bruno-saramago-43-375336 Reviews

Expedition Happiness (2017)

Cringeworthy

[2/10 · 19 February 2018]

This road-doc tries very hard to be "Weit", yet fails in all aspects. Where "Weit" was genuinely gripping, inspiring, its main duo clearly interested in making contact with locals, learning about the world around us and show its often overlooked positive aspects, this hipster-named atrocity "Expedition Happiness" (!) comes across as a lame attempt to promote the girl´s record of bland hipster singer-songwriter muzak at every moment (null subtlety there - song titles even find their way to the screen!).

The bus is all-too chic and comfy, no friends or real connections are made (the telling scene in Mexico tavern where a local asks about Alaska and the girl looks completely bored of this intrusive native, OMG), the really cute dog is negligently tortured almost to his death (but on the upside putting things to a precocious end) and the people are self-centered, hipstagram-generation, prejudiced, spoiled 20-somethings with no interesting insights to share & a lot of money to spend. Even worse, prone to a lot of first world nagging and complaining. You don´t see beauty in their souls. The choice of locations is clichéd and no detours are shown/made. Poor K9 is kept on a leash at all times - someting actually weird to see when you live in Germany.

So do yourself a favor and do not miss "Weit: die Geschichte von einem Weg um die Welt" - and steer clear from this rather lame, rather pointless and uninspired copy. It was an embarassment to watch and unfortunately add ups to the pile of crap Netflix has been storing.

PS: cleaning the camera lens wouldn´t have been a bad idea.

Before Sunset (2004)

Major letdown: an uncalled-for sequel

[5/10 · 23 April 2015]

What a major disappointment...

This film is VERY contrived, taking all the magic from the first endeavour. I watched and loved "Sunrise" a few days ago and was thus very eager for this. I wonder how most people - well, here at least... - seem to find it so good. One word occurred to me throughout the whole experience: unnecessary. Plus, there's some real painful dialogue to go through this time around, namely from Celine's character. Lame, clichéd, ill-written. The location is once again a mere postcard, but even that works less good than Vienna did.

Perhaps the worst thing though: this time it was virtually impossible to feel the attraction. Null chemistry. What I saw were two actors trying to rehash their old hit. Acting the whole time. And using "right?" at the end of every 3 sentences.

Now if I could just unsee this and stay with the magic of the original movie...

Imagine (II) (2012)

Imagine if only this would have been a better movie.

[4/10 · 16 January 2014]

Avoid like the plague.

Just wanted to write a quick warning, so that you won't be deceived by the hype here, so far. On its favour, I can state the sensibility displayed and the noble cause. And, being a Lisboner myself, it is obviously a very beautiful, soulful and picturesque place to film. Nevertheless, the cinematographer Adam Bajerski did a very interesting job.

OK, that's mostly it. The acting is terrifyingly dull. Starting right with the main actor - I mean, this guy couldn't act if his life depended on it. Cringeworthy. Alexandra Lara, while far from a top-class performer, shows more than enough chops when rightly directed (vide the superb Control). Not the case here. Of course the campy, rather pedestrian dialogue never helps. And its delivery feels ever so awkward, not for once natural or credible. People just don't talk like that. I don't even want to dwell much on the script problems, but why the hell would English, french (and even a German ex-pat) blind children be doing on such a far from luxurious institution in Lisbon? Certainly all the sun and light are not the best treatment for the blind-eye - probably explaining the high blindness rates. You'll very often find yourself bumping into a blind person, whilst walking the streets of Lisbon.

To sum things up, in the hands of the right director this could have definitely been something. Keeping the moody slow rhythm and attention to sounds, but being more demanding with the extras and supporting actors. Even Ian's darker side should have been more wisely explored. Instead you are left with a slow movie, going nowhere, with a somewhat ridiculous script and with weakly handled tension scenes. You'd be better off driving that same 28 tram at the end of the movie and visiting a city far more interesting that its all-too-scenic display.