Reviews

Very intense (And you just never get a break!)

No seriously; you NEVER get a break.

This movie is clever in the way it utilizes stress-factors to get the viewer into the drama. It's completely relentless and will pound on you over and over and over until the movie ends.

Having never been on a hijacked aircraft I can't speak of what it feels like, but my guess is it could be a lot like the tension in this film.

That part works beautifully and is mastered close to perfection here.

For the aviation-geeks; yes there are a few moments where you need to just go with the flow. But those moments are few and for the most part this is kept within sanity and reason.

The actor-performances are all-around great and believable.

The visuals are very good. Making flight-movies that look like actually flying is not easy, but this film pulls it off. No 'crappy' CGI is used and I'm guessing the director opted to avoid scenes that would be too difficult to get to look realistic (The; 'less is more' option) So no 'smart' outside scenes of flying aircraft or anything like that. For the entire movie we are 'along for the ride', onboard this hijacked aircraft, and get to experience the whole thing from 'within'.

That raises the level of suspense really. Enhances the drama and makes the whole thing feel that much more 'in your face'.

This movie is worth watching.

Final note; had I been the pilot I would have dumped cabin-pressure and just let the hijackers pass out... and of course lost all the passengers at the same time too. I don't think I'm giving away any spoilers by saying that they don't actually do that in this movie :)

I just watched this movie, knowing nothing about it. Just a random chance-selection (No pun intended, although you may think it was a pun once you see this film)

I have to say, after having just watched it, I feel pretty much just like 'Isaac' appeared to feel when the 3rd set of data rolled in and illuminated the screen on his apartment-wall (See the movie and this comment will make sense)

Very moving film. Very intelligent film. Very broad film, in fact. although it has none of the usual wideness or image-splendor you would expect in a scifi-movie.

Where most scifi movies tend to go with grand or elaborate visual scenery, this one does almost the opposite. And by doing so it gets the magical quality you can get from reading a book. That is very clever.

So there are no wild CGI effects or spaceship dog-fights or lasers shooting all over the place. But there is all the more passion. And depth.

It is really a beautiful movie. But actually a more inward-looking movie than outward-looking.

It has some of the same qualities that "Contact" had. Some of the same fundamental questions and considerations that come when thinking about whether life is widespread in the universe or not.

But it is a much deeper film than "Contact", and IMO a better film.

The cast is brilliant. The story-progression well paced.

The colorgrading... clever enough to never make you lose focus on the story.

The sound-track... great in the scenes with Clara, where it really helped build her story-line, but just a tad too 'smart' (Or overly 'artsy' perhaps) in a few places. But generally fine.

And yes, as other reviewers have said, there is indeed a risk of 'tearfall' with this movie (Is that not what all good movies do?)

I recommend this film. But be warned it IS a strong one, which may provoke you into thinking or even be emotionally impacted. It is NOT 'light reading'.

The story was interesting and the pacing was sublime.

It's not a movie without problems though, 2 of them in particular.

First: the actors are not 'big-budget' super-stars, so the level of 'familiarity' is obviously not the same as it is with 'big' moves.

This detracts slightly from the immersion-factor.

Couple that with the second problem; that the movie doesn't spend enough time character-building, and we are unavoidably faced with the feeling that these guys we go on a journey with are all still more or less strangers.

Especially the female astronaut. She wasn't introduced before the mission was underway, so that just didn't work as well as it might have.

The story itself, however, was great. The concept. What this movie was really about. That worked very well.

It's not really important if one agrees or not with how the events unfolded, since this would likely be different for different people anyway, but the pace of the build-up was just brilliant.

So a clever and thought-provoking movie.

Visually it had some spectacular moments as well, even though this never appeared to be a focus-point of the film. Personally I really liked how space kind of became more and more psychedelic as the mission progressed deeper and deeper. I thought that was a subtle stroke of genius that fit the story perfectly. It made everything feel all that more in sync.

The movie did not appear to portray a realistic space-mission, at least I hope not, but rather tried to make a play on some potential emotional aspects that are perhaps more fundamental to life on a broader scale and where using a space-mission as the 'container' for the story seemed to make good sense.

A fine movie. Not a perfect movie, but a movie that does make an impression in a good way.

It give it 7 stars and recommend it :)

I just watched "The Chamber" (2016)

I had never heard of that movie, not even seen the trailer, so it was a gamble when I started it.

The poster-image and short synopsis just made it look like it could be interesting and worthwhile. It didn't actually say much about what to expect from the movie, other than that it was about some people being trapped at the bottom of the ocean in some small, but otherwise un-defined, chamber.

It didn't really give a clue as to what this chamber was. A sunken boat or ship? An alien city? Underground caves? It just said 'a small chamber'.

Ok, why not, I've been pleasantly surprised before by unknown movies, so I figured it was worth a shot :)

The movie begins... somebody comes walking in semi-dirty socks... on some ship of some kind... clearly not first class or anything remotely 'blinged up' (I first thought it was a fishing-boat actually, simply because of another movie I watched recently, which was an Alien-clone movie taking place on a fishing-boat starring Lance Henriksen (you know, the knife-wielding robot in Alien2 who preferred to be called 'artificial person' :) ))

Anyway, it turns out it's not a fishing-boat but some kind of research-vessel... and that the guy with the semi-dirty socks speaks swedish...

Hang on, I think to myself, the other day I started an unknown movie that begins with somebody speaking danish... now I start one that begins with somebody speaking swedish... deja vu or what? :)

I kind of hope so at that point, because the one that began with somebody speaking danish turned out to be awesome, so how cool would it be if this movie actually repeated that.

And then the movie just takes off :)

It doesn't wait around to build up or lead on before it gets going. It just takes off. Just like that :)

I suppose they could have made it 2 hours long and have it go at a slower pace, but the anti-procrastination of this movie actually works pretty well for its style and story. By doing it this way we (the audience) are kind of put in the same boat (pardon the pun) as the lead-character who doesn't really know what's going on. He's just being thrust into a situation he doesn't know anything about, and so are we along with him.

It was a very tense 1½ hour that followed :)

It's really only 4 people in the main bulk of the movie, but they are superb. I have seen the swedish actor before, but I didn't know the other 3. But they were cast exceptionally well. The tension was really palpable. No nonsense of any kind (No silly VFX or pointless jump-scares or lame senseless dialog), but just clean images and tight acting and well thought-out story-line all the way through.

And the music was perfect too, really getting your heart racing and your nerves sweating :)

It really felt like we (the audience) were there, like we were the 5th person along with the 4 others, being given the real deal, that our lives were really on the line with every decision made, in this movie, and not just watching it from a safe distance like some kind of theater-play. In that way the format the director chose for this film was simply brilliant.

The story is very cool, but I won't say what it's about (Find out for yourself :) )

And just to cement it; the cast is crazy-good :) Their performances were A-list good.

And the ending... damn... I can't really say anything without giving it away, but damn, very strong :)

I recommend this movie.

Surrounded by people and, well, a life you don't really fully comprehend.

And yet it keeps happening to you.

It does not really make sense, but then; does anything?

Why do you suddenly find trash in the river?

Why do people you brunch with suddenly laugh?

Why do you need to pee?

Why do some people drink insane amounts of soda?

Why does the word "wait" means "wait"?

Why is a beeping tone the universal pause-code?

Why does Paladin have a gun and will travel?

Why do singing give such pleasure?

And the list goes on in this short view into a fraction of Rosa's life :)

If you don't fall in love with Rosa after this, well, then you are going through life while sleeping.

I did not read the book.

I watched the trilogy in 1 go, treating it like a 6-hour long single movie.

Watch it that way and it works :)

Watch any of the 3 episodes alone and it will not work (hence the many bad reviews here)

If you have a short attention-span; a 6-hour long movie may be hard for you to digest, but 6 hours of focus is what this film requires of you if you want to get it (It's not a 'quick-meal' that will spoon-feed you, but one that takes effort on your part)

I guess in a sense its name is a give-away ;) (MAZE being the key-word here)

All the bad reviews are from people expecting the movie's 'maze' to be solved FOR them. They got angry when it wasn't, and thus scored it badly. They did not understand the full movie because they narrowed their focus to a single episode or perhaps simply did not pay enough attention during the whole thing or did not even watch or perceive the entire trilogy as one.

Everything is explained in the full trilogy, so if you are left with questions after watching it; don't worry, just watch it again and try harder :) It's all in there. Every detail.

I did not read the book.

I watched the trilogy in 1 go, treating it like a 6-hour long single movie.

Watch it that way and it works :)

Watch any of the 3 episodes alone and it will not work (hence the many bad reviews here)

God this movie scared me so much. Really terrified the insides out of me.

Damn, that doesn't happen often.

I just watched it and it was deeply moving.

And the ending... I had a struggle not to tear up there.

Vision and sound is spot on. The sound-track works fantastic with the scenery and events (I listened in headphones, which I would recommend, or a very good sound-system playing it loud (To let the claustrophobia come really through))

The story was sensible. No nonsense. It worked.

Cinematography perfect.

One of the best movies I have seen in years.

Truly scared me. And moved me.

I give it 9 out of 10 and recommend this movie fully.

(Damn, I'm still shaking uncontrollably)

Seriously amazing film.

If I should review this movie in a single word: CLICHÉ.

First; it was really good to see "Luke Skywalker" again. Mark Hamill is, after all, one of the originals.

I really enjoyed that.

Everything else was bad.

There was no coherent story or characters. Just a mash-up of StarWars clichés, with no direction, and a random mix of characters we never got close to.

It didn't really feel like a StarWars movie at all. Actually "Rogue One" felt much truer to the StarWars-universe than these last 2 'true' StarWars films ("The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi")

All the characters where rushed and didn't integrate at all with the story.

The story itself didn't have any real direction.

It felt exactly like being sucker-punched by a greedy cold corporation, just wanting to squeeze fans for some money by mixing a pot of 'fools gold' pretending it to be a StarWars movie. "Hey look, it says StarWars on the tin (You dumb sucker)"

I'm so utterly disappointed.

It wasn't even good as a stand-alone movie.

No doubt this movie has a political statement to make. But it's completely honest about it. Very refreshing, even if you agree, or not, with its mission.

Technically the movie is where you would expect a modern day blockbuster to be. Good image, good sound, no goofs. Well made in every way.

Acting is really good. The casting is spot on. The flow is good, so even though the movie may appear to be long, with a 130 minute run-time, it never feels like it's dragging along.

The level of fun and action, AND seriousness, is pretty well balanced. It's a feel-good mood film, that does actually allow some drama to enter at just the perfect dosage (So it's not overdone and becomes cliché-like, but is all the more effective)

It did remind me a bit of Cameron's The Abyss (Another cool movie)

It made me laugh (I'm just going to say CocaCola, been there done that LOL) It made me cry (Who knew you could miss ones and zeros, but this film makes it possible)

If you prefer dark themes (Like that of the low-budget crime-shows all the cheap TV-channels show 24/7) you'll not like this film. If you're not a fan of the super-hero hype, all the Marvel stuff, then you're in luck; this movie doesn't have those (But if you ARE a fan, then you still won't go home completely empty-handed; there ARE scenes that will appeal to you even if they aren't exactly like iron-man) If you like the 60s, you're in luck. If you like scifi, you're in luck. If you like 'normal' life-styles, you're in luck. If you like Paris, you're in luck. The list is long :)

A thoroughly enjoyable movie. No less.

Reviewing the movie: "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (8/10 stars)

The previous film; "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", was such a disappointment to me that I wasn't expecting R1 to be any good. However, I'm glad to say those 2 movies are nothing alike.

R1 felt true to the original spirit of the first Star Wars movie (episode4) and feels like it sits perfectly as episode 3½ (which I suppose it's aiming for, although not officially, given the story- line)

There was nothing that felt out-of-place or 'wrong', in how it told the story preceding episode 4, which actually is a bit stunning considering the movie is made 40 years after episode 4.

This is VERY well done! :)

Not even the hair-styles felt out of place.

Also, thank the force, there was no Jar Jar Binks.

So, the story fits, the visuals fit, the sounds fit, in pretty much all regards R1 feels like a true Star Wars film. Understanding how much Star Wars have become almost a kind of religion to fans, that is a really huge accomplishment.

George Lucas himself messed up with episode 1, 2 and 3 (and to some extent also with his re-makes of episode 4, 5 and 6 (although, in all fairness, I do like the remade version of Jabba the Hutt more than the original human character (played by Thomas Declan Mulholland) that was supposed to be in the very first release of episode 4, but ended up as a deleted scene))

And Jeffrey Jacob "J.J." Abrams, who directed episode 7 is just no good at directing (He's good at producing though). Even though he has a cool middle-name he has not directed a single movie I liked ("Mission: Impossible III" was OK, but the rest of his directing- work is all terrible)

So, as a long time fan of Star Wars, watching episode 3½ was like seeing the first real new Star Wars film since episode 6 (from 1983) So for me there are 4 real Star Wars films; episode 4, 5, 6 and now; 3½.

So is there nothing wrong or bad to say about this new one? Yes; the 3D version was 'fake 3D' (as in; a conversion from 2D to 3D), although a very well made 'fake 3D'. If you don't know what to look for, you may not notice it's a conversion, but once you know what 'real 3D' looks like; you can tell it's a conversion. It's not really a problem, unless you're a purist. In my world; 'fake 3D' (conversions from 2D) is to 'real 3D' what CGI-characters like Jar Jar Binks is to real people; just stupid and annoying.

Speaking of CGI-characters; it was actually quite fun to see how Governor Tarkin and princess Leia was brought to life in this. In episode 4 Tarkin is played by Peter Wilton Cushing (He made some seriously cool cult horror-films in the old days. Actually he's made a ton of cool films. A magnificent actor. One of the few really great ones), who passed away in 1994. I guess in the near future real actors will no longer be needed, since it's now possible to hire any face you want. They weren't perfect (the facial movements and eyes still don't look fully natural), but they were close (If you don't know the original actors It IS possible you wouldn't notice). Especially Leia (although she only had one scene, where Tarkin had a full role)

About the story; ever since the original in 1977, female protagonists have been common. This one is no exception. Actually it takes it a bit further; this time the main-lead, Jyn (played by Felicity Rose Hadley Jones), is a full-on solo lead. I guess you could say it does in fact deviate a bit from the originals here, in that we only really get one main-lead. She does have friends that help, but it's not quite the band, or group of close friends, of leads, all with their own personal story-line, like we saw in the originals.

It gives it a bit of a Joan-of-Arc feel, which actually works very well for the story and how it plays out. I don't know if that was an intentional decision, but it happens to fit the story perfectly.

Finally; Darth Vader is, and here it comes across even better than in the originals, just the most formidable villain in all movie- history. The main scene he has in R1 is just too cool. So super awesomely cool that it is down-right epic! Who ever designed that scene... wrote it, filmed it, edited it, lighted it, the lot... that crew is just a pack of pure genius talent! I was just blown away by that scene :) THAT was the REAL Darth Vader right there. Fantastic.

That's it. What a cool film :)

I saw a DVD release of this, and technically it's not a master-piece (sound, image and editing), but content-wise it's one of the first movies in a long (looong) time that gets close to having the same excellent spirit that is in the old "nightmare on elm street" films :) Sure, it's not at all similar, in terms of story, but it just has that special something that makes it very enjoyable to watch.

Great cast :) The movie could easily have been longer. In fact it should have been, since there were some scenes that seemed to come out of the blue (Benny and the popcorn-girl scene, for example) like something was edited out.

It's quite obvious that this is a pilot to a serial, rather than made to be just a standalone film. But if you love the show, getting the backstory is very pleasing. In the show there are many references to past events, but in the film we finally (I saw the serial before the film, so everything is chronologically reverse for me) see these things happen :)

It's fun, it'll make you smile, it's friendly, and it's even a bit scary at times :)

All in all a keeper you can easily watch more than once :)

(I just wish it was released on bluray though, and with as good sound-quality as the show has when broadcast on Disney-channel. The DVD is sub-standard technically so that's why I give it 7 out of 10. The like-factor is higher)

You know how music has these boy-bands/girl-bands where there's a group of people so everybody has one to love. This movie follows the same commercial lame recipe.

It's basically a copy of NCIS, or NCI, or NCIS-LosAngeles, or NCIS-Florida, or whatever it is all those spin off nonsensical shows are called these days.

It's one big caricature that even amateurs can't make as bad as these producers managed to do.

This 'movie' is a total waste of watching-time if you like quality-TV.

It gets 2 out of 10 because it's about time-travel, but deserves zero out of 10 for it's lameness.

I have nothing good to say about this 'movie'. So stereotypical of current commercial TV it's to cry for.

Yuck, yuck and more yuck.

End-of-review.

Chinese movies of this type are very appealing. This one fits in with the likes of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (this worlds best movie), "House Of Flying Daggers" and "Hero". It doesn't quite achieve the same level of greatness, but is surely in the same spirit.

So the story is touching, and in a way that these movies do better than any other. It's not quite developed enough though. In fact, it feels like the fight-scenes had priority over the story. Had the priority (between story and fight-scenes) been shifted the other way around, I think this movie might have been top-league.

When you've seen blood splatter out the mouth of some poor kungfu-blasted victim for the umpteenth time it gets to be a bit of a cliché. The fight-scenes weren't badly done, there was just way too much of it.

The movie feels a bit rushed, like there perhaps wasn't enough time to finish it properly. A bit like "hurry up, we haven't got all day, just wrap it up as it is and hope nobody will notice the slack", and "don't worry if it's half-finished, we'll just throw in another fight-scene and call it a day". That detracted quite a bit. I wouldn't go so far as to say it had the Hollywood mass-production feel to it, but neither did it achieve the true-art feeling that the 3 master-pieces I mention at the top has.

Still, it is a moving film that did indeed manage to pull on the heart-strings. But it just could have been better.

Pilots aren't great thinkers. At least not Rosa Dasque.

Rosa apparently has a saying that goes a little something like this:

"Compared to the breadth of knowledge yet to be known... what does your life actually matter?"

Well Rosa, I'll tell you what it matters; it matters everything! If you're not alive you can't know any of your knowledge. Knowledge can only exist if someone knows it. Knowledge without life... is an oxymoron. So Rosa, my advice to you; stop thinking and just concentrate on the piloting!

OK, stepping out of the movie's universe; Anamaria Marinca is well cast as Rosa Dasque. I was very impressed with her performance and character-vividness. She's clearly a competent and skilled actor. In fact all the actors do a wonderful job in this movie (or maybe the director is just really good)

Actually it's much easier to simply jump straight to the conclusion, which is that "Europa Report" is really one of the most impressive space-themed movies around. There is so much to like about it that it easily qualifies as one of the best scifi movies you can find as of the year 2014. I think you have to go all the way back to the 1960s to find movies that attempt to keep it real as much as "Europa Report" does. And that is truly refreshing!

Tech-stuff first:

The image-quality (I watched it on blu-ray, which is sadly not available in all countries. In Denmark it's only officially released on DVD so to get a blu-ray version you have to import it. That's so sad) is top-notch. Clearly worth watching on blu-ray for the finer details and the visual candy (and there's plenty in "Europa Report" to feast the eyes). It's shot on digital, but that works in favor of this movie actually (since it's styled to appear in part as a documentary. Incidentally, if that turns you off, don't worry about it, its style does actually feel like a regular movie and not like a gimmick)

And I have to mention the color-grading to, at pet peeve of mine, THANK YOU for grading this movie in such a beautiful way! None of that crazy duo-color tone that so many modern block-busters is haunted by. The color-grading of "Europa Report" is spot-on! That's how you do it! Perfect!

The audio and soundtrack is top-notch. Dialog is easy to hear (this movie is not plagued by the annoying trend of lowering speech to levels that are foolishly low and raising effects to levels that are foolishly loud. Good balance which still retains impressive sound-effects) and sound-track does an excellent job of setting the mood without becoming obtrusive or taking attention away from the story. Great work.

Style-stuff:

It appears we're watching a special documentary about this space-mission (supposedly presented to us as something that has already happened) to Jupiter's moon Europa. That's the premise, it seems. While this may sound like it couldn't possibly carry a whole movie, it is actually not very intrusive. I didn't feel much different than I do when watching a 'normal' movie (with the usual type of linear storyline progression). The suspense and immersion, for me anyway, was just as good as with 'normal' movies. I wasn't thrown off by this style-choice. In fact I think it was a good choice, the way they did it, for the story of this movie.

There's a good balance between personal stuff (the typical 'getting to know the people', whatever the main story is) and the actual story (the events that our little band of likable protagonists are thrust through) The movie never resorts to pointless clichés, unless you consider launch countdowns a cliché (there are a couple, but this is a space-movie afterall, launch-countdowns are mandatory.), or tons of geeky stuff like foolish techie-talk without real meaning that is just there to sound cool and smart (the movie never takes any cheap-shots like that)

The storyline (the space-mission events), when considered linearly (in the movie its presented non-linearly), is rather fluid in the sense that you never have any definite character-leads but rather a team-effort (there's no good-guy vs bad-guy stereotyping, but a sense of allroundness/completeness to all the characters. They appear more real, more human, than characters often do in most movies. I liked that a lot)

The movie-set, both inside and outside the space-ship, is actually quite impressively made. Again they hit the perfect balance between coolness and meaningfulness. For example, there is no flashing lights that flash just to have something flashy flashing. The outfits aren't parodies either. Too many space-themed movies have space-suits that make you cry, but thankfully "Europa Report" is not one of these movies. And they're not wearing gadgets that are just there for the fluff-effect. Everything really seems to have been given thought rather than being left to randomness (an effort you have to respect given that this movie, as most space-themed movies, aren't likely to appeal to the same broad mainstream audience as more traditional movies)

There's a lot of good to say about this movie. It may not be a chick-flick as such, although that obviously depends on the chick, but is likely more appealing to those who already have an interest in the theme of space.

All in all I can easily recommend getting and watching this movie. It's easily one of the best scifi movies you can find as of the year 2014. It is really brilliant and well done in all aspects of the production.