tommylangzik

I'll preface this review with a confession: I expected a TOTALLY different movie than the one I got, primarily because the trailer didn't reflect the pace and spirit of actual movie. In other words, the trailer wasn't true to form; it was false advertising. My best guess (honestly) is that the creators KNEW they made a garbage movie, and wanted to trick people into watching it so they could make whatever $$ they could from it.

My rating (of 3/10) is based on the fact that the graphics were decent, and the atmosphere was neat. To be honest, this COULD have been an okay movie, but the false misleading marketing coupled with the fact that this movie mostly centered around social justice content ruined it completely.

Now, I don't want to come off wrong here... IF I KNOW I'm about to watch a slow-paced movie vs an action movie, I'd adjust my expectations, and take it in stride accordingly. Similarly, if I KNOW I'm about to watch a super liberal virtue-signalling movie, I'll adjust accordingly. In THIS case though, I came in thinking that I'd be watching an action war movie, when INSTEAD I got a preachy feminism movie shot almost entirely within the confines of a gun turret, which made it feel like the whole thing was forcefully being shoved down my throat for an hour.

Having said all that, I forced myself to sit through the whole movie, and secretly hoped it would get better... but it never did. MAYBE it could've been saved and gotten a 6/10 if the lead character were less whiney and annoying, but even under those conditions, it would be a VERY generous rating bump.

Honest conclusion, if you're a guy looking to watch a war movie, do yourself a solid and skip this film; I PROMISE you're not missing anything. I watched this with my fiancé, so (based on her reaction) I can confidently recommend the same to the ladies; give this one a pass, because there's simply nothing enjoyable about it.

I tried to walk into this with an open mind and initially naïvely assumed this would explore Taboos in a more placid "Hey look at these strange weird cultural quirks / oddities" way, but what I saw instead was stomach turning, especially in regard to the treatment of animals. The senseless barbarity and butchery fully on display was overwhelming and shocking at times. Savage and inhumane from a civilized western perspective; a brutal reminder that some humans still live guided by a stone age mentality in a myriad of ways.

The narrating presenters / experts try to cast the scenes in a "Well, we can't judge what we can't understand" sort of light, along with the classic "We need to ensure we preserve these cultures, otherwise they'll be lost". To be honest though... ... sometimes I couldn't escape the feeling that there was no ACTUAL value being created here; it was nothing more than desperation meeting destructive belief / tradition, thus, I often felt myself strongly disagreeing with the premise that these snake-oil approaches NEEDED to be kept active vs simply preserving them in history books.

As an example, a tribe in Africa had a woman claiming to be some sort of spirit vessel, and all she really did was take on a masculine voice/tone, have people slit live animal throats (including a calf), leave the animals wriggling or flailing on the ground as people danced in the blood gushing from the animal's neck... Then, all she said to each person who came seeking help & advice was "everything is going to be okay"... All I could do was sit there stunned in traumatic shock and horror, wondering how anyone could possibly take her seriously, let alone believe that this cruelty would solve their issues. One woman even came seeking help for her sick daughter; internally I was screaming "Take her to a doctor!". In my view, the sad reality was that some of these communities would have been better served with a proper education focused on science, and better access to healthcare; worrying about 'preserving' their culture, as far as I could tell, was RELATIVELY a non-issue.

ANYWAY, the production quality WAS decent, and it WAS interesting, BUT given that it was shot "in your face" David Attenborough style (think "nature shows that explicitly / vividly showcase death in the animal world"), this show is not for the squeamish, and if you're an animal lover, I'd STRONGLY recommend you take a hard pass on some episodes (though, unfortunately, no warnings are given in advance).

Oh, and if you're on the sensitive side, DO NOT WATCH RIGHT BEFORE BED; give yourself plenty of time to recover and unwind. I regard myself as an animal lover and empathetic towards the plight of others, so my review should likely be regarded with that lens in mind.

I watched this (with my non-German speaking girlfriend) to help brush up on my German via more exposure to the language. We BOTH laughed REALLY HARD, throughout much of the show, but I think we were also the right audience for it. Allow me to elaborate...

If you're a ultra PC neo-Liberal type, you may want to steer clear of this title, because you'll likely get triggered. Felix's humor (like much of German humour) is a little darker than what some North American audiences may be used to, and it's a little less filtered (a little more raw). Some of his comedy is driven by unexpected shock value, and (ironically) is being blasted for having jokes that are too liberal/inclusive. There were a few moments where I had to explain to my gf that it's funnier in German (because some stuff gets a little lost in translation & context). I want to be clear though, this title is EPICALLY under-rated due to hyper-"liberal" ideological reasons.

I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just leave it at this: If you're pretty level-headed, can laugh at yourself or how silly life, moods, and society can be, you'll likely enjoy this feature... and if you're a German-speaking millennial that loves dark humour, this is for 100% for you.