Reviews
I Kina spiser de hunde (1999)
Almost surreal in the extreme
The movie "I Kina spiser de hunde" is a very surreal movie in which white sometimes is black and vice-versa.
The basic plot is about a very naive young man - a bank clerk - who heroically foils a bank robbery in the bank that he works (using a squash raquet). He is then put on a guilt trip by a woman who claims to be the wife of the bank robber, and who claims that the money was for her in order for her to go to hospital and have an operation.
From thereon it just becomes more and more convoluted.
This is NOT the kind of film i would normally see, but I saw it by accident, and rarely have I enjoyed a movie so much. It is funny, well written and directed, but most of all it is extremely well acted. Also in the movie are many spoofs on other movies, like when two people replies to the question "Are you criminals???, No we're just the cooks"
This is a must see for people with a slightly twisted sense of humour, or people that just want to see an action movie that is different from the mainstream of what is normally shown.
I will not go into the ending of the movie, but some things that continously seemed out of place during the movie is nicely tied in a knot at the end, with a surreal touch that is almost Dali'ish.
MASH (1970)
Showing things as they were
Many of the comments comment on how the film was great and the TV series was funny but not great. The main reason for this is that the TV series had 25 running minutes and yet ran for 11 years, things get watered down after a while.
What many people fail to realize is, that the description in the movie of how the conditions in the Korean war were are not all that wrong. i am in the situation that both my parents participated in the war, my mother as a nurse on a hospital ship and my father as the ships engineer (this is where they met).
Their descriptions of what they saw out there, even in the watered down version that they are willing to tell are..... well.
A brief summary of the war, all the movement took place during the first apx. 10 months, first the South Koreans and the resident US forces where pushed almost into the sea and where locked in a small enclave around Pusan on the south coast. Then they pushed the North Koreans and their Russian allies to the Yalu river that markes the border to China. They where then pushed back to the 38th. paralell, where it all started. Then the forces remained locked in a trench war for more than 2 years never moving very far in relation to the 38th parallel.
The humor depicted in the movie while tough and very brutal at times, witness Spearchuckers comment as Haweye tells Duke that their ordes have come through and they are going home "Do you mind if we get out of this guys brain first!", Or Trapper Johns comment when he is first offered a martini in the Swamp upon arrival "What, no olives, you can't have a martini without olives", whereupon he proceeds to pull a glass of olives from his GI parka.
These are the little details that make the film great.
it is a film that you can see again and again and always find something new to enjoy.
Skyscraper (1996)
Die Hard meets Barb Wire
Imagine that you put Barb Wire in a skyscraper, after the Die Hard model, add incredibly stupid dialog, and some free swinging 48" (or however big Anna Nicole Smith's mammaries are) appendages. Then you have more or less this movie.
If you are a man, the only thing that will hold your attention are the scenes where Anna Nicole Smith shows off her transplants.
You might want to watch the film if you are masochistic or have nothing better to do (like watching paint dry?).
The plot is: Tall high rise is taken over by terrorists, this building have a brand new state of the art electronic security system, that allows you to monitor and control the building from 1 central location.
The bad guys claim to be a international terrorist group in order to avoid detection of their real motive. However there is a fly in the ointment in that there are - in this case - two good guys loose in the building trying to spoke their plans.
The action consists of crawling through air vents, setting fires in order to call the fire department, picking off the terrorists one by one, ending in a fight where the leader gets thrown off the roof, to crash to his death 86 floors below. Other terrorists are also thrown out the windows to land on police cars......
Sound familiar ??????
The primary good guy is Anna Nicole Smith, proudly showing off her mammary development (transplant???) at various times, probably to keep the attention of the the few guys watching the movie.
Please do yourself a favor - don't see this movie if you have any choice.
Reptilicus (1961)
Proof that the total is greater than the sum of the parts
I recently had the opportunity to see Reptilicus again, and never has there been such a misunderstood film as this.
Misunderstood, not by the audiences, but by the producers. This is a film that not only chooses to sit between two chairs, stylewise, it is simply impossible to find a chair that even gets close to describing the style that it is filmed in, I seriously doubt that even Ed Wood could have produced such a mish-mash of a stylistic jumble even if he tried.
However it is exactly this mish-mash that makes the film enjoyable today. Nothing about it is good, not the acting, not the special effects, not the plot, not the musical intermezzos, in fact if it was to be judged by the genre that it portrays, it would rate a 1 - or maybe 2 for the effort - instead I've rated it as an 8 for enjoyment, I've seen it before and I'll see it again if it comes up on TV, because this mix of low budget and low comedy makes for an extremely funny movie.
The movie was produced in an effort to sell it abroad and therefore also made in an English version, this I believe would be a total bomb, because what makes it funny for a Dane is the fact that the actors are among the best in Danish comedy, but their humor is typical Danish and very hard to translate.
If you get the chance, see it it is well worth it
The Matrix (1999)
Oh Boy - Big movie!!!!
I have - finally - just seen The Matrix, it took me quite a while to persuade my wife to see it too, and let me sum up this way, I went to watch the movie, she went to look at Keanu Reeves, yet her comment when we left the cinema was, "it just won't leave you alone, will it".
I will choose not to comment on the Special Effects, because as all know they are stupenduous. What I will comment on is the movie it self.
It is the kind of movie that won't leave you alone after you've seen it. There are so many things in it that you look at when you see it the first time and say "Why did this/that happen here?" and yet the explanation to almost all comes sometime later. Thus seing it a second time gives you all the more information, because you are prepared for the riddles, and are thus able to appreciate the movie better.
The plot itself is rather thin, but that doesn't matter, as it is carried nicely in the telling of the movie, The Messiah's personification is perhaps going a bit too far, and is in my mind one of the things that deduct from the movie.
Also the image of the "Agents", the first time they are introduced, the image that comes across reeks of "Men in Black" their clothes, and sunglasses. This is a pity, because it makes it harder to take them seriously. Something that they most definitely are.
But apart from this, it is not the last time I have seen this movie, I'll be going back to the cinemas soon for a second time.
A 9/10 for a great movie.
Clear and Present Danger (1994)
Good movie - but also disappointing
This is a typical case where being an avid fan of the author turns out to be a problem when seeing the movie.
I have read - and reread - the books of Tom Clancy many times, and have always been intrigued by his use of details, without making them boring. I have read the book Clear and Present Danger many times, and will probably read it again at a later time, I have also seen the movie, and will probably not see it again.
To put things right - it is a fabulous movie exciting and keeps you in suspense at all times, and, if I didn't know the books, I would rate it an 8 or 9. If you havn't read the Jack Ryan series, really - go see it and you won't be disappointed.
Now unfortunately this is what comes from knowing the books.
1. The characters in the movie are much too weak in comparison to the book
2. The film ends in Impeachment of the President, in the books he throws the election in order to spare the country the scandal, also knowing that an impeachement will reveal that he has actually initiated an undeclared war with - and invaded - an ally, Columbia.
3. Clark (and this is where I almost left the movie) is portrayed by Willem Dafoe, who does a credible job, given the material he has to work with. Willem Dafoe is completely wrong for the part. Clark is described in the books as 6'3", broad of shoulders, muscular and a former Navy Seal, a physical description that all will agree does NOT fit Willem Dafoe. Clark in the books is an active agent of the CIA operations directorate, he is not retired, and most of the time he is either in the States or Panama, overseeing the operation. He only sets foot in Columbia at the very end. In the movie he is portrayed as an ex mercenary with a grudge living in Bogota.
One of the reasons I was awaiting this movie was that I couldn't wait to see how Clark would be portrayed, and never have I seen such a misrepresentation of character.
My rating of this movie is a low 5, although I admit to being colored by my disappointment of the character representations
Olsen Bandens sidste stik (1998)
Much better than expected - A must
This movie is a must for any fans of Olsen Banden, not only because of all the tragic occurrences that happened during the shooting of the movie, but also as a fitting round-off to the series.
The use of ie. Nordisk Films Studios, and their prob-rooms, where Egon finds his old clothes and is transformed from an old infirm back to - almost - the Egon that we all loved, with his temper tantrums, ingenious plans and all is absolutely brilliant, although not terribly original. This scene has been seen in the movie: Chaplin starring Robert Downey Jr. Here he is in the prop-room, looking for a costume, and the clothes of the Vagabond "magically" beckons him.
However, while I left the movie very satisfied, and pleased with a movie that was clearly above what I had expected - read feared - let it be said that the action/plot is VERY thin, to quote Danny Glover and Mel Gibson "Anorexic", the plot appears to have been written as an excuse to get as many of the old cast from the previous movies back again in one movie, and this is in a sense what makes it so memorable. All plays as well as can be expected, although you also notice, that it has been many years, and at times they have problems getting in to the part, they then recite the lines, but without the wit and bite of the old movies.
The most memorable performance is probably made by Axel Strøbye as Kriminalassistent Jensen in his quest for retirement. The little man fighting the system, and finally succeding in winning.
It is a film that I wholeheartedly recommend other people to see, just be of an open mind when you see it, and don't expect magnificent scenes like the breakthrough under the Royal Theater.