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Sista kontraktet (1998)
A cross between "Day of the Jackal" and "JFK"
On 28 February 1986, the Swedish prime minister, Olof Palme, was assassinated in Stockholm. The assassin has never been found. This movie tells the story of how the killing _might_ have happened, without pointing any fingers at who were pulling the threads. Swedish policeman Roger Nyman is promoted to the Special Branch/Secret police. He stumbles across the information that an international hitman is in Sweden. What is he up to? As Nyman uncovers the chilling truth, his investigation is ignored, if not directly hampered by his superiors.
The movie shows an interesting and vivid account of Sweden in the mid-eighties, and in a way accuses the Swedish general public of allowing an atmosphere to arise, in which the assassination became possible. But it also works as an exciting thriller, even if you have never heard the name Olof Palme before. A cross between "The Day of the Jackal" and Oliver Stone's "JFK" springs to mind. This movie deserves a larger audience than, as a Swedish film, it is probably going to get.
Fatherland (1994)
Disappointing film adaptation of great book
It is rarely possible to watch the movie of a book that you have read before, and be impressed by the movie. Fatherland is not an exception. Of course changes have to be made to any story to adapt it to the film-medium, but in Fatherland, as in so many other cases, incomprehensible and unnecessary changes are made to the entire plot, changing the whole feel of the story, turning an intelligent and though-provoking book into an over-simplified, mindless action-movie. And of course they had to change the ending, we must have happy endings, mustn't we?
I probably wouldn't have been so harsh in my judgement had I not read the book before I saw the film, that I admit. The film definitely has its good points. But since I have read the book, I know that the film could have been so much better! Save your video-money, go to the library and lend the book!
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Don't believe the hype
First, this is a good movie. I gave it an eight out of ten. But to all of you who have called it the greatest war-movie ever; you haven't seen enough movies. It may be the best American war-movie, but it isn't nearly as good as for example "Stalingrad", or "Das Boot". It starts out very good, the famous first twenty minutes are really very good. But then it deteriorates steadily. Especially, it is very one-sided. Some people say it's an anti-war movie, I can't agree with that. This movie shows only the allied soldiers as human, and the Germans as faceless monsters. The real horror of war is that there are ordinary scared young men on both sides. This dimension is lost completely in this movie.
Godzilla (1998)
Great entertainment!
Finally a disaster movie that is not a disaster itself! This is the most fun I have had in a cinema since the Fifth Element. The makers of the film have been consistent in their approach, they have gone for an entertaining film with LOTS of special effects and they don't take themselves seriously for a second. This is where the strength of this film lies. Many critics have complained about cardboard characters and no originality, well in my view, that's the whole point! This is made as a FUN movie, the thousands of clichés are there quite intentionally. It is the action and Godzilla himself that "carrie" the movie. If you tried going for character development in this film, you would get a ridiculous clash of styles. In a film where a several hundred feet tall lizard is attacking New York, any attempts at seriousness at any point would just be out of place and ridiculous (Armageddon springs to mind). As a European, it is also nice to see for once an American disaster movie without any of the sickening quasi-patriotism that so plagued films like ID4, Deep Impact and Armageddon. Emmerich is improving with every movie he makes.