Kung Fury – **(1/2)

This is really crazy.

But it’s fun !

30 minutes of non stop 80s persiflage scenes that make no sense at all, but are incredibly entertaining. It’s probably better after the use of alcohol or marihuana (where it’s legal of course), but even in a sober state of mind this is awesome.

There isn’t really a ‘story’ apart from the fact that a kung fu cop is sent back in time to kill Adolph ‘Kung Führer’ Hitler. It’s filled with funny one-liners (‘Knock Knock’ ‘Who’s there?’ ‘Knuckles’), great action scenes (the video game like kung-fu killing of Hitler’s gas mask wearing army), absurd encounters (a prehistoric Laser Raptor), nostalgic sounds (80s synths, 80s guitar rock) etc… it’s Knight Rider meets Back to the Future meets The Karate Kid meets Conan The Barbarian meets He-Man, meets, well, everything else that you watched when you were a kid in the eighties…

Just watch it: it’s online!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3472226

Melancholia

When someone says/writes that he/she likes the latest movie of Lars Von Trier, I always wonder if they’ve actually seen the movie or not. I never believe it when someone claims to like the vision and artistic talent of Von Trier. I think people just say it because it’s the artistically correct thing to say. It makes them feel part of the ‘in crowd’ who knows all about art.

Well, I do NOT like Lars Von Trier’s movies. I tried to watch Melancholia, because, well, it did get good reviews and several people I know liked it. Or said they did. But this is just NOT my kind of movie. The stories always bother me so much, that I cannot even enjoy the cinematography and the art direction, nor the acting. Same here. I’m sure Kirsten Dunst is doing a great job here, but her character is so utterly uninteresting and the setting is so incredibly boring that I just didn’t care.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1527186/

 

Män Som Hatar Kvinnor / The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – ** 1/2

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132620/

It took me a while to watch this movie. I first wanted to read the book, but that book has been on my shelve for more than three years now. And in the meantime they made an American remake.

I am not sure if I want to see the remake though. It will probably come too soon. But on the other hand, it might be a better movie than this one. This is the original Swedish movie based on the best seller that sold more than 35 million copies worldwide! And unfortunately it looks like the producers wanted the movie to be released while the book was still in the charts. It is always difficult to visualize what was written as a novel and you just have to add extra scenes to make the story come to life, but I was a bit annoyed by the repetitiveness of certain images. That picture that becomes the first clue is shown endlessly. I got it imprinted in my memory forever. And yes, it is controversial to show sadism and sex and that’s how it got the crowds in, but those scenes do not add anything at all to the experience.

The movie starts good and you get intrigued by the story and the characters. But then it all gets told way too fast. A series would have been better for this story, because now it looks like the script writer works for a weekly tv crime show. The end credits roll and think wonder what made the book so popular, because the plot line in this movie isn’t all that brilliant.

But as a detective movie, it definitely has its merits.