John Rambo, Vietnam vet, former green beret, trained to become a killing machine, can't catch a break back home. When he gets picked up in a small town for minding his own business, he ends up beating up a few officers and fleeing into the mountains. The local sheriff sends everyone and their grandmother in pursuit of him.
Rambo goes into self defense mode and holds his ground against some two hundred assorted law enforcement people. Casualties are kept to a minimum (one tends to falsely remember vast numbers of dead bodies when it comes to this, because the later Rambo films spill more blood than this one).
In the end, he faces off with his 'creator', one captain Trautman and breaks down crying, before surrendering.
Nine people get stuck in an elevator when a stupid, arrogant little brat (grandpa's little princess) decides to "accidentally" push the emergency stop button because one of the other people in the elevator is claustrophobic (and, also, an asshole).
The dynamics in the group are grounds for conflict.
(1) the little brat
(2) the elderly rich guy, grandfather to said little girl, building owner
(3) the claustrophobic comedian, racist
(4) the security guy of Iranian origin, victim of racism
(5) the overweight company guy, working for (2)
(6) a young blonde, pregnant with the child of
(7) a young, handsome hot shot company guy, working for (2)
(8) his fiance, journalist
(9) an elderly lady, husband killed himself over money he lost thanks to (7) and (2)
Lady number (9) carries a bomb upon her body. Her plan was to 'make a statement' by blowing herself up at the party held in honor of the big cheese. Getting stuck in the elevator was not part of the plan and makes the situation all the more disagreeable for everyone involved. She eventually dies of a (stress-induced, one assumes) heart attack but not before alerting everyone about the bomb issue.
Accusations fly. They pull together to try and escape and just when they are about to catch a break, the stupid brat decides to frantically push the buttons again, causing the elevator to drop a few stories and ripping off the arm of heroic (7). Thanks to the journalist ladies and modern technology, they broadcast their ordeal and try to get help asap.
Another film watched at the Gartenbaukino Oscar event. I might have never watched Kon-Tiki if it weren't for winning tickets for the entire event.
This is the story of Thor Heyerdahl and his trusted crew giving themselves to the wind and currents to prove that Polynesia was actually populated first by South Americans (Peruvians, to be precise) rather than the then held popular belief that the original settlers came from Asia.
I understand that this is the most expensive Norwegian film ever made and it really is a feast for the eyes. Beside the obvious beauty of shots of the grand ocean in all kinds of weather we get eye candy.
Lots and lots of eye candy. The adventurers are mostly well-built Scandinavians running around with their shirts off.
Aside from that, the film is actually really good and I'm glad I saw it. It was nominated for best foreign language film. Of course, it never stood a chance, as it was up against Amour, which won every award imaginable this year.
I spent the entire Oscar night (and much of the day before) at the packed Gartenbaukino to watch the transmission. The pre-program the theater offered were five films nominated for one thing or another. The heavily favored film to win best documentary feature was one of the film shown - the wonderful Searching for Sugar Man.
This is the story of Detroit singer Sixto Rodriguez, who made two albums in the 1960s/1970s that fell pretty much on deaf ears, even though everyone involved and, really, everyone who ever heard him play cannot explain why he didn't take off. His music is wonderful and the lyrics and songwriting draw comparisons to calibers like Bob Dylan but somehow things didn't happen for him.
But somehow his debut album "Cold Facts" ended up in South Africa at a time when the country was shunned by other nations due to its regime of Apartheid and people withing South Africa were widely shielded from outside influences. Rodriguez singing of speaking up against the establishment triggered something of a musical revolution, as local musicians started to realize that they do have the means to make their voices heard. All of those musicians were heavily influenced by Rodriguez. He sold approximately half a million records in South Africa and the strangest thing is...he didn't even know it.
One day, a journalist took it upon himself to find out more about the singer/songwriter, who was something of a mystery. Nobody knew anything about him. The most important question that needed answering was: How did Rodriguez die? Rumors of him setting himself on fire, blowing his brains out or overdosing on drugs swirled around but nobody knew for sure. When he eventually got a hold of the producer of the first record and at the end of the interview asked his most burning question the journalist was told that Rodriguez was alive and well.
People interested in solving the mystery set up a website about their search for more information. One day, Eva Rodriguez, oldest daughter of the mysterious musician, wrote on the website's forum and left her contacts and finally got them in touch with the man himself. And when we, the audience, finally meet the man he turns out to be the most humble and gracious individual, working on construction sites, not bitter about not having had the success he would have wanted as a young man.
Eventually, he went to South Africa to play a sold out show (the first of many), which marks the climax of this wonderful, wonderful film. And after he played to sold out crowds in South Africa he went right back home to the house he has spent the last few decades in and back to work at the construction sites.
This is such a moving, loving portrait that everyone watching with me seemed to adore as much as I do. In the following Oscar night, along with the awards given to Austrians (Christoph Waltz, Michael Haneke), Searching for Sugar Man winning (as expected) best documentary got the biggest applause from my hometown crowd.
When I got home I went online an purchased both of Rodriguez' available albums.
One Mr. 'Schmidt' (formerly an SS officer operating under the name Lutze) revisits the town of Dachau and the remains of one of the most infamous concentration camps. He goes through all the buildings, regarding everything with a happy sense of nostalgia.
What he does not expect is to meet the prisoners that have died there some 17 years earlier. The first of these is named Becker and Lutze assumes that he is a sort of caretaker of the site. Only briefly he wonders why the man hasn't changed since they last met.
It's the sound of what seems to be the wind that makes him nervous and he cannot seem to open the door again. Becker then informs him that he has to stand trial for crimes against humanity, the court entirely made up of the former inmates of 'Compound 6' of the camp Dachau. The verdict, of course, can only be 'guilty' and his punishment is insanity.
A professor tells his story in the psychiatric ward in a hospital in Tokyo.
He was on a sailing trip when the boat got into a storm which left it ruined. After drifting in the open sea for a few days, the group of travelers strands on a small island. When they venture inside in search of food and water they first discover a pond that appears to be man made and is surrounded by a field of mushrooms.
Later, they discover a shipwreck covered in fungus, but where they also find some food. The longer they remain and with food running low, they start to get more agitated until one of them starts eating the mushrooms.
One day, the group starts getting randomly attacked by a weird (mushroom like) creature and - also under the influence of the mushrooms - they start turning on each other. They die/go crazy/get killed one after the other until only the professor is left and flees onto the drifting yacht.
While waiting for rescue or death, he questions his leaving one of the women, Akiko, behind, thinking he might have been happier with his love, infected by the mushrooms or not. He is discovered a few days later, questioning humanity and their not being so different from the mushroom people.
Wonderful, brainless action combined with the humor one expects from a Die Hard movie.
This time around, John McClane is in Moscow to aid (or so he thinks) his estranged son. What he doesn't know, however, is that McClane junior is a key player in a covert CIA operation. The botched (thanks to McClane sr.) mission takes us after Moscow to the only other place in the former Soviet Union that the average US American might have heard of - Chernobyl.
The story, of course, doesn't matter. The fillm is loaded with expolsions, shoot-outs, double-crossing, villains dancing, McClanes jumping off buildings and a car chase that has them destroy a string of vehicles along the way.
For everyone worried about Bruce Willis getting too old for this shit - he has a son! The franchise is secure!
