NinadeL

A wonderfully suspenseful, wonderfully intense conclusion to the family saga of a well-to-do German family in post-war West Berlin. Each of the Schöllack daughters struggles with her own demons and thus offers a certain insight into one segment of society. Monika sings in an international competition and repeatedly decides between partners, Helga, through the work of a Latin dance teacher, stops clinging to her mistakes from the 1950s and Eva finally has a chance to start again. It’s strong, and great. It’s also politically attractive, especially compared to the situation in Europe at the time.

The 6th series that came out during Covid based on the book "A Breath of Snow and Ashes" needs to be seen as a kind of compromise, i.e., that something could be made, the show could continue and at the same time that we could look forward to next year. It's definitely better to do one shortened uninteresting series than to wrap it all up and write off the whole saga too soon. A few of the episodes are really weak, but the ending gives a hint that next year it will go back to its old ways. Hopefully least in the style of Voyager.

From the overwrought twist of Season 1, Season 2 came out as a slightly more mature blend of eye candy nonsense. The fashion is more creative and absurd, the individual ideas are so distinctive that it is almost impossible to perceive the superfluous dialogue when lavish to monstrous bows, horizontal and vertical frills or cropped sweaters or refined necklines are spread across the screen. Despite all the care for Emily and her girlfriends, the uncrowned queen of the show is MILF Sylvie, who is attractive in the office and on the beach in Saint-Tropez. Julien and Luc also have slightly more interesting stories. And of course, as the finale approaches, it all comes back to the American way, and there's no shortage of frustration from London. The plot with Emily, a Ukrainian classmate, became a problematic storyline against which the entire media clan is rebelling. I liked it.

The fourth film has a relatively interesting ratio in the cast of old familiar faces with newcomers to the franchise (Christina Ricci or Priyanka Chopra, for example). And this ratio decently represents the development of the entire Matrix film series. In an age of elevated cinematic sagas, Resurrections is a nostalgic genre blend with which it’s nice to experience a little of that viewer comfort. For now, the last film rehabilitated the whole tetralogy in my eyes and the lingering bad aftertaste of the second and third films slowly faded away.

The sixth film was almost able to convince me that Luke Evans is the worst actor in the world if I didn't know him from his many great roles. But Fast & Furious is a genre unto itself, and can only raise the credit of certain actors. The likes of Gal Gadot got three films in the series as a patch for not getting noticed in Quantum of Solace, and over the years she's made it from debutante Miss to someone Disney pays homage to in Ralph Breaks the Internet. That's not bad at all.

Gal Gadot entered the Fast & Furious franchise with this installment, and that's about the only reason to wade through this silly mess. These formerly simple action films used to feature second-rate beauties such as Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez, but only Gadot has made it to Wonder Woman.

With the announcement of the second film for this year's Halloween season, I wanted to see what this Disney Hocus Pocus was all about. The witches' convention is coming up rather soon, so this worked out just right. And indeed, Hocus Pocus is an enjoyable family film with a creepy fetish and a great trio of leading witches - Bette Midler is the vain baddie, Sarah Jessica Parker is fun and sexy, and Kathy Najimy is the cute and funny one. I'm not worried about the second film.

Red Notice is a pure genre film for sure. Netflix didn't take any chances and simply offered a trio of action movie veterans another (joint) project. It follows a basic pattern, Reynolds has plenty of one-liners, Gadot is sexy, and Johnson uses his muscles. I don't think anyone will be surprised if more sequels are made. We also get the nice pairing of Gadot and Cleopatra, another of which we got in Death on the Nile, and next year she'll hopefully be playing her in a really no-frills big budget narrative film.

This is once again more for kids than previous projects, but it's still nice that the Addams Family is still going. The script of the animated second film is more or less like the 1973 Hanna-Barbera series, with the family traveling around the United States and having a great time. Moreover, the dubbing loses the charm of the original cast (Bette Midler as Granny is perfect, while Snoop Dogg as Cousin It is terrible). But they did a good job reaching the finish line, and we can keep up with the family in the Wednesday series coming to Netflix this year.

From that original idea of Perfect Strangers, an unexpected series of linguistic versions and cultural adaptations was created. So far, I can only compare the German and Czech-Slovak versions and our version is a classic Czech-style comedy, with a mix of popular actors, unnecessary pushing of the envelope by setting the whole story on New Year's Eve, and unfortunately, overall, it is a very timid solution to all deadlock situations and gives us a very negative message about what we should and should not worry about. Perhaps how we will be better off if we sweep everything under the rug. Even though we are in the comedy genre, the neighboring German version The Perfect Secret is a much more mature film in every way, it is better acted, and it conveys a message about a much more mature society that can name reality, learn from it, and move on to the next days with a clean slate. Czechs still have a lot to learn.