kbilsted Reviews

The Last Samurai (2003)

cool and at times beautiful samurai movie, with the most lousy ending

[8/10 · 18 February 2004]

I'm into samurai stuff! Hence I like movies in that genre as well. This movie has a lot of cool stuff, but at times, it just doesn't make sense. For instance, the rebel leader knows English?? They practice fighting in the open for the peasants to see?? The samurai allows the soldiers to cut his hair?? And finally, I'm not sure that they are holding the sword as one is supposed to.. but I guess there are hundreds of swords schools in Japan each with its set of rules for that.

The movie is really worth seeing, although its 1/2 hour to long to my taste, and the ending which is stupid, bad and insulting to the viewer. 8/10.

The Bench (2000)

A socio-realistic drama of a drunk guy with no future, suddenly finding a path...

[10/10 · 18 October 2003]

The most stunishing thing about this movie is the acting of the drunk guy. Several times during the movie I pondered whether they had brought in a real drunk, or if it really was an actor? All his moves, the way i talked etc. were so real.

The story as far as I recall it, is about a drunk guy on dole, with no future. Suddenly he meets a person which makes his internal flame of live rise and burst.

We as spectators get a view of how it is having no future, no family and nothing to do. Its a story without any special effects or explosions (not even a telly which is thrown out of the window from the second floor explode upon impact with the sidewalk!) But still, the story is so much better than of most multi-billion dollar movies from Hollywood.

Bad Taste (1987)

bad effects, bad story - cool film

[10/10 · 31 December 2002]

Its weird, even though this film has lame effects (rather hillarious :) and the story is straight forward, I keep coming back watching this film. This is why it gets its high score.

However, the latest turnover for peter jacksons success with lord of the rings, have had the effect that this movie is re-released (found it in the 'new' section at blockbuster!), it has gotten a new cover... this is a bit lame, but I enjoy thinking about all the people who now suddenly wants to and gets to see this film.

Memento (2000)

A hunt for a killer

[8/10 · 29 December 2001]

I like this movie since it is in no way obvious! Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? Who is exploiting who?

The story itself is rather short, however, it is told in backwards order - giving the viewer pieces of flashback for him to re-construct a story in his head. This way of telling a story is interesting and keeps the viewer away from sleeping. The backside to this kind of storytelling is that at the end af the movie, it gets a bit frustrating to see the same clips over and over again.

If you have trouble understanding the movie there are some very short clips in the last minute of the movie. If you don't understand the movie I will advice you to watch the last 5 minutes of the movie a couple of times. :-) The way the story is cut up and told in "random order" is not a new invention and is much better done in movies such as Pulp Fiction.

The movie is hard to watch so be sure to be in the right mood when watching it - preferably watching it with other people.

Shogun (1980 TV Movie)

Both for people having read the book and for those who hasn't

[10/10 · 29 December 2001]

This is absolutely a brilliant interpretation of the 1100 page book by James Clavell. Of course some details are left out, but I reckon only one time in the movie are you in doubt of whats going on (I am referring to the episode where Toranaga tries to escape the Ishido castle).

The movie is very close to the book, which for me, was a positive experience.

The story is well told and good acting is shown through the whole movie. The nature of the movie is, that when having watched an episode it is very hard not to see the following and the following and so on.

Are you into samurai stuff this is clearly a cool movie - note however, that there are not many battle scenes.