Author: Iamincharge

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The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

About 8 years ago I read The Alchemist for the first time and its a book I keep coming back to. Every now and then I read it again and I continue to feel uplisted, optimistic, positive, glad, calm, relaxed, and hopeful.

I enjoy the way Paulo Coelho writes, it’s not pompus, not using words where you need a dictionnarie to understand it’s meaning, he writes in an easy and accessible language, easy to read and still he manages to put meaningful messages into the sentences. He is short and precise in his writing but still he embraces you with his words. It feels as if you walk right next to Santiago and follow him on his journey.

Actually if I’m abroad, I usually want to bring home a souvenir and if I can’t find anything in particular that I want I normally buy a copy of The Alchemist. So far I have it in Danish, German, Italien, and French, the English copy I gave to a friend because the book teaches you so much about your self.

And when you want something all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it. It doesn’t mean that you can sit and wait for things to happen, you have to believe in your dreams, you have to open your heart and do your best to dare to look for your dream and enjoy the journey, enjoy your life and see the love. Go for it! Life is like an icecream, eat it before it melts!

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X-Men – Days of future past by Bryan Singer

Before you read any further the might be some spoilers ahead, so stop reading if you haven’t watched the film yet and plan to.

X-Men has always been favourite films of mine, I completely fell in love with the Marvel, Super hero universe when I watched the first X-Men back in 2000 – also directed by Bryan Singer. Super powers, Wolverines blades, Magneto, Xavier etc. The cast is amazing and I enjoy Jennifer Lawrences performance as Mystique, she really manages to show the emotionel conflict that Raven/Mystique has when confronted by Xavier and Magneto, manages to show her determination when she has made a decision.

However this time travel adventure or what else to call it where Wolverine at the end of the film wakes up to a perfect world where Xaviers school is buzzing with students and Xavier knows that Wolverine saved the world from mutant desctruction eventhough he was not supposed to remenber anything from the alternative future.  Maybe it’s just me getting older while the Marvel superhero film aim for a younger audience.

I start to find them rather boring, the kind of film that can be shown in the telly and you can do the dishes, watch the film, fold you laundry and still keep track of the film.

I would really like to say something good about this film, but apart from the great actors the film is not one that goes over in history. Sorry :-/

 

 

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Blade runner 2049 – Denis Villeneuve

Finally I got around to go to the cinema to watch Blade runner 2049, and I don’t have a single valid excuse for not going as soon as it premiered.

I was told that it follows the first Blade runner in style, universe, speed (or lack of it), however I still think the first one is much more depressing and dark than Blade runner 2049.  Most of the rain have been replaced by snow or what looks like it more a ash or dust kind of snow. It still mostly dark, not a whole lot of sunshine, the sun is always hidden behind a thick cloudy sky, but it gives the illusion of a difference between day and night.

On some level I’m still not quite sure what I think of the film, it’s not “noir” enough to leave a heavyness of dark rainy night on my shoulder. The most depressing room is lieutenants Joshis office, it has this terrible cold, cold, white/blue light, that could drive any man crazy. It makes her look even harder and less human than she might be. The film stick to three colours, darkness (night, blackish) the hoorible white/blue light and a very soft yellow light that soothes yours eyes and makes your forehead relax for a moment, before it again tenses and wrinkles emerge by the next scene. After the film I didn’t get that depressing feeling that I go after the first film, maybe because this film has a replicant in the leading role, and the lack of emotions makes it more distant and difficult to really move me. It is easy to see that he “K” is emotionnel capable or at least something disturbs what he thought was true.

Ryan Gosling is doing a pretty good job in this one, I have no idea why it has taken me so many years to see him. I’ve seen his name numerous times, but for some reason he has never really caught my attention. The way he manages to act as a obeying replicant and at the same time almost as he is becoming aware of what human emotions are. That there is something that he learns but still can’t understand. That awareness is visible in his eyes , and that is pretty amazingly done.

I kindda expected Harrison Ford to have a bigger role in the film, so that part disappointed me, because I’m a big fan of his work.

The film seems to be a bit too long eventhough I can’t really pinpoint where it could be edited. There is just something …. long about the film… It is a really beautiful film visually and the story, well it does as most sequals do, focus on family ties.

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Blade runner – Final cut by Ridley Scott

Many years ago I watched Blade runner for the first time and due to Blade runner 2049 I wanted to watch the first one again to catch up (and also just because it’s a great movie 🙂 )  One of the things that struck me when I watched the film again was the sounds. At this moment I cannot recall if there is any music in the film but the sound of rain, the endless dripping of water, it is as if the darkness makes a sound that doesn’t leave you again.

A friend of mine and I decided that we should watch the Blade runner 2049  together, so I told him that watching Blade runner first and lend him my DVD (yes I have it on DVD :D). After a few days I asked what he thought of the film, he answer was: “I’m only half way through, it’s kind of slow, isn’t it?” I was mortified!! I was speechless, I had to consult a colleague with the fact that we had a “none-beliver” amongst us. Well, I chose to forgive him, he is young and grew up with action movies where speed and explotions are more important than a film which actually has a story. Poor guy 🙂

The future universe that Ridley Scott managed to create visually is dark, depressing, constant rain,  a Los Angeles in decay, powerful people. A limited staff makes the film more intense and “noir”. Rachel is beautiful and human like in any way, and I cant help to want to protect her. She seems so fragile. Harrison Ford again does a wonderful job, eventhough his acting style is very recognisable I am a fan. He never disappoints me and I can’t wait to watch Blade runner 2049, I’ve been told that Denis Villeneuve kept the film noir feeling and the slower tempi of the film.

Can’t wait to watch Blade runner 2049.

 

 

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Gods behaving badly – Marie Phillips

If you want to read a comedy book, you should start with this one. Gods behaving badly is absolutely hilarious!

Since no one really believes in the ancient greek gods anymore they were expelled from Mount Olympus and moved to London. This is the story about Afrodite selling phone sex, Artemis now a professional dog walker, Dionysos club owner, Apollon a psychic in a television show and their meeting with the first one to believe in the greek gods for a very long time – Alice.

The story of greek mythology is brilliantly used and incorporated in the book and the language is light, easy to read and makes you laugh out loud. That is a rare thing to accomplish with a book, but the way Marie Phillips uses the language to describe the situations and dialogue between the characters are so funny that you simply cannot hold back.

This is a book that will never leave my bookshelf. It’s Prozac in bookform, it’s watching people slipping on a bananapeel, it’s watching bloopers from your favourite tv-show, it’s just hilarious.

 

 

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Still Alice – Lisa Genova

Still Alice is by far one of the best books that I’ve read. It stays in your heart and will never leave again. The book is about Alice, mother of 3 , wife, professor at Harvard University, proud of what she has accomplished and then …. Alzheimers.

All of a sudden her life turns upside down and so is her familys life. The fact that you read the book from Alices point of view makes is so much more … real, emotionel, sad, and beautiful. There is so much love in the book, that eventhough is it about her Alzheimers diagnose, and sometimes they reveal their sadness, anger, frustration over the fact that there is nothing to do to prevent the illness to slowly take away the mother, the wife, the ambitious professor that they all know so well and love.

The fact that Alice is only 50 years when she gets the diagnose just makes it more heartbreaking. So young and still have plenty to offer her students at the university, life with her husband, becoming a grandmother, enjoying the fruits of her labour.

It’s about a year ago that I read the book and 2 years since I saw the film, I still when I see the cover of the book, catch myself in looking out of the window and think about how short and fragile our lifes are. How important love and family are to a person. Why we should seize the day and do what makes us happy. Smile to the person who serves you your coffee, enjoy the break that you get when stuck in the morning traffic.

It is so vividly and realistic written that I tend to believe that it is a real story. Each one of us can become an Alice or one in our family can become an Alice, and this book can help us understand the illness and what happens to the family affected.

Thank you Lisa Genova for writing an unforgetable book.

 

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Suspiria (1977)

In the occasion of halloween the theatres showed a special performance of “Suspiria”  a horror film from the late seventies. I was thinking why not and left home to watch this “most terrifying horror of all times” kind of film. You know when you watch a film that old that the special effect and sound is not what you are used to. There is no way and no reason to try and compare with a recent movie, that would just not be fair.

The set is psychedelic and very seventies with wall paper that makes you dizzy, symmetri that I’m not even sure actually exited but supports the mystery of the film. The sound was high pitched and made you wonder what they were smoking writting music in the seventies.

The story is about a young american woman who moves to Germany to attend a prestigious ballet school. At the same time a serie of murders takes place and she finds out that something is not as it should be at the school. Watching it now it’s more fun than scary, but I can imagine how it must have been 40 years ago when it first came out. The mystery, the scary scenes, the up and close cutting and grusomme murders. When watching “old” films you know that the tempi is not as the latest action/thriller film produced the last decade, it’s slow and dialogue is a whole other level. It absolutely not a bad thing and eventhough the film at some points seem ridicolous and merely funny, I never find it slow or tedious. It is a great example of a good horror film from that time.

 

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It (2017)

Just watched It (2017) and it was absolutelz amazing!! Normally I’m not a big a fan of remakes of already brilliant films – at least the ones where I know the first version 🙂 – but this one is a really really good one.

I was spooked several times and it was just as scary as I hoped to be. The children does an amazing job and Bill Skarsgård …. wauw! I’m a huge fan of the performance by Tim Curry and the It miniseries from 1990, however the new Pennywise is just as scary as the first one. It was funny to hear grown men laughing in the darkness of the movie theatre because they got so scared at several scenes in the film.

Just speechless, I guess I have to come back to this one, when I have gathered my thoughts.

Hello, Im back again. The enire film, the set, the cast, the things I remember from the book and the miniseries are all back in this film. Who doesn’t remember the bloody bathroom where Beverlys father comes in a can’t see the blood and places his hands on the sink. The costume made for Pennywise is amazing and fit the character perfectly. Just the way I imagine a clown.

No matter who I have talked about this film with, everyone is truly blown away by the performance of the children in this film. It is definitely a must-see whether you know the mini-series from 1990 or not. And just a small thank you to Stephen King for being a brilliant writer and story teller to have made this story in the first place. Thank you!!

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Yogisha X no Kenshin – Higashino Keigo

The Devotion of Suspect X is a crime story of a single mother Yasuko and her daughter Misato who in self defense kills her violent ex-husband and their neighbour Ishigami- a briliant math teacher – who helps them make an alibi for the murder. The detective investigating the crime ask for help by a physicist Yukawa who went to the same university as Ishigami.

A great part of the many books that I have read are crime stories. After so many crime stories I find it more and more difficult to be surprized both by the story but also by the characters. What I find most intriging and fascinating about the book is the Japanese culture. The behaviour of the characters is more interesting than the story. The way honor and respect is so important in their lives, how they express love … or choose to hide it. The daily routine, how they live, what do they do on a normal everyday evening. I haven’t read much literature from Japan, so it’s always an eye-opener.

The revealing at the end of the book is different than seen before, however it didn’t rock my boat. Luckily I’m not the only reader to this book and it has won numerous awards in Japan and has been adapted into films as well.

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Mother! – Darren Aronofsky

First let me say that this post will have spoilers, so if you haven’t watched the film yet and plan to, consider yourself warned.

SPOILER ALERT!

I entered the cinema expecting to get scared, like when I watched It (1990) or The others (2001). Expecting to sleep with the lights on for a couple of weeks, expecting to be introduced to new kind of ghosts, a history of violence in a haunted house. But the film didn’t give me those ghosts and haunted house that I expected and left the cinema disappointed. But…

just because I didn’t find the scary ghosts that I thought I would find doesn’t make Mother! a terrible film. On the contrary, the film forces you to think differently about what are the ghosts in this film, what is the director trying to tell you with this film? Is he trying to tell you anything? Does he want you to make your own conclusion based on his pictures? Is the film based on religion? Is he a narcissistic God or a Devil? What is she? A condemned soul?

Fairly soon after the film starts, it’s easy to see that he is the issue in this house and she really is the heart and soul of the house, she is the mother, she is home. She is nesting, feeling the house, restauring the house, taking care of him, doing her outmost to avid to disturb him. He’s a writer and apparently has a writer’s block and she is trying to say to him that it is okay. She seems to be a girl married to a dominant man. It’s a 3 part film, a sandwich, first she is nervous, his writer’s block and the strangers in their house, then the rosery period with her pregnancy where he manages to write again and publish his book, that lastly turns into a things that just spirals the story downwards. This is where you really gets confused,  because normally there are absolutely no outside persons in their life. No grocery shopping, no mail man, no family visits, no phone calls, and suddenly the doorbell…

For a film that is listed as horror, drama, mystery on Imdb.com I kinda expect to get spooked, and for me that didn’t really happen. As soon as it started to build up a scare, nothing happens. However I would like to watch it again. The film has so many different angles to it, so many ways to see it, and this is one of the few and very rare films where you can make your own conclusions on what you see.