Malarkey

The entire time I was watching, I was thinking that I’ve waited a long time for proper cyber orgies like these. But I’ve realized that apart from gorgeous animations, perfectly edited and rendered city of the future and amazing music, it’s extremely important for a movie to have a soul. And that soul is, amongst other things, created by the actors themselves. But this time, they didn’t exactly manage to do that. Pilou Asbæk and Takeshi Kitano have absolutely amazing roles, but Scarlett Johansson is so awfully stiff that the entire movie ends up being stiff. A shame.

The movie might not be anything extraordinary, but the boy’s relationship with the bird was so essential that it ended up making up the movie’s entire quality, from the beginning till the very end.

In a sacred Celtic place near Bad Tölz, a dude takes two mollies, washes it down with some 30 ounces of wine and in the morning, he wakes up on a sacrifice altar together with a victim. He says he was kidnapped by aliens, driven around a bit and then placed on the altar again. Benno has his doubts and right when his mom’s getting desperate about having very few customers this year, esoterics from all over Germany check into her inn and Bad Tölz suddenly becomes a place of alien appearance. It’s a shame that the investigation is boring because the conclusion with an alleged alien is literally enough to put you in the madhouse.

I binged the entire season in one go and I must say that it’s just as good as the first one. Which – honestly – I was afraid of. But the result is very good and even though a few of the jokes get old due to some repeating lines, there’s still characters you love watching; which is basically everyone in this show. Maybe we’ll even live to see the third season. I think that it’d be remarkable. :-)

Four stars for sure. There’s no other option. I can see that most of the reviewers here judge the entire show, most of which they obviously haven’t even seen. Because it’s a lot of fun. At first, Benno gets dirty with a local Bad Tölz dominatrix who has some exclusive clients. Soon, he finds out that one of her clients is the state councilman whose character is played brilliantly; any gigolo with the best lingerie imaginable could envy those positions. However, the investigation is also very solid and – of course – Benny’s mom has the final say. What’s more, she’s gotten mixed up with some bribe takers and so things get pretty wild. This episode was simply amazing and whoever doesn’t have a laugh is simply lacking a sense of humor.

Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt are showing prime acting talent in this movie. On the other hand, there are also Laurence Fishbourne and Michael Sheen who could strike your fancy. It’s basically a pretty intimate sci-fi that’s enticing exactly because of this intimacy. Personally, I was very pleased. Technically precise, brilliant as far as the actors go. The question is: what about the director’s take on this? I hear that that the ending wasn’t for everyone, but I liked it. As for me, I was satisfied and happy for each and every new sci-fi that catches the general public’s interest. Especially when it’s as high-quality as this one.

Somebody tried to be artsy, but it only ended up with me squirming in front of the screen every twenty minutes and wondering what the hell was that supposed to mean.

If there was a bit more action and humor, then maybe this sequel could grow on me. But without it, it’s a classic lousy sequel that has an action-filled beginning, ending, but the two hours in between are just a boring stuffing that the movie could do without. The only upside are the actors who are enjoying these roles to the fullest. What’s more, Elton John’s probably not gonna forget this experience for the rest of his life. After I finished watching, I thought that if the movie was half an hour shorter and some of the scenes got a little more work, it could have been a perfect successor of the first one. For example, I like Mark Strong, but some of the moments were plain horrendous. I don’t want to spoil anything, but a certain scene was so upsetting that were I a professional movie critic I would have gotten up and left. But since I’m not a professional critic, I finished the movie. If you’re expecting a crazy story, you’ll be pleased. But know that there’s less action scenes than you’d expect. Even then, it’s pretty good.

Any movie with a disabled lead always deserves a huge amount of respect, even more so if the premise is portrayed in such a human, sincere and easy-going way. However, the ending is hell, but it steers that way since the beginning. Anyway, it’s nice that the authors tried to find silver linings in the harsh moments; they even succeeded a few times. A nice human but a dark movie that pleasantly surprised me by being from Colombia. The ending at the sea is a solid emotional heartache for any viewer.

Here in the Czech Republic, we shoot executors at the door, but in France, they invite them to the dinner table and lead passionate discussions. In this movie’s case, the executor then tells them that he enjoys watching people in tense situations and so Sophie Marceau, beautiful as always, and Dany Boon, funny as always, think of swapping their jobs and helping each other by saving a failing marriage, paying off the debts and even adding a few more new thoughts and ideas to their work routines. The idea is excellent, but it’s lacking Francis Veber’s gentle approach. And a whole casting of French actors simply can’t save that by their mediocrity.