The temple of everlasting black night

A documentary of ordinary Finnish people. Singing karaoke is these people's means of surviving the pain, the misery and the short span of human life engulfed in everydayness. Reminds me a lot of Joonas Berghäll's excellent Miesten vuoro (2010).

Death came calling

If someone is deserved to be eaten by a giant lion, it's these folks right here. In fact, you'd root for the lion if the poor thing wasn't such an imbecile himself. Beast by Baltasar Kormákur is very bad.

Don't be an idiot out loud

Santa Claus is real. He's doing his things. Dropping off presents in the middle of the night. He's also alcoholic. He drops down the chimney of the most private residence in the country and lands in the middle of a burglary. A violent Christmas movie, sort of a comedy version of Die Hard, but a disappointing execution.

Those who want respect, give respect

They were killing off the main characters in the first season already, but it sort of skyrocketed in the season two. After twenty years, The Sopranos is still the best show on television.

Standing together with angels and ghosts

Set in 1920s Hollywood. Babylon is movie about movie making which at the same time celebrates the life of cinema and ridicules its depravity. It's so much full of energy and unbridled chaos that you fear it may blow out of proportions any second. And considering the runtime, you are truly nailed to your seat. A cool fun thing.

Some things are older than science

They're building a bypass over a sacred ground in Six Mile Hill, Ireland. The contractors are in for a nightmarish adventure when they awake a beast from the underworld. Nothing much, but a fun little vampire indie.

Viper of the living dead

Bruce Willis is The Lobe, some kind of leader inside the world's most dangerous maximum security penitentiary for all sort of freaks and mutants with superpowers. And Michael Rooker is Waltor Devlin, the prison warden who likes to be called 'The Overseer'. Right. It's all particularly crazy. And fucking dumb.

Hall of starlight and stone

The novel A Man Called Ove (2012) by Fredrik Backman was great. Hannes Holm's film (2015) was a brilliant adaptation. And Marc Forster's A Man Called Otto (2022) follows suit. Otto Anderson (Tom Hanks), a 63-year-old widower in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is preparing a suicide after retiring from his job at a steel company. But something turns his world around. An emotionally rewarding piece.

If you're lucky, you'll remember the little moments

Season # 1 of The Sopranos. I'm currently reading Michael Imperioli's and Steve Schirripa's (with Philip Lerman) book Woke Up This Morning - The Definite Oral History of The Sopranos and that triggered me to watch the show. Yet once again. The definite best television series ever created (courtesy by David Chase). James Gandolfini as Anthony Soprano and his performance is unfathomable magical.

Shadows on fire

Deliciously creepy and uneasy horror. Uncanny curse follows from one person to another causing havoc and death in its wake. Somewhat similar to David Robert Mitchell's It Follows (2014). Overall a decent scary movie. Stupid ending though.

Beneath the old long coffin

Swedish Intelligence Service intercepts a smuggling of a Russian warhead, but one missile remains to be found. Jan Guillou's Carl Hamilton pieces are one of the most exciting espionage and spy novels ever. The 1998 adaptation starring Peter Stormare is one of the better adaptations, but lost its focus a moment or two too often.

The wind casts its shadow

Maybe I saw another documentary of it, or read a book or something. At least read the news and saw the Mark Wahlberg movie Patriots Day (by Peter Berg). Based on the Boston Marathon bombing, the terrorist attack on April 15, 2013 and the manhunt that followed within. An awful tragedy caused by evil fuckers. A gripping documentary.

Scars remind us that the past was real

It was like watching an entirely new movie. Red Dragon by Brett Ratner, based on the 1981 novel by Thomas Harris, is already a 2002 thriller. An excellent adaptation. A scary and truly suspenseful piece. One of the greatest serial killer flicks. Includes a great cast of Edward Norton, Anthony Hopkins, Harvey Keitel, Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson and Philip Seymour Hoffman.