Another weekend, anoter bunch of movies. I finally saw “Run Lola”, a german movie that’s been cult-labelled. And after seeing it I gotta agree with that assesment. Damn good flick. But like “Groundhog Day” and some Star Trek episodes, a little bit weird. I personally liked the little small things that changed between the different versions and how they affected things in a big way. Kinda like “if I hadn’t ordered that chicken sandwhich I wouldn’t have gotten sick and I would have been able to go to Jordan as I was suppose to and make tons of money”. Those things. Also saw “The Last Samuraj”. Didn’t expect much but it was pretty damn good and interesting flic. And beautiful too! Not that historically correct though, but they never make that claim either. Then there was “Paycheck”. I expected a very good story and not that much action in that movie, but it was pretty much the other way around. Story was ok, although no big brainer and the action was pretty good. But what would you expect from John Woo.
Another weekend, another bunch of movies consumed. With all the hype about Lost in Translation, as well as being a Coppola and a Murray fan, I just had to see it. And it turned out to be the most boring movie I had ever seen. Visually it was really great, some shots were just amazingly filmed and Sofia should get all credit for that, but it was just sooooo slow. And in the end, I never really got it. Call me shallow or whatever, but I just didn’t get it. And then I saw Elephant. I don’t really know how to describe what that movie is suppose to be about, but it turned out to be even MORE boring than Lost in Translation. This one had no humor in it what so ever. I guess I didn’t get that movie either. But I finished with a movie I did get – Runaway Jury. Big Cusack fan, I was expecting alot and it delivered and then some. Not that many twists that I was expecting but I still didn’t see the end coming. And a pretty good reminder of how flawed the american justice system is. But then again, so is the swedish sometimes. Then I finally saw “Matchstick Men”, when both Ridley Scott and Robert Zemicks involved it had to be good. And it pretty good, only one twist and a depressing one at that, but a nice ending made up for that. And another big surprise was “Pieces of April” which I wouldn’t have seen had it not been for Katy Holmes, but it was pretty damn good! I’d recommend it to a friend! All in all, a pretty good weekend!
New year, same problems – getting my finances under control, car trouble, need better speakers, getting a girlfriend, losing wieght… same old, same old. But I guess it could be worse! And it seems that US will have to back down about that demand to have american security onboard all flights in or out of US, guess they weren’t gods over the world after all. And little credit to Britney for giving us a few laughs over the new year weekend, I just wish it had been a little bit more original than that. Just wondering what that guy is thinking – if I were ever to marry a rich babe like that, drunk or sober, I wouldn’t agree to a divorce that easily, haven’t he seen Eddie Murphy’s “I want half!”-scene from Raw!? And I eventually saw the last LotR movie, although I broke with tradition and did it on the second. I haven’t read the books so I can only judge the trilogy movie-wise and I gotta say the third one was a huge disappointment. The “Oh my god, we’re outnumbered and getting our asses kicked, but what is that over the horizon, is that the cavalry” was really getting old and when green goblins comes to town I just gave it up taking it seriously.
Here’s hoping the last Star Wars movie is able to live up to the expectations, but that’s not till 2005.
Do you know I’m a sucker for traditions? No, neither did I! But in the past week I found myself motivating not going to the new “Lord of the Rings”-premiere because it’s my tradition to see it on 1st of January. And then when I had to say no to hanging with buddies with the motivation it’s my tradition to do last minute shopping on saturday before Christmas, that’s when it kinda hit me – I really am a sucker for tradition!
Do you know I watch an average of 5 movies per week? And that’s a slow week with few DVD releases and 40 hour work-week. So guess how many movies I see now that I’m just sitting at home all day 🙂 So with a couple of movie channels I see alot of different movies, some I’ve already seen, some I missed when they were in theaters and some I never heard of. And those I’ve never heard of are usually crap. But every once in a great while a movie I’ve never heard of pops up and just floors me. And this great while it was “Tape”. Three people in a motel room and it’s all dialogue and all good! Don’t think I’ve ever liked Uma Thurman as much as I did in that movie. I highly recoment it!
Oh my god, they are doing it again. They are blaming entertainers for causing people to kill people. This time some teenagers (in the states of course!) that played Grand Theft Auto a bit too much and thought it’d be cool to get a gun and start shooting randomly at cars, and OOOPS, they killed a guy. This is wrong on so many levels, and that computer game is the last thing on the list of “Things to blame”. But it is on the list though. First of all, that game comes with a “graphic violence” label. That should tell the parents, if they even cared, that “hm, perhaps it’s not such a good idea”. Then it’s the huge leap from seeing something on the computer monitor and thinking it might be cool in real life. It’s a leap I’ve never had any problem staying away from, no matter how violent the games or the movies I watched were, I never thought it was a good idea to actually build an X-Wing and fly out into space looking for the Death Star only because I saw it in the coolest movie ever. At the time. Bad role models I guess is to blame, but not only the parents, how about the #1 role model they are suppose to have in the states – their president who’s respect for human life is.. well, isn’t. Then we have the last little thing here… how did they get the gun!? Did Sony or Rockstar make the gun too? How comes this kinda thing only happens in the states? Both the shooting and the lawsuit itself, you never hear about something like this in Canada or France, let alone Sweden!
Everybody should go out and see “Bowling for Columbine”…
Go see “Bowling for Columbine”. I’ve always been critical of the sloppy gun regulations and the attitude of the NRA in the states. But after seeing this documentary I can relax knowing that me and Moby aren’t the only ones who thinks something is pretty screwed up “over there”. Although it was pretty one-sided, biased, Moore was set to get Wal Mart and Heston, but what I really liked was when he just went off to places not knowing what he’d find, like in Canada. And after this documentary, you gotta like Canada 🙂
Saw “The Core” the other day. I actually didn’t think a movie could disregard real physics more than “Armageddon” did. But “The Core” did. Pretty damn obvious who was gonna die, sometimes even how! I particularly liked the “404 access denied” error. (404 is actually “not found”)
Also saw “Identity”. Very, very good movie. Although you it shouldn’t be sold as a “who did it” story.
Then I also saw “Down With Love”, that 60’s type movie with Renee Z. (not even gonna try with her last name) and McEwan (how many got that joke?) about the battle of the sexes. And it was one of the most booring filmes I’ve ever seen. Had it not been for Niles Crane it would have tried to reclaim the 2 hours I lost watching it. And then there was Jeri Ryan. For about 2 minutes.
Finished it off with “Lost Summer”, that “Project Greenlight” movie with the guy that got his dream movie made. And it was slightly less boring than “Down With Love”, but only because of Aidan Quinn and Kevin Pollak. Both of them are cool and good in just about anything they do.
I saw T3 yesterday. I was expecting it to be crap. Just another movie made to squeze some money out of the Terminator brand. But I was proven wrong! It was actually pretty damn good! Alot deeper than the other ones, not just a no-brainer action flic. Although they must’ve had way too much money during that street-carnage-scene! And the ending scene with Earth from orbit I thought was just beautiful. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t enjoy the thought of a scene like that, but it was really beautifully animated!
Two more movie reviews : 1) “Office Space”. Don’t know what’s up with me and office-humor, but I just love it! And this movie’s point of “it’s only a job” and “what tha hell” is just so wonderful. And the gangsta-anti-fax-machine scene is one of the most hilarious things I’ve seen. I just wish someone could hypnotize me and take away that little blocking mechanism I have that stops me from just going into a place and ask a girl out like Peter does 🙂 And 2) “Daredevil”. I bought this movie for three reasons : a) Kevin Smith b) Jennifer Garner and c) “Bring Me To Life”. Well, Kevin is in for about 1 minute, you know what happens to Elektra, right? And the “Bring Me To Life” video wasn’t in DD 5.1! So I should be disappointed. But I’m not. Simply because of the two scenes with Jennifer Garner in the rain. And I’m not talking wet t-shirt alá “Spiderman” here (although that wasn’t bad either), I’m talking about the visual effect and the Matt Murdock POV. That was just beautiful! Worth the money just for those two scenes!
The two travelling companions I had during my trip to South America had one thing in common – their need to shop! Shop shop shop! And I suck at shopping even when I know the store and even worse when I don’t even know the language. So I did my shopping from the hotel room by ordering stuff from the ‘Net. And now I finally got to see some of the DVD’s. And … well, I think I’ve seen so many movies that it is now almost impossible to sneak a twist by me. One of the movies was “Basic”, that military/murder/who did what movie. I heard the writer behind it had said he wanted to throw us, as in the people who pay attention and give away the ending 15 minutes too early, off balance. And there sure was alot of twists, so many in fact that he tilted himself and there are three major plot points still unresolved. And unfortunately I pay so much attention that the little broken eight ball outside Travoltas place totally gave it away, and that was less than 5 minutes into the movie! Then there was “Life of David Gale” with one of my favorite actors, Kevin Spacey. He said in an interview that it’s pretty unpredictable, and this is the guy who played a huge part in the movie with one of the biggest twists in movie history (“The Usual Suspects”), so that promised alot. But 60 minutes into that one I knew how it was gonna end, with one little exception – did he or didn’t he know. But I still recommend everyone to see “Life of David Gale”, quite simply because of the entire anti-death penalty story.
Have you seen the movie “100 Girls”? When I first read about the movie I thought it sounded kinda shallow and “seen it!”. But I was happily surprised. It made the usual “boys vs. girls” banter, but it covered so incredibly much more then your average movie. Highly recommended, but you should probably not bring a date or you’ll spend the rest of the night “is that really true”-arguing. I particularly like the character of Patty! But then again, what guy wouldn’t…
You know I don’t take alot of things in life seriously, right? As a matter of fact, there are very very few things in life that I can’t joke or laugh about. I’m not sure if that’s a good trait or not. But I saw the inverted versions on the TV the other day. People that can’t take a joke. People that enforce the political correctivness-rules. It was another E! “True Hollywood Story”, this time about the Dice-man, Andrew Clay. You know, “Ford Fairlane”, “Dice-man Cometh”, “No Apologies” etc, one of the most hilarious people on the planet, one of the few comic acts than can sell out Madison Square Garden two nights in a row. His jokes are … well, vulgar, extreme and coarse. But he does it in a hilarious way. How many people can get away with a comment like “Sorry I made you clean the bathroom, but who did all the work in bed?”. And then there are the people who can’t take jokes like that, who think it’s immoral. One woman even, quite seriously, said that you can’t listen to his act and NOT be influenced. Riiiiight.
I’ve got a new definition of contrast for you : A dolphin, looking happy and as cute as only dolphins can, brings a smile to my face. Right before it swims back into the Gulf in search of mines… I like contrasts. I’m the kind of guy that’ll order peperoni and pineapple on a pizza! Most of my clothes are black and white. And it’s one of the reasons I loved the movie Leon!
A new “Absolute”-album has come out. If you don’t know what they are, it’s a collection of hit tracks with a common theme. Like “Absolute Country” or “Absolute Movies”. This one should have been named “Absolute Crap”. It’s a collection of # 1 hits between 1995 and 1999. Britney Spears, Paradiso, Spice Girls, Vengaboys, Eiffel 65, E-Type and so on and so on and most of it is, what I consider, garbage music. Music without any distinct sound or anything. But I say most of it – Depeche Mode, Robert Miles and Cecilia Vennersten is also on it, but that’s simply not good enough for a music collection with only # 1 hits!… or do I have a bad taste in music?
But I’m really digging Shaggy’s “Ode to women”-song. And video. Who can argue with the first line “So amazing how this world was made, I wonder if GOD is a woman”, especially if you’re a Kevin Smith-fan.
Another weekend gone by and another bunch of movies consumed. Don’t know why but my weekends over the past month or so have been totally unproductive. Just been lying in my way too comfortable soffa flipping around channels. Feels like I’m in a holding pattern but atleast now I know what I’m waiting for – start of the F1 season and my new computer! Anyway, some movie reviews:
Ghost Ship : This movie made the same mistake as “Cube” and “Saving Private Ryan” – starting off with a bloody scene that made you wish you hadn’t bought those popcorns, or in my case, the pizza. But it was one predictable movie. But I don’t feel I wasted my time…
Billy Elliot : This one was so hyped when it came out and there were talks of Oscars, so my expectations were high. And I was pretty disappointed. Good movie, nice story but nothing spectacular or anything. And it kinda reminded me about two big regrets I have about my childhood, but that’s a story for another update.
Driven : Sly (who wrote and produced this flic) tried to do for car racing what Rocky did for boxing. And failed. I’m a F1 fan so I should like a movie like this, even if it features the CART series… but I didn’t. Again predictable. Awful dialogue. Awful CGI effects. Awful in the “yeah, that’d happen!” category. And the acting… let’s just say supermodel Estella’s acting was the bright star in that area! But one thing I really, REALLY enjoyed was the music!
Enemy at the Gates : Again a way too hyped movie. It wasn’t a waste of time, but it wasn’t revolutionary either. Thankfully I’m a fan of Rachel Weisz and Ed Harris otherwise it might have been a waste of time.
Scent of a Woman : This movie I saw on the big screen when it came out and again on sunday. I’ve never really liked Al Pacino or his acting that much, or Chris O’Donnell for that matter. But I love the moral points of the movie. And all the tributes to how wonderfully beautiful women are, especially Gabrielle Anwar!
Here’s hoping I get my new computer this week so my next weekend will be more productive…
One of my better traits is my ability to observe and pay attention to details. That’s why I’m pretty known for my nitpicking and picking up on small jokes like in the latest Bond movie the bad guy said “Diamonds are for everyone” which ofcourse is a reference to an old Bond classic, “Diamonds are forever”. But sometimes it’s also a bad thing. It ruins a lot of movies! Like last night when I was watching “Gossip” (not the swedish movie, the american one!) because a friend had told me it was pretty unpredictable. But just one little quick comment made half way through the movie gave the entire ending away – “it’s all over campus”. Sometimes it would be good to turn this little part of my brain off and just enjoy and good flic… or perhaps I’m just overestimating my ability, perhaps other people are the same way and I just don’t know…
Still recovering from an awesome house warming party I attended on saturday night. I was a little bit hesitant about attending because I probably wouldn’t know that many people there so I didn’t think I’d be there that long. But I was so wrong, met some people I haven’t seen in ages, and got to know a few other people (including another “South Park” fan who considers “BASEketball” as one of the greatest movies ever). And I had so much fun that time just flew by and when I woke up on sunday morning I did my usual “check the cab-receipt for the timestamp so I know when I got home”-routine. I got home at about half past three. Let’s just say sunday turned out to be a very unproductive day for me! ‘Cause I’m not 20 any more…
One problem however, it seems that I left some room for misinterpretation as to my opinion about Christina Aguliera. My friend’s girlfriend was giving me a hard time because she thought I actually liked Aguliera… and here I thought I had made it clear I didn’t, not after “Beautiful”…
Wanna hear some more argument to the theory that the God of Joy has it in for me? Here goes, follow with me here because it involves three people. First it’s Britney Spears. As you might have picked up over the past two years I don’t like her. Or rather I don’t like the product Spears, I can’t really say I dis-like her since I don’t know the woman, although I do feel a little bit sorry for her because of all the bad publicity and almost witch hunt like stuff that was happening over 2002. But she’s kinda been the symbol towards my arguing that it seems more important these days in the music business to put on a good show rather than make good music. Because let’s face it, if it wasn’t for her looks she probably wouldn’t be as big as she is.
Which brings us to number two, the person who is the totally opposite to that – Moby! Although I certainly enjoyed his concert, he puts most of his effort in making good music rather than good shows. And he never plays on his looks either, and he’s a really deep and open person (just check out his journals on Moby.com) with a great sense of humor.
Another thing about Moby is that he has over the past years had a New Years party that’s been totally weird and different, and one person that has loyally attended them is person number three – Natalie Portman. Did you know they were an item, for a very short (but from Moby’s statement very intense!) time? I’ve always had great respect for Natalie, thought she’s been one of the greatest female rolemodels since Lady Di. A woman who cared more about graduating from Harvard than to make movies (=money).
So why am I going on about this? Because Natalie gave in to the dark side and teamed up with Britney to host a New Years party of their own!!! What are the odds that a woman I had so much respect for teams up with a woman I have so little respect for to compete against the dude I have the greatest respect for? There must have been some kind of divined intervention involved there.
Ok, I’m sorry I’ve been neglecting this place over the holidays. I’ve been away for a couple of days during Christmas, and then I’ve just been totally relaxing while not doing much at all. Actually I’ve been watching alot of movies over the past week. Like the hilarious “Fat Greek Wedding” and today I finally saw the latest Bond flic (which I really enjoyed) but I’ll wait until Wednesday to see the new Lord of The Rings quite simply because I saw the first one on the 1st of January.
And tomorrow I’ll be going to my sis and her hubby for a new years party so if I don’t get to update tomorrow here’s wishing you a happy new year!!!