Manuel-Hoerth Reviews

2000 Mules (2022)

If you want to have your own opinion on this then you should actually watch it

[10/10 · 4 January 2024]

Normally I give the movies I review a rating and in the review I give my opinion. I can't do that with this movie though, cause everyone seems to have already formed their opinion about this movie anyway.

So whatever opinion I might have will be loved by the people with the same opinion and hated by everyone else and no one is gonna look at any actual arguments and see if they make sense or not, because let's be honest, the reason most people read the reviews on 2000 Mules is so that they can down vote the reviews that disagree with their political stance and have those reviews that agree with their political views reinforce their political bias so that they can form an opinion on the movie without actually watching it.

That's a mistake. Cause no matter what your political stance is and no matter if you love or hate D'Souza, you SHOULD watch this movie. And if you hate D'Souza and Trump, you should ESPECIALLY watch it, cause if you think people aren't gonna be able to tell that you haven't watched it as long as you just skim through some IMDb reviews, then you are wrong - the only reason people don't usually notice it is because they haven't watched the movie either. But if you have watched it and the other person hasn't, that puts you in a clear advantage in any argument no matter your political stance ;-)

Captain Fall (2023)

Suprisingly solid adult humor animation

[9/10 · 1 August 2023]

A lot of people just see this as just yet another adult humor animation in the same vein of so many others that came before. Even those that find this show unique and say it stands out, can't quite explain what it is that makes it stand out.

Of course I can't answer for other people, but I tell why it stood out to me. This isn't just another show in the vein of Rick and Morty or Bob's Burger's etc, though on the surface it looks like that. But here the humor isn't random and the show doesn't exist for the jokes, rather the humor serves the show and the plot. And it's really a satire about our current society and the humor serves as a sort of shield that allows them to address societal issues that a more serious life action show couldn't.

Sound of Freedom (2023)

The road to hell is paved with (pretending to have) good intentions...

[1/10 · 27 July 2023]

As someone who was a victim of child sexual abuse myself and as someone who admittedly likes Trump (who praised this movie to no end) and also as a tiny bit of conspiracy nut and seeing all the mainstream media attack this movie and trying to smear it, I really, REALLY wanted to like and support and even praise this movie - but I just can't.

I have to admit that it's a bit difficult for me to agree with the mainstream media's warning about this movie, but they really are correct for once - sometimes they throw you curve balls like that. I mean after all, there was a time when I trusted the mainstream media and I lost trust in them not because they were mainstream, but because they just started to get a lot of things wrong. But that also means that if they get things right for once, I can't just categorically disagree with them.

And it's really not like they are just smearing this movie for no good reason. They do (for the most part) have a valid point. This movie does nothing to actually stop this crime or to help the victims or to help people recognize this crime when they see it. On the contrary, because it claims to be based on true events, it causes people to have a completely wrong impression about this and therefore makes it harder for people to detect it when it's happening, because this movie is less accurate in its depiction of the real world than a Liam Neeson action thriller. Actually, Liam Neeson's recent film "Memory" was pretty good and actually much more accurate in it's depiction of child trafficking than this movie.

Because this movie really does nothing but reinforce outdated and completely wrong stereotypes. This type of thing isn't something that mainly happens in South America or in "other" countries and children don't just get kidnapped out of the blue by complete strangers and against their will. The sad truth is that most cases don't involve a stranger at all, but someone the child trusts and the child isn't gonna come running to you begging for help, cause the truth is they are victims of years of extremely systematic and sophisticated psychological manipulation.

And the perpetrators aren't all tough guys either. Actually a lot of them are quite educated, sophisticated and female because they don't raise suspicion. And also it's not just about forcing the kids to make movies - that only plays a very, very small part, but this movie would have you believe that that's the main part - that's the smallest part by far! Most of the aspects involved are MUCH worse than "just" that.

And as much as I would love to think that there are plenty of officers (official or rogue) of government security agencies who are incorruptible and ceaselessly fight the "bad guys" in relentless sting operations, the reality sadly isn't as clear cut. Yes, sometimes SOME children do get rescued, but actually very rarely by police, much less government security agencies. Well, there was that ONE case in Bosnia where a policewoman and member of an international agency uncovered a human trafficking operation - but then again the people running it were her colleagues...

Discontinued (2022)

Red Pill? Blue Pill? Screw that, just take all the pills!

[10/10 · 25 July 2023]

This is another entry in the small but growing sub-genre of movies that are outwardly similar to The Matrix, but secretly mock the hell out of it.

First off, casting Langston Fishburne as "The Guide" was genius! He really does look a lot like his father after all, and when we first see him, it almost seems like he does a (intentionally bad) Cowboy Curtis impression.

Sarah reminds me a lot of Enid from Ghost World. In a way this movie is to Millennials what Ghost World was to Gen X. And here comes the spoiler; both movies have a main character that's depressed and at odds with society and ultimately fails in her struggle to find a place for herself in our flawed, competitive society and both movies don't really SHOW their main character committing suicide at the end and instead show them heading off into some wondrous distant land by themselves where they can finally be alone and find peace, but if you can read through the subtext; they really committed suicide.

In Discontinued this is reinforced by the title itself and of course by the actual scene of her committing suicide. So I have to correct myself, cause this movie actually does show her commit suicide (when she swallows the entire pill bottle) it's just that we kinda gloss over it, because after that Fishburne pops up and guides her through the matrix. But if you think about it, the whole matrix stuff only starts to happen after she already committed suicide.

And also, the whole movie is basically a loop. It begins at the its own end and ends at its own beginning and yet the movie stays in chronological order. How is that possible? It's because Sarah is in a loop. She killed herself and now she is basically in purgatory, reliving her 5 "greatest" memories over and over again for all eternity or until she is finally able to make the choice to face society and face other people and face her own inner demons that those other people represent.

What Happened to Monday (2017)

The Anti-Matrix

[10/10 · 12 July 2023]

When I saw the poster, I was expecting it to be a cheap Matrix rip-off. I was so wrong; this is the Anti-Matrix. The similarity to the Matrix are only superficial and very intentional and only to mock the Matrix.

This becomes very obvious when we see that rooftop scene actually play out (it ends quite differently than it does in the Matrix). Why would I love a movie that mocks the Matrix? I am not saying the Matrix is a bad movie, but there is a more sinister aspect to it, that the makers of this movie picked up on and this movie is their response.

Because if there is no "reality" and it's all just an illusion created by the "Architect" the imprison us, then human life becomes cheap. Because their lives are all just an illusion anyway and if they die, their souls might even wake up and become free of the Matrix. Or at least that's actually the conclusions some lunatics came to after having watched the Matrix.

So in this movie we are faced with an autocratic system that's actually completely modeled after real life China with a similar view on human life - viewing average, everyday humans as similarly expendable. And to justify their State wide "family planning" they promise the "superfluous" siblings that they imprison a kinda Matrix of their own where they put them into pods similar to the ones we see in the Matrix and where they are then induced into a sleep state in which they dream and have a sort off life of their own, even if only in their heads. So it is a kinda Matrix, except that at the end we of course find out that their Matrix is... well... I don't want to give spoilers. You just have to watch it if you haven't seen it. It's a great movie with some superb acting.

Nefarious (2023)

Not sure if it's a good Christian movie, but it's a great horror movie

[10/10 · 9 July 2023]

Great movie, even though in a way it sets itself up for failure, because a Christian audience doesn't usually appreciate a good psychological horror movie and horror fans usually don't like a movie made by Christians promoting Christian values.

So there is no big demographic that really appreciates a movie like this and it's obvious that the makers of this movie knew that too and were doing it to simply make a good movie for those who can appreciate it (no matter how few there might be).

So I am not sure if it even really wants to be a good Christian movie or a good psychological horror movie, but either way it does succeed at being both.

For a movie about demonic possession it's also surprisingly realistic. And I say that as someone who has worked as a guard in prisons and mental institutions. There are a few extremely minor inaccuracies but these are necessary for the plot or are for safety reasons (after all, not everyone needs to know what exactly the actual safety measures in a prison actually look like in detail).

There actually already is an almost identical German movie called "Der Totmacher" (The Deathmaker). Though I am sure no one involved in this movie saw it, even though it's essentially the same movie and that's because that German movie's entire script simply consists entirely of the actual transcripts of an actual psychological evaluation of an actual serial killer. But that's how close to reality this all actually is.

Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening (2023)

Surprisingly well done documentary

[10/10 · 6 July 2023]

This is actually the third part of the Plandemic series. I admit I didn't really watch the first 2 parts because I thought it was made by tinfoil hats, but at least the third part isn't like that at all and is very well done and it really blew me away how accurate they are with some of the aspects they are addressing.

It's also just a really well done documentary, that is really well produced and includes exclusive interviews with many well known figures, something I didn't expect from such a fringe, non-mainstream documentary series.

And it really isn't about the Pandemic anymore, but rather the next step that is planned and that the pandemic "prepared" (or rather conditioned) us for (basically socialism - with Klaus's characteristics). Which might still sound like a crazy conspiracy theory now, but then again a lot of the things that were labeled crazy conspiracies 3 years ago have now been admitted to by mainstream publication.

I think it's gonna be the same with the things this documentary addresses, you might dismiss them now, but don't forget to watch it again in 3 years and see for yourself "how wrong" they actually were. (Only problem is that by then it's of course gonna be too late to do much about it).

Midsommar (2019)

Not what it appears to be... I really did not-see this coming...

[10/10 · 18 May 2023]

This is one of those horror movies that is actually really deep and symbolical and works on multiple levels and has multiple stories hidden within the surface narrative and in this case it's actually 3 stories that are told at the same time, though only the surface narrative is picked up consciously, the other 2 are picked up subconsciously and that's what makes it disturbing.

Be sure to watch the extended cut, because only there does it really become apparent what the other 2 stories are about. So, here go the spoilers, cause now I am gonna say what I believe those 3 themes are. Obviously on the surface it's a horror movie, but beneath that it's a drama about relationships and about breaking up - some people pick up on that first hidden theme/narrative and so they find it boring because they expected a horror movie, but what they get is an emotional drama.

But no one has consciously picked up on the 3rd narrative - or at least I have never seen anyone mention it - even though it's very obvious when you watch the extended cut. The third genre of movies is that it's a movie about the 3rd Reich and related National Socialist propaganda, ideology and atrocities committed and that's the aspect everyone only picks up subconsciously and that makes everyone feel uncomfortable watching this movie, but without really knowing why.

Which also explains some of the criticism, such as Swedes and Pagans complaining that their culture and ideology isn't portrayed accurately. Of course it isn't, because that's not the culture or ideology it's trying to portray! So the 4th and ultimate genre is that it's really a biting political satire that uses all the other genres as cover.

It's like the travel movies that the Soviet Union published that make the Soviet Union look like some kind of socialist Disneyland. And as long as you were a tourist who was willing to only go to the places he was told to go and to just gloss over all the labor camps and atrocities, it kinda was! And so what those movies were for socialism, this movie is for National Socialism - a sorta satirical video travel guide into a promised National Socialist fantasy land and Utopian paradise that never existed and that only a complete psychopath could ever try to propagate as something desirable.

Animaniacs (2020–2023)

Deeper than even the original

[10/10 · 14 April 2023]

Animaniacs has always been quite deep for a "children's show" as it was always targeted towards adults as well. With the reboot, I feel the target audience has completely shifted towards adults, or to be more precise, towards the people who were kids during the original show.

Children nowadays can still enjoy it, but they will miss out on most of the jokes and even more importantly they will miss out on the (political) satire which the reboot introduces and which wasn't (really) present in the original. Animaniacs always worked on more than one level and always had a deeper narrative than the one on the surface and with 30 years experience they perfected that art to the point that they can safely address any topic, without the children, the censors, the soccer moms or the PC police even noticing. Which allows them to address issues that any other "children's show" wouldn't dare touch with a ten foot pole and even sprinkle little tiny truths in there that everyone knows, but in today's climate no one dares to say out loud anymore and watching them do that was the most fun for me - but the whole show is just so much fun and just works on so many levels!

Samaritan (I) (2022)

Surprisingly deep for a Stallone movie

[9/10 · 8 September 2022]

Wonderful and uplifting movie and story with some relatively deep messages that I didn't expect in a superhero movie starring Stallone. The twist was good too and nicely build up, though maybe they were building up the twist a bit too well. Cause if you think about it, the title itself already gives away the twist, at least to someone who is familiar with the Bible and knows what "Samaritan" refers to.

Cause a "good Samaritan" isn't simply a good guy, but is actually someone who is supposed to be bad, but turns out to become good in the end, which is exactly what Stallone's character (Joe) goes through. So in a way, he really is the Samaritan of the movie and the true antagonist Cyrus, really is the perfect "nemesis" for him as they are actually perfect counterparts. While Joe becomes good, Cyrus becomes bad. While Joe starts fighting crime, Cyrus instigates it. While Joe bears his cross, Cyrus breaks the cross (literally). Joe is a loner who avoids crowds and hates getting attention, while Cyrus baths in crowds, leads them and incites them, and while Joe goes around looking for broken things (both objects as well as people) that he can fix, Cyrus believes in "Ordo ab Chao" or to put it more direct, in breaking things before things can be rebuild.

Talking on a deeper lever, there is both Christian and occult symbolism in this movie, though unlike with many other Hollywood movies, the occult aspects aren't glorified. And though the movie appears to be morally ambiguous, it actually isn't. Joe might seem like a very unchristian hero, but in the end he is probably the most Christian hero seen in a mainstream Hollywood movie in a long time.

The Cellar (2022)

Classic horror formula brought back to haunt our modern times

[9/10 · 8 September 2022]

I do feel this movie has a potential to one day become a classic of it's own. A good horror movie takes the things that plague the everyday lives of it's contemporary audience and exposes their dark side, but without spelling things out. Resulting in the audience feeling very uneasy, but not knowing exactly why. All classic horror movies pull that off and this one does an equally good job targeting a modern audience with modern issues.

Like with all horror movies that apply this formula (and all the good ones ALWAYS do) this movie therefore relies on building things up in the first act and having the audience relate to the characters and their relatable everyday issues and interpersonal conflicts. Which might seem dull (especially for today's audience with its notoriously short attention span) but it's an absolutely crucial and necessary build up for the 3rd act in which the *bleep* will finally hit the fan.

So while the everyday problems of an average modern family might seem boring to sit through and might seem like they have nothing to do with the scary monster that will figuratively and/or literally, but inevitably show up at the end, it in reality has EVERYTHING to do with it and actually any monster is merely the personification of the dark aspects of the issues that are addressed in the first act.

Also, like so many horror movies nowadays, this movie includes some references to the occult. But unlike in many other horror movies, these occult aspects are not in any way glorified, yet are portrayed fairly accurately, though of course taken with a slight artistic license. Which I think is what you would want. I mean after all and assuming black magic is real, you wouldn't want your audience accidentally summoning the dark forces after casually reciting some dialogue from the latest haunted house movie :-)

Star Trek: Lower Decks: Grounded (2022) Season 3, Episode 1

It's a different Star Trek, but it's finally Star Trek

[9/10 · 25 August 2022]

Great episode starting off a promising season that finally delivers the actual Star Trek stories (+ tons of Easter eggs) that fans have been waiting for!

When Lower Decks first came out, I gave it a bad review and now I would like to make up for that. It's not that I disagree with my earlier reviews, they were accurate regarding the episodes back then. But I do feel that since then and especially now in Season 3 they have become so much more than just another animated sitcom or just another Star Trek parody. NOW it finally starts to feel like actual Star Trek, which is the highest praise a Trekkie can give - especially considering that there is so much "NuTrek" around now, yet none of the other shows - including and especially even the live action shows - truly feel like Star Trek. Well, okay, Strange New Worlds isn't half bad either, but that's also because I can't wait for their crossover with this show!

The problem was that initially, me and many other fans couldn't understand how an over the top animated parody, could be more like Star Trek than say that other show about vineyards. But it truly is and it's more than just a parody. Roddenberry described Star Trek as "Guliver's Travels in space". And of course Guliver's Travels has always been a satire and a parody - though be it a parody of the society of its time. And of course if you criticize your contemporary society, you need to figure out some way to get around censorship. And of course the classic trick is to just pretend that it's not talking about our present society, but about some remote island/planet that just so happens to look exactly like the contemporary society of the author. But thanks to both Jonathan and Gene, that trick is now so old and so well known, that no studio executive in the world is going to be fooled by it anymore, which is exactly the reason why the other NuTrek shows don't feel like Star Trek anymore.

Lower Decks on the other hand uses the fact that as an animated parody it's prone to not be taken as serious, and so it's easier for them to fly under the radar and hide their criticism about contemporary issues (even if it's mainly criticism of NuTrek itself) among a myriad of jokes, Easter eggs and 4th wall breaks. It's literally "lower decks" and lower decks won't stand out (among the many other shows with a higher budget and bigger stars) and in fact they are counting on that and that's why once I realized that, I now absolutely love and adore them. Which explains why initially they did more of a parody, but starting with this episode and this season, they increasingly drop the disguise and have some real stories and messages underneath all the overt silliness.

Death of a Nation (2018)

Review from a German who cares nothing about American political Parties

[10/10 · 4 August 2022]

I loved the parts about Sophie Scholl. All of the parts about National Socialism, especially the "movie" parts were really well done and shot on location. One of the main points Sophie Scholl makes in her actual flyers, is that Germans are an educated people with many great writers and poets etc. Yet the book that (at the time) all these well educated Germans praised the most was... well, you know that book by that mediocre Austrian Charlie Chaplin impersonator, which truth be told is utter garbage and is probably the worst piece of garbage ever put on paper - and yes - I can say that, because I actually read it. Whereas all these useful idiots that mindlessly praised it as their Bible - actually have not read it - and praise it purely for political reasons.

That's kinda like how it is with this movie, just the other way around. Only very few have actually watched it and their voices aren't heard, whereas many people slander it without knowing anything about the history it addresses or even having watched it at all. D'Souza does an excellent job in all aspects of his involvement. And while I don't care about American political parties, his research about and portrayal of the National Socialists is spot on, and it's kinda depressing that it took an American Indian (or is it Indian American?) to spell out the things about the National Socialists that we Germans knew all along, but never dared to really spell out ourselves.

Just one little criticism; Dinesh, don't EVER try pronounce a German word again! ;-)

Censor (2021)

A movie completely removed from reality - which is the point

[19 July 2022]

A confusing, convoluted and completely absurd and unrealistic movie. Since this is of course all intentional, I am not entirely sure if that makes the movie better or worse. It's one of those movies that's really hard to rate and almost impossible to compare to any other movie, though it does feel very reminiscent of David Lynch movies.

But for those who just feel confused after watching it, let me explain it real fast. Basically the movie is comparing deranged, schizophrenic psychopaths to, well, movies censors :-)

Because the schizophrenic psycho killer loses his ability to tell what is real and what's not. Similarly, people engaged in censorship also loose their ability to distinguish reality from fantasy, or at least that's what the movie argues. Because censorship is almost always being justified by saying that without it, whatever is depicted in movies, would become a reality. Of course "normal" people can distinguish between reality and fiction, but schizophrenics can not, so censorship is necessarily to keep the schizophrenics from imitating fiction. But of course by arguing that fiction would become reality, the censors expose themselves as people who seem to have difficulty keeping reality and fiction separate. So then if it was really true that violent movies would make such people violent, then by their own logic, you would have to conclude that such censors themselves would become the most violent monsters ever, as they of course watch the most amount of horribly violent horror movies.

But even so, we have never heard of any censor going on a killing spree, except of course in this very movie itself, which would of course itself be categorized as a "video nasty". And that's the point.

The Astrologer (1976)

The Room before The Room

[2/10 · 30 June 2022]

It's one of those movies which from any conventional angle is a really bad movie, but then again there is something indescribable about it that while not redeeming in any way, certainly launches it in the "so bad it's good" category. There is a rumor that they shot it without a script and it's either that or the script they had was just really bad. So either way, the story makes absolutely no sense and is all over the place and the editing is just ridiculously disjointed.

So on the one hand it's a really ridiculously bad movie, but on the other hand it actually isn't. I mean some of the shots are actually quite nice and must have cost a lot of money to make back in the day with a LOT of gorgeous and expensive location shoots. So it certainly wasn't cheap to make.

So it's really hard to rate the movie - because objectively it's really bad, but it has a certain charm to it and it has some really gorgeous and well done shots that you would not find in any other B-Movie.

Rag Doll (I) (2020)

Short and sad

[10/10 · 17 June 2022]

Great little stop motion short. Very artistic and nicely done - reminds me a lot of Coraline when it comes to the stop motion, which is a good thing and also isn't surprising as apparently it had some of the same stop motion people. Only that as opposed to being a big budget motion picture, this is more of a labor of love - the kinda thing a stop motion artist does in his spare time cause the subject matter is too sensitive for Hollywood.

Choose or Die (2022)

Great idea, horrible execution

[2/10 · 16 June 2022]

Put simply, this is just a bad movie. It's not even one of those it's so bad it's good movies. Admittedly, it was a great idea and it was somewhat intriguing and fun to watch, but only till about the middle part and then the movie just stopped caring and so did I.

So, even though it turned out really badly, it did have potential. So I really hope someone picks up this idea again and does it justice. Because it's not a bad idea, it's just poorly executed.

For example; at the beginning of the movie there are numerous hints at them being in hell, such as all the company names (the "pell" signs, the Kismet company, the Ferryman company, the soul company and her soul shirt) and the metaphysical power of the game and it's ability to alter reality and do seemingly impossible things and them being confronted with their sins and the conflicted, traumatized, dreary and remorseful life of all the characters, even before the game begins, also hint at that, but then it's just never picked up again.

The somewhat Saturnian and occult looking imagery for the game is also interesting, but again that's all it is. They just made it LOOK like that, but it's actually totally inaccurate and is also never really picked up or really explored as part of the story. Same with the retro aspects, they are just used as decorations and that's the extent to which it is used and the extent of the research they did.

Resulting in a horror movie that reminds me of a sleazy stripper. It dresses itself up nicely, but is just ugly and empty inside and just makes you feel dirty and immoral for having watched it.

18-Year-Old Virgin (2009 Video)

I never laughed so hard in my life!

[2/10 · 7 June 2022]

Admittedly, I was laughing AT the movie, but hey, potato potahto - what matters is that I had a great time!

Theaters should make double features with this and The Room - they fit great together and I found it even more unintentionally funny and more fascinatingly and incomprehensibly bad than The Room.

And just like all the other "it's so bad it's good" movies, it's a bad movie from a technical perspective, but it genuinely tries hard to be good, so that makes it kinda charming. Basically it's the movie equivalent of a naive virgin :-) I didn't look into if this movie is the first movie that this crew has done, but it certainly feels that way, as they all try hard to make a good movie, but just have no clue what they are doing, which just adds to the charm.

Seriously and highly recommended if you love bad movies!

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

A good movie, but not a "good" movie

[5/10 · 5 June 2022]

A lot of reviews describe this film as a "moral tale". I agree, but the morals presented are not traditional morals. So while it's certainly a very good movie from an.artistic and technical standpoint, it's not a good movie in the sense of upholding good morals from a traditional and religious standpoint as the movie does not hide its very open disdain for traditional Christian morals.

Which isn't to say that this isn't a religious movie. It's probably the most religiously devoted movie I ever watched. It's just that the religious values it promotes aren't Christian and nor are they from any other traditional religion, but go more into the direction of religions that in the past were considered to be more esoteric and occult and therefore have not made attempts to make mainstream Hollywood movies that directly outline their religious views and beliefs. To my knowledge this is the first mainstream movie that does so openly and directly.

Which isn't to say that it's not a very mysterious movie, but since it's so open and direct, the only mechanism it leaves for protecting its secrets lies in hiding them in plain sight. So when it comes to a lot of reviewers who try to figure out what exactly this movie is about or what even the story is exactly and what its purpose is - just actually and attentively watch the movie and just listen to everything it says - the movie tells you all of its "secrets" surprisingly directly - as these would of course normally all be deeply esoteric and occult and they are.

And of course this movie would not have been possible without Heath Ledger and his great sacrifice - I say that not only because right from the beginning the plot of the movie of course revolves around his character being sacrificed for his friends, but also because he sort of sacrificed himself for the movie in real life - as all the stress and effort it took him to try and finish the movie and give it his best, of course took a toll on him and of course contributed to his overdose and tragic death in real life.

The Bubble (2022)

This is NOT a movie about the film industry

[10/10 · 10 April 2022]

I remember watching the initial "Cliff Beasts 6" trailer when it came out and being VERY confused by it as there was no information about the actual film yet, but since the announced release date was April 1st I simply concluded that it's all a joke and that there is no film at all. But the conclusion that I should have drawn was of course that this movie isn't what it appears to be on the surface.

Meaning that yes, this movie is NOT about the making of a movie nor is it even about actors or the film industry in general. It's all about the pandemic. It's not about how the pandemic affected movie making, it's just about the effects of the pandemic and the lock downs in general and how it affected everybody.

Especially nowadays and especially with Hollywood movies or big budget movies you can't directly talk about "controversial" topics anymore. Of course you can make movies about Hollywood and even about the pandemic or even about the health industry. You just can't freely say the things everyone is thinking. So James Franco already discovered that in a Hollywood movie you can't directly criticize Hollywood for certain aspects of some its scandals or for its cancel culture, unless you want to get canceled yourself. So in his 2017 movie "The Institute" he simply switched it around and had the health industry as a stand in for the movie industry.

This movie here employs the exact same tactic, just the exact opposite way around, with the movie industry serving as a stand in for the health industry, allowing this movie to directly criticize the health industry in ways that right now would be impossible to do in a big budget movie if it was done directly.

Sono tornato (2018)

Italian version of "Er ist wieder da" (and that's all it is)

[5/10 · 2 March 2022]

I really liked the German original, so I watched this expecting it to be a different movie but in the same vein and of course with Mussolini. But I quickly realized that it's not a movie in the same vein, but essentially the exact same movie with the exact same plot. So if you have already seen "Er ist wieder da / Look Who's Back" there is really no point in watching this move, as you already know the entire plot.

Yet Hitler and Mussolini are not exactly interchangeable, but in this movie they might as well be as it makes very little to no changes to the original script. But since the original script wasn't written with Mussolini in mind, simply switching Hitler with Mussolini doesn't always work and almost always feels forced.

That said, it's not a bad movie. It just doesn't add anything new to the original aside from switching the main character to Mussolini. But if you haven't watched the original yet and would rather want to see an Italian movie than a German one, go for it. But otherwise stick with the German original (it really is the same movie anyway).

Harodim (2012)

If you liked JFK, you gonna love this!

[9/10 · 6 August 2021]

Conversely if you don't like Oliver Stone movies, you aren't gonna like this either.

It's a good movie and it's good entertainment, keeping you at the edge of your seat most of the time. And as such it does deserve 9 out of 10. The reason it has a much lower rating is because people take it for more than that and disagree with it. Just take it as what it is - a work of fiction. You wouldn't rate down an episode of the X-Files because not everything it portrays is exactly that way in reality, right? So why do it with this movie?

That said, even though it's of course fiction and at best a fictionalized version of real events, it's not even a badly researched movie. They definitely did their research and it encourages you to do your own research. Basically that's the message I got from it. It encourages people not to rely on what this movie portrays or what any movie portrays for that matter, but to look at things for themselves and form their own opinion and to do that with everything, not just with the subject of the movie.

A Classic Horror Story (2021)

Meta Meta Horror

[29 July 2021]

A lot of people interpreted the movie as "stealing" from all the horror movies that came before it - especially all the Meta-Horror movies. The movie is very much aware of that, which is why I call it a meta-meta horror.

Some people also interpret it as a satire of previous horror films and I can see that too. But ultimately I think it's a satire of the entire horror movie industry itself, including the entire film crew itself and last but not least the horror movie fans and the reviewers. It's not making fun of the movies - it's making fun us - the viewers of such movies and it's doing so in a way that almost shows contempt.

So, sufficely to say, I have never felt so personally attacked by a movie before. Does that make it a bad movie? No, but it doesn't exactly make it a good movie either.

Cracka (2020 TV Movie)

Why all the hate? (for this movie)

[24 July 2021]

First off - it's a movie now, but only because they canceled the series they intended to make. So originally this was only supposed to be the pilot, but they canceled the rest because of all the backlash and hate it received.

But have you noticed that while the ratings of this "movie" are generally really bad, the reviews are generally really good. So why that discrepancy? Maybe because it's easier to rate a movie you haven't seen than it is to actually review a movie you haven't seen...

And just like you should't judge someone by their skin color, you shouldn't judge a movie by it's trailer. Because I have to admit the trailer is absolutely horrible in that it can indeed be interpreted as racist incitement. So I am glad that I watched the movie first and then the trailer. Otherwise I would be like so many others and would have just been offended and left a negative rating without actually seeing the movie.

But if you watch the movie without knowing the horrible trailer or knowing about the controversy surrounding this movie - if you just judge the movie by itself, it's really not a bad movie and it really is very clearly against any kind of racism and isn't racist at all (unlike the messed up trailer).

Also, I like the concept, though it's not a new concept at all - basically it's just a remake of a remake of a Twilight Zone episode and Outer Limits too did the exact same kind of episode and when those episodes came out there was no controversy, as everyone understood that they were against racism - though that was many years ago - before we had certain political activists that like nothing better than to cancel all TV shows that disagree with their political agenda. Which makes it even more ironic that this movie was actually made by those very same cancel happy advocates... so they ended up canceling themselves...

Welcome to Hell (2018)

Is this supposed to be a joke?

[1/10 · 24 June 2021]

This is a joke, right? And they where thinking: "How can we make the worst movie ever?".

Because actually, if they were going for that and were trying to make another one those "It's so bad it's good" movies (like "Birdemic" for example) they actually did a "good" job!

Because as a horror movie it's laughable and even most "Trash" movies are better productions than whatever this is supposed to be. But as a complete train wreck, it's actually pretty "good" and I really don't mean that in any mean way, but I mean it as a genuine complement! And as such it's actually entertaining and definitely more entertaining than movies like Sharknado that try hard (and ultimately fail) to be "so bad it's good". This movie doesn't even need to try, it comes natural and I have to admit it kept me entertained the entire time. It's like a good old fashioned murder mystery and it really keeps you at the edge of your seat. Only instead of trying to figure out who the murderer is, you are constantly trying to figure out if they were really trying to make the first truly worthy sequel to "The Room" (in which case they kinda succeeded) or if they were genuinely trying to make a "real" movie (in which case they kinda failed).

For example: Are they intentionally shooting scenes without any light to make the movie bad, or do they genuinely not know that you need light for a shoot? And do they have good and bright light in the next scene to make it intentionally inconsistent, or because they realized their mistake and are genuinely trying to improve? Are they shooting out of focus to the point were you think they must be putting Vaseline on the lens, to make the film intentionally bad or to make the film appear artsy? And again, do they use various inconsistent (but equally bad) consumer cameras from 20 years ago to make the film intentionally bad or because they think that would make the movie appear "retro"? You just never ever know and so it's an endless mystery that is actually sort of fun.

With Birdemic and Sharknado, you know they were intentionally trying to be "so bad it's good", in which case it doesn't really work. But with this movie, you really can't tell, so they actually succeed at being "so bad it's good". So now I don't really know what to rate it, cause it really is so bad that it becomes so entertaining that I feel it would actually deserve a higher rating, but I feel that by giving it a good rating I would actually hurt the film more than by giving it a bad rating (and it truly is a bad film after all). But as a "so bad it's good" movie, I would actually give it a 10!

Also, I think I figured out why they called it "Welcome to Hell". It's because that's the only movie available on the streaming service down there...