A German French Swedish Norwegian Canadian American drama directed by Wim Wenders, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, James Franco, Patrick Bauchau and Peter Stormare.
A man kills 1 of a pair of brothers in a car accident during a snow storm. He is depressed, but eventually becomes a successful writer. He offers to help the mother of the boys and they talk a little bit. When the surviving brother is 16 years old, he meets the writer.
This was worse than Turkish Star Wars (1982) because Wim Wenders is a good director and I was expecting something to happen. At the end of almost 2 hours, the credits rolled and there had been nothing going on since about 14 minutes in. Charlotte Gainsbourg is good at acting and I haven't seen her in any happy or boring roles. When the writer was looking outside, trying to figure out who broke into his house, she should have been there with weapons. At least Turkish Star Wars was known to be bad and had something happening. This had good people on the filmmaking team and nothing happened. I rate this shit because mediocrity should be punished more than lack of quality. I would rather watch a movie that is interesting because it's so bad than be bored by mediocrity.
A Swedish Norwegian Russian fantasy directed by Vladimir Grammatikov, starring Christopher Lee, Christian Bale and Susannah York.
A boy who is unhappy with his foster parents is transported to a land of fantasy where he is a prince. He goes on a quest with his best friend (from the real world, who is also in the fantasy land) to defeat the dark knight and save the children of his kingdom.
This is pretty standard, classic fantasy. The plot fits into the standard cliche like a puzzle piece. What I found hilariously cliche was the king approving of his son's quest to evil-land. The characters are shallow and stereotypical, as expected. The duo of main characters reminded me very much of Frodo and Sam in The Lord of the Rings. We also have typical NPC-type characters and a "source of all evil" villain. The video was not too shabby, but nothing to get excited about. The audio also fit this mold. Style is where this film shines. It fits the mold of children's fantasy so well that it almost defines the genre. Everything is wrapped up into such a neat package that it set standards in cohesion. The plot points being repeated in dialogue and each section leading to the next makes it easy to understand for younger audiences. I also thought it was funny how the kite that had been flown earlier became the face of the old man in the sky that transports the main character to the fantasy land. Seeing how I like this genre so much, I thought it was great. Overall, a road map to children's fantasy. I rate this good.
A Norwegian drama directed by Hans Petter Moland, starring Stellan Skarsgard.A man gets out of prison after doing 12 years for gang-related murder. He quickly reunites with his gang buddies to find a job and a place to live. He is requested to kill the snitch who got him sent to jail, but puts this off as long as he can. He also finds his son who is marrying a woman who thinks this man is dead, not a killer.The characters were good and so was the plot, but it took a long time to develop. The main character was especially dynamic and gets laid CONSTANTLY. I almost want to kill someone so I can go to jail and have sex multiple times per day with different women when I get out. The style was a little strange, but I don't know what counts as normal in Norway. I'm rating this adequate because I think it's worth watching.
