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toredah
Reviews
Hawaii, Oslo (2004)
A thoroughly stupid movie
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
This movie was - unbelievably - one of the most popular Norwegian films in 2004. It's hard to see why. Full of over-acting and feeling', it's hard to keep your dinner down at times. Sometimes there's a message in there, along the lines that if you just work hard enough, believe hard enough, everything will be all right. But maybe not always... Sprinkled with a solid spoonful of awful magic realism, it's not easy to see what side the author is on (hard science or Coelho-style stupidity), especially in the story of the couple with an infant suffering from some fatal heart disease. But at least the director gives it slowly away, by portraying the doctor looking awful and unshaven, and even bare chested underneath his white coat. The level-headed mother who at first is trying to get to grip with the reality, finally comes around and agrees to try the far-fetched attempt of going to the US to try to save the baby. The other stories are pretty idiotic and unbelievable, and only feeble people will find this a good movie. Not that there's anything wrong with trying to tell people that there's always hope, but it does matter how you try to do it. This movie fails spectacularly. Stay away at all cost.
Rating: 3/10 (because the competition at the bottom is pretty steep)
Take the Money and Run (1969)
Not one of his best
Most of the jokes in this film are pretty lame, and you can regularly see them coming from some distance. I've heard some of Allen's standup stuff from this period, and that is much better, with better jokes and far better timing. This movie is hardly worth seeing, not quite as boring as the Front, but not much better either. Luckily, Allen wised up, and only a couple of years later he embarked on his brilliant career. Some people complain that he is over the top and now repeating what he's always done. Maybe so, but his latest films are still good, and way, way better than this. Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Small Town Crooks, much more fun to watch.
4/10
Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004)
Not good, but could be worse
Now, I for one didn't much like the first one, because as a Heinlein fan I didn't think it did the book justice at all. I was very disappointed, but there were some good action scenes, don't get me wrong. Overall, I think Pitch Black was better, if you're looking for a monster/space-movie. Starship Troopers 2 I didn't even know existed when I spotted it on DVD, and since it was cheap I brought it home. It started out well enough, and for a while it was entertaining. Spoilers ahead: but then, when they brought in that silly infecting bug it just got silly. If they could have just stuck with the Alamo-formula, a few troopers trying to stay alive against overwhelming odds until rescued or killed, then I wouldn't have minded. But the infecting bug was just stupid. Taking over people like that, it's just not believable. I liked Alien 3, and maybe if they'd copied something from that, maybe a few small killer aliens got inside and took the troopers out one by one...well, anyway, it just got bad from then on.
4/10
toredah
Villmark (2003)
OK start, disappointing ending
Well, it starts out well, the acting is all right, and it's not boring or anything. Spoilers ahead: but at some point you realize that you the audience have no chance whatsoever of figuring out who the real killer is. You can guess correct, but that doesn't make it interesting. In the end it is just bad writing, the director who also wrote it just didn't have enough imagination to do better. Or maybe because it is a formula thing, there isn't any room for maneuvering, you can't do anything that hasn't been seen before. They try to mislead, but it's just a little to obvious that the person they want us to believe has gone mad did it, and so of course it isn't. Did anyone got fooled by this? Maybe a six year old. And then when the killer is revealed, it just seems silly. But the film isn't bad, up until a point it was passable entertainment, good acting and directing. It's the story that doesn't hold up.
5/10 toredah
24 (2001)
Second season - even worse
Season 2
There are two schools of people reviewing this show. You have the people who love it above all else, think it's the best thing on television ever, who watch it in perpetual suspense even during reruns. And then you have people like me. I won't say that the show is sh*t - it isn't, but it's just not very good.
Spoilers ahead: Actually the idea in itself is very good, but it's badly executed. But if you are a naïve and unsophisticated person with no ability of logic, you are probably able to overlook all the unlikely events occurring. I mean, the idea that you have to strike back IMMEDIATELY to save American lives is just ludicrous. Just think about it, after 11/9, how long did it take for the US before they invaded Afghanistan? Hours? Days? If you said months, then you at least paid a little attention to the world around you. So when the vice-president, the chief of staff (and friend for 20 years) and half the ministers commits a coup d'etat against the president because he doesn't want to attack entirely based on some flimsy evidence right away, the mind boggles. Compared to the really good series the West Wing, where they not only have good writers, but have researchers to make it believable and realistic, 24 is just garbage. It's stupid, almost idiotic. And why is it that almost half the characters are evil or performing evil acts? The CTU and NSA is positively riddled with agents gone bad, and very few of the presidents closest people are to be trusted. Background checking must have gone out of style.
Even so, I suffered through the entire second season, but I wish I hadn't. It just wasn't worth it. Worst of all was Kim Bauer running along looking the way she looks, oh that tormented face, I could just bash it into a pulp. And the stupidity of the woman. She was told NOT to tell anyone about the bomb, and she tells about fifty people (well at least half a dozen). Not right away, mind you, but if pressed, like say, if a person asks her twice, she would cave every time. And what an awful actor she is.
If you like good series, like West Wing and the Sopranos, then there is no reason why you should watch this stupid sh*t. toredah