#movies

Over the past couple of weeks, my wife and I finally sat down and watched the extended editions of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I'd seen bits and pieces over the years and had tried watching them before, but I'd always end up falling asleep. It turns out that had more to do with my undiagnosed sleep apnea than the movies themselves. I'm really glad I finally got to experience the trilogy from start to finish.

Overall, I had a great time with the series.

The extended editions never felt like they were dragging for me. If anything, I appreciated getting more time with the characters and the world. It's easy to see why these movies are considered classics. The cast is fantastic, the music is incredible, and Middle-earth feels like a real place instead of just another fantasy setting.

We're working our way through The Hobbit trilogy now, and at the time of writing we still have the third movie left to watch.

So far, I'd say I've enjoyed The Lord of the Rings more overall. That said, Martin Freeman has absolutely been the highlight of The Hobbit movies for me. His version of Bilbo is incredibly likable, and he brings so much charm to the role that it's hard not to enjoy every scene he's in.

One of my favorite visuals so far has been Smaug swimming through the mountain of gold. The whole sequence immediately reminded me of Scrooge McDuck diving into his money bin. It's such an over-the-top visual, but it works, and it's one of those scenes that's going to stick with me.

One thing I wasn't expecting was how much The Hobbit would improve my appreciation for Bilbo.

Before watching these movies, Bilbo's role in The Lord of the Rings always felt a little strange to me. It was basically, "Here's the Ring. Good luck, Frodo." Seeing everything Bilbo went through, how he found the Ring, and how it slowly began influencing him gives so much more context to his character. It makes his relationship with the Ring feel earned instead of something that just happened before the story began.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the trilogy wraps up, but I honestly can't imagine my overall opinion changing dramatically. So far I've enjoyed all of these movies, with The Lord of the Rings still holding the edge.

After we finish The Hobbit, my wife has informed me that we're watching the 1977 animated The Hobbit next. I'm looking forward to seeing how it compares. If it changes my opinion in any meaningful way, I'll probably come back and post an update.

For now, I'm just happy I finally crossed these movies off my list. Sometimes there really is a reason a series becomes a classic.

Rating: Worth a Watch

I went into Roofman not knowing much beyond the basic premise: a guy robs McDonald's restaurants by drilling through the roof, escapes prison, and hides inside a Toys "R" Us. It's such a bizarre true story that I was immediately interested.

The movie ended up being a lot more charming than I expected.

Channing Tatum carries the film. He's just an incredibly likable actor, and I found myself rooting for Jeffrey Manchester more than I probably should have. Several times throughout the movie I had to remind myself, "This isn't a good dude." He's stealing from people, holding employees hostage, lying to everyone around him, and constantly making selfish decisions. But Tatum brings so much warmth to the role that it's easy to get caught up in wanting things to work out for him.

That's probably the movie's greatest strength—and maybe its biggest challenge. It humanizes Jeffrey without pretending he was a hero.

Kirsten Dunst is excellent as Leigh. She's been showing up in movies and TV for what feels like forever. I still remember first seeing her in Bring It On back when I was in middle school, and she's continued to be one of those actors who always seems to elevate whatever she's in.

Juno Temple has a relatively small role, but she's always fun to see. I really became a fan of hers after Fargo, where she absolutely crushed it.

Jimmy O. Yang also pops up briefly, and I'm always happy to see him. Between Silicon Valley and his stand-up comedy, he's become one of those actors whose appearance immediately makes me smile.

Peter Dinklage is fantastic as the Toys "R" Us manager. His character walks the line between being frustrating and oddly entertaining, and Dinklage makes the most of every scene he's gets.

What surprised me most is how funny the movie is. Even with the serious subject matter, it balances the comedy and drama well enough that it never feels like it's making light of Jeffrey's crimes. Instead, it focuses on the absurdity of the situations he finds himself in while still reminding the audience that his actions have consequences.

If you're expecting a high-octane heist movie, this isn't really that. It's more of a character-driven crime comedy with a surprisingly big heart. Knowing it's based on a real story only makes some of the stranger moments even more enjoyable.

Overall, I had a good time with Roofman. It made me laugh, had a strong cast, and kept me engaged from beginning to end. It's not a movie I'll probably revisit often, but it's absolutely worth watching if you're looking for something a little different.

Recently, I've been going down a folklore rabbit hole. I'm the kind of person who, once I start down a rabbit hole, finds it quickly becomes an absolute obsession. This particular journey started with a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) called Vaesen (check out Free League's website for more info). I'll talk more about Vaesen in a later post, but for brevity’s sake—so I can get straight to the review of Troll—it is heavily based on Scandinavian folklore. I started looking up movies with that same theme, and you can guess what came up. Troll has been sitting on my Netflix watchlist ever since it debuted in 2022.

Troll is absolutely steeped in Nordic folklore. It plays out like a Norwegian love letter to the genre where "kaiju meets folklore." Being a massive fan of Godzilla, King Kong, Gamera, and other giant monster franchises, this movie seemed like an excellent fit for my current obsession. It did not disappoint. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I'll try to keep this review spoiler-free, but just know the movie has been out for over three years now, so I don't think I'm giving too much away. Structurally, it hits all the beats of a classic kaiju movie, beat for beat.

A Brief Synopsis

When a blasting operation working deep in the mountains of Dovre, Norway, accidentally frees a skyscraper-sized stone troll, a government desperate to understand the creature's motivations sets an intrepid group on a crash-course adventure.

It takes Nora Tidemann, a paleontologist; her father Tobias, a former professor of folklore; Andreas Isaksen, the Prime Minister's assistant; and a sprinkling of help from the military in the form of Captain Kris Holm, to solve this ancient puzzle. All the while, the massive creature is relentlessly plodding its way toward Oslo, the capital city of Norway. Together, they must try to stop it before it destroys the entire city.

Thoughts on Theme and Style

At its heart, Troll is a classic "wannabe Hollywood disaster meets monster movie." Seriously—Tokyo has Godzilla, the U.S. has King Kong, and Norway has... a Troll. Albeit, a gigantic Troll. I know I'm coming off as really sarcastic here, but seriously, I love it. That tongue-in-cheek grandeur is exactly what it feels like director Roar Uthaug was going for, and in my opinion, he succeeded in spades.

The troll itself was pulled off brilliantly. The CGI was amazing and didn't detract at all from my immersion in the movie. I loved the design of the creature and how the film compared Uthaug’s vision with classic pieces of fairy tale artwork. As with my other favorite kaiju movies, my favorite parts are always where you get to see the sheer destruction the monster causes. I felt like the pacing and the build-up to revealing the monster were done incredibly well. We don't get to see all of the monster at first during its early interactions, but when we finally do, it's used to great effect.

The atmosphere and setting are also used beautifully. I love the way the landscape was filmed. There are tons of sweeping visuals of the Norwegian scenery, shifting from awesome, high mountain peaks to the concrete and asphalt streets of Oslo. For someone who yearns to explore distant lands, this movie gave me a great presentation of what Norway actually looks like. Real locations like Nordenga Bru and the Ekeberg area were used, as well as the actual Royal Norwegian Palace in Oslo. The filmmakers used these real-life locations to great dramatic effect.

The film has a run time of 1 hour and 41 minutes. Now, I am not a purist, so I watched the film with the English dubbing. I felt it was done very well, and at most points, I even forgot it was a dub and thought the cast was natively speaking English. Don't get me wrong, there were a few parts—as there always are in foreign films—where the dubbing is obvious, but for the most part, it was carried out seamlessly.

The characters were a lot of fun and the actors portrayed them beautifully. I particularly found myself liking the character of Andreas Isaksen, the Prime Minister’s aide portrayed by Kim S. Falck-Jørgensen. I think I really identified with his Star Trek nerdiness. On the opposite side of things, I loved to hate the Minister of Defense character portrayed by Fridtjov Såheim. He did a great job playing the villain of the film.

The Final Cut

If you enjoy a little bit of folklore horror mixed with a massive kaiju spectacle, then this film is absolutely for you. It's a fun, easy watch that earned a great place down my current rabbit hole.