Monday, April 4, 2011

300 (2007)

300 is an action movie adapted from a graphic novel by the same name. It’s directed by Zack Snyder, with Frank Miller as executive producer. Frank Miller is the also the man behind the graphic novel. 

In 300 we meet King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), a Spartan king who brings 300 of his finest soldiers to take a stand against the Persian warlord and ‘God-king’ Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his enormous army of slaves.  It is said that Xerxes “Gets everything he puts his eyes at”, and now he wants Greece. A parallel story is going on back in Sparta, where we follow Leonidas’ wife Queen Gorgo as she tries to convince the Spartan council to send the rest of the army to help out the 300 soldiers. If the 300 men loose, the chances of beating Xerxes will be decreased. The story that’s focused on is Leonidas’, so we follow the 300 soldiers the most.  
King Leonidas (to the left) and King Xerxes

The plot in the movie is not revolutionary in any way and the acting is fair enough. Not bad, not at all, but not award winning either. But even though this movie isn’t a perfect 10 movie after the objective reviewer’s criteria, the movie is incredibly entertaining. This is the sort of violence that makes you happy, and as long as you like fighting scenes you will probably like 300. We are also shown a variety of fights, because the giant Persian army has got warriors from many different places: special trained soldiers, elephant riders, large warriors from the East and magicians. The Spartan’s skills were tested in many ways

The movie does not try to be anything else than pure action. There’s no moral questions picked up and it does not touch any philosophic questions. It’s a movie meant for the bloodthirsty audience, with the tall, muscular and handsome Spartans fighting abominations, malformed creatures and oppressed warriors fighting for no cause other than orders. It’s a noble story of how 300 men used their skills and familiar terrain to fight off a horde of soldiers, but even the noblest man can be betrayed and slain. 
The Spartans won another battle against Xerxes' men.
The music is a vital point for great movies, and without a great soundtrack a film that wants to be what we call “epic” can’t be “epic”, because the music is what builds the atmosphere. Without this music that puts you in a state of mind where you want big battles and cool action scenes, the scenes will feel a bit dull. “300” has got this sort of music, and that is why the battle scenes are so great. The connection between the audio and image is important, and I feel that Snyder has done a good job with that.


Looked at through the glasses of objectivism the movie was not amongst the best movies from 2007, but somehow it feels like the producer did not want to make the best movie in the world. He wanted to make an entertaining movie instead of a good but stripped one. I find this movie really entertaining and in that sort of way I like this movie better than many others. Because subjectivity beats objectivity when it comes to movies, and that’s just how it is. And this movie applied to me, because I’m the sort of viewer who likes epic battle scenes. The so-called happy violence, where innocents aren’t hurt, just the two/three/four/hundred parts who participate often spiced up with funny commentaries and cool tricks. 

300 is a film with a high entertainment value that gives us good action with interests, but another thing that makes it so interesting is the Persians with their mysterious magicians, Immortals and damn ugly creatures. Besides the whole setting in ancient Greece is interesting. And most importantly, the way the story is told is what makes it so extremely awesome. I recommend it for all of you out there, but keep in mind that the movie is pretty violent and bloody. And one more thing: this movie can be labeled “For men” (No offense, I’m no sexist), but anyone who like action movies will like this, I promise you. Entertainment at a high level.
   
Official trailer: 300
Example of the music: Spotify or Youtube

- LB

Saturday, March 19, 2011

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The Blair Witch Project is an American low-budget horror movie produced by the Haxan Films production company, and reached the movie theatres in 1999. 

The movie is a horror movie presented as a documentary, where the three young student filmmakers Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams enter the Black Hills in Maryland to film their experiences in the woods that are, according to local myths, haunted by the Blair Witch. The myth says that the people who enter the woods never return, and they go there to document their hike in the large area.
Heather on a rather scary part of the movie.

Before they enter the woods, we see clips from interviews with the locals telling their versions of the myth, about young children gone missing, and stories such as. One of them even claims that she have seen the Witch herself, but everyone thinks she’s just crazy. After that, they enter the woods with no worries at all – this is just a myth, right? 

What’s really interesting in the movie is the camera setting: the entire movie is based on the clips the three students filmed with their two handheld cameras. We usually see all the scenes from both of the cameras, so you get to see the different happenings they experience and the weird things they see from different angles and perspectives. It also makes the horror scenes more intense. One thing is to see three kids run through a forest from above or behind by a still camera, but seeing it through a handheld camera in the hands of one of them makes it more intense and real.

One of the weird obejcts they find in the forest.
Another thing is how “real” the movie feels like. At the beginning we were told that all this was real and the cameras were found in the woods, and at a certain point in the movie I believed that for sure. The acting is really believable, and the camera setting makes it a lot more realistic and helps building up the whole ‘this is based on real footage’ setting. I could also really feel the frustration they shared, and all in all this is a good low-budget movie.

The movie is a horror movie and the excitement is rising all the time. After a while, when this hike in the forest turns out to be something else than what they were expecting, the excitement curve leaps. The age ratings I’ve found goes from 13-15 years (depending on the countries), but I personally don’t care what the age ratings are. I’ve always felt mentally mature enough to watch movies, and so I have. This is a creepy but good movie and a great option if you want to see an alternative movie (it’s not standard Hollywood with guns blazing and insane special effects) with an interesting story. Might not be as scary as you would want, but it’s really exciting. 

Trailer: The Blair Witch Project trailer 
The myth: The Blair Witch legend

- LB

Friday, March 11, 2011

The Troll Hunter (2010)

The Troll Hunter is a Norwegian thriller movie made as a mockumentary, containing many funny elements, directed by André Øvredal. The movie features actors like the Norwegian comedian Otto Jespersen and three relatively unknown actors like Glenn Erland Tosterud, Tomas Alf Larsen and Johanna Mørck.

The movie is about three film students making a documentary about a supposed bear poacher in the Western Norway. They stalk the poacher, Hans, to get an interview with him, but he always avoid them. One night, they follow him into the woods, where they hear weird noises followed by Hans running for his life screaming “TROLL!”, and after this he allows them to follow him on the journey called life, as a troll hunter. He works for a secret governmental department whose job is to seek down and kill trolls that break out of their territories. 

The troll hunter Hans, played by Otto Jespersen
The Troll Hunter is truly inspired by movies such as The Blair Witch Project, but one of the main differences between the two movies is how The Troll Hunter is so humorous compared with The Blair Witch Project. The Blair Witch Project is a movie with a serious story and no funny elements or anything, and all we see is the students being lost, frustrated and scared. The Troll Hunter, in the other hand, uses famous stand-ins in the movie, such as Knut Nærum and Robert Stoltenberg (both comedians), and the whole plot is so distant that it’s funny. Both of the movies are filmed by handheld cameras!

André Øvredal and the rest of the crew have picked great places to shoot the scenes, because the movie gives us Norwegian nature at its best. Western-Norway is known for its beautiful nature, and almost the entire movie is filmed there. The rest is filmed at Dovrefjell, a Norwegian mountain range. The movie does apply a lot to Norwegian culture (old Norwegian adventures, songs for children etc.), and this could be a little confusing for foreign viewers – I laughed while Otto Jespersen sung “Ay-ay-ay-ay-boff-boff” to a big, dumb troll, but I’m not so sure that foreign viewers will get why he sung exactly that song. 
Out in the woods looking for trolls

It’s a pity to say that the special effects were of such variable quality. Some animations looked pretty unfinished, while other scenes were simply amazing. The quality of acting, however, was good - surprisingly good, thinking of the three students. 

I would say that this is a movie worth watching, and many of the aspects are making this movie a good choice at a Friday night. With subtitles, foreigners can watch it and get almost as much out of it as a Norwegian (except from some of the references to Norwegian culture). Everything, from the secret governmental department to the trolls being able to smell sweat from Christian people is just hilarious, and makes this movie a funny mockumentary about a conspiracy. 


The movie is a funny anecdote with no specific age rating. This movie can be seen by everyone in their early teens to the late retirement age, and this is on my recommendation list, mainly because of two reasons: 1) it’s a good movie, and 2) it’s a foreign movie that fits people in Europe and the rest of the world as well as Norwegians. This should not be missed. 

Here's a link to the official trailer, w/ English subtitles: The Troll Hunter

- LB

Monday, January 3, 2011

Inception (2010)

Inception is a science-fiction movie directed, written and produced by Christopher Nolan and features actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

The movie is about a team of dream extractors leaded by Dominick Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) who’s on a mission: to plant an idea in another man’s mind. Mr. Saito is the man with the money and wants his rival to split up his dying father’s large corporation. To do this, they need a serious plan, because inception is possible – but just barely! 

With this plot, Nolan created a universe that allowed him to create a sandbox to play with. The characters could do pretty much anything, as anything is possible in dreams. Nolan’s new universe does not let us down, and he shows us what he’s capable of once again. To finish of this paragraph I’ll mention some of his earlier films that has harvested good reviews: Memento (2000), Insomnia (2002) and The Dark Knight (2008).
Once again Leonardi DiCaprio appears in an amazing film, because that is what Inception is. It is a movie with a great plot set in wonderful surroundings, and even with its 2 and a half hour length it never gets boring or uninteresting. The movie is thrilling and filled with action, and the only snag could be that the story might be a little too complicated for some. It’s really complex, and you should be sure to pause the movie if something interrupts you.

Quite confusing, huh?
The movie consists of a nice amount of special effects. In several scenes the characters are testing the boundaries of the nature’s physics, creating things such as paradoxes with staircases etc. We also see a train driving through a trafficked block in a large city and a large avalanche. The movie is a bullseye for those who likes the type of action that is satisfying as well as it forces you to think a bit in order to catch the drift, because you really have to think while watching this one.

Nolan has a created a brand new universe that we haven’t seen the end of yet. Inception is a labyrinth of hot action sequences and romantic memories in a great film that portraits a picture of the human mind as a confusing, complex object that can be breeched at any time, awake or asleep. Nolan has already expressed an intention to develop a video game set to this dream universe, so the idea of dream infiltration is already moving over to different platforms.
Gunfire is one of the things you will see a lot of.

This is definitely a good choice for any viewers that like action movies and movies that are playing games with your mind. One of 2010’s best, and if you call yourself a film lover, this can’t be missed!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a fantasy movie directed by David Yates, and is based on the novel by the same title by J.K Rowling. 

This is part one of the 7th movie about Harry Potter and his fight against Voldemort – the Dark Lord. In the previous movies we watched Harry working towards this, finding out things about his present and also things about Voldemort. And now he’s back, and he finally knows how to kill the dark Lord – by destroying the horcruxes. But there’s yet another problem: finding those damn items. Living in different places from night to night, Harry and his friends Ron and Hermoine fights to keep the morale and spirit up as everything they know and love seem to fall apart – every night they hear about families killed or disappeared on a radio and every day brings new sorrows. 
Hagrid and Harry on a flying motorcycle.
 One of the things that have bothered me with the earlier movies was that the films missed too many vital points and twisted my picture of the whole Harry-universe so badly that I in fact tried to avoid seeing this one. Reading the book before I saw the movie backfired at me. But this time it felt really right, things in the movie was similar to how I imagined them while reading the book. The movie is divided in two parts to paint a more detailed picture, and that was a smart move. On the other hand it pretty much sucks as the novel this film is based on is scattered – one part where there’s little action and much seeking and arguing, and one part with much action and thrilling scenes. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is about the seeking and arguing. 

What I really love about the Harry Potter movies is the special effects. Weird items and creatures looks brilliant and watching Hagrid and Harry driving a giant motorbike through a tunnel followed by two Death Eaters on flying broomsticks looks awesome. They also make the different places, such as The Burrow (where the Weasley’s live), the Lovegood’s resident etc look very adventure-ish. Special effects such as things exploding when a deadly spell is tossed at it makes the fights with the Death Eaters even more exciting, and one of the scenes where Harry and Hermoine tries to escape Death Eaters uses a very shaky camera and switches angles and perspectives so often that the entire scene feels so intense that it confused me more than it entertained. 

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint play the magical trio that wanders in the woods. They all fit their roles very good, even though the acting is a little shaky now and then. They’ve always fit the books description of them (except from Hermoine. She never had the hair or teeth the books talk about). Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) also looks as repugnant as the books describe him, and Yates manages to do his changes with the story so swift and elegant that it doesn’t matter that some parts of the movie don’t always reflect the book’s twists and turns, but rather change them to fit his cinematic interpretation. Great, Yates! 
Lord Voldemort and his henchmen.
This movie is probably the best Harry Potter film so far. As the 7th book is parted up into 2 pieces it is more detailed than the previous films. July 2011 will bring us the end of this story when Part 2 is ready to be shown. If you’ve read the books you already know what will happen, and those who have seen the previous movies also has a clue of how this one will be. I recommend it especially for those who liked the book series and also to the one who have seen the previous movies. But if you haven’t read the books nor seen the movies, then you won’t get what’s going on (but who haven’t seen or read about Harry Potter?). Good movie, and the next part is longed for!

- LB

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Bucket List (2007)


The Bucket List is a drama-comedy film directed by Rob Reiner, and is a feelgood film featuring the brilliant actors Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.

The movie is about two patients suffering from terminal lung cancer with very different backgrounds. Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson) is a single and not very happy billionaire and also owner of the hospital he’s on, while Carter Chamber (Morgan Freeman) is a rather poor mechanic with a good family and a good life. Lying at the same room, they decide to make a list of things they want to do before they “kick the bucket”. When the list is complete, Edward tells Carter that the list can be reality, as he has all the money they could possibly spend. The movie portraits the two aging men on their journey around the world experiencing and doing things they’ve always wanted to do.

As mentioned, the movie is a good-feeling movie, which means a movie that plays a melody on your large set of strings (unless you’re a sociopath), called feelings. It’s a film that gives you a feeling of happiness while watching it. The Bucket List is a bit touching, but it’s also too predictable and the story gets old after a while. They visit all the places you’d think they would visit: The Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal and the Pyramids etc, and the visits are filled with philosophic chats about the meaning of life, whether God exists or not and subjects like that. Every now and then Edward’s assistant appears with his jokes and rude criticism of his boss.  
Nothing is like a good conversation on the top of a pyramid.
 Beside from the negativity mentioned, the movie is really nice after all. I mean, it’s not revolutionary in any way, and you’ve probably seen it all before. But Nicholson and Freeman do deliver good acting once again, and there’s no doubt why these men are as big as they are. Some of the conversations will make even the largest pessimist smile and the film contains some very nice footage of the different areas they visit. 

The movie does not add anything new to the genre, and you kind of know what’s going to happen already in the beginning of the movie, but yet you will keep watching. It does give you a good feeling, and the friendship the guys develop is moving. Your life can definitely be complete without seeing this movie, but this will not be a bad choice for a good-feeling film on a Sunday evening.  

- LB

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Clash of the Titans (2010)

Clash of the Titans is a fantasy movie directed by Louis Leterrier, and is loosely based on the old Greek myth of the demigod Perseus. This movie is partly a remake of the film by the same title made in 1981, but Leterrier tried to make this his own version rather than remaking the original. 

The movie is about a battle between men and gods, where the men declares war against the gods because they’re getting tired of the gods destroying their fishing seasons and their crops. Zeus decides to take Hades’ (God of the underworld) advice to unleash the ancient and almost unbeatable beast Kraken, the underwater titan with enormous tentacles. It will destroy the city of Argos unless they sacrifice their princess, Andromeda. Argos’ king brings a handful of his finest soldiers and the demigod Perseus (Sam Worthington) for a quest: they have to seek and ask the Stygian Witches for a way to slay this titan, because he don't want his city destroyed nor his daughter killed.

The movie has got the typical epic movie-attempt, with its large titans and monsters and its heroic story about the demigod (half-god) that tries to defy his faith in order to save Argus from total destruction. Unfortunately the movie isn’t as epic as it could be, and it always struggles to build up the excitement and the mystic era before and during the battles. It also fails to leave us with this epic feeling at the end of the movie, and what strikes me is that they’ve made the movie too short. 
Perseus with the ultimate weapon: the Medusa's head.
In other words, you could say that Clash of the Titans is an epic tale played in fast forward. They kind of failed to build up this epic atmosphere and after some fights I sat with one thought in mind: “Was that it?” Especially after the last battle scene which disappointed me big-time – if it qualifies as a fight. And I wonder how much better the movie had been if they’d added scenes to build up the excitement, and also added scenes to the fights to make them longer, harder and more epic (which the movie really is about). The movie did have some scenes that were quite cool though, and I did laugh every now and then.

On the other hand, Leterrier and his crew did things right as well. They have some respectable actors in their stable. Liam Neeson (Taken, The A-Team) plays the role as Zeus here, and Ralph Fiennes (Schindler’s List, Harry Potter-series) is the ugly Hades. Sam Worthington (Avatar, Terminator Salvation) plays Perseus, and the Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, King Arthur) is Draco, the leader of Argus finest soldiers. The acting is good, and the plot is as well.
Argus' Finest with a demigod, a woman and an... um... unknown beast in the back.

The movie lacks of the scenes that gives you the ‘whoa’-feeling and ends way behind other fantasy movies such as Lord of the Rings. They do good things with this movie (the environments are fantastic, the creatures looks awesome, the music is good and they’ve got good actors playing these roles), but the bad aspects of the movie drags it down to a mediocre movie. Not a bad movie, not at all, just a good one with some unfortunate trouble. I really wanted it to be much better, but it wasn’t, so I can’t brag it up to the skies. Those who enjoy the Greek mythology will recognize creatures such as Harpies, the Medusa etc and probably will get more out of it than those who just saw it for the action. 

- LB

Sunday, November 14, 2010

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) is a remake of the classic A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and is a slasher film directed by Samuel Bayer, featuring Jackie Earle Haley as Freddy Krueger. 

Freddy Krueger has in his later days grown less scary and more comical, but Samuel Bayer and his crew tried to take him back to his dark side again and create a remake that was scarier that the original. This is a slasher film, which is a sub-genre of horror. Typical for the slasher genre is that we follow psychopathic killers killing their victims often with sharp cutting tools, such as scythes and chainsaws. 

The new and more frightening Freddy Krueger.
The movie is about a group of teenagers who are stalked in their dreams by a man who knows all of them. They all have pretty intense dreams, and weird things are happening. One of them gets cut in the dream by the man calling himself Freddy, and when he wakes up he is bleeding from where he was cut in the dream. They realize that they are haunted in their dreams by a psychopath killer, and that if they die in there, they will die for real. Then it’s just a matter of either staying awake forever or trying to solve this mystery.

This is the place where he play his games with the teens.
One thing that has annoyed me for the last year is that most of the horror films I’ve seen haven’t been very frightening. Some of them are not frightening at all, while others are pretty lame all the way through. This movie might seem like the last mentioned, but A Nightmare on Elm Street is actually not lame at all – a little bit improbable, yes, but a fucking great movie. I was frightened as hell by the deadly combination of Freddy Krueger, good sound and a wide, wide screen.

The creators of this movie have added a few new things to the movie, for us to detest Freddy more than we did before. I do not want to spoil anything, but his past is puts him in a totally different perspective. As already mentioned, this is a part of the whole making-Freddy-scarier-process. Giving him a motive as well.
What makes this one different from many of the other horror movies is how this movie manages to stay interesting and thrilling all the way through. Adding the new past was a smart move by the creators, as we through the entire movie wondered about what the connection was between Freddy and these teens. It was kind of obvious after a while, but I still watched with caution to get my suspicions confirmed.

Quentin isn't happy about the situation he's in.
 A Nightmare on Elm Street is a great remake of a horror classic, with a bunch of frightening scenes and an enjoyable story. It’s quite satisfying to actually get frightened again, and Jackie Earle Haley impresses as the interesting character Freddy Krueger. The more unknown actors playing the teenagers are also playing well, and together they make this movie one worth watching. In Norway the movie has age limit 18+(well, no one cares about them, though), but immature kids; beware – if you believe in what you see, you might develop insomnia after seeing this one! So I recommend this for the experienced horror movie watchers and enthusiasts only, and not to easily frightened mothers. And it’s not recommended to show it to your girlfriend unless she’s a tough one! (Not based on personal experience!)  

- LB

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Zyzzyx Road (2006)

Zyzzyx Road is one of the movies that are truly worth watching, even though it stinks – it will give you a good laugh, and the mediocre movie you saw the day before will suddenly seem like a good one. This flub is directed by John Penney, and was released in 2006.
Lou Grillo experiments with his new friend 'the Shotgun'.
 
The plot is thin and quite predictable, and believe me when I say we’ve seen better before. The grown man Grant (Lou Grillo) is in Los Angeles to meet up with his much, much younger lover Marissa(Katherine Heigl), and when they get to her motel, her boyfriends accidentally appears and wants explanations. 1) What the hell did his girlfriend do with another man, and 2) why the hell did the lucky man look like her father. 30 minutes later Grant and Marissa are driving towards Zyzzyx Road (the road that leads to nowhere) with a body in the trunk. 

Even though the plot did not deliver, the movie still had a chance. If only the actors convinced us with brilliant acting – but unfortunately they didn’t. I was really disappointed, because the acting at times reminded me of the acting in my short movie at a school project a year ago. For the most the acting was okay (not good or anything, just okay), but every once in a while something happened, and the acting during these scenes gave me flashbacks to the school project again.

But on the other hand, the actors can’t be blamed entirely, because the manuscript isn't worth much, so playing scenes such as these would make even Brad Pitt seem like a B- or C-actor. There’s no charm, no enthusiasm. And the psychological aspect is also sad as the plot is so predictable. 
Age difference doesn't matter - the love is what counts.

The movie suffers from a big problem-cocktail, and the finished result is not anything for the history books. Some ridiculous scenes and shameful acting ruins what could’ve been a mediocre movie. This is not recommended – if you want a movie, you should look for something else! But if you’re looking for something that didn’t compete for the “Movie of the Year 2006” or want to see something rather bad, this is a good choice. John Penney – I’m sorry, but this close to crap!

- LB

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Shutter Island (2010)

Shutter Island is a psychological thriller directed by Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, The Departed) based on the novel with the same title by Dennis Lehane. 

The movie is placed on an island outside of Boston in 1954, where U.S Marshal detectives Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) is investigating the disappearance of a patient at the mental hospital on the island. The woman, Rachel Solando, is gone and no one saw her leaving her room, which was locked anyways. Teddy struggles with trauma from his past, as he fought during the WW2. In one of his dreams, we get to know that he was in the first company to discover the Dachau concentration camp. The detectives have got no clues but a tiny note, so the fact that the personnel working on Ashecliffe Hospital don't want to help them with the investigation makes it even harder to solve the disappearance. 

The lighthouse conceals gruesome secrets.
The best aspect of this movie is the story, no doubt. The structure and the way it’s driven forward is amazing, and the curve of excitement is building up from the first scene till the climax at the end. Teddy’s background, which is quite interesting (and has relevance to the story) is revealed through his nightmares. These are filmed and edited with such brilliance that I sometimes wonder if Scorsese hired God to take care of them. These, and the cinematic direction takes the whole psychological atmosphere to a higher level, especially as mysterious things are happening and Teddy reveals hideous facts about Ashecliffe Hospital.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays the role as Teddy very good. He shows us a good interpretation of the character, and I really believe the story Teddy tells us. Mark Ruffalo and Ben Kingsley also deliver good roles.
The movie does play with you mind, and at a certain point of the movie I sat completely clueless and had no idea of what was going on. I did not know what to believe. I sat there with several options and tried to solve the mystery, but I couldn’t. Scorsese impresses once again. 

DiCaprio in a suitable role.
Shutter Island is a great thriller with an engaging story and a fantastic structure, a good manuscript and music that suits the movie perfect, even though it’s not written for this specific movie. The way the movie plays on mystique and feelings is brilliant. A splendid choice for the watcher that likes thrilling films.

-LB

Saturday, November 6, 2010

The Social Network (2010)

The Social Network is a drama movie directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), and it's about the founding of the popular social networking site Facebook. The main character of the movie is the founder Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), and The Social Network is pretty much about Mark’s life before and during the founding of Facebook, as well as the process of expanding to other colleges in the U.S and later to the U.K. 

The movie leaps between two different time settings; the present and the past. The present, where Mark is testifying in the two lawsuits against him: one of them filed by the Winklevoss brothers who says that Mark stole their idea for HarvardConnection, and the other by his ex-best friend Eduardo Saverin who feels like he was betrayed and replaced. The past follows Mark through the making of Facebook, and you get to know the whole story of how the boys on Mark's dormitory created Facebook, how it grew big and got famous, and also how mark steps on the toes to Eduardo and the Winklevoss brothers, and how he gets to know the internet entrepreneur and founder of Napster Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake). 

The movie starts in the past, but after a while it leaps in a pattern where questions are asked in the present, and the answers are shown in the past. That makes the movie more interesting, because it switches between two different places and times so you'll be able to see the characters from different perspectives and how they develops through the years, both in behavior and relations to each other.

Sean and Mark before an important meeting.
 The movie is an impressive describing of the founding of the greatest internet social networking site ever created (so far). The characters are most interesting and well played by a handful of good actors. The manuscript is good and contains many good dialogues; subtitles are advised though, as they talk rather fast and computer-ish in some scenes. Also - David Fincher once again shows us that he capable of creating great films and serves us a movie that I recommend to whoever likes movies. This is one you should not miss. Definitely one of the better movies I’ve been seeing lately!

-LB

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Welcome!

Hi y'all! This blog will tell you which movies to see and the ones you should avoid. With the pen in my hand, I will bring you objective opinions and reviews about recent movies, and might even roll the dice. Stay tuned for more information!
- LB