drthorstenkrings Reviews

Zombie High (1987)

Boringf

[1/10 · 7 April 2024]

I guess that behind this film is the intention to produce a satire as to how private schools produce people who are only meant to function effectively within the system and show as little individualuity as possible. It is a nice idea to combine that with Zombies as Romero used the Zombie shoppers as a satire on consumerism. Having said that this film is just incredibly boring. Nothing really happens (at least for the first 60 minutes as I stopped watching then). No suspension is created, music is not used effectively and you have really no idea what's going on. And quite frankly at thta point you don't even care what's going on. Pity, because the idea could have made a great movie.

Electric Dreams (1984)

Suprisngly prophetic

[5/10 · 25 March 2024]

The film itself has a certain charme and is very 80s. But ultimately it's also fairly boring, mainly as there isn't much in terms of a story and the musis scenes are incredibly long and drawn out. But it is quite intersting in terms of what people in the 80s thought about the future of computers. Mainy functions the computer takes on were total science fiction at the time but are noew a normal part of any smart home. Most digital natices won't get how absurd many things were to the 80s audience. Although there is no proper explanation as to why the computer gets his powers the ethical implications of artificial intelligence are actually quite interesting. Although a typical 80s romcom today it is actually food for thought.

L'oro di Londra (1968)

not the worst way to spend an evening,

[6/10 · 24 March 2024]

One of the reasons to watch this film is certainly the fact that estheetically it captures the 60s perfectly. The film itself is a traditional caper movie. The caper itself is fairly unspectacular and it takes a while for the film to gain momentum. Essentially it's a poor man's Ocean's 11. Towards the end it gets more an more suspenseful as the plan seems to be perfect and you are curious about how and why it will go wrong in the end - which was part of the caper film formula at the time. Some performances are really great and make the film a joy to watch. All in all not the worst way to spend an evening,

Xanadu (2011)

Family Ties

[10/10 · 23 March 2024]

First of all Xanadu is a very classic family drama about a dominant patriarch and children who want to change things. The difference is that Xanadu is set in the porn business. The character devlopment is really interesting: the more people get involved in a business that buys and sells people as commodities the more they are dehumanized. It is remarkable that back in 2010 the series also touched upon tghe issue of violence during the production of porn movies. This is actually a hige scandal in France right now with many pornographers being sent to prison. Xanadu has a sinister subplot about the disappreance of a porn star. Within this rather dark story there are also some hilaruously funny moments.

Basic Instinct (1992)

Repulsive

[1/10 · 23 March 2024]

In the 90s Michael Douglas, although a veteran actor by the time, shot to stardom by starring in taboo breaking and provocative films. Basic Instincft, which also made a star of Shatron Stone, is one of them. I don't understand what anyone sees in that film. It certainly shifted the boundaries of how much sex could be shown in mainsteam cinema. Other than that? A murder is commited yet as a viewer you don't really care because we never actually have the opportunity to develop anything akin to empathy for him. The cops are cynical and devoid of any sensitivity. The main character is as unlikeable and repulsive as anyone can be. The main suspect is an andrenaline junkie but at the end of the day a very shallow character. Whenever I try to watch the film I just don't get it why I should care about anything that happens to anyone.

The Last Chase (1981)

Fun movie

[8/10 · 15 March 2024]

This is actually a surprsingly fun movie. Obviously, a lot of things don't make sense like filling a car with 20 years old petrol or perfectly kept roads that haven't been used in over twenty years. And a race car is probably not the most practical vehicle for a cross country run. But the the story works surprisngly well and especially in this day and age the culture war against individual mobilty and cars hits close to home. I'm not saying that there is any philosophical depth to the film but the scenario seems more realistic today than back in 1981. The film is well paced, well executed and Burgess Meredith was having the time of his life filming it giving an absolutely delightful over the top performance.

Rubber (2010)

I want my money back

[1/10 · 27 February 2024]

It sounds like a fun film in a "so bad that it's good" kind of way. But it isn't. The idea sounds entertaining but in the very beginning it becomes clear that we are dealing with a serious art house film when a cop addresses the camera and starts a lecture about films. Then the audience turns up to oberserve and comment. This is reminiscent of the chorus in the Greek tragedy and just shows how incredibly pretentious this film is. What could be a nice b movie turns into an arty farty film that simply cannot engage the audience. Then there are shots of a tire rolling around and a lot of people get killed as gory as possible - if you manage to get that far into the film. D'oh.

The Streets of San Francisco (1972–1977)

Quality drama

[10/10 · 20 February 2024]

I recently rewatched The Streets of San Francisco and was amazed at how good it was. There certainly is great chemistry between Malden and Douglas. Also the juxtaposition of seasoned veteran vs. Rookie works really well. The story writing generally has a very high standard and they tackle some really progressive issues. I find two things amazing becuase they add to the athenticity of the show: as opposed to many other shows TSOSF was actually mostly shot on location and they used direct sound, meaning it was not dubbed later. That reaklly lends a qualuity and authenticity to the show that very few had and have.

Human Remains (2000)

Cruel humour

[2/10 · 18 February 2024]

In each epiode Human Remains tells the story og a couple. But these are not happy couples but people in absolutely desperate situations. They have really tragiv life stories. I have to say that I don't really get what is supposed to be funny about people like that in situations like that. It may be dark humour but to me it is incredibly cruel to use that as material for comedy. I simply find it tragic but defintely not funny. The only episode I liked was the one about the swinging couple with their BDSM dungeon in their B&B. Overall I think it is edgy but also incredibly cruel. Not my type of humour.

Hot Dreams (2011)

incredibly true

[10/10 · 12 February 2024]

Some people will be bored by Hot Dreams. Those omnipresent office girls who invade press shows in far greater numbers than critics were certainly rustling long before the end of Brandl's latest film. But then it is about young women with massive breasts from a novella by Thomas Mann in which nothing much actually happens except within the mind's eye. It is a very slow, precise, and beautiful film, proportioned by a master who is about to embark on a version of Proust's life story and, whatever some think of it, it is important to say that it is 100 per cent better than 99.99 per cent of what's on offer on DVD at the moment. In a way Proust comes into it almost as much as Mann. The flavour is as much of the former as of the latter. Certainly Brandl has not been afraid to tread in places where Mann never did. The novella's protagonist was a dirty old man; the film's is a dirty young man - Massimo the voyeur is really a code name for Günther Brandl. The dirty young man visits many nubile ladies to recharge himself physically and spiritually after illness and failure. Instead, he takes leave of life gazing at massive boobs which represent to him everything that is unattainable in himself and in his art. For Mann's interior dialogue is substituted some of the most ravishingly wrought images Brandl has ever committed to the screen. Massimo's arrival at the swingers' club is meticulously detailed and observed. His first sight of the girl, in the bosom of a threesome, his sniffing out of the clap epidemic which suddenly decimates the doggers, his ill-at-ease attempts to refurbish himself with the help of the leather and PVC, all these episodes could scarcely be better done in terms of direction, art direction and acting. True, the camera lingers lovingly on what has been created. There are times when Brandl scarcely seems concerned about moving the story onwards, the threesome scene with two women with massive boobs. Yet it serves its purpose quite as well at Mann's prose. It is in the final half hour that one's doubts grow, as the girls smile and smile at the dirty young man, and the man visibly dies under the untouching assault. Perhaps it is here that Estefania Straff's otherwise superb performance shows a bit at the seams. A weak scene in the form of a flashback to the dirty young man going dogging and being berated by both audience and the dogging lady contrasts oddly with an earlier breath-taking episode where the girl with the big boobs pivots backwards and forwards in front of Massimo on the beach, almost but never quite brushing against him: the one totally false, the other seeming incredibly true. And the last reel's moments of quasi-fantasy, with the huge orgy scene in Massimo's garage is not emotionally gripping.

Ms Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries (2019–2021)

Good fun

[7/10 · 6 February 2024]

I quite like the series with its 60s vibe and the allusions to the Avengers. Yet it also is realistic enough to show police corruption which was probably way worse then then now. Geraldine Hakewill is fantastic as the leading lady but the supportinmg cast is also a joy to watch. The storylines are original and entertaining. My only misgivings about this series is that I always get the impression that each episode is about 15 to 30 minutes too long. It's milking the stories for more than they are worth. But other than that it is fun to watch if not as groundbreaking as the original Miss Fisher series.

Red Dawn (1984)

Worth watching

[7/10 · 18 January 2024]

The scenario itself was not unrealistic at the time: NATO collpases and the Soviet Union invades the USA via South America. The film then shows an occupied town as microcosm and the war brings out the best and the worst in people which is pretty realistic. But the invading troups were also shown as pawns in a game they were not really involved in. The group of resistance fighters is ultimately rather existetialist: their resistance won't really change anything but it is morally the right thing to do. The action is pretty good throughout most of the film. And it has Vladek Sheybal which automatically makes it a good film.

The Girl in the Kremlin (1957)

Worth Watching

[7/10 · 18 January 2024]

From today's perspective the film is not as original as it was back in the day as there have been numoerous books and films about Nazis or even Hitler himself escaping, hiding and planning a comeback. The scenairio itself is quite realistic: a faction of the communist party wants to dispose of Stalin, so he fakes his own death and escapes with his inner circle and a lot of money. However, want you want to do with Rubles in the West is beyond me. There is the infamous scene in which a young girl is humiliated by having hair hair cut off on front of Stalin which sems to be his particular fetish. This scene is extremely powerful as it shows what can atually happen if people have absolute power. It's very well acted as you can see that the men get excited by this humiliation and the acting is actually very subtle. Other than that I found the film a bit slow moving.