Another great legend is gone. Dennis Hopper left behind a colorful resumé of films and TV as an actor and as a director. He will no doubt be best remembered for his roles in films like Speed, Easy Rider, True Romance, Apocalypse Now and Blue Velvet.

 Personally I'd pick the following four roles of his career as my favorite: the diabolical cop-turned-bomber Howard Payne from Speed ("Pop quiz, hot shot!"), father of Christian Slater's character in True Romance and especially that legendary dialogue between his Clifford Worley and Walken's Sicilian gangster ("Your ancestors are niggers, uh-huh."), the Donald Rumsfeld inspired Kaufman in George A. Romero's magnificent zombie comeback Land Of The Dead and finally as Victor Drazen in the first season of "24".

Dennis Hopper at IMDb 

The video below doesn't have the best picture and sound quality, but these performances are legendary and the script was written by someone called Quentin Tarantino. If you haven't seen True Romance, seek it out, now. And skip this video, it contains heavy SPOILERS!

 

Directed by Oren Moverman
Starring Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, Steve Buscemi, Jena Malone, Eamonn Walker

The Messenger deals with the branch of the US Army that's said to be the hardest one.. the Casualty Notification Team. You can probably appreciate the reason. Foster plays Staff Sergeant Montgomery, a war hero who gets assigned to the unit alongside Harrelson's Captain Stone. As it happens, Montgomery falls for one of his subject's widows (Morton), which is understandably frowned upon.


 The subject is a touching one and The Messenger truly is a war film, but just of a different kind. Just as Platoon and Saving Private Ryan made us happy not to have been there on the field of battle, The Messenger deals with human emotion on the home front. It is horrible enough to be damn glad you don't have to be the one delivering the news to the next of kin of these fallen soldiers. As strong as the script of the film is, this effort rests on the shoulders of Foster and Harrelson, two professionals at the top of their game.


KITEYTETTYNÄ SINIVALKOISILLE
The Messenger on voimakas ja tunteikas filmi kahdesta sotilaasta, joiden tehtäväksi on langennut ilmoittaa ihmisille heidän läheistensä kaatuneen sodassa. Nämä tilanteet ovat raskaita katsoa ja elokuva lepääkin vahvasti ja ansioituneesti kahden pääosansa harteilla. The Messenger on sotaelokuva kuten mm. Platoon, mutta eri näkökulmasta.

IMDb

Directed by Michael Moore

Michael Moore is a controversial figure to say the least. He is of course known for sticking up for the blue collar worker, but also accused of distorting or getting his facts wrong. What you think of the man himself or his movies, is irrelevant because ultimately what matters and is an unquestionable fact is that his heart is in the right place with his quest for the truth behind 9/11, US health care and the outrageous outsourcing of hard workers when the businesses themselves are making HUGE profits.


 Capitalism: A Love Story is Moore's look at the finacial breakdown and the people who benefitted from it and of those who were destroyed as a result.. for the latter there are synonyms, the poor and the middle class.

 Greed is a powerful motivating factor. There was no need to bring this point across with a documentary. For some people, that is. The every day person is usually blind to the world around them and basically only cares about the day ahead going to a certain nice flow and ease. They don't want to think how the system that's supposed to take care of them has abandoned them years ago, because what could they do? Realistically? Not much. And if they could, they are too busy and tired from their nine-to-five job and family to pick up a sign and join a small demonstration against these money men who keep running to the bank. This is the case in the States, but although we have it better here in Finland, don't for a second think that it couldn't come to that way over here as well. Who's to say that it hasn't started or isn't already.

KITEYTETTYNÄ SINIVALKOISILLE
Kiistellyn dokumentaristi Michael Mooren elokuva maailmanlaajuisen laman alkujuurista ja tutkimus ihmisistä jotka hyötyivät tilanteesta ja heistä jotka menettivät kaiken. Filmi on surullista ja aidosti masentavaa katseltavaa ja oli itse Mooresta sitten epäilevää tai kannustavaa mieltä, niin sydämensä ainakin on oikeassa paikassa, kun mies ryhtyy ristiretkelleen työläisen puolesta.

IMDb

michaelmoore.com

The beautiful and emotional track from the terrific film, Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Hellboy II: The Golden Army at IMDb 

Directed by Scott Stewart
Starring Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson, Kate Walsh, Kevin Durand, Doug Jones

What a weird film. Legion is a cousin of sorts to the Schwarzenegger wham bam End Of Days 'cause you once more have the religious, age old battle between god and evil, but instead of personal struggle of belief, it's here fought with automatic weapons.

 Bettany plays the archangel Michael, who comes down to earth on the eve of the apocalypse to protect a holy child who's supposed to bring salvation to humankind. They take a stand on a remote gas station in the middle of nowhere. Demons and biblical plagues are a plenty and if your cup of tea happens to be supernatural action, Legion just might be for you. In other case, maybe it's better to keep strolling on the selection down at the local video store. Legion is fun in terms of entertainment, but anytime a film dealing with religious beliefs doesn't take ANY kind of stand either way, it's a bit of a disappointment.

KITEYTETTYNÄ SINIVALKOISILLE
Legion on viihdyttävä, mutta ei kovin fiksu toimintaelokuva tuomiopäivän kynnyksellä käytävästä taistelusta hyvän ja pahan välillä. Demoneita ja raamatullisia vitsauksia riittää ja pelkän hyvin toteutetun toiminnan ystävät saattavat saada kicksinsä, mutta Schwarzeneggerin End Of Days-tyyppinen yliluonnollinen vs. konetuliaseet on melko tylsä asetelma, jos mukaan ei ole leivottu edes hitusta kritiikkiä.



IMDb

The GREAT Ennio Morricone, ladies and gents.
This track was also featured in the terrific film Kick-Ass!

Directed by Christian Alvart
Starring Ben Foster, Dennis Quaid, Cam Gigandet, Antje Traue, Cung Le, Norman Reedus

Quality scifi is always welcomed in this house hold. Pandorum uses old recipes, but manages to cook something that feels fresh. There are mixtures of Alien, Red Planet and Event Horizon (E.H. director Anderson was a producer on this) in a setting that sees Foster's Bower waking from his hypersleep to a ship infested with cannibalistic mutants. Their mission originally being to head over to a new Earth-like planet in order to set up a human colony.

 This all sounds familiar, I know, but luckily director Alvert is able to create a genuine atmosphere of fear of isolation and for the unknown and makes us fear the most used consept in horror movies once more.. long dark corridors.

 Even though the consept itself has been seen many times over it is also thanks to the magnificent cast that this space nightmare pulls it home with high remarks. Especially the always reliable Foster (30 Days of Night, Hostage) is in top form and Quaid handles his own subplot over the character's demons respectively. The suppoting cast sadly remains as just that.


KITEYTETTYNÄ SINIVALKOISILLE
Pandorum on parasta scifiä miesmuistiin. Pimeät, ikuisuuksiin jatkuvat käytävät herättävät taas tehokkaasti ahdistuksen henkiin ja pelko tuntematonta kohtaan, sekä eristäytyneisyyden tunne on rakennettu kohtalaisen onnistuneesti. Parhainta filmissä ovat silti pääkaksikon, Quaidin ja etenkin Fosterin suoritukset. Asetelmassa ei toki ole paljoa alkuperäisyyttä, mutta kuten sitä on jo aiemminkin todettu niin väliäkö tuolla, jos vanhoista aineksista saa loihdittua jotain tuoretta.


IMDb

Directed by John Hyams
Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Andrei Arlovski, Corey Johnson

This film falls firmly into the "who would've thought?!"-category. By no means is it a work of art, but rather another one of those guilty pleasures.. though that should really not come as a surprise.

 Van Damme continues his "comeback" after JCVD with his third installment (fifth all together) of the UniSol-franchise. It's welcomed surprise too because the last time Van Damme played his Luc Deveraux was in 1999 with the horrible piece of shit that was Universal Soldier: The Return which saw him fight an all-powerful super computer. This time it's terrorists who take the former Chernobyl plant as hostage and threaten to blow up an abandoned reactor releasing a new cloud of radiation unless their brothers in arms are released blaah blaah blaah. Who gives a shit, right? We just wanna know if the Muscles from Brussels is still in condition to take on the assignment and luckily he is. He's done a good action film here, but was this worth passing on Stallone's upcoming The Expendables? That remains to be seen.

 There's also the obvious question as to how come Lundgren is back, since his character was very very dead at the end of the original film. Quite simple really: they don't give a reason, he just is. His part is only a little one, but the time he spends on screen is fun all the way, including a nice re-match of course. I personally don't follow the wold of the ultimate fighting, so I can't be that excited about "The Pit Bull" Arlovski, but for what it's worth, he's not bad though not anything special either. Director Hyams does a nice job with his action scenes and shows more potential than his director father Peter Hyams (working on this picture as the director of photography) who's probably really seen his best days professionally (2010, Narrow margin).

KITEYTETTYNÄ SINIVALKOISILLE
Van Dammen comeback JCVD:n jälkimainingeissa jatkuu tällä uudella osiolla miehen suosituimpaan leffasarjaan, jossa hänet on viimeksi nähty yli vuosikymmen sitten. Toiminta jyllää ja miehen potku nousee edelleen, joten jos vain sillä on merkitystä niin tästä tuskin kehkeytyy suurta pettymystä, vaikka saagan paras on edelleen Roland "Independence Day" Emmerichin ohjaama alkuperäinen vuodelta '92. Hyvää krapulaviihdettä, jos ei muuta.

IMDb