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antti-57
Reviews
Valhalla Rising (2009)
Its violence stupid!
This movie is about violence and conflict. I don't think anything else describes this movie better.
Its about conflict between people and within. It's a study of violence as way of life. Not just an means to an end, but as a end itself.
Why I think its so good movie, is that portrays people with different motivations and attitudes towards violence. Despite all except one key character in movie are violent, they don't still portray same reasons or attitudes towards violence.
They have very much common, but still violence is individual affair in this movie. People aren't just violent, their violence portrays their character and in fact relation to life itself. Violence is way of life in this movie, that is important aspect of characters in it.
In essence, this movie is a study about violence. Its less a study about reasons to violence, than about its results and how it manifests itself in real life . In this movie, people are used to violence. To them, violence is part of life, not good or bad.
I think this movie probably captures best what people could be if they are very much traumatized by hardships and are very much gotten used to violence. I could imagine that what you see in this movie people acting like, is pretty close what many people might have been in middle- ages in lawless periods or in regions in modern times that have end in endless blood shedding.
Everyone takes the violence own individual way, but probably best to handle people who are so deep in it they don't have doubts concerning it (main character) or people who successfully can avoid it altogether.
Way move ends, I think underlines this line of though. The real 'winners' in this movie are people who have clear line of though and carry the consequences of their actions. Really strong or very weak.
The losers are people who do violence not for sake of violence or avoid it , but try it for unclear reasons.
Taken (2008)
Good action movie but bit unfinished
This is pretty good action movie. Unlike many other its kind, you really cant feel the 'hero' would overreact. Personally I really don't like abuse of women, and move shows some gruesome scenes of it, which make me actually glad of the body count.
Usually I dislike the high body count, because it has flimsy excuses for sake of just killing. But in this case, I could actually believe character Liam Nelson played would act so and very few people would object to it.
Every father worries for his daughter, and in that respect I found Liam's actions actually believable.
There are some ackward moments in the film like others have noted. Like when the main character portrays himself as French official and starts to talk to albanian criminals about satellites who see and hear everything - in plain English. Next he asks things he should know either by being person he portrays or what he should know if the satellites really see and hear everything. Also in few scenes I think more people would have come to arrest main characters. He seems to occasionally have aura of untouchablity.
But these are minor flaws, lot of action films have lot more blatant and less subtle errors. At least in this movie each car that crashes somewhere doesn't blow up automatically.
What bit ruined me it all was the end of the movie. I can understand that people recover fast, but I found it bit implausible that the daughter returns to childhood dreams enthuastically despite her best friend got killed and she herself kidnapped, drugged and almost raped.
After seen the body count and surroundings it didn't feel plausible.
Overall I think Liam Neelson played his part very well, but the script was bit oversimplified in some parts which left him look bit stupid I think. His character needed bit more depth in the father daughter relation.
But he was very believable action person, really refreshing to see something not so overblown as in many Hollywood films.
The Ninth Gate (1999)
Good movie with philosophical insights
I think this movie was very fabulous. I was fortunate enough to see without any kind of idea about movie beforehand. Didn't see the move from beginning or whole, basically just stayed watching after wandering front of TV. Had no idea what movie was about.
Why this movie is fabulous is because it ambiguous. Reading many comments here, I got bit better insight what movie was about. I admit also missing few things, but fortunately got most parts right in first try.Movie has good mix of ominous events and old mysteries hidden in books that leave you wonder for a while.
But I'm not totally convinced about the accuracy of many interpretations what I've read . What I do think is that Polankski made a movie, that actually imitated how mysteries work.
He creates patterns us to see in interpret, but actually leaves us to figure out on ourselves what they mean. What they mean to us actually, not necessarily what he meant, if he even meant anything at all with them. Some patters lead to something, others to many things as they are vague or nowhere. Devilish stuff - or just normal mysteries worldwide.
How movie ends is exactly like that.
Most interesting question I find after watching movie was the idea of Devil in the movie. I actually didn't get the notion Devil was most evil person in the movie.Way Boris acted later on the movie when he address cultist, I think sort of crystallized what the movie was about.Devil can't make you do anything evil, if you don't want to. And then you probable would do it anyway without Devil. So why worship something for it, if target is anyway selfish not caring about you and you do what you do anyway? And why would Devil care about then do you worship him or not?
I think that was the main joke in the movie. Corso in the movie differs rest of characters in way the he doesn't actually believe in Devil. He is just motivated by self interest and probable by intrigue. Thats why he is main character and sort of picked above other persons in the movie. That also means he also actually has something to offer for Devil, as his self interest connects to Devils. So Devil is rational in this movie besides Corso, others are more or less loose cannons that actually have nothing worthwhile to offer. Lesson here: rational people are motivated by self interest.
So why does no one ask in the movie why the books were created in the first place? Its interesting though to believe somebody would create people something wonderful just to grasp, but why would anyone, especially Devil, do it without some use for himself? Devil wouldn't, but most people after books never stop and think about it. And thats how many cultists think, they aren't rational in their beliefs. Part of the movie actually shows how funny cultist are, even the Devil they worship can be seen amused by them.
In this movie, Devil looks far more person that really doesn't care about something unless it really benefits him/her.
But like I said, you can get other interpretations from it, just my 5 cents.