Change Your Image
WesY2K-TheOriginal
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)
Nic Cage in a japanese Mad Max Arthouse experience
I haven't watched a lot of Siona Sono movies. Suicide Circle and TAG before that. Although Suicide Circle had a good atmosphere and truly was a ride, in the end nothing had meaning and didn't make much sense as a movie. TAG was the same but worst. And with GHOSTLAND, for me, he continues his streak.
Here he presents us with a japanese Arthouse experience which is part Mad Max, part WW2 a reappraisal of the Second World War from the Japanese perspective (although it was pllaned to originally take place in Mexico...), part videogame, part highschool movie club project, part Nic Cage THE BEES craziness but all Pseudo art project.
The basic premise of having someone rescue someone or otherwise bombs will go off, is not new but always a nice vehicle for an action movie. Although here are a few action pieces, they are of the quality you would find in the 90s at a video rental store.
Would I recommend the movie? Only if you want to see Nic Cage get one of his testicles blown up. There are worse movies out there but a whole lot of better movies, too. Go watch them instead.
Toire no hanako san - Hanako Vs. Yôsuke (2016)
Unscary as a horror movie, too strange as "versus" movie
First of all, anyone thinking that this has something to do with the manga/anime "Toilet-bound Hanako-kun" will be disappointed.
Parts are based on the same urban legend but that's it. Hanako basically has a glorified cameo at best that feels totally random. A foreshadowed Deus Ex Machina. Just a tease a the beginning and then she shows up. Not even as a big surprise since she is mentioned in the title. (Even though she is supposed to be a he? (idk)
Mostly it is about Shizukune, an exorcist in traning, and her teacher, travelling through Japan, sending ghosts to the afterlife. They are called because a rock band awakened a demon in an abandoned school where one of them got killed. But when they arrive, they find out that this is not a simple ghost but a mighty demon that they cannot get rid of. And it is not a spoiler that the demon is called Yosuke since that name is also right in the title.
Got excited? In this case, I fooled you.
The script was probably written while shooting this flick.
The band is only there to provide some killing material, you don't even care about them. It feels like wasting some time to get a bit more running time.
The movie itself looks compently made, if you consider that it feels like a "movie making club"-project. Some of the VFX could have been made with MS Paint though. A bit under a The Asylum production.
The acting was... there... maybe the movie club did a collab with the acting club?
In the 90s this would have been a Direct-To-DVD title. Shot with basically no budget, just to have a product out there.
Not the worst movie of all time but watching local news will give you more chills than this "horror movie".
Yakuza tosei no sutekina menmen (1988)
Yakuza "Naked Gun" Style as a real Drama???
This movie is really hard to review since I am not really able to wrap my head around it.
After getting a good beating after losing at a Mahjong game and not having the money to pay (and it is a "good beating" because the evil Taiwan mafia would have killed him instead of the lovely Yakuza punching bag), our protagonist decides he wants to be a Yakuza. The guy who beat him up will now be his mentor and lives at his house. The Yakuzas wife is not happy because now it seems like they cannot have sex with a stranger in the house. What follows are some weird gags about our Yakuza beginner having problems and strange solutions to collecting money. He is climbing up the ranks, a strange love story that involves a rape scene played for laughs, weird characters all around,...
The tone of the film is very uneven. You never know if this is meant to be a comedy, a self-parody, if they tried to make a real drama and botched it.
It certainly has all the tropes of a Yakuza movie. If Beat Takeshi decided to do one of his Yakuza flicks like "Outrage" but did it in the style of his "Getting Any?!" movie. Just not as funny.
For me it was an incoherent yet somewhat entertaining mess with sunglasses on.
Playmobil: The Movie (2019)
Tries to be Lego & Disney
This is not the best or worst movie out there.
Only flaw I found is that it tries to be part Lego movie (story seems to be modelled after that with the live action movie bookends etc.), part Disney movie (bright colours, musical numbers, parents are killed off at the beginning) but it never reaches the peak of any of those.
But it is a nice movie to pass the time with the kids who liked it.
Conni & Co. (2016)
Boring for adults, ok for kids
I am not familiar with the books this is based on but it felt like a typical product for kids (especially girls). We as parents didn't follow the movie too much because it was predictable, you could leave the room for 30 minutes and would still know what is going on. The kids were entertained but didn't land a spot on any top 10 list (maybe top 10 movies we won't watch in a long time).
And for a Til Schweiger Haters: this must be one of his best movies (he is only in it for about 2 minutes).
Kartoffelsalat - Nicht fragen! (2015)
Not as bad as everyone says...
I cannot agree completely with all the negative reviews. Yes, it is not very good but I have seen much worse. Anyone who says that this is worse than Daniel Der Zauberer never saw that movie. The humour is on the same level as Fack Ju Goethe or any of the 7 Zwerge movies. The last one should be no surprise since Otto Waalkes also helped to make this movie. Some of these gags are funny in a Zucker-Bros movie kind of way (and some were even stolen from Airplane and Naked Gun). If Baseketball was a Zombie-movie, this could be Kartoffelsalat.
So, why that much hate for this movie?
Maybe this type of humour works better on an audience that grew up in the 80s.
Maybe because this feels like binge-watching German Youtubers. If you like them on Youtube that is fine but 90 minutes can be quite exhausting.
Maybe the fans expected something more from all their beloved characters.
I couldn't care less because I only knew the 7 Zwerge cast. Without much expectations or bias, this was an OK movie and I enjoyed it. This is just my opinion and everyone can have their own. BUT if Sharknado found an audience, maybe this will too. Give it a try, maybe enjoy it as a SchleFAZ with friends.
Know what? Make it a triple feature. 1. Libero with Franz Beckenbauer 2. Daniel Der Zauberer 3. Kartoffelsalat
Pretty sure after the first two movies, you will nominate Kartoffelsalat for an Oscar ;-)