characters acted in a cmprehensible way, and every character, well, stayed in character - which is always a plus.
Then came season two. I was afraid it would go bad after seeing the first episode and I sadly was not wrong.
So, concerning Frank Castle, the guy who pretty much had one goal and reacted to almost everyone not directly important to him with 'not my problem': the same guy randomly drinks a beer in a bar, get's it going with the barmaid, he likes her. After spinnig this romantic thing for Frank, even inlcuding the barmaids little son, Frank likes these two people.
Next day, a some 30 guys (why so many, for one teenage girl?) show up at the bar to get a stranger girl. Frank senses the danger, and does what? He exposed himself completely (many people would still know his face from the news!), kills 30 people for a stranger teenager he knows nothing about.
The Frank Castle from the first season would have done what? He would have sensed the situation, he would immediately have jumped behind he bar, and getting that now emotionally important to him barmaid and get the f out of the bar and to safety. That is what Frank Castle would have done. So that was the start and I felt from there, it was not the same character we saw in the first season.
And it goes on like that. Madani, a strong and selfconfident woman is written down to a shaky, wine drinking babbling something. The psychiatrist woman is annoying from the start and if the intention was to get sympathy for Russo through her, it failed big time. It's just cringeworthy watching them together in every single scene.
Ah, and the pilgrim guy - too much, too over the top with his Poltergeist II hat thing and his strange walking and talking just for the sake of it.
And oh, yes, there we are again, that teenager girl, Amy, Rachel, whatever her name, honestly I didn't like her from the start and that doesn't change through the show. And that is the problem with most new characters in this season: I really don't care about them, not the Plgrim and his weirdo family, not the Rachel girl, I just don't like them. The episodes drag on and on and there is several times it all could have been ended and Frank could have just shot Russo, he had several possibilities. Instead we get slow-mo scenes, 'Ruuussooo!'... 'Fraaaank' oh common! And lots of guns and shots fired, and blood spattered and it just doesn't make much sense.
Worst of all in the episode when Frank, yet again, gets beaten to a bloody pulp, (and yes, even he would just be about dead at that point) and without trouble he just gets up and finishes off lots of enemies quite without a problem.
So, the first season was so good because it all had a very realistic touch to it, it touched realistic topics too and it felt embedded quite real. Frank's mission was clear and understandable, his character was impressive that way.
In season two he acts out of character all the time, like most of the other known characters who change ther opinion every other minute, and as the season goes on, it just gets more nonsensical, it's dragging and it just gets too violent for just no understandable reason. So my vote for this episode is 2, my vote for season 2 ist maybe 4, my vote for seaons one is 9.
Der kalte Himmel (2011)
Good idea with flaws
It worth watching both parts of this movie for several reasons. It captured quite accurately how things were back in the 1960s in small villages in Germany. The actors are well chosen and it shows, how family life was seen in these times, especially on farms where several generations had to live under one roof.
The story itself is about a probably autistic little boy who stands out in his village as he is in no way compatible due to his (for the villagers and his family) strange behaviour.
His mother is the only one believing he is intelligent and tries to fight for him not to be put into a special needs school of the times.
She does so by taking him to different doctors in different cities, an expensive and exhausting way if finding help at these times, and against the will of her family at home. If found it plausible that she takes her son to Munich and tries to get him medical help. When that fails completely she goes back home with him and decided, again against the will of her husband and family, to take him to Berlin instead as she had met a young doctor in Munich who had offered help.
That was the point when it got a it unlikely for me. Her husband is already in debt for the farm and other things, the family can come by somehow but they have no money to spare and they actually have three children altogether.
The mother still goes to Berlin with the son, and does not return for a long time so he can get treatment there. She starts working as a waitress and remains in Berlin with her son.
While I do understand her will to fight for her son, it does not make sense that she seems completely indifferent to her two other children, just leaving them alone and not returning to them. The movie means to show her unconditional motherly love, but what it is worth if that love is just for one of three children? I didn't like that and it kiind of ruined that actually nice thought of a loving mother.
Good ideas, good intentions, but quite some flaws too
Birdsong (2012)
Didn't convince me
I really expected to love this movie but I honestly didn't.
There was absolutely no chemistry between Clemence Poesy and Eddie Redmayne, I mean none. I didn't believe for one second these two people could really be lovers. Also I have to say Redmayne's acting didn't convince me. I didn't see him in anything before but read he had an Oscar, so I expected something different. He just had those two same expressions over most of the movie.
Concerning the movie itself there were strange turns in the story. ( I don't know the novel so I just judge the movie). If Isabelle's husband was that violent tyrant who beats her and who she leaves for that reason, why would she go back to him instead of moving in with her obviously wealthy sister she is so close to?
Why would that same violent and highly aggressive husband of hers just let her and that 'boy' as he calls Redmayne, leave and not beat him to a pulp which would be quite the logical reaction psychologically for this man's profile?
Why would Isabelle just leave Stephen when she finds out she is pregnant? Yes, he said he wasn't really ready for a child but she could at least have tested him verbally, like 'Stephen, and what if I get pregant, what would you do?' - and see his reaction, before leaving without a word?
And they really didn't chose the child very fitting in the end, the girl looked nothing, not even remotely, like she could be these two people's daughter.
I would rate this movie lower, if it was not for one really outstanding supporting actor, - Joseph Mawle as Jack Firebrace. His acting was superb, and he convinced me more in every single scene than both lead actors in all the movie.
To compare this movie to 'The English Patient' is more than a stretch, as Fiennes and Scott Thomas oozed chemistry and I was mesmerised by their performance every second back then.
So, sorry, I really wanted to like this, I really did like Joseph Mawle and will look out for further movies with him, but the rest of 'Birdsong' was just a fail for me.
FBI (2018)
no
I watched 3-4 episodes and it just doesn't deliver. The two main characters seem strangely wooden and lifeless, I just don' believe they are these two agents, I quite often have moments where I suddenly really see they are acting.
Jeremy Sisto is normally a great actor, (loved him in 'six feet under' and he was also good in 'Law & Order' some years ago) but what is he doing in this show? He is just running around like a shaken chicken and he is really screaming all the time? Why?
The storylines aren' t good either, there were several plotholes and scenes that lacked logic.
They are showing the really old 'Law & Order' seasons at the same time here, (early 1990s) and they are so much better, just no comparison.
Fleabag (2016)
Seriously?
First of, I really like Olivia Coleman since I've seen 'Tyranosaur' and 'Broadchurch' - same goes for Mrs. Waller-Bridge who was also great in 'Broadchurch'
After this went through the roof concering awards some days ago I gave it a shot and boy, what is that?
I love British humour, I love dark, cinical humour, but this is none of it?
How is it funny if the main character explains every supposed joke before the actual joke? Is this now how far we have come that people need a word by word pre-explanation of the most basic, not actually funny jokes? As an example scene, Waller-Bridges sitting in the bar with her sister, wanting to ask her for money. Saying: I'm going to ask her for money, I'm going to, I'm just going to'...Sister: 'do you need to borrow money'? Waller-Bridges 'Noo nooo' - Saying then ' I just couldn't I just couldn't. - how exactly is non-intelligence funny? Or witty? And that is what I expect of good, dark humour, is has to be intelligent and witty and I do not want to be pre-fed every supposed bad joke baby spoon by baby spoon by the main character?
As for the rest, it is just a very bawdy, 'I want to provocate' show, that lacks class and brains.
But it seems to hit the Zeitgeist very well, no bother thinking yourself, no bother educating yourself to understand the background of jokes (take a look at the Monty Pythons movies, lots of it there concerning actual history for example) just being junk-feed trashy loud as obscene as possible stuff. Sad times, and a waste of actually great actors. I liked Olivia Coleman in every role I've seen her in yet, but this was the first time I felt from the first second she was acting.
Line of Duty (2012)
Sorry, but no
For months I've been hearing raving reviews about this show. I finally tought, ok, I'll give it a try as I am a fan of classic police crime shows. I have watched the complete first season now and will not go on watching.
Reasons for that are
:
1. What the hell is wrong with the camera man? Did they engage a pigeon to film this? What about this steady shaking and zooming in and out? Even in scenes where everything is supposed to be steady, like, when people are sitting at their desks talking? It really spolied this for me and I have no idea what the idea is behind it. Make it feel more realistic? Seriously, no one watching anything in real life would shake their head all the time like that unless they had a severe illness.
2.About the show itself: I did not like or remotely identify with any of the characters. They all seem cold, stale, no background story, nothing likeable about any of the characters, not the main characters, and not side characters. They all seem like horrible people and after having watched a whole season I know nothing about the main investigators, only everything about Gates, who I can't stand either.
3. Why would I want to watch this? It's about unlikable people at the police, combined with the worst scum out there. Why would I want to want to watch nasty children and drug addicts beating a man with down syndrome and peeing into his plants? Why would I want to watch a 10-year-old boy repeatedly saying 'bastard' to everyone and torturing a policeman? Why would I want to watch a horrible man (Gates) strangling his poor dog, who was only hurt in the first place because he is a complete, arrogant and vain human failure on two legs?
This show just made me uncomfrotable, I didn't like anyone, I didn't get any kind of background info about the characters, and I was shown brutality and human nastiness par excellence, all with this ever shaking bl 00dy camera which gave me a headache after a while.
Sad to say that there indeed are excellent actors in this show, like Dunbar, and obviously later Keeley Hawes etc. But the show itself is just made like 'The Sun' in TV-show format, no thanks.