Change Your Image
Tomaslillebror
Reviews
Dark Matter (2024)
Another multiverse story
Im no fan of these multiverse themed stories and this series is no exception. You get to follow a man who gets lost in existance trying to make sense of the world he lives in. The goal is ofcourse to find himself back to his original life, the road there is a lot of conflict and problemsolving.
Acting is not convincing, not even the actors are inspired by this story it seems.
Camera is a lot of closeupps in your face, which is anoyying.
Scenography is dark and dull.
I just cant bother. There is nothing exciting or interesting with this series, nothing is beautiful and everything is annoying. The forced racial diversity and gender push is the death sentence.
Not even Jennifer Connelly can lift this dump.
3/10.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
Planet of wasted time
When the concept movie came on screen in 1968 with Charlton Heston, Linda Harrisson and others, this was a sci fi horror movie, as was the sequal in 1970. There where strong characters and sexy women. Since then there has been numerous movies with the same theme but imo the movies have shifted into politics about race and gender making men and women gender neutral. This last one doesnt seem to have any message or purpose though, other than wasting time.
You will only see White humans until the last minute of the movie, which is odd. I wonder why..🤔
Most characters are cgi-made apes and its quite good, except if it was mere humans, I dont think the acting wouldve been considered good. Its unnatural and slow.
I found this movie very booring, I couldnt find anything interesting. Its a complete waste of time imo.
3/10.
The Veil (2024)
European homeland
This series starts out with the main character setting up and sending a man off to jail. The main character is played by Elisabeth Moss and her character cant stop grinning.
This series has only aires two episodes when I review this but you can already see what kind of production this is. You are suppose to believe a 160 cm, 120 pound woman who is also unfit, can beat up women and men of 200+ pounds coming at her with big knives as if its a walk in the park. Its not believable since size matters, gender matters. She is also extremely bossy and acts like she owns the world wearing constant lipgloss and perfect hair.
Per usual the men are weak, pathetic, childish and bad, especially the White males. The exception is a few racially diverse characters that are ofc, the best of all men.
Its almost like Elizabeth Moss just took a step out from the Handmaid's tale series into this, because she basically plays the same role.
The acting is decent, Im not sure about Elisabeth Moss though since she is constantly grinning. Camerawork, scenography is fine, the story is not. Its like a feminist tale. The story have a fast tempo though which is welcomed.
4/10 If you love forced racial and gender diversity and feminism, this show is for you.
Shinobi no Ie: House of Ninjas (2024)
A comedy take on ninjas in 2024 Japan
This series is like a flashback to the 50-90s heights of moviemaking, there is NO forced racial or gender diversity push. This alone makes this series great. Japan gets to be Japan with its unique culture, customs, behaviour and natural human life. Men get to be men and women get to be women. Its so refreshing and makes you experience the richness of humanity and not this constant social engineering message crap.
Acting is great and its really fun to see japaneese people be japaneese. Their limited mimic and kinda strict rulebased behaviour. It reminds slightly of the Shogun series.
The fighting scenes are also amazing, such great choreography. Even the slicing sound as unatural as it is, adds comedy to the series.
The reason I only rated it 8⭐ is bcs as good as it is, the story and scenography could be slightly richer and more exciting. Im talking about more visual beauty, more emotion and higher stakes between the characters.
I recommend!
Shôgun (2024)
Japan as it where
This historical drama is well made. I dont know if the budget is big but the production is very serious and has done a very precise depiction of the japaneese culture and customs at that time. What stands out the most to me is the cultural behaviour of that time that is very distinct and rigorous. Its actually at par with the story as the highpoint of this series.
The acting is fenomenal. Everyone does an amazing job and its a real treat to watch the actors act out the japaneese culture.
Camera and sound is hardly noticeable because the timing of everything is so good that you are so into what you watch that you dont notice the music.
The diversity aspect have been heavily cut down, thankfully.. but they couldnt leave it all alone. The main character, the anjin(englishman) is half armenian, half english, but thats pretty much it. I guess the diversity aspect only have to apply to White peoples productions..
The story is allright but kinda slow and not the series strong part and also why I gave this 8/10⭐ and not 9.
I recommend this but beware of the slow tempo.
Ark: The Animated Series (2024)
A left hand view of the world
You quickly realise this product is not just a movie made for entertainment, its clear this is made to "educate" the audience; "White bad", everyone else good. That women are better than men better fighters, thinkers yeah, you name it.
The main character is a lesbian or something.., married to blue haired butch lesbian. We learn that she is a phd in archeology, languages and probably everything else. She is somehow transported to the place called the ark where her new life starts trying to find a way out.
Throughout the episodes you learn that White people are evil and stole land from indians, colonised, are weak, dumb etc, and that the GOOD left hand people are loved by animals and are much better fighters than men even though they have no training and are of half the size.
Some kind of duck that went extinct just have no fear of the main character and acts like a cat or dog.
The animation is mainly still pictures and rough artistry, although its fine. The problem is the message that is all lies about race and gender.
I would not recommend this to anyone. Especially keep your kids away from this.
2/10 ..and those 2⭐ are for the animation alone.
Franklin (2024)
A historical drama with the wrong lead
The story is circling Benjamin Franklin around the end of 1770 when aparently he went to France to gather support against the brittish in the American attempt to become a free independent nation. I cant say much of the accuracy of the story but this depiction seems rather vapid to me and more focused on details than the core story. Maybe because the core story itself isnt very exciting but rather booring.
The production is fairly big and thus the scenography, picture, music and sound is generally good and of quality but the story and script is lagging behind and doesnt deliver much excitement. You will see beautiful and well dressed people but less exciting interactions between people. The writers are failing and actors are stiff and lacks spark to create interest. The picture is also a bit dark, filmed in the light of candles and fog mostly, which seems unnecessary and dulling.
Michael Douglas is the acting lead depicting Franklin in this drama and Im not impressed. He has problem standing, walking and talking straight, its like he is drunk. The reason for this is likely old age or some medical issues. In any case this is a crucial problem since the story circles him. Michael Douglas ineptitide to accurately depict Franklin instead of being himself, kills much of the suspence that is built in the story, creating a loss of interest. I hate to say this because Michael Douglas was a good reliable actor that delivered pre covid(-2019).
The "diversity" aspect. Unfortunately they couldnt leave this historical portrait alone and attempts to rewrite history. They include black people both in the background and as main characters when there where no black people in France at the time and especially not at the social status depicted. They also included the depiction of a transexual and pretend Franklin would have treated him with interest, understanding and respect, which is not likely.
If you like historical dramas in the late 1700s France and dont mind watching a seemingly drunk playing Franklin and dont mind other serious inaccuracies of history, then this series is for you.
6/10 for everything but Michael Douglas as Franklin.
Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver (2024)
A lot of people have to die for a little grain..
This is part two of Rebel Moon, the epic space saga.
In part two the story begins back at the village where everything begun in part one.🙂 The story goes that the ruler of the empire have to get the grain from one small village of a few hundred people on a desolite planet, bcs aparently grain isnt cultivated anywhere else in the universe. Thus the ruler of the empire is taking his dreadnot starcruiser to this village even though he could easily travel at lightspeed around the entire universe.. Just to clarify, there is nothing special with this grain, its just for food.
If this doesnt make sense for you, well you have only got an apetizer of what is to come bcs this is how the entire movie runs. Another example of this is that the farmers are using simple hand tools to cut the grain while having starships and equal technology at hand for example.
The CGI is fairly decent though.🙂
Well, I wont say much more, I dont want to ruin the experience of this masterpiece of contradictions, badly written scripts, acting, and so much more.
3/10.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021)
Lighthearted animated series thats worthy a watch
The story circles a group of rebell clones fighting for survival from the empire in the wake of the clone wars, while trying to get along with eachother.
They are the empires experiments that went wrong. There are two types of clones in their group, one who are grown up males, that although they are clones, are very different from oneanother and then there are Omega. Omega is a girl. I think.., bcs she looks like a mix of male and female and is every feminists dream. Shes also quite ugly and thats where you see the problem with the series. Sadly they couldnt leave this series untouched from propaganda and thats why the series doesnt get 9⭐ from me.
Each episode pass quickly, its only ca 30 min long but rather well written with lighthearted depth and surface.
8/10. I recommend you watch.
The Gentlemen (2024)
Glitter and shadows, glitter and shadows..
Guy Ritchie certainly have a certain recepie for his productions, it seems hes taken the style of detective movies like Monsieur Poirot and put a posh class theme on it. The stories main point always seem to be to 'show off' with some illusion of being top dog high class style.
This series is no different, you have seen it all before but if you are into that youll like this series too. With that said the story is this series weakest point, its illogical, low brow thuggery and mostly really dumb. Its just glitter and shadows, glitter and shadows... and he always seem to have a diversity goal and a finity for bashing nazis.
In this series you will have every race represented but all are portraited as english.
The imagery and the acting is the strong point and there are lots of well known actors in this piece.
Camera and scenography is great, the actors are all well dressed and well mannered, except perhaps the "travellers".
If you enjoy a lot of killing and all kinds low life criminalities then this might be for you.
7/10 and thats me being generous.
Civil War (2024)
A poor attempt of "fortifying the election" ...again
When I saw some trailers it seemed like this movie could be worthy a watch but when the chance came it was obvious this is a cheap production made with more will than skill.
The story is as simple as a walk around the block and reminded me more of series like the walking dead than what I perceive a civil war would be like.
We get to follow the most trusted news around, journalists on the left..., from start to finish. The main character is played by Kirsten Dunst or rather just her being herself. The rest of the cast are less known names and I can see why no big names joined this production, this movie is highly divisive and would hurt anyones career.
Basically its the same theme as of the 'first' civil war, just not as clearly pictured as in the history books written by the winners. This is really no different though, the story is just written before it happens.
Camera, scenography is shaky, in your face and very cheap.
I gave it 2/10 and I dont recommend it.
Palm Royale (2024)
Cosy drama of love and female ambition in the American 60-70sch..
Kristen Wiig plays Maxine Simmons a former beauty pageant winner who yearns to enter the high status society in the Palm Royale, a club for the rich and famous in the area.
Its a slight easygoing drama with kinda silly twists but its still captivating bcs of the great acting by the entire cast and a well written feel good story. The directing, camerawork and scenography is equally top notch. Its a very visually beautiful series with a lot of 60s design, art and culture.
The series have minor incursions of feminism and the diversity stuff but its not selling. Kristen Wiigs character makes winning arguments against it and its quite liberating.
I would say women will enjoy this series more than men bcs the story is highly gendered towards women and their lives. With that said men can enjoy this as well bcs its still a story of life.
I recomend this series. You will probably like it and if you dont you cant say its bcs the product isnt well made, bcs it is.
9/10.
Mothers' Instinct (2024)
Visually beautiful but a wierd horrible story likely written by AI
If you've ever used an AI image creator you know you will sometimes get really wierd and horrible pictures. You might get people with ten fingers, three legs, people fuzed to the wall or mixed with some animal. This movie is wierd and inhumane like that. The story is just disgusting and illogical in a bad way. This movie is what I imagine a psychopathic would create bcs it just lacks humanity and human rational behaviour and I struggle to see the value of this movie. My guess is that this is a script made by AI and somehow it slipped through the clearing process.
The acting is good but the story just made me not care. There is nothing likeable with the characters, its a stiff depiction of family life in the perceived 60s. Throughout the movie there is nothing I find likeable, not even the beautiful 60s design can lift this trash. Maybe this movie was made to give you a bad feeling of the 60s family life in America.
Everyone is also White. No "diversity" here but certainly a clear ugly feeling..
You are better off skipping this.
3/10.
Road House (2024)
Roadhouse remake is not worth it
This movie is a shameful attempt to rewrite history resulting in a clear miss and a soulless low quality trash product.
There are good and worthy remakes but this is not it.
The casting. Jake Gyllenhaal has done some good stuff in the past but nothing of value for the last ten years and this is no exception. Hes a soft guy with a soft voice without pride and alfa characteristics and he cant act himself away from them. Hes also too old for the part. Connor Mcgreggor appears in the movie and hes clearly not an actor making a clownish entrance walking around naked looking like a gay goof from the gay comic Tom London. If nothing else ruined the movie, this did.
The person who are out to hire Dalton(Jake Gyllenhaal) is a black young woman claiming to run a roadhouse...
Its not believable and her acting is equally not fitting. She comes off as a spoiled brat and cant act herself out of it either. If you have seen marvels "eternals" ..she is one of those characters. This goes through the whole cast, they are all wrong for their parts and seem to have been hired for their diversity status instead of fit for the part.
Also if you are a White male, the only White male in the movie is the bad guy, Connor Mcgregor and a couple of skinny sideshow plants, so imagine that.. The White women are either dating a black guy, pretending to be black or ugly.
The story. Well, it kinda follows the original base script but also not. The original script was connected to a culture that did or did not exist back in 1989 but it fit the story. That 1989 story does not fit the cast and place of this 2024 version. The geographical place, the people the music, sound is all wrong. The 2024 version is black culture, diversity and lefty politics of 2023. Dalton keeps acting like a nerd telling his opponents 'data' as if that is cool way to be demeaning, its not, its ridiculous. Furthermore the original from 1989 had a cute lovestory and watching that movie you could feel it through the screen, in this 2024 version, you can not. There just isnt any chemistry, the female character are just anoying and repulsive which goes for the whole movie. All the plots and sidestories, nothing is believable. Its wierd, unatural and seemingly made for a minority audience who probably likes to watch movies like "the marvels", "the eternals" etc.
The beginning of the movie as crinch as it is, was way better than the second half. Lets just say you will walk out of the theater with a bad feeling.
Camera. Its filmed by hand and its shaky and filmed from low angle up and equal anoying angles with too many close ups, its like the cameraman was out smelling the actors. Just worthless.
Watch the 1989 original with Patrick Swayze and Kelly Lynch. Skip this.
2/10.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Big scale movie lost its rythm in part two but still a worthy watch
I loved Dune part one, it was fresh, fascinating, beautiful, complex with great acting and story. It held the line of the story, things made sense even though not always clear. Dune part two however lost the rythm of the story and couldnt keep my interest up.
The acting failed imo. Its like they all got drunk and stopped taking it serious. Timotheé Chalamet and Zendaya lacked chemistry. Where was the affection? It was just nothing there. For the rest of the cast I would say they equally lacked the dedicated acting we saw in part one. There was also little developing of the characters but that had more to do with the directing that the acting.
The story, went from part ones constant action to a slow pace for the beginning 2.5 hours of part two, then everything happened in the last 20 minutes.
If the first part had a complex story, part two did not. You wont have many surprices.
The actionscenes are a mix, the CGI is great and flawless, the man to man fighting is pretty ridiculous and frankly stiff.
But it is a big production wich means beautiful scenery, music and scenography, so its still a worthy watch.
A couple mentions, I never understood why Zendayas character always looked angry in part one but she still looked angry throughout part two, why? Who knows.. but if there is a part three I hope this changes.
Like part one this movie isnt free from politics. Its the usual stuff regarding gender and race.
I gave it 8/10. With better acting I would have given it 9/10.
Monsieur Spade (2024)
A rare hit in the dark
The show starts off with a slightly slow tempo with a Clive Owen who I cant decide if he plays himself or just acting slow and careless. The tempo never picks upp but more things happen and several stories plays out, so it gets more interesting as it moves along.
One story is about Clive Owens character who finds love late in life in a feminine and classical french woman. Its true love and call me sensitive but even with the suddelty of it all, it made me shed a tear at the end.
Its also a story about the beautiful french culture wich is nice to see and made me think how sad it is too see it go extinct with the demographic changes in europe. Maybe this show can act as some kind of remembrance.
The end episode with a wakanda-like woman character appearing just dominating everyone was a clean miss. Clearly political and made no sense at all to me.
I recomend this show to anyone although its my guess its not for the younger population due to the tempo of the series.
8/10.
Anyone But You (2023)
Cute comedy with message of love
Its really a ridiculous story.., two people find eachother but almost immidiately
starts to missunderstand eachother. In reality though, this is not how people act. The movie tries to sell us the idea that this couple would be so insecure to not just be honest with eachother.
Anyways, there is nothing original about the story, just new actors and actresses placed in a racial and lbtq -diverse setting. No surprices either but thats fine, its a feelgood comedy and no need for a surprising story.
Acting is allright by all actors but nothing headturning. Scenography and photo is nice and light on the eyes.
If you can ignore the racial and lbtq diversity pushed in your face, then this movie is a 6/10, if not, its a 4-5/10 imo.
I.S.S. (2023)
Shaken and stirred at the same time..
A shaky movieformat remake attempt of 'The 100' in zero G.., kinda.
What initially disturbs me is the failure of depicting zero G. The characters are always moving back and forth, back and forth etc. All while at the same time as the camera is also always moving back and forth, up and down, side to side. Its really annoying. To add to this you clearly see the actors are hanging from the roof in cables.
The story is its a catastrophy movie and everyone lose their heads and things go south.
Halfway into the movie, it got almost unbareable bcs it was so predictable and stupid. I just wanted to leave the theater.
The acting is quite good though but with the lame story it can only do so much.
I would not recomend this movie bcs you will likely feel worse leaving the theater than entering the theater. Do something else with your life.
Hotel Portofino (2022)
Lighthearted family watch
I stumbled upon this not well advertised series. Its a mixed bag but lighthearted.
The story plays out supposedly in the 1920s italy and during summer. The weather is thus always sunny(during daytime) with blue skies and barely any wind. So the scenery is warm and beautiful. The story is quite lighthearted with a few edges here and there. So its a comfortable and stable ride to watch.
Acting is great by the entire cast. Natasha that plays Bella is the center of the plot but there is a lot going on around her, so there is something there for everyone.
Whats less good imo are the social engineering stuff, the series deals with racism, ofc accusing White ppl, we have normalisation of gay ppl, we have domestic abuse(male on female) and fascism(white supremacy ofc).
The story could have done without these subjects pushed in our faces to program us like some software update. Its really demeaning and tiresome bcs its always one way and the same old stories.
I managed to ignore most of these bits by fast forwarding but without them the series is quite enjoyable.
If youve seem 'The Durells' you might like this. This is more political though.
Bastarden (2023)
Rough and cold in the 1600 Denmark
A costume drama played out in the 1600 Denmark. Its a rough and cold depiction of the life of a man trying to make a name of himself.
What makes this movie is the characters and the acting. Mads Mikkelsen plays Ludvig Kahlen, the main character of this movie. Mads makes a believable character depiction of Ludvig, although we dont really know how Ludvig was, so he couldve been quite different IRL. The rest of the cast performance is mostly good but two characters are misscasts. The guy who plays the priest and the girl who plays the stray girl are really bad actors. Both playing swedish characters. Its not just bad acting, it seems the director wanted to make them look bad. The dialect is of present time(2023) and its like they forget they are suppose to play characters of the past. Im just gonna assume they got their roles through corruption.
Besides some misscast and poor directing, this movie seem to follow some diversity quota bcs the stray girl is played by a mixed raxe girl looking very middle eastern, thus does not fit the history but probably the movie criteria for casting. Its sad to see the movie industry engaging in politics bcs its rewriting history for political ends.
The story is quite simple, Mads character are met with people who tries to ruin his attempt to further himself. It gets bloody at times and its a very harsh and sad story. Not much beauty or warmth in this flic, in fact you will probably leave the theater having a cold.
In summary, you wont laugh to this movie and I dont really see why they made it. It doesnt leave you with much but a cold rough stain. Go out and lick the street on a chilly autumn day and you will get the same feeling as this movie will give you.
Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)
High hopes where not met, Its a B-movie
A few seconds into this thing and Im already looking for the exit. The voice of Anthony Hopkins as an orator for the story is a misscast. His voice is slow, spluttered and tired, not the start you expect from something great and exciting. It continues on from there. We are moved from a beautiful planetary view down to a field being plowed by a solitary slim 100 pound woman with an antagonism towards a friendly male. Its just odd and off.
A little later a ship lands in the village but its so poorly filmed, that you can see that the shot is of a physical miniature model bcs the dust caused by the landing is off in scale. A few scenes later and the clear misscasting continues to roll in. The male character Gunnar played by Michiel Huisman performs so badly as an upset or sad man, that Im getting ready to leave the theater.
Furthermore the dialects are making no sense, you clearly hear the actors are from scandinavia, south africa and yes brittain which makes no sense considering this clearly plays out thousands of years in the future and the dialects of our time would not remain. And why do the bad guys look like german soldiers straight out of some WWII movie?? I was just shy of expecting a nazi salute.
Later, some soldiers grabs a girl who is screaming but the only person coming to help her is the 100 pound woman in a village filled with strong men.... I mean.. whoever wrote this didnt think this through. Its just not believable.
The story continues and the 100 pound woman starts a mission to gather a
possy to defend the village. They are suddenly in a western movie with aliens and a guy offer them their ship. They find Tarzan chained working as a blacksmith.. ..noone thought to realise a blacksmith could easily unchain himself, since hes a blacksmith...
The movie continues on like this. The dialogues are stiff, the acting is off, scenes doesnt make sense or are out of place, its offputting to say the least.
I dont know what happened when filming this but its clear they didnt aim high. I cant imagine anyone feels good about the end result. I doubt there will be a part 2.
Dont expect much, ..in fact just skip this alltogether. You are better off not seeing this. Its shameful.
The Secret Gift of Christmas (2023)
Better than most of these family style movies.
I wasnt expecting much but this movie surpriced me. The acting by the female lead Meghan Ory was the main reason for this. She carried most of this production but supporting actors like the male lead, his daughter, the sister and others where also doing good.
The downside with these productions is they are cheap with lame stories and all the characters are made in the same mold. Everyone behave the same, always upbeat do gooders or just lame. No depth, just fake. This movie was better in these aspect, The story was slightly surprising and the acting story was less lame and more genuine than I expected.
With that said, its a tv-movie. So dont expect to be thrown off your seat, its cute however it got some miles to go before reaching the quality of cinematic productions.
Istanbul Için Son Çagri (2023)
Cute lovestory in turkish hits the modernity obstacle
A romantic takeoff during a warm New York summer sets the feel of this lovestory. The main characters are played by a turkish actor and actress in this turkisk production. Both actors are very good looking and very charming which makes this movie easy digest.
Beren Saat, an uncanny lookalike of Ellen Barkin and Linda Fiurentino, plays. Serin, a woman getting headwind in her creative design career but is confronted with a choice. Her co-actor Kivanç Tatlitug, a lookalike to Ricky Martin, plays Mehmet. A man also developing his career and also confronted with life choices.
Its very well made production, a classic cut I would say. The directing is satisfying, cinematography, photo, music and acting are all on point and not much to criticise. You get a genuine feel. Every character does a great job and its a movie easy to digest but not all uncomplicated. The story has some depth.
With that said, you will likely not cry or walk out of the theater like a new person. Its not a gamechanger but nice.
Funny thing I couldnt help but notice is how similar turkish sound to japaneese.
Yeah Im neither.
What Happens Later (2023)
Two dead out drunks IRL attempts to make a movie together
Its slightly sad to see old ppl trying to play young but you will see that in this movie.
Both Meg and David are IRL drunks that seem to have stiffened up bcs they are slow and extremely tired looking throughout the movie and their botox treated faces doesnt help. They look fine on a still picture and look good for any age but they dont come through as anything but old when acting in this movie.
Meg Ryan directed this flick and David was coproducing it. I bet they developed this movie over many bottles of whiskey bcs it lacks depth in the dialogues and the improvising in the acting makes their IRL character as immature drunks come out.
If you like to keep waiting for something good for around one and a half hour with the risk of falling asleep, then this movie is for you.