mandag, mars 31, 2008

Lange Flate Ballær II (norwegian movie)

This sequel is not as good as the first one. Main problem is that is are not able stand in the way for the temptation it is to use some stupid poo humor – the movie basically is a wild mix between irritating low en humor and some nice touches.

It also tries to be to big and at the same time small.

But then again this is not about quality and more about the humor people like. The movie gets bad reviews but still it is the movie that brings the masses to the cinema. Then again Norwegians like things like Sputnik (the artist) as well…

It makes me smile and laugh its fair share so there is no real need to give any recommendations; people will go and see it no matter what.

Hitman (movie)

This movie is based on the Hitman games. Games that I don’t like at all because it is not my style. Not so with the movie(s?).
Grafically it is an excellent conversion, it looks just like the game and at the same time it looks (movie) real.

Someone has called this a poor mans “Leon” (The Professional) and that is quite a glory I would say as that movie is a classic.

Hitman is not a classic but it does deliver the goods which is entertainment. The story reminds me more of the first Bourne movie but honest it’s a story that has bee recycled so many time it hurts, unless you are totally aware of this at the times of the making and compensate in other ways.

Summary? Quite some good and cool fun but almost no humor (cold).

I would have preferred them to choose a different and more challenging story for the movie. But that’s just me.

fredag, mars 28, 2008

poem

I can feel your breath close to me

Into the infinity of the Ocean
It reflects my thoughts about us

I shiver when I sense your cent

we know we are seperated
far away from each other

maybe we will meet one day

my hearth feel your warm touch

maybe the distance only
is real in our minds?

onsdag, mars 26, 2008

The life continues after Easter

Well another Easter is over.... and again we are back to our normal (??) lives. This Easter was pretty good despite many people in total chaos ;)

In the end I spend some time reading a bit in one of my cousins books. It was about Singularity. Quite an interesting book predicting the future of technology. I did not have time to read it all but the book was full of all kinds of interesting facts. I always known that the science elite always knows a lot more of what goes on than the common man - without being sarcastic or anything as the truth can just as well be among the world of the commoner.

Even if it is interesting I see it in such a way that idea of Singularity and that the purpose of life and the universe is intelligence is nothing more like your everyday Religious movement. (because a religion does not necessarily need a God). And therefore the book also fails in many points being shortsighted in any direction not feeding on its own.

This reminds me of a man that once told me that the meaning of life is to lay down as many women as possible. He probably stated so in some kind of victory rage... I have a feeling though that in the end he will not be very pleased neither about the numbers of women as well or the goal itself ;)

For the rest... ;) hectic days, work and fun... for you as well I hope..

The assassination of Jesse James (movie)

As I said some time back about Babel, the movie is gorgeous, the pictures, the acting, the sound, yes basically everything is excellent. And in a way I am tired to say the bad thing as people would say? What do you think its a bad movie? What is wrong with you?

No what I am saying is that its an excellent movie but it has a one essential flaw and that is it leads nowhere. This is almost the same for Jesse James. It is slow paced, and since we know what is coming we will be constantly tortured waiting for the inevitable to occur. And it is even so sad and ridiculous that it a real low.

A movie building up to a low?

But hey, there is more. In the bitter end we are somewhat explained the reason for all of this. The torture. The wait. We kind of suddenly get a warm feeling of having shared the tragic fate.

And to achieve such an feeling through a movie is nothing but the touch of a genious.

And therefore I kind of forgive the length of this movie.

American Gangster (movie)

Denzel Washington as a mafioso boss?

Sir Ridley Scott is no small name at all and his movies deserves respect. This movie is of course long, well done all the way through but there is a few buts.

1. I have been writing some about this before but can be repeated, recycled and rementioned many times. There seems to be a thing with directors that they all have a secret dream about making a "Godfather" clone that is better than the original. (much like all mp3 player manufacturers dream about making an ipod killer??) No of course this is bound to fail - for many reasons - some of them I am sure you can find from my earlier ranting about these movies.

2. When making an epic master piece one is advised not to tell the whole story but to find an angle and a subplot to put focus on - otherwise one can easily end up with a movie which is:

To long
Tedious
We do not understand what the real meaning is

of course you do understand where I am going? So I will not go further on these issues.

Now there are other things. Denzel is an excellent actor but he somewhat does not feel right to this role. Maybe this is why he is put there. To make us feel uncomfortable with it? This is at least a possibility. On one hand a kind and caring man on the other hand he plays a man full of complex issues because of being on the low end of the food chain (driver) for many years. This makes us uneasy and in a way maybe even forgiving when we see pictures of drug addicts having a bad time and cold blooded murders?

Oh and then there is Russel Crowe. Again a personality there is hard to understand what drives. On one hand he is so loyal and honest that other cops dislike him for it, yes even hate him. On the other hand he can not care jack shit about his wife or kid... This is of course a part of his personal development during the movie.

and again I do the mistake of ranting about a movies bad sides when there are good sides. Yes it is a good movie but a tad to long and a tad tad.. The one scene where he introduces his brothers to what he is doing is just "classic"!

I am legend (movie)

Honestly I am not a big fan of Will Smith. As far as I am concerned his carrier height was Fresh Prince in Bel Air. Ok there might be a few heights afterwards as well but no matter what: He is not a good actor - and probably never will be.

But since he gets to play in some big movies we still watch him occasionally and what we get can be pretty decent. So what about I am Legend?

The movie screams: I am a Resident Evil clone. This in itself might be very bad but on other hands, if done well it can be quite entertaining. A world with (almost) no survivors and everybody else is not dead but infected with a virus. Will Smith tries to find the cure and save the world (once again).

I didn´t expect to much about this movie but it has it few nice moments. When the beasts (infected humans) adapt from Will and put up a trap much like his own. When he talks about Bob Marley and when its about the butterfly. All small touches of ingredients that spices up a movie.

But the most curious fact is as I said earlier: Wills acting sucks making his style becoming a bit retarded and cold which fits perfect into the main role. Why? Because he is all alone in the world and lives a controlled life to keep alive. I think I have been talking (writing) about something similar in a other movie: the fact that an actors lack of skills becomes his skill.

To sum because of its better parts this movie puts itself in the big pot of movies that are above to watch.

onsdag, mars 19, 2008

The Brave One (movie)

I for one have a lot of respect for Jodie Foster. She is one of the icons of the movie industry and without a doubt one of the best female actresses there is. And the fact that she is cute in her own special way does not make things worse ;)

I was of course a little sad that she wouldn´t do the successor to "Silence of the Lambs" because they didn´t want to change the (excellent) ending. But I also understand her view on the case. The other real disappointment I´ve had from here movie carrier is "Contact" which turned out to be something like utter crap.

But mostly she delivers good quality movies that not always follow the main stream. The Brave One is controversial in a way that it is totally understandable that people talk a lot about it. When you consider the ending you see that it is even more controversial. Is it morally ok? Is it even morally ok to question?

Because of this the movie starts up extremely slow and the way it progresses its obvious that the story tries too much to justify itself, which in turn is kind of ridiculous as we would simply believe it with the first happening. Why should it be so that because her boyfriend is killed she constantly gets involved in situations with bad people something she never did before? Realistic? Maybe but do we believe in it? no...

This is the movies only weakness and we can easily forgive it as the slow paste in the beginning soon has us in a first class thriller. Make no mistake, this is no "Silence of the Lambs" but it is good. It has tension and builds up a unresting feel that it will not let go.

The fear that she feels early on is so well done I think a lot of people will recognize it as its own. And that is basically the main theme of this movie. Why should (normal) people be afraid of doing normal things? Is it not so that the civilization should make the world a safer place so you and me can be safe on those streets?

The camerawork is excellent done, and often I find myself a little fascinated. Also I will say that the location manager(s) has done some of the best jobs ever (could there be an Oscar for best location manager??) and New York is looking like some of the most beautiful and romantic spots of the world - building up to the contrast between beauty and fear.

Jodi Foster delivers the goods in such a way I actually think this one could be a nice movie to bring a date.

tirsdag, mars 18, 2008

Happy Easter Everyone

The time is here of course to celebrate Easter!

So I wish you all do have the best time ever!


Easter Big

Now we are just waiting for the beagle to save the holiday once again ;)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (book)

Someone recommended this book to me and eventually I found it in a bookstore and before I knew it it was at my night-table.

While it is a pretty cute story and probably an excellent youth novel (??) I can not shake of the feeling that the writer uses manipulative technics by telling us his truth through the mind of this little boy.

He has a high level of intelligence but knows little about socializing. Also for example it is stated that he know no feelings but at the same time he is dead furious and scared of the killer. I just simply do not get it all to add up.

Despite this as I say so often it is nice reading that can be recommended.

No good country for old men (movie)

Like many others I had high expectations for this one - and you all know why.

And I was not disappointed. The beginning is as fresh as you seldom see of a movie and it kind of never stops. The movie does not follow conventional genre and story building and therefore is in constant danger of falling a part. That is if it was done by someone non professional.

So I can just take my hat of and bow.

Then there this issue about the end. I don´t know what to say about it. Some like it and some don´t. The truth is that the movie changes totally paste from being something like and action/thriller to a drama - for me that is a killer since I normally avoid drama movies and I understand that many others will feel the same.

Because this is a Oscar winner I have taken some time to go deeper into it and to give this movie a chance. I do understand the reason of changing the paste and I do understand the message which is : "No country for old men" This in fact bothers me since we already know this from the title and the first spoken lines in the opening - and there is nothing more to it than watering this out in the end.

I feel that the end of the movie just should have been shorter to be effective - like it is now it is too slow and the last scenes is just gibberish talking to "symbolize the theme". If the makers feel that these scenes are important to fulfill the movie they should have been nested earlier in the script so that the end could get the impact it deserves.

Its also because of this that I think this movie is a failure as a complete experience - despite of this you should still watch it for its strong points.

Sweeny Todd (movie)

I wanted to see this movie since I like "From Hell" and "Sleepy Hollow" but Sweeney Todd is nothing like it. Yes we see some of the darkness that Tim Burton likes but there the similarities stops.

This is in fact something as silly as a splatter musical. I wonder if Tim Burton has been looking at splatter movies at kid and been thinking "lets turn all that gore into a musical" A pretty sick thought might I say. But also genius enough to earn him an Oscar.

It is so that I actually had a few laugh in the movie when things just became too ridiculous and thats what I feel is the verdict of this movie. A bit too far...

Varg Veum - Din til døden (norwegian movie)

Third time is the charm. The norwegian PI from Bergen is back in another direct to DVD and Television release - and this time it is even more unfortunate than last time since "Din til døden" is the best movie so far.

It opens up with some decent and fresh action scenes but does not stop there. It contains all the ingredients that defines a top movie including complicated romance and love.

It is also obvious that the director has no fear in making even the usual talk scenes into fresh and moving scenes. The haircut scene is in many ways both daring and maybe a bit naughty.

For the bad. Again it is hard to understand what lies underneath Vargs choices as well as why and who is actually paying his salaries. No-one? Also the make up team has done its worst job till now about the hair.

Except for this - this movie is a real pearl of a movie and deserves a lot more attention than it gets.

Varg Veum - Tornerose (norwegian movie)

As a part of the mass production of Varg Veum movies this one is released straight to DVD.

In many ways a wrong choice I would say as it is better than the first movie that got Cinema time. Yes it is true that the first one has a better and more artistic picture overall, but it still dosen´t count up for the whole movie.

Tornerose has a much more difficult plot with a a real family and friendship disaster nested together with drugs and other crimes. Everywhere Varg goes he uncovers just more pain and rot. And it is in fact quite entertaining.

Even if the make up and screen is not as polished as in the first it actually looks more real and down to earth this time.

For the negative it can sometimes be hard to understand what kind of person Varg really is and we do want to know more of what drives him. Sometimes the dialogue can also be so strange to understand what and where the director wants to tell us.

Electric Eelshock (concert)

I was intended to be on a Madcon concert this Saturday but since they got sick (but why?) I went to see this Japanese band instead.

First of there was a Swedish warm up band. I forgot the name but they was just as good as the main event and they put the mood just right. Too bad I didn’t have my Swedish hat this time ;)

The eels did surprise me as well as playing fresh, funny and energic noise straight out to the audience. And they just got better for each song.

I can easily recommend this band to anybody that gets the chance.

Sony Ericsson P1i

As I have ranted about so many times earlier - I was really really unhappy with my Nokia N95 - its some of the worst phone I ever had - despite all its raving reviews. Then I kept and used my old 6880 as GPS.

The bloatware that you find in N95 reminds me about the the way Windows CE went. I think one of the main problems is that they start product cycles (software) that updates to a new version too fast and you never get a stable mobile OS that get to attract a high level of 3rd part software.

For the average user this will not be a problem since the problem first arises when you are a power user.

So what I did was crapping the N95 and go for the older SE p1i. And to say what it is at this time more or less the perfect mobile companion. It has a large (but not as large as I wished) software support. It has all the things you need except GPS. The interface and the way it is used is far superior to the S60 series 3 interface.

I do however fear that this phone will be the last of the p series as SE has announced their first Windows based mobile.

We live to see...

mandag, mars 17, 2008

Rambo 4 (movie)

When the reviews about this movie started arriving it was strange to see. Some reviewers even went so far to give it the lowest score available naming this move a cynical use of unnecessary violence

Hmm there is a other movie I saw the other day called Sweeny Todd which splats blood desperately just for the fun of it and this movie even got an Oscar for best art movie.

If you want to give Rambo 4 a proper review there can be smart to know some of the story first. When Rambo - First Blood first arrived it became an instant hit. And to understand why, you will have to see the movie for yourself. It is not just bunches of action and nonsense but quite a difficult story plots that unfolds.

Rambo became equivalent with one though gut standing alone against all (odds..) and this success lead into to more Rambo movies that even thought they are fair as entertainment - they fail to deliver any of the dept that the first movie did - turning the Rambo franchise into a ridiculous direction only fulfilled by Rambo defeating a whole army by himself in the end of Rambo III.

No wonder Sylvester Stallone said that he never wanted to do Rambo anymore. And even denouncing himself in Tango and Cash!

So.. would Sylvester make a new Rambo movie after all this years just to have some kind of cash cow? Now I haven’t seen the last Rocky movie so I can not say anything about that - but for sure the quality of the Rocky movies has been easier to maintain because it follows the stereotype Stallone story that is perfected in Over the top.

And so I was eager to see this movie, not expecting much more than.... a cash cow..

And I was totally wrong. Rambo 4 is without a doubt the best Rambo movie yet and all on the top of Stallone´s carrier.

Instead of continuing where Rambo III left us, Stallone has somewhat gone back to the original Rambo and then taken in consideration all the years in between and made a real hit of an action movie. It hits hard, it drives you and entertain you. And also it shows us that war is brutal, gruesome and unforgiving - just in the way it should be shown.

I am looking forward to see this one again!

Lomsk - Amerikabrevet (music album)

Of course I had no choice this time....

after the successful concert during Christmas there was only one thing to do: buy the album ;)

It is funny because all the songs are distinct different so I really do not know what to call it, I do however occasionally find myself humming desperately on these tunes.

Because: it is really good stuff. Of course Lomsk is a small band and therefore they will never reach out to a wide public. But for us... we are some lucky people...

and for you ...

... you can be lucky too....