More mini-reviews from the past months.

Film

The Last Samurai (2003)

Rewatch – Has its moments, but over all, I didn’t find it that great or engaging.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Steamboy (2004)

That was an interesting ride! Not perfect, but different and entertaining enough to be rated as a good movie.
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

OSS 117: Le Caire, nid d’espions (2006)

Polictial incorrect french spy comedy from 2006, styled in an immaculate 1960s way; liked it.
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

Let Me In (2010)

I’ve watched the swedish original (Låt den rätte komma in) a long time ago and liked it. I was aware of this US remake, but never paid much attention, until recently, when I heard a few (recent) postive remarks. To makes things short: It’s actually a pretty good movie/adaptation, and while there were obviously some changes made (in style, budget, plot) compared to the original, the core elements and atmosphere stayed much the same.
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

Last Night in Soho (2021)

The key phrase here is “clash of two”: Two genres (horror and/or thriller) with two approaches (homage and/or rip-off) clash. And like always: Sometimes such a mix of ingredients matches perfectly and complements each other, and sometimes it doesn’t, and instead results in a jarring endeavor – Last Night in Soho is the latter of these two outlined outcomes…
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Klaus (2019)

Very funny, very emotional and technically groundbreaking (go and watch some “Making-of” clips on YouTube!).
★★★★★ 5/5 stars

Ford v Ferrari (2019)

Normally, I’m not a big fan of sports drama movies, and this one also ticks a lot of boxes that any film of that genre usually has – but, it has a good cast and superb photography (during the races). So, it was a good (one time) watch.
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus (2009)

Strangely, this one was a barely tolerable comedy for me. Compared to its precursor this was a big letdown. (I’ve watched both films in the span of a couple of days, so it’s not a matter of a change of heart over the years…)
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

The Sisters Brothers (2018)

This was a weird movie; due to the title and cast, I expected a comedy, which it wasn’t (except for maybe one, two slightly comedic scenes, which didn’t fit right in): Most the runtime it was in a grimy tone. But overall, it just felt aimless and badly paced, with some odd plot decisions. The last act switched things up a tiny bit, but couldn’t turn it into a good movie. In the end, this was a rather sub-par experience.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Till Death (2021)

I guess you could call this a B movie: Average setting, mediocre cast and production value, and you better not think too hard about some of the story beats – but the bottom line is: It’s fun while it lasts (even though you probably will forget about it as soon as the closing credits start rolling).
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

The Night Before (2015)

Maybe I’m more generous to this film than I should be, because I saw it over the christmas days… I actually liked the cast, but the movie itself was neither very interesting, nor funny nor otherwise noteworthy (but also not terrible, so that’s that).
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Virgin Mountain (Fúsi) (2015)

A somewhat interesting character study, but of course very dry and slow paced.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Rewatch – A rewatch from my Blu-ray Disc collection. Despite all the criticism that it may or may not have earned, I like it as a sort of “guilty pleasure”; it’s a fun watch and it introduced me to The Sword!.
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

Copshop (2021)

When I first heard about it, and saw the trailer, I was excited. But the result it is boring nonsense to the power of ten! Except for maybe two or three good scenes and character moments, this was utter crap.
★☆☆☆☆ 1/5 stars

The Evil Dead (1981)

I think I never saw this first one; I know and like part three (Army of Darkness, it was very often on TV during my childhood); and I very dimly remember part two (which I found a bit disappinting back then, but that was my younger self, many moons ago – a rewatch is already planned for the foreseeable future…). I also liked the serious, dark and extremly violent remake from 2013.

So, with all this baggage, and being aware that this is a 30+ year old cheap horror flick from a first time feature-film director, that has garnered a cult status over the years, my verdict is: Not that bad.

The first half drags on and the effects show the age and low budget, but the second half and third act make it still a somewhat watchable movie in 2022 (if you lower your expectations and know what and why your are viewing it nowadays).
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Inception (2010)

Rewatch – Also a BD rewatch for me after many years. Still a magnificent opus that contains exciting action, touching drama elements, small comedic elements, as well as traces of a thriller and thought-provoking aspects.
★★★★★ 5/5 stars

Jack Reacher (2012)

Rewatch – I liked it very much on my first viewing, and I still like it. I know that fans of the books took issue with Tom Cruise portraying the title character, but I don’t give a hoot: He’s good in the role for this movie, and the
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

Lethal Weapon (1987)

Can’t remember if I ever saw that one fully in the past, or just caught clips and scenes here and there. If have seen it before, then it didn’t have a lasting impact on me. I understand that this is the granddaddy of buddy cop movies, and also that it put Shane Black on the map.

But even considering the factor time, both points fall short for me, in my opionion: As a action comedy it’s fine, but nothing outstanding (maybe it was when the movie was freshly released). And one only gets a glimpse of the potential of Shane Black’s writing, but it’s not up there yet with some of his future achievements.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

The Last Duel (2021)

It was OK, and even though not as tedious as I feared, I’m still not a big fan of telling the “same” story from n different perspectives. Sometimes that works fine, sometimes less so – this here falls right in the middle for me: Could be worse, could be better.

The acting was good, but the whole premise felt a bit too forced to fit current agendas in a medieval landscape (such a thing can work, but here it did so rather poorly).
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Raging Fire (2021)

It had a few (less than I expected) cool action and fight scenes, but nothing else next to that and overall, it was (again) not my cup tea. I really should listen more to my gut feeling and less to some reviewers’ recommendations (which, on the other hand, often match with my preferences…).
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

I Am Mother (2019)

Interesting premise… for a short film, but it couldn’t sustain this full-length film. That, plus the usual plot holes, weird decisions and generally a bad execution, makes it a no-recommendation.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

TV

Arcane: League of Legends — Season 1

It’s rare that I buy into a hype, but this time it was justified. Without all the postive reviews and opinions, I would have skipped it — glad I didn’t.
I can definitely see how this could go off the rails (for me) in another 2-3 seasons, but for now, it’s great and I’m excited for season two!
★★★★★ 5/5 stars

Ted Lasso — Season 1

It was praised by everyone as the wonderful, positive and well-tempered comedy, and it is. But, to be honest, it’s a bit too safe for my liking. Sure, there is a lot to like about it, but I prefer the Bill Lawrence humor of his Scrubs time (the way more zany approach back then – but alright, that was decades ago…).
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

The Witcher — Season 2

Hm, I wasn’t the biggest fan of season 1, but I guess I even liked that one more than I did this (except for the strange and bad mixed-timeline storytelling in season 1; that was unfortunate).

I was even quite fond of the Monster-of-the-Week plots in the past season, something that I missed very much in this new season.

Now they try to establish yet another epic fantasy dynasty, something that I couldn’t believe in either scope or budget or content for this world. Mighty kingdoms fighting and scheming agains each other on a big continent? Nope, didn’t work for me. I’ve read they had more budget, but I didn’t spot it anywhere.

Indeed, it all felt a bit forced. It looked more like a bunch of amateur Cosplayers doing a fanfilm. On the plus side: I really dig Henry Cavill as Geralt.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

The Expanse — Season 6

Well, it was a good season with a good season finale, but as an “end” to the TV show, it only worked so-so (still better than what a lot of other shows get, which may get cancelled before their time).

As far as I know, there are currently no direct plans to continue after this arc ended, and that that was already the plan when filming this season started – yet still they teased a lot of future storylines (from the books), which now may never will see the light of day; not the best decision, even when it only wasted a few minutes on each episode: That would have been spent better on the existing characters and plot.

And even though this season felt more like a “season 5.2” instead of a proper new “season 6” (probably due to the short runtime of only six episodes and because of the fact that season 5 ended on a cliffhanger note), at least they didn’t rush through the plot or jumped around: It all still had the fitting slow pace and nice character moments like former seasons and brought the plot/arc to a fine and satisfying conclusion (for now).
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars