Cross my heart, hope to die

Essentially a useless sequel, but there were a few scenes that were entertaining enough. It's just too bad that lots of the jokes were sloppy and below the belt.

The barbarians are coming

I guess this was a thriller. Or a creepy drama. Anyways, exceptionally well-written thing with wonderfully built characters.

A samurai without a master

Muscled-up Hugh Jackman, geisha girls in spandex, yakusha, ninjas and one robot ninja to boot. That's about it. Pretty pathetic to come to think of it.

Idiots in power

A short read, but it took me months to finish. Don't know why, I just carried it around, but never really get around reading it properly. Not of his best works.

He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future

Not much new remains to be told of this fucker, but this was quite interesting especially because nearly all the footage was in colour.

A system build over time

The DVD has bits and pieces from his series. These are alright, some of them are downright amazing (the trick on the dog track for instance), but I prefer the long shows with preparations that must have taken months.

Great magic should sting

I have been following this guy for a number of years. This DVD has four episodes (experiments) that each and every one is a masterfully crafted mindfucking opera.

Storm of the Sea of Galilee

I guess there's a few dozen ways to interpret this jigsaw puzzle of a movie, but I can't be bothered. I don't particularly enjoy these fucks that try to be too clever and disappear in its own asshole. The ins and outs and flashbacks and confusing complexities (= plain plotholes) just got me angry and bored. Had it not been a Danny Boyle movie, I would have walked out, even from my own home.

Pestilential venom spreads

A documentary of Finnish Black Metal. Well, the trailer was very fucking good and got me intrigued. But like always, the best and most controversial and funniest parts were on the trailer already. As a full movie (in its 50 minutes), it was a huge disappointment, nothing but the everlasting this-and-that of Black Metal fuckadoo. As a matter of fact, the bonus documentary on the DVD "Noise Of Finland" was more eye-opening shit.

All stories should end in death

I'm constantly reading books. I have something like a hundred unfinished novels lying around in my apartment that I just pick up and continue where I left off. This one I took from a library and while at it, I didn't look at other novels, therefore I finished it. And that says a lot. Mr. Pelecanos, he has a good rhythm going on in his text. Not overly complicated story, but nice characters and cool things going.

Counterattack into the smoke

You run (or fly or drive or dive) in a tube and shoot everyone dead. It's fucken nice and all that, looks like a million bucks, yes, but these days I tend to appreciate the so called open world games a whole fucken more.

Like arrows thrown by hand

Aki Kaurismäki's most coherent and timeless piece to date. Classic deadpan comedy or drama of sorts.

Poached eggs and rubies

48 Hours with girl power. Right. Cut and dry terribly bad. There should be a law that forbids Sandra Bullock from acting. Particularly doin' comedies, she looks like a fish driving a bicycle.

The abundance of life

Werner Herzog's story of a Russian village of Bakhtia within the course of one year (and four distinctive seasons). The village is literally in the middle of nowhere, in taiga in the depths of Siberia where -33 degrees celsius is considered 'mild'. Anyways, it's a story of strong perseverance and the craftmanship of human beings. It's hard living out there, but you kind've envy these people, every day is about survival; hunting, picking berries, fishing, collecting food, living of the land, building shelter. Out there each man is his own man. And each man has a dog. What really impressed me were the final minutes of the movie where they show this dog running by its master 150 kilometres towards home on the frozen Yenisei River in the middle of the night.

The sound of clouds

I don't know where this went wrong. From the get-go probably.

Nothing but a trickster

A fairytale that perhaps is too scary for children and too childish for adults. Most certainly, too qualityless for everyone. Don't think any of these people as particularly good actors, so it was kind of shitty to begin with.

Now go get me my phenylacetic acid, asshole

In couple of weeks time I watched the series 1 to 4 of Breaking Bad. On the 5th now and it's been hellblazingly brilliant.

The world is full of evil

Shadow of a doubt turns into a hateful, borderline hysteric, manhunt in rural Denmark. Amazingly portrayed drama.

Big, freaky, lookin' bitch

Well, I'm almost troubled how ravenously I'm gulping down these episodes. There gotta be more in life. This was a very good season and like in many long-running series also Breaking Bad presents an episode that is quite an odd-man-out. In this case "Fly". Not a particularly brilliant episode, the standards in mind, but memorable nevertheless.

Grow a magic beanstalk

Wasn't much time-a-wastin' with the second season. I probably watched in a day or two.

Where's the rest of us?

 

These guys, they were close of doing a remarkable movie, interesting ideas and thoughs hovered around the campsite, but they didn't grasp and utilize their possibilities. Close but no cigar, as the saying goes.

No more half measures

Back then when this was fresh and new I started following the series. But as much as I liked it, never got it through. In this day of age of Netflix and DVD boxes and the internet, following a series with one-episode-a-week -pace is a fucken bore, that's the reason. Now the entire series available, I can go through it with bottomless ease. It's a marvel. It quite ain't there with the best of them (they aren't many), but it's dangerously close already with the first season.

The prince among the damned

I fucking hate these movies that leave questions unanswered. In fact, this one failed to explain any mysteries that it presented itself in the beginning. Had it even tried, I might be satisfied since at times it looked like a proper horror movie.

Already fucked five ways to Sunday

Elderly wiseguys doing it for the last time and it's fundamentally quite the same as Heist that was released not so long ago and that also starred Christopher Walken. This was better written and nicer in lot of ways.

2013

A quick Best Of round-up of the entertainment of 2013. These are not necessarily the new releases, but what I saw and witnessed this year (based on this blog, more or less).

MOVIES:

Evil Dead (2013)
Take Shelter
Full Metal Jacket
Killer Joe
Lemmy
The Wages of Fear
True Grit (Coen)
God Bless America
The Lost Weekend
Life of Pi
Jack Reacher
Falling Down
Cloud Atlas
Seven Psychopaths
Killing Them Softly (RIP James Gandolfini)
The Impossible
The Iceman
Oblivion
Bad News
West of Memphis
Zero Dark Thirty


THE MOST MEMORABLE MOVIE

Rubber
(runner-up: The Stranded)

TV SERIES:

Vikings
The Office (I don't know how many times I have watched this)
Extras
Luck (RIP Dennis Farina)
Boardwalk Empire
30 Rock
Long Way Round
Game of Thrones
Derren Brown Apocalypse
American Horror Story

BOOKS

Scar Tissue
Pengar Pengar Pengar by Anders Adali
Long Way Round
I am Zlatan 

GAMES

The Last of Us
Tomb Raider
Darkness II
Borderlands 2

A simple LED reading light for books

Everyone should see this. I mean, this is so bad, so amazingly bad that it's something else. Everything is beyond shit. I don't what it is. I felt like I was a lab rat while watching it, instead of stucking with a needle, someone watches how people react when they see something more horrible than ever before.

From the mountain tops of North Korea to the jungles of Zimbabwe

This one came from television the other day, so I stuck watching it. And like I probably said the last time, The Dictator, it has some awfully funny bits, best fucking laughs, but not enough to save the movie.

Exploit my savagery

I have never been much of a sci-fi fucker, but these couple of new Star Trek movies have been outstanding.

He is King of all the land

Ex-Metal Hammer editor Kirk Blows shares some of his backstage stories. There are some crazy anecdotes, but sometimes it needs a bit more than being drunk to cut it interesting.

Throwing caution to the wind

Caught this from Netflix. And it's not gone anywhere, it's still quite magically entertaining.