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One Day (2024)
This could have been a movie... Oh wait, it was
The performances are fine, the characters are sweet but this is 14-part series follows the structure of the movie almost beat for beat. Understandable, because it's based on the same novel, but that also means it is a drawn out, slowed down retelling.
It's still made with passion though and the narrative is still strong enough to keep you engaged, but I would argue that the added runtime doesn't translate to added depth.
There is barely any scene that I dont already know, often the dialogue is copied word for word and unfortunately I dont really feel the chemistry between the two leads.
In the end, I dont understand why Netflix wanted to retell this story.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (2020)
One of the best games I've played in the past 30 years.
If you open your heart and fully embrace the story, you will love this game. Even though you know where the simple story will be going, it is brought to life with such joy and love, that you will invest in it. I started crying right from the start, when I saw the family around Ori together.
Perfect length, great mechanics, perfect execution. Thanks to the developers for taking me on this journey.
Hello Neighbor (2017)
Bad, even for an ID game.
Sorry, but this game just isn't good. It's contrived, illogical, frustrating. The controls are wonky, I've encountered several A-Bugs. It's unpolished, even for a small independent developer.
Don't waste your time.
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Disney's got it's magic back
I do understand the other critics, especially the 'bad' CGI comments, but I wanted to provide another perspective on this for you.
Cultural context: Yes, this movie requires you to see the original - but if you are open to a new approach and a deeper story, you might never wanna go back to the original again after you've seen this movie.
The story is enhanced in almost every aspect: Plot holes have been closed, motivations and a lot of background are added for all relevant characters. The casting is superb in every detail, the acting is emotive. The direction takes a lot more time to explore feelings than the original did.
Among the deeper story elements - without giving anything away - is an enhanced role for the enchantress. By not knowing how much she is involved, events seem less coincidental and more - well, enchanted. It adds the kind of literal magic the original movie lacked. Just an example: Does the tree really fall by accident or is there something else involved?
Here is also where the CGI adds in. Yes, there are some problems with it: Sometimes you can tell that Emma Watson had no one to play to on set, sometimes the backgrounds look not well keyed out. And the beast as well as the wolves, is close to the uncanny valley. BUT I think this is one of the movies strong suits: You can never really focus on the beast, never really grasp it - just like it should be if you are involved in the story. If it would have been rendered more plastic, it could have looked flat and so real you loose empathy. With the wolves I almost felt they would be transformed humans as well.
So in my opinion, the CGI just adds to illustrate the story.
The new songs by Alan Menken are amazing, the auto-tune and editing on the singing is hidden well (except for the beginning) and the orchestration is much more subtle and dynamic than the original. Going back for Menken and Rice to work on this for the third time in their lives has payed off.
I'd advise you to - if you are going to see the movie for yourself - keep an open mind and remember the sense of wonder you could feel as a child. Because if you let this happen, you will be enchanted as well.
A Year and Change (2015)
Good intentions, bad delivery
You can tell from the start, that the script and the movie itself were very ambitious projects, that must have been dear to the director - but they never truly realized their potential.
As with a lot of movie debuts, this one lacks focus, because the director didn't have the guts to "kill your darlings". So instead of telling a focused story with one genre in mind, the movie turns into a couple of them: First a romance, then a family drama, then overcoming alcoholism, back to romance, then becoming a crime story, then back to family drama, back to another family drama, back to romance, back to a crime story, back to overcoming trauma...and so on. It just tries so heard, to squeeze everything into the 90 minutes it's got.
Also because of that, nothing is ever build up or being foreshadowed, leading to every dramatic action being little more than an unrealistic, forced turn of events.
The result is a tangled mess of stories, where none of the loose threads ever satisfyingly tie into one another.
The actors are really trying their best, but would've needed a lot more direction. And lastly, the lead gives such a wooden performance with just one(!) expression, that I increasingly felt like I was watching an SNL-skit where Kyle Mooney(!) was trying to act sincerely. For real, compare Bryan Greenberg and Kyle Mooney: They look and sound alike A LOT.
I really tried to give this movie a pass because of the premise - but unfortunately, the result is not only a lackluster, but a bad film.
Sorry guys, thanks for trying though.
Ted (2012)
Cliché, unfunny, visually average
In short, the charming first five minutes are charming. It then quickly turns into a predictable bromance/romance movie. By the end it's a clichéd, unfunny, below than average Hollywood film.
Lazy jokes, boring visuals and a crude but badly executed sense of humor.
Btw, the ambiance mixing for Teds voice is sometimes way off (too echoed / too flat).
If you wanna mix satirical and flatulent comedy right, take pointers from South Park.
Because it's a bad movie they are naturally doing a sequel. What a waste of time and money.
Darksiders II (2012)
Most disappointing game of the year
I'm a true gamer. So I played the original Darksiders on PC, where it was a bit more polished than on the consoles. I almost didn't have any bugs and I enjoyed it so much that I played it several times. Surely, it was no God of War but it had just everything I needed: A Zelda-esk game-play, modest puzzling, a tactical fighting system and a great comic-book story.
Darksiders II on the other side seems like a DLC to the first title, completely blown out of proportion.
It's story isn't told at all. You just meet people, have no clue who they are supposed to be and they vanish again. Neither the introduction nor the ending are really told. Both are just comic-strips that retell parts of the original Darksiders.
The world is empty and lacks details. Surely, the world is bigger but there aren't any areas that stand out. Remember Darksiders, where you had to climb floating pieces of a building while Azrael kept them steady through lightnings? None of that here. Just blown up areas where you mostly run, nothing happens and your enemies re-spawn way too fast.
The combat system is basically hacking. Sure, there are more weapons, but what difference do they make, when you rule out most of them and stuck to three different ones - most times the ones that leech energy from your opponents. You can win over any boss by doing teleport slashes and hacking. And yes: the end-boss is far too easy, let alone that I still don't know who he is.
There are a lot of bugs... They had to patch it twice, because it did have SEVERAL A-bugs, meaning bugs that prevent you from going on in the game. Plus I had to restart 16 times because of clipping errors, the game stopped unresponsive, I couldn't defeat the scribe because of a glitch, etc, etc. The game was running on the same machine that Darksiders did.
Overall it feels rushed, done without love, borrows too many elements from titles like the Prince of Persia Franchise (esp. Warrior Within) and is just a frustrating experience.
This was the game I was hoping for the most this year. Turns out it's a game that I never want to play again.