Hello again, long time no see. The following mini reviews are for stuff that I saw around late 2016/early 2017, but for which I didn’t find the time to write down until now.

(Update 2023: Added five-star-ratings [may diverge now from what I had in mind, years ago, when I wrote the text…].)

Film

Wizard Mode (2016)

Documentation. Liked it, for personal reasons; but in the cold light of day, it was not that interesting.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

The Accountant (2016)

Interesting premise, even though I had the feeling like two pretty different movies wered mixed together (and not fitting well). And sadly, the more generic components dominated. And Ben Affleck still can’t act — but for this role, his lack of range somewhat appropriate enough.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Triple 9 (2016)

A hodgepodge of multiple crime stories, plus a totally wasted cast, tied toghether in an uninteresting story.
★☆☆☆☆ 1/5 stars

Morgan (2016)

For a vivid viewer of Sci-Fi stuff, there’s nothing new under the sun here. Not even a novel hook to the plot, cast or setting. Not bad, just meh…
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)

Darker than the previous parts, but if I wasn’t a small-time-completist, I wouldn’t have watched it.
This whole franchise is not really my cup of tea.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Green Room (2015)

Ooh, what a nice, ’nasty’ little gem! Highly recommended.
★★★★★ 5/5 stars

Turbo (2013)

On this list because I once saw a trailer of it and catched it on TV recently. Pretty bad.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Don’t Breathe (2016)

Not a real horror movie, although it was promoted as such. More like a strange thriller. Had its moments, but the weird twist in the middle/near the end almost ruins it (although, without it, I doubt that I had remembered it at all).
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Doctor Strange (2016)

OK, Marvel, I give you that: Each new instance in your movie empire tries a few new and different things and experiments slighty with the known formula. Here for example we have the interesting psychedelic visuals (like Inception on speed). On the other hand, the rest is still the usual origin story with uninteresting characters (all of them).
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

*sigh* Too bad, I really liked the first one very much, but this here was like a terrible episode of something like “NCIS”.
★☆☆☆☆ 1/5 stars

TV

Westworld — Season 1

Unfortunately, this didn’t really click with me. Again, I expected more, and/or something slightly different. But I’ll stick around for another season.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Banshee — Season 1

I knew only very little about this, just that it had much explicit content — oh, yes, especially in the first and second season (almost too much even for a campy show like this, but it thankfully dials down later). Don’t expect high-brow entertainment, but it’s a nice guilty pleasure for in between.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Banshee — Season 2

I knew only very little about this, just that it had much explicit content — oh, yes, especially in the first and second season (almost too much even for a campy show like this, but it thankfully dials down later). Don’t expect high-brow entertainment, but it’s a nice guilty pleasure for in between.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Banshee — Season 3

I knew only very little about this, just that it had much explicit content — oh, yes, especially in the first and second season (almost too much even for a campy show like this, but it thankfully dials down later). Don’t expect high-brow entertainment, but it’s a nice guilty pleasure for in between.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Banshee — Season 4

I knew only very little about this, just that it had much explicit content — oh, yes, especially in the first and second season (almost too much even for a campy show like this, but it thankfully dials down later). Don’t expect high-brow entertainment, but it’s a nice guilty pleasure for in between.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

The Walking Dead — Season 6

I’ve never been a great fan of TWD, but I got accustomed to it. But since it’s been a while since I watched season 6, and that show ist sooo slow at times, I had to look up what happened in these episodes. Now that I recalled it again: Yeah, it was alright. More of the same, but that’s OK.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

The Night Of — Season 1

The ctritics praised it, but I found it not so great. It was OK.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Hap and Leonard — Season 1

An unknown little show with a entertaining premise and a cast that sounds very promising… on paper. But what a waste of time! Massivel disappointment! Coming from the expositions/reviews that I read, I expected a totally different tone. Even just those six episodes were a real drag: The characterization was dull, the plot was crap…
★☆☆☆☆ 1/5 stars

Goliath — Season 1

A legal drama show, created by David E. Kelley and with Billy Bob Thornton: What could possibly go wrong…?! Well, a lot, as I now know. Despite those ingredients, this one didn’t catch my interest at all. A bit too much of been there, done that, mixed with the usual TV laywer stereotypes and a boring case/plot that went nowhere. All that, plus the weird ending to this first season means that it will also be probably the last season for me.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars