But Norweigian is beautiful, even if as an Englishman it's impossible to practice as from the moment your accent betrays you, from Kristiansand to Tromsø, you hear nothing but perfect English in response!
That's actually a problem for people from English-speaking countries who are living in Norway. Most people from ages 10 to 80 speak English so well it's usually quickest and easiest just speaking English intead of making the effort to learn Norwegian. I've known Englishmen who' lived here for years and they still barely know any Norwegian,while their kids or niehgbours from Africa speaks it fluently.
That's actually a problem for people from English-speaking countries who are living in Norway. Most people from ages 10 to 80 speak English so well it's usually quickest and easiest just speaking English intead of making the effort to learn Norwegian. I've known Englishmen who' lived here for years and they still barely know any Norwegian,while their kids or niehgbours from Africa speaks it fluently.
Was in Olso for a year in my early 20s - everyone of my contemporaries was engaged in a contest to prove they spoke better English than their parents. I learned nothing! Tusen Takk you devils!
Anyway, to stay vaguely on topic the last film I (re)watched was La Haine having read all the recent anniversary press. Still magnificent.
I was re-watching the opening scenes of Yojimbo last night...
One of the first things we and Mifune see as he enters the town is a stray dog carrying a human hand
David Lynch's Wild at Heart contains an almost identical shot at the end!
This is a spy movie starring Judi Dench, so I felt like watching it. The story is about Joan (played by Sophie Cookson when she's young and Dench later in life) who became a communist during WWII and joined the British nucklear weapons program. Already during the war she is recruited to give up secrets to the Soviets. This is losely based on the real story of Melita Norwood (1912-2005) who was discovered in 1992. Since we already know Joan is guilty the interesting part is how and why she handed secrets to Stalin's Soviet Union. The spy ring is called Comintern in the movie. That's plain silly. Comintern was an organisation backed by the USSR for communist parties who shared the Soviet world view. Comintern membership was for political parties and and the member parties were well known and a matter of public reccord. Calling a communist spy ring in wartime Britain Comintern is not too different from calling a US spy ring during cold war Soviet Union "NATO" - plain silly and unbelivable.
The Soviet secret service around 1945 was called NKVD, not KGB as the movie claims. I still find the movie interesting and the acting as expected very good.
Do you remember when we expected this movie to compete with NTTD at the box office?
This is the story about when Ford wanted to stop Ferrari's dominance in the racing circut through the efforts of Carrol Shelpby (Matt Damon) and Ken Miles (Christian Bale).
In my opinion this is the best racing movie since Rush in 2013. The strengths of the two movies are the same . first rate driving scenes and interesting characters. Ford vs Ferrari is one of the best movies I've seen so far this year.
This isn't first version of the novel that I've seen, but I think it's the most engaging and watchable. This is Greta Gervig's version and I think it's more vibrant, better cast, better shot, better edited (the story isn't told in a completely linear way) and in short I enjoyed the movie.
Noe I'm looking forward to the sequels "Medium sized women" and "Big women"
Apparently the inspiration for last year's Joker. A very dark comedy about a failed comedian (de Niro) who decides to kidnap his comedy idol (Jerry Lewis) in order to gain fame and success. Chaos ensues. Robert de Niro impresses as the pathetic loser figure, strangely sympathetic and yet insidious and repellent, while Jerry Lewis lampoons himself with a relatively straightforward but effective turn. One of Scorsese's best films, from what I've seen so far.
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFOWER (2012)
One of the earliest examples of the Young Adult book-to-film craze, and probably the best film of its kind. Logan Lerman does fine work as the troubled teenage protagonist, with support from Ezra Miller and Emma Watson, while the film effectively generates an atmosphere of unnerving isolation and alienation around the main character that makes up for the in places cliched plot. Surprisingly good.
Starring Margot Robbie. Based on a true story, this film depicts the life of Tonya Harding who, against the odds, became a competitive ice skater at Olympic level and was the first American woman to perform a triple axel. She suffered abuse as a child from her mother and later from her husband. Her husband interfered in a drastic incident in her career. (I don’t want to give anything away for those who aren’t familiar with this story, like I wasn’t. I’m guessing it was big news in America at the time.)
Gal Gadot is going to play Cleopatra in a movie by Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins. The casting has been critizised for white-washing. This comes from a lack of knowledge about history. Some of the Pharaos were black since they were from the upper Nile, today's Sudan. But Cleopatra was of the Ptolemaic dynasty that was started by Ptolemy, one of Alexander the Great's generals. In other words Cleopatra was ethnically Greek, or rather Macedonian. I for one am looking forward to seeing Gald Gadot in the role.
Has anyone seen the trailer for the upcoming Mel Gibson film about Santa ?
At first I thought , it was because he was a bit fat and had a beard they were
using the Santa description but on seeing the trailer He is indeed Fr Christmas
Only this looks like a full on bloody, action film it looks very Odd.
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
I'm not going to discuss the plot much, because who watches Disney movies for the plot? :v
I think the story is a good mix of the familiar and the new. I don't think the songs are as good as the last time, but perhaps I should let it go?
Just like the first Frozen the influences from Norway are absolutely there. While the first movie was very much a winter movie, here autumn is very much a theme. The landscapes and vivid colours look very familiar, especially in the birch forrest with the red and orange leaves. The people in the far north with all the reindeer are clearly inspired by the Sami people, and this movie was actually dubbed to Sami. The mountain giants are a strange reversal of our trolls - they are made of stone while according to legend the trolls turned to stone in sunlight. The giants throw stones, while old legends say large stones far away from mountains were thrown by trolls.
I'm sure this is compulory viewing for all parents of little girls, but other than fast forwarding throw some of the songs I actually liked it.
Fun fact: Do you remember this scene in Frozen? Both my father and grandfather worked on cutting ice back in the day, very much like this (apart from the singing)
Has anyone seen the trailer for the upcoming Mel Gibson film about Santa ?
At first I thought , it was because he was a bit fat and had a beard they were
using the Santa description but on seeing the trailer He is indeed Fr Christmas
Only this looks like a full on bloody, action film it looks very Odd.
Thought it was a joke as well...I really don’t know what to think of it )
I haven't seen Tom Hanks' "Greyhound" yet but here is a great scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz1LdWuwcps&feature=emb_logo
He plays the captain of a navy destroyer protecting a convoy in the Atlantic during WWII. I hope someone makes a movie or mini-series about the merchant navy during WWII. Their controbution during the war was absolutely essential and the sailors on the merchats ships never got the tribute they deserve.
I haven't seen Tom Hanks' "Greyhound" yet but here is a great scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz1LdWuwcps&feature=emb_logo
He plays the captain of a navy destroyer protecting a convoy in the Atlantic during WWII. I hope someone makes a movie or mini-series about the merchant navy during WWII. Their controbution during the war was absolutely essential and the sailors on the merchats ships never got the tribute they deserve.
My grandfather died in WWII. He was in the Merchant Navy. His boat was hit and sank. He died not long after because of the damage done to his lungs
I'm sad to hear you didn't get to meet your grandfather. Since my grandparents were my neighbours and we worked together on the farm I got to spend more time with my grandparents than most, and I consider myself lucky. But your grandfather's service was very dangerous and absolutely vital to aliied victory. Respect!
I'm sad to hear you didn't get to meet your grandfather. Since my grandparents were my neighbours and we worked together on the farm I got to spend more time with my grandparents than most, and I consider myself lucky. But your grandfather's service was very dangerous and absolutely vital to aliied victory. Respect!
Thank you. He died when my mother was a toddler so she never knew him.
I watched Midway a few days ago.
I really enjoyed it and thought the cast were very good.
Ed Skrein was in "Midway" and I consider him a good candidate to be the next James Bond. After watching the movie what'syour opinion on his suitability?
A movie following a merchant ship and crew to Murmansk in the USSR and back would be a great movie, Churchill called it "the worst journey in the world".
BTW: The 1953 movie "The cruel sea" gives in my opinion a good idea of what M's WWII experience was.
Call of the Wild, with such big names as Harrison Ford, Dan Stevens, and Karen Gillan. . .who all play second fiddle to the dog "Buck" and all the other animals, each and every one of which is CG. Movies should stick to CG monsters and space aliens--any time they do people and animals it's a creepy trip to Uncanny Valley.
Ed Skrein was in "Midway" and I consider him a good candidate to be the next James Bond. After watching the movie what'syour opinion on his suitability?
Not for me but I could see why you might think so. He's the sort of choice that may be considered.
Personally, out of that cast I'd go for Luke Evans but I doubt a gay actor is going to be cast as Bond anytime soon.
now almost all my film-viewing is online, I am finding some interesting stuff I might never have stumbled across otherwise, like...
My Best Friend's Birthday*
Tarantino's ultra low budget first film, 1987, in which Tarantino himself plays the lead role, alongside a cast made up of his video store pals.
Apparently it was originally twice as long, only 36 minutes remain.
Some prototypical images he would develop in later films first appear here, such as accidentally snorting the wrong drug.
Toot uncommon!
the Fantastic Four, 1994 *
the original, unreleased straight-to-bootleg-video version, produced by Roger Corman.
Fantastic Four was the flagship comic of Silver Age Marvel Comics, yet in this age of Marvel cinema, the title is conspicuously not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but instead has been squandered on a pair of films produced by Fox over a decade ago. The Fox films barely resemble the source material, and were financial failures, yet they clung onto the trademark for decades rather than let a competitor do a proper job of it.
This ultra lowbudget Corman production is part of the reason why:
A man named Bernd Eichinger purchased the rights very cheap in the 1980s (during that long stretch between the Incredible Hulk tv series and the X-Men film, in which all Marvel adaptations were b-movie bombs), and facing the eventual expiry of his rights hired Corman to produce this adaptation at the last minute. Supposedly the film was never intended to be released!
According to wikipedia, Marvel Comics then purchased the physical prints and ordered all copies destroyed, rather than cheapen their brand.
Somehow Eichinger retained the rights: I guess having technically produced the film before the expiry gave him an extension? anyhow, a decade later he was one of the producers of the Fox film version, which did get released of course, and did cheapen the brand.
Despite the low budget and bad intentions, this straight-to-bootleg version actually resembles the source material closer than the 2004 version, at least they got Doctor Doom right! As a comic book fan, I would say this is the better film.
On the other hand, I've been watching a few Roger Corman's 1980s topless barbarian epics recently, and this is nowhere near up to Corman's usual fine standard of entertainment.
Good news: because Disney bought out most of Fox's film properties a year or so ago, there will one day be a proper adaptation of the Fantastic Four as part of the real Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Personally, out of that cast I'd go for Luke Evans but I doubt a gay actor is going to be cast as Bond anytime soon.
I think Luke Evans would make an excellent Bond, based on his role in one of the Fast and Furious films. I've recently watched him in Anna and The Alienist, in both of which he has, umm, romantic scenes with women and looks to be having a great time. It would be a shame if it was just his sexuality which prevented him from playing the role.
Comments
But Norweigian is beautiful, even if as an Englishman it's impossible to practice as from the moment your accent betrays you, from Kristiansand to Tromsø, you hear nothing but perfect English in response!
Is the Norwegian language dangerous then
Was in Olso for a year in my early 20s - everyone of my contemporaries was engaged in a contest to prove they spoke better English than their parents. I learned nothing! Tusen Takk you devils!
Anyway, to stay vaguely on topic the last film I (re)watched was La Haine having read all the recent anniversary press. Still magnificent.
Some may see it that way. I felt a warning was only fair
One of the first things we and Mifune see as he enters the town is a stray dog carrying a human hand
David Lynch's Wild at Heart contains an almost identical shot at the end!
This is a spy movie starring Judi Dench, so I felt like watching it. The story is about Joan (played by Sophie Cookson when she's young and Dench later in life) who became a communist during WWII and joined the British nucklear weapons program. Already during the war she is recruited to give up secrets to the Soviets. This is losely based on the real story of Melita Norwood (1912-2005) who was discovered in 1992. Since we already know Joan is guilty the interesting part is how and why she handed secrets to Stalin's Soviet Union. The spy ring is called Comintern in the movie. That's plain silly. Comintern was an organisation backed by the USSR for communist parties who shared the Soviet world view. Comintern membership was for political parties and and the member parties were well known and a matter of public reccord. Calling a communist spy ring in wartime Britain Comintern is not too different from calling a US spy ring during cold war Soviet Union "NATO" - plain silly and unbelivable.
The Soviet secret service around 1945 was called NKVD, not KGB as the movie claims. I still find the movie interesting and the acting as expected very good.
Still as silly and as funny as always
Then Top Secret another classic
Do you remember when we expected this movie to compete with NTTD at the box office?
This is the story about when Ford wanted to stop Ferrari's dominance in the racing circut through the efforts of Carrol Shelpby (Matt Damon) and Ken Miles (Christian Bale).
In my opinion this is the best racing movie since Rush in 2013. The strengths of the two movies are the same . first rate driving scenes and interesting characters. Ford vs Ferrari is one of the best movies I've seen so far this year.
This isn't first version of the novel that I've seen, but I think it's the most engaging and watchable. This is Greta Gervig's version and I think it's more vibrant, better cast, better shot, better edited (the story isn't told in a completely linear way) and in short I enjoyed the movie.
Noe I'm looking forward to the sequels "Medium sized women" and "Big women"
Apparently the inspiration for last year's Joker. A very dark comedy about a failed comedian (de Niro) who decides to kidnap his comedy idol (Jerry Lewis) in order to gain fame and success. Chaos ensues. Robert de Niro impresses as the pathetic loser figure, strangely sympathetic and yet insidious and repellent, while Jerry Lewis lampoons himself with a relatively straightforward but effective turn. One of Scorsese's best films, from what I've seen so far.
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFOWER (2012)
One of the earliest examples of the Young Adult book-to-film craze, and probably the best film of its kind. Logan Lerman does fine work as the troubled teenage protagonist, with support from Ezra Miller and Emma Watson, while the film effectively generates an atmosphere of unnerving isolation and alienation around the main character that makes up for the in places cliched plot. Surprisingly good.
"The spectre of defeat..."
Starring Margot Robbie. Based on a true story, this film depicts the life of Tonya Harding who, against the odds, became a competitive ice skater at Olympic level and was the first American woman to perform a triple axel. She suffered abuse as a child from her mother and later from her husband. Her husband interfered in a drastic incident in her career. (I don’t want to give anything away for those who aren’t familiar with this story, like I wasn’t. I’m guessing it was big news in America at the time.)
History is a thing of the past, and nostalgia is not what it used to be
At first I thought , it was because he was a bit fat and had a beard they were
using the Santa description but on seeing the trailer He is indeed Fr Christmas
Only this looks like a full on bloody, action film
I'm not going to discuss the plot much, because who watches Disney movies for the plot? :v
I think the story is a good mix of the familiar and the new. I don't think the songs are as good as the last time, but perhaps I should let it go?
Just like the first Frozen the influences from Norway are absolutely there. While the first movie was very much a winter movie, here autumn is very much a theme. The landscapes and vivid colours look very familiar, especially in the birch forrest with the red and orange leaves. The people in the far north with all the reindeer are clearly inspired by the Sami people, and this movie was actually dubbed to Sami. The mountain giants are a strange reversal of our trolls - they are made of stone while according to legend the trolls turned to stone in sunlight. The giants throw stones, while old legends say large stones far away from mountains were thrown by trolls.
I'm sure this is compulory viewing for all parents of little girls, but other than fast forwarding throw some of the songs I actually liked it.
Fun fact: Do you remember this scene in Frozen? Both my father and grandfather worked on cutting ice back in the day, very much like this (apart from the singing)
Thought it was a joke as well...I really don’t know what to think of it
He plays the captain of a navy destroyer protecting a convoy in the Atlantic during WWII. I hope someone makes a movie or mini-series about the merchant navy during WWII. Their controbution during the war was absolutely essential and the sailors on the merchats ships never got the tribute they deserve.
My grandfather died in WWII. He was in the Merchant Navy. His boat was hit and sank. He died not long after because of the damage done to his lungs
Thank you. He died when my mother was a toddler so she never knew him.
I watched Midway a few days ago.
I really enjoyed it and thought the cast were very good.
BTW: The 1953 movie "The cruel sea" gives in my opinion a good idea of what M's WWII experience was.
The Artic convoys:
Not for me but I could see why you might think so. He's the sort of choice that may be considered.
Personally, out of that cast I'd go for Luke Evans but I doubt a gay actor is going to be cast as Bond anytime soon.
My Best Friend's Birthday *
Tarantino's ultra low budget first film, 1987, in which Tarantino himself plays the lead role, alongside a cast made up of his video store pals.
Apparently it was originally twice as long, only 36 minutes remain.
Some prototypical images he would develop in later films first appear here, such as accidentally snorting the wrong drug.
Toot uncommon!
the original, unreleased straight-to-bootleg-video version, produced by Roger Corman.
Fantastic Four was the flagship comic of Silver Age Marvel Comics, yet in this age of Marvel cinema, the title is conspicuously not part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but instead has been squandered on a pair of films produced by Fox over a decade ago. The Fox films barely resemble the source material, and were financial failures, yet they clung onto the trademark for decades rather than let a competitor do a proper job of it.
This ultra lowbudget Corman production is part of the reason why:
A man named Bernd Eichinger purchased the rights very cheap in the 1980s (during that long stretch between the Incredible Hulk tv series and the X-Men film, in which all Marvel adaptations were b-movie bombs), and facing the eventual expiry of his rights hired Corman to produce this adaptation at the last minute. Supposedly the film was never intended to be released!
According to wikipedia, Marvel Comics then purchased the physical prints and ordered all copies destroyed, rather than cheapen their brand.
Somehow Eichinger retained the rights: I guess having technically produced the film before the expiry gave him an extension? anyhow, a decade later he was one of the producers of the Fox film version, which did get released of course, and did cheapen the brand.
Despite the low budget and bad intentions, this straight-to-bootleg version actually resembles the source material closer than the 2004 version, at least they got Doctor Doom right! As a comic book fan, I would say this is the better film.
On the other hand, I've been watching a few Roger Corman's 1980s topless barbarian epics recently, and this is nowhere near up to Corman's usual fine standard of entertainment.
Good news: because Disney bought out most of Fox's film properties a year or so ago, there will one day be a proper adaptation of the Fantastic Four as part of the real Marvel Cinematic Universe.
I think Luke Evans would make an excellent Bond, based on his role in one of the Fast and Furious films. I've recently watched him in Anna and The Alienist, in both of which he has, umm, romantic scenes with women and looks to be having a great time. It would be a shame if it was just his sexuality which prevented him from playing the role.
a great 007. {[]