JinRoz
For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Mikelikesnotlikes
The place Andreas arrives at doesn't appear to be a punishment "Hell'; rather it's a limbo of banality. For want of a better word it's a purgatory, either subconsciously chosen by the deceased or perhaps decreed by a higher power. This premise is never examined.I presume a suicide finds 'real' life too smelly, bright and loud which could explain why everything is toned down in this washed-out world. People here are superficially nice and accommodating and there are no pressures to perform at a high level either socially or a work.Whenever something goes wrong in this dull place, silent 'cleaners' fix up the messes and gently guide wayward people back into their rut. There are no punishments or threats used to modify people's behavior, and the cleaners always look slightly bemused whenever they transport Andrea from his latest deviation.Why Andreas and a very few others can't or won't adapt to the place is perhaps meant to reflect that they weren't ready to die. "Most people are happy here, and we're proud of that" says one of his work colleagues, meaning they have found a level of existence that they can cope with and they consider that to be enough.Andreas wants more than this bland, carefully neutral life and tries to re-enter (rebirth?) himself back into the 'real' world, which appears to be forbidden.At a loss at what to do with him they shove the nearly catatonic Andreas unconventionally back into the luggage compartment of the bus which, after a very violent journey, dumps him in a freezing place.
cricket crockett
. . . Dean stopped at the video store and rented this. Said he felt like a change of pace from the usual slasher flicks and thrillers, so he thought we'd try some foreign fare. I think it's a pain in the neck to have everybody jibber jabbering away in Norwayican or whatever, cuz if you're distracted for the least little second and miss a couple of those American sentences at the bottom of the screen, you either have to rewind the DVD or lose the thread of what's happening. That may actually give us USers a double dose of what the guy who made THE BOTHERSOME MAN intended, cuz obviously he dident want this movie to make any sense to his fellow Norwayicans, either. What with Mercedes vaporizing in the desert, vahjayjay-shaped cellar cracks leading to other realities, the blue eyed guy getting destroyed and bouncing back more times than Wiley E. Coyote, all the chicks and bosses kowtowing to his every whim, but him preferring to ride the bus to Antarctica, it's kinda like Dean said: this guy thought he was making GROUNDHOG DAY, METAMORPHOSIS, NO EXIT & WAITING FOR GODOT all rolled into one. But Dean says give it 8 out of 10--that's what happens to your brain when you cut up hogs all day for a living!
alexeykorovin
Enjoyable movie, well worth watching. The good: 1) dry humor which is quite fresh after all those Hollywood comedies 2) many hilarious moments, I was laughing thru most of the movie 3) the violent scenes were absolutely amazing, especially the one where the street cleaners were trying to take off the corpse from the spiked fence 4) lots of details which make it very believable. Although I live in Germany and not in Norway, the co-workers of the main character where very similar to the typical officer workers you find in Germany The bad: 1) the movie is too long, many static scenes. You have already understood what the author wanted to say, but the scene stays there for 10 seconds more. Such seconds add up to minutes and you get a film 2-3 times longer than it should have been 2) the ending was a disappointment. It looked as if the movie was just cut at some point, since there was no finale, no conclusion and no twist or anything interesting at the end 3) actually the idea of criticizing the middle class is very old, so the film brings really nothing new, even though it's still entertaining 4) at some places the satire was just too absurd to even be funny, e.g. the scene where the main character stands fully covered in blood and his girlfriend talks about the weekend
stenemo88
The basics of this movie in my view is to show the worst nightmare of all human societies - where everyone live rich lives, but everyone seem to be like robots without any emotions. The protagonist shows us around in the world, similar to how Kafka shows his worlds, though this one is not at all as odd as Kafka. Bottom line is: if you like to see dystopia movies, enjoyed Kafka, etc. you'll probably like this one. If you don't you'll probably be a bit bored and feel that the movie is blown out of proportion, it's just another dystopia, and basically a world of robots, nothing new about humans need for social interactions nor their constant dissatisfaction with their life (grass is always greener mentality) you'd say. And you'd be right
