Anthony Zimmer by Jérôme Salle

Another great French production that I stumbled upon. Anthony Zimmer is a combination of a beautifully captured story, a story that got thriller ambitions, and action - not too much, just enough.

Most of the story takes place at and around the French Riviera. Jérôme Salle has managed to capture exactly what I look for in a movie - great photography, a story that holds together during the whole play, music that's perfectly blended with the visual parts, ... See it.

Volver by Pedro Almodóvar

Volver is a beautiful portrait painted with the lives of five Spanish women.

Once again a masterpiece from Almodóvar. Rewarded in Cannes 2006 for best script and best actris. What else can you say. He manages to capture life as it is, and even the simplest things in it can become an adventure in one of his creations.

The european DVD (for once) contained extra material worth watching. In the sequence 'Pedro Almodóvar and the Actors' it's extremely interesting to study how Almodóvar in a very gentle manner starts the conversation with the actors gathered around a large table, and then only in a subtle way steers it, trying to let the actors be as free as possible to express their feelings around the way the movie was created and elaborate on their respective roles.

Angel-A by Luc Besson

Well, seems like Luc Besson has once again delivered, staying true to his artistic self.

Angel-A is a passionate creation from the miraculous Frenchman and his team. This time set in Paris. A miserable man ready to take his life finds his inner self again with the help of the mysterious Angel-A.

It's beautifully captured in black and white. It's art. It's eye candy.

El Laberinto del Fauno by Guillermo del Toro

El Laberinto del Fauno is an interesting and beautiful creation from Guillermo del Toro. He succeeds in blending reality with imagination, human beings with fairy tale creatures, vicious fascists with fauns.

You get the picture. It's a good mix, a nice blend. The environments in the movie are stunning. It's actually a bit like the movie Mirrormask.

The Departed by Martin Scorsese

I like this movie. The twists in it are great.

Martin Scorsese has created a rough and intense story in The Departed. It circulates around Jack Nicholson's lead character, around a bad guy, or more precisely around the leader of the bad guys. Or wait just a minute, is that really the bad guy?!...

Will see it again. Have to - Jack's in it.

The Prestige by Christopher Nolan

Christopher Nolan has created an entertaining and unforeseeable story that's based on illusion, magic, science, plots, twists, love, and sacrifice.

The story in The Prestige is spun around two rivaling illusionists (or magicians - there's a subtle difference) in turn-of-the-century London. There's a battle going on between the artists for the audience and - perhaps even more important - there's a fierce fight over who's got the best trick, making each illusionist perform more and more complex and dangerous illusions. Or simply stealing and improving existing ones.

Definitely a story I want to experience again, preferably on a big screen.

Stratosphere Girl by Matthias X. Oberg

Like Lost in Translation, the story in Stratosphere Girl is spun around a Westerner woman that goes to Tokyo. In the latter case, the story circulates around fifteen year old Angela's life.

Angela is passionately obsessed with Japanese culture, drawing comics and creating Manga stories. At the night of her graduation party she meets with a Japanese DJ that invites her to Japan. What follows after she decides to go is a mix of her reality and her comics, reality becoming comics and vice versa.

Even if the the story is thin (there's more to it than what I have revealed but I don't want to spoil it), it doesn't matter. Not to me. Why?! Because the visual photography is stunning. It's a beautifully photographed creation painted with the finest brush by Matthias X. Oberg.

It's innocent and pure art in its finest form.

Miami Vice by Michael Mann

Miami Vice is a beautifully directed piece based on the two detective characters Crockett and Tubbs from the 1980's action drama.

The music is skilfully blended with the artistic portray of the two undercover agents in the midst of Miami's drug business.

It's dangerous. It's beautiful. It's another exceptional delivery from Michael Mann, mastermind behind movies like Heat and Collateral.

Babel by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Babel is a thought-provoking creation based on three distinctly separate stories taking place in different parts of the world, on three individual continents.

Between the stories leap thin lines of cause and action, brought into being by human events at a certain time in space.

It's a beautiful package, masterly pieced together by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Dumplings by Fruit Chan

The temptation of rejuvenation is brilliantly and provocatively portrayed in Fruit Chan's colorful and horrific tale Dumplings, a ninety-minute masterpiece based on an initial shorter version part of Three...Extremes.

The movie's stylish and beautifully composed shootings are mixed with the most exquisite piano music.

It's true visual art from Fruit Chan, combined with the most atrocious dough bundles you could ever imagine.

Bond in Casino Royale

Movie: Casino Royale [SF Royale theater, Malmö, Sweden]

So, why the SF Royale theater and not a comfy sofa? I actually (quite boring some say) prefer movies on DVD since I then can get numerous popcorn refills, an espresso, stretch my legs, yet another espresso, and all the other things you just got to do and have if it's a long movie.

Truth to be told, I was invited to a Sony Ericsson sponsored show of the movie at SF Royale in Malmö, Sweden. The company had invested in the movie, promoting its brand displaying gadgets on the white screen. I like those promotion movie nights - you get everything for free and it's all framed in with a movie. Nice.

After the movie Sony Ericsson arranged a short interview / quiz on stage with Mads Mikkelsen, one of the villain characters. It was very appreciated - Mads is well known to us that consume Danish movies; the Pusher trilogy, etc.

Rating: The action scenes were nicely done. Some twists in the plot which is mandatory - just got to have them in a standard Hollywood production nowadays since it's no longer enough with a number of explosions (has it ever been?). It lost speed in the middle part - some love story mixed with "I'm quitting my agent job" lines - but luckily regained it again for the grand finale. All in all, it's a worth-to-watch 2.5 hour movie.