VOD Release: The Wave (2016)

"Hollywood take note: This is how disaster movies are done."

(aka Bølgen.)
Release Date: March 4th.
Country: Norway.
Rating: R.
Written by: John Kåre Raake and Harald Rosenløw-Eeg.
Directed by: Roar Uthaug.
Starring: Kristoffer Joner, Ane Dahl Torpe, and Fridtjov Såheim.

We're absolute suckers for a good disaster movie around here. Movies like San Andreas, 2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact, Twister, etc... are crazy enjoyable in their spectacle. Now, they may not be the best movies, and we could certainly rip them apart as far as plot and characterization go, but there's just something about a big, destructive disaster set piece that makes us smile.

That said, while The Wave may be a smaller disaster movie, it packed every bit as much of a punch as it's bigger-scale Hollywood brethren do, and to be honest, was a better overall experience that a vast majority of them.

The one rub on this movie, especially for potential U.S. viewers, is that it's a Norwegian film, which means that subtitles will be required for those who want to watch it, and don't speak the language. I'm so used to subtitles at this point that I use them when I watch English language movies and TV shows, but there are plenty of people out there who view subtitles as a nuisance, and just won't watch a subbed movie. While people all over the world watch American movies with subtitles all the time, here in the U.S., getting people to watch a subtitled movie is a harder sell for some reason.

I urge you to put aside your fears and jump on the subtitle bandwagon though, as there really is a world full of fantastic film out there waiting to be discovered by we of the English speaking audiences, if we'd just give them a chance. Movies like The Wave.

Nestled at the foot of the beautiful mountain Akerneset, Geiranger is a lovely little Norwegian town to raise a family in. Geologist Kristian and his family have lived there for years, and even though they're about to move to the big city so that dad can work at a more prestigious job, none of them really want to leave. Especially dad. He's worked at the early warning center in Geiranger for years, and he's having a tough time letting go of his work.

I WOULDN'T WANT TO LEAVE THAT VIEW EITHER.

You see, the massive Akerneset is a mountain that could collapse at any time, the results of which would theoretically send an 80-meter tall tsunami racing towards the small little hamlet of Geiranger, which would effectively kill most of the people in its path. So understandably, Kristian doesn't want to leave his job at the early warning center, because its important. He and his family are all packed up and ready to go though, despite their bittersweet feelings about leaving.

And then the mountain shifts, there's a landslide, and the warning siren sounds.

YEAH, YOU SHOULD RUN.

With mom and son Sondre deciding to spend their last night in Geiranger at a hotel (not as seedy as it sounds), and Kristian and daughter Julia opting for one more night at their beloved home, the family is separated when disaster strikes, and Kristian must race against time to somehow save them all from what is coming.

Heart-quickening insanity ensues.

10 MINUTES TO LIVE. BETTER GET A MOVE ON.

The Wave was the highest grossing film at the Norwegian Box Office in 2015, and it's easy to see why: it's exciting, it's intense, and most important of all, it's emotionally engaging. I can't remember the last time that we saw a disaster movie that offered such a rich, genuine story to go along with its impressive and terrifying disaster scenes (which are very impressive), especially given that this movie was made for around $6 million U.S. dollars.

It makes me wonder how Hollywood can constantly release big, bloated action flicks that cost $100-$200 million, and yet the always seem to lack substance. Heart, even.

This is a technically gorgeous movie, its visuals looking like something that a movie of a smaller budget like this shouldn't be able to afford. It doesn't hurt that the Norwegian landscape is so breathtakingly beautiful, but the way that they captured it on film was extra impressive.

SHE'S NOT IMPRESSED THOUGH.

The one thing that sets The Wave apart from so many other disaster movies is that it takes time to develop its characters. In my experience, many foreign films do an excellent job of establishing their characters, and they give their audiences time to get to know them. We cared about the family in this movie, and when things got bad and they were all in danger, the tension we felt for them was genuine.

We're not familiar with a lot of the actors in this movie, because they've mainly starred in Scandinavian projects that we just don't have access to, but we can say that Kristoffer Joner is a hell of an actor. We've seen him in movies like Naboer (review HERE), Hidden (review HERE), and Red Snow: Red vs.Dead (review HERE), and he's been great in all of them. In The Wave, he pulled the emotion right out of us playing the father who is trying to save his family, and we really liked seeing him play the hero for a change. If Norway has their own movie awards, I have to imagine that he'd get a nod for his work here. He was that good.

ALL THE FEELS.

Everyone else did a solid job here as well, from those who played the main characters, all the way down to the folks in the supporting roles. It was especially nice to see Fridtjov Såheim (from the awesome show, Lillehammer) play dramatic in this one, even if his role was a bit of a smaller one.

NICE JOB, GANG.

When the mountain finally collapses, the entire tsunami sequence was just phenomenal.

OH MAN...

The Wave is easily one  of the best disaster movies that we've ever seen. It's exciting, intense, earnest, and its characters felt real. It's an extremely well-constructed movie that Hollywood could really learn a lesson (or ten) from when it comes to how to do a "big" movie in a very small, effective way.

Rent it, and enjoy.

A

The Wave is available now on VOD.

Norwegian beauty Ane Dahl Torpe is in this.

Blu-ray Review: Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead (2014)

As much as we loved the first Dead Snow (our review HERE), we enjoyed Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead even more.

I don't know what it is about Tommy Wirkola, and the way that he approaches filmmaking, but the guy just knows how to make an entertaining movie. *And yes, we thought his Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters was a hell of a lot of fun too.

Whatever his magic formula may be, it's in high gear with Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead; this movie is crazy, bloody, gory, silly, offensive, and it may just be our favorite Horror flick of the year, thus far.

Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead picks up right where Dead Snow left off: with Martin sitting in his car, believing that he has escaped the terror of the Undead Nazis, until he realizes that he still has one of those cursed gold coins.... which Colonel Herzog promptly shows up to take right back, because he's materialistic like that. 

Dude, it's one coin. Just let him go.

While attempting to escape (yet again) from the Nazi Zombies, Martin wrecks his car, and wakes up in the Hospital, handcuffed to his bed. You see the Police think that he's killed all of his friends, and when he tries to tell them that Nazi Zombies were responsible, they also believe him to be insane. The good news in all of this though is that his arm has been reattached; of course it's Herzog's enchanted arm and not his, but hey, at least he now has super strength and stuff.

That hand can do things!

Knowing that Herzog and his cronies will be coming for the coin (and also to kill people), Martin escapes from the Hospital, calls in the Zombie Squad (for real), and sets off to stop Herzog and his Undead Nazi menace. Of course, before said menace can be stopped, they happen upon a town, where they kill everybody that they can find. To make things worse, Herzog reanimates everyone that they kill, thus adding to his creepy army of Nazi death. Now if only Martin had the power to do the same thing...

But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Zing!

Can Martin and his trio of American nerds stop the Nazis from taking over Norway, and then the World? Will Glenn Kenneth just admit that he's gay so that he can begin living the happy life that he's always dreamed of? Will that poor little Sidekick Zombie ever catch a break? Far be it from us to spoil what happens here, but suffice it to say that there will most likely be a Dead Snow 3, and we're completely fine with that.

Don't just stare at it, throw it!

What isn't good about this movie? I can't recall the last time that we enjoyed ourselves this much while watching a Horror flick... Trick r' Treat? Black Sheep, maybe?

Yes, the story is ridiculous, and most of the things that happen on-screen are just plain bat-shit crazy, but that's the genius of it all; it's meant to be over the top, as Tommy Wirkola is more interested in his audience having a kick-ass time watching his movies, than he is in accomplishing anything else with them. I mean the dude had his Zombies killing kids, handicapped people, elderly folk... nothing was too sacred or taboo in this movie. It was really nice to watch a movie that threw political correctness out the window and just went for whatever if felt like going for.

It was really surprising (and pretty fantastic), to find that a gang of American actors found their way into this Norwegian/Icelandic production, and that at least half of the movie played out in English. We had no clue that Martin Starr was supposed to be in this one, and when he appeared on screen, we were thrilled; dude is crazy, crazy funny, and he was great in this movie. We also didn't realize that Derek Mears was in this one, or that Kristoffer Joner played Martin's Zombie Sidekick... for once, we're really glad that we avoided IMDB until after seeing a movie, because surprises like that are always welcomed.

Now we need to go watch Freaks and Geeks and Party Down again. Dammit.

***SPOILERS*** Why did Glenn Kenneth have to die, and right when he was about to "come out" to the world, too? Couldn't Martin touch his face and make him into a little gay pet Zombie or something?

All he ever wanted was to be gay and happy!

This movie walked the line between being clever and ridiculous. For the most part, it was absolutely clever, but there were one or two times when things almost crossed over into "...and it was gong so well up until now" territory. For instance, the triage scene; a fucking plunger for a leg? Come on. Thankfully, that scene was short, and it didn't kill the mojo that the movie had going for it.

 Mojo.

This movie is an out and out Gorefest of near-epic proportions.

Why yes, that is vomit.

Nope.

Tease.

Russian Zombies hate Nazi Zombies. Also, Zombies are really just dreamers at heart.

Also, Norway sure is beautiful at night.

Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead is a barrel full of crazy fun, and along with The Raid 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy, it's one of the most enjoyable movies that we've seen this year. If you haven't seen the first Dead Snow, you should get ahold of a copy now and watch it, that way, when Dead Snow 2 finally gets released all over the world in October, you can jump right in and enjoy.

This movie is destined to be on many Best of 2014 lists, come December. It will most certainly be on ours.

A

Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead will available be on Blu-ray and DVD on October 10th (Tentatively.) If you don't want to wait that long to see it, then you could always import the Norwegian Blu-ray and give it a go. Be warned though: the Norwegian disc doesn't have any English subtitles for the Non-English speaking parts of the movie.

The ladies of Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead: Amrita Acharia, Jocelyn DeBoer, and Ingrid Haas.

Review: Fritt Vilt 3 (2011)

"I'm pretty sure that the 3rd time is not always a charm..."

*If you haven't seen the first two films in the Fritt Vilt (Cold Prey) series, you may want to read our reviews for Fritt Vilt and Fritt Vilt 2, to get yourself up to speed. Then again, if you haven't seen at least one of the first two movies, then why in the hell are you watching part 3 to begin with? Cheaters.

Sub-Genre- Backwoods Horror/Torture Porn

Cast Members of Note- Ida Marie Bakkerud, Kim S. Falck-Jorgensen, Julie Rusti, and a bunch of other Norway people that I can't seem to keep straight in my head.

Set in the 80's, FV III tells the story of the series' killer as a child and troubled youth. Yes, it's a prequel and an origin story, and I guess someone in Norway thought both were somehow necessary.

Looks so odd without the snow...

Remember in the first movie how we learned that the mountain-man killer was buried alive by his parents as a kid, because he had an odd mole on his face? Well he found himself a mentor in them there Norwegian woods, who went and dug him up, learned him how to kill and gut him some animals, and how to effectively act all creepy. Eventually, he decides he'd rather kill and gut him some people instead. That's basically the plot of this movie.

This is not the killer all grown up, this is Santa. From the looks of things, he's about to add another HO to his repertoire... He's supposed to have 3 of them, you know.

"A bunch of young, dumb-ass kids head into the wilderness of _______ for a weekend of _______, only to find a bloodthirsty _______ waiting to _______ them off one by one." Yeah, we've heard the same exact plot over and over and over and over again, so just fill in the blanks in a way that suits this film, and we have another cookie-cutter Horror flick on our hands. There really isn't much else to say about the plot.

Don't be pissy about it, you know I'm right!

Unlike its predecessors, which were Slasher flicks, Fritt Vilt 3 decided to go the Torture Porn route. Did it work? I suppose so, if you like the average Torture Porn offering, but it played more like Wrong Turn than the first two films in its own franchise, and that threw us off a bit.

As a prequel, it was decent; it told the back story of the killer in an interesting way, showing us how he got to where he was, and why. As an installment in the Fritt Vilt series, it was also decent, but felt oddly out of place. The first 2 movies were set in an isolated, snowy mountain top location, which added to the tension and isolation of it all. The other films also had a strong, dynamic Final Girl who we couldn't help but root for. I'm not taking anything away from the Final Girl of this one, but the material here just wasn't as good, so it felt as if she were less awesome in a way?

The movie did have some good kill scenes/gory gags that made us cringe, and if that's really all you care about, then you will enjoy FV III, I'm sure. Oh, and the girls were nice to look at too.

Dirty girl.

The charm of the series kinda died with this one. Instead of being a Slasher flick set in the wintry mountains of Norway, we get a Backwoods Horror flick set in the forests of Norway in the summer time... In our opinion, making those changes really took away the one unique thing the first two movies had going for them.

Giving them the most disapproving stare that he could muster, Jorgen hoped that they would get the point. They didn't, though. They didn't.

Why only a quick side boob? There were two really cute girls in this movie, and all they did was tease us. We, the audience, demand gratuitous nudity in our standard hack-and-slash movies, because we deserve it. It's like a little bonus for us having to sit through retreaded material, and poorly scripted,generic efforts. Weak story + no boobs= just not right.

Tease!

It's Torture Porn, so of course there's some good blood and gore to be had here; various stabbings, slashing, and shooting (shotgun and bow, mind you), and even a cat being gutted. Blood lovers will be happy with this movie.

Final Girl.

Aside from a naked man ass and a brief shot of a side boob, everyone remained clothed in this one. For shame, Norway, for shame. You're supposed to be progressive with that kind of stuff!

They should have stopped at part 2.

What the fuck are they smiling at?

Nowhere near the film that either of the first two Fritt Vilt films were, FVIII delivers some good kill scenes and blood, but not much else. The summer setting took away a bit of the charm established earlier in the series, or maybe I just really like snow. No. After the winter we've had so far here in Michigan, I think it's safe to say that snow can go fuck itself. So I guess then that it just felt more like every other Backwoods Horror movie that has come along in recent years, and the change of scenery didn't help things.

It's worth a watch, but I fear that it wont please fans of the series as much as parts 1 and 2 did.

C-

Isn't it good, Norwegian Wood? Also, Julie Rusti makes me want to move to Norway.