January 2012

Das Boot – Tension in a Submarine

The initial premise of the movie Das Boot (1981) may at first seem a bit cliché.  A German U-Boat crew must go out into dangerous waters and help the Nazis fight against their enemies.  Deep beneath the sea they get trapped, chased by enemies and faced with all the tension-building problems that those in a submarine might expect.  Though the story may have been told in different forms, director Wolfgang Peterson certainly did it the best.

Let the Right One In

Many people try to make vampire films, and the majority of them fail horribly.  I mean, seriously, sparkling vampires?  But that’s the Americans for you, always trying to make things look a little shinier.  A movie that definitely does not contain shiny vampires is Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In.  This is, in my opinion, one of the best vampire films that has ever been made, much of that due to the simplicity of the story mixed with the complexity of the relationship between the two main characters.

Foreign TV

I think it’s something that many people overlook, but there’s a great amount of quality television being produced in other countries.  Yes, that’s right, foreign television.  Sure, you have to be able to read the subtitles, but in the end it’s worth it.  There are lots of hidden gems coming from the Far East in particular that put American television to shame.

Why I Love the Brits

Growing up in front of the television is a lifestyle that afflicts most of the American population.  We are fed a pile of lukewarm entertainment which probably does more to harm our brains then it ever could do to help them.  The formulaic rubbish which we willingly digest from birth to death ranges from the banal sitcom to the utterly idiotic reality television.  Now that I’m a little older, and perhaps a little wiser, I turn my sites overseas, to British television and a slightly more intelligent level of programming.