Going away for a bit

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night, wherever the hell you are! I hope you are all having a good time! I just wanted to make this post to notify you all that I’ll be gone for about a bit. I’ll explan.

Starting tomorrow I will be going camping on the Swedish west coast with scouts (because I am a scout). I will go there to do different activities, sleep in a tent and hopefully not get totally eaten by mosquitoes. I will come home next saturday (A.K.A. the fourth) to then be back in my comfy bed with my movies and video games and of course my dog. Yeah, that’s about it.

Just wanted to let you guys know all that so you don’t wonder why I’m so quiet during the coming week. I hope you can survive without new shit from me for a week. Don’t worry, hopefully I’ll be up with at least something late saturday night or at least fairly early on sunday. Anyway, uhmm… I don’t know.

Have a good one!

Movie Review: Gran Torino (2008)

I love Clint Eastwood. He is a great actor, great director and probably the biggest badass that ever lived. He has made good movies, he has made bad movies and he has made meh movies, but one thing is always consistent with him… he is Clint Fucking Eastwood. So now, let’s review one of his more modern movies.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Gran Torino”.

Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is an old and grumpy war veteran who doesn’t want anything to do with anyone. But after a young Hmong guy named Thao (Bee Vang) tries to steal Walt’s 1972 Gran torino (Roll credits) he is taken in by Walt, reluctantly by both of them, to try to redeem himself. And so begins a story of bonding and friendship and a grumpy/racist old man. And I am surprised how well the story was handled. The setup is somewhat familiar, “Old man reluctantly takes in young man but grows to like him”. But it was handled in an interesting way that I liked. I was also suprised how touching the plot actually was, it really did get to me. Not only was the plot entertaining as all hell but it was also really well-told and like I said, touching.

You could say Walt is a terrible person, I won’t blame ya. But he was still an interesting character to follow since he isn’t your typical “old man” protagonist. He was also really entertaining and had a lot of great lines to give. Clint Eastwood gave a great performance as him. Bee Vang (who I’ve never heard of before) was also really good in this movie as this young man. Every actor was in fact great. Also, I did some research and it turns out one of the minor characters in this movie (name of the character is Trey) was played by Clint’s son, Scott… that’s kinda fun.

The soundtrack for this movie has no real original score. The only hint of it is an original song that Clint Eastwood co-wrote… that’s it for original musical material. Most song were licensed tracks used throughout the movie, but that didn’t ruin it at all, au contraire, they worked very well like that. All music worked where it was used.

Seeing as this movie was directed by Eastwood himself, it is of course very well-directed. I don’t think that comes as a surprise though as Eastwood has shown for the past 40-ish years that he is a great director. This movie is very well shot and it never looked bad at all. What I was surprised at however was how legitimately funny it was. And by legitimately I mean that it never felt unintentional in any way, it was all intended and it was also very funny. I guess that is because of the overall great writing of this movie.

This movie has been very well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 79% positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 72/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has an 8,2/10 and is ranked #142 on the “Top 250” list.

“Gran Torino” is a movie with a familiar yet well-told story, great performances, some good music, great direction and some great writing. It was also surprisingly touching and funny. Time for my final score. *Cough*. My final score for “Gran Torino” is a 9,85/10. It definitely gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

Review of “Gran Torino” is now done.

Review is completed, now get off my lawn!

 

Movie Review: Dredd (2012)

If you look at the movie indutry in our modern times, there aren’t many good action movies that aren’t superhero movies. Good action movies that don’t count as superhero movies are rare these days. So when I heard that they had rebooted “Judge Dredd” I was like “Really? This will suck!”. Then I saw the reviews that were for the most part positive. So my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to watch it.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Dredd”.

The world has gone to shit. Basically everything has become a nuclear wasteland, except for one giant city called “Megacity One” which is made up of “Megablocks”. In this giant city the law is held up by Street judges who can act as Judge, jury and executioner at the scene (I AM THE LAW!!!). In this movie we follow the street judge named Dredd (Karl Urban) as he and a rookie who also happens to be a psychic named Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) as they go to the megablock called “Peach Trees” to take down a drug cartel led by the criminal known as Ma-Ma (Lena Headey) and stop the distribution of this new drug called slow-mo. The plot is simple and I think that it is the movie’s biggest strength. It doesn’t need some huge and convoluted plot to be great as this plot has a basic idea, mix in one genuinely good twist near the end and fill out the rest of the runtime with action. And from that we have the plot of “Dredd”. Oh yeah, another plot point that I thought would suck is the fact that Anderson is a psychic, but it actually worked and made for some cool scenes. Overall, this simple video game plot was a strength of the movie.

The characters are pretty interesting and also entertaining. Any backstories stay pretty hidden to make room for action. But in some cases that might work… like for the character of Dredd. He didn’t need a backstory, he just had to be badass. I also like how they decided to not show his face, kind of like in the comics and unlike in the hilarious 1995 movie “Judge Dredd”. I can also say that Karl Urban, despite only really showing his mouth, was really good as Dredd. Olivia Thirlby was also great as Anderson and showed that women can be total badasses too. And Lena Headey as Ma-Ma… to quote movie reviewer Jeremy Jahns: “She plays arguably the biggest thundercunt you’ve ever seen on screen“. I couldn’t agree more… she was great in her role though! all the actors were in fact great and all characters that needed to be interesting are interesting.

The score for the movie was done by Paul Leonard-Morgan and it is pretty fucking badass. It creates a perfect blend of a little bit of orchestra, a big amount of electronic sounds and metal that perfectly fits the badass “gives no shits” style of this movie. I mean, this is a score I could see myself listening to just for fun because of it being that… fun (and badass).

Pete Travis did a great job directing this movie. I have never seen a movie by him before so I had no expectations when it came to how this movie was directed, but what I saw here I approve of. Also, what this movie does differently compared to 1995’s “Judge Dredd” is that this movie is ultra violent. This isn’t for kids AT ALL. You get to see bullets fly in slow motion and just tear through people with blood just shooting out of the holes that the bullets make… yeah, it is pretty badass. Also, the scenes where they take the slo-mo drug are actually kind of beautiful. not only because they are in slow motion but also because of the lighting and how it changes in those scenes, it just looks fantastic. Going back to what I said before about the movie being violent, the action is fast-paced, brutal and like I have said a million times… fucking badass.

This movie has been generally well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 78% positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 59/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,0/10.

If you are looking for much of substance, “Dredd” will disappoint you. But if you go in knowing that it’s a straight up action thrill ride, then you will have a good time with the simple plot, really good acting, great music, great direction, brutal violence and amazing action. Time for my final score. Judgement time! My final score for “Dredd” is a 9,85/10. It definitely gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

Review of “Dredd” is completed.

I AM THE LAW!!!

Movie Review: Children of Men (2006)

With the world being what it is I suspect it won’t take long until it all goes down the crapper. I guess you could say that it already has with every terrible thing that’s happened within the past 15 – 20 years, but i mean totally gone to shit. Not just losing faith in humanity, but the world also being terrible in general. And that is why i think some of these post-apocalyptic(ish) movies are a good warning because a lot of them might actually become a reality.

Men and women… “Chidlren of Men”.

The world has gone to shit. Humans have become infertile and can therefore not make any more babies. And if they can’t make any more babies, there will be no new humans, and if there are no new humans then the human race is fucked! But miraculously there turns out to exist one pregnant woman (Clare-Hope Ashitey). So it is up to a former activist (Clive Owen) to get her to safety because he was lured in by his ex-wife Julian (Julianne Moore) to help out. And out of all post-apocalyptic stories i have seen/read, this might be the most realistic one. Like I said in the beginning, these post-apocalyptic worlds might actually become a reality. I mean, as much as the human race tampers with chemicals and all that crazy shit I wouldn’t be surprised if they somehow managed to make us all infertile t some point in time. And if we count away those scary thoughts for a second, this story is fantastic. The realistic, dark and grim world this movie portrays was infinitely interesting and led to a lot of thinking from my side. The story also works because it feels like it’s made up of three parts. First you have the chase thriller that gets your heart pumping, second we have a cautionary tale of how our world might become (hence the realism I mentioned), then we have the third part which is a human drama and how societies struggle to survive. All of these combined makes for an excellent story.

The characters in this movie all feel like real people stuck in this terrible situation. Clive Owen gives an excellent performance as our main character Theo who wants to help out. Julianne Moore is also really good and so is Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Caine. Clare-Hope Ashitey is an actress I had never even heard of before, but she was pretty damn great too. Everybody was great, in fact. They were also very well written.

The score for the movie was done by John Tavener and it was really good. It was used in a way where it didn’t feel overused, but also not underused. I don’t really know what to say, I guess… it was a pretty powerful score that was really good.

This movie is incredibly well shot! It was directed by Alfonso Cuarón and he really showed here that he is a master class director. Still, I didn’t know what to expect considering the only thing I have seen from him is “Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban” (Sidenote: My favorite “Harry Potter” movie.). Yes, I have not seen “Gravity” so I couldn’t go by those merits when expecting things for this movie. Anyway, he directed this and did an amazing job. I especially love how he at many points used continuous shots, it really made the movie more real than if they had cut at every opportunity, and for that I respect this movie a lot. Also, don’t expect this movie to be heavy on the visual effects because it really isn’t. And the effects it uses are mostly practical which is another reason why I respect this movie so much when it comes to how it was made.

This movie has been very well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 92% positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 84/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 4/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,9/10. The movie was also nominated for 3 Oscars in the categories of Best Adapted Screenplay, Best cinematography and Best FIlm Editing. 

“Children of Men” is a dark, grim and realistic look at a possible near future with an excellent story, terrific performances, great music, excellent direction and great writing. Time for my final score. *Cleasrs throat*. My final score for “Children of Men” is a 9,90/10. It definitely deserves the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

“Children of Men” is now reviewed.

This might fucking happen, so start doing something to prevent it!

 

Movie Review: The Game (1997)

As you probably know, I am a bit of a David Fincher fanboy. I love his movies, they are all (and by all I mean those that I have seen) really well done and really entertaining in some way. Hell, if you look at my top 10 movies of all time you notice that two of the movies on there are Fincher films. Anyway, time to review another one of his films and this time it is an early one.

Ladies and gents, time to play… “The Game”.

Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) is a straight up asshole… and a businessman. One day his brother Conrad (Sean Penn) gives him a gift of what could essentially be called a gift card for something called “CRS”. It’s according to Conrad a company that will make your life more “fun”. So when Nicholas finally signs the contract and does a few evaluations… the game is on. And from that his life takes a turn for the worse. The story for this movie is fantastic. It is suspenseful as all hell, it is well-crafted and it is very well paced. However I do have a problem with it that pulls it down a bit. My issue with the story (and movie in general) is the ending, I’m not gonna spoil it but I will say that it didn’t really work for this movie. Fun fact: director David Fincher didn’t like the ending either and felt that maybe he wasn’t the right director for this movie, and I respect him for that. Anyway, despite a lackluster ending, the story is really good.

The character of Nicholas Van Orton is interesting. Like I said, he is an asshole… but he is an interesting asshole, especially further along the movie. And Michael Douglas plays the role perfectly. Especially in parts where “The Game” itself has started, then he is just fantastic. He gives an intense and vulnerable performance in the movie and I think this might be the best I have ever seen him. Sean Penn is also great in the movie despite his limited screentime. Every actor in the movie in fact gives great performances… but Michael Douglas is the best.

The score for the movie was (like in Fincher’s previous movie “Se7en”) done by Howard Shore. And once again Shore delivers a haunting and suspenseful score that perfectly sets the mood for the movie it is used in. That is something I have noticed Shore being great at in general, setting the mood perfectly. He did it in “Se7en” and in the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” movies. And like I said, he perfectly nailed the desired feel here. It helps build the tension of the movie and it also helps hold the sense of dread that the movie wants to portray. And it is done perfectly.

Like I have stated a few times in this review already, this movie is directed by David Fincher (My favorite director). And here he proves that he is a fucking amazing director with fantastic control over the actors and the storytelling. The cinematography was done by Harris Savides who also did the cinematography for Fincher’s 2007 movie “Zodiac”. And he made it look fantastic in this movie.

This movie was pretty well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 71% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 61/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3,5/4 stars. And on imdb.com the movie has a score of 7,8/10.

“The Game” is a really good thriller with an excellent story, a fantastic lead performance from Michael Douglas, an excellent score by Howard Shore (Hey, that rhymed!) and fantastic direction by David Fincher. Sadly it is dragged down a bit by the not very good ending. Time for my final score. *Ahem*. My final score for “The Game” is a 9,01/10. It is definitely worth buying.

My review of “The Game” is now completed.

Are you ready to play?

 

Movie Review: Jaws (1975)

It is time. I told you guys a while back that I would be reviewing every movie in this series this summer to celebrate 40 years of shark-based terror. So, without further interruptions… let’s go hunt us a shark.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Jaws!”

Welcome to Amity, New York, a real summer holiday town! It looks pleasant, like somewhere you would go with your family for some summertime fun. But that would get slightly changed when a young woman is killed by a giant killer shark. So it will be up to a police chief (Roy Scheider), an oceanographer (Richard Dreyfuss) and a crazy fisherman (Robert Shaw) to go out there and stop it. And that makes for a really interesting plot. Everything about the story works; the pacing, the build-up(s), the suspenseful moments… everything. But the plot gets to it’s absolute peak in the second half when they decide to go out in a boat and hunt down the shark. The sense of isolation and suspense is absolutely perfect in these scenes. And that is when the suspense of the plot really kicks into gear. To be honest, every part of the plot works fantastically.

The characters in this movie are fleshed out, well-written and really entertaining. Roy Scheider is perfect as this polie chief who doesn’t want any more people to die. Richard Dreyfuss is great as this oceanographer who wants to study the shark and of course help stop the killings. And Robert Shaw as Quint… the man, the myth, the legend. He is just straight up manliness at it’s finest. Such a badass who is also a bit of a crazy person sometimes. All of the characters are great in some way.

The score for this movie was done by none other than John Williams himself. And the score helps build the suspense of this movie perfectly. It isn’t like “BWAAAAH” all the time but much rather goes on the down low and starts building more and more until it can finally emerge from the water and “BAM!” in your face. And no, it doesn’t always build up to a “BAM!” but it does help hold the suspense perfectly. And it is just overall a great score that I enjoy listening to every now and then.

This movie when it was being made was going through some production problems. And by some I mean basically all the production problems possible. They were over the deadline, they were over budget, the mechanical shark broke down at all possible times, basicalyl everything that could go wrong went wrong. But they managed to get through it and it looks like it turned out well. Anyway, this was directed by the one and only Steven Spielberg and he did a fantastic job. Since he couldn’t use the mechanical shark at all times he came up with hte excellent idea to take the camera under the water as to portray the point of view of the shark when it had targeted something. And that obviously worked to the movie’s advantage. Overall this movie really well-directed with great camera work at all times. Also, here is a fun fact for you: The mechanical shark was named Bruce, after Spielberg’s lawyer.

This movie has been really well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 97% positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 79/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 4/4 stars and put it in his “Great Movies” list. And on imdb.com it got a score of 8,1/10 and is ranked #207 on the “Top 250” list. The movie also won 3 Oscars in the categories of Best sound, Best Film Editing and Best Original Score. It was also nominated for 1 Oscar in the category of Best Picture. 

“Jaws” is a movie with an excellent and suspenseful plot, fantastic characters and performances, an excellent and suspenseful score, fantastic direction and one of the best endings of all time. Time for my final score. Dun DUN, dun DUN, dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun DU-DU- DUUUUN! My final score for “Jaws” is a 9,90/10. It definitely gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

“Jaws” is at last reviewed.

Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies, farewell and adieu you ladies of Spain…

Movie Review: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)

Time to return to the world of comic books! Or to be more precise, graphic novels… but you get my point. You might remember that last year I reviewed the original “Sin City” and really liked it a lot. So now it is time to review the sequel. Will I like it as much as the original? Let’s have a look.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For”.

On a quick sidenote, there will be some minor spoilers from the original “Sin City” in here, so tread carefully if you haven’t seen it.

Once again we have three separate storylines featuring some characters. Let’s start with the main one, the one that the movie is named after (A.K.A. “A Dame to Kill For”). This story is a prequel to the first movie and follows Dwight (Josh Brolin). He has tried to put his violent past behind him and now works as a private detective. But his past comes haunting him as he gets involved with his old lover/girlfriend Ava Lord (Eva Green). And I’m not gonna say more about it because that would be jumping into spoilers. The sad part is that despite this being the main story, it is the least interesting. I felt like it dragged on longer than it had too and it was overall not very interesting, especially since it had a few weird side-plots that were a little unnecessary.
Next up is the plot called “Nancy’s Last Dance” which follows the character of Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba). Also, this is where we got some minor spoilers for the first movie so… stop reading if you haven’t seen it. Anyway, this is set after the first movie and follows Nancy a longer while after John Hartigan’s (Bruce Willis) death. So now Nancy is a drunken stripper planning revenge against the man who caused Hartigans’ death. And that man is none other than Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). And this segment I thought was really good. So it is a little sad that this is the shortest segment out of all. But in this Nancy is a broken mess with some psychological issues and that makes for some interesting watching.
The final one is “The Long Bad Night” that is about newcomer Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a really lucky/skilled poker player who gets in over his head when he wins a game against… Senator Roark. Apparently Roark is everybody’s favorite target. Anyway, this segment might be my favorite one out of all three. It is suspenseful, it is funny and it is just really well executed. Interesting how the segment about a new character is the one I enjoyed most.
And if you’re wondering… yes, Marv (Mickey Rourke) has a segment too. A really short one in the beginning of the movie. But for the most part he plays a big(ish) part of all other segments.

All characters are interesting in some way. And all performances were really good… except for one, but I’ll get to that. Josh Brolin as Dwight was great, Jessica Alba as Nancy was great too which is really cool because she wasn’t that interesting in the first movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was also great as Johnny. And it was awesome seeing Mickey Rourke once again kick tons of ass as Marv. And Powers Boothe as Senator Roark was one of the most badass villains ever, I loved him in this movie. However, the one performance which was the worst, not bad, just not as good as all other ones was theo ne of Eva Green. And that is weird because she was one of the actors I had the most faith in, but here she just didn’t really fit too well as her character.

The soundtrack for the movie was done by Robert Rodriguez (Sidenote: Also the director of the movie) and Carl Thiel. And once again the music was really good and fit perfectly in the movie. It was badass, it was cool and it was just overall great.

This movie is as visually spectacular as the first one with it’s unique style of “black and white with some occasional color”. It looks great and it still helps hold the movie up a bit. The direction overall was great. And the action was just as brutal and violent as it was in the first movie. And that also means that the action was just as fun as in the first movie… especially when Mickey Rourke is involved. I can’t help it, he is awesome!

This movie was not very well-received, it was even a bit of a box office flop. Anyway, on Rotten Tomatoes it has a 43% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 46/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,6/10.

Despite having a main plot that is not very interesting and a weak(ish) performance from Eva Green, I can’t deny the fun I had with “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For”. Most stories were great, most performances were really good, teh music was great and the gritty, brutal and unique visuals are as awesome as ever. Time for my final score. *Grunt* My final score for “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” is an 8,95/10. I do think it is worth buying.

Review of “Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” is done.

I don’t know what else to say.

 

Movie Review: Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)

You might remember that I reviewed the first two “Lethal Weapon” movies a while back, you might also remember that I liked them quite a bit. Well now after several months, it is time to review the third one in the franchise! So… here we go!

Sirs and madams please stand back, because this is… “Lethal Weapon 3”.

Once again we follow LAPD sergeants Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Murtaugh (Danny Glover). Murtaugh only has a week until retirement, but that doesn’t stop him from getting dragged into aonther giant case, this time he and Riggs together with an internal affairs officer (Rene Russo) have to try to take down an arms dealer (Stuart Wilson) who used used to be an LAPD officer. And from that… chaos ensues. While the plot is really fun to follow I feel like it isn’t as interesting as the previous two movies. In this movie they focus less on character development and focus more on chases and explosions and extreme action. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of that shit, but it just isn’t as interesting as the previous movies since they had really good character development. Also, for some reason they decided to shoehorn in Leo Getz (Joe Pesci) into this movie. In the previous movie he was a fun character that was integrated into the plot in aa good way, but here he just feels forced.

I think it is pretty fucking obvious at this point that Mel Gibson and Danny Glover have excellent chemistry. In the first “Lethal Weapon” they were great together, in “Lethal Weapon 2” they were even better and in this it has reached it’s peak. Their chemistry in this movie is fantastic, you notice that these two actors have a lot of fun working together. Newcomer Rene Russo is also really good in the movie and have really good chemistry with our two heroes, especially Mel Gibson who she banters with excellently. And Joe Pesci as Leo Getz is fine, he just feels so shoehorned into this movie. And I swear to fucking god, if I have to hear him say “Okay” again, I will snap! But overall the characters in this movie are all good. Sure, the villain is not that great, but everyone else makes up for that.

Once again the soundtrack was done by Michael Kamen, Eric Clapton and David Sanborn. And once again it is great wit ha great mix of typical action movie songs, smooth jazz and some rock n roll. There were also two tracks made for the movie. One is called “It’s Probably Me” which was done by Eric Clapton and Sting, the second one was “Runaway Train” by Eric Clapton and Elton John. And both were great songs that fit the movie in different ways.

Okay, my research now gives my feelings about Leo Getz feeling shoehorned in some much needed evidence. Apparently he wasn’t even in the original script. All scenes he were in were written in after the script was completed. Why they had to put him in the movie, I do not know. But now I at least know why he felt forced. Moving on! Once again Richard Donner steps up as director after the two first ones. And once again he is triumphant at making the movie fast, fierce and really well-directed. The camera work is great and the action scenes are awesome as always.

This movie was received decently. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 56% positive rating. On Metacritic it has a score of 36/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 6,7/10.

“Lethal Weapon” has a plot that isn’t too interesting, a meh villain and a forced in Leo Getz. But it makes up for a fair amount of that with fun action, great characters, great music and great direction/camera work. Time for my final score. Jeff! Where’s the freaking envelope!? *Envelope flies into face* Ouch! I’m too old for this shit! My final score for “Lethal Weapon 3” is an 8,54/10. It is definitely worth buying.

“Lethal Weapon 3” is now reviewed.

You have the right to remain unconscious. Anything you say ain’t gonna be much.

 

Movie Review: The Prestige (2006)

Magic and illusions are two things I have always been interested in. Looking at these impossible situations and wondering “How in the hell did they do that?”. As some of you may know, I am a big fan of the movie “The Illusionist” which strangely came out the same year as this. Oh well, time to finally review this.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… “The Prestige”.

In this movie we follow magicians Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and how their friendship turns into a rivalry where they always try to one-up each other. But doing this makes their rivalry more and more bitter and I’m not gonna say more because this plot is too good to say too much about. This plot is incredibly well-written and full of twists. Usually in movies when you have a lot of twists it just feels forced and it feels like there are too many twists, but in this movie all twists come together nicely into a tight and complex package. This plot also tests the audience at all times, so keep close attention at all times. And I love that.

The characters are all very interesting and have complex arcs. Hugh Jackman gives an excellent performance, as does Christian Bale… and Michael Caine. Scarlett Johansson was also great in the movie. And I am just as surprised as you when I am saying that David Bowie was great in the movie. Yeah, THAT David Bowie… he plays Nikola Tesla in the movie. In fact, everybody were great in the movie. And it was fun seeing Andy Serkis playing something that did not require motion capture and CGI.

The score for this movie was done by David Julyan, the same guy who did the score for Christopher Nolan’s 2002 movie “Insomnia”. And it was really good. It really fit the mystic and complex style of this movie. It also helped to capture the suspense of the scenes in the movie. It was overall just really good.

As you probably got from the previous part, this movie was directed by Christopher Nolan who once again shows that he knows how to direct a movie. The camera work looks great and he shows that he got good control of the actors. And once again we get cinematography by Wally Pfister which as always looks really fantastic. Nolan and Pfister show that they work great together to make a movie look as good as possible. I can also mention that the movie is based on the novel by British author Christopher Priest… that’s it. I have never read it and I have in fact never even heard of this author… just a fun fact to mention the book I guess.

This was a generally well-received movie. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 76% positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 66/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,5/10 and is ranked #53 on the “Top 250” list. The movie was also nominated for 2 Oscars in the categories of Best cinematography and Best Art Direction.

“The Prestige” is a movie where you have to keep attention at all times since it is a complex piece of cinema with plenty of twists, excellent performance, great music, gorgeous cinematography, great direction and soem good writing. Time for my final score. Right now you see a normal coin, now I am placing a handkerchief on top of it. *Pulls handkerchief away* Ta-da! It is now an envelope! My final score for “The Prestige” is a 9,84/10. It definitely deserves the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

“The Prestige” is now reviewed.

Are you watching closely?

Movie Review: Sunshine (2007)

After watching Duncan Jones’ fantastic 2009 movie “Moon” I have gotten a craving recently for “different” sci-fi movies. Not your typical “Pew pew action” sci-fi, but something else. Not that there is anything wrong with “pew pew action”, I love that shit, but I want to see different types of sci-fi movies as well thanks to “Moon”. So now I have watched another “different” sci-fi movie and I feel like I should review it.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Sunshine”.

In the future our sun is dying out. Soon it will be dead and then so will we. So they sent a group of ethnically diverse scientists to go out into space and reignite the sun with a giant nuke. But this is also not the first attempt at reigniting the sun, the people we follow is the second team. So it is also a little about them finding out what happened what happened to the first team… while they try to nuke the shit out of the sun. And from that we get a suspenseful and excellently written story that I really liked. I was interested through the entirety of the movie, seeing if our heroes could succeed with their mission. It was also mainly a story about the characters and their struggles as a team, making sure they didn’t hate each other too much in the end. And like I said, I stayed interested the entire time.

The characters are all interesting, well-written and really well-acted. Even if all of the scientists could be considered some form of main character, the true main character really is the one played by Cillian Murphy. And he gives us another winning performance that solidifies him as a great actor. Al otehr actors are great too. There are a fair amount of them so I will not go through them all, but they were all great.

The score for the movie was done by electronic band Underworld and composer John Murphy. And it was great. It helped keep tension and suspense up and was in general also pretty great to listen to. It is a soundtrack that I could probably listen to in my car (if I had one). Also the track “Adagio in D-Minor” by composer John Murphy is one of those tracks that have been used in everything. Kind of like “Lux Aeterna” from “Requiem For a Dream”. It’s jsut funny how everyone has heard the song yet they most likely don’t know it’s from this movie. So now you know!

This movie is directed by Danny Boyle and holy shit is it well-directed! The way he uses different angles and lighting in scenes looks pretty great. And I have honestly never seen anything by him before. I know that I suck, but that’s just how it has gone. But don’t worry, I’ll get to more of his movies sooner or later. Anyway, uhm… topic switch! The visual effects in this movie are pretty damn fantastic. They all look fantastic and feel very real. What I can also mention is that the third act of this movie is one of the most suspenseful ones that I have ever experienced. It is also a little heartbreaking because of *spoilers*. It also has a really great twist in the third act.

This was a pretty well-received movie. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 76% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 64/100. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3/4 stars. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,3/10.

“Sunshine” is a very different and also pretty awesome science fiction movie. It has a great story, terrific chracters/acting, great music, fantastic direction and visual effects and one of the most suspenseful third acts I have ever seen combined with a great twist. Time for my final score. *Music swells* My final score for “Sunshine” is a 9,84/10. It definitely gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

Review of “Sunshine” is completed.

Wake up Sunshine, open up your sleepy eyes for me…