"The Shawshank Redemption" A-Seen-Before

And here I am, posting the review for what I feel is the greatest motion picture ever made by man - on the night before my twentieth birthday. Ladies and gentleman, it will be a tradition from now on to see this movie every 25th of September - 'cause it does nothing else than give me a big smile and a warm feeling every time - and it just never gets old.

Yes, my love for "The Shawshank Redemption" is as essential as my love for film itself. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of favorites - but somewhere down the road they just came and made this movie perfect in my eyes - the subtle details that I love, the plot that unravels suddenly and unpredictably in the end, characters you love or hate and certainly never forget - and based upon a short story written by one of the biggest litterateur masterminds of our day, Stephen King himself. Now, how can it get any better than that?

"The Shawshank Redemption" starts with successful banker Andrew Dufresne (Tim Robbins) who suddenly gets sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife and her lover - and introduces Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman) who's spent 20 years of a life sentence in Shawshank Penitentiary when he's denied parole for the second time. As their paths cross, they form an indestructible friendship, and as time progresses, it ages them both in every way a prison can and will age a man - before it eventually brakes you down and you end up an old and institutionalized being whose soul is defined in the walls you've grown accustomed to.

"The Shawshank Redemption" doesn't just have morale - it displays unity, friendship, corruption and cruelty -but most importantly it displays the human nature and the human hope - and the power it can bring.

that and a big god damn poster.


Sincerely
JanaMart

"The Girl Who Played with Fire"

You can't help but love a character like Lisbeth Salander

Stieg Larrson wrote crime fiction that will never be forgotten, and not just because of his tragic death, but also because of his extensive skill to create plots and characters you either love, hate and/or will never forget.

"The Girl Who Played with Fire" is the second in the trilogy to be released onto the big screen, and does so almost as successfully as the first one did. It picks up the plot where we left Lisbeth Salander, a misfit and disturbed young hacker who's experienced more horror and hatred than you can imagine - Mikael Blomkvist, a leftist journalist and editor of the hard-hitting magazine "Millennium" - and Sweden presented as a dark modern world drowned in trafficking and corrupt heads of state. It gathers the treads and answers a few of the questions in which were open in the first film - but might have created a few more in the process.

Now, Swedish Crime Fiction has always had a certain level of entertainment and quality (especially if you compare it to Norwegian produced material), but this tops it none the less. It has morale, integrity, and brilliant actors; the newcomer Noomi Rapace in the role as Lisbeth Salander and a known face to the Swedish world of film and series; Michael Nyquist in the role as Mikael Blomkvist.

All I can really say about the plot is that it contains delightful scenes of psychological torture, smart action that doesn't become boring to watch, a plot which unravels more and more deep secrets and details - an overall entertaining and well-structured movie.

Enjoy this Scandinavian movie pearl, ladies and gentleman.

Sincerely
JanaMart

"Up"

There is something truly magical that happens when Pixar decides to make a motion picture

The film follows the life of the modest Carl Fredrikson - who falls in love with the girl he meets as a little boy, and with whom he shares the rest of her life with - until the day when nature takes its course and leaves him a bitter old man. But in true Pixar style, there is an adventure for him around the corner, exotic places to see, childhood dreams to fulfill and a travel buddy he neither wanted or expected - but who ends up filling the void in his life.

Yes, the wizards at Pixar are truly the only ones who can make an old man, an annoying kid, a flying house and talking dogs into maybe one of the greatest animated movies of all time - but hey, they made a 700 year old robot absolutely adorable, as well as a rat who cooks, so is anyone really that surprised?

But what they do that seems to amaze me more every time, is the extreme attention to detail; you can notice the subtlety of how Carl's beard grows as the movie progresses - pictures as seen from an album are old and out of focus (like it seems every photo ever taken was before the digital age). It seems as if you can see and hear and almost taste the atmosphere of every little situation - and you sort of catch yourself in forgetting that its an animated movie - 'cause the characters are so alive, the facial expressions are so realistic.

And like every Pixar movie, it holds just as many qualities for grown ups as well as for children - for much of the humor as well as the small details are lost for the smaller kids, but I guess gained when they see it again and again and again. But trust me. It's worth it.

The only negative aspect of this movie was the 3D-effect I saw it in - first of all; they don't need it, 'cause this movie is just as exiting and giving without it - and second of all; when you're going to make a movie in 3D, it should be done much better than this. So if you can, I suggest you skip the extra cost of 3D and just enjoy it as a normal Pixar movie.

Sincerely
JanaMart

(PS: There is an absolutely adorable short film named "Partly Clouded" shown prior to the main feature, and it is just as wonderful as every other Pixar Short Film - if you miss it when you go see "Up", then COMPLAIN! It's suppose to be there, and if it's not, the people working at your local movie theater are lazy!)

"The Bourne Identity" A-Seen-Before

It's a thrill ride of realistic blood-pumping-adrenaline-action

Now, here's sort of how this blog will work - I'll review and grade movies as I see them, even though I might have seen them before - this is one of those cases. In the future I will mark these movies with a small phrase - A-Seen-Before.

"The Bourne Identity" is the first movie in the trilogy-series that tells the tale of a man who wakes up with no memory - for then to find himself entangled into a deep network of conspiracies that reveals an identity he would rather had remained forgotten.

And I think that's about as much of the plot I'm willing to spoil - because if you haven't seen this movie yet and claim to be a film-lover, you've been lazy and need to open your eyes. The actors are brilliant (one of the first times Clive Owen appeared on the big screen), the plot thickens all the time and every motion that Matt Damon does as Jason Bourne is thoroughly designed, believable but most of all - SO fun to watch! There must be an inner child in me that just loves the idea of an unarmed man beating the crap out of 4 big American soldiers.

5-popcorn score, but not a 6 - those are for the REALLY special ones, ladies and gentlemen.

Sincerely
JanaMart

"The Proposal"

It's a shame that money was spent making this movie

The plot follows the assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) who works for the horrible Book Publisher Margaret (Sandra Bullock) when her visa expires and her career is on the line when she fears to be deported to Canada. In a threat to ruin Andrew's career, she forces him to marry her, which leads them on a trip to his family's house in Alaska - here the drama develops when they have to hide their hatred for each other and act like they're in love for the scam to work.

When will people wake up and smell the (copied picture of) roses? When will Hollywood stop mass-producing these kinds of cliche-dripping uber-predicable sob-stories? WAKE UP! There is no production quality, it's not funny, the humor can't be described as humor anymore, it doesn't qualify!

Now, even though the newcomer to the big screen and known sitcom actor Ryan Reynolds might be the makings of all that is "wrong with Hollywood", I can't help but like him; it might have to do with the fact that I loved his role as Berg in "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place" - he displays the same acting and the same humor no matter where he's applied, but amazingly enough it works. This is the sole reason for the 2-popcorn score.

Because the thing that brings the movie down even further than the plot is Sandra Bullocks complete lack of involvement in the movie - she seriously doesn't seem interested in doing a good job. She's a talented actor, but seems reluctant to give anything of herself to it - it's as if she knows how low the quality of this movie really is!

Please, ladies and gentlemen, don't support this kind of nonsense. See something else.

Sincerely
JanaMart

"A Tale of Two Sisters"

A horror film with an original twist

Now, I'm not a big fan of the horror genre, but I can still have an eye for quality and even a desire to see these kinds of movies - if I can see a hint of hope and a touch of quality.

The other day my best friend introduced me to a Korean horror movie, and to be honest I was skeptical. Some of the perks of working in a movie theater is the fact that I can watch DVD's there after closing time all by myself. So me and my friend embarked into the cinema darkness and I was pleasantly surprised!

The movie presents a very dark situation for two sisters, in which their father has moved on and found a new woman after their mother's death. But the dispute between an unsympathetic authority figure and grieving girl isn't the only thing that stirs things up - when everyone in the house are hunted by a girl who seems out for vengeance things starts to unravel, and not just one plot - but several - are revealed.

Now, as I said, the movie surprised me, and brought me much more entertainment than I thought it would. There were certain points when I wanted to reach for the fast-forward button, but again - no horror movie is perfect.

It also had an interesting structure and a very surprising end - unpredictable to the last few minutes. It was topped off with rather talented acting, which leads me to conclude with a strong 4-popcorn score!

Sincerely
JanaMart

"District 9"

Innovating and unpredictable!

I was supriced to see a movie dropped so suddenly from "Mister Lord of The Rings" Peter Jackson Himself without hearing about it months in advance - he has become something of an icon after the epic trilogy he so masterly assembled.

None the less, it didn't matter much - it almost improved the experience once you had no idea what you were going to!

The movie itself was at first mostly designed as a documentary - telling and showing the tale of a gigantic alien spacecraft that for some reason stationed itself over Johannesburg, South Africa. And to everyone's surprise, went into a completely idle state. Eventually the government decided to enter the alien craft, and within they found thousands of aliens - starving. International pressure then forces the government to bring the aliens out and help them, and they are stationed in camps right beneath the floating loitering alien craft.

And that's where the fun begins. Humans, racist by nature as they are, quickly nickname the aliens "prawns" in an attempt to degrade and patronize them. The aliens, who act sort of like ants without an ant-queen, wander aimlessly around, starting to copy human behavior.

The movie starts sort of like a short story - tossing you into the action, 20 years after the alien ship first came to earth, and when the situation between humans and aliens have grown tense and uncomfortable. The plot follows MNU-Field Operative Wikus Van De Merwe, whose role in the movie takes a turn for the worse and forces him to realize that there is always two sides of a coin.

The film gave me a sort of "Cloverfield"-wibe, wrapping the encounter with aliens into a realistic and human package - all of the reactions, the exploitations, the racism and the tension - all aspects to be found in our own human history, and not at all unlikely to occur in a situation like this.

The way it is told is also an impressive achievement - the semi-documentary style strengthens the realism, as well as giving the whole film an innovating twist.

Worth seeing, ladies and gentlemen!

Sincerely
JanaMart

"Inglorious Basterds"

There has never been dark humor as well presented as this!

There was never much doubt that Quentin Tarantino is nothing shy of a genius, but his last movie is a whole new level of entertainment.

The pure childish joy of spending almost three hours in front of the screen watching Nazis get molested, people shot and knifed, swastika's cut into people's foreheads and Brad Pitt as a loud and somewhat obnoxious Southerner is more than I have experienced in a long time.

But the most epic aspect of the movie are the characters - or if you will, Tarantino's gift of creating characters you never forget - and in this film that is especially the character Hans Landa, also known as "The Jew Hunter" - you see, a lot of people claim that the villain is what makes the movie - and I agree - another excellent example is the late Heath Ledger and his role as The Joker. The villain presents the chaos, the conflict which makes the story - the hero is only there to fix it.

Now, back to Hans Landa - or Christoph Waltz - probably the most genius interpretation I've ever seen - the catchphrase "That's a Bingo!" will one day be as famous as "frankly dear, I don't give a damn."

"It's an inglorious thrill ride of vengeance" as the tag line says - the dialogues are long, the violence crude and detailed, the plot has diversity and the characters are the top of the ice cream - THE movie of the decade, ladies and gentlemen.

Sincerely
JanaMart