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Germinator
Reviews
Liebes Kind (2023)
Believe it or not, better than the book
I watched this in the original German and also read the book at the same time. The series and book diverge quite a bit, and it's easy to see why. The series keeps its focus on the main objective: reveal the identity of the kidnapper and unveil the mystery surrounding him and what happened to Lena bit by bit. The book, on the other hand, digresses into pointless melodrama at the halfway point and loses its focus, resulting in a muddled narrative that frustrates the reader. The series also entirely invents several events, which, in turn, result in a few plot and logic holes that are never quite explained. For example, how was "Lena" able to escape when (SPOILER!!!!) SWAT/the bomb squad has to comb through a whole mine field before gaining access to the building where she was kept? I guess the woman just happened to NOT trip any land mines. How fortunate! On the other hand, the writers did a magnificent job distilling the most relevant moments from the book and using them for their own narrative, however, resulting in an engaging and thrilling mini-series that is definitely worth a watch. Nine stars for the unresolved inconsistencies and plot holes, otherwise, 10 stars.
Flyboys (2006)
Eye popping, but repetitive and kind of boring
Hoping this would be TOP GUN in WWI, I rushed to the theater to check out Tony Bill's newest epic, but was disappointed. All the aerial fights seem the same, and after the third one, become very repetitive. When people start dying we don't care because the filmmakers neglected to spend any time on character development. Instead, they spent all their time creating breathtaking dog fight sequences. But all the VFX in the world are kind of a waste if that's all that's been developed. The story seriously lacks focus, the structure is all over the place, and even the romance between Rawlings (James Franco) and his love interest Lucienne seems forced so the hefty running time of 2 hrs and 20 minutes becomes grueling and boring.
What they SHOULD have done is create memorable characters we can care about and THEN throw them into battle. As is, it's merely a demonstration how far visual effects have come. Just a very, very long one. Catch it on DVD, or go see LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE instead. I guarantee you a lot more entertainment for your buck.
Full Clip (2004)
I might've gone blind, this was so horribly, awfully bad!
Oh, man. Anyone who ever went to film school has seen footage as bad as this. During the viewing of your classmates' first film class assignments. Mink (I love how he's too cool for school and doesn't want people to know his real name) truly has no clue where to put the camera, or what to tell his "actors", or what directing means.
One of my favorites is a dialogue scene outside someone's apartment or store, I think, and some lady keeps sweeping with a broom all over the place while two other people exchange painfully bad dialogue. Never mind that there's no dirt on the ground to sweep (1) or that her way of sweeping would've spread the dirt all over the place had there been any (2), or the fact that the blocking is so uninspired that most of the time you must wonder who's speaking, and more importantly, why (3). So you succumb to the horror, which is SO painful to watch, the only way to cope with the level of badness is to laugh uncontrollably at the horrific performances by (of course) rappers (as we all know, when you can string rhymes together, clearly you're more than qualified to act in motion pictures, too. No more training is required). My recommendation: (w)rap this piece of crap and put it where it belongs: in the garbage.