<Insert-witty/insightful-introduction-text-here> … *sigh*

Film

Adaption (2002)

So, I’ve heard mostly positive things about this film, but I only found it to be OK, to be honest; it wasn’t really made for me.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

The good and interesting parts of it are the short interwoven stories that the Djinn tells throughout the film. I’d really have liked to see more from that world, instead of what get. As a whole, that only resulted in just a below-average movie experience for me.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Death Becomes Her (1992)

Rewatch – A rewatch on BluRay after many, many years. I knew that I liked it back then (decades ago), but wondered if or how much it would hold up nowadays with me. And I was not disappointed: Still a great comedy with a great cast!
★★★★★ 5/5 stars

Con Air (1997)

Rewatch – One of those mid-/late 1990s mainstream action flicks that I watched back then on TV (maybe even just partially…), but it didn’t leave a strong impression on me. Now, after listening to different podcasts and YouTube channels, such films appear again on my radar; and Con Air was one of then.

My verdict: It’s better than remembered it to be, with some funny dialogues and an interesting row of actors (Cage, Malkovich, Cusack, Buscemi). Not the best film in the world, but a fun distraction.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Kate (2021)

Netflix garbage. Uninteresting story and characters, boring action. Skip it.
★☆☆☆☆ 1/5 stars

Steve Jobs (2015)

I’m not a MacHead, but the story behind Apple and Steve Jobs always interested me a little bit. And while this film is probbably inaccurate on many levels, it nevertheless showed some interesting facets, on how he (maybe) ticked.
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

This was a case of a rediscovery many decades after the fact, by a few podcasts and YouTube recommendations:
I don’t think I’ve ever watched any of those films completely before, or the series itself as a whole.

(Maybe some parts and snippets here and there on TV – I was not a big fan of horror as a teenager and still am not, but I do appreaciate the few gems in that genre.)

So I got the boxset of BluRay discs and watched all parts in a relatively short amount of time.

My verdict overall (for the whole series): I quite liked it.
Of course, some parts are better than others, but in total, it worked for me surprisingly well for me.

The first part is of course an absolute classic.
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

This is a weird detour from the formula. It has its moments, but in general, not my favorite part.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Pretty good.
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

Also good, but a small step down.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

Not really good.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

Not great, but at least better than its predecessor.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

Somehow, the magic was gone now.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Rewatch – Also a rewatch after many years. Yeah, well… a very stylish look (it’s a Tim Burton film), and good actors. The story was also OK, but I remembered it to be even more gloomy and grim, with more dark humor. It is all that, but not quite on the level I had hoped for (or simply falsely remembered).
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

The Crimson Rivers (Les rivières pourpres) (2000)

(Known as “Die purpurnen Flüsse” in Germany) Not a fan of it: Like a very mediocre TV movie.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

The first of the Austin Powers films – did I ever saw it before or do only know many of the scenes by pop-cultural Osmosis? Who knows… Anyways, now, in 2023, I only smiled a little and laughed even less while watching it.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Smile (2022)

Another one of those small leftfield horror films that suddenly appeared and became an unexpected success at the box office. But not my cup of tea, especially since too much of its thrilss rely on dreams/imaginations (don’t like that in my horror films).
★☆☆☆☆ 1/5 stars

Seven (1995)

Rewatch – Stylish and grim as hell, with a good story. But not so great for multiple viewings, in my opinion.
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

True Romance (1993)

Maybe a rewatch, can’t remember. Heard only good things about it, but I was slightly disappointed by it: I somehow expected something better *shrugh* (but I can imagine that it was received better in 1993).
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Payback: Straight Up (2006)

Straight Up (2006) is the Director’s Cut of Payback (1999); I still need to (re?)watch the theatrical cut, which supposedly has a much different tone.

This version I found to be an excellent action/thriller, with some dark humor in it and a great Mel Gibson. I’m now curious how the “Theatrical Cut” will compare to it…
★★★★★ 5/5 stars

Thirst (2009)

Rewatch – I forgot most of it, so it seemed quite new to me. Well, it’s different and not quite as good as I had remembered it.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Dog Soldiers (2002)

Rewatch – Saw it for a second time, after many years. I know that many Neil Marshall fans love this movie, and after the great The Descent, I also watched this one, many moons ago.

I still remember that I was not as excited for it back then, and that has not changed now, years later. A solid low-budget horror-thriller, but not more, in my eyes.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

The Way Back (2020)

A mix of a sports drama and a character study, which is sadly very by-the-numbers, as sports dramas go; and on the other hand, also not deep enough as a character study. Not too bad, but at the end, I was underwhelmed by it.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Walt Disney (2015/2016)

“A two-part biographical documentary on the life, career and legacy of Walt Disney” – caught it by chance on TV and was very fascinated: I knew almost nothing about the life, work and personality of Walt Disney, and this documentary did a fine job in showing that (as far as I can judge it, without knowing Walt Disney, of course).
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

Lucky Number Slevin (2006)

Rewatch – Again, as it is often the case in this entry: An older film, that I’ve seen a long time ago, but from which I couldn’t recall much. It also appeared again on my radar due some positive remarks on some movie podcast/show.

It’s OK, has some (as in: a few) quirky and/or characters/dialogues/scenes, but also looks very low budget and leans heavily on a plot twist at the end.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)

Hm, I wasn’t a big fan of the original “Knives Out”, and this one was too goofy, with flat cut-out characters and a story that wasn’t half as smart as it wants the audience to believe it is, if you think about for a moment.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Don’t Look Up (2021)

I had hoped for a bit more clever and subtle humor; it was unfortunately all very heavy-handed and not really that smart.
(I heard the theory that for relaying the topic to a mainstream audience, “subtle & clever” would probably not have worked; that might be true.)
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

The Net (1995)

Rewatch – The film is from 1995, and some time after that, I must have seen it for the first (and until now, last) time. Around that time, I also had my first experiences with the internet (before that, I was just a computer geek without access to the world-wide web). So, it all seemed very exciting to me back then.

Now, decades later, it does not hold up very well. I like the first few minutes, when we get introduced to Sandra Bullock’s character; but soon after that, it becomes just a generic, mid-1990s, Hollywood-mainstream, mid-budget crime-thriller.
★☆☆☆☆ 1/5 stars

Doomsday (2008)

Rewatch – From what I could dissect, this film seems to hold a certain positive reputation amongst the films by Neil Marshall – which is a rarity nowadays, considering what he has put out in the last couple of years… *sigh*

And just like the above mentioned “Dog Soldiers”: I’ve seen it before, didn’t like it much back then and don’t like it much now. Again, way, way, way below the quality of The Descent – and worse than “Dog Soldiers”, despite a few good ideas (but which are all over the place and not thought out very well).
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Stardurst (2007)

Rewatch – I remember that I didn’t like it at all back then (I believe I had hoped for more fantastic fantasy, instead of this mundane fairy-tale fantasy). Since I now was prepared of what to expect, I did enjoy the film actually a tiny bit more, but that didn’t improve the my overall impresson much. (It also didn’t help that the film’s humour sadly most often didn’t click with me.)
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Anger Management (2003)

Rewatch – Despite it being a rewatch for me, I could hardly remember anything from it.

Disclaimer: I’m not really a fan (or ‘connoisseur’) of Adam Sandler, but occasionally, he can put out some stuff that is not too bad; sometimes even a comedy that is not too cringeworthy…

This movie was surprisingly good, and I liked especially Jack Nicholson in such an unanticipated comedic role. Not perfect, by all means (I think the movie loses a lot of steam after half of its runtime), but quite enjoyable.
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

TV

Primal — Season 2

This second (and final) season was way more plot-driven: Instead of the stand-alone adventure-of-the-week episodes from the previous season, this one focused much more on a continuous storyline.

Sadly, the story it wants to tell doesn’t really have enough meat on its bone for a whole season: Some episodes dragged on unnecessarily; some trimming would have helped. Additionally, that ‘story arc’ approach also limited the areas of narration a bit; without that weight around its neck, the show was able (before) to explore more of its world, I believe.

A better mix of episodes with “case of the week” and “overarching story” either interwoven somehow, or with the story put at the end (in a slightly condensed form) would have been a better solution, in my opinion.

So, it was a small letdown for me, but fundamentally, it was still a very unique experience.
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

The Bear — Season 1

Overall, I couldn’t really join (or understand) the hype and buzz for it.
It’s not a bad show, but it just didn’t grab me as much as many others, it seems. I was also only invested in the characters until a certain point; somehow, each character of the cast fell pretty flat for me after a while.

The setting (kitchen, etc.) was new and fresh, and I liked that part of the show; but I also found it a bit undercooked (pun intended…), maybe that feeling was also due to the very short runtime of each episode. (Exceptions notwithstanding, I think that this new trend for shorter episodes [around 30+ minutes] doesn’t work too well with drama shows like this.)
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners — Season 1

Well, that was disappointing. I’m actually not sure anymore, why I originally wrote down a two-star-rating in my notes; I guess there were a few scenes in the show that weren’t totally terrible – but I honestly can’t recall any of them anymore. That’s why I’ll reduce the rating…
★☆☆☆☆ 1/5 stars