It’s been a pretty long while since I did this, so here I’m back with the 5 last movies of note that I’ve seen, from the top of my head. You can click the title to visit the respective IMDB page. You should also note that I’m drinking Earl Grey tea at the moment, which came in something of a triangular tea bag. Why would I prefer a triangular tea bag? .. but anyway, on to the flicks! (These may contain spoilers!)
Free Jimmy (Slipp Jimmy Fri) (2006)
This is the first Norwegian animated feature film, which took more than eleven years in the making. I can remember reading about it back when it was still a novelty, and since then I’ve wanted to see the end results. Concidering the movie’s aimed at a somewhat adult audience, it’s pretty good.
The notorious director Cristopher Nielsen has a long history of writing, drawing and animating stories from the darker sides of society. This has mainly been attributed to the fact that his deceased brother was among Norway’s most famous rock stars and drug addicts. But setting that aside, it’s still good entertainment.
Nielsen brings out the best of his dark-witted arsenal and delivers both a thrilling and moving adventure revolving around a Russian circus elephant addicted to drugs, a bunch of insane animal rights terrorists, the Sami mafia and a hunting party from the midland. If you’ve enjoyed some of his earlier work (like To trøtte typer) you will feel right at home. Let me just repeat that this is not a movie for children. Apart from the couple of sex scenes and some brutal violence, the story itself is made for a grown-up audience. I have only seen the Norwegian version thus far.
Logan’s Run (1976)
I love old science fiction movies. Not just because all the people in the future are extremely arrogant because of their technological knowledge, but they seem pretty ignorant about the world they live in too. When they talk about some stuff with the Blargonator down in the drone facility (or whatever) they seem to have no idea whatsoever what they’re talking about. Just reciting the script..
Apart from that annoyance (which I only find amusing) Logan’s Run is that typical back to nature kind of ethic schmethic science fiction flicks of the seventies. In Logan’s perfect society no one lives after they’ve reached 30. Why? They are recycled, or at least that’s what Logan thinks. You can read someone’s age and remaining life-time by a coloured bracelet on the wrist. Until one day when the master mind computer running the society orders Logan to find the sanctuary of runaways over thirty, and his colour’s set to red for additional motivation. Run, Logan, run!
It’s a pretty entertaining movie if you’re in the mood of something odd paced. It may remind you of the old Star Trek series. Reading up on it now I see that it was nominated for two Oscars and won seven other prizes. Put the popcorn on, baby.
Chris Rock: Bigger and blacker (1999)
If you thought the teeth of Chris Rock was funny, which are the size of a small horse’s teeth, then you’ll be gasping for air as soon as he opens his mouth. Chris Rock is without a doubt the most celebrated racist of our time, and his main acts (and I’ve seen a few) are about prejudices between WASPs and African Americans. He has quite a few good points about sex and relationships too, but I must admit that after twenty minutes I got bored.
I can imagine his standup act was way funnier back when this theme was still a no-issue, but I don’t really think that pays any homeage to his creativity. In fact, it doesn’t. If you’re not entertained by someone whose vocabulary are variations over ‘black’, ‘fuck’ and ‘nigger’ then this standup isn’t for you. It seems to me that mr. Rock tries to be outrageous rather than creative. It makes for the perfect X-mas gift to your twelve year old cousin.
Eddie Izzard: Unrepeatable (1994)
Without putting one against the other, Eddie Izzard has a wide spectre of themes which don’t necessarily insult the intelligence of his audience. Having seen quite a few of his standups from the early days up until now, I must say that his "history class" kind of act, in which he presents anecdotes from history and myth in an amusing fashion, is quite brilliant. Not in as much as what you really learn from the stories, but from how much you laugh.
Izzard is, despite his title of Executive Transvestite, very British in humour and performance. This also means that you don’t get all the points right at once, making it possible to re-run the same show several times without being bored at all.
Unrepeatable is just as great and unique as any other Izzard show I’ve seen to date. Recommended.
The Perfect Storm (2000)
If you like computer animated action movies, the Perfect Storm is just up your alley. It’s about a bunch of fishermen going out for the big swordfish despite the foul-smelling words of warn by the old drunkard in the bar: "There be mighty winds, harr!"
With a bit of bad luck, three storm fronts collide and create what’s-its-name.. oh, yes, the perfect storm!
If you thought you were getting some in-depth movie about the perilous life at sea, or a heartfelt drama about the wives left back home, you should have thought it through. This is a Hollywood movie. But I’d still like to point out that it was good entertainment, and I kept eating chips throughout the storm.
In terms of being realistic, I’d say Sesame Street outruns it by far. The beating captain Billy Tyne (Clooney) and his crew took when cutting "the birds" and setting up the plates is not something you could actually survive without plenty of luck. And even if you survived it, you would drown pretty fast since you would’ve fallen out of the boat. It’s amazing how no one fell in the sea, except for a rescue chopper, which resultet in one (1) fatality. But since they all died at the end of the movie, it kind of made up for it. It’s the first movie I’ve seen where Clooney don’t make it. If it hadn’t been for this flick, I would still believe it was something in his contract stating that George Clooney simply can’t die. I was even expecting his beardy face poppin’ up at the credits. But at least he got the last word.
As you might have noticed, I got a bit grumpy during the last three reviews.
I was actually going for 5 more reviews since it’s been so long, but I couldn’t be bothered. With a plugged nose, a bit of fever and triangular teabags all over the place, I figured I should give it a rest. In defence of the above: all of these are ones-to-watch, but probably not ones-to-worship. Unless you are an Izzard fan, or really like science fiction, in which case Unrepeatable and Logan’s Run are good choices. Free Jimmy is something of an odd film, but it’s worth owning, while the other two aren’t worth the money so just steal them from your twelve year old cousin or practice some online communism. Signing off.