Movietime

Time for some movie-thoughts again I think, here are a few of the ones I've seen since last, worth mentioning, for one reason or other. And after this list I think it's more than appropriate to take a blog dive in to some home made food. Here goes -

• Vantage Point - this was just such a great action movie, one of the best I've seen actually. I was on pins and needles from the start, going back and forth in time, showing the course of event from different (vantage) points seemed like a fresh approach. Also the mix of wellknown and unknown actors. Okey, slight predictability concerning the conspiracy, but sightly done, 4/5
• The Happening - M. Night Shyamalan is just such an uncredibly uneven director, The Sixth Sense and Lady in the Water are on my list of favourite movies ever, Unbreakable very close to. But then it seems like making briliant movies takes its toll, Signs are really rather lousy and well, The Happening showed much promise and the plot is quite interesting but it sadly ended up being predictable, silly, gooey and lacked in characters, details not to mention overall picture. I'm split, probably because I did want it to be as good as I had hoped... 2/5
• This life +10 - I totally enjoyed the TV-series "This Life", the characters in many parts very much not me (sharing a flat, excessive amount of alcohol and rugs, sleeping around), but in others very so (lawyers, same age group, struggling with getting all the pieces of life fitting together). This movie revolves around their reuinion 10 years later. And, well, I think I would have liked that reunion to have been made in to a series instead of a scratch-the-surface-movie, +2/5
• View from the top - very uneven-had-its-moments-but-basically-silly-outdated-backlash-comedy about striving for the dream-job of all dream-jobs; flight attendant *haw-haw*, +1/5
• The Last Samurai - beautifully filmed, much better than I had expected, but still. (Glorifying) War movies just aren't my cup of cinematic tea, they either make me angry, upset, sad or even more angry. And no I completely don't understand, find it fascinating or condone the Samurai culture either, having said that, 3/5
• Morgan Pålsson - Världsreporter (Morgan Pålsson - World reporter) - this is a spin off movie from a much loved Swedish TV comedy series. The very less than talented yet very full of self-importance foreign reporter Morgan Pålsson on a mission in a warzone. I really love the TV series, but MP isn't my favourite character and even if the movie had its moments I think it was amateurish and yawn generating, -2/5
• United States of Leland - interesting plot, good actors, but still it just didn't reach even close to those glimpses of greatness one could detect from some of the lines, +2/5
• Den utvalde (The chosen) - with few exceptions Swedish thrillers have a tendency to become very less than... good. Okey, they're turkey-movies. And with the main character being played by very less than talented "actor" Andreas Wilson - from that much hyped, really lousy yet Academy Award nominee movie Ondskan - how could this fall in another category? Some usually good actors made very less than good performances, crowned by theatrical wood tick AW, +1/5
• Eulogy - good actors, nice plot in this drama-comedy about a very less than well-functioning family coming together at the grandfather's funeral. Rather entertaining, though I must say I find Zooey Deschanel being quite a lifeless, creepy actress, seemingly lacking the capacity for playing different kind of characters always with a monotonic voice and a blank stare. 3/5
• Sparta - rather entertaining action with a nice - or not so nice - twist in the plot. With Val Kilmer, another blank-looking-lifeless actor, playing the main character, +2/5
• Secretery - good actors in an unusual, rather depressing story, -3/5
• A Thousand Acres - a modern King Lear set on a farm in Iowa, really good actors, family secrets and a whole lot of dirty laundry, +3/5
• Les Choristes - Academy Award nominee 2005 - the same year as the lovely Swedish movie Såsom i himmelen (As it is in heaven) was nominated too and the amazing Mar Adentro won - this was a sweet, sad yet hopeful little French movie about a new teacher at a boys' boarding school showing how music can truly make a difference, +3/5
• Ringu 2 and 3 - the US version of The Ring is briliant, completely scary, beautifully filmed and one of my favourite movies ever. The original Japanese versions, trilogy, are however, to be honest, some of the worst pieces of **** I've ever seen. In my book of films there can be such a thing as less than -1/5 and this trilogy got it
• The Aviator - far from a fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, this was a way better, and quite interesting, movie than I had expected, -4/5
• Tjenare Kungen (Hallo there King) - entertaining Swedish comedy about pursuing one's dream of becoming a famous punkartist in the 1980ies, great scenography, 3/5
• The Cat in the Hat - the only redeeming thing about this annoying movie is the abundance of colours. The rest of it, awful, -1/5
• Man on Fire - a briliant action as well as moving drama with great actors, 4/5
• The Gathering Storm - a wonderful drama that gives a glimpse into Winston Churchill's life, love and politics, with briliant actors, 4/5
• The War of the Worlds - also this one was better that expected, neat special effects, but quite the anticlimactic ending, -3/5
• Assault on precinct 13 - decent action, remake of a movie from the 1970ies, good actors, 3/5
• Sweet November - sweet bagatelle, but I did like Charlize Theron's wardrobe, hairdo, her apartment and the cute dogs, and perhaps a wee bit of Keanu Reeves - which I've basically only very much liked in the lovely movie The Lake House - but that doesn't make up for a whole rather flat movie, 2/5
• Sunshine State - Florida is my first, and still only, real life hands-on impression of the US. And such a, in many ways, wonderful first impression it was too... Sigh. My impression of this movie isn't all that in many ways wonderful though, it had its moments, and some nice actors, and a whole lot of lovely scenery, but basically being an easily forgotten piece it gets a -3/5
• Les Triplettes de Belleville - usually, with few exceptions, I'm no fan of animated movies. But this one just grabbed me right from the start, absolutely wonderfully made, with dark humour, irony, quirkiness and silly good music, 5/5