Reviews

I'm speechless, just speechless.

I checked out this documentary because it somehow struck a chord with me in some resemblance of True Detective.

Only thing, this is real, which makes it so much more frightening.

I sat through all episodes on end, while rewinding bits to get details I missed.

Had it been fiction, it would have come off as too far out.

Most engaging and chilling piece of documentary I've ever seen bar none.

I'm still shaken and really disturbed.

Let me start by saying that I just love this production. It is a corporation between the national Danish, Swedish and Norwegian TV stations but placed purely in Denmark.

The story evolves around two friends struggling to get their dream restaurant off the ground.

One is a former top (hipster) chef straight out of prison, a ladies man with a drug habit and debt to all the wrong kind of people.

The other is a top sommelier, dyslexic with an alcohol problem mourning his wife who died in a car accident. Since the accident his son has not uttered a word.

It is jam packed with good Danish actors and solid acting, with only a few exceptions. Each and every character is somewhat of a cliché but all are portrayed with nuance and great charisma.

The main storyline is also a bit of a cliché but it is webbed with surprising detours and humorous in its absurdity. However, it is not a comedy as such and the show takes itself seriously. There are no punch-lines or gags, just peculiarities and absurdities that will make you smile.

The show comes across as some kind of modern urban western. It is filmed without the use of nothing but small sets, which gives a great intimacy with the characters and story. The cinematography is really impressive in its purity and with a great grading that fits the western genre. The directing is also very consistent with focus on a good manuscript/story and acting rather than unnecessary bells and whistles.

I have been trying to think of reasons to dislike the show but I just loved every 8 episodes in each of the two seasons. As a bonus the end is both in spirit with the whole show and it also actually works (which I think is rare).

A nice little gem that deserves airtime outside Scandinavia :-)

The movie really aggravated me. Enough to make me write my first review on IMDb.

For a frame of reference, let me start by saying that I did enjoy LOTR.

Have you not yet seen The Hobbit 3, just don't !!!!! I simply cannot find a redeeming feature of the film. It's just an unnecessary abundance of establishing shots, excessive CGI and long slow motion close-ups. The close-ups makes everyone understand that the character is thoughtful, very hero-like or the situation is very dangerous. While the accompanying music is good and effective, it is somehow overused, which makes everything even more sickeningly nauseating.

Technically it is not possible write a spoilers for this movie as the plot is virtually non-existent. However, the film is peppered with really bad slapstick goofs, which made me cringe so bad.

The characters are not very likable, which makes the whole outcome unimportant. You feel indifferent about the 7 dwarfs. Bilbo has pretty much been written out of the movie, even though the movie is about him. Legolas is annoying and portrayed as a supernatural matrix-ninja-elf, and it is hard to sit through the movie without wishing him dead. Gandalf is actually likable but the time spent on slow motion closing close-ups is way too much.

I get that the film is not an attempt on documentary, but the special effects in the film are made completely without anything resembling laws of physics. With the Hobbit Peter Jackson suffers from the same disease as George Lucas and Michael Bay, he does not know when to stop with the CGI.

I have seen many bad movies both on television and in the movies, but it's rare that I want to leave the theater. It is also rare that I leave the cinema with a feeling of having wasted my time. Wasting my time is exactly what I did, and even 144 minutes of it. Time that I will never ever get back.

If you are thinking : "I may just catch it on DVD or TV", just don't.

I give it two stars because even though the shots are overwhelmingly cluttered with CGI, some are still quite impressive. Peter Jackson could easily have gotten extra stars had he just included more beautiful shots of landscape without any CGI. He did that well in LOTR.

I can keep on ranting but let this be my last comment: This movie sucks!