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Brandywein
Reviews
Land of Bad (2024)
Like playing Far Cry
Seriously, this movie is like playing Far Cry (specifically 3, because it's a similar south east Asian setting). And I mean that as a compliment. There were so many moments that felt just like the game... Sneaking through the jungle... sliding off the terrain when it gets too steep... checking out the enemy outpost through the visor of your sniper rifle (I just waited for the enemies getting marked)... trying to take them out from afar... oops! That didn't work. Now they discovered me! Reinforcements arrive with bad guys on pickups... They're throwing grenades and shooting RPGs at me! Now it's wild close range shooting until I can escape into the jungle again... Ah, a road. Wait, do I hear a motor? Quickly back into the woods before they see me. Oh no! They have a dog...!
Also we see silent takeouts (press F), special weapons, etc. I'm just missing ziplines, watch towers, skinning animals, and syringes. So either, shooter games are coincidentally the same kind of err... realistic as this movie. Or, the movie was very much inspired by them. Maybe they should have gotten a license. But then again, I don't know how it compares to the official Far Cry movie, because I didn't see it.
Anyway, if you have any idea of what I was talking about, you'll probably enjoy this movie. It is like a Let's Play deluxe : ) Please leave a like in this case, so I know I'm not the only weirdo here. Thanks and always rescue your friends!
Legends of the Fall (1994)
Glorification of codependency
Everything that's wrong with Hollywood's ideals of romantic relationships finds a home in this movie. The one true love that appears for no reason (except your own personality disorder, or Susannah's in this case), makes you dependent (in a very glorious way, of course), and is worth waiting and suffering for the rest of your life. Don't take care of yourself, just be a victim of your feelings, the more hurtful, the more truthful. What an ideal to strive for. Sadly, some people get their ideal of love exactly from this kind of delusional movie.
Otherwise the scenery is beautiful, so are the main characters, and acting is also good. For that (and only that) 3 stars.
Kleo (2022)
Starts brilliantly dark, turns comedy
I loved the serious setting of episode 1 against the dark historical background and was looking forward to a mean thriller, such as Fargo maybe. That's also what I got from the Netflix preview.
However, from episode 2 onwards, Kleo suddenly shows no vulnerability and more and more scenes are not believable any more. So it gets a little bit of an absurd comedy flavor, and let's assume this was intended.
This unexpected turn is wasted potential in my eyes and the only thing that keeps the show from being world class. However, if you accept it, then you can find the show still funny and entertaining, because otherwise it's really well made.
Next time I suggest to make it clear from the beginning what kind of show this is. I vote for dark thriller : )
Buba (2022)
Don't trust the ads, it's a low-energy loser... err... story
It's advertised as a dark crime comedy like Bang Boom Bang (which is somewhat like Lock, Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels), and while I was waiting for cool characters, hilarious situations, and fascinating plot twists, it occurred to me... Wait a minute! This is no fast paced crime comedy. They tricked me into a low-energy Bjarne Mädel loser "comedy"! - And ok, some people like those. But I don't. So I gave it 15 minutes more and got over half the movie. Then I stopped my losses of lifetime and pressed stop on this false advertising.
I Am Mother (2019)
Everything but the dialog
Great movie with a big similarity to "10 Cloverfield Lane". If you like one, you'll like the other, too. Also, great reviews that help understanding this piece. I can't add much to them except this two points:
The "apx" (in apx_01 etc.) probably stands for "apex", latin for peak / the ultimate top, which in this case would be the very first human being. So "apx" seems like a numbered array of genetically identical embryos (that's why the girls and the woman looked so similar), from which the very first human mother would be put into place (after education and successful testing, as other reviewers have explained).
But despite all the explanations I still see a fundamental plot issue: On the one hand, apx_01 was the first try that failed (and probably escaped). So far so good. On the other hand, the whole story of apx_03 was "planned" by the AI. Now I don't see much logical sense in this. Either apx_01 was an abandoned experiment, or part of a big plan, but not both. Unless our AI started to improvise, and invented a new kind of test (featuring the escaped apx_01) on the fly. I find that highly doubtful, though, because a) a test needs a controlled environment, not a human being that does as it plesases for decades, and b) even if they wanted such a test, why use an apx embryo for it?
That's why a bit more explanation would have been in order, in my eyes. And unfortunately the dialog fails at delivering it, because the characters sometimes ask the wrong questions, ignore the "elephants in the room" or don't demand explanations.
That's the only thing that annoyed me as a viewer. Otherwise, I found it a brilliant movie that had me at the edge of my seat from start to end.
Lindenberg! Mach dein Ding (2020)
A story of overcoming your fears and beliefs
I hesitated to watch this movie, because I hardly knew Udo Lindenberg - let alone being a fan of him. However, you don't need to be in order to enjoy this movie. It's a universal story of overcoming inherited fears and beliefs, childhood trauma, and the expectations of others, in order to become who you really are. More beautifully and intensely made than I have seen in any other movie, and based on a true story with many twists and turns.
I'm still not a fan of Mr. Lindenberg's music but that's ok. I highly respect what he achieved in his life. Not the fame. The ability to emancipate himself from his own wounding and do his thing, which is probably the biggest challenge of all.
Congratulations to the team and the great cast. I enjoyed especially Saskia Rosendahl who gave proof that also in Germany you can be beautiful and a good actress at the same time. Well done. Best movie in a long time.
Fear Street: 1994 (2021)
You need height before falling down
There is a simple formula to horror movies: show some beautiful, cool people, probably some sexy teens, ideally even with a distinct, believable character and relationships. And then everything goes south.
This movie, however, starts at the bottom and stays there. Everything cold and gloomy from the start with characters you don't care about. Only the opening scene does it somewhat right.
Overall: a good idea with the 90ies but wasted potential.
Babylon Berlin (2017)
Great atmosphere and acting, average script and characters
After having watched the first episode I am most of all fascinated by the atmosphere of the show. Imagine a film-noir-like setting (hats, cigarettes, violence, to mention just a few) against the historical backdrop of Berlin in the 1920s -- having in mind it would become a major and tragic turning point in world's history.
From different events in the show (supported by good production value) I got an intense impression of what it must have been back then in Berlin. A newly established democracy, built on the legacy of World War I, vulnerable with enemies on different sides, communists as well as royalists. Personal struggle with traumas from the war, a vast number of poor people, a small number privileged, and all hoping, fearing or at least expecting a major political revolution... you can sense that this kind of society will not go well for long. And in the meanwhile people resort to excessive parties to express themselves and/or escape reality.
The acting is top notch. If you don't know the lead actor Volker Bruch yet, imagine Jon Hamm (Mad Men) but with a broader range of acting skills. Also everyone else delivers great acting in my opinion. As a side note, the directors even managed to build a musical piece into one episode, and it fits in perfectly.
But after all this awesomeness there's also some disappointment, unfortunately. And that's mainly in the script.
First of all, the characters seemed a little weak to me. In other words: I didn't care that much about them. The exception is the female lead, Charlotte Ritter. We see her supporting her family, despite being treated badly. As she's getting ambitious in her work for the police, she struggles with the male dominance and society's gender expectations of that time. That helped me identify with her (even as a man) and wishing for her success. Everybody else we don't learn much about. Even the male lead, Gereon Rath, we only learn in one of the first scenes that he has a trauma from the war. That's it. His motivations, hopes, fears, etc, don't become apparent. So I rooted for him mainly because he's the main character and seemed decent. But I wouldn't call that an emotional investment.
The problem of many other major characters is that it's unclear if they're the good or bad guys. This may work for Games of Thrones and some other shows -- but only if you have reference points, so that you can at least *hope* a character will pick one side or the other. In Babylon Berlin I missed these reference points, meaning the sides to pick weren't emotionally strong. The good people as I just explained, and even the apparent bad guys mostly weren't so bad that I could really hate them. Character development? None that I noticed.
My second criticism is the plot. There's essentially two plot lines: One following an underground porn movie that could become a problem for a somebody we don't even know... So why should I really care? The second follows a train from Russia with some illegal extra cargo. This becomes a little more interesting because one of the sides that's interested in this cargo actually seems to be violent, so I was inclined to support the other side. But then again I wasn't really sure what the other side wanted either, so in the end I only rooted with reservations. Also, both plot lines weren't really linked, or maybe I missed it. Either way it felt kind of random for me, whether we follow one or the other plot line now. And it makes me sad that even if you pull together some really big names from German cinema, most of all Tom Tykwer, you can't get a script above average, apparently.
At the bottom line the show really caught me, though, so that I wanted to see more after each episode. That's partly due to the great setting, atmosphere, production value and acting. But partly also because I was hoping the characters and plot would become more intense next time. In that sense I find it similar to Mad Men actually. Although I think Babylon Berlin is better, because the number of subplots doesn't go through the roof. But compared with Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones it lacks character and plot intensity. In the end, however, these shows play in the same league, so Babylon Berlin is worth watching in any case.
Akira (1988)
Great atmosphere but narrated badly
This is a great movie, the atmosphere is great, like cyberpunk should be, very good animated. This also is the movie that shows best how it feels to be sick, real sick (Tetsuo is).
So from this I would give a 10, but there are two disturbing things: You can't hardly understand that story. And that's not because of the story (although it might be complicated), but mostly because of very weak dialogues. Very annoying. Is that typically Japanese? I don't think so... And then there's this overdone ending with Tetsuo blowing up which is not my personal taste.
But anyway, cool movie. I gave a 8.