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Reviews
Blood & Gold (2023)
Unusual German Film
German SS soldiers and village inhabitants search for gold having been stolen from a Jewish family, and many of them will die on their way. That's the plot, more or less.
Being a German, I can tell that this kind of Nazi film being produced in Germany would have been unthinkable even ten years ago. But why should only Hollywood do this kind of stuff.
Is it a dark comedy with a lot of tragic elements or a violent tragedy with weird comedy elements? I don't really know. It is definitely influenced by Quentin Tarantino and yet it bears its own trademark. Sometimes it also reminds of a revenge Western by Sergio Leone (notice the score, half of it are German songs from that era, the other half is typical Western music).
The taboo of not making fun of our darkest hours of history has been broken quite a while ago for the first time by "Hotel Lux". But this film by Peter Thorwarth is a whole different story.
It does not feature our most famous actors, which is a good thing (i.e. Thanks to god there is no Til Schweiger). Everybody involved in this production has done a fine job.
Whether you will like it or not, is fully up to you. I understand people saying that this film is not appropriate. But I liked it.
The Rookie (2018)
The Three Rookies
8 for the first two seasons, 6 for the third one (more are not available in my country at the moment).
This is the story of three rookies in the LAPD. Being in his fourties, officer Nolan is the oldest one. This role was the reason I started to watch the series. I am above 50 and I just began a "new life" as a paramedic, so I somehow felt connected to another old rookie.
I did not expect this series to be so funny, but it is. To be honest, in the beginning it is quite silly. It stays funny, but the longer it goes, the more serious approaches will develop.
I think that the lead character would have been perfect for Jason Bateman, but Nathan Fillian does his job well. For me the star of this series is Melissa O'Neill though. She plays rookie officer Chen in such a charming and irresistible way, you are forced to feel with her (and she's having a rough ride).
Shadow and Bone (2021)
Interesting enough story, great cast!
This is not the typical phantasy story normally playing in a medieval setting, it's more 18th century. On the other hand, it's a typical phantasy story with magic, monsters and so on.
What makes this series really stand out in my opinion is the cast. Every single actor is just perfect in his/her role. Jessie Mei Li is not the typical Hollywood beauty (she looks good though!), but she has something irresistible that keeps you feeling with her. I can't really describe it. I loved her in that role. And like I said, all the other actors are just so believable.
And the story has a flow. It's like you go into a river and let the water take you with it.
Hotel Lux (2011)
Unusual German Film
This is not a 9, it's a solid 7, but I felt the current rating of 6 is unfair and tried to correct it a bit.
Problem with this film is that you will need some knowledge about German and European 20th century history in order to understand its subtle humor. Many scenes refer to persons who have really lived and things that really happened.
If you know nothing about "the wall" and that it was Walter Ulbricht who had it built, you will completely miss the sense of the short but gorgeous sugar cube scene. If you don't know about the soviet tradition of deleting persons fallen into disgrace from historic photos, you will not understand another important scene. And so on.
This is not a masterpiece, but it is absolutely worth watching.