onsdag 19. desember 2007

Rocky Balboa

Rocky Balboa is the 6th in the line of rocky movies, and it doesn't disappoint! Like some of the previous movies this is also directed by Stallone himself.

When I was younger I liked the 3rd and 4th movie best, because of fast paced action. But now I like the first, second and this one best. Like the first movie, this one focuses most on character development and story.

It's a great movie with alot of heart! I enjoyed it very much.

Rating: 6 of 6

lørdag 8. desember 2007

Full of it

'Full of it' is a comedy about a boy which everyone sees as a loser. So he starts lying to seem cooler than he is. Then all the lies become true..

It has some fun moments, but lots of clichés too.

An okay comedy, with some flaws. It could have been much funnier.

Rating: 3 of 6

Rescue dawn

'Rescue dawn' is a true story about a man who is captured after his plane crashlands during the vietnam war.

Christian Bale plays the main character, and he plays his role well as usual. Not that it helps..

Most of the movie takes place in the primitive prison he and others are being held. There are no real suspense, as anyone can understand he will make it and manage to escape.

There are many great vietnam movies to choose from, such as Platoon, Apocalypse now, Deer hunter, Dead presidents etc. Unfortunately, this is not great at all, just boring.

Rating: 2 of 6

torsdag 6. desember 2007

Transformers

Transformers is a movie for anyone who woke up early in the weekends, watching the transformers cartoons in the 80's. And who played with the toys after having watched it.

Michael Bay have directed an amazing action movie for boys of all ages. The visual effects and action sequences alone makes this a great movie. Also, the movie doesn't take itself to serious, and there are many good comical scenes.

It probably helps if you were a young boy in the 80's, but even if you were not, this is great!

Rating: 6 of 6

torsdag 29. november 2007

Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

The fifth movie about Harry Potter is also one of the series best in my opinion.

If you like the previous Harry Potter movies, you will like this one as well.

I will not comment on what happens storywise, because etither you have read the books and already know, or you have watched the previous movies and don't want to know. And if you haven't read or watched any Harry Potter, start with the first one.

Rating: 6 of 6

Inglorious Bastards

This movie from 1977 is Quentin Tarantinos favorite war movie. He is probably going to make a remake of this movie(or maybe multiple movies), as he has written a 600 page script.

Anyway, the film is about a group of american deserters manageing to escape, and then given an important mission.

It's a very entertaining movie, with lots of action and unpredictable story twists.

Rating: 5 of 6

lørdag 24. november 2007

I know who killed me

'I know who killed me' is an interesting thriller, about a girl beeing kidnapped and tortured by a serial killer, but when she manages to escape, she's a complete different person, has she had an amnesia or is it something else going on?

It reminded me some of David Lynch's movies, but this one is much easier to understand. It was just something about the atmosphere I guess. And the use of the colour blue.

Rating: 4 of 6

Gridiron gang

Based on a true story, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson plays the lead as Sean Porter, a frustrated parole officer for criminal youth. He decides to create a football team and teach these young men dicipline.

This may be a typical 'turn losers in to winners' american sports movie, but it's still great! Very touching and with a lot of heart.

Great actors, music, story and visuals.

Rating: 5 of 6

fredag 23. november 2007

Civic duty

'Civic duty' is about a paranoid american man who have just lost his job. He begins spying on his new neighbor, an apparant middle-eastern looking man.

He feels much suspicion towards him, and gets more and more obsessed with him. He feels sure that this man is a terrorist.

This is a drama movie, with a fairly interesting topic, but it is too depressing, and fails to entertain on any level. It's not exiting, it's not scary.

Some people would perhaps say that some movies are not supposed to entertain because they are 'important movies', but this is not one of those.(I think all movies should entertain, important or not...)

This movie is just depressing and boring. I didn't give a rats ass what happened, certanly not concerning the main character. And if one doesn't care about what happens to him, then what's left to care about? Not much I'm afraid..

Rating: 1 of 6

torsdag 22. november 2007

Shoot em' up

My god what a movie! I don't think I have ever seen more people get shot by 'our hero', then in this one.

The title of the movie is very fitting, only a minute into the movie, the gunfest begins to the sounds of Nirvana's 'Breed'. It's a gun blazing action extravaganza which put a big smile on my face that lasted the entire movie!

Forget story, this is all about the action.

Great action scenes, cool oneliners, inventive gunplay and car scenes.

Rating: 5 of 6

Letters from Iwo-Jima



Eastwoods 'twin' movie to 'Flags of our fathers' is seen from the japanese perspective.

I must say I was a bit disappointed. I think 'Flags..' is a great movie, and expected this to be as well, but as a friend of mine said: 'It's missing a bit of Eastwoods magic'

Not to say it's a bad movie, but I perhaps expected to much. It has an interesting story, and good visuals, but it didn't quite 'make me care' as much as 'Flags..'

Rating: 4 of 6

tirsdag 20. november 2007

1408



'1408' is a psycological thriller based on a Stephen King novel.

The main character(John Cusack) is dared to stay at a certain room at The Dolphin Hotel, an evil room supposedly. Samuel L. Jackson plays the hotel manager who tries to talk him out of staying at this room. The room manifests ones personal hell it seems.. An evil room.

Great acting, particularly by John Cusack, he is alone in a room most of the movie! a great performance.

The story is good, and you never guess what comes next. A lot of scares. Nailbiting atmosphere, great visual effects, thrilling music/sound effects makes one hell of a thrilling ride!

Rating: 5 of 6

3:10 To Yuma

Finally, a great western! The first really good one in several years. Featuring two great actors; Russel Crowe and Christian Bale.

Crowe plays the leader of a brutal gang, and Bale plays a hard working familly man willing to do anything not to sell his farm, including a very dangerous prison transport..

Exellent actors, good visuals and music. Add that with an exiting story with many interesting plot turns.

In conclusion: a great movie!

Rating: 5 of 6

søndag 18. november 2007

Superbad



Superbad is a comedy that had me laughing hard at times. It's about two best friends soon going of to college, partying, getting with girls for the first time. But it's not as typical as it may sound. The charcters are much weirder than usually in such comedys.

The two main characters are okay, but the prize goes to their friend Fogel, who makes a fake ID-card where he calls himself Mclovin, with no firstname! Not to mention the two cops, they are insanely funny!

All in all a great comedy, whose only problem is that it's a bit to long. Nearly two hours should have been trimmed down to one hour thirty minutes or less. But the people who made this movie, also made 'Knocked up' and '40 year old virgin', which both had the exact same problem in my opinon.

Rating 4 of 6

Flags of our fathers

'Flags of our fathers' is directed by Clint Eastwood and produced by Steven Spielberg, as one of two war movies released simultaneously, the other being 'Letters from Iwo-Jima'.

'Flags of our fathers' is about a group of young men being photographed raising the american flag, and consequently gets sent home and celebrated as heroes.

It's an epic movie with great visual effects and battle scenes, as well as great actors and top notch story. Eastwood does it again!

Rating: 6 of 6

Sicko



Michael Moore's documentary 'Sicko' is about americas healthcare flaws compared with how it's done in other countries, like britain and france. Where healthcare is'nt private but controlled by the state, and free for all, and people don't need medical insurance to get the treatmeant that is necessary. Prisoners at the guantanamo base in Cuba even get better medical care, without paying for it, than the average american.

However, this film is mostly about the americans who actually have insurance, and all the troubles they face getting help when they get injured or sick. It's all about money, and apparently denying claims is really good for business.

No, this documentary is not objective, and yes it does paint with a broad brush to get it's message through. But all the same it's a good documentary, well worth watching.

Rating: 4/5 of 6

lørdag 17. november 2007

Pirates of the caribbean: At world's end

The third part of this triology sees some great new characters played by Chow Yun-Fat and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones(!).

I had high expectations, and this one delivered! No need to write anything more, read my previous pirates reviews, and you'll get the picture.

Hoo-hey and a bottle of rum.

Rating: 5 of 6

Pirates of the caribbean: Dead man's chest

The second pirates movie continues more or less where the first one ended. Again, this is another great action adventure movie for boys and men of all ages, just like the first one! But it is also a typical 'middle movie' in a trilogy(think matrix reloaded, the two towers etc) What I mean by this is that it focuses a lot on the action part, but not so much on the story. But this was to be expected, and the movie is still great.

Once again Johnny Depp impresses the most portraying Jack Sparrow.

Rating: 5 of 6

Pirates of the caribbean: The curse of the black pearl


This is a movie for boys and men of all ages! A superb action/adventure movie! Spectacular visual effects, great story, often funny, many exellent actors doing a really good job of entertaining.

Johnny Depp impresses the most in his portrayal of infamous pirate captain Jack Sparrow. All in all this is an instant classic.

Rating: 6 of 6

fredag 16. november 2007

Hot Rod



Hot Rod is a very funny flick! I laughed so hard I almost peed myself! It's about a guy who wants to become a stuntman, like his dad was, before he was killed. Rod lives with his mom, half brother and step father. He and his step father constantly gets in hysterically funny fights! But suddenly the stepfather becomes very ill. Rod and his friends decides to have a fundraiser stuntshow live on AM radio to save his life, so Rod can kick his ass!

I don't want to say anything else, watch it for yourself, you wont be disappointed, unless you are a moron.

Rating: 5 of 6

torsdag 15. november 2007

Hostel 2



The sequel to Hostel received a 20 year age limit exactly like the first one(at least in Norway) I'm not sure if this is just a PR gimmick, but anyway it gives a clue that this is not a movie for the fainth of hearted..

This time around it focuses more on the guys paying money to kill people, and the victims this time are girls, in the first movie it was about some guys backpacing in Europe. Both movies portray Europe as some sort of dark medieval place, very stereotype, but this didn't matter much to me, I liked both movies. But as pointed out before; you have to have a strong stomach.

Rating: 5 of 6

onsdag 14. november 2007

Warrior King



Warrior King is a thai martial arts movie. Starring Tony Jaa, for some known from 'Ong Bak'. If you want good acting or story, look elsewhere. This is an all out knucklefest from begining to end. The story is actually so bad it hurts! Someone steals a couple of elephants, and our hero seeks revenge and his elephants back! But the martial arts scenes are some of the best I have ever seen on film, they totally rock! And luckily there are many of them.

After a boring first halfhour, the rest of the movie is martial arts mayhem all the way. Mostly thaiboxing combined with unbeliveable physical stunts. If you are a martial arts fan watch it!

Rating: 4 of 6

War



'War' is an action movie starring Jet Li and Jason Statham, they have played opposite each other in a movie before, The One, from year 2000. In 'War' Statham plays a cop and Jet Li plays an assassin. Great action, and interesting story with some surprising, and it must be said; unrealstic, story twists.

But all in all this one is a winner. Not as much kung fu from Jet Li as some would like, but I didn't care. He is very good in this movie nevertheless. And there is kung fu in this movie, it's just not a kung fu movie.

Rating: 5 of 6

Spider-man 3



Spider-man 3 is better than the second movie, but not as good as the first. Fortunately Sam Raimi has directed all three movies. Some people didn't like this one, but I don't see why. It has more action, more badguys, as well as the 'inner conflict thing' going on. Sure some of it is a bit stupid(i.e. the black alien stuff that makes you bad..), and not very realistic, but it's not meant to be!

It's a superhero movie, so if you want pure drama, watch something else.

Rating: 5 of 6

Planet Terror


Robert Rodriguez' Planet Terror, was the part of the grindhouse project I was looking least forward to, but I was blown away by it! Damn cool movie, and better than Deathproof in my opinion. Great dialogue, fun action and charaters appearing that we have seen before in the Tarantino/Rodriguez universe.

The tagline sais it all: Humanity's last hope... Rests on a high power machine gun!

Rating: 5/6 of 6

Deathproof



Deathproof is writer/director Quentin Tarantino's 6th film as director(he has also written the script for Natural born killers and True romance, as well as acted in and/or produced other movies as well).

Anyway, he is one of my alltime favorite directors, and I love his movies! So needless to say, I was looking forward to this one. The first time I saw it I was actually a bit disappointed, sure it has great dialouge and cool action as allways with Tarantino, buth it took longer then usually to get really involved, and the dialouge and characters were not as cool as in his other movies.

But this is Tarantino, and this is good. And after watching it a second time, I liked it better.

Rating: 5 of 6

Sunshine

Sunshine is a sci-fi movie that is somewhat realistic, it could happen. The film is directed by Danny Boyle(Trainspotting, The Beach). It's about a crew in a spaceship sent out to save the earth, because the sun is dying.

Good actors and story combined with great visuals and atmosphere. It's tense and good almost all the way, but without spoiling anything, I have to say the ending was a little disappointing.

All in all a better then average sci-fi flick.

Rating: 4 of 6