Reviews

This movie is grotesque... I don't know how i made it through and have to admit some shuttling was involved as this movie is sloooooooww.

The basic idea is following an alien shapeshifter that took the body of a porn actress nearing retirement in way too high heels who for some reasong went digging for money somewhere in the desert.

That opening scene of the alien appearing in the desert and taking the body of a woman digging for money in high heels and cocktail dress is unbelievable. Either you turn it off (and there is plenty of reaons from bad acting to absolute nonsense details and weird to bad CGI) or you want to know what the hell the director was going for with this movie.

Basically it feels like a softcore prn producer watched "Under the skin" and though... I can do that! So prepare for a weird MILF alien walking around, observing weird situations and then killig weird people in weird ways.

The feeling is similar arthouse but heavily collides with the actresses who have a strong OnlyFans vibe and the sudden explosions of gore (literally).

Some of the weird exagerrated facial expressions are incredibly funny. I think they were meant to be creepy but most of the time border on the comedic if not crossing that border for good. The last time I saw this style was in Pierre Tsigaridis movies which played it in a real unsettling way in "I who have no one" and "Two witches". This director obviously failed and took on a project that did not really work with his way too obvious softcore background.

I have to admit this project is ballsy in its own way, but its not a good movie. I won't even try to explain the drawn out "story"... like "Under the skin" the vibe obviously was more important to the director and i guess he failed in what he wanted to do but still made a weirdly interesting movie that reminds of a car crash you can't look away from. Definitly a good choice for funny bad movie night! Look out for the incredible pizza scene... classic!

This movie is based on a shortfilm named "Conductor" which seems to have received a lot of praise for the director and has been made into a feature film.

The short basically had one idea going for it... surprise and a sudden turn into a grotesque horror idea that appealed to fans of the Saw franchise. It was very well done and it looks like the same team worked on this movie as the lead actress is the same and several elements look like this is a movie that is supposed to tell the story of the woman who appeared in the short only as a kind of sadistic sound engineer.

First of all... this movie like the short is very well done visually. The cinematography and effects are great, the acting is fine and they have a kind of new idea for the "main villain" that sets the movie apart from others because luckily they did not choose to go for another Saw rip-off movie as one could have expected.

The movie reminded me a lot of "Bliss" with the trippy aesthetics and damaged artist on a weird killing spree theme and a little of the recent Netflix movie "The perfection" in tone. Add the basic Saw torture-porn with creative technical devices to that and you basically have an idea of what "Sound of violence" looks like.

The trailer looks good and the movie has several things going for it for sure. But what does not work at all is the mix of drama and horror. They tried to make the back story of the woman dramatic but it feels rather lame as the plot has so many holes and things just suddenly happening. The character is not really fleshed out when suddenly building technical torture devices and becoming some kind of cyborg surgeon working wonders in an RV. The drama falls flat on its face and does that all through the movie until a very unsatisfying ending that totally killed this movie for me.

The kills seem random and often border on the comedic as characters in this film act really stupid like the guy getting electroshocked into a remotecontrolled theremin or the woman being turned into a mobile surround sound system. Yes, this sounds totally dumb... but that basically is what is happening. I wonder how these scenes read in the script and how no one said "Come on, this is too stupid... lets make this a little more realistic". All that dumb B-movie horror stuff clashes heavily with the polished surface and drama that often looks like a lesbian Dawsons Creek. Just like the ridiculous kills the scenes in the university look like a satire playing on the movie cliché that the deep part of the story is told in some classroom by a teacher in front of a chalkboard with very relevant words on it. Except... there is absolutely no depth here.

No... it happens way to often when a short movie is turned into a feature. I respect the effort but it does not work at all and is a huge let down in the end. Watch "Bliss" instead... that movie had way more edge.

Of course... The Simpsons did it. A Cartoon Family of five with a fat husband obsessed with eating while being dumb, the caring wife managing and holding it all together, the bratty son becoming the focus of the show and his hyper intelligent sister. Add to this a little Family Guy and have a speaking pet that is a kind of fifth family member. Done! Its all been there before in various forms.

BUT... Gumball takes the basic recipe and puts it on speed. This show is hypercreative, speaking to all generations, extremely silly and equally deep and heartwarming. The characters are sweet and have so many layers. Goldfish Darwin with his childish voice and sweet character is just lovely. Mother Nicole is carrying the family by working double shifts and walking the razors edge between caring and loving and being seriously stressed and angry as well as intimidating. Little sister Anais is the know-it-all that has to put sense into the zany brains of her brothers and find solutions to minimize the collateral damage of their shenanigans.

That is just the Watterson family in the universe of Elmore where EVERYTHING has a character and feelings. Objects are singing,dancing and revolting just like the planets and stars do. Every character has his own animation style and a lot of thought has been put into how these styles convey the characters strengths and weaknesses. The animation style is just over the top creative with a beautiful photorealistic 3D world that includes everything from 3D animated characters like Bobert the robot or the tyrannosaur, claymation characters, a family of balloons with drawn on faces, real characters like the superintendent or the news speaker and kind of handcrafted from cardboard characters like Larry who is the only person in Elmore working hundreds of jobs, characters drawn on a piece of paper or illustrated like old style 30ies cartoons. Theres flowers, clouds, ghosts, bombs with a short fuse, a giant with a witch mother or utterly silly characters like Sussie who is basically a real upside down chin face with glued on googly eyes in a dress. Then there is Banana Joe and his insane family of bananas and a crazy mother who can draw the future. The whole world is insanely colourful and diverse.

Same goes for the stories... what they touch on in those short 10 minute episodes is stunning and often reminds me of a lighter version of South Park in its complexity and analysis of problems from childrens perspectives and then adding utter sillyness on top of it that is pushing many basic and wellknown ideas to new extremes.

If you love cartoons like Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park you need to give this show a chance. There are so many refreshing perspectives in here, so many heartwarming moments like the sweet backstory of Darwins genesis in "The Origins" or Nicoles story in "The Choices". There are so many references to internet culture... they even have a character for the internet who is an angry computer living in his moms basement. I love, love, love this show and i have never seen a show taking so much creative freedom in simply choosing whatever style of animation they consider most fitting to their plots and ideas. They even have an episode taking a deep bow to the "Don't hug me, I'm scared" doll clips and incoroporate their style in the show.

This show feels like its total artistic freedom... there is episodes that will haunt you as the show is very meta and self conscious constantly incorporating the fact that the characters feel they are in a show on TV and being watched, drawn and scripted. The depiction of Anais as both hyperintelligent and socially awkward bordering on massive cringe is just one example of how nearly every character in this show has so many sides. There is not even an evil character, which is something they use to make fun of themselves . The way they use facial expressions how ever they like is unique and a total worship of internet meme culture. When utter sillyness and hyper consciousness collide... this is what you will get. I can watch many episodes again and again if not for the plots for the detailed animation and clipshows or musicals. Gumball has pushed all my favorite shows from the throne as they are all in there. Moral Orel, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and all the insane Adultswim stuff is compressed into a show that really fits all ages and is not provocative for the sake of it but always to convey a message or a story.

Help this show to become the classic it deserves to be and watch it and spread the Gospel of Elmore. You will not find another show that explores the meaning of life with singing planets and musical numbers sung out of tune and rhythm and still conveying heartfelt emotions.

I have been a huge South Park Fan ever since they started the show and I am always stunned how they manage to stay at the front of social commentary with their minimalistic style. Like every show that is up for such a long time they had their lows but the last 2 seasons were among the best for me and this one is starting just like I hoped. These guys are one of the few voices of reason and if they see something insane they will comment on it and they mostly do it in a very creative and unique way which to me is always entertaining, even if its not always laugh out funny. To criticise that they are too political today is a weird statement after all the many seasons they already went for close to anything one could think of subject wise. What always was the problem is that people want South Park to be in "their camp" and usually they never are. I love how they kept that up against libertarians, conservatives and liberals and i love how they so often sit between all chairs and manage to show all sides to a story with their diverse set of characters.

Amidst all the insane debating of mandatory immunisation in which even libertarians sacrifice the individual right of choice to scientism this episode was a mostly needed statement and i am thrilled to see where they are taking this after that cliffhanger ending.

The thing thats most special to me on the later seasons of South Park is the complex storytelling with interweaving plots and long arcs they build over various episodes. Even though the show always stuck to its roots they keep evolving and I have nothing but respect for these guys. This episode to me was a much needed statement and i am thrilled to see where they will be taking it after that cliffhanger ending.

"Lights out" is another copycat show with an extemely bland host. David Spade tries to act cool but his jokes are mostly not funny as his humor seems to consist primarily of making fun of others... and not even in a creative way. The show starts with him watching something on a laptop and commenting while being filmed on a phone or doing selfies and every single opening joke is unfunny. If you start a show like that, thats a statement.

So you get a show with him coming out, telling jokes about celebrity news and then sitting down with his guests who can join in on more celebrity jokes with their comments. Most of the subjects are utterly unimportant and interesting only to people who watch TMZ and need to stalk celebrities and rummage through their trash. Spade feels forced most of the time, showing off his sneakers and telling us who he would have sex with or had or how he worked on SNL. And the whole show concept feels equally forced with worn out late night tropes and a weird appealing to young audiences with Tweets about celebrities on a large screen like a smartphone.

Best thing about this show is the guests as there are many interesting names from the standup comedy world on and most of the time its them who steal the show. But on the other hand... why does anybody go on a gossip show to trashtalk celebrities. Utterly disposable.

I seriously do not get half of the reviews about this movie about it not having a plot and being slow or about the editing being confusing. "Destroyer" has a very straight forward plot that is not even using cheap twists but rather telling a straight story in a hypnotic trance way and cutting up the timeline to reveal information at the time the director considered it necessary. I loved Karyn Kusamas "The Invitation" and "Destroyer" is a well made movie, no matter how you look at it. Nicole Kidman carries the movie along with the perfect choice of music that sucks you in and watch the plot unfold. This is not an action movie and if you fell for that its not the directors fault. Its a slow drama about a cop that made wrong decisions and tries to right her wrongs when her past with a bank heist gone wrong gets back to her 17 years later.

I know people today have attention spans like moths but seriously... if you can't accept a slow drama for what it is, that says more about you than about the movie. And come on, its 2019... if you are confused by a non-linear timeline and can't wait till the movie clears up the confusion.... thats on you too.

Don't expect this to be a violent revenge movie... its not. Well, at least its not the focus of "Destroyer", although the movie does not hold back when things go down. The drama elements are well played and the ending was quite touching to me. At its core this movie is about the desperate longing for escape from a cold, grey world and its quite obvious from the choice of locations and flats that always give off a bleak, worn down feeling. Music and cinematography make this work perfectly and the editing helped spice up a rather straight forward plot. If you liked Kusamas previous movies... go for it. The key ingredients of haunting atmosphere and slow unveiling of information to the viewer are there although this is a completely different movie than "The invitation". So don't fall for all the moths swarming IMDB. I can't put my finger on all those silly 1star ratings but honestly, it reeks of gender insecurity.

I don't know the movie, so I don't seriously care how this relates to the original plot and characters. Anyway you look at it ... This is a well made series. Perfect choice of music, awesome camera work, good acting and a good script with many scenes and one-liners that have the capacity to become cult classics.

This show pokes fun at EVERYONE... it waves societys hypocrisy in everyones face. This is not about LGBT or SJW or whatever many are projecting ... its a simple role reversal of the villains when in the end no one even knows who is the villain in this series. Most characters are heavily exagerrated... the cool kids, the nerds and losers, the dumb jocks, the idiotic parents, the teachers... everyone. Many characters are obviously blatant caricatures of real people.

What this show boils down to is pointing the finger on a society obsessed with status and PR work. Everything people do on this show revolves around creating an image. Bullying, suicide, sexual orientation, fashion, lifestyle, school plays and activism... everyone does it with an agenda. If anything fails... kill yourself on camera and create drama to get your five minutes of fame.

Basically it is impossible to say who is the villain because everyone is a selfcentered douche on this show.

Now the funny thing is how this show is being reacted to. One side is outraged because LGBTQ kids are shown to be the bad guys. What used to be jocks and cheerleaders is now an overweight PC girl, a gay drag boy and a black girl pretending to be a lesbian to fit in. The other side takes this show to be on their side for trolling "the left". What is a basic role reversal is heavily projected on and ignoring that everyone in this show is portrayed with negative sides. I don't see this as problematic at all and have to wonder about the heavily politically biased reviews and comments on this show.

What is problematic is a society that reacts exactly as depicted in this show. Because this show is about an ignorant society where everyone bullies the other and feels to be the victim, uses victimhood to become a perpetrator and plays everyone for his own agenda. The end of this show is just perfect and spot on about how hypocritical society is dealing with subjects like school shootings, teen suicide, bullying etc. So basically dropping the show because its too edgy in light of the thousandth school shooting is exactly what this show points the finger at.

And the funniest thing is... even when Paramount used this tactic to get attention and sell this show for a lot of money. Still its exactly what "Heathers" is criticising at its core. So the way people react is perfect in how they have got the mirror shoved in their faces with this show.

What looks like a trendy show with hip kids and cool editing has some serious subjects at its core that seem to fly over a lot of peoples heads because they are so self obsessed. Its like the teachers who wonder if they could have listened to the kids just to go and get drinks instead and plan another hollow PR charade for some TV cameras.

THIS is what the world has become. It may be a pitch black comedy but it created a feedback that is exactly what it points at.

I was already irritated by the buzz around Michelle Wolfs correspondence dinner speech. Many put her in a place like she was critical and funny like no comedian before her... which just is not the case. The years prior to her speech were much better, just look at Hasan Minaj in 2017. It felt like people wanted to push a woman to feel good during #metoo season. Her jokes were Ok, but felt forced and were not that original.

So obviously what happened is ... she made a buzz and got a show. And that show suffers from the same problems as her speech, just way worse. First of all... no one needs another political comedy show making jokes about politicians and especially Trump. Jim Jefferies already stumbled into that trap and his show is way better than this, although still annoying with the repetitive lame Trump jokes. This show just feels unnecessary because again... Michelles Jokes feel uninspired and often forced. Throw in some sexual stuff for shock value, then bash republicans, bash democrats, do the usual in-between segments which feel like they belong in a lame skit show... you know it all. Its the same old routine, just way worse... why did Netflix do this? I mean, they even put a DJ in the show who is basically just standing around and is hardly included. Its another detail that shows how uninspired and copycat this show is.

And the worst thing of all.... Michelle Wolf has zero charisma. She looks into the teleprompter like a zombie with dead eyes. Her whole body language oozes insecurity which she tries to gloss over with being rude and filthy but meanwhile its really hard to stand that annoying voice for long. She sounds like fingernails on a blackboard after a while. If she was funny ... OK. There are several comedians who make up for lack in charisma with being funny or just different. But i can't see anything here. Even the feminist angle feels lame as it has been done over and over lately by Samantha Bee and other female comedians. And honestly... most of them failed too with their shows. This format is dead for quite a while and it hurts to see so many good comedians being burned in unnecessary shows like this. To me Michelle Wolf isn't even one of them.

I have seen two episodes of this show and I am hooked. This is definitly a weird and different take on relationship and daily life subjects. On the surface some jokes might look stupid at first but I think they all lead up to a connection and message that often adds unique viewpoints to themes. Its not really your basic laughtrack humor although the show seems to make fun of comedy clichés.

The whole thing is basically a skit show with some intelligent and creative (editing wise) connections of the themes, many of them sexual in nature or dealing with different views at things in different stages of your life and making fun of TV with spoofs inserted and reoccuring on TV screens in the scenes.

There is one guy here calling this "worst show" which is kind of funny because he used the exact same review on another show here on IMDB. So make up you mind, which is the "worst show" now ... i always found the "worst" statement on movies to be quite funny and idiotic since it most of the time is proof of a visceral emotional reaction to a movie or show that is hugely exaggerated. But this guy is a caricature of himself trolling 2 shows with the word for word same review. So I guess when people accuse a show like this of 12year old humor and lack of intelligence, that reflects hard on their own cognitive abilities.

If you don't like cursing, vulgar humor and explicit themes, this show definitly is not for you. If you like characters that are neither good nor bad and always need to be evaluated by their actions like in shows as "Curb Your enthusiasm" or "Mom", then this could be something you might like. I always appreciate shows that don't use flat characters but rather play on the persons flaws and stengths.

The show is playing a lot on cursing and things like the fathers name being Ken Swallow but it has an interesting way of presenting rather untypical subjects like threesomes, making Nazi friends and the hypocrisies of the music business or drug addiction in a way that makes you think. So the humor is quite broad if you can go with the cursing. The basic plot about a family band moving in a band bus on the road to start a new life and career often looks a little bland but the characters make it work. You get a weird stoner son, the hot sister, a black adopted son with a strong Michael Jackson vibe, a little loudmouth sister and two parents constantly struggling with their relationship and flaws.

Some subjects are rather bold in their approach and often border on falling flat on their face... which they do sometimes. But if they work its fun and interesting. Jason Alexanders character is a total egotist, very much like his Seinfeld character and especially the dynamic with his wife is great. The threesome episode was awesome.

So don't be fooled by the 1star reviews... this show definitly has some flat jokes and plays on clichés but I think there is a lot of depth in it too.

Let me preface this by saying... shame on me, I do not know the japanese original, so all i can judge is this movie itself. I mainly watched this because I am a huge fan of Adam Wingards previous movies and I definitly was not disappointed on that matter. This is a solid movie which incorporates a lot of elements from Wingards previous work. The movie starts of with a kind of dreamy slow motion sequence and then gets into the plot very fast with some short outbursts of onscreen brutality, awesome camera work with many interesting angles and an 80ies soundtrack ... all of which manages to build atmosphere nicely. Its a very american movie in how the plot is presented and I can imagine how they dumbed it down a lot for this remake. Many decisions by the main character Light and his girlfriend Mia seem a little dumb and uninspired... their whole relationship is kind of stupid in how it unfolds. There are some serious weird parts to the story like Light being a "genius" who is to dumb to read all rules of a book that basically hands him the world and falling for a girl who obviously sucks from the get-go, so some things developing later are easy to predict. These are the strongest misses of Death Note in my opinion... otherwise this is a really solid movie with an interesting plot.

Seriously... I can imagine being disappointed by the plot if you are a fan of the original but to vote this 1 or 2 points is damn ignorant and rather makes you sound like a spoilt brat that can't take art in all its components and needs to trash the whole thing because one or some elements are not to his supposedly superior taste.

So, if you want to watch an entertaining movie and don't know the japanese original... just do it. I doubt you will be too disappointed. Just wanted to drop this review because I think the fanboy reviews here are kind of retarded and misleading.

Oh, and btw... the ending, well... that was not too glorious really. But when I see that Netflix is kind of sliding on making a second movie just in case this gets enough money, the half-assed ending makes kind of sense.

The first Seed Movie by Uwe Boll was already pretty bad but compared to this waste of resources even Seed 1 seems like pure genius. Everything about this movie looks like a student project. The opening scene introduces us to bad acting, bad writing and timing and starts the movie with a calculated provocative scene that immediately falls flat on its face.

After that you are basically treated to half an hour of boredom, incredibly bad acting from the female leads and dialog and a "plot" that is so blatantly ripped off a hundred other movies and re-invented in the most annoying way possible that I really wonder if many make it more than 20 minutes into this "movie". So you have a van full of bad acting chicks driving through the desert, picking up hitchhikers, meeting a bored police woman acting even worse than everyone else... and then they die. Sometimes it looks like they wanted to go for a "Hills have eyes" style... but after all its just shots of the desert and a guy in a mask killing chicks.

The camera work is mediocre (still the best about the movie), the sound mixing is off with several characters far too hard to understand, the choice of music is bad, the editing is uneven and forced, the storytelling and dialog are childish (must have been written on a bus ride or something) and even the only thing that could make this a little watchable looks cheap and unrealistic.... the FX. Usually German horror movies suck at almost everything but deliver some decent FX. Seed delivers absolutely NOTHING.

Avoid at any cost.