Valhalla Rising

Valhalla Rising 4/5 8/10





1000 AD, for years, One Eye, a mute warrior of supernatural strength, has been held prisoner by the Norse chieftain Barde. Aided by Are, a boy slave, One Eye slays his captor and together he and Are escape, beginning a journey into the heart of darkness. On their flight, One Eye and Are board a Viking vessel, but the ship is soon engulfed by an endless fog that clears only as the crew sights an unknown land. As the new world reveals its secrets and the Vikings confront their terrible and bloody fate, One Eye discovers his true self.



A Tarkovsky throwback to the bone. From graphic violence to atmospheric art house, the score swells as the blood spills
and each character delves into their self questioning being and the audience is subjected to it. It pulls you in, it doesn't demand your attention, you ask for it's. The film builds, stacking on layers of a foreboding sinisterness, only to let up with the silence of
violence and wilderness. A character dissection of a mythical mute warrior named One Eye (for literal reasons) who is said to be from hell, escapes captivity where his unmatched strength was exploited in brutal fights to the death by his captors. One Eye upon his escape comes across a group of Christian Inquisitors on a distorted journey to claim and rebuild the Holy Land of Jerusalem in the name of their lord and riches. The Christian vikings murder and burn those who deny Christianity but dare not challenge the legendary strength of One Eye. As the film assembles itself in 6 labeled parts, we see each of the men unravel into their own perception of existence which clearly



What we get here is pretty much Torkovsky's Stalker meets all the cool violent parts in that shitty movie Pathfinder.

Deliver Us From Evil

Denmark 2009

Fri os fra det onde 4.8/5 9.5/10





A father returns to his old hometown with his young family. Events force him to face the small town's xenophobia.



Very nice, Bornedal. Will you ever let me down? This director knows not only how to make the movie look good
but write as well. This is an intense, cold hearted film based in a small, middle of nowhere town,
about two brothers, Johannes and Lars. A vitally brilliant cast.
The brothers are polar opposites. Blood is thicker than water and in this movie, there is a lot of it.
Lars is the alcho-loser scum bag selfish brother with the whore girlfriend that he beats.
Johannes on the contrary is the modest, successful lawyer with the beautiful, smart family, renovating an old house.
Alain is Johannes friend who buried his family in the conflict of Bosnia and then fled to the remote region.
Alain is known to Lars and his troupe of even bigger scum bag loser friends as the "Nigger" because of his distinct Islamic "irregularity" of the small town's folk. This all comes down strongly in a whirl pool of intense violence when Lars runs over the wife of an old senile, retired local gangster turned Christian extremist, known as Major Ingvar. Lars frames Alain who then is sheltered by Johannes with his family caught in the middle when the senile old man comes out of retirement to avenge her death,
but spirals further into his senile Christian extremism with violent revelations.

This film brings it. The grain and hue of the cinematography is some of the coolest I've seen in a while.
It's silver with veiny blues, allotted with deep greens and rich, black reds. The pace is flawless and told without
a second of lag or loop hole. It's a film of great acceptance and exceptional craftsman ship.

A very heartfelt and brutal story of all the essential elements of friendship, family, redemption and death.

Stoked on his adaptation of Dean Koontz novel The Husband.

I Am Not Your Friend

Hungary 2008

Nem vagyok a barátod 3.8/5 7.8/10






I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND is a film of improvisations - not only from the part of the nine amateur actors, but from the D.O.P, the director and the scriptwriters as well. The story unfolded itself instantly by the reactions and ideas of actors during the 20 days of shooting and developed into what is presented to the audience. But the story perhaps is less important than the world which opens up in front of us, a taste of Budapest in January 2008



György Pálfi's 3rd feature is far from his previous as far as directive style and story telling.
Like a Hungarian cinema verite styled Closer, I Am Not Your Friend opens with a short film
that takes place in a daycare center, where voyeuristically captured hungarian children interact with
one another is purely rewarding experience. Where conversations amongst the kids (ages 3-5 approx)
seem adult despite their frivolous content. As the feature starts we are introduced to each character
in an off kilter sense. One character is the focus and named and interacts with characters that eventually become
introduced as the focus, even though that have already appeared with dialog and intermittent character development
through relationship establishments that eventually leads to a whole cast of interconnected characters.
The characters are all sexual deviants. Some having sex with the other's spouse or husband and not even realizing it
and some realizing it and not caring. Almost all the characters are shit beings but every one of them
has a favorite song and when alone they sing that song aloud. This anecdote provides a depth to each of them.
As the film progresses and relationships crumble and/or grow, one may begin to wonder where the film is going or
what it's trying to say. But with it's hefty, realistic, subtle twist, some one fucks over the wrong girl.

The message and moral becomes very clear;
Women are strong, resourceful creatures especially when their heart is broken.

Sleep Dealer

USA/MEXICO 2008




In a futuristic yet not unfamiliar world, the lives of three strangers connect in surprising ways amid a backdrop of militarization, closed borders and an all-encompassing global technological network. At the center of this potent sci-fi tale (nominated for a Best First Feature Independent Spirit Award) are Memo (Luis Fernando Peña), a peasant displaced after his village is attacked; Luz, a writer (Leonor Varela) who plugs her brain into the net; and Rudy (Jacob Vargas), an American security company worker.

8.5/10



A potent, time piece of realistic technologically steered rhetoric placed in the not so distant future,
where the borders of Mexico and the USA have been permanently blocked off to end illegal immigration.
A young man named Memo is out of touch with his boring country lifestyle and does not appreciate the smalls things in life until they are taken away from him, though his heart is indeed a great one.
Upon a tragedy Memo sets off to Tijuana to get a job working in San Diego, Ca... wait, what?
You see there is a company called TruNode, throughout the film we are filled in with commercials that throwback to propaganda, encouraging people of all shapes, sizes and creeds
to have nodes installed into their bodies and "plug in" and via remote viewing, work remotely a machine in the United States. A very cool concepts filled with budgeted yet ambitious special effects and detailed, yet not far fetched gadgets and machinery.
Along the way Memo befriends a girl and there is your love story. Great film. Looking forward to seeing what this director does next. A very promising young talent.

Bronson

2009 UK/DENMARK



Nicolas Winding Refn's vivid and unflinching biopic delves into the life of Britain's most notorious prisoner, Charlie Bronson (Tom Hardy) -- who's been jailed for nearly 35 years -- and attempts to dissect the real man behind the deranged persona. While Bronson's primary ambition was to be famous, he became a celebrity of sorts as a criminal who seized myriad opportunities to demonstrate extreme and terrorizing savagery.

9/10




This is near masterpiece for reasons not only associated with the main actor, Tom Hardy's performance, but because of it's on and off linear, narrative story telling. From the get go we are immersed into a biopic told directly through the words of the Bronson character himself, in a black abyss of a room with only light shining onto his bald head, distinctly twisted mustache and prison coveralls that stick to his broad shoulders.
He's not charming,he's not smart, or resourceful, but he's intimidating. Really intimidating.The look of self certainty in his eyes and his raspy, yet brooding voice with his thick British accent, begins to elaborate his life's tale in visual gushes of realistically choreographed fist fighting, face stomping, face biting, mouth frothing, veins popping, plethora of testosterone and ego maniacal... well sanity. Whether most of this biopic is true or merely elaborated for cinematic purposes, the point is finely met and it never gets boring, that being a character study/biopic hybrid that shows from start to finish the self-transformation of a man. As it is really well made and done so with a high entertainment value by somehow, attaining substance and sincerity.
If I had to make any comparison to any other film,
I would utter CHOPPER but if it were done by Kubrick. This film has a risky pace, that really works for it's content. Which all in all, is pretty twisted and hilarious. Don't miss it.

Splinter

USA 2008



Kidnapped by an escaped convict (Shea Whigham) and his young accomplice (Rachel Kerbs), Seth Belzer (Paulo Costanzo) and Polly Watt (Jill Wagner) are thrust into the fight of their lives when the four of them become the prey of a bloodthirsty splinter parasite. Trapped inside an abandoned gas station, the foursome is forced to band together to thwart the monster's vicious attacks and make it out alive.

7/10



A few lackluster moments of pure stupidity kept me from loving this film. The more I think about it however, I'm really starting to believe it was the film maker's intentions for the characters to make such ridiculous choices in order to supply the film with an unsettling climax, wherein the audience is yelling at the screen in dismay. The plot is pretty cool, where a parasitic fungus comprised of intricately bacterial splinters infects the body and physically and might I say painfully contorts body parts, breaking bones, splitting skin and you know, killing it's victims. The creature is totally a wannabe "The Thing" via Carpenter and Bowtin, but definitely has a personality and brutality all in it's own and looks really cool and creepy. The acting is damn good
despite the idiocy of the cast scripted as being smart people each in their own way. The ending however, is not satisfying and the lack of explanation of what the creature is, is a total cop out, if I wasn't so sure there would be a sequel. Which there will be. Watch it. You'll like it.

The Informers

USA 2008


Based on the book by Bret Easton Ellis and set in Los Angeles during the sex-, drug- and rock music-fueled early 1980s, this series of intertwining dramas features a range of characters reveling in the debauched excesses of the era. But as movie execs, vampires, ex-cons and others traverse the same seductive landscape, they also reveal the emptiness lurking just beneath the city's shiny veneer. Kim Basinger leads a star-studded cast.

7.5/10



Spotlighting the likes of both the top and bottom of the social heap, that being rich snobby spoiled twenty somethings, their formidably arrogant and selfish parents interconnecting to and from a voyeuristic hotel desk clerk(Renfro) and his relationship with his ex-convict uncle,(Rourke). The Informers is full of people you will just hate. Where luxury spawns hedonism, and what seems like a complete absence of morale, passion appears to only be in the form of carelessly having sex with everyone around you and snorting coke up your nose. As a marriage is attempted to be rekindled (Thornton/Basinger) despite a scandalous affair with an anchorwoman,(Ryder) the toll the adultery has taken on their marriage is far from forgettable let alone able to be repaired. The story is oddly told in a way where the audience is introduced to the characters with no dialog, merely a visual narrative dictating the irrelevance everything holds to each character outside of their drugs and promiscuity, provides an interesting overcast of depression and emptiness, that all in all, makes very clear the intention of the film. 3.5/5 stars.