Mini-Reviews #12
Again, the yield of good material was higher on the small screen than on the silver screen.
Film
- Marvel’s The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron
- So this it then, the Marvel Cinematic Universe finally transformed into just another episodic movie franchise (yeah, yeah, it’s been that from the start, but still…). Plotwise it was a big letdown; and the rest? Bigger explosions, more action, some quips, but *yawn* just more of the same.
- John Wick
- Overhyped by several movie blogs. Generic action B-Movie.
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Now that was an unexpected reboot. And while I wouldn’t call it Film of the Year, because it’s essentially just a two-hour car chase, it was an entertaining experience. Please more!
- Spy
- An american spy comedy. With Melissa McCarthy — what else is there to say. Few funny scenes; skippable (or at least wait for the inevitable run on television).
- The Gunman
- Sean Penn as a poor imitation of Liam Neeson; *ugh*.
- Vacation
- Yet another contemporary american comedy with lots of gross gags. *Sigh* I miss the classics.
- The Machine
- Wasn’t on my radar, just catched it by incident on TV and don’t regret it. A very low budget sci-fi movie that borrows most of its themes from other genre movies of the past. But the whole 1980s ambience and style had a certain charme, this certain ‘je ne sais quoi’.
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
- One of the big three spy movies of 2015. Quite watchable, although it could have helped to be trimmed more in some places.
TV
- Better Call Saul — Season 1
- When this ‘prequel/spin off’ to “Breaking Bad” with a focus on the comic relief character Saul was first announced,
I was more than a bit worried that this would somehow taint the legacy of the original show.
But luckily, this seems to turn out pretty good: Yes, it has a slightly lighter tone; on the other hand, it also has often a melancholic atmosphere to it.
This first season takes its time (well, “Breaking Bad” wasn’t a hight octane show either), but at the end you will be thirsty for more.
- Homeland — Season 4
- Not perfect on all levels, but the readjustment was neccessary after the events in season 3 and in general it turned out to be a good season.
- Silicon Valley — Season 1
- So this is how a comedy show looks like that is set in the current app-development-start-up-scene… well, it could have been worse. I’ll stick around for a while, but this is not going to be on my Must-Watch list.
- Dark Matter — Season 1
- A sci-fi show from “SyFy', again. So proceed with caution: Could be canceled very soon. But ignoring that, it’s alright so far. Nothing earth-shattering new here and the low budget is visible, but alas, there’s so little space sci-fi on the air at the moment, I’ll take what I can get (for now).
- Hell on Wheels — Season 1
- I knew from reviews in the past that this show wouldn’t rival Deadwood — well, that’s true (but then again: what could?), but it’s not bad.
- Walking Dead — Season 5
- This show is an acquired taste for me. And although I don’t get the hype for it, it has become a rather good character study. What’s annoying: It’s still very slooow at times and the general backstory keeps on reapeating (group discovers a new location that looks fine/peaceful at first, but things are not what they seem here…).
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