Erika Nilsson
My Thoughtbook
by Erika on Wednesday 18 March 2009, 23:19 | Comments (1)
Walt Kowalski is an old war veteran who knows how to scowl, wheeze, growl, squint, spit, swear, use guns and make big, tough gang boys pee themselves (Clint Eastwood may be almost 80, but he hasn’t lost his touch). He has no more contact with his two sons and their families than is absolutely necessary, and the three loves of his life are his wife, his labrador and his 1972 Gran Torino.
The story begins with Mrs Kowalski’s funeral, and Walt’s scowling at his grand-children’s bad posture, navel piercing and Austin Powers quotes, respectively (the cinema audience giggles). Then, the young padre who Mrs Kowalski talked to before her death tries to get a confession out of Walt, who confesses “that [he doesn't] want to confess to a boy who’s just out of seminar” (the audience snorts). That’s about the most polite we see him.
Continue reading “The car, the war” »

Tags: brilliant, cinema, Clint Eastwood, films, Gran Torino Posted in Cultural | English | Reviews | Comments (1)
by Erika on Tuesday 18 November 2008, 10:54 | Comments
As a break from the exam angst, let us have some spitting, fuming, righteous indignation instead — with a side order of sarcasm, please! This is one of my favourite entries from my old online diary; originally posted on February 4th, 2008. Minor typos corrected.
Whatever you do, when ”Over Her Dead Body” starts showing in a cinema near you, do NOT go to see it. It is a waste of money, even if for some reason you would get the ticket for free. The film is advertised as a ”romantic comedy”: sure, there is a bit of kissing and a few lame sex jokes, jealousy, people being desperately in love and denying it and so on, but ”comedy”? No sir. The only comical things about ”Over Her Dead Body” is that some idiot whose name I was too annoyed to catch during the aftertitles wasted a fair few dollars to make it, and that the special effects still probably weren’t worth the money (I could name them all out of Photoshop: Lens Flare, Color Dodge, Dissolve, …).
Continue reading “Re-runs I: Over My Dead Sense of Humour” »

Tags: cinema, films, reviews, righteous indignation Posted in English | Personal | Re-runs | Comments
|