If you never watched Dinner For Schmucks, my advice is you should rent it. I just love comedies made with odd characters, and here Steve Carell delivered a very unique personality, with an obsession of stuffed dead mices. Paul Rudd, who lately been in a lot of comedies, seem to continue with this genre, with different results. This time around, he teams up with Jennifer Aniston and Malin Åkerman. Will Wanderlust give us a positive lust for more, or is this as stiff as former Centerpartiet´s leader Anders Flanking´s speaches?
George ( Paul Rudd ) and Linda ( Jennifer Aniston ) is a hard working married couple, who purchase a micro-loft in New York. Suddenly both George and Linda are out of work, and they are forced to sell their apartment. The couple decide to travel towards Georgia, to live with George´s brother Rick ( Ken Marino ) and his wife Marisa ( Michaela Watkins ). After a long drive, Linda asks George to stop at a breakfast hotel named Elysium. A naked man runs straight infront of them, and take them both by surprise. But this is just the start, here at Elysium, lifestyle has a completely different meaning than George and Linda are used too, and they like it. Here you can feel free to do what you like. Since Rick and Marisa are waiting for them to arrive, they have to leave Elysium. But things dont´work out as they thought with George´s brother, so they decide to take off towards Virginia, back to the free open minded family. But what seemed to be so perfect, may not be just what it looks like in real life.
Personally, i have to say i am not a very big Jennifer Aniston fan. Some of her movies are alright, while other ones are...terrible. So, seeing her performance in Wanderlust, i can´t say my personal opinion about her changes that much. She still does the same thing basically, being the hot girlfriend, who says what she thinks. Wanderlust have some good comic points, about why you don´t have to live in a certain way to be accepted, or that money is not the most important thing in the world. It´s just too bad some of these important messages are lost on the way of the script. I will admit i laughed a few times, especially when Wayne The Nudist likes to be close to George, even in the morning with his dick close to his face. Paul Rudd tries to be funny too often, there is actually one scene where he talks about cock all the time, that it get´s boring. Overall, Wanderlust could have been much funnier with a better script. But check out Alan Alda as the hippie leader, he is actually pretty good.
Rating: DD
onsdag 4 juli 2012
Man On A Ledge
How often do you watch a trailer to a new movie, and tell yourself :- Hey, this might actually be something good ? In the case of Man On A Ledge, i was hooked up the first time i saw the trailer. Yes, Sam Worthington is here, an actor who gets a lot of negative reactions, but maybe this is the turning point, where he can show his acting skills ? Is Man On A Ledge one of the better thrillers lately, or is it doomed to be a straight to dvd release ?
New York City. Nick Cassidy ( Sam Worthington ) checks into the Roosevelt Hotel, using a fake name. He walks to his room on the 21st floor, goes out of the window, and walks out on the ledge. Not knowing why he made this choice, people on the street watch him, as police is contacted. Detective Jack Dougherty ( Edward Burns ) arrives at the hotel, and tries to contact Nick. But Nick has a demand, he will only speak to negotiator Lydia Mercer ( Elizabeth Banks ). She has 30 minutes to arrive, or Nick will jump. She arrives on time, as she tries to find out why he wants her, and why does he want to jump?
I don´t want to reveal too much about the story, since it will simply be more satisfying to find out on your own. Man On A Ledge is indeed a nice try of making an old school thriller, with a pretty good cast, including Ed Harris, William Sadler ( remember his maniac character in Trespass from 1993? ), Jamie Bell, Kyra Sedgwick among others. You can see director Asger Leth have a feeling of how thrillers should be made. Even if the movie has a few flaws along the way, i still feel pretty pleased with the results. Since so many thrillers are released every year, and only a few have a premise with solid ground, Man On A Ledge manages to stand on it´s own, even if my expectations were higher. What about Sam Worthington ? He´s not fantastic, but who cares ? At least you can feel he tries to bring a personality to his character, wich is a good sign. I suggest you see this one, if you enjoy old school thrillers, you might actually be enjoyed for a moment.
Rating: DDD
New York City. Nick Cassidy ( Sam Worthington ) checks into the Roosevelt Hotel, using a fake name. He walks to his room on the 21st floor, goes out of the window, and walks out on the ledge. Not knowing why he made this choice, people on the street watch him, as police is contacted. Detective Jack Dougherty ( Edward Burns ) arrives at the hotel, and tries to contact Nick. But Nick has a demand, he will only speak to negotiator Lydia Mercer ( Elizabeth Banks ). She has 30 minutes to arrive, or Nick will jump. She arrives on time, as she tries to find out why he wants her, and why does he want to jump?
I don´t want to reveal too much about the story, since it will simply be more satisfying to find out on your own. Man On A Ledge is indeed a nice try of making an old school thriller, with a pretty good cast, including Ed Harris, William Sadler ( remember his maniac character in Trespass from 1993? ), Jamie Bell, Kyra Sedgwick among others. You can see director Asger Leth have a feeling of how thrillers should be made. Even if the movie has a few flaws along the way, i still feel pretty pleased with the results. Since so many thrillers are released every year, and only a few have a premise with solid ground, Man On A Ledge manages to stand on it´s own, even if my expectations were higher. What about Sam Worthington ? He´s not fantastic, but who cares ? At least you can feel he tries to bring a personality to his character, wich is a good sign. I suggest you see this one, if you enjoy old school thrillers, you might actually be enjoyed for a moment.
Rating: DDD
tisdag 3 juli 2012
It´s been a while, but...im here again
Vacation 2 weeks, and now ill at home, for almost a week, i feel it´s about time we bring some fresh movie reviews to this page, i will be uploading 2 new movie reviews tomorrow, and hopefully some more later on this week. So put your kettle on, make some scones, it´s about time we have those sexy movie reviews back on track ;)
måndag 18 juni 2012
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Terrorists, thugs, all you criminals out there, you might as well lay down your nuclear weapons, now when Tom Cruise is back, we know who runs the show. Mission Impossible have become a huge box office profit since the first movie adaptation came out in 1996, based on the tv series from the 60´s. Every movie have tried to deliver something fresh to the Mission Impossible legacy, with different results. This time around, is the latest motion picture exactly what we wanted, or should mr Cruise stayed at home instead with Katie Holmes?
IMF agent Tremor Hanaway ( Josh Holloway ) is murdered in Budapest by assassin Sabine Moreau ( Léa Seydoux ). Tremor were on a mission to intercept a courier holding Russian nuclear launch codes. Hanaway´s IMF team members Jane Carter ( Paula Patton ) and Benji Dunn ( Simon Pegg ), help Ethan Hunt ( Tom Cruise ) to escape prison in Moscow. Ethan is assigned to infiltrate secret files inside the Moscow Kremlin, with the help of Jane and Benji. A person codenamed " Cobalt ", who is known to be a Russian consultant, determined to detonate a nuclear bomb. While Ethan investigate, someone else is using IMF frequency, to alert Russian´s about Ethan´s team. Ethan and his members manage to escape, but suddenly the Moscow Kremlin explode. Ethan is arrested by Russian agent Anatloy Sidorov ( Vladimir Mashkov ), suspecting Ethan responsible for the attack. At the hospital, Ethan manages to escape, as he meets with IMF Secretary ( Tom Wilkinson ), to accept the next mission. But someone kills IMF Secretary, leaving Ethan and his few members to handle this situation on their own. The team identify the codename Cobalt as Kurt Hendricks ( Michael Nyqvist ), a swedish born russian nuclear strategist, who lately have suffered a psychotic break, who wants to use nuclear weapon on the human race. Kurt needs the launch codes from Sabine, but Ethan intend to stop this insanity before it´s too late.
Yes yes yes....finally a Mission Impossible movie that simply kicks ass. And not because of CGI effects ( there are some here, but not too much, ) wich is great, it´s because this feels more like a old school Mission Impossible adaptation, still with a lot of violence and explosions, but with more heart than MI:2. Tom Cruise delivers one of his best performances so far as Ethan Hunt, even if he was good in the earlier movies, it´s nice to see he goes 100% into his character. How great it is to see british actor Simon Pegg here, as the computer specialist. He fits perfect with his humorous character, so you get to laugh at some moments. Of course we have to wave our swedish flag for Michael Nyqvist, as the evil Kurt Hendricks, he is really fantastic as a bad guy, who would have known? One thing i have to point out, is how director Brad Bird, finds the perfect tone to make you feel like this is a Mission Impossible movie. And it´s simply because he finds certain details that matters more than CGI. If you want to make your boyfriend, daddy, or male friends happy, make sure you put this one on blu-ray, and i promise you, they will be like Justín Bieber fans, only difference is they will go crazy for Tom Cruise instead. A must see, and no excuses.
Rating: DDDD
IMF agent Tremor Hanaway ( Josh Holloway ) is murdered in Budapest by assassin Sabine Moreau ( Léa Seydoux ). Tremor were on a mission to intercept a courier holding Russian nuclear launch codes. Hanaway´s IMF team members Jane Carter ( Paula Patton ) and Benji Dunn ( Simon Pegg ), help Ethan Hunt ( Tom Cruise ) to escape prison in Moscow. Ethan is assigned to infiltrate secret files inside the Moscow Kremlin, with the help of Jane and Benji. A person codenamed " Cobalt ", who is known to be a Russian consultant, determined to detonate a nuclear bomb. While Ethan investigate, someone else is using IMF frequency, to alert Russian´s about Ethan´s team. Ethan and his members manage to escape, but suddenly the Moscow Kremlin explode. Ethan is arrested by Russian agent Anatloy Sidorov ( Vladimir Mashkov ), suspecting Ethan responsible for the attack. At the hospital, Ethan manages to escape, as he meets with IMF Secretary ( Tom Wilkinson ), to accept the next mission. But someone kills IMF Secretary, leaving Ethan and his few members to handle this situation on their own. The team identify the codename Cobalt as Kurt Hendricks ( Michael Nyqvist ), a swedish born russian nuclear strategist, who lately have suffered a psychotic break, who wants to use nuclear weapon on the human race. Kurt needs the launch codes from Sabine, but Ethan intend to stop this insanity before it´s too late.
Yes yes yes....finally a Mission Impossible movie that simply kicks ass. And not because of CGI effects ( there are some here, but not too much, ) wich is great, it´s because this feels more like a old school Mission Impossible adaptation, still with a lot of violence and explosions, but with more heart than MI:2. Tom Cruise delivers one of his best performances so far as Ethan Hunt, even if he was good in the earlier movies, it´s nice to see he goes 100% into his character. How great it is to see british actor Simon Pegg here, as the computer specialist. He fits perfect with his humorous character, so you get to laugh at some moments. Of course we have to wave our swedish flag for Michael Nyqvist, as the evil Kurt Hendricks, he is really fantastic as a bad guy, who would have known? One thing i have to point out, is how director Brad Bird, finds the perfect tone to make you feel like this is a Mission Impossible movie. And it´s simply because he finds certain details that matters more than CGI. If you want to make your boyfriend, daddy, or male friends happy, make sure you put this one on blu-ray, and i promise you, they will be like Justín Bieber fans, only difference is they will go crazy for Tom Cruise instead. A must see, and no excuses.
Rating: DDDD
söndag 17 juni 2012
Snow White & The Huntsman
Most people have read the original fairytale by the Brothers Grimm, and still today this story is magical for all ages. It´s now 2012, and it´s time to update the story of Snow White. Actress Kristen Stewart is mostly known for her Twilight audience. Thankfully she have tried different characters, like in Welcome To The Rileys, where she did a great performance as the teenage stripper, heading towards disaster. With this updated version of Snow White, will the audience still be enchanted, or is this a desperate try to make Twilight fans run to the cinema?
The princess of Tabor, Snow White ( Kristen Stewart ), is a beautiful very caring young girl, who her father King Magnus ( Noah Huntley ) is very proud of. Snow White´s mother Queen Eleanor dies, wich is a very hard time to handle. Out on a battlefield King Magnus defeats the Dark Army, and saves their prisoner Ravenna ( Charlize Theron ). Magnus falls in love with Ravenna and decide to marry her. But Ravenna murders her new husband, to take the thrown of Tabor, and makes sure Snow White is locked up in the tower of the castle. Years go by, and Snow White is still locked up, until one day when she manages to escape. She flee into the Dark Forest, where Ravenna´s soldiers can´t find her. Ravenna finds Eric The Huntsman ( Chris Hemsworth ), who she asks for help, for him to locate Snow White and capture her. If he does, Ravenna promise to bring his dead wife back to life. But when Eric finds Snow White, and find out this is all lies from Ravenna, he turns against her, realising she will not bring his wife to life. Snow White intend to fight back against Queen Ravenna, and manage to find people who are ready to fight for their freedom.
I´m kind of split about this updated version. There are some great scenes, like the dwarfs, who will make you have a good time. Also the troll scene is pretty cool. Then we have the bad part. Some scenes are very slow, in fact sometimes a bit too slow for this genre. I would have hoped for more battle scenes with trolls and the Glass Soldiers ( they are also pretty cool, when they broke into a thousand pieces ). What really saves Snow White & The Huntsman is Charlize Theron as Queen Ravenna, now this woman know how to act. Very powerful stuff indeed, when she let her anger go. Overall this version is good, but fairly. I say this because i feel there are some details that could have been better. So, it´s worth checking out, if you love fairytales and magic. But let´s hope they make bigger fight scenes until the next movie, we need more trolls, more monsters and more blood on the battlefield, then we will have a better version of Snow White.
Rating: DDD
The princess of Tabor, Snow White ( Kristen Stewart ), is a beautiful very caring young girl, who her father King Magnus ( Noah Huntley ) is very proud of. Snow White´s mother Queen Eleanor dies, wich is a very hard time to handle. Out on a battlefield King Magnus defeats the Dark Army, and saves their prisoner Ravenna ( Charlize Theron ). Magnus falls in love with Ravenna and decide to marry her. But Ravenna murders her new husband, to take the thrown of Tabor, and makes sure Snow White is locked up in the tower of the castle. Years go by, and Snow White is still locked up, until one day when she manages to escape. She flee into the Dark Forest, where Ravenna´s soldiers can´t find her. Ravenna finds Eric The Huntsman ( Chris Hemsworth ), who she asks for help, for him to locate Snow White and capture her. If he does, Ravenna promise to bring his dead wife back to life. But when Eric finds Snow White, and find out this is all lies from Ravenna, he turns against her, realising she will not bring his wife to life. Snow White intend to fight back against Queen Ravenna, and manage to find people who are ready to fight for their freedom.
I´m kind of split about this updated version. There are some great scenes, like the dwarfs, who will make you have a good time. Also the troll scene is pretty cool. Then we have the bad part. Some scenes are very slow, in fact sometimes a bit too slow for this genre. I would have hoped for more battle scenes with trolls and the Glass Soldiers ( they are also pretty cool, when they broke into a thousand pieces ). What really saves Snow White & The Huntsman is Charlize Theron as Queen Ravenna, now this woman know how to act. Very powerful stuff indeed, when she let her anger go. Overall this version is good, but fairly. I say this because i feel there are some details that could have been better. So, it´s worth checking out, if you love fairytales and magic. But let´s hope they make bigger fight scenes until the next movie, we need more trolls, more monsters and more blood on the battlefield, then we will have a better version of Snow White.
Rating: DDD
lördag 16 juni 2012
War Of The Dead ( Stone´s War )
I love zombies. The more zombies, the better. The more body parts, the better. Am i totally sick? Yes, and i love it. For those who know me personally, they know how much zombies means to me. Zombies is the answer to almost everything, they don´t care about skin colour, if you´re gay or straight, they just want to feed on your flesh. There are so many zombie movies out there, some are really good, some are terrible. The Walking Dead gave zombie fans a fantastic view on this concept, in a very well made tv series. Norway tried this genre with a combination of nazi zombies in Dead Snow. Now, our neighbour country Finland is in the game with War Of The Dead. Does zombies in Finland bring anything fresh, or should they have stayed away and listen to Lordi records instead?
Captain Martin Stone ( Andrew Tiernan ) is leader of a elite platoon. Out on a mission to attack a bunker, everything goes wrong and their plans go straight to hell. The whole platoon is forced to go back into the forest. Just as they regroup, they find out that the soldiers who were killed earlier, have returned to life. As they are forced to go deeper into russian territory, they soon find out what is really going on.
I have only seen a few movies from Finland, but none of them we´re interesting. So it is a great suprise to see what a well made production director Marko Mäkilaakso have put together, on a budget of 1.3 million euros. There are plenty of action scenes, mixed with horror influences, wich match great together. The only problem i have with War Of The Dead is that we have seen this before, many times. So you basically know how it all will end. But thanks to descent acting, as well as nice camera work, i know fans of movies like Feast or Dog Soldiers will enjoy this one. There seem to be a reason why so many swedish movie sucks, we don´t dare to cross limits and try something different. War Of The Dead may not be groundbreaking, but this movie shows what swedish directors should try, instead of the same pattern. Simple ideas works better sometimes than complicated ones.
Rating: DDD
Captain Martin Stone ( Andrew Tiernan ) is leader of a elite platoon. Out on a mission to attack a bunker, everything goes wrong and their plans go straight to hell. The whole platoon is forced to go back into the forest. Just as they regroup, they find out that the soldiers who were killed earlier, have returned to life. As they are forced to go deeper into russian territory, they soon find out what is really going on.
I have only seen a few movies from Finland, but none of them we´re interesting. So it is a great suprise to see what a well made production director Marko Mäkilaakso have put together, on a budget of 1.3 million euros. There are plenty of action scenes, mixed with horror influences, wich match great together. The only problem i have with War Of The Dead is that we have seen this before, many times. So you basically know how it all will end. But thanks to descent acting, as well as nice camera work, i know fans of movies like Feast or Dog Soldiers will enjoy this one. There seem to be a reason why so many swedish movie sucks, we don´t dare to cross limits and try something different. War Of The Dead may not be groundbreaking, but this movie shows what swedish directors should try, instead of the same pattern. Simple ideas works better sometimes than complicated ones.
Rating: DDD
fredag 15 juni 2012
Wrath Of The Titans
If there was one movie wich was panned by critics in the year 2010, it was Clash Of The Titans. Almost every critic hated so many things about that movie, they simply did not want it to be made at all. But the audience did not care. It became a huge box office success, so it did not matter what the critics had to say. So a sequel is now here ( wow....i am so suprised, or not ). Basically with the same cast from the first movie, is Wrath Of The Titans a better motion picture than expected, or is it exactly what we would fear ?
10 years have gone since Perseus ( Sam Worthington ), defeated the Kraken. Perseus lives an ordinary life, as a fisherman, with his son Helius ( John Bell ). One night his father Zeus ( Liam Neeson ), visits Perseus, asking for his help. The power of gods are fading and the walls of the underworld prison Tartarus are breaking. Perseus does not want to help Zeus, and ignore him. Zeus decide to travel to Tartarus to meet Hades ( Ralph Fiennes ), Poseidon ( Danny Huston ) and Ares ( Edgar Ramirez ). Zeus ask Hades to forget about the past, and help build Tarturus back to what it once was. But Hades have other plans, he orders his minions to attack. Poseidon is injured, while Ares betray Zeus, and take him as a prisoner. Perseus finds out what has happened, and begins a journey, to stop the revival of Kronos.
I did not hate Clash Of The Titans, but it still had a lot of flaws. Wrath Of The Titans is an improvement, in many ways. The story of Perseus is more well written than earlier, the effects are definetely better, as well as the acting from different sides. Another improvement are the different gods and monsters, who make the action scenes more enjoyable. Try and forget about Clash Of The Titans, this one delivers alot more of everything, perfect with a ice cold beer with your mates, There are some cheesy moments, but overall, worth checking out.
Rating: DDD
10 years have gone since Perseus ( Sam Worthington ), defeated the Kraken. Perseus lives an ordinary life, as a fisherman, with his son Helius ( John Bell ). One night his father Zeus ( Liam Neeson ), visits Perseus, asking for his help. The power of gods are fading and the walls of the underworld prison Tartarus are breaking. Perseus does not want to help Zeus, and ignore him. Zeus decide to travel to Tartarus to meet Hades ( Ralph Fiennes ), Poseidon ( Danny Huston ) and Ares ( Edgar Ramirez ). Zeus ask Hades to forget about the past, and help build Tarturus back to what it once was. But Hades have other plans, he orders his minions to attack. Poseidon is injured, while Ares betray Zeus, and take him as a prisoner. Perseus finds out what has happened, and begins a journey, to stop the revival of Kronos.
I did not hate Clash Of The Titans, but it still had a lot of flaws. Wrath Of The Titans is an improvement, in many ways. The story of Perseus is more well written than earlier, the effects are definetely better, as well as the acting from different sides. Another improvement are the different gods and monsters, who make the action scenes more enjoyable. Try and forget about Clash Of The Titans, this one delivers alot more of everything, perfect with a ice cold beer with your mates, There are some cheesy moments, but overall, worth checking out.
Rating: DDD
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