Recensioni di glumski

All Cheerleaders Die is the kind of movie you stumble upon while looking for trashy but fun horror comedies. It features generic cheerleaders in a vague "Mean Girls" setup, generic jocks to serve as the antagonists, a discount version of Willow Rosenberg that's gone a tad too far into necromancy, and a writer-director duo that's trying to fit all their male fantasies into a single movie.

Despite half a library's worth of plot points squeezed into a ninety minute runtime, All Cheerleaders Die somehow finds the time to have bland and boring spots, but it delivers where it needs to. Still, it delivers where it needs to but certainly doesn't punch above its weight class.

I came for some campy horror and was surprised to also find hot cheerleader zombies eating some innocent randos, hot cheerleader not-yet-zombies kissing each other, hot cheerleader zombies having teenage drama meltdowns, and hot cheerleader zombies being killed in unnecessarily bloody ways. (I might be sensing a theme here.) The film ends on calling itself "Part 1", which seems a fair bit too optimistic. Also, this is apparently a remake of a 2001 movie of the same name; apparently the writer-director duo were appalled to find that their original "masterpiece" had been all but forgotten and decided to just make it again twelve years later. No third version in 2025? Somehow I fail to be disappointed.

KPop Demon Hunters is one of those movies that come out of nowhere, are supposed to appeal only to niche audiences, and nevertheless somehow manage to break the charts.

The premise: In the ancient world of KPop Demon Hunters, demons preyed on defenseless humans until the huntresses arose, fighting the demons not only with martial force but also with their voices, raising the spirits of those the huntresses are sworn to protect. Ever since, there has always been a trio of huntresses to shield humanity from the demons. In present day, the duty has fallen to Rumi, Mira, and Zoey, leading a double life as the KPop trio of Huntr/x at day and a team of fierce demon huntresses at night. However, Rumi is keeping a terrible secret: she may not be entirely human herself...

Not only does the premise of KPop Demon Hunters sound like every superhero/supernatural teen show since Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but it is entirely formulaic and predictable without offering any surprises at any point. But there is a reason why this true and tried formula has been steadfastly present over the last few decades: it's entertaining, it's often heartfelt, and it just works.

What sets KPop Demon Hunters aside from the many, many generic superhero and supernatural teen shows and movies is that the developers absolutely killed it in the execution. The story hits just the right balance between action and emotion, the animations are a joy to behold, the colour palette is a feast for the eyes, and most importantly, the songs are all almost painfully catchy.

KPop Demon Hunters isn't really doing anything new, but it sure is doing it right. While the mild violence might disqualify the movie for the youngest audiences, it certainly is highly enjoyable both for young and old. The most relevant warning may very well be that the parents of preteen girls will soon be faced with the movie and its songs on endless repeat, like a supercharged version of Let It Go from more than a decade in the past.

Despite being yet another Disney-produced Star Wars series, 'Andor' sets itself apart both by tone and by intent. Unlike other recent works like 'The Mandalorian', 'Ahsoka', or even the sequel movie trilogy, 'Andor' does not try to expand the Star Wars universe in new directions but instead returns back to the roots, featuring the Empire as the oppressively powerful antagonist, and directly tying into the original movie trilogy. The end of the second and final season of 'Andor' concludes with the start of 'Rogue One', which itself concludes with the start of the original 'Star Wars: A New Hope'.

As such, 'Andor' is also terribly derivative. Its titular protagonist, Cassian Andor, is also the protagonist of 'Rogue One'. Other characters known from the original 'Star Wars', such as Mon Mothma, the leader of rebellion, have their own storylines in this series. Additional characters and events are referenced repeatedly, and as such 'Andor' isn't quite suitable for an audience unfamiliar with at least 'Rogue One' and 'A New Hope'.

The story of 'Andor' begins five years before 'Star Wars IV' and follows a number of characters as they are directly or indirectly involved in the build-up of the Rebellion against the Empire. In addition to Cassian Andor and Mon Mothma, there is also Luthen Rael, who serves as a sort of spymaster for the incipient rebellion, Dedra Meero, who works in the Imperial Security Bureau (essentially the Empire's KGB or CIA), Syril Karn, a fervent security officer on the hunt of Andor, and many others. Unlike typical Star Wars fare, these characters are multi-faceted and undergo severe development over the five year span to the end of the series.

This also sets the tone for the series. There are no lightsabre-swinging Jedi, no magic Force powers, but instead political intrigues, violent incursions, and calamitous uprisings. 'Andor' is a thoroughly mature series, where some episodes are almost entirely devoid of action, building up to a greater finale.

This pace is perhaps the series' weakest point. Episodes are typically bundled in trilogies, two to set up the action of the third. While the initial episodes are certainly not boring, they very much are slow. Personally, I thought that the second season was especially sedate at setting up, taking a full seven episodes to finally culminate in a furious escalation in its eighth episode, which I consider one of the best TV episodes I've ever seen. The fast pace is kept for a total of three remarkably excellent episodes, before 'Andor' spins down and instead focuses on setting the stage for 'Rogue One' and 'A New Hope'.

In total, 'Andor' is a hot recommendation if and only if you have an interest in the Star Wars franchise and at least some knowledge of 'Rogue One' and 'A New Hope'. I'd certainly love to see more works that follow ordinary people in their fight against the Empire; to me, this seems considerably more interesting than the usual Force shenanigans. The mature and unromanticised atmosphere is extremely welcome as well, as it has been in other high points of the franchise like 'Rogue One' or the final few episodes of 'The Clone Wars'.

'Gunbuster'/'Aim for the Top' is rightfully considered a SciFi anime classic. While the epic space opera plot is somewhat reminiscent of Space Battleship Yamato, the show certainly has its unique flavour. Although the first one or two episodes are not all that serious as one may expect, the last few are a masterpiece of suspense and emotional impact. That said, the show is often sappy and even campy, somewhat one-dimensional, and certainly predictable.

Featuring two female leads is something I didn't expect from a Mech-centred anime of the late 80s. However, except for the final episode, one of those characters has an emotional breakdown at least once per episode that may very well be described as overly hysteric. Also, the women's uniforms consist of a cropped T-shirt on top of a high-leg swimsuit. Make of that what you will.

While the show features no graphic violence nor anything sexual, there is a surprising amount of bare breasts in Gunbuster. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when at the series' emotional high point one of the characters dramatically tore at her uniform and one of her boobs flopped out. C'mon, guys.

So, in total, there are more than just a few points where by modern standards you'll have to rub your neck in mild embarrassment. Other than that, Gunbuster is a surprisingly good show.

(This is based on the modern English dub, which is quite good.)

"I'm in Love with the Villainess" has all the parts of a generic romantic isekai romance: an elite academy filled with nobles and commoners, magic based on the four classical elements, three rich princes that are the most eligible bachelors, and the bitchy rich girl that's the antagonist. The show's only claim to fame, as it so loudly pronounces in its title, is that the protagonist is not chasing after one (or all) of the princes but instead after the antagonist. And indeed, the main character is unashamedly in love and not afraid to hide it, bringing a unique flavour to a genre that has been overwrought with such stories.

What truly sets the show apart is that it treats the titular girl-girl romance as something ordinary. Where other shows either keep things so vague that the entire romance has to be read beween the lines or otherwise drag it into hilarity, this show's Rae Taylor is genuinely in love with her crush, just like the protagonists of other isekai romance are genuinely in love with their heretosexual love interests. This may not seem like much, especially when applying Western standards, but it's fairly spectacular for an anime.

Furthermore, the protagonist genuinely is a fresh take on the "modern person thrown into a magical world" premise, and Hannah Alyea as her English dubbed voice is performing excellently.

Other than that, I'm afraid that the show checks all the boxes of a highly generic isekai romance, only slightly deviating at the end when hinting at a dark future that the love interest has to be protected from. It is, thus, not a particularly exciting show unless you have never watched a romance before. Still, the characters are likeable and the romance is actually heartwarming. The production values are also decent, and the show has neither graphic nudity nor gratuituous violence, making it enjoyable even for young teens.

The third and final part of 'Heaven's Feel' delivers a furious conclusion to the movie series. Like the two previous movies, its production values are a marvel, featuring stunning visuals that are beyond compare alongside a solid soundtrack.

And just like the previous movies, aside from the production values, the movie is mediocre at best. While the characters are finally allowed to show some sort of development and do face their emotional battles (alongside the many, many physical battles), the story continues to break its own rules, pulling out one deus ex magicka after the other. The scales are upped from a city's small-scale catastrophe to humanity's annihilation (I think?) by a throw-away comment, but at that point we have long since passed the point where it's sensible to actually care about what's happening, because who knows what the writers will whip up next.

The worst offender, however, is certainly the dialogue. Pseudo-philosophical drivel was interspersed by pseudo-spiritual drivel, which I suppose means that the movie's themes are at least rich in diversity. I couldn't help but laugh when one of the characters spoke about their magic weapon getting unlimited power from all the parallel universes and another character just went "uhhh?", which, yes, that was my reaction as well.

In the end I'm honestly happy that this series is over. Sure, the movies were nice to look at, the soundtrack was great, and both the characters and the story offer a lot of potential, but... you actually gotta realise that potential. This is not the way.

From its stunning animations to the lovely soundtrack, Fate/stay night [Heaven's Feel] delivers production values that are off the charts. Unfortunately, that is pretty much where the magic ends.

The story is a bit of a mess, incomprehensible to everyone but the die-hard fans of the series. I have casually watched Fate Zero (i.e. The prequel series) and Unlimited Blade Works (i.e. The alternate story path series) and nevertheless regularly found myself confused. As a stand-alone movie Presage Flower simply doesn't work, but even as the first installment of a three-parter it is heavily flawed.

The mediocre story isn't helped but the terribly bland characters, featuring the earnestly wholesome orphan boy protagonist (He wants to be a hero of justice!), the demure and passive love interest (I'm sure she has no terrible secrets at all.), that serious mediaeval swordwoman most people vaguely know from pop culture, the obligatory adorable yet homicidal little girl, and the even more obligatory miniskirt-wearing tsundere with a twin-tail hairstyle. And I'm afraid that these were the sums total of their characterisations. Do they have dreams, fears, desires beyond their most defining feature? I sure don't know, but hey, that sword fight with the magic beams sure looked nifty!

I wish I could say that the other two movies make up for Presage Flower's weaknesses, but although they are better, they still aren't great. Altogether, Heaven's Feel was not worth the time investment for me, but I'm sure fans of the franchise will get their fill.

'I Am Not Okay With This' tells the story of Sydney Novak (Sophia Lillis), a teenaged high-schooler who finds that she might have superpowers. Already troubled by the earlier suicide of her father and her newfound relationship troubles with her best friend and crush Dina (Sofia Bryant) and incidental hook-up Stan (Wyatt Oleff), Syd tries to figure out what to do with the powers she can't control.

The series follows tropes that are usually bad signs: the first episode begins with a fait accompli, showing a blood-covered Syd running through darkened streets; there is almost omnipresent narration; and adults play no relevant roles except as obstacles to overcome. Nevertheless, 'I Am Not Okay With This' makes all of it work. The witty lines are legitimately engaging, Sophia Lillis' delivery is on point, the characters are quirky yet believable, and the individual episodes are short and snappy. At the end of the first season, where we finally come full circle and learn about what set off the initial scene, I knew that this show was one that had gotten me completely hooked.

And that's where it all breaks down: 'I Am Not Okay With This', despite being renewed for a second season, fell victim to Covid-19. This leaves us with an excellent prologue that ends at its climactic cliffhanger, but fails to follow up. Nevertheless, the show is entertaining for its combined two hours something of runtime, but it desperately needs some sort of closure. What a shame.

Max (Jason Bateman) and Annie (Rachel McAdams) are a fiercely competitive couple, hosting weekly game nights with their friends. When Max' wealthy brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) drops in, he usurps the couple's tradition by hosting an extravagant game night centred around a prefessionally enacted kidnapping. Soon it turns out that that kidnapping may have been just a tad too realistically acted, and the young couple and their friends race to save from Brooks from certain death... 'Game Night' is a fairly generic comedy with a plot that should be far too contrived to work. But work it does, and it does so extremely well. Not only did the writers deliver one mind-bending twist after the other, they also came up with and endless series of hilarious lines and ridiculous situations. Rarely have I been this entertained by a comedy, and even the action is better than in most modern Hollywood productions.

The actors do their jobs incredibly well, with the two leads killing it and Billy Magnussen doing a particularly noteworthy rendition of the token idiot friend. The soundtrack fits, the direction is smooth, there are some fun tricks with the camera work, and even the ending credits are a joy.

On the negative side, 'Game Night' treats violence so cavalierly that it at times breaks immersion, but I suppose the movie wouldn't exactly work as a comedy if one of the leads would be sobbing in pain through half the runtime. (And then again, a cavalier attitude towards violence is absolutely endemic in modern movies; can't really blame 'Game Night' for that.) In total, I would absolutely love to watch more movies like this one. I didn't have high expectations, but this was so hilarious and entertaining that it really blew me out of the water.

10/10 on the entertainment alone, depreciated to 8/10 for immersion-breaking non-violence and a dumbly contrived plot (both of which add to the entertainment value, though).

Is 'Jolt' a good movie? No, certainly not. The plot is a bit of a mess, using all the cheap and generic tropes you'd expect in a mindless action movie. The narration at the beginning is bland and uninteresting; it's quite obvious that it's just there to deliver whatever backstory the screenwriters felt was necessary. The final scene is trying and failing to be a mind-twister and a sequel hook, but sure, why not. The in-between is nothing you haven't seen before, especially nowadays where it seems that every story has already been told and we just get endless sequels, reboots, or remixes of the same old stuff.

Nevertheless, 'Jolt' is entertaining. One you've made it through the initial narration, it never stops with its fast-paced and fun action sequences. Kate Beckinsdale's Lindy is a generic but likeable character with generic but witty lines. Tanya Wexler's direction is cool and stylish, although the fight scenes suffer from too many quick cuts like in most modern action movies. Domic Lewis' soundtrack is... actually, this part is truly excellent; I have nothing bad to say about it.

All in all, 'Jolt' is more fun that its low rating indicates, but nevertheless doesn't have enough substance to deserve a better grade. I wouldn't mind watching a sequel, although I certainly wouldn't pay any money to see it in cinemas.

'Gunpowder Milkshake' promises to be one of those entertaining girl-power action movies. The ingredients are all there: talented actresses, a sense of style, a soundtrack reminiscent of Spaghetti westerns, loads of gunplay, choreographed melee fights, and even the overenthusiastically brutal death scenes that have become a staple of the genre.

And yet the movie just fails to entertain. The actresses' range lies somewhere between cardboard stand-up and emotionless robot. The style is vapid and empty. The original soundtrack works well enough but the many, many music tracks fail to hit their marks. The gunplay is so bad that even I noticed the utter lack of recoil. The fight scenes are mediocre at best. The death scenes appear grotesque, and not in a good way.

And the story, oh no, the story. When making an action movie like this, it's usually best to just give the protagonist a cheap excuse to go against a wide variety of generic opponents. 'Gunpowder Milkshake', however, wants to give us a deep backstory to make its robotic characters more sympathetic and, thus, slowly meanders along. Plot holes and overdone tropes ruin whatever substance is left. What should be serious scenes are made silly, and what should be silly scenes become outrageously serious at the drop of a hat; I guess the writer/director didn't want to fully commit to either tone.

And those commitment issues extend beyond the tone: there are some vague overtones of homosexuality, badly hidden by plausible deniability (because heaven forbid that our all-women-are-cool-and-good-and-all-men-are-incompetent-and-evil movie enrages the bigots).

All in all, we end up with a mostly boring mess that has little to offer. It's a shame, really.

'Ballerina' tells the story of former bodyguard Okju (Jeon Jong-seo), who finds her best friend Min-hee (Park Yu-rim) dead. Setting out for vengeance, Okju is soon embroiled in a vicious fight to the death against crime lord Choi Pro (Kim Ji-hoon).

This is far from the only movie where a tough and emotionally cold woman seeks revenge against a blatantly evil man, and 'Ballerina' certainly isn't wasting any time of dressing up the story as its unique selling point. Even though the movie's entire dialogue probably fills on a single page, the delightfully short flashbacks made me empathise with the protagonsit much more than the various Hollywood productions with their entirely generic and overblown backstories did.

The action scenes are as excellently choreographed (and as brutal) as I've come to expect from the very few Korean movies I've seen so far. The acting is not all that noteworthy (mostly because the characters are all cold-hearted and ruthless), and the English dub did strike me as odd at times.

What truly sets 'Ballerina' apart, though, is its fantastic style. Both visually and auditorily the movie sets a unique and artful tone that is highly memorable but unpretentious.

All in all, the movie is extremely enjoyable if you are a fan of the genre but probably won't do anything for you if you are not. I sure wouldn't mind watching more like this!

This review is based on the first three seasons of Sex Education. Both the audience and the critics seem to agree that the fourth season is at best a caricature, so I skipped it.

Sex Education follows awkward teen Otis (Asa Butterfield), who is a student at Moordale High School. Discovering that Otis has a knack for talking others through their sex issues, his clever yet rebellious fellow student Maeve (Emma Mackey) decides to form an underground "sex clinic". At the same time, Otis' mother Jean (Gillian Anderson), a renowned therapist specialising in sex and relationships, and Otis' best friend Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) go through their own issues.

I came for the humour and stayed for the characters. Yes, Sex Education is an incredibly quirky show where the teens have all the problems with their sexuality that teens could ever have. Yes, this frequently leads to absurd situations like a musical version of Romeo and Juliet with lots of alien genitals or a school song about "sucking tiddies". Yes, the representation of LGTB+ characters is far above average (which in a show that is literally centred around teenagers' sexual identity is very much a necessary thing). I expected a show that didn't take itself seriously and spent most of its effort on dumb jokes.

Instead, Sex Education has some of the best characters I've ever had the joy of discovering, played by a genuinely likeable and competent cast, and embroiled in a storyline that can easily compete with those high-brow dramas everyone gushes about.

This is, however, a point of criticism, at least for me: after the first three, four episodes I thought I'd spent the next evenings with tears from laughter, not with tears of emotional turmoil. Sex Education is a fantastic show, but I had no idea what I was getting into when I started watching it. Nevertheless, the humour doesn't come up short either. Somewhat annoying, at least to those who are easily frustrated by classical relationship dramas, is the will-they-won't-they subplot between Otis and Maeve that still isn't properly resolved after three seasons. Also, beginning with a weird sex scene was a fun idea the first few episodes but quickly got old (at least for me).

That being said, the first three seasons of Sex Education are solid gold. Viewer discretion is advised (especially for a conservative audience), but the show is literally called Sex Education; it delivers on that in all its modern facets.

High school student Maddie Nears (Peyton List) is missing. Her backpack is gone, her phone is turned off, and there's fresh blood in the school's boiler room. Her friends and family haven't given up hope yet, but the chances are high that she's dead.

High school student Maddie Nears is also walking the halls, unheard and unseen by students and staff alike, unable to interact with anything and anyone except all the others that died at Split River High School over the decades. Not remembering her death, Maddie tries to investigate her murder, while also contemplating how to cross over into the afterlife with her fellow ghosts.

When I read the show's blurb, I thought it would be one of those superficial yet fun shows with a unique premise but otherwise generic storylines. This is most certainly not the case; 'School Spirits' is densely narrated and surprisingly sophisticated. The series' tone is solemn, relying on its humanly flawed characters and slow relevations instead of witty banter or mindless action. The cast all play their roles belivably, and the supported by a haunting yet subtle soundtrack and realistically plain visuals.

The eight episodes of the first season all end with cliffhangers that slowly inch closer to revealing just who killed Maddie. Unfortunately, the final episode offers no closure, instead opening even more questions with an unforeseen plot twist to herald what may be an ambitious change of genre for season two.

Personally, I feel like the first series would've been better to stand alone as a self-contained story that ran its course over the eight episodes. We'll see if the writers will truly manage to keep the show going for another season.

Luc Besson's 'La Femme Nikita' is often cited as the essential female-centric assassin thriller. I suppose this must be the case because it was the first famous movie to do so, certainly not the best.

The movie is centred around Nikita, a criminal drug addict who, after being sent to prison for life, is turned into an assassin/spy. I'm not sure why the French scraped the barrel to choose their assassins, and neither am I sure why I'm supposed to root for a drug addict who blew out a cop's brains for no reason. But, sure, let's accept the premise.

What follows is a few very short bursts of mediocre action embedded into a story about a woman's highly generic life. Yay?

It doesn't help that the movie somehow feels like it is far older than its true age. There are many classics that have held up well over the past decades, like Jurrassic Park (which is roughly the same age), Alien (which is more than ten years older), or even 2001 (which is from the late sixties). 'Nikita' somehow feels like it predates all of these movies, and I'm not sure why. Could it be the stale soundtrack, the slow direction, the mediocre English dub, or the subpar sound quality? Perhaps.

Luc Besson's 'Anna', while terribly generic and predictable, is at least an entertaining execution of a very similar premise. 'Nikita' falls far short of its fame, and doesn't even have the grace to do so with any sort of spectacle. All in all, I was thoroughly disappointed, more bored than anything else.

'Bottoms' tells the story of PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri), two unpopular lesbian high school students who are in love with two cheerleaders. To win their crushes over, they are starting a girls' fight club, based on their made-up experiences from a non-existent stay in juvie. Things escalate as their high school's football game against the decade-long rival team approaches... One thing to know about 'Bottoms' is that pretty much everything is so exaggerated that it's ridiculously unhinged. This works in some parts and doesn't in others. Unlike other teen movies -- like the often-cited Mean Girls -- this over-exaggeration goes far beyond suspension of disbelief or reasonable satire; it becomes difficult to comprehend which parts we are supposed to care about and which ones are just exaggerated to score cheap points. The movie considers itself much funnier than it actually is, and it certainly doesn't meet the level of social commentary it strives for.

Nevertheless, it's a fun movie, even if there is nothing really noteworthy about it.

REC3: Genesis is a generic zombie splatter movie. Set at a wedding reception, one of the guests is infected. As chaos breaks out, the movie follows the groom and the bride as they try to survive.

There is nothing in this movie that you haven't seen before. We get all the obligatory gory scenes, like the one with a kitchen implement, the one with a power tool, and of course a whole bunch where the zombies tear people's throats out. Unfortunately, the movie isn't all that consistent, relies on shaky cam for the the first half-hour, doesn't have any remarkable characters, and doesn't even deliver a satisfying ending.

The only thing that sets REC3 apart from other zombie movies is that it's set at a wedding, so you get the scene where the bride decides to kick ass and tears her gown with a chainsaw.

Honestly, I didn't expect much, but this is just disappointing,.

'Shotgun Wedding' is not a particularly bad movie; it doesn't really get anything wrong. It doesn't do much right either, though.

Darcy and Tom are getting married on a remote private island, but the bride's divorced parents are difficult, the groom's mother is overbearing, and even the bride's ex shows up without having RSVPd. And that's before pirates show up to take the wedding party hostage.

What proceeds from this premise is a series of fortunate accidents that has the bride and groom take down a bunch of pirates. The action is thoroughly mediocre, as is the humour. Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel do a reasonably good job, but that's pretty much it. Dumb action comedies can do pretty much anything as long as they aren't dull. Unfortunately, this one is pretty dull.

It feels a bit like the writers watched 'Ready Or Not' and decided that they, too, needed to make a movie about a bride getting thoroughly trashed, except that they went for a light-hearted action comedy instead of a brutal horror slasher. It does take a bit more than that to make an entertaining movie.

Oh, well. If you have ~100 minutes to waste, this isn't the worst movie to do so, but any other movie you wouldn't rate as "not bad" would be an improvement.

As a little white lie, Olive (Emma Stone) tells her best friend in their high school's bathroom that she lost her virginity. The white lie turns into a rumour, quickly casting Olive as the new school floozy. She decides to roll with it, enjoying her newfound popularity as similar rumours quickly pop up. However, things soon spiral out of control...

'Easy A' is not a generic teen movie, mostly thanks to its unconventional protagonist, masterfully played by Emma Stone. Olive is quick-witted and sarcastic, mostly indifferent to her reputation or her classmates' opinions, and not easily fazed. She is accompanied by a similarly unconventional support cast, mostly her parents and her favourite teacher. In contrast to other great teen movies (for example 'Mean Girls'), 'Easy A' does not need any overdone stereotypical characters, instead relying on people and events that are reasonably close to real life (perhaps with the exception of the religious nutjob students, at least for a movie set in California).

From a technical standpoint, there is nothing not to like about 'Easy A'. Personally, I'd love to see more movies with similarly unconventional protagonists; it's only now that the mould has been broken that I realised just how formulaic protagonists have become...

I was aware of 'Mean Girls' mostly just because of its memes and decided to finally find out what the fuss is all about. Turns out... it's actually a really good movie.

After being homeschooled in Africa for all her life, Cady (Lindsay Lohan) finally goes to high school in the US. Knowing nothing about the social etiquette of teens, she somehow manages to become a double agent in the clique of the 'plastics' lead by eponymous mean girl Regina George (Rachel McAdams). Initially just faking it, Cady soon finds herself turning into a mean girl herself.

Personally, I found the movie thoroughly enjoyable. The characters are either genuinely likeable or funnily overdone in their clichés. The dialogue is witty, with a whole bunch of hilarious 'mean girl' comments and situational comedy. Surprisingly, the movie even holds up fairly well despite its two decades of age.

From a technical standpoint, there is nothing not to enjoy. The acting is good, the direction and soundtrack work well, and the movie is generally just a joy to behold. Some of the actors are perhaps a tad too old to play sixteen-year-olds, but that's not really an issue.

All in all, I enjoyed 'Mean Girls' and wouldn't mind watching more like it!

'Totally Killer' is a slasher comedy, featuring Jamie Hughes (Kiernan Shipka) travelling from 2023 back to the eighties. There's a murderer on the loose, and Jamie's mother is a potential victim.

The movie certainly is not about to win an Academy Award. The premise is flawed, depending on a high-schooler inventing a time machine as her Science Fair project. The characters are caricatures, lacking depth and character development. And, in the end, it's a slasher movie, with all the pitfalls the genre entails by necessity.

Nevertheless, 'Totally Killer' is incredibly entertaining. Experiencing the 80s through the lens of a modern teenager is amusing and cleverly executed, especially when our protagonist meets her teenaged parents and their friends. It also helps that the movie doesn't take itself all that seriously, poking fun at its own clichés. I was thoroughly entertained the entire time!

From a technical standpoint, there's not much to say. Nothing really strikes the eye, the direction, camera work, soundtrack, etc. All working reasonably well. The CGI is obviously not a high-budget production, but considering that the whole time machine thing is entirely too cheesy, the clunky CGI fits quite well.

'Totally Killer' is meant to be light entertainment, and its hits its mark! I enjoyed the movie quite a lot and wouldn't mind watching more like this.

The vast majority of good action movies has a lot of action and very little depth. The vast majority of action movies that try for depth are not good. There is a tiny subset of good action movies that have depth, and 'Ava' tried and failed to be part of that subset.

Meet the eponymous Ava, who has the never-seen-before backstory of honours student turned addict turned soldier turned assassin. But unlike other assassins, she has the never-seen-before quality of only wanting to kill bad guys. In a never-seen-before plot twist, the assassination agency wants to terminate Ava. Oh no!

What could've been an extremely generic but highly entertaining action movie is dragged down but the weight of Ava's uninteresting and unlikeable characterisation: meet Ava's mother, sister, and former-boyfriend-slash-future-brother-in-law (for extra drama). Yawn!

That being said, the movie is otherwise good. The actors do their part, the soundtrack is great, the direction works well, the action scenes are cool. In the end, this could've been that guilty pleasure that you watch when you want to watch Jessica Chastain eliminate some bad guys. Instead, you'll be happy to have forgotten all about it a few days after watching it.

'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' is exactly what you should expect from a Super Mario Bros. Movie. All your favourite characters there, with Mario (Chris Pratt) starring as the protagonist, Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) as his kick-ass love interest, Bowser (Jack Black) as the villain, Toad (Keegan-Michael Key) as the sidekick, Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) as a reluctant ally, and Luigi (Charlie Day) as the unfortunate guy who is also there. A plethora of Super Mario's opponents like koopas and goombas at whatever else show up, all the Super Mario theme cues are there, a bunch of power-ups play a role, and there even is a not-so-brief Mario Kart scene.

Unfortunately, that's the entire attraction of the movie. The script is thin and shallow, delivering absolutely nothing in terms of emotions (not even all that good humour). The characters are one-dimensional and show no character growth. Admittedly, there just isn't all that much time to properly develop the story or characters because the ninety-minute runtime is chock-full of all the stuff that mustn't be missing in a Super Mario movie.

From a technical standpoint, the animation truly shines. I'm not sure when I've last seen such a feast for these eyes in an animated feature; kudos to Illumination! The soundtrack (Brian Tyler) picks up all the familiar tunes and turns them into something proper for a big picture film. The direction (Aaron Horvarth) sure does things right as well. I have to admit that the voice acting didn't really land for me, but perhaps the animated characters just didn't appear lifelike enough for my subconscious.

In the end, 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' keeps its promises but doesn't give an inch more. I wish I'd spent those ninety minutes watching something else (or perhaps playing a Super Mario game), but I'm sure there is a large fanbase that will appreciate the movie far more than me.

Remember when you came out of the cinemas after watching 'Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens', wondering why someone had made a film out of some teen's Star Wars fanfiction? Fede Alvarez has now done the same thing to the Alien franchise, compiling all the cool stuff of the Alien franchise (predominantly 'Alien', 'Aliens', 'Prometheus', and 'Alien: Isolation') into one movie without really understanding why those things were cool in the first place.

Meet Rain Carradine (Cailee Spaeny), a teenaged or young adult worker in the capitalist mining hellhole Jackson's Star. Together with her synthetic "brother" Andy (David Jonsson), she's trying and failing to make ends meet after the death of her parents in said capitalist hellhole mines. When her ex-boyfriend Tyler (Archie Renaux) and his friends come up with the idea of scavenging a suddenly-in-orbit derelict spacecraft to escape to another planet that has actual sunlight, Rain reluctantly agrees to help. Unfortunately for the young crew, said derelict spacecraft turns out to be a space station, where Weyland-Yutani researched the original xenomorph from the Nostromo.

While the premise raises some questions (Why do have these young people have a spacecraft? Why did the space station appear in orbit without anyone else noticing?), it works well enough to get our intrepid characters into the same place as their future alien friends. What proceeds is the usual Alien-inspired horror, where facehuggers do their thing, synthetic humans do their thing, a bunch of xenomorphs do their thing, and the franchise does its thing with portraying pregnancies/childbirth in yet another new nightmare-inducing fashion. This is fine and works as well as any Alien movie.

What doesn't work all that well is the contrived story. Things happen purely to get the plot moving. Remember the action movie trope where the characters escape a room just a second before it explodes? That happens, like, five times in short succession. Remember those action movie car chase scenes, where the completely out of control car flies through the air and lands exactly in the right position without any consideration of chance or probability? That happens, just with a space ship? Remember all the many scenes where the antagonist gloats instead of killing the protagonist, only for some deus ex machina to get him? That, too, happens. It's really extremely dumb, even after suspending all disbelief.

Moronic plot aside, the movie does well. The aesthetics are incredibly pleasing; I absolutely love the retro-futuristic style of the original 'Alien' movie (as well as the 'Alien: Isolation' video game). It's fantastically done. The soundtrack doesn't quite meet the chilly atmosphere of the original 'Alien' movie but works well enough. The visual effects are cool, and the sound is great. The characters are fairly forgettable with the exception of Rain and Andy. For some reason there is a creepy CGI version of Ian Holm playing an android; this was entirely unnecessary and should not have been done.

While the screenwriters had some new ideas with regard to the use of temperature and gravity, a whole bunch of concepts were heavily inspired by 'Alien: Isolation' (which, unfortunately, has a considerably better story than 'Alien: Romulus'). The movie also managed to fabricate the dumbest depiction of an astronomical phenomenon with its practically solid Saturn-like planetary ring, but I guess a more realistic ring wouldn't have yielded the same effect of once again (well, twice again) escaping at the very last second.

Nevertheless, 'Alien: Romulus' manages to be an engaging movie, mostly due its fantastic aesthetics, the stellar acting by Spaney and Jonsson, and perhaps the shock value of the third act. It just might be the third best movie in the franchise, but only manages to do so by default of the other movies being terrible. If someone capable of logical thinking had proofread the screenplay, the movie might've been actually really good.

Loretta Sage (Sandra Bullock) is the exhausted author of a best-selling series of romance novels featuring an intrepid archaeologist and her beefy sidekick. Kidnapper by the eccentric billionaire Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe), she suddenly finds herself on an adventure much like her novels together with the cover model of her books, Alan (Channing Tatum).

'The Lost City' certainly doesn't invent anything new. Its adventure is formulaic with ex machinas and suspicious timing galore, the romance is predictable from the first few scenes, but the humour... the humour actually works extremely well.

Featuring: Sandra Bullock in a pink and glittery onesie stumbling through a jungle, Channing Tatum being a total wimp, Daniel Radcliffe having the time of his life portraying yet another extremely weird dude, and Brad Pitt almost saving the day.

This movie is dumb, and it is absolutely aware of how dumb it is. If you want to watch a funny parody of those terribly generic adventure stories, you've certainly come to the right place. I was extremely entertained from start to finish and would honestly love to see many more movies like this!