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!

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

fustbariclation Enjoyed 'Den brysomme mannen' http://ow.ly/PTTp (my wife didn't, so I watched it in bits over a few days.)Reviewers mainly confused - most agree it's allegorical, but not of what; 'Heaven', 'Hell', 'Socialism', 'Capitalism'? That most people don't wish to escape, and it's, essentially, forbidden goes with most of those options.So, presumably you're supposed to project your favourite preoccupation/prejudice/fear onto it. So I'd say it's about an a-epicurean life. A live desaturated of colour, literally in the film, figuratively in the interpretation.

Polaris_DiB Grabbed my attention on Netflix Instant Play because it was only an hour and a half long (it's nearing 4 am here), and because it's Norwegian, which I wanted to follow up with Dead Snow and see what else the country is offering in international cinema right now. A droll and deliciously wry romp, this movie features a man, Andreas, who gets shipped out to some Purgatory of a Brave New World city, where everyone is happy and bland and food has no taste, nothing smells, and even sex loses its appeal. Driven to the edge by his lack of common senses, he feels nearly ready to kill himself.After an hilarious botched attempt at latter, Andreas tracks down a man with similar complaints and the two discover a tiny, vagina-shaped hole in a concrete wall from which music emanates. The two attempt to break through to see what is on the other side, tracking a tiny bit of light they can barely see. But of course, in fantasy allegory land, desire and nonconformity are not allowed and the elements of the city operate to end Andreas' attempt at freedom and sensuality.Jens Lien and crew create a simple, straight-forward movement to the story, one that flows well with its themes and moves along at just enough of a pace to keep from lagging. The similarities in other similar science fiction aren't worth enumerating, but still the movie has a unique feel and balances some very funny scenes with some pretty horrifying ones. I like the limited but effective use of gore in this movie, some disembowelment and flagellation that will get your heart stammering harder than The Passion of the Christ simply because it is so perfectly out of place from the gray-toned mise-en-scene. Trond Fausa Aurvaag is a dependably squirrelly actor who physically feels out of place from his surroundings, which works very well. Despite the fact that the concept itself isn't anything to write home about, everyone involved makes it work and the movie fully realizes its own world.--PolarisDiB