An Icelandic black comedy drama directed by Baltasar Kormakur, starring Victoria Abril.
A young man lives with his mother and is a little bit of a slacker. He collects unemployment and hangs out with his friends. His nmother's friend comes to visit for Christmas and while the mother is away, the friend and son have sex. The mother returns and announces her lesbianism with the friend.
Not too shabby. This held my interest with plot and characters. I think the son's friends could have been developed better, but the main characters seemed realistic. It was in Icelandic, but I get good subtitles. The mother's friend was Spanish, but spoke English. I noticed some camera-work done from above ground level that looked good. 2 of the son's friends were using a crane to hang Christmas decorations in town and that was shot from a higher view. There was also a scene with the son going into a building and the camera was pointed through second floor windows from outside. I used to wish for more "good green rating" movies, but now I'm happier to get the "adequate blue rating" ones when they come along. I rate this adequate. You might want to check it out.
An American crime comedy written and directed by Barry Levinson, starring Joe Pesci, Christian Slater and Victoria Abril.
A failed actor in Hollywood has his car radio stolen. He is so angered by this that he enlists his buddy as a camera man to catch the thief. They do and deliver him to the police with car radios, the video tape and a poorly written note. The police believe that there is a gigantic vigilante gang because of the note and the failed actor takes on the role of the gang leader. Together with his camera man, they engage in more vigilante activities with video until the police catch on to them.
This started out foolish and hokey, but ended up being not so shabby. I initially hated Joe Pesci's character and thought that he was over-acting and horribly cast. As the plot went on, it became more clear and I liked it more. The video and audio were pretty standard for 1994. I think Levinson made better musical choices in the '90s than the 2000s. The ending made sense to me, but I won't spoil it. I noticed product placement on the Sony Watchman at 1:26:00 and that they ran past cleaning carts at 1:29:52. There was a repeated scene where the friends were sitting by the pool and the main character's phone would ring. He would always say "Is that my phone?" and his buddy would always tell him "No.". It was actually always his phone. Overall, a movie that develops as it goes. I rate it adequate. If it had been as strong at the beginning as at the end, it would get awesome or best.
