The Billionty-Oneth Geek: Older Than 8 Since 1991

Goodnight Mommy is a Swedish horror/thriller that was originally released in 2014.  The movie follows two young twins as they spend their summer in the remote Swedish countryside.  They’re seen early on celebrating a summer full of innocent fun with laughter, sunshine and smiles.  One day, their mother returns home having gone through cosmetic surgery on her face.  Her face is bandaged beyond recognition.  Is she who she really says she is?  After some suspicious activity, the two boys begin to question her identity.  Is she someone that we can trust?  Alternatively, can the perspective from the boys be trusted? There’s not too much more I can say about the plot, as the story takes you for a few twists and turns as akin to horror movies.   I will say this though, that within 6 minutes of the movie, you could already tell what the major twist of the story will be.  And it’s mostly because it’s nothing that you haven’t alrea...

It’s an unfortunate and unfair thing, but when it comes to Canadian movies, I usually dismiss them before I give them a chance. There’s just this false stigma that I have with Canadian produced movies – that they’re cheesy or boring or in general, just not worth my time. That said, if a friend recommends me something, I’ll be open to the recommendation. Incendies would be one of those, and wow, I don’t know if I can look at Canadian films the same way after this. This was a powerful movie. Incendies is a French-Canadian made movie that was nominated for an Academy Award this year for best foreign film. When I first read the nominations, I thought it peculiar that a Canadian film would be considered “foreign”. Sure we’re not American, but all things considered, we’re not THAT different or foreign. But after seeing the movie, it totally makes sense why it would. Incendies is a journey that follows twins, Simon and Jeanne, as they uncover the dark past of their dying mother. Her d...

So while the American movie industry is spewing out sequels, remakes, reboots and/or other vacuous works of unoriginality, at least our friends overseas are attempting to create original ideas. Un Prophète (or A Prophet) is a 2009 French made film that garnered much accolades and success. Not only was it nominated for the best Foreign Language Film at this year's Academy Awards, but it also won the Grand Prix award at last year's Cannes Film Festival. The film tells of a young miscreant named Malik who is thrown into a French prison for some unmentioned petty crime. As a French born Arab, he has difficulty with the French as well as the rising Arab inmates. Realizing that the Corsican gang holds all the power in the prison, he begins to connect with this group of convicts, led by their elderly leader, Luciani. But before he is accepted by the gang, Malik has to kill a fellow inmate. He complies with his duties and is soon part of the 'in crowd' at the prison. But Malik...

Tropa de Elite (or Elite Squad ) is a Brazilian made film dealing with the corruption of the police force and the conflicts against the drug lords in different divisions of Rio de Janeiro called favelas. It was released in 2007 to much acclaim including winning the best feature at the Berlin International Film Festival that year. It garnered much success in its home country of Brazil, quickly becoming one of the most watched movies in the country. The movie follows a captain named Nascimento who is part of an "elite squad"called the BOPE, who are analogous to the ATF locally. Because the police force is so corrupt, the BOPE is needed to stay above the law that is above the law. They are a presence feared by everyone in the city, including the druggies and gangs, as they take no shit from anyone. But Nascimento is getting worn down by the risky nature of his job, compounded by the pressures of becoming a father, and so he seeks a replacement for his position. Two new recruits...

I've always been a sucker for mob movies, I'm not quite sure why. The best reason I can come up with was that I was exposed to it at a very young age, much like I was with horror, yet horror always trumped everything. There must be something with death that I was intrigued with. In horror you had the over-the-top almost cartoony like deaths while in mob movies you had more ruthless and deaths that were more directly to the point. I guess the realism made it frightening. Gomorrah is that ruthless kind of a mob movie. The movie opens up with a scene at a tanning salon. We see a bunch of Italian men having a good time getting their tans. They are naked and in their most vulnerable state; a mistake in the mob world. It's not long before the whole gang gets executed. From the opening scene, you know shits going down. That pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the movie. But Gomorrah gives us more than straight up violence. The movie tells us five intertwining stories fro...

I don't get it. The movie is based on the book of the same name written by the late Swedish author Stieg Larsson. It's part of a trilogy of novels that has sold over 23 million copies worldwide. Everytime I walk into a Chapters or an Indigo, it's always on the bestsellers shelf/rack. So two weeks ago I sat at the bookstore for about an hour and started reading it. I got to around page 40 or so but the book never captivated me. It's just a straight up thriller/mystery story, what's the sell? I just don't get it. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a Swedish produced thriller that follows an unlikely pairing of characters. The first is Mikael Blomkvist, a middle-aged journalist stuck in the middle of a controversy between his magazine company and a rich industrialist. He is hired by a rich old businessman named Henrik Vanger to solve a missing persons case, that of his beloved niece who has disappeared for 40 years. In exchange for his work, Vanger offers Blomkvi...

Now this was a great movie! Dead Snow (or Død snø ) is the new Norwegian horror flick about the Nazi undead. It has garnered much attention at film festivals around the world, including becoming part of the Official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival this year. Dead Snow is follows a group of medical students who go away on a snowmobile/ski vacation up in the mountains. In the middle of all the fun and games, a mysterious stranger stops by their cabin and informs them that the area they're in is cursed by Nazis from World War II. It's not long before the undead soldiers rise from their cold graves to exact terror on the helpless vacationers. This movie was a thrill ride from top to bottom. There's just something creepy about undead Nazis in full regalia. Amidst all the gore and scares is a lot of humour. Yes it might be a bit dark, but its funny all the same. What plays into a lot of the humour is that the Nazis are never confirmed as zombies. We're given m...

Let the Right One In is a Swedish drama/horror movie that leans more towards its dramatic base than its horror. In fact the only reason I would call it a horror movie is because there is a vampire in it, other than that, nothing really horrific happens in the movie. Don't get me wrong, there is a little blood and gore, but its not used as a cinematic device to scare the viewers in any way. The story is about a 12-year old boy named Oskar who is a bit of a loner without friends at school and without much of a relationship with his mom at home. He's constantly picked on by a bunch of bullies at school and doesn't have much of a backbone to stand up for himself. Cue in Eli. She is a new girl who moved in to the apartment next door, whom Oskar befriends and eventually falls for. Unlike anyone else in Oskar's life, she takes time to listen to him and be his friend, while teaching him a thing or two about confidence. Little does Oskar know that his new best friend is ...