All posts in “Reviews”

Early, more violent draft of Léon

Posted 18 years ago ·  Tagged: , , , , · Comments Off on Early, more violent draft of Léon

I just re-watched one of my favorite films, Léon – or The Professional. It is very satisfying to be stunned by the high quality of a film you haven’t watched in a while; nice to see your favorite films still got it. After watching it my interest for Natalie Portman peeked, so I searched for some YouTube-videos and stumbled upon an early draft of the film. It is much more violent, and the relationship between Léon and Mathilda is not as ambigous, but apparently Portman’s parents were unhappy with it, so it was rewritten. In her Inside the Actor’s Studio interview, Natalie also talks about having to plead to her parents after getting the part in the film. The entire interview deserves a look as well. Anyway, the differences between the final and original script can be read here, and as mentioned, it is very violent, for example here is an excerpt from the rooftop training session:

Mathilda concentrates again and shoots: nothing happens. Mathilda wonders whether she missed again and prepares for a new shot.

LÉON
Wait…

The fatman softly leans down on his side.

LÉON
Bull’s-eye.

Mathilda is happy but, evidently, she expected death to be more spectacular.

In the final script, they use paintballs. Overall there are a lot of training scenes with Léon killing people left and right. He is basically very cold-hearted, and in this version he also initiates the russian roulette scene, which can be seen in the “Long Version” of the film. The script also mentions some scenes with explicit sexual character:

Léon opens the door. Mathilda is naked and is brushing her hair. Léon closes back the door without entering.

LÉON (embarrassed)
Sorry. I heard “yes”, so I got in…

Mathilda opens the door. She’s still combing her hair. She’s still naked.

Léon gives up, at last. She sweetly kisses him.

MATHILDA
Tongue, please.
Léon pushes her away, irritated.

LÉON
No, that’s enough! Sit down, now.

And the most horribly disturbing scene of all:

She stands up and modestly gets off her briefs without taking off her dress. Léon cries, unable to oppose her. Mathilda is too young, but she’s also too beautiful and lovely and sweet and tender… She sweetly, very sweetly, gets on him.

LÉON (crying)
Why me, Mathilda, why me?
Mathilda leans over to speak in his ear.

MATHILDA
…Because you deserve it, Léon…
Léon embraces her. He’s full of happiness, shame, so many emotions, he can’t control very well. But, hell, how beautiful it is seeing them sweetly making love.

And that is how you get a NC-17 rating in the US, and everywhere else… Some parts of the script do not really make sense though, e.g. according to the script Mathilda easily kills a man with the rifle, but later on they talk about how everything changes when you kill somebody. However the script seems valid and can be found several places online. I very much prefer the final version, the sexual character of Mathilda is very disturbing in this original draft, and Léon is very unlikeable, which seems logical at this point in the development stage, since the character is developed from Reno’s role as “The Cleaner” in Besson’s Nikita. Still, it is interesting to see how extreme Besson actually wanted the film to be.

CoD: World at War Beta

Posted 18 years ago ·  Tagged: , · 1 Comment

Because I’ve been playing an extreme amount of Call of Duty 4, online, Activision has decided to let me into the multiplayer beta of the sequel, Call of Duty: World at War (WaW). Yay for respecting your geeky customers! Anyway, I love the multiplayer of CoD 4, at the moment I’ve played more than 30 hours, but I’ve had mixed feelings about WaW, mainly because it’s developed by the makers of Call of Duty 3, Treyarch, and not Infinity Ward.

After playing the beta for a couple of hours, my worries are gone. The design of the interface, and the features of the game, are almost identical to that of CoD 4, which is perfect. They’ve made some small changes though, obviously the premise of the game is different; you now have WW2 weapons, gears and perks, but one of the kill streak bonuses is also different. Three kills gives you a recon, and 5 kills give you an airstrike, as in CoD4, but instead of getting a chopper, after a 7 kill streak, you now get a pack of dogs! I always hated the chopper, so this is a welcome change, it also gets your adrenaline going when five dogs are running towards you. They’ve also added “Momentum”, this means that, as your teammates gain kill streaks, the entire team can capture points faster.

This is exactly what I wanted, all the brilliant design elements from CoD 4, in a new setting. The game will also have 4-player co-op mode, both splitscreen and online, so I guess I’ve found another game for the wishlist.

An afternoon with Rock Band

Posted 18 years ago ·  Tagged: , · Comments Off on An afternoon with Rock Band

Yesterday, while under influence of considerable amounts of alcohol, me and my roommate, Mikkel, decided that Rock Band was just the thing we needed. Oddly enough we felt the same when we woke up this morning, so we drove to the nearest Fona. I thought the price of the game and the instruments was around 1.200 kr., that was kind of far of, because it’s around 2.000 kr. We thought that was kind of insane, so we went back home, but after a lot of arguments like “Well, I did just get my last paycheck” and “I’ll probably sell my drum kit at home”, we went back to the store and bought the box. As you can see in the last entry I just dragged myself away from the game to post some photos, but now we’ve been playing all day, and I’d like to tell you a little about the experience.

I’ve played Guitar Hero 2 and 3 a lot, especially at the Film College, so I didn’t really expect an entirely new experience from Rock Band, maybe except from the drums, although I didn’t expect to be able to play those. I was so wrong, the game is just incredible, and I actually think the main reason is the drums. We’ve been playing three guys, and if you think you feel like a rockstar playing Guitar Hero, just wait until you try this, it’s fricking amazing! It probably helps that Mikkel plays drums in his sparetime, but damn, you feel pretty cool. The drumming looks very difficult, and I’ve always been a bit of a retard concerning my motor skills, but it’s actually not that hard. I went through the tutorials, and now I can keep up on medium, also, it’s so much more fun than playing the guitars, again, because it feels so much more real.

The game is also very well done, the campaign, called World Tour, gives you fans, money, etc. You also compete for prizes like tour vans, and eventually travel abroad. The download section is also incredibly well done, you can download the tracks individually (costing from 9 – 17 kr. a piece), and the amount of songs is very impressive. Anyway, now I know how to keep myself occupied until school starts.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!

Posted 18 years ago ·  Tagged: , , , , · 1 Comment

Holy shit, what was that?

Spoilers ahoy.

Like most people I’ve been an Indiana Jones fan since my eyes witnessed the awesomeness that is Raiders of the Lost Ark. Naturally, I had to go see the newest addition to the franchise, with out expecting much though. Since nine buddies from my Film College stay was going to the midnight premiere in Imperial, I decided to catch the train and tag along. I’ve never been to Imperial, so that was an experience in itself, awesome cinema.

After a small, but pretty cool, stage show the movie began, and I was actually enjoying it (and so was the rest of the cinema, since they seemed fit to clap at every single quote/punch/whiplash). I was still entertained though, Ford was great, the small references to the previous movies warmly welcomed, and I even liked Shia LaBeouf’s character. Further more, I bought the ridiculously unrealistic action sequences, the amount of CGI and even the somewhat farfetched storyline about alien lifeforms. But then something happened, and the movie was over. People didn’t seem to comprehend what they had just seen, the intense clapping had suddenly vanished, not a single one, even at the credits, just incredulous looks on the faces of 1000 other Indy fans. The light came on and muttering began in the corners, “Was that an alien… ?”, “Did we just see an UFO rip a temple apart… ?”, “How can we get to George Lucas and rip his head off?”. Yes, there is a full-fledged CGI alien and flying saucer in an Indiana Jones movie. It’s mind-boggling, it’s absurd. These movies have always been on the edge of occult, supernatural stuff, and that’s one of the things that make the series so great. But inserting a fucking living alien that subsequently flies off in its huge spacecraft is just fucking retarded. I mean, what were they thinking?! The movie doesn’t even end properly, the alien just comes to life and flies off!

Also, the story is kind of confusing, the whole treasure-hunt part doesn’t really work, and the last scene, the wedding, ending with Mutt almost picking up the hat wasn’t even funny, considering Lucas’ remarks about making the next Indiana Jones movie with Shia LaBeouf in the leading role. That’s the second great movie trilogy that guy singlehandedly fucks up. Thanks a lot.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: 5/10.

Rating movies

Posted 18 years ago ·  Tagged: · 5 Comments

I rate all movies I see using the 10-grade rating system that most movie websites utilize, and I thought I’d write a small description on how I use the grades, just to get some discussion going. It is, of course, very subjective, and if I look through my voting history on IMDb I’ll probably make a lot of adjustments. Anyway, here goes:

10 – Fantastic movie, personal favorite, high replay value. (Example: Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, Fight Club)
9 – Fantastic movie. (Example: RoboCop, Twelve Monkeys)
8 – Great movie. (Example: Gladiator, Batman Begins)
7 – Above average, minor annoyances, but highly enjoyable. (Example: Jarhead, Hard Candy)
6 – Average, some annoyances, but overall enjoyable. (Example: Constantine, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back)
5 – Below average, not recommendable. (Example: Cars, Deja Vu)
4 – Bad movie, often big movies with horrible scripts. (Example: Fantastic Four, Scary Movie 4)
3 – Horrible. (Example: I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Hostel)
2 – Painfully bad, movies that even I could’ve made better. (Example: The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, Eye for Eye)
1 – Inexcusable and not worth even discussing. TV-movies and the likes. (Example: D-War, Epic Movie)

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