joachimrang Reviews (4)

Toni Erdmann (2016)

Thought-provoking comedy - for a narrow audience

[9/10 · 17 August 2016]

This is a great movie - but most likely not for everyone. It's about academic upper middle-class people and their family relationships. Not everybody will find that interesting and there is no usual "romantic" plot development. It's a family portrait of a father and her daughter and as such has no (plot) conclusion. It is not the usual light comedy since it touches very serious questions and the prevailing mood is unhappiness (it is however _very_ funny at times ;-)).

That being said, this movie makes some very fine and subtle observations, presents them in a funny and entertaining form yet at the same time in a thought-provoking and philosophical way which will make you think about it for a long time. If you're from an academic (german) household you will find lots of similarities in your own family relations.

This movie is not fast-paced - in fact it often has long shots of lonely people and a lot is not said but has to be filled in by the viewer. So if you don't relate to the characters this movie will feel longish for sure. But if you find traces of your own life or that of your friends and relatives you'll be amazed by the subtlety and finesse in which this movie is directed. Although there are some bizarre events, everything which happens in this movie could happen in real life. There are no implausible scenes in this movie! This is an incredible statement given the crazy and bizarre things which happen in this movie. If you wanna know how that could be true, you might wanna watch it.

Game of Thrones: Battle of the Bastards (2016) Season 6, Episode 9

No story, just B-movielike slaughtering...

[3/10 · 23 July 2016]

I don't understand this episode: If I want to see 45min of slaughtering there are plenty of B-movies out there which deliver on that. The sex and the violence are part of the show and give the extra something, but that was "nothing" whith huge amounts of "extra something". Why? The guidelines require me to write at least 10 lines but there is really not much more to say, it's just a big, huge, gorgeous massacre. In the first 20 minutes there is some dialog I admit and it has some surprise potential but actually it's not that surprising - not by GoT standards. It's a huge disappointment. The imagery is fine, Sansa does some fine acting so is Daenerys. But it's so little compared to all that slaughtering you just forget it the minute you see it.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Silly movie

[1/10 · 16 March 2015]

It's a silly movie with a silly story. It's funny from time to time but overall not worth watching. Sometimes a really bad movie somehow gets a totally unjustified good rating. This is one of those. This review is over there is nothing more to review as you will forget the story instantly after you've watched the movie. Still IMDb forces me to write nonsense about a nonsensical movie which is rather strange. Okay, it's a story for an animation movie with lots of strange things happening but that's not the problem. The problem are the animation like characters totally one-dimensional and totally shallow. The only thing this movie has are hollow and teenie-like jokes. Maybe if you haven an IQ<70 this is entertaining.

Battlestar Galactica: Razor (2007 TV Movie)

What did they do to the series?

[3/10 · 2 December 2007]

Damn, I want the good stuff not some fracking illogical filler stuff. I must admit I was _very_ disappointed. When the episodes all stun you with complex but consistent logic and original discussion of morality, this "thing" disappoints you with constructed illogical pieces smashed together to serve as a carrier to discuss the morality of "hard choices". Usually discussing ambivalent topics is one of the strengths of BSG. However in this prequel it was done badly. The discussion lacked the depth of the regular episodes and first and foremost there was no plot just pieces smashed together from the past and presence to "discuss" the morality of, hm, I can't even say what? The justification of mass murdering civilians to get the needed supplies to continue an illogical and stupid retaliation campaign which can only lead to the self-distinction of the human race? At best this is a character study of the new XO of Pegasus but this character just doesn't have the depth of the others. I think it was not the actress' fault, the script was bad. Okay enough rambling, the point is, if there is no contested ethical issue to discuss (and there was none in this prequel) BSG is nothing special.