Seasonal Greetings

As this year is getting near to an end I wish you all

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year

To sum it up for this year

I have been kind of lazy to post in the blog lately. Maybe this is a sign of me becomming more lazy, more occupied or just a general sign that times are changing??

I have no real answers for you but I am going to be nice and sum up a few things. In the movies world I have of course seen quite a few nice movies as well as old classics.

Ratatouille is a masterpiece. I can not say anything else, the story is funny, the anims are funny. The whole movie makes you laugh but in the end the morale is: Everybody can cook… Is it true? Well who cares as long as it is fun?

Beowulf – This one was a disappointment. I don’t know but except for the main monster (which is awfully ugly) there is not much to go for here. A mediocre childrens anim looks better than this – and the story is like a short story made way too long.

Other stuff I have seen: The Color of Red - a good classic thriller, Unbreakable – even better classic and Rambo II and III – I don’t know what to say about it but it is funny to see the Americans feelings about the afghan at that time: “They never give up”

In the world of books I have been reading Kama Sutra, it is a interesting book, maybe not a lot of new and I choose to think of it as a ancient pimpguide which still can be used as which.

I have also read the book which the Varg Veum movie was based, a little bit better than Henning Mankel in the writing, but much more clever put together! The book differs remarkably from the movie and sometimes I think – what did the storyboard writers think?? Anyway it’s a good movie so no hard feelings.

I also read the second Stieg Larsson book which I found even better than the first, its like the writer saw his small faults in book one and make a awesome firecracker of book two. Now all is left is the finale in book three.

I also finished my second book and have started on the third one. Writing goes a bit slow there as well as here… but sometime next year it should be ready.

In the world of gaming I have been lazy as well (surprise) but are now enjoying Unreal Tournament 3 – a winner from beginning till end. Brings a lot of the old and some of the new UT power – and is a must for all people that likes this kind of action.

I am also playing the new expansion to Never Winter Nights 2, it is not as good as the original game, and it tries to bring a new twist to the gameplay with its spirit eater feature.

Still this is almost as good as they comes and I hope it will keep me busy for medium January next year.

That’s about it for now.

Death Proof (movie)

Quentin is behind some real classic movies, Resevoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and he is also behind the story of the excellent True Romance. Beside of these movies his movies is of various character. From Dusk till dawn is pretty good at times and the Kill Bill movies goes further (maybe too far) in Quentins movie register.

Death Proof tries not to take itself to serious and while it is a remake it is also a product of what Quentin always have tried to reach; Pure entertainment, his way.

Bad language, pretty girls, gore and semi intelligent language. For me this movie smells like, he finally got it right, but however it is never deep, and therefore will not reach the heights as his earlier classics, but if you can dig it being a bit shallow, you'll enjoy it all the way.

The movie is also somewhat some kind of girl-power movie. And it reminds me of the movie I made with the film school earlier, although nothing in Quentin's league, it has the girl power as the main theme.

Shooter (movie)

Shooter is a movie that delivers exactly what it promises to deliver, which fits me perfect. The screenplay and the action gives us nothing we have not seen before, but why bother. Its all done very well, the acting, the action - the whole package.

But it will never be a classic because of 2 things, one its not made in the seventies and to it does not go far enough in the cool factor. The hardest line in the movie is: “You don't understand, he killed my dog,” - for this movie to get up in the A heaven it would need to take this further something like Clintie does with the mule in the first of his classic spaghetti westerns.

I was thinking of this movie compared to Bourne Trilogy's 3rd movie, and while Bourne is outter crap this is the one to watch.

The Idiots (Movie)

Don’t let the cheap wrapping and the dogma effects trick you: This is a masterpiece of a movie. It is dead funny almost all the time through but at the same time it is dead serious and it hits hard in the end, a little like in ”Million dollar babe” where you just enjoy the movie full time and when the blow comes..... you just sit there halfway in chock.

At least some of the actors in this movie are professional, but you will not guess. They all play so good idiots you think that they are just normal people with a slight psychic issue. Its really impressive to see the dogma effect making it all realistic when we know that it is directed and scripted.

Another great thing about this movie is that its really the best reality show I have seen. I am so tired of all the reality crap on TV but this is good stuff. The movie is also trying ot be somewhat a documentary (at times) and it reminds me of one movie: The Blair Witch project, which was an extremly popular movie, but which I find to be the outtermost CRAP.

And ”The Idiots”? – its the perfect example. Learn from it. Enjoy it. Become an idiot yourself.

The Contractor (movie)

This movie borrows a few elements from other movies. First of we have the ”I can not ride” scene borrowed from ”Unforgiven”. Later the movie borrows big from ”Leon/The Professional”.

While these elements are winner elements, specially the last one, it can not bring the movie up to the A status. Ok, even if Wesley Snipes has a lot of B movies behind him, many of them I still enjoy because they still deliver some good action. In this movie however he seems to be old, slow and useless – and since its not too long ago I saw some good Snipes action I have a feeling that this is the director’s fault – but of course I can not be sure.

But this is not all. The story also is plagued by a problem. The movie does not contain any progress, its basically Snipes going somewhere and running away from the scene repeatedly. And all this basically makes the movie a pain to watch.

But because of what I said in the beginning the movie also has bright points, and so it is that it can be a perfect waste of time one day you just can’t be bothered to think.

Jo Nesbø - The Saviour (book)

I get more and more impressed about Jo Nesbø’s writing. Every line he writes, every paragraph is such well written and all hold necessary pieces to unfold the mystery. There is really not too much more to say about it – this is reading that everybody will like!

But still I have to pick on a few things in this book. This time around the main criminal is kind of poor and is kept in low state through the book – while this is a part of the books story – it just doesn’t manage to keep the tension up like usual. Instead we are kept on the line with the surrounding stories and intrigues – and with reason. In a way this book could be theme brother with the Stieg Larsson book I’ve been writing about earlier - and that works well.

Also a weak spot is that Harry Hole is not such under pressure as usual and while he is always present – it just isn’t the usual tension. But of course, this is just me being picky.