firewalking Reviews

State of Play (2003)

Fantastic series spoiled by lazy ending

[17 August 2011]

Just bought and watched this on DVD. Up until the last episode I was enthralled with the story.

The mixture of journalism, politics and police work made for an interesting mix, although the latter two took more of a back seat nearing the end, replaced with lover's quarrels and artificial exposition more similar to soap opera writing.

While the cinematography is fairly average, the casting and acting is superb.

If you want a suspenseful thriller this one should entertain you, just don't expect a satisfactory ending.

I'd give the show 8/10, but the horrible finale totally undermined the story's credibility with several loose ends, and I was left frustrated instead of with the great feeling I had during the first 5 episodes.

The Foreign Legion: Tougher Than the Rest (2007)

A missed opportunity...

[8 May 2009]

As I was intrigued by the thought of some insight into the workings of the Foreign Legion, I thought I'd give this one a go.

Sadly, this documentary is a total mess. It seems to me a mediocre blend of regurgitated quotes from the Foreign Legion's own information brochures and uninteresting anecdotal information.

It's such a shame too, since the opportunity to explore either a historical, political, military or even personal viewpoint of one of the most interesting military forces in modern history is totally missed. Only in the last of the three parts does it start to resemble good storytelling, but sadly it's way too late.

I cannot start to comprehend what the producer and writer of this movie were thinking. With such great possibilities of intimate interaction and access to the officers and soldiers, it's really astonishing that they weren't able to fit it into a more coherent dramaturgy.

There are some scenes that show great promise, but they all end way too early. They're simply dismissed while the series moves on to another distraction.

The editing is ridiculous at times, mostly just annoying, and it really saddens me to see such great potential totally wasted. It seems obvious that the woman behind this has a background from reality TV too, as there are numerous repetitions of many scenes, and the editing jumps randomly between different scenes as well.

The narrator does a nice job, although the writing is simply sub par. Unless you're fanatically interested in receiving fragmented info on the Foreign Legion, I'd recommend you to stay away from this one.

Hopefully someone more talented will come along at a later time and do a better job at telling the world about the Foreign Legion and their place in our world.

Babylonsjukan (2004)

Not too deep, but inspiring and sweet!

[27 July 2006]

I find it hard to describe Babylonsjukan. I guess it's a type of movie a lot of people will have problems relating to, and struggle to identify with the characters. Some of the other comments mentioned that the dialogue and characters feel constructed and self-indulgent, but i didn't experience them that way.

To me, this film is about my generation of north-European youth, and i could certainly relate to the issues the characters dealt with. Maja is unhappy and very confused - she doesn't even seem to know which questions to ask herself (like many characters in "I Heart Huckabees"), and as many others she finds only temporary comfort in distractions like e.g. partying. She develops feelings for Mattias, who seems to put some of her misguided feelings into words when describing his own problems: The Babylon Sickness, as he calls it, is the situation we all are in when living in the modern consumer society. Fear and anxiety are the main motivational factors, and they mostly drive us to contribute to production & consumption, often leaving ourselves behind.

Babylonsjukan is a warm, funny and inspiring humane story about finding some form of value and comfort in each other instead of the daily grind. Save this one for a day you need some inspiration!