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kristian-bakdal
Reviews
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
good yet disappointing.
First of all let me just say that this is a good movie. That said it was also a disappointment to me. That sounds like a contradiction. So lets start with the movie and get to the disappointment later.
First of all it's set in a period with knights and squires, and it's been a while since we've had any descent movies about those guys. Then there are the epic battles, you can't really make any movie anymore with out a big epic battle at least not if it involves a army of any descent size. Another thing that was great to see was the the Arabs were not portrayed as the only fanatics, in many ways I found myself sympathetic with them then with the Christian people in the movie. The actors were good especially Eva Green and Ghassan Massoud (the rest were good two, I just found myself liking them more then the rest).Of course the cinematography was great as I expected from a man like Scott. And this is what leads me to my disappointment.
Ridley Scott has always (as far a I remember) made different kinds of movies. So even though the movie was completely different in content the his previous movies, the way it was filmed and the score was very close to another movie he made not so long a go (Gladiator). This was disappointing to me as I had expected him to surprise me yet another time. That said Kingdom of Heaven is in many ways a better movie then Gladiator and had it been made made by anyone else but Ridley Scott I would unconditionally say that it's a great movie.
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Great actors equals great acting. Great Movie
Even though I'm kind of ashamed to admit it, I only just recently saw this movie, even though it is a must see for all movie-geeks.
Quentin Tarantino's "first" movie was to saw the least good. The plot was good and kept me guessing for a long time, once the characters were down the ending was pretty much obvious, however I don't thing it would have been as obvious if I'd watched it back 11 years ago when it came out. The cast were/are great actors and play their characters really well including Quentin Tarantino himself (I wish he'd play a bigger part though). The music isn't as well chosen as what he later comes up with but it's still pretty good, also it doesn't add as much to the movie as it does in his later movies.
Still Reservoir Dogs is a good movie and a most see for any person with larger then average interest in movies. And to say that it is better then most of the Hollywood productions we see today would be an understatement.
Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
damn funny
Lets face it (western) horror movie are basically just absurd comedies. What makes this one good is that Director Ronny Yu seems to embrace this fact and throws in tons o cliches and funny one-liners that underline the fact. By doing this and throwing in several gallons of blood he manages to make a damn funny horror story. I haven't seen that many of the Jason movies, but good old Freddy i have seen a lot of times before. Freddy is back and funnier then ever. Jason is okay but as such not that interesting, since the guy has no lines and just walks about poking people with his sword. What's the fun in being the bad guy if you don't get to say the cool lines. The teens are okay, however Monica Keena breast proved to be a major distraction during the movie (damn my raging hormones). The only single actor who got on my nerves was Kelly Rowland, for what reason I don't really know she just seemed out of place in the movie.
I'll recommend the movie for a good laugh, but if you want horror you should stick to the oriental ones.
Nikos the Impaler (2003)
crappy acting...crappy killing...crappy filming...crappy music...crappy everything
Wow, I'm rather amazed I've seen a lot of bad horror movies in my life, but this one is probably the worst yet. I haven't seen any of Andreas Schnaas' other movie, but from what I've read this is his best movie. So I might just have to see the rest to see if it's really possible to make anything worse then this one. The acting was crappy, not really the biggest surprise this is after all a low-budget B-movie. But usually B-movie know how to make fun/interesting killing. This is not the case in Nikos. Basically Nikos is just a crappy Jason-clone who walks around killing people with his big-ass broadsword. and that's all he does! A guy walking around killing people with a big sword can actually make a decent movie, if the killer does it in new and interesting ways. Nikos doesn't do that, he just lobs of people's heads (with a few exceptions not may though).
I wouldn't recommend this money to my worst enemy, no one should be made to watch this movie, it's simply too crappy.
Fukssvansen (2001)
strangely entertaining
I decided to watch this movie for one reason only: Thomas Bo Larsen. He delivers a great performance if somewhat short. I wont talk more about because then I'd spoil the movie.
The movie it self isn't the pinnacle of Danish film-making and if you're used to the renowned Danish directors as Lars von Trier and Bille August then you'll most likely find this movie rather crappy. It lacks all the things that make artistic movies. That said I liked Fukssvansen, It was funny and totally non-intellectual. And once in a while that's what I need to see.
I most likely won't watch it again, but I'm glad I watched it at least once.If I watch it again it's because it's on TV and I don't have anything better to do,
Bad Boys II (2003)
Yet another sequel that should never have been made.
I thought the original Bad Boys was a fairly good movie as far as Hollywood action comedies go. However in the past 8 years my expectation for movies has hightend a bit, obviously more then Michael Bay's ability to direct movies has. Bad Boys II is basically one long gun fight interrupted by some long car chases and a few weak scenes of dialog.
As for the cast, well if you've seen Bad Boys I then you know the main characters. Will Smith isn't what you would call a great actor. However one has to respect the fact that he has been involved in a few good movies such as MIB. However in my opinion Bad Boys II is probably the worst of "all" the bad movies that he has appeared in. Martin Lawrence was as usual terrible to watch, by far one of Hollywood's weakest actors. The addition of Gabrielle Union was the only real good part of the cast. She's a nice little hottie, who is one of the few actors that deliver a decent performance in the movie.
Usually I make mention of the sound track. To be honest I can't remember the sound track for this movie, so I doubt it was anything special. Which means it can't have been to bad or I think I might have remembered it.
A Life Less Ordinary (1997)
Love story...bahhh...For some reason I liked this one.
Love stories...bahh. Well that's what I generally think of movies where the main plot is a love story. Add in Cameron Diaz and I'd usually say that it's sure thing that i will hate the movie. In the case of "A Life Less Ordinary" it isn't so. I liked it!
Ewan McGregor is great in the movie, which isn't really a surprise he usually is. Cameron Diaz is also good in this movie, which to me is a surprise since I don't really consider her one of the best actresses. She fits the role a spoiled little rich girl perfectly and plays it to perfection. Holly Hunter and Delroy Lindo provide the comic relief in their roles as unorthodox angels. The rest of the cast perform their roles well too.
The movie also contain a nice sound track, containing among others Beck, that support the movie well. The music really does give the movie a good rhythm which in my opinion is important for the feel of a movie.
All in all it's a good movie which provides a good way to pass time with. I'm sure that I'll surely watch it with the next crazy girl I hook up with.
Buffalo Soldiers (2001)
Great movie for the open-minded people.
When I put on this movie, I had no idea what it was about. I thought from the cover of it that it was some kind of comedy. Basically it's a rather serious movie about the corrupt things go on at a US army base in Germany during 1989.
All the cast deliver a great performance. Especially Joaquin Phoenix who delivers one of his careers finest films. It is to bad we had to wait so long to see this movie.
I recommend this movie to most folks. I will however say that this is not a movie for those people out there that are fanatic about the infallibility of the USA. This is a movie the has a critical view of the armed forces. So if you're a marine sitting somewhere wondering how to kill the time before you have to do some military thing, this is probably not a movie for you.
As a personal comment I'd like to say that I personally don't think this movie is an attack on the US, but rather an attack on armed forces station abroad in general. However the US forces are the only forces that could believably carry the plot. It wouldn't be believable that the five or so Danish guys at the Ramstein base could run a operation like the one Joaquin Phoenix is running in Buffalo Soldiers.
For some reason this movie made me think of American Beauty, why i don't know. It 's to bad that Buffalo Soldiers will probably never hit big time in the states, because it really is a good movie.
Arlington Road (1999)
One of the better Hollywood movies
I was a bit skeptical of a movie where the words "terrorism" and "Hollywood movie" are mentioned in the same sentence. However my prejudice was but to shame by this movie, it is actually very good.
If I'm to mention one thing i liked it was the ending. I didn't think that the screening-audience would have said go for and ending like that. so alas their is still hope for Hollywood.
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
A mockery of the original Matrix movie.
After seeing "Reloaded" I was sure that the conclusion of the Matrix Trilogy wouldn't be a disappointment seeing that I didn't think it could get worse then "Reloaded". I was wrong!!! This movie was the worst movie that I have seen in the theater during the last decade or so.
The computer animation was great, no doubt about that. I however believe that a movie should be more then that. The sound track was also good, if I has listening to it without having to endure the movie itself.
On the negative side: The fight scenes were not really special. Matrix part I & II have way, way better fight scenes. But if you want fight scene you have to go to the source which is not located in the States or Europe but in the Far East. Then there was a lot on touchy-feelly scenes which were irritating, since the sorry couldn't really support them. The acting wasn't bad, but wasn't anything special. Poor story/plot (if you can even call it a plot), somehow the Wachowski managed to (more or less) remove the most interesting antagonists from the movie.
The Wachowski brothers started out by making a extremely good movie, and then continued to beat their money horse till it died and then continued beating it. Revolutions was in MY opinion a waste of time and money, and every thing after part I was just a way of making money, and had nothing to do with movie-making.
So in conclusion: If you thought theat part II was a disappointment, then spare yourself the pain of seeing part III.