cordayalec's Reviews

Meteor (2009)

5/10

12 June 2009

There is a huge market out there with dozens of meteor-hits-earth TV movies, one worse than the other. METEOR is no exception. It makes the same mistakes as do all the other, trying to integrate unrelated story- lines to make it more interesting (a cop chasing down a killer) and the usual trapped-in-a-building concept (a family trying to find each other and get out of a collapsing hospital), alongside the more interesting lets-try-to-stop-the-bigun narration and the lets-get-everyone-to-safety plot. Although in the end some of these story lines come together to help each other out, they still feel out of place and unnecessary.

But unlike most others, this one at least manages to bring some emotion into it, as well as show the moral breakdown (and occasional redemption) of humanity in a crisis. The FX are nothing to sneer at, and although the movie has its faults, on the grand total it is one of the best made-for- TV-meteor-movie we have.

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The Net 2.0 (2006 Video)

8/10

They took recycled material and ran with it. They get farther then you'd think.

26 June 2006

Warning: Spoilers

Take an up-and-coming director who's father just happened to direct the first THE NET, take an up-and-coming actress who tries her best to be likable, add a city that is not LA or Vancouver or even in South Africa, a so-so script and a recycled storyline and you get THE NET 2.0.

Hey, it could have been worse.

Technically this is not a sequel, only a similar storyline and slapped with the THE NET brand name to be able to be noticed and plucked off the rental shelves. The fact that the son of the first part director took the reigns of this one helped. In fact, he seems to have more visual style than his father. Sometimes a bit too much, but it works.

The film was shot in Turkey for a reason, but it gave them a wider scope and better backdrops then Cali or Canada could ever give, considering the budget. Of course there are plot holes to swallow a Mack truck, but no more than the first movie. It was also predictable although it tried hard not to be, but no more than the first one (I have yet to see a movie that is not predictable and/or has plot holes).

The movie is superior to the first in a few areas, most notably the setting, the cinematography and the gadgets used (like the first one gadgets can do more than they actually can). The storyline is the same as well, hence it doesn't improve but it doesn't get worse either.

The first part was successful because of Bullock's charm and the novelty of the subject. After so many ripoff and carbon-copies a sequel to the actual original can't deliver anything new that hasn't already been explored by the ripoffs, so don't expect it. Reminds me a bit of 'Men In Black' in that way. But Nikki has charms of her own and the story is worth an evening of reality-detachment.

All in all it is a movie that tries its best to live up to our expectations, fails here, succeeds there, rambles for a while, finds itself, delivers payoffs, gives us 'Hope'.

In short, it reminds me a lot of the first one, only no Bullock, better cinematography, a different backdrop and a few computers doing funky computer stuff only laymen will find 'cool'. Experts may find it annoying and unrealistic. Same as the first one.

Where THE NET was overrated, THE NET 2.0 is underrated. It levels itself out again.

The R rating was pointless. No sex, no language and the violence is minimal, limiting itself to one blood-drips-off-knife shot and a few bullet wounds. I've said it before and I'll say it again: those MPAA jokers need their heads examined. They give Rs to PG-13s and PG-13s to Rs.

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Noah: He Walked with God (1997)

Not award material, yet surprisingly innovative

30 November 2004

The WB&T Society is slowly but surely moving into the controversial world that is the film industry (with emphasis on film, not industry). Although they have had a cinematic presence ever since moving pictures have been around (the society where the first ones to actively combine moving images with sound and voices -- the Photo Drama of Creation, 1914 -- 30 years before sound in motion pictures became common), but the society refrained for a long time from creating motion pictures for edu-tainment. This all changed with Young People Ask: How Can I make real Friends? where for the first time they took the step to actually dramatize a storyline. Since then the production studios constructed for just this reason in an underground facility outside Patterson, NY have been actively churning out shorts and documentaries, growing continuously in quality and budget.

NOAH was another step in a different direction, this time into the competitive realm of animation. The watchtower studios are not an animation house, but with this retelling of the story of Noah they have shown that the resources and talents are there. The motion picture can by no means be compared to running animation houses such as Pixar, Disney or even Bluth, and it would be unfair to do so. They were not trying to win awards (although the often do) or hit the cinematic jackpot.

Watchtower studios took a simplistic approach to make the images move, a technology as old as motion pictures themselves, by using a combination of cut-outs, stop-motion, digital rendering. TV shows such as South Park (or the animated shorts in Monty Python movies) used a similar process, but instead of bland 2D images that slide back and forth on a painted background, the watchtower studios attempted to bring more depth into the images by increasing the distance between the cut-outs and the background adding more layers of cut-outs, something rarely tried. The result is an amusing animation that looks simpler than it is, but does entertain.

It must be said that the demography aimed at with this motion picture is below 10 years of age. The combination of animation and live action is amusing to see and for children quite entertaining. It is a must-see for anyone wanting to bring the story of NOAH closer to his children.

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Zwei Münchner in Hamburg: Abschied von der Isar (1989)

Season 1, Episode 1

North and South

24 November 2004

Two from Munich in Hamburg: Fairwell from the Isar

There is an inherent difference between Germans from the south (Muenchen = Munich) and Germans from the north (Hamburg), both mentality as well as linguistically. If we where to transplant someone from New York City to, say, London, the differences would still not compare. And that is what this mini series and subsequent TV series based its premise on: A woman from Munich (played by the incomparable Uschi Glass, probably one of Bavaria's most successful exports to the German film and TV industry) is asked to move to Hamburg to run a bank. She takes along her son and ventures into the unknown and far-out reaches of northern Germany. Humor and drama, mostly stemming from the cultural differences, abound from episode to episode. I was never fond of German drama and/or humor (until Der Schuh des Manitu of course) but this show had its appeal. It also featured at that time a boy my own age lost in the world of Hamburg with his mentality and accent (perfect Bavarian, a rarity for someone in his age, even for someone from Munich) that I could relate to, and, heck, Uschi Glass was hot, even at her age.

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Forsthaus Falkenau (1989–2013)

Something to grow up on

27 December 2003

In Germany they are called 'Förster' her in the states we call them 'Rangers', and a 'Forsthaus' would be a Ranger Station. Hence, Forsthaus Falkenau or, roughly translated "Ranger Station Falconfield" is just that: a TV show about a Ranger and his job/friends/family in the Black Woods of Germany, complete with all the snowstorms, wild wolves, lost deers and poachers the writers could come up with.

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Forsthaus Falkenau (1989–2013)

Something to grow up on

27 December 2003

In Germany they are called 'Förster' here in the states we call them 'Rangers', and a 'Forsthaus' would be a Ranger Station. Hence, Forsthaus Falkenau or, roughly translated "Ranger Station Falconfield" is just that: a TV show about a Ranger and his job/friends/family in the Black Woods of Germany, complete with all the snowstorms, wild wolves, lost deers and poachers the writers could come up with.

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