Horst_In_Translation

"The Hard Case" is a British live action short film from 1995, so this one here is almost 30 years old now or probably over 30 already once you get here to read this review of mine. This is from the days of VHS still, so it is surely not too easy to get a hand on a copy, especially one that is not missing parts of the audio, but I can imagine that hardcore fans of Guy Ritchie must be really curious about this one here. I am not one of those, but I still wanted to give it a go and succeeded. Overall, I think this was approximately what I expected, maybe even a bit better than I initially thought because Ritchie was only in his mid20s at that point and it was his very first directorial effort according to imdb and he also was not yet married to Madonna in 1995. There is not too much to say about the cast. Not a single big name included here, but a pretty long list for a film that barely makes it past the 20-minute mark. First credit went to Darren Spencer who apparently never acted in a film before or after this one. It is a bit surprising because he was still pretty young here. Reminded me a bit of Cillian Murphy in terms of looks and it is a role that also would have suited Matthew McConaughey for example. Just came to my mind because he also played the protagonist in a Guy Ritchie movie not too long ago. The cast here is British/English, however, for obvious reasons. You don't import people from the other end of the planet for your first film at a young age.

Some say that Ritchie is a bit of a poor man's Tarantino, but I would not disagree with that, especially because what Tarantino did later in his career was totally different and far away from the concept of action crime that Ritchie has included in his films so many times. This is not a negative statement by any means from my side. I like how it is not difficult at all to identify Ritchie's style in this short film already compared to what he does in the 21st century, especially now that he is twice as old as he was back then. The elements of crime, money and use music are just typical Ritchie style and the how fast things are moving forward is as well. Even the camera work was pretty fast back then already and even if you do not know the actors here, unless you are related to them, they do look like people you would expect to show up in later Ritchie movies. Some even did if you look at James Tarbuck (not Starbuck), who got second credit. He acted in a Ritchie full feature film a little later and that was it for him as well. Or same can also be said about the beautiful Suzy Ratner here. Actually, the same movie like for Tarbuck. And a character nicknamed Bacon is also exactly what I would expect from Ritchie. Just like a dwarf making sure that there's no firearms on the casino visitors. Or there was a shot I think when we were literally in the footsteps of the protagonist(s) as we see the Black guy tell him/them/us that he/they/we will not be allowed in without opening the suitcase and have them look inside.

The scene at this casino-like institution that probably included much more crime than casinos usually do, or rather let's say much more physical crime, was the center of the film. It was enjoyable and interesting to watch and the escalation was just around the corner waiting to happen. In the end, there is a bit of a feel-good moment if we cheered for the protagonists. Nice little twist. This film was almost too much already for 21 minutes. I am sure It could have worked as a full feature film too, but you gotta start somewhere. This also applied to Guy Ritchie. This is almost all then. Finally, I want to say thanks for reminding me of a pretty cool song by The Flying Lizards that was used in the middle of the film and is not only a catchy tune, but fit the scenario where it got used nicely as well. I liked it more than the song used later during a maybe even more crucial scene. My thoughts that this film would not get a positive recommendation from me vanished fast enough and in the end the thumbs-up was never in doubt. It's a good film and if we take Ritchie's young age back then into account, he hardly could have started any better. Go watch it if you manage to find a good copy perhaps on British television.

"The Gold Violin" is the seventh episode from the second season of "Mad Men", so pretty much from the middle of the season, and many think it is one of the best from the season. As you see from my rating, I would have a hard time to disagree with them. But first things first: The episode runs the usual 48 minutes and it was the third of four episodes directed by Andrew Bernstein. The writers here are familiar names too and have worked on quite a lot from this show. This also includes writer Matthew Weiner. Like with every Mad Men episode, there are moments when you will laugh or at least smile, but the more dramatic moments are the bigger factor here. There are regulars from the show that do not play a vital role in this episode at all. Peggy is not a factor and neither is Pete. Sterlin has some screen time, but not a lot either. Cooper is once again included, which is always nice. May Robert Morse rest in peace. I have been wondering for quite some time why the episode is called like that and eventually you understand or at least find out that it is the name of Ken Cosgrove's book. He got included a little more here and so did Bryan Batt's Salvatore Romano. I am still not sure what to make of this part though. There was at least one earlier episode when we found out that Sal may be in the closet and the way how he shut out his wife in this episode here when a colleague came to dinner may add more fuel to the fire. It is really only speculation though. I am not sure at all what to make of these scenes.

What was much easier to understand where the scenes involving Jane. She pretty much convinces the guys from the office to walk into Bertram Cooper's office while he was away to take a look at a certain painting. This has serious consequences for her as she is fired by Joan not much later. However, she goes to see Sterling then and apparently he will work something out that she can stay. Next Monday she shows up again at the office and Sterling has not talked yet to Joan, so we will see how this is gonna unfold in the next episodes. I mean I would not say "Mad Men" is a show where the situation is exactly the same between the beginning and end of an episode, but such an obvious difference is surely a bit of a rarity. I am surely convinced how the entire Joan/Jane situation is going to continue. By the way, the fact that people need to get out of their shoes before entering Cooper's office has also become a nice tradition, almost the way kids get out of their shoes before entering their father's working office. Add to that the words by Cosgrove it was I think on one occasion before they get in that were also really funny. Also showed how much respect everybody had for Cooper. Of course, the scene later on with the painting was also entertaining thanks to Morse mostly. The other guy trying to take the easy way out by asking Cooper what he thinks of the painting did not work out, but he fared the best when he honestly admitted he does not know a thing about paintings and eventually also gets Cooper's honest statement that the painting is just an investment.

The funniest moment from this episode or rather funniest and most entertaining scene for me was maybe the opening when we see Don and how he is about to buy a new car. The Dodge comment was quite something. Getting somewhere versus having arrived. I also really liked the actor who played the car salesman. Need to check if I find more stuff from him. The car is included on several occasions during this episode. The ending then is of course a bitter one and while I surely don't feel bad for Don that the car got puke all over it, I am a bit undecided if I should feel sorry for Betty. I mean it may sound harsh what Barrett was telling her, but he was right all along and maybe the fact that Betty needs to throw up in the car shows that she is finally away from the idea that Don is 100% faithful to her. Of course, Patrick Fischler was also a true scene-stealer there and should have been nominated for an Emmy in the guest acting category. He could not have gone out on a higher note really. Other than that, this episode is mostly worth remembering for understanding that you do not want Joan as an enemy in the office. In the previous episode I think, there was a statement from her towards Peggy that also showed that female employees who do not follow exactly what she tells them, may sometimes have a hard time, even if Jane is of course the complete opposite of Peggy. When she realizes that playing the victim is not gonna cut it, she even dares to speak aggressively towards Joan. The comment that she does not need somebody to act towards her like a mother because she is 20 years old was pretty hilarious.

So red is a defining factor in this episode, not only because Joan's hair and temper, but also because of the painting and the only thing definite about it being that everybody perceives art as something different. There you can make a reference again to the early parts from my review about Sal and Ken and the former maybe appreciating the artistic side of the latter and what he has to say about the painting. As I come to the end of the review, let me make another reference to the beginning where I explained why this episode does not end the way it started with the Joan/Jane situation as there was another inclusion that got me truly curious and I wonder if they will pick up on it again. "Mad Men" is known for flashbacks telling us about the past of Don Draper (or "Don Draper") and we have a short one here as well. It is closely connected to the car selling scene, only that Don worked a similar job as well in the past and we understand that after giving his best to sell a car to a man (or rather his son), there is a blonde woman who showed up at Don's workplace back in the day and tells him that he is not Don Draper. We do not find out if she knows who he is and if so, why she knows. If she maybe knew the actual Don Draper or what her background may be. I expected this to be solved at the end, but it did not. Will it be in the future? I guess so. But you need to keep watching to find out and to be honest, this should not be difficult because I am so hooked (again) now with this show and surely I am not the only one. Small-screen filmmaking at its finest. Truly high quality in this episode. Do not miss out!

"The New Girl" is the fifth episode from the second season of "Mad Men". It runs for under 49 minutes and premiered back in 2008, so now it is over 15 years old already. The director was Jennifer Getzinger, a BAFTA nominee for this show, and the screenplay here is Robin Veith, who scored three Emmy nominations for "Mad Men". The cast includes the usual faces, but there is quite a bit of progress for the characters. The biggest comes with Joan Holloway who is engaged now, even if we do not really find out to whom and her meeting with Sterling when the two talk was also cut-short. His only scene during the episode. Instead, there is major focus on Don with this one here and also on another female character from the office, namely Peggy and this episode shows us a lot about their relationship. There is not only a flashback sequence to Peggy at the hospital with her pregnancy, but in the now Don ends up in a car accident and as another woman is with him, who does he call? That's right, Peggy. She brings the money, picks him and the woman up and even lets her stay for a little while at her place until she is fine again. Don pays for it though and I mean physically. I wonder what bothers him more, his injured arm or that he has to do without salt at home in the future. So there is at least a little bit of punishment he gets from his wife for what he did, even if she could not be any more in the unknown.

Speaking of the women in Don's life, Rachel returns shortly and we find out she is now married to, found herself a Jewish man. Good for her I guess. The break-up with Don was pretty abrupt in the last season and the two meeting again did not exactly seem filled with positive feelings here during this episode. And there's more women as Don also has a new female in front of his room now taking care of the job Peggy did before. Now this new character really got the men crazy you can say in this episode. Joan's tent-related comment was pure comedy gold there, but what happened afterwards with the guy who played Mozart on his zipper was something else. Nobody can ever say that Mad Men is not funny after scene like this. I had to laugh so hard. I guess this is what an attractive new female at the office does, especially if she does not use all the buttons on her outfit. If we look at one male character from the office, Pete is also having some decent screen time this time, but mostly from a personal perspective as he and his wife Trudy have tried for quite some time to become parents, but it just wasn't meant to be so far, so he goes to see a doctor because his wife wants him to and the result is that Pete's sperms could not be any better. Well, we knew that already with what happened to Peggy and what Pete does not know of course. It was at the same time entertaining and embarrassing to see Pete so happy about his manhood there at the end, but also depressing in a way if you look at Trudy as she realizes that she must be the reason why it is not working out with a pregnancy. The way he acted towards her there showed really that he was void of any empathy.

Lack of empathy from women towards men is something you see on other occasions during this episode. The best example is probably the phone call between Don and the woman resting at Peggy's place and how he talks business first with her and then asks her if she is okay in terms of her health. But then again, this is also exactly what she does, so the two may not have been too different from each other. We also get some solid mentions of movies from back then. "La notte" is mentioned, so is "Spartacus" and "Cape Fear" later on. Watching "Mad Men" can actually get you really decent movie recommendations. What else can I say? Oh yes, we get to see Peggy's mother and sister on one occasion. Very briefly only. This was not one scene to make you smile or even laugh, but there were a few more. Take the brief comment by one character who introduces himself as being married to an attractive female when the other guys react differently before that. So we knew exactly where all this was heading. Or where they wanted it to head you can say. Some more brainstorming: We are remembered again that Pete's dead is dead, but I think all is said about Pete now and if you did not find him unlikable before this episode, if that was even possible, then nobody can support this character even after it to be honest.

Melinda McGraw's character was maybe more interesting here. Early on in the scenes with Don, she just seemed as nothing more than another quick affair to him, maybe to boost his ego as well after finding out about Rachel being married, but in the scenes at Peggy's place we find out more about her as well as about Peggy. The two still seem to come from different spheres and they will not become friends or anything and you see that during the moment when one character declines another's suggestion to play a game of cards, but in a way they are still fascinated by each other. The older one by how all the stuff Peggy is doing for Don despite not having feelings for him while realizing that it was talent and hard work that got humble Peggy the job and Peggy also listens to the other woman's words in the end stemming from her experience and stands up a bit for herself in her final meeting with Don during this episode. Pay attention to how she calls him Don there and his face expression afterwards when she leaves the room. It's nice to see her gain some respect. Probably almost nobody will disagree that Peggy is the most likable character on the show. As for Don, what can you say about him. Nothing positive for sure as Peggy even has to mention the money to him and that he does not pay her back right away when he can without any questions asked. It is tough to say if he is less likable than Pete, probably not at this point, but at least with Pete you can say that he is still younger and might have changed once he is Don's age. Okay, it seems unlikely too. They are just both a different kind of unlikable then I guess. It was also good to see Don did not come out of this episode unharmed. In any case, this was another really entertaining Mad Men episode with more than just a few scenes and moments that will stay in the mind. In terms of both drama and comedy. I highly recommend checking it out. Episodes like this contribute a lot to me considering this a worthy choice for being my number-one favorite TV show ever.

"Madar tamame rooz doa mikhanad", which means "Mother prays all day long" is a German live action short film from 2022 that is mostly in the German language, but also includes segments in English and Farsi it is I think. The former is spoken between the two protagonists and the latter between one character and her mother. The film runs for minimally over 24 minutes including credits and scored some awards attention in Germany and Switzerland, but not too much. Hoda Taheri plays the immigrant here and she is also the writer and director. For her it is probably so far the most known for and same is true for Magdalena Jacob, who co-wrote the script with Taheri here and plays the other female protagonist. She has worked in different fields of film production already. I think the problems with this film already start with the title. Obviously, by picking those five words that nobody in Germany understands they wanted everybody to know right away that this movie is about the subject of immigration and in favor of such, which pretty much means in Germany that if you make a film like that, it is not important if it is good at all, but they will always throw money your way and most of the time awards too. Apart from that, the meaning of the title is also nothing that summarizes the film whatsoever, so a poor choice from every perspective. Yes, we do see the Iranian woman's mother in the first half via webcam footage, but she does not pray once and neither does the mother of the German central character. The only thing memorable there with the Iranian was that apparently it was really common in the country to tell your pin code to every stranger. With the German mother, it was maybe my favorite scene and it felt kinda realistic what the mother said there, how she talked about her time as a teacher and also how she des not even think about abortion being an option for her daughter. Had the rest of the film been on the same level as this scene, I might have given a slightly better rating. But it is not.

It just tries to be as showy in terms of nudity and getting the right political messages across while never really making any sense or justifying the nudity. We have the two women naked in bed next to each other at the very start. Later on, we have the two have sex and one uses a glass bottle with a condom to pleasure the other before the other proceeds to perform cunnilingus on the first one. I am not sure if the talk about that bottle moment before is worse or the scene itself. Both was abysmal and all for the sake of it. The talk between the two women earlier was better, but every time the subject became more dramatic, it was not working. They just stuffed in al the content in this scene that you would think the two women definitely know about each other given they are getting married soon. Like what month one character had her abortion. What the experience was like when the abortion happened etc. How convenient also that one character had an abortion in the past already when the other is considering it. Does not feel written at all. But it was also the small moments when the film struggled. Like we see one character throw up into the toilet and the other is in the shower nearby and hears it, but what she hears and what we hear is only a coughing sound, so you will certainly wonder why the woman in the shower showed such a worried reaction when what she heard was literally nothing.

The open ending that still implies that an abortion seems likely let me think that Taheri was maybe considering turning this film into a full-feature film at some point. I hope it is not gonna happen. I mean it may sound harsh, but I prefer to call it honest and the way this piece was written here, I don't see any talent at all and all the film delivers through and also why it was not completely overlooked is the political subjects it touches. When we hear the woman talk about giving the same answers in a certain scenario, we are supposed to find it funny how they lie and we should not be worrying about them breaking the law, but rather think that it is sad that they even do have to lie in order to be allowed to stay together. Or take the fact that the German protagonist is pregnant from a man right now in the face of her romance with this Iranian female. Or take the last camera shot that takes us first close and then into the vagina of one character when they are talking about the ways in which a fetus can or cannot hear what is going on in the outer world. The indirect explanation that she should go through with the abortion is then supported by the words that it does not understand the meaning of those words anyway, even if it hears them. Or early on you also have one woman say that her abortion was not painful at all despite the questionable circumstances under which it took place. So you can say it is a film clearly in favor of abortion. In general, the movie brings all the political positions that are relentless pursued by politics in Germany and also by the media. This is why it is known. It is not a good film by any means and I genuinely hope that if Taheri, who is admittedly pretty stunning, continues making films which she very well could given her young age at this point, she will find major improvement one way or the other over the years. Or get rid of Jacob if she was a major contributing factor why this was such an awful film overall. I highly recommend skipping the watch.

"About Schmidt" is an American live action movie that runs for over two hours and was released back in 2002, so this one is over 20 years old now and maybe over 25 or 30 even if you get here a little later to read this review of mine. The writer and director is Alexander Payne, not yet an Oscar winner back then, but now he has two wins for penning. No surprise he was joined by Jim Taylor for this work here as the two have collaborated on many occasions. For Louis Begley this is the only work that got turned into a movie. I am curious what he thought of the outcome here. Or thinks because he is still with us and over 90 in 2024. But even if Payne is a household name in Hollywood, the man that this film stands and falls (but really only stands) with is Jack Nicholson, who plays the title character of course. He had already won three Oscars by then and looks like this film here was his final nomination. He even had a decent shot at winning a fourth because he took home the Golden Globe for Drama, but in the end it was not meant to be. At the end, it was also not his major rival that night Daniel Day-Lewis who won, but young Adrien Brody instead in what is still considered one of the biggest surprises in the male lead category from the Academy Awards. What is also a bit surprising is that Payne was not nominated for writing here, but the second nomination for the film went to Kathy Bates. Well, that was not surprising because Bates is a really big name in Hollywood too and she got nominated at the SAG Awards and at the Golden Globes before. I like her, but I must say that I did not really think her performance here was super outstanding. There are many films and shows as well where I think she was better. I would not even blame her because she really does the most with how the character is written, but it is just not enough for an Oscar nomination from my perspective. The name Bates probably helped and also that we see her topless briefly in one scene, which is nothing actresses 50+ do too often. Or maybe I should say "did" because back then it was even more of an exception. It probably came easy that she was never considered a sex symbol anyway and already had an Oscar, so why would she care. Nothing could ruin her career at that point.

There are more cast members I want to mention in the supporting roles: Hope Davis is pretty stunning here and looked younger than she was. Dermot Mulroney is an actor that probably not too many are familiar with, but I always appreciate him. I did not even recognize him here with the outfit and haircut. He plays in one of my favorite romance movies ever, which makes it easy for me to smile when I recognize him somewhere or at least read his name during the credits. And of course I have to mention June Squibb, who is almost 95 now and still kicking. Hopefully for years to come. She is only in it at the very beginning, but Payne worked with her on "Nebraska" too a few years later, a movie I liked even more than this one here. A man goes on a lengthy trip there too. Squibb played the wife there too and was just a delight scoring a deserved Oscar nomination. Here her character does not warrant that, but she is still nice to see early on, even if she plays an unlikable character. It was really also a lot of back-and-forth there when it comes to her and how Schmidt sees her. Initially they seem to be a harmonic couple. Then we hear voiceovers that tell us the opposite, how Schmidt is completely annoyed by her, then when he finds her dead, he is of course really sad. And misses her a lot afterwards and does not really think about the aspects anymore that bothered him about her before that. Honestly, her last words directed at him before he leaves the house are also not too nice. But from the opposite perspective you could also say that if he had really returned home earlier like she asked him to instead of having this milkshake drink there, then perhaps he could have called an ambulance and saved her. We will never know. Just like we will never know how she really thought and felt about him. He asks the stars on one occasion and this is really the last time when she is included, or crucially included. The fact that he mentions her towards the end during the speech at the wedding ceremony shows that by then he had probably really forgiven her for cheating on him. Or who knows, we cannot really be sure. He also behaves peacefully there and we could not be sure if he might escalate because obviously he was still not happy at all with the choice his daughter made. We understand that by what he calls her husband towards the end.

However, Schmidt may be a man with some shenanigans to him and not the nicest fellow around, but on many occasions we see that at his very core, he is not a bad man. The mourning for his wife was real and of course there is the whole story with the money he sends to Africa to support a little boy and make sure he leads a better life. This was also then a bit of a happy ending when Schmidt gets this letter from the woman taking care of the boy there and she thanks him and sends him a picture drawn by the boy. Of course, Schmidt was really moved there and his tears were real again. All this came immediately after we hear him say something utterly depressing about his life and how meaningless it all seems. So there are some deep and really touching moments in here for sure, but this is always Payne's approach you can say and still he manages to mix it nicely with some situational comedy. With Nicholson he also had the right man for the role to deliver the awkwardness. The awkward comedy. Take the moment when he pees all over the bathroom the way he really wants, which was maybe the funniest of the entire film how he decides to let go and let flow there with nobody stopping him. There were also multiple hilarious static camera shots showing us Schmidt's face and he did not even have to do or say something there. Or take that funnily weird fella at the wedding. But there are other scenes that are funny and a bit sad at the same time. Take the alien dream moment he mentions towards his daughter. Or take the moment when he gets a little too close with a new acquaintance. But then again, she kinda deserved it. What a mean statement to make towards a man who had just lost his wife! Even if she was right with all she said, sometimes it is better to be quiet than to be right. And she could have been right without him telling so.

I must also mention the daughter: I was struggling a bit with her too like especially when the protagonist is driving towards her, probably because he was feeling a bit on the lonely side, but also just because he can, and her reaction was utterly disrespectful there on the phone how she made herself very clear that she did not want him to come. It's his money she wants. Maybe this is why Mulroney's character was so over-the-top caring and friendly towards Schmidt too early on. The comforting hug was funny. But it was sad there to see how there Schmidt begged his daughter to stay a little longer. Unsuccessfully. Or take the scene before the alien conversation. I mean what the protagonist said precisely was surely bizarre, but the daughter could not have known yet at that point and did not care at all that her father wanted to speak to her in private. The first delay was already not exactly nice, but when she almost drives off without having the conversation, it was just utterly mean. No daughter-of-the-year material by any means. By the way, early on I was wondering if perhaps she is not even his biological daughter, but the other guy's, the one who wrote those letters to Squibb's character, but the film did not elaborate on that any further. As for Mulroney's character, it was not totally clear what was on his mind. I would say he was just a goofball and not evil in a way to get as much money out of his father-in-law as possible. Could very well be that he believed in this snowball system himself there he mentioned to him and asked him to invest in. If you pay attention, you find out that he never called Schmidt again afterwards about this topic. Of course, you can also speculate if his wife kept him from doing so because she knew it would not go well. Overall, the in-laws are quite the goofball family and mostly in it for the comedy. Each and every single one of them. Or at least the ones we find out about.

Overall, Payne and Nicholson created in Schmidt one of the most interesting and multi-layered movie characters from the year 2002. He definitely has his flaws, but more than just a few inclusions show you his heart is somewhat at the right place and there is nothing wrong with not appreciating the young guy who follows after you at the office after your retirement. That does not make him a bad guy. Neither of the two. Take the very short mention of Schmidt talking to a Native American. Politically correct language was gaining support back then. Schmidt had lots of respect for the man. Maybe because he was closer to his age too. I could elaborate on a few more scenes and depictions here, but I think this is pretty much it. The film also starts in a really nice manner with the clock ticking down on his last day. There is a parallel to how his face there is just 100% stoic, but in the final shot it is filled with tears of joy. This final shot is all about his private life then and not about work. It is also a nice reference towards being remembered somehow, even if it comes from a young kid at the other end of the planet. Touching inclusion long before people started including stuff like that for the sake of things. So yeah, I would say this is a good film and worth seeing, but not one of my favorites from Payne. One of the best lead performances though. Oh and pay attention to the "Sideways" reference seen on the screen on one occasion and how Payne later on with "Nebraska" continued elaborating on schemes that do not pursue honorable intentions.

What we got here is the music video for the song Nightlight by the band Silversun Pickups, so quite a few cosmic phenomena in here with night, light and sun, but unfortunately this one did not illuminate me at all, on the contrary. You can see from my rating that I am not a fan at all. The director was Mark Pellington and if you take a look at his body of work, then you will see that he has been really prolific over the years and this is not just the case now in 2024, but he was already fairly experienced in 2015, so almost a decade ago when this got made. Probably over a decade if you get here a little later to read this review of mine. It is also not your stereotypical music video as it runs for slightly under eight minutes, so definitely above-average, almost twice as long as they usually do, and the face that it has a credit section as well makes it obvious that Pellington was going for a bit of a mix between movie and music video. A plot I cannot really make out here though. In the first minute and at the end again as well we have a woman that we see and hear her voiceover. I do not remember the exact words, but it was clearly on the pretentious side. We follow her journey through the night a bit during the long part in-between. Unfortunately, not in an awesome fashion as The Prodigy had us follow a girl through the night back in the day. But even in the middle part here it felt very much style over substance from beginning to end. The supposedly showy moments when we see a man sing with a voice that was very high-pitched and could have come from a female were just not enough.

I cannot come with any reason at all to watch this music video and I wish it would have been shorter. I am not familiar with the band Silver Sun Pickups and while the name is alright, there was nothing in this music video that makes me want to keep an eye on them (or rather ear) and I cannot find any motivation to check out their discography any time soon. So what you hear in this short film is just as forgettable as what you see I must say, even the audio is inferior and it takes quite something for that because yeah it is not a pretty sight by any means. The artistic component the were going for here through pompous set decoration, lots of skin and wigs here and there - it was just not working for me at all. Probably also did not help that the Meg Steedle who plays the main character here was not exactly appealing to me physically. I cannot be a judge of her acting talent from the way she is included here, but I see she was on Boardwalk Empire. Quite liked that show, even if I cannot say I remember her. But before I am drifting further away from this extremely forgettable music video, let me say that I think this is absolutely not worth it and that the viewer count on Youtube that is easily inside seven-digit territory is just far too high. I give it a thumbs-down and it was not even close. I thought this was awful and very unappealing. Like basically a fashion commercial gone totally wrong.

"Psycho" is an American black-and-white live action film from 1960, so this one is almost 65 years old now or probably older once you get here to read this review of mine. The director is Alfred Hitchcock and he was around the age of 60 here already and this film is from the years when he shot those movies that are today the reason why many consider him the greatest filmmaker of all time. Many consider this film his best work. As usual, Hitchcock also has a little cameo in front of the camera. His daughter Patricia is in it as well. She lived until 2021, so reached a really old age. But before I continue with the actors, let's take a look at the writers: Robert Bloch wrote the book the film is based on, so he is/was also credited with every new(er) take on the story. Joseph Stefano adapted the novel for the screen and this is by far his most known career work. Interestingly enough, the two are also the (only) writers credited for Gus Van Sant's remake from 1998. I mean I like GVS in general, but Vince Vaughn for the lead? Come on. Maybe a good thing that Bloch did not live to see the poor reception. Neither did Anthony Perkins, but he reprised his career-defining role for three sequels in 1983, 1986 and 1990. He is of course the actor that everybody thinks of right away when hearing the name of the film. Strangely enough, he did not only not get an Oscar nomination for his portrayal here, but received almost zero awards attention. I am a bit proud to say that only my country Germany honored him to some extent at least for his brilliant performance. The one who scored the Oscar nomination from the cast was Janet Leigh. She is seen a lot during the first 50 minutes. I guess you know the reason why only there. Everybody has seen the shower scene.

The film runs for another hour afterwards, but there is not a single other scene or moment that is equally famous. You can split (no pun intended!) the movie into three segments: one with Marion (Leigh), one with Arbogast (Balsam) and one with Loomis and Lila (Gavin and Miles). The latter two run for approximately half an hour each. 110 minutes in total. Miles is even still with us in 2024. Gavin is not, but lived until 2018 too and had an interesting career with parallels to Ronald Reagan's. He may not have been President of the United States, but he was president of the Screen Actors Guild. Not too shabby either. And Balsam won an Oscar a few years later. If we go back to Perkins and the blatant omission of his great performance here, you can at least say that despite his young age, he already was an Oscar nominee. Let's be honest, as ill and insane as his character may be, he was still a puppy. Or Perkins was. In addition to Leigh's Oscar nomination, Hitchcock scored one for his direction, his fifth and final nomination. No wins, but he later got the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. The film also scored two nominations in the visual categories. Now, let's look at the story: While being certainly well-entertained, there were also some moments that did not feel realistic to me, like for example how the private investigator shows up at Bates Motel really sudden. It might have been a smoother transition to not only have him mention his visits to other motels, but to show one or two of those. I am not sure if I can call the cop at the beginning unrealistic, but he turned into a bit of a stalker. I still liked him, the way he was talking and interacting. True professional. The shades helped as well. I saw two examples of irony in him: First would be when he tells her that she could have slept at a motel to be safe and secondly she wants to get rid of him so bad while he would have been her only hope of getting saved from what happens next.

The medical explanation near the end had me struggling a bit too: I mean it all makes sense, but it was again not a smooth transition from what happened right before. Also did not help that we had no idea who the doctor was as has was not included gefore. I am also not sure if this felt more like taken from a L&O Criminal Intent episode or an old silent (German) psychological horror movie. For me yesterday was the first time that I was watching the film and the idea that it is Perkins' character dressed as a woman committing these horrible crimes came to my mind quickly, even if I guessed it to be more of an act than insanity. How we see "her" up there in the window while Norman is down there talking to a character or how we see him carry her down the stairs was a distraction, but not big enough for me to rethink my theory. It was just too obvious how we never see her face during the attacks. And also that we never really see mother and son share the screen, see their faces. We only hear them talk and as I guessed, there we got taken into the Norman's head. You can say that the moment he talks to her before carrying her down the stairs proves that he was insane because there was nobody else around he would have wanted to fool. The ultimate revelation comes of course with the skeleton moment. Now that was really something, surely among the most memorable the film had to offer and what happens seconds later made me think that I would call it the most memorable scene also ahead of the overrated shower scene that looked pretty harmless in fact for depicting a bloody murder. But yeah, after the skeleton shot that you totally need to experience yourself, the next moment there was Norma(n) attacking and then being held back. The woman is saved and, the bad guy is arrested. Everything that follows is more of an epilogue. I still wonder how it worked with the skeleton. Did he lie to everybody about the funeral? It does not make a lot of sense. One character asks the question who is in the mother's grave then, while the real question should be who is not in there. I guess you have to give Norman props that he could really hide his insanity from the public. The conclusion that it was also him who killed his mother felt rushed at the end then. Do they have evidence? The remote location surely helped in him pulling through with all that.

I still did not like the way the "hero" is depicted here when he makes a general statement that people living on their own for a long time eventually go insane. The sheriff I liked though. I would watch him in a spinoff with the cop and the car salesman from early on. But did the sheriff know the mother was dead? Then why didn't he say so right away when she is mentioned? Some questions stay. The good is still way more frequent here and Hitchcock's camera work added a lot to that. I loved some of his shots and angles, like the close-ups he used for the police officer early on and later for Bates added to their characters. It was also at least partially Hitch's camera work that made Bates Motel such a memorably scary place, especially the mother's building. Strong set decoration helps too. Just take the doll the woman finds in said building in the end. Or the toys' face expressions. No surprise a pretty new and successful series was named after this old film. It deserves to be remembered for more than the shower scene and lead performance, even if the latter definitely stands above everything else. So many great moments and if it is even the way he moves up the stairs on one occasion. Almost some early-day twerking we got there. It is not just the showy scenes like when we eventually see him in woman's clothing that shine. This film was tense all around, especially in those scenes when characters explore mysterious locations on their own. The closing shot was also a good choice. They find the car in the swamps, but here I have to refer to realism again, like how one character tells us that they will find it there, but he said so before the police went for it when this really should have happened immediately. It was the only place where he could have hidden something the size of a car. I guess the cops there were not as focused as the one early on.

This film even has a bit of a moral, mostly linked to Leigh's character. Had she not run away with the money, she never would have lost her life. She also had the chance to tell the truth to the cop who woke her up. By the way, the moment there when she tries to drive off was also not too realistic and same applies to how the cop "stopped the car" the very next second. Leigh's character admittedly at the end made the decision to go back and ask for forgiveness, but it was already too late and she paid the ultimate price. The amount of money also shows us how times have changed. Today, you can easily make it in a year. Back then, this sum was enough for her to leave everything behind, her family, her man, her job... In terms of the aforementioned morale aspect, you can wonder what the private investigator did wrong then. I cannot think of anything other than being too reckless and perhaps it is a message that you should go to the police if you want something done properly. But I agree it is a bit far-fetched. The film really took a very different direction from the moment on when Leigh's character arrived at the motel. Before that it was also about a crime, but a far less serious one and with the opening scene also more about romance and that component was gone completely after said opening. Before I end the review, I want to say that I also really loved the main theme. It added nicely to the tension that was otherwise mostly brought by Perkins. He is the movie, all his mannerisms and face expressions stand out here. What a talent how he depicts the character's shyness and insecurity behind a friendly mask. He was not evil, just very sick. Pretty bizarre also that it is not him who gets the big inclusion on the film poster. I do like the use of colors there though against the strong black background. Maybe that is Perkins/Norman too. This film deserves to be seen. I would not call it great, even if some aspects are great, but the thumbs-up for it was never in doubt.

"Love Hurts" is the twentieth episode from the first season of "House M. D." and this one runs for over 44 minutes as they usually do. The director was Bryan Spicer and the writer credited here (in addition to show creator David Shore) was Sara B. Cooper, so a woman for once in charge of writing a House episode. Did not happen too often, at least at the beginning. Spicer and Coooper have in common that they only worked on two episodes of House in the aforementioned fields and this was also the second and thus final time. Not too much compared to other writers and directors who were more on the regular side. However, if we look at the actors here away from the regular cast, there are at least two interesting mentions. John Cho plays the sick character this time although "sick" is a description that can be interpreted differently depending on what your perception on the man is. As for Cho, you may have seen him on Star Trek or Harold & Kumar. Perhaps the sick protagonist actor from the first season that is most known nowadays as Amanda Seyfried only played the sick character's girlfriend in an earlier episode. And number two would be June Squibb, who became an Oscar nominee a little later for a film I really like and it is also nice to see that almost 19 years after this episode she is still with us. Hopefully she will turn 95 later this year. If we are mentioning her already, she is the actress in here who plays the old lady that likes sex, but not all the time and there is some misunderstanding between her and her partner. Not her husband as we find out in the end. You can say that with this side story they returned to the early episodes again where those stories were more on the lighter side, but at the same time did not return because it is the only side story and at the very beginning of the show, they had three of those sometimes, at least two.

Before I get to the key story, let me say that I enjoyed this episode mostly for the funnier moments. If you thought those would come with the House/Cameron date, you were proven wrong. I will just mention the moments I liked and that made me smile: First would be the opening with House, Wilson and a patient watching television. Hilarious scene. Then another would be almost at the very end when a female character is dressed up as a nurse, but only pretending. House spots her immediately, but is fine with that. Then there is a comment by House about Cuddy's blouse. That even rhymes and I am not sure he would get away with this as easily in 2024. House's comment about his two male employees not wanting the same deal like Cameron was decent too. Also her face expression. She was cute to watch there anyway with how she is so delighted she finally gets to go on a date with House that she cannot keep quiet about it towards her colleagues. On the other hand, it is sad then that she does not tell anything to them afterwards about how it went and that says it all. Not even necessary for us to see and hear House's words there on the table that really must have stung. But we were with the funny moments. I think there was definitely some dark comedy to House calling the sick man's parents and telling them his son is dead. I also like actor Matt Malloy, even more if he is allowed to present more comedic material than in this episode here. There are more funny moments, but I will leave it at that. The somewhat controversial aspect of this episode is the female visiting Cho's character here and turns out she is a dominatrix. Chase realizes first and lets all the others now, so you can wonder if he has his own past wit this subject, even if we do not find out more about it. For Foreman, there is not too much to say about this episode. He got one diagnosis wrong, but other than that he is pretty much a non-factor. House then follows Chase's theory, so in this episode you do not really see any humiliation coming from him directed at Chase after the Vogler farewell and realizing where Chase's loyalties were.

What was in terms of the date maybe more interesting than the date itself was how the regular characters reacted towards it. Foreman was off the opinion that some relationships are just not meant to be and he told House. Chase told Cameron that she should really jump House. Cuddy was kinda happy for House that he might finally open up to somebody again and was almost hitting on him herself in this scene. Fear she might lose her chances? Well, the way the date went, nothing to worry for her. But who I liked most was maybe Wilson. He seemed like such a caring friend here, not only helping House with the outfit, but also how he approached Cameron and the words he said to her about potentially breaking House's heart. As for House himself, the little flower gift was nice too, even if it confuses me a bit why he took the effort to get this for her, but then does what he does during the date. But oh well, he was there with her and it became almost a challenge for him to prove her Freudian words wrong that there is nothing he can do to prove he is not really interested. I guess you can say he succeeded, which is pretty sad. I know I repeat myself there with what I said earlier about Cameron's lack of openness after the date. Maybe the best thing that came from all this was really the aforementioned patient at the very beginning. I would have loved him to become a regular. Or see more from him in another show or spinoff. Gotta check out the actor's name. This is pretty much it then. I am generous with my rating here now. I think I enjoyed this episode more when I first watched it a few years ago, but it is still pretty solid. For me the season peaked really with episode 18, the closure with Vogler's story line and all that followed afterwards before the end of season one was more on the epilogue side. I would not agree that the episode centering on House's ex stood out a lot. This episode here was maybe the best from what I just called the epilogue. I recommend checking it out, especially if you love Cho (or Squibb) in other projects. Thumbs-up for this episode dealing with all kinds of pain in male-female relationships.

"Babies & Bathwater" is the eighteenth episode from the first season of "House M. D." and if there was any doubt left, which really shouldn't be, if this show was among the most excellent small screen entertainment had to offer back in 2004 and 2005, then it was absolutely gone. What a brilliant episode. My favorite from season 1 and a definite contender for being my favorite episode from the entire show. I see the imdb rating this one got implies that I was not the only one thinking so. These over 44 minutes were close to perfection. The director was Bill Johnson, who worked on "The West Wing" before that, interestingly as an editor and this area of expertise is also what he scored two Emmy nominations for and the screenplay came from Peter Blake, who has really been with the show we have here from beginning to end pretty much, even if also in other areas of production. Good stuff. Series creator David Shore is once again also credited for writing. This episode is closure and new beginnings all in one. Vogler has had it with House after the latter's speech from the previous episode and he wants him gone for good. Not in a violent sense, but he is ready to ask the board if House should go and otherwise he will go and with him the 100 million Good news for House is that a unanimous voting is required. And good news for Wilson and Cuddy too. This also resulted in Wilson's great moment from the show where he talks about his life and the only two things that mean something to him. As for Cuddy, she has some more screen time here and carries the female-led scenes in the absence of Dr. Cameron who quit her job at the end of the previous episode.

So everything that is happening here away from the key patient is so interesting and tense that it tops pretty much every other episode in that department and while it is often those parts of the episodes that interest me the most and not the medial cases, I cannot say that it was the case here as well. The medical case is just heartbreaking: We have a pregnant woman showing severe life-threatening symptoms and it is all about the question if her own suffering could lead to a better life for the baby. Or a life at all. Add to that that she had several miscarriages in the past. In the end, it is one of the saddest episodes for sure, not only because of all this moral dilemma, but also because not everybody makes it out alive. The only other inclusion from season one that was equally sad was when we had two sick children and one would die and I think it was the child from the lesbian couple back then. But I reviewed that one already, so back to this one here now: There is one key difference here when it comes to the medial case at the center of the story compared to other episodes. They find out pretty quickly that she has cancer inside her lungs. So there is not a great deal of guessing or diagnosing in here, but rather trying all they can to get her healthy again and also elaborating on the baby inside her and the baby's health. The moment we see her gone and the baby starts crying was a definite contender for best (not sure this is the right word) moment from television in 2005. Joy and sadness are so close to one another and the baby's father goes through it all while we witness him, also how he struggles in making the decision. I cannot even say "right" decision there. There is no black-and-white in this episode, especially not there. When we see him with her corpse towards the end, it was also truly sad. Or how he cared for her when/after the anesthetic kicked in. There are many other inclusions and references I can mention here, but I will just go with one more and that is the scene in which House realizes that the woman gave birth already in the approximately 20 years ago and the child was born with a serious illness and we see from House's reaction how tough it must have been for her. Her slight joking about her health in that scene was also bittersweet. Well, more bitter, but in a good way. Blake so nailed the writing here that I must say it is a shame that he only wrote 24 episodes. I guess this statement says it all.

While there was great drama in the key story, there was also a supporting story here that was not exclusively comedic. This changed a bit during season one. Early on, it was almost all about comic relief with these side stories, but they reduced the number to one as the season continued and surely it was serious drama here as well that the couple got their baby taken from them because of the nutrition they provided. Also an interesting moment when they tell House that the person they consulted was actually a scientist and not a guru or so. What I also really liked about this part was that the couple was not just depicted as irresponsible and complete failures because of the nutrition choices they made, which many other shows might have done, but this show went a step further and eventually offered the solution that the baby did have an illness too and that this was the reason while at the same time now stating that the vegan nutrition was right, for example with the fire comment that came from House. But the parents are caring and no monsters. This was the key message here. It was also maybe this diagnosis in the end that made sure House could convince Cuddy to not raise her arm in the deciding poll and vote in favor of him staying instead. And thus also in favor of Wilson staying. So yeah, I mentioned the impact Cuddy had on this episode overall in the absence of Cameron and you cannot underestimate it. It was her speech in the end that managed to convince more board members to not follow Vogler's path and thus put an end to him and his millions for the hospital. The scene when they (our "heroes") are celebrating afterwards and once again Cuddy shows up and steals the show would also have made for solid closure for the season, but it is not yet over, even if after the level of quality here I doubt I will see the remainder of this opening season as more of an epilogue. You can also make a connection there between Cuddy's words plus the atmosphere in the room and the key medical case of the episode that is also stuck between ultimate joy and ultimate sadness. Again, what brilliant writing this. The song they used at the end then I really liked as well.

I don't think there is anymore to say really. This is an episode and show you need to experience yourself and don't wanna miss out, even almost 20 years later or probably more once you get here to read this review of mine. And as great as the writing was, it needs to be added that the actors also brought their very best here. This includes the regular cast as the guest actors. I want to mention Hinkle and Goorjian there I particular and the letter was already an Emmy winner at that point and the former went on to score multiple Emmy nominations afterwards. You can see in this episode that the talent is 100% with them. Also with everybody else. Unfortunately, I cannot mention the entire cast here, but it would be justified. Thumbs-up too for Michael Simpson and Natalie Shaw. And for Chi McBride whose time on House ended with this episode if I am not mistaken. I am curious what came next for his character and I would have watched a spinoff, even with how unlikable the character was. Anyway, the one who is still there is Chase. We see him celebrate with the rest in the end, but what is going to happen with him and House in the next episodes is probably one of the biggest question marks still left for the season. I have stop writing now because I want to go on watching. Sorry not sorry, guys. You should do the same with this extraordinarily marvelous program. I cannot recommend it enough. It is still as good now as it was back in 2005, if not better.

"Role Model" is the seventeenth episode from season one of "House M. D." and this aired in April 2005, so it is now roughly 19 years old and maybe over 20 when you get here a little later. The director was Peter O'Fallon who worked on several episodes of the show, but not too many and the writer is Matt Witten, who wrote screenplays also for several episodes, but worked on many more in another area. Or I should say co-writer because series creator David Shore is also credited here. The first season is slowly coming to an end with these over 44 minutes that still had a lot of action going on. Maybe this is one reason why House was so successful back then and is still very much worth a watch I would say. It goes away from the traditional concept that each episode has to end the way it started. The biggest twist here is of course Cameron announcing their resignation in the last scene. How will this continue? Will she change her mind? Will we never see her again? Will another (female) doctor join the team? You surely want to find out in the next episode. What you also want to find out is what Vogler will do after House gave that speech that must have totally upset him. The quantity of Vicodin joke at the end then was a good one for sure, but overall this speech by House will only cast further tensions for sure. I am sure there is no way anybody will stop watching the series after this episode. Certainly one of the finest from season one and I have not even talked about the key case this time. Before I do, there's other stuff worth mentioning, namely the entire Cameron-House storyline and especially what Cameron has to say to House on several occasions, especially the one when she makes a connection to God. Perhaps the best scene of the episode. One of the funniest was House talking (or not talking) to Wilson about his potential feelings for Cameron. As for Chase, he was not featured a lot here during this episode and mostly only in it because of his relationship with House getting worse. No respect from the latter there after Chase makes a right diagnosis early and also the reference to Chase's face expression. What was still more memorable than that was Chase finally admitting or rather telling House that he was the one feeding information to Vogler. I mean House pretty much knew anyway, but still.

With Foreman, there is not too much to say about this episode. He was mostly memorable for being the one who connected the most with the key patient here, a successful Black senator with the intention to run for President soon. Even if the man in here is much older than his real-life role model, you see where this is leading a little while before Obama hit things really big in America. Two to three years later in fact, so this episode was a bit of foreshadowing then, even if the patient (played by Joe Morton, who won an Emmy almost a decade later) in the end admits that he will not win, but running is already a step into the right direction for another Black man to win one day. It went faster than expected you can say. In reality. This was also a good moment, maybe the best when it comes to Morton's performance here and how the character was written too. I think he would have deserved some awards recognition, especially for his portrayal in those scenes where he was clearly physically suffering, but still the character's dedication shone through many times. The episode made a brief reference to H. I. V. Too, but this was not a huge factor to the episode, especially not in the second half when it turned out that the first test was a false positive. I mean if the probability is really as low as they say on one occasion during this episode, then perhaps it did feel unrealistic and should have been left out. What absolutely should not have been left out was the other case about the pregnant woman who has not had sex in a long time. I mean I am not sure how realistic all this was from a medical perspective or a perspective that neither she nor her ex did not realize something was wrong, but well, it was surely enigmatic and entertaining. Probably also helped that the actress Missy Crider was pretty attractive and I usually don't have much of a thing for blondes. This is also pretty much all I have to say then about this episode. The action is still tense and interesting and all characters contribute something. Cuddy was not in it too much because the tension is now between Vogler and House directly, but even she had an interesting moment when she talks about whose choice it is to pick a certain form of therapy.

Oh and I must not forget: We see House's apartment during this episode and we realize that he plays the piano. I mean this was almost a bit too much in the end depicting him so sophisticated there and have Cameron arrive the exact same moment. I am sure some people maybe expected a kiss even when it was her standing at the doorstep, but it became a totally different development. He also did not really have the option to not open the door as she must have heard the music coming from inside. It is incredibly difficult to pick one moment from this episode that I would call the best from these almost three quarters of an hour as there are at least a dozen contenders, but one moment I would definitely consider is when House holds the senator after giving him back access to his respiratory aid there and what he says that moment. You will probably pick something entirely different, but while it was a bit of a moment of harmony, it also brought back the God reference somehow with House making sure one of the most important men of the country still gets to live and breathe a little longer. Well, not a just a little, but way longer as his recovery turns out to be exemplary. So yeah, this was another mighty fine episode and I cannot wait it continue. "House M. D." is worth seeing now as much as it was seeing 20 years ago and I envy those a bit who have never watched the show. But only if they do something about it, otherwise it is 100% their loss. "Role Model" is an episode where the title consists of two words, which is not too often the case with this series or at least the first season and I have two words for this episode as well: Highly recommended.

"Travelooper" is a British live action short film from 2019, so it is five years old now and it runs for pretty much exactly five minutes including credits and you can watch it on Youtube if you like. This is a work written and directed by Jennifer Sheridan who scored her first BAFTA nomination not too long ago in the comedy department and while there is a serious undertone to this film here, I would also categorize it as a comedy. Lead actor Paul G. Raymond you may have seen in Wonka not too long ago where he played a small role and before that, actually before this film here, he also played in an episode of "Black Mirror". He has an Indian background, which his name surely does not give away. Jessie Mei Li's name does give away her background. She is the key romantic interest here and featured in the second half of this really short film. Her biggest film so far was probably "Last Night in Soho". As for the supporting cast, they are also not nobodies. One was on "Ted Lasso", another has worked on pretty big projects already in smaller positions behind the camera.

But yeah, let's look at the outcome here: I really enjoyed the beginning and first half actually. There was a lot to it. Take the start that has a nice little funny twist where you think the protagonist was listening to a tape, but there was actually a personal coach or so on the end of the line as we find out when things do not go according to plan for the main character. What I also thought was interesting there would be the perception of the person he meets there that he apparently was in touch with online before. He reacts totally scared and feels the need to just get away and her perception that moment must have been that he found her really awful I assume. Unless she knew about his fears when it comes to women of course, but I am not sure he would have talked about it with her. I also liked the moment then when he stepped on the whatever you call it. I was as confused as he was when something unusual happened there and was also not sure what was going on. First I thought this might have a negative impact on my viewing experience, but then I liked that I quickly understood and just felt the character' confusion initially. The Matrix reference was also solid. However, I must say I would have preferred if Sheridan and Raymond would have taken another route here story-wise, namely literally elaborated on the "in the loop" aspect and that for him to get out of it, he was required to talk to the woman on the other side and ask her out, for a coffee or whatever.

This is not how it turned out though. Instead, we get a more pompous approach then by the character seeing himself with his future partner on the other side all of a sudden, also with different, more meaningful light effects and he sees not only those two together, but also their/his daughter a little later. Then it is all back to normal and he runs into the woman he just saw with him and there is a little bit of suspense, but not really, as we know it is her under the mask. Maybe, even if what just happened to him, did something with him obviously, it feels slightly unrealistic to think that he so effortlessly talks to her there right away, but you can justify it maybe that because of what he saw, he was sure that she would most likely not reject him. So the more I think about all this with the future vision and the encounter that follows it, the more I like the outcome here, even if maybe I still would prefer the scenario I described earlier. But I cannot say for sure without seeing in put on the screen. In any case, after some initial hesitation, I would say this is not only a solid short film, but a really good one and I recommend watching it. To women and men. But perhaps for men with fear of rejection from females (and of course for lesbians with the same issue), I would call it close to a must-see. Highly recommended. As good as it gets for five minutes and exactly the kind of sci-fi I adore and otherwise I am really not big on the genre! No need for starships. Criminally underseen at 40k right now on Youtube.

This is the music video for the song "Follow You" by Imagine Dragons and this was released back in 2021, so it is not really new, but also not too old. At 4.5 minutes you can say that this is the regular duration for music videos. What is also the usual is Matt Eastin being in charge of the direction here. He has worked on my music videos by Imagine Dragons. I would not call myself a fan, but I think they have some nice numbers still and this one here was solid too, sometimes even a bit on the catchy side. What makes this even more interesting is the inclusion of Rob McElhenney and Kaitlin Olsen from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". Or actually they play themselves here, but this show is what the duo is really known for of course. At said show is still running after 20 years now. Impressive. However, I should not talk too much about the show because it is more of a personal thing for the two because they are also married in real life. Also for a long time. Good for them. There is some joking early on when the female gives a live concert of his favorite band to her man, but truth is it is her favorite band. Not The Killers. They would have been nice too here though. This little piece of humor is very Always Sunny I would say. Would have fit in with the show too. Like you essentially do good to others, but really do good to yourself and at the same time also to others. McElhenney surely did not regret being a part of this performance. Even if he leaves early. They leave early. Well, maybe not too realistic if you have your favorite band play for you to leave after one of ten or eleven songs, but maybe they can do the rest for some concert DVD. And if we are honest, the number was also not an aphrodisiac to an extent on a romantic level where their leaving would have made sense.

The two actor protagonists are also featured on other occasions, namely when they are shown to us as band members, the guy topless, the girl behind the drums. She is wearing quite the costume (or lack thereof being bald) and I did not realize right away before I saw her name during the credits. So yeah, it was a fun little watch. Interesting idea for a music video to get in some actors and comedy component. Which makes the song pretty short if you take a closer look. Or listen actually. But yeah, you hear the singing then also during the closing credits, so it is not super short. All in all, it is maybe not groundbreaking, but there was not a single moment when I had doubts that this might end up as a thumbs-down for me. I give it a positive recommendation and for fans of Always Sunny it is almost a must-see I guess. The only thing that could have made it better would have been DeVito to show up at the end and watch the rest of the concert instead of the other two. Even without such a sublime inclusion I say go for the watch here. It's easy to find on Youtube. Almost 80 million have done so already.

"The Goldbergs: 1990-Something" is a short film from January 2018, so this one is over five years old now, in fact over six and maybe a bit or even lot more once you get here and read this review of mine. The title gives away that this one features some of the characters from the American television show "The Goldbergs" and apparently this was intended as a pilot episode for a spin-off series. It is inofficially listed as the zeroth episode of the fifth season from "The Goldbergs". This show still went on for over another two years afterwards and it already ran much longer than that by 2018. If you look at the names of the people who made this, you will find a pretty experienced trio, especially director Jay Chandrasekhar and co-writer Adam F. Goldberg and the production company named after him was also in charge here. The other writer Marc Firek may have been the least experienced from the three, but was also far from a rookie. All three of them have worked on multiple episodes from "The Goldbergs". So what went wrong here? Maybe the characters included in here were just not good and interesting enough to make a spin-off series happen, but I don't know. To be honest, I have not (yet) seen "The Goldbergs" and what I saw here does not make too curious to check them out. In terms of the approach to comedy as well. So I would definitely not keep watching this series. Actually, it is a bit unusual to have a (potential) show that takes place at a school and features students and teachers mostly. Relatives from the students as well. It is a concept we do not see too often in television, so it is pretty challenging for sure. Most people think of Disney Channel stuff first maybe or Glee, but this show here tries to be more grown-up than the former with adults being protagonists mostly and well Glee was really more about the music than the comedy, probably even more about the drama as well. In terms of life lessons too.

The cast for this episode here has some familiar faces. Emmy nominee Tim Meadows headlines the pretty large group of people, but if we ignore him for a moment, then we have Missi Pyle and especially Ana Gasteyer who have decent recognition value always, even if that does not mean at the same time that they are talented actors. Strangely enough, they were also hardly in the movie. Blink and you will miss them. Nia Long is probably also more famous and popular than most guys here. The biggest name if we go by awards attention is Oscar winner Octavia Spencer, but she is only a narrator here and also pretty much vanishes in the second ten minutes of this short film that runs for slightly over 20 minutes. What I found interesting towards the end then were the closing credits. They were almost superior to everything before that. Seeing the actors/characters and the real-life people that inspired them was a nice little tribute there and the ones seen on the right must have appreciated it. I am sure they did and were not offended because of how forgettable this film was. I mean it was not awful luckily, so tolerable in a way. Summer Parker for whom this is one of her biggest career efforts to this day, maybe even the number one, is pretty stunning here, but the problem is she plays a nerd or a student who is not liked by others really. I would say she was too good-looking and interesting for a character like this, but that is obviously not her fault, but the casting people are to blame. Still, or maybe because of that, it was nice to see her have such a great moment then towards the end when everybody is joining in with her song.

"I Want It That Way" is of course a classic, but if this show or episode is really so much about the 90s, then it must also be said that the song is from 1999, so the series plays 1999 or later, which takes away the entire 1990s argument there. However, it is a great song also 25 years later and for good reason the band who made it is still really adored by their fans. The inclusion of this song was maybe the best part of this episode. But this does not mean it really made it a good episode because the number in terms of originality has nothing to do with this short film or "The Goldbergs" and also how they used it felt pretty unrealistic that everybody joined in so quickly there after not caring one bit only seconds later. Also tough to perceive Rachel Crow's character than as likable with how she treated the other girl before that and then in the end goes and sits on her table. Good thing is that if I really watch "The Goldbergs", then I do not have to deal with her either. She is not on that show. The spinoff here, had it become a success, would have turned to some extent around the lives of these two young women. But it was not pursued any further, so we will never find out more about those characters. I can live with it because the kids were not too great, but the adults weren't much better. Or at least the way the were written. You can't really blame the actors. They tried their best to hide the flaws from the screenplay a bit, but one can only do so much. You will find examples for these flaws yourself if you watch it, but if we look at one, then I would mention the way the female protagonist behaves what she says shortly before the end and what she says not much later and this performance at the gym completely changed her mind. Did not feel realistic to me, but only for the sake of a somewhat happy ending and a lesson learnt. This potential pilot episode from actually not super long ago is not easy to find at all nowadays. I think it is a good thing because I give the outcome here a thumbs down and I am glad it was this short and did not get closer to the 40-minute mark. Not recommended.

"Drive-Away Dolls" is a really new movie from 2024, a co-production between the United Kingdom and United States of America in the English language and as the Coens are pretty much my favorite filmmakers ever, I was of course curious what Ethan would come up with here. As you can see from my rating, I don't think it was bad, but still overall on the mediocre side, especially if we compare it to all the other stuff Ethan worked on with his brother. Here he was also in charge of both the script and the direction, direction on his own and screenplay was a co-production between him and his wife Tricia Cooke. The latter is not only married to him since the 1990s, but also a longtime collaborator with the Coens in the editing department. What we have here is a really short film. It stays considerably under the 1.5-hour mark and this already includes the credits, so the film really only runs for pretty much 75 minutes. And if around 40 minutes of those, do not do too much for me, then this leaves a considerably negative impact. The movie only became really interesting I thought from the moment the two young women find what is in the trunk of their car. So as the title already gives away, we have two females at the center of the story here. The first is portrayed by Margaret Qualley, one of the big plays on the small screen lately, also awards-wise and the second actress is certainly the lesser-known, namely Geraldine Viswanathan, but I have a feeling with her that there may be a successful big-screen career ahead. Time will tell. She is pretty stunning too.

In the supporting cast, you find Beanie Feldstein, first time I really see her in something since "Booksmart", from which also already five years have passed. Time flies. I am sure Coen would have loved for his film here to become as successful as "Booksmart". Wasn't meant to be. Feldstein is only in it for the comedy and for shooting Matt Damon, but we will get to that later. As a big Nip/Tuck fan, I of course have to mention Joey Slotnick, even if I did not make the connection right away because he has no hair in this film here and of course many years passed. Colman Domingo plays the leader from the bad guys, he is credited as The Chief here. Well, you can certainly say that his role in the last awards season in which he was crucially featured for another film was very boss-like, especially with the happy ending that he got in at the Oscars. In this film we have here, he was a bit more on the forgettable side. Pedro Pascal is also always appreciated, but he is only in it at the very beginning. These actors I appreciate in here or actually I just mentioned did not really have a good chance to survive the film. Or rather their characters of course. One who does survive it, is Matt Damon's character. Fine little cameo there towards the end, but also on the big billboard already earlier. Still, even if he lives, he is far from lucky and his political career is over in the most insane of all twists with the two items it involves. Or rather six. That the Coens always have a touch to make minor characters look interesting is proven once again here mostly through Curlie. His scene with the girls was nice and same is true about the scene with the bad guys. He takes quite a beating there, but he lives I think. Nice portrayal by Bill Camp there. I would watch a film only about this character.

If you have watched "Burn After Reading" from over 15 years ago now, then you saw an application in that movie that also had to do with sexually pleasuring women and I guess with the way Ethan elaborates in this one here on penis replicas or whatever you call them and also pleasure toys early on before that, you can take a guess which of the two Coens came up with that idea in "Burn After Reading". It did not do too much for me here overall, even if the moment when Damon's character at the very end elaborated on which sculpture belongs to whom was fairly funny. Speaking of funny, by the way, another character that was included very briefly and that I still liked was the big chubby prison/jail fella who is bullied by Feldstein's character. I would watch a movie about him as well. Very short inclusion, but stayed in the mind and I liked him so much more than Feldstein or her character that could have been left out for all I care. How she took care of the violent criminal who came to her place to find the other two was also more try-hard than funny. Not a good running gag. From many perspectives, you can see that this is a Coens movie. Crime you almost always find in their works, including a lot of focus on the bad guys. You also find comedy, preferably dark comedy and you find violence and the scene with Pedro Pascal at the beginning is extremely violent and also graphic, more than anything that follows afterwards really except the shooting perhaps. This shooting had one villain kill his colleague and his boss out of nowhere, so that was quite something and it also came pretty unexpected for sure. One of the best moments the film has/had to offer. Surprise is always a big element in Coen movies and that is what I like about them. It is also definitely a key aspect here. Not just this one occasion there, but on a few others as well. Just take the moment immediately afterwards when luck plays a big role for the two girls when there are no bullets left inside the gun. I mean it was kinda expected the two would live, but still. And the Coens have pretty much perfectioned really the concept of luck and coincidence in their films. Just take Chigurh and his coin.

But back to this one here: As I stated at the beginning of my review already, I definitely think that the film got way better in the second half. Romance is not necessarily something the Coens made (many) films about, but here it is included to some extent. We can wonder if the two girls become a couple. I guess early on we rather wonder if the two find partners or just one of them, but after a little while we understand that they may get together. Still, at the end it is as explicit as a Coen film can be. They are not kidding in the last shot or anything, but it is all a bit more subtle and we still understand that there is a great chance that they stay together and turn into more then just friends. I mean the sex was not too bad either gently-speaking. For Viswanathan's character there are also some flashback moments included in which we see how she came to terms with her lesbian sexuality when she was still a child and that she was really attracted to the naked women living in the neighboring house. Now that can be seen as a reference to "A Serious Man". If you have not seen that movie, I highly, highly recommend it. One of my favorite comedies of all times. But yeah, I must still say these flashback sequences here did not do a lot for me and I also would not have missed them if they had been left out.

So you see that this film despite being so short has a handful inclusions that still added very little to the film. I might not have been equally generous with my rating here and with the positive recommendation if the first half had been this good and the second this weak, but as it is the other way around, the things that stay in mind are still much fresher. Saves the film a bit and results in me giving it a positive recommendation. Besides, the "Blue Bayou" song (Linda Ronstedt), I also enjoyed. The aforementioned Matt Damon inclusion was another plus that made me lean towards this film getting a thumbs-up from me. As for Miley Cyrus' cameo, I was not impressed at all and I definitely like her more than most. But it did almost nothing for me, even if her character there was based on actual person that is even referenced in the closing credits. Anyway, I guess this is pretty much it then. Definitely no greatness this time from the younger from the Coens, but a good film eventually nonetheless that gains more steam the longer it goes really. I still hope that in the year the older from the duo turns 70 already, there will be a birthday present from them to me that they are working together on films again in the near future. That would be awesome. Then it is also absolutely possible that we get to see movies again much greater and with more awesome dialogues again (not that the ones here were bad or anything) than "Drive-Away Dolls". Admittedly also not the greatest title, not even with one word getting exchanged at the very end before the closing credits roll in. That is all. Go see this film, but seeing it once is enough and also does not have to be at a movie theater. Also the reception makes it pretty clear that there will not be a sequel, but then again, the Coens are not known at all for sequels. Already a small miracle what happened with the Fargo series. But before we are drifting even further away now, this is really it.

These 4.5 minutes we have here are the music video for the song "Here I Go Again" by the British hard rock band Whitesnake. This became a huge hit in 1985, so it is over 35 years old now, maybe over 40 if you get here a little later to read this review of mine. The song itself is in fact over 40 years old already because the original version by Saints & Sinners is from 1982 and David Coverdale was also the lead singer for this band, not just for Whitesnake that are certainly way more famous. Also because of this song. A bit ironic that his name is Coverdale when his most famous song perhaps is a number where he covered himself pretty much. Anyway, the music video director here was Marty Callner who was in his mid30s at that point and stayed a prolific music video director for decades to come. He may very well be retired now in his 70s. Apparently his last directorial credit (according to imdb) was a comedy stand-up special featuring Dane Cook. He mostly focused on stage performances in the new millennium or at least the 2010s. This is kinda fitting too given this music video here because most of it is really just Whitesnake performing the song mentioned in the title on a stage. This is mixed with scenes that involve a car. Some of them feature Coverdale and there the car is driving on the road and he has actress Tawny Kitaen next to him. In other scenes, we see only Kitaen and there she is basically performing while the car stands still. Different times. I am sure today many people would have found this sexist. Or actually do because surely many people are still watching this video nowadays. It has way over 100 million clicks on Youtube, so you can find it easily if you want to.

I would say the song is nothing too special, but still a bit on the catchy side. Probably the best thing about the music video and a good number to listen to in order to raise you up after a breakup happened, not only referred to romantic breakup. Sadly, the music video did not do a lot for me. I thought it was mostly forgettable, not really creative or interesting. This is also the main reason and pretty much the only reason why I cannot give the outcome here a positive recommendation all in all. I would still say that I hope Kitaen, who was by the way also Coverdale's wife, rests in peace and that it is sad she died early. At least Coverdale is still there in 2024. Same seems to be true for all the other and members here. Good for them. I will not mention all the names, but you can easily find them on this music video's imdb page for example. Or on a thousand other locations online. If you want to. Maybe no real need to. Gotta admit I was not really familiar with Whitesnake before listening to this song and watching this music video and all in all I would say that I did not miss out on a lot. What I heard here, I am also a bit hesitant to categorize them as hard rock, but oh well. Speaking only about this music video, I give it a thumbs-down overall, even if it is obviously not completely awful, but rather on the "not good enough" side. The 80s have some awesome music, but this one is not right up there with the best. Not even the better, the extended list, especially not if we look at the music video the way we should on a website that focuses on motion pictures.

"Heavy" is the sixteenth episode from the opening season of "House M. D.". This aired in spring 2005, so it is almost two decades old now, probably more when you get here to read this review of mine. It is the first of three episodes Fred Gerber directed for the show and the other two followed during season 2. Speaking of twos, Gerber was already a two-time Emmy nominee at that point. Runtime is the usual 44 minutes again and David Shore is as always credited as a writer and so is Thomas L. Moran who was pretty much a producer for the show in its entirety. At this point in season one, "House M. D." was elaborating on subjects relevant in society. The previous episode dealt with homosexuality to some extent and this one here focuses on obesity and the bullying that may come with it. I am not too surprised that the show took the politically correct stance on it all, even if I must say that from a medical-themed show I would have expected some more courage to point out that you can love your child or patient and still tell the person to lose weight because being this obese, especially at this age, is just so extremely unhealthy. Isn't it all about caring for the health of your loved ones and not caring about their looks at all? Sadly, the only moment where the episode comes a bit close to it is when Chase says something about Cameron's weight.

Anyway, Chase is finally exposed to the viewers and we now know for sure that he is the one who is feeding Vogler information about House. I guess it was pretty obvious before already. The characters do not have the confirmation yet, but at least House as well as Foreman seem pretty convinced. Vogler in the meantime talked to Cameron and Foreman to see if he can recruit them as his new spy, even if you could maybe even wonder if there was another component to his proposal to Cameron. However, the two are not really interested, so Vogler does not really have a choice other than decline House's choice to fire Chase. House is not willing to pick somebody else, so there is further tension for the next episodes then. It was already pretty high when Vogler rejected House's call for everybody, including himself, to receive a salary cut, so that everybody can keep their job. Cuddy is clearly also not too happy about all this, but what can she do in the face of Vogler's money. If we go back to the medical case at hand here, I thought it was interesting to see that actress Jennifer Stone was only wearing fat makeup during all her scenes before the last one. This maybe explains as well why the actress, around the age of 30 now, is not even remotely chubby, but very stunning. I must say I am glad the girl got healthy in this episode in the end. She went through a lot honestly given all the bullying at her school that we see examples of early on, but also the conversation Foreman had with an older student who was only the girl's buddy because she was forced to was depressing enough. Okay, the story about Foreman's own obesity was a bit much to be honest. Maybe too much. The biggest clinical case, pretty much the only one, also dealt with obesity now. I must say the woman there with her apparently for all her pounds was unlikable enough already, but the final revelation that half of her 6 kids are from other men was just the worst. For me she is maybe the least likable character from season 1, a potential contender for the entire show as well. Don't want to say more about her.

This is surely also an episode for Cameron fans. She has some really self-confident moments here, manages to stand up to House and step forward with her determination that her diagnosis may not be wrong. In the end, there is the possibility that she quits the team as we see her type a curriculum vitae and may be ready to find another job, especially after House said that this is what she should maybe do when the reality is he would absolutely not fire her and he even uses her salary cut suggestion and presents it to Vogler. We will see how it goes with Cameron's future in the next episodes. Well, I know it already because this was not the first time I watched this episode or season, but you should definitely be curious if you are still new to the show. I think it has aged very well and if you are interested into digging into an older hospital-themed series now, then I cannot really think of better choices than "House M. D.", even if I must say at the same time that I did maybe not love the episode as much as did when I saw it the first time. However, the case with the premise that obesity is not unrelated, is not a reason for why she is sick, but is merely a symptom was pretty great. So was the entire Vogler scenario and if all this does not do enough for you, then I think it is pretty much impossible to not feel for the sick kid and her background here, so there has to be a way for you to at least consider this a good episode. I know I did, even if it was one of those episodes that maybe had no funny parts at all, which is really rare for an episode for this show. Unless you consider the opening that involves another patient that we never get to see, only find out about what is wrong with him. So yeah, all in all it is another big thumbs-up from me here. Don't miss out!

"Mob Rules" is the fifteenth episode from the opening season of "House M. D." and this premiered in March 2005, so it is almost 20 years old now. It is the only episode from the show directed by Tim Hunter, but among the three writers here, you will find names that are more attached to the project like creator David Shore and writer David Foster, who was in charge of over 60 episodes, so more than one third of the show. The running time is the usual at around 44 minutes including credits and the title is pretty telling as this takes us a bit into the world of organized crime when we have an important Mob fella falling into a coma and his brother, a successful lawyer with his own Mafia connection, makes sure that treatment comes the way he wants it to. In his very masculine world, there is not really any space for people being homosexual, but at the ed we understand that he accepts his brother nonetheless, even if he is not particularly in favor and what got the man sick eventually was nothing than a more serious food allergy. As for the smaller cases, we only get one this time and this includes a boy apparently shoving small toys up his nose. Entertaining too, especially with the solution then, but a second one would have been fine for me too.

This story is maybe most interesting because of the characters and their interactions. Vogler has pretty much moved into Cuddy's office now apparently as you don't see him elsewhere, probably so he can keep an eye on what she is doing and also how she deals with situations that maybe help in firing House, which she would not do on her own. So her own job is at risk now too. Vogler is surely not spending all this time with Cuddy for romantic reasons, but Cameron would love to do so when it comes to House. Her two male colleagues mock her a bit for this. Especially Foreman's comment there was entertaining. However, the most entertaining moment from the episode was maybe a play on words coming from Wilson that had to do with reincarnation. I mean I am not a car enthusiast at all, but that was one nice vehicle. Not gonna deny it. House and Wilson loved it too. Another elaboration came on the question who is the mole (if you can already call him/her that) who sides with Vogler and not with House. From another episode, we can already be pretty sure it is Chase, but not 100% yet. However, House also has him on top of the list now and he knows it is not Foreman. Foreman does not play along this game though House had in store for him. So ironically with the Mafia background I this episode, we have a pig and a rat here. The pig was led in on a leash for medical reasons. Interesting inclusion, but I love pigs, so not gonna complain and if it does make sense from a medical perspective, then even better. Chase's comment about the barn in the basement made it even more worth it.

The episode then ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, if we can call it that too if the season is not over yet, because we understand House has to fire one from his team. Later on, during the show, there is pretty much a casting situation for new positions and here it is the exact opposite. But it also shows that nobody except maybe Cuddy and Wilson and of course House himself were never guaranteed to stay on the show for long. This surely makes you curious what is going to happen next, who it is that needs to go, although the obvious answer at this point is surely Chase if House succeeds in identifying him as the mole. Or rat. This surely interests me more than what will be going on with the House-Cameron potential love story plot inclusion. The moments when he came close to her or when he called her cute or cuter than somebody else were already not really up my alley too much. So I hope they let this go soon. We will see. In any case, even if I maybe did not like this episode as much as I did when I saw it first, this is a show that has aged pretty nicely and if you like hospital-themed drama shows, then it is also certainly worth taking a look at almost two decades later. Well, for the later episode, the time gap is of course much smaller. Or just as big if you come here a little later to read this review of mine. Good news, at least for me, is also that there are moments every episode that will make you smile. Maybe people who are into super-series drama will not appreciate it as much as I did, but as long as it does not turn into almost full comedy on Scrubs level (no negative statement there either, it's a fine show in its own right), I will not disapprove. "Mob Rules" gets a thumbs-up from me and it was indeed nice to see House in a lab coat for once. Cuddy is right.

"Der Alte und die Nervensäge" is a German television film from 2020, so this one is four years old now and the literal translation means pretty much "The old man and the pain in the neck". Well, the last part describes the young protagonist here and this is definitely true when it comes to him, however also about the actors and I am sure the makes of this film did not want that to happen. But first things first: The director is Uljana Havemann. If you look at other stuff she did, then it is safe to say pretty that if this is the level of filmmaking you are on when almost 50 years old, there is very little hope for things to ever get better. Also a strange break of 16 years in her body of work. You don't see that too often. Unless she manages to step things up considerably soon, maybe this comeback was not the wisest choice. The writer is Nadine Schweigardt. First writing credit for her, not much else to say there. If you take a look at the production company, you read the name Odeon TV. Don't worry if you are not familiar with them because neither am I, but a look at other stuff they worked on makes painfully obvious that you cannot expect good quality here. The thing that definitely gives it away is the inclusion of the distributor. Once again it is ARD Degeto Film, the perhaps biggest abomination German television has ever seen. They have been in charge of hundreds of abysmal movies over the last decades and many of these films got produced with money that was coerced by the German people. I wish there was another way to say this, but it the sad truth. The good news is that by 2020, when this film got made, the number of films where Degeto was in charge of had already declined considerably. Maybe they will completely vanish one day. It would be a day to celebrate. The only good news is that Degeto films never run for a really long time, but stay slightly under the 90-minute mark. This film here is no exception there.

The big name attached to this project was Jürgen Prochnow, slightly under the age of 80 at that point and you could think it would be the last film of his career, which would have been awful, but actually he returned in 2023 for an international movie starring Pierce Brosnan. But back to this one here: I cannot say anything bad about Prochnow. The writing is poor, but he does what he ca with the character. His portrayal is among the better aspects of the movie. A touch of Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. The only other actor I can go easy on in here is David Rott. He, just like Prochnow, is so much better than Degeto level and it is sad he appears in films like this. The scene between those two men almost at the very end was a highlight in fact. This was also because at that point child actor Marinus Hohmann was out of the picture already. He was horrible during the entire film. As he was sharing the screen with Prochnow for almost all his scene, it was easy to see that he does not have 10% of the old man's acting skills. However, as films like the Hartmanns movie where he appeared in before, are called smart and funny in Germany, this says it all. Unless Hohmann improves gigantically in the next years, I hope I never have to see him in films again. His line delivery was woeful from beginning to end and sure some lines were written very poorly, but others were alright and even there Hohmann messed up. There are just so many examples where it all goes wrong with him. He was not even lackluster. He was really trying, but the talent was simply not there. So it was also closure in a negative way when he finally stands up to his father there during video chat. He messed up this "happy ending" moment as well.

As for the females, Katja Studt and Karolina Lodyga can be mentioned. In general, I would say that Studt is the worse actress. She has basically had a career packed with Degeto projects for years if not decades and good for her I guess she made all this money despite having no acting talent. Lodyga is also by no means a talented actress, but the material she had here was something that not even the greatest actors on the planet could have pulled off. Take the moment in which she tells Rott's character that it is very justified he is travelling across the country, so he can be near a single mother. How did she even know he was single and how old he was? It is never mentioned by him. Anyway, they were so proud of this abysmal moment there apparently that they had Rott bring that quote back a little later even. Shameful stuff. The moment in which Lodyga acts as if she is having a poor phone connection when talking to her ex-husband was just as cringeworthy. Same about the conflict in the end when they used the old man's blood condition to create some new tension between the two soon-to-be lovebirds. Of course, they had to get in an implied love story there too. Not even the explanation what she had seen at work in terms of blood conditions could make this mess work. I still cannot go easy on Lodyga. I mean she read the script I am sure and she always could have refused the part. The fact that she has more screen time than Studt here results in viewers remembering her cringeworthy parts more too. But the terrible writing also involves minor character. We have an Asian doctor in here played by a former teen sensation in Germany and she checks for a year number on one occasion and the way she does and how she mentions it, it just is not like that in reality. One touch, one look and she has it. Sure thing. Also all that happens during the road trip felt so staged and written and unauthentic, such as the scene with the bride-to-be, the tank stop scene (how did Prochnow's character not see the employee running after them?), the cops' weird behavior (what in God's name was that?) and I could go on and on. The handbrake moment was not good at all either. There is no way the old man in reality would have thought it was really him who did something wrong there. On a completely unrelated note, who would want a wife who is just eager to throw away your stuff and does not care what you think about it, even if it is "only" drumsticks? Complete no-go He really should have left her as he implied that very moment.

The sad thing about the film is that Prochnow does have the talent that with a better script this could have gotten a fairly good movie. And I am not even a fan of "Das Boot" at all, but his range does shine through. The idea with his deceased partner was maybe a bit generic, but if the actor manages to pull it off, then why not go for it. The last show of the film there in the mountainside was nice too, but unfortunately everything else related to the movie, especially all that involved the road trip was unwatchably bad for the most part. When the kid makes references about his genitalia size would have been when people leave the room if this had been a theatrical release. I regretted it a bit that I never stop watching a film before it ends. Oh well, speaking of unwatchable, Jerina Beqiri is the exact opposite of unwatchable. She was surely on the attractive side here. But yeah, the few seconds you could see her were nothing that could remotely rescue this movie. It's the worst rating possible for me. The reunion at the end that was supposed to be touching and where we should be happy was just a joke. All of a sudden, everybody is there out of nowhere and they are happy spending time with one another. What a joke. Degeto is very reliable when it comes to this (absence of) quality. I have to dig really deep here to find good aspects. The use of music was alright, but those songs were of course not original, but classics in general and even there it was a bit ruined by stuff how they showed us the boy liked AC/DC. Such poor writing and delivery again. Overall, the only option for me is to highly recommend you to skip the watch and if you want to see an actually good film about an old grumpy man going on a journey with a boy, I recommend Pixar's "Up"!

"Nixon vs. Kennedy" is the 12th episode from the first season of the successful American television show "Mad Men". It runs the usual 48 minutes and was directed by Alan Taylor for whom it was the third of four episodes he directed for the show. The first two were the opening to the series and eventually he returned for one more episode in season two. If you look at the writers, several again, you will read familiar names too including the one of series creator Matthew Weiner. The title here makes it very much clear that we are taken to November 1960 this time and the big political event happening there. However, you might have guessed from the title that this episode would be more about the election than it actually was. I mean the first half is pretty much the night at the office when the election happens and the characters are following the action, but rather celebrating, partying and so on. When it gets really late, Joan is the one I think who switches the TV off or at least she is one of two characters in the scene when the TV is switched off and everything that follows afterwards has almost no connection to the election anymore. We do find out that it is a close result and that there is no winner determined right away, even though, if I look at the result now, it does not look close at all. Kennedy also won the public vote eventually and he took Texas which surprises me a bit. Nixon winning his home state California, still one of the crucial states for current elections, was not enough for him. Actually, you can say that how close it was was more of an indicator how strong Kennedy was that he was this close to getting California.

But yeah, so if it is not the election, then what happens afterwards? Well, it is pretty much another duel we witness there, namely Pete vs. Don and you can say there are parallels with Pete being the pampered boy with rich parents and Don, well he worked his way up in a way, even if he went by a different name. But he did not have any big clients to himself that helped his rise in the company you can surely say. So maybe there is a parallel to Nixon, I mean the first names obviously too, but also in terms of military, but the parallel between Pete and Kennedy seems more obvious to me. The long segment at the end also takes us back into the past of Don Draper or Dick Whitman and we see what happened that turned him into Don Draper. It was actually a terrible accident there and this accident was caused by Whitman. I would never say he did this on purpose. I mean he risked his own life there as much as his boss'. What was also a bit sad was then how Dick's brother saw him in the train, but is shushed by his mother and he even keeps running after the train there in the end. This was when a new life started for Dick and he became Don. Once again, this accident was something were people in favor of Don would say that he never planned this or anything and also that he did not hurt anybody by getting his new identify, while critics would say it shows that all his life is based on a lie and with his negligence he took a man's life and even the Purple Heart for it. Then again, you can say he worked really, really hard that day and all the other workers had gone while he stayed resilient and dutiful. As always, there is no black-and-white with Don. The aforementioned conflict between him and Pete was also pretty interesting, especially the escalation there in Cooper's office. Certainly not what Pete expected. Cooper even tells Don afterwards that he can fire Pete if he wants to and he'd be fine with it. We will see how this continues.

For me this episode was better than the last episode of season 1 I would say. The only thing that keeps me from saying that the season should have ended here is that it had no closure really. I mean a revelation yes, but no closure. Before we go away from Pete and Don, let me say that in this scene at his home Pete with his hair all messed-up did remind me a bit of Don, so the two may not be as different as they would want to be. Or at least Don surely wants to be very different. Oh yeah and you also hear the line again that "it never should have been this close", a phrase that was included repeatedly in previous episodes to describe the Nixon/Kennedy race. We also do not find out how it ends here and that Kennedy becomes President, but a look into history books shows us that Nixon had his most successful years still ahead of him. But back to the episode: I did feel sorry for Peggy here for sure on several occasions. The first is when she is working diligently there while the rest is celebrating and the other is when she is at Don's office of course and starts crying because of what happened after she went to security and notified them that somebody stole money from her. I am not sure what was more humiliating, the theft or the vomit near her table. But even with the one person she does get along there for a moment she does not really have a connection and leaves quickly. However, her scene with Don inspired him to man up and fight, to not take the blackmail from Pete and go see Cooper and take it like a man. Best thing he could have done in retrospective and he has to thank Peggy at least a little bit for it. Before that we saw him with Rachel again. It was interesting he was ready to leave everything behind and she is the one he was going to. However, during the conversation it became obvious, to her at least, that he just does not want to head out alone and on his own and once again start from zero perhaps. But yeah, things turned out differently anyway and he did not leave. This scene with Rachel and what she understands there, however, could have been some closure for her in the series. We will see if she returns.

I definitely have to mention Cooper too now and say a few words. I mean only he could turn off the television at the beginning there when everybody else is so curious about the two candidates on television. And let's keep in mind too how new the concept of television there still was in 1960. Also, another moment I loved was when Don and Pete get out of their shoes there before entering Cooper's office. Like two boys entering daddy's work environment. Good stuff. You will probably not find another character from this show who is a bigger boss over Don. May Robert Morse rest in peace. This would also have been a good way to end the review, but I think I am done anyway. It's a really strong episode once again, one of the season's finest without a doubt. Lots of tension, historic relevance and interesting character interactions. You can only wonder how Pete's future in the office with Don is gonna look now. Oh and finally look at the moment one employee checks out the color of a female employee's underwear. Now that was something. Some of the females were left in disbelief, but the one affected by it was just joking around again right after she stood up. The man who did this would never get employed again anywhere in the 2020s you can say. Different times back then. Alright, this is really it. Go see this episode for sure, but I doubt you need the recommendation. You should be appreciating Mad Men at this stage, very close to the end of the opening season, thoroughly yourself and not even think about quitting.

"Long Weekend" is the tenth episode from the first season of the incredibly successful American historic series "Mad Men" and I watched this show around the time when it was new, but by now it has turned into one of my favorite shows, if not even the number one, so I am giving this another go now and from what I have seen so far, I would say that it has aged really well. This episode is no exception as you can see from my rating. I would still say that among the great episodes from season one it is among the weaker episodes, but this is really just more of a luxury problem because it is all pretty amazing. Tim Hunter directed again and the screenplay for these minimally under 48 minutes was written by no fewer than four writers. One of them is the series creator Matthew Weiner. It is an episode that is more about the relationships between characters this time than about what was going on there in terms of politics and society. However, there is one exception and let's start with that. With this I am of course referring to the upcoming election that had Nixon and Kennedy clash. So the year is 1960. We see 2 spots that have the intention to convince voters that their candidate is the more suitable for the job and those spots could not have been any more different. In the end, we see another brief spot that involved the man who was still President at that point, who won by a landslide in 1956. It was also interesting to hear the characters talk about the background of these two candidates, how one of them was pampered and came from a rich family while the other was a hard worker without a similar background. But we will go into detail about all this more in the review for episode 12 that is of course all about the election then.

Now, let's look at what episode 12 was about at its core. You could say it is about the females and their romantic relationships with men. This really involves everybody here pretty much. Peggy only has a small inclusion, but we understand he career beyond being a typewriter and secretary is not going bad and we understand she still has romantic feelings for Pete. Very short scene. There is way more about Joan. She decides to spend the weekend not without Roger, but with a friend who has her own romantic and professional struggles and needs some cheering up. The real cheering up the latter is looking for is something that Joan cannot provide though. So there was a bit of lesbianism included here and this also applies to the twins featured in another scene, well Roger wants them to make out and apparently he has not been the only one who asked them to do so in their lifetimes. They are no lesbians and not super comfortable with it. Clearly, at least one of them was only interested in Don. But back to Joan. It was pretty ironic to have this scene in which we see her with her friend and two bachelors and clearly everybody in the room wanted her more than anybody else. Including the girl. But well, only one gets her. Still, this scene makes an interesting reference to women dating men, strangers and how it requires no big effort at all to get things done there. But I will not go into detail any further there.

My favorite scene of the episode included Joan too or it was actually two scenes, namely the ones she shared with Bertram Cooper. May Robert Morse rest in peace, an absolute scene stealer with that show every single time he is on. First was when she rushes to the office to send out notices to important business partners in what can be called an emergency, which showed us how important she is to the company. Second was the end then when the two are through with it and we have Cooper say something to Joan about her romantic relationship(s), which showed us how she is absolutely not just an ice queen that she may sometimes be perceived as because of her pale skin. I loved the inclusion at the beginning how he says in a professional manner that it is not really any of his business and that she should not take it the wrong way, but in the end we find out that he was not talking about the man she brought to the office that night, or rather who brought her, but Cooper was referring to Roger there with his words and he saw from her state what it was doing with her that he had a heart attack. Maybe she even had regrets and felt in a way guilty that she decided not to spend the weekend with him. Which was of course absolutely not her fault what happened there. Because Roger has quite a bit going on. Take Joan. Take the twins. Take probably many other females he has met over the years. I mean the character is somewhat fascinating, but also he is much less likable than I remembered from my original viewing back then. How weak or rather pathetic he came off when his wife came to visit and comfort him at the hospital and she is really as unknowing as it gets in terms of all the stuff he has been doing (to her).

Oh well. That was a lot already, but let's keep going a little longer with some brainstorming. Don is of course also in this episode and one of the key characters. This has more to do with Rachel here, however, than with him. She is in town again and well what can I say I like the actress and I like the character, way more than Betty, so Rachel would be the far better fit for Don. Or actually she exactly would not because he is about as unlikable as his wife. All his deep talk to Rachel about what was going on in his mind also did very little for me there. What he says at the very end was more memorable, but still nowhere near the big highlights of the episode. I mentioned early on that this is a lot about romance relationships between characters and this also includes Betty's father and his partner about whom we find out a little but at the beginning. Also what Betty thinks about them. Or about her especially. So everybody really gets their share here almost. The funniest or maybe most ironic moment of the episode was when we have the male employees drool over the twin girls there, certainly their fantasies got fueled, and it was Roger I think who comes in and asks if the men don't have anything other to do when he is not one bit better than them. Even worse. He does not even allow all the women to get interviewed to find the most suitable ones, but simply employs the ones on the spot that he considers most attractive. That says it all. And getting the job comes with a price in terms of sexual favors obviously for the young twins. With all this stuff, it comes pretty easy to not feel sorry for Roger with what happens to him immediately afterwards and what was maybe the most dramatic moment from season 1 altogether although what happens to a female character in the final episode of season 1 if I remember correctly was also really bad, but you cannot really compare those two shocking developments. Let's just say that what happens to Roger here is so far the heaviest twist in season 1. Will I keep watching? 100% yes. Another stellar episode that taught us quite a bit about the characters and the level is still incredibly high. After this episode, you do not wanna miss out on what happens next.

"Das unglaubliche Fussballspiel der Tiere", which literally translated means "The incredible soccer/football game of the animals", is a German animated short film from 1998, so this one is over 25 years old now, and internationally it is mostly known as "Animal Soccer World", which summarizes the action pretty nicely too and without superlatives, even if only one third of this half hour is really the game then. The writer and director here was the late Roswitha Haas and she made this film pretty much in the middle of her very prolific 12-15 years that include (short) films about many famous characters and tales, so this one is a bit of an exception as nobody really knows these characters included in here. The production company she usually worked for is called Dingo Pictures and if you take a look at all they did (with Haas), you will realize that most of these works scored really bad ratings and reviews. It must be said, however, that this film here for example was only rated by 69 people as of now, so it is not a totally representative rating. And as you can see from my rating, I would say that this was not as bad as people say it is. I read that the international dub in the English language was pretty woeful, so maybe this is one reason. The Germann dub I did not mind. On the contrary, I would say that the voice acting was maybe the film's strongest side. It was exactly what children would expect and like with how almost all actors went over the top to adjust their voices to the respective animal they were portraying. The film starts with a violent conflict between a panther and a dog and they argue also about who is the better football player and the consequence then is a football game between the jungle animals and the dogs/canines.

As I stated earlier, 20 of the overall 30 minutes are pretty much preparation for all this. We have the conflict of a young dog who wants to play, but is not allowed to by the other folks because he is too small. Luckily, the dog they really want as goalkeeper sides with the young hound and so he does not only get to play, but even scores the equalizer close before the end. A bit expected and maybe unrealistically over the top, but I am still in favor because they did not shove it into our faces constantly afterwards. On the contrary, the game is over then immediately afterwards and there is talk about a follow-up game. Aside from the football action, this film also brings in quite a lot for only half an hour. There's cheerleaders, there is the decision who will bring the referee and who will bring the linesman, there's food sold during halftime break, there's hooligeese (my favorite play on words here perhaps, especially the German word for those, which is even closer to "hooligans"), there's clearly biased commentators and so on. Basically everything that belongs to a football game was included here in a somewhat funny and entertaining manner. I am indeed pretty shocked this film received such a poor reception. It is far from awful. You can probably say that the cartoon style there looks as if it could also be 20 years older than it actually is, so not a treat physically, but I like the retro approach in general and I thought it fit well with the story, so all is well. There were also a few moments that made me laugh. Not only hooligeese, but also for example the moment when there is a penalty kick and the canine goalkeeper refuses to try to stop the ball because he is scared of being hit and stands just on the side with an offended face expression. I liked that character in general, even if I wonder why they really wanted him so much as the goalkeeper after all we find out about him and how it also costs them the compromise to allow the boy into the team.

Anyway, there was also a friendship story in here between said young dog and a young lion and the latter definitely reminded me of Simba. The looks did, the voice not at all. His father resembled Mufasa, only that he surely reached a much older age than Mufasa from what we are told about the adult lion here. He does not look that old though. The friendship story between the two young ones was also depicted nicely. There is talk at the very end that now they can be friends again and hang out for six weeks before the next football game then. So it fits in nicely with the premise that you have to ignore friendship for 90 minutes during the action if there's people in the other team that you are close with, but afterwards all can be back to harmony and hanging out together again. Admittedly, they also played around in a not super competitive fashion during the game on one occasion which resulted in one commentator calling it a friendly game or actually saying that it should be such and he was in disbelief in terms of what he was seeing there. The commentators were generally entertaining, so it was both interesting what we saw and what we heard. I guess this is pretty much it then. Surely, this is a film that is not super great, also visually there could have been more face expressions for example to the characters, but it is entertaining at times, has some charm here and there and on one or two occasions I even saw some guilty pleasure potential plus I liked most of the characters, also the supporting characters like the nervous reporter early on or the female paramedic. All this results in me giving the outcome here 2 stars out of 5 and a positive recommendation overall. It is especially for kids, but not exclusively. Also for those that are still young at heart. Ignore the ones bullying this little film. Besides, at 30 minutes only you are not really wasting too much time. Also ignore the imdb poster for this title as those characters or nationalities (Germany, Brazil) are not included in this movie.

"A Cohort of Guests" is an American live action short film from 2019, so this one has its fifth anniversary this year and it runs for a quarter of an hour. The director is Todd Sandler, apparently not related to Adam, and you find him usually in the editing department of films, also not only feature films, but even some Hollywood blockbusters he has worked on in the past. He also wrote the screenplay together with Alexa Gilker, who is not inexperienced when it comes to short film writing. Anyway, I must admit that I was not familiar really with any of the cast members here, but I see that many of them worked already (together) on the long-running television show "Grey's Anatomy", so if you know this one well, then definitely a few faces will be familiar to you here. If not (like myself) and you still watch a lot of American television, it can still be the case. One cast member acted for a really long time on "Fringe" for example and almost everybody has their bodies of work packed with shows where they appeared in a single episode or two or three. Brandon Scott is probably the more known from the two men we see early on in the film, but Jake Borelli very likely changes this. As for the females, I thought Jasika Nicole, whose character also plays a crucial role here towards the end, was a bit of a looker, but the real stunner is definitely Danielle Savre.

The first ten minutes of the film are basically about a group of friends meeting and most of them do not live really close to each other, so two of the couples also do not know each other in person yet. Apparently, one of the three couples is lesbian, but the film is never about that, so it should not be called an LBGT film, which of course happens more often than it should if the film is not one bit about that. But that is another story. So yeah, the first two thirds of the film are about the characters just talking to each other, we find out a little bit about their thought processes, how they (maybe not) like each other and how almost everybody is wearing an invisible mask here. Hopefully not also when they interact only with their significant others. I will not go into detail about what they are mentioning exactly, but it is about what a group of bears is called or also in one of the more insightful moments we understand that one character has made bad experiences with police detectives apparently. The last third of the film is then when things get spicy. A man with a gun shows up and spoils the party, asks everybody for their money and the two men are not really showing the best reaction there to deescalate the situation. It is one woman who pretty much welcomes him as a guest, even if I must admit that for whatever reason I thought there could be poison in the bottle, but obviously this was not the case. The intruder shows his gratefulness by putting the glass back in the end and calming down a lot as he drinks the wine that is apparently really delicious. Borelli's face expression after taking the first sip was maybe the best-acted moment from the film. This was also when the baby phone or whatever you call it went off and we as well as the visitor understand there is a baby involved, so this could have turned into a lot more like a kidnapping even, but at that point he was already in a state where he did not want to hurt anybody and the baby being inside as a symbol of innocence in a way kept him from going inside and checking for money and valuables there.

All in all, it was a film where you could say it just depicted life as it happens, but also at the same time this does not happen all the time at all, so it was also the exact same opposite, but it shows how situations like those can be solved with the right approach. A heartfelt one or at least one that helps in deescalating the situation. Had the criminal refused the drink, nothing bad would have happened either, so it was not a win-loss scenario there. Just a friendly offer. Overall, given the tone and message of the film, I would say it fits in nicely somehow in the Grey's Anatomy universe. For me it was still a close call if I can give the film a thumbs-up or if it is more of a thumbs-down, but in the end I will be generous and go for the former. Worth checking out and almost a must-see for fans of "Grey's Anatomy". Worth watching. There's way worse ways out there to spend 15 minutes. Now those were a lot of w-words. If you really went to see it, then I suggest you go to the (western) world's biggest video website where writer and director Sandler himself uploaded the film from his account and a six-digit amount of people has seen it already since then. If you add up to this number, you are not doing anything wrong. Especially at this running time. But close the window quickly the moment the closing credits start rolling in because the quote you read there is definitely a bit on the pretentious side and should have been left out. Nonetheless I wonder if we will hear (more) from Sandler in the future in terms of being the man in charge or if he stays with editing and perhaps also wins some big awards there at some point. Time will tell.

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" is an American stop-motion animation movie from 2009, so this one has its 15th anniversary this year. I think I watched this film the first time not super long after it was initially released and today maybe the second or third time in full. The director here is Wes Anderson and for him 2024 is a special year too because he finally managed to win his first Oscar. He was nominated back then too in the animation category, but came short, even if his film was considered the most likely to upset Pixar frontrunner "Up", but the chance was really minimal. This film here was also nominated in the score category, which is nothing you see super often for animated films, but this made it an even bigger irony for the film to lose out in this category to "Up" as well. The composer is Anderson's longtime collaborator Alexandre Desplat. Anderson also wrote the script together with Noah Baumbach, a successful filmmaker in his own right, and all is based on a tale by Roald Dahl, who has quite the body of work. Most people did not know he was involved with the 007 franchise too and that he lived longer than they thought, even if he was not alive anymore when this movie here came out. Anderson apparently had enough fun to make another animated film almost a decade later that focused on dogs, so he stayed in the world of animals as protagonists and I maybe prefer the dog-themed film, but this one here is pretty solid too. Not a long film at approximately 80 minutes plus another 6 to 7 minutes of closing credits.

The title character is voiced by George Clooney, at that point a contender for biggest film star or at least film celebrity on the planet and his wife was voiced by Meryl Streep. No need to say a lot about her really, but her character was really minor you can say and knowing the is the fox's wife, you probably would have guessed to have a bigger impact. Her two pregnancy announcements were the only thing that stayed kinda memorable you can say and that her character was quite likeable. Other than those, Anderson cast many actors who have been in several of his films: This includes two that I really adore, namely Bill Murray and Willem Dafoe, who is indeed a foe in here, and also Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson and others, also a few that usually have worked on Anderson's films, but not as actors like Roman Coppola or Anderson's significant other Juman Malouf for whom it is apparently the only acting role of her career. Anderson himself voiced one character here too. It is a bit difficult to categorize this film. It is probably not as much aimed at children as Disney stuff, but it is still for them I would say and maybe a bit more for grown-ups than many other animated films. This comes with stop-motion anyway. Here and there I thought of Aardman. Fittingly given the title character, this is a 20th Century Fox production and you really do not see it too often that animated films do not have sequels, no short film spinoffs (hello Minions) and nothing else attached to them, probably because Dahl did not continue the story in his books either. But who knows, maybe there will be a sequel at some point, even if it seems unlikely somebody other than Anderson is gonna make it because of the big success this film had with audiences, critics and awards bodies.

The most haunting or horrific moment is maybe the death of the rat, but given the cider inclusion there, it was also not super serious. The moment when the fox and another character attack the chickens in the barn was not depicted violently despite that was exactly what they did there. No visible bloodshed though. These actions were also why I struggled a bit with really liking the title character. Sometimes he did not make it easy for me. I mean there is of course always the argument that he is a wild animal, a predator and that it is just his genes and what is inside him. This was depicted in a funny manner then, however, when he was eating breakfast for example that the wild animal there came totally through in contrast to the sometimes very educated way of taking and also clothes he was wearing where he and all the others were very human versions of foxes and animals in general. Despite humans being in this movie. The three antagonists were all human characters and while that song we hear on a few occasions tells us how mean they are, you could make a point for them just wanting to protect their property from the fox and its savage friends. But still, we are supposed to see this trio as the bad guys. As for the good guys, we also have the title character's son who definitely gets more involvement than the mother here. I did not find that one likable either if I'm honest, especially because of the way how he treats his cousin. I mean he is still a kid, so it is forgivable and he also had a hard time when the girl who he maybe likes is more interested in his cousin. The quote about going steady now was one of many comedic moments linked to dialogue, some also dealing with serious situations or conditions like a pneumonia changing from double to single, which is a good thing of course. As for the story, there is not too much to say.

A large part of the film is just the three men digging to catch the fox and the foxes digging deeper to get away from them before they get ready to bring their revenge on. After the humans brought their revenge on first. With the opening I was wondering a bit then how the fox and his partner got away, but we find out about it later on. Not the exact details, but that they dug their way to safety there too already. One character I must mention is the beaver it was I think. Initially, I was unsure if beaver or otter, but we see the otter later on too and the beaver was wearing a suit which was pretty cool. I would watch a film only about him. Beavers rock! You could still wonder how he got involved in this as his home is usually near the water and not down there in the ground, and also he is not interested in poultry, but the animals, except the rat (also metaphorical here, even if he did not betray anybody) all united to fight back. That was one big rat though. How did that happen. Like almost Splinter level. I also liked the possum it was I think that gave us the running gag they used most often here, namely what happens with his eyes and we and Mr. Fox cannot be sure if the possum understood anything he was told. This eye expression, which almost had a hypnotic note, even if it was not meant like that, was shown us by Mr. Fox himself later on too then the last time this gag got used. Another thing that felt fairly Anderson here was the idea that the fox lost his tail. Oh well, I mean he had to pay with something at least, but what felt even more Anderson was characters talking about how it is not gonna grow back. Another favorite quote of mine here was the moment when the sun said something like "because I'm small" in the last third of the film already. Really funny in its own typical Anderson way. Then, there's the usual approach he brings, the camera position (showing us complete rooms) that did not seem very different here compared to his live action films at times and he always has a touch for set decoration to make certain items very memorable. Often, but not exclusively, this involves food and surely I would have loved to eat some of those cookies or what it was that the main antagonists wife was able to prepare in such glorious manner when they were standing on the table there. By the way, could she see then or not? Shots of people also feel Anderson very often, like the animals here on several occasions, but also for example the humans when they caught the cousin and how they stand there holding him.

I assume this is pretty much it then. Oh yeah, Bill Murray as a badger is awesome too of course. How he sits there at his table almost like he does in a later Anderson film when he is the boss of a newspaper was a bit on the memorable side as well, also how the two were going against each other there. I would also watch a film about this badger. Loved the argument between him and the fox at the end of their conversation. Clooney and Murray played together in "The Monuments Men" five years later. Pay attention to how they replaced a certain swearword here on quite a few occasions. Maybe that was actually the most frequent running gag and not one character's eyes. One inclusion involved cluster. You know what I mean. All in all, I would say the Oscar nominations for this film for its animation and music were tolerable, but no musts. Especially with the music, I am sure I would find more than just a few 2009 films that I deem superior. But overall, it is a good film, even if maybe at the very end, the scene at the supermarket, it was not necessary to include the names of the three men again on the screen. I am not sure if this was included in the book as well. Oh yes, the wolf scene I must not forget. I am convinced this was taken from Dahl, even if I am not sure what it was supposed to symbolize, maybe that fox and wolf are not too far away from each other in terms of evolution, but still not really understanding of each other anymore. More like mutual respect. It was a bit of a haunting scene though. There the music was great and you could also wonder why the wolf was depicted as a full-on animal. Or maybe the foxes are seen as animals too from everybody else except themselves? Not really. I mean look at the letter. The letter there with the letters being cut out of a magazine was another joke that felt very Anderson, especially the second time around. But I must criticize how dogs are depicted in here. Beagles are awesome canines having a hard fate often too unfortunately with lab experiments and spitzes (is that the right word?) are fine too. But I forgive Anderson because he made up for it with "Isle of Dogs" later on. Okay, this is really it now. I saw go watch this film, but seeing it once is probably enough.

Here we have the opening episode from season two of the British crime/detective series Luther. As you can see from my rating, I believe that the start to this season was as good as the previous season ended (and started). The only criticism I as a fan of Luther have is that they were really not giving us too much. Season one had six episodes. This one here has four episodes only. The good news, however, is that these are at least almost an hour long and not just 45 minutes or even less. There was a bit of a time gap between the events of the sixth episode of season one and the first episode of season two, but if you watch these two episodes one right after the other, then you hardly recognize there was a season break. Zoe is gone of course and so is Reed. We also recognize the absence of Saskia Reeves who did not die like the two others I just mentioned, but whose job went to a familiar face from season 1, namely Crowley's Schenk. As this character seems to have ambitions in politics, you can wonder for how long he is gonna stay there and if Reeves' Teller might return or if somebody else will fill the position. A bit strange though that Crowley on imdb got second credit on this episode one spot ahead of Elba's title character Luther, but even more surprising that Alice (Ruth Wilson) got first credit here as her character is only included briefly here and it feels a bit as if they are not sure where they should be going with the character. In any case, apparently because of shooting Reed she got admitted to a hospital for people with mental issues. Or did she admit herself there? I don't think so. She still has plans for her and Luther to get away at some point towards hotter territory. I assume that if she is really not in the hospital because she wants to be, then she expected Luther to help her with legal proceedings after killing Reed because she felt that deep down it is what he wants her to do. The apple scene, especially when they are separated, was interesting too. Almost an Adam & Eve reference and there has always been talk about these two understanding each other like nobody else does. Also take a look at how Alice launches the season with the exact same "Now what?" that Luther ended the previous season with.

Anyway, if we return to the side of the law and not the one breaking it, there is a new female working under Luther who seems to have big ambitions career-wise and while appreciating to work with such a distinguished officer, she does not want Luther's shenanigans to get in the way of her own progress. Not too much to say about her except what happens at the very end then when she enters a house to comfort another female character and it is shown in a way where you might think that she could get murdered there. There was big build-up from the moment when said character asked her to bring her in, especially then during this moment when she is really scared because of something she sees in the dark. Then the action moves outside and we realize that her colleague is really in danger. This is the man who was loyal to Luther like no other, maybe even saved his life I the previous episode. They simply could have left the character out like they did with Teller, but they brought him back, or, more precisely, Luther brought him back, so if he really gets killed now (as is implied at the end), then once again an act by Luther may result into one of his closest, maybe the person he trusts more than any other in his life, losing their life. We will find out during episode two. However, if this is the case, then Luther's plan to quit the force as soon as he can may not come into effect before he catches the killer. I mean such a revenge path (if you wanna call it that) would certainly be more important to him than how Schenk fought to get him reinstated.

I just mentioned Ripley's attacker, potentially killer played by Lee Ingleby. You have to understand that back when this episode came out in 2011, the hype surrounding the Joker was still as gigantic as it could have been, also fueled by Ledger's untimely death briefly after the performance and at the latest since then, no other character in the Batman universe came even remotely close to being considered as much of an arch enemy to Batman as the Joker. So maybe the antagonist character we have here is not the most original antagonist, but it does make sense. I liked how they included British mythology to give the character a name and if you think about it, it does make sense. Luther is constantly fighting his inner demons, lost loved ones and you do not really see him wear anything other than black too often. I mean he was never considered to play Batman, but rather to play James Bond, but yeah the parallels between Luther and Bruce Wayne are really obvious. There I am also curious how this continues in the next episodes. From the previous season, you are used to the individual cases being dealt with in one episode and then they move on to the next and this is also what I initially expected from this British Joker, but I was wrong here, but then again it does make sense because Alice (Wilson), the first antagonist from season one, also stayed a recurring character, at times the biggest supporting player, until the end of the first season. We will see if it turns out the same with Inglewood's character and season two although the one thing that is sure here is that there will be no sexual tension from him towards Luther the way there is from Alice.

But these two are very different anyway from the perspective that she killed her parents because what they did to her (and Reed because of what he did to Luther), but not really anybody totally random, while the new antagonist is a prime example of a serial killer. You cannot even argue that he killed the second woman perhaps because she rejected him as I guessed initially, but all he wanted was her to come with him to a place where they would not be seen. She declines and he finds another approach then to pull through. Mask and blade have always been ready. Said photographer (or rather the actress) was totally stunning though. Not gonna lie. As for the antagonist, it can also finally be said that his strengths are the geographic knowledge he has about London and also his tempo. He may not be physically strong or a worthy opponent to Luther from this perspective, but it is also his unpredictability that makes him so dangerous. The moment he was talking about the show he was gonna put on that night may not only have been about what happens after somebody opens the door with him ringing the bell, but may also involve DS Ripley. Then there is also Afferson's Calvert and you can surely only guess at this point if she is still in the killer's life and maybe was supposed to separate the two cops or if she really has the intention to kill the new cop inside. Her being bait in the first place to distract us from the police car does not mean she is safe in there. However, it is also possible of course Calvert is completely innocent. The question what she was thinking when telling the officers that the suspect never hurt her, but had something in his eyes or a face expression that implies he would have liked to will be solved in the next episode(s).

Finally, there is another subplot here that involves Paul McGann's Mark North, the man Zoe was romantically interested in and a key reason why she no longer wanted to be with Luther. He also played a crucial role when season one ended and seems as if they are not done yet with the character, even if the story with him and the rescued or "rescued" girl felt very much like filler material. Still interesting to see him and Luther growing a bit closer now. Said girl even asks on one occasion with a surprised expression if the two are buddies now. We will see what happens with North. I guess at this point it is safe to say that he will be a factor for at least until the end of season two although he is also one of the characters where I would not be surprised if they get killed at some point. I mean he does have more enemies now than before Luther brought him the girl. But also he could easily be killed off at some point because he does not have a professional connection with Luther whatsoever. A great deal of speculation resulting from this opening episode here. So much seems possible. The only thing that doesn't seem likely at all is Luther actually committing suicide as is implied very early on here during the scene in which he puts a gun to his head. Perhaps Neil Cross, the show's creator and also the writer of this episode, went slightly too far there. This episode here was directed by Sam Miller by the way, who has an interesting career, started off as an actor when really young, then turned to directing and he directed more episodes of Luther than anybody else. Double-digits even. He was also on board for the two middle episodes of season one. And speaking of the people behind the camera, you can also mention lead actor Elba himself, who is credited as a producer here. Anyway, I think this is gonna be all then. This episode gets another enthusiastic thumbs-up from me and I cannot wait to continue watching. Let's hope the level stays the same oh and you can also once again say that this episode, just like all the previous ones, does not have a title, but they were simply taking the mathematical route there, probably would have with the movie that followed the series as well if they could. Seems more of a British than an American thing to me. Alright, this is really it. Do not miss out on this brilliant episode, one of 2011's finest. The best scene from 2.1 was perhaps Luther chasing the man to his hideout closely before the ending sequence when they arrive outside the woman's home, a scene that did not include the protagonist.

This is episode six from the opening season of Luther that also concluded the season. The director of this almost an hour is Stefan Schwartz who directed this episode and the one before it and you can almost see it as a double episode and in fact I think it originally aired as such too, so it makes sense Schwartz returned. He did not later on for another episode. It runs for almost an hour and once again a murderer is on the run, but this time it is Luther himself or in fact it is DCI Ian Reed, who may not be on the run from police, but on the run from Luther basically. And the latter is not alone by any means. Ripley has always been on his side, probably saves his life here on one occasion even. Alice is in it for the thrill and maybe because she and Luther are not too different. At least that's what she thinks. And eventually, Mark North joins forces with Luther as well after a little convincing and fist-fighting. You could probably even call Luther's boss an ally here. Of course, she needs to do justice to her job, but she is far from wanting Luther dead if there is any other way.

For us viewers, the biggest doubt here was not if Luther could prove his innocence or stay alive (of course he would), but if Reed would make it out alive. Given all the talk about Luther wanting him dead, you probably would respond with a determined "No.", but in the end Luther really tries all he can to not kill him and he is perhaps more mentally stable than we thought. However, eventually it is the aforementioned allies that fire back here and result in Reed losing his life. There was one moment I really liked, namely when Alice brought up the majority vote there, Luther talked to her and not to North when it comes to not shooting Reed because he knew which side North would be taking. He sided with the woman who in cold blood killed her parents and this is how the series started, so it was a nice framework you could say. However, Alice does have a wish to kill which is undeniable because she is the one ready to pull the trigger and not knowing the man, but knowing who he is and what he did is enough for her to go for it in the end. You can of course argue to what extent she really liked Zoe as she stated on one occasion when talking to Luther and if maybe she just wanted to get on his good side there. There is definitely a lot to discuss to this episode and I think it was another really, really good watch, but I the face of the brilliance from the previous episode, it did feel like a bit of an epilogue even. The crime was committed, the one involving Zoe that triggers everything else. And the other killing that happens here is at the very end really, so Zoe's murder is still everything all is about. But this is not meant in a derogatory way by any means. I still enjoyed this hour a lot, even if it was slightly inferior than the previous episode, which was maybe the highlight of the entire series.

I am definitely curious now to continue with season two soon. Luther's "Now what?" can almost be a question to the makers how they will hopefully continue the greatness. It was not the first time I watched this episode here and also will not be the first time I watch season two then, but memory has faded for sure and it has been almost fifteen years now anyway. It has aged really well. I am glad lead actor Elba was nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe for his portrayal here and even if he was not triumphant yet for season one, it was bound to happen sooner or later and it did. I am also glad that Neil Cross gave us this series and by the way he was also in charge of penning the season finale here. Six episodes is really as short as it gets and even nowadays in the 2020s that feature so many short seasons, none are this short. I am usually fairly critical when it comes to British television shows, but I love the grit and absence of compromise this one here has and I surely appreciate Elba in what is probably the character I will always remember him for. There is not too much else I have to say about this closure episode. I thought the final location where the killing happens was a really good choice and I also liked the way how the final shots got combined with the closing credits. This episode was just a really convincing depiction of an incredibly tense episode with more suspense than I could talk about in 10k characters and a somewhat happy ending, even if Luther probably would not agree. I highly recommend to go and watch it, but if you have seen episode 5, then there is no way you will skip anyway, but yeah, if you have not seen Luther yet and like cop-themed shows, then this is an absolute must-watch. I am positive you will be as hooked as I was. Still am. Do not miss out.