I'm back!

My first post in a looong time, mainly due to urgency with my thesis, which, finally, is done! So this will be kind of a new beginning for this wretched blog of mine.

I awarded myself for finishing my thesis with two tickets to the cinema. The first movie I went to watch is called Drive by the self-taught Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn. The film is about a Hollywood stunt driver (played by Ryan Gosling), who makes some extra cash on the side by driving his car for whoever pays him. These jobs aren't exactly legal. The movie really kicks in after one of his jobs goes horribly wrong, after which the "bad guys" are on his tail.

Drive is a difficult movie to categorize. It's not a car chase movie, although there are some pretty awesome car chase scenes, but they are not the essence of the movie. There's also a clear 'art house' feel to the movie, hence the comparisons this movie has gotten to David Lynch. There's a lot of violence too; brutal violence. And it's thrown at your face without a warning. Maybe 'art-house action movie' would be a fitting descprition. I don't know, watch the movie and decide for yourself, cause the movie is rather good!

The movie is pretty low-key, 'arty', stylish - hence the references to Michael Mann - and slow paced. Some like it, some don't. I think the movie has a very special, almost hypnotic feel to it, while the 'action' elements might make this film more accessible to a bigger audience. The blend of these two elements - the 'art house' and the 'action' - is pretty seamless, in my opinioin. I'm pretty sure that the stylishness of this film appeals to a lot of hipsters out there. Drive reminds me a bit of Lost in Translation, which is all about form, not content. There's more content in Drive, but it is very elegant too. Just listen to the soundtrack (here, for example), which, I have to admit, is pretty good.

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And the second movie is The Thing (2011). The prequel, or, rather, the remake. A mild disapointment, I have to say. John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) (which , by the way, is a remake too), on which this new film is based on, is so much better. This new film does not attempt to do anything new. Carpenter's film is being used as a template with too few new things added. Like with so many other mediocre films, the beginning is good. The director knows how to create a good mood and atmosphere, but when it comes to making big decisions conserning the plot, the whole film collapses.

The Thing (2011) is not rubbish, there's a time and place for this kind of movies too. Sci-fi horror is a genre close to my heart. I don't regret paying 10 euros for this film, but you might.