koen-56 Reviews

The People We Hate at the Wedding (2022)

Cliched farce not for prudes, with enough laughs and pretty scenes

[7/10 · 4 July 2023]

My wife and I watched this together on a rainy day and laughed a lot. It is somewhat stupid and over the top as a farce should be.

It will not be for people who don't like explicit swearing or sex in movies. Maybe they were all the 1 stars. Watching a drunken threesome was a little confronting for me and there were not many laughs in it, though it was I guess, trying to tell us something about the silly characters.

So... the actors do their job in a charming and/or offensive way and are good looking as well. The London setting and wealth of half the family add to the entertaining escape of this movie. Will it educate you on anything important or remain in your thoughts for days after viewing? I certainly reckon not.

So to sum up, it has vulgarity along with its cliches and lots of laughs.

Wayward Pines (2015–2016)

So Much Spent on Something So Stupid

[17 June 2023]

So..plot holes there are few , but then again too few to mention.

What am I saying, there are plenty. However it turns out it is all real. Pilger has already frozen himself and everyone else. It happens that this mindless bull, full of all the dystopia that American TV loves to produce, is actually part of the plan. As we watch we are being turned into stupid hungry Abbies so that in due course we might completely wreck our own society like the hapless abductees wreck theirs.

Please M. Night Shyamalan, spend more on writers than production in future ventures. I am sure you could one day make something better.

The first series is passably interesting until it all becomes silly with plot holes and the genius who created the town can't figure out the bleeding obvious but wants to kill his own precious humans. And where did all the paint come from? Does paint last 2000 years? What about real estate agents? Why do they have those but not robot farmers? Plus they must have a hundred hardware superstores buried under those mountains.

Anyway, I can feel myself becoming dumber...I am nearly at the end of season 2 and I am feeling strangely hungry for human flesh...

Evicted: A Modern Romance (2022)

A fun story with a cast that works

[7/10 · 5 November 2022]

Evicted is one of those movies that reminds you that a few actors and a reasonable script can keep you entertained for a couple of hours, pretty much as well as some high budget forgettable cartoon film. Maybe even better if you are a grown up. While there are hints at a commentary on the parlous state of real estate in Australia in 2022, it is just a backdrop to the lives of the four main characters as they negotiate some farcical pitfalls of work and love and life in the modern world.

The film manages to pull it off with a lot of laugh out loud moments. Though a little shaky at the start, I found myself warming to each housemate until the satisfying conclusion.

Interceptor (2022)

Popcorn Pastime Pisstake

[7/10 · 27 October 2022]

This is not high art, or even one of your memorable action movies but it is quite a watchable piece of entertainment. I can understand people being annoyed by all the unbelievable moments and predictable cliches in this movie...but hey, which silly action movie doesn't have those? So I don't see why it should score so low on that count. It is a bit of a laugh at itself, as becomes obvious when Chris Hemsworth pops up.

Watch and decide for yourself. If this kind of stuff is not for you, you will soon realise and you can go looking for something else. It seems cheaper yet more watchable to me than many other high budget cartoon based nonsense films.

Infinitum: Subject Unknown (2021)

Starts silly, goes nowhere

[2/10 · 27 August 2022]

Yeah, yeah.,made during lockdown with decent acting and filming on a phone... but that is no reason to watch.

So you are locked in a room with your hands tightly ziptied behind your back. Then they are in front. Try it. Bet you can't do unless you are double jointed. The most interesting thing about the film is why she takes so long to actually cut the zipties and why I took so long to fast foward at great speed to find out if anything actually happens.

It doesn't.

I said this review contains spoilers but actually, I am not sure you can spoil something like this film. And my review has to be longer to be accepted. Maybe this film project was like that too..."let's just do the same thing over and over like we are in covid19 lockdown again".

Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)

Entertaining legend but not history

[8/10 · 13 April 2022]

I always feel conflicted about Hollywood 'historical' movies. This one is no different. It is a visually beautiful film and the great cast make for some memorable characters. It portrays the last ditch fighting of a frontier war without demonising any of the main combatants. But like most of the other historical movies made it is wrong on so, so many facts. My unease over these movies mostly arises because people so often remember the movie 'facts' as real . Life is much darker and more complicated. But I certainly recommend that you watch it.

Troppo (2022– )

Something not quite right

[6/10 · 20 March 2022]

A mystery with lots too many quirks making it hard to follow for me. Not because the acting sometimes seemed not quite strong enough, nor because the scenery was too cliched but just because I found I cared little about any of the characters. I wonder if they brainstormed tourism Australia ideas, shook them up and tried writing them in to a script. Something just not quite right about it.

La Brea (2021–2024)

Whatever happened to Gilligan's Island?

[5/10 · 18 March 2022]

People fall through a hole in time, fight, fight melodrama. Truly these shows with an interesting premise are just getting so boringly predictable. If you are going to make a show for a child's intelligence at leadt make it funny and entertaining like Gilligan's Island was.

The production values seem okay and the actors do their job but we know the vegetation 10000 years ago wasn't gum trees and araucarias in California and you can't just dig a hole anywhere and find stuff. For all the hard work that must go ibto these things, it ends up puerile.

"Skipper... help!"

Good with Wood (2021– )

Let's Judge

[8/10 · 4 February 2022]

A pleasant show to watch, I was really glad I found it. The concept was good and the location interesting. It ceratinly was something my wife and I looked forward to each week. But let's get down to judging.... Contestants ...great, 10 out of 10. Host 5 , humour was good. Inappropriate humour...not so good. Judges... plain annoying. 2.

Annika (2021– )

Passable Police Procedural

[6/10 · 23 October 2021]

Nothing new in run of the mill murder show. Certainly not improved by the main character breaking 4th wall. This is nearly enough to stop me watching but the rest of the show is engaging enough , even though some stories are a little thin. Judge for yourself.

The Equalizer (2021– )

Nothing new or needed but passably entertaining

[5/10 · 24 February 2021]

After the first episode I can't say I will be waiting for the next but it did not seem that terrible to me. I liked the characters you are supposed to like even though the whole premise seemed tired and done to death. Also it was predictable and just too fantastically silly. No intellect at all required to watch. I do wonder why writers and producers make this stuff but I will probably watch again on a slow TV night.

WandaVision: Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience (2021) Season 1, Episode 1

For the uninitiated.....nothing

[1/10 · 15 January 2021]

I guess the ridiculous quoted cost of this show means it might get better. But for someone who knows nothing about these characters I simply was underwhelmed. Lame and derivitive and nothing in it to make me watch more. I won't be watching again unless I hear from some friends down the track that something changes.

The Dry (2020)

Proving that More is often Less

[6/10 · 5 January 2021]

A movie I liked and encourage you to see if you don't mind highly emotive murder mysteries. I really loved most of the film for all the reasons other reviews have mentioned. I would give an 8 except for the blunt and usubtle , overdone?, flasback scenes especially at the tail of the film. I really liked the lack of music and tension built in the film but making it ten minutes shorter with some graphic scenes cut would have left a little more work for the viewer and made it better. Never a 10 for a few reasons, but still a great aussie flick.

Project Blue Book: Operation Mainbrace (2020) Season 2, Episode 10

Jump the shark!

[5/10 · 27 April 2020]

The whole series has been quite watchable and the characters interesting but I found myself laughing out loud several times during this finale. It seemed to plumb the depths of an ocean of silliness and kind of ruined the series for me. I won't be holding my breath for a series 3 if it is as stupid as this cartoon episode.

See You Yesterday (2019)

If I had my time over, I'd still watch this

[8/10 · 18 May 2019]

Well time travel movies are always going to have similarities and teenagers in movies might act in silly ways but beyond that I found this an engaging 90 minutes on a Saturday afternoon. Its not a fantastic movie but the ideas are acted out well and the ending interesting. I liked that it grabs you with a bit of a sci fi plot then takes you into some politics; it genuinely made me think about real issues afecting communities a long long way from where I live. Then there are the ideas about changing time. There is not a lot of action but enough to make it interesting and at least it is not the same negative nonsense of so many Netflix action movies where everyone seems to be waiting to kill each other.

How It Ends (2018)

Everyone in the USA are psychopaths

[2/10 · 22 July 2018]

Yeah...just another post apocalyptic movie where we find americans ready to kill each other after 10 minutes without a cell phone signal. I think these are just made to sell more guns. Well made and watchable but ultimately disappointing.

3% (2016–2020)

A little uneven but one for sci-fi lovers

[7/10 · 28 July 2017]

I watched the English dubbed version and found it quite entertaining and thought provoking. It is a little predictable, as some others have said, but that does not really detract for me. I did find one episode quite slow and away from the main characters, so slightly unnecessary. The details could have been added easily another way. It was not a show where I warmed to any of the characters really but I like the interesting ideas about society and I will be keen to see where series 2 goes.

You Can't Ask That (2016–2022)

Giving human and intimate insights into real lives

[9/10 · 26 April 2017]

No matter the particular subject of each episode, I find myself responding in a similar way to this show and its brave stars. Each episode a particular 'minority' is allowed, and courageous enough, to reveal sometimes very personal aspects of their lives to the audience. I always learn something I didn't know, often feel a tear for how people are treated by others and always get a laugh. The world could do with more of the understanding that this show engenders.