"It started with a chair."

I've read a lot about Juno. Quite many people like it, apparently. I'm can't say that for myself though.

The music in the movie was pretty nice. I knew a lot of the songs that were played, and it's always nice to hear good songs you know in a movie. I was especially happy to hear Sea Of Love by Cat Power. It's one of those songs that I've been wondering where I've heard them, because they sound so familiar and they have a weird touch on your heart. But, well, I haven't heard it before in this movie, that's for sure. And I know now that I heard that in a YouTube video made by Shane Dawson. Oh, the times... 

Writing and dialogue were extremely brilliant, just like I was promised. But then again, after a while, I started getting a bit bored with it. Like it went through my brain but it wasn't so touchingly witty any more. And I'm mostly talking about the dialogue here. But at first the dialogue was like "Hell yeah, I want to be able to write a dialogue like that", but after they kept using it, it was ... unnoticeable. I don't know. And that kind of dialogue would never work in my writing, so that's for that.

But seriously, the plot was ... not interesting. Maybe I just don't like this sort of thing. I don't know. But I expected more from this movie than I should've, that's for sure.

"Well, Clarice - have the lambs stopped screaming?"

I tried to promise myself I would read every book before watching the movie. Well, there was exception, since I had already seen Red Dragon before I even got it from the library. But then I thought, oh what the hell, I can watch the movie first. And if I watch the movie first, it doesn't make me, you know, so critical towards it. If I read the book before the movie, I'm just going to be thinking how the movie is different. You know, it happens every time. So I thought, I can watch the movie. And I thought, it's probably pretty damn good - since everyone who's seen it says. Well, not everyone, but you get the idea. People who like Hannibal, like this movie, and the book if they've read it. I've hardly seen a fan say anything bad about this one. And even though I've tried to strictly watch movies in the order they were published, I've made an exception here about it too, since I started with Red Dragon. If we look at all the movies with Hannibal Lecter, the first one to watch is Manhunter. If we look at the movies with just Anthony Hopkins in it, this is the first one, Red Dragon takes place before all these, but it's published last. So... anyway...

The text behind the movie said, "Weirdly erotic, thrilling and intimate." I accepted those the last two of those adjectives very gladly. 

Thrilling? Of course it's going to be thrilling. If it wasn't going to be thrilling, there's no point in making the movie. I felt my heart beating in my throat and I nestled under the blanket. First I thought I was going to spend tonight awake, not able to sleep, but it wasn't scary that way. And that's good, I've spent too many nights wide awake because of movies. Silence of the lambs was thrilling in the most perfect way possible. You're a bit scared while watching the movie, and a little bit afterwards. ... Well that thing you feel afterwards probably isn't fear, it's something else. Partly excitement partly... something that can't be put down in words. * 

Intimate? Well yes, Clarice basically let Dr. Lecter inside her head and all that. So it's intimate in that way, and it was really well done. Clarice Starling is told not to tell anything about herself to Hannibal Lecter. And still, Dr. Lecter gives her a choice: Hannibal helps her with the case, if she tells her something about herself. Quid pro quo. And you watch it, and you know that Starling isn't supposed to say anything at all, and you now Lecter is just going to find her weak spots or something, but she still plays along. And that's another thin that's really thrilling, really intimate.

But I have to admit, I felt kinda suspicious about the "weirdly erotic" part. Why? I've watched the TV show, I've watched Red Dragon... There never was anything erotic there. But I guess that's the point, there's nothing that could be very erotic - apart from Dolarhyde and Reba McClane, but I'm not going there now, I'm going there when I've read Red Dragon. But think about Red Dragon and think about the tv-show Hannibal, what is there? There's Will Graham. Maybe people may find some kind of erotic charge between Dr. Lecter and Graham, but yeah, that's completely another thing, and I'm not going to say if it's all in their imagination or not. I think, the eroticism in Silence of the lambs was brought by the weird but yet erotic charge between Dr. Lecter and Clarice Starling. And the point is, it was really weirdly erotic. It wasn't something so tacky and tasteless like it is, it wasn't strictly sexual charge, it was...  There was something, and I don't know if I got a hold of it, but the weird charge is there between them, and it was hard to grasp.

I don't know what else to say. Of course there's the plot, and it's a very good plot, but the plot wasn't with us like it is in Red Dragon. The plot is there, but you pay your attention to something else just as much as the plot. It sort of rips your attention in half.* Buffalo Bill will never be as memorable as Red Dragon (or Toothfairy, whichever you prefer after the movie / the book), but there was something about him. Maybe he should've been there more - but maybe he shouldn't. I can't say surely, until I've read the book, and I know exactly how it is.

The movie was just as right as I expected. You, however, may be expecting... very high rating for this movie. Damn right. But to be honest, maybe I expected a bit more Hannibal. I thought this movie would be more about him than the case FBI was on, but no. But then again, I'm not disappointed. I'm not disappointed one bit, because I know what happened in the movie, and I know what's the next movie / book going to be about. Of course I can't say anything here and ruin you the surprise, but yeah. And maybe I don't need more Hannibal. If I want backstory, I got Hannibal Rising, and the TV show also, even if it isn't as canon as I'd like it to be. But still. Maybe it's good we don't get too much Dr. Lecter at once.  

* These things are only how I feel about the movie, so I could be promising you too much. If you've seen the movie and don't agree with me, or if you watch it expecting the same rush and are disappointed, don't sue me for false information or anything like that. I'm not currently capable of telling straight facts I'm telling how I feel about this movie, because this movie caused me the strongest effect I've ever had towards a movie so yeah.

"Wow, that was such an expensive looking explosion! I can't believe we had that in the budget."

Uh... What can I say? Obviously the movie is for kids, it didn't even have any hidden jokes for grown ups - apart from making fun of some celebrities kids probably don't know.

Most awkward thing about this was the lame musical numbers. The only not so lame musical number was that rap performed by the villain, who wanted to have he old Muppets studio because of the oil underneath it. It was the only one that didn't make me want to jump out of the window.

But the movie had it's moment. It constantly broke the fourth wall ("Wow, this is going to be a really short movie"). A lot of the jokes were actually really funny. And also, so many great cameos, like Dave Grohl, Jack Black, Emily Blunt (spoofing her role in Devil Wears Prada), Jim Parsons, Zach Galifianakis and Neil Patrick Harris ("How come I'm not hosting this show?") 

But also, the movie was filled with unneeded drama.

But then again, maybe this movie means more to those who have grown up with The Muppets. I'm from Finland - I grew up with Moomins instead of this crap.

[No quote found]

[The photo is not working. And I don't think I ever mentioned the name of the movie, but it is En Kort En Lang.]

I think I'm dying of cuteness. 

As most of you already know, (I think all of you know) I'm not into romantic films. Drama is fine by me, but if it's a romantic movie, basically love is the plot, I don't like it. I found another exception - another one was Kate and Leopold. Basically this time I had no idea what the plot is, I just saw few GIFs of it on Tumblr, and I was like, hmm, I could watch it. And as you can see, I'm still watching any movie with Mads Mikkelsen in it. 

So, let me tell you about the plot. Jacob and Jorgen (That's not with the regular o, but I can't find the proper one) are partners, and then Jacob asks Jorgen to marry him. But, almost accidentally, Jacob kisses Caroline, and they basically start an affair. And things get really complicated. Yes, this is a very good synopsis on the plot, but yeah.

Also, I could talk about Jacob for ages! He was so... human. I mean he was adorable and all that, but he was also really, really awkward - or at least got into a lot of awkward situations, and didn't deal with them so very well. And I like that in a character. I mean especially if it's a movie like this one. Characters should be regular human beings - someone you can meet in a shop. But yeah, of course you need a different kind of character for an action film than a romantic comedy, but anyways.

The plot was actually weirdly intense. I mean I was so tense all the time, thinking stuff like "shit shit shit shit", which is usually what I think while watching most intense thrillers (Like Hannibal, haha), but not, you know, drama and stuff. But now I was like so close to start throwing pillows at my computer or screaming at the characters. Especially the part where Jacob tried to hurry to the airport, and everything that could slow him down, happened: car didn't work and cabs were on strike, and all that. And two times - two fucking times - I thought "oh, this movie is going to end in the wrong way". But... well... I'm not going to say anything. And you have no idea what I think is the wrong ending for this movie. But the one it got was perfect, it was so nice.

If I had to describe this movie in three words, it would be adorable, awkward and... well, okay, exciting - in it's own way. But basically, I think I'm going to be smiling for three days straight because of this movie. (Unless I watch a movie that's really, really bad tomorrow)

"I know of no fine words to do with love. They wither like flowers when I try to pick them."

[Deleted the photo because it stopped working. And since, again, I didn't mention the name (What the hell 2012 me?) the movie is called I Am Dina.]

I borrowed this movie from the library same time I borrowed After The Wedding. I also borrowed it from the same reason - Mads Mikkelsen. Okay, Christopher Eccleston, too. 

The story was interesting, at first, but then it started to... just go on and on, and I had no idea where it tried to go. It just went on with no destination. At first I expected it to do a full circle or something, but it didn't do that either.

Filming techniques were nice again. Actually, if I wanted to talk more about the filming techniques of this movie, I'd had to repeat what I said about After the Wedding, the technique was pretty similar. Cutting and all that. I don't know.

Let's just say that if I'm watching Norwegian movie, I also expect hearing Norwegian, not English with an weird accent. I thought Europe didn't have the problem to do everything in English, Norwegian would've been enough.

Dina's mother died when boiling hot lye fell on her. They didn't try to make the death look easier than it was, it looked painful and gruesome, and I thank the makers for that. Also, I thank them for showing nudity, like it's not a big deal, but still not showing penises of not so attractive men. Also, they made that one rape scene uncomfortable, but not too much. It's agonising scene, like it should be, but not too much, if you get my meaning.

Music of this movie made everything weirdly scary. Well yes, there probably were moments where the music wasn't so haunting, but they didn't really stood out. It was mostly the creepy music. 

I don't know how I felt about this movie. It was... alright. I liked it, sometimes, but it was also really slow. Slowness is okay, if you do it right, but I didn't like it here. But partly, the movie was good. Sometimes it reminded me a bit of The Fountain, except that movie is way better, way more beautiful. I may want to see this movie again, but I don't want to buy it for myself. I guess that says a lot, because all the really, really good movies I've watched this year, I wanted to own. But not this one, even though I liked it... a bit at least. 

One thing ruining my experience was that DVD almost didn't work. That's all.

"You're an angry man. That's good. It gives you lots of drive."

As you know, I watched Liberal Arts a while ago, and I talked and talked about it. So, basically, I wanted to try more drama, the genre I've despised for so long. And there isn't a better start than to start with an actor I'm familiar with, even if it mean watching a Danish movie. 

The filming technique was nice. It looked like it had been cut a lot, which gave it a certain ambiance. I really like different filming techniques, and it was actually the first thing that caught my eye. It reminded me a lot of other Nordic movies, you know, Swedish and Finnish movies - a lot of focusing on little things like eyes, a mouth, and all that. It's really nice. Another technique thing I loved was how they showed - only few times but still - small flashbacks. Really small, just for few seconds, and without an explanation. I love that kind of flashbacks, if of course the watcher gets to know what they were about. 

I have a lot of complicated feelings about Jacob's character. At first he seems like a really, really easy to love. Then it starts to change, as we learn more of him. That was good, but it kind of didn't change my opinion in him. He seemed somewhat adorable, at least his way with kids. But he also had a lot of negative traits, but he still was sort of... nice. Yeah.

I also loved how they used the music - Indian music partly, but other music too. And most of that music was something a Hollywood movie makers probably wouldn't have used, since it sometimes was a bit misleading. It's hard to explain. You know how you can almost foretell what's going to happen in a movie, just based on the music? Well, here you think you can do the same, but you can't. But it's really artful. I don't know.  

Emotions looked so much more real than in American movies. It seemed that way. Also the feelings I get while watching this are more real, I'm more able to identify with them. I don't know. Or maybe it's just that the movie is Danish, and displaying emotions and culture is so much closer to Finnish? Or is there a big difference between American and Nordic cultures? Or is that only what I want to believe? Do I want to feel congeniality to Danish people? 

Also, in the movie, they didn't have to tell anything straight. We just realise everything we need to while watching. In Hollywood movies everything is said before we get it - usually. Of course it's not all movies, but unfortunately many of them. Also, in After the wedding, they let us know new things suddenly, like to back the story, back the past of the characters. We don't know everything about the characters in the start, we gain more knowledge during the film. I mentioned this while talking about Jacob's character.

Another, maybe culture related thing, was swearing. There wasn't much of it, but when it was used, it was really needed, it was skilfully used. Now here's a tip: if you want to use swearing in a movie, you have two ways of doing it. You can make the characters swear, like, all the time, make it part of their regular speech pattern, like it's how they talk everyday. Or, you can use it just for few times - but make it really count. Choose the timing and character - and the phrase - perfectly, so it really, really counts. After the wedding used the last one, and it worked. But maybe it would've been more effective, you know, if I'd realised it while listening, not just read it in the subtitles.

Anyway, After the Wedding was really nice. I'm not sure what I expected, I just watched it. But it's a movie I really want to own. So yeah, have to find it somewhere, since I borrowed this one from the library.

"And Sniff was the first small animal to see the comet through telescope."

I'm so glad there was an option to watch this in English! I've watched moomins all my life, like every Finnish kid, so I'm really picky about the voices. But I was happy with most of them - especially Sniff, who was voiced by Mads Mikkelsen. This also was the reason I watched this movie.

Björk's song at the beginning was awesome. Maybe not so... Maybe it didn't go along with moomins and all this, but it was really cool. 

But, I have to compare this to the book and to the previous film, the Japanese one. This was very much like the book, which is good, since the book is the second best Moomin book ever written. It had all the nice parts the Japanese movie didn't have - like that shop - but still nice parts that weren't in the book but were in the movie - like the cake, Mr Muskrat sitting on the cake, and Sniffs little cat friend. But that one party scene was missing - and I really wanted to see that one. 

But it bothered me that all the characters knew each other already - in the book Moomin and Sniff meet Snufkin and later on Snork and Snorkmaiden, since it's the second book. Sniff joined Moomin family in the first book already. But here they all knew each other already! But yeah, at least they hadn't mixed Little My in it, like they did in the Japanese movie.

I don't know if it is his accent or if he has a lisp, but Mads Mikkelsen's voice made Sniff sound really, really small, as in young.

"Grace, I realized, is neither time nor place dependent. All we need is the right soundtrack."

[The poster of Liberal Arts also stopped working]

I don't like drama films. I only wanted to watch this movie because it was written and directed by Josh Radnor, who I've loved since I started following him on Twitter. But still, I have a lot to say about this movie. Or at least I think I have.

I love the way this movie represented classical movies and books. They were an important part of the characters' lives, and everything that was said  just made me more aware of the beauty of those things. I love classical movies, and I love books - more or less. But this movie made me realise how amazing books are. They didn't even have to say that out loud, but it was still there, the small thing that made me so aware. And that was... really cool. Especially this book, that was never mentioned by name, but was one of Jesse's and Dean's favourites, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace... I need to read it now, after this film. Unfortunately... can't be found in the local library. That really sucks.

And then the main charater, Jesse, played by Josh Radnor. He was very sympathetic character, really nice, and everything. What's not to love? I especially loved how sweet he was to this kid, Dean, who was lonely, and I think Jesse saw a lot of himself in the kid, even though there were giant differences between them.

One of my favourite scenes was, when Zibby wrote in a letter that "she'd like a gentleman caller, and she'd like it to be [Jesse]". Then Jesse got really nervous, and started to count the age difference. When realising that was 16 year, he started to count "When I was -- , she was --", and "When I am --, she is --." And first he was really distraught, but when he wrote "When I am 87, she is 71", and then he was like woah, it's not that much. That was pretty funny scene, and something most people would do at that part.

Another nice thing about it was when Zibby was reading a vampire book, and Jesse was dissing it, and then he said he'd read it, just for her, and tell her what he thinks. Book was called "Lunar Moon", but everything points at Twilight. And even if people love with when people say how much Twilight sucks ass, Zibby had a good point. She said it's not good, but she likes it and it makes her happy, so she reads it. And by being good, she means it's not a classic piece of literature, it's a crappy book, but she likes it. And geez, I can't remember what else they talked about the movie, but that scene made me realise, what's the point of pestering people about what the like, even thought it's something you can't understand why people like it. I don't know. That scene just did things for me.

Also, Jesse's former teacher made a good point - "Nobody feels like an adult", he said, "that's the world's dirty secret." That's what growing up is - you realise you don't know adult stuff, but neither does anyone else. I loved how they said that.

One other character I liked was this hat guy, Nat, played by Zac Efron. He maybe wasn't a realistic character, but he was really funny character, and someone I'd really like to run into. Hell, anyone should run into a guy or a gal like him, that would be good to everyone. 

Like I said, I don't like drama. I like action, thrillers, that sort of stuff. But I can't say that I wouldn't feel anything for this movie. It was so good, so different from other drama I've seen. And I blame Radnor, he's a terribly good writer. Liberal Arts was ... it was life. The whole movie mirrors life, raw life, so well, it made me feel weird. It was like, this is what it is, this is what it is for everyone. I had so many feelings, thoughts, when the movie ended. I just sat there for a moment, and then walked around the house like woah. Woah, that was really good.

I don't understand how this isn't more popular - I hardly see anything about this movie online or anywhere. It should be an instant classic with amazing writing and dialogue. 

"I think you're so blinded by inconsolable rage that you don't care who you hurt. When you can't tell your friends from your enemies, it's time to go"

So I watched Quantum of Solace.

Uh, if I somewhat liked Casino Royale, I didn't like Quantum of Solace at all. It just... was, without a better point. I found the whole movie rather pointless. 

I know someone loves this movie, and probably wants to come and slap me and write me an entire essay on why I'm wrong on this. I'm not wrong, but I'm not right either, since it's only an opinion. But really, I didn't like the movie. 

Where Casino Royale had interesting bad guy, Le Chiffre, I found Dominic Greene plain annoying and useless bad guy. I mean wow, he had a great plan and all, but seriously, he was so freaking annoying. Also, Camille seemed at first like an interesting character, but she had a lack of personality. Also Ms. Fields seemed interesting, but she had to be killed off. Ugh, Bond movies don't treat females very well now do they?

Well, at least I've watched all the Daniel Craig Bond -movies now. I don't need to bother anymore. Okay, maybe I'll watch Casino Royale once again but not this one, or Skyfall.

"Now the whole world's gonna know that you died scratching my balls!"

So I watched Casino Royale.

I'm pretty sure I've said earlier that  I don't like James Bond. Well, why on earth would I watch Casino Royale then? Well, I thought since I was almost forced to watch Skyfall, I could watch the ones made before it. Another reason was Mads Mikkelsen.

I think the story was way better than in Skyfall. I think almost everything here was a lot better - like the opening song. Chris Cornell wins over Adele, every time. 

Here we had that problem that has existed for a while - the movie has a happy ending but they have 20 minutes left. So, everything's still going to go bananas. 

I really don't know what to say. I loved Mads Mikkelsen, Daniel Craig was alright, that's that.