Watched in the ZDF Media Library
Schocktober 2024 #22
A tranquil lake, shielded by pine forests, forms the center of this picturesque spot of nature. However, the area is not quite as idyllic as the local seaside resort in tranquil Maine appears at first glance. In the depths of the water lurks a gigantic monster that not only sinks its teeth into the flesh of moose, but also makes short work of divers, as the first scene of "Lake Placid"…
Watched on Disney +
Lt. Colonel Siering (Denzel Washington) has a problem with the fact that he accidentally shot down one of his own tanks during "Operation Desert Storm" in the Gulf. His superiors don't want to know about his feelings of guilt, something that can happen in the heat of battle. America and its latest war.
Siering is also confronted with questions of military ethics in other ways: He is given the task of reviewing the requirements for the…
Watched on Disney +
It is unusual for America to experience what has happened from time to time in recent years: terrorist attacks in their own country. God's own country is indeed blessed in one respect: In the current prevailing geopolitical world, the wars that the US wages, in which it is directly or indirectly involved, do not touch its own country, its home soil. A few acts of terror have a disturbing effect on the US soul. Since the…
Watched in the cinema (118th visit in 2024)
In the late 1980s and 1990s, Kathryn Bigelow had a directorial hand that was one of the most confident in its class, especially in the action genre. She delivered films one after the other that are revered today as classics for good reason. Whether it was her melancholy vampire demystification "Near Dark", the cop thriller "Blue Steel" or the visionary dystopia "Strange Days", Bigelow once again proved to have more balls than…
Watched on Disney +
For true-to-life teen movies, there are teen dramas and teen dramedies, but anyone who wants to watch a teen comedy knows that this is not about realistic situations, exactly the opposite is the case. What Matthew (Emile Hirsch) experiences is possible, but improbable, a pubescent's dream, and thanks to "The Girl Next Door", the pimple-faced can experience it. It doesn't really matter that the porn business in the finished film is brimming with clichés, on the…
Watched on Amazon Prime Video
"Blame It On Rio" sends two close friends in their mid-40s (Michael Caine & Joseph Bologna) to Rio de Janeiro with their recently grown-up and very attractive daughters (Michelle Johnson & Demi Moore) - and in addition to low-cut thongs, high temperatures and lots of flirting, an affair or even love is in the offing that will put their friendship to a severe test.
The Copacabana, the convincing arguments of this tall 18-year-old, Caine's charm and the…
Watched in the cinema (92nd visit in 2024)
It's not quite clear whether we should be happy, angry or simply surprised: 6 years ago, "Love, Simon" was the first film from a major Hollywood studio to be about a homosexual teenage romance. Of course, there are plenty of examples of such films. "Call Me by Your Name" was nominated for several Oscars in 2018, not to mention the legions of LGBT filmmakers who have addressed the difficulties of coming out.…
Watched on Disney +
""Dodgeball" does not live from its guest appearances alone, but they definitely enliven it. David Hasselhoff as the coach of the German Dodgeball team works wonderfully. Towards the end, Peter (Vince Vaughn) meets Lance Amstrong and the moment worked very well at the time of the movie's release in 2004. It's a charming cameo that's well integrated into the story and usefully marks a necessary turning point. That's all well and good, and it could have…
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 Blu-Ray
Based on the novel "La Planète des singes" by Pierre Boulle, director Franklin J. Schaffner created a masterpiece of the sci-fi genre in 1968 with "Planet of the Apes", which has lost none of its explosive power to this day. On the contrary, the biting and cynical satire about a world ruled by apes is still as relevant today as it was back then. Although the story may seem somewhat antiquated due to modern CGI technology, the…
Watched on Disney +
What could have appealed to Tim Burton about making a cinematic reinterpretation of Pierre Boulle's novel "Planet of the Apes"? Especially since the first film adaptation by Franklin J. Schaffner from 1968 can still be considered a timeless classic movie today. The film itself is never able to answer this legitimate question satisfactorily, but in theory the material is of course noticeably infused with and flanked by classic Burton tropes: The rebellion of an outsider facing…
Watched on Blu-Ray
"Die Hard", probably the most important and revolutionary milestone in modern action thrillers, inevitably had to be followed by a sequel. A difficult legacy, after all, the big breakthrough and the establishment of lead actor Bruce Willis as the coolest action hero of the next decade could not (or never) be equaled, let alone topped, under normal circumstances. And as expected, the sequel naturally fails to do either. The bar was already set far too high for…