headsign Reviews

The Intern (I) (2015)

Hits every cliché.

[3/10 · 19 June 2021]

I was somewhat tricked into watching this movie, by reading positive reviews on IMDB, so I spent the whole 2 hours and one minute waiting for something funny, exciting or in any way uplifting to happen. Nada. This movie is just a run-of-the-mill collection of tropes and clichés, set on a background of your usual feelgood music. Yes, Robert de Niro is always nice. He's a good actor and a classy old character. Unfortunately, this is where this two-hour long advertisement commercial's (lots of very in-your-face product placement in this one) qualities end. Now, I'm pretty sure that a lot of people just like these two hours of head massage, but it's definitely not for me.

As for the humour that was expected to be seen: I couldn't detect the smallest bit of it. Just one feelgood scene with strings and harp after another. De Niro as Mr Nice-old-man, Anne Hathaway as the stressed executive. First part, they don't get along, but eventually they do. Who would have thought? Nah, really. I'm not upset because this movie exists. It should, probably. It's just not for me, and, considering how I felt tricked into watching it by overly positive reviews: here's my overly sincere one.

The Midnight Sky (2020)

Where to start?

[4/10 · 25 December 2020]

This film feels like a loosely stitched collection of ideas on how to please a certain public, by putting them in a place they like. That of slow, cerebral science fiction. Only that this production doesn't make much sense, in terms of plot. It's somewhat emotional but with a constant feeling of déjà-vu. We like Clooney in the centre of what would be the plot, but in the end, it's just a sequence of sceneries and images. To make it worse, the film has very questionable design choices. A hodgepodge of styles from the last 50 years. The preference for organic patterns in a futuristic spacecraft, the see-through displays ... everything seems somewhat incoherent and misplaced. Add some rather cheap CGI, specially with the views of the habitable planet. Of course, there is the inevitable space walk scene, with an ending so foreseeable that it made me exhaust a deep sigh. I'm not going to spoil any more. It's not going to be the only foreseeable scene. Watch this film if, like myself, you're very bored, you like the genre and also George Clooney. Don't expect much. It has, I must admit, its enjoyable moments. But these are very rare and quite overweighted by the annoying ones. This feels like a typical production aimed at grooming a certain audience, all while underestimating it. One of these films that made me rush straight to IMDB, only to see if I was one of the few or one of the many who disliked it. Obviously, I'm one of the many.

Les rivières pourpres (2018– )

What a shame

[5/10 · 1 December 2020]

I actually pretty much enjoyed this series, despite some of its flaws. That was until I arrived to the fourth case that takes place in Germany. Not only do all German characters speak French (I watch in OV) but they can't even speak German words properly. This is counterweighed by a feeble attempt at characterizing those Germans with all available clichés. Germans are, of course, bloodlusty, obedient and through and through arrogant. The noble family's security guys look like neo-Nazis. The servant moves like a robot and never raises his eyes. All of this is so pitifully laughable that I had to stop watching after half an hour. Sadly, because until then, I had quite enjoyed the series but the script and production gets from mediocre to bad and bad to worse after the second episode. Still, very well played by the two main characters who work hard to make the rather lame plots worthwhile.

Atypical (2017–2021)

Freakshow

[3/10 · 14 May 2018]

Autism awareness has come a long way since my childhood where such a thing practically didn't exist. Unfortunately, the consequences are not all as fruitful as one may expect. Meet Sam, a cookie-cutter image of what most people probably believe to be an autistic person. His life is a chain of goofy events which he handles like some humanoid alien because that is what an autistic person is in the public mind. And why is that so? Because the public gets to see that same depiction over and over again. It's the same as with gay people who are always some kind of flamboyant and dramatic (Modern Family, ...). Yes, it's entertaining, endearing but not at all representative of what an autistic person (or a gay person for that matter) is often like in real life. Even Saga Noren from The Brige/Bron, which I must say was one of the better depictions of Autism I have seen so far, had to act as if she had never heard about the principle of 'white lies' before in her whole life. As if she had fallen from a star that previous night. But back to our story. I cringe at so many things here, but one thing the most. It seems that the producers could not find an autistic actor to play the role because none fitted the character. I rather assume that they were worried that an autistic actor would find the tropes in this play so annoying that they preferred not to hire one. Just an idea. In any case, Atypical doesn't help much at all to understand the every day life and difficulties of autistic people. It only helps reaffirm some tropes about their awkwardness and helplessness. I'm an aspie myself and I cringe a lot while watching this show. Nevertheless, I gave three points because I admit that it's mildly entertaining. I'm not going to talk about the uninventive side story of a cheating mother who lost her self-confidence to age. That doesn't bother me half as much as the exploitation of one of the last underprivileged groups in our society that still doesn't seem to get enough protection from such cringeworthy exploitation that is a series like this one. I really hope that some day we will see a series or film that tries to depict the issues of autistic people from their side and not as a fabrication out of the tropes that exist about them.

Special Correspondents (2016)

Lacks Subtility

[3/10 · 24 May 2016]

What annoyed me the most in Ricky Gervais' new film is the total lack of subtlety. It really feels like one of these run-of-the mill US-comedies where every joke has to be understandable to any kind of audience, albeit losing its edge, specially when half of the time, it goes along with the most cringe-worthy feature of intellectually undemanding comedies known to mankind: plucked violin strings.

The misadventure of a radio journalist and his technician who miss a flight and are compelled to fake the news reports from a war zone could have been so much more in any possible way, specially given the talent of Ricky Gervais when it comes to awkward situations and weird characters. Instead, we are presented the bare minimum of what family-friendly entertainment can be. A certainly watchable, albeit totally forgettable show with cliché characters and situations that seems to be targeted at the more easily amused part of the audience and that omits any quality that has built up the reputation of Mr Gervais in the last 15 or so years.

Borgman (2013)

Pretentious piece of ... art

[3/10 · 2 May 2016]

I had to read some of the more in-depth reviews to understand what I had been watching here, because clearly, I didn't although I'm usually very open to abstraction. In short, this movie is about a home invasion by a hobo and his team, who turn out to be very organized criminals on a murder spree. The whole story is spiked with bizarre dialogs and actions by both the invaders and the invaded. On the plus side, the movie managed to keep my attention until the end. On the minus side, the more it went on, the more the need grew for a big explanation of what was going on and that's where the movie let me down in the end. It just leaves the spectator to interpret for himself. Yes, thank to another review, I now know that the hobo is a demon and that he and his team are collecting souls and twisting the minds of their victims, but my gripe is that this message is so well concealed in a puzzle of symbolic hints that it will remain a mystery to the majority of viewers and that's what I call a pretentious piece of art. It's good to make people think, but it's bad to expose people as idiots by exposing them to a riddle they won't solve for lack of hints and yes, there are many of these hints but they just fail to create an image that could help the viewer solve the puzzle. Add a lot of very gratuitous brutality and you have a movie that comes across like someone wanted to make a version of Funny Games in the style of Lars von Trier. Watch only if you have a special interest in artsy, post Dogma-style movies or a hang to bizarre sadism paired with masochism. That movie made me angry.

The Babadook (2014)

Generic

[4/10 · 1 November 2015]

Yeah, there are already 481 reviews for this movie at the present time, so why bother writing one? I don't know, really. Maybe because my expectations got staked so high by the hype surrounding it. What is certain, is that the movie has gathered a solid fan base which, alas, doesn't prove its quality. It's the story of a single mother and her exuberant boy who get stalked by a demon from a children's book. How the demon is connected to the boy's deceased dad remains unclear, or at least I couldn't make odds or ends of it but the mysterious connection is kept alive like some loose end of an unfinished plot idea and in the end, it's left to the viewer to decide what to make of it. Apart from those loose ends, the movie in itself isn't really bad. It's actually quite well presented. It's biggest crime is just that it's a bland mixture of a hundred and one other horror flicks of that type. I found myself watching the movie until the end, only hoping for some great turnaround to happen, where it would reveal to me that it had just pretended to be generic. But unfortunately, this didn't happen and the movie kept unfolding its boring clichés one after one. That's real horror of this movie. I understand that many people who like to eat the same old dish over and over again may like this movie. So will many others who haven't seen that many horror movies yet but to me that was just a saddening experience. If you're okay with this unimaginative mess, please don't judge me. I hated it.

Derek (2012–2014)

Not so exciting

[5/10 · 16 October 2015]

I've been quite a fan of Ricky Gervais' work until I saw the pilot to Derek. I can see what he's trying to do: put invisible people into the focus of attention – the elderly, the disabled, the freaks (Kev). Unfortunately, it's mainly Gervais' own performance that ruins the show. The Character of Derek may be an interesting figure to develop; unfortunately, Gervais himself is completely inapt for the role. Derek's chin-tic, his awkward walk and his mental impairment give the impression of someone badly mimicking a disabled person. Karl Pilkington used to lighten up the show a bit until he quit at the beginning of Season 2. A wise decision, I'm afraid to say. All in all, I should point out that the show isn't all bad, it's actually quite watchable and even has its high that remind of the quality of The Office, but these are much more rare. The performance of all the actors is very good, except, unfortunately, for Ricky Gervais who really should have cast someone different for that role. He would have been perfect as the egocentric director or some selfish parent who comes on casual visits, but his rendition of a disabled man just isn't good enough to meet the standards of his earlier shows. In a nutshell: nobody else but himself would ever have cast Ricky Gervais for a role such as Derek.

War of the Buttons (2011)

Watchable but not great

[5/10 · 14 October 2015]

If you're as old as me and you grew up in a french-speaking environment, you've probably been affected in one way or another by Yve Robert's adaptation of Louis Pergaud's novel from 1962.

This new adaptation alternates the focus from the kid's perspective to its parallels in the grown-up's world. The time is now the mid-40's and the war of two groups of kids from two villages fades behind the gruesome reality of the Nazi occupation, persecution of the Jews and collaboration, thus turning the original story into a rather undramatic sideshow.

Since the late 60's at least, French cinema has been obsessed with the deep flesh wound left by the Nazi occupation in French society, which had torn the country into heroes and traitors. The idea to set the story in this context possibly sprung from the issue of a new, rising antisemitism, as the story now features a clandestine Jewish girl and her ruthless antagonist: the spineless french militiaman. Unfortunately, the new terror of antisemitism has long 'evolved' and has grown deaf to the sort of reasoning used in this movie, leaving its message only audible to those who already agree, which is a shame. What's left is a rather campy, at times charming but mostly predictable story that leaves no doubt about its message of humanism.

Finally, the screenplay is passable. A movie to watch if there's really nothing else to do. For a better experience: Yves Robert's cult classic's still the real deal.

BTW: Amazing how much the cult figure of the 1962 movie, "Petit Gibus", resembles the actor of this movie. Seems like the producers knew the movie couldn't live without resurrecting this charming character. Amazingly, they didn't go as far as to revive his signature phrase ("Si j'aurais su, j'aurais pas venu" - "If I'd known, I'd not come").

The Fugue (2009)

Awkwardly boring

[3/10 · 19 October 2012]

This is the story of an American girl that gets chased by a Japanese looking Chinese ghost of another girl who is wearing some sort of Venetian mask. There is also a Chinese-American cop who follows her since she had been declared dead but eventually had come back to life the very moment an employee of the morgue tried molesting her. The whole movie is kept in a dusty grayish blue. No matter how dramatic the scenery, the actors exchange phrases in a dull, monotonous voice. The first time I tried to watch the movie, I fell asleep but I gave it another try the next day, hoping something would happen at some point. Nope. I found myself in the situation where the only exciting thing I was still expecting to happen would have been a topless scene but this expectation got shattered when she took a bath and almost every inch of her skin was covered, even when she nearly drowned and got saved by the Chinese-American cop. That's where I gave up. This movie is a waste of everything but talent and I won't ever watch a movie featuring Miss Sowa again unless... well you know unless what.

Deadtime (2012)

Good old schlocky slasher with a British taint

[6/10 · 23 August 2012]

I really have to break a lance for this highly underrated movie. Deadtime is an amusing slasher that picks up the tradition of the genre, as established somewhere between the 70's. It doesn't ask to be taken seriously for one second and features some decent performances and dialogs. Although the story and sceneries aren't shy to refer to classics of the genre, it features a very own twist and thus escapes the trap of being a single patchwork of past successes. the music is good, the figures quite believable as a Rock'n'Roll band and they are obviously having lost of fun in the production. The effects are decent on regard of this being a low budget production and I really had quite some fun.

Now a little word on the side: obviously, many people rated this movie with one or two stars out of ten: these people should take a moment and think about how much worse many productions are and this also include some high budget ones. If this movie deserves the lowest note, we would have to introduce an additional minus scale for some other movies, so I can't take any judgment seriously that doesn't give it at least 3 stars. (Besides I suspect that some puritan crusaders are just spending their free time cruising IMDb to give any horror movie the lowest rating, regardless of its quality).

Locked Out (2006)

A horrible patchwork of mediocre ideas

[4/10 · 8 February 2012]

This movie is pathetic. At a certain point, I sadly remembered what French comedy was in its golden age, the 60's, 70's and early 80's and, from there on, couldn't help spending every minute I kept watching, thinking what it has become now. I am really trying to be gentle with this movie but I can't. The story is so pathetically black and white. The jokes and stereotypes are quite obviously targeted at a young, suburban public which is at war with society while in flagrant lack of education, which I don't mean to generalize. It honestly worries me to see that this horrible pile of dung actually has its supporters. If you want to see good slapstick movie or comedy including Policemen, watch any of Louis de Funès' Gendarme of St Tropez, the Keystone Cops or even Police Academy. If you want to see good social criticism as a comedy, watch some movies with the actor Coluche or, why not, a good old Chaplin flick. This movie is a patchwork monster aimed at pleasing a public too overfed to understand what a good joke is. My mind literally bleeds when I see this. I watched this film until the end in disbelief. If anything is still dear to you, don't!

Superbad (2007)

Awful, boring, pointless

[1/10 · 23 December 2011]

This is one of the few movies I actually went online after watching, just to read one or two pages of bad reviews so I could regain confidence in human kind. I actually chose this movie because it was listed as a top-ranking comedy on the website "College Humor". Judging from the other laureates on that site, I should have known better. It's not the fact that the movie uses a lot of gross humor and sexual references. It's rather because every idea in this film seems to end nowhere. Many situations had great potential but seemed to end in a bland void and, while I very much appreciated the character Fogell, this made it all so more frustrating as the whole story around him resulted in totally unbelievable fantasy about those cool, anarchic cops adopting him as their partner in crime. Also, a guy like Fogell would NEVER get laid as a teenager. I can tell 'cause I was that guy. I could imagine wonderful scripts around that person, even involving the other two guys. Unfortunately, what I saw wasn't wonderful at all which brings me to frolic on bad comments and write my own bad review. Something I rarely do. Everyone has their taste, but seeing a movie like this one being ranked as a top notch comedy really worries me a lot. Or do I just not get it? I think I did actually...

Camp Hell (2010)

I really must break a lance for this movie!

[7/10 · 27 December 2010]

Tommy, an adolescent teenager from a obviously Christian fundamentalist family, is sent to a boot camp where boys and girls of his age are expected to learn to deny theirs lusts and live their future lives in pure faith. Camp Hope is led by Fr. McAllister, a priest who is at the same time charismatic and fanatically devoted to fundamentalist Christian belief and his right hand, Christian, a drill sergeant type of guy. Then there is Bob, the camp's entertainer who seems to be the only staff member with more moderate opinions and nurse Carol, the camp nanny who believes that prayer heals better than medicine. Of course, putting adolescent boys and girls together in a summer camp is like leaving a cat alone with a fishbowl. Forbidden lust soon leads to "sin" which leads to guilt and all results in psychological catastrophe, inner conflict and psychosis.

The movie's biggest problem is that it first appears to be a classical teenage slasher flick but then turns out to be a fine psychological coming of age movie which settles with the tragic pressure of extreme religious morality. The cast is well-chosen and the playing is really good. Especially Fr. McAllister is highly realistic as an overly devoted priest who strongly believes in the path of pure faith, despite the fact that his very influence has, in the past, already caused a young man to become criminally insane and also despite of his recurring psychotic visions. Unfortunately, the way this movie is marketed, one would rather expect a sort of remake of slasher classics like "Sleepaway Camp", thus the rightful anger of nice and sleazy horror flick fans who feel like they were tricked into watching 90 minutes of pseudo horror and no one got murdered, eviscerated or beheaded.

If, like me, you are equally able to enjoy a movie like "Friday the 13th" and a movie by Aldomovár or a light-hearted coming of age movie like "Little Darlings" and if you're not offended by direct and open critic at fundamentalist Christian morality, you're quite likely to enjoy this movie. Otherwise, stay away! It's probably not the movie's fault if you don't like it, neither is it yours but most probably the undecided marketing which positions it as a horror flick.