Hey! Just wanted to let you all know that I’ve posted my review on Die Hard 4.0 (or as it’s called in the US, “Live Free or Die Hard”). I’ve also uploaded 7 new images from “16″ as promised. Check them out on the movies’ page, or by clicking right here!

More info on new movies I’ve seen later this week (hopefully)! Take care everyone!

So, I just came back from watching the fourth installment of the Die Hard movie franchise. I’ve been looking forward to this movie for quite some time now, and I had pretty high expectations when I saw the movie. Remember that there may be some spoilers in the review.

So, what’s the story this time? Well, it’s fourth of July and John McClane has to save the day yet again when terrorists begin a digital attack on the United States infrastructure which starts shutting down the whole country. When hackers all around the country are killed, McClane (Willis) has to transport one of the top “black-hat” hackers (played by no other than “I’m a Mac” Justin Long) to the FBI for interrogation and safe-keeping. I really enjoyed the whole movie from start to finish. It’s a great script with lots of memorable scenes, and it features some rock solid acting from everyone involved.

Some of the scenes in the film are (as I said earlier) really, really cool and really inspiring. You don’t get a single moment to catch your breath before the next massive explosion shakes the theater seat. While not being as memorable as the epic bridge scene in Mission Impossible 3, a scene with a SUV in a elevator shaft (!) is extremely exciting and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Bruce Willis reprises his classic role of John McClane, who is now a Senior Detective in the Washington police force. There might have been over 12 years since the last movie, but Bruce is still a complete badass. Dropping great one-liners throughout the movie and finishing off henchmen in the most inventive ways possible is the trademark, that is kept for this movie as well. Justin Long plays the internet hacker who has to be transported through the city (actually, the story is close to the movie “16 Blocks” which also features Bruce Willis, but much better). If you’re a computer/internet geek like me, you have probably seen the Mac ads featuring two guys in a white room. Well, Justin Long plays “Mac” and I really thought that it couldn’t work to have him as the second biggest actor in a movie like this. Well, I was wrong, and he’s just as nerdy, but still fun, as you’d expect him to be. Maggie Q plays another action-related role here (she was one of the IMF agents in MI3) and she’s great! The only problem is she doesn’t really have a lot of screen-time. Timothy Olyphant plays the villain, and I were really interested to see how that was going to work, especially since he plays Agent 47 in the Hitman movie which will come out late October this year. Well, he was great but I still feel that he won’t work as a main-character for a whole movie. Another great thing was that filmmaker Kevin Smith played a small role as a computer hacker! If you don’t know who I’m talking about you NEED to see “Clerks” and “Jay and silent Bob strikes back” now!

The sound and music was really great, the special and visual FX were AMAZING (one scene in particular when a big rig truck is basically shattered from the devastating effect of a F43 jet airplane machinegun). The colour grading was good without attracting to much attention to itself. The cinematography kept you right in the scenes at all times without being to shaky or “documentary”. I still wish more movies were shot in the digital, more realistic way like “Miami Vice” and “Collateral”, but I guess you can’t blame the movie for that. still, it would have been nice to see, and I think it would work really well with what happens in the film.

Now, to the controversy. All other Die Hard movies have been rated R in the US (meaning no-one below 17 years can see it without an adult). So, what in the magical Die Hard formula has been changed, since it was revealed only a few weeks ago that the movie had been edited down to a PG-13 to reach a larger audience? Well, there’s almost no blood in the movie, and a lot of the dialouge has been replaced which in some cases leads to the voices not lining up perfectly with what the actor on the screen is actually saying. For example, it pretty often happens that the most recent line in the Die Hard movies: F*ck, is replaced by: Damn! It doesn’t really change how good the movie is or isn’t, but it still drops it a point on the nostalgia scale. I can’t wait for the inevitable unrated DVD (or Blu-Ray ) with all the blood, violence and language edited back in.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. While not being the perfect action movie (like the original first two Die Hard movies, which I loved), it’s still a very, very good action movie that I don’t think will leave anyone dissapointed!

Verdict: 8 out of 10

P.S. Another extremely annoying thing was the fact that right behing me in the theater sat about five 14 or 15 year-olds constantly commenting every single aspect of the movie in a negative way, or saying “NO!” whenever something unrealistic happened (it’s a Die Hard movie, damn it!). I was pretty close to turn around and tell them to shut up, but I restrained myself to only turning around slightly and stared at one of them, which also worked. Jerks.

Well, it seems I miscalculated slightly on the time we were going to be on the countryside. I just came back home, and I just wanted to let you all know that new images from “16″ will be up later this night, as well as my review on “Die Hard 4.0″ which me and Nils B are going to see in about an hour. But until then, I have a lot of things to do, so I’ll catch you later right here on the website. Take care everybody!

Quite some time now since I gave you a status update and a heads-up on the progression of “16″, “Showdown”, life and more. Anyway, do not fear, because here’s another summary of what has been going on for the last couple of weeks.

School finished a week ago! It’s a great relief not having to constantly think about what homework assignment I have to do next.

As you might have read I went to Gothenburg with Nils B, Johannes and my dad last Friday to go to the amusement park “Liseberg”. This is something we do every single year after school has finished, and it’s a great way to welcome the upcoming two months of pure relaxation. Although, that’s not really the case.

I’ve been working very, very hard at getting “16″ done since I came back from Gothenburg last Sunday. I finally finished the editing of the film today, and it came out pretty good. All that’s left to do know is to re-record some of the dialouge to make it more clear, as well as some colour grading, sound effects and music. But due to some technical difficulties I’ve had to push the release date back a bit (yes, I know, typical). The film will now be released sometime in the middle of July. To compensate for this I will post some nice bloopers from the shoot as well as more images before the movie is released. Expect more pictures from the movie at the end of this week.

“Showdown” will still be shot this summer! Everything is filmed for “16″, so there’s no holding back from shooting my first feature length film this summer. The script is pretty much done, and I reckon the movie will be shot mostly around July and the beginning of August, since most people seem to have come home from their vacations and such things. Will post more details on the shoot when we start of course, but as it’s looking now the film will be shot this summer for a worldwide release date sometime early next year.

I’m currently writing my “Dead Silence” review, but until I put it up, check out the new review of Hostel – Part 2 I just posted below this post. So, stay tuned for more information about the production of “16″ and “Showdown” and look forward to more photos from “16″ at the end of the week. Oh, and by the way, I was at the Elton John concert in Malmö yesterday. It was extremely good, and if you get a chance to see it, you definently should.

Take care everybody!

I saw the “Hostel” sequel about a week ago, and here is what I thought about it. I’m going to try to keep it as spoiler-free as possible, but I can’t promise some minor plot info will be in the review.

The first “Hostel” film was a story about 3 foreign students who goes to Slovakia to party and find some lady-company. Of course, everything goes wrong and they are kidnapped and placed in a big warehouse where rich people from all over the world pay a lot of cash to torture and kill innocent tourists. It all turns into a very gory and bloody shockfest after one of the students manages to escape the evil organisation. The film was given pretty bad reviews, and I actually found it pretty disgusting (which I rarely do). For some reason I just had to see the sequel to what was called the most shocking film ever. The story in the sequel picks up just where the first one left off. This is pretty interesting, but for clichéd reasons that storyline isn’t followed for more than 5 minutes (read: the student who fled in the last film loses his head. Litterally.). Back in Slovakia we find the new victims, three pretty american girls who are just out and about in eastern Europe, travelling around. They too get invited to the small town in Slovakia with promises of free parties, drugs and good looking guys. Things are of course not as they seem and shortly therafter they find themselves in the same warehouse where the last movie’s events took place. An interesting twist to the whole movie is that we as the audience get to know the rich psychopaths before the “main event” and see them bid and pay to get the prettiest girl to torture.

I thought the mixed storylines were quite interesting, and it has a nice twist at the end which I don’t think anyone would have expected. There’s not as much blood and gore in this one, even if some of the scenes will have you twitching in your seat. It’s DEFINENTLY not for the faint of heart.

There isn’t really much to say about the acting. Everyone pretty much plays their role by the book. One of the Slovakian guys is the same guy who plays Viktor Krum in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He wears exactly the same clothes and speaks the same way as in the Harry Potter film, which proves for some pretty weird feelings related to his fate later in the story.

I really think Hostel: Part 2 is a better movie than it’s prequel, mostly based on the fact that it isn’t as disgusting as the previous one (except for one scene). I really don’t know what else I could write about it. Neither the sound or the music is really standout or special in any way. The film left me with a feeling that Eli Roth set out to do the most revolting story with the most disgusting images possible (even if he says he just wants to create a story about friendship and how it is in some countries…right). Nothing was really special about the movie except for how you see the entire story from two completely different perspectives. The movie’s better than being mediocre, but it’s not really a movie I would recommend. If you get a chance to see it and you think you can handle all the blood and gore, you should see it. But, if you don’t, you’re not really missing out on anything.

Verdict: 6 out of 10