Jonas Ferry’s blog

When I started writing stuff here I used all five categories. Since my two main interests are RPGs and film, that’s what I’ve mainly written about, but lately I’ve neglected the films. So, here’s a whole bunch of them, presented in a two-sentence review format. The first sentence is a summary of the characters and plot, and the second is my opinion of the film. I mainly write this as a film diary, but please ask if you’re interested in any of them.

Howl’s Moving Castle (original title: Hauru no ugoku shiro) (Hayao Miyazaki, 2004). A young girl is cursed to get the body of an old woman, and must seek the help of a wizard in a moving castle to break the spell. It’s Another Miyazaki a film with cute creatures, a ton of stuff happening and a plot that’s more linear than a ruler.

Audition (original title: Ôdishon) (Takashi Miike, 1999). A middle-aged man seeks a new wife, but a friend’s suggestion that he should arrange an audition for one attracts a really scary applicant. The main strength of the film, that I’m about to spoil, is that it starts out as a romantic comedy and ends up with torture and horror, which makes the horror much more revolting.

Toolbox Murders (Tobe Hooper, 2004). A young couple moves to a building that’s haunted by a serial-killer, and the woman has to fight to survive. A remake that follows the Friday the 13th formula of killing of characters one by one, that is enjoyable if you like that kind of films.

Resurrection of the Little Match Girl (original title: Sungnyangpali sonyeoui jaerim (Sun-Woo Jang, 2002). A modern Korean version of the H.C. Andersen tale of the matchstick girl with a computer game that blends with reality. I was pretty drunk when I watched this, but it’s a nice real-life anime with some interesting ideas.

The Last Castle (Rod Lurie, 2001). Robert Redford, a decorated military, is sent to prison and stages a revolt against an oppressing prison chief. An ok action movie without any real surprises.

The Manson Family (Jim Van Bebber, 2003). A present-day documentary team tries to figure out what made the Mansons do what they did, and is attacked by their modern spiritual ancestors. It’s an ok film, but the present-day Mansons are unnecessary and the film should’ve focused entirely on the sixties.

Gacy (Clive Saunders, 2003). Serial-killer John Wayne Gacy, the original killer clown, picks up boys and buries them under his house. A disturbing film, more so if you know that his neighbours actually did smell something from under his house but didn’t alert the police.

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (Brad Silberling, 2004). Based on a series of books I haven’t read, this is the story of three children and their fight against an evil foster-father who’s trying to kill them. Fascinating characters, a great performance by Jim Carrey and the best animated credit sequence I’ve seen in a very long time.

Festen (English title: The Celebration) (Thomas Vinterberg (uncredited), 1998). A man takes the opportunity on a family reunion to reveal a dark family secret. A very, very good film that would make a great LARP if someone would like to produce it.

May (Lucky McKee, 2002). May is a socially inept woman who decides to build a friend from body parts. Together they give you a creepy movie that’s a very nice example of post-modern magic.

Birth (Jonathan Glazer, 2004). A ten-year old boy claims to be a woman’s reincarnated husband. The problem with this movie, as with most ghost stories, is that the boy’s way of communicating his dilemma is so absurd that it’s not very believable.

For a Few Dollars More (original title: Per qualche dollaro in più) (Sergio Leone, 1965). A bounty hunter gangs up with another one to hunt a notorious criminal, with one of them infiltrating the gang of outlaws. A prime example of Leone’s spaghetti westerns, complete with acting by Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef and music by Ennio Morricone.

Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993). A cynical news anchor travels to a small town to cover the Groundhog Day, but is caught in a time loop and has to relive the same day. Bill Murray is great, and this is one of the best time travel films of all time.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Garth Jennings, 2005). Arthur Dent is saved from being destroyed when Earth is, and is dragged along an adventure throughout the galaxy. I was pleasantly surprised, but I didn’t expect much either.

8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963). The film takes us on a journey through reality and fantasy in the life of a film director. Very confusing, but it’s obvious that it’s supposed to be.

Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944). An insurance man falls in love with a woman who wants to kill her husband, and he decides to help her set up an insurance scam. This is one of the best noir films out there, using the tropes before they turned cliché, so if you’re the least interested in the genre this is a must.

Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan, 2005). The story of a young boy who gets his parents killed decides to put on a bat costume and fight crime. I really liked the down-to-earth realistic take on superheroes, but they could’ve spent less time in training-flashback mode and should’ve introduced more wacky supervillains.

Jungfrukällan (English title: The Virgin Spring) (Ingmar Bergman, 1960). In 14th century Sweden, a young maid is murdered and raped on her way to the church and afterwards the perpetrators seek shelter at her parents’ house. This is currently on my Benny & Joon (Jeremiah S. Chechik, 1993). Benny and Joon are both “weird” people, misunderstood by others, that find each other and fall in love. I really liked the fact that there was no easy way for them to be together; when everything was going to be ok you find out that Joon’s overprotective big brother has a good reason for acting that way.

Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954). A man hires another man for the perfect murder: to kill his unfaithful wife. A very cool application of the kind of film where you first get the action spelled out, then the characters perform it and then one tiny detail ruins the whole planning.

North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959). A man is mistaken for a spy and is chased across the USA. A real classic; the Mount Rushmore scene is really cool and the attacking airplane is hilarious if you’ve seen Vincent Gallo’s re-enactment in Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock, 1945). A man who has lost his memory impersonates a famous psychologist, but falls in love with a colleague who decides to help him. This film is kind of silly, especially the popular psychology that the audience is expected to believe.

Lady in the Lake (Robert Montgomery, 1945). Raymond Chandler’s private detective Marlowe tries to figure out who has killed a woman, with everyone having a motive. This is filmed entirely from a first-person perspective; who would’ve thought that they’d do that in a film from the forties?

Touch of Evil (Orson Welles, 1958). A police chief who runs his border town like his personal kingdom is confronted by an idealistic man, responds by kidnapping the man’s wife and end up being betrayed by his own men. Another noir classic; totally dark and disturbing, but very special.

Love Actually (Richard Curtis, 2003). A bunch of love stories in contemporary London, with Hugh Grant. Unfortunately Hugh Grant is in it, but otherwise the film’s generally quite nice, especially the story about the guy who’s in love with his best friend’s girlfriend.

Fantastic Four (Tim Story, 2005). Five people are on a space station that gets bombarded by radiation, turn into four superheroes and a villain and fight some. I was admittedly a bit drunk at the moment, but it felt like a bunch of unrelated scenes put together, and I really like the comic.

The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949). An American man reaches Vienna to meet his old friend, who has recently died under suspicious circumstances. Orson Welles is in this one, but we have to wait to meet his character, which is a great way to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

The Eye 2 (original title: Jian gui 2) (Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang, 2004). A young pregnant woman starts to see dead people, and realizes that her unborn child is in danger. This is strangely enough not at all related to The Eye, but still a nice horror movie with a great idea of why childbirth could be interesting to ghosts.

Maria Full of Grace (Joshua Marston, 2004). To escape Colombian working conditions, her demanding family and create a future for herself and the child she’s pregnant with, Maria smuggles swallowed heroin containers. It was nice that the main character wasn’t turned into a saint or a martyr, but a human that did both good and bad things.

What Dreams May Come (Vincent Ward, 1998). A children’s doctor dies and has to fetch his wife and kid from hell and bring them to the family’s personal paradise. The main part is perfect for Robin Williams, and luckily he’s the main actor in this movie.

One Missed Call (original title: Chakushin ari) (Takashi Miike, 2003). Japanese teenagers start receiving voice messages from the future, from their own violent deaths. A fairly good Japanese horror, but it didn’t leave a very lasting impression.

The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett, 1946). A drifter starts working at a countryside hamburger place, falls in love with the owner’s wife and together they try to kill him to get his insurance money. A noir film with a very obvious femme fatale, especially interesting since she’s not only glamorous, but also down-to-earth and practical.

Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945). A dissatisfied cashier and hobby painter meets a girl that tricks him into a messy situation. I really like the actor The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946). The private detective Malowe is hired to clear a rich guy’s daughter’s name from involvement in a murder. Another Chandler story, this time with Humphrey Bogart as Marlowe.

Tokyo Godfathers (Satoshi Kon, 2003). Three homeless people in Tokyo with their own stories of how they ended up on the street find an abandoned baby and try to find the mother. This was really good, and managed to mix seriousness and silliness to produce a touching story of the characters’ situation.

Riget (English title: The Kingdom) (Morten Arnfred and Lars von Trier, 1994). In a hospital ghost awaken and haunt the patients, while the doctors are locked in power struggles and scheming. This Danish miniseries is a must, all the characters are great and I especially enjoy the acting of Ernst-Hugo Järegård and that von Trier made screaming “Danish scum” his character’s trademark.

Land of the Dead (George A. Romero, 2005). The zombie catastrophe is a fact and people try to survive hidden in a sealed-off city, but the zombies will find a way to get in. The movie was so-so, I really like zombies, but there was a lot of pointless stuff you’ve already seen too many times before.

Riget II (English title: The Kingdom II) (Morten Arnfred and Lars von Trier, 1997). The second season of the series starts where the first one ended, but unfortunately ends with a whole lot of cliffhangers with no real answers. If you’ve seen Riket you have to see this, and can look forward to seeing Ernst-Hugo’s character look for “floaters” and “sinkers” when he visits the toilet.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton, 2005). The young Charlie wins a ticket to a guided tour of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory and has to watch a billion Oompa-Loompas dance and sing. I liked the cloned Oompa-Loompa, but I thought the end of the film dragged a bit.

A Tale of Two Sisters (original title: Janghwa, Hongryeon) (Ji-woon Kim, 2003). Two sisters go to live with their father and their evil stepmother, but soon reality and fantasy are blurred and you don’t even know which of the characters really exist. A very nice psychological thriller that starts with cheap horror scare-tactics, but turns darker, more disturbing and more complex story-wise towards the end.

Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1943). An old newspaper mogul dies with the last word “Rosebud,” and a reporter tries to uncover what it means. This film is a monument over the state of cinema when it was made, but is also, with its use of camera techniques, plot twists and the ambiguous ending, something that can still be relevant today.

The Happiness of the Katakuris (orginal title: Katakuri-ke no kôfuku (Takashi Miike, 2001). The story of a family who runs a guest house, but has the bad luck of several customers dying and has to get rid of the bodies. This is a horror-musical-comedy, and parts of the plot are told through the characters singing it.

Frenzy (Alfred Hitchcock, 1972). A serial-killer who strangles woman with his tie is loose, and the main character is innocently accused. It was fun to watch a late Hitchcock, and I feel that the disturbing subject matter was just his way of continuing to shock audiences the same way he had done in his black-and-whites.

Onibaba (Kaneto Shindô, 1964). It’s fourteen century Japan and a civil war forces an old woman and her daughter-in-law to attack wounded samurai who has strayed from the battles and steal their valuables. This is a very nice film that starts out as a realistic piece of desperation and forbidden love, but takes a turn into the supernatural.

Battlestar Galactica, season 1 (TV-series, 2004-2005). Human-created robots called Cylons revolt and humanity has to flee through hyperspace with the ships they have left, defended by the military vessel Galactica and her fighter pilots. So far I’ve seen season 1, and very much like the moral dilemmas posed and the situations people have to face.

House of Flying Daggers (original title: Shi mian mai fu) (Yimou Zhang, 2004). Two men of justice decide to expose a hidden group of rebel assassins with one of them going undercover, but he falls in love with one of the members. Very beautiful, but too melodramatic and too many almost-dead-but-can-deliver-his/her-last-words scenes.

Bring It On (Peyton Reed, 2000). Two rival cheerleader groups compete to find out who’s the best. A couple of funny moments, but overall just something to watch if there’s nothing else on.

The Sky-Colored Seed (original title: Sora Iro no Tane) (Hayao Miyazaki, 1992). A boy trades his toy plane with a fox for a seed, but when it grows into a house the fox wants it back. An incredibly funny 90-second short with the best greedy fox in history.

A new bunch of movies seen. Don’t worry if you’re here to read about friform, my comments will be brief.

Helena and I have two types of films we try to watch all of: Hitchcocks and serial killer movies. I forgot to write about Ted Bundy (Matthew Bright, 2002) when we watched it. It’s a creepy movie about one of the more interesting American serial killers, mainly because of his outward appearance of success in life. Bundy was politically active and a good student of psychology and later law, but with an interest in abducting twenty-year old girls with long dark hair parted in the middle. From what I know the movie is accurate in its description of the events, and I recommend it.

Så som i himmelen (English title: As in Heaven (Kay Pollak, 2004) is a Swedish film about a successful orchestra conductor (Michael Nyqvist) who returns to his old home town in the north of Sweden. It’s an ok film, but is unfortunately full of clichéd characters and events.

In Million Dollar Baby (Clint Eastwood, 2004) Clint Eastwood plays an old boxing manager who takes on training a woman boxer. It’s a good film with great performances from Hilary Swank and Eastwood. I liked the fact that the boxing scenes didn’t turn into Rocky-like things with the fake drama of whether she would beat the opponents or not. The boxing wasn’t the focus, the characters and their interactions were.

In the Mood for Love (original title: Fa yeung nin wa) (Kar Wai Wong, 2000) is a Hong Kong love story of two people of are betrayed by their spouses and find each other. Beautiful and mesmerizing, with a great recurring song accompanied by slow-motion scenes of the two main characters. Recommended.

I had to watch Nightbreed (Clive Barker, 1990) because I’ve just read a Swedish Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Kerry Conran, 2004) delivers what one might expect from the movie. A kind of fun pulp adventure of a flying ace fighting an evil nazi and his robot soldiers, but not that memorable.

Scanners (David Cronenberg, 1981) is Cronenberg’s cult classic. The story is centred on a scanner, a psionic capable of projecting and read thoughts as well as hurt people by the power of his mind. He gets drawn into a fight between two competing organisations and has to choose side.

The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003) is the story of a young American man living with a French brother and sister in Paris 1968. The siblings’ relationship is a bit closer than normal, and the three get involved in a love triangle that can’t end well.

The War of the Worlds (Byron Haskin, 1953) is a movie you should see if you’re either a fan of 50s sci-fi movies or want to see both the new and the old version. It’s a movie full of silly and one-dimensional characters, but it’s always fun to see the scientist-as-hero character that’s both intelligent and resourceful.

Don’t watch Godsend (Nick Hamm, 2004), it’s that easy. It’s a movie about a couple who lose a child and get an identical clone with the help of Dr. Richard Wells (Robert De Niro). I wasn’t very surprised to see De Niro in this sucky movie, since he’s made some bad choices in movies lately, but apperantly he was less than thrilled himself. He was supposed to do a couple of brief scenes, but was convinced to shoot some more, only to see his name all over the movie poster. This movie is so clichéd it’s not funny.

Saw (James Wan, 2004) is a horror thriller with a very simple, but effective setup. Two men regain consciousness, with no memories of why they’re there, in a room chained to separate walls. They find a tape player with tapes with their names on, and are briefed of their situation. They also find a saw which is too weak to cut through the chains but not their legs. I liked the movie, and it kept the tension up until the end.

The Door in the Floor (Tod Williams, 2004) is another movie about a couple who have lost children. The writer Ted Cole (Jeff Bridges) hires a young assistant for his wife Marion Cole (Kim Basinger) to use to get over the loss. A good film, with strong acting and perfect pacing.

In Rumble Fish (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983) was one of these movies that you’ve heard about, but didn’t know what to expect. Rusty James (Matt Dillon) is the leader of a small gang, which he leads in violent clashes with rivals. Suddenly his older brother The Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke) arrives, a strange and thoughtful guy with apparent problems to stay focused on reality. The two brothers spend time together with a lot of discussions on freedom and family.

So what do I like about it? The Tape (Richard Linklater, 2001) Vince (Ethan Hawke) and Jon Salter (Robert Sean Leonard) are two friends having a reunion. Salter is an upcoming independent filmmaker and Vince’s a drug-dealing drunkard with a childish attitude. Oh, I do want to summarize the plot, but I think that would spoil the film. Suffice to say, they spend the whole film in the same motel room discussing something bad that happened at high school involving a girl.

The acting is brilliant and the dialogue naturally flows from one thing to the next. Hawke’s character is very annoying, which is good since that’s the point of the character. The quick hand camera makes it feel like your present in the room and part of the conversation, not like you’re watching it from the outside. Sometimes it does feel like it’s too much, like there are weird camera placements for the sake of it. Interestingly enough Linklater doesn’t care at all about the 180-degree rule which says that you should draw a straight line through the scene and keep the camera to one side of it at all time. This is almost always the case when filming dialogue, if you think about it the next time you watch a film. You always watch the participants from behind one side, and if you’re looking over the right shoulder of one person you look over the left of the other. Anyway, Linklater doesn’t care and the camera jumps around all around the person talking. I suppose it’s because the risk of the audience getting lost in a small motel room with two people in it is quite small.

I re-watched White Noise (Geoffrey Sax, 2005) is the story of Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton), whose wife dies a violent death. Rivers is approached by a man who claims to have been contacted by the wife after she died through the black-and-white static of a tv-screen. Ghosts can, in the world of the movie, contact the living through manipulating tv-static and from that noise between radio stations.

The movie starts promising but the ending is really confusing. The screen was very dark, making it hard to see what was happening, and the bad guy and his motive was not explained clearly enough. I would like to have known earlier what was going on, instead of having someone explain it at the end.

Fucking Åmål (English title: Show Me Love) (Lukas Moodysson, 1998), but I disagree with that statement. Where Fucking Åmål made fun of stereotypes Fjorton suger tries to be too serious for its own good. It tries to make the audience recognize the way people talk and what they do, but the spark is missing and it falls flat. The directors were by the way the people behind the music video “Hej Monika”, last year’s summer torture.

I’ve seen The Gift (Sam Raimi, 2000) the psychic Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett) gets visions about a murder and approaches the police. They don’t believe her, but the husband of the victim does, and they start searching for the person guilty.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this movie. The acting is great, both from Blanchett and Keanu Reaves as an abusive redneck, and the story is engaging. You really do feel for the main character and her struggles, and you want to know what is going to happen next. I think what elevated the movie from good to great was that it’s not over-the-top in any fashion, which makes it more believable. It’s a murder mystery with lots of suspects with motives, but Raimi manages to shift the blame around without being obvious. I recommend it.

Donnie Darko (Director’s Cut) (Richard Kelly, 2001) is my number-one film, and something a really want everyone to see. It’s about a schizophrenic young man who is told by a scary giant bunny that the world is coming to an end. The problem is that a lot of things have to happen in order for everything to turn out ok, as it turns out the bunny is a time traveller trying to help Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) handle things.

Everything is good about this film. The acting is great, the dialogue, not to mention the soundtrack which I’ve listened to countless times. The Director’s Cut adds a lot of information needed to understand the time travelling aspect and the paradoxes of the film, and I can’t see why it wasn’t included in the original. If you’ve seen Donnie Darko and are confused, drop a comment so we can discuss it.

Dead Like Me (2003). As expected the series didn’t really end, as I suppose they hoped to continue shooting. The mythology of the land of the dead wasn’t explored as much as I’d hoped, but one thing I did like was the thematic episodes. When I started noticing the fact that they had a theme in each episode, it was usually quite easy to spot. They could have “loneliness” in one episode for example, where both the characters and the things happening reflected loneliness of some kind. Another episode was devoted to “waiting”, where people waited or cut past queues as a way of exploring the theme. That I liked. The most interesting character was probably the younger sister Reggie Lass (Britt McKillip), perhaps because she was the one who evolved and transformed the most during the two seasons.

I’ve had an internal dialogue a couple of times, where I discussed whether I should write Swedish or English. Since my friends keep blogging in English, I have to as well. I think I’ll redo the whole page; it’ll only take me a minute.

Since the last update I’ve watched seven films and one series. I’ll list them in the order latest watched last.

Shaun of the Dead (2004) is a zombie movie successfully making fun of the genre. You have the constant feeling that every living character you see will come back as a walking corpse later on. It’s the kind of movie that doesn’t show anything unnecessary, everything is used as a source of comedy or feeling of recognition. Even Helena liked it, even though she’s less than thrilled with zombie movies in general.

The Machinist (original title: El Maquinista) (2004) is a disturbing tale of a factory worker who loses his grip on reality. It’s a dark film reminiscent of the Swedish roleplaying game Kult. I didn’t recognize the lead actor at all, and only later found out that it’s Christian Bale from American Psycho and Equilibrium. I liked the film, and it is well worth seeing.

The Grudge (2004) is an American remake of the Japanese original, with Sarah Michelle Gellar. I can’t really recommend this. Sure parts of it were suspenseful, but they ruined it by cutting the scenes a couple of seconds to late. When you see the computer-generated monster it’s not as frightening as if you don’t.

Resident Evil 2: Apocalypse (2004) is based on a series of computer games I haven’t played, so I can’t really judge the movie from that perspective. I can only tell whether it’s a good or a bad movie on its own, and sadly it’s the latter. I suppose I could play this as a computer game, but it really gets tedious after a while to watch people shooting, kicking and punching each other without a semblance of story. The first movie was ok, but this one really sucks.

Watching The Storyteller (1987) was a journey back through time. The TV-series was called “Sagor för stora barn” (”Stories for older kids”) in Sweden, and for a good reason. The stories are usually cruel and I can see why they would scare a child. At least I know that I have some scary memories from watching it when I was young. The creatures are remarkably well-made, not that surprising perhaps since Jim Henson is responsible for them.

Hitchcock used to say that Shadow of a Doubt (1943) was his best film, and he could be right. Everything about it is well done: there characters are interesting, the suspense is ever present and even the ending is ok. Hitchcock is sometimes mocked for his inability to make an ending to match the high quality of the rest of the films, and even this ending is far from perfect. One thing that is masterfully orchestrated is the flow of information. The audience is usually one step ahead of the characters, which makes it almost painful to watch them walk into different kinds of traps. If you’re into Hitchcock this one’s a must.

The first time I heard of Cassavetes was in the song by Le Tigre called “What’s Yr Take on Cassavetes”. The refrain is basically a repeated “Misogynist? Genius?”, so I half expected A Woman Under the Influence (1974) to have an interesting take on women. I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a story of a working man, his part-alcoholic part-insane wife and their three kids. The realistic presentation of the film makes some scenes disturbing, especially the scenes involving domestic violence or the inability of the parents to take care of the kids. It’s a good, but definitely not feel-good, film that I can really recommend.

Sin City (2005) is an adaptation, or a “translation” according to the director Robert Rodriguez, of Frank Miller’s comic. The thing is that Rodriguez used the comic book as the storyboard when planning the shots, so it’s very close to the comic. Even the lines are taken from the book, and the computer-generated backgrounds make it really look like the actors have stepped into a comic. I can recommend this film to anyone who’s not affected to much by violence, because violence is plenty.

De senaste två månaderna har det blivit lite färre filmer än vanligt, men några har jag hunnit med.

Garden State (2004) är en sån där “mysig” film som det är svårt att tycka illa om, men samtidigt lika svårt att säga något riktigt gott om. Jag ska erkänna, jag gillar Zach Braff från “Scrubs” och i Garden State beter han sig som en något nerdrogad version av sin karaktär där. Jag kände mig såklart lite påhoppad när en kille i filmen blir påhoppad för att kunna prata klingon, men annars var det en rolig film.

Dreamcatcher (2003) handlar om ett gäng grabbar som träffas för att semestra i en stuga långt från civilisationen. Man förstår att alla är speciella, och att de upplevde något speciellt tillsammans när de växte upp. Jag vill inte spoila filmen, men kan säga att den har att göra med övernaturliga varelser/monster/aliens och om man gillar sådana är den klart sevärd.

I rosens namn (originaltitel: Der Name der Rose) (1986) är mycket bra, och den allra bästa deckarhistoria jag sett på film. Jag har sett den tidigare, men bestämde mig för att se om den. Sean Connery är bra som kontroversiell munk och Christian Slater gör ett bra jobb som sidekick. Hela filmen igenom kan man inte göra annat än att fundera på hur gärna man skulle vilja uppleva handlingen i ett rollspel.

För att följa upp en Connery-film med en annan såg jag Dragonheart (1996). Det är en i grunden intressant historia om riddare och drakar, men den är alldeles för barnslig och inriktad mot en yngre publik för att vara riktigt bra. Det är inte så roligt att se folk trilla i gyttja, men om man bortser från de delarna kan filmen väcka en del idéer om drakar.

Jag har inte läst Harry Potter-böckerna, men kollar på filmerna. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) är väl inte sådär lysande fantastisk. Det är en fin grundidé med en magiakademi, såklart, och Kenneth Branagh som Gilderoy och Alan Rickman som Professor Snape är såklart mycket roliga att se, men jag har svårt att säga att filmen är särskilt bra. Om man tycker att idén verkar bra ska man nog nöja sig med att läsa böckerna.

Helena fick för sig att börja kolla på Hitchcock och självklart hakade jag på. Först ut var Strangers on a Train (1951) som handlar om två män som vill bli av med varsin person. De träffas på ett tåg och en av dem får idén att de kan mörda varandras plågoandar, och ingen kommer att misstänka dem eftersom de saknar motiv. Filmen börjar bra, men slutar katastrofdåligt med en rad osannolika händelser staplade på varandra. Speciellt roligt är det när skurken på ett nöjesfält i slutet flyr mot en karusell med barn på, och polisen drar vapen och försöker skjuta honom. De missar och träffar istället karuselloperatören som i dödsögonblicket drar i overdrive-läget, varpå man bjuds på ett slagsmål mellan hjälten och skurken ombord på karusellen. Nja, okej, om man struntar i den biten så är filmen bra.

The Forgotten (2004) är väldigt lik ett något längre Arkiv X-avsnitt. Grundidén är att en kvinna upptäcker att folk runt omkring henne beter sig underligt, och behandlar henne som om hon vore galen då hon pratar om vissa saker. Av någon anledning har någon suddat ut folks minnen, medan huvudrollskvinnan behåller sina. Helt okej film, men ganska lamt och pluttinuttigt slut.

Dags för mer Hitchcock, den här gången Vertigo (1958). Precis som The Forgotten handlar Vertigo om minnesförlust, och om en mystisk kvinna som får black-outs och gör saker under tiden som hon inte minns. En man anställs av hennes man för att ta reda på vad hon gör, men folk är inte dem de utger sig för och historien krånglar till sig. Mycket bra film rakt igenom, och ett slut som jag faktiskt gillade.

Necronomicon (1994) var visst inte så bra. Den består av ett antal kortare filmer med Lovecraft-tema, men historierna är sällan tillräckligt spännande för att riktigt engagera. Filmen känns som en sån man kan råka se mitt i natten på nån obskyr kanal bara för att det inte finns något annat att titta på, men den är inte värd att anstränga sig för att få tag på. Eller ja, den första filmen var rätt underhållande, resten inte.

Split Second (1992); en film med Rutger Hauer från -92 kan inte bli fel. Hauer spelar en löjligt tuff polis som jagar en seriemördare, som snart visar sig vara icke-mänsklig. Kim Cattrall, den äldre blonda kvinnan i Sex and the City, spelar Hauers flickvän och beter sig som flickvänner ska göra i filmer som handlar om deras coole pojkvän. Hursom är det en sevärd film om man är ute efter underhållningsaction.

Den tredje Hitchcock-filmen är Notorious (1946). Ännu en gång en stabil historia, med både snygg story och snyggt foto. En berömd scen är en lång inzoomning från en övervåning ner på en nyckel som en person på en fest håller i handen, och med rätta. Grundhandlingen är att en amerikansk kvinna ska infiltrera nazister som gömmer sig i Sydamerika genom att gifta sig med en av dem. Filmen slutar mycket bra, mest för att Hitchcock klipper i tid och lämnar en att fundera över hur allt egentligen kommer att sluta. En film man bör ha sett.

Helenas och min alla-hjästans-dag-film blev Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). Jag visste inte vad jag skulle vänta mig, men lyckades ändå bli förvånad av filmen. Framför allt var det överraskande att ha med en manlig prostituerad och en kvinnlig borderline-prostituerad, eftersom jag trodde att äldre filmer var alldeles för pryda för sådant. Jag gillade filmen, även om historien var ganska intetsägande. Speciellt måste man gilla användandet av katten som comic relief.

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)… wow! Det här är en udda samling kortfilmer av Jim Jarmusch, där det enda de egentligen har gemensamt är att karaktärerna dricker kaffe och röker i dem. I varje kortfilm visas två till tre personer som för samtal och ofta gestaltar en viss typ av person som man ofta känner igen. Filmen kryllar av kändisar, Iggy Pop och Tom Waits i en scen, Steve Buscemi, Cate Blanchett och Bill Murray är alla med och flera av dem spelar “sig själva” (eller åtminstone någon version av sig själva). Mycket, mycket underhållande, även om det kanske krävs en viss typ av person för att uppskatta filmen trots det långsamma tempot.

Zombie Flesh-Eaters (originaltitel: Zombi 2) (1979) är en riktigt klassisk zombiefilm. Filmen börjar med att en båt driver in i New York och visar sig ha en zombie ombord. Dottern till båtens ägare ger sig tillsammans med en reporter av till den tropiska ö där hennes far senast sågs till, en ö som visar sig vara full av zombier. Ärligt talat, i en av scenerna får man se en zombie slåss mot en haj och om inte det ska räcka för att göra en bra film vet jag inte vad. I slutet får de överlevande veta att hela USA invaderats av zombier, något som regissören visst glömde bort när han gjorde uppföljaren till filmen. Jaja, det är detaljer, det viktiga är att man får se en massa svårstoppade zombier som vill äta människokött.