roald-1 Reviews

Age of Heroes (2011)

Watch the credible films instead

[3/10 · 19 June 2011]

The most credible detail with this story is the Norwegian actor Aksel Hennie, who had the lead in the excellent WW2 film 'Max Manus – Man of war'. That film is realistic. In real life, operations against occupied Norway were well organized from Scotland, where soldiers could be trained under winter conditions with native Norwegians as consultants and participants. Best known is Kompani Linge (Linge's Company).

To drop soldiers over Norwegian mountains in winter without proper equipment would be suicide. Several people have reacted to the lack of camouflage clothes, but even worse is the lack of skis. At the end of the film, the survivors are ordered to "walk to Sweden" from an area in the mountains "north of Bergen" – a distance of 400 miles (650 km) through the most hostile environment in northern Europe. Without skis and food. And probably without long underwear.

The most realistic film about British raids into Norway was the old 'Kampen om tungtvannet' (The Battle for the heavy water, 1948), later corrupted by Hollywood in the Kirk Douglas film 'The Heroes of Telemark' (1965). In 2005, BBC made a 3-part documentary called "The real heroes of Telemark" where modern top-trained and top- equipped soldiers almost failed when trying to repeat the achievement of surviving a whole winter in the Norwegian mountains. This documentary is still available on YouTube.

Money (1991)

Interesting locations from the world's center of finance

[9/10 · 14 September 2010]

This is a modern version of the Count of Monte Cristo, with interesting locations from the world's major centers of finance, probably set around 1973. Eric Stoltz delivers a good performance as always in this entertaining but neglected film which must have been "lost in distribution" because of its European origin. It is based on a novel by a French author, and not supposed to be a lesson in credibility. Like the Count of Monte Cristo, the film rises the interesting question about the difference between revenge and justice. It is both exciting, entertaining, thought-provoking and interesting. I will give it a rating of 9.

Magic Flute Diaries (2008)

Interesting reencounter with a cherished fairytale

[7/10 · 19 August 2008]

For us lovers of Mozart and the Magic Flute, a new version is always welcomed with great interest. We lately had Kenneth Branagh's bizarre British production in 2006 with new English libretto (text) by Stephen Fry. Most connoisseurs agree that nothing can match Ingmar Bergman's Swedish version of 1974, which fortunately still is available on DVD with the good music score in stereo and English subtitles. Most CD recordings use the original German language.

As for this new version, it pretends to be a 'North American' effort to show Salzburg a variant of the opera. Warren Christie (33) is a sympathetic actor and well suited as prince Tamino and the narrator of the story. As stated in the film, most 'princes' in other stagings are often at least 45 years old and 200 pounds heavy. (Bergman's prince was 28 and handsome. Papageno, sung by a funny Hakan Hagegard (then 29) has never been made better.) The main suspense with a new version is whether one likes the new performers and can believe in them. The next element of suspense is what has been changed or cut. The beginning here suffers because Tamino never gets to sing his well-known opening aria, and the first aria of the Queen of the Night has been cut to pieces with all the best and famous parts left out. Besides, she looks like a drag-queen. Pamina is supposed to be Russian here, but was not worth the diplomatic complications according to my taste. Monostatos is not black, for a change.

As for the subplots, they seem to wander off too much towards the end in passages with music alien to both the opera and Mozart, but that is also a matter of taste.¨ My overall impression is that the music editing should have been handed over to a person with more reverence for Mozart's score and understanding of music in general. The result here consists of haphazard cuts that sometimes don't even belong together, and with the best parts left out.

The Reflecting Pool (2008)

Definitely not "All the President's Men" nor "Wag the Dog"

[3/10 · 6 July 2008]

We will never know for sure who was behind the assassination of JFK. We will never know for sure what really happened in Roswell. And we will definitely never know what really happened on 9/11. The U.S. is what it has always been. If this really was a conspiracy, it will long since have been so well covered up that not even Washington Post can disclose it.

After all the conspiracy theories (they even have their own websites), this film was a great disappointment with just a repetition of some highlights. It does not even attempt to make any dramatization. There are no effects; just two middle-aged men talking to each other and interviewing some chosen people.

A bad thing about America is that Watergate could happen at all. A good thing is that it was exposed. And that it inspired films like "All the President's Men", "Nixon" and "Wag the Dog".

Wind Chill (2007)

The Emperor's New Clothes

[1/10 · 12 July 2007]

How boring can a plot be concocted? A couple stuck in a car in the darkness and snow quarreling during most of the film, can it get worse? Well, in "Phone Booth" and "Cast Away" it was only one person, but at least they had some other scenery than a snowy road. And how many attempts at horror films have started with a dubious "shortcut"? Was it "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" in 1974, or wasn't that a shortcut? For us who have to drive through winter darkness several months every year, getting stuck in the snow is something of the most tedious traumas we can experience, and we certainly don't want to pay for a movie ticket to watch other people doing it. With or without ghosts.

The Second Coming (2003)

Lame, dull and toothless

[3/10 · 19 June 2007]

One should have the right to expect from people who make a film about the Second Coming and the Third Testament, that they had read the other two, or at least knew a little more about them than miracles and Judgement Day. This film contains absolutely nothing of relevance for viewers who are interested in Jesus, religion or philosophy -- there is only the standard British social realism with guttural dialects and plump characters in pubs.

Actually, good candidates for a real Third Testament have been published several times - like "A Course in Miracles" or "Conversations with God". They all have thought-provoking new twists and angles for Christian faith and theology.

The most interesting information in IMDb's rating is not the number of stars, but how many people who have bothered to vote. In four years, only 387 people have bothered to vote for this film. As usual, the enthusiasts are the most eager. For comparison, have a look at "Jesus Christ, Superstar" - original version from 1973.

Civic Duty (2006)

What's the morale?

[2/10 · 5 June 2007]

According to this film, you should never notify the FBI or other authorities if you get a suspicious neighbor. Not even if he looks like a terrorist and has a chemistry lab and receives constant deliveries from other suspicious-looking people. And especially not if you just lost your job and your wife just left you. They will just think you are paranoid and put you in an asylum, even if it turns out in the end that you were right all along. This is one of the reasons why terrorists have succeeded so far. This is how they put the first bomb in WTC and carried through their second assault. This is how they made the bomb for the Lockerbie accident and got it on board. People did not care, or were afraid of the unpleasantness to themselves if they notified the authorities.

Dog Lover's Symphony (2006)

How naive can you get?

[2/10 · 11 December 2006]

This could have become a funny and good movie, but it flips totally out repeatedly towards the end until you get angry with the filmmakers for believing that audiences consist of complete morons. It cannot even serve as a wet ladies' weeper. It cannot be called a children's movie because there are no children in the cast. It's probably called a "family movie" because there is no nakedness or language abusive to children, but the plot is certainly abusive to the intellect of grown-ups. The simplified portrait of the drug buddies and their miraculous turn-around is just a start. Or perhaps one cannot expect more from a story told by a dog...

The Wonderful World of Disney: Toothless (1997) Season 1, Episode 2

An insult to dentists

[1/10 · 27 August 2006]

It is remarkable that Disney wants to teach American children that dentists will be punished after death for the pain they have inflicted on their patients. Don't they use anesthesia in the U.S.? I think the American Dentists' Association should demand that Disney withdraw this film from the market. It is often shown on TV channels in Europe, where it is all the more grotesque because we do not teach our children silly lies like the tooth fairy.

What about surgeons? Or ear doctors? Or the personnel performing colonoscopy? Or the IRS employees? Don't they deserve some punishment after death, too? In addition, the film is charmless and Alley really unsympathetic.

Hollow Man II (2006 Video)

Slater's best performance to date?

[2/10 · 19 June 2006]

This heading was a joke. Slater is invisible in most of the film, and I doubt it is he who performs the invisible stunts where people are ridiculously thrown about and killed all through the movie. It is a shame that sequels only follow up the horror and the violence, the first movie was quite interesting at least during the first half, with impressive special effects on Kevin Bacon and the gorilla. The same fate befell "Final Destination" where the first movie raised lot of interesting philosophical questions, and the sequels were crap.

The best indicator for this film is the small number of people who have bothered to watch it and/or give their vote. Always a pleasure to watch Facinelly, though, although he could choose better films to participate in.

NTSB: The Crash of Flight 323 (2004 TV Movie)

An insult to «planespotters»

[5/10 · 3 November 2004]

This movie is the culmination of the film industry's low-budget use of random sets for passenger planes and cheap footage. The actors enter one type of aircraft on the outside and suddenly appear in a totally different make and model on the inside, while they fly away in a third or land in a fourth. It is especially sad in a story about the expert investigators from the N.T.S.B. and their serious work. The title will probably attract many viewers who actually know something about planes, and the producers should have paid for a consultant who can tell one type of aircraft from another.

From the outside, the accident plane appears to be from the Boeing 737-series. These are wider-bodied planes with 6 seats abreast, 3 on each side of the aisle. They have 2 engines, one under each wing. Maximum seat capacity is 189. Yet, the interior shots in the film show 5 seats abreast, 3 to the right and 2 to the left of the aisle. This is typical of the DC9 or MD-80 series which are slim-bodied planes with two engines at the back of the fuselage. Maximum seat capacity is 172.

The seating chart set up to identify passengers during the investigation also appears to be of the DC9-type. The number of extras shown in the plane is much less than 100.

Yet, the story tells us that there were 236 passengers on board, and that the plane was 20 years old. The only planes made with such a seating capacity would be the «Jumbo» Boeing 747, the DC-10 or the Lockheed TriStar. All would have two aisles and 7 or more seats abreast, and a fuselage twice as high as the wreckage shown on the set in this film.

It does not help that the story invents a non-existent name for the plane and its maker, because it would still have to be much larger with such a seating capacity.

To appoint the owner of the airline as the «bad guy» is not realistic in this case, either. A malfunctioning rudder valve would be the responsibility of the manufacturer, not the airline, and a minor one to correct as for costs. The rudder mechanism was actually under suspicion after several real accidents with Boeing 737s in heavy turbulence around 1990, and the problem was solved by Boeing (not the airlines).

The conflict between air safety and the profits of an airline is more often whether the airline fulfills its safety requirements and schedules for maintenance and service of the aircraft. These detailed schedules are specified by the manufacturer and the F.A.A. as suggested by the N.T.S.B., and are constantly revised.

There have been so many real air disasters worthy of filming, that the makers of this film could have chosen a better story.

Free Fall (1999) is a better movie as for technical details and investigation experts, although it also has its discrepancies.

The extensive reports of the real N.T.S.B. are open to the public on the net.

The Circle (2002)

Road-kill stew

[2/10 · 9 October 2003]

Road-kill stew of Sculls (2000), Cheaters (2000/I) and Scent of a woman (1992)(the end)- spiced with some ingredients from Dead Poets Society (1989). It does not help that Robin Dunne resembles Joshua Jackson. Horrible music.

Bright Angel (1990)

A collector's gem for fans of Mulroney and Taylor!

[8/10 · 7 July 2003]

Beautiful portrait of a young man whose innocence is so pure that he is not affected by the harsh reality around him. Mulroney radiates his sweet personality all through the movie. A collector's gem for all fans of him or the rest of the impressive cast.