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Canada på tvers med Lars Monsen (2005)
Simply amazing
Lars Monsen serves us with an amazing story. His brutal Canadian odyssey lasted for almost three years and is probably the longest in modern history not using machine transport. The whole ordeal is truly well told compressed into a mere three hours.
He did almost the entire trip by dog sled. In a video-blog sort of format, we get to experience fine wilderness, turmoil inside tents out in extreme arctic lands where it is -70 effective degrees, and also the exploration of cultures and traditions in Canadian arctic and subarctic villages. Quite some humor and more or less subtle oddities are mixed in by the great Monsen, making the final story very enjoyable and relaxing to watch.
Extraordinary. If you have the least interest in what an Arctic backcountry expedition would be like, or just enjoy a story well told you must watch this.
Numb3rs (2005)
Constantly degrading
As an engineer, I must say this show's first season started out very promising. Most of the applied mathematics were somewhat plausible, and the relationships portrayed between the Eppes brothers and father gave the show an interesting edge.
But after the first season, the show started degrading, heavily. Most of the mathematics and technology used in crime solving is now utter gibberish and very laughable to all people involved in science & technology for real.
The involvement from the actors still feels okay and I can imagine a fair amount of money is still going into producing each episode, but in the end, this has degraded to a very unpleasantly tasting dish which is a mix of a grade C action thriller and CSI style cop show.
If you are gonna watch it, go for only the first season and possibly parts of the second. Thereafter I would not waste my time. Myself, I gave the show up midway through season 3.
Season 1 - 8 stars Season 2 - 5 stars Season 3 - 3 stars
Let's sum that up to 4 stars. Since Charlie doesn't know his math anymore, I won't bother with the correctness of mine either.
Alive (1993)
Gut-wrenching story, poetic, somewhat weak acting. Worth a remake
Being a wilderness hiker, and fan of wilderness biographies and true stories, like "Into The Wild" and "Alone In The Wilderness", IMDb thought this would be a good fit for me. It was absolutely right.
One of the must brutal and gut-wrenching drama documentaries I have seen, ALIVE delivers on most points. If the boys have told the truth about their deal with the Andes, this film is about 95% consistent with what actually occurred for real (just a couple of petty details dramatized; I have read the book as well).
However, the acting is a bit weak. This story seriously deserved better. Ethan Hawke, who plays the important figure Parrado, does a good job, as well as Josh Hamilton (Canessa), but those two are exceptions. I'd actually go as far as saying that in some scenes, the dead people are the best actors. Also, the narrator who opens up the film does not fit in, feels emotionless and not at all believable.
But all in all, it's a story worth to catch up on, fairly well told in its film format. Beautiful scenery, unbelievable courage, poetic, absolutely excellent soundtrack by James N. Howard. Simply put, see it. You might become very tempted to read the book afterwards. I am looking forward to a remake in HD with even better actors and graphics. 8/10
The X Files: Arcadia (1999)
An episode which deserves special mention
My favorite episode of the X-files, ARCADIA deserves special mention. I love how it begins, with only subtle hints of why our well known pair of FBI agents suddenly have changed their names, married and moved into an expensive closed community which turns out to hide a dark secret.
Acting is great in this one, far better than average in this series. I especially liked the one who played "Big Mike". The episode is very funny, with quite a few bizarre scenes; also, Mulder and Scully pull jokes on each other a lot of the time.
If you don't have a lot of time and only want to watch a few episodes in the series, in my opinion this should definitely be on your watchlist.
Syriana (2005)
Plot difficult to follow
I thought I knew a fair deal about the oil business, having analyzed the subject for years since I'm a bit worried about how the Western world would react to a serious shortage of it. Well, the movie "gave the message" that I expected it to give - in short "the oil business is filled with corruption and unfair deals." Having read those words I see no real need for you to watch the movie. It simply feels like a bad compilation. At many scenes I would ask myself "what on earth does this have to do with the previous stuff I saw?". Your short-term memory is also literally SPAMMED with the names of corporations, cities, people and organizations, many of which are only mentioned once, I think. Didn't get a feel of any character personalities either, since even the main characters were badly introduced if at all. Very, very tedious to grasp.
Putting this under the "thriller-drama" section of IMDb seems a bit weird to me. There is no action or adrenaline raising scenes, except for a 0.5 second explosion and some torture.
Anyone not extremely interested in a fictional tale about the underlying politics of "big oil business" should keep away, I think. Given decent acting and that it actually in a way filled its purpose, I give it a 3 of 10. But keep in mind: I was bored, risk is you will be too.
Nowhere Man (1995)
Good, but dissatisfying ending.
Nowhere Man was a show with great acting, thrill, and suspense. Bruce Greenwood really felt "made" for the role he played. But I have to admit that I was thoroughly bored by some episodes, where really nothing important to the plot happened. This, however, was rare, i thought perhaps 3 of 25 episodes were sub par quality.
I believe it should have been at least 10 episodes longer also. They really cancelled it at its climax... just as he was starting to get some answers. The cancellation might have been because of that this was a series which wasn't enjoyable if you didn't follow every episode. Very hard to "jump into" the plot quickly.
K2 (1991)
Realistic adventure movie.
I liked this movie enough to having watched it three times as of now. With few exceptions, it's a realistic adventure movie - this according to a friend who has done 5000+ meter climbs - with beautiful scenery, very interestingly developing plot, personal intrigues, good humor etc. Also, the acting is generally excellent, where the two main characters are the cream of the crop.
The only thing I don't like is the kind of "Crap, we ran out of money, how do we put a quick end to this?" ending. Also, the quality of the picture is a bit "amateurish", the "home VCR" kind of quality at times with that dreaded bad contrast which makes for a "grey-biassed" picture. Not a good thing for an adventure/trek movie with beautiful scenery.
All in all, it's indeed enjoyable to watch, though. Moderately recommended. Rating: 7/10
Pulp Fiction (1994)
No plot, no specific mission. Pointless, bad movie
I do not understand the hype. This movie was nothing but a waste of my time.
Why? First, I believe a movie should have a clearly outlined plot so that you know what's going on. This movie doesn't feature that. It starts out of nowhere with no apparent background and has a pointless ending.
There are indeed a couple of scenes that might be fun to watch if you are in the "right mind" (however most are violent and immature) and the actors do an excellent performance but that doesn't pump this movie up to anything good. It kind of shows you the happenings of a few drugdealers and criminals within a short timeframe, that's all.
To sum it up... this movie has few redeeming qualities. Do something productive and more fun instead. Such as washing the dishes.
Two stars out of ten.
The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988)
I haven't had this fun in five years!
You may know of the brutal viking god which travels on his wagon and summons thunder, known as Thor. You might also know of the big green strong thingy known as the Hulk.
Now can you imagine what a team of those two would look like? A muscly green thingy with supposedly no intelligence together with another muscle-machine from 1000 AD that knows nothing of today's society, and mostly wants to drink mead and beer... I wouldn't have dared to guess myself, all that I can say is that it sums up to a lot of FUN.
As a friend of mine said after i lent him the movie: "I haven't had this fun in five years".
The acting is excellent, I especially like the guy who plays Thor. It's a sad thing that the great Bill Bixby - who is the main character and also has directed most of the movie isn't with us anymore.
A couple of things are worth mentioning though. The movie doesn't sport humor that everybody likes (what movie does that anyway?) and it's a straight-to-video release so don't have too big expectations on the actual picture quality and special FX (clearly drawn with a pen!!) The plot is also a little diffuse at times.
But this doesn't sink it down from an "excellent" grade. 10/10, hands down. Others may agree or disagree, but this time I'm the grader!