Movie Reviews – Part VI

Dedicated to all of you that want to watch a good movie but haven’t got a clue what to watch. In the spirit of the other movie reviews I’ve posted these will also be very short.

I’m Not There. The film has a very strange format; it’s like they couldn’t decide on what kind of a movie to make so it’s a mishmash of little of this and little of that. The best way I can describe this film is like this: I’m Not There is a fictional fake-documentary. It takes a little while before you get it, but once you do it’s an amazing journey. Six different actors play Bob Dylan in different times of his life, six different actors playing six different Bob’s. Two of the best, in my opinion, are Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett. And may I be so bold as to say that this is definitely by far Cate Blanchett’s best performance this far in her career? Just look at this picture I stole from my brother’s blog, and then imagine her capturing everything that is Bob Dylan so spot on you actually believe she is him… and she did just that! Amazing film. 4 stars out of 5.

Pan’s Labyrinth. A little girl’s mother has remarried, and they have to move far away. The man her mother married is a brutal military man, and he forces them to live in horrible conditions. The girl is somewhat of a book nerd, and she escapes into a fantasy world full of exciting creatures. She meets Pan, the keeper of the labyrinth, and Pan gives her three assignments for her to do in order for her to come and live in her real father’s kingdom. Good film. Watch it. 4 stars!

The U.S. vs. John Lennon. How can the biggest, baddest, wealthiest, most powerful nation be afraid of one British musician? In many ways the US and its leaders are, to be brutally honest once again, pathetic. I guess the only thing “power” is afraid of, is losing it. And when a challenger comes along, in this case John Lennon, all measures are allowed to get rid of that challenge. This is a very interesting documentary that very well captures the spirit of days long gone; the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement, and John Lennon as a private person, the peace loving family man as well as the anti-war spokesman. 4 stars. Watch it! It is available online.

Speed Racer. Forget the story, forget the acting (or the lack of it in this case), forget the action (which is pretty cool, but so unrealistic). The only reason for you to watch this film is the eye candy. This film is literally like stepping inside a candy store. 2 stars.

The Road To Guantanamo. Three British youngsters on vacation in Afghanistan and Pakistan gets captured by the US military, and even though they are innocent they are sent to, and kept at Guantanamo for two years. They are eventually released without a trial. Drama documentary based on true events. Excellent film. One the best, and the most moving, and infuriating films I’ve seen lately. 4 stars! It is available online, so click here and watch it.

Technorati Tags: Documentary, Film, Movie Reviews

Movie Reviews – Part V

I’ve been arguing with myself ever since part IV of this blog series whether or not I should continue doing these short movie reviews. Then I figured; why the hell not?

I love movies. It’s not only an interest, it’s a full blown passion. Among my friends I’m known as “the movie guy” and they never ask me movie questions when we play Trivial Pursuit because I’m almost always right. So, if you don’t dig these, don’t read. I’ll continue with these and I decided I will not care what people think. For this fifth post in the series I will give you five short reviews on five excellent films, and then you will have to watch them too. OK?

House of Sand And Fog

I remember years ago when I first saw the previews for this one on a movie show on TV. I didn’t think much of it, but for whatever reason I never forgot about it. So, last night when this was on TV I decided I should watch it. I turned the TV on and had one eye on the TV and the other on the computer screen. But more and more I started following what happened in the story of this film and ended up turning my computer off and watching the entire film. I really got into it.

Basic plot: a woman is evicted from her house because of unpaid taxes. The city decides to auction off her belongings, and later sells the house. The woman, now homeless, lives in her car. While she is pursuing legal action, unknown to her, an Iranian family has bought the house, moved in, and with the law on their side they refuse to move even though they are being pressured to do so by this woman, her lawyer and a local sheriff. There is of course more to this story than this, but I do not want to reveal too much. The acting is great, Ben Kingsley as the Iranian family man does such a great job that you really feel for this guy (I almost cried, that’s a good sign) and Jennifer Connelly as the evicted woman is very, very good as well, and she is very pretty too which doesn’t hurt at all (I almost cried for her too, by the way). This is a very touching, emotional and tragic story about a few innocent people that get mixed up in bureaucratic shit. Watch this one, folks! My rating: 4,5 stars out of 5!

Felon

“Prison desensitize you.” This is by far one of the best prison movies I’ve ever seen. Basic plot: a family man accidentally kills a burglar that enters his house. He is sentenced to prison and has to deal with living life in a place where no societal rules apply. It shows you how you devolve into a less of a human being into more of an animal-like creature. And it’s just not the prisoners that go through this transformation, it also very much affects the prison guards as they, too, in this horrible environment becomes less human-like.  The story is good, the acting is great. Val Kilmer does a really good job as a bad ass “lifer”, and Stephen Dorff is pretty good, too. I highly recommend this one, folks. 4 stars out of 5.

American Gangster

The 1970’s. Drug trafficking. Bad guys vs. good guys. Really good music. Visually interesting. Even though I didn’t understand many of the casting choices they made for this movie the overall acting was great, and especially so by Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe and Ruby Dee. This is a really good movie, I was positively surprised. Watch it! 4 stars out of 5!

Million Dollar Baby

My brother Christian said years ago that I have to watch this movie. He said it was great, and had an unexpected ending, and “if it doesn’t move you there is something seriously wrong with you”. Well, Christian has an excellent taste in movies, so of course I trust his judgment and when this movie was on TV a few weeks back I just knew I had to watch it. Basic plot: a down-on-her-luck young woman, played by Hilary Swank, is working as a waitress during the day and works out at a boxing club at nights, and she’s dreaming of becoming the number one female boxer. The owner of this dirty little boxing club, played by Clint Eastwood, is a legendary boxing trainer. He refuses to train women, but eventually he comes around and sees this woman’s talent and starts training her. I will say no more. Watch this fantastic movie! Rating: A full fiver!

Kill Bill

Yeah, I know, there are two parts. But it’s the same story so I will make an exception here and count this as one continuous film.

A short back story first; When Kill Bill Vol.1 first came out on DVD I watched a bit of it and absolutely hated it. I must have been too tired and too drunk to really get into it. A few weeks ago both Kill Bill movies were on TV and I thought I should give them another chance. What can I say… I was so wrong, and I love both these movies! Good revenge saga, full of action (more so in Vol. 1 than in Vol. 2), beautifully shot, creative use of colours, sounds and music. I love both these movies and can’t wait til I can get them both on DVD and add them to my movie collection. 4,5 out of 5. Watch these!

Technorati Tags: Movies, Movie Reviews

Movie Reviews – III

Time for some movie reviews again.

Jumper. I didn’t know anything about this movie when my brothers dragged my ass to the movie theater on my birthday. It was quite a refreshing experience as I did not have any opinions about this movie beforehand. The story is basically about this dude that has a very unique ability, he can teleport himself anywhere in the world. He uses his ability in a very human-like way, by this I mean the filmmakers did not make this guy into any kind of a super hero, and so he very selfishly makes his life extremely comfortable. This, his selfish convenience, becomes extremely clear once you see him in his huge skyscraper apartment, and he’s watching a disaster on TV and doesn’t care about the people in danger even though he in the blink of an eye could go there and rescue them. Of course, there has to problems for him or the movie wouldn’t be interesting; there is this group of people called Paladins that kills “jumpers”. I give this movie a 3 out of 5. It’s nothing extraordinary, just your typical american pop corn movie.

The Filth And The Fury. This is an awesome documentary about a band that everybody have heard about but nobody knows anything about. England, it’s the 1970’s, the government is insisting that everything is just fine, but the people knows that’s not true. This is a time when something needs to be done, and so a few youngsters finds a way to shake things up, and they decide to do so by forming a band called Sex Pistols. How come there was a great need in Great Britain for a band like this to exist, what was the impact they made throughout their short existence, and what is their legacy? Watch this great film. 4 stars!

Red Dragon. Hannibal Lecter. A legendary fictitious character played by the living legend Anthony Hopkins. This story takes place before Hannibal, and even before The Silence Of The Lambs. A retired FBI agent played by Edward Norton, is being dragged back to work on a case, and he needs the help of Hannibal Lecter. Surprisingly exciting movie. 4 stars!

Shoot ‘Em Up. I didn’t get this movie. I got the feeling the filmmakers really wanted to make something really wild and cool. They failed. The plot is not very interesting, the action is nothing you haven’t seen before. I’ll be kind and give this one 2 stars for good effort.

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix. I have no idea what this movie is about because it’s only the second Potter movie I’ve watched. There are like a gazillion Potter movies out there, so how the hell are you supposed to keep track of them all and remember which one you’ve watched and what happened in it? Oh well, this one was pretty exciting even though I didn’t understand everything, and it looked cool too. 3 stars.

Blades Of Glory. This is, to be brutally honest, one of the funniest movies I’ve watched! Will Ferrell just gets better and better for every movie I see him in. OK, so this story is about two figure skating rivals that gets banned from the world of competitive figure skating for life. But they find a loophole, and by competing together as the first male-male figure skating couple they are able to compete. Hilarious movie. 3½ stars.