This week in movies you missed: It’s a rainy day. It’s a rainy weekend. How about a good ol’ rousing Viking movie?
… except this one’s more trippy than rousing, to be honest. Prepare for the weird.
Nicolas Winding Refn, director of Drive, screened his new movie (again with Ryan Gosling) at the Cannes Film Festival this past week. Spectators booed, and critics largely panned it as a laconic spectacle of meaningless violence. (More info from Vulture here.)
So what better time for us to watch one of Winding Refn’s past laconic spectacles of meaningless violence, which is still a lot more interesting than most directors’ movies? Valhalla Rising skipped our theaters in 2010 and is now available on Netflix Instant and various other services.
What You Missed
So, it’s 1000 AD or thereabouts, Scotland I guess, and this dude with one eye (Mads Mikkelsen) has been a slave for, like, ever. He can kill anybody with his bare hands, usually in a few seconds flat, and the Vikings are really into no-frills gladiatorial combat, so his skills see regular use.
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