Movie: Man on Wire

On one level, this movie tells an inspiring story about a man who had a dream. From an early age, he dreamed about the Twin Towers (World Trade Center), wanting to walk between them on a tightrope. The movie tells the story about the efforts to try to manage that.

On another level, it is disturbing to see how one man spends lots of resources (flying several people across the Atlantic again and again, for instance) and involves lots of people, just to fulfil his own dream. The movie gives no insight into what kind of economic situation made this even possible. Most people would have to make do with less expensive dreams.

On a third level, knowing the history and the ending of the world trade center, the tale of how they played cat and mouse with the security system is less amusing than it might otherwise have been. It's difficult to see this movie without constantly thinking about the terrorist attacks of 2001.

Anyway, it is a very interesting movie, still at #1 at Rotten Tomatoes All Time Best List.



Man on Wire (2008)

Director: James Marsh

Main actor:
Philippe Petit as Himself

Top hunks of 2008

According to ET Online ("ET, phone home"?), these are the 10 Top Hunks of 2008:

1. Robert Pattinson

2. Zac Efron

3. Tony Romo
4. Reggie Bush

5. Shia LaBeouf

6. Adam Rodriguez
7. Chris Pine
8. James Franco

9. Jay Hernandez

10. Simon Baker

(Source: NZcity.)

Norway's most sexy men

According to Elle magazine, these are Norway's most sexy men:

1. André Villa

2. Andreas Ygre Wiig

3. Christian Rubeck
4. Terje Skonseng Naudeer
5. Aksel Lund Svindal
6. Andreas Thorkildsen

7. Mads Ousdal
8. Thorstein Helstad
9. Nicolai Cleve Broch

10. Erik Thorstevdt
11. John Carew
12. Kåre Magnus Bergh
Other places:
14. Pål Sverre Valheim Hagen
15. Trond Espen Seim
17. Ylvis

20. Vadim Demidov
22. Kristian Kjelling

23. Tom Stiansen
24. Ole Robert Reitan
28. Audun Lysbakken
29. Olav Heyerdahl

30. Reidar Hjermann
31. Jon Almaas
33. Tshawe Baqua
Christoffer Fagerli
Jonas Bendiksen
Gardar Eide Einarsson
Matias Faldbakken
Stig Kjos
Øystein Greni
Magnus Staveland
Emir Mulaosmanovic
Jarle Bernhoft

(Source: also Adressa.)

Movie: Parking

Chen Mo is travelling home to his wife, but decides to stop to buy some cakes for her. While he's in the shop, a car double parks, making it impossible for Chen Mo to get out. This starts a string of events which changes his life.

Why do I like the movie so much? Partly because of the humor - there are lots of funny scenes. Also because of the believeable human stories Chen Mo runs into as he tries to get back to his wife. Moreover, the images are beautiful.



For me, this was enough to keep me on the edge of the chair for the entire movie. Well done!

Ting che (2008)

Director: Chung Mong-Hong

Main actor:
Chen Chang as Chen Mo

Monty Python on YouTube

A huge step for mankind... Monty Python are putting lots of their best stuff on YouTube:

The Favorite Meme

Here's a meme from Sunday Stealing:

My favorite for each of the following:
1. Political show: Bill Maher
2. Picnic food: flatbrød and spekeskinke (sorry, can't translate)
3. Mixed drink: Gin tonic?
4. U.S. President: Bill Clinton, I guess
5. Kind of student to teach: the enthusiastic
6. Hobby you do or wish you still did: blogging?
7. Sports commentator: Arne Scheie
8. Sport to watch on TV: snooker
9. Animal to have as a pet: fish
10. Halloween costume you have worn: nope, that's a US thing, isn't it?
11. Kind of dessert: chocolate mousse
12. Comic strip: Calvin & Hobbes
13. Ice cream flavor: caramel
14. News source: internet - that is: lots
15. Vacation spot: a beach
16. Wine: dessert wine
17. Way to waste time instead of working: Facebook
18. Reality show: Big brother
19. Childrens movie: classic Disney
20. Celebrity you wish would retire: George W. Bush (and he will!) and Sarah Palin (will she?)

Movie: SqueezeBox!

This documentary documents the history of "SqueezeBox", a New York club for drag queens and others interested in rock. In addition to live music, it also had healthy (or unhealthy) doses of alcohol, porn, drugs, strip tease and sex.

For a group of New Yorkers, this was apparently a very important venue, so the liberal in me feels sorry that it no longer exists - even though, for me, the rock was a bit over-the-top.

Anyway, it's moderately interesting, and when it starts to talk about the background of the movie "Hedwig and the angry inch" it gets fascinating.

SqueezeBox! (2008)

Director: Steven Saporito and Zach Shaffer

Movie: Intimidades de Shakespeare y Víctor Hugo

Some years ago, a guy rented a space in a house. The director of this movie finds it interesting to go back to the house and interview everybody who might or might not have known him.

Of course, there are aspects to this story that makes it a tiny bit more interesting than the first paragraph of this review might suggest. For instance Jorge Rios, the guy in question, appears to have been gay, didn't reveal much about his past, tended to cruise the streets at night and he was a painter and a singer. There are also rumours that he was the "Jack the ripper"-kind of criminal that was never found at the time.

Intimidades de Shakespeare y Víctor Hugo (2008)

Director: Yulene Olaizola

My blog at a glance

Here's a cool picture based on words from my blog's recent posts. (Click to enlarge.)

Movie: O'Horten

Bent Hamer has a very particular style. His movies are low on action but often has memorable images, often nearly surreal. This movie is no exception. Some of the scenes are wonderful, the people feels like real people and the movie seems to say important things about life. But then, suddenly, the movie feels contrived for a moment - does some strange twist just to get a bizarre image.

I guess I will keep watching Bent Hamer's movies, hoping that one day his talents will create a truly beautiful movie.

O'Horten (2007)

Director: Bent Hamer

Main actors:
Baard Owe as Odd Horten

Movie: Body of Lies

I accept that this is a very good movie. I enjoy the good performances of the main actors and think the story is nicely crafted to keep the suspense up. Neither is the events too unrealistic to this (uninformed) viewer. Everything so far is fine.

I also see that the special effects are good - even impressive. However, I am not easily pleased by watching explosions, and this movie is no exception. So if you think everything so far sounds fine, and you are a lover of explosions in addition: RUN to see this movie...

On the negative side, I think the "romance" involving Leonardo diCaprio is unconvincing, maybe because the relationship between the two lovers are given so little (screen) time to evolve.

Anyway - a good movie (even though it's not really my kind of film...)



Body of Lies (2008)

Director: Ridley Scott

Main actors:
Leonardo DiCaprio as Roger Ferris
Russell Crowe as Ed Hoffman
Mark Strong as Hani

New from John Andresen

John Andresen has split his website into two spaces now: johnandresen.com for his more commercial work and shuttermagazine.no for his more artistic work. And he has updated the latter with Track & Field Athlete Marius.

Movie: Transamerica

This is a very touching movie. Bree is a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual who has to face one more thing from her past before doing the final operation. Amid prejudices from the society and her own family, she also finds love in unexpected places.

Felicity Huffman does a great role as Bree - for the first part of the movie I didn't recognize her as Lynette from "Desperate Housewives" and wasn't even sure which sex the actor had. Kevin Zegers is also doing great, as Toby, the hustler with far more qualities than a trained mouth.

The movie is full of emotions, connected with the big questions of life: how the love (or lack of love) of our families may start to form our lives, but also that it is possible to break out of this.

Hugely recommended.





Transamerica (2005)

Director: Duncan Tucker

Main actors:
Felicity Huffman as Bree
Kevin Zegers as Toby

Congratulations, USA

I know I'm the slowest in the blogosphere to do this, but "better late than never": Congratulations, USA, on the election of Barack Obama!

And although I'm late now, I'd like to mention my August 29th posting, where I said that "Palin is a wild card. This may be seen as the day that Obama secured the election." By now, Palin does not seem such a wise choice...

Movie: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

This is the best Woody Allen movie I've seen in a while. Anyone who knows me will know that I'm a big fan of him, so this is serious praise...

Vicky and Cristina are very different girls. Vicky sleeps with everything that breathes, being more interested in passion than in love. Cristina, on the other hand, is reasonable, settling for what's okay instead of looking for anything improbable. However, when they find themselves in Spain, their old habits don't necessarily stand up.

I find this movie both sexy and funny. Penélope Cruz does a good job as ever-present Maria Elena (even though she only turns up in person towards the end of the movie). I love the old-fashioned voice-over and get in a good mood just by the thought that Woody Allen is still creating good films...



Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Director: Woody Allen

Main actors:
Javier Bardem as Juan Antonio
Rebecca Hall as Vicky
Scarlett Johansson as Cristina

Movie: Hallam Foe

Liking this movie is, I guess, pretty much a question of accepting (or not accepting) the basic premise of the film. Do you accept that the trauma Hallam Foe has gone through is able to cause such behaviour as he shows. In that case, the film is probably very good.

I, on the other hand, had problems with this all through the film. This meant that although I sympathized with Hallam Foe, I never really believed in him 100%. So although he's a likable, vulnerable and funny character, he's still a character in a film.

So this short "review" could easily be read as a recommendation - maybe you will find this an even better film than I did. And I enjoyed it.




Hallam Foe (2007)

Director: David Mackenzie

Main actors:
Jamie Bell as Hallam Foe
Sophia Myles as Kate Breck