Fathers

Kidnapping cases may not be something we hear a lot about on the news here in Sweden. Of course, this is a small country compared to many other countries around the world. And even if we don´t have that many cases here, if you take a look at other European countries the numbers are pretty scary. For example in France there are about 4000 kidnappings in one year. I know there are countries with far worse numbers than this, but still around 4000 people kidnapped in one year is still a lot. There may be a lot of reasons why some people are kidnapped of course, ransom for money, in some cases it may be connected to trafficking. There are a lot of different film adaptations that show different kinds of kidnapping cases. You have the 1990 classic psychological thriller Misery from legendary director Rob Reiner, where Kathy Bates delivered one of her most iconic cinema performances ever as psychotic kidnapper Annie Wilkies, keeping seriously injured author Paul Sheldon ( brilliant played by legendary actor James Cann ) locked inside her cabin. If you have not seen Misery for any reason ( based on the classic novel by Stephen King ), you simply have to see it. But let´s talk about a completely different film, that also bring up the subject of kidnapping. Let´s talk about the 2017 action thriller Kidnap, directed by Luis Prieto ( director of the 2012 British remake of Pusher, based on the 1996 Danish original film ). While the British version of Pusher was a big box office flop, Kidnap especially found it´s audience on physical media, digital rental and on streaming as well. Waitress and single mother Karla Dyson ( Hale Barry ) takes her siz-year-old son, Frankie ( Sage Correa ), to a carnival. While she recieves a call from her lawyer regarding a custody battle over Frankie, her son Frankie is suddenly missing. As she looks for him around the area, she see´s a woman dragging her son into a green Ford Mustang van. Why would someone take her son? Who is really behind this kidnapping? Kidnap is a well made action thriller that´s intensive and well acted where especially lead actress Hale Barry deliver the most effective dialogue. Worth a watch if you love well made thrillers. Speaking of kidnapping i recently got an oppurtunity to see director Harley Wallen´s latest film Fathers. I really enjoy most of the films of director Harley Wallen, so i was curious to see if his latest film would be his best film so far. Is the film Fathers a must see this summer, or should you watch Ash & Bone from director Harley Wallen instead?

A young girl Natalie ( Emilia Wallen ) is kidnapped by a mysterious man known as Bobby Nash ( Harley Wallen. Years go by and Natalie Dryden ( Kaiti Wallen ) is now an adult as she decides to escape from Bobby´s house. She is struggling with PTSD and is trying to remember what really happened. But as the truth is getting closer, things are maybe not as they seem to be...

I have always felt that director Harley Wallen is a very talented film maker, and a talented actor as well. I have had the honor to review every single film he have directed for many years now, and since we are both from Sweden this makes it special for me. Not just because Harley is originally from Sweden, but he proved that he may be one of the best director´s we have coming from Sweden in many years. And i sincerely mean this, i can not think of many Swedish director´s who have improved over the years, devoted to tell powerful stories in different categories. That´s not me trying to say we don´t have other talented director´s from Sweden, we do. It´s just that each film he have released over the years just keeps getting more professional, and i can tell that Harley have developed into a very passionate film maker. I would definetely say on a technical level, Fathers is his best looking film so far. Let´s move forward and discuss some very important details as well. Fathers is quite different from Harley Wallen´s previous films, in the sense that this is a kidnapping story that´s covered with some surprising twists and turns. I personally feel that Fathers needed a surprising twist, because it helps the film stand out from an ordinary kidnapping story. When it comes to acting in this film, there are especially four characters i feel deliver the strongest acting performances. Let us begin with actress Kaiti Wallen as the character Natalie. I have followed Kaiti´s acting career so far and i have to say, her acting is growing stronger for each film. She is able to balance different emotions, dealing with PTSD and capture everything through facial expressions, dialogue and body language. To be able to pull this off in a realistic way is not easy, and Kaiti knows exactly what she is doing. Actor Grover McCants ( who you might remember from TV series Tales Of Tails ) as the character Chief Norris is really delightful to witness. Grover feels like an old school Hollywood actor who capture your interest right away, through his powerful dialogue. Actor Deon hunt as Detective Parker is exactly what this film needed, a strong police character. Harley Wallen is as always charming on the big screen and that´s exactly the case here as his character Bobby. The psychological tiwists in Fathers manage to keep you intrigued, where we have to ask ourselves what is really going on with Natalie? As a mystery thriller Fathers have all the ingredients you could wish for, while the film still manage to deliver some surprises along the way. If you love specifically thrillers and appreciate strong characters, i am confident that Fathers will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Rating: DDDD

War Machine

Movies that portrait many different kinds of wars, i have seen some really good ones over the years. I have seen a couple of ones that are truly terrible, but in general most war films are still good enough to enjoy. Some of the best ones are usually the films that capture the war in a realistic way. Then you have the completely unrealistic war movies like Rambo: First Blood Part 2, which is still a fun movie to watch after so many years. If you are more a fan of classic war movies then one of the greatest is of course the 1979 war movie Apocalypse Now, from legendary director Francis Ford Coppola. This is truly a masterpiece in the category of war movies, and the longer version Apocalypse Now Redux ( that was released back in the year of 2001 ) is my favourite version of this film. Not only is this a brilliant film for showing a realistic portrait of how the Vietnam war really looked like, it had the most amazing cast and brilliant acting from each character. This film is a must have in your physical movie collection. We also have some more modern great war films that don´t get mentioned much at all. For example, how many of you have seen the 2018 war movie 12 Strong? I actually paid tickets to watch this film twice in cinema, which doesn´t happen often. This film is directed by Nicolai Fugisig, based on the book Horse Soldiers by author Doug Stanton. We follow a group from the U.S. Army Special Forces sent to Afghanistan immediately after the September 11 attacks. What i appreciate about 12 Strong is to see the companionship among American soldiers and Afghanistan soldiers, that is the ones who want to help U.S. Army Special Forces take down Taliban terrorists. In general there are some good acting performances in this film, especially from Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon. The cinematography by Rasmus Videbak ( who worked on the film adaptation of The Dark Tower, based on the novels of Stephen King ) looks really good, while director Nicolai Fuglsig manage to balance the story and capture the terrible atmopshere of how horrible a war can be. Well worth a watch on streamimg or physical media. Last year i was seeing onlime on different articles that director Patrick Hughes, who directed The Expendables 3 which i really enjoyed ( i know some people don´t because it´s PG13 ), his latest film War Machine was going to be released on Netflix. Since he did a really good job on The Expendables 3 regarding the action scenes, would he succeed with War Machine as well? I decided to sit down and review this film, hoping it would be a positive surprise. Is this a must see on Netflx, or should you skip War Machine and watch The Expendables 3 instead?

2 years have passed since Staff Seargent ( Alan Ritchson ) lost his brother in Afghanistan, during a Taliban terror attack on his team members. The Seargent joins RASP to earn assignment to a battalion of the consolidated 75th Ranger Regiment, and is given the candidate number of 81. It becomes very clear that 81 is very well trained, but don´t really get along with the other fellow recruits. Suddenly there are reports of a blasts in the sky, while everyone is doing the military exercise. Not knowing what crash landed, 81 lead a team of soldiers to find out what really happened. They are about to face their biggest mission yet, that could end their lives

What if you combined War Of The Worlds with the 2012 sci fi action film Battleship, and set most of the film up in forest areas? That sounds about the right combination for this Netflix sci fi action film War Machine. This is a very male macho driven military film that we used to get in the action shelves inside of video rental stores. And this is exactly why this is such a solid sci fi action movie, it´s shaped for a certain kind of audience that it was made for. Lots of violence, robotic machine figures, lots of ammo, the brotherhood that soldiers have together in war. You can pretty much say that War Machine is the ultimate war feast for movie nerds who really love effective CGI effects and simple story telling. And i will be honest and say this is probably one of the better military action films i have seen in a while. The plot is just as thin as Eric Trump´s pointless speeches, but at least War Machine have something to say compared to Eric Trump ( who anyone shouldn´t take seriously at all ). Where this film succeed the most is with the hard hitting action scenes. The war scenes are very well made, and even if we do have a lot of CGI effects they do look really good. The action scenes are intense and i have to say in general the actinng is actually good. We know from the past there have  been American sci fi action films that lacks good acting, so thankfully this film proves that you can actually find solid acting performances in War Machine. Lead actor Alan Ritchson ( who is really good in the Guy Ritchie film The Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Warfare ) as the character 81 have probably done his best acting performance in his career so far in this film War Machine. I feel that he really capture the personality of a broken soldier, who struggles every day but still go out there because he have to. The fact that he doesn´t want to be seen as a hero, just a man, this gives the character a much more deeper depth about his personality. War Machine tells a story of how important it is to stick together as humans beeings, even in the worst possible moments when all hope seems lost. War Machine is steady adrenaline pumped action film, that´s specifically made for fans of Battleship and similar films with science fiction influences. It´s violent, brutal and a hell of a good time. One of the better Netflix films released this year for sure. Director Patrick Hughes ( the director of The Expendables 3 ) proves with War Machine why he is such a talented film maker when it comes to making action movies, who actually understand what the audience wants.

Rating: DDDD