Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Martin Bradley This uncompromising Norwegian drama is set on the island prison of Bastoy in the Oslo fjord and is based on a true story. The English title alludes to another story of escape from a more famous island prison but there is nothing heroic about Marius Holst's picture. This is a brutal and soul-destroying place and the film is bleakly and brilliantly filmed and very well played by its almost exclusively male cast, (Benjamin Helstad and Trond Nilssen are outstanding as two of the incarcerated boys as is Stellan Starsgard as the misguided governor). File it next to the likes of "Escape from Alcatraz" if you will but this is much more Bressonian than that.

Leofwine_draca Another piece of Norwegian greatness. KING OF DEVIL'S ISLAND (great title, incidentally) is one of those based-on-a-true-story-you've-never-heard-of movies, charting the brutality of life inside a remote and wintry island-based borstal during the early 20th century.Coming across as a Norwegian version of the hard-hitting British SCUM, KING OF DEVIL'S ISLAND is great whichever way you look at it. The technical qualities are excellent, as is the acting from a mostly no-name cast whose one main star is Stellan Skarsgard, as miserable and burly as he's ever been. It's the developing relationship between Benjamin Helstad and Trond Nilssen that really makes this involving viewing, despite the distasteful elements of the subject matter and the general feeling that this isn't going to have a happy ending.In any case, I absolutely loved this film and want to see more like it. The Scandinavian countries seem to be turning out hit after hit at the moment, both in television and film, and it's a shame Britain and the USA couldn't follow some of their cues. If you want a lesson in how to make an exceptional bit of drama then you could do a lot worse than checking out KING OF DEVIL'S ISLAND.

Bene Cumb Based on true events, this one of the most expensive Norwegian (+Swedish, Estonian) film was shot primarily in my home country - thus, apart from a good film experience, I had a joy of recognition vis-a-vis places and actors (although Estonian ones had mute or 1-2 word roles only). Anyway, the Norwegian background and spirit with gloom and misery in a closed penal institution were well captured, and all the leading characters were skillfully elaborated and performed (especially Stellan Skarsgård as Håkon, Benjamin Helstad as Erling "C19", Trond Nilssen as Olav "C1"). Most of the screenplay is focused, however, on the "normal" routine in the establishment, boys versus staff, the rebellion itself and its consequences are shown in a limited time and space (I would have liked to know what happened to the revolting boys, and how the usual living was restored). Nevertheless, Kongen av Bastøy is a strong drama, giving food for thought long after the credits disappear.

paulkazee This is a very solid film. I do not understand why one of the other reviewers felt the boys were not sympathetic. Only one of the kids appears to have committed a serious crime. The others are there for petty things like stealing change from a church collection basket. That said, as good as the film is, it is not clear how much of it is really history, and how much just conjecture. I've read elsewhere that the only part of the film that is known to be true is that there was a revolt and that soldiers responded from the mainland (one of only two times the Norwegian government has trained its guns on its own citizens). The reasons behind the revolt are said to be mere conjecture.