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LonghairedGerman
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60 Minuten (2024)
Well done actioner for genre fans
Saying that a movie is "not for the critics, but for the fans" means usually "I know I made a bad movie, but I don't wanna admit it". Nobody said it about 60 MINUTEN, but "for the fans" applies here in the best possible way.
This a movie for people who appreciate the ridiculousness of certain action movie tropes. People who are willing to laugh WITH the movie and not at it. It's pretty obvious that everybody involved here was on the same page. The movie's plot revolves basically around an unstoppable fighter who pisses off the whole Berlin underworld, because he can't miss his daughter's birthday party. And yet, it is all played completely straight faced and with the gravitas of a serious drama.
Apart from that, 60 MINUTEN also scores with really well done fights, full of long takes and impressive stunts, and a good semi-real time gimmick. I think they could've pushed the "What else is gonna happen to make him miss his deadline" angle a bit further though. On the other hand: They have an action movie that takes place in Berlin and have a fight in a bunker looking Techno club. They "understood the assignment", as the kids say these days.
Now don't get me wrong. As much as I enjoyed it, giving it 8 stars is for me a bit generous. It doesn't do anything innovative or outstanding. It is "just" 100% solid. BUT! It is German and Germans rarely have the chance to do action movies like that. So making one that can stand toe to toe with a good bunch of modern day US actioners is good enough for the prestigious 8 star rating IMO.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Charades (2023)
Fun, but stop the "evil Vulcan" trope please
Comedy episodes have always been hit or miss in STAR TREK. Some gave us truly iconic moments, others are more emberassing. This one is mostly good, if it wouldn't be for one annoying flaw.
Ever since ENTERPRISE, the writers really went out of their way to portray Vulcans as arrogant, shady and evil. While their "logic over emotion" approach was always used as a source of frustration for the protagonists, they really started to become more and more antagonistic in the last 20+ years.
Just like in this episode. It would be one thing if Spock's almost-mother-in-law would be against the wedding for any logical reason, but instead she is portrayed as someone who tries really hard to hide her arrogant smirk whenever she throws sometimes more, sometimes less blatantly racist insults at Spock and his mother. In general seems the whole family to be very emotionally driven, from Spock's fiancee, who is way too openly frustrated with her mother's antics, to her father, who seems quite amused by Pike's cooking skills. It's weird that the half-human Spock usually seems to be so much better at hiding his emotions than the supposedly "real" Vulcans.
The Good Place: Whenever You're Ready (2020)
A horrifying ending to a great show
Sorry, I loved everything that came before, but the finale made me hate the show so much, I will never rewatch or even recommend it.
The thought, that even in heaven you will at some point become so sick of everything and everybody, is horrifying! There is no way out of your miserable existence, even if you die and go to the good place. No, wait, there is a way out! Suicide! Just walk through the mysterious door and stop existing! What a happy ending, amirite?
And the scene that really frightened me, was Jason's fate. First he finally reached enlightenment, only to still commit suicide, but with a supposedly funny one-liner that makes it seem like he had no idea what was going to happen when he enters the door.
Nope, this was an extremely tone deaf ending to a show that often touched on philosophical questions in uplifting and intelligent ways. We followed these characters going literally through hell and back to not just save themself, but also all of mankind. And then it all ends in an "inspirational" mass suicide.
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010)
Bad Fanfiction With Breathtaking Art Direction
The newest "Scooby Doo" incarnation "Mystery Incorporated" is an insult to every real Scooby fan. Okay, technically it's still better than "The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby Doo" or "Shaggy & Scooby Doo Get A Clue", but these two never tried to be the definitive version of Scooby Doo. And as hard as "Mystery Incorporated" tries to be it, as hard it fails.
Let's start with the good stuff: Matthew Lillard, who recently became the official voice of Shaggy after Casey Kasem retired, does a very good job! That's no big surprise, considering how good he already was in the live action movies, but since then he got even better. Also the art direction of the show is awesome! Seriously, "Mystery Incorporated" is maybe the visually most stunning cartoon on TV right now! The background design is brilliant and how the show plays with colour and shadow is mind blowing! Too bad that that's everything good I can say about it.
As wonderful as the background art and colour pattern are, the character design is just plain awful. Fred has now such a huge, rectangular chin, that even Jay Leno would make fun of it. And Velma became way too skinny. (I guess there is no place for chubby girls in modern kids TV anymore. Hooray for anorexia!) And if the changes on the outside weren't bad enough, they also changed them from the inside too!
Fred is now a bumbling idiot. If you belong to the people who think that he was already in "What's New" too dumb, "Mystery Incorporated" could make your head explode! We are talking "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" stupidity here! He not just has a way too creepy obsession with traps of all kind, that makes him blind for everything that goes on around him, in one episode he even tries to play an 8-track tape on a turntable! Daphne made a few steps backwards in terms of emancipation and is now doing nothing else than adoring Fred, like a 10 year old girl adores a boygroup star. 99% of her dialogue in this show is about nothing else than how much she loves Fred. And he is of course too dumb to get it. And don't get me started with Velma. They took the smart and lovable girl we all know and turned her into an angry, mean-spirited, shallow sitcom nag, who is now Shaggy's girlfriend (Yay!), but is criticizing everything about him. How he talks, how he dresses, how he eats - and even how close he is with Scooby! Not to mention that she never used her brain in this show so far and even desecrated a cemetery when she got mad at Shaggy!
All this is wrapped up into some lame, cliché-filled and heavy handed teeny-drama, which is full of sitcom plots like "I heard a short, completely out of context bit of something you said and now I think you hate me". The writers call it "character development", but stripping everything that we liked away from the characters and turning them into hollow personalities, who only act like the next cheap plot device commands them to, is more a stultification of the audience.
Seriously, if you love Scooby Doo and especially the characters, don't watch "Mystery Incorporated". It will give you a headache and make you feel insulted. Too bad that the kids, who eat up every bad fanfiction and teen bopping drama on the CW will love it.
Battlestar Galactica (2004)
A waste of time
Are you looking for a show that keeps you on the edge of your seat? A show that makes you wish you don't have to wait a week for the next episode? A show that uses fresh ideas instead of the same old, worn out clichés? Maybe a show with interesting characters and good actors? Sorry, you have to look somewhere else. While BSG is a whole different take on the original concept of the show, it's as boring and silly as the original from the 70's. You can see every bigger plot twist coming from a mile away. You will find every war movie cliché in here! The writers don't even shy away from using DEUS EX MACHINAs, that make 'Star Trek: Voyager' look smart. SPOILER!!!!(although I doubt that anybody will be surprised by it) I stopped watching in the middle of season 2, after the president got cured from her cancer in the last moment. END OF SPOILER!!!! Edward James Olmos is without a doubt the only actor who makes the show at least a little bit worth watching. Unfortunately none of the other actors is able to fill their two-dimensional characters with something like life. Doesn't matter if one of them falls in love or gets slaughtered on the battlefield - you just don't care! To make things worse, the producers decided to use the hip "shaky cam", that should suggest that the audience is watching some kind of documentary. Okay, the wannabe-documentary-cam can be done right. Look at '24' or 'Children Of Men', where you always have the feeling to be in the middle of the action, without missing any important details. Here it's unfortunately just annoying and amateurish. If I wanted to see out of focus close-ups of faces during conversations, I would watch the home video of the last Christmas party.
Seriously, don't believe the hype. Yes, it's a "dark" and "serious" remake of a silly 70's SciFi show, with lots of post-9/11-paranoia (that lacks every subtlety), but without corny aliens or "cute" kids, but it's nothing to waste your precious time with.