Teowulff Reviews

Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)

Well made, Charlize Theron shines as voice actor but not convincing

[7/10 · 30 May 2024]

Well made and Charlize Theron abosolutely shines as Kubo's mother's voice actor - but the story isn't the most original or convincing and I was also not really impressed by Matthew McConaughey's voice as Beetle (although I like him as actor).

Sure it's all nice enough but I experienced it all as mostly predictable and mediocre with even some cheesy moments, sadly no real build up of tension or apotheosis. The storytelling felt rather uninspuired. May be I also missed more asian elements in music and voices. So sadly a 7 is the best I can honestly award this movie about our little friend Kubo.

Also .. those two strings?

Patria (2020)

I can't recommend this series enough

[10/10 · 20 February 2024]

My respect for Fernando Aramburu, the writer of the book and all those who made the HBO series. You did a marvellous job in your goal to document a shared horror. If the tension of the book (which I did no read) is anywhere near the series, I can imagine it has indeed already reached its 35th print run.

I live in the Netherlands and I only knew the ETA from the news. But this view on the conflict by means of the story of two families is really done in a very intense fashion. The acting is absolutely convincing, the atmosphere feels really authentic. Last summer we visited the Basque Country and Navarra and in some places you could still feel echoes of what is been depicted in the series.

It's one of the most fantastic series I have seen in a while. It grips you from episode 1 to episode 8. I can't recommend this series enough to anyone who can live with a series that doesn't contain a lot of action every minute but slowly builds up, has good dialogues, very believable and realistic characters and a compelling storyline.

No less than a 10/10 from me.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Nice but also underwhelming

[7/10 · 26 July 2022]

It was enjoyable but i was still left rather disappointed because IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER.

I mean: come on, it's Obi-Wan, of on the most iconic characters. Why give him such a mediocre story?!

Ozark (2017–2022)

Season 1 and 2 good, season 3 crap

[7/10 · 13 November 2020]

Series stats of with a nice premise not unlike (but not as extreme as) Breaking Bad. Season 3 though is really bad with annoying new characters and especially very illogical acting people. All the time. I quit watching halfway.

Isabel (2011–2014)

Fantastic series

[9/10 · 8 August 2020]

Great series that spans 1474 to 1504 with flashbacks to earlier periods. I only have two minusses:

1. Although mostly accurate too bad the series unnecessarily diverts from histiorical facts. Fact: on 13 December 1474 Isabella was proclaimed Queen of Castile and León. Because her brother had named Isabella as his successor, when she ascended to the throne in 1474, there were already several plots against her.

• Then why does the series act like there is no formal successor?

2. The series isn't available with subtitles other than Spanish/Castellano. Not sure if the makers ran out of cash so they couln't pay translators or that they were sure no-one in the non-hispanic world would be interested in this great piece of history. It's a shame and a great loss.

The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

Drags on too long

[5/10 · 22 October 2018]

The first five episodes build up quite nicely, each one zooming in on one of the family's brothers and sisters. After that though, instead of ending the series, we get a few more episodes where people behave increasingly strange and bereft of any logic. Stuff that people do start to make less and less sense and the amount of scary stuff descreases.

Is it all that bad then? No, fortunately the actors do a quite decent job. But it's impossible to image that any real people would behave in this way, the parents even worse and unbelievable than the children. I know it's about spooky stuff but how these people behave .. extremely unrealistic. The script is really very bad.

But .. unbelievable what perfect ratings this series gets. To me it's the thing that makes the least sense of all.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Very nicely done, too bad they changed the story

[8/10 · 31 August 2008]

The last episode of LoTR is also the one with the greatest battles, I think never before in the history of cinema such great armies were rendered by computer animations - and successfully! The movies has some great features which are all worth while seeing.

For me personally, the major annoyance of the whole series - which also takes away the logic - is the fact that they changed the way the siege of Minas Tirith is lifted.

*SPOILER* Now in the BOOK, Aragorn summons the undead army at the stone of Erech. The undead don't have any physical form but the mere fear they spread among the Umbar pirate ships cause the pirates to jump overboard. The undead are then freed form their vow by Aragorn and finally find peace.

Aragorn then takes the ships and then proceeds to collect the garrisons from the Gondorian cities west of Minas Tirith who have stayed behind to fight the pirates (yes, Gondor isn't just Minas Tirith). He then sails to the battlefield, where they help the Rohirrim who are vastly outnumbered. The Mordor armies flee in terror, as they expected the ships to bring allies, not fierce foes from Gondor. The coming of the ships is also accompanied by a west wind (no doubt symbolic for the return of the kings of Númenor), which blows away the foul fumes from Sauron/Mordor, thus causing the orcs on the battlefield (who hate sunlight) to flee.

Now in the MOVIE, the undead accompany Aragorn all the way to Minas Tirith and actually fight with the armies of Mordor. If Aragorn would have collected the undead army a few days earlier, no man from Gondor or Rohan would have died at all and the heroism they showed and pain they suffered unnecessary. The undead would easily have defeated Sauron's forces on their own. In the movie, they can kill orcs and even trolls but simply can't be killed themselves, which effectively makes them an invulnerable army.

This was a major disappointment, I see no reason why this was changed in such an illogical way.

Dragonslayer (1981)

Nice enough for children

[6/10 · 13 December 2003]

I kind of liked this movie for the atmosphere and special effects, the Dragon is very well done and impressive, even considering the movie originates from the early eighties.

Yet the main character is a bit of a tedious person and I found it a bit hard to feel lots of sympathy for him ,let alone identify and feel with him. Furthermore, the movie could be a bit more exciting, the feeling of terror is a bit lacking and the tension isn't built up very well, perhaps partly because Disney didn't want it so. For children from ages 8 and up though, this is an exciting and nice movie, although there are better movies in this genre like Dragonheart, Willow and Legend.

I rate this movie a 6 out of 10.