I won't spoil it. But this series is a light hearted black comedy from start to finish with the most amazing and baffling series finale I've ever seen.
The series runs for 7 seasons, but it only totals 31 episodes with an ave running time of 30 mins each. So easy binge watching right here. While the episodes are not connected to each other, you do want to pay attention to every detail as it will all come down in the last episode. Bjarne Mädel (that goofy gangster from "How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)") is at his prime. It mostly depicts (northern) German dry humor (which does exists) and sure is the go-to series you want to know and brag about at the next party.
Reviews
6 Reviews
The Golden Glove
(2019)
Believe it or not, this happened as pictured.
27 September 2019
Based on a true story. Keep that in mind when this movie sucks you down into the abyss of one of post war West-Germany's darkest rough places. It's a biopic, not a horror-movie. People say that this movie was all about shock value and grossly exaggerated, or a "wannabe Lars von Trier" flick ... but this is the movie Lars von Trier wishes he would have come up with. The settings are an exact 1:1 replica of the original sites. The bar "Der Goldene Handschuh" in Hamburg still exists to this day and frankly hasn't changed much since then. Fritz Honka's flat was carefully recreated, the storyline and characters pictured is authentic as close as it gets. This also means that it isn't very pleasant to the eye.
The story takes us to a journey to the alcoholic dark underclass scene of the 1970's in Hamburg's Reeperbahn, close the harbor, following one of Germanys most infamous serial killers, Fritz Honka speaking with a strong East-German dialect. Mind you, this is not a Hollywood picture and it's one of those movies that would never get an Academy Award even though cinematography, costumes, acting and set-design is beyond astonishing. It's just too real. More often than not the picture is layered behind a thick cigarette smoke layer inside nicotine yellowed walls. The soundtrack solely consists of contemporary German "Schlager"music, including Honka's favorite song "Es geht eine Träne auf Reisen" ("A tear goes on a journey") ... all those songs are just harmless contemporary witnesses but add so much to the dense atmosphere and convert them into the sickish part of the narration.
I'm a big fan of gritty movies but this movie showed me that I've seen nothing yet. Frankly I had to stop the movie about three times because it was just too HEAVY. It's graphic, it's gross, it's too much at times. And yet I consider it one of the best indie movies of the last decade. It is in lieu of Gaspar Noé's "Seul contre tous" (I stand alone) exept ... this really happened. As pictured.
The story takes us to a journey to the alcoholic dark underclass scene of the 1970's in Hamburg's Reeperbahn, close the harbor, following one of Germanys most infamous serial killers, Fritz Honka speaking with a strong East-German dialect. Mind you, this is not a Hollywood picture and it's one of those movies that would never get an Academy Award even though cinematography, costumes, acting and set-design is beyond astonishing. It's just too real. More often than not the picture is layered behind a thick cigarette smoke layer inside nicotine yellowed walls. The soundtrack solely consists of contemporary German "Schlager"music, including Honka's favorite song "Es geht eine Träne auf Reisen" ("A tear goes on a journey") ... all those songs are just harmless contemporary witnesses but add so much to the dense atmosphere and convert them into the sickish part of the narration.
I'm a big fan of gritty movies but this movie showed me that I've seen nothing yet. Frankly I had to stop the movie about three times because it was just too HEAVY. It's graphic, it's gross, it's too much at times. And yet I consider it one of the best indie movies of the last decade. It is in lieu of Gaspar Noé's "Seul contre tous" (I stand alone) exept ... this really happened. As pictured.
Between Two Ferns: The Movie
(2019)
All we wanted was just the interviews
20 September 2019
Meh, the movie was okay-ish, mostly because Zach Galifianakis is hilarious as expected, but the movie itself is sort of rubbish and forced.The interviews - the heart of the whole idea - come way too short. Why Netflix just didn't opt to do a miniseries consisting of 10 interviews, 10 minutes each is beyond me. It would have been a major hit.
Chernobyl
(2019)
Seriously good and tense with an atomic size grain of salt
22 June 2019
The only thing missing was some more visualisation of the core meltdown process aka CGI. Like how did the elephant foot form or the graphite tips cause the explosion in the first place. However, the lack of special effects doesn't affect the impact and tension of the show at all. It would just be nice to have had. Storytelling and acting is probably amongst the best in the last decade. Wise choice to not impose fake russian accents, it allowed the actors to give much more depth to the characters they deserved. If people think the series doesn't pay enough tribute to the heroic actions of the workers, you're dead wrong.
The Purge
(I) (2013)
Beyond stupid
30 June 2013
Warning: Spoilers
In the oh so near future there's one day where you can go out and commit whatever crime you want. The idea for the movie might sound somewhat interesting at first. Questions pop up such as: what kind of society agrees to a thing like this? How does this affect daily life, knowing/assuming that your neighbor or employee might be trying to kill you, or tried to last year? Doesn't an annual crime green card for murder and rape for Average Joe even lead to a more doomed, sick society? Nobody knows, because the movie doesn't bother with those boring details. Everybody seems to be cool with this (except for the oddball son) because ever since then all citizens agree to only commit crime during the purge. It's ... magic!
In many movies you have that one annoying character. This movie does different. Everybody is annoying. Only the stranger seems to be the only sane and bearable person (a "thank you" might have helped the situation though). Everybody else is nuts.
As soon as the main plot starts everything gets chaotic. All of them are running around and are acting unpredictably. It goes like "There's a guy in our house and we need to save our daughter? Well, let's check the monitors first to see what is going on *outside*!". We also learn that the safest way to protect your family apparently is to split up: son, you go there. Woman, you go defend something over there. Daughter, umm - where was she again? Nevermind. Let's not even talk about the girls boyfriend. Go figure yourself what he was thinking, because I don't know. Then we got the spooky masked villains. Apparently some students on their annual purge rite, trying to act like a mixture between the (Dark Knight-) Joker and Alex from Clockwork Orange. Well, ... trying. In the end the other friendly neighborhood villains show up, killing the other villains, only to try to kill the family themselves. Because in the future society it's totally okay and good for society and your soul to kill a family including their children during the purge, just because they have too much money. Of course they fail but their lives are spared leading to the most interesting part of the movie, opening the doors wide open for a sequel. If the movie does well in the box office there will likely be one and it would give the opportunity to show us how the other 364 days until the next purge will be like, now knowing that their neighbors tried to kill them, leaving room for character development. But let's be honest. This is not gonna happen (the insights, not the sequel).
In many movies you have that one annoying character. This movie does different. Everybody is annoying. Only the stranger seems to be the only sane and bearable person (a "thank you" might have helped the situation though). Everybody else is nuts.
As soon as the main plot starts everything gets chaotic. All of them are running around and are acting unpredictably. It goes like "There's a guy in our house and we need to save our daughter? Well, let's check the monitors first to see what is going on *outside*!". We also learn that the safest way to protect your family apparently is to split up: son, you go there. Woman, you go defend something over there. Daughter, umm - where was she again? Nevermind. Let's not even talk about the girls boyfriend. Go figure yourself what he was thinking, because I don't know. Then we got the spooky masked villains. Apparently some students on their annual purge rite, trying to act like a mixture between the (Dark Knight-) Joker and Alex from Clockwork Orange. Well, ... trying. In the end the other friendly neighborhood villains show up, killing the other villains, only to try to kill the family themselves. Because in the future society it's totally okay and good for society and your soul to kill a family including their children during the purge, just because they have too much money. Of course they fail but their lives are spared leading to the most interesting part of the movie, opening the doors wide open for a sequel. If the movie does well in the box office there will likely be one and it would give the opportunity to show us how the other 364 days until the next purge will be like, now knowing that their neighbors tried to kill them, leaving room for character development. But let's be honest. This is not gonna happen (the insights, not the sequel).
Funny Games
(2007)
I don't know
21 August 2011
I'll give this a mild rating for being unconventional and its surprisingly good ideas from time to times, however for some people it could really be a pain in the a* to watch. I watched the film to a certain point when I thought »wow, that's the end — and it's not that bad!«. Time seemed to have flied by, no big flaws and I was ready for the final scene and the credits to roll in. So I watched Naomi Watts basically doing nothing, but doing it for a very long time and nothing happened. Nothing. I really dig long shots with no dialog, as long as they make sense and deliver to the atmosphere – but what followed was one long shot after the other with about zero plot development, as mentioned in other reviews here. Completely out of pace. I think it meant to give the viewer a deep depressing impression or something like that, but I have to admit, it really bored me and made me uncomfortable watching — I'm not talking about that uncomfortable feeling when you watch movies like Man bites Dog, because it's hard stuff, no, it's just lame. The camera play is as boring as it can be and you get the imagination, that the camera crew told Naomi Watts to »do her thing« for about 5 minutes or so, while the crew takes a coffee break. So, as to cinematography this movie is one of the worst I've seen in the recent years. But I also need to note, that the story itself is fairly good, and the actors did a good job. Just half an hour after watching the movie I already can't remember, whether the movie had a music score or not except for the shitty theme song by Naked City. Even more disturbing to me was, that I somehow knew the music and after looking it up, I remembered, that I actually listened to this crap a couple of years ago... by choice. So I think this movie is not bad, it's not great but it's far from being a classic or art(house). It's *meh*.
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