I finally got a chance to see “Team America”. What can I say? Genius! Hilarious! Absolutely mindblowingly fun! But what else is there to say about a movie that starts the romantic song with “I miss you more than Michael Bay missed the mark when he made Pearl Harbor”?! Just go see it!!
And here are some pictures from the party.
The last episode of Friends was on swedish TV last week… talk about the end of an era. 10 years that show’s been going, it’s had it ups and downs but it was quite sad to see it end. Although it’s gonna be in reruns forever and I’ve seen every episode so many times I can pretty much recall any scene in my head. And one of these day’s I’m gonna fill that part of my head with something useful…
Also saw “Ocean’s 12” the other day. Man that was a disappointment. I liked the first one. Liked the sting and ensemble cast, but this one was not even close. So chalk up another one in the “reasons sequels shouldn’t eve be done” right there with Scream 3 and Naked Gun 3…
You know I’m a little bit undecided about remakes and covers of movies and songs. Some are good, few even better than the original but most aren’t even good. And here are two examples we could very well do without : an american version of “Taxi” and a new version of Band Aid’s christmas song from the 80’s! The american version of Taxi I can understand and it’s more of a comedy than the original. But I bet 99% of americans haven’t even seen the original I guess they won’t even know what they missed. And about a new version of Band Aid’s christmas song… that’s just bad all around. If Robbie really cared he would donate a few millions. And if Coldplay cared about the survival of anyone the wouldn’t do music that makes you wanna slit your wrist. Still, as sir Bob Geldoff (founder of the original, in case you don’t remember!) said – “it’s a great Christmas present! It’s cheap and noone who gets it can express their disappointment”…
Reason 9 : Going with the old saying “the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons” (Feodor Dostoyevsky), the american propaganda machine said over and over again how terribly the iraqi government treated their prisoners. Regular executions, torture and so on. Maybe so, but now we also know how the americans treat the prisoners in Iraq. And I loved that memo that, if you read between the lines, said it was ok to bend the “quaint” rules set in the Geneva convention!
I might as well finish the top 10 today…
Reason 10 : “After all, this is the guy that once tried to kill my dad”. Yeah, Bush Jr. actually used that line as a reason why going in there and taking him down was a good idea, because Saddam had once tried to kill Bush Sr. As far as I know, that never happened. Maybe Saddam once wrote or said “I wish he was dead”, but as far as I know he never actually tried to kill him. Not after all the favors Bush Sr. did to Saddam in the 80’s as Reagan’s vice president! What did happen however is that Bush sent in a bunch of special forces to kill Saddam’s two sons, which they did! And not only that, they took credit for it aswell! “tried to kill my dad” versus “killing two sons”…
Go and see “Control Room”. Now please. It’s a documentary showing the difficult task the media and the liaison officers had during the war in Iraq. It mostly focuses on Al Jazeera who were showing the other side of the war and being hated by Rumsfeld and at the same time hearing the iraqi information minister call them “the american propaganda machine”. Surprisingly, the liaison officer in CentCom (Rushing) liked them alot and they showed alot of their conversations and alot of interviews showing what a difficult time this guy had trying to be objective in that bloody mess. Really powerful stuff. Go see it! It’s not really an anti-america or anti-Bush movie. Just a documentary showing propoganda up close.
Saw “Supersize Me” during the weekend. Scary stuff. Kinda don’t wanna eat McDonalds after that, especially not after seeing the guy trying to eat his first supersize meal. But overall I think it was a very good movie that should make alot of people realise that we have a problem. And it’s spelled “lazyness”… also saw “Bourne Supremacy” which was suprisingly good. I don’t expect much out of sequels, but this one was just as good as the first one, maybe even better. Ask me again after I’ve seen it three times 🙂
Today I woke up to a swedish moviemaker and critic on the radio that really got me angry. He was so pretencious it goes behind words. He was the kind that would go to a hungarian film festival just because it’s a hungarian film festival! I don’t mind hungarian films, but you understand what I mean? He explained how he likes to get out of the theater inspired or emotionally effected by the movie he saw, but added, “sure, sometimes I can go and watch an american movie”! I’d agree that alot of the movies that come out of Hollywood are crap, but out of all the movies some are good, few great and once in a while amazing movies will pop up. I hate the kind of movie critic that has the default opinion that an american movie = crap, and Hungarian movies = not crap because they aren’t american! I’m atleast so open minded I can watch Hungarian movie and might even like it but this guys whole attitude just annoyed me. He also got a bunch of questions, like if he did a movie with sponsors and they wanted the products to be displayed in the movie, and the guy just said “NO!”… I used to be blue-eyed naiv like that but eventually had to realise the monetary forces where too strong to ignore.
Finally got a hold of “Fahrenheit 9/11”. Scary & funny stuff. Funny to see how Bush is trying oh so hard at press conferences and interviews but ending up saying stuff like “fool me once, shame on…[silent pause and a look of confusion only Bush can do]… you…”. Scary to see that the president of “the land of the free” can do stuff like that. It was all abit too much and sometimes very longshots trying to connect the Bush’s to saudi oil interests and all of that, but then it got really personal when interviewing soldiers in Iraq, and it got really heavy when interviewing the mother of a soldier who’ll never come home after fighting, what I’m sure history will call, the worst planned and executed war ever. Anyway, you should all go and see it and then wait in anticipating for the US of A to do the biggest mistake ever by re-electing this idiot. I really can’t see how it can be this close? I mean how many people do you hear being very very pro-Bush, saying that he’s been a great president, he hasn’t screwed up, the war was just and so on? I don’t hear any people saying that but that might be because I’m way over here in Sweden…
Now I’m just totally forgetting about updating this place. Can’t blame it on anything now, I haven’t been that busy I’ve just forgotten to update… Oh well… I actually went to the movies a week back and saw “I, Robot”. I was expecting a “no brains, muscle driven action packed but wanna be deep”-movies. And it almost delivered. It was a little bit deeper than I thought it was gonna be, but the logic didn’t quite hold up. They had incorporated another rule by Asimov into the plot that was never explained, and the laws are built on the premise that a robot can’t change or overrule them when they chose to, no matter how intelligent they are. That’s why they are suppose to be “hardwired”, as oppose to software that can be changed.
Saw an interesting docu-movie today about the rise and rise of Adolf Hitler. Covered the years from when he was sent to jail right up the the start of WWII. I like to consider myself a history buff, especially WWII, but I didn’t really know that much about this part of Hitler’s life. First of all, one has to assume there are some made up stuff in a movie to increase the dramatic part of it, but this one was pretty seriously made. And there were some frightening stuff in there and afterwards it was pretty weird to think of the old saying “history has a tendancy to repeat itself”. To be brief about it ; the guy went from being in jail to being the leader of a superpower using loopholes in their constitution and used the arson against the german government building to push through some radic laws temporarily superceding human and civil rights which made him in charge of basically everything and then went to war. In short! Let’s think a little bit bigger. Do we have someone in charge of a superpower right now, with a criminal past, that used constitutional loopholes to gain power and then used an attack against them to push through some laws superceding human and civil rights and then went to war?… hehehe, frightening stuff… Big difference is ofcourse Adolf was a smart asshole. Bush is just an asshole. Another huge difference is that Bush has to face a re-election. Adolf was smart enough to get out of that.
I really should stop watching this many movies, it can’t be healthy. Today it was “Shrek 2” and “13 Going on 30″… “Shrek 2” proved the statement made in “Scream 2” – sequals suck. Ok, it didn’t suck, but it wasn’t as fun or original as … the original. Biggest laugh was in the end when pussycat does the flashdance move, hilarious!! “13 Going on 30” was a little bit silly, felt like someone saw “Big” and then “Freaky Friday” during an “Alias”-marathon and brainstormed this one up in 5 minutes. Highlight was the retro scenes with the “Thriller”-dance. But the best rip-off of that dance was “Final Fantasy”…
Have I seen too many movies if the only way I can rate movies is by referring to other movies?
Dude, have the past two week been the laziest of my life? I would think so! Especially the weekends – last weekend I was so bored I actually had to go an extra mile to find something to do. Don’t know when was the last time that happened. And this weekend has been “movie-catchup” weekend. “Troy”, “Girl Next Door”, “Timeline”, “Hellboy”, “Punisher”, “Godsend” and “Elf”. Puh… most of them were disappointing (“Timeline” was soooo bad, and I usually like time travel stories), some just what I expected (“Troy” made up and bended Homer’s work about as much as I’d expect) and some were even better than I thought (“Girl Next Door” was funnier and more serious than I though). And another Ferrari victory. A pretty successful weekend all in all. Looking forward to this working week when my future area of expertice will be decided.
Saw “Day after Tomorrow” today (thanks sis!). Liked it. Alot. I’ve always liked catastrophe movies. And I always like US of A getting their asses kicked in movies. And I’ve always liked Dennis Quaid ever since “Innerspace”. And I’ve always liked Sela Ward. But there was just one minor teeeeeeny little detail that got me upset – again they portray the US president as a nice, decent and righteous dude.
[Stop readin now if you don’t wanna be spoiled about the movie!] The role of the asshole is the VICE president who later in the movie becomes the president and all of a sudden he becomes a good guy. So vice presidents can be assholes but not presidents? Why? When we all know that it’s George-boy we’re talking about and bashing, why not go all the way? Little disappointed over that.
Have you heard about Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11”? Michael Moore did the documentary “Bowling for Columbine” a few years back, trying to get to the bottom of “why are americans so triggerhappy”. His conclusion then is that americans are being bombarded by fear from everywhere in a way you can’t see in any other country. And now he takes it a couple of steps further by examining the Bush family & administration, how it got to power, what it’s done during that time, 9/11 (ofcourse), the two wars and the nonstop lying ofcourse. And guess what happenes when it’s all done and ready to premiere in the states? Disney decides to shelve the movie, atleast until after the presidential election. And their excuse? Nothing noble as neutrality or anything like that. No, they are afraid of what’s going to happen with Disneyland in Florida if they realease this movie and upsets the Bush family, ’cause there’s a Bush in power in Florida as well! Talk about proving the point Moore is trying to make! Fortunately it’s getting so much attention that they probably will have to release it or sell it to someone who have some balls. It’s getting awesome reviews here in Europe anyway, it was shown during the Cannes film festival. And the international release is still a go. It’s just the american’s that don’t get to see it. Isn’t that kinda screwed up? A movie made by an american about the american leadership done for americans with americans, but they don’t get to see it? I like Michael Moore. He might not be the brightest most neutral person in the world, but he’s got humor, he doesn’t take alot of suff seriously and sure as hell isn’t pretentious if you look at his wardrobe!
I saw “The Butterfly Effect” last night. And loved it! I wasn’t expecting much, and I’m no fan of Ashton Kutcher, but I was happily surprised. The butterfly effect is basically the chaos theory of one butterfly in africa spreading it’s wings and starts a chain of events that could create a typhoon in asia. And this movie is about a guy going back to his childhood to create a perfect future for himself but everytime it has some side-effect that he didn’t see coming. And I like stories like that. The “change one little detail”-thinking that kinda proves just how little in life we are actually in control of. Real life example ; When I was in Buenos Aires with a friend we were bored one saturday evening and we just went out to a random bar and after some drinks he, being the opposite of me, went up to some girls just to ask them what else there is to do in town. And now one of those girls is moving up here to Sweden to live happily ever after with him. How many random events lead to them meeting and getting something going? Just change one thing, the taxi driver could have taken a right and we would have ended up somewhere else and they’d never meet. Unless it was really meant to be ofcourse. Think about that for an hour or two, what major event in your life would never have happened with one tiny itsy bitsy teeny detail was changed? Bet you can come up with a few, withouth really giving it much thought I came up with two.
One more weekend over and done with and one more Formula 1 victory for the guys in red. That makes me happy. Driving home from work on a cool, calm saturday afternoon with the sun shining in my face and the top window back, wind in my hair, stereo pumping, that makes me happy. And I also saw a couple of movies. I did another attempt at watching and appreciating “Lost in Translation”, I’ve gotten some heat for saying “what was the point”. So when I finally got a good “this is the point” description, I watched it again. “What was the point?”. I mean, yeah, they are both completely unhappy with their lives. They are both surrounded by people who don’t get them. They find each other and hit it off in a totally platonic way. And yeah, it’s beautifully filmed. And yeah, it’s got some humor. And guess what? It sounds like my life. Seriously!
Got Matrix 3 on DVD and although most people were disappointed with the second and third one, I just appreciate them for what they are. Action flics with good effects and wallbouncing sound. Not the revolutionary movie that number one was, you can’t really live up to that again. And they have Monica Bellucci in them. And I also saw “The Cooler”. William Macy and Maria Bello, both favorites for an old ER fan, doing great jobs of a pretty good script, but a bit violent at times. But totally worth the 2 hours it took to see.
Now I’m a bit closer to defining a good april fools joke. I did two yesterday. One that was slightly believable but I didn’t put that much energy into it and it worked pretty fine. But on NP.com we went all the way with a faked CNN page about Natalie Portman getting engaged to her boyfriend. And we really did go all the way but threw some humor into it (just look at the “Related story”). And this one was believable right up to the point when you just stop to think about it. And that’s when you’d noticed those small things like the address to the site being “cnn.dnsalias.org” and everything being a link to the same page. And that one worked – flawlessly! So now I know. And now I’m off on another Finland-cruise.
I don’t know if movies are getting weirder or if I’m getting shallower (if that’s even a word?!), but lately I’ve hard trouble … “getting” some movies that have gotten great reviews for being creative, different, deep, artistic and whatnot. Like “Lost in Translation”, I so didn’t get that movie. And as a globetrotter the only parts I enjoyed were those usual problems when you’re in a new country for a week or two. But most recently it was “Adaptation” which has gotten great reviews everywhere. I saw it and I so didn’t get it. I mean, I get that it’s a screenwriter who wrote a movie about himself trying to write a screenplay that included himself and a story about orchids. And Nicholas Cage was damn good in it, no complaints about Mery Streep either, and I like Chris Cooper too. But it was just soooo boring. You kinda wondered where it’d end up, and it sure as hell didn’t end up anyway I could imagine it. And then I see “Rundown” (no-brains testosterone movie featuring The Rock), and I loved it! Is there something wrong with me for preferring a no-brainer action flic like that before a movie that’s so deep I don’t get it, if there was something to get?
I recently got “The Running Man” special edition DVD. “So what, that’s an old movie”, right? It is, but the reason it’s been re-released are the two documentaries on the DVD. Two really, REALLY, good documentaries too. The first one is about the society in “The Running Man” (with the Big Brother Is Watching You-theme) and the Patriot Act. And it’s not as far fetched as it may sound, and they make alot of good points about how not thoughtrough that Act was. For example, they point out that if the Patriot Act had been in place 150 years ago, the movement for liberating the slaves in USA would never have been allowed, the Women Suffrage would have been illegal and Marthin Luther King would’ve been thrown in jail for being unpatriotic. I think we can also add the entire american revolution to that list since it would have been illegal if the Patriot Act would have existed back then!
The other documentary was about how reality shows are becoming more and more extreme and just how far they can push it. And if there can actually be a show like “The Running Man” in the near future. So I highly recommend you buying the DVD to see the documentaries, well worth the $15 I paid for it!
Well this has been fun. Once more, a weekend only dedicated to entertaining me, myself and I. Not really doing anything, no obligations to anyone or being anywhere. I like that a little know and then. And so I got to catch up on movie-watching ; “Schindler’s List” again. Damn that’s an awesome movie. One of those movies I can see over and over and still end up crying. I wonder if it’s a part of modern schooling to see that movie? It should be. “Scary Movie 3” ; hilarious movie, way better than I thought. The first one was hilarious, but second one was a little too much. But this one redeemed it. But they still do play alot on internal movie-jokes, and having Denise Richards as Sheen’s wife – nice! And then there was “Underworld”. I’ve never been a fan of either the warewolf or vampire genre, and this was all about that. But I enjoyed it alot anyway, pretty good action flic. And Kate as Selena is probably the sexiest thing on film since Elisabeth as the Devil in “Bedazzled”. And she did it all without smiling – once. Then there was “Duplex”. Nothing special really, “neighbor from hell” concept without any real surprises. No, I take that back. It was an unexpected use of music! But still pretty disappointing.
Have you heard all the fuzz about Gibson’s latest movie, “The Suffering”? If you haven’t – it’s a long movie about the last days of Jesus Christ as told by four gospels in the new testament. And I’ve been laughing quite hard at the reaction from both the christian and jewish camps! I haven’t seen the movie, and neither have most of them, so I can’t really say if it’s good or not, but I have read the Bible so I know a little about the story behind it. But that’s not what I’m laughing about. The christians are all jolly about this movie since it will englighten millions of people and everyone will start streaming back to the good old Churches looking for salvation and forgiveness. The jews are all worried about how the jews are portrayed as bad guys in the movie. And I’m not one to take religion that very seriously so I hope all christians and jews will forgive this ; havn’t they been saying the same thing for the past thousand years? Christians have gone all over the planet looking to christianify (I love making up words!) people, even with guns and cannons. And the jews have gone “feel sorry for us, it’s us against the world” for as far as I’ve known it. But with Schindler’s List (which btw is one of my all time favorite movies) coming to DVD next week they’ll get some payback, ’cause those people I really felt sorry for.
Personally I’ll just quote the Guru Kevin Smith:
“Tell a person that you’re the Metatron and they stare at you blankly. Mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and suddenly everybody is a theology scholar.”
– The Metatron in “Dogma“.
… or how about “Stigmata“:
“Jesus said…the Kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you, not in mansions of wood and stone. Split a piece of wood…and I am there, lift a stone…and you will find me.”
I could go on all day…