Monday, January 29, 2018

Skipping the sins

A father and son bonding weekened is on the verge of turning mildly interesting because there are toolbox thieves on the loose. A surprisingly strong cast (or what would have been a strong cast 10 years ago) of Clive Owen, Maria Bello, Robert Forster, Tim Blake Nelson and Matthew Modine in a hopelessly average movie. Desperate times I guess.

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Authenticity, optimism and a dog

In between hiding in bomb shelters in London during WWII people try to keep up with their regular jobs. Like a group of film makers working on a movie of what happened to twin sisters in Dunkerque. Quite a typical British drama, nothing is wrong as such, great actors, everything, but at the same time it's just so ordinarily bleak.

Conscience gets expensive

They keep on saying the season 3 is a scorcher, so I got to get this one away first. Not bad, a tad disappointing compared to the first season, too much - albeit funny - law firm shenanigans and dispute between two lawyer brothers. Thankfully Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) is a wonderful character, altho' his sidekick - in the loosely intertwining sidestory - Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) dazzles ever more.

Monday, January 22, 2018

You can't unfuck what's been fucked

On the brink of bringing down the Berlin Wall the secret agents of the world fight each other to fish out a list that uncovers the secret agents of the world. Pretty good as an action movie, nice fight scenes after another, lame Charlize Theron as the lead star and a overall bore otherwise as well.

No easy choices in war

Season 7 of the Game of Thrones. I reckon all is said more profoundly before of pro'bly the most anticipated and scrutinized TV show in history. I liked this season better than most of its predecessors, particularly because it no longer felt like The Bold and The Beautiful of fantasy fiction. To remind myself where we are at when the season 8 is due; families gather up to fight against the armiest of the dead of the north. Should be exciting fun.

Monday, January 08, 2018

Taking the heat off

Now retired Jorma Sairanen was a producer in several Finnish media companies. He lets us know that he knew everyone and how an important figure he was in the development of Finnish television. And reading between the lines it seems that Jorma Sairanen was (and still is) jealous that no one has ever heard of him. 

Wednesday, January 03, 2018

Some serious shits about to go down

A perfect example on how a movie with a decent cast can go wrong - terribly wrong - with a confusing script and aimless direction. Noomi Rapace, John Malkovich, Toni Collette, Orlando Bloom and Michael Douglas are all lost and out of reach of their given talents, they look like cheap emotionless mannequins. Some kind of terrorist threat is looming in the city of London and CIA and MI5 are making themselves look stupid.

Adventures calling beyond the faraway stars

A fairly quick read. There's the professional career of Marco Hietala, bass player and singer in bands like Nightwish, Tarot, Sinergy and Raskasta Joulua, and there's his personal life where he has had a fair deal of unease with depression and keeping relationships going. And as he's a Finnish musician, there's the issue of alcohol, the excessive use of it. Liked it how it didn't go into details too much, just an interesting cutback of his career.

Monday, January 01, 2018

Ain't no love because it ain't around

This has something to offer to the trendy genre of ultra violent movies. It's surprisingly funny, it's thrilling high octane action (i.e. some of the best car chase scenes I've ever seen) and it's delivered well (particularly Samuel L. Jackson is on his element). The title pretty much sums the story up, two hitmen are on the run from the police and Russian mafia, a buddy movie of sort.

2017

MOVIES

The Accountant (Gavin O'Connor)
Arrival (Denis Villeneuve)
Collateral (Michael Mann)
David Brent: Life on the Road (Ricky Gervais)
Desierto (Jonás Cuarón)
Don't Breathe (Fede Alvarez)
Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder)
Eput (Saku Pollari)
Get Out (Jordan Peele)
Graduation (Cristian Mungiu)
Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier)
Hell or High Water (David Mackenzie)
I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach)
It Comes At Night (Trey Edward Shults)
Järven Tarina (Ville Suhonen, Kim Saarniluoto)
Kelly's Heroes (Brian G. Hutton)
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (Guy Ritchie)
Kong: Skull Island (Jordan Vogt-Roberts)
The Magnificent Seven (Antoine Fuqua)
Mine (Fabio Guaglione, Fabio Resinaro)
Murder on the Orient Express (Sidney Lumet)
Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford)
One More Time with Feeling (Andrew Dominik)
Our Kind of Traitor (Susanna White)
A Perfect Day (Fernando León de Aranoa)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch)
Patriots Day (Peter Berg)
Perfect Strangers (Paolo Genovese)
Remember (Atom Egoyan)
Rope (Alfred Hitchcock)
Split (M. Night Shyamalan)
A Street Cat Named Bob (Roger Spottiswoode)
Sully (Clint Eastwood)
Toivon tuolla puolen (Aki Kaurismäki)
Wheelman (Jeremy Rush)
Ukonvaaja (Tuukka Tähti)
Yhden tähden hotelli (Ari Matikainen)

TV-SERIES

Better Call Saul
Fargo
Midnight Sun
Narcos
The Night Manager
The Night Of
Quarry
River
Taboo
Vikings

GAMES

Battlefield 1
Call of Duty WWII
Ghost Recon Wildlands

R.I.P.

Iiris (my darling girl) born 2006
Martin E. Ain (bass player, Celtic Frost) born 1967 (age 50)
Gregg Allman (musician, The Allman Brothers) born 1947 (age 69)
John G. Avildsen (director, Rocky) born 1935 (age 81)
Chester Bennington - (vocalist, Linkin Park) born 1976 (age 41)
Chuck Berry (musician) born 1926 (age 90)
Powers Boothe (actor, Deadwood, Southern Comfort) born 1948 (age 68)
Brent Briscoe (actor, A Simple Plan, Green Mile) born 1961 (age 56)
Keith Chegwin (actor, Extras, Shaun Of The Dead) born 1957 (age 60)
Tony Cohen (music producer, The Cruel Sea) born 1957 (age 60)
Fred Cole (musician, Dead Moon) born 1948 (age 69)
Chris Cornell (musician, Soundgarden) born 1984 (age 52)
Robert Dahlqvist (musician, The Hellacopters, Thunder Express) born 1976 (age 41)
Jonathan Demme (director, The Silence Of The Lambs) born 1944 (age 73)
Colin Dexter (author, Inspector Morse) born 1930 (age 86)
Nelsan Ellis (actor, True Blood) born 1978 (39 years)
Miguel Ferrer (actor, Twin Peaks, Robocop, The Stand) born 1955 (age 62)
Börje Forsberg (music producer, Bathory) born 1944 (age 73)
Glenne Headly (actress, ER, The Night Of) born 1955 (age 62)
John Heard (actor, The Sopranos, Awakenings) born 1945 (age 72)
Hugh Hefner (playboy) born 1926 (age 91)
Tobe Hooper (director, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) born 1943 (age 74)
John Hurt (actor, Alien, The Elephant Man, Midnight Express) born 1940 (age 77)
Leena Kaskela (news anchor) born 1939 (age 77)
Gorden Kaye (actor, 'Allo 'Allo!) born 1941 (age 76)
Helmut Kohl (Chancellor of Germany) born 1930 (age 87)
Mauno Koivisto (president) born 1923 (age 93)
Jake LaMotta (boxer) born 1921 (age 96)
Martin Landau (actor, Ed Wood, North By Northwest) born 1928  (age 89)
Sonny Landham (actor, Predator) born 1941 (age 76)
Jerry Lewis (actor, The King of Comedy) born 1926 (age 91)
Gabriel 'Negru' Mafa (musician, Negura Bunget) born 1975 (age 42)
Antti Majanlahti (actor, Häräntappoase) born 1966 (age 50)
Donald Malarkey (war hero, Easy Company) born 1921 (age 96)
Charles Manson (cult leader) born 1934 (age 83)
Roger Moore (actor, James Bond) born 1927 (age 89)
Pekka Myllykoski (musician, Freud Marx Engels & Jung) born 1959 (age 57)
Manuel Noriega (dictator, Panama) born 1934 (age 83)
Jan-Peter Nybom (friend) born 1975 (age 42)
Michael Nyqvist (actor, Män some hatar kvinnor) born 1960 (age 56)Bill Paxton (actor, Frailty, Tombstone, A Simple Plan)  born 1955 (age 6
Tom Petty (musician) born 1950 (age 66)
Kyösti Pietiläinen (soldier) born 1945 (age 71)
Don Rickles (actor, Casino, Kelly's Heroes) born 1926 (age 90)
George A. Romero (director, Night Of The Living Dead, Dawn Of The Dead) born 1940 (age 77)
Sam Shepard (actor, playwright, Black Hawk Down, The Pledge) born 1943 (age 73)
Harry Dean Stanton (actor, Wild At Hart, Repo Man) born 1926 (age 91)
Tony "It" Särkkä (musician, Abruptum, Ophthalamia, Vondur, War) born 1972 (age 45)
Cheick Tioté (footballer, Newcastle United) born 1986 (age 30)
Mika Vainio (musician, Pan Sonic) born 1963 (age 54)
Frank Vincent (actor, The Sopranos) born 1937 (age 80)
Adam West (Batman) born 1928 (age 88)
Malcolm Young (musician, AC/DC) born 1953 (64 years)

Infected with humanity

Season # 1 of Chris Sheridan 's Resident Alien . Just about the funniest shit in the neighborhood right now. Alan Tyduk (best known fro...