CinemaNaut Reviews

Three Colors: Red (1994)

Overrated. Beautiful but not very captivating

[30 July 2011]

Rouge's story revolves around a model who, among other things, to get to know a cynical old judge who spies on his neighbors. However, it is not the story itself which is the focus of the movie, it's rather a depiction of characters and relationships, in which some events just happens to occur.

There are many scenes that feels very random, for instance some characters passing each other on the street without noticing each other, random conversations that don't contribute much to any main story. Guess it will symbolize various things about people's relationship to each other...but I don't get the point. It just feels random and there's not much story to captivate you the whole way through. I have a hard time seeing the greatness of this movie.

As usual with Kieslowski's films is the masterfully filmed and the acting is great, (but think Irene Jacob is overly low-key, feels quite unnatural).

To truly love Red I think you have to be the film buff type who would blabber lustfully about how the movie is an 'insight into the true nature of human relationships', you have to think it's very interesting that characters can pass each other at times, and want to philosophize about things like 'what is the meaning of that fountain pens do not work in this film?'. I myself, would prefer a stronger story.

Thor (2011)

Charming but boring

[6/10 · 5 June 2011]

On Earth it's a charming fish out of water story where Thor and Portman+Skarsgård have some nice little moments. There's more comedy than expected, although I didn't laugh once it's quite nice. There's more opportunities here though, as Thor doesn't have any questions about Earth. Would benefit from being more like Starman.

Didn't like the Asgard bits though. The scenes with Hopkins and Thor are good, but besides that it's rubbish. Valhalla doesn't look like a tough viking place at all, too much shiny CGI and plastic gold. The story of Thor's evil brother is also way to typical to make me interested in the least and the bad guys (frost giants) are quite boring.

Office Space (1999)

The best cubicle comedy of all time

[8/10 · 5 June 2011]

A classic that everyone who's ever worked with an office printer will enjoy. Lots of memorable scenes and quotes which I'm still talking about to this day. The stapler, Mr Lumberg, Case of the mondays, The stapler, the gansta printer beatdown, the arsin, the scam, the plan and the TPS reports are all classic moments in comedy. For this genre i'd definitely say it's a 9/10 (comedies of course being a bit of a crap genre, so the score would be a little lower on a general scale). There are some parts which are not perfect. Jennifer Aniston's character isn't very interesting at all for instance, and there's an overall quite mellow tone, which could've used one or two more explosive moments.

Love Exposure (2008)

A bit too whacky

[5/10 · 4 June 2011]

A mix between weird drama and kooky slap-stick. A bunch of scenes revolve around girls underpants and instant boners, but there are also a bunch of slower drama scenes. This mix doesn't work very well for me. The overall story about love and religion lacks a bit, but the worst thing is how it's played out. There are so many weird scenes that the overall story gets a bit lost on the way, and you have a hard time appreciating the movie as a whole.

However I have to give it some credit for being so full of life all the way through the entire 4 hours. But overall not for me. I've seen a bunch of weird Asian movies, but this one is not among my favourites.

The Ninth Gate (1999)

Uninspired Hollywood B-thriller

[4/10 · 17 December 2007]

Looks promosing with it's occult theme and the names of Polanski and Depp on the cover. But it doesn't live up to the expectations. I'd say this is a low point in both their careers. Both the acting and directing is very stale and uninspired, the characters are totally one dimensional and unoriginal. The dense atmosphere you'd want from a mystery movie like this is completely lacking, instead everything feels rather light hearted and weird. The overall execution is just lame. For instance - take a look at one of the fight scenes and try not to laugh...

It's not really that horrible, it's quite watchable, but compared to what you'd expect it's very tired and mediocre.

Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007 Video)

Haunted Nuclear Asylum

[3/10 · 9 November 2007]

This is a true run of the mill crap horror, but if you look at the setup more carefully it's basically an Indiana Jones-story in a horror setting. It's a basic treasure hunt with a big mechanical house full of 'traps', bad guys taking the good guys hostage and a magical statue at the end. It includes such classic features as: everyone splitting up to searching the house, the black guy dying first, ghosts that want to show people how they've suffered, and almost every other cliché there is. Needless to say the acting is worthelss, and the horror effects are extremely predictable. By the way, -the asylum the story takes place in is possibly the weirdest asylum I've ever seen, looking like a huge power plant. Also, it's done in horribe CGI.

Grandma's Boy (2006)

Most overrated movie ever?

[4/10 · 6 November 2007]

Holy crap! The scores for this movie are just outrageous. The most commonly given is 10/10! I mean...my GOD! The question is if peoples conceptions of scores is messed up (I've read people saying it's "one of the better comedies of 2006" ore "quite enjoyable" and still giving it the highest possible score!!) -10/10 is supposed to be reserved for masterpieces. While this comedy's jokes might top most on daytime TV sitcoms, -it's certainly no masterpiece no matter how you look at it. The story is the typical crapcom, -incredibly predictable, the humor is on par with the American Pie series and the acting is obviously nothing special. Read the reviews though if you are looking for a good laugh.