Old School is the Animal House and Revenge of the Nerds of the new millennium, and like those movies you know pretty much what to expect. Plenty of raunchy physical comedy, bare breasts a-plenty and a dean you're meant to hate. What is supposed to set this one aside from the others, is that it's about three guys in their early thirties, who are trying to get in touch with their youth again. In some ways it does accomplish that, but to me it's just not original enough to stand alone, and thus becomes just another one in the genre. Vince Vaughn plays the same character we've seen him play in pretty much every comedy he's been in, Luke Wilson does well as the straight guy among them and Will Ferrell gets to be Will Ferrell like we know and love him. The cameos are well done, but Sean William Scott's character IS Steve Stiffler, just with a really bad haircut. It's not really a "Laugh out loud" movie, but it has it's moments, that's for sure.
Reviews
23 Reviews
Gacy
(2003 Video)
The good and the bad
1 June 2006
The Gacy movie is OK for what it is. It's not historically accurate (several events take place in the movie that either didn't happen or happened at a different time) and it would have been nice with a rape and execution scene or two, since that part seemed like it was something they had to get over with, so we could get more on the Gacy the man. What really works is the performance of Mark Holden (who plays Gacy) and the mood of the movie. Holden not only looks like Gacy, but is genuinely scary when he's alone with the boys. As far as the mountains in the background and what have you, do yourself a favor and try to ignore it, because this movie is worth checking out. It's not quite up there with "Henry: Portrait of a serial killer", but it's not that far from it.
Date Movie
(2006)
The worst comedy since "Stop, or my mom will shoot"!
12 May 2006
It's the only movie i can think of that's nearly as bad as this one! It's a spoof movie that tries to spoof romantic comedies, but does an extremely poor job of it. The one thing that made me laugh just a little, was the spoofing of the cat from Meet the parents, where they've taken it about five steps further. I sat through all of it because i always see all of a movie i've paid to rent, no matter how bad it is, but this one really tested me to the limit. Even Allison Hannigan (who i still think of as a good actress) didn't stand any chance of saving it because the script is so embarrassingly dumb, you wouldn't believe it. Save your money for something else or rent it at your own risk. Consider yourself warned!
A little disappointing
9 May 2006
You'd think that with the series ending, they would have saved at least some of the best for last. Sadly, that isn't so. The story goes that Freddy's pretty much turned Springwood into a ghost town, and so he has to find new victims elsewhere. His vessel is John Doe, who apparently is the last surviving teenager from the town. He has amnesia and ends up in a halfway home for troubled kids, where they take him in. The young doctor Maggie decides to take him back to Springwood, and three other kids jump along for the ride as stowaways. When they get there they bump into Roseanne and Tom Arnold (no kidding!) at a pretty spooky town fair before heading off to Freddy's house. They of course decide that this is a great place for a nap, and each find their own room to lie in. The usual happens to them, and the remaining kids head back to the halfway house with Freddy along for the ride. There the final battle against Freddy takes place, and his death leaves no question that he's not getting back up from that one! Part of what saves this movie from being a complete dud is that the kills are both inventive and well pulled off, plus we get some good back-story that helps us understand some of where Freddy's anger is coming from. Johnny Depp's little cameo is a nice touch as well (especially considering his past) and having Yaphet Kotto in a horror movie is never a bad idea.
Daddy Freddy!
9 May 2006
This is a movie for those of us who just can't get enough back-story to our characters. They probably already knew at this point that the series was coming to an end, so they decided to base this one as much on the past as on the present. See in order to stop the horrible things that's happening in the present, they must undo part of the atrocities that took place back when. In the present Alice and her friends have just graduated high school, and Alice and Dan are planning on traveling around Europe that summer of '89. Those plans are quickly foiled, since Alice finds out that she is pregnant. Again her friends start dying around her, and it's no secret who's behind it. The only question is how he's getting to them, and the answer is inside Alice's belly. It seems that her unborn baby has the same powers as Alice, and he is easy pickings for Freddy. Enter Amanda, Freddy's mom, who informs them of their quest in her usual cryptic way. There's parts of this movie that are really good, and there's parts that are equally bad. The good outweighs the bad by a long way though, and the idea of making it a semi-prequel probably saved the movie as a whole.
Enter Alice
9 May 2006
Following up part 3 was a tough job and so they decided to make NOES 4 a little different than the others style wise. It's a lot brighter than the other movies and the series continues to get more supernatural a we get along. The leftover cast from NOES 3 are back, with Kristen as the main player in the beginning. Seems she can't stop pulling her friends into her dreams, and they are more than a little sick of it. She warns them that Freddy's back, but they won't listen so the inevitable happens to them. The rule in these movies are that you may think you've defeated Freddy once, but he'll always get you in the end (except if your name is Alice). Luckily for Kristen she has more friends, and one very special one is Alice. She fits the character mold since her mom died years ago, and her father is drinking his life away and treats her and her brother like sh**. She's a big day-dreamer and a pretty quiet girl. The brother is Kristen's boyfriend and mostly a cheerful guy, who just happens to have watched The Karate Kid way too many times. But after he and Kristen get killed, Alice starts to come into her own which is nicely symbolized by her mirror, that at first is covered with pictures because she can't stand looking at herself but when people get killed she pulls their picture off the mirror so she can see more and more of herself. It all leads up to the big showdown, that does fall rather flat compared to the others but fits the movie pretty good, since it's the least brutal of the series.
Eighties horror at it's best
9 May 2006
From the time NOES came out to the making of NOES 3 horror had started to change. Jason had hit his peak in Part 4, the TCM sequels had been horrible and Michael Myers had been gone for 7 years. In their place we had movies like Hellraiser, the Lost boys and the House movies. Horror was changing from brutal to supernatural, and New Line decided to add Freddy to that trend as well. So they filled in the blanks of the story by having these kids getting dream powers, so they had a chance to fight Freddy (why no one ever uses dream powers again in the rest of the series remains a mystery). This is the best of the sequels (along with New Nightmare) in my opinion. The cast is the best they had in the series at all, counting great actors and actresses like Larry Fishbourne and a very young Patricia Arquette. The effects are high-class for the time and the deaths we're both inventive and fit the characters perfectly. The loose ends from part one get tied up nicely and it's a fitting farewell to those characters as well.
Something went wrong along the way.
9 May 2006
Warning: Spoilers
The setup for NOES 2 was actually pretty good. The only problem with it is that the one who wrote it obviously hadn't been paying any attention while watching the first one, because the whole idea is that A: Freddy wants revenge on the parents that torched him, and therefore he's after their children and B: Freddy controls his part of the dream world, it's where he's god and so he has no intention of wanting to enter our world again. The story begins with Jesse (the only time they tried a male lead in the series) having nightmare's that remind us a little too much of the ending in part one, but anyway Jesse's got a hot new semi-girlfriend and he's quickly becomes buddies with the brash Grant, who's your classic 80's rebel type. Weird occurrences keep happening around him, and when his gym teacher (a homosexual Nazi type) get killed, Jesse's the perp or rather Freddy, since he is taking over Jesse body, so Jesse can kill for him. Soon Freddy is going for the complete takeover, and eventually he gets free and wreaks some havoc at a barbecue party. Good idea, but it goes against the entire premise of the Freddy character. The ending's rather predictable but adding the power plant (since it's an important part of the series's mythos) was a really good idea. Surprises me that this one ranks over both 4,5 and 6 since it's generally thought of as the weakest of the sequels.
The Breakfast Club
(1985)
One of the best teen movies
4 March 2006
I admit it. I must have seen "the Breakfast Club" at least fifty times since i first saw it about ten years ago. But what is the fascination (for me) with this movie? After all my teenage years were spent in Denmark during the mid-nineties, where the whole jock/prom queen (they don't exist here!)/ brain etc. thing isn't that apparent. Still the characters are like people we all know, their parental problems are similar to what most of us have experienced and the boredom of being stuck at school when you'd rather be anywhere else is certainly something i remember. It's a strange period of your life because the real life is waiting right around the corner, and you can't wait to get there.
It certainly helps that good part of the cast actually were teenagers, who knew (maybe were like?) their characters. Big credits to John Hughes for having the balls to use a a script that left a lot up it's young performers. Let's face it, if the acting had been any less good than it is, it wouldn't have worked and you'd quickly get bored, since apart from a little running in the halls, Bender crashing through the ceiling and the "So 80's" dance scene, nothing much happens apart from talking.
All in all it's arguably the best of it's genre, and it certainly stands the test of time. It's got it's goofs (like Bender's sneakers changing from black to white in every other scene) and that infamous dance scene is the only reason it doesn't get a ten, but i guess you can chuck it down to being a sign of the times. None of the cast members became "big" stars after wards, and for some (Nelson and Ringwald mainly) this was their crowning achievement. At least they didn't end up like fellow "Brat packer" Robert Downey. 9/10
It certainly helps that good part of the cast actually were teenagers, who knew (maybe were like?) their characters. Big credits to John Hughes for having the balls to use a a script that left a lot up it's young performers. Let's face it, if the acting had been any less good than it is, it wouldn't have worked and you'd quickly get bored, since apart from a little running in the halls, Bender crashing through the ceiling and the "So 80's" dance scene, nothing much happens apart from talking.
All in all it's arguably the best of it's genre, and it certainly stands the test of time. It's got it's goofs (like Bender's sneakers changing from black to white in every other scene) and that infamous dance scene is the only reason it doesn't get a ten, but i guess you can chuck it down to being a sign of the times. None of the cast members became "big" stars after wards, and for some (Nelson and Ringwald mainly) this was their crowning achievement. At least they didn't end up like fellow "Brat packer" Robert Downey. 9/10
The Football Factory
(2004)
This is reality, folks
30 January 2006
Football violence is a horrible thing. Period. What "The football factory" shows us is a bit of reasoning behind why, seemingly normal go out and beat the crap out of each other because of a game with 22 guys and a ball. The truth is, it has nothing to do with the game. How the team actually does really doesn't matter, as long as you get to play your rivals because it's about togetherness and escaping the dreariness of everyday life. In a sick a twisted way of course, but it's the only way for these guys. The movie itself goes by at a million miles an hour and gives us characters that seem both believable and real, and a really touching story of a friendship that has lasted through the ages. The main character Tommy is a really interesting one: He knows he's on the path to destruction and through visions of his own demise, he realizes that it's all going to hell and that he (along with the other hang-arounds) are along for the ride. It's a movie that is definitely worth an hour and a half of your time and you Americans should praise yourself lucky that at least you got one thing right: You know how to behave at sporting events (hell, at NFL games they have barbecues out in the parking lot where fans of the opposing teams eat and hang out together. Just imagine that at a Tottenham-Chelsea or Roma-Lazio game!)
More than just a stoner flick
29 January 2006
Harold and Kumar are two stoners like a million other like them. They're doing pretty good (with a minimum of effort), but the big dreams just seem to elude them, whether it be the cute girl down the hall or the big weed score every stoner dreams of. So one night they get the munchies, and when you have a craving while your really hammered, there's no choice but to act on it. From there on we get laughs and great characters aplenty along the way, and it rarely (if ever) gets predictable. Sure it gets a bit silly sometimes, but it's a comedy so that's it's privilege. It's written by a 27 and a 28 year old, which is why it can be a teen/post-teen movie that still works for me as a 27 year old. There are some obvious continuity errors in it, and the one problem I have with it is that even though they smoke a lot of weed during the night, it's only at the beginning that they really act stoned. That being said, it's a great comedy (much better that "Dude, where's my car?") and the sequel will definitely be a must see. Whether it'll attain cult status or not is yet to be seen, but I wouldn't bet against it.
School of Rock
(2003)
Sometimes a kid's movie delivers
29 January 2006
I bought the movie mainly because i'm a Jack Black fan, and i figured that if nothing else, we'd get some goofing off from the little Madman. There's classic Jack Black comedy aplenty but there's a lot more to this movie. They started out by doing one brilliant thing: In stead of hiring kid's who are actors, they hired kids who are musicians and i can tell you, as a guy who's played guitar for roughly 15 years it is so refreshing to see that for once they don't fake it, and the music you hear corresponds to what you see them playing. The kids are all amazing and i hope we'll see a lot more of them in the future. And Kudos to Sarah Silverman for a great job in portraying perhaps the most annoying girlfriend i think i've ever seen in a movie! The movie stays true to it's characters all the way (Dewey Finn isn't transformed into some do-goody who adopts three of the kids and marries the principal!) and it lets the kids be kids, and reminds us adults how much it sucked when our parents controlled our lives.
Jersey Girl
(2004)
He did it again
26 January 2006
OK, I'm biased. I'm a huge Kevin Smith mark, and i think he's one of the best film makers around. But i was still a bit worried before this one, the only one i hadn't seen yet, being that it's PG 13 and it features the dreaded Bennifer duo. But i'd had my doubts about his films before, and (as always) they're quickly put to shame. The only other Smith flick you can compare it to is Chasing Amy, and it's right up there beside it. He gets the best performances out of his actors, and the story is both compelling and touching. This is and important movie for Smith, and he again shows that he is just as good at handling drama as he is at comedy. Granted it gets a bit too cute at times, and i'm not sure that the same crowd that liked "Jay and Silent Bob strikes back" will enjoy this one. Most women will, no doubt about that and for the guys who hate this kind of movie, but are forced to see it with their girlfriends there's Liv Tyler, more gorgeous than ever!
It was the 80's
23 January 2006
This is a movie that is as 80's as anything can be. It's basically a dark comedy about Walter and Carlo going to Costa Del Sol like so many other Danes did in the 70's and 80's. Along for the ride is Walter's mom, Carlo's wife Elly (who we never see, but from time to time we see what she is seeing through her video camera) and Walter's new love interest. From there on in it's good old fashioned ultra politically incorrect humour, with a story about Carlo and some jewel thieves (and their attempts at killing him) mixed in between. Oh and like all eighties comedies, it doesn't hurt if you shut your brain off before watching it!
The Kingdom
(1994–2022)
Von Triers best
23 January 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I just saw this again after not having seen it since the original broadcast back in 1996-97, and boy did it live up to those memories (I only live two miles from Riget now, which doesn't make the story any less compelling). Every scene with Stig Helmer makes me laugh, simple because he is the lowest life form a human can become. Buller's relationship with his mom, containing some of the finest comedy ever portrayed and of course Mary and Mona, the two young centerpieces of the story. For those who haven't seen it, you have to watch both Riget one and two and sadly it was never completed because of the deaths of Rollfes and Jaregaard, which just plain old sucks! But what Lars Von Trier at the time called left-hand-work to make money for his other projects, turned out to be the best danish TV ever made. This is Von Trier before it became weird for the sake of being weird, and he can be an excellent filmmaker when he wants to.
Really good adaptation
27 September 2005
I'm a big fan of the books. In fact i've read them in both danish and English several times, and so this was a movie that i had been looking forward to for a long time (and to be honest didn't believe would ever be made), so even though the expectations were high, i did all i could to tone them down. Thankfully i was not disappointed in any way. Mainly because it follows the book so well, although some of the funniest bits are cut out, because they don't play any part in plot, but hey for me to be totally satisfied it would have to be at least a six hour movie. But anyway, the cast is really good, and there are a few fun surprises in that area and some of the stuff that you thought would be really hard to do effectively on screen (Zaphod and his two heads, for example) all work out really well. Hope they do the rest of the books too.
Clerks
(1994)
First movie in the View Askew-niverse
27 July 2005
Back in 94 when Kevin Smith made Clerks, he had a brilliant plan. To make a series of movies that we're connected, not as per usual with a concurrent story, but with stories that took place with people who either live in, or have lived in or around Red Bank, NJ. Clerks is the one that starts it off, and there's not really much to it: A series of dumb or annoying customers, the rudest store clerk EVER (who has the coolest no consequences approach to life) and of course poor Dante, who wasn't even supposed to be there that day. It's not for everyone, but for those that like their comedy as dark and rowdy as possible, it's a sure winner and the story of how they made the movie (Jeff Anderson had for instance never acted before!) doesn't make it less impressive, and knowing the stuff they had to do (like the shudders being closed because they could only film at night, and it was supposed to be day) only makes it more funny. 9/10.
Sin City
(2005)
Simply Wow!
3 June 2005
For the first time ever i'm giving a movie a ten, and the reason is that i don't believe this movie could have been done better. I'll admit, i've never read the comic series, but having read them is not a prerequisite for watching the movie. If anything i'm glad i didn't know what was gonna happen next. The world in itself is simply awesome (think Seven, in that it's always dark, it's always raining and then add some extreme violence and film noir inspirations), and the way it is shot (greenscreen all the way), gives them a chance to make the background seem like a comic, and in this they succeed all the way. The acting's amazing (what a comeback for Mickey Rourke!), and it's probably the hottest cast of girls ever assembled in one movie! Jessica Alba is (as we already knew) a really promising actress and the biggest knockout I think i've ever seen. All the guys at the cinema i was at literally went "whoa", when she first came on in the stripper outfit! I can't wait for the DVD, when we get to see the stories, as Miller and Rodriguez really intended for us to see them, and of course the sequels that apparently will be shot back-to-back ala LOTR. I've you haven't got a weak heart or blood phobia, see this movie. You will not regret it!
Angel
(1999–2004)
Best spin-off ever
1 June 2005
Warning: Spoilers
It's almost hard to believe it's a spin-off isn't it? But one thing they realised with Angel, was that they had to make it different than Buffy. More adult, if you like. Eventually it became more like "Interview with a Vampire", than Buffy. It was much darker, the characters more "two-faced" (pretty much everyone turned bad at some point) and the stories more character-related. The flashback episodes were like a special treat for us hardcore fans, with the best being the one they co-sent with Buffy. First you got the story from Spike's p.o.v. on Buffy, and the we got it from Angel on "Angel". Brilliant. Things like that just made me an even bigger fan, and in a sense you had to watch both shows, otherwise you weren't getting the full story. The one place it (to me) didn't live up to Buffy, was the "big bad's". Wolfram and Hart was an excellent idea, don't get me wrong, but lawyers just aren't as scary as demons. (but maybe that's just me!) The last season was the best, with Buffy faves Spike and Harmony joining the cast, though the ending could (and would) have been done better, if they'd been given the chance to go out with a bang. But the characters had to be protected (for eventual later projects), plus they didn't find out about the cancellation 'til late in the season. Still, as the title of the last episode suggests, this series will never fade away.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
(1997–2003)
Arguably the best show in the history of TV
1 June 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I was one of the many who, when i first saw the title of the show, right away dismissed it as the usual American crap-TV-teen-drama. Boy was i wrong. Once i started to watch whole seasons of the show i realised that here was a show, that had a lot more to offer than the title suggested. I always felt like i was in the hands of a master, and all i had to do was let myself get swooped in and just enjoy the ride. (If there's anyone in TV-land that has anywhere near the foresight and attention to detail that JW has, i'd watch anything they'd make) From top to bottom, the series just worked. The bad guys where the best ever (Dru will always be my favorite), and the cast kept pushing the boundaries of their abilities with every chance they got (even i didn't think SMG would ever get "that good"). Sure there were thing that didn't work quite so well, like Riley for instance (how could a guy that naive ever get that kind of power?) and some times the Willow-Tara stuff got way too touchy-feely, but the good more than made up for it. It even got better with age (as opposed to almost every other show), and had JW gotten the chance i'm sure Firefly would have been just as awesome a ride.
Best of the new trilogy
28 May 2005
Finally he got one right! Where especially Episode 1 (and arguably Episode 2 also) failed, this one delivered. OK, it has it's weak points like the intimate scenes between Christensen (who just didn't impress me in any of the movies, despite being given one of the biggest roles in movie history) and Portman, where the cheesy dialogue makes for a little toe-quenching, but remember that this kind of dialogue was also used in the old trilogy. The great action scenes make up for it though, and there's plenty of them with lots of new creatures and droids (merchandise) to keep you captivated for the full 140 minutes. All the loose ends get wrapped up, (like why the only thing 3-PO remembers is working for captain Antilles) and even R2-D2 gets to show that he can kick some butt. I'd say it finishes the series on a high, even though the "old feeling" was never really recreated. One thing is though, should you watch all six in a row following the episode numbers? All the major surprises would be gone! Vader being Luke's dad, Luke and Leia being siblings so what! We already know!
Death Becomes Her
(1992)
Just horrible
18 May 2005
How on earth this movie (as of this moment) gets a 5.6 from the other users i have no idea. It is quite possibly the biggest waste of talent in the history of cinema. When your cast list includes Bruce Willis, Isabella Rosselini and Meryl Streep, you would think the result would be at least halfway decent, but no such luck i'm afraid. The entire movie is filled with scenes that simple make you shake your head because the scenes that are supposed to be funny, are just downright embarrassing while the rest are just bad filler. Ten years ago I made the (huge) mistake of going to see it at the cinema, and it is the only movie where i've demanded my back afterwards. Not even after "Stop, or my mom will shoot" or "waterworld" did I do that, which i think says it all.
Wild at Heart
(1990)
Excellent Lynch movie
28 March 2005
Warning: Spoilers
Two breakout performances (Cage and Dern), fantastic imagery and the most wonderfully twisted characters are what makes this movie a true standout. I just saw it again yesterday after not having seen it since it was out on video some 15 years ago, and all i really remembered was a truly creepy Willem Dafoe and Cage singing Love me Tender to Dern on top of their car at the end. Needless to say, it is so much more than that. It is a love story on acid, and a great one at that. You might say that it's David Lynch's attempt at writing the greatest love story ever, and it certainly has it all. Plus, it was fun to see some of the later Twin Peaks cast members in their various cameos (also it's evident that at least part of the "Twin Peaks style", with almost hypnotizing music to fit these extremely weird characters is something that Lynch started with in this one.)
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