dschmeding

This movie is grotesque... I don't know how i made it through and have to admit some shuttling was involved as this movie is sloooooooww.

The basic idea is following an alien shapeshifter that took the body of a porn actress nearing retirement in way too high heels who for some reasong went digging for money somewhere in the desert.

That opening scene of the alien appearing in the desert and taking the body of a woman digging for money in high heels and cocktail dress is unbelievable. Either you turn it off (and there is plenty of reaons from bad acting to absolute nonsense details and weird to bad CGI) or you want to know what the hell the director was going for with this movie.

Basically it feels like a softcore prn producer watched "Under the skin" and though... I can do that! So prepare for a weird MILF alien walking around, observing weird situations and then killig weird people in weird ways.

The feeling is similar arthouse but heavily collides with the actresses who have a strong OnlyFans vibe and the sudden explosions of gore (literally).

Some of the weird exagerrated facial expressions are incredibly funny. I think they were meant to be creepy but most of the time border on the comedic if not crossing that border for good. The last time I saw this style was in Pierre Tsigaridis movies which played it in a real unsettling way in "I who have no one" and "Two witches". This director obviously failed and took on a project that did not really work with his way too obvious softcore background.

I have to admit this project is ballsy in its own way, but its not a good movie. I won't even try to explain the drawn out "story"... like "Under the skin" the vibe obviously was more important to the director and i guess he failed in what he wanted to do but still made a weirdly interesting movie that reminds of a car crash you can't look away from. Definitly a good choice for funny bad movie night! Look out for the incredible pizza scene... classic!

Nocebo had a good start... that opening definitly drew me in with that weird tick infested dog appearing out of nowhere.

The female main actors are great and there is some suspense building when the philippine maid arrives and its not clear if the female main character has amnesia or this is some kind of con.

The main character fell ill after being bit by a tick in the opening scene. She is working in the fashion industry and there was some kind of incident that triggered her illness which could be psychosomatic or from an infection. The whole dog/tick thing was too weird to be taken as seen, so we are unsure about that for quite a while.

Anyway, the maid that is supposed to take care of the feisty daughter soon is revealed to be a kind of witch using her healing power on the woman while slowly getting closer to her daughter. Beside using her unorthodox healing methods on the woman, collecting blood and hair from the woman, praying in front of an altar and having weird interactions with ticks and birds the maid is also hiding the womans medication and connecting with the daughter behind her back secretly. The husband is suspicious from the get-go but pretty much ignored on the sidelines for most of the story.

Nocebo really is a solid movie but any movie freak will guess the ending after 15 Minutes. The movie tries to be atmospheric and mysterious but the puzzle pieces are dropped right away. The horror tropes of vengeful ghosts coming to punish the sins of the greedy are mixed with some interesting eastern witchcraft elements and symbolism that is so wooden, i would have never guessed they would really go there.

After a while the movie feels drawn out because you pretty much know whats going on and only wait for a reveal to the opening scene and constantly re-appearing ticks. And that is the final straw that only reveals the script to be extremely bad and cringe. Not only is the movie totally predictable but the symbolism really ends up being "western fashion industry is a leech on the third world" amplified by scenes showing the woman locking fire exits so the workers don't steal shirts which makes her some kind of cartoonish Cruella of this movie. The stupid story about the tick infested dog and the bad FX of giant ticks and closeups of the dog do the rest.

Its really a shame they were so lazy on central parts of this movie because there was some really interesting elements in the backstory of the philippine witch and her relationship to the daughter. The actress playing the witch had an interesting mix of sweetness and sinistery that gave a lot of suspense to the movie But the cheesy horror elements unfortunately drowned out that part for me. In the end i was happy to see that the womans red shoes while not being the lucky charm she hoped for were at least fire resistant and protected her feet.

If you like witch and ghost movies have a go... its definitly not a bad movie (I was weirdly reminded of "Last night in Soho" by the fashion industry background and ghosts in burning buildings part) but could have used some more time on fleshing out that script and connecting the threads.

Lets start with the positives... the camerawork and setting was great. The acting was good... well, as it can be. Any actor would struggle with the second half of this script that at times made it hard to say if this movie wants to be dramatic, artsy or border on comedy. I also liked the grainy look with dirtspecks. They definitly managed to reel you in with a solid start and some hints thrown in getting you interested in the killers back story.

What "A wounded fawn" basically is, is a modern version of the "demented serial killer finds victim and gets her to his hideout in the woods" trope. The setup in the first half, or as the movie tries to name it "Act 1", was good. Basically Act 1 is the movie you'd expect with the man controlling the situation, although supernatural hints are dropped all over the first half. Its those hints that made the movie interesting and building suspense... but that reveal or rather those reveals were a real bummer.

It all steers into greek drama and theatre like costumes to some weird arthouse "sin - punishment - redemption" plot that comes down to the first scenes about a piece of art the main actor steals. Its all a bombardment with random scenes, weird costumes, flashy pictures and tinted colours going absolutely overboard from there.

The greatest problem is the complete turnaround in Act 2 that completely drops the woman and not even manages to tell any backstory on the man although its all about his confessions of guilt. It makes no sense and I can't tell if the whole thing was supposed to be in his head, struggling with his own demons or the woman is some final victim to complete the jury of masked snake, dog, tree and owl weirdos in some kind of judgement day for the killer with the unexplained twitchy hand.

The characters are totally irrelevant... no backstorys, development or depth and the final scene dramatically (or ironically?) drawn out behind the running credits was a "couldn't care less" in how things led up to it. The practical FX were so bad I can only think the movie tried to be funny with the weird unmasking of the owl figure or fighting an oven snake monster.

Its really a shame because the atmosphere was great and slowly demolished by a non-existing plot leading nowhere and those silly effects, costumes and ideas. There is far better movies with the role reversal of killer and victim. The recent "Fresh" comes to mind... but this is nothing new, even for the horror genre that is suffocating in reproducing the same old ideas over and over.

Stay away, especially if you are not a fan of arthouse movies.

Let me give you my interpretation of this movie... In a world of selfharming goth witches, tornados that blow trees inside of buildings, rattlesnakes and giant speaking dogs losing their tongues like lizard tails even the most dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father drinking mouthwash, a cheating mother and a daughter picking at wounds from black rituals downloaded from weird websites is still a safe haven in a grisly world when they happen to own a giant bathroom with unbreakable windows.

That is the best i can do because until the end of this movie this was the most incoherent and ludicrous boredom i came across in a long time. Its one of those "a hand full of persons is trapped in an isolated setting to keep the budget low" movies that tries to be mysterious all through its endless playing time but does so in the most unentertaining way just to leave you hanging in the end. There was something in this movie that could have been good but it just went overboard trying to be too artsy and making the horror scenes often look like they were trying to make fun of clichées or their own silly ideas.

If i could go back in time, i definitly would have chosen a different movie to watch.

I liked the first two Rampage movies and i wanted to like this one but this looks like a cash grab or a try to make a trilogy with miniscule budget.

Basically this movie consists of Brendan Fletchers character constantly ranting into the camera intercut by two FBI agents looking for him and two news readers reading the world news for a bigger picture. Then there is a lot of weird time skipping and cutting material from other parts of this or the other first two parts of Rampage in a confusing manner that seems to serve no purpose at all. The editing appears chaotic and random with all its forward and backward flashing. If it served anything it is to re-use material and stretch the playing time of this movie.

Theres parts where Fletcher is just sitting in his cave laughing at some screen, then parts where he is walking through town and other parts where FBI agents are flying through the air in front of explosive blasts in slow motion in such a repetetive way it looks like this is some kind of satire of action movies by National Lampoon.

Sorry, but this movie is bad... there is so many plotholes and illogical things happening its hard to keep track. But my favourite part is how the USA launches nuclear missiles after their president is killed and ISIS takes credit for the attacks carried out by main character Bill Williamson. He is not just one of the "top 5 shooters" in the world who kills the top three heads of U. S politics with three magic bullets from miles away. No, he is a magic hacker too and knows more than the NSA, FBI and CIA combined. They are not spying on him... he is spying on them. How? Well, no one really knows.

And after the USA attacks other nuclear powers in some weird kind of retaliation that make Afghanistan and Iraq look totally sane... nothing happens. Seriously... when the US start World War 3 the biggest problem they have is a hobo with an automatic rifle shooting news readers. This is beyond lazy writing.

It looks like Boll and Fletcher went on a killing spree of their own when Hollywood celebrities like Michael Bay or Britney Spears are shot on the sidelines of this movie just like the president and vice president. Bill Williamson is not a terrorist... he is a kevlar coated superhero, a cybermagician spitting bullets and angry dissses. He is constantly online and on his phone, yet untrackable, all while watching the FBI in his cave and having a romantic coffee with his wife and baby before taking out an entire squad on his own. John Rambo is a wimp in comparison.

On one hand this movie has balls to go where it goes but on the other it seriously looks like what a frustrated 18year old weirdo would write in his mothers basement before going on a killing spree. Boll is even hinting at that with the weird part after the credits. Either i don't get Bolls humour or he just has to constantly damage himself with stunts like this.

This movie is based on a shortfilm named "Conductor" which seems to have received a lot of praise for the director and has been made into a feature film.

The short basically had one idea going for it... surprise and a sudden turn into a grotesque horror idea that appealed to fans of the Saw franchise. It was very well done and it looks like the same team worked on this movie as the lead actress is the same and several elements look like this is a movie that is supposed to tell the story of the woman who appeared in the short only as a kind of sadistic sound engineer.

First of all... this movie like the short is very well done visually. The cinematography and effects are great, the acting is fine and they have a kind of new idea for the "main villain" that sets the movie apart from others because luckily they did not choose to go for another Saw rip-off movie as one could have expected.

The movie reminded me a lot of "Bliss" with the trippy aesthetics and damaged artist on a weird killing spree theme and a little of the recent Netflix movie "The perfection" in tone. Add the basic Saw torture-porn with creative technical devices to that and you basically have an idea of what "Sound of violence" looks like.

The trailer looks good and the movie has several things going for it for sure. But what does not work at all is the mix of drama and horror. They tried to make the back story of the woman dramatic but it feels rather lame as the plot has so many holes and things just suddenly happening. The character is not really fleshed out when suddenly building technical torture devices and becoming some kind of cyborg surgeon working wonders in an RV. The drama falls flat on its face and does that all through the movie until a very unsatisfying ending that totally killed this movie for me.

The kills seem random and often border on the comedic as characters in this film act really stupid like the guy getting electroshocked into a remotecontrolled theremin or the woman being turned into a mobile surround sound system. Yes, this sounds totally dumb... but that basically is what is happening. I wonder how these scenes read in the script and how no one said "Come on, this is too stupid... lets make this a little more realistic". All that dumb B-movie horror stuff clashes heavily with the polished surface and drama that often looks like a lesbian Dawsons Creek. Just like the ridiculous kills the scenes in the university look like a satire playing on the movie cliché that the deep part of the story is told in some classroom by a teacher in front of a chalkboard with very relevant words on it. Except... there is absolutely no depth here.

No... it happens way to often when a short movie is turned into a feature. I respect the effort but it does not work at all and is a huge let down in the end. Watch "Bliss" instead... that movie had way more edge.

I am quite stunned in reading the reviews about this movie after having watched it. I like most of Aronoskys movies but lost touch with the later ones. Had this movie on my watchlist for a while but heard so many negative things about it that i pushed it back it for other movies... most of them way worse than Mother by the way. Same thing just happened to me with Chappie... so much hate on that movie and when seeing it I don't get how people can be so hung up on minor things like actors they don't like or lacking the fantasy or empathy to take the time to think about a plot they do not understand or feel.

Usual reaction nowadays seems to be ... One Star, worst movie i have ever seen Oh, god... there must be so many of those "worsts movies", it must get tiring to reattribute this negative award again and again and again, so you can feel like you were personally attacked when not getting what the director wanted to say or your expectations not playing out how you projected. But this is what IMDB is about today... cry babies whining that they paid money and were not entertained in a way they expect and deserve.

My recipe for a good movie now that IMDB is basically useless and swamped with fake reviews by the crew members, ideological and political idiocy or ridiculous "worst movie of all time" inflation is to basically look for maximal polarisation. Usually these movies are the best because they trigger absurd responses. That definitly works for Mother as it worked for me with many Indiefilms before and i just checked... it applies to Chappie too. If you feel the urge to hate a movie then it must have triggered something... the rationalisations for rating an Aronofsky movie with great actors, stunning and disturbing imagery and a daring plot that definitly is not your ordinary copy-paste story with one star are borderline insane. A movie can't be bashed simply for you not understanding the plot or feeling the emotions transported or hating the lead actress for whatever weird reasons... it has so many factors to take into consideration.

At its heart Mother is exactly that... an Indiemovie. Its an allegoric arthouse drama that plays with irritating mystery and disturbing imagery bordering on horror but sure to displease the horror crowd for the biggest part because of the slow build up. Sure, the biblical hints are rather obvious but its where Aronofsky takes them that makes this movie special and different. After all that ending leaves the viewer with the most important question to answer himself. That to me is what art is supposed to do... make people think and feel what they maybe did not do before. Obviously people may dislike how its done or not get it or not be entertained or whatever. BUT ONE STAR?? Stop whining ... its ridiculous.

But maybe I just need to accept man for what he is and use his insanity to find beauty amidst the turmoil by using silly one star reviews. I don't know... is that love or nihilism. Exactly the question this movie left me with.

Well, kind of nothing.

We know that stuff damn well by now and i still fell for a trailer that made this movie look like a cool psychological horror flick. Honestly, it was not and stretched on for far too long being ominous and dropping red herrings or cut up flashbacks to a point where it grew tiresome.

Most of this is definitly more arthouse drama than horror... which is not a bad thing at all. But Amulet feels like it does not really know what it is and where it is going. The movie feels off from the beginning with its flashbacks of a balkan soldier taking refuge in what seems to be england, trying to collect some money with illegal construction work and sleeping in what looks like a homeless shelter. Its weird, as everything in this movie feels distant and not what it is supposed to be. Maybe it was concept to lead up to the main plot in a derelict house where the main character is dropped off by a nun who takes him in when the shelter burns down. He is supposed to care and do repair work for a isolated woman living there caring for her "mother" who is hidden in the attic through most of the movie.

The main characters have heavy accents and the sound is really low for the voices, so a lot is hard to make out and feels mumbled. For most part this movie feels like a very drawn out haunted house movie with an omnous feeling, increasingly hinting at strange things around the woman and her mother. Eyes watching through holes in the wall, symbols hidden in the walls, strange dead creatures appearing in the toilet.

It feels like this is going on for like 90% of the movie and there is most of the time nothing but the two main characters acting strange. When they lift the veil they totally go off the deep end with something like David Lynch meets a possession horror movie with overblown artsy visuals. The complete ending turns everything on its head but does not feel coherent with the rest of the movie. Its just a complete change in tone with a lame twist that is supposed to give meaning to all the cut up flashbacks about what happened in wartime and left the main character emotionally stunted.

After all the build up its a serious let down and i just could not feel for any of the characters in what feels like a kind of Jacobs Lader exit.

Amulet had a lot going for it... the house had a great creepy atmosphere, the sound design was great and the acting is fine too. Its just way to slow and trying to be artsy and dramatic but failing hard to make the viewer feel with the characters and often feels like a damn boring ghosthouse movie.

If you have a problem with slow movies definitly stay away from this one... there is far better ones out there. Midsommar comes to mind as a recent example of how a mixture of drama, horror and arthouse can suck the viewer in and keep him entertained with a slow unfolding.

"The nothing" is a simple little movie that proves that Indie Movies are not dead and how a simple idea can carry a movie if its followed by heart. This movie is obviously a project that was important to the director who wrote, directed and played the lead character of the story which is basically himself... Clayton. It looks like this is mostly a movie featuring him and his friends which is his girlfriend and his snarky best friend Hunter plus few shots with his father. Thats it and it basically carries an introduction that shows us Clayton and his thought and how he carries an odd idea to his friends... he wants to spend a week alone in the woods to fuel his creativity. Alone with his thoughts, nothing to distract him... in hopes to find what many artists found in solitude, depression and insanity. Everything leads up to this in documentary or found footage style snippets of Clayton filming himself or chatting with his friends. There is a lot of humour in the interactions in the first third of the movie and in how Clayton expresses his thoughts. Everything feels natural and the characters are all sympathetic or weirdly interesting... especially the cynical Hunter. After his girlfriend reluctantly drops Hunter off deep in the woods we are left with him, filming himself and following his streams of consciousness. Now what anyone would expect is some kind of Blair Witch movie coming out of this but t its core "The nothing" is a beautiful minimalist take om a descent into madness. There are some shots that visualised the disconnect from his surroundings perfeclty when Clayton sits in the darkness of the woods with just his flashlight on and turning them off.... and on ... and off again until the screen goes blank for quite a while. Its quite impressive how the movie manages to keep your attention with so little happening and basically just one person filming itself. When Clayton is left in the forest most of the humorous parts slowly disappear and the horror elements of noises in the darkness are thrown in. There is some Blair Witch style elements in this with an old cabin and creepy chairs and him running scared through a dark forest. Honestly those are the weak points... there was no need for that supernatural part with the obligatory "is it only in his mind" feeling behind it. Also the part where he has his food and water lost when animals get into his stash and he destroys his last contact to the world feel forced like ... well like in a bad horror movie.

But what is at this movies core is the depiction of a guy battling his inner demons and confronting the nothing in the hope of finding something and that plays quite well from beginning to end when the question is if Clayton is lost or if he simply lost himself step by step.

A great zero budget movie.

Not a big fan of superhero movies, so i was irritated by the hype about "Joker". Definitly a solid movie with great lead performance by Phoenix but there must be something else about this hype.

First of all this is not a typical Hollywood movie... its darker, more realistic and nowhere near any superhero thing except for what will become of Arthur Fleck. This movie is closer to "Requiem for a dream" than to any of the inflationary DC or Marvel franchise that is thrown against the wall. There is some glaring similarities about a TV show that Arthur dreams to be on, imagining the best and beautiful in his mind, everything leading up to it and ending up in the worst place. A TV show that is a focal point of happiness in his and his mothers life but that is a sham with a host cynically exploiting Arthurs bombing as a standup comedian for views and pushing him over the edge.

I found it kind of funny how Philipps movie "Project X" was taken to be some kind of a party movie back then. To me it was a hard look at a cynical society that took everything to a dystopian level. It made me feel bad as there were no consequences in the end. Maybe people needed the laugh back then and were not quite ready to see what "Joker" is showing in a much more gritty way for the age of the internet trolls, the cynical 24/7 exploitation of everything by everyone, Donald Trump as a clown president tweeting like the self obsessed "Project X" kids about his every fart, school shootings being a normality and a healthcare system exploiting the weakest for the last cash it can squeeze out of dying bodies.

The hype about "Joker" which honestly is not that special of a movie unless there is a psychological component of identification is a sign of the times. This is a movie that everyone will project his stuff on... i even saw an incredibly lame review by Infowars which made me interested to finally watch this movie and make up my own mind. These guys do not even get, that they are the exact cynical Zeitgeist that "Joker" is focussing on... doing ANYTHING for clicks and using every method in the playbook to sell their stuff. Its exactly what Arthur Fleck says when he is on TV... "Everyone is just awful nowadays" and if everyone is awful... awful is normal.

So when all are implicated in that sham... its easier to let art point to it and use it as entertainment to have a small moment of truth and then go back to the show and play our part with a smile. Its all just showbuisness, isn't it.

I loved the first two movies by Benson and Moorhead. "Resolution" was a perfect example of how to take a miniscule budget and tell a captivating story with loads of mystery and twists and turns. "The endless" went into a similar direction, even incorporating parts of "Resolution" and mixing up genres from Thriller, Horror to Sci-Fi including a very dry humor.

"Synchronic" is a different movie but again heavily focussing on the obscure dimensional themes from the other movies. Time has always been a focus of the movies and while there was portals and strange cults before, now there is a synthetic DMT-like drug that is making the user travel through time. The main characters are two paramedics who encounter the collateral damage of the drug and get entangled with finding out what is happening with so many dead, injured or disappeared users.

The acting and cinematography is great but everything feels distant... the characters are not talking very much, show very little emotion and it feels like a cold kind of buddy movie as their relationships are unraveled... well kind of at least. While one is troubled by his disappeared teenage daughter and his relationship to his wife falling apart the other one gets diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor which leads him to investigate further into the Synchronic phenomena as he has nothing to lose now and guessing that his buddies daughters disappearance may be connected to the drug.

Now ... that is it. The drug itself opens many possibilities with time shifting, people slowly entering other times, bringing back strange items or wounds from ancient weapons. It is all beautifully done when its done... but the storytelling felt lazy to me. The introduction of the chemist who syntheticised the drug for example is one perfect example of this .. and there are many. So there are many things in how the paperthing story unfolds that feel very "Hollywood" while the real interesting aspect of how and why the drug works are ignored. Its all very superficial and in case the movie was supposed to be about the characters relationships... honestly I did not care. Everything was acted and told in such a distant way... it just passed right by me and made me wonder if the movie really was over when the screen went black.

So many possibilities and illogical decisions like a paramedic just dropping full doses of an unknown drug he is even short on to complete his "research" on it. The chemist feels like a cheap storytelling device incorporated with a crowbar just to drop him off on the sidelines immediatly. And basically the whole movie was like that. Its about two people, everything else being randomly dropped into their life and disappering... and then its hard to even care for these guys. At the end I felt like I was emotionally cheated or something. Which is disappointing as the basic premise and quality of the movie had so much potential. Its not that "Synchronic" is a boring movie but honestly there is not so much happening for all the mystery at its core.

Of course... The Simpsons did it. A Cartoon Family of five with a fat husband obsessed with eating while being dumb, the caring wife managing and holding it all together, the bratty son becoming the focus of the show and his hyper intelligent sister. Add to this a little Family Guy and have a speaking pet that is a kind of fifth family member. Done! Its all been there before in various forms.

BUT... Gumball takes the basic recipe and puts it on speed. This show is hypercreative, speaking to all generations, extremely silly and equally deep and heartwarming. The characters are sweet and have so many layers. Goldfish Darwin with his childish voice and sweet character is just lovely. Mother Nicole is carrying the family by working double shifts and walking the razors edge between caring and loving and being seriously stressed and angry as well as intimidating. Little sister Anais is the know-it-all that has to put sense into the zany brains of her brothers and find solutions to minimize the collateral damage of their shenanigans.

That is just the Watterson family in the universe of Elmore where EVERYTHING has a character and feelings. Objects are singing,dancing and revolting just like the planets and stars do. Every character has his own animation style and a lot of thought has been put into how these styles convey the characters strengths and weaknesses. The animation style is just over the top creative with a beautiful photorealistic 3D world that includes everything from 3D animated characters like Bobert the robot or the tyrannosaur, claymation characters, a family of balloons with drawn on faces, real characters like the superintendent or the news speaker and kind of handcrafted from cardboard characters like Larry who is the only person in Elmore working hundreds of jobs, characters drawn on a piece of paper or illustrated like old style 30ies cartoons. Theres flowers, clouds, ghosts, bombs with a short fuse, a giant with a witch mother or utterly silly characters like Sussie who is basically a real upside down chin face with glued on googly eyes in a dress. Then there is Banana Joe and his insane family of bananas and a crazy mother who can draw the future. The whole world is insanely colourful and diverse.

Same goes for the stories... what they touch on in those short 10 minute episodes is stunning and often reminds me of a lighter version of South Park in its complexity and analysis of problems from childrens perspectives and then adding utter sillyness on top of it that is pushing many basic and wellknown ideas to new extremes.

If you love cartoons like Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park you need to give this show a chance. There are so many refreshing perspectives in here, so many heartwarming moments like the sweet backstory of Darwins genesis in "The Origins" or Nicoles story in "The Choices". There are so many references to internet culture... they even have a character for the internet who is an angry computer living in his moms basement. I love, love, love this show and i have never seen a show taking so much creative freedom in simply choosing whatever style of animation they consider most fitting to their plots and ideas. They even have an episode taking a deep bow to the "Don't hug me, I'm scared" doll clips and incoroporate their style in the show.

This show feels like its total artistic freedom... there is episodes that will haunt you as the show is very meta and self conscious constantly incorporating the fact that the characters feel they are in a show on TV and being watched, drawn and scripted. The depiction of Anais as both hyperintelligent and socially awkward bordering on massive cringe is just one example of how nearly every character in this show has so many sides. There is not even an evil character, which is something they use to make fun of themselves . The way they use facial expressions how ever they like is unique and a total worship of internet meme culture. When utter sillyness and hyper consciousness collide... this is what you will get. I can watch many episodes again and again if not for the plots for the detailed animation and clipshows or musicals. Gumball has pushed all my favorite shows from the throne as they are all in there. Moral Orel, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and all the insane Adultswim stuff is compressed into a show that really fits all ages and is not provocative for the sake of it but always to convey a message or a story.

Help this show to become the classic it deserves to be and watch it and spread the Gospel of Elmore. You will not find another show that explores the meaning of life with singing planets and musical numbers sung out of tune and rhythm and still conveying heartfelt emotions.

I have been a huge South Park Fan ever since they started the show and I am always stunned how they manage to stay at the front of social commentary with their minimalistic style. Like every show that is up for such a long time they had their lows but the last 2 seasons were among the best for me and this one is starting just like I hoped. These guys are one of the few voices of reason and if they see something insane they will comment on it and they mostly do it in a very creative and unique way which to me is always entertaining, even if its not always laugh out funny. To criticise that they are too political today is a weird statement after all the many seasons they already went for close to anything one could think of subject wise. What always was the problem is that people want South Park to be in "their camp" and usually they never are. I love how they kept that up against libertarians, conservatives and liberals and i love how they so often sit between all chairs and manage to show all sides to a story with their diverse set of characters.

Amidst all the insane debating of mandatory immunisation in which even libertarians sacrifice the individual right of choice to scientism this episode was a mostly needed statement and i am thrilled to see where they are taking this after that cliffhanger ending.

The thing thats most special to me on the later seasons of South Park is the complex storytelling with interweaving plots and long arcs they build over various episodes. Even though the show always stuck to its roots they keep evolving and I have nothing but respect for these guys. This episode to me was a much needed statement and i am thrilled to see where they will be taking it after that cliffhanger ending.

"Lights out" is another copycat show with an extemely bland host. David Spade tries to act cool but his jokes are mostly not funny as his humor seems to consist primarily of making fun of others... and not even in a creative way. The show starts with him watching something on a laptop and commenting while being filmed on a phone or doing selfies and every single opening joke is unfunny. If you start a show like that, thats a statement.

So you get a show with him coming out, telling jokes about celebrity news and then sitting down with his guests who can join in on more celebrity jokes with their comments. Most of the subjects are utterly unimportant and interesting only to people who watch TMZ and need to stalk celebrities and rummage through their trash. Spade feels forced most of the time, showing off his sneakers and telling us who he would have sex with or had or how he worked on SNL. And the whole show concept feels equally forced with worn out late night tropes and a weird appealing to young audiences with Tweets about celebrities on a large screen like a smartphone.

Best thing about this show is the guests as there are many interesting names from the standup comedy world on and most of the time its them who steal the show. But on the other hand... why does anybody go on a gossip show to trashtalk celebrities. Utterly disposable.

Bliss is an interesting horror movie that in its components reminds a a lot of the Gaspar Noe Movies. Artists, drugs, subculture, violence, sex, loud music and flashing visuals with strobing lights and tinted color schemes.

So, the whole looks is interesting while at its base Bliss is a horror story about an artists descent into a subculture of drugs and filth. The soundtrack consist of a lot of fuzzy and noisy toner rock, gothic and metal tunes in the background while main character Dezzy is stumbling through the cities subculture in clubs and drug dealers places just to return back to her creative place where amidst her descent the creative blockis loosened on her Bliss trip and slowly her masterpiece is created on canvas with her being drenched in blood, swear and paint, constantly snorting drugs while losing the grip on reality and time with increasing black outs.

I won't spoil too much but the basic story is one of the artist becoming its own masterpiece, all involving some weird dips into cannibalism, splatter and vampire themes. The movie takes its time but does not hold back on the gore in its final third.

Definitly an interesting piece but its not a psychological movie like those of Noe but ends up in well known horror tropes. To me the ending was kind of a letdown but still the visuals and also the acting of the main characters made it a nice roller coaster ride.

Flesh Blanket is a weird genre mix of comedy, drama and found footage horror movie. The overall plot is reminiscent of movies like Blair Witch Movie in that a film crew tries to make a documentary that goes horribly wrong and leads somewhere unplanned and horrifying. The movie is heavily referencing the standup comedy scene and delivers a real dark meditation on it. Honestly it fits in the times as lately several standup comedians have started to question their profession. The documentary in this movie is meant to show comedians pushing the boundaries in remembrance of the great Lenny Bruce and trying to reproduce an old comedy event with him today to make a point about free speech in comedy. So a weird director meets up with a bunch of standup comics and strippers to get money for the project and organise it.

The whole thing is the usual excessive green room debates, drugs, alcohol and sex and what each comic carries before him ... honesty, truth and unchallenged free speech. Before the whole thing goes downhill the movie already produces some great points about the scene and its clichees, as main character Ramsey Moore keeps pushing the honesty thing into uncomfortable territories all while his inner demons come to the surface.

Triggered by some minor events and the visit of his father to the set, things spiral out of control and Ramsey turns into "Flesh Blanket", the killer on the set asking the question "Do you really want to know what i think about you?".

After the buildup, you get a kind of found footage killer movie. The whole thing is made in the most low budget way and often making fun of itself but still it works in its approach to the standup scene and with some good editing and music choices that keep the movie interesting and moody.

This is definitly not for everyone but with for example Hannah Gadsbys recent standup and the questions it raised, Flesh Blanket pours the salt into the open wound that is also visible in todays social media culture. How much honesty and truth are bearable and how honest and true is it really beyond the self proclaimed purity? If you are into things a big different and challenging and like trashy horror movies... this might be for you. Hats off to the director.

I seriously do not get half of the reviews about this movie about it not having a plot and being slow or about the editing being confusing. "Destroyer" has a very straight forward plot that is not even using cheap twists but rather telling a straight story in a hypnotic trance way and cutting up the timeline to reveal information at the time the director considered it necessary. I loved Karyn Kusamas "The Invitation" and "Destroyer" is a well made movie, no matter how you look at it. Nicole Kidman carries the movie along with the perfect choice of music that sucks you in and watch the plot unfold. This is not an action movie and if you fell for that its not the directors fault. Its a slow drama about a cop that made wrong decisions and tries to right her wrongs when her past with a bank heist gone wrong gets back to her 17 years later.

I know people today have attention spans like moths but seriously... if you can't accept a slow drama for what it is, that says more about you than about the movie. And come on, its 2019... if you are confused by a non-linear timeline and can't wait till the movie clears up the confusion.... thats on you too.

Don't expect this to be a violent revenge movie... its not. Well, at least its not the focus of "Destroyer", although the movie does not hold back when things go down. The drama elements are well played and the ending was quite touching to me. At its core this movie is about the desperate longing for escape from a cold, grey world and its quite obvious from the choice of locations and flats that always give off a bleak, worn down feeling. Music and cinematography make this work perfectly and the editing helped spice up a rather straight forward plot. If you liked Kusamas previous movies... go for it. The key ingredients of haunting atmosphere and slow unveiling of information to the viewer are there although this is a completely different movie than "The invitation". So don't fall for all the moths swarming IMDB. I can't put my finger on all those silly 1star ratings but honestly, it reeks of gender insecurity.

I don't know the movie, so I don't seriously care how this relates to the original plot and characters. Anyway you look at it ... This is a well made series. Perfect choice of music, awesome camera work, good acting and a good script with many scenes and one-liners that have the capacity to become cult classics.

This show pokes fun at EVERYONE... it waves societys hypocrisy in everyones face. This is not about LGBT or SJW or whatever many are projecting ... its a simple role reversal of the villains when in the end no one even knows who is the villain in this series. Most characters are heavily exagerrated... the cool kids, the nerds and losers, the dumb jocks, the idiotic parents, the teachers... everyone. Many characters are obviously blatant caricatures of real people.

What this show boils down to is pointing the finger on a society obsessed with status and PR work. Everything people do on this show revolves around creating an image. Bullying, suicide, sexual orientation, fashion, lifestyle, school plays and activism... everyone does it with an agenda. If anything fails... kill yourself on camera and create drama to get your five minutes of fame.

Basically it is impossible to say who is the villain because everyone is a selfcentered douche on this show.

Now the funny thing is how this show is being reacted to. One side is outraged because LGBTQ kids are shown to be the bad guys. What used to be jocks and cheerleaders is now an overweight PC girl, a gay drag boy and a black girl pretending to be a lesbian to fit in. The other side takes this show to be on their side for trolling "the left". What is a basic role reversal is heavily projected on and ignoring that everyone in this show is portrayed with negative sides. I don't see this as problematic at all and have to wonder about the heavily politically biased reviews and comments on this show.

What is problematic is a society that reacts exactly as depicted in this show. Because this show is about an ignorant society where everyone bullies the other and feels to be the victim, uses victimhood to become a perpetrator and plays everyone for his own agenda. The end of this show is just perfect and spot on about how hypocritical society is dealing with subjects like school shootings, teen suicide, bullying etc. So basically dropping the show because its too edgy in light of the thousandth school shooting is exactly what this show points the finger at.

And the funniest thing is... even when Paramount used this tactic to get attention and sell this show for a lot of money. Still its exactly what "Heathers" is criticising at its core. So the way people react is perfect in how they have got the mirror shoved in their faces with this show.

What looks like a trendy show with hip kids and cool editing has some serious subjects at its core that seem to fly over a lot of peoples heads because they are so self obsessed. Its like the teachers who wonder if they could have listened to the kids just to go and get drinks instead and plan another hollow PR charade for some TV cameras.

THIS is what the world has become. It may be a pitch black comedy but it created a feedback that is exactly what it points at.

I was already irritated by the buzz around Michelle Wolfs correspondence dinner speech. Many put her in a place like she was critical and funny like no comedian before her... which just is not the case. The years prior to her speech were much better, just look at Hasan Minaj in 2017. It felt like people wanted to push a woman to feel good during #metoo season. Her jokes were Ok, but felt forced and were not that original.

So obviously what happened is ... she made a buzz and got a show. And that show suffers from the same problems as her speech, just way worse. First of all... no one needs another political comedy show making jokes about politicians and especially Trump. Jim Jefferies already stumbled into that trap and his show is way better than this, although still annoying with the repetitive lame Trump jokes. This show just feels unnecessary because again... Michelles Jokes feel uninspired and often forced. Throw in some sexual stuff for shock value, then bash republicans, bash democrats, do the usual in-between segments which feel like they belong in a lame skit show... you know it all. Its the same old routine, just way worse... why did Netflix do this? I mean, they even put a DJ in the show who is basically just standing around and is hardly included. Its another detail that shows how uninspired and copycat this show is.

And the worst thing of all.... Michelle Wolf has zero charisma. She looks into the teleprompter like a zombie with dead eyes. Her whole body language oozes insecurity which she tries to gloss over with being rude and filthy but meanwhile its really hard to stand that annoying voice for long. She sounds like fingernails on a blackboard after a while. If she was funny ... OK. There are several comedians who make up for lack in charisma with being funny or just different. But i can't see anything here. Even the feminist angle feels lame as it has been done over and over lately by Samantha Bee and other female comedians. And honestly... most of them failed too with their shows. This format is dead for quite a while and it hurts to see so many good comedians being burned in unnecessary shows like this. To me Michelle Wolf isn't even one of them.

I have seen two episodes of this show and I am hooked. This is definitly a weird and different take on relationship and daily life subjects. On the surface some jokes might look stupid at first but I think they all lead up to a connection and message that often adds unique viewpoints to themes. Its not really your basic laughtrack humor although the show seems to make fun of comedy clichés.

The whole thing is basically a skit show with some intelligent and creative (editing wise) connections of the themes, many of them sexual in nature or dealing with different views at things in different stages of your life and making fun of TV with spoofs inserted and reoccuring on TV screens in the scenes.

There is one guy here calling this "worst show" which is kind of funny because he used the exact same review on another show here on IMDB. So make up you mind, which is the "worst show" now ... i always found the "worst" statement on movies to be quite funny and idiotic since it most of the time is proof of a visceral emotional reaction to a movie or show that is hugely exaggerated. But this guy is a caricature of himself trolling 2 shows with the word for word same review. So I guess when people accuse a show like this of 12year old humor and lack of intelligence, that reflects hard on their own cognitive abilities.

I was on the fence about watching this series because usually german TV sucks hard in being completely uninspired and badly acted. When reading all the comparisons with Stranger Things I already expected the worst but with so many people recommending Dark i tried it and was positively surprised.

First of all... the comparisons with Stranger Things are rather superficial. But if you look at the whole thing you see that a lot of ideas were blatantly stolen from here and there. There are some obvious influences from Stranger Things but even more it seems Donnie Darko was a huge influence on this series. Its more about teenagers than about kids, there is a strong emphasis on drama and relationships, you get loads of 80ies references and music, there is timetravel and an ominous time circle with set dates, a lot of the philosophical and scientific themes are told by teachers in classrooms... there are quite many things taken from Donnie Darko. The dark synth themes and 80ies music, the dramatic montages shutteling through the characters. The basic philosophical question about free will and fate... some of the things sound like they were lifted exactly from the movie with loads of symbolism dropped in and philosophy told through school plays or a book about time travel constantly referred to. In Donnie Darko it was "philosophy of time travel", here its called "A journey through time". I guess you get what i am hinting at... they stole a lot!! But they managed to put it in a plot that inserted enough other ideas.

After 2 episodes I became rather annoyed by the ridiculous repetitive sound design that constantly tries to be dark, moody and foreshadowing while basically nothing really happens. There is way too much drama and sad looking characters often overacting their grief. But when inserting various time levels with characters at various stages of their life and acted by different actors of course it gets interesting in connecting the dots... so despite all the drama Dark managed to keep my interest until the end.

A lot of the science stuff sounds rather stupid to me. When they explain dimensions with drawings I had a flashback to "the human centipede" and the Doctors laughable "medically acurate" scribbles. Various points of the timetravel story made no sense in portraying characters before events in their past already affected by things that happen later through timetravel. But that is the usual problem with movies about time travel, especially with so many levels and characters. I think they did a good job in glossing over the strong flaws with an overcomplex plot... definitly worked for me.

What they could have used is some of the humor from Donnie Darko. Dark is way too dry and takes itself too serious in my opinion... there is too much TV drama with people staring dramatically into the camera for no reason and most of the time. Some characters have the same facial expression throughout and the rain... well, the constant rain became a kind of running gag in this series because they tried too hard to make this bleak and moody without any humor lighting it up. Also a lot of the plot seemed unnecessary... maybe its build up for season 2 but at the end of season 1 i thought they could have told that story way tighter in half of the time.

Anway... for a german series this definitly is the best I have seen in ages and it beats most german movies too. So give it a try.

If you don't like cursing, vulgar humor and explicit themes, this show definitly is not for you. If you like characters that are neither good nor bad and always need to be evaluated by their actions like in shows as "Curb Your enthusiasm" or "Mom", then this could be something you might like. I always appreciate shows that don't use flat characters but rather play on the persons flaws and stengths.

The show is playing a lot on cursing and things like the fathers name being Ken Swallow but it has an interesting way of presenting rather untypical subjects like threesomes, making Nazi friends and the hypocrisies of the music business or drug addiction in a way that makes you think. So the humor is quite broad if you can go with the cursing. The basic plot about a family band moving in a band bus on the road to start a new life and career often looks a little bland but the characters make it work. You get a weird stoner son, the hot sister, a black adopted son with a strong Michael Jackson vibe, a little loudmouth sister and two parents constantly struggling with their relationship and flaws.

Some subjects are rather bold in their approach and often border on falling flat on their face... which they do sometimes. But if they work its fun and interesting. Jason Alexanders character is a total egotist, very much like his Seinfeld character and especially the dynamic with his wife is great. The threesome episode was awesome.

So don't be fooled by the 1star reviews... this show definitly has some flat jokes and plays on clichés but I think there is a lot of depth in it too.

Let me preface this by saying... shame on me, I do not know the japanese original, so all i can judge is this movie itself. I mainly watched this because I am a huge fan of Adam Wingards previous movies and I definitly was not disappointed on that matter. This is a solid movie which incorporates a lot of elements from Wingards previous work. The movie starts of with a kind of dreamy slow motion sequence and then gets into the plot very fast with some short outbursts of onscreen brutality, awesome camera work with many interesting angles and an 80ies soundtrack ... all of which manages to build atmosphere nicely. Its a very american movie in how the plot is presented and I can imagine how they dumbed it down a lot for this remake. Many decisions by the main character Light and his girlfriend Mia seem a little dumb and uninspired... their whole relationship is kind of stupid in how it unfolds. There are some serious weird parts to the story like Light being a "genius" who is to dumb to read all rules of a book that basically hands him the world and falling for a girl who obviously sucks from the get-go, so some things developing later are easy to predict. These are the strongest misses of Death Note in my opinion... otherwise this is a really solid movie with an interesting plot.

Seriously... I can imagine being disappointed by the plot if you are a fan of the original but to vote this 1 or 2 points is damn ignorant and rather makes you sound like a spoilt brat that can't take art in all its components and needs to trash the whole thing because one or some elements are not to his supposedly superior taste.

So, if you want to watch an entertaining movie and don't know the japanese original... just do it. I doubt you will be too disappointed. Just wanted to drop this review because I think the fanboy reviews here are kind of retarded and misleading.

Oh, and btw... the ending, well... that was not too glorious really. But when I see that Netflix is kind of sliding on making a second movie just in case this gets enough money, the half-assed ending makes kind of sense.

From the get go it was a really weird idea to remake a french euro classic in horror movies and use a spanish director. What sense does that make... Well, you can both trash a good movie and destroy another european career in the process because the Hollywood remake of "Inside" is simply atrocious.

Its obvious from the title sequence onward which is like 80% of this remake directly lifted from the original. Where the french movie was gripping and dense as well as creative right from the carcrash sequence on, this movie feels like no one cared the least to make it good... maybe because they knew it was an near impossible task to make a better movie anyway.

That stomach aching feeling with the minimal score and stunning dark cinematography... i can't find it anywhere in this movie. Most of this feels uninspired and boring. I can't for the life of me imagine why someone would take a thrilling movie and make it less thrilling... it just feels like they did not care at all.

The first three quarters of the movie are pretty much an identical remake of the original movie. Of course its kind of americanized but most of it is pretty much the same... just way less interesting and gripping. The house invasion fails and when something interesting is happening the reactions of the actors feel off, like when the main characted accidentaly kills her mother... there are several of those scenes that feel like they thought "OK, lets get this over with". No emotional depth at all. And in my opinion the sound design is a major reason for lack of tension. Everything just passes you by.

Now, the original movie to my taste had a kind of letdown ending and you know what... they changed the ending of the movie and turned it completely on its head. While the original movie was living of its ominous atmosphere and completely unclear motivations (which were a letdown to me when the tension unwrapped in the end) of course some Hollywood producer must have said: "Hey this is a movie for an american audience, so lets spell every little piece out in giant letters, so no idiot can say he didn't get it when the credits roll". Its the basic difference between american and european or asian movies... they have to market it to the lowest common denominator and avoid any uncertainty or openness for interpretation. And boy, did they do it here. But its not even the biggest problem with the last quarter of this movie. The way things move out of the main characters house are ludicrous and the way they changed an original bleak end into a weird happy one is so full of dump character actions... its stunning. That pool scene is so full of unbelievable actions and of course a covered pool is lighted, so cinematography works better... sure! Best of all... when they go for a highlydramatic ending which literally has the main actor thanking god, they just smash the credits right over it, like they want to underscore again "Hey, no one cares and we got better things to do... so lets get out of this doomed mission FAST!".

Cinematography is good, sounddesign sucks, everything else is average... and that makes this a one point movie for me because you can't do such a careless remake of a movie that garnered a cult following.

Hollywood... keep your fingers off good movies. And Americans ... learn to watch subtitled or synchronized movies like the rest of the world. You don't even know what you are missing when you get silly remakes like this. Watch the originals and let money be spent on new scripts and no more be wasted on unnecessary remakes.

The first Seed Movie by Uwe Boll was already pretty bad but compared to this waste of resources even Seed 1 seems like pure genius. Everything about this movie looks like a student project. The opening scene introduces us to bad acting, bad writing and timing and starts the movie with a calculated provocative scene that immediately falls flat on its face.

After that you are basically treated to half an hour of boredom, incredibly bad acting from the female leads and dialog and a "plot" that is so blatantly ripped off a hundred other movies and re-invented in the most annoying way possible that I really wonder if many make it more than 20 minutes into this "movie". So you have a van full of bad acting chicks driving through the desert, picking up hitchhikers, meeting a bored police woman acting even worse than everyone else... and then they die. Sometimes it looks like they wanted to go for a "Hills have eyes" style... but after all its just shots of the desert and a guy in a mask killing chicks.

The camera work is mediocre (still the best about the movie), the sound mixing is off with several characters far too hard to understand, the choice of music is bad, the editing is uneven and forced, the storytelling and dialog are childish (must have been written on a bus ride or something) and even the only thing that could make this a little watchable looks cheap and unrealistic.... the FX. Usually German horror movies suck at almost everything but deliver some decent FX. Seed delivers absolutely NOTHING.

Avoid at any cost.