cocoxue Reviews

After Everything (2023)

Abysmal ending that has lowered the bar to the maximum

[2/10 · 20 May 2024]

The fifth and last chapter of Tess and Hardin's story came to an end - and it was unwatchable with the bare minimum of work and love put into this movie. Had it not been for the pretty setting and scenery of Portugal/Lisbon, I would have turned it off immediately. Two Stars for the beautiful landscape.

The fact that Tess as the main protagonist only appears in a handful of Hardin's memories until 20 minutes before the ending, does say a lot about the quality of this movie. I was wondering if the main actress may have wanted to exit this pentalogy, wasn't allowed, so that the writers let her only be involved for the last 20 minutes of the movie? I would understand that as the previous movies are no reason to brag about.

Apart from that, I find it even more disturbing that teenagers see this movie and may think that this is love. From an adult perspective it's unsettling how a clearly toxic relationship is promoted as real love and passion and that the only way to deal with pressure and negative emotions is alcohol. Even one of the secondary characters, such as Hardin's agent/editor, knows about his addiction to alcohol and even supports his bad drinking behavior by competing with him instead of helping him and turning it down. Alcoholism is a serious illness and it is a BIG problem in U. S. movies when you repeatedly see how characters try to solve problems by opening a bottle of wine (and whiskey for the real hard guys...barf)!!

We have seen this bad behavior of Hardin from the very beginning: drinking way too much alcohol, raging, fighting, gaslighting, manipulating - all in the name of love. But that's not all, even Tess is kind of frustrating to watch: she tells him that she's over him and he needs to go on without her, clearly still angry about the publication of his book and the very intimate and personal details of their relationship. But what happens next? After 25 months of not having seen each other, it needs only one weeding speech of Hardin for her to run off, obviously angry with him for sharing (again) a detail of their history together and only two more minutes for her to have forgotten that she moved on without him. Instead, despite she says that she's really angry with him, she wants to have sex with him seconds later. What the F...???? She is not better than him by saying one thing and acting against it the very next minute. "I'm over you", "I'm angry about you", "I want to sleep with you", " I love you".... she's clearly as unreliable as him and adds fuel to the fire. This sudden change comes without any explanation, any talk about how the two of them have changed within the last two years. Again, it only transports the message that sex (like alcohol) solves problems and is apparently the greatest way to show love for someone. But it is NOT. Having sex while being angry with someone is a sign of codependency, no self-respect, and a low self-worth. I feel utterly sorry for the adolescents that see this movie and think that this much drama and emotional and psychological abuse are signs for real love. Even overcoming your problems takes much more time and hardships and is not as easy as depicted in this movie. In real life, the two of them wouldn't be together or either in prison, clinic, therapy, or dead. Emotionally and psychologically, they'd be wracks and a shadow of themselves - all due to their bad experiences and the catastrophic relationship they both willingly decided to endure. But hey, that's how it has to be, like Nazareth sings: LOVE HURTS!!

Maxton Hall: The World Between Us (2024– )

Unwatchable! Made for Teenager and only for them!

[4/10 · 18 May 2024]

I watched all episodes in a row and was kind of intrigued by the setting and the plot - although they're plenty of other films with the old narrative of two strangers of different worlds falling in love with each other and all the complications that come along with it.

But I I could hardly bear the acting and the dialogues. Teens may not realize as they have different expectations but form an adult perspective it lacks depth and complexity (although real life Teenager are exactly that). The female main protagonist has only two emotions: looking angry or shocked. I could not sympathize with her although her character from a low income family who wants to go to a prestige college is laid out for that. I would have helped to get a backstory to certain characters and different layers of their personality. I would not watch it again but understand if this short series only speaks to young people.

Force of Nature: The Dry 2 (2024)

Rarely seen a movie full of so many unlikeable characters

[5/10 · 12 May 2024]

First things first: I absolutely love Eric Bana and have watched every movie with him. I also loved "The Dry", although I didn't find it extraordinary but only quite enjoyable. However, the second movie "The Dry 2" doesn't keep up with the first one. Despite the outstanding Australian landscape and nature, the story lacks interesting and likeable characters as well as a believable narration. I have rarely seen a movie with that many unlikeable characters. Yes, it was on purpose that they somehow all have a secret but no character, maybe except for Aaron Falk, is interesting enough that I wanna stick until the end. I would argue that, in the end, I almost couldn't care less who's the murderer or how things have evolved. For a certain degree, it felt as if there were too many cuts and the dialogue felt kind of out of place which adds up to the characters being unenjoyable. Certain questions and motives for the acting of characters haven't been answered fully but since the story didn't blow my mind, I can still sleep well.

Lastly, the film music was on of the best things of he movie although the intro music strongly reminded me of a horror movie. But it fits to the mysterious beginning and the question of what has happened in the woods. Nevertheless, I surely won't watch this movie again. It's a one-time for me!

Barbarians (2020–2022)

Do NOT watch it if you love Vikings or The Last Kingdom.

[5/10 · 23 October 2022]

I totally disagree with some previous reviews saying this series is as good as Vikings or The Last Kingdom. IT IS NOT. And I tell you why.

The storytelling is poor, there's no character development. For example, it would have been interesting to learn more about the past of some main characters or how Varus and Marbold became lovers. Or to see their development from lovers to enemies with one of them having to kill off the other. A classic tragedy with a rising action, climax/twist and resolution since both actors have a good chemistry on screen and the potential was there. But this leads me to the bad editing or, again, poor story with scenes missing throughout the series. I end up having no understanding why certain characters act the way they do. It's unbelievable and as a viewer, I lost interest in the eventual outcome.

The 7.2 rating is NOT because the series is in German (as I read in other reviews here) since I watched it in German. The problem is that this kind of German is way too modern, the dialogue felt like take from a modern day soap opera and did not fit into the setting and time. Therefore, language-wise, the best part of the series is when the Romans are speaking Latin (and i do not understand any Latin).

This brings me to another major problem, namely the portrayal of the Romans as being dumb and not comptent to do anything, especially to fight (hadn't they been trained to do so?) For example, in episode 4, the Romans attack a gathering of the Germans but retreat immediately when ONE single German counters????

In the end, I was glad the series ended as I found myself almost supporting the Romans and not the Germans who are the protagonists.

The series lacks historical accuracy, character development, a strong and believable plot/dialogues and all together much more scenes if not episodes.

It suffers the same problem as many other low rated movies/series that want to tell too much in a short amount of time with too many things happening without telling one thing appropriately. I better watch Vikings or The Last Kingdom again but not this series.

Me Time (2022)

Movie with much potential but failed to deliver

[5/10 · 26 August 2022]

First of all, I love Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Hart and have watched almost every movie of them. The trailer was quite promising and i expected a comedy, even if it was clear that the genre would not be defined new.

Unfortunately, this movie failed to be funny with it's jokes being questionable. Too many pointless jokes with guys displaying too much childish behavior. I know that's what the producers intended to do but i'm wondering who's enjoying such deviate storytelling? In conclusion, it was the first and the last time that I was watching this movie. Well done, one more movie that very likely no one will remember as it goes down in the archive of forgotten movies.

Clusterf**k: Woodstock '99 (2022)

Very incomplete documentary with too many war comparisons

[8/10 · 13 August 2022]

First of all, I liked this documentary since I either forgot about the event or just simply missed it due to the fact that it happened before smartphones captivated the world (I was only 15y old when it took place and living abroad).

It was interesting to learn what led to the event going down, or simply put, ending in chaos: the different type of music (nu metal) nourishing a young generation of white boys' anger and frustration with the world could be one but is definitely NOT. (Btw, why does the documentary leave out other bands such as Metallica?) Instead, the whole organization of this huge event was disastrous: way too high prices for water and food (people weren't allowed to bring their own water bottles), bad sanitation, contaminated drinking water, not enough and not qualified security, bad communication, no shady places for 250k people standing in direct heat/sunshine and on concrete, and, last but not least, handing a already furious crowd candles (fire). How incompetent can anyone be? I was stunned that the organisers were the same as for Woodstock 69. So they were not new in this business. If such a catastrophe was happening today, you'd be fired and never work in this business again, if not put to jail.

Btw. What happened to the organisers except for mentioning Michael Lang's death? Didn't they have to take responsibility? Did they simply got another platform with this documentary to withewash the events with their own delusional narrative?

And of course, when watching this documentary you get the impression some bands kind of nourished and played with the already wild and furious crowd, such as Fred Durst who also does not take responsibility, at least for the time his band was performing and himself taking part of certain riots going on.

In a way, I totally understand where the anger if the crowd came from. I'm glad I wasn't there and I'm the kind of person who does not think I missed something. Each person who participated in the riots is responsible, and it doesn't matter that they had their reasons. They could also have left the event.

However, it may be true that it was the pre-smartphone time with the "Me Too"- social movement being in the far away that decisively influenced the turn of events. In the end, I miss other options of people/witnesses who do not glorify this disaster in the way it was done in this documentary. Many people talk at length about what they have seen and witnessed but also have a huge smile in their face when recounting it, some even calling it the best days of their lives, even after more than 20 years. They glorify anarchy and the freedom they had for a couple of hours. But if people, especially women are suffering and raped, and a whole place put down, it's not something anyone should glorify. At least not, if you're not part of the clean up and rescue team. For my taste, this documentary also uses a lot of war comparisons and language which I didn't find fitting as it does those who really have to fight in war injustice.

After 23 years, I would have expected a more pointed and critical look at this event. But it's images and videos give a very good impression what has happened there as they speak louder that any words could do.

American Night (2021)

Total disaster of a movie. Boring and failed imitation of a Tarantino movie

[2/10 · 31 December 2021]

Just watched it for Jonathan Rhys Meyers who's a really good actor. But even the best actor could not help make this bad movie good. Three minutes into the movie and I started asking myself who's the director who desperately tries to imitate Quentin Tarantino and what are the bad dialogues for. Unfortunately no recommendation for this one.