Change Your Image
tommylangzik
Reviews
Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
Extremely Boring & Underwhelming.
I'll preface this review with a confession: I expected a TOTALLY different movie than the one I got, primarily because the trailer didn't reflect the pace and spirit of actual movie. In other words, the trailer wasn't true to form; it was false advertising. My best guess (honestly) is that the creators KNEW they made a garbage movie, and wanted to trick people into watching it so they could make whatever $$ they could from it.
My rating (of 3/10) is based on the fact that the graphics were decent, and the atmosphere was neat. To be honest, this COULD have been an okay movie, but the false misleading marketing coupled with the fact that this movie mostly centered around social justice content ruined it completely.
Now, I don't want to come off wrong here... IF I KNOW I'm about to watch a slow-paced movie vs an action movie, I'd adjust my expectations, and take it in stride accordingly. Similarly, if I KNOW I'm about to watch a super liberal virtue-signalling movie, I'll adjust accordingly. In THIS case though, I came in thinking that I'd be watching an action war movie, when INSTEAD I got a preachy feminism movie shot almost entirely within the confines of a gun turret, which made it feel like the whole thing was forcefully being shoved down my throat for an hour.
Having said all that, I forced myself to sit through the whole movie, and secretly hoped it would get better... but it never did. MAYBE it could've been saved and gotten a 6/10 if the lead character were less whiney and annoying, but even under those conditions, it would be a VERY generous rating bump.
Honest conclusion, if you're a guy looking to watch a war movie, do yourself a solid and skip this film; I PROMISE you're not missing anything. I watched this with my fiancé, so (based on her reaction) I can confidently recommend the same to the ladies; give this one a pass, because there's simply nothing enjoyable about it.
Taboo (2002)
Honestly... Shocking & Stomach Turning.
I tried to walk into this with an open mind and initially naïvely assumed this would explore Taboos in a more placid "Hey look at these strange weird cultural quirks / oddities" way, but what I saw instead was stomach turning, especially in regard to the treatment of animals. The senseless barbarity and butchery fully on display was overwhelming and shocking at times. Savage and inhumane from a civilized western perspective; a brutal reminder that some humans still live guided by a stone age mentality in a myriad of ways.
The narrating presenters / experts try to cast the scenes in a "Well, we can't judge what we can't understand" sort of light, along with the classic "We need to ensure we preserve these cultures, otherwise they'll be lost". To be honest though... ... sometimes I couldn't escape the feeling that there was no ACTUAL value being created here; it was nothing more than desperation meeting destructive belief / tradition, thus, I often felt myself strongly disagreeing with the premise that these snake-oil approaches NEEDED to be kept active vs simply preserving them in history books.
As an example, a tribe in Africa had a woman claiming to be some sort of spirit vessel, and all she really did was take on a masculine voice/tone, have people slit live animal throats (including a calf), leave the animals wriggling or flailing on the ground as people danced in the blood gushing from the animal's neck... Then, all she said to each person who came seeking help & advice was "everything is going to be okay"... All I could do was sit there stunned in traumatic shock and horror, wondering how anyone could possibly take her seriously, let alone believe that this cruelty would solve their issues. One woman even came seeking help for her sick daughter; internally I was screaming "Take her to a doctor!". In my view, the sad reality was that some of these communities would have been better served with a proper education focused on science, and better access to healthcare; worrying about 'preserving' their culture, as far as I could tell, was RELATIVELY a non-issue.
ANYWAY, the production quality WAS decent, and it WAS interesting, BUT given that it was shot "in your face" David Attenborough style (think "nature shows that explicitly / vividly showcase death in the animal world"), this show is not for the squeamish, and if you're an animal lover, I'd STRONGLY recommend you take a hard pass on some episodes (though, unfortunately, no warnings are given in advance).
Oh, and if you're on the sensitive side, DO NOT WATCH RIGHT BEFORE BED; give yourself plenty of time to recover and unwind. I regard myself as an animal lover and empathetic towards the plight of others, so my review should likely be regarded with that lens in mind.
Felix Lobrecht: Hype (2020)
Lots of laughs!
I watched this (with my non-German speaking girlfriend) to help brush up on my German via more exposure to the language. We BOTH laughed REALLY HARD, throughout much of the show, but I think we were also the right audience for it. Allow me to elaborate...
If you're a ultra PC neo-Liberal type, you may want to steer clear of this title, because you'll likely get triggered. Felix's humor (like much of German humour) is a little darker than what some North American audiences may be used to, and it's a little less filtered (a little more raw). Some of his comedy is driven by unexpected shock value, and (ironically) is being blasted for having jokes that are too liberal/inclusive. There were a few moments where I had to explain to my gf that it's funnier in German (because some stuff gets a little lost in translation & context). I want to be clear though, this title is EPICALLY under-rated due to hyper-"liberal" ideological reasons.
I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just leave it at this:
If you're pretty level-headed, can laugh at yourself or how silly life, moods, and society can be, you'll likely enjoy this feature... and if you're a German-speaking millennial that loves dark humour, this is for 100% for you.
Maggie (2015)
Powerful; A Movie That Tugs At Your Heart Muscles.
INTRO: Let me start off by saying that if you are looking for an action or classic zombie horror flick, you will be severely disappointed. I think that if you walk into this movie knowing what to expect (or simply without expectations) you'll find it to be rather stirring. Having said that, let's break it down...
ACTING / CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: Overall, the acting was good, and what I loved about the movie is that it really touched on how different we all are; our diversity of personalities when faced with a crisis and/or dangerous situations. While the affliction in the film is fictional, it really touches on the human condition, and I think in many ways relates to how loved ones feel/cope with real modern-day illnesses. While Arnold wasn't the lead character in the movie, I was actually most impressed by him, not because he was specifically better than anyone else, but because I think most viewers (myself included) don't typically associate him with this kind of movie. In my opinion, he nailed it though, and put a man on screen who had to overcome overwhelming emotional conflicts; a man both weak and powerless, yet strong and determined all in the same given moment. Having said that, the movie would've been useless without a solid performance by Abigail Breslin, who played the emotionally torn Maggie very well.
PACE / MOOD: The atmosphere was consistently bleak, and the pace was smooth/steady, which really helped us focus and hone in on the character progression. The FX were similarly well balanced, looking authentic/realistic, while in no way distracting from the nuances of character development. In fact, I'd say that most of the 'horror' in this movie is in the details; it's the 'heartache' kind of horror made even more apparent by the isolation and respective loneliness of the main characters throughout the film. Additionally, while its 'down to Earth' approach allows us to relate and connect with the characters in a more intimate meaningful way, I feel as though it could have used A LITTLE swearing to give us more rawness; not everyone swears when they're angry or terrified, but generally there's always at least one who does, and he/she was missing in this movie (maybe this was done to keep the MPAA rating low, at PG-13?). While not critical, I hope there will be a cut of this movie released that adds a little more verbal intensity to the storyline.
CONCEPT / STORY: A totally different take on the dreaded "Zombie Apocalypse" scenario; this movie really hones in on that 'in-between' stage usually missed out on in the zombie genre. It serves as a reminder that sick people are just that... "sick" & "people", and that even in situations where the answers might seem clear-cut from an outsider's perspective, if/when it happens to us, there's a whole lot of grey surrounding our day-to-day decisions.
QUOTES TO REFLECT ON: "What would you do? What should my dad do to me? Quarantine? Do you know what it's like there?"... "They tell people everything's nice, that they'll hold your hand until the end... but they don't. They throw you in a big room with everyone else; they don't separate the phases, everyone's all bunched up together. People eating people, and they don't care. So what would you do?" - Trent (a few minutes later...) "She looked really bad Mag. I don't know why I went over to her, but I did; I felt bad I guess... I told her to stay there, but then when I turned around to call for dad, she bit me. I could see it in her eyes, you know, she regretted it; probably didn't even know she did it. Then dad showed up, shot her in the chest and the head." -Trent
This is merely a fraction of the struggles the film grazes on, but again, the movie is filled with trains of thought one could easily apply to common illnesses in our own reality's context.
CONCLUSION: As stated earlier, it's not an action movie, nor a terror flick, but it's actually a really great movie (especially if you're the reflective type); in my opinion it's definitely worth watching AT LEAST once. Enjoy. :)
Battle for Skyark (2015)
So Much Potential, So Little Budget...
INTRO: Unfortunately, I was bittersweetly disappointed with this movie; let's break it down...
BUDGET: Clearly Too Low. Movies are expensive, but it seems clear to me that this movie was out of it's budget's league. At least the movie got finished, which is in and of itself an accomplishment, but it seems like there wasn't enough to give it the polish and finesse that the concept really deserved. I think this could have been a gem, but I get the impression someone got a little too ambitious and jumped the gun.
FX: Not bad, but rather sparse for Sci-Fi. The environment, and elements that required obvious Motion-Graphic/3D treatment were pretty well done; they didn't distract or disconnect you from the movie, and that's really all you NEED. Having said that, given that it's a sci-fi flick (and that the cover sort of gives a similar impression), it didn't seem like there was a whole lot going on in terms of digital effects; much of the visual effects seemed to be done on set, which is fine for keeping costs down, but also doesn't allow you to edit and refine things in the post-production stage; that can make all the difference when trying to add more intensity to an otherwise 'flat' scene.
ACTING: It felt forced. It didn't come across as natural at all; there were a couple actors and a couple of moments where things 'felt right', but it was a really mixed bag, feeling forced overall. Maybe (again) the budget constraint caused the process to be rushed, or maybe because the movie's target audience is kids, the decision was made to just 'rough it'... or maybe there was too much work placed on too few people, causing burnout(?)... Either way, direction, takes, and/or talent were lacking for a polished experience.
PACE: Too slow. The movie really seems to drag on more than anything and emotionally flat-line throughout large swaths of the film. Due to the level of acting, lack of effects, and lack of developing/fleshing out the overall storyline, it feels like lots of time is wasted with what can only be described as "awkwardness".
STORY/CONCEPT: Good, but needs some fleshing out. Overall, the concept was actually great. The problem, however, was its vision. The animated introduction was a little complex (given the amount of info vs time), then throughout the movie we have long periods where really next to nothing is developing, and then nearly everything is revealed at the end. The middle, where conceivably the conflict would REALLY begin to gaining traction, was more of a whimper; not even the characters were fleshed out or understood as individuals to a point where one could connect with them on an emotional/personal level. Also, most of what was revealed at the end was rather predictable and not really much of a revelation by the time it was formally stated. Thus, much of what was displayed at the beginning of the movie and unveiled at the end should have been evenly spread out throughout to make it less turbulent to digest.
DETAILS: Too many "ugh" moments. - Even though I loved how the SkyArk looked, it drove me nuts seeing it within Earth's atmosphere, and then seeing it clearly orbiting the Earth in space only moments later. It seemed rather inconsistent. - The monsters aren't scary, and often-times they were just so lethargically slow and awkward. They looked a little neat, most notably the semi-transformed individuals near the end, but they didn't seem super-human enough in terms of speed and ability. - No blood... really? This movie needed a little more blood; the weapons were always clean, and even the only gun-shot in the movie didn't have any audio/visual weight/impact to it; you'd almost have been better off to zoom out the window, make a flash, and have it be an implied death. - As an adult, I found myself rolling my eyes and sighing too often in regard to the acting/character progression. The mannerisms, the gestures, the movements, the lines... there was just way too much lacking, giving the impression of extreme cheesiness. Part of me thinks this should be a series of movies or a web-series, and the story should begin earlier; that whole intro should have been a movie on its own where you focus on getting the fundamentals spot on, and then use this base as a springboard to get on to the more complex sequences in a sequel.
FAVOURITE LINE: "To survive in a world of monsters, you have to become a monster. You can stop this; all this pain and suffering... Drink!" - Rusty I'm so glad this movie had a line to really reflect on and provoke thought; in my case it actually reminded me of something Hitler is said to have believed regarding control and how the only way one can change a given power structure is to rise to the top.
CONCLUSION: All in all, my frustrations with this film are bittersweet and in a sense almost a compliment; the concept has SO MUCH AWESOME potential to be a solid family movie, but it currently isn't fleshed out enough in any area. I definitely wouldn't throw out the concept, but I'd start it over in a few years after REALLY fleshing out the story/'universe' more and developing the characters with increased complexity.