druberwolf Reviews

Love Actually (2003)

Absolutely delightful

[9/10 · 20 December 2022]

It is very funny and very touching, while at the same time showing also how some relationships fail to take off, and others destroyed or nearly destroyed, so there is food for thought there as well. I get in a good mood every time I see it, and think it is one of the best rom-coms ever (hence the rating).

Recently the director have uttered weird stuff about the lack of diversity, and yes, there is no teuton knight for the golden-haired goodess, which would be true diversity in this day and age, and there is not a single actor from Korea, China or Japan, so, fair enough, it lacks in diversity. But does that really matter? In K-dramas or Chinese movies there are hardly any white people, and so what?

Leave classics alone!

The Boys (2019– )

Fairly unwoke, but a word on the casting

[8/10 · 6 November 2022]

First of all, the plot is not half bad, and the revelations are nicely spaced out. Good writing skills there. The characters are a nice blend of real life personalities and whatever fits the plot, gaining depth as we go along, and not too easily foreseen.

However, when we are finally learning who is behind everything the consistency of the plot unravels completely, and illogic has the day, for if what they tell us would have happened to be true history would have been different, and so would Vought's progress. Out of nowhere an old Nazi appears, and wants to turn the deserving parts of the US into superhumans. Why she has been gone from the scenes we do not know, but the funny thing she is not Germanic at all, but Jewish. Either this is a subtle case of irony from the writers, or just American lack of understand of the world.

At least she should have been blond and blue-eyed, with a touch of übermensch about her. Granted, Himmler et al weren't that high on the scale of Aryanism either, so maybe I am just being difficult.

The Wheel of Time (2021– )

They never manager to make me care

[2/10 · 11 August 2022]

Such wanton destruction of a great story (up to book 6, I seem to recall) should be forbidden. The worst part is not the wokery, it is the characters, whom it is impossible to care about, and that is a mortal sin in films and books. See a k-drama instead.

Triumph of the Will (1935)

A must-see for anyone who wants to have an opinion about the 3rd Reich

[9/10 · 28 July 2022]

With the benefit of hindsight we can easily condemn the Germans and National Socialism out of hand, but we do them (and ourselves) and injustice if we do. Any phenomena should first be properly understood, then it can be condemned, if appropriate. This film explains (a bit about) why so many very captivated by the ideas and the ideals of the Nazis. Remember, volunteers from 30 countries fought for this in WW II.

When I give it a 9 it is because of the mastery of Riefenstahl's technique, when I do not give it a 10 it is because she could have used the Nazi's many 'hits' to better effect.

Whoops Apocalypse (1986)

A very intelligent and very funny comedy

[10/10 · 20 July 2022]

I have also seen the tv-series, but preferred the movie, by far. It has aged well, like really good comedies typically do (see e.g. Life of Brian).

If you like British humour, you will love this.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Have you seen Star Wars?

[7/10 · 20 June 2022]

So have those who write this manuscript. A little tip; things like that you bust with a bunker-buster-bomb, which can be dropped from space, for that matter. You do not need to see it with the mere eye. But it worked in Star Wars, I suppose the thought, so it must be a good idea.

This manuscript was so full of clichés, so predictable, so, so, enjoyable that my wife was smiling (and not because of Tom Cruise, she would rather go for Hangman, the man we should hate but at the end is a good American, but in real life would have been cancelled for being too white), and I therefore grant a '7'.

For this is something as rare as a feel-good - movie, which does not preach beyond calling the enemy fighters 'generation five' and not MIG Something. But given the present climate MIG might have been considered kosher.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Suspension of disbelief necessary

[6/10 · 20 June 2022]

Not, as you might think, the disbelief of magic, that is a given. No, the disbelief in internal logic and consistency. As per usual with Marvel. It is a fun film for all that, but it would have been better if those endowed with certain powers used them.

Also, observe how weak and evil the good guys are. When the potential wreckers of worlds threaten to kill four half-dead members of the resistance the supreme sorcerer (who was not very supreme, as far as I could tell) caves in immediately, and gives Wanda the witch access to spells that will make her next to Biden in damage potential. What an evil, evil person! Risks untold billions to save four persons. God gives us stronger moral heroes!

Speaking of God, if you observe the jacket of the cute heroine you can see she sports a small pin showing God's sign of mercy from the Old Testament, the one where He says sorry for drowning nearly all of you, next time I'll go for fire. Well, actually, He does not say that last part, that is just inference from my part.

The film? Oh, yeah, see the film, try to remember to not be bothered by all the flaws, and enjoy it.

All My Friends Are Dead (2020)

Surprisingly good

[7/10 · 15 June 2022]

This is a black comedy (remember to watch with subtitles, though) which is refreshingly good. We had no expectations, but enjoyed it a lot. It is so good to find quality movies from outside the UK and the USA, where, let's face it, the quality has gone markedly downhill.

Twenty Five Twenty One (2022)

This is the way the world will end, with a whimper, not with a shout

[6/10 · 9 May 2022]

This drama started so well, and my wife and I (K-drama afficianados as we are) were pulled in and waited eagerly for what was to come.

But eventually we got the feeling that not only could this drama have no happy end, we would not even be bothered if it did not.

The reason was that a) the main characters, especially. Back Yi-Jin developed into someone less likable as he grew older. His failure to manage his career and his love was not exactly impressive.

Besides, he was full of himself and the not so great job of journalism, and his near collapse from handling the 9/11-aftermath means that either he was very weak, or the story (was weak).

B) Young Hee-do was a girl most would have loved, I supposed,.but the grown-up version? We all wondered what happened from when she retired until she was a mother.

Taken together, no happy end was possible, and sadly enough not missed either.

So, we had a Swedish social democratic moment of 'yeah, well, that is life'. The reason why Chess was a failure (compared to most works by ALW) is the same; in the end, nobody cared. Let me, as a writer, state the rules; the audience shall either leave crying OR laughing ('han' or 'heong'), but never with a 'yeah well'.

We started at 10 and ended with an average of six.

Rooftop Prince (2012)

Suspense through stupidity

[5/10 · 20 February 2022]

Bad writers use traditional methods of creating suspense, in this case main characters who often acted so dumb that we nearly got too annoyed to watch. I cry easily, but I never cry when tragedies occur because of the main characters blatant stupidity. Here I shed not a tear.

I shall not reveal anything here, just be prepared for a lot of seriously unintelligent actions from the lead characters.

Death on the Nile (2022)

What an extremely redundant version

[4/10 · 14 February 2022]

Dear Mr. Branagh, you will never read my review, of course. Anyhow.... Let me first say that since I first saw Henry the 5th I have been an avid fan of yours. But do you know why your Shakespeare-movies were so good?

The reason is that you let Shakespeare speak. You were true to him, you did not try to 'improve' on him, and I thank you for that. Your speech at Agincourt is for me close to the pinnacle of what I have ever seen on the silver screen, and you made me love Shakespeare.

And then, what happened? Why do you suddenly believe you can improve on another master of her game; Agatha Christie? Peter Ustinov's version is quite good, David Suchet's really good, while yours is, well, how to put it politely? Not quite there?

You are not true to the book, the casting is horrible, the attempts at political correctness a crime for which I had hoped you would not stoop to, but your cardinal sins are these:

1) It was very early obvious who were the culprits, the only vaguely interesting issue who had aided and abetted (I last saw Suchet's version 20 years ago, and could not remember the plot). And the thing about a 'whodunnit' is that it actually should pose somewhat of a conundrum until revealed, right?

2) What you have done to Poirot is tantamount to character assassination. What a charmless fellow you have made him into.

I will see Henry the 5th again to try to blot this movie from my mind, and hope I forget you ever made it.

Hyde, Jekyll, Me (2015)

Suspense through stupidity

[5/10 · 16 January 2022]

This was very poorly plotted. If the pathetic doctor Kang had said who had kidnapped her, which she had plenty of time to do, the series would have been wrapped up early.

The Watch (2020–2021)

Made by somebody who hates Discworld

[3/10 · 31 December 2021]

Maybe, just maybe, you can find this series middling, if you have no idea who Terry Pratchett is. If you have read his books it seems like a poor parody. So, for any Discworld-fans I can but say, 'avoid like the plague'.

How it is possible to produce such drivel from such a perfect source has only one parallell in history, and that is when somebody took the Jewish religion and Christianity and made a new religion based on those, and possible a large helping of mushrooms.

A Castle for Christmas (2021)

Is it possible to get Cary Elwes to act poorly?

[4/10 · 6 December 2021]

No, it is is not. But with a bad manuscript one can make even him have a hard time of it, and the typical conflict before reconciliation type of thing was not very well executed. The actors seemed wooden, and there was people thrown into the casting pot that seemed seriously out of place.

Netflix are preaching to us. If it had not been for all their East-Asian stuff I would have cancelled my subscription.

Father Christmas Is Back (2021)

Politically correct movies always stink

[4/10 · 6 December 2021]

I love John Cleese. Well, platonically, but still. The sex god Colin from 'Love, Actually' and Kelsey Grammer is also worth watching. Here too. But it is hard to shine with a poor manuscript, I suppose. Maybe they should have just improvised?

Having said that, American Netflix movies is hellbent on diversity. So, we have;

1. A weightwise challenged female clergyman.

2. a homosexual couple 3. A lesbian finding love 4. One child who could not have been gotten by its alleged parents (does American know nothing about genetics?) 5. A transracial relationship (the black guy did a great job actingwise, btw) 6. What we did not have was anybody from East Asia. Diversity never includes Asians, for some reason. Talk about discrimination.

We saw another Netflix-movie the evening before (Home to the castle), and it was the same there. They even managed to get Cary Elwes to act poorly.

The thing is, or seems to be, that the point of these movies is not to entertain us, but to make us think that all the above is 'normal'. Maybe, if the focus was on making a good movie, and roles were made as fitted the action, while actors were cast as fitted their roles, not their race, the movies would be better, and so we would not mind what otherwise is a nauseating moralistic preaching. Moral is good, moralism bad.

I used to fight for diversity. Now I find I must fight for those who feel oppressed by it.

Red Notice (2021)

The less Reynolds speak, the better

[5/10 · 14 November 2021]

Poor plot, poor lines, fair enough action. But Mr. Reynolds plays the same character in every movie now, and someone has cursed him with dialogues of abyssmal quality.

Vanguard (2020)

Is he sponsored by the sheiks of oil?

[3/10 · 28 August 2021]

One thing is that the movie is as jingoistic as anything made by the Brits and Yankees after ww 2, another is the blatant whitewashing of an ideology diamantrally opposed to core Chinese values. Money talks. I used to admire JC, but now I am disgusted by his movies.

Fortitude (2015–2018)

Not quite the state of Norway

[6/10 · 19 August 2015]

I wish the producers had bothered to learn just a smidgeon about winters and Norway when making such a series. A) Even those who should be Norwegian rarely had Norwegian names B) The police had more weapons than the complete Norwegian police force (well, not quite, but you get the drift), but CHILDREN cycling around with hunting rifles in town? Did they think it was Texas, just colder? C) Reindeer and polar bears together? Not in Norway, not on Svalbard. D) When it is VERY cold (30 C below) the snow makes a certain sound, and it does not turn to slush. E) Except for a few instances the people mumbling in Norwegian did not sound very Norwegian, even the chef in the Muppets was better. F) Wasps do how well in the cold, hm? G) Norwegians do not wear their shoes indoors, especially when it is cold and wet outside. It makes everything dirty, you see, and we do not like dirt in our houses. H) When it is cold, seriously cold, people usually cover their ears and button up their jackets. And they seldom wear gloves, but mittens.

Next time pretty please ask a few natives, OK, and do spend some time on the plot! This could have been a classic....