ramora-1 Reviews

State of Play (2003)

Best TV material I've seen in years

[10/10 · 16 March 2004]

This is what I call top class stuff. I haven't had much interest in British mini series for the past years. I loved the Dennis Potter series and "The Crow Road" I thought was excellent(since than I've read almost all of Banks' books). When it comes to thrillers, "Taggart" was good for quite some time, but has been going rapidly down the drain. So I was pleasantly surprised when I accidentally watched the first episode of "State of Play" and was absolutely hooked. The story is tight and exciting and the cast is wonderful. Even the cop who gets killed in episode 1 is a great character. John Simm, David Morrisey, Bill Nighy: all excellent, and I think I almost fell in love with Kelly MacDonald. Bravo. For a long time the best TV material has been American(Six feet Under, The Sopranos). I hope I'll see more stuff like that in the future.

25th Hour (2002)

A powerful hour

[9/10 · 7 March 2004]

I'll keep this short. Of course a big part of this film is about American society and 9/11. For me, I´m not American, it worked really as a powerful frame for this very human and touching story. It's rare that you see so real and believable characters. I was often fascinated by how true they all seemed. I was especially taken by Barry Peppers performance. I've seen most of the Spike Lee joints, some I've liked, some are okay, some I didn't really like(Summer of Sam). This one I love. 9 out of 10. This comment was not supposed to be longer but it's supposed to be at least 10 lines so I had to add some extra words. So I'll end by mentioning "In America" which is another powerful story built inside the American society, the American Dream.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003)

Simple Fun

[22 August 2003]

I'm from Iceland so when I saw the first movie I was more than curious because it takes partly place in Iceland. I was disappointed. So I was quite surprised when I saw part 2. It IS much better then the first one. The action flows well and it remains entertaining to the end (the ending is maybe a little bit melodramatic). But beware! This movie has nothing got to do with acting or storytelling. It's simple fun.

Equilibrium (2002)

The Violent Fahrenheit 451

[9/10 · 3 July 2003]

This film is great. Ray Bradbury should of course be in the credit list but even though the story is old, the plot has its fair share of surprises. Apart from the obvious Fahrenheit 451 link, it also has its bits of Blade Runner, The Matrix and John Woo(and of course many others). Also if you liked Gattaca you should like this one. Christian Bale is ultra cool. I hope he's British. He would make an excellent Bond. 9 out of 10.

Bulletproof Monk (2003)

Bulletproof Junk

[3/10 · 27 April 2003]

I went to this movie because I'm a Chow Yun Fat fan. Sadly this is not one of his best. Though the action is sometimes alright I lost interest in it early on, because of the ridiculous story. It was all so outdated. It would have worked twenty years ago(It reminded me of "The Golden child"), and maybe this movie is quite good for 10-18 years old. The acting is not good, the bad guy is horrible, but maybe I was just in a bad mood.