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alexxarian
Reviews
Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
A symptom of our collective stupidity
'God, this movie is so stupid!' was the main reaction I had while watching it. I have to admit that the first 30 minutes are quite exciting. It goes completely down hill after that. I haven't seen a pure action movie for some time and it might be that I'm getting too old for this crap but watching stuff like this just makes me despair over the spiritual and mental state of mankind. How can a huge team of people work on projects as stupid and useless as this? What kinds of values do you people pursue? How can supposedly successful and hard-working people come up with this kind of garbage? This doesn't go for this movie specifically but all waste that this sad bunch of humans are dedicating their sad pathetic lives to create. It is an insult to and a negative influence on our collective intelligence. It's no wonder that the world is in such a sorry state. Shame on you all.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Confusing and frightening
I have watched several other QT movies and I liked all of them. Not this one though. I thought QT had a dark but intelligent sense of humor. Seeing this movie has convinced me that it's dark only. He takes a subject as tragic as WW2 and makes not one single effort to honor the very real suffering that millions of people had to experience. No show of empathy, compassion or mercy. The bloodthirsty revenge theme worked for Kill Bill but that was one messed up woman hunting a bunch of even more messed up freaks and the visual art and music were the main quality anyway. I'm actually starting to question QT's emotional health. This movie makes him appear as a sadistic narcissist. It's simply disgusting. One point goes to Waltz' performance which was amazing and really wasted on a film like this. I wish I hadn't seen it, it made me depressed and disillusioned with parts of humanity. The emotional response this movie invoked in me is pretty much the straight opposite of what I got from Avatar, which I also saw recently. Then again, I guess the universe isn't quite done yet with its need to manifest nihilism and violence and that's probably why these lame movies keep being made. But maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm just too stupid to understand QT's genius. If that is the case so be it, I'd rather focus on other perspectives of reality than this one.
Six Feet Under (2001)
A true masterpiece
This show is deeply, beautifully, hilariously, mundanely, cruelly, heart-wrenchingly - the list could go on and on - ALIVE. Watching it felt almost like experiencing several lifetimes condensed into 50+ hours. I've never before experienced such a range and depth of emotions through this artistic medium. I wouldn't say that Six Feet Under catches every single aspect of the human condition but it comes painfully close, especially where it matters. If you feel misanthropic or cynical about life at times, if you would like to widen your perspective and can handle being in pain in addition to laughing yourself silly over people's imperfections and perfections, if you feel that you'd like to mature a bit, if you long for improving your understanding of what love is about, then this show is definitely for you.
District 9 (2009)
The Chewbacca District
Yesterday I felt like watching some good movie so I went on the Oslo cinematographer's website and looked through the reviews of the current films. To my great surprise I found District 9 there and it had been given 5 or 6 dice rolls (very common grading system in Norwegian media) both by newspapers and the public. Since I'm a huge sci-fi geek and I'm totally starved for GOOD sci-fi movies, I thought that this must be my lucky day. God, how wrong I was.
Before I start spewing poison here, I want to make some remarks about the good sides of this film. It is visually stunning. The special effects are awesome, even now that we are totally used to them looking 100% real. It appears very serious to begin with. Aspects of it are extremely realistic, it is very visceral and brutal. When it comes to violence and gore it made me feel like I was watching a sci-fi version of City of God. There were no previously known faces to me, not good per se but it helped increase the realism even more. There are some very sad parts, it depicts human cruelty and prejudice very well at times. I'm sure there are many more positive things to say about it.
What is the problem with it then? I'll tell you what the problem is. Where it counts, the movie makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. What is the problem with that, you may ask. The problem is that the movie starts off in a documentary style and tries to appear as realistic as possible. This totally stopped me from suspending disbelief, like I usually do when watching movies I expect to suck in the logic department. From the ratings I had seen and from the first 30 minutes or so of the movie, my expectations were sky high. To begin with I thought that this would be one of the best sci-fi movies I'd ever seen. Then, as the nonsense started to make itself more apparent, I started worrying and hoping that they would fix it somehow. But they didn't, the longer I watched the more apparent it became how stupid this movie really is. It makes as much sense as the Chewbacca Defence. It would be an insult to your intelligence if I had to explain why this is so, but I'll mention some points anyway. There is no way, and I mean NO WAY that the different parts of humanity (and the aliens) would have acted in the way they did. It's as simple as that. The logic in this movie is so completely flawed (and I don't mean the sci-fi stuff, I'm OK with that since that is meant to be accepted) that the story, including the prologue, main story, ending and each individual character's actions, seems as plausible as if the whole world were to convert to Scientology within the next two weeks. In the end I was forced to totally suspend judgment after all (something I am not able to unless I'm watching something that is MEANT to be nonsensical). I managed to take some pleasure from the 'awesome' action and special effects, in the same way that I can take pleasure from eating a McDonald's hamburger. But there is no way I can feel content when I was led to believe that I would get served some gourmet dish from the 21st century.
I am not saying that this is the dumbest movie ever made but it doesn't make more sense than most Michael Bay movies. The main problem is that it gives the opposite signals. It acts and pretends like it is a great and realistic movie but it is not. The story could easily have been so so so much better. I really don't understand what is wrong with filmmakers in this day and age. Is there some conspiracy to keep people dumbed down? I also want to criticize those of you who gave this movie a high rating. Michael Bay style movies don't deserve high ratings, and this movie definitely doesn't. I'm close to completely losing faith in the judgment of the majority, even when it comes to something supposedly as straight forward as entertainment.
If somebody could point me to a movie reviews website where logical coherence is a big factor in judging a movie's quality, I'd appreciate it immensely.
Si j'étais toi (2007)
Made me remember what being in love feels like
This movie turned out to be a total emotional roller coaster for me. I haven't cried so much for a long time. The combination of real life drama with fiction made the movie feel very spiritual and much deeper than most realistic dramas feel. Apart from the supernatural premise, the rest of the movie is very realistic and well acted. Duchovny's performance is excellent and I love the peaceful aura he always portrays. When it comes to Olivia all I can say is that her beauty and acting talent go hand in hand to create a heartbreakingly beautiful synergy. She strongly reminds me of Milla when she was younger. This film contains such a rich and complex artistic portrayal of some of the most beautiful and painful aspects of life that I'm tempted to consider it epic. I think this is a prime example that cinema is evolving in the right direction. Thank you so much for creating art like this.