Friday, March 21, 2008

Three movies from 2007

After pulling double shifts painting our new living room and other sections of our house, it's kewl to kick back and enjoy some flicks. If they're good ones, that is, otherwise time would be better spent watching "The West Wing" episodes over and over again.

Varg Veum - Din Til Døden (2007)
Third installment in this series of movies based on Gunnar Staalesen's novels. This one was at least as good as the previous two - my faith in Norwegian film makers is partly restored.

The Heartbreak Kid (2007)
Farrelly brothers-movie starring Ben Stiller, in a plot which vaguely resembles that of "There's Something About Mary". And you know what; at times it really approaches the quality of said movie, albeit from below. It's even got Carlos Mencia as a co-star. But yet again, a decent movie is ruined by the director's infallible insistance that the length of any movie should exceed the storyline by at least 50%. Too damn long - next.

We Own The Night (2007)
On paper, this had a lot of potential, with actors like Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg and Robert Duvall. On the other hand, it also "starred" Eva Menendez, thusly named because she'll kill any movie she's in. If Eva Menendez had been in "The Godfather II", then "Death Wish" would have been the big movie of 1974. What's even worse, the movie was nominated for the Golden Palm in Cannes in '07 - not exactly a good omen in my book. What could've been a kewl movie quickly turned into a stereotype fiesta with Polish cops battling Russian mob guys, with a prodigal son storyline thrown in for good measure. We gave up less than one hour into the movie.

11 comments:

Anders said...

Three movies from 2007

...except for Varg Veum, which has been release this month.
;-)

Will watch this, even though the critics has said that this is a medium movie and the least interesting of the three Veum movies.

Wilhelm said...

It said 2007 on the sleeve.....

If ya can't trust the back cover on a rental DVD, what CAN ya trust?

Unknown said...

I liked we own the night

Wilhelm said...

..but of course you did. Was it the lack of action or the grand theft originality that floated your boat?

Wilhelm said...

...you really liked WOTN? For real? Does that mean a bunch of monkeys showed up and started to play the accordion whilst sporting striped sweaters and holding baguettes just past the 1 hour mark, Pigeon?

Unknown said...

if that was the case, I would have said that I loved wotn !!!

sadly, no monkeys and no snakes on that flick

Wilhelm said...

Some metal band out there must have a song called "We Owned The Night". If not, I'm calling dibs

Anders said...

Some metal band out there must have a song called "We Owned The Night". If not, I'm calling dibs

I think you have a fair shot at it. Even with my Google-Fu skills I could only find a track called "Own The Night" on the Miami Vice soundtrack... (by Chaka Khan, which I guess isn't regarded as metal)

Wilhelm said...

The title of Pantera's third album - the one before Cowboys From Hell - was actually called "I Am The Night", which ranks pretty high on the "Night" scale. Still; the Dokken song "Unchain The Night" has it beat in my book

Anders said...

The title of Pantera's third album - the one before Cowboys From Hell - was actually called "I Am The Night", which ranks pretty high on the "Night" scale. Still; the Dokken song "Unchain The Night" has it beat in my book

And yet, they both got "owned" by Chaka Khan...
;-)

Wilhelm said...

Anyone mentioned in the same context as Chaka Khan is "owned" by definition. Or rather by association...