Totally Messed Up Rising

The grand finale of the Batman films, The Dark Knight Rises, is a complete mess. The 2.5 hours have a plot that's a maze where the first to get lost were the scriptwriting brothers Jonathan and Christopher Nolan, the latter of which was also the director. That didn't help.


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Totally Messed Up Rising

Not Taken by the Dramatic Curve

The film Taken from 2008, where Liam Neeson is a retired agent showing all his fury in saving his daughter from human trafficking, is a decent action movie, much thanks to him, but it fails mainly in its dramatic curve. So, the end can be nothing but disappointing.


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Not Taken by the Dramatic Curve

Age-old Dilemmas Also Plague the Future

Looper is a film playing with the idea of time travel – but doing so with a dramatic nerve that leaves the intellectual paradox far behind. I wonder if that sci-fi ingredient is needed at all in the plot, except for the special effects. The story by director Rian Johnson is so classical, it needs no future.


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Age-old Dilemmas Also Plague the Future

The Rage of Puberty

The film Chronicle, by director Josh Trank and screenwriter Max Landis, is a high school supernatural thriller turning into tragedy. Underneath the spectacular surface, it's all about the torment and rage of male puberty.

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The Rage of Puberty

We Need to Listen to Kevin

It's a terribly disturbing story, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and the film gives no moment of relief. A ghastly nightmare, but the dream is incomplete. It fosters the myth of the innocent parent. That's not believable even in fiction.


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We Need to Listen to Kevin

To Boldly Go...

The space probe Voyager 1 has traveled since 1977, soon reaching the end of our solar system and entering outer space. That's not a void, but a constant storm of cosmic rays, from which the sun's magnetic field protects us. Whatever it really is, space is not empty.


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To Boldly Go...

Game of Words

I'm far from the only one enjoying the TV-series Game of Thrones, waiting impatiently for season 3 to commence. I bet that this excellent fantasy drama would have pleased even its foremost inspiration: William Shakespeare. In the midst of all the spectacular scenes, its foremost quality is that of words, words, words.


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Game of Words

Counter Acting

The arts contain numerous paradoxes. That's particularly true for the art of acting. Those who master it know to play on the opposite of what is called for, thereby enhancing it, as if real acting is counter acting.


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Counter Acting

Fame Must Be Raw

I tried to see the 2009 remake of Fame, about New York students of the performing arts. But it didn't grab me, not at all. It was just a bunch of scenes. The film makers might have watched the 1980 original, but they didn't learn from it.


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Fame Must Be Raw

Actors Interruptus

I've become addicted to Inside the Actors Studio, the TV show where James Lipton interviews famous movie stars at length. Like any addiction, it's a combination of delight and agony.


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Actors Interruptus

Harry Potter vs. Voldemort – so what?

It might be blasphemy, but I have trouble appreciating the Harry Potter stories. I might not even know what I'm talking about, because I only managed to read something like a hundred pages of the first book – the rest is just what I've seen in the movies. That's fine with me.


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Harry Potter vs. Voldemort – so what?

Burlesque Breakfast of Champions

Finally, I got to see the 1999 movie Breakfast of Champions, based on Kurt Vonnegut's novel. I had avoided doing so earlier, afraid of being disappointed. Well, I was. They turned the wonderfully absurd novel into a tiresome burlesque.


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Burlesque Breakfast of Champions

With One Person I Never Got Bored

We come to this world, don't ask me where from, and we leave it after dancing on it for a while, don't ask me where to. But some of us are otherworldly all through. I had the fortune to get to know one of them: Charlotte Zutrauen, who passed away this spring after more than a century on the planet.


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With One Person I Never Got Bored

The Poodle Bites

Recently, I was in Romania for an aikido seminar. That was my first visit to the country, and a delightful one. Something that I found odd was the great number of stray dogs in the streets, running free and somehow finding their way to survive and reproduce.


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The Poodle Bites

Faith or Not, You Have to Leap

Steve Martin has made a bundle of movies. Of those I've seen, three stand out: the revealing view of superficial society in LA Story, the sensitive modernized version of Cyrano de Bergerac in Roxanne, and the naked take on fake religion suddenly becoming real in Leap of Faith. This is about the last one, right now my favorite – although maybe because I just saw it anew.


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Faith or Not, You Have to Leap

Shooting on My Street

Hollywood came to my street in Stockholm. For a day and a night, they were shooting scenes for the Stieg Larsson crime story The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The size of it! Hollywood is a flashmob Caesar.


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Shooting on My Street

A Ratatouille of the Heart

Last night, I watched Ratatouille again. It's a charming animated film. For me, it's particularly amusing to see the devilish portrayal of Ego, the restaurant critic, since I was one for twelve years. Not like him, I hope, but that's for others to decide.


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A Ratatouille of the Heart