Archive for November, 2011

Movie Reviews Sans Title #2

Posted by on Friday, 25 November, 2011

A couple of months ago I saw a trailer for an upcoming movie that confused me. How is that movie not out yet? I have been seeing that movie AND its sequels in the Redbox, well, for about as long as Redbox has been a thing. They are based on a series of popular books, but I had no interest at all in either book or movie until I saw this trailer and began to investigate. It turns out the upcoming movie was the American version, while the DVDs that I had previously encountered, like the original novels, were in Swedish. Americans are not known for their fondness of subtitles, but someone thought that these movies were compelling enough to drop into local convenience stores and supermarkets? NOW I was interested.

As for the movie itself, it was excellent. Oh, it definitely is not for everyone. For one thing, it does involve a lot of reading. Moreover, the translation seems odd in parts. Not that I am any kind of expert; the only Swedish that I know is “Börk, börk, börk!” and I do not even know what that means. But the characters in the movie use the word “mördare” several times, and the subtitles always read “killer” despite the fact that the word sounds a whole lot like “murderer.” Come on guys. A word that sounds like “fantastic” came up twice, once early in the movie and oddly translated as “excellent”, and then toward the end of the movie, this time translated to “fantastic.” Hmm. A couple of times a character would say perhaps one syllable, and the translation would be a whole sentence, and I felt that I was missing out on some of the slanginess. I realize that these are pedantic complaints, but things like that interfere with my suspension of disbelief.

Perhaps more importantly for a general audience, this movie is a thriller that does get pretty graphic in parts. Nothing really over-the-top, but still a lot of people are not into that. Also, upon reflection, it did have a rather linear narrative. Several sub-plots were hinted at but not really explored. The book is probably much better about these, but when is it ever not? I had absolutely no idea what the story was about before I started, which I personally find tends to help my enjoyment of a movie considerably.

I do not have very high hopes for the American remake, as I expect them to throw a lot of money at it and focus less on things like “plot” and “dialog” in favor of “action” and “cinematography”. I feel that the distinct lack of subtlety in the song choice for the trailer does not bode well. But that is different movie.

Late is the Hour

Posted by on Monday, 21 November, 2011

I had a dream in which a young lady, whom I once pursued unsuccessfully, joined my Bible study group along with her husband. (Or perhaps, became part of the social circle that grew from that study group, as the study itself disbanded years ago.) She came from a large family and she and her husband now had two or three children of their own. Apparently I look sufficiently different enough now that she did not recognize me as the person from years ago, and in my shame, I did not feel the need to remind her.

At some point, she confided to me and two or three others that she was planning to leave her husband in order to pursue an intimate relationship with one of her own brothers. I was not particularly a fan of her husband, considering he had been successful where I had failed. (At least, for a certain definition of success and failure, it would seem.) Yet somehow, it fell to me to try and explain why this was a horrible, disgusting plan; and I had to do it respectfully, without judgement, and using Biblical support.

Deux Aimes

Posted by on Sunday, 13 November, 2011

The title of this post is a multi-layered bilingual pun that I happened to think up today which has nothing to do with anything. I leave that as an exercise for the reader.

I have felt for a long time that at some point, if things get bad enough, if I become miserable enough, then I will make some dramatic change to completely abandon my comfort zone and forsake my entire lifestyle as I know it. I believe this, because it has happened before.

Twice.

Remember, Remember

Posted by on Saturday, 5 November, 2011

As part of the financial unrest going on, someone declared today to be National Bank Transfer Day. It all had something to do with Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot and V for Vendetta, which I do not totally understand. The goal was to transfer your money from the “too big to fail” banks and into a local credit union. I had wanted to participate myself, but unfortunately, one thing I hate even more than my bank is leaving my house.

However, there is a certain financial institution that sends me a lot of junk mail.