The Place Beyond the Pines - A Movie Review

"You know something Luke, if you ride like thunder, you're gonna crash like Thunder."

In The Place Beyond the Pines, Ryan Gosling Plays a stuntdriver called Luke, who works as a motor cycle stunt driver for a travelling circus. One day he reunites with a woman he once hooked up with, and when she deals him some shocking news, Luke decides to turn his life around. Unfortunately this doesn't work out the way he planned, and a turn of events eventually lead him down a dark path. This is the beginning to a long, twisted turn of events, and as a viewer you suddenly find yourself watching a saga of tragedy, loss, ambition, consequences, destiny and family, unfold before your eyes. 

I was really looking forward to this movie, mainly because of the actors involved, and as predicted, they all did a very good job. No surprises in that department. What really took me by surprise however, was the pure craftsmanship that went into creating this picture. The Place Beyond the Pines is one of those visually stunning movies that comes around every so often and leaves you nailed you to your seat, completely stunned by the visuals. I was not a big fan of the directing in Derek Cainfrance's last movie, Blue Valentine, but I gotta say that he surpassed any and all expectations PBTP's early reviews had given me, in terms of directing. This movie has many beautiful shots of people simply traveling through pine forests, one of the best looking car chases I'we seen in my life, a beautiful use of sound and music that the movie several new layers, things that are all vital to creating a good movie. 

But. As important and well executed as these things are, none of them are the things that make The Place Beyond the Pines as remarkable as it actually is. In my opinion, nothing stands out from this movie as much as the story in itself. This might sound like a minor thing, but honestly, The Place Beyond the Pines has one of, if not the best storytelling element I've seen, ever. It reaches the status of classic Greek tragedy very early on, and the way human behaviour, ambition and consequence is displayed through nerve wracking intensity, but also beautiful, discrete and subtle hints and winks is truly breathtaking. As great as the actors are, none of them would have been able to do what they did without the writer/director's script and story. This is Derek Cainfrance's masterpiece, his baby, and it's a piece of hard work that I will look back upon in awe, seen from a story telling point of view. 

Being as cinematic and story based as it is, this is very much a movie that you have to let yourself completely submerge into, in order to enjoy it to it's maximum potential. Sure, it has some dramatic and breathtaking suspense scenes that everyone can enjoy, but the vast majority of this movie consists of brutally honest depictions of human behaviour, motivations and consequences, and you have to be able to enjoy these things in order to really appreciate the movie. It's a moody, atmospheric and grand picture, nothing like most movies that come out these days, and as a result of this, a lot of people who maybe don't care that much about movies that are based on dialogue and emotion storytelling won't enjoy this movie nearly as much as other people who do. You kinda have to be a fan of movies and movie creation, have an interest in human psychology and emotional elements like ambition, hopelessness and frustration, in order to enjoy the full 140 minutes of this completely original movie. 

When I say that The Place Beyond the Pines is an original movie, I truly mean it. It's 100 % completely unpredictable, and it's put together in a way that makes it seem like a saga or a legend that spans over a huge period of time. Every so often you hear a movie being described as "taking movies to a new level", but in my humble opinion, none has ever been more fitting for that title than The Place Beyond the Pines, simply because of how original it is. It's completely possible that many other directors have done "things" that are similar to what Derek Cainfrance has done with this movie, but I've personally never experiences anything like it. 

Now, this is the part of the review where I normally begin to list the things i didn't like about the movie I'm reviewing, and looking at all the praise I've given it so far, I bet it's hard to imagine that i would have a single gripe about The Place Beyond the Pines, right? Well, I do. This will be the first time in my history of blogging that I'll be complaining about the length of a movie, because honestly, this movie is too long. I know this might sound a bit contradictory to what I'we said about the amazing storytelling elements in the movie and the whole thing about enjoying films based on dialogue and emotional depictions and that jazz. What I mean when i say it's too long, is that I was very aware of just how much time i spent sitting still. After we had exited the theatre, my mother and sister told me in detail how they never felt like The Pines was a long movie. I wish I'd felt the same way, but the fact of the matter is that it felt like a four hour movie to me. It was an exhausting movie to watch, and it's taken me more than three days to digest it completely. No matter how great a movie is acted and and created, if it makes me, the guy who would gladly watch the 3.5 hour extended edition of Gladiator every single day of the week, actually think that a movie is too long, that kinda says a lot about how slow paced a movie actually is. 

The Place Beyond the Pines is like three movies mixed into one. I won't explain how this works out in detail because I'll end up spoiling too much, but I will say that the first two parts are 100 % worthy of the Movie Magic rating. Some people claim that the movie quote on quote "falls apart" in the last part, but that's not how i see it. Granted, it becomes overambitious and some of the things that happens are a little cliché and way too coincidental, but at no point in time was I ready to straight up leave the theatre in anger, like other reviewers have stated they were. I enjoyed the last part less than the first two, but it was still worth watching, even though it made the over all movie feel much longer than it was.

All in all The Place Beyond the Pines is a fantastic story that deserves major praise for the craftsmanship and dedication that went into creating it. I didn't get to talk much about the acting in this review, but if I had to summarice it shortly, I'd say that Bradley Cooper and Ben Mendelsohn both have very bright futures, that Dane DeHaan has an even brighter one, and that Ryan Gosling is one of the best actors working today, even though he plays the same character in almost all the movies he has been in recently. No one plays the "silent but violent" role better than Gosling, let's settle at that. 

No matter how long it is and how slow paced it is at times, The Place Beyond the Pines is a movie I'd be glad to own on BluRay, even though I might end up only watching the first two parts. It's got a lot of movie magic potential, but the fact that watching it almost becomes a physical challenge drags it down a whole lot. The Pines gets my seal of approval, and a huge one at that. (4/6)

The Place Beyond the pine IMDb page here

The Place Beyond the Pines trailer here

Black Swan - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

"Perfection is not about control. It's about letting go!"

Darren Aronofsky is known for creating artistic, surreal and sometimes even supernatural movies. I'm a big fan The Fountain and The Wrestler, but for some reason I hadn't gotten around to see his latest movie, Black Swan, until very recently. As it usually is the case in these situations, Black Swan of cause ended up completely blowing me away when I finally did see it.

Black Swan is about a ballerina called Nina, played by my future wife Natalie Portman. Nina is a sweet, fragile, innocent and antisocial young woman who still lives with her mother, and she has pretty much dedicated her life to becoming the world's greatest ballet dancer. She is eventually given the role of a lifetime, The Swan Queen in the ballet Swan Lake, and everything seems to go the way young Nina has planned. This abruptly ends when Lily, an uncontrollable and wild chick played by Mila Kunis, who basically represents the polar opposite of Nina, joins the ballet team. Things start to get really weird and creepy, and as pressure and anxiety begins to pile up on Nina's shoulders, one of the most intoxicating and enthralling stories of the decent into madness starts to unfold. 

One of the first things that should be said about Black Swan is that it's a ballet movie and a horror movie at the same time. Maybe not as much horror as  ballet, but it definitely has some incredibly creepy and disturbing moments in it. Some of these did seem a little bit forced, but it never got to the point where I didn't enjoy watching them. Some parts of the movie feel like nightmare'ish fever dreams, and I did not expect it to be as black and eery as it is, not at all. This chillingly creepy atmosphere that surrounds the two main characters throughout the movie, combined with the sense of things being completely out of control no matter how hard Nina tries to be perfect, adds something new to this movie that I've never seen before, and it works out incredibly well. I'm not a horror movie fan at all, so for me to say that I enjoyed the scary parts of Black Swan may be the biggest compliment I can give it. 

Black Swan is one of those movies that is just completely filled to the rim with symbolism and metaphors, something that often gets really complicated and hard to keep up with. However, in the case of Black Swan, I actually found these symbols and hints to be fairly easy to keep track of, and as a result Black Swan left me feeling strangely satisfied, because I was able to pick out the clues and symbols and put them together and come up with something that made sense. Darren Aronofsky reveals just so much of the plot that most people will be able to understand what's going on, but still leaves room for interpretation and stuff to think about, and I really enjoyed that about Black Swan. It's the first film I've watched that has done this, and It's definitely something I'd like to see more of in the future. 

Black Swan has a great story arc and a truly hypnotising musical score, but none of these things truly matter if the actors aren't great. Luckily for this movie, the entire cast does a very good job. I enjoyed Mila Kunis' performance very much, the evil villain from Ocean's Twelve is really great as well, and Barbara Hershey was incredible as Nina's overprotective mother. All these three characters are absolutely crucial to the story, and they all have an incredible amount of influence on the main character. The way these three behave towards Nina are the main catalysts for most of the things that happens in the movie; the twist, the turns and the development of Nina as a character almost all lead back to the supporting cast, and the movie would not be the same without any of them. Black Swan is a great example of how supporting character development can really make a movie shine.

As vital to the main character as they are, the supporting cast never manages to steal the spotlight from this movie's true star: Natalie Portman. Her portrayal of Nina won her an oscar for best actress in a leading role, as well as any other award there is to win, which it's 100% justified. She is spellbinding in this movie, from start to finish. Her facial expressions, her body language, the fact that she does 80% of the dancing in this movie herself, and her ability to display emotions such as anger, despair, happiness and loneliness, it's all magnificent. Perhaps the greatest part of her performance is when she has to flip it 180 and become a totally different person. The reason why she has to do this is that Lily, who embodies the black swan, eventually starts to influence Nina, who in the beginning is the whitest of the white swans, in a very disturbing way. The relationship between the white and black swan and the way they are connected and keep getting into more and more dangerous situations together is the main plot of Black Swan, and i gotta tell you, it's pretty god damn astonishing how great the chemistry between these characters is. 

Whilst watching this movie, I noticed that Black Swan has something in common with the movie Fight Club, another great movie I've reviewed in the past. I won't explain what this connection is in detail because it would spoil the plot of both movies, but the fact that it's there is pretty cool to me. Whether Fight Club or Black Swan handles this element I'm talking about the best is hard to say, but one thing that's for certain is that it's the best part of both movies respectively. Both movies, Black Swan in particular, also manage to keep the momentum going from start to finish, never getting boring or predictable. There's always something happening, something to look out for, an element I appreciated immensely. 

If i had to describe Black Swan with one sentence, it would have to be something like "A fever dream of mystery, insanity and ambition". Any movie with that tag line is worth watching in my book, and if you enjoy physiological thrillers with incredible acting, twists and turns, scares and beauty, Black Swan is something for you. When the movie was done I sat down in a chair for 20 minutes, trying to wrap my head around what I had just seen, and days later I've not stopped thinking yet. Black Swan is an existential mind bender about ambition, pressure, madness and greed that I'll be watching many many times in the future. It's an artistic masterpiece, it's that simple... And it has a Natalie Portman/Mila Kunis lesbo scene, which essentially is enough to earn it the rating of Movie Magic in itself. (6/6)

Black Swan IMDb page here

Black Swan trailer here

Update #3 - Upcoming Ryan Gosling Movies!

Seeing as I've already reviewed two of his movies and have mentioned him as being my personal favourite actor, some people might have guessed that I'm pretty stoked about two new Ryan Gosling movies premiering within two month. I decided to write a little bit about each of these movies before i watch and review them, mainly because i usually don't get to write about movies i haven't already seen. I love to talk about my expectations and reasons for being exited about a movie with my friends and family, so why not start doing the same on my blog? I plan to do this maybe once every other month or so, probably just whenever a promising movie is looming in the horizon, as a part of my update blogs. 

Derek Cainfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines

The Place Beyond The Pines has already come out, and although I haven't watched it yet, I'm going to do so this coming Saturday. I'm super stoked for this movie, especially because of the cast and the great reviews It's already gotten, although many critics have been concerned about the length of the movie (about 150 minutes). This actually only serves to make me even more exited for Gosling and Cainfrance's latest collaboration, seeing as I'm a huge fan of movies that take their time to tell a story as in depth and concentrated as possible, no matter how long it ends up becoming. I'm exited about Bradley Cooper being in this movie as well, seeing as i enjoyed his performance in Silver Lining Playbook immensely, but one person i absolutely can't wait to see is Killing Them Softly and The Dark Knight Rises star Ben Mendelsohn. He completely stole the show in Killing Them Softly, and I can barely wait to see him on stage with the likes of Ryan Gosling and Ray Liotta. My Review of The Place Beyond the Pines will be up either this coming Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon.

Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives

Now, this movie is the reason why I decided to make an "upcoming movies"-segment in this update blog. Refn's latest Gosling movie, Drive, is the sort of movie that you either love immensely or hate with a passion. I fall into the first category myself. Drive is without a shadow of a doubt one of, if not the best movie I've ever seen, in fact I've seen it seven times in two years and still can't get enough of it, so there's really no simple way for me to describe how much I'm looking forward to the 23. of may, where Only God Forgives premieres in Denmark. I'm writing this in early April, and right now Denmark is the only country that has been given an official release date, which is probably because the director is danish himself. Maybe we'll evens see a world premier here as well, so in theory there's a chance that the world's first movie review of Only God Forgives will be going up right here on my blog! Even though that's probably not going to happen, I'm still exited as fuck for this movie. The cinematography and directing in Drive is unbelievable, and if Refn's new movie lives up to its predecessors standards, I would be surprised if Only God Forgives doesn't prove to be my favorite movie of 2013. It certainly is the one I'm most exited to see.

/Andrew

The Place Beyond The Pines IMDb page here

The Place Beyond The Pines trailer here

Only God Forgives IMDb page here

Only God Forgives trailer here

Rescue Dawn - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

"Empty what is full. Fill what is empty. Scratch what itches."Rescue Dawn is an adventure/war/drama movie, and it's based on the experiences of a real life pilot whose plane was shot down near Laos during the early days of the Vietnam war. Christian Bale plays the lead role in this movie, and he does a great job of portraying how being lost in the jungle would wear a man down, both physically and mentally. The survival part is cool, although it's when he eventually gets caught by the vietnamese militia and ends up in a hostage camp where he meets other captives, both american and vietnamese, that the movie really starts to unfold and becomes something more than a "Tarzan has to survive in the jungle" kinda movie.

The first thing you notice about Rescue Dawn, is the fact that it's not filmed like a lot of other movies. You can tell that the director and the cinematographer made en effort of making the scenes where Dieter (Bale) is lost in the jungle and those where he is being held captive look like they were being shot with a handheld camera, and this really works to the films advantage. It gives these scenes a raw and intense touch, as if nothing is under control, and it gives the whole thing a strong, authentic feel. The fact that I felt as though someone was filming these events taking place in real life greatly increased my experience of watching this movie, and i got really invested in the story very early on. You did a good job cinematography guy, very good job.

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me, is how much effort and heart Christian Bale puts into his roles. He did 99 % of his stunts in this movie by himself, and I'm not gonna spoil any of them, but some of the shit that he does in this movie, I'm telling you, it's awe-inspiring. It's incredible how much this guy is willing to put his body through in order to make his characters seem more legitimate. For an example, he lost 55 pounds, about 25 KG, in order to sell the whole "being lost in the jungle for a long time"-element better, and that's not even the biggest weight change he has undergone in preparation for a movie role. Christian Bale is one of our time's most dedicated and talented method actors, and his performance in Rescue Dawn is just one the many that you can't help but admire. 

When creating a movie that is based on a real historical event, it's important that you make your movie feel as realistic as possible, in order to convince the audience that what you're presenting them is fact-fiction, and not just regular fiction. The director did of cause take some autistic license in a few cases, but over all it did feel like I was watching a real event unfold int eh screen. Apart from the great way the movie was filmed, something i talked about earlier, the way the different characters react to certain events and become more and more affected by being held hostage works fine as well, but there were also times where i raised my eyebrows a tad. Some of the these were when the supposedly top trained military guys do something stupid and irrational while trying to survive in the jungle. At times it felt like they hadn't watched as much Extreme Survival with Bear Grylls as you'd expect marines to have seen. 

All in all i can honestly say that Rescue Dawn was one of those movies that impressed me to the point where i would recommend other people to watch it, mainly because of Bale's acting and the realism that the movie displays. It does a great job of depicting how men in that situation would behave, but do keep in mind that it's based on a real story, and that there as a result of this won't be too many extravagant Hollywood special effects and fireworks present. The only real action scene is the one where Dieter's plane is shot down in the beginning of the movie, a scene that's featured in the trailer, a trailer that by the way spoils the best segment of the entire movie, so stay away from it of you don't like spoilers (!). This scene, and the other scenes that got my heart beating the fastest, actually had very little explosions and other "normally associated with action"-elements to them, something i appreciated immensely. 

In conclusion, Rescue Dawn is a muddy and believable tale of a man who wouldn't give up hope of making it home alive, with a few scenes so intense that you'll find yourself sitting on the edge of your seat, heart a'beating, forehead a'sweating, and fists a'clenching. The movie has definitely earned my seal of approval, and who knows, if I were to stumble upon a bargain, I'll maybe even pick it up on BluRay as well. (4/6)

Rescue Dawn IMDb page here

Rescue Dawn trailer here

Fargo - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

"There's more to life than a little money, you know. Don'tcha know that? And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day. Well. I just don't understand it." 

I recently watched and review No Country For Old Men, a movie directed by The Coen Brothers. It was the first movie of theirs I had ever watched, and even though I was disappointed by that particular movie, I did notice the amazing directing and cinematography behind it. Based on this, I decided to watch some more of their movies, the first one being Fargo, and oh man. Oh man. Fargo takes place in the winter of 1987, in a couple of small towns in northern Minneapolis. It centers around a spineless, greedy and slow witted man called Jerry Lundegaard, played by William H. Macy, a benign, goodhearted and willfull police detective called Marge Gunderson, played by Frances McDormand, and a couple of ruthless and murderous criminals, played by Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare. I wont go into too much depth concerning the actual plot of the movie in fear of spoiling too much for those who have not seen Fargo yet, which is something I very strongly suggest you go ahead and do right away, but it also isn't what i want to talk about concerning this movie.

Just like No Country For Old Men, this Coen movie has a message. In the case of No Country, the message was that you cannot outrun death and evil, but that you instead should come to terms with your faith and admit that you're not in control of everything that happens around you. Many people, myself included, will probably consider this a very cynical and nihilistic way of approaching life, but after watching Fargo, I've realised that the Coens do not applaud a such sad and indifferent view of life. The way this comes to show in Fargo is through the main character Marge Gunderson. This police detective is probably the most goodhearted and forgivefull character I've seen in cinema, and even though she seems a little distracted, she is just such a good person. So much so that the most cynical and psychotic of the two criminals actually end up being "saved" by her. 

As such, I'm 100 % convinced that she was intended to symbolise some sort of salvation, maybe even a savior. I say this because even though the movie is very violent and bloody, it leaves the audience with a feeling like there's still hope, as long as people like Marge still exists, as if good is still better than evil. This is very much the polar opposite of what No Country For Old Men taught us, which is fascinating, because is shows just how much perspectives and outlooks on life can vary. The fact that the Coens have managed to create two such similar yet different movies is also a testimony to their amazing ability to tell stories and make the audience go though different kinds of emotional states. It's also worth noting that Javier Bardem won an oscar for his portrayal of "the devil" in No Country For Old Men, and that Frances McDormand won one for best actress in Fargo as "the savior". 

One my favourite things about Fargo, is the fact that it's incredibly funny, and at the same time filled with drama and intensity. As mentioned before, this movie is very violent and graphic, and when you combine that with a really dry, yet brilliant humoristic touch and do it well, the result is absolutely amazing. Many of Jerry Lundegaard's lines made me laugh out loud, he's just such an awkward and goofy character that i simply couldn't help it. Another indescribably funny thing about Fargo is the accent and vocabulary that the characters make use of throughout the movie. You can't imagine how incredibly entertaining it is to listen to someone use the phrase "a'tootelin" in a serious manner. 

When it comes down to it, Fargo is well acted, well written, has a great script and is very well directed. It's funny, it's violent, intense and dramatic, a movie that every movie enthusiast should watch. You can just feel how much effort the directors and the crew behind the movie put into creating this picture, and it's no wonder that Fargo is considered a classic already. I realise that this review hasn't been as in depth and furrow as some of my earlier ones, but i really just wanted to write about the art of creating symbolic and meaningful cinema in itself, hence the many references to No Country For Old men. In the end I have to say Fargo is one of the most well written and solidly created movies I've ever seen, and not giving it my highest rating would be a dishonour. In my opinion, Fargo is story telling at it's finest and character development at it's best. Put simply; it's movie magic. (6/6)

Fargo IMDb page here

Fargo trailer here

Moon - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

"You've been up here too long, man. You've lost your marbles."

Moon is movie director/writer Duncan Jones' first stand alone movie. It takes place in what I assume to be the near future where Sam Bell, an astronaut played by Sam Rockwell, works alone on a space station on the moon. He has signed a three year contract with a company that extracts a powerful energy source from the dark side of the moon called Helium3, and his job is basically to go out to some harvesting machines and collect a canister of Helium3 every day, and then ship it back to earth. Sam's only company is a robot voiced by Kevin Spacey called GERTY, so needless to day, he's very, very lonely. The movie takes place near the end of his three year trip to the moon, and Sam is beginning to wear out from being completely isolated for so long. He misses his wife and daughter and he's sick of eating prepared meals from small plastic bag, so when something strange happens on the space station, the lonely astronaut begins to question his mental stability. 

This indie sci-fi/drama surprised me. I bought it on Blu-Ray because it was cheap, and no way had i expected to like it as much as I did. First of all I have a hard time believing how a movie that is made with a budget of 5 million dollars can look as a beautiful as Moon does. The atmospheric shots of whats going on outside the space station looks gorgeous in particular, but everything else, from the actual station to the astronaut suits and the technology in and around the base looks totally authentic and realistic. Watching Sam drive across the lunar surface in a moon jeep wearing sunglasses while a beautiful score blurs in the background was strangely fascinating, and looking at the earth and the stars in the distance while absorbing the loneliness and isolation that the character is subject to got me emotionally invested in the plot. Moon is very well directed, and I can't wait to see what Duncan Jones comes up with next. 

Being one of those movies that completely centers around a single person, the actor that plays that person obviously has to be good. Luckily for Moon, Sam Rockwell knocks it out of the park. His performance is solid and trustable, and he does a great job of displaying what being completely isolated for more than a thousands days does to a human being. When his character experiences difficult situations and has to make even more difficult decisions, Rockwell manages to display the emotions someone would experience in such a situation nicely. Moon feels really realistic, and you truly believe that something similar to what Sam Bell is put through could happen in real life. 

Being the only real supporting character, I honestly would have liked GERTY to be voiced by someone else than Kevin Spacey. Because he's a well known actor and therefore is easily recognizable, i kept thinking of Kevin Spacey talking into a microphone every time GERTY was speaking. This resulted in me never really believing that that GERTY was a real robot with intentions of his own. An unknown or less known person would have worked better for me. Over all I did like the robot as a character though, the best part being a small screen displaying a smiley face that changes according to GERTY's mood, even though I found it creepy at times as well. Something about the way the face would look completely indifferent when GERTY is seen alone kinda freaked me out. Whether or not this was intentional I can't say, maybe I'm just easily freakoutable. 

The most compelling element of this sci-fi movie is sadly the thing that many people will dislike the most about it as well. What I'm talking about is the haunting atmosphere, which is what i loved the most about Moon. You have to let yourself plunge into the isolated and hopeless reality of Sam Bell to truly enjoy this movie, but if you do, I promise that Moon will take you on a beautiful, haunting, indulging and immersing journey into space and the human psyche. It's a subtle movie without action and explosions, yet it's still rich on suspense and drama if you have the ability to put yourself into the the situation of Sam Bell. After the movie had ended I couldn't stop thinking about what I would do if i was in main characters shoes, and I have a feeling that this is exactly what the director aimed to do. Moon is beautiful, well acted, thought provoking and definitely worth buying on BluRay. (5/6)

Moon IMDb page here

Moon trailer here

No Country For Old Men - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

"Here last week they found this couple out in California. They rent out rooms for old people, kill'em, bury'em in the yard, cash their social security checks. Well, they'd tortur'em first, I don't know why. Maybe the television set was broke."

Now I was really looking forward to watching this movie. I mean, the Coen Brothers directing a movie about drugs and violence starring Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones sounds almost too good to be true, right? Well, to me, No Country has elements that are absolutely breathtaking, but it sadly has elements that fall flat as well. 

The movie takes place in 1980's southern USA, where Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a hillbilly'ish welter/hunter stumbles upon a drug deal gone sour. He finds a suitcase containing 2 million dollars which he decides to keep, and thus becomes the the target of a psychotic assassin portrayed masterfully by Javier Bardem. A double manhunt ensues, and Llewelyn Moss finds himself in the center of a bloody tornado of violence and ruthlessness. I call it a double manhunt because not only is Anton Chigurn (Bardem) trying to catch and kill Llewelyn, but and old sherif called Ed Tom Bell (Jones) is trying to find and arrest Bardem's character as well. The movie can be described as a chain, with the three main characters each symbolizing a link, one being a little ahead of the one behind it. 

The mass murdering Anton Chigurn is the strongest link in this movie by far. I had head that Javier Bardem was amazing in this role before i watched No Country, but what i saw completely blew me away. There is no way you can prepare for what Bardem brings to the table, just no way in hell. The character is evil, menacing, cold hearted, psychotic, everything a mother in law would be afraid of. He's such an important part of this movie though, and i would actually go as far as to calling him the main character, because he simply is so vital to the over all message of the film. He has very little dialogue, a horrendous haircut and two infinitely cool weapons that he uses very frequently, and i totally ended up rooting for the guy. The fact that the big baddie of the movie in some kind of weird way ends up being the hero, or anti-hero if you will, is very telling, and it ties in perfectly to the message this film tries to get across. 

Another great thing this movie has going for it is the way it's directed. Theres something about the way No Country For Old Men is put together that instantly got me fascinated, and though it's hard to explain to someone who's not seen it, i believe those who have will agree when i say that is has a haunting coldness to it, and I believe this is mainly due to the lack of music or background noise in almost all of the scenes. I only remember hearing anything in the background of like two or three scenes, which is not a lot in a two hour movie, and this serves to create a very toned down and lonely, yet suspenseful and enthralling tone. In this case less definitely is more. The movie looks gorgeous, everything from the wast desert areas of Texas to the bleeding corpses left behind by Anton Chigurn kinda pops out in a non 3D-kinda way, and at first i was happy to find out that the Coen Brothers were awarded the best director academy award for their work on this movie (more on this later). This is largely due to the lasting impression that this movie leaves the audience with. Theres no pat on the head, no reassuring that everything is gonna be fine. It's hard to explain this in too much detail without spoiling the ending and the message of the movie, but it's actually quite haunting. 

Sadly, there were times during this movie that i would have wished the Coens would have sticked to their less is more approach, and by this i mean the Tomme Lee Jones parts. Granted, Jones did a great job of displaying a struggling elderly sherif full of regrets, and i do acknowledge that his character is vital to the main theme of the movie, but honestly, theres just too much of him. I'we read that when writing the script for this movie, the amount of dialogue in the book that it's based on, was drastically reduced by Coens in an effort to create a more eery and ruthless atmosphere. This worked great with Bardem's and Brolin's characters, bur for some reason, it seems as though they forgot to reduce the amount of dialogue from Tom Bell. Some may think that this would diminish the message the movie was trying to get across, but honestly, it worked with the other characters, why not this one?

Many occurrences in this movie aren't explained in detail, something i don't mind at all. I love having to think things through and sort of come up with my own explanation to certain parts of movies, something no country for old men does as well, kinda. Most parts of the film follows this principle nicely, but its almost as if the directors tried too hard force-feed the meaning of Tommy Lee Jones' character. As a result, the movie feels like it's way longer than it actually is, and i found myself getting annoyed every time Tommy Lee Jones got on screen. The last ten minutes are nothing but him talking, talking and talking, and by then i just wanted the movie to end. The plot was finished, the message had been delivered, but it just kept on going, which is a damn shame. All in all, the elements of this movie that were awesome were really awesome, and the elements that annoyed me really annoyed me. 

The Coen Brothers won three oscars for this movie, one for best director(s), one for best adapted screenplay, and one for best picture. I don't agree with theses decisions. When i got to think about it, There Will Be Blood was superior both in terms of directing and dialogue, and i over all thought it was a great deal better than No Country For Old Men, and therefore don't believe it was worthy of best picture. Maybe this is just because I'm a huge Paul Thomas Anderson fanboy, who knows, but this is my blog God damn it, I'll write whatever I want! (this last sentence should be read aloud with the accent of a middle aged black woman). When it comes down to it, No Country For Old Men is worth the watch because of Javier Bardem, the acting in general and the amazing atmosphere that is present in 80 % of the scenes, but the irritating part was just way too irritating for me to give it my seal of approval. Look up Javier's scenes on youtube and you will have watched the best parts of this movie. Sorry Tommy. (3/6)

No Country For Old Men IMDb page here

No Country For Old Men trailer here

The Master - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

"I do many, many things. I am a writer, a doctor, a nuclear physicist, a theoretical philosopher, but, above all, I am a man. A hopelessly inquisitive man, just like you."

The Master, the newest film created by the movie mastermind Paul Thomas Anderson, is the deepest movie I've seen since i started blogging. It's one of those movies that you can't fully grasp within one viewing, one you respect for it's many layers, messages and themes. I saw Anderson's There Will Be Blood a while back, and ever since, I've had no doubt in my mind that his movies mean something special to me. I've come to the conclusion that they don't fall into one general genre, but that they're in a class for themselves. The Master is just as unique, beautiful and ruthlessly deep and fascinating as There Will Be Blood, and they actually are quite similar, but then again, they're vastly different as well. The same goes for the two main characters in this movie, but more on that later. 

The film takes place in post-WWII-America, where the war veteran Freddie Quell finds himself lost, sick and lonely when he gets send home from his ship in the Pacific. He wanders from place to place, never being able to keep his many different kinds of work for long periods of time in a row, because of his social inabilities. After 5 years of travelling America, he ends up on a ship, and aboard this ship he meets Philip Seymour Hoffmann's character Dodd Lancaster, who styles himself as The Master of a religious or spiritual cult/assemble called "The Cause". Freddie gets sucked into the life on the boat and into what The Cause has to offer him, and he becomes close friends with Dodd. The two become strongly connected to each other in many ways, and their odd and powerful relationship becomes the main theme and focus of the rest of the movie. 

The Master is like a ogre or an onion. It has layers. Manny many many layers, and I'm convinced that i won't ever stop finding new themes or messages hidden within them, no matter how many times i watch the movie. Writing about this it in it's entirety would take up as much space as all my previous reviews combined, so i'll stick to explaining what i found most fascinating and compelling from watching it just once. One thing that absolutely needs to be discussed, is the inhumane performances by the lead actors. Readers of my Gladiator review will know that I'm a huge fan of Joaquin Phoenix, and watching him deliver the performance of a lifetime in The Master has only served to make me treasure him even more. He's unrecognisably, indescribably, absolutely and completely fantastic in this movie. The way he delivers his lines, expresses his thoughts through facial expressions, carries himself and delves into the character of the psychotic Freddie Quell, becomes Freddie Quell, is unheard of, it's breathtaking, it's art, and Hoffmann is almost just at good. I know that many consider Daniel Day Lewis' performance in Lincoln, the guy who by the way won the Oscar for best actor in There Will Be Blood, as the best performance of the year, but to me, Joaquin is just out of this world perfect in The Master, and he puts on my personal favourite performance of 2012. 

When it comes to the themes of this deeply layered movie, the one i believe to be the most important one is loneliness, and longing for a loving family. Freddie is lonesome and lost, wet from the rain and tired from travelling, and when he sees Dodd dancing with his wife on their ship, all the members of The Cause watching them, clapping and smiling along, he spontaneously boards the ship, and seeks to become a part of that happy family. Throughout the movie you see several of his unsuccessful attempts at becoming a part of the family, how desperate he is to be loved, and how traumatized he is. The only person who seems to like him is Dodd Lancaster, and Freddie therefore becomes addicted to his friendship. As mentioned above, the two of them are virtually complete opposites; One is outspoken, gallant, clever, popular, rich, confident and powerful, whilst the other one is weak, mentally unstable, socially incapable, drunk, traumatized, insecure and hateful. At the same time though, and this where it gets really really good, the two have many striking similarities. They're both alchemists, for an example. Freddie is capable of brewing moonshine from virtually anything; paint thinner, torpedo fuel, bread, fruit or medicine, and he's so good at it that Dodd becomes almost addicted to his brewery. Dodd on the other hand creates his intoxicating substance though speeches, by preaching and through psychoanalytical sessions, all of which Freddie becomes addicted to, so much so that he beats up people who dares to question Dodds methods. Both of them create something that the other one needs, and they end up actually needing each other. 

The Cause, the movement witch Dodd Lancaster has created, is considered by almost anyone who has seen The Master, to be an early version of Scientology. It's never actually called Scientology in the film, but it's pretty obvious that this is what Paul Thomas Anderson intended, with all the talk of  the human body being a vessel for the soul, previous lives and man being more than an animal; a perfect creature. Anderson doesn't display Scientology as a completely good thing however. It's visible how Dodd's views and ways of thinking sometimes change to make things easier to explain or understand, and when confronted with criticism, the weak points of The Cause's way of thinking become clearer. Freddie begins to question whether what he's doing is right, but because of his addiction to The Cause and to Dodd, he stays deeply immersed in its reality. The Cause ends up owning him, it becomes something he cannot control himself, and this inner struggle of Freddie's is sort of the main "battle" of The Master, along with Dodd's struggle to run his "cult". It's very hard to explain much of this because it's so very complicated to fully grasp, and I'm worried that what I'm writing wont do the movie justice. These are just my main thoughts about The Master, and i strongly recommend anyone who hasn't seen it yet to go ahead and do so. 

The fact that you can make up your own ideas of what this great movie is about, is one of the many fantastic things about Anderson's latest film; there's no final or conclusive answer to the many questions you're left with after watching it. The more i think about this movie, the more i fall in with it, and i honestly didn't think it was that good at first. I never doubted that the acting was some of the finest I've seen in years, but the story and the many layers took some time for me appreciate. I've come to the conclusion that i don't have to fully grasp The Master's complete content, all it's themes and messages, and that letting go and just allowing Paul Thomas Anderson, Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffmann to take my mind on a thrilling adventure is the way to go about The Master.

Grading this movie is the toughest thing I've had to do for as long as i can remember. Anderson deserves the rating of movie magic for his magnificent vision and gorgeous cinematography (i didn't get to talk about he latter in this review, but it's fan-freaking-tastic), and Phoenix's flat out spellbinding lead performance also deserves my greatest praises. However, the movie as a whole did not entertain me as much as it amazed and surprised me. Its first impression wasn't top notch, and when compared to my favourite movies in terms of raw entertainment and storytelling, it simply just isn't worth a 6/6. The Master's acting, character development, artistic features, thought provoking nature and beautiful cinematography is something i would gladly pay to experience many times again though, and it is therefore absolutely, completely and undoubtedly worth buying on BluRay. (5/6)

The Master IMDb page here

The Master trailer here

Update #2 - The Walking Dead and House of Cards Series Introductions

So after a period of holidays, immense amounts of school work and a batch of flu, I'm back to writing on my blog, and as the title suggest, I'm going to expand a little in this entry. I'm not a huge series-o'holic, and my resume more and less consists of six seasons of Dexter, seven seasons of How i met Your Mother, everything Game of Thrones and most of the Friends series. My currently-watching list looks as follows: Breaking Bad (three seasons in), and up until recently that was pretty much it. However, since I've had to stay home sick for a couple of days, I've had the chance to dig into some other ones as well, and I've decided to keep on watching a few of them. This blog will serve as an introduction to those two series, not as reviews, seeing as I'm not done watching either of them.

The Walking Dead

The first series i checked out was one I've head a lot about recently; The Walking Dead. As i stated in one of my previous movie reviews, I'm not a horror buff, not at all, but i can honestly say, just from watching the first season, that I'm completely in love with this zombie-apocalyptic-survival-horror series. A zombie apocalypse is something that I believe most guys have put a great deal of thought into, including me, and it's just incredibly cool to watch some of the ideas and thoughts I've had on the matter unravel on the screen.

One of the things I hate the most about the horror genre, is that it's by far the one that produces the highest amount of soulless, cash grabbing, eye-gouge inducing stink piles at the moment. As I said in my review of the movie Se7en: if a horror movie/series truly has to win me over, it has to be clever and self aware. Luckily, The Walking Dead is just that. It knows that in order come across as being legitimate, it has to be dead serious (no pun intended), make the audience believe that it takes place in a post apocalyptic world, and most of all it has to depict how the people in that world react to the things going on around them.

Character progression is one of the biggest focuses of this series, and it does it almost flawlessly. People despair, loose hope, they panic, and the choices and sacrifices they have to make in order to stay alive takes it's heavy tole on all of them. It's incredibly entertaining, suspenseful and nerve wracking to watch, but at the same time, it's easy to keep up with what's going on. The plot is straight forward and easy to understand, without being predictable and boring. The Walking Dead is easy to watch, yet still enthralling and engaging entertainment, and honestly, who doesn't love watching zombies getting slaughtered once in a while?

House of Cards

Now, I'we only just finished watching the very first episode of this series a few hours ago, and man, did it knock me on my ass. House of Cards have some really big names attached to it, names such as David Fincher, one of my favorite directors, and oh yea, Kevin Freaking Spacey. The fact that this man, one of my all time favorite actors, plays the lead character, is the main reason I gave House of Cards a shot, and from watching the pilot, I can already tell that I'm in for a treat. Spacey plays Majority Whip (explanation here) in the party of the newly reelected president, and because he for some reason was cheated out of receiving his promised promotion after the election, he decides to go on a personal vendetta, using every dirty trick in his political toolbox to become president himself.

The thing about House of Cards I instantly fell in love with, is the way the series sometimes breaks the fourth wall. Having Francis Underwood (Spacey) look into the camera and talk directly to the audience and explain a situation or his motives behind an action gives a unique insight into the plot that I'we seldom seen before. They could have just made Francis narrate these parts of the the series, but doing this talk-to-the-camera thing gives it a cool twist that often times is incredibly funny as well as effective for what it's trying to do. An example of this way of filming can be seen in the very first part of the trailer that I'we linked below. As always, Spacey acts his role incredibly well, and I'm looking forward to seeing him tear the white house apart from the inside out. 

Just as a final note, I'd like to say that i will be writing more movie reviews in the near future, I just have to get into the habit of going to school and not being a human volcano once again. 

/Andrew

The Walking Dead IMDb page here

The Walking Dead trailer here

House of Cards IMDb page here

House of Cards trailer here

Gladiator - A Movie Review by Andrew Lawrence

"My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next."

So I've been trying to come up with a cool way to start off this review for a while now, and it's proving to be quite a challenge, which is pissing me off. Then again, it could be worse. As long as my family doesn't get molested and crucified and I don't get sold as a slave to get killed by lions in an arena, I guess I've got nothing to complain about. 

Gladiator is a movie about a roman general played by the academy award winning actor Russell Crowe, who gets betrayed, and thus becomes a slave. He has to fight as a gladiator in order to secure his freedom and avenge his family, and after his first few fights, his slaver realises how great a gladiator he is, beeing a former army general and such. Because of his talents in the arena, Maximus is taken to Rome to fight in the Colosseum, and thus begins a legendary tale of love, revenge, betrayal, death, honor and bravery. A story of a general who became a slave. A slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an emperor. 

The way I see it, there are two main themes in this movie, the first one being revenge. Maximus was cast aside by Commodus, the new emperor, because he refused his offer to become high general of the Roman army, in favour of going back to live with his family. As punishment, Commodus kills Maximus' wife and young son, leaving Maximus with an incredible thirst for revenge. There are certain points in this movie where you can just see his lust for retaliation seething from his eyes, and it makes you root the shit out of Russell Crowe's character, because he's so incredible at expressing just what a man in Maximus' situation must be feeling. Some of his lines are incredibly memorable, and Crowe delivers them with an authority and a confidence that I've seldom seen before. 

The second, and quite possibly the most important theme also, is love. Maximus loved his family deeply, which is why he wants revenge for them being killed so badly. He's come to the point where he actually wants to die, because he believes he's going to see his them in the afterlife, he just has to get to his revenge first. Commodus, the emperor played incredibly well by Joaquin Phoenix, is also a family man, but in an entirely different way than Maximus. He's a self absorbed, greedy and unstable, sometimes even psychotic young man, who takes his fathers seat by murdering him and staging it to look like a natural death. His father and Maximus had a very close relationship, something that had been torturing Commodus for many years. Therefore, when Maximus finds out about this murder, it only adds to their already hateful relationship. Commodus also loves his sister very much, witch is quite ironic, because she's in love with Maximus. Feeling as though everyone in his family likes Maximus better than himself, Commodus becomes a very angry, frustrated and sad man, and his character is one of my favourite villains of all time, because you hate him just as much as you feel bad for him. 

Hans Zimmer composed the official Gladiator theme song called Now We Are Free, and by God, it's one of the most beautiful and sad songs ever created. The movie is very sad in itself, seeing as it's centered around death and betrayal, and this song reminds me of just how emotional I get when watching this film. Listening to it for just a few seconds literally gets me all emotional and it almost puts tears in my eyes, it's that striking. A good example of how much I adore this soundtrack is the fact that I've taken an entire part of this review and dedicated it just to praising the living hell out of a score. Here's a link to the soundtrack, please take a few minutes out of your day to sit down and listen to it through a pair of good headphones, and trust me, you wont regret it.

One of the the many thing i adore about this movie, is how strongly attached i get to Crowe's character. He's been through so many things in his life, sacrificed most of it to fight for the roman army and serving the Cesar, and seeing him get screwed over as royally as he does is just gut wrenching. You just want this guy to become happy so badly. I almost felt as though my world got connected to the universe of the Roman Empire when I watched Gladiator for the first time, and I was completely sucked into the world of gladiators, emperors and slaves, which is largely due to the incredible cinematography and directing that went into this movie, done by the legendary Ridley Scott. Some of the shots are beautiful beyond explanation, and especially one scene sends chills down my back every time I watch it. It's the scene where Maximus is walking through a field, his hand brushing lightly on top of the swaying corn, with Now We Are Free playing in the background. I can't explain much about the situation or the symbolism of this scene without spoiling too much of the plot, but ladies and gentleman, I promise you, it's B-E-A-utiful.

Now, I know that there are many people who think that gladiator is tad bit too long and too drawn out, but too me, it's too short. I've bought the BluRay version, and with it comes an extended cut version witch is a whopping 3,5 hours long, and i still think that's too short as well. The more i watch this movie, the more I fall in love with it, and I'm always sad when it's over. I want it to go on forever, never come to an end, just keeping on going. When all is said and done however, there is a few things about Gladiator that I think could have been done better, and one of them is the colour of the buildings in Rome. They seem a little grey and cold to me, and I've always thought of Rome as a big shining city. Some sand colour or yellow/redish would have fit better in my opinion, but it's not too big a problem when everything going on inside those walls are as epic as they are. The other thing I didn't like about this movie. is the trailer. It's one of the more shitty trailers I've seen, and you should not decide whether you want to see Gladiator based on the contents of it. Just trust me on my word and go see it, whether you liked the trailer or not.

This movie is grand, spectacular and epic. It revolutionised the world of cinema sword fighting, took emotional investment to a level never seen before, and has cemented itself as one of the best historical movies of all time. It's acted perfectly, the script is filled to the rim with memorable quotes, everything from the costumes to the scenery is done perfectly, it has an incredible soundtrack, and leaves you feeling as though you've just witnessed something incredible and special. Gladiator is very close to being my favourite movie of all time, and I would be doing the art of movie making a great dishonour by giving it anything but my best rating. Gladiator is, without a shadow of a doubt, movie magic. (6/6)

Gladiator IMDb page here

Gladiator trailer link here