Short opinion pieces about films and TV shows that I’ve watched since 2025-02-16.

Film

The Order (2024)

I wanted to like this film: The cast was good, the premise sounded interesting… But in reality, I was mostly bored by it. It offered nothing new (or a new twist to this plot).
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Runaway Jury (2003)

I’ve probably seen it before, on some TV re-runs back in the day; but since I couldn’t recall anything, I won’t count it as a rewatch.
Anyways: Good actors/actresses, decent plot… but didn’t grab me (at all).
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Cliffhanger (1993)

Rewatch – I only had dim memories of it. And since I’m not a big Stallone fan and this movie is only considered to be “good, but not great”, I haven’t watched it for decades.

But after listening to a few positive and recent reviews, it was on my radar again; and what can I say:
It’s a good action movie (but not great 😉 ).

(On the other hand: Compared with most of the junk of recent years in the action genre, it was a very welcome watching experience).
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

Knight and Day (2010)

Rewatch – Also one of those mediocre action vehicles of the 2010s.
But hey, it was on Netflix now and it’s with Tom Cruise, so why not give it a second chance?
Bad decision: Still a (very) mediocre, sub-average, run-of-the-mill action vehicle…
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Flow (2024)

Kind of interesting and impressive (considering how it was created), but the making of a film won’t influence my opinion about the end-result: OK, but not more.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

Maybe this is a case of “the film is too old/I am the wrong generation”, but it sadly wasn’t as (emotionally) moving or charged as I hoped it to be. And it also dragged a bit, due to its long runtime (the only reason I don’t vote it down for that, is the fact that I deliberately split the watching over two evenings…).
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

When Evil Lurks (2023)

This was one of those festival horror movies that got hyped a bit. Knowing that, I already dialed down my expectations; and by that, I could enjoy it a bit more:
It has a few nice “horrific” scenes, but overall it’s far from being an exceptional or extraordinary film.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Rewatch – This one has a certain late-1980s charme to it and was a nice watch.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Kindergarten Cop (1990)

Rewatch – Weirdly enough, I’m 100% sure that I have seen it before, at least once (since it’s an old film with Arnold Schwarzenegger!), and yet I didn’t remember any scene of it (except the one or two that have become memes by now).

After having it now seen it for a second(?) time, I understand why: Yes, there are a handful of decently funny/memorable/quotable scenes, spread over the runtime of this film – but that’s it: And a few decently(!) funny scenes don’t make a good movie…

I will even go below average in my rating, and I can’t really explain, why. Maybe because it’s too harmless and toothless for a film that is starring Big Arnold…
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Killer Joe (2011)

Rewatch – Hm, interesting idea, but without fully convincing storytelling.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

Rewatch – Funnier than I remembered it from previous watching sessions.
★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981)

Rewatch – A few scenes were familiar (but I wrongly placed with a different film), but overall it must have been a very, very long ago.
The first half is better (funnier) than the second half, and thus I found it to be not bad, but also not really good.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Rewatch – Another film that I only very dimly remember from my childhoood (when one could stumble upon such gems by chance, via TV channel hopping late at night) and haven’t seen ever since.
It’s a classic, so I knew the main story – and yet, it left me a bit underwhelmed…
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

Rewatch – Uh, it’s… strange – and so different that I’m not even sure how good (or bad) I should find it. Overall, more bad than good.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Havoc (2025)

Well, that was disappointing.
One good action scene (club), which brought back to mind “The Raid” – but it’s probably not a good thing to be remembered of similar, but way better scenes in other, older films from the same director.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Companion (2025)

First off: Don’t watch the trailer, don’t read any reviews!
Sadly, I saw the trailer before watching this film, and that didn’t help. But even without that spoiler, it’s just an OK film; not bad, but also not very good.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Badland Hunters | Hwangya (2024)

What was once “TV channel hopping” in previous decades has now become “random stream watching” – with the big difference that back then, I would often discover gems on TV’s late night programming; but nowadays, there is mostly only crap like this on Netflix.
★☆☆☆☆ 1/5 stars

Verirrte Kugel | Lost Bullet | Balle perdue (2020)

Only discovered this movie (series) because I recently heard it being positively mentioned on a few german film shows/podcasts – which of course isn’t a guarantee that I will like i too; but in this case, it matched.

It’s a lean (~90min runtime, small budget), but mean (lots of action, mostly practical effects, good stunt work) action flick, with some focus on car action – but luckily not only.

You won’t get a complex plot or deep characters; and the cast is also only serviceable… but that’s enough to have a good time (if one has a soft spot for these kind of films, which I do – to a certain degree!).
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Verirrte Kugel 2 | Lost Bullet 2 | Balle perdue 2 (2022)

It has a common problem of sequels: It’s bigger than its predecessor in some aspects, but also badder worse in other aspects (and in between, just more of the same).

But that actually reads harsher than I intended: While I do prefer the first part over this one, at least the (slim) plot is continued here, and it’s still entertaining enough.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Primal Fear (1996)

Rewatch – Nowadays these kind of movies are a rarity, but in the mid-1990s, such crime dramas with a surprise ending were more common – and I didn’t (and don’t) care much for most of them.

I find it to be a OK movie, but it easily could also had been a “TV Movie of the Week” or an episode on some TV procedual show back then. I’m not even sure, what exactly I’m missing, but somehow it doesn’t have the certain “je ne sais quoi”…
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Days of Thunder (1990)

Rewatch – Ooof! It’s a Tony Scott film, so of course it looks stylish as hell (for 1990), but the rest? Endurable, but only barely.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

TV

Halt and Catch Fire — Season 3 and 4

The show continued on an elevated level in its two last seasons.
And even though I’d have liked it to see more about these characters, I’m glad that it ended with season 4 (even when on a sadder note than expected), because I also could also already (dimly) sense that with more seasons, the plot would either get stuck in a kind of loop or would jump the shark (as its likely for long-lasting shows).
There is not so much leeway if the showrunners would have wanted to follow the same trail, without clashing what happened in reality.
Season 3: ★★★★☆ 4/5 stars
Season 4: ★★★★☆ 4/5 stars

Arcane — Season 2

The first season was so surprisingly good that I knew that any follow-up would have a hard time.
But my hope was that maybe a wonder would happen and the level of quality could be held for at least one more season, which was planned as the final one anyway (for this story arc)…

Well, sadly, that was not the case; this season is noticeable weaker and has several problems:

• On a technical/animation level, it’s still great – but I take issues with some editing and music decisions/choices.
• The waiting time was too long: While I totally understand that it takes time to create quality material, it’s been three years. My (internal) hype had cooled down quite a bit and it also took me some time to get back into this world (granted, that could have been solved by rewatching the first season – but I don’t have free time in abundance…).
• And most significantly: Both seasons have the same amount of episodes, but the world, scope and cast of this season was way bigger – too big. And they tried to redeem that by rushing thru several plot points, skipping character development, etc. That reminded me very much of Game of Throne’s season 7 and 8 – which is not a good thing 😣

So, I grade it two points lower than the first season; and even that rating is only reached because of the goodwill it inherited from the previous season.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Daredevil: Born Again — Season 1

The original three seasons of “Daredevil” on Netflix were pieces of art.
This incarnation, on the other hand, years and years later, under the flag of Disney and with new helmsmen, felt very, very different to what came before.

Naturally, one needs to change things once in a while, to not get stuck or feel repetitive; but: What happens here, in this season of the show, cannot be the right way.

Granted, they seem to have revamped quite a bit during production (re-shooting, switching tone, …) when their first attempt wasn’t liked by the upper ones at Marvel.

But that didn’t help: For one, this season is now a hodgepodge of old and new material; it looks too slick, too clean and the plot points and side characters are either laughable or wasted

In total: A big, big stinker!
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Black Mirror — Season 7

Only six episodes, but some of them have a feature-length runtime, which is not always for the better.
In total, it’s more of a letdown (again), except for 1.5 of these six stories (episode #1 and partially #2). Some of the other episode had interesting premises, but either didn’t bring them to fruition (prime example for me: episode #4) or didn’t fit in tone/theme with what I associate with this anthology series.
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars

Mythic Quest — Season 4

This was the final season, and I think that’s for the better: The show was running out of steam by now.
I already noticed that at times in the previous season, but now it was overly clear.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 stars

Love, Death & Robots — Season 4

Ouch! What was that?! It was not a good or interesting collection of stories; actually, it was barely tolerable in my eyes.
A lot of repetition in terms of plot points from other seasons and this time also lacking any new or interesting animation styles (which in general is of course on a very high level, but still).
★★☆☆☆ 2/5 stars