Teach-7 Reviews

Monster a Go-Go (1965)

The very definition of BORING

[1/10 · 16 May 2003]

You haven't experienced cinematic boredom until you watch this incoherent mess. You know you're in trouble early on when the voice-over (usually the saving grace of hopeless movie-directors) singularly fail to explain what is going on. You, the viewer, is on your own here, completely deserted by Monster a go go.

The actors sit around a lot, talk a lot, whatever. The monster doesn't really relate to anything else happening here, but he does look frighteningly emaciated and wasted (and very tall). Trouble is, he doesn't get much screen time. When the ending finally arrives a celebration is in order. Admire yourself enormously for sitting through this. It's an achievement, believe me. The second worst movie ever. Manos-hands of fate is even worse, but not by much.

The Hanging Garden (1997)

the Garden of mismatched souls

[9/10 · 15 October 2002]

Sweet William, Rosemary, Violet, Basil and the rest. Named after flowers and herbs, people growing together in your typical family garden of mismatched souls. Little William, trying to be something that sets him apart from the rest, something nobody can touch or change. He grows up to be a gay and obese teenager. Lusting after his closest friend. Not the easiest of lives. We meet Willy 10 years later, returning home to celebrate his sister Rosemary's wedding. He is now a slim, attractive young man. But what has happened during those ten years? And who is the little boy running around the house?

Every time I watch this small masterpiece, new layers of meaning turn up. The plot structure gives away some undiscovered truths, together with dialogue pointers I didn't notice before. That, to me, is a film worth seeing! When we showed this at our local film society, it got a great reception, one of the best we ever had for a film.

The Hanging garden is short, bittersweet and - sadly - true to life. You'll find something in this garden for you, whoever you may be!

War Story (2001)

Love in the silent age!

[10/10 · 27 June 2002]

Imagine Charlie Chaplin making a sweet and charming gay love story in his best silent-comedy style, and you have War Story.

Ronnie, a strapping, good-looking soldier going off to WW1 takes the place of Edna Purviance, and the tramp-character is here played by Metly Morville, a wide-eyed fellow in a bowler-hat working as a waiter. Ronnie and Metly fall in love, yet there are problems....

War story could be written off as brilliant pastiche, of course. The stock characters are all here: The fat man with the huge moustache, the silly old dame, the lovely young thing, the sneaky thief. The pratfalls, the fisticuffs, the captions, - all here! The interior of the restaurant looks exactly like a set at Mack Sennett-studios in 1915.

And yet: There is a scene of two men being beaten up and thrown out of the restaurant for being "pansies". That, of course, is the way gays were treated back then. So there is a darker message of ignorance and intolerance being addressed here. And, of course, you would never see two men fall in love like this in the silents. Unthinkable.

Overall, I give this film a 10/10, if only for the sheer audacity and novelty of it. I hope Baumgartner will return to this simple way of making films. His audience will love him for it.

Fright Night (1985)

A horror-movie you shouldn't miss

[8/10 · 25 June 2002]

A lethal vampire moves into a large suburban mansion, and the young boy next door sets out to destroy him. He gets invaluable help from Peter Vincent, a TV-personality working on a low-rated monster show called Fright Night.

This teenage-vampire movie has it all: Truly frightening transformation-scenes, spot-on jokes, outlandish visual effects (Richard Edlund of Star Wars fame and John Bruno - Terminator 2, Titanic, the Abyss, Ghostbusters), outstanding actors: Roddy McDowall, expertly hamming it up as the TV-presenter/ vampire-hunter Peter Vincent, Chris Sarandon, really cool and dangerous as the vampire, pre-Bundy Amanda Bearse as love interest, and Stephen Geoffreys whose creepy, high-pitched laughter has no equal.

Sexy, funny and campy to the bone, Fright Night is something to watch when you want to treat yourself to something special. I love it!

Slogans (2001)

Surprisingly good

[8/10 · 17 May 2002]

Low budget movies need something to draw attention to them, lacking big stars and great effects. Slogans has those somethings in spades! We get to know an Albanian teacher arriving at a country school, around 1984. He seems to be a sympathetic guy.

The school seems to be less interested in teaching the children real subjects than pushing communist propaganda down their throats. Much of the week is spent on the hillsides, where the pupils whitewash stones and arrange them into huge letters with slogans like "Long live international Communism". The slogans can be seen from far off, thus securing that no citizen will be able to avoid them. Unruly teachers and classes are punished with very long sentences! Comic and tragic scenes are plentiful as the people struggle with the whims of the local communist party and the school principal's unrequited love for one of the female teachers.

Post-war Albanian history is terribly strange, weird and bizarre. Sandwiched between Christian and Moslem influences, this mountaineous country was isolated for a very long time, due to the paranoia of their leader, Enver Hoxha. Sensing enemies (revisionists) all around him, he closed the borders and nixed any international co-operation. This movie gives a fair account of what life must have been like in Albania at the time. It's well made, a bit on the long side, but still worthwhile for those who seek unusual films.

Red Dirt (2000)

Could have been better

[8/10 · 17 May 2002]

This movie has two big assets, great camera-work and some great looking guys. Karen Black is also good - as always, but what about that accent?

I was a bit disappointed with the ending, though. I just couldn't believe they would behave like that. Still, this is a good addition to the Tennessee Williams hothouse stories from the deep south.

Madagascar Skin (1995)

Romantic film about two outcasts

[9/10 · 24 April 2000]

I bought this on video and found it to be as comforting and reassuring a film as any romantic could wish for.

Two men meet on a beach, in slightly bizarre fashion. A young and rather sad homosexual, Harry, spurned and rejected by the big city gay community, due to a birth-mark the shape of Madagascar on his face. The other - Flint, a weather-worn (and seemingly heterosexual) sea-urchin prone to swallowing mice and spiders (rather gross this!).

They set up house together in a clay cottage by the sea. Initially nothing much happens between them. Harry is attracted to Flint, but fears another rejection.

("I'm going to die alone, and no-one, ever, will have touched me!")

Yet slowly, mutual affection wins the day. In a touching and believable manner, Flint woos Harry and wins him over. Yet, as they are squatters and outcasts in an unfeeling society, there is always the threat of exterior forces ripping open the idyll.

Madagascar skin is a romantic treat. Some may find the symbolic shots of starfish, scuttlefish, crabs (and shoes?) stranded on a beach distracting, while the dream-sequences sometimes disrupt what is basically a straight-forward story. But this is nitpicking. The story of two people finding strength and love in each other's company wins you over in the end.

The message would read, like the title of an old Stephen Stills song: "LOVE THE ONE YOU'RE WITH." And the actors work wonders with their characters. Bernard Hill is excellent as Flint, while John Hannah takes risks with almost every part he plays.

A great film from Channel 4 and the British Film Institute. You'll love it "as long as you're straight!"

Trash (1970)

Your eyes are not deceiving you

[6 February 2000]

Your eyes are not deceiving you, this movie really IS in and out of focus for about half of its running time! And yes, I mean the camera-lens... The blurry pictures can be disorienting to some viewers, yet it adds immeasurably to the trashy, slap-dash quality of it all.

Morrissey's directorial technique is simple. Whatever happens - happen. Some of the dialogue is quite funny, some is horribly bad and some is just a collection of monosyllables, usually emerging from the bored mouth of Joe Dallesandro. He staggers round the sets in a narcotic stupor, distancing himself totally from everything and everyone. Stagger, stagger, mumble, mumble. That - and he shaves naked in a bathtub. For 10 whole minutes. We get to study every pore in his face.

Great performance, Joe!

Apart from this, "Trash" is entertaining in that "let's-see-how-depraved-they can-get" manner that endears so many fans of movie-cults. I wouldn't see this picture more than once, but at the same time, I'm glad it's out there to prove to the world that if they put their mind to it, anyone could probably make better movies than this. Which is something - I guess..?

Alice (1988)

Fascinating, horrific - just like the book

[8 August 1999]

How best to interpret such a well-known classic in movie terms? Well, Jan Svankmajer, clearly an artist himself (a Czech version of Peter Greenaway) does it by extracting the essence of the book; the black humour and droll critique of Victorian society, investing it with his own rich surrealistic imagery. (Disney is not in the picture!)

Alice, played by a beautiful, doll-like girl, is energetic, brave and simple-minded, while her surroundings gradually go bonkers in ritual displays of nonsensical social custom. Svankmajer's celebrated mastery of dolls is on superb display, and dead objects, mostly worn, tattered and grotesquely animated, take on nightmarish properties. Foodstuffs certainly look repellent when sliding noisily across the kitchen-table!

The start of the movie is classic Svankmajer: Alice lies on the floor of her room, idly throwing pebbles into a half-empty tea-cup. (seen as a series of hypnotically repeated actions). The White Rabbit, here a stuffed specimen inside a glass display-cage, suddenly comes to life, puts on clothing hidden under the floor of his cage, cuts the wires that fasten his feet to the floor, breaks the glass, and he's off!

Svankmajer's "Alice" is the only version that comes close to rendering what Lewis Carroll's book is all about. It's a top notch art-movie for discerning audiences.

Wild Wild West (1999)

Boring, but...

[25 July 1999]

Well, I could have slipped into a coma for the duration of this unfunny movie, was it not for the hellish Elmer Bernstein score.

But then - right at the end, while our sore asses were being painfully dragged up from the cinema-seats; One of those delicious gay puns that only Hollywood can pull: Salma Hayek to Smith and Kline (right arm safely tucked under hussie's ditto): "Well, at least you two boys still have each other!"

Cut to shot of (extremely) phallic rock formation in the desert. Kline to Smith: "Can I ask you a personal question?"

Most of the Norwegian audience didn't get that. Personally, I laughed all the way to the car.

The Object of My Affection (1998)

Witty and wise

[17 July 1999]

It's quite possible to watch and re-watch this romantic comedy without choking on the sentiment. Which must count for something in this age of pathetic, overwritten scripts. The way the movie introduces the multiple characters is also praiseworthy, economical and intelligent. All in all, good, solid and witty entertainment, head and shoulders above the competition.

Year of the Horse (1997)

Nice film, shame about the solos

[7/10 · 4 May 1999]

I DO like Neil Young and Crazy Horse, yet I felt Neil's simplistic guitar solos took up more screen-time than I would have liked. That is my only reservation. Jarmusch' good-natured approach and sympathetic questions makes this watchable and revealing. Neil's father obviously has great respect for his son. And Frank Sampedro's cynical retorts were very funny! More to the point - "Like a hurricane" still sounds like a rock classic.

Lasse & Geir (1976)

Social realism at its funniest

[9/10 · 23 April 1999]

A textbook Norwegian kitchen, 1970's style:

A working-class father hurls abuse at his wayward, elder son across the dinner table: "WHY AREN'T YOU OUT THERE LOOKING FOR A JOB, YOU IDIOT!" Mother pleads with father to keep the peace.

(The menu: Stew, with jello for afters.)

Father doesn't like jello. He yells: I DON'T WANT THIS, I WANT FOOD! FOOD!! Father accuses mother of wasting his hard earned cash on "dessert". Mother is anxious and tearful. Elder son defends mother. Elder son hits father. Father and son starts fighting. Mother breaks down in a torrent of tears. Younger son looks on.

Sounds pretty bleak for an evening's light entertainment, eh?

Except that this is a film by the famous Wam & Vennerød, and they never fail to make things funny, cool and entertaining. Even in a piece of socialist cinema like this, the laughs come hard and heavy. This may well be attributed to the dialogue, which is almost always over the top. (and WAAAY down the other side of the hill!)

You see, Wam & Vennerød pride themselves in never using the subtle approach.

They are the masters of "overstatement". Invariably, their message is hammered home in conversation which is hard-hitting but utterly, completely artificial. The swearing and the coarse language adorn every line, and Marxist slogans are flung around like confetti. A real scream! W & V also have a thing going against "regular people", rendering them as little more than brain-washed zombies. And they really HATE the police! Every action-scene in this movie involves morose policemen out to arrest "our heroes", Lasse & Geir. The only people W & V appear to understand and like are the very young and the innocent, the hapless "victims" of a cruel consumer society. You know - the drop-outs and the drunkards. As for the rest - a bullet will do. It matters little that the filmmaker's intentions are noble and true; you just have to laugh! "Lasse & Geir" could well be the funniest political tract I've ever seen. Even so, most W & V- movies are treasure troves for those who care to search them out.

Our Mother's House (1967)

A small gem

[9/10 · 23 April 1999]

This is an unusual movie, and could well, in time, turn out to be a classic. It concerns 7 siblings left to fend for themselves in a big house after their beloved Mother dies. They bury the corpse in the back garden, and never tell anyone, because they are all under-age and fear the orphanage..

Even if dead, Mother becomes a religious mentor for the children, her thoughts being "channeled" through one of the girls in ritual, late night sessions.

They seem to manage pretty well, but things turn out ugly when the rambling, long lost "father" returns to take over the household. He wins them over, manipulates them, steals Mother's life-savings, and in a gripping finale, reveals to the children the terrible secret Mother has hidden from them.

It's a quite gruesome film, emotionally draining and heartless, an obvious comparison would be "Oliver Twist", or perhaps a dark fairytale from the brothers Grimm... At first, before the father arrives, I thought it was a Christian parable, where the mother represented the dead Jesus, and the children the acolytes and worshippers. But 50 minutes into the proceedings, it turns into something else. From then on, it's anybody's guess! Still, this ambiguity befits the story and keeps you on your toes throughout, until the sorry end.

Jack Clayton's direction is good, if rather literary, the house is a spooky, claustrophobic menace, while the child actors are uniformly excellent. You wouldn't believe young children could perpetuate audience interest in a melodramatic story like this, but, like in that other classic "the Secret garden", they do. Brilliant acting! Dirk Bogarde is supposed to be quietly menacing and evil, and he is exactly that.

Beware though, this is definitely not a film for children!

Flesh Gordon (1974)

Sex, camp and good fun!

[8/10 · 12 April 1999]

This is truly a camp classic, ripe for discovery by those who love and cherish hysterical over-acting, horrid sex-jokes and flagrant innuendo.

The plot is, well,....quite basic: Sex-rays from the planet Porno (presumably somewhere near the Porn-star..) hits Earth and threatens to destroy the morals of mankind. Flesh Gordon, after almost succumbing to those very same rays teams up with the lightly clad Dale Ardor and dr. Flexi Jerkoff. Together they fly off to Porno in a penile spaceship to destroy the evil Wang and his sex-ray machine. OK? Here they meet Penisauruses, the gay (in every sense) men of Sherwood forest, a surly monster (close cousin to King Kong) and an army of perverts, cavorting on the floors of Wang's palace. Wang himself seems somewhat miffed when Flesh complains about the sex-rays destroying morality :"Why, you should THANK me!" The pantomime plot has side-splitting moments and good fun, but at the end of the day it all bubbles down to one word: Sex. This is, effectively, a porn movie, with most of the porn removed (at least in this version), and a mixture of ludicrously funny sight gags and some elaborate special effects thrown into the mix.

I enjoyed "Flesh Gordon", because it never stops moving and is always funny. In fact, it's a real treat, and the intended satire on the mores of American science-fiction is spot-on. (including the priceless sight-gag of Dr.Jerkoff starting his rocket-engine with a car-ignition key!) There is also a shot of a stranded spaceship which looks ominously like that one at the start of ALIEN. In fact, it looks like H.R.Giger must have been HEAVILY influenced by it! See this movie!

Cellofan - med døden til følge (1998)

Country folks are evil

[3/10 · 24 January 1999]

"Cellofan" was one of a number of thrillers produced in Norway during 97-98. They were all rather poorly executed. The problem here is the script, (by the usually reliable Leidulv Risan) which never convinces us all this could possibly happen.

The scene is a small rural community, (genuine "Deliverance"-territory!)" where the creepy inhabitants mumble and scowl their way through suggestive dialogue. The lately arrived big town-journo, Marianne, trying to rid her dying father of a murder suspicion, is meanwhile going around asking questions, putting on a face, and performing acts of incredible stupidity. More murders are committed. She keeps on asking questions. Marianne is, in fact, rather dim. Trying to root out the real murderer among the "country-folks", her methods of inquiry are vaguely reminiscent of those employed by Mickey Mouse, or rather Nancy Drew of Carolyn Keene fame, that is : Barge on in, and let EVERYONE know you are after something! All in all, Marianne gets nowhere for her troubles. Nearly killed, as a result of blithely failing to identify the killer, no audience on earth could deny she had it coming to her!

A case in point:

Marianne is staying at the only hotel in town. The killer has obligingly bored two spy-holes through the eyes of a Christ-portrait hanging on her wall, so he can observe her every move from an adjoining room. The spy-holes are huge and VERY visible, and the killer's eyes are swerving around all the time, but she never ONCE suspects what's going on.

What a doll!

"Cellofan" is a very stupid film with few redeeming features. It's also giving rural people a raw deal, depicting them as sleazy, secretive, inbred maniacs, a fact that didn't slip by the critics.

Armageddon (1998)

Realistic?

[6/10 · 24 January 1999]

Criticizing "Armageddon" for getting the trajectory of comets wrong, and other esoterical details, is like ribbing the old "Flash Gordon"-serials for showing exhaust-fumes and smoke emerging from rocket-ships in a vacuum. (same thing happens in "Starship troopers" by the way...)

I mean..get over it! This is thick-ear entertainment, intended to amuse. I was greatly amused, if a bit shell-shocked by the violent effects and music.

Still..I do wish they wouldn't shove the Stars and Stripes down our throats each and every time our heroes go to their business..Us Europeans are getting well and truly fed up with this blatant jingoism.

Jeffrey (1995)

A funny little gem

[24 January 1999]

Contrary to most viewers, I found "Jeffrey" to be a singularly pleasant experience all the way through. It sags a bit in the middle, but then, please name a movie that doesn't?

It starts off like a protracted confessional; gay waiter Jeffrey (Steven Weber) waxing neurotic (in some telling vignettes) about the danger of having sex in the age of AIDS. He decides to work out instead. Meeting Mr. Exactly Right in the gym gives him pause, though. Especially when the guy is the delectable Steve (Michael T.Weiss), all muscle and chiseled grin. Jeffrey's friends advise him to reconsider his celibacy, and give it a go. It takes Jeffrey around 1 hour and 20 minutes of screen-time to do so. Had he succumbed to Steve right away, there would have been no movie! There is a sitcom-like feel to this story; obstructions and cracks are neatly wall-papered over in the name of light-hearted comedy. Darius' angelic reappearance towards the end smacks of opting for the easy way out. How else would Jeffrey have seen the error of his ways? It's the least convincing scene in the movie. Still, everything else is both funny and touching. The fantasy game-show is nice, the "Hoe- Down for AIDS" is a scathingly funny piss-take on charity-events, while Sterling's banter and relentless quips are wonderful:

"Martha Stewart says that as long as you can make a nice, dried flower arrangement - nothing else matters!!

Darius is a believable character, Steve is the hunk of the year, and although Steven Weber doesn't set the room on fire as Jeffrey, I found him to be exactly in character. After all, Jeffrey is SUPPOSED to be a rather ordinary guy. Why Steve would go for him, though, is a bit of a mystery. Their subsequent affair would make for an interesting sequel. It would probably all turn sour in the end. Then again...

Dobermann (1997)

a Bloody cartoon!

[6/10 · 19 January 1999]

"Dobermann", effectively, is a movie with no live characters in it. Not one.

What it does have is walking cartoons. Two-dimensional and blatantly unbelievable ones (e.g the psycho preacher, straight out of a 60'ies spaghetti-western). That, and bloody mayhem!

The set-pieces, (a bank-robbery, a shoot-em-up in a nightclub and the final car-chase) are excellent for those who like their action-movies splattered with gore and a loud techno-track. Beware, though, there are stretches of boredom in between. Of special note is the grossly unpleasant scene where Christini tortures "Sonia"'s family. It includes a baby being thrown across the room, and later being given a hand-grenade as a toy. This didn't endear "Dobermann" to the Norwegian critics! It was not shown in Oslo as a result of the regional cinema-director considering the movie devoid of interest and much, much too violent.

Which it is.

Leolo (1992)

Bizarre and worthwhile

[19 January 1999]

Perversity. Strangeness. Absurdity. Violence. Insanity.

Just like real life, eh? While many may feel "Lèolo" is way over the top, the film doesn't contain a single incident (excepting "Leo's" conception) that couldn't have happened. Some families are simply stranger than others! And what is one man's reality is another man's nightmare...

Add to that, a soundtrack of unmitigated brilliance, Tom Waits and those basso-profundo Mongolian bison-impersonators (or something). The auditorium was shaking in its foundations!

For the cutting edge of the term "bizarre", look no further.

The Prince of Egypt (1998)

Say this movie had been made by arabs?

[17 January 1999]

An exceptionally well animated film, with tremendous effort and imagination put into the central scenes; the killing of the first-born and the parting of the Red sea. Although perhaps one should take a critical peek at the giant fish silhouetted in the wall of water. What is it? A whale? A great white? It's so huge as to indicate a creature measuring about 90 feet, and this simply doesn't exist in these waters, dear Dreamworks! I enjoyed the songs too and there was great continuity in the (slight) storyline. The voices were quite adequate.

Still, it's really a huge, grandiose Jewish legend, and so the reverence towards the God of Israel becomes overwhelming at times. Cecil B. De Mille would have applauded the old-fashioned, literal, letter-perfect way this story is presented. The hapless Jews gets the glory in the end, and what modern archaeology may have revealed about the workers who built the pyramids and temples (it is likely the Jews in Egypt were not slaves at all, but worked for wages) counts for nothing here. For this story to work, they have to suffer. Mightily. Do we really believe this today? No matter. For this is the EXODUS, where the Israel nation are God's chosen people. All else be damned.

Geffen, Katzenberg and Spielberg: Shy away from the old Testament for inspiration. Please. Other than that, this is a marvellous film indeed.

Heavenly Creatures (1994)

Ah - adolescence!

[10/10 · 17 January 1999]

A unique movie about teenage murderesses that perfectly captures the rapture of being young and feeling alive. I believe "Heavenly creatures" succeeds because it fixes on the adolescent mind and sticks to it through the entire movie.

This is the world seen through the eyes of youth. This is what it feels like. This is the fanaticism, the helplessness, the horror, the rush of hormones, the starry-eyed wonder that comes from discovering that you are the hub around which the universe spins. The adult world has no place in this movie. So the two girls tries to dissociate themselves from it. When their parents threatens to destroy their world, they calmly contemplate murder. It's as simple as that. And it's beautifully done by a master director. One of the classics of the 90'ies.

They Call Me Trinity (1970)

If memory serves me right...

[17 January 1999]

I recently caught the first two Trinity movies on TV, simply to confirm whether they are as completely devoid of interest as I felt when first watching them waaay back when.

And.....they most certainly are!

Terence Hill (the slim, blue eyed-one) is as nauseatingly coy, self-righteous and trouble-prone as I remembered. While Bud Spencer boulders his way through saloon-walls in the same old tired fashion. For a while, around 73-74, my local cinema seemed to show nothing else BUT these westerns. I hated them. So they had a following! So did Hitler!

My Name Is Joe (1998)

Entertaining film about "social issues"

[14 January 1999]

Ken Loach is a truly exceptional film-maker. Like Bunuel, he has seemingly risen from the dead (during Thatcher's reign) and re-emerged as an international force. I found his latest film "My name is Joe" to be a hugely enjoyable affair, perhaps a little less abrasive and direct than his earlier efforts, like "Poor cow" and "Family life". Even so, he depicts "working class"- people with the same warmth and insight as before.

The main character is Joe, a jobless reformed alcoholic in Glasgow with a heart of gold. In the attempt to better the lot of those around him, (and forget his self-loathing) Joe organizes a football team and makes house-calls on those in need of support, especially Liam and Sabine, a young couple in dire straits. Liam owes 500 pounds to the local drug-dealer, and Sabine has likewise racked up a debt. Joe tries his best to offer help, but when he is forced to perform a criminal act, he runs the risk of losing his law-abiding girl-friend into the bargain.

Joe is a character whom you instantly like. Even his transgressions won't make you think the worse of him, as he quite obviously suffers from what he's done. Joe wants to lead a "normal" life, stay on the right side of the law, get a girlfriend and what have you. But he just can't juggle off his past as a drunkard, he can't get off the dole and so hasn't the means to move away from his run-down apartment, his rotten little suburb. His only hope is to get someone to love him, someone to lift him out of the rut, to boost his self-esteem.

It is, for sure, a touching, humane story, beautifully scripted, shot in a simple style, and with a wonderful central performance by Peter Mullan. My question is, is it more? Is MNIJ a valid comment on deprived communities in Britain today? Do there still exist working class ethics like the ones Loach depicts in this movie? And are they still as relevant as when Britain was poor back in the 60' ies, the decade of Loach's first movies?

Granted, there are still poor, neglected people aplenty, but do they behave like this? This movie seems a little on the soft side compared to say Gillian MacKinnon's "Small faces", and even "Trainspotting". "MNIJ, I feel, is more of a self-contained Chekhovian drama than an attack on our bourgeois sensibilities.

(The soundtrack, by the way, consists mostly of dangerously out-dated glam-rock material from the 70' ies. Painful stuff!) Call me flippant, but I didn't feel like hitting a drug dealer, or tearing the social fabric after watching this movie. Perhaps it should have hurt more. Even so, it's a fabulous film by a unique director.

Freejack (1992)

Back to the future?

[14 January 1999]

The last 15 minutes of this film are quite entertaining in an absurd kind of way, so it's a pity the rest is a drag. A long, streeetched-out drag. In "Freejack" we are led to believe that time-travelling will be a likely commodity as early as 2009. Apart from that shockingly hurried invention, everything seems strangely dated...New York has, of course, gone screaming down the drain, in true John Carpenter fashion (those who live there should get out - NOW!)

But , tell me, why should regression likewise have hit: Fashion, hairstyles, car-design, street-paving, police detection, (even the acting is pre-Stanislavsky)...This doesn't look like a movie from the future, it looks like something from the past! Emilio Estevez stars in it, badly, Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins are wasted and Mick Jagger is deliciously villainous. A true British trooper, he, albeit saddled with a strange Spanish-sounding name here. "Freejack" springs to life at the end, but by then most would have gone to sleep or left.