niko88-1 Reviews

Ce qu'il faut pour vivre (2008)

Surprisingly Good Canadian Drama

[8/10 · 15 February 2011]

Seldom seen film that I caught on either IFC or Sundance channel. Story takes place in the 50's and is about an Inuit Canadian that must leave his family in the frozen north where he lives to receive extensive treatment for tuberculosis. Core of the film shows how the Inuit man struggles with his health, his inability to communicate, immersion into a completely foreign environment, and long term separation from the family for which he is the sole provider for. This film is surprisingly powerful and really creates a lot of strong emotions in the viewer. Slow paced but excellent nonetheless. Beautiful landscapes, great acting, interesting characters, and a compelling story make this movie a hidden gem.

More people need to see this!

The Mechanic (2011)

Entertaining action but must suspend disbelief to enjoy

[6/10 · 3 February 2011]

Generally, I like to check out reviews on movies before I watch but for The Mechanic I was dying to see an action flick so I went in with no preconceived notions. What I got was an OK action movie with pretty decent fight scenes but a very predictable plot with many holes in it.

First, let me commend the casting of Ben Foster in this, I am a big fan of his and it's nice to see him paired up with a well established action star in Statham. Statham was his usual self, he has a quiet confidence and charisma that make you overlook his lack of range. On the flip side, the casting of the villain showed no creativity at all.(this particular actor plays the same role in many movies, he's not bad at it but he's definitely typecast so when you see him pop up in a movie you already know where things are gonna go) So rather than put spoilers in here just know that a lot of things in this movie don't make a whole lot of sense so don't think too much if you want to enjoy yourself.

If like me you're craving to see an action movie, by all means check this out but I think most folks are fine waiting to see it at home a few months from now.

Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

A little disappointed with Lars

[6/10 · 27 May 2008]

First let me say that this movie was highly recommended to me by a number of folks which may explain why I was disappointed. (Needless to say, when you see a movie with zero expectations you tend to be a lot more forgiving) Not sure how many people remember ABC after school specials, but this movie kind of felt like one of those, and probably would have been better had it been compressed into 1 hour of television.

My main problem with the movie is that the plot was very much lacking and wasn't advanced very far. It seemed very interesting at first but most of the movie was spent establishing that the town accepted Lars' girlfriend. The whole time I found myself thinking...yeah I get it, they accept her...please move on to something more interesting. But that never happened...

In the end I found it to be very predictable and hum drum.