Watched on Disney +
For animation fans, the 2000s will always mark the decade in which the mass extinction of classic animated films began. Disney broke away from its glorious handmade history with "Home on the Range", DreamWorks Animation was also fed up after various flops. Fox Animation Studios even had to close down completely after "Titan A. E". And this also had an impact on "Ice Age". Originally intended as a dramatic animated film, Blue Sky Studios was not…
Watched in the cinema (8th visit in 2025)
After Jesse Eisenberg had achieved great fame as an actor and starred in numerous Hollywood productions, the time came for him to try his hand at directing. His debut film "When You Finish Saving the World" received decent reviews in 2022, but failed to make much of an impression. His second attempt behind the camera is a different story. "A Real Pain" has certainly not become a blockbuster. However, the reviews are…
Watched in the ZDF Media Library
The script of "The Cable Guy" could be criticized for a number of things, but certainly not for being narratively poorly constructed. The problems lie more with the characters, which I will come back to later. A subplot is established quite early on, which plays out quietly in the background and seems to have no connection to the plot. Nevertheless, from the second of these scenes at the latest, it becomes clear that they…
Watched in the ZDF Media Library
64 years have passed since this film was made and the team of reporter Tintin and sleuth Snowy have been investigating for almost 100 years. Conceived by Hergè, probably one of Europe's best-known comic authors, the two heroes have been chasing the mysteries of this world since 1929. In his adopted country of France (Georges Prosper Remi, alias Hergè, was originally born in Belgium), "Les aventures de Tintin" are part of the cultural heritage…
Watched in the Arte Media Library
One of the oldest gags in the world, which is usually only supposed to be funny because of its pure starting point, but often ends up as pure nonsense for uptight philistines: Men in drag. Please do not misunderstand: Genuine travesty art or even sexual tendencies are expressly not meant here. It's about these cheap laughs at stag party, soccer Christmas party or unfortunately also (German) TV sketch (or even cinema) level, in which…
Watched in the cinema (3rd visit in 2025)
David Dietl's last film directorial work was six years ago. His "Feste & Freunde" is a remake of the Danish film "Long Story Short" from 2015. Of course, there was nothing corona-related in the Danish original, which the German comedy incorporates into its plot.
Dietl succeeds in creating an entertaining comedy about friendship, love and crises. The movie entertains in most scenes, but touches in the fewest. The movie lives up to the…
Watched in the cinema (1st visit in 2025)
Musical biopics have been back in fashion for years. "Rocketman", "Bob Marley: One Love" and most recently "Back to Black" all follow a similar pattern. Sometimes more, sometimes less critical, they follow the stars and icons of their time through the highs and lows of their lives and careers. But drowned out by big performances and loud music, the person behind the façade is often neglected. Problematic topics are glossed over or…
Watched in the cinema (200th visit in 2024)
At first glance, Emmanuel Courcol's conformist composition of social study, family drama and band comedy "En fanfare" appears to be first and foremost a pleasing variation of known motifs. Apart from the dramaturgical motto of combining sentiment and shallow jokes the hypocritical idealism and seemingly liberal subtext angered me. Its elitist essence is implied by the German distribution title "Die leisen und die großen Töne" (the quiet und the big tones), which…
Watched on Disney +
Innocence. Christmas spirit. At the North Pole, where the elves make presents for Santa Claus, three commandments apply: 1: "Treat every day like Christmas Day", 2: "There's room for everyone on the list of good people" and 3: "The best way to share Christmas joy is to sing at the top of your lungs." Buddy arrives in New York as a 30-year-old adult, raised among elves and educated according to the three elven commandments. Like a…
Watched in the ZDF Media Library
An alcoholic, a drag queen and a runaway meet on Christmas Eve. What looks like the beginning of a bad joke is actually the starting point of Satoshi Kon's third and penultimate feature film "Tokyo Godfathers". Driven into homelessness, the three of them form an alternative family and, through the miracle of Christmas, also become parents. An abandoned baby becomes the starting point for a desperate rescue mission, in the course of which the…
Watched on Free TV
In recent years, there have been a whole series of German films based on well-known titles from abroad. Some of these remakes have been very successful in their own right. "Der Vorname", a remake of the French comedy or play of the same name, was a big hit at the box office. 1.2 million moviegoers in the cinemas, which is quite respectable in this day and age. Nevertheless, some may have been surprised when a sequel…
Watched in the cinema (195th visit in 2024)
All good things come in threes, they must have thought when they set out to reunite the chaotic family that is constantly stumbling over names. Whereby "good" should probably primarily be equated with "profitable", as the first two films were hits at the German box office. "Der Vorname" attracted around 1.3 million people to German cinemas in 2018. Four years later, the figure for "Der Nachname" was still 800,000, making it tempting…