flare2 Reviews

Ricky Gervais: SuperNature (2022 TV Special)

Humanity was better

[8/10 · 28 May 2022]

This special was alright but humanity is still better. A lot of edgy jokes which sometimes feel a little bit too forced. Also I hate it that nowadays every comic has to explain himself. "I dont really mean that. Its a joke." Yeah, thanks mate. I know what comedy is. If someone doesnt get it then screw them.

Love, Death & Robots: The Very Pulse of the Machine (2022) Season 3, Episode 3

Interesting mystery sci-fi theme

[8/10 · 21 May 2022]

The story itself was pretty interesting and I would have loved to see a few minutes more. The animations were beautiful the only "bad" part was the voice acting of the protagonist. That could have been better.

Love, Death & Robots: Kill Team Kill (2022) Season 3, Episode 5

Love letter to 80's Action

[9/10 · 21 May 2022]

Roided up tough guys fighting an overwheling enemy and blasting out almost as many cheesy one-liners as bullets. Only someone with blue hair couldnt like this.

Love, Death & Robots: Bad Travelling (2022) Season 3, Episode 2

Awesome lovecraftian Nightmare

[10/10 · 21 May 2022]

Nothing else to say really. Despair, hard choices and a brilliant Monster that could exist like this inside the Cthulhu mythos. Probably the best Episode all around. Also the animation and voice acting is flawless.

Ozark: A Hard Way to Go (2022) Season 4, Episode 14

Realistic but unsatisfying

[8/10 · 5 May 2022]

Yes, I also wished for a gruesome death for Wendy. It would have been nice if Ruth escaped her family curse. Marty getting a redemption arc and finally doing something right for somebody else than Wendy would have also been appropriate.

But I can also see that this show is about realism and consequences. The ending made sense, the bad guys always win in real life.

Its not a bad ending, its just unsatisfying.

The Expanse: Babylon's Ashes (2022) Season 6, Episode 6

What?

[5/10 · 19 March 2022]

I had to check if D&D wrote this last season. How can this be the end?

What about the pet cemetery planet and the zombie boy? What about the alien ships they are building? What about the orange fog aliens? Why is Clarissa finding out she has less than 5 more years to live and then nothing happens? Movie tropes demand a heroic sacrifice.

Another great show ruined by a rushed ending.

Don't Look Up (2021)

Adam McKay shoots in all directions

[8/10 · 26 December 2021]

Political satires have a tendency to be very onesided but Adam McKay delivers a script that manages to give everyone a piece of the cake. Crooked politicians, woke and braindead popstars, greedy corporations, nerds who get attention for the first time in their life, television "news" broadcasts and even the freaking sesame street. This is not only a funny movie, there is also a bit of drama and serious character moments going on that dont feel tagged on or cheesy. Its very well balanced overall. Performances are also pretty solid.

The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

Trolling your fanbase, the movie

[3/10 · 23 December 2021]

The movie starts off kinda promising but quickly glides off into a generic mess. Its a 2.5 hour long film that simultaneously feels rushed and boring at the same time. The plot makes zero sense, all the new characters are bland and unlikable nobodies and they constantly barrage you with scenes from the first 3 movies to show you that this is indeed a matrix film because you probably wouldnt know otherwise. The 2 minutes of Kung fu are pretty bad and hard to watch if you know the prequels.

A special shoutout has to go to the sound design though. Remember the interesting music from the first movies? This one has nothing of it. You wont remember anything from matrix 4. Also the general sound effects are just bad. Guns sound like toys, even the same old machines sound different somehow.

In the beginning of this film they make fun of lazy nostalgia cashgrabs and most things wrong in hollywood today so they must be self-aware. This means they are probably trolling us on purpose.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Pretty good

[9/10 · 17 December 2021]

The MCU has its ups and downs (more downs than ups lately) but this one showed what you can do if you just put some hard work into a good script.

Some will say this is "Fanservice - the movie" but its done very well. This is a loveletter to all the long time fans and this is how every long running IP should be treated instead of just milking them.

Red Notice (2021)

Generic action comedy

[5/10 · 16 November 2021]

It was worth the watch just for the jokes since I had a few laughs.

The rest is garbage though. The most generic heist plot ever, the cgi looks like unreal engine 3 and even the action felt like a copy&pasted from some stock footage.

Wrath of Man (2021)

You get heists and revenge but you dont get Guy Ritchie

[6/10 · 11 August 2021]

If you expect a well written gangster story with multiple point of views and smart and funny dialogue this isnt that kind of movie.

This is basically a straight forward revenge flick with some heists. The characters are all two dimensional stereotypes who dont get any development whatsoever which is a shame because the script just wastes some pretty good actors.

Its hard to believe that the same person who made Snatch and The Gentlemen made this movie. Every noname director could have made this film.

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Weird

[6/10 · 10 August 2021]

This one is weird. Its a better film than the first one for sure but not by a lot. There are just a few mediocre jokes in it and the rest of the movie is rather serious which is totally weird because this film is supposed to be like stupid shenanigans. Making it R-rated was a good choice. The swearing makes all these anti-heroes more believable.

The biggest issue with this movie is probably the violence. Gory violence makes sense in this kind of film but its so forced and it looks so cheap. Everything is just a red cgi mess. It seems like every 2 minutes someone gets obliterated in the most gruesome way possible just for the sake of showing gore.

Also the plot is very generic, too.

Army of the Dead (2021)

Directed and written by Zack Snyder. How is it so bad?

[3/10 · 22 May 2021]

I dont know where to start. This movie is a mess. It tries to be 3 things at once and it cannot deliver on any of that promises.

Its a heist story with the most generic heist plot ever written. Its also a zombie story with some twists but none of that is really.fully developed in this film.despite the fact that its 2.5 hours long. They also tried to cramp multiple family dramas into this but I just dont care about some bland generic characters.

Everything is rushed, the whole plot is just dumb, the characters are boring and the acting ranges from decent to 90s TV commercial.

As a german it pains me to say that the Matthias Schweighöfer character was one of the better parts of this film.

Love and Monsters (2020)

Uninspired Zombieland ripoff

[4/10 · 15 April 2021]

This is listed as a comedy film but I didnt laugh once.

Also the plot is the most generic thing ever. Dont expect anything new or interesting.

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

You get exactly whats in the title

[8/10 · 2 April 2021]

If you expect some good acting or a deep and interesting plot I dont know what to tell you. Go home and reconsider your life choices.

Its a movie in which some big cgi monsters hit each other and its probably the best one out there. The effects and the visuals are great and the humans are not overly annoying. There are some great and colorful environments and a bunch of extraordinary tracking shots. All the humans are basically plot devices to make the movie happen but there is not much time wasted on character development or such nonsense.

This is a film about Godzilla and King Kong beating each other up and destroying a bunch of stuff. Nothing more, nothing less.

High-Rise Invasion (2021)

It grows on you

[7/10 · 5 March 2021]

The first 7-8 episodes felt like a video game tutorial. A lot of exposition and a lot of rules and world building. After that it transitions more towards character development and that is when the story gets going. This show is nothing special yet but it could become pretty good in the next couple of seasons. Worth a watch if you dont have anything else.

Burn After Reading (2008)

When you order The Big Lebowski on wish

[2/10 · 16 February 2021]

To be fair, I had to stop watching this after an hour. Maybe the last 30 minutes are best thing ever made. Before that everything is just boring nonsense. This movie is like an 11 year old just saw the Big Lebowski and wrote his own kinda similar script but without any good characters, funny plot or even absurd situations. The acting is good if every character was supposed to be a one dimensional and unlikable moron.

Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind (2020)

2 hour recruitment video for a cult

[1/10 · 14 December 2020]

Guys, you just need to buy the app and we can bypass the elites and contact the aliens.

Space Force (2020–2022)

WTF is this supposed to be?

[5/10 · 6 June 2020]

It is listed as comedy but its not really funny. I laughed like 3 times in 10 Episodes, but its not serious either. Steve Carell's performance is great and everyone else just sucked. The Trump bashing is not too bad but the show is a bit too woke at times.

Uncut Gems (2019)

Probably the most annoying Movie ever.

[5/10 · 8 April 2020]

If you like hearing 4 people constantly shouting over each other this is the movie for you. Also the ending is kinda dumb and non conclusive.

Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers (2018)

Boring

[4/10 · 1 February 2020]

1. Mickey Rourke as narrator? Wtf. 2. The documentary itself is very boring. Just watch the Joe Rogan Podcast with Bob Lazar and it's more entertaining and you get like three times the information.

The Mandalorian: Chapter 7: The Reckoning (2019) Season 1, Episode 7

Peak performance

[9/10 · 19 December 2019]

This is how every Episode should be. We had to suffer through Chapters 4 and 5 so they could introduce some characters for the real plot. This Episode almost makes it worth it.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019)

Screw it, we are doing return of the jedi again.

[6/10 · 19 December 2019]

First of all, this movie was way better than The Last Jedi, but it had a lot of problems. Mainly the 5 hours worth of plot cramped into a 2 hour movie. If this movie would have been properly build up by The Last Jedi then it could have been really good.

So this is basically the second Star Wars movie ruined by Rian Johnson.

Maybe if they plan out the plot for the next trilogy before the last film comes out we can have good Star Wars again.

6 Underground (2019)

Typical Michael Bay Movie

[7/10 · 14 December 2019]

This Movie has everything you would expect from a Michael Bay Film. Cheesy one-liners, stereotypical but likable characters, a generic plot without any surprises or twists, lots of explosions that look like fireworks, violence, fancy cars, product placement as far as the eye can see, china, generic bad guys. It's great and fun non-stop action if you dont ask too many questions about silly things like plot coherence or something. If you like Bad Boys 2, you will probably like this one.

The Mandalorian: Chapter 6: The Prisoner (2019) Season 1, Episode 6

It is going in the right direction

[7/10 · 14 December 2019]

This Episode starts strong with an even stronger cast. All the new characters get introduced by some great banter between them and you feel like all these guys have a history and know each other. Bill Burr steals the show with some great but not tagged on 4th wall breaks. The characters seem morally grey and not just plain good or evil at first. The second half is where this episode has issues. All the characters become generic bad guys and there is almost no more dialogue which was the strong point of this episode. Also the acting of both blue alien guys was kinda bad and cringy. But maybe that is how you portait this race. But most importantly this episode did once again nothing for the overall plot. It seems that this stargate/Star trek/x-files style of episodes is gonna continue and I think that is a bad decision. A plot driven continued show would probably more enjoyable. Still way better than the last two chapters.