hp-33729 Reviews

The Big Bang Theory (2007–2019)

One of the defining sitcoms of our era even with its flaws

[8/10 · 12 May 2024]

What can I say about this show in 2024, after rewatching all the episodes on Netflix?

I don't think there's a single person at this point who doesn't know about TBBT, one of the defining sitcoms of our era, so I'm just going to talk about how my views shifted after all these years.

TBBT was created by Chuck Lorre, the mastermind behind other famous US sitcoms such as Two and a Half Men, and it has the same, meticulously formulaic style he perfected over the years. This style has since become severely dated, and one of the reasons is the unbearable laugh track. I know it's shot in front of a live audience, as a huge fan I've actually been at one of the tapings and I had the time of my life, but I've grown to hate it. It's a good thing that the spinoff Young Sheldon doesn't have a laugh track, it's a breath of fresh air to watch that show after TBBT.

Another thing that really bothers me is that the characters always wear the exact same type of clothes. Like why does Raj wear the same exact 3 layers in every single episode? Does Chuck Lorre think that we are morons and are unable to recognize him if he wears something else?

Never mind, let's talk about the seasons instead. The first one started out a bit clumsy and cringey, but fortunately the show found its tone and thanks to the great writing and amazing cast it could stay on air and has become a success. I personally still prefer the first few seasons (maybe up to 5-6), which were more about the socially awkward nerds and their nerdy adventures. I really enjoyed the escapism and the smart jokes that weren't the norm in other sitcoms.

When the show got more popular, unfortunately they started introducing depressing "old ball and chain" type relationship issues and drama to the material. Of course I understand that this kind of generic stuff attracts a larger audience, so from a business perspective it was a good decision, but in my opinion, the show slowly lost its nerdy charm and started going downhill from this point. It felt they took away something from us and the smart jokes were replaced by constant, lowest common denominator relationship jokes and constant bickering that was painful to watch.

From around season 7 to 11 this was the new status quo, with girlfriends, wives, and moaning about them or the lack of them, oh, and LOT of coasting. Of course there were still some episodes with really good writing, but fewer and far between, and sometimes even half of a season felt like it was just there to have something until we get to the finale with the cliche sitcom weddings and childbirths.

And then came season 12, which was an absolute disaster, a season nobody really needed. It was so bland and boring that I didn't remember anything from it from earlier. There's one overarching, boring theme for two characters and nothing else to do for the rest. It was really painful and infuriating to watch the agonizing death of this once amazing show. It got so bad near the end that I had to restart the very last episode 3 times. I still haven't been able to sit through it. I'm actually writing this not knowing how it ends, and I couldn't care less.

Still, despite all this - and the general Chuck Lorreisms -, I cherish the show that brought me so much joy in the late 2000s - early 2010s, and during my binge rewatch.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Decent, but definitely not going to be a classic

[6/10 · 12 May 2024]

I have mixed feelings about this one. They put in the effort in this one, that's for sure, however it's all over the place and messy, and it could probably use a better cut. A notable example is the intro sequence which sets the tone before every single Ghostbusters movie, but this time it simply doesn't pack enough punch. Also, there were several character and story progressions between scenes that felt weird or rushed.

The story is okay, but don't expect anything special. Once again, it feels a bit like a reboot with a lot of - often very unnecessary - fan service and well known plot points, however there's also a new angle they took that I liked. The main villain is not as creative as the ones in the old movies, and the tension leading up to the final battle is uneven. It's still quite enjoyable though, some scenes were pretty exciting and there were some great jokes as well, so it's certainly very far from being offensively bad, as some people make it out to be.

I liked most of the actors with two main exceptions. The mother character is extremely bland, I don't even remember her character's name, let alone her real name. I'm not a huge fan of Grace McKenna either, she creeps me out for some reason, but that's on me, I don't hold it against the movie. On a positive note, Kumail Nanjiani and Paul Rudd are both perfect for their roles. Dan Aykroyd seems to be having fun too, and although there's a very enjoyable scene with Bill Murray, you can just feel how much he hates Ghostbusters now.

I can't really blame Bill Murray though. I love the old movies, but they were a lightning in a bottle, and their success can never be repeated. It's impossible. Every single attempt has been inferior so far. I clearly remember how terrible the 2016 reboot was, and as for the previous one, I just don't remember anything. This one is more memorable, but probably only because of the familiar plot points and places.

Overall it's an okay movie, it kept me engaged unlike a lot of stuff coming out these days, but it's certainly not groundbreaking, and if we really want to be honest to ourselves, nobody really needed this movie. Sure, Sony wants to milk the franchise and make some kind of universe out of it, but they're going to have a tough job in my opinion.

You People (2023)

Pointless

[4/10 · 29 January 2023]

While occasionally funny, You People generally feels like suffering through dreadful, overly political Reddit and Twitter threads about racial issues we are all very aware of. These talking points that have been repeated a million times before are weaved into every single scene and delivered by the main actors in standup-ish, unfunny monologues that drag on way too long, because they have a quota of items to mention in each scene. I kind of feel sorry for them, because they are all very talented and likeable, but the material they have to work with is just garbage virtue signalling without any wit or subtlety.

Ali Wong: Don Wong (2022 TV Special)

No new material

[3/10 · 28 February 2022]

I watched Ali's earlier standup specials and enjoyed them a lot, I thought she was original and showed real potential. This one is a gigantic miss though. She doesn't seem to have any new material at all, there isn't a single fresh thought in there, she's just repeating the exact same jokes from the previous shows, but for some reason, in more graphic detail, and they are dragging on way too long. Maybe because I'm not American I can't understand the cultural significance of her being nasty, but for me it does nothing. I'm not prude, it's just pointless. I'm hoping that it's some kind of female empowerment thing, otherwise I can only assume that she's doing it for shock value in a desperate attempt for attention. I sense it's a mix of both, as she really has nothing much to say.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019)

JJ, you hack

[5/10 · 15 March 2020]

Wow, what a mess... but a fitting ending to this botched trilogy. Well done, JJ and Rian Johnson, you made the prequel trilogy look masterpieces compared to this garbage. These guys... While Rian has vision, it's not true to Star Wars, and JJ is just a hack without any vision whatsoever so he just copies and pastes everything from earlier movies. I'm so tired of seeing the same ideas, visuals and scenes over and over again. Oh, and Disney, how on Earth is it possible that there wasn't a definitive arc for the trilogy? I'm just baffled by this level of incompetence.

Plenty of reviewers pointed out all the inconsistencies before me. It's perfectly clear that the filmmakers have no idea or don't care about Star Wars, it seems as if they haven't even watched the previous movies. But as filmmakers they could have at least made a movie that followed the rules of filmmaking. Let the scenes breathe a little bit for Christ's sake, add some conversations or something! It's like watching a music video that was cut together randomly. You blink for a millisecond and the cast is in a totally different location without any transition. I bet Disney was scrambling like crazy to finish this thing in time.

They are going to teach this trilogy in film school, and not for the reasons Disney would hope.

Kathleen Kennedy is out, but unfortunately it's too late to undo what happened to the most beloved movie franchise. It's ruined forever.

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Moving subject

[8/10 · 14 February 2020]

Although this movie is set during WW2, its message is universal, and there are a lot of parallels with the current political climate as well: the blind faith in "strong", corrupt leaders and their stupid ideals, the indoctrination of kids with propaganda, the rage and hate towards certain groups of people and cultures due to sheer ignorance, cognitive dissonance, and so on. It's a cautionary tale about how you shouldn't allow yourself to be a pawn in this game, because in the end reality always comes crashing in, and it's never pleasant.

Although it has its flaws, Jojo Rabbit is a pretty good effort from Taika Waititi. The writing is spot on. It's funny and very moving at times. Don't expect it to be a full-on comedy though, like those reviewers who gave it 1 star because they didn't laugh enough. Talking about ignorance...

The Shining (1980)

Not a fan

[5/10 · 30 January 2020]

I decided to give The Shining a go after not particularly enjoying Kubrick's other works, A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey, hoping this one would finally resonate with me.

Unfortunately it did not, but now I know what I don't like most about these movies: it's the terrible pacing. Despite having all the time in the world, Kubrick is simply incapable of escalating the tension gradually. I felt the same thing during A Space Odyssey where nothing happened for hours and then the computer went crazy in a span of 5 minutes. Here, Jack Torrance who is obviously supposed to go crazy gradually during their stay seems to be mad right from the start, so the director basically skips the interesting part. This also means that he can't really take the character any further and even Jack Nicholson's cartoonish overacting gets boring after a while, and you're just waiting for the never-ending chase scene to be over so you can move on to other things.

Another thing that struck me is the soundtrack, which is more like sound torture here. Soundtracks are supposed to blend in and compliment the visuals, but in The Shining sound lives its own life, it's overused and overpowering everything, making the movie very annoying to listen to. I get that it's probably intentional, probably another Kubrick thing, but there were very few movies where instead of being immersed I started thinking about how bad the soundtrack was, and this was one of them.

The visuals are fantastic though, there are some really iconic scenes and images in The Shining, this is basically the only thing that kept me watching until the end.

Bates Motel (2013–2017)

Loved it

[10/10 · 11 December 2019]

Oh boy, where do I even begin?

I binge watched all 5 seasons of Bates Motel till the end, and Vera Farmiga is pretty much my favorite actress at this point. She's perfect for her role as the overprotective mother, and it amazes me how easily she can handle drama and comedy at the same time. Freddie Highmore is equally brilliant as his mentally ill son. Despite his harmless appearance he can be seriously terrifying at times. They have amazing chemistry on screen which adds to the realism. The supporting cast, especially Olivia Cooke (Emma) and Nestor Carbonell (Sheriff Romero) kinda grew on me too.

I also have to mention the fantastic camera work and set design, particularly the iconic old house they live in. Despite the fact that the story is taking place in the present, the whole show has a very nice old timey vibe. It feels like Norma and his son got stuck in a different era where things used to be nicer, warmer and simpler. This sets the mood really well, and it also symbolizes an impenetrable barrier between their family "bubble" and everyone else.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the nods and homages to the original Psycho movie as well. They added so much depth to the characters and locations that Bates Motel is truly a worthy contemporary re-exploration of the classic, and I'm a bit afraid to say this, but in my opinion it's actually better than the original. Brilliant job!

Ad Astra (2019)

Not as clever as you think

[3/10 · 6 December 2019]

The current top review says this movie is a "masterful psychological drama disguised as a gorgeous sci-fi epic".

No, it's not.

Some people feel very proud of themselves that they were able to find some kind of "deep meaning" in this movie and the rest of us sheep just "don't get it" and should go back to Marvel movies. I'd hate to burst their bubble, but that deep meaning is spelled out for the viewer pretty clearly by the protagonist, it's not like you're left wondering about the meaning of this movie for weeks, banging your head in the wall in frustration. And it's a very simple idea too, you'd probably expect more complicated thoughts from something that has the facade of a "sci-fi epic".

The drama is OK though. What probably wasn't a good idea is that they decided to wrap this story in sci-fi instead of a low budget TV drama set in a big city. They clearly didn't have enough interesting stuff for the protagonist to do on his journey, and in a desperate attempt to fill the 2 hours, everything he has to do to get from point A to point B is extremely convoluted and stupid, and you realize this pretty quickly, even if you are not looking for mistakes. Unfortunately there's so much nonsense in this movie that you just can't take it seriously as a proper sci-fi.

One thing I agree with is that the visuals are gorgeous, the movie definitely has the look of a sci-fi epic, but it's very very far from one.

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)

Major disappointment

[3/10 · 25 November 2019]

I'm starting to think Pulp Fiction is the exception, not the rule when it comes to Tarantino. It was a happy accident. The "genius" director this time managed to make a movie in which nothing happens, and I don't mean nothing interesting to me, I mean nothing. At all.

We see nothing but nice postcards from 60's Hollywood for about 2 and a half hours, Tarantino makes sure we see all the little details on 60's product packaging, we hear authentic radio broadcasts, and at the beginning you think all these little details are so you get immersed in the atmosphere and the ball will get rolling eventually, but the joke's on you, it never does.

After 2 and a half hours of massive boredom and frustration, after seeing all the 60's food cans from all angles, there's a 5 minute random gruesome scene at the very end just for the heck of it, and the movie is finally over. There's no escalation or anything so it's weird, but at least it's mildly interesting.

Tarantino also feels too self-confident with his directing style, overusing some editing techniques that don't belong to a slow movie like this at all, he uses flashbacks that ultimately make no sense because they don't give you any additional information, and not to mention camera angles that get very old and annoying very quickly, like when the protagonists are in a car.

As for the acting, I can't really say anything about it. Since there's no story at all, there's not a lot to act. Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio pull off a slight accent, that's it. Am I supposed to be impressed by this?

What a waste of time.

John Cleese: The Alimony Tour (2011 Video)

Nothing new

[5/10 · 4 September 2019]

It's really a pity that John Cleese has nothing new to contribute to the world of comedy any more, just the same old anecdotes about his career for the millionth time, with some clips mixed in from his otherwise brilliant shows and films that we have also seen numerous times.

The audience seemed to like this setup though, and if you're interested in an autobiography in a stand-up format, you're probably going to enjoy it, however if you're looking for new material, the show might leave you disappointed.

Seinfeld (1989–1998)

Feels very dated

[3/10 · 23 August 2019]

I've been meaning to watch Seinfeld for a long time, after all it's the most popular sitcom ever created, the mother of all sitcoms if you will. Now that I binge watched the brilliant Curb your Enthusiasm for about the 5th time, it felt right to finally go back to the roots and see what Larry and Jerry did back in the day, but unfortunately I had to give up after about 10 episodes.

In 2019 Seinfeld feels terribly dated in every single aspect. It starts with an all out assault against your senses: the sound and video quality are atrocious like the show was recorded with a potato, the loud and obnoxious laugh track never seems to end (to be fair, some shows still have them today, which is just sad), and that apartment is on par with David Lynch's Eraserhead when it comes to dull and depressing set designs. Maybe it's just a gritty New York thing from 30 years ago, I don't know, but I don't remember Friends making me want to poke my eyeballs out.

It's an even bigger problem that the show isn't really funny either. It's not that I can't relate to problems of people living in NY 30 years ago, but the characters have zero personalities and nothing but mundane issues like buying a cantaloupe that isn't that good and whining about it endlessly while the laugh track goes ballistic. Meanwhile I'm just sitting here wondering whether we've lived in way simpler times back then so this was considered entertainment.

But the single worst thing about it all is having to listen to Jerry Seinfeld speak. If you know him, you know what I mean. Every time he opens his mouth he's talking with this whiny, exaggerated tone like he was on stage doing his standup routine all the time, and it wears me down like a next door neighbor drilling holes in the wall. He has funny observations, but being in standup mode all the time is extremely annoying.

I really wanted to like this, but I just can't watch it any more. Sorry!

Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

It's for kids

[5/10 · 17 July 2019]

Guys, if you are -- rightfully -- expecting something dark, gritty and god forbid thought provoking, don't even bother. I'm not even convinced it's not a secret Disney title. The only clue that it isn't is that they say the F word once or twice, but maybe that's just to confuse us.

Set in an actual garbage dump more saturated with colors than a happy go lucky Pixar movie, sprinkled with pop music that doesn't belong in sci-fi, awkward and generic Hollywood style teenage love and drama cliches, and last but not least featuring multiple never ending scenes of rollercoaster-like fast paced action that feels like watching strobe lights accompanied by white noise if you are above 15 years old, we can safely say adults are not in the target audience for this movie.

That's not my only gripe with this movie. While I'm totally fine with giant anime eyes, it's friggin' uncanny valley when it comes to live action flicks. To my surprise though it wasn't the googly eyes that made me the most uncomfortable, just try to focus on Alita's badly animated lips for a bit if you really want to be weirded out. You can tell they spent a fortune on CGI and it still looks terrible.

I don't know what else to say to be honest. I nearly fell asleep on this.

The Handmaid's Tale (2017–2025)

Empty and slow

[3/10 · 24 June 2019]

I love sci-fi and stories about a dystopian future, but this show just isn't very good.

I don't think I'm saying anything groundbreaking here, but if you are a writer creating a brand new fantasy or sci-fi universe, it's the little details that matter. If you leave them out, your world will appear lifeless and the reader or viewer won't feel that it's real, breaking the immersion. We see very little of this world to begin with and what we do see doesn't really make any sense, making it a huge nonsense, even if you're trying to symphatize with the story and the protagonist.

It also doesn't help if you're trying to inflate a short novel into several seasons without any interesting ideas. It's so slow that you can practically do your chores while watching it, I guarantee you're not going to miss anything even if you take a peek at the screen once every 5 minutes. I could only get through 4 episodes and eventually started working instead, that makes a lot more sense than wasting my time on a story that goes nowhere.

My third big problem with the show is the main actress (coincidentally also one of the producers), who doesn't really fit this role and is genuinely unlikeable. I don't really get her characters' motivations either, her actions seem to be all over the place and it's extremely confusing. Of course, this could all be on purpose, but shouldn't there be at least one person in the story you can identify with or root for?

Free Solo (2018)

Like watching paint dry

[3/10 · 7 April 2019]

I was excited when I heard about this documentary, but it is beyond me how such an incredible feat can be presented in such a painfully boring way. Huge disappointment.

Man with a Plan (2016–2020)

Old Joey

[3/10 · 18 March 2019]

Being launched in 2016, this show's been around for a while, but it's probably no surprise I first heard about it in 2019.

Let me just say that I like Matt LeBlanc. Friends obviously needs no introduction, it was legendary when it comes to sitcoms, and I enjoyed its spinoff, Joey as well, but to be honest it did feel kind of empty after getting used to all the large number of Friends characters. It was a pretty bold move trying to do a spinoff after that show, no wonder it flopped.

Quite a few years later came Episodes, which was a breath of fresh air. It was a brilliant little show with great writing -- and finally no laugh track -- about the misadventures of two British comedy writers trying to shoot a sitcom in Hollywood, but this time with a twist: Matt plays himself, being typecast as Joey. Being quite progressive, it was a great comeback for Matt.

But here we are, Matt LeBlanc being Joey again, for the 4th time... Now he's the tamed, responsible middle aged family man version of himself, the father of 3? (I don't care) kids, pounded to submission by his wife, weirdly still looking at himself the mirror in a "howyadoin" fashion from time to time. All this in a dreadful, old fashioned sitcom setting, pausing after every single sentence for the laugh track, in a dull, evenly lit sitcom living room that feels extremely dated in 2019, just like the humor. Like someone dug something really boring up from 20 years ago.

I guess it pays the bills... But guys, please, when even Chuck Lorre drops the laugh track, take a hint!

Above & Beyond Acoustic - Giving Up The Day Job (2018)

Great music, mediocre documentary

[7/10 · 9 March 2019]

I'm a big fan of Above & Beyond's work, and it's a very interesting concept that they steered away from DJ'ing for a bit to put together a show with fully acoustic versions of their songs that they play with actual instruments on stage, with the help of a symphonic orchestra and some fantastic singers they've worked with during their career.

Their songs are very melodic, and it's no surprise that the acoustic versions work brilliantly. Most of the documentary consists of these songs being played at their last show at the Hollywood Bowl in front of a sold out crowd of over 17000 people, and the production seems really amazing.

Between the songs we can see short interviews with the trio, sometimes we can peek into their "private" conversations between them and other people and see a little bit of the preparations as well. This part of the documentary is where it gets a bit awkward. Some of these conversations seem very staged and dishonest. It feels like instead of sharing genuine moments they are desperately trying to convey some kind of message with scripted dialogues that often reek of fake modesty.

When this is coupled with the director's strange habit of showing weird, out of place extreme close up shots of people going hysterical during slow acoustic songs at the Hollywood Bowl, you can't help but feel that these people are a bit full of themselves.

In the end, I didn't learn much about the guys (apart from the above), let alone how they put everything together for this tour. No technical details, no nothing. There wasn't a word about ups and downs, difficulties and the hard work they've put into this, which I'm absolutely sure they did, just the sugar coated fluff how awesome everything was. Honestly, it was a letdown for me.

Tidying Up with Marie Kondo (2019)

Not interesting enough

[16 February 2019]

This is a makeover show starring self proclaimed tidying expert Marie Kondo, where very average people clean up their very average homes that aren't even that messy to begin with. If you are expecting to see trash reality level transformations like in Hoarders, you will be severely disappointed.

You will also not see a lot of the tidying up it is supposed to be about, and you will not learn much from Marie Kondo either. There are some tips scattered here and there with varying degrees of usefulness, but you mainly get to listen to average people talk about their average lives for way too long (an episode is over 45 minutes long), then there's the before/after shots, usually with very little difference, and that's it, you feel like you wasted half a day after watching one.

Marie Kondo of course is very Japanese, speaks Japanese and behaves Japanese, and American viewers who never left their own country might find her extremely weird.

All in all, I don't think this show will last very long.

Father Figures (2017)

An attempt was made

[2/10 · 4 January 2019]

When I saw the awful Photoshop disaster poster I had a bad feeling about this movie, but nothing prepared me for the disappointment it brought upon me. The premise is simple: two brothers, played by Ed Helms and Oven Wilson go on a road trip to find their real father. Both characters are exactly who you would expect, Ed Helms is of course the usual neurotic, loser type of character while Owen Wilson plays the spiritual, happy go lucky weirdo. What you would also expect from a movie like this are jokes, but they seem to have forgotten to write them, and the ones that are there are so crude that they feel completely out of place in a movie like this. There are also a few what the hell moments when I guess the actors improvised and they thought it was funny and they left it in the movie for some reason (probably to extend the runtime), but it doesn't really work. There's also a lot of pointless rambling, probably for the exact same reason. Overall we weren't able to finish the movie, and it is getting really annoying to see this long line of failed comedies these days. It's always the same thing, there's a decent setup and likeable actors so you get excited and invested at first, but the flick totally loses you to boredom after a while.

Mission: Impossible II (2000)

Didn't age well

[4/10 · 30 August 2018]

Who's watching this in 2018? Well, I did, out of curiosity, after hearing about the new movie coming out. Boy, John Woo's over the top directing didn't age well, the action scenes are sometimes so ridiculous and outright dumb that you feel you're watching a B movie. I often burst out laughing during the fight scenes. Story-wise they do everything to make a simple plot look extremely convoluted, but it doesn't become any more intriguing. Don't even get me started on the female lead that doesn't really do anything, but apparently John Woo loved her looks so much that half of the movie is just scenes where they point the camera at her doing nothing. It's so bad, you have to see it.

Hereditary (2018)

Victim of the hype machine

[6/10 · 27 August 2018]

It's an OK atmospheric horror movie, but like many other viewers, I expected a lot more based on the hype it generated. There are some good ideas in it and the cast is fantastic, especially Toni Collette, who gives an amazing performance, but unfortunately it's dragging on too long. Although there's some suspense buildup here and there, 1/3 of the scenes in the movie could have been easily cut without losing anything important. By the end you get used to the fact that the buildups often go nowhere, leaving you disappointed scene after scene.

Ocean's Eight (2018)

Trying too hard

[3/10 · 27 August 2018]

I read the reviews here and thought it couldn't be _that_ bad, but unfortunately it is really that bad. It's so boring that both my girlfriend and I fell asleep half way, even though the intro scene was quite captivating.

Despite the all star cast all the performances were very disappointing. While the original male cast of Oceans 11 had a natural, effortless charm to them, these female characters were trying so hard to be cool and edgy that it was really off-putting.

Dear Hollywood, please stop making these male to female remakes, they are never going to work. Try to come up with something original for once and stop crying misogyny for every flop. Truth is everyone loves a strong female lead, just think about Sigourney Weaver in the Alien movies. But then again, she was a memorable character, unlike everyone else in Ocean's Eight.

That's all.

Deadpool 2 (2018)

Why the hate?

[8/10 · 17 August 2018]

Lots of 1 point reviews here. People get so dramatic over movies these days... "Oh my god the worst 2 hours of my life!" It most definitely wasn't. OK, it's probably not on the same level as the first Deadpool movie, but it's still enjoyable. Deadpool is more annoying this time for sure, and there's a rapid fire of hit and miss jokes. Maybe less would be more, but at least you can tell that a lot more effort was put into this movie than into other recent comedies. As for the plot, I wasn't really into it, but the characters' personalities still made the movie enjoyable for me. If this is the worst thing you've seen, consider yourself very lucky.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

You must be a die hard Marvel fan to appreciate this

[3/10 · 6 August 2018]

I'm not really a Marvel fan, but I did enjoy some of their movies and like some of their characters. Apparently this movie is a culmination of all the previous storylines in the Marvel universe, so this time they made sure to _really_ go over the top with it to please the fans. All your favorite characters are there doing their own thing to fight against the main villain in an end game that feels like it's 7 hours long.

With so many characters and so many parallel storylines I found it hard to focus or care about anything and just tuned out, like when you're watching a very long battle in a Transformers movie that has no consequences whatsoever and the movie loses you and you start to ask yourself why you're not doing anything useful with your life instead of watching that nonsense.

It's probably just me as I'm not really interested in this universe in general and the main villain is kind of disappointing in my opinion, but be warned, if you're not a die hard fan either, you will probably be bored to death just like me.

Ibiza (2018)

Is this how Americans see Europe?

[1/10 · 31 May 2018]

I reviewed another Hangover-like garbage (Rough Night, 2017) a while ago, here's the next contender by Netflix.

Three women from NYC go to Barcelona for a work related thing and later to Ibiza to find some guy they met at a party in Barcelona. During their adventure they go to all kinds of parties, get drunk, do drugs, meet weird European people and try to have sex with everyone they encounter.

There's just one thing, it's not funny. There are a number of attempts at jokes in this movie, but you've seen most of them elsewhere a million times. You won't encounter any original material here. Also, since this is a chick flick, there's the usual "omg let's be extremely gross lol" trope that's quite common these days, and that I - as a male - personally find very repulsive.

Not sure what women think about all this, but in my opinion there's a huge difference between Hangover where the guys are totally decent people who get drugged without their knowledge, and Ibiza where these extremely shallow women willingly behave like animals.

There are one or two really nice moments in the movie, but unfortunately overall it's trash.

1/10

PS: Croatia where the movie was shot instead of Ibiza is really nice, you should go and visit some time. (Disclaimer: I'm not from there.)