Kvindelige helte i actionfilm

– før og efter Jennifer Lawrence…

Gæsteindlæg fra Hans Henrik Løyche

“Ikke, at jeg har noget dårligt, at sige om skuespillerinden Jennifer Lawrences talent. Hendes præstation i The Hunger Games(2012) er måske så som så (rollen er dog også ret stereotyp), men omvendt syntes jeg bestemt, at hun spillede fremragende i Winter’s Bone (2010). Men for nogle dage siden sagde hun i et interview til Variety’s Actors on Actors, at hun var “the first-ever woman to be cast as the lead of an action movie”, samt en masse vrøvl om, at filmselskaber indtil da ikke havde turdet bruge kvinder i action-hovedroller, fordi mænd ikke kunne identificere sig med dem og derfor ikke gad se filmene. Øh … men nogle må jeg da have set, for af kvinder i action-hovedroller før Jennifer Lawrence kunne jeg lige ihukomme:
Continue reading “Kvindelige helte i actionfilm”

Time Travel definition in fiction

– what to look for

 

This is my guide for my Time Travel Movie list – things to consider, when digging up titles.

NB: Be aware of plot-spoilers in method and tags – let people mess up their own viewing pleasure via imdb and RT.

PERSPECTIVE

Who is the POV of the story?
Evaluation of the Time Travel theme lies with this view.

Time Travel is a matter of perspective:
Who or what leaves the orderly progression of events, and who is visited by persons, data or objects of a later or earlier data?

Life lived out of sync
with everything else from the perspective of the observing eye – either ageing faster or slower in relative measurement.

HOW:

Entropic decay of bio-matter will co-exist with matter either younger or older life in relative terms calculated from the assumed beginning of the present cosmological expansion. Continue reading “Time Travel definition in fiction”

A great story INSIDE a not so great film

-2022

I was instantly reminded of Bladerunner, and I see many references to it in the images, the tone, the setting, the music – all without the facade of larger-than-life storytelling causing the dream state that makes Bladerunner iconic.

LOVELAND or EXPIRED (a bad title, because it is neither fully correct nor a genuine mis-lead) consists of the grit of reality, even if a bit into the future – not social realism, just the unwavering loss of hope, the emptiness of existence, in the big city or simply among other people. In this sense it is almost merciless – the only redemption that which is given freely from one human to another, posing as the singular meaning of life. And then even that is taken away. Maybe. Possibly, Unclear

I can’t really feel it. Wish I could.

The problem is not exactly the acting, or the lighting, or the directing. It’s the voice-over, or rather the dramatic necessity of the voice-over. However similar to the 1st theatrical version of Bladerunner, which worked to ease the audience into what was seen as a dark story, to lighten the mood in the tone of snub-nosed detectives of the 1930s – but LOVELAND without the voice-over would simply not work. There would be no heart, because that text causes our lead to be human – except that the voice-over monologue describes a character COMPLETELY different from the one of the lead – as the filmed lead never says or hints at brain activity at a level of poetry approaching that of the voice-over. Unfortunately and incredible.

I do however love the theme. How a person can literally adapt to a life without feeling, because their hormonal cause of deep emotion is taken from them, and then – if attraction causes them to produce these hormones again – begin to die. But even if the TAKE on the old story of the price of falling in love is actually quite good, it overstays its welcome – as if the director does not trust his audience with the material. Yet another script treatment – possibly to integrate the voice-over – would have made it a greater story and possibly a GREAT film.

And what happened to Hugo Weaving? That was abuse of an interesting role as well as actor. Nasty to just turn a good actor into function. And worse if it happens in the cutting room.

I would love to give it a 10.

But I have to give it 6.4. And if I think more about it, that grade will drop further. But it IS a good story – inside all of the noise, the pretentiousness, the director’s fear, the length without real payoff, as I am left to imagine what kind of film it COULD HAVE BEEN.

[where to watch]

From Other Worlds [2004]

– a vanished movie

 

Hun, hjemmegående fra Brooklyn, der keder sig, og han, en immigrant fra Elfenbenskysten, som ingen i USA aner hvor er, formår som de eneste at reagere på en tilrejsende aliens inspirative bortførelser og sammen løse nogle spor, så en 2000 år gammel skriftrulle kan returneres til rette ejerskab og imens redde hele galaksen og tillige få ny inspiration til det stivnede samliv og udsigten til arbejde på bunden af samfundet.

Herlig pastiche på film fra engang. En sød film i bunden af A/toppen af B, hvad du nu foretrækker. Og ligefrem tækkelig.

Flere af skuespillerne kan ligefrem spille, og får det meste ud af meget lidt. Bibliotekarens rolle er dog som at se Kirsten Rolfes i Matador besat af Bruce Willis, der phoner rollen ind. Sådan kan man caste lidt for åbenlyst efter et rollekatalog med noget meget brugt.

6.7/10

Data: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363623/
Data: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/from-other-worlds
Bio: https://gomo.to/movie/from-other-worlds
Køb: https://www.dvdplanetstore.pk/shop/sci-fi/from-other-worlds-dvd-2004-original/

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/fromotherworlds

The Education of Fredrick Fitzell (aka Flashback) (2020)

– if you dropped acid beyond the first time, you will recognise the framework for this movie.

The Arty poster…
The Action poster…

 

source: imdb The Education of Fredrick Fitzell (aka Flashback)

9/10

[SPOILERS]
Continue reading “The Education of Fredrick Fitzell (aka Flashback) (2020)”

Good Science Fiction movies

– for whatever reason

You see the lists everywhere making clickbait articles: The twenty best… or The best of 2022… most based on stars awarded by film viewers on imdb, rotten tomatoes, Trakt or other movie databases, or “anticipated” by not being released yet AND pleasantly hyped.

Why not simply “good science fiction movies that I have actually seen”

This is what I did here. I took from the top – out of my 150 film reviews at imdb I only chose titles I had awarded from 8 to 10/10 stars, with a few 7s thrown in. I rarely bother with reviews of lesser movies, or even watching lesser movies. Even if I AM a movie fan I observe my liberty to NOT spend time looking for redeeming factors to my viewing…

I will further add to the list – I already know a few titles needing inclusion on the list, even if some of these are already well known and beloved and re-watchable in the rain eating ice-cream. But even movies with fantastic content can be good for a variety of reason besides crazy effects, weird characters or far-out storylines. Troubling, disturbing, difficult, mean is gooood! Don’tcha know?

GOOD SCIENCE FICTION fringing to other fantastic genres
(google at your own risk)

4:44 Last Day on Earth
Abbie Girl Spy: Timepiece
Altered Hours
Aniara
Antiviral
April and the Extraordinary World
ARQ
Attack the Block
Beyond the Edge/ISRA 88
Border
Boss Level
Camille Rewinds
Cargo
Casimir Effect
Christmas on Mars
Colossal
Counter-Clockwise (2011)
Crumbs
Dakota Skye
Dark at Noon (1992)
DeKronos – Il demone del tempo
Donnie Darko Director’s Cut
Down the Chain [50 min]
Downloading Nancy
Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks
Dragon Head (2003)
Eden Log
Edge of tomorrow
Enter the Void
Entrance
Europa Report
Flora (2017)
Gravity
Groundhog Day
Gyarakushî kaidou
Highway to Hell (2012)
Holy Motors
I Origins
I’ll Follow you down
Immortal (from Enki Bilal’s comic)
Interstellar
Listening (2014)
LX 2048
Memory Lane (2012)
Modern Prometheus LLC
Moon
Mr Nobody
Other Life
Painting in the Rain
Possible Worlds (2000)
Primer
Remains
Ruby Sparks
Set the Thames on Fire
Shuffle
Slipstream
Solis
Solitary (2011)
Sonchidi [55 min]
Sons of Steel – directors cut
Speed Racer
The Brand New Testament
The Congress
The Fall (2006)
The Frame
The Future (2011)
The Happening (2008)
The Infinite Man
The Lobster
The Lost Thing [15 min]
The Prince of Town
The Seclet of the Tlumpet!
The Untamed
Under The Skin
Upgrade
Wristcutter A Love Story

SERIES TO RECOMMEND

Dispatches from Elsewhere
Jekyll
My Own Worst Enemy
Sense8 [all the parts]
Tales from the Loop

Ikonografisk søgning i film

– det er stort!

Kort fortalt:

  • Upload af skærmskud af HD-film.
  • En AI-sondering af skærmskuds indhold af ansigter, kroppe, genstande, farver, væsener.
  • En søgemaskine og sortering efter farveindhold, antal mennesker, genstande.

Resultat: En ikonografisk søgemaskine i billedindhold. Det er sgu stort!

Continue reading “Ikonografisk søgning i film”

Boss Level (2021)

– right back at ya!

Directed by Joe Carnahan. With Frank Grillo, Mel Gibson, Annabelle Wallis, Michelle Yeoh, Naomi Watts. A retired special forces officer is trapped in a never ending time loop on the day of his death.

Source: Boss Level (2021) – IMDb

9/10

A lovely romp of groundhog day insanity with all of the trimmings complying more than adequately with the genre tropes and maybe a little bit overdone head chopping, but which other result could possibly satisfy sword aficionados?! Also saw (a glimpse of an uncredited) Frank Grillo in Skylin3s yesterday (more of a photo cameo, really, in an otherwise insufferable, badly scripted film), and he is a fast growing clown fighter in my book – god timing, lovely body, sarcastic grin, and straight up undiluted in this role as a man fighting to live, alternating finding and losing purpose. And characteristically beautiful, Naomi Watts, though with a somewhat diminuative role, fills any role she does – above and beyond duty and this one to with the credible mix of intelligence and sensitive longing, but the biggest surprise: Mel Gibson – still the rascal, still Mel Gibson, even after anti-semitic slurs and a host of bad scripts, but boy how he won this role, fought for it nails and talons, razor sharp diction, THAT was impressive. A solid 9 for doing this lovingly and with great persistence and musicality.

And BTW: More than a loving nod to all of that simple, yet endearingly time consuming arcade games of the 80’s.

Druk (2020)

– hvad med en film om mikrodosering af LSD?!

Directed by Thomas Vinterberg. With Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, Lars Ranthe. Four friends, all high school teachers, test a theory that they will improve their lives by maintaining a constant level of alcohol in their blood.

Source: Druk (2020) – IMDb

6.3/10 – for skuespillet alene! Burde være 3-4 for elendigt manus.

Normal-Danmark kommer gennem krisen ved at forråde fællesskabets individuelle behov (ved at undlade at hjælpe) og rejser sig på asken fra ofringen af den svageste og mest needy. Og det er der ingen skam i. Ikke noget “ingen lades tilbage” hér. Mandens (i hvert fald mandens) fællesskab er ‘enhver alene for alle’, og alt der kan undskylde mandens ikke-støtte af den svageste i fællesskabet er manglen på sprog & dén erfaring, som deres aktion gennem manuskriptet er første skridt hen imod. Continue reading “Druk (2020)”