DeNo-5 Reviews

The New World (2005)

Beautiful but too long

[3/10 · 20 February 2007]

This movie is poetry. It is very beautiful in its images and more is shown than told. There is hardly any dialog (at least from the main characters) but some voice overs. But the story is slow. The first half is too long. It can't stay alive on beautiful images alone.

The focus should have been more on Pocahontas and less on Smith, as he more or less departs from the story later on. This is Pocahonta's story.

Then it is a pleasure to see a movie with this theme that does not end in a pessimistic bloodbath as most movies in this genre do. There is a fight, yes, and the natives are mistreated towards the end, but both sides show good and bad features, and definitely good intentions. There is not "an ugly bad guy".

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

Not possible to make it SO bad, but it is

[3/10 · 7 February 2007]

I liked the first Pirates a lot. A follow-up is rarely as good as the first, but this one had at least the same actors, the same scriptwriters and so on. It could not be that bad, I thought. But it was.

In the first movie there is our normal world (historical, but yet our normal world) with one unnatural thing implanted. The set-up for this was good, everything was fine.

In this there are too much of the unnatural. The world is still supposed to be our normal world, but it is suddenly far from it.

There are new characters popping up all the time, new explanations for new strange things. And there is so many references to the first movie that I hardly think that anyone that has not seen the first one will get half the jokes.

And be prepared for an angry moment when the movie ends.

Million Dollar Baby (2004)

What did this story want to tell?

[3/10 · 20 August 2006]

I did not get it. Frankie has lost fighters because he never let them fight for titles. And when he finally does, it goes to H***. What did that tell him and us? Never fight for titles?

He has a daughter but that story never leads anywhere. The mails are returned to sender all through the movie.

He goes to church and see a priest that is unwise and unkind and that does not develop either.

Until we meet Maggies mother I thought that Frankie was her father, why else would she stick to him?

And then Maggie breaks her neck and is paralyzed. That does not lead anywhere either. And again, what was that supposed to tell us? That fame has its price?

The only thing interesting in this movie is Maggies relation with her mother.

Renegade (2004)

Nothing left of the Comicbook-Blueberry

[1/10 · 12 December 2005]

I love the comic book's Mike Blueberry and was very interested to see the story as a movie. The movie contains a character named Mike and a few other characters with familiar names and a few events from the comic books, but the story is completely new, as for every character's situation and behavior.

The story was vague and unclear. Much happened that did not push the story forwards, the scenes were long and did not lead anywhere. There were many characters that only filled the screen and did not have a purpose. It was overall a movie very far from the American way to do it and it left me only very disappointed and confused.

The photo was interesting sometimes.

Ocean's Twelve (2004)

Is this movie made by pros?

[1/10 · 31 October 2005]

I liked Ocean's Eleven. This sequel was horrible. Why? Because it broke every rule possible about how a movie is done. And the result was not artistic, provocative or special. The result was only a bad amateur movie.

Many things were told instead of shown. New characters popped up all the way through to the very last minutes. Things were said and done that was not given a reason or followed up (eg Yen in the bag and why Pitt's character didn't want to talk about why Robert's character looked alike Julia Roberts). The rules was changed all the way through too. The camera movements made me seasick.

The concept was so great and could have been a great movie. And with so many pros it could have been done too.

The only good things about this movie was that George Clooney and Brad Pitt are good looking and that does not keep any movie staying with the nose over the water.

Return to Paradise (1998)

Bad balance

[4/10 · 21 July 2002]

The contents is interesting, but I feel that the balance in the movie is wrong. It is quite obvious that they will return from the beginning (otherwise there would be no movie, and it is "the right thing to do"), but we have to follow this for more than an hour. Quite boring.

What happens in the rest of the movie is much more interesting but is hurried through with great speed and then the show is over.

Planet of the Apes (2001)

No surprises at all

[2/10 · 9 December 2001]

I could guess the story from start to end after five minutes. Everything bad that we human have done to animals and fellow humans should now fall back on ourself. That was it. Not even the end was any great surprise. Boring.

Gun Shy (2000)

I had a lot of fun

[8/10 · 19 August 2001]

The movie has a crazy touch. The cutting may sometimes be a little confusing, but it serves the purpose. I did not know what to expect when I started looking. Was this a dark, depressing thing or a comedy? It was something of both. It was very fun, but still it had a serious and solid base. Why is a bad guy bad? Can the tough guy never get a nervous breakdown?

The Thin Red Line (1998)

No. No. No.

[2/10 · 15 March 2000]

Yet another American war movie. And Americans are the great heros as usual.

The only thing I liked about this movie was the great photo. The story was a mess. What happened? How did it go? Start in the middle of a story and ends just a few steps away from that. The characters was a mess. Men in uniforms, helmets, and dirty to that looks kind of alike. Sounds silly, but they are. I had a good job, just to keep them apart.

The movie just floated around. Every character has to have a specific need to move the story forward. You can read that in any script-writing-book. These characters needs were nothing that the viewer took part of. No, I found this movie quite hopeless and boring.