Watched on Amazon Prime Video
Well-known and completely gaga at the same time - that was the recipe for success of "Despicable Me" right from the start. A sweet, predictable story about a curmudgeon and three little girls was combined with absolutely stupid heist moments, topped off by the appearance of the actual stars: the Minions. To this day, we don't really know what they are supposed to be or what they are babbling about. But that didn't matter. If…
Watched on Blu-Ray
It is hardly surprising that 20th Century Fox turned its back on the story of the 1968 original after Tim Burton's unsuccessful "Planet of the Apes" remake and turned to the very extensive series of sequels spun narratively around it. It is even less surprising that the reboot, which began in 2011 with "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and continued in 2014 with "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes", was modeled on the only…
Watched on Netflix
When "Fack ju Göhte" was released in German cinemas 11 years ago, you could hardly believe your eyes. Not only was someone taking the school system apart in a completely politically incorrect way, calling stupid pupils and cynical teachers by their names, the comedy also became an absolute phenomenon with more than seven million admissions. But as is the case with phenomena, they are difficult to repeat. With "Fack ju Göhte 2", which was released two years…
Watched on Blu-Ray
Who would have ever thought that the children's book character of Paddington Bear, conceived by Michael Bond in the late 1950s, would continue to walk London's streets more than half a century later and experience exciting adventures that thrill all ages. In 2014, it was Paul King who, as director and screenwriter, took Paddington into a new age. 3 years later, the bear fabulously voiced by Ben Whishaw returned to give his Aunt Lucy the greatest birthday…
Watched on Disney +
Not even ten minutes pass before disaster befalls Alex (Kate Winslet) and Ben (Idris Elba): actually, they just wanted to get home as quickly as possible, but now they find themselves stranded in the middle of Canada's merciless mountain landscape. Their original flight has been canceled due to a storm, and as cinema has taught us far and wide, it is never a good idea to board a twin-engine propeller plane with the danger of crashing…
Watched on Amazon Video
A serious fall from a bull during a rodeo competition sends young cowboy Brady Blackburn into an existential life crisis. Even if he remains outwardly unharmed after his accident and the metal plate that must henceforth hold his fractured skull together is barely visible after a short time, it is the inner wounds that are painfully palpable in every scene of Chloé Zhao's drama "The Rider". According to a doctor's prescription, he should never get on…
Watched on Amazon Video
Director brothers Ben and Joshua Safdie open their film "Good Time" with an almost leisurely shot-counter-shot dialogue. The therapy session between an attending physician and an apparently mentally handicapped young man is infused with an unusual calm that you would hardly normally associate with the Safdies' chaotic, usually highly disorienting style. After a few minutes, however, this suspicious order comes to an abrupt end when the patient's brother, named Nick, bursts into the room and drags…
Watched on Netflix
Michael Bay just could not let it go: his Transformers franchise, which started in 2007, comprises five films under his direction, and was supposed to end after the third. But since the films always hit the box office, he was persuaded to make a fourth part, which was also to be the last film under his direction. With "The Last Knight" in 2017 we arrived at the fifth, apparently really his last, also for Mark Wahlberg. Only…
Watched on Amazon Prime
Anyone caught in Thailand dealing drugs or simply possessing them can expect harsh punishment. This was also the experience of British amateur boxer Billy Moore, who spent several years in Thai jail, where conditions are very different from our western standards. He recorded his experiences in his book "A Prayer Before Dawn: A Nightmare in Thailand", which was finally made into a film by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. "A Prayer Before Dawn" takes us into the hell of…
Watched on 4K UHD Blu-Ray
When "Blade Runner" was released in 1982, it had a hard time with critics and audiences alike. Only then did Ridley Scott's sci-fi thriller become a cult film that would go on to shape an entire genre and popularize cyberpunk. Based on the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick, "Blade Runner" skilfully handled film noir and sci-fi elements and also fascinated with its mythological and philosophical references, which provided plenty…
Watched on Apple TV
Over the years, "The Room" from 2003 has become a cult film. Currently, the unintentionally funny drama is considered one of the worst works in film history, leaving even competitors like "Manos: The Hands of Fate" by Harold P. Warren or "Samurai Cop" by Amir Shervan behind. Thanks to the Internet, new mash-up videos, memes and theories are spreading seemingly every day, which are extremely helpful in ensuring that "The Room" will continue to defend its…
Watched on Netflix
He wants to be an adventurer, Adrian (Jeremy Miliker) says at one point to the man from the youth welfare office. Finding treasures, fighting monsters, that is his vocation. He only smiles in the face of the boy's naïve childhood fantasies. His mother (Verena Altenberger), on the other hand, encourages him. He can become anything he wants. And she was to be right, in a way. Adrian is not with sword and shield today, but with a…