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johnericbackstrom
Reviews
Brother (2000)
Yakuza driven from Japan comes to the land of the free
Yakuza driven from Japan comes to the land of the free.
Never has the saying "A picture says more then a thousand words" been more thru. We follow the bloody path of Yamamoto from Japan to Los Angeles and I for one is mesmerized with the slow pace and storytelling shown in this great piece of cinematography.
Parallels can be drawn to many movies. Mainly Samurai movies with the themes of pride, revenge and retribution. But also the basic story of a gangsters rise to fame (Scarface for instance). The story could be translated into so many eras but particularly the samurai theme is strong in the gunfights who aren't flashy like you could expect from an Asian movie. More plain tense, bloody and quick. These are murderers not soldiers or cops from a Hollywood movie.
Serpico (1973)
Al Pacino in great police drama from the golden era
Al Pacino in great police drama from the golden era.
Al Pacino plays the role of real life Frank Serpico a man disgusted by the blatant corruption in the NYPD. We follow him as he is more and more estranged from the force he so proudly wanted to join.
Serpico is truly one of Pacino's greatest films and a true masterpiece from Hollywoods golden era of film-making. All takes place in several boroughs of New York and the city itself is a character. I find it so interesting because this movie is yet another one of Pacino's early works where he really hasn't settled in as Al Pacino. Don't get me wrong I love him in Heat as well but his roles from the 70ths are more diverse.
The movie has got a real sense of grit in it and that is maybe most down to the look and feel about 1960-70 New York.
What I love about this movie and many others from the same era is that the director doesn't need 500 explosions and CGI to tell a great story.
Kids in America (2005)
Fun quirky movie with a great message
So I guess this movie has a low rating because of all fundamentalists? How can they care so much about what other people do is beyond me, didn't Jesus say judge not and thou shall not be judged? Treat others as you want to be treated? I am perfectly happy with freedom of religion but as the world is today it should be more of freedom from religion, I pity the 75% who didn't vote for Bush and his Neo-conservatory-Christians and are forced to live under his rule. Why do they have to stuff it down our throats? If there is such a thing as a God then why did he create us with the possibility of having sex, if we weren't to enjoy it? The moralists probably just need a good blow job or licking and they will get what we other sensible people are talking about! These people are so stupid it is ridiculous teenage pregnancies and STD are far worse problems then people having sex before they are married. We all know that teenagers will have sex then please educate them in safe sex and teach them that it is a wonderful thing who should be thoroughly enjoyed! If you feel not ready to have sex make it your own choice not to have it, their are plenty of ways to enjoy others without intercourse by all means. If boys and girls are educated more we remove some of the taboos about sex and the other gender. Tell me a thing that feels so good, doesn't cost a thing and is healthy for you? That religion should dictate life the year 2006 and after all the marvelous things we have discovered since Jesus got killed for telling people to be a little bit more nice to each other is shocking.
All in all this was a funny movie with a great message both about sexual education and civil rights movement. The actors are good enough without being great, yeah they are stereotypes but what I remember from high school in Sweden is that we had all those people. And yes Nicole Ritchie is in it and IMO she doesn't s*ck. People may say that politic and comedy doesn't mix together and allot other movies proves this wrong including this one. Another think I liked about it was that the actors didn't look too old.
Thumbsucker (2005)
A lost in translation for young adults
A lost in translation for young adults, what I mean by that is that the movie is slow for a reason and have many aspects to it. Justin is a lonesome teenager who sucks his thumb and have other mental issues. At first I was thinking that I turn it off, it was labeled as a comedy and I was expecting something that the movie didn't deliver, as I was thinking that it was slow unfunny movie I realized that i had watched the whole movie without turning it of. great acting from the whole family and a string script which deals with some important issues. The soundtrack really gets the movie starting and the cinematography really gets the feelings well.
Miami Vice (2006)
An intense thriller from the creator of Heat and Collateral
An intense thriller from the creator of Heat and Collateral.
We meet Sonny and Ricardo two Miami cops who stumble on a bigger FBI drug-operation and go undercover.
I found this a very good movie, sure it isn't Heat caliber but that kinda film doesn't come along too often. They could have made this into a ordinary buddy movie with shootouts, car chases and cheesy comedy but the instead focus on the two great leads in Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell. It is an intense movie in all aspects, action, acting, editing and sounds. The plot movies along great without any far-fetched twists for the sake of twists. It is always believable. . With some great tunes by Audioslave. And just like in Heat it isn't action for the sake of action, it is violence by trained professionals. If you watch this in a cinema with a good soundsystem you will flinch when they start shooting because it sounds so great. The movie is dark and have a documentary feel to the filming, something that suits the movie. My only critizism comes from that they seem to forget one of the key factors in the plot with the FBI rat.
Somebody said if this is mediocer Mann that he doesn't want to watch more, I say that bring me more if this is mediocrity. Mann stills kicks major ass when comparerd to standard Hollywood action movies.
Harry & Sonja (1996)
Harry works at an mental asylum and gets sacked while his wife plans to move to Tanzania
This is a hidden gem of a movie from Swedens probably biggest international star Stellan Skarsgård. He plays Harry a man with a wife, 7 kids and a mistress. If I were to label this movie I am not sure what to put it under, sure it has its funny sides and its dramatic sides. Around Harry there is a brilliant cast of weird characters, his wife a modern mother Theresa who has turned their home into a refugee camp, Sonja his mistress and her mercenary husband, Harry's brother the owner of a porn-shop who is allergic to naked bodies and many others. The movie tells the story of Harry and somewhat Sonja who both aren't happy in their relationships. Both Harry and Sonja gets fired from their low income-no education jobs and basically try to regain happiness.
The acting is great and the script is full of weird quirks and humor.
Rurôni Kenshin: Meiji kenkaku romantan - Tsuioku-hen (1999)
Never mind that it is animé, this is great art!
Never mind that it is animé, this is great art! Everything takes place in the last breaths of the shogunate in Japan with different clans struggling to get ahead in the new era.
We follow the life of young Kenshin who commits his sword to a worthy cause. Kenshin is merely a boy ordered to do a mans job, and although he never takes pleasure in his job he gets caught up in all the violence while surrounded by death learns how to love.
This is the gem in the Rurouni Kenshin franchise and is worthy of a perfect score. I haven't been moved and awestruck by a movie for a very long time. Were the movie is a good but not fantastic animé movie this is an epic of war, love, sword fighting and drama. Just the look of the movie is unparalleld by animated movie and no computer animation seems visible. If they have used it they have stayed true to the manga.
This is not just great animé this is great cinema. All fits to the concept from the animations, the surroundings, the vocal-acting to the soundtrack. I strongly recommend the subtitled version because you will want to get the original voices and all the drama you can sense with the tone and delivering of their lines. I have no clue on who the voice actors really are but I would like to believe that they are the Japanese versions of highly regarded Shakespearian actors. Even if I don't get the language the deliver the acting so honest, sincere and focused that I don't see myself watching an animated movie.
Spermaharen (2002)
Awesome but edgy and weird. Not shown on TV
Truly a great piece of odd comedy. The characters are so strange and yet so like us just ten times more then us. Genial really. And I heard that almost everything is add libbed.
This is a collection of four odd small films in several chapters from the Killing gang, the Swedish Monty Python. Weird but mesmerizing fun that couldn't be showed on TV it was instead part of a dot com project. Many people will find it horrible but they don't have any humor.
It consist of four parts
The lone sailer of: a story about a former businessman going on a sail around the world and his battles with his mind.
Lars Brundin, Happy, Fat and Weird: nothing to explain really we follow this character to see what he is doing for instance hiring a fat chick to pose for him.
Doctor Hanke: an anal doctor with musical numbers.
Cocking with two junkies: a public TV cocking show with two junkies and a dog and a assistant. watch them chop their fingers of and put them in the meat grinder.
Bound by Honor (1993)
The ghetto-Shakespeare
The basic plot center around these three friends who are like brothers. We watch them turn from boys to men in the Latino ghetto of Los Angeles. The three main characters have the biblical attributes of Sin, Redemtion and Revenge hanging over them. We see them tackle their life in different ways and following different paths. Each path is their own but sometimes they lead to a crossroad.
Many people just assume that this is a gangster movie because it contains the ghetto, Chicanos, prison, drugs and violence. But it is so much more. The ghetto is a importent part of their life's but the actual drama could easily been a king's court or something else Shakespearian.
Many people I have seen this movie with complains about the acting but even if the actors are poor the characters still seem true. Often the ghetto turns into the fourth main character when we see how alive it really is.
This is my all time favorite film. First watched it at a young age about twelve or so. At that moment I found the gang-members to be something "cool". When I then got it for Christmas two years back and re-watched I was astounded by the settings, multiple plots and the human drama that occurs. What I found "cool" back then was just tragic now and I could now relate more to the other aspects of this movie.