Reviews

Alexander

Directed by Oliver Stone (2004)

Oliver Stone always enjoyed making movies, that are either critical about their story it shows, or controversial in the matter of subjects, dealt with in the movie. Usually these criteria's has given him success and acknowledgement, but everything has its end. Alexander was in long look upon as the movie of the year. But the audience and reviewers gave it thumbs down, very fast. But is the movie really a thumb down movie? I say no. I can see why some might not like this movie. Its gives a quite gay view on some of the leading characters, and has some very long, maybe to long passages, the movie through out. And the acting, from some persons, really isn't that great. Alexander has its flaws and is controversial, due to its relaxed vision on gay relationships. But the real Alexander was like this. History has shown it. The director wished to make this movie as real as possible, even though it meant bringing this controversial vision of his main character. Actually a really known Scandinavian History magazine gave it 6 out of 6 stars, comparing the movie to the real actual Historical events.

The story deals with Alexander's war expedition through the whole known world. It begins with a narrator, and is told in flashback, from one of the involved characters. We first meat Alexander at a very young age, and thereafter he grows, and his intrigues with mother, father and other involved parties are introduced. From that point on, we follow Alexander the Great – and his conquest of the world.

The best acting performance in the movie comes from Val Kilmer, who under at lot of make up, gives a great performance as Alexander's father. Colin Farrell gives an almost likewise great performance, in this very difficult role. Jared Leto is good, but a bit too anonymous in the supporting role of Alexander's best friend, Hephaistion. Anthony Hopkins delivers another good piece of craftsmanship as the narrator, but otherwise nobody stands out of the crowd.

Technically the movie is stunning. An almost perfect atmosphere is given of the world with the excellent costumes, great art-set decoration, and a beautifully rough cinematography makes it look even better. Vangelis delivers another excellent score, of the best of 2004, and both the visual- and sound effects are great!

Oliver Stone has made a daring, mature and brave historical epic! Thumbs Up!

8/10

Pride & Prejudice

Directed by Joe Wright (2005)

Pride & Prejudice is another adaptation of Jane Austen's beloved novel. It has its focus on the main character Elizabeth, and her family, when their life is turned upside down, due to the new presence of two wealthy bachelors. We get comedy, tragic, and some exciting moments throughout the movie.

Actually this is the 7th version of the original novel, if you include mini-series and TV-movies. I have not seen any of these before. I have not read the novel either, or in fact - seen the two other successful and Oscar winning Austen adaptations: Sense and Sensibility and Emma. Jane Austen adaptations are actually a quite new area for me. And therefore I really did not know what I should expect from this movie, before I saw its ratings. When it came, they were, unlike to my suspicions, quite good! And the reviews followed, and suddenly Keira got some buzz, and then suddenly a Golden Globe nomination.

I have actually always liked Keira Knightley. I first noticed her as the soccer-hotty in Bend It Like Beckham, and from there she went on to a sudden Hollywood success in Pirates and the Caribbean, and a supporting role in the ambitious medieval movie King Arthur. The last movie a saw her in, before this one, was the "Butterfly Effect"-like twisted movie The Jacket, in which I thought she gave her best acting performance. All these characters really did not have anything in common with a young and inexperienced girl from the end of the 1700th century. How would she do this role? She did a great job! She used her naive looks and beauty and mixed it with the really sharp personality of her role, and delivered a complete character. Keira was defiantly the star of the movie, but that does not mean that she was the only actor shining through in this movie. Matthew MacFadyen delivered a good and solid performance in the role of her equal, Mr. Darcy. The rest of the crew, lead by Donald Sutherland, Rosamund Pike & Judi Dench helped making the overall cast performance have its high acting level. The only one who actually annoyed me a bit was Brenda Blethyn, who I thought, overacted a bit too much. But hey! Maybe her character really is so hysterical..?

The movie was beautiful filmed, and uses long camera shots, mixed with a discreet editing. The art-set decoration captures the spirit of the time well, and especially the costumes fit the characters very good. The score is nice, but not over-used.

A pleasant surprise and a wonderful motion picture debut for the newcomer Joe Wright. Keira shows that she is to be taken serious!

8/10

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Directed by Tommy Lee Jones (2005)

I have always liked Tommy Lee Jones as an actor. He has made some really great performances in the movies JFK, Heaven & Earth, and The Fugitive. And otherwise he has always been good, although he got some typecast in some stereotype roles. In 1995 he debuted as a director on TV, with the movie The Good Old Boys, which I sadly haven't seen. Now, he has joined some of his famous and acknowledged colleges like Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, Denzel Washington, and made the step from actor, to actor & director in his own very first motion picture - The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.

In this movie, Tommy plays the lead as Pete Perkins, who under some mysterious circumstances, finds out that his best friend has got killed. As a consequence of this, he reacts strong and dramatically, wanting to fulfil his old promise to his, now gone, friend.

The script is written by Guillermo Arriaga, and he mixes the characters and the beautiful landscape into an original story, dealing with many subjects. As said before, the movie is beautifully filmed and good edited. Aside from the director, the shooting star – Barry Pepper – delivers another very good and solid performance! He is a very good actor, which I hope to see a lot from in the future…

All in all a solid, and good piece of movie craft from Tommy Lee Jones, which I know respect more than ever!

8/10

Alien reviewed by Malte006

• " In Space No One Can Hear You Scream."

Directed by Ridley Scott (1979)

After having written and worked on John Carpenters cult sci-fi Dark Star, Dan O'Bannon decided that he would write another sci-fi space movie. But this time the audience wouldn't laugh. He decided to work on a script, he would once call Alien. After numerous re-writes the script was sent from producer to producer until one finally wanted to make the movie. After having talked to several (at the time) acknowledged and experienced directors without really having been impressed with either of their visions or ambitions with this movie, they finally offered the new comer Ridley Scott a chance at this movie. Although he really have not planned making a science fiction movie after his first movie, the period movie The Duellists, but although he accepted to take up the challenge.

Somewhere in the future, the cargo ship The Nostromo and its crew are heading home to earth after being on a work expedition. The suddenly get a distress signal from a ship on an unknown planet, and they decide to go down to investigate. On this planet they discover the very mysterious ship and while they are looking around, one of the crew members has gotten attacked by a strange kind of creature that has smashed through his space helmet and locked itself on his face, and putting him in a coma. He is brought back to the ship for examinations. After some time he awakes from his coma, with no damage to see. But the situation isn't quite so easy. I will not reveal more of the plot here. Watch it!

Alien is among my favourite movies and one of the few that I have giving a perfect rating. It has all the elements a sci-fi horror needs. It has suspense, shocking moments, perfect atmosphere and a creepy mood; really great acting by the whole ensemble, perfect sound and visual effects as is the cinematography and art-set decoration - and it has some unforgettable scenes!

I cannot recommend this movie enough!

10/10

Mean Streets

• "I f*uck you right where you breathe"

Directed by Martin Scorsese (1973)

Mean Streets came out in 1973 after Scorsese almost had the script under development in a decade. This is one of his first personal movies, describing the raw environment in the streets of Little Italy in NYC. We follow Charlie in the leading role and the bunch of guys around him. The hustler Johnny Boy owes a lot of money to the loan shark Tony and doesn't make his payments to him. Charlie now tries to work out a deal with Tony and is trying to get Johnny Boy to pull himself together, even though this looks like an impossible mission.

Scorsese's first motion picture Who's That Knocking at My Door and Mean Streets have many resemblances and contain the typical trademarks that Scorsese is now well known for. He almost always makes a character study of the life of lonely men, who are trying to get the best out of their situation in the asphalt jungle. Hustling, working, drinking, taking drugs etc. are very typical things to do for the persons appearing in his movies.

Mean Streets is photographed mostly with a hand hold camera, which helps create a raw look that fits pretty good to this environment. Also the movie doesn't contain an actual score. Actually songs from the director's personal music collection do work as the background music. The plot is this picture is only secondary. This is like many of Scorsese's other movie primarily a character driven story with a raw environment description.

The movie marks the start of one of the greatest director/actor collaborations ever! The role of Johnny Boy was Robert De Niro's role in a Scorsese picture, and later on he went to bigger leading roles under the director, which gave them both the reputation that they have today. Also this is Harvey Keitel's second leading role in a Scorsese picture, but after this movie Keitel and De Niro kind switched roles (see Taxi Driver).

This movie is not just a good movie - It also is the movie which helped form the foundation of Martin Scorsese's later pictures.

8/10

Min Morfars Morder

Directed by Søren Fauli & Mikala Krogh (2004)

In the occupied Denmark under the WII the Danish editor and journalist Carl Henrik Clemmensen was shot and murdered by the Danish SS Søren Kam. Here – about 60 years later, Clemmensens grandson, the Danish comedy filmmaker, Søren Fauli decides to make the journey the Germany, where Søren Kam now lives, and confront him. Not to punish him in any way – nor orally or physically, but to seek recognition for himself and his family, and to forgive this man for the terrible thing he did for about 60 years ago. In doing this, Søren Fauli believes that he can end this wicked circle, which has bothered his family and especially his mother ever since then.

First of all I must say that I was moved by this documentary. It is extremely personal and showing a very different side of Søren Fauli than the side of him we usually see. He is known as a very cheerful guy, but you wont think of that a second, once you have started watching this documentary. Its length is only about an hour, but the length fits the subject perfectly and helps the pace of the documentary and not making it seem slow at all. The very personal subject in this movie creates a tension of what really will happen if or when Fauli meets his grandfather's executioner. I'll give a big hand to Fauli for making this documentary. It is honest and mature – and we see a brand new aspect of Fauli's talent.

8/10

Strings Directed by Anders Rønnow-Klarlund (2004) The young prince Hal seeks to avenge his father, the king, for the murder made against him. This means travelling in disguise to infiltrate the enemy camp. But his journey brings him another truth than the one he original was seeking after.

This is one of the most original Danish movies made in a long time. Never has there been a Danish movie featuring only puppets as the actors of the movie. The technical element of the movie is great. Brilliantly cinematography means that this movie is captured as another "live action movie" in its genre. The art-direction is beautiful and fits the puppets very well. The sound effects-/monologue editing is superb and helps create a great atmosphere, along together with the above-mentioned aspects.

This means that it is a pity the story isn't nearly as original as the technical aspects. It is a very typical fantasy/adventure bringing no big surprises. It is shaped very dramatically, leaving no form for humour or funny sidekicks in the movie. This serious take at the story can be pretty linear at times, but if you have the patience to watch through this it can be interpreted as a good sign. Another shame is that there are no facial expression on the puppets, unlike other puppet movies like Team America: World Police. The puppets have the same expression on their faces through the whole movie; which doesn't help the emotional part of the movie.

The movie has some weak points, but even though it is still a good movie, and a very original and refreshingly technical take on the puppet movie genre.

7/10

Store Planer

Directed by Jesper W. Nielsen (2005)

Store Planer follows the 38 year old Willy, who comes right out of jail, and tries to get his plan to a record deal. But Willy soon discovers that his dreams and BIG PLANS are very difficult and tough to obtain. The movie has two sideplots, his relationship with his 9-year old son - and Willy's romance with the girl next door.

The story is quite clichéd and doesn't show anything new. Nevertheless it is entertaining and has some few laughs in it. Thomas Bo Larsen is good in the lead, and Lene Maria Christensen is also quite okay as his female partner.

6/10

Nordkraft

Directed by Ole Christian Madsen (2005)

This movie deals with three different people and each their story. The one thing they have in common is the fact that they all have roots in the drug world of the Danish city Aalborg. Maria's boyfriend is a minor local pusher, and she's going on waiting for something big to happen for them; though slowly recognizing that her dream has become an illusion. Allan returns to Aalborg after a serious accident hit him, when he worked on a ship in the Atlantic. Afters his returns his past catches up with him, and he must deal with some serious decisions. The last person we follow in Steso. Steso, or Thomas as he's really named, is a full time junkie, who's only purposes in life are his girlfriend and getting high constantly. But after his girlfriend has meat someone new, his present as he has known it till now is being threatened.

These are three good stories but without a main thread between the three of them. The director has used relatively young and inexperienced actors, with Thure Lindhart as the exception. This means that the acting has some flaws and doesn't seem convincing throughout the movie. But it helps give the movie a more rough tone and dialect, helping to create great atmosphere this movie has. The visual side is also really good, containing some really cool dolly shots of the leading characters. An interesting movie that shows that drugs and the problem that follows doesn't just exist in Copenhagen.

7/10

Pusher 3

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (2005)

"Hvem jeg er? F*cking King of Copenhagen!"

This is the final part of Nicolas Winding Refn's "Pusher Trilogy" – a movie series about the life of three different persons with a relationship to one another. In the first of three movies Pusher (1996) we follow the drug dealer Frank and his problems when he drops a big deal. In the same movie we meet Frank's friend the bum Tonny and Frank's supplier Milo. In Pusher II (2004) we followed Tonny's life after he comes out of jail, and in Pusher 3 it is Milo's character that is the leading character.

The movie follows one day in Milo's life. He is helping planning his grownup daughter's birthday party and he has a major drug deal going on. But something in the deal goes wrong when Milo is tricked by his "partner". Milo now stands between the men he owes money and the man who owes him money. To solve all his problems Milo has to make some drastic and dramatic decisions and do some gruesome things. This includes among other things involving his old friend Radovan, known from "Pusher".

Pusher 3 is a great finish to Refn's series about the Copenhagen drug world. Zlatko Buric is amazing in his first leading role, as the old drug dealer/supplier Milo. If you liked his role and performance in Pusher, you will love him here! The movie has some very disturbing scenes and the cinematography helps the movie to appear very realistic. This movie shows a scary environment, interesting and frightening characters and contains a disturbing story.

8/10

Anklaget "Accused"

Directed by Jacob Thuesen (2005)

The every day life of an ordinary family father is shredded to pieces, when he is accused of having had intercourse / incest with his 13-year old daughter. We follow the father Henrik, and how his life and whole existence is turned upside down. Even before the case against him begins, everybody except his loving wife and his best friend now takes an extra look at him. And when he gets be remanded in custody he is close to devastation.

This is an original story that deals with a very controversial and unpleasant subject. It is disturbing but though realistic, thanks to the actors and director who handles this case excellent. Troels Lyby gives a great leading performance as the accused father, and in the two supporting roles as his wife and as his best friend we find Sofie Gråbøl and Paw Henriksen who solves their roles very good. Especially Sofie Gråbøl gives her character depth and credibility.

8/10

De Nåede Færgen "They Caught the Ferry" (1948)

Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer.

This short movie is an adaptation of the famous Danish writer Johannes V. Jensen's short story with the same title.

In order to reach his ferry before it leaves to harbor a young couple has to drive fast. And faster he goes. And he likes it. He likes the thrill of a fast ride. But when you live a fast life, it can be over sooner than you know.

This short was made as an anti-speed movie when there were no speed limits in Denmark, to scare people from driving to fast. It is directed by Denmark's most famous director Carl Theodor Dreyer, and again he proves that he masters the screen element. Especially the editing is very good throughout the short movie.

8/10

Melinda and Melinda

Directed by Woody Allen (2004)

By Malte006

The movie starts with a group of people having a discussion. Among these people are a drama director and a comedy director. Another of the people from the group gives a short plot outline for a story, and the two directors each give their vision on how the story should take form and evolve. We now follow the two stories about Melinda and her life – a tragic- and a happier version.

First of all the theme of this movie really reminded me of Peter Hewitt's Sliding Doors – following the same person and seeing how her different choices reflect her life. The story is original, and Radha Mitchell gives a solid performance in the lead. I really first noticed her in Finding Neverland where she gives a great performance as Johnny Depp's lonesome wife. I have also seen her in two other supporting roles in Pitch Black and Phone Booth. In Melinda and Melinda she proves that she has the quality play the leading character of a movie.

The rest of the cast with among others Chloë Sevigny and Chewietel Ejiofor delivers solid performances. The score and cinematography are both good, and all in all a fine little movie, showing the possibilities of life and the choices you make

7/10

I just saw this movie on my first viewing and it really impressed me! Being a Sci-Fi fan the picture was a clear "must see" for me.

I didn't know what directly to expect - its star was the "now turned comedy actor" Leslie Nielsen. I really like some of his never spoofs but I haven't really seen him in a "serious" or "non-comedy" role before; except his small performance in "The Poseidon Adventure", which I really loved - though it was a really small role.

Beside Mr. Nielsen, the stars of the movie are the two time Oscar nominee Walter Pigeon and Anne Francis. I haven't seen anything from either of the two before.

Well, to the movie. I didn't have the big expectations once I started - but after the movie really started I really found it interesting. It has a great design, both costume and art-direction; very futuristic and you can see on the most of the set, that it was made in 1950s. But that isn't a problem at all - actually it gives the movie a really cool-retro look - giving this movie a real charm!

The acting wasn't great - but it suddenly wasn't bad either! Like the production design and costumes I really loved the special effects. It is a really magnificent piece of work for the time in which it was made. And the script story was marvelous. It really never stands still, and the story is always evolving!

A MUST SEE - not only for hardcore Sci-Fi fans!

Gegen die Wand "Head-On"

By Malte006

I was really overwhelmed be this movie. I had read some articles about it – saying that this one was a great little gem from Germany. I starts out in a great pace and continues to hold this pace throughout the rest of the movie until the end, where it slows down – I bit much to down after my opinion.

The story is about two persons Sibel and Cahit. Cahit is an immigrant from Turkey at the age at 40 and is living as a bum – starting and ending his day with a box of beer. Sibel is a second-generation immigrant likewise from Turkey; a really nice-looking girl, who's passion of to become free from her religious parents and life her life with parties, sex and alcohol – like an ordinary teenager. But she has to get married to get away from her parents. So, she and Cahit make a pro forma marriage and officially they're now married happily with each other. Unofficially they continue their lives almost separately from each other. But then their emotions for each other suddenly evolve and a drama with many conflicts starts.

I really enjoyed this movie which includes great acting performances, a great script and a fantastic direction by Faith Akin.

9/10