medusas_sister
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
22 years
Reviews
Dykkerne (2000)
A summer's tale of mystery and adventure...
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***
This movie, "The Divers", is really interesting. All I roughly knew about it was that it would involve nazi history, underwater scenes and everybody would be speaking Danish. But I decided to check it out for one reason, the fact that the story evolves around a sunken WWII German submarine. I've got a fetish for German subs, especially wrecks that can be dived upon. So I was a bit sceptical about the Danish part, but reasoned that the sub could weigh up that part. Knowing that Nordic films aren't always that good and not sure of the budget size I was, to say the least, very sceptical.
Upon viewing I was ... surprised.
I had some thoughts on the actors being inadequate, seeing how some are very young, the two main actors in particular. This was not an issue, they both perform very well. As do the other actors, who mostly consist of people in their 50's and beyond. This makes for some interesting interaction between young and old, not often seen on the screen. Not unique in anyway, but somewhat rare. And it's all good.
As for the Danish language, it is nearly impossible to understand. But this was no problem, it had subtitles.
Another issue was the submarine itself, I suspected there would be interior shots as well as underwater exterior shots of the submarine. Having decided their budget was slim, I thought this could turn out adequate at the best and down right awful at it's worst. Again I was surprised, the exterior scenes of the wreck are beautiful and the interior scenes are very realistic. Having a fetish for German subs, I knew what the sub should look like, especially inside, and was not let down. The team has done some serious research. It's all good.
I suspect more people than myself will watch this movie just to see some sub wreck scenes so I feel I must issue a "warning". The submarine in the movie is not an actual model that existed during the war. It's a special purpose sub. But to give you a hint of what to expect, it's a crossing between a Type VII, Type IX and a Japanese transport sub similar to I-52. It's god a good design and makes a nice wreck.
The setting is on a Danish island or peninsula, I can't remember. It's summertime and two brothers travel to their grandfather to celebrate the coming of summer as they do every year. Their grandfather is a mariner of sorts. The cinematography is quite nice, a lot of pretty summer scenes at the island docks, some newfound teenage love, nice diving weather and a general feeling of "perfect". Once again, it's all good.
Plot-wise the island gets some visitors of the suspect kind, a gathering of men hire one of the boats, an old minesweeper and it's crew. One of the visitors, a man in his 50's, has the german eagle and swastika tattooed on his back. The island's senior citizens all remember when a german u-boat was sunk towards the end of world war II and ever since then there have been rumors of nazi gold in the depths. The grandfather was one of the young men who searched for the sunken u-boat shortly after german bodies started floating ashore back in 1945. No submarine was ever found.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Key elements are nazi experiments, nazi history, treasure hunting, secrecy, competition, teen love, conspiracy, and ...a surprise.
*** WARNING - SPOILER ***
I had not expected some elements of the supernatural to appear in this movie and it caught me off guard. Not being a big fan of supernatural events, it nevertheless fitted well into the story and poses no problem. It's not like "From dusk til dawn" where everybody turns into vampires towards the end. This is a bit more subtle.
OVERALL : Really good movie, I gave it an 8. Some due to the fact that it isn't a Hollywood movie with unlimited resources. I later learned that it had a fair budget and that some of the actors were seasoned Danish veterans. But even if this had been a Hollywood production, I would give it a 7 or 8. Definately worth your while. Yes, a child's story in a way, but then again a mature tale. It has a lot of suspense and a grand aura of adventure, which I found very appealing. And, again, the cinematography is really nice.
/Medusa 2001
This movie, "The Divers", is really interesting. All I roughly knew about it was that it would involve nazi history, underwater scenes and everybody would be speaking Danish. But I decided to check it out for one reason, the fact that the story evolves around a sunken WWII German submarine. I've got a fetish for German subs, especially wrecks that can be dived upon. So I was a bit sceptical about the Danish part, but reasoned that the sub could weigh up that part. Knowing that Nordic films aren't always that good and not sure of the budget size I was, to say the least, very sceptical.
Upon viewing I was ... surprised.
I had some thoughts on the actors being inadequate, seeing how some are very young, the two main actors in particular. This was not an issue, they both perform very well. As do the other actors, who mostly consist of people in their 50's and beyond. This makes for some interesting interaction between young and old, not often seen on the screen. Not unique in anyway, but somewhat rare. And it's all good.
As for the Danish language, it is nearly impossible to understand. But this was no problem, it had subtitles.
Another issue was the submarine itself, I suspected there would be interior shots as well as underwater exterior shots of the submarine. Having decided their budget was slim, I thought this could turn out adequate at the best and down right awful at it's worst. Again I was surprised, the exterior scenes of the wreck are beautiful and the interior scenes are very realistic. Having a fetish for German subs, I knew what the sub should look like, especially inside, and was not let down. The team has done some serious research. It's all good.
I suspect more people than myself will watch this movie just to see some sub wreck scenes so I feel I must issue a "warning". The submarine in the movie is not an actual model that existed during the war. It's a special purpose sub. But to give you a hint of what to expect, it's a crossing between a Type VII, Type IX and a Japanese transport sub similar to I-52. It's god a good design and makes a nice wreck.
The setting is on a Danish island or peninsula, I can't remember. It's summertime and two brothers travel to their grandfather to celebrate the coming of summer as they do every year. Their grandfather is a mariner of sorts. The cinematography is quite nice, a lot of pretty summer scenes at the island docks, some newfound teenage love, nice diving weather and a general feeling of "perfect". Once again, it's all good.
Plot-wise the island gets some visitors of the suspect kind, a gathering of men hire one of the boats, an old minesweeper and it's crew. One of the visitors, a man in his 50's, has the german eagle and swastika tattooed on his back. The island's senior citizens all remember when a german u-boat was sunk towards the end of world war II and ever since then there have been rumors of nazi gold in the depths. The grandfather was one of the young men who searched for the sunken u-boat shortly after german bodies started floating ashore back in 1945. No submarine was ever found.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Key elements are nazi experiments, nazi history, treasure hunting, secrecy, competition, teen love, conspiracy, and ...a surprise.
*** WARNING - SPOILER ***
I had not expected some elements of the supernatural to appear in this movie and it caught me off guard. Not being a big fan of supernatural events, it nevertheless fitted well into the story and poses no problem. It's not like "From dusk til dawn" where everybody turns into vampires towards the end. This is a bit more subtle.
OVERALL : Really good movie, I gave it an 8. Some due to the fact that it isn't a Hollywood movie with unlimited resources. I later learned that it had a fair budget and that some of the actors were seasoned Danish veterans. But even if this had been a Hollywood production, I would give it a 7 or 8. Definately worth your while. Yes, a child's story in a way, but then again a mature tale. It has a lot of suspense and a grand aura of adventure, which I found very appealing. And, again, the cinematography is really nice.
/Medusa 2001
Ghosts of Mars (2001)
Oh my... this is BAD... must read before renting.
*** MUST READ BEFORE PAYING REAL MONEY *** John Carpenter was once a really good filmmaker, well at least a good director. Just think of the 1982 classic "The Thing", which is simply excellent. He didn't write that movie, but the cinematography is very good. Unfortunately he DID write "John Carpenter's Vampires" a few years back, and it sucked. It sucked bad. He also wrote "Ghosts of Mars" (referred to as GOM from now on), which sucks even more. I'm a fan of horror, sci-fi, monster movies and dramas.
This movie is none of the above, but it tries to be a horror movie against a sci-fi setting. It's quite tragic because all it becomes is a lame monster movie on Mars. Or wait... this movie is actually just a western in space...with monsters.
SO WHAT'S BAD ABOUT IT? Well, lots of things. To begin with the movie is set in the year 2176 or something. About 170 years from now. One of the first things one notices is the fashion of 2176. Remember "Star Trek" the original series with Kirk? Everything looked like a space-up:ed 1970s, right? Same here, but late 90s. What about technology then? Embaressing. Almost nothing has improved. Many things are ridiculous to be set 170 years from now. Sure, it's the early colonisation of Mars and tech isn't really high in the colonies. But some of the things you'll see are just silly.
What about guns? There are alot of guns in the movie, seing how it's a western and all. Well for starters how do Berettas and SPAS-12s sound? No? Don't have a place in 2176? That's right, they won't have a role at all, they'll be 200 year old antiquities. There's also an automatic rifle, which I've forgotten the name of. I think it's a FN model, about 10 years old. What is it doing there? Oh well, in the absolute ending sequence a pair of
SMGs appear that are unidentifiable, as they're tailor-made for the movie (finally). But I must say they're some of the shiniest guns I've ever seen. The design is bad, I'll accept that. But why are they so shiny? Ridiculous.
***WARNING "SPOILER" BELOW***
The opening scene of GOM is a really bad attempt at copying the Ripley investigations scenes from the all-time brilliant movie "Aliens". Natasha is being questioned about the recent events on Mars, where she starts recanting the movie. So after about 4 minutes into the movie, we already know that she's the only survivor. Great...nice spoiler. So the whole "who's gonna make it" is off, now what? That is often the only thing movies like GOM and "Pitch Black" have going for them, But GOM gives it away in the opening sequence. Very poor.
What also bothers me are flashback scenes that aren't called for. When a person starts to explain something, we are taken back to a scene we've seen and are shown it again, just to know what the conversation refers to. It seems John Carpenter must've known we'd be sleeping ourselves through this movie.
Again the western style is apparent, the law enforcers (read Sheriff and his deputies) have shotguns and the sheriff has a long coat typical of western movies. There's an old style iron bar jail, the railroad (Mars express or whatever) and a bunch of outlaws (the ghosts).
So what about the bad guys in the movie? I almost s**t a brick when I saw them. They suck bad. They are simple miners than have been possessed by the ghosts and suddenly start piercing and painting and sickly decorating themselves. It's explained as something the ghosts used to do when they were alive....*sigh*....
Oh well, they have this leader guy and he looks like a devil or something, in the gothiest outfit I've ever seen in a sci-fi. It's leather, it's black, it has rings and stuff, bla, bla. The funniest part is when this guy issues commands or preaches to his flock. It's like he only can say one word and that word is something like "waah" or perhaps "raah". And he wants to say these complicated sentences of about 8-14 words each. But all that comes out is "waah, waah, raah, raah, waah, waah, raah, waaaaaah". I almost swallowed my icecream scoop when I first heard him, then I just laughed myself into a coma. And he's REALLY p***ed all through the movie. He's supposed to be mad because invaders (the humans) have set foot on his planet. But I'd say his rage is so immense that he's got a personal issue of some kind. He's just sooo mad. Maybe it's because he can't say any other words than "waah" and "raah". I know that would p**s me off.
The religious manner in which his subordinates worship him, with this whole "primitive caveman meets Jehova's witness bent on Nazi occultism" style is pathetic.
THE ACTORS Natasha Henstridge (ze girrrl from Schpecies) can do better, she's no actress, nor a model, but even she can do better. Ice Cube actually isn't all that bad, he proved that in "Boyz 'n' the Hood" among other films, this must be the worst performance from him that I've ever seen, much due to the script.
This movie so badly wants to be a good SCI-FI, but it can't be that, because it so badly wants to be a good WESTERN, but it can't be that, because it so badly wants to be a good MONSTER MOVIE, but it can't because the script and props suck.
OK, what about budget? Well "John Carpenter" is a name that should allow for some money to pour in. Hm...but not if the sponsors saw "John Carpenter's Vampires". I believe most of the money went into making the train that traffics Mars. The design is bad, humans would never build anything like that train. It looks OK though, in being actually there I mean. It's OK...nothing more. Explosions are plentiful (the ghosts have dynamite) and bad. Everyone's on a springboard and fly in a predictable trajectory in order to not hurt themselves. Typical "A-Team" action complete with tons of clichés and lame Wesley Snipes-like comments.
Do I sound a tad irritated? That is because I payed good money to view this movie. I feel people have the right to know what to expect as I have the right to be upset about what I saw. This review contains no profanity so there should be no reason to not post it.
Overall : I gave it a 1 in my vote. When disc 1 had finished I had to think for approx 10 seconds if I wanted to load disc 2. Or as my Japanese female friend would say : "Sucky-sucky".
/Medusa 2001
This movie is none of the above, but it tries to be a horror movie against a sci-fi setting. It's quite tragic because all it becomes is a lame monster movie on Mars. Or wait... this movie is actually just a western in space...with monsters.
SO WHAT'S BAD ABOUT IT? Well, lots of things. To begin with the movie is set in the year 2176 or something. About 170 years from now. One of the first things one notices is the fashion of 2176. Remember "Star Trek" the original series with Kirk? Everything looked like a space-up:ed 1970s, right? Same here, but late 90s. What about technology then? Embaressing. Almost nothing has improved. Many things are ridiculous to be set 170 years from now. Sure, it's the early colonisation of Mars and tech isn't really high in the colonies. But some of the things you'll see are just silly.
What about guns? There are alot of guns in the movie, seing how it's a western and all. Well for starters how do Berettas and SPAS-12s sound? No? Don't have a place in 2176? That's right, they won't have a role at all, they'll be 200 year old antiquities. There's also an automatic rifle, which I've forgotten the name of. I think it's a FN model, about 10 years old. What is it doing there? Oh well, in the absolute ending sequence a pair of
SMGs appear that are unidentifiable, as they're tailor-made for the movie (finally). But I must say they're some of the shiniest guns I've ever seen. The design is bad, I'll accept that. But why are they so shiny? Ridiculous.
***WARNING "SPOILER" BELOW***
The opening scene of GOM is a really bad attempt at copying the Ripley investigations scenes from the all-time brilliant movie "Aliens". Natasha is being questioned about the recent events on Mars, where she starts recanting the movie. So after about 4 minutes into the movie, we already know that she's the only survivor. Great...nice spoiler. So the whole "who's gonna make it" is off, now what? That is often the only thing movies like GOM and "Pitch Black" have going for them, But GOM gives it away in the opening sequence. Very poor.
What also bothers me are flashback scenes that aren't called for. When a person starts to explain something, we are taken back to a scene we've seen and are shown it again, just to know what the conversation refers to. It seems John Carpenter must've known we'd be sleeping ourselves through this movie.
Again the western style is apparent, the law enforcers (read Sheriff and his deputies) have shotguns and the sheriff has a long coat typical of western movies. There's an old style iron bar jail, the railroad (Mars express or whatever) and a bunch of outlaws (the ghosts).
So what about the bad guys in the movie? I almost s**t a brick when I saw them. They suck bad. They are simple miners than have been possessed by the ghosts and suddenly start piercing and painting and sickly decorating themselves. It's explained as something the ghosts used to do when they were alive....*sigh*....
Oh well, they have this leader guy and he looks like a devil or something, in the gothiest outfit I've ever seen in a sci-fi. It's leather, it's black, it has rings and stuff, bla, bla. The funniest part is when this guy issues commands or preaches to his flock. It's like he only can say one word and that word is something like "waah" or perhaps "raah". And he wants to say these complicated sentences of about 8-14 words each. But all that comes out is "waah, waah, raah, raah, waah, waah, raah, waaaaaah". I almost swallowed my icecream scoop when I first heard him, then I just laughed myself into a coma. And he's REALLY p***ed all through the movie. He's supposed to be mad because invaders (the humans) have set foot on his planet. But I'd say his rage is so immense that he's got a personal issue of some kind. He's just sooo mad. Maybe it's because he can't say any other words than "waah" and "raah". I know that would p**s me off.
The religious manner in which his subordinates worship him, with this whole "primitive caveman meets Jehova's witness bent on Nazi occultism" style is pathetic.
THE ACTORS Natasha Henstridge (ze girrrl from Schpecies) can do better, she's no actress, nor a model, but even she can do better. Ice Cube actually isn't all that bad, he proved that in "Boyz 'n' the Hood" among other films, this must be the worst performance from him that I've ever seen, much due to the script.
This movie so badly wants to be a good SCI-FI, but it can't be that, because it so badly wants to be a good WESTERN, but it can't be that, because it so badly wants to be a good MONSTER MOVIE, but it can't because the script and props suck.
OK, what about budget? Well "John Carpenter" is a name that should allow for some money to pour in. Hm...but not if the sponsors saw "John Carpenter's Vampires". I believe most of the money went into making the train that traffics Mars. The design is bad, humans would never build anything like that train. It looks OK though, in being actually there I mean. It's OK...nothing more. Explosions are plentiful (the ghosts have dynamite) and bad. Everyone's on a springboard and fly in a predictable trajectory in order to not hurt themselves. Typical "A-Team" action complete with tons of clichés and lame Wesley Snipes-like comments.
Do I sound a tad irritated? That is because I payed good money to view this movie. I feel people have the right to know what to expect as I have the right to be upset about what I saw. This review contains no profanity so there should be no reason to not post it.
Overall : I gave it a 1 in my vote. When disc 1 had finished I had to think for approx 10 seconds if I wanted to load disc 2. Or as my Japanese female friend would say : "Sucky-sucky".
/Medusa 2001