Sneak Overview 2018
I’m not feeling like writing extended reviews lately. But I do love having a record of the movies we got to see in the Sneak Preview. Therefore, I’ll just write down here all the movies we got to see and give them the usual classification.
The list continues with the next year in another story.
So viel Zeit
(November 2018)
This movie tells the story of Rainer (Jan Joseph Liefers), the guitarist of a long time separated 1980s rock band. He’s scraping a living as a private guitar instructor, but otherwise not a lot is going on in his life. All of that changes when a health checkup reveals a life-threatening condition. In an attempt to reconnect with his former life, he tries to bring his old band back together. And none of them hold him in particularly high regard. This is a rather unspectacular German comedy that does not flow very well and contains a lot of drawn-out scenes. The interactions between these venerable grandpas of rock are sometimes funny, but overall the movie is only average and I cannot recommend spending money on it.
25 km/h 👍
(October 2018)
Two brothers meet up at their father’s funeral after living apart for many years. They live completely different lives and there are a couple of unresolved issues between them. Spontaneously and with the “help” of alcohol they decide to go on a journey that they had planned to do as teenagers, following all the silly rules they made up then. And from then on the movie follows two guys in black suits on mopeds, who are driving through Germany to ultimately pee into the Baltic Sea. It’s another classic German comedy that follows in the footsteps of movies like “Elementarteilchen” or “Ein Freund von mir”. It’s quite entertaining and the two main characters are very likable.
Der Vorname 👍
(October 2018)
A very typical German comedy that remains true to well-established style, where a lot is achieved with very little: Six actors, one set, no effects or CGI. And it also holds true to another characteristic: The story is very low-key and focuses on a “normal” topic. The entire movie therefore rests on the shoulders of the writers and the actors, all of whom did a an awesome job. It’s an entertaining movie bordering on the edge of ridiculousness that pokes fun at a lot of clichés.
I Can Only Imagine
(September 2018)
I had never heard of MercyMe, the American band, who originally performed the most successful Christian song ever. And its name is, you guessed it, “I Can Only Imagine”. The similarly named movie tells the story of Bart Millard, who wrote the song. It’s an okay movie. I cannot keep up with similar pieces like “Walk the Line” or “Ray”, but maybe that’s just because I simply had never heard of the band before, so it was a little hard for me connect.
The Incredibles 2 👍
(September 2018)
A Pixar movie, so you basically know what’s up: Stunning rendering, an entertaining story suitable for both a younger and older audience and just overall a pretty good time. With this was I was a little doubtful, because it is — after all — a sequel. But it’s a good one. Even without the novelty factor the first movie had, this one holds up pretty well.
Book Club 👎
(August 2018)
In this off-the-shelf Hollywood comedy four older women delve into the world-famous books of the ’50 shades of…’ trilogy. Inspired by the books, they all re-discover their sexuality in various different ways. Along the way the movie makes every effort to cover as many stereotypes and clichés as possible. While the cringe-level is surprisingly low considering the topic, it is a tedious movie with way too little entertainment value. The valiant efforts of the high-profile cast (Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda et al.) make the movie bearable, but not really worth watching.
Searching 👍
(August 2018)
A movie that mostly shows the desktop of either an older family PC running Windows or a more modern Apple laptop with OS X. It’s for the most part a society-critical film about how easy it is to become more estranged despite being constantly in contact through modern media. Showing most of the story through interactions on a computer is an interesting stylistic element that works well, but is very exhausting for the viewer. Still an interesting experience and I’d recommend checking it out.
Snowflake
(July 2018)
A really weird, third-wall-breaking German movie about a dentist who somehow ends up writing the life story of two thugs, who stumble upon his script and hunt him down. At the same time, they themselves are chased by the henchmen hired by a vengeful girl, who seeks revenge for the death of her parents.
Hotel Artemis 👍
(July 2018)
An action movie, in which the main character is not really involved in any action, is a pretty cool concept. Otherwise the movie has the genre-typical flaws like holes in the story and broken logic. But it is an entertaining piece, unless you can’t stand blood and brutality.
Adrift
(June 2018)
Based on true events, this movie describes the ordeal of Tami Oldham and Richard Sharp, who ran into a hurricane while crossing the Pacific on a luxury sailing yacht. It’s a well made documentary-like drama that makes liberal use of jumping between different timelines to loosen up the story and introduce more and more about the characters. A good movie overall, but very honest and as such not always easy to watch.
Love, Simon
(June 2018)
In this teen movie a boy struggles with his heterosexuality. I’m certainly not the target audience for movies like this, so it’s hard to give a fair rating. For a teen movie it is quite good with some good ideas. If you can ignore all the cheesiness.
Overboard 👎
(June 2018)
Comedies are difficult, because humor is such an individual thing. This movie is about a rich, spoiled man, who loses his memory and is taken in by a struggling single mother, who puts him to work. Not my cup of tea.
Hostiles 👍
(May 2018)
A brutal Western with Christian Bale. While definitely too bloody for my taste, it is definitely a very well-made movie.
Roman J. Israel, Esq.
(May 2018)
An introverted, but ingenious attorney is fired, when his boss falls ill and cannot continue to run the law firm. His hunt for a job turns into a stroll down memory lane and the difficult situation challenges the attorney’s morals. The movie starts out strong and Denzel Washington does a great job. At some point the movie deteriorates significantly and becomes less and less believable.
