Posts Tagged ‘Stellan Skarsgård’

Avengers: Age of Ultron Review

Posted: April 26, 2015 in Action, Reviews
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MV5BMTc3MDc0NDkzOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNjIwMjQ0NTE@._V1__SX1202_SY826_Have often do you see a film that starts well only to falter at the midway point and limp to a conclusion that leaves you wondering what might have been? Conversely, how seldom do you see a film that is going off the rails in the early going, yet somehow manages to correct its mistakes after halftime and eke out a win?

Count Avengers: Age of Ultron as one of the rare films that appears headed toward failure, yet somehow course corrects halfway through and finishes strong enough to be regarded as a mild success. As summer blockbuster entertainment, you can call it necessary, but not sufficient. (more…)

Hector and the Search for Happiness Review

Posted: August 18, 2014 in Action, Comedy, Drama, Reviews
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Hector-And-The-Search-For-HappinessHector and the Search for Happiness  fancies itself a comedy, a drama, an action movie, and a travelogue, but the film fails in each of the genres, revealing itself to be nothing more than an awful little film about one uninteresting man’s mid-life crisis. Wrapped in pretension with a bow of psuedo-self help nonsense and delivered by a squandered all-star cast, Hector is a two-hour illustration of vapidness without even a hint of a redeeming satirical sense. It is a cyncical, clumsy, excruciating exercise in failed manipulation without a single genuine moment.

The critique of Hector as comedy is simple: it is not funny. As a drama, it lacks characters that we care about or a situation that we wish to see resolved. The action/adventure component is ludicrous, while the travelogue is very definitely offensive. (more…)

Kraftidioten (In Order of Disappearance) Review

Posted: March 2, 2014 in 2014 Berlinale, Action, Foreign, Reviews, Thriller
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ImageAt the beginning of Kraftidioten, Swedish transplant Nils operates the snow plow that keeps his adopted Norwegian town running through the other worldly winters. For this effort, he is being acknowledged as the Citizen of the Year and, as one of the good townsfolk tells him, a role model for the integration of immigrants in Norway. If and when Kraftidioten is remade as an American movie with Bruce Willis playing the Canadian-born plow driver now operating in upstate Minnesota, you can see that gag working every bit as well. Sly Scandanavian humor is on full display in this subversive and sublime revenge story featuring a stoic Stellan Skarsgård as Nils going full Death Wish on those responsible for the death of his son.

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