My top 10 best cinema trips 2010.

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Welcome back, and I forgot the last time around.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
to insert pleasant or unpleasant image in your head, depending on who you are, and dude I keep insisting I am not attractive, but hell, if people contradict why complain? I was freaking drunk in the night and tipped over in bed around four in the morning. so yep! I am writing this while sitting with a nice hangover, but also remember what a great party it was, me being just drunk for once, and trip around in high hells I can figure how exactly to wear while trying to figure how I can get a cleavage as nice as Natalie Portmans without looking to fat..
ah, the human emotions that makes no sense.
So yeah, the top ten best cinema experiences of the year. Lets jump right to it!



10; Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part 1

You knew it was supposed to be here, I knew it was supposed to be here, so I figured it was well worth just getting over with!
The reason why it also only have the number ten spot for me is, whatever I ever have to say about Harry Potter will be unfair, because this is the most personal franchise to me that will ever be, it's my thing and I refuse to see anything wrong with it.
Also, as I said in previous review. It's hard to judge this movie, simply because it is only half a movie, and therefor you just can't. However, I will be sourly disappointed if the next and last movie will not be on every bodies top ten lists in a year! And lets not talk more about this before we can see it in it's glorious place in the big connection.





9: Splice

ahh Splice, there's so many people who have complained about this movie, said it was to disturbing, disgusting and freaky.
dude! it's a horror! it's aiming at being disturbing, disgusting and freaky! and further more, it success! a lot!
ahh, just the kind of old school disgusting horror movie I like, drawing the sense of unease more from characters and situations than effects and plots. greatly scripted and executed. And I head a great horror thrill ride out of it, I was connected to the characters, I was emotionally involved. and I just like this movie, it's one of the actually good horrors.






8; Megamind

People are going to be so mad at me, because I put this on the list, but not. "How to train your dragon."
I did see that to! and I liked it to! I just liked Megamind a littlebit better that's all.
Urh, again. I have written an entire review of this, I don't think I have that much more to say to be honest. It's fun! and it's a throwback to the old 60's and 70's of superheroes, the time when James bond were actually fun.
Well crafted, you care for the characters.. I dunno if I want a sequel or not.. knowing Dream works there will probably be one on. "How to train your dragon." at least D:
Btw.. the setting of that movie, have nothing to do with how a norse country look! That is not vikings! those are some sort of fictional characters dammit.







7; Machete

Oh yeah! this is totally how The Expendables should have felt like, grim and gritty but just mindless macho fun! with knifes and blood and guns and terrorists and explosions and car chases where everything gets crashed! I don't care! this was a blood thrill ride from that to finish and I just had so much fun watching this.
It's so funny because the reason why this film even exists is because of a joke somebody took seriously, the trailer had just shoot as a stand alone thing as a part of a joke, and then some company said."That looks awesome, why don't you make a whole movie out of that?" and then the movie is crafted to fitt around that trailer, all though it is actually still tightly crafted and well written, and just so much fun and so much a thrill.




6; Valhalla rising

You want to know what a freaking Viking movie is supposed to look like? this is what a Viking movie is supposed to look like!
And nobody than me have seen it.... for me it's even kind of personal as it is a movie made on international scale, by a danish director, featuring the best actors Denmark have to offer and tries to showcase the fell of olden Danish vikings. Oh it is in English and had international release! as I said, it's a movie on international scale.
Yet more importantly than all of that, it is also very good.
It's a very unique and sarcastic movie which build way more on brutal experience than story and plot. honestly, Marvel Thor is going to look so much like a little twerp when sat up against this.
It is however a movie you would need to take time to, to just sit down go in a trance and watch from start to finish, and like "A Space Odesy 2000" you just sit with the weirdest psychodelic feeling afterwards. it is a master piece crafted by the best Denmark have the offer, and I don't think you would ever be able to find a movie like it.





5; Inception

we have now officially reached the part of this list where I am just listing movies up everyone have in their top ten lists. I wish I could diverse but I need to be honest, and they just genuinely are what I felt like was my best cinema experiences.

phew.. Inception.. dear lord. I know it would be here somewhere, you knew it would be here somwhere, this surprises no one!
And it's good, I could give tons of reasons and explanations why it's good.. people are probably wondering, why am I not putting it higher on the list?
It fells like I am the only thing thinking like this at all, but I need to put it out there, I don't think I am ever going to watch this movie ever again.
I know it's good, and I remember it, I remember the scenes. But dear lord is it dry and heavy, it's not ever what I would put on for a chilled evening watching movies. And I am not saying every single movie should be. "Just fun." because movies as a medium can be an art form!

Well, we have all discussed it to death! lets move on.




4; Toy story 3

I am so weird.. I am putting Toy story over inception!
Yeah. I am, for me the two movies maintain equally great emotional value, only I had a better time watching toy story and I had an easier time embracing that emotional value.
Plus the movie in general just had bloody everything I would be looking for in a movie I am not getting! This movie features a better "Mission impossible" sequence than any of the mission impossible movies! all of the toys collaborating to spring their `prison´working on a old school plan which is stuff that should be in movies today! but aren't... dude, no body does ensemble movies no more.. they are all just the same D:
Well, this was different, and it was great. Everything I wanted in any action movie, and everything I wanted in a toy story closure. It was just perfect in my mind.





3; Kick ass

I love this movie!
It was the funniest trippiest cinema trip of the year! I honestly can't remember the last time I was laughing this much and just had a sheer good time while being hyped on adrenalin and just enjoyed myself.
Darn is it hard writing about movies that I like, I like them! but I don't want to say anything bad about them.
Well, this had it all a superhero movie should have, trippy fights, gritty gore, chasing, intensity. and as I said it's just hilarious. Nicholas Cage finally going back to what he is really good at is gold, and who ever played "Hit girl." she is a new star.
They are actually doing a sequel, and I am actually just looking forward to that!




2; Black Swan


Sha, wauw was this just great.
I mean.. it's a.. erhm.. I have difficulty setting it into words. a psychological horror I guess, but then it's so much more.
A character study of what seems to be the perfect woman and the ugliness which she have been forced to keep inside, and is now just fighting itself out and is so strong as it have been bottled up due to her mother and her life filisofy, the sexual needs of women, just sexuality.. erh, the need for perfection with an artist, which you can't obtain by being correct cause it's art... stuff. this movie have so many layers and so much going on for it. Natalie Portman as the leading lady is giving the performance of her life, and is just showing what a magnificent actress she really is, the coolest lady of the year ladies and gents. It is by no means a funny movie, but the edge stays with me, far more than it did with inception, and it just facinates me to no end.
As I have written about before, "dual personalties." like in Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a subject that always fascinated me, but never before have it been so good depicted by a female character, and the plot only being a firm study of her. it's just brilliant, everyone should watch it.





1; Sott Pilgrim vs. the world.

I bet at least one saw this coming.
God this movie is so great! finally a teen movie that genuinely fells like a teen movie for our generation instead of somebodies ideas of what a Teen life / fantasy might be like.
Edward Wright, director and main writer, also the man behind. "Shaun of the Dead." and "Hot Fuzz" can do no wrong!
And this movie is both entirely new in so many aspects, and shows what kind of movies should have been made a long time ago.
It's a feast in stylish effects and fights, the characters despite being in a world of imagination are realistic and you fell an understanding and attachment to them.
This movie should not be explained, it should just be seen!




In honourable mention.

Unfortunately I couldn't put this in my top ten movie lists, because well.. it's a tely show not a movie, but I really felt like I had to adress it.
In all of my life, I think I have witnessed two things in entertainment being created, which were truly and honourable special, in a magical childish way. And I have been so honoured by witnessing stuff like that, being in a state of anticipation and not being dissapointed when it came out, but could watch it and fell it mere feeling rule me rather than the rules, knowing that this is special.
One is the Harry Potter books, the other is this years season of Doctor who, years from now people will look back at this and say. "Why can't they do Doctor who like when Steven Moffat was the head writer?" Because this is not only good, it's truly special and unique. And I am so proud to be a part of it whilst it is being made, looking so much forward to the next season.

And, good new year to all of you!

From Sofie!

Frankenstein, from then to now.

Ah yeas Frankenstein.
The man who created a monster out of corpses and thereby defied the laws of nature, which he came to pay for pretty dearly.
All though, how dearly depends on the adaptation you're watching.
The original book was written by female author Mary Shelley when she was only 19 years old, on a dark stormy night all the way back in 1818.
I really love this book, and I never get tired of reading it as I always discover something new even though it's not a heavy large book, it's not even half as long as Dracula but have so much more going on for it, and it doesn't drag me down, as old classic novels often does, I really can't believe it was written in 1818, almost two hundred years ago. that is just incredible.
lots of stage plays were based on the book through the 1800 century, and there have even been made more than one silent movie, one of them is legally free to watch on youtube, which is just a very odd little ten minute long movie, if you wanna put ten minutes aside go ahead, but its really campy old, low in production and just all around weird.





the 1931 Frankenstein movie with Boris Karloff is probably the one most people are thinking about when talking Frankenstein, even though few people have seen it. This movie just created all the mental imprints we have. the look of the lab with all the sparkly light thingies all around, the castle on a hill with lighting in the back ground, the graveyard which just looks so bare, the hunchbacked assistant, the creator yelling "It's alive", villagers charging the castle with hay forks and touches, and of cause the look of the monster.
All of these things is in the movie. Now its important to remember, non of this stuff had ever appeared in a movie before this, this movie doesn't use old clichés. it created them from scratch. And the movie is well checking out for any horror fan of any horror genre, because this is the movie where it all really began. its a cool movie.



The sequel "Bride of Frankenstein" from 1935 is a stunning experience. it doesn't have so many things in it that would eventually become clichés, but it is actually a better movie.
It is just so beautiful, well acted and preformed, well written and all that stuff. it's really a sequel worth its title and time, taking what the first movie brought and taking it a step further, just as any sequel in reality should. one cliché this movie created however was the blind old man with the violin, and the scenes he is in is just so filled with emotion that it's unbelievable, you wouldn't quite believe it, but that's how it is. a really cool and beautiful movie, and this is my personally favourite movie of all the universal classics.

five other sequels have been made, but they are not nearly as good nor influential as these two first movies, and is really only worth checking out for hardcore fans.




In 1957 the british horror company Hammer Productions made their first major horror, which was Frankenstein. through time there were made 7 Hammer Frankenstein films all in all, all with Peter Cushing as Viktor Frankenstein.

These movies are awesome, instead of having the same monster appear again and again like in the universals movies, Frankenstein was the one to reaccure, each time with a growing insanity as his obsession of creating a monster that works grows which each movie, really making Peter Cushings performance the highlight of each movie and the entire film series, non of the monsters have ever hardly anything to do. they are kind of camped and not always visually stunning, but the horror and the mood are always very much present which is what makes these movies so great.





in 1974, Parody maker Mel Brooks made his master piece in both comedy and spoof movies. "Young Frankenstein" this movie is both beautiful to look at, have class, is daring and vulgar and is funny as hell. Both Gene Wilder as Frankenstein and Marty Feldman as Igor, both comedians known for plenty of other stuff delivers the performance of their life, and the performance fans would continued widely claim to be the best they ever gave.

The movie is a love letter to the old universal Frankenstein movies of the 30's as the style is completely replicated and the movie shows nothing but respect towards its origins. its well worth checking out.




in 1990 Tim Burton made the movie "Edward Scissor hands" which is quite a different kind of Frankenstein tale, where the maker is not involved in other but few flash backs scenes, though the themes is very much the same themes as is often used regarding the monster in the classic Frankenstein movies.

I really love this movie, it's one of the movies out of my childhood, and I just love everything about it. It really have an all around fairy tale fell about it, and its just so cute and funny though at the same time developing a serious dark undertone towards the end.

Personally, I believe this movie paints what Tim Burton was all about in his pride, and sadly he have kind of forgotten with his last few movies, though this glimpse of the past is well worth checking into. one thing is for sure, even November as the first snow falls outside of my window, this movie will be popped into my DVD machine.



In 1994 Kenneth Bragath made his version of the Frankenstein "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" and put himself in the main role as Frankenstein. Already as production had hardly started he claimed this to be the definitive version of Frankenstein.
sigh... I can't stand film makers that have the arrogance to call their version of something "The definitive" especially with something with such a big legacy, as pr usual I havn't hardly touched all that that have been going on in this franchise, it's legacy is just huge.

Is it definitive then? well, its a lot more faithful to the original novel than any of the above mentioned films, but that doesn't make it entirely faithful, and I just don't find it that exciting either. It's a bit to pretentious and a bit to bland to me and really trips over itself in the story telling and becomes muddled as it tries to much, all though it really tries, and of cause over ambitious is always better than under ambitious, I just don't fancy this movie that much.
If you want to see a version that rocks that is incredible faithful to the novel watch the two parter television movie with John Huston as the monster from 2006, it's awesome! and unbelievable faithful to the original novel.




And this year 2010 we had "Splice"
I did not exspect to get a Frankenstein film delivered, but that is kind of what it is.. well of for nothing else than.. awesome to go and see a Frankenstien film in cinema! though... really disgusting and disturbing Frankenstein... YUK!
though, how often do I say yuk of a recent horror film? not to often I have to admit, so yeah, applaud.

It really is Frankenstein, the main characters are even called "Clive and Elsa" which is obviously named after Colin Clive, who played Viktor Frankenstein in the 1931 movie, and Elsa Lanchester who played the bride in the 1935 sequel. awesome!


now this isn't a perfect film, but for a horror fan who likes campy, cheap shock evil dead effect horror over things that doesn't even try an be all smart with itself. its a treat, and I throughout enjoyed it. despite a couple of "huh" moments, I was never bored and that counts a lot for me in recent horrors as most horrors bores me to dead.

well, awesome. I went to cinema and expected a new kind of boring Matrix but got a kind of fun Frankenstein, this franchise is just to good to ever really die.