Archiv des Autors: Oliver

Einer wie Bruno

Radost (Lola Dockhorn) ist 13 und damit die starke Frau in der Familie. Ihr Mutter starb vor Jahren und ihr geistig zurückgebliebener Vater Bruno (Christian Ulmen) wird vom Jugendamt, gewissermaßen als Experiment, als Erziehungsberechtigter geduldet, auch wenn Radost sich eher um Bruno kümmert. Nach außen hin verschweigt sie den Zustand ihres Vaters. Dies ging bisher alles gut, doch mit der Pubertät kommen für Radost ganz andere Probleme hinzu und so langsam möchte auch sie erwachsen werden. Hinzu kommt noch der neue Mitschüler, der das Interesse des Teenagers weckt.

Dies ist nur eine (Fast)Filmkritik. Warum? Nun, weil ich nach einer halben Stunde gegangen bin. Das lag sicher nicht an Christian Ulmen, der seine Rolle ganz gut gespielt hat, auch wenn es schon leicht groteske Züge hatte. Aber insgesamt war der Film einfach langweilig. Ich habe nach dieser halben Stunde immer noch nicht ganz den Sinn des Films gesehen, bzw. keinen erfrischenden, der mich reizt zu bleiben. Habe ja nichtmal wirklich gelacht bei dieser tragischen Komödie (dafür andere im Kino, muss also an mir liegen). Es wurde eben ein Klischee nach dem anderen aufgegriffen, die Resultate diverser Aktionen waren absolut vorhersehbar und ich war nicht wirklich optimistisch, dass sich dies ändern würde. Spekulieren wir mal ein bisschen in die Runde. Was könnte denn noch unvorhergesehenes passieren? Eine Romanze von Radost und dem neuen Mitschüler? Dass das Geheimnis um Brunos verminderte Intelligenz an die Schulöffentlichkeit kommt? Mobbing, Gefährdung der jungen Liebe, Probleme mit den Eltern des Knaben, Entfremdung von Vater und Tochter, Probleme mit dem Jugendamt und schlussendlich ein Happy End aus dem alle Seiten gestärkt hervorgehen?

Link: IMDB

The Taking of Pelham 123

Just a short review:

Quite good movie, but mostly because of Travolta (who does way better villains than heroes) and Washington (a bit miscast, cause he plays the diplomat so often, he didn’t seem out of place, but still great acting). The script was predictable, the negotiation gave nothing new and the final showdown could’ve used a better/deeper dialogue. But aside that, a well made flick that I enjoyed.

Links: IMDB

Star Trek

About 20 years ago, the ship on which the father of James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) served, was attacked by some unknown but powerful Romulan mining ship from the future on a mission of revenge for their destroyed homeworld. Sacrificing his life, he led the ship into the battle and helped his fellow crew members escape, including his pregnant wife, who delivered their son a few moments before the father died. Now Kirk is a young man looking for trouble. His latest brawl with some Starfleet cadets draws the attention of Captain Pike onto him. He persuades Kirk to join Starfleet. In his third year at the academy, shortly after cheating in the Kobayashi Maru test, planet Vulcan is under attack. And since all of the fleet is far away, the cadets are sent out with new ships to help out. Being delayed on the way, the Enterprise with Kirk (and about all known TOS characters) on board arrives late at Vulcan, only to find all other ships destroyed by the same Romulan mining ship, that destroyed the ship of Kirk’s father. And not only that. Using a huge energy drill and red matter, and despite all efforts of the Enterprise, they manage to destroy Vulcan. Meanwhile, Half-Vulcan Half-Human Spock (Zachary Quinto / Leonard Nimoy) has to find his path between Starfleet, heritage, emotions and his lover Uhura. Now the Romulans are setting course for earth.

If this sound’s a bit strange to you, that’s okay. You’re in good company. „A chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members.“ So they say. In fact, with this movie they throw over several facts that already exist due other movies and the series. Sometimes it makes you wonder if J.J. Abrams was just fast-forwarding through some Star Trek DVDs, picking up a few ideas, but since he didn’t understand them, turned them into something different. (And I’m not talking about the fact that new shows of the elder stuff look more enhanced. That’s strange, but okay, since today’s stuff looks even better than in TOS.) Of course, some things can be explained by the time travel stuff, but some other stuff just makes you think „someone“ pulled the ideas out of a monkey’s rectum. Overall they try to explain that all this fits well into the established timeline, but let’s just stick to „no“. And with a chronicle of the early days of some characters, you would expect some character development. But actually they just throw the bunch together, give them one or two signature lines and that’s it. Quite shallow. Even Kirk is far from having an interesting development. The acting itself could be generally better. Another thing are the settings. While the bridge, the transporter room and the hallways are well made, most of the lower decks, where the infrastructure like the engine room resides, are just shots made in huge factories and storages. I.e. they all look like a big waste of space and far from being a realistic starship interior, especially in the clean Star Trek universe. This makes the settings inconsistent and unrealistic. The special effects are good, as expected, and the space combats look more interesting and dynamic than most others of the Star Trek franchise. There are some fun scenes as well, so overall I did somewhat enjoy the flick. I don’t mind changes to a certain degree, change is good and telling the same story again and again doesn’t make it better. But with this movie they try to tell a new story and fit it into an old story, which leads to some big logic bugs. So, from a semi-neutral point of view, the movie kinda sucks, even if you think of it as a reboot, like some people call it. J.J. Abrams is know for being mysterious about his projects, hyping them and f*cking them up in the end. For me, he’s just proceeding as usual.

Links: Movie at IMDB, Movie Homepage

Indiana Jones 4

We went to the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull preview a week ago. Good thing is, they didn’t fsck it up entirely. Even better is, I mostly enjoyed it. Almost a good movie. Just the end wasn’t that thrilling. Missing some tension, some action, some story, some content… or maybe it just had too much X Files in it. Probably a mixture. Aside that, a nice sequel, which just can’t hold up with the prequel. (Okay, but Lucas and Spielburg should appologize to the hardcore fans.)

But iirc, they stated to do this movie old style, with only a minimum of CGI. So, why do I see so much that came out of a computer? Heck, the first thing they showed wasn’t real (and if it was, give PETA a call). Sure, it’s not as bad as with many other movies. But one shouldn’t brag about something they won’t do.
Just my two cents.

Now, a funny thing came along afterwards. Some Russian Communist Party members want to ban the movie, ‚cause it’s anti-Soviet propaganda that distorts history. They are afraid that the teenagers, who are not aware of what happened in 1957, might believe the Soviets were chasing after crystal skulls. So they not only think that their kids missed a few history lessons, but also imply that the modern russian teenager is just frickin‘ stupid and can’t distinguish obvious fiction from fact. Better tell them that the world did not get run over by aliens, like in various movies. Hey, we Germans should sue Hollywood as well, since our youth might believe Nazi Germany has been hunting down whip-wielding archeologists in search for a golden box filled with dust or the ancient goblet of a mere carpenter. And better call New-Delhi and give them a hint where they can find the Sankara Stones, which help them solve all problems.

And as a final related thing, I got myself a fedora. Not the wool-made official one, which isn’t more than a non-authentic gimmik, but a real fur fedora. I wonder why all the other movie-goers were eyeing me at the preview. Anyway, I’m considering to become a regular hat wearer. If it just weren’t ruining my hairdo…

Trailer Dream

Yesterdays trailers before the sneak were nice… Indiana Jones and Star Trek. I already love this year. It’s like geek-o-rama. Can’t tell you how eager I am to see those. (Don’t you dare to make crap movies out of those titles and break my heart, hollywood. I still have hope for ya, really.)

The other trailers… The Call, The Game Plan… all unintentionally scary in their own ways… and I already seem to have cleared my memory of the last trailer… not a good sign. But the actual film was good. I really have to catch up those reviews.