me_on_quality Reviews

Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023)

When exactly did the Brits forget how to write good scripts?

[2/10 · 17 March 2023]

When exactly did the Brits forget how to write good scripts, and when did so many viewers forget what a good and what a bad movie is? What a sad development. It seems that these days the only UK scriptwriters whose creativity reaches the screen are the woke, London centric ones. I seriously have seen far too many bad English movies in the last few years to still believe there is much positive steam left there regarding anyone even faintly connected to the BBC, as is the case in this Netflix coproduction. A horrific, weak script, cardboard characters, much too much violence instead of any kind of cohesive depth, every cheap film clichée imaginable, plotholes the size of potholes. I rest my case.

Viking Wolf (2022)

Terrible. Could have been a Nordic werewolf movie, but merely is a tragedy without soul.

[2/10 · 9 February 2023]

I'll make it short. The daughter is bitten and turns into a werewolf. The mother, a local policewoman, finds this out and kills her own daughter, or maybe not. For anyone with kids, this is just a terrible premise. It could have worked out, a nice Nordic setting, a pleasant actress, a werewolf roaming the woods - but the moment the girl kills the guy that she was out on a date with, the whole movie just stops working. From here on, it can only end as a tragedy, because too many people die. What a terrible script. Once again, greenlighting this speaks volumes about the missing quality at Netflix.

White Noise (I) (2022)

Pretentious, pseudo intellectual, incoherent horror-humor drivel

[3/10 · 30 December 2022]

I don't know the book, and I don't want to. A movie has to stand on its own, and this movie is quite unbearable. It thinks it is smart, but it isn't. One can only assume that all along the decision axis, starting at Netflix, and ending at the film makers, too many people grossly overestimated themselves. Among other things, it's a parody of the academic university circus, but it is too unaware of itself to reach down to the core in a seriously self-humoring manner. Then, it's a movie about a catastrophy, like every zombie and virus movie out there. Sure, that always works, and sure, it is therefore at times quite spooky and gross. But all that just doesn't gel, and has been done much better on its own, as either a comedy or a horror movie. We are left with a total muddle of a movie, without clever, relatable or likeable characters and without any space for meaningful development. What a terrible script. Watch Sean of the Dead instead and have fun. Or watch I Am Legend, and be spooked and entertained.

The Perfumier (2022)

Watch the original. This here is just bad filmmaking.

[3/10 · 26 September 2022]

Where to start, where to end? What a terrible German movie drivel, once again. Too many just can't write good scripts, it seems, and just don't understand story, character development, suspense, protagonists. Woven in is once again that bland wokeness that Netflix has come to represent. The original, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, is a pretty much perfect movie, great visuals, acting, story, tragedy. This here is just a grand muddle, from beginning to end. The acting is okayish, as are the technical-artistic aspects like camerawork, music etc. Altogether, when will there be good script writing film schools in Germany?

Devil in Ohio (2022)

Incredibly bad. Clichéd, unfocussed, with every politically correct checkbox ticked.

[3/10 · 5 September 2022]

This mini-series has the quality and content of a single B-movie. It takes itself incredibly serious while being really bad. As a typical Netflix production, it totally uneccessarily has to tick off every woke cliché imaginable, including mixed race lesbian couple, gay best friend and unbearable psychobabble. With a better script, this could have been a clever series, as the actors and camerawork are good, and it starts off promising. But in the end, it's just one more movie for the growing trash heap of forgettable Netflix productions. I blame overpaid people putting an identity politics signature to everything they touch, with creative talent and artistic ability very much an afterthought.

I Came By (2022)

A confused movie with no character development and a drawn out and unfocused plot

[3/10 · 2 September 2022]

This kind of movie happens when mediocre and semi-talented people rise too high, both in the making and in the green-lighting. Hugh Bonneville delivers some good acting, but cannot otherwise save this complete muddle. Character development is non-existent, the tacked on three act structure makes little sense, and the timeline is drawn out over months, instead of happening in only a few days. The social pseudo-commentary feels delivered by spoilt and self-entitled middle classers. David Fincher's 'Panic Room' is the perfect antithesis to this trainwreck, with a perfect script, believable characters and a satisfying ending.

Prey (VI) (2021)

The typical dilemma of too many German moviemakers: A missing mastery and understanding of scriptwriting, character development and story arcs - the basics of storytelling!

[3/10 · 2 October 2021]

From a technical perspective, German moviemaking has caught up with the US, the UK and Scandinavia. With digital 6K cameras and good optics as affordable as they are, offering superb picture quality without much need for additional lighting, that isn't really such a feat anymore. However, when it comes to storytelling, so many German filmmakers are frequently at a loss.

In this picture, an attempt is made to combine several types of supposedly parallel storylines: The hunter and the hunted, sin and punishment, perhaps also revenge and redemption. None of it fits together, makes any real sense, or offers any kind of character development or emotional payback for the unfortunately uninvested viewer.

The camera work by Andreas Berger definitely deserves respect and is the stand-out of this production. Also, some of the acting is to be commended.

The Starling (2021)

Starts off strong, then looses its momentum and direction around midpoint, trying to smooth over with too much piano music and occasional comedy

[5/10 · 28 September 2021]

With a serious theme at heart, this film, after an omittable prologue, opens visually appealing, and at first manages to add the necessary lightness while still staying sincere. However, it then regrettably gets lost along the way, with an unfortunate mix of comedic and sad scenes without true depth, like stirring oil and water and letting the confused onlooker watch them separate too many times. The metaphor of the starling is a good start, but just doesn't carry this picture along, leaving the viewer emptier at the end than the beginning would have suggested. Also, a totally miscast couple without any screen connection.

Midnight Mass (2021)

From a filmmaking standpoint, top of the game. Regrettably, smothered in long-winded, anti-Christian, Zeitgeist-subtext on bad crusty versus good devoted religion.

[7/10 · 26 September 2021]

Exceptional filmmaking, competent script, good set design, wonderful camera work, remarkable casting and acting. Unfortunately, while basically knowledgeable and well researched, gets lost in its timing and anti-Christian flavour when trying to be overly pc. It feels like being lectured to by a recovering alcoholic who lost his faith, even if a smart one with some interesting philosophical insights.

Beckett (2021)

Well produced, photographed and acted, this tale of redemption looses its focus and timing in the third act.

[6/10 · 19 August 2021]

A lot about this movie is well performed. It's crisply photographed and has an almost documentary air about it. But in the end, the third act leaves a shallow and unsatisfying aftertaste, with both focus and timing not hitting the mark. A story based on redemption and revenge, 'Beckett' is somewhere between 'North by Northwest', 'The Fugitive' and 'Taken'. Being produced by Netflix, a happy mixed race couple is on vacation in Greece, and from there on things go wrong till the resolution at the end, with every resting moment only leading to new chaos. Cutting down the political side story in the third act probably could have made this a better film.

Ragnarok (2020–2023)

Series 2 ruined by cultural ideology and a weak script with nowhere to go.

[3/10 · 15 June 2021]

Series 1 of Ragnarök was good enough. The premise of an outsider discovering his superpowers is well worn, but it worked, and the beautiful but barren Norwegian setting added to that.

Fast forward to series 2, and you get what could increasingly be said about many new productions: Cultural ideology rules above all, most of all above fun and logic. The environmental aspect in the first series was absolutely okay and worked, but here, once again, they had to tick every single box of the cultural ideological playbook, which only serves agenda, not plot. One gets the feeling that even the script writers tried to work around this by sometimes adding a faint level of irony.

Apart from that, the second series faces the problem of all super hero story continuations: How to tell an interesting narrative when the main premise is already known. Superpowers like great strength or mind influencing feel either worn or involuntarily funny here, and the digital special effects don't make it better. Altogether, not a great watch anymore.