Finntroll

Ray Liotta is one of the best actors of his generation, but has for some reason rarely been seen in real blockbusters, except his breakthrough in "Goodfellas" and the role he did in "Hannibal", he seems more content with doing roles he likes, rather than going after the big cash. This is especially evident in "Narc", a movie which did quite well in the USA, but was by no means a big grosser and also suffered from, at times, almost non-existent distribution anywhere else.

In "Narc", Liotta plays the ruthless cop Henry Oak, a very complex character: Oak may be a fascist and a racist, but he has his principles, and even though he may be one of the hardest hard-asses around and has no problems with breaking the law for the sake of hurting people who, in his opinion, are bad, he is still a person.

Liotta makes Oak come alive and a character which in the hands of a lesser actor might have been portrayed as a total nihilist becomes one that you on one hand hate and on the other hand admire. In my book this is Ray Liotta's best performance ever, he also gained 25 lb. for it to give Oak a look that says "Try see if you dare hit me!". All thanks can't go to Liotta though, as Joe Carnahan has done an excellent job with writing the script.

Jason Patric also delivers a tremendous portrait of a haunted cop. A character that is maybe not as complex as the one of Oak, but on the other hand more likable.

The movie itself is a cold, brutal story about an unsolved cop killing, a twisted plot and some interesting characters makes it even more intriguing. This move owe a lot to classic cop-on-the-edge movies like "The French Connection", but it has a different vibe which somewhat resembles the manic and frantic atmosphere that is evident in "Se7en". Production wise you can see that it ran on a tight budget, as many of the shots are done either inside or on desolate locations, on the other hand why would you need a lot of flashy scenery to make a movie such as this? Also, the absence of it makes this movie feel even grittier.

People in this movie all seem to work for their own cause with little respect for others. Every being in this world seems corrupt in some way, except those who decide to leave it. Pessimistic? Yes. Fitting? Very fitting indeed.

Word has it that the movie ran out of funding when it was just half-made and that Patric and Liotta actually worked for free, when you watch the way they act you can tell that they would probably even have paid to make it.

This is a movie that i would recommend to anyone who feels the world is a bit to cute, turn this on and you'll instantly be transported to a world where the masks are dropped: peoples greed and egoism is no longer hidden, it's all right there before your bleeding eyes.

Note: I may have said that Busta Rhymes was "the worst rapper gone actor ever", but he revives himself here and does a pretty good role.

Once in a while I like to kick back with a movie that doesn't tax my brain at all and just lets me enjoy a stupendous amount of blood, guts and limbs. Beyond the Limits certainly gave me my fair share of the latter, but unfortunately it also features so much stupidity that I actually started to wonder what the hell I was doing. It also had really serious problems with acting, as some of the actors looked more scared of the camera than of the murderer. And the dialog must be some of the cheesiest I've heard since Ittenbach seems to think that good dialog consists of a bunch of words drowned in a sea of profanity. The only thing I can't complain about is the bloodshed which looks kind of good, and yes, the gore is obviously the whole point of this movie, but I can't ignore the fact that the movie sucks.

Braindead gorehounds will have a good time but most of us will probably have fallen to sleep by the time it ends.

"Big Fish" has for reasons beyond me been hailed as a modern classic by many a viewer. The story is about an insane, self-centered chronic, liar (played by Albert Finney), who tells the story of his life to his neglected son (Billy Crudup). Of course the father lies about his life and comes up with a lot of stupid tales about himself as young (Ewan McGregor).

What I don't get about this movie is how people can like a person as reprehensible as Ed Bloom. Not only is he an arrogant S.O.B. who can't talk about anything but himself, he was also a bad father and probably also a bad husband, which is somewhat implied by Jessica Lange's restrained and depressing performance. Also, Ed Bloom seems to get sad every time someone tells him that he's not funny and tries to make him act sane for at least one time in his life. Wait scratch that, first he's sad and then he tells another story. I found it impossible not to hate him. Which is strange because everyone in the movie loves him, and I have no idea why. The only scene I really enjoyed was when he got beaten up.

Some things aren't awful though. The sets and Alison Lohman look great and... Well that was about it. Otherwise this is just two hours of pure horse-manure.

I could ramble on about all the pointless, sugarcoated, sentimental crap that this movie is stuffed with, but honestly I just want to erase it from my mind.