Reviews

Cool story. Sadly the characters are not as interesting as in the She-Ra reboot, which also has way better animation. Teela and Andra are cool, but the rest looks like on 80s muscle drugs. Would've liked a more modern approach.

For every movie of the scale of an "Annihilation" there is a "Tau", basically one of those straigh-to-video films you probably would never ever watch, no matter what. Put a "Netflix Original Movie"-stamp on it and you're at least interested. The film feels like a bad episode of "Black Mirror" with actors (Ed Skrein from the horrible "Transporter Refueled") that cannot sell their performances and GARY OLDMAN?! as the voice of the A.I. Tau, that never feels like an artificial intelligence of the future and more like an unemotional reading of some strung together words that are a prime example for a bad script. There are so many - SO MANY - plot holes you'll wish for the next Michael Bay movie to win an Oscar. The visuals are only cool in the first five minutes when "Tau" shows us main actress Maika Monroe as a colorful wig wearing thief in a futuristic neon world that actually doesn't matter, will never be seen again but makes us hope for an atmospheric sci-fi movie. Instead of this we get one of those movies we wanna cancel our Netflix subscription for.

When you do the same thing over and over again you'll probably end up making a boring movie. And here is Tom Tykwers "The Princess and the Warrior" with Franka Potente and Benno Fürmann. It wouldn't be as bad without all the stereotypical styles of Tykwer. It's as if he works in a stasis without any new ideas. He doesn't deliver anything - ANYTHING - new here. There are the connections between strangers that tell us that everything is connected somehow (think "Cloud Atlas" and you see that Tykwer never has something new to tell), the moral dilemmas and all the personal challenges that are about nothing really. But if it's the first Tykwer film you watch, then you get a tense story about people who wanna break out of their normal life patterns told with slow dialogues and some very fine music. But for this you can basically watch every Tywker movie.

I was really impressed with Nicole Muñoz watching this movie. She hasn't done a lot of big movies (yet) or even carried a movie on her shoulders like she does here. And it totally works. Director Adam MacDonald has found a perfect main actress for this disturbing and eerie tales of a teenage girl and her mother spending some time in a cabin in the woods. It's a quiet and moody movie. First we get some glimpses but midway through the film we discover that some kind of fascination for dark magic is driving this girl mad (or she is driven mad by her mother and turns to dark magic). "Pyewacket" has no big jump scare moments but that's exactly why it's so good.

This one was probably the big breakthrough of Tom Tykwer. He got a lot of praise for "Lola rennt" - the original German title - in Germany and as "Run Lola Run" his movie brought him worldwide attention and a huge followership as kind of a mainstream arthouse auteur director. The music sets the pace as we listening to a fast beating heartbeat. This film never slows down. Franka Potente - the main actress - is always in motion, she never gets a rest here. Same thing with the cinematography. It's a music video in MTV style really. Tracking shots, close-ups, sometimes the live action story switches to Lola as running cartoon character. When she meets, bump into or screams at a passerby, we get quick flashes of their lifes and how they will turn out after this butterfly-effect encounter. "Run Lola Run" is structured in three different processes of the same story with every single story showing a different decision made by Lola and how the story changes because of it. It's not only Lola who runs, it's the whole film that is running away and we have to be fast and coming along to don't lose track of Franka Potente and Tykwers swift style.

When you watch "Wintersleepers" you'll instantly discover the style of director Tom Tykwer. A lot of close-ups, images which make you think of an american movie and not a german one. Every moment is underlaid with a fast-paced musical score. And we get the heart beat that will later become famous as kind of a score for "Run, Lola, Run". In "Wintersleepers" Tykwer shows that he doesn't like his images or story to stand still. Everything is in motion - always. The best performance comes from Floriane Daniel as Rebecca but also Heino Ferch as Marco is remarkable - we really can hate this guy, we really wanna punch him in the face. The big flaw of "Wintersleepers" is that we can see that Tykwer has a lot of fun with visuals and the cinematography of a film. But he forgets about the story sometimes. It's more exciting to look at his film than to follow its story.

It's the directorial debut of Tom Tykwer and he knows how to drag us into his world. "Deadly Maria" is instantly mesmerizing with its strident horror film music and its surreal cinematography. Tykwer focuses on the details. He shows us clocks, an ink pen, the ear of the female protagonist, all in close up shots to control our attention heavily. Nina Petri, who plays the main character Maria, lets us share her thought in poetic offscreen-monologues. It's an oppressive and nightmarish storytelling in which we wait for the outburst of Maria.

Stronger is a film I wish would be so much better. But it only hits all the marks in the last half an hour. Before that it's a bland tale of a guy who suffers through the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. Perhaps director David Gordon Green did this one for all the people who really lived through this disastrous day but he (or the film) forgets about all the other viewers. The last 30 minutes are emotional, sad and touching. And the real life images of Jeff Bauman (here played by Jake Gyllenhaal) are more heart-wrenching than the whole movie. That's not that good for the movie. It's just good for us so that we can feel good about sharing a tear with this man over his bitter fate.

So this one got an Oscar nomination, right? So it has to be good in some way! No it isn't. It's boring and it's no excuse that it's Denzel Washington and his acting is good in it. Guess what...he's a good actor, so no surprise here. But he is still not capable of making this movie in any way interesting or compelling. His character never becomes sympathetic or relatable. The story never sucks us in. When Colin Farrell comes in you expect some tension but even then the film stays petty. It's a big question mark above my head how director Dan Gilroy managed to make one of my favorite films (Nightcrawler) and then this debacle.

What a nice little love story. That's how it's done in an entertaining way. Both, Jamie Bell but especially Annette Bening are great in this story about the love of a once famous Hollywood actress and a much younger guy from Liverpool. Bening shows a loth of depth, drama and eccentricity and elicits us one or two tears. It's fun to see those two going to the movies and watching the very first Alien movie. Great meta movie moment.

It's sad to see how a cast like this is wasted big time. There is never tention here, no real dramatic moments. We never see even one of the women having problems. They're making their plan, they do their heist and having fun trying to be witty (they're not). Soderberghs Oceans movies always presented a plan and the movie got us interested in if this plan will work. Most of the time it didn't and they had to improvise. Not so in Ocean's 8. We don't really know what the plan is but it's working perfectly fine without any interruptions. And a big personified villain is missing. The best guy we get is James Corden. He has like 10 min at the end to steal the whole show. He should've been there all the time.

I'll admit it since I very much hated the first Deadpool (perhaps because it was so much overhyped and everyone loves this Rated R thing in which I don't see a benefit): but Deadpool 2 was a lot of fun. There are so many (sometimes too many) forth wall breaking moments with unbelievable cameos by people like Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and some other X-Men than Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Btw those two: too much Colossus, not enough Brianna Hildebrand as NTW. Josh Brolin is a cooler Cable than he is Thanos and Domino needs her own movie. The writers are very clever in making her superpower (she's got luck, kinda like Disneys Gladstone Gander) a pretty enjoyable cinematic experience. Also: best after credits sequences ever.

It's without a doubt the best performance by Hugh Jackman as Wolverine and also the best Wolvie stand-alone movie. It still has some problems. Too many plots, no focus and a weak third act. But it has style and a great road movie vibe to it. Dafne Keen is pretty damn good. She doesn't has to hide behind Jackman and Stewart. There are plenty of fantastic action sequences and also quiet moments in which the characters can shine. Here the movie doesn't even feels like a big blockbuster mutant/superhero action flick. The film actually mentions an event which could be told in a prequel and shows something that could become a sequel to Logan and still it's much more of a stand-alone film than most other comic book films / adaptations of these days.

It's not as complex and well constructed than X-Men: Days of Future Past but - BUT - it is still a very entertaining movie mostly because of the great cast. Not only the "new" additions of X-Men: Jean Grey, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and a little bit of Jubilee and more Quicksilver but also the "baddies" Archangel, Storm and Psylocke. Another BUT sadly brings us Apocalypse who just looks totally out of place here. He's a cartoon enemy in a film that tries to be serious. Magneto would've been enough of a man gone wild again but instead we get a god like character who makes us laugh every time he appears. There are some really nice moments of friendship and solidarity and a good way of the script to deal with Jennifer Lawrences unwillingness to get into blue Mystique shape again. It could've been better very easily but it's still enjoyable and far from being a disastrous (apocalyptic) movie.

It's clearly the best of all the X-Men films and the whole franchise including the Hugh Jackman Wolverine Stand-Alone movies and Ryan Reynolds appearances as Deadpool. This is a nearly perfect crossover of the old X-Men trilogy, the new bunch of mutants and at the same time this film deletes every mistake made by X-Men: The Last Stand. It's just sad to see that it's Wolverine who is going back in time and not Kitty Pryde. It would've been a perfect opportunity to give her a bigger role here. But it still works. Hugh Jackman has great chemistry with Michael Fassbenders Magneto and James McAvoys Charles Xavier. Also big parts for Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique (here way better than in First Class), Nicholas Hoult as Beast and a small but scene stealing moment for this incarnation of Quicksilver played by Evan Peters (and by Aaron Johnson in The Avengers: Age of Ultron). It's a fun ride. It's a time travel movie well made. It's handling a lot of characters very well. It's entertaining from start to finish.

At some point in this movie it becomes clear that it's just a concatenation of set pieces. It's not even the Wolverine character we've seen so far. He's kinda boring, never as much of a smart-ass as in the X-Men or even the Origin movie. Also The Wolverine is missing a real baddie. The mutants (Viper, actually a snake woman, here more of a Poison Ivy character) are not that present. The Japan setting never really shines. The film misses a lot of opportunities for great cinematography. There are little moment though! Hugh Jackman standing on top of a building while it's raining. Suddenly it feels like Blade Runner. That's cool but totally out of place here. Also the guest appearances by Famke Janssen as Jean Grey are stupid. Not that it doesn't fit in this story but you NEED to watch X-Men: The Last Stand before this "Stand-Alone" to understand why she's here. While X-Men: Origins - Wolverine was just stupid, this is a disappointment.

Prequels can be good as First Class shows us. Michael Fassbender is Magneto or basically Erik Lehnsherr who calls himself Frankensteins Monster. Also we get Hank McCoys transformation into Beast what looks like a Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde moment. So this could also be called a classic monster movie. But that's the problem. Mutants don't wanna be seen as those monsters. Especially Mystique, here played by Jennifer Lawrence who never fits into that role as good as Rebecca Romijn. The best moments of the film are between Fassbender and James McAvoy as Charles Xavier. Director Matthew Vaughn understands perfectly that these two are friends who are stronger and better together but are divided by their different worldviews. Sebastian Shaw, the leader of the Hellfire Club, is a nice villain for this origin story. He works way better than anything that X-Men: The Last Stand threw at us. There is a little love story - i guess? - between Mystique and Beast that really doesn't work. X-Men: First Class is nevertheless one hell of a good X-Men movie with a formidable cast.

What did the filmmakers think when they created this mess of a film? It's supposedly a prequel to the X-Men franchise centered around Wolverine but X-Men Origins is changing everything there was before (or what will be after). Somehow Liev Schreibers Sabretooth becomes Wolverines brother - and they share a (hands down) kinda cool opening sequence in which they go through the different warfields in time to show us that they're both immortal. But then we get a boring Gambit, a team of throwaway mutants and poor Ryan Reynolds as a guy who is called Deadpool but has nothing in common with him. This film has some little nice ideas in it but the execution is horrible from start to finish.

I will never get how people still say that Bambi losing his mother is the worst in the classic disney films. For me it's Dumbos mother being imprisoned because she tries to protect her child. Yes, she's not dying, but it's still so very sad! And then we get this little adventure for Dumbo and his mousey companion. These two always remind me of Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket. The parade of the elephants - which Dumbo and Timothy Mouse are seeing when they're drunk (!) - is one of the craziest drug moments Disney ever did (probably only Alice in Wonderland can match it with it's weirdness). And it's so much fun to see Dumbo fly in the end and how he becomes a worldwide phenomenon after he got bullied around for such a long time.

It's the not so good finale to the original X-Men trilog. But besides a convoluted story with way too many mutants getting their little moments - Angel is a joke! - this is not as bad as everyone is saying. It has a very nice idea about not having to be a mutant anymore and instead having the choice if you want to be human or mutant. But of course the film has not time to dig deeper. There is a child who has the power to make mutant powers go away and everyone wants to get to him first. Best addition is Ellen Page as Kitty Pryde. Sadly Iceman Shawn Ashmore gets more to do - I really never cared for him so this was actually boring. Then there is the Dark Phoenix story somehow put into all of this too. That's the saddest part. This mega X-Men event becomes a sidestory to once again Magneto who wants to rule the world as superior species.

This is a really good sequel with a lot of problems but in the end it's way more of a fun ride than Jurassic Park 2 and 3 were back in the days. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are still a good leading couple. But there is also the show stealer Daniella Pineda. She's game in every scene. Also newbie Justice Smith was kinda annoying and with Isabella Sermon we get the best child actress of the whole franchise yet. There are a lot of dinosaurs, some throwbacks to the original film, totally over-the-top moments and some story elements you'll never wanna see again but probably will. I missed a 'Jurassic Park' moment with the theme. We get a quiet moment but no bombastic one. And I cried a lot of tears for the dinosaurs. Mankind is so damn evil.

Such a great sequel to the 2000 original X-Men. Nightcrawler played by Alan Cumming has a fantastic opening sequence and an equally good "recruiting" moment with Storm and Jean Grey. Every X-Men (Rogue, Iceman and Pyro joining the team) has his or her moment and their mutant powers are in different ways important for the story. Stryker - the bad guy - is used and played very viciously. Magneto becomes the "Loki" of the story. He and Mystique have to join forces with the X-Men to stop Stryker but at the same time they scheme their own diabolical plan. Once again Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan show what they can do just with their mimics. Strongest players in this game. Sad - very sad - that the third part of this original trilogy was not as good as any of the past and future X-Men movies. This could've been a nearly perfect trilogy.

We have come a long way. In 2000 a group of mutants gathered to fight another group of mutants over a mutant registration law while an ambush on UN meeting must be stopped. Well...this happened in 2000 long before the Avengers Civil War happened. It's cool how this film looks of possible ways to solve a problem. With the X-Men as the good guys who wanna have a conversation about mutants living besides humans. Meanwhile there is Magneto who wants to transform humans into mutants (in his mind the next step of the evolution) and a Senator who thinks mutants are living weapons and who wants weapons in a school? (see what they did there? he's bad, but is arguing is kinda okay). The whole movie is about people fighting for the right cause with the wrong means. And btw. all the actual fights are taking place without annoying one liners by the participants. A fight is a fight. That feels so good!

It's inventive and fun, it's anarchic and the one Disney animated feature that has naked girls in it! Okay, but that's not it's main quality. The music is fantastic and the images are colorful. It's not so much about story as it is a synergy of these images and the music - a quality Disney developed with their series of shorts called Silly Symphonies. Mickey became a pop culture icon as the sorcerer's apprentice - for good reason. "His" episode in Fantasia is - hands down - the best.