quende Reviews

Days of Our Lives (1965– )

Crap plot, crap acting, crap show

[1/10 · 17 April 2009]

I can't for my life understand what's so appealing about this show and how on earth it has such a high rating.

This is a type example of a show which just have gone on and on, years after it should have been canceled. The plots are utterly ridiculous including possessions by Satan, evil twins and mind control through chips operated into peoples brains. This is what happens when the writers run out of ideas and take to bizarre stories just to keep the show running.

Unless you're a fan of bad acting and ridiculous plots you should stay as far away from DOOL as possible.

They Call Us Misfits (1968)

Youth rebellion forty years ago

[10/10 · 7 November 2008]

Even though I'm born in the eighties and was a teenager in the late nineties and early twenty-first century I can relate to this movie. Why? Because youth is still youth. Every decade has it's rebellion. In every decade there are kids who live like the kids in this movie. The fifties had the rockers, the sixties the mods and hippies, the seventies punk, the eighties metal and goth, nineties grunge and now we have the emos. There will always be youth rebellion.

And there will always be drugs, alcohol and those who fall for the fast living and become prisoners of their addiction.

What strikes me the most about this movie is the pessimism of the young people. They come from broken homes full of abuse. Physical abuse and substance abuse. And they don't expect to do any better themselves. They live for the day not thinking too much about the future. They party and do drugs to not have to think about what their lives are really like. They are true escapists but in the end reality catches up with them as we see in the sequels.

This is a sad movie showing the despair of lost young people hiding behind happy facades of constant partying. Even though it was made forty years ago it's still a very important documentary. I know people like this. Change the scenery to that of Stockholm today and the clothes to clothes of today and this movie could have been shot in 2008.

The question I ask myself after watching this movie is how can we make things right for people like this? I don't know and apparently people back then didn't know either because things are still the same.

Avonlea (1990–1998)

Travel 100 years back in time and you'll end up in Avonlea. You'll love it.

[23 July 2008]

A couple of weeks ago I decided to watch Road to Avonlea again, for the first time in over ten years. I didn't remember much about the show more than that I used to love it when I was a child. I've always been fond of history and adventures and Avonlea was a perfect mixture of those elements. A show which makes you dream about another time and place. When I re-watched the show this summer I remembered why I used to love it so much and after watching just a couple of episodes I was hooked, just like all those years ago. I still love Avonlea. I love the characters, I love their adventures, I love their beautiful island. I love their little world which I wish was real because if it was I would like to visit it.

I never got bored with the people of Avonlea because there were so many of them and something new always happened. There was love, fights, tears, joy, death, comedy and all the challenges and pleasures you meet in life. Through the years the young children of the show grew up and it was very interesting seeing how they evolved. I especially found Felicity's way from a little know-it-all besserwisser to a intelligent young woman interesting.

Every actor, both the lead characters and the guests on the show did an outstanding job and I can't remember a single actor who's character wasn't well played. I loved some and hated some but they all felt real.

Another thing of huge importance which I think was extremely well done was all the aesthetic things. The costumes, the locations and the props. Everything looked as it was taken straight from the early 20th century. Of course I'm no expert of home decoration and clothes of that time but I imagine the persons behind all of those things in the wardrobe and props departments did a lot of research before they created and gathered all those wonderful dresses and furniture.

Avonlea has made me both cry and laugh until I cried. It's one of the finest TV-series I've ever watched and I recommend it to anyone who wants to escape our stressful society for a while. Travel 100 years back in time and you'll end up in Avonlea. You'll love it.

Frostbitten (2006)

Swedish vampires. Now that's something I've actually never seen before.

[6/10 · 11 February 2008]

I watched this movie without expecting too much since I had heard that it's not very good and since I didn't expect too much I wasn't very disappointed either. Why I watched it anyway was because it's the first Swedish vampire movie and being Swedish of course that's exciting and the other reason was that it was shot in my old hometown and I wanted to see if I recognized any of the locations. Which I did, the school scenes were shot at my old school.

So what can I say about this movie? That it had a lot of potential and could have been very good if done in another way. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be scary, gory or funny and that's the main flaw. If the focus had been on either making it a really scary horror movie or a vampire comedy I think something good might have come out of it. But it didn't because Frostbiten is a weird mixture of horror and comedy which unfortunately isn't working.

I also feel that the location isn't used as good as it could have been. Northern Sweden during the winter is cold and dark with snow, snow and more snow. There's also lots of wilderness and big forests. The perfect setting for a really creepy horror movie. But did we see any of that? No. Most of the film was set indoors with the climax of the film being another teenage party turning into a blood bath, which is terribly unoriginal. That could have worked if the focus was on comedy but since it wasn't (at least I don't think it was) it just turned cliché.

And the acting? Well some of the actors did good but for every good one there was one terrible. And the accent? I used to live in the northern Sweden and the way most of the actors talked and tried to imitate that accent is NOT the way people actually talk up there! If you're not from the northern Sweden you probably won't be bothered by that but if you are you'll find it silly and annoying.

So what was good about this movie? Well since I'm Swedish I can't trash a Swedish vampire movie completely. For me the thing I liked best about it just is that it's Swedish because there are no other movies like this here. As far as I know this is the first ever vampire movie made in Sweden and because of that it deserves a watch. It's quite entertaining as long as you don't expect too much of it. Another good thing was the special effects. I have nothing to complain about there.

Do I recommend this movie? Sure. Just don't expect to be scared or laugh a lot. It's OK in it's own way but nothing mind blowing.

Bang Bang You're Dead (2002)

Painfully realistic high school everyday life

[10/10 · 2 December 2007]

I usually don't comment on movies I watch even though I have a lot to say about a lot of movies. Although after watching this one I feel that I really have to make a comment about it. Because it is THAT good and THAT important.

This movie is about the everyday life in high school, focusing on the negative parts of that everyday life. It's mainly about Trevor, a boy who has been bullied for some time by a group of jocks. Although he's not the only victim. We follow him and see school from his perspective. How him and other people are being ridiculed and tortured every day. Some of them eventually snap. Some decide that it's payback time and that's what this movie is about. What happens when someone is pushed over that thin line and turns to violence for revenge.

What struck me the most watching this film was how utterly and painfully real the environment felt. This is the school I remember going to. This is the hierarchy and cruelty I remember taking place every day. In at least one comment I read that someone thought that this movie stereotyped people and especially the jocks and maybe that's the case. Still I can't but feel that some of the stereotyping is in fact quite accurate. Because it is the jocks and cheerleaders who are the popular ones, it is they who rule the school. Whether or not they're bullies or not. Bullies comes in many forms and this movies chose to use jocks as bullies. To me that feels unimportant. What feels important is how the movie shows us how things are. How some people take such pleasure in humiliating others and how those victims of bullying actually feel about being victimized. Their pain felt realistic and actually made my eyes tear up a couple of times.

Trevor is the most realistic portrayment of bullying I've ever seen in a movie. Because he appears to be so normal. There's nothing special or so called "weird" about his looks, his clothes, the way he acts or anything. He's just a kid that people chose to pick on, just like the bullies in the real world can choose anyone, for anything. There doesn't have to be reasons. What is just is. The character Trevor feels so real and his pain becomes real to you.

The acting is good. It's in fact REALLY good and all of the actors does a great job portraying their characters. And as for the play this movie is based on which we see parts of, it's amazing!

This movie is a important piece of work and the more so right now because of how common high school shootings are becoming and also because of the fact that this goes on every single day in hundreds of thousands of schools. Hopefully it can make some people think about things they perhaps don't notice.