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angel_redwin
Reviews
See You in Valhalla (2015)
This movie is about a dis functional and estranged family coming together after a death in the family from unusual circumstances.
I was prepared in the first 15 minutes to just find the Wikipedia page read all the spoilers and just get done with the whole experience. So I am going to help all those who come after me who want the same. The movie felt like a bunch of forced chemistry and honestly awkward arguments that hardly mean anything.
Spoilers-----------------------------------> OK so, Max (aka Magnus) died high on meth attacking his meth dealer after his girlfriend overdosed and died, this was not the first time both people had substance issues. Max and his girlfriend tried a NeoViking colony and got clean prior to the movie. The father also had substance issues throughout his children's childhood and fell completely off the wagon when his wife died before his eldest son finished high school and was basically an absentee parent to all four of his children.
Johana the main character was not very liked for most of the movie. Her issues stem from her high school romance, she got pregnant at 16 and then after they agreed to have the baby he cheated on her with a friend. She skipped town had the baby and gave it up for adoption. She came back to town for her brothers funeral and found out her friend tori had given birth to Johnny(the ex-)s baby as well. Johnny as well as everyone else believes Jo left to have an abortion, this comes out when the guy she was vaguely seeing attempts to comfort her about the meet up with her ex.
The eldest brother Don was the big man on campus until he got his high school girlfriend pregnant and abandoned all his dreams to do right by her. He has issues with being super conservative and raising his teen daughter the same way to be different from his childhood with an addict of a father. He takes his right wing sensibilities too far in a very liberal home. It turns out that he and his wife are getting a divorce because she has been cheating on him for the majority of their marriage and he only stayed for his overachiever daughter who will do anything to make him proud. He is torn between treating his daughter like his little girl and treating her like an adult which most of them do because she acts very driven and mature.
Barry is the person most disparaged in the movie. He is a gay psychologist who got his doctorate but also has issues. He is dating mikiwei who has substance abuse problems and might have been his first unofficial patient, that's grounds for a lawsuit if he was a paying customer. Barry said it was free therapy in exchange for being a personal trainer, so we have to assume nothing illegal but slightly morally wrong may have happened. He seems to be the most put together of the family but they throw in a tidbit where he used to be fat and ate his problems away.
Pete is a side character mostly but I found him to be the most liked character of the line up, he wasn't very realistic but I found myself being really fond of him. He really likes Jo and is there to comfort her, he is a little unrealistic in that he gets through it all seemingly unscathed. He takes in stride all the drama and even defends this family despite the fact that Jo wouldn't even call him her boyfriend until she was faced with the ex boyfriend. He helped steal a body from the morgue on a whim.
The entire movie was filled with so much drama and gave no real resolution to any of the conflicts presented besides they all have to feel closer because they committed a crime together and it's implied the dad died soon after they burned Max's corpse. Granted Pete and Jo seem like an actual couple if only slightly less forced looking. I would not watch it again. In the end I'm not sure this needed the Viking undertones at all, and besides the dad, mikiwei, and max no one really knew what it meant. Sure Jo and Pete read Max's book but neither really bring up any ideas that went into it.
Grimm's Snow White (2012)
tried to not be typical, but was for the most part
i liked it... thought there was some pretty good acting; despite the fact that it says it's going in a non-traditional way with the elves and the weird dragons, it kinda didn't really stray from a typical plot line for snow white... loved how the fights scenes were done and i'm sorry but i laughed at how bad the special effects were whenever somethings head got chopped off... must have saved money on fake blood since i believe only one scene had any... the plastic elf ears were kind of cute and you gotta love the queen being a man user to get what she wants... i honestly have to say that i think they could have gone more towards a snow white confronting destiny and had the epic snow vs evil queen in front of the star flames and the ending needed to be cleaned up with a theme of peace and complete togetherness... my favorite character had to be Orlando the grumpy (yet super sexy) elf he just had more depth and transformation of character from being local bad boy/protector saying dude just let her die she's human, to a more compassionate, oh snow i see how hard it is to see your true loves forced wedding- understanding look in his eyes his character really pulled through and i love the depth the actor presented, the prince however i'm not impressed with his character which could have been the actor could have been how he was written... who knows