@tokyoslim
I've been on a Mads Mikkelsen binge since watching Another Round and I think he might be one of my favourite all time actors.
The Pusher series I mentioned earlier is co-starring Mads where he is a minor character in the first film, then the focus is on his character in the second film. Pusher 1 is one of those plots where one character is way in over their head and continues to make terrible decisions pretty much like a Danish version of Bad Lieutenant Port of Call or Uncut Gems, but the main character is a little less unhinged and more along the lines of being really stupid. I highly recommend the series.
Bad Trip - B+
This has no business being as funny as it is, but I really really enjoyed it. Jeff Tremaine is basically the defacto big budget hidden camera public prank storyteller so it's no surprise his production company made this.
What separates Bad Trip from Jackass public pranks or Bad Grandpa is that the story writers (Eric Andre, Kitao Sakurai, Andrew Barchilon) made the really great decision to tell the plot throughout the pranks. Whereas Bad Grandpa has pranks but then has a scene or two of plot before getting back into the funny moments. Essentially, every scene in this movie except for maybe one or two short driving scenes are not only storytelling, but also public pranks and stunts. There aren't any lulls.
This movie actually has a really good pace, a solid and simple plot, and the pranks are just funny and outrageous. The gorilla is my favourite by far, Jesus fucking Christ. It's also nice to see how different people react to different scenarios whereas sometimes Jackass in its early years on MTV just went to Japan because filming in public is legal there so you only get Japanese people's reactions. Everyone here is American but you get a good group of people reacting to these pranks which kinda adds something extra.
Collateral - B
I finally saw this for the first time. The Insider and Heat are two of my favourite films so I figured I'd watch what many consider to be Michael Mann's best but I think it was just alright. It has its thrilling moments but it suffers from some disorienting scenes. One scene takes place at a club and you can barely tell what is happening, who is shooting at whom.
I also don't buy Tom Cruise as an imposing presence. He just comes off as too chill and unintimidating and by that same token, Jamie Fox just seems too meek when he is actually a relatively brave character. I don't know, I love the premise and set up for all of the scenes, but the execution is off. I definitely don't think it's Michael Mann's best film.
