Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Review: Trolljegeren (The Troll Hunter)



I've recently been privy to certain pirating websites due to the lack of anything at all because the UK would ban reading if they could and came across Redbeard The Troll Hunter by accident. As you may know, I found out about Troll Hunter a few months back, never expecting to see it but thinking it looked ridiculously entertaining. A very happy accident, as it turns out, because it was phenomenal.
The Troll Hunter is Norway’s long awaited response (heh) to the fresh as spring flowers shaky-cam genre, ie, Blair Witch Project and, fittingly, Cloverfield. It tells the story of three Norwegian film students (…but I hate Norwegian film students…) following around a trolljegeren- troll hunter- documenting his exploits as they trek through northern Norway looking for- shocker- trolls.
They use the old ‘the state has kept them a secret’ gag. Not like they would need to, because who does anything in Norway anymore. Too mainstream. [adjusts glasses]
The troll hunter they follow around lets them film the trolls because he wants people to know of their existence on account of he hates his job.
The premise is quaint enough- it’s pretty hard to say ‘no’ to a guy pitching a movie about following around trolls, but the main strength of the movie is not the plot. The plot is there because it needs to be, kind of like how if you look at the story arc of Cloverfield it literally makes no sense. [runs over Cloverfield DVD with a steamroller]
But where the movie succeeds it flourishes. The first thing that really got me hooked was the setting itself. Norway looks fucking awesome. And it isn’t like there are some good establishing shots of an open field with maybe a mountain and the rest is night vision in the woods- they go through like 4 completely different terrains. The locations change with the story, and the movie squeezes every last drop of Norway out of Norway. It’s basically Lord of the Rings done all handheld (but without dollys or fancy mirrors or whatever those whippersnappers used to make the movie look all newfangled). Don’t get me wrong, by the by, the night vision scene is awesome. Night vision + trolls= nerd boner.
I initially had some trouble figuring out the exact tone of the movie, though. It’s not funny or scary enough to be a dark comedy and I feel like they didn’t have a tone in mind when they were doing this movie. Overall it’s very suspenseful, and the idea of people going troll hunting in Norway gives the film just the right amount of wit. In the end I finished the movie in a very peppy humor.
Speaking of wit, one of the best aspects of the movie is Otto Jesperson- the troll hunter. This guy is really, really good.
So good that I in fact wikipedia’d him, and found out some interesting facts. Jesperson is a card carrying socialist who lives in Norway as a radio personality and comedian. He is also one of the most hated people in the country, at least by the government, because of the cracks he makes at Norways PM (who is probably a bear).
His performance is absolutely delightful and makes the movie what it is. The film students keep telling him how exciting his job sounds and he acts like he’s a garbage man. He just has this way about him that makes everything he does awesome.
The visuals in the movie are great, too. The trolls look a little weird/cartoonish, but there are some seriously badass troll-fighting sequences. And the whole night vision scene is, I’ll say it again, really well done and really suspenseful. The production value of the whole thing looks absolutely insane, made even more satisfying due to the fact that this is still a hugely underground movie [puts on hipster hat]. Don’t worry, though, because I have a feeling that it’s going to explode sometime soon.






Sunday, February 6, 2011

Fincher Wants Breasts All over teh Intern3tz

I'm pretty set on thinking that David Fincher can do whatever he wants. Seriously, this guy has made some of the most badass movies of all time. His first movie was an Alien sequel, and whether or not that movie is good is irrelevant. He's had an impressive career, which is about to be solidified when he wins best director for Social Network (moments before it nabs BP). He's also the guy, and I have to say this, that killed my father and robbed him of his two California gold pieces he kept in his trouser pant could have stolen Daniel Craig from doing the next Bond. It's all worked out now, thank Shiva, but still. I need Bond back like Disco.
side note- the next Bond gets better and better every day and it's not just about having Craig and Mendes. They signed back on Dame Judy, and that's great, but that was to be expected- now they're talking about getting Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes as unnamed roles. Um, can you say No Country hairstyles all around? YESPLZ
Anyway, Finch can do whatever he wants, and now he's testing the strength of that tether by asking the studio behind his stateside remake of The Millenium Trilogy if he can use a topless photo of Rooney Mara as the international release poster. Uh, that's fine by me, don't get me wrong, I would actually pay for that poster (this coming from a guy who regularly steals from gift shop kiosks, like, every time he goes out), but in all seriousness it's not going to happen. He says in that case he'll release it on tehinternet simply for viral purposes. Fincher has serious balls to ask his studio if he can do that. Not even Jimmy Cameron could get away with that. Mainly because he'd be too busy staring at the poster and giggling 'Hehe, tits!'
Also, Rooney Mara is incredibly attractive to me, especially in Social Network,
it's funny, though. The first scene she is in she looks like a nerdy little college freshman, but literally five minutes later she looks 4 years older. Anybody care to explain that to me? Maybe it's just me. Is anybody there? Hello? Hel- oh, hai Garrett Storm.
but the way her eyebrows look in the pre-shoot pics of Dragon Tattoo makes me think Fincher is planning another Alien movie he's not telling us about.



Look, Rooney, we know how excited you are about the naked photoshoot, but WE'RE TRYING TO DO OUR JOBS.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Tuesday Beefy Beef

You know what slightly agitates me? Read the thing above and see if you can guess. Movieweb does this sometimes, Movieweb being the vehicle that carried me into obsession-with-movies-land (the in flight movie was terriblelolol). Movieweb does this thing where it'll hype something up for you in the title, but then be totally and completely and utterly and creepily dissapointing. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.
I'ts not complaining, it's Cinemerating. [befriends whale] [rides whale into sunset]
Now, about the article. Topic: new Batman movie. Status: interested. Reaction to reference to Anne Hathaway's physical appearence in a scanty clad: hightened, with slight tingles. Reaction to actual article: meh.
'She looks phenomenal'.- Wally Pfister.
Whatever happened to not being into the whole brevity thing, Pfist-meister?
Speaking of refrences to the Big Lebowski, here's something funny my good friends (who totally missed out on my party last night, guys! It was awesome wish you coulda been there) at FilmDrunk- linky McLinkerstein.
It's hard to believe anything Tara Reid says (I love you, for instance. Bitch.), but the prospect would be interesting to think about, if I wanted to ever think about it ever. What's incredible is that she still hangs on to a movie she had very little involvement in (ok, granted, Bunny is technically the driving force that gets everybody into trouble, kind of like Brad Pitt in True Romance, but Tara is no Brad Pitt, even though that would make her sexually attractive to me). Don't get me wrong, if I was in TBL for half a second, I'd profess the expreience to be a life changing one. But hey, maybe I was in the Big Lebowski. Hard to tell. The nineties was just a big coke haze for me.
In other news, the new superman was cast, but you all probably know that already. What's interesting about this news is that I care this means that Batman, Spiderman, and now Superman, the three benchposts of superhero movie superhero heros, are all British. What would our forefathers say? Would they be proud, supportive of this notion? Fuck if I know. Stupid question anyway. [breaks sunglasses] [buys new sunglasses]
Oh yes, attention internets- Tron Dog is out there, somewhere, waiting for you to find him so you can show him his way home. I don't know how he keeps getting into my photos, but then again, I don't know whether or not it's unsafe to eat raw jellyfish.
UPDATE- Pretty sure it doesn't matter.

It's a fucking showdog. With fucking papers.