Reviews

If you enjoyed this movie and you were OK with the violence I strongly suggest you should read the novel and/or the manga (both far more violent and more suspenseful).

Even though the manga also isn't completely true to the novel, it is still very close for the most part and keeps the characters intact, at least enough, and it gives an real insight on the characters backgrounds and their motivation.

The movie is just a very dull attempt bringing it on the big screen. Of course, it was a stupid idea to begin with. The runtime of a movie can only handle a limited amount of content.

It is for good reason many critics remarked the characters remained shallow. Just like his younger western counterpart, Tarantino, Fukasaku makes movies based on a somewhat intriguing setting and fills it with action, but can not develop a character or bring any actual psychological drama to it. So effectively, the Fukusaku-family really disgraced Takami and his original story for bringing it to a format it can not fit in and for trying to turn it into an action blockbuster.

I still rate this movie 3/10 for a) the remains of Takamis book b) some of the actors did a solid job and c) the acceptable production value.

There are many things to like about this movie. It has some moments that are full of suspense and also some moments full of comedic relief. But after the third time the experience runs so dry it becomes a flick that starts empty handed and ends nowhere.

True Grit isn't a western. It is set in the era. But the characters, the environment and the plot are far from the actual life in that era. To a degree where the movie is stunning in the first place and keeps getting worse with every time you watch it again.

That starts with the plain and simply intimidation of Mattie getting reimbursed with ridiculous claims and the vendor is giving in and in to a point where the audience cracks up laughing for it is so plain unbelievable. With all due respect, but the Coens start it with a basic perception that treats a 14 year old orphan with the same respect a current jury in NYC would do. In a time where many people just got enslaved, raped, worked to death and murdered without anyone ever caring.

This idea then goes on for about 2 hours. The regular bad-ass loner, the goofy sidekick, the gotta-care-for-kid. End of story. Again it is not a bad movie, on the contrary, but even for Coen-standards the story and the characters are so overdrawn, the movie sadly only ends up as solid, nothing more, nothing less. Mediocre in every regard.

While the Coen brothers have a well deserved reputation to come up with remarkable movies this one lacks out on exceeding in any regard. Just another movie out there.

First of all, I must say I was rating this show one point below it's actual quality because of the ridiculous hype and the massive disappointment that came with that.

Anyhow, despite it's premise (one which we have actually seen in various movies since the 80s) this show could have been awesome but failed due to the terrible scripts and the wooden, repetitive acting.

Unless you are totally new to storytelling and/or television, you will never meet an interesting character. The authors are seemingly either new to scriptwriting or such old hands in German television that they don't even know how to try to be REALLY original.

Having Feldhusen and Mädel on this is what got me interested in the first place. Their work on the German Office-Adaptation was remarkable as they did manage to bring a fresh momentum on the 100th remake of an original show. Though it took a lawsuit to make Feldhusen admit it was an adaptation :D But after all, "Stromberg" was somewhat different and entertaining, no matter if it was another rip-off of the British cult-series.

This time, they sadly failed. Feldhusen as a Director can't bring anything to it. The people don't seemed inspired or pushed or led to a great performance, the very least you'd expect by a Director. The narrative, the camera-work, the whole setting, it's all dull an not worth mentioning.

What is remarkable: This show proves that Mädel actually can't act. His character, "Schotty", is played exactly like "Ernie" from Stromberg. The same expressions, intonations and gestures, despite it being a completely different role. If it wasn't for the beard, you couldn't tell the characters apart.

Summed up, what I was hoping to be a breakthrough in the national TV-landscape ended up as a complete and disgraceful failure.

What a vile and disgraceful attempt on scoring on our basics and roots. Of course this movie has its strenghts, which lie in some shots and the environment in which the set takes place. Besides that, this movie is a total disgrace to filmmaking.

Let us start with the technical details. Like every piece in every chain is exactly similar and oh so perfect, like it was cramped out of a modern factory that couldn't be older than the 20th century.

It leads us further to the total misconception and the spreading of later Christian believes. What does this movie wanna imply? The heretics couldn't understand a metaphor when it comes to the blood of Christ? Or the missionaries didn't understand that concept? Both is totally absurd and wrong and these misconceptions are only used to fuel a discord and premise that has everything but accuracy and sense.

Summed up, this piece only is a bastardized and ridiculous version of Gladioator and Mr Mikelsen finally put himself in the league of B-class actors.

While I didn't find the amount of violence to be inappropriate, it still was explicit enough that it - for serving no purpose - was just a mere vehicle to get some retarded lusty viewers hanging on.

This movie was not only point- and worthless, it did it's fair share on putting understanding in history and people way behind the year 1000.

I can still recommend it to people who don't care about content, facts, storytelling and acting and just go for the make-believes and the action. But then again, if you want that, why don't you just watch "Conan" once more? Conan might be trashy, but it achieved the status of a funny classic. While the audience will always be laughing with Conan, this movie can only be laughed at.

Summed up this movie gets one point for the set and I really cant give more for the beauty of the nature which came as it is without anyone providing anything else. Too bad, I really WANTED to like this movie.

On the bright side, the to date latest installment of Lucky Luke on the big screen can brag with great sets, customes and make-up and even some CGI one wouldn't expect from a movie that was shot on a budget of 27 million Euros (approximatly 36 million Dollars).

The obvious downside is what the movie was widely criticized for: the plot. While it has it's troubles following or even developing a story, some character traits are somewhat disregarding the comic original.

Its biggest problem still is that the movie cannot decide whether it wants to approach a western setting via emphasizing action, drama or comedy. It succeeds in neither of these approaches, leaving the audience unsatisfied. This makes it also difficult to tell which would be the appropriate audience. While the comedic reliefs are definitely hitting the sense of humor of eight year olds, the action and drama parts are far more suitable for older viewers. Or would you want your kids to see one of their comic heroes suffer a psychotic breakdown for murdering people?

The quality of acting varies both with the actors as well as in different scenes. Summed up it could be considered as adequate.

The director has some really interesting shots and angles but keeps overusing them to an extend that completely different scenes on different sets give you the feeling it was the very same scene repeated once more. Less would have been more.

If you are a die hard fan of Lucky Luke, french movies or one of the actors, it can be recommended. If you are looking for a western, a family movie or simply quality entertainment, skip this one.

As for shows, I usually give them a lifeline of three episodes. With this particular show, it's the lowest rating I ever gave so far. Imagine a setup of any crude and original sitcom being pressed into a scheme of Cosby-humor at best. And it never got better. It has BORING written all over it. At now time, the humor/ the punchlines were hilarious, funny, original, crazy.

Its a Frankenstein of jokes ripped right out of the last decades and - with a lot of force - pressed into a current show. Sorry for this rough and short review, but I was pretty shocked who disappointing this show was. If you ever have been living a regular life when you were 20-30, chances are your life was a lot more funny, ridiculous, special and noteworthy than these terrible scripts.

To quote fictional Rick James, I wish I had four hands, to give this four thumbs down.