Reviews

German production, who wonders about the ratings?

Typical german production. Boring. And the producers again really seem to think that keeping a story obscure and unexplained for quite a while this would result in suspense and thrill. It doesn't, it just makes it boring. The main actress was pretty awful and bloodless, and the main actor not much better in trying to force the impression of acting.

But again, also this production is on highest levels of political correctness. Seems to me, this is the main point of so many failures of german - state-bound! - production. They're so obsessed to keep it PC that they don't realize that they always get stuck there, leaving no room for any narrative improvement. It has got to the point that killing off somebody in the meanwhile also is regarded under the premises of PC and set in scene likewise, of unbelievable ridiculousness. Murder is OK as long it is "morally justified". This dull Zeitgeist has reached unimaginable shallow levels ...

Desolé, but this one is rather, no mostly kitschy

De Gaulle is one of "my men", definitely. Washed up from somewhere by more destiny than determination to become a leading figure of moral firmness in times of helplessness.

This movie however seems to concentrate on kitsch elements alone, stretching out the adventurous escape of his wife from France to the maximum. Not to talk about the somewhat manipulating focus on the daughter with down syndrome, it's of almost stupid, emotionally appealing voyerism, how this movie-telling card is played. There is barely any depth in the movie, specially pointing out de Gaulle's lost position within the winning agenda of defaitism of the government.

A wasted opportunity to set a cinematographic milestone around this important figure.

Alarmingly of almost the same annoying, opportunistic current zeitgeist of political correctness as most german productions of this sort. Vous meritez du mieux, mes chers ...

Lame and unconvincing

Looked into due to Caviezel. What a disappointment. I do agree with a lot of others, it's a kind of selective extracts of the original story made into a wannabe pastiche of adventure. The worst Montecristo ever seen, I would say. Even the remarkable assembly of several actors of caliber can't save it. Would it be a TV production, you might shrug, but no, it's even a theatre production.

Best part probably is that it can pass as commercial for Malta with its landscapes and historic buildings.

Really wondering about others giving this shallow production a 10/10.

Modestly interesting. US-citizens yes, natives fully absent.

Hello from Switzerland. Alaska, of course of some exotic taste, and the premise of railroads in icy environments is appealing enough for the tech savy.

But then? Various portraits of society dropouts, where it is left completely out from what the do live at all? Pretty pathetic in some parts, where the "daily deadly danger" is pointed out ad libidum, as if the alaskian people would be endangered all day long, struggling permanently for life. Where the "danger" seem to consist in mobile phones not working for an emergence call, or not to be able to reach the next supermarket. Involuntary hilarious.

But the "best", from a foreign point of view: the native indigenous people, descendant of inuits etc. Are completely absent. Unbelievable! Serie 1, 6 episodes, I haven't seen a single one. Hopefully, they in some way also profit of that railroad? Don't know the demographics, but I'm sure there must be some. From that point of view, a shameful one-sided view. Where one would think that probably they should somehow be the most experienced there concerning the real struggle of "surviving".

The tech part is OK, but the whole narrative is quiet one-dimensional.

Truly a (underrated) masterpiece.

By far the best movie adaptation of a Le Carre subject IMO. Dialogs, cinematography, acting, settings, storytelling, editing and music are at highest, almost perfect levels, in a harmony seldomly seen. The slow development of the story with its limited dialogs is the one, most winning point of this production, leaving open the unpredictable resolution up to the last moment. Although the real appreciation of the development of the story probably grows only after a second view, once you are aware of the content. The serie of 1977 with Guinness already was a very valuable production, but here this movie even tops that IMO, although some interesting details in the story are lost in its brevity.

The play of Oldman is stellar, as is the one of Colin Firth, giving the winning, sinister-sympathetically manipulating villain here. Don't miss the scene with the bee!

It's one of those rare movies you can watch 10 or 20 times and you'll like it again without being bored. My congratulations.

Solid fun that works also for men.

Well, IMO it has to be pointed out that this serie, despite the title, indeed works well also for men. And you have not be be homosexual for that. If you can take it fully from the comedy side, you shall be pleased with it. It is a well balanced production. The plot is OK, the humor is excellent, and the intended play with stereotypical figures works very well indeed, and it avoids falling into a soap kitsch. I just found the figure of Susan a bit overdrawn in drama and hysteria, it got a bit annoying in the long stretch, one wished she might have been shot prematurely, but also that was acceptable. There is a moderate decline up from season 5, but nothing seriously messy. And, the men actors/figures are integral part of the series and not just some accessoires in the background. Cinematography is flawless.

I close with the series main assets: really funny and indeed excellently balanced, as IMO it should work also with all ages.

Teutonic occultism! Honest trash

It doesn't take you more than 15min of the first episode to become fully aware of style, cheapness and laughableness of the plot. Mediocre main actors, a not much more than hot, untalented hottie, but nice settings and an incredible amount of international filming locations. With a far, remote touch of Indiana Jones.

So the serie is pretty sincere right away from the start about what you are supposed to expect. No pretension of whatever "superior" quality. Has some entertaining quality and even a portion of genuine fun occasionally. The serie does its job to kill time if needed.

German movie with IMDB rating above 7.0: be sceptical at all costs

Incredolous about a german movie with a 7.7 rating, my first step was to check IMDB. The message is: one shot! And even more important: it's "different"! Seems to be enough for praising this l'art pour l'art beyond any sobriety. By the wannabe-progressive&avantgarde-intelligentia who surely must have been stoned enough during the view to be able to appreciate it that much. One of those cases where it's eminently helpful to read reviews here at IMDB before being caught in the trap. BTW: didn't watch it. Gladly, I guess, almost sure at 95% that it would be a painful and boring waste of time. The many german "awards" should be indicative enough ...

Saw it in a row. The dystopic story is quite interesting at the start. Season 1 and 2 are a bit stretched, and the "world travel" is kept too vague IMO, hard to assess what it is about. Season 3, contrary to other opinions, I found interesting so far as there was introduced some sense about those "world travels". Season 4 felt more like an artificial prolongation, and the finale is one unique, conglomerated mess without much, if any?, sense, no doubt. A good part of the story remains obscure and unexplained.

The cinematography IMO was the best part. Wardrobe and puristic settings & CGI of the "50&60ies alternative nazi ambiente" are indeed excellent. Acting was OK. The heroine Juliana Crain can pass as classic french starlet and is enjoyable, but IMO she's a bit limited in her expressions, as she looks always pretty much the same, no matter if happy, crying or serious. The "Reichsmarschall" did a good acting job. Once again, the scripters seemed obliged to unneccessarily serve the PC, adding nothing by doing so. The part with the glorious bunch of black power, forcing out the japanese, with respect, was just laughable. The portal for the "world travel" was an interesting part per se, but in fact added almost nothing to the whole story.

I have not read the book, but I hope it's better. Worth to watch ONCE for the original settings and plot.

Thank god! the episodes last only 30 minutes

My second review here. This serie really gives me a good laugh. While with S01E04 we get a glimpse of Kurosawas 7 samurai, this episode should have crushed any illusions left to where this show goes. It's not an outlier, it's the program! Simplistic one-dimensional episodes with practically no story, but fantastic graphics and settings. I begin to believe other writers saying that originally this serie was intended to be a computer game, where the single quests were commuted into episodes here.

As for Pedro Pascal. Can we be sure it's him? I mean, could be anybody just walking around and jump occasionally. I guess the wage is good, this must have been the easiest job in a while, as there is no need to act at all.

And as written earlier, the very single events of each episode are stretched over and over. Imagine what additional boredom would be created it the episodes lasted 45min or even 1 hour.

I remain amused about this serie and will follow just to see where it leads.

Beware of the fanboys!

S01E03 and already 517 reviews, mostly praising it to no end. Production value and settings are very good. Yes, definitely Star Wars. But the story? Almost no depth, with every single event stretched over and over. My prediction: with 5 episodes remaining, at the end of S01 one will realize that in fact almost nothing happend. On the best route to become a quite boring adventure ...

As others said, so far it feels like a comic. Where your are supposed to enjoy the graphics, while the dialogs are complementary just to provide the minimum informations in order to pretend that there is a story.

Season 3: Olivia Colman gives an excellent acting performance

I feel obliged to counter the many negative reviews. In fact I found that Olivia Colman gave an above average, fine acting performance. In fact she appears to me exactly as I expect the queen to be. The authoritative, a bit cold person, determined to fulfill the "job" with dignity. So Colman suits the role very well. I don't get it how people expect a somewhat updated Foy as good-looking, lovely everybodys darling here, that would be miscast!

Season 3 has less (artificial?) drama than season 1+2, I felt it a bit overdrawn there sometimes, has less thrill and is therefore indeed adequate, as the queens life surely is/was not an extraordinary adventure, but over long stretches an unglamorous tribute to duty. I do agree that season 3 lost a bit of pace due that Winston has gone now, the entertaining level may have lowered, but so what? Pepping up the script with artificial drama IMO would ruin this excellent serie.

A rare accomplishment: Highly forgettable but still entertaining

This serie is a kind of rarity IMO. An example of successful entertainment, despite a lot of weaknesse. I've seen most seasons, but frankly I don't care for any of its main figures, I just was able to develop some sympathies for McGee, as for the other, IMO all of quite limited likeability. It doesnt really matter if they come and go, and with new characters you just can note if they are more or less annoying. Nevertheless the serie has a interesting balance. Always some action, the CSI part in the lab is not overdrawn and the episodes while mostly standalone, catching enough with its not far-fetched plot. And without useless, counterproductive attempts to make it more "attractive" with excessive brutality, nuditiy or rough language. This series delivers solid entertainment with decent settings, but without any potential to make it memorable. A rare event, 6/10 for that.

Another german try of romanticising?

The movie underlines "true events behind" right away from the start. Then you get a highly implausible, adventurous and still just moderately thrilling story. IMO pure unrealistic fiction. Espionage in general is a pretty boring and pale task, what you get here is the James Bond alike brewing on television B-level. I guess in hope to make it more appealing. If you can take it as another of Grimm tales, you may enjoy it. If you expect a realistic movie on the background of the "Wende" (Fall of the DDR and german reunion) you likely will be disappointed. German filmmaking often gives plenty of room for a good laugh, as proved here again.

There as never been so much drama and action in space.

In the start, the movie reminds you heavily of some Star Trek episodes. But here, they seemingly were determined to leave out the meditative, thoughtful climate and ignite the full action instead. And there is a lot of it, from start to end. For the sake of it, any reflective behaviour as expected by astronauts is left out. In fact, towards the end you wished that "firewall stage 3", to blow up the space station, would been have put into action in first place.

I guess it could be amusing entertainment stuff in the real ISS station, where I imagine the fun is given in spartanic doses and the life might be pretty boring.

CGI and settings are very nice, 4 stars for them. Acting also satisfying within the given unsatisfying plot and dialogs.

Enjoyable if you can take it for what it is: a TV show

As neutral swiss I don't have to stand at attention when the USA "win" again, so my review maybe less prejudiced.

I think that if you can accept this serie as "just" a TV show around true events, where some liberties must be taken to make it sufficiently entertaining, then you should be able to enjoy it.

I liked the settings, costumes and gear, much effort was put in to make it look realistic. Also the acting was quite convincing (within the given plot), IMO clearly above average, none of the major figures disappointed. I liked particularly the acting of Heather Lind (didn't know her before) playing Anna Strong, the acting looked very professional. And also Angus Macfadyen as Robert Rogers was great IMO, one of the most original figures in the serie. The plot however was too adventurous in several parts, what in retrospective IMO was not really needed, less free interpretations around the true events would not have hurt the attractivity of the serie.

The series moved me to read into the true events to find out many historical figures (of course) where taken in complete disregard of the known facts. First of all the "evil" Simcoe, a grossly misrepresented figure, definitely needlessly overdrawn, also a lesser brutal version would have done well in the series. In contrast, I found that the ambivalent figure of Benedict Arnold was put better in scene.

Since the series directly addresses true events, I give a 6/10. Entertainment yes, but overly dramatized out in a lot of parts, I think they should have paid more respect for the facts behind, would have prevented the series to go in such a fiction, but wouldn't necessarily have reduced the appeal of the series.

Script simplicity scratching dangerously along dullness

Well. Mission: search the nuke and destroy it. That's also the hole script with exactly one additional twist. Cinematography and special effects are decent for 1954. But still uncleared, if the bad guys were chinese or just north koreans.

A kiss of the obligate hottie avec accent français as the first climax at around 55mins, u-boat crew able to breath again at 70mins seemed to be the most thrilling events. The short take of two seals making their way probably was the culmination of originality of the whole movie. Frankly speaking of quite torturing boringness. Makes you wonder today how such filmmaking was able to fill up cinemas back then ...

In this one Streep is outplayed by Frot in Marguerite (2015)

I found the movie quite average. Maybe it takes less liberties at the facts behind, but as result the movie IMO lacks of an catching story. Also the presence of Meryl Streep is of no help here, for once a quite unconvincing performance. The very same story about Jenkins, with some adaptations however, was took up in the french movie Marguerite (2015). Where Catherine Frot delivered a much more appealing acting, as well as that movie was better scripted and more entertaining.

Long overdue for termination?

It has been said several times already here. This serie was so good in the beginning. With Ben Miller and the natural beauty Sara Martins there was a dream team suiting well. The fun and english stiffness of Miller counteracted with the determination of Martins worked very well, with Danny John-Jules as Dwayne caring for the local atmosphere. Since Miller departed after Season 2, it all went downhill. Kris Marshall as his agitated replacement did not convince me, also the fun/comedy character of the serie so far barely was preserved. Didn't take long and also Martins left. I lost my interest somewhere towardd end of season 3. Having watched some later, single episodes did only prove to me how even more downhill the hole serie went in the meantime. The successor of the already pale Marshall as inspector is even worse, the fun/comedy almost completely absent now, and I see the hole original team has left now. Not really suprising.

7 Stars for season 1+2. More fun to rewatch one of its episodes than others of the new seasons. To be fair, as exculpation it must be mentioned that the filming location in the Caribbean is very counterproductive for a long-term engagement of the mostly european main characters. A pity.

Outstandig german comedy serie.

The first 5 or so seasons are somewhat conventional comedy with standalone episodes (all of about 30mins). With continuity what concerns the actors and figures, but lesser what concerns the overall story. Nevertheless, it is not the usual comedy delivering cheap laughs every 2 minutes. The hole serie has excellent and very elaborated scripts with good stories, which slowly build up to fewer funny moments. In this regard it is an intelligent comedy with limited, but mature jokes that are really funny. No cheap, cheesy sketch-like usual stuff, nor the usual sitcom-like rushed action. Also the background stories do reflect a variety of everyday human conditions. Season 8 was a somewhat different approach with fewer explicit comedy elements, more focused on telling an odd and strange story, I still liked it. Season 9 switched to complete continuity of the story and IMO excels also with a somewhat hidden criticism of the shallow productions of the german TV, which in fact is very dependant on the contributions of the state TV under public law and fees.

A very good serie. And it has to be said, within german standards, absolutely outstanding. An exception within the flood of conventional, political correct and boring german series, where there seems to be truly a conspiracy for a focus on the inflational production of mediocre or average BS.

An insider tip for foreigners settling in the german language area and getting used to it.

Schmonzette on the costs of the sudeten germans drama at the end of WW2. The movie barely gives insight in the facts indeed, but this background seems to have been enough to try to build up a movie on it. Hoerbinger the most convincing, Adorf not that much and Ferres, even in the suicidal role, shallow as quite often. Scratching dangerously along the kitsch in the first half, the peak is definitely reached towards the end. A happy end, of course. That adding an exotic location can't help is just a side note. Near to be a complete waste of time. A typical german style try, although failed, to overcome the sad happenings, I guess.

Mediocre. Even space adepts will be disappointed.

My guess is, this movie fails from minute 1 due to the premise of this movie. In fact, it was primarily the NASA that landed on the moon finally, and Armstrong was "just" one of its employees. No doubt an able, self-controlled man best suiting for the "job", who took many risks in his NASA career, but there were several others who did succeed, as all NASA missions and the following Apollo missions proved.

So the attempt of the movie to make out an extraordinary "first man" of Armstrong in the positive as well the negative way somehow goes to fiction. I found the movie over-pathetic in long parts, overdramatizing (and over-audioedited) the dangerous experiences of Armstrong. Seeing the movie, you easily can mistake Armstrongs life as one unique depression. Foy as his wife completes this, as she apparently took her worst "annus horribilis" as queen over to this movie as solemn, undercooled wife. As far we know of Armstrong, as restraint he was, he DID smile occasionally in interviews etc., something you will not find in the movie. I think also the side story of his child that died is overly emphasized in the movie. Hard to understand how the successful career of Armstrong leaves you so depressed in this movie, as would he literally have "sacrificed" himself with his hole life alone for this "holy" mission, pathetic! This hole movie looks like a gross misreprentation, I doubt Armstrong would have signed for the script.

As for the CGI of the space flights, they are OK but not that brilliant. Space adepts will easily overlook weaknesses of the script, if the technical portrayal excels, but also this is not very convincig here IMO. Not to speak from the sound editing which I found awful with the exaggerated background sounds.

My guess is, the overly high rating here in fact honors "the important mission", but not the movie itself, and the filmmmakers maybe counted on that.

Another movie that pretends to be "historic".

The movie and several reviews claim this movie to be historic. In the main lines it surely is, but in all details overdramatized, overheroizing. We see the "so clever" Maria-Theresia teach herself in secret, almost a born genius apparently, highly unlikely to be real. She makes mature proposals about her wedding an must fight hard for the man she wants, in reality there was not much opposition. A kind of affair with an hungarian count, tears and an emotional, desperate appell to obtain hungarian troops, BS, nothing of the sort ever happened.

There is no doubt she was an important figure in the european history. Her major achievements however were several reforms in the state, the army, the education system, the justice, the economy, none of which is represented in the movie at all. Instead we get a view of her rack and get treatened with a lot of footnotes thought to be entertaining. A disgrace. If you really want to know something about Maria Theresia, read in Wiki or in a book.

This is a real annoying and irritating aspect in most of the newer german-language filmmaking. A strong disease called "Zeitgeist" that spreads from Germany, first only in broadcast and newspapers, now having reached also documentaries and the plots of movies and that seems not to be curable. To look at things not how they are, but how they are wished to be by the "progressive" intelligentia, an then sell them as indeed they would be so. Hopeless!

5 stars for production and entertainment, settings and acting, they were all decent and OK, but can't save the production as a whole.

Surely a question of taste, but I always disliked musicals. But if you want to experience real awfulness, then watch a german one like this one, although it gets a bit better towards the end. Unconvincing entertainment to say the least. As comedy the movie is average at best, I suppose it may be better suited for children.

Here to see Liselotte Pulver I concede she gave a good acting performance in this lightweight comedy within the given context. A pretty appearance for sure, here in the figure of a kind of amazone. But my guess is, she had too many of those lightweight comedy appearances to be able to get out of them finally for more serious and challenging roles. A pity.

The ratings are overhyped as the movie is overacted and overwrought

The movie feels like fast forwarded at factor 1.5. Increasingly tiring to watch. I really wonder how this movie can get such an approval, as it rushes with 150% in overacting as well in dullness of the jokes. I just don't get it what ever the "funny parts" were in it, there may be some, but they can barely lift the lips. Reading in Wiki I see there were many "references" you don't understand past 2000, since the cold war ambiente is gone, nevertheless, I doubt this makes the movie somehow more "intelligent", as the name Billy Wilder can't make the mediocre plot more attractive.

Frankly I watched it only due to the presence of Liselotte Pulver. She fits perfectly in the overall style as attractive but dull blondine, playing the role of not much more than a one-dimensional decorating requisite. Out of a 2018 view you wonder how movies of this kind still seem to be appreciated.