Import Eksport

A must watch with my wife. I basically like this movie, and the reason isn’t the relationship between me and this movie :). But after watching it two times earlier, not everything is that interesting anymore.

Rating: 5 of 6

Rottenetter

Time pass Norwegian movie about an up-and-coming finance/stock broker. The movie tries to describe the finance business set in Stavanger and probably inspired by the movie Wall Street. Unfortunately, the script is too weak, and it focuses too much on the drama element (as many other Norwegian movies) which creates boredom.

Rating: 3 of 6

Tomme Tønner

All right Norwegian gangster action comedy movie, made by Leon Bashir who also wrote the script for Izzat. There aren’t that many new things in this movie, and several concepts seems inspired from American gangster action comedies.

Some of the actors don’t have that much acting experience, which also can be seen by their performances in the movie. On the other hand, there are several other “veterans” which both give the movie star value and proper watching experience.

Rating: 4 of 6

Jernanger / Shooting the Sun / The Storm in My Heart

Jernanger is a boring movie about the tempered Eivind who isn't scared of anything- except love. The story evolves too slowly, and it could easily been a short movie of 15-20 minutes. The only lightening point is the performance by Bjørn Sundquist and his dialogues. I simply don’t understand why it got those good critics and awards and nominations. My friend and I watched it in around 30 minutes and then fast-forward the rest of it. And I don’t think we missed anything.

Rating: 2 of 6

Den Siste Revejakta / The Last Joint Venture

All right criminal comedy. The movie is based on a novel by Ingvar Ambjørnsen with same title, and deals around two guys who live in late 70’s. Cineuropa has made following synopsis of the movie in English:

The hippie decade is coming to an end, and the eighties are approaching fast. Carl and Robert are two slacker characters who live in harmony with the world around them, and let life pass them by in a perpetual hash high. They earn a little dough on minor sales of pot, in their own opinion providing essential stimulus to a suffering population. After the worst drought of all times in the streets of Oslo, they are now ready for their last great scoop. Their dream of a hippie community in the countryside will finally become a reality! Enter Glenn, a financial backer with ambitious yuppie plans. Carl and Robert awake from their hazy harmony, and are forced to fight back. They’re about to enter a wild, dramatic and hysterically funny trip through the Oslo underworld and all the way to Finnskogen.

As mentioned earlier, the movie was all right and is descent entertainment. The best part is its style, and the makers have put lots of effort to show Oslo set in 70’s.

Rating: 4/5 of 6

Skjult / Hidden

Pretty good thriller / horror movie. It uses several typical tricks in this genre, but still manages to be special. It is the team behind Villmark (Dark Woods) who made this one. Actually, it reminded me of both Villmark and Naboer (Next Door) which are both very good Norwegian horrors/thrillers.

The DVD lacks the commentary by the makers, thumbs down! The climax was actually pretty interesting, and let you think afterwards what actually happened. Therefore, I tried to see the last scenes with the commentary, but there weren’t any commentary…

Rating: 5 of 6

Varg Veum - Begravde hunder

Interesting thriller. This is the sixth and last movie in the series in this round, and there will be made six more movies.

The visual style of the movies has moved away from the style in the first two movies, but this works too. This movie is also directed by Alexander Eik who made the previous movie too.

Rating: 4/5 of 6

Varg Veum - Kvinnen i kjøleskapet

Good thriller in the Varg Veum series. Bjørn Floberg in his role as Hamre is just excellent. Alexander Eik is the director, and has done a good job.

Rating: 4/5 of 6

Mannen som elsket Yngve / The Man Who Loved Yngve

I had lost the touch for Norwegian movies with several disappoints lately, but this movie regained the hope. The movie is based on a novel, and is good drama. The story deals around Jarle who has the best girl friend and the coolest best friend he could imagine. But then, a new boy, Yngve, joins his class and things starts to change…

As the title indicates, the movie has a bold topic, namely a homosexual relationship between boys. Despite this, as said earlier, the movie is good drama and entertainment.

Rating: 5 of 6

Max Manus – Man of War

All right Norwegian war movie, and one of Norway’s most expensive movies. I must say that the movie is over hyped, and not as good as many has said or reviewed.

Aksel Hennie is even nominated as best actor for this movie, but I think the bad guy, Ken Duken, did a much better job.

Rating: 4 of 6

Varg Veum – Falne Engler / Fallen Angels

This is the fourth movie in Varg Veum series. The background score which worked very well for the first two movies, is missing this time, again. This movie is typical as just other Norwegian crime thrillers which tends to lack interesting background score, and focuses hugely on drama element with no music.

Rating: 4 of 6

Død Snø / Dead Snow

This is the first Norwegian zombie movie, probably first nazi zombie movie ever. I’m actually pretty tired of zombie movies, but still I gave it a chance. In addition, the concept of some few people in a no man's land surrounded by some monsters or zombies, is so outdated that horror movie makers with respect for themselves should look after other concepts. Is this what these so-called artists call creativity??

The movie started well and had several elements in terms of creating the mystic atmosphere which could have given a proper horror movie. But soon, our zombie friends arrive and create the largest orgy of blood and gore in Norwegian cinema till date. It had some funny moments, which improved the experience. Overall, it’s a pretty average horror movie but still somehow fascinating that it is made in a Norwegian context.

Rating: 4 of 6

Lønsj / Cold Lunch

Actually a boring movie with a boring story. But the acting and character interpretation wasn’t that bad and some of the (tragic) characters leave you with some thoughts. Particularly Aksel Hennie’s character as a failed west side boy and Pia Tjelta as a dedicated house wife.

Rating: 2/3 av 6

Varg Veum – Din til Døden (Yours Until Death)

All right interesting thriller, but not that good as the previous two movies. As I said for the first movie in this series, it’s good that the Varg Veum movies has started to set more focus on the background score, but it’s not that inspiring when you notice that the music is clearly inspired by other movies and tend to be too similar to them. In this case, some of the score seemed similar to the score from Bourne-movies.

Rating: 4 of 6

Varg Veum – Tornerose (Sleeping Beauty)

The second movie in the series of Norwegian west-coast novel hero; Varg Veum. The movie has great production values just like the previous one and an interesting plot. Bjørn Floberg is just great in his role.

Rating: 5 of 6

Varg Veum - Bitre Blomster / Bitter Flowers

This movie is the first movie in the movie series of Varg Veum. The movie is a thriller, and has an exceptional atmosphere by the use of the visuals.

Norwegian movies tend not to use much background music, but this movie is happily an exception. It has a cool background score throughout the movie to give an intense feeling. Maybe, it was too much of this kind of music, but still it’s a step in a right direction. Movies without music are boring.

Rating; 4/5 of 6

De Usynlige

Jeg synes denne filmen er overhypet. Den er bra laget, temaet er spennende og skuespillerprestasjonen er veldig bra. Likevel er ikke dette den beste filmen jeg har sett. I tillegg er det dårlig bildekvalitet hvor den er kornete, ikke bra.

Det er en karakter i filmen som er dansk, og produsentene har ikke tatt seg bryet med å oversette dansken. Det blir ikke akkurat optimal filmopplevelse når man ikke forstår hva som blir sagt siden det er på annet språk (dansk).

Terningkast: 3

Mars & Venus

En helt ålreit romantisk drama. Det kreative ved denne filmen er at den begynner hvor de fleste andre kjærlighetsfilmer slutter; nemlig etter at paret har funnet hverandre og gifter og etablerer seg. Denne filmen tar for seg utfordringer man kan møte i slike fohold, f.eks. karriere, barn, husarbeid osv. Dette temaet er i seg ikke så nytt med tanke på at dette er tatt opp i to blockbustere fra Bollywood; Chalte Chalte og Saathiya som begge kom i 2003.

Terningkast: 4 av 6

Det Største i Verden

En småkjedelig film basert på romanen Fiskerjenten av Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Eneste positive er de fine stedene hvor filmen er spilt inn, som danner bakgrunnen i filmen.

Terningkast: 3/2

Ulvenatten

Etter å ha lest boka, som denne filmen er basert på, så passer det jo selvfølgelig med å se selve filmen også. Filmen er en bra action-thriller i norsk sammenheng. Det har skjedd flere tilpasninger av historien for at den skal passe for filmformatet. Bl.a. er en del av karakterene har blitt redusert, noe som kan virke som en liten skuffelse, men slik er nå det når man overfører bøker til film.

Filmen er ellers kult laget. Det som gjør den enda kulere er at den er filmet i Oslo-området, slik at man kjenner flere av stedene i et format som ellers er mer vanlig i Hollywoodfilmer.

Terningkast: 4/5