Saturday, January 3, 2009

Max Manus

Peeped out the high-budget Norwegian movie about WW2 legend and resistance fighter Max Manus today. Didn't really know what to expect, because a) it's a Norwegian movie, and b) it's a WW2 movie, which often tend to be overly simplified and clear-cut.

Turned out it was perhaps the best (more recent) Norwegian movie I've ever seen. Including the Varg Veum movies, simply because it's a series, so at the end of the day you know there's gonna be another one, etc. Of course, the Max Manus movie had the benefit of an awesome story and the additional benefit of having eyewitness accounts to base the scenes on. They also had the enormous advantage of a Pia Tjelta-free cast. Fact is, I thought the entire cast performed admirably, and the movie didn't overstay it's welcome. It even portrayed Max Manus and (most of) his crew as human beings with emotions and frailties more than Chuck Norris-like entities, which in my opinion greatly added to the qualities of the movie.

Ok; there were a couple of instances where they really screwed up the credibility, including at least two scenes where Max Manus pulls off some shooting while totally in the open and facing armed Germans which reminded me of Arnold in "Commando", Stallone in Rambo III where he takes on the entire Soviet army with a bow and arrow, and any Steven Seagal movie. Apart from this, two thumbs up from me.

4 comments:

Anders said...

Crap. You beat me to it with the review. You've been very naughty!

They also had the enormous advantage of a Pia Tjelta-free cast

Funny, I commented to my wife about this move: Where is Pia Tjelta and Ane Dahl Torp? With Aksel Hennie and Nicolai Cleve Broch already in the cast, it's normally required that at least one of them are in the movie.

Wilhelm said...

Couldn't wait for your late ass to bring the review, bro :-D There's no stoppin' you from still doin' the review though.. I for one am interested in what that'd look like

With Aksel Hennie and Nicolai Cleve Broch already in the cast, it's normally required that at least one of them are in the movie.

Are you saying that by some law of equilibrium, Pia Tjelta spontaneously appeared in Døden På Oslo S or some Olsenbanden-flick due to her being excluded from Max Manus?

Anders said...

I wouldn't be too surprised if Pia Tjelta suddenly appeared in the newest Olsenbanden Jr. flick, no.

Wilhelm said...

Bills to pay, ya know