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stefanerikson
Reviews
Hem till Midgård (2003)
I think this is great!
Hem till Midgård is one of the funniest Swedish TV-comedy series ever done. By all means Hem till Midgård has an intellectual level between average an awful, but it is done with great humor and great warmth. Its easy-going slapstick humor and disrespectful vulgarity really works for those who can take it. For those who can't, I don't recommend this.
Hem till Midgård really kills the myth of the vikings being tall, blond, strong muscular guys who is completely unafraid. These guys instead are the straight opposite. Lill-Snorre, the chief, is clumsy, childish and confused. Tyke, his main henchman, is a dribbling berserk who gets mad when anyone calls him "dumb". Runar, the hunk, is a tall bimbo who think he is every girls dream. Halvdan, is a slimy wiseacre, who annoys Lill-Snorre with his ironic comments and sheepish laugh and gets bashed up repeatedly.
Lill-Snorre also has a girlfriend, the oriental beauty Cassandra, the former slave of his father whom he has promised to protect. She is vain, hot-tempered and determined and Lill-Snorre has all kind of trouble keeping her satisfied. Other colorful characters are Gammelman, the village elder, who is an unhygienic wizard and his main occupation is to make living sacrifices to Oden. Also there are Petter-Nicolaus (In Swedish it means the same as Mr Wiggly), a bullied monk who doesn't have any success in Christianize the village of Midgård. Instead he is forced to work as a bartender in the local pub Balders In.
The best actors are Stefan Roos (Halvdan) who also is one of the writers. He is just so funny and convincing as the ugly, greedy and cowardly Halvdan. Also Sara Sommerfeld (Cassandra) makes a great impression as the oriental shrew. She is just as talented as beautiful and has made a lot of good screen performances.
I give Hem till Midgård the rating 6 out of 10. A high rate for the humor which really appeals to me and a low rate for the intellectual standard.
Hannibal (2001)
Adequate horrific sequel
A rather good sequel to Silence of the lambs done by the master himself: Ridley Scott. The story is well told and the location scenes are brilliant. Specially the Rome scenes. Julianne Moore though is not as strong in tne role as Clarice like Jodie Foster but she´s no flop either. Anthony Hopkins is superb as usual but he never does a bad role. His acting is that rare kind of perfection that just some of the greatest actors can perform. He personifies Hannibal Lecter completely. This film however has not got the same dynamic thrill and chilling surprise as Silence of the lambs and the play between Hopkins and Moore is not as strong as the scenes with Foster. Anyway it´s a good sequel and some scenes are just to much for some peoples stomach. I give it a 6 of 10.
Predator (1987)
Very Good Sci-Fi actioner
One of Arnold´s best movies. Here he plays the leader for an elite army-unit who is given a mission to rescue south-american officials from left-wing terrorists in a south-american jungle. On their way to the terrorist compound one of the men sense something in the trees and they discover skinned corpses. What they don´t know is that an invisible alien creature is pursuing them. It has come to earth just to hunt for sport and Arnolds group makes a perfect target. The team reaches the terrorist´s camp and levels it to the ground in a very well filmed action-sequence. However they don´t manage to save the officials. When they return to rendez-vouz with the helicopter they are being hunted of the Predator who picks them off one by one. The Predator is a very well done film which catches you from the start. The location-filming is brilliant and so is the casting of tough characters in Arnolds team. I´m specially fond of Jesse Ventura. The script is un-pretentious and straight told. The monster is a kind of Rambo-Alien. Very awesome and very intelligent with the seven foot Kevin Peter Hall in the monster make-up. As always in Arnold´s films, the action scenes are of highest class. I consider this a winner and ranks it: 7 of 10.
Alien (1979)
The best sci-fi-movie ever done.
This is a masterpiece of film in the horror/sci-fi genre. Large budget-scale production. Real artwork production design. Very well-written script. Seven professional actors. Strong and scary effects. Ridley Scott´s masterminded direction and a just awesome monster which shows to be just as intelligent as destructive. All this makes "Alien" to something above the usual. Sigourney Weaver couldn´t have made a more perfect film debute. That´s why I cosider "Alien" to be the best sci-fi-movie ever done.