SurrealEstate

Title: SurrealEstate
Starring: Tim Rozon, Sarah Levy, Adam Korson ,Maurice Dean Wint , Savannah Basley , Tennille Read
Category: Horror

 

TV Horror series used to be cheesy. This was because the budget was low. While low budget horror often drew their own fans, TV horror series usually didn't have such following. Low budget horror movies relied on shock and lots of fake blood and gore which appealed to horror fans or movie goes looking for a cheap thrill. TV horror series on the other hand were hampered by TV rules, which frowned on blood and gore. With that gone, all that was left was either comedic horror or cross-genre efforts like those with sci-fi to become something like certain X-Files episodes. Or pre-teen horror which focused on scare but never posed too much peril of the characters involved. 

But TV horror series have seen a resurgence, most notably by focusing on interesting stories and takes. None is a better example than American Horror story with each season changing the entire story. Streaming services looking for unique content were willing to invest in series, bringing up their quality. They saw the success of Premium Cable channels like HBO who invested in quality TV. Basic Cable channels, are more cost conscious because they have costs to local cable carriers. Try being a cable carrier without HBO and see how difficult it is to get customers. 

Basic cable channels are now wising up. They now see the investment in quality shows as they compete against streaming channels that don't have to pay local cable companies. We are now seeing rising quality in the TV series from these channels. 

SyFy has always been a reliable source ridicule for their cheesiness factor in their movies and content. But their recent offering of Resident Alien has seen the quality rise. Good acting and actors. Coherent storyline and interesting characters. Character development.

SurrealEstate continues this trend. The only way the writers could think of this concepts was perhaps to tap into our obsessions with home remodeling and real estate reality shows. Put a horror spin on it by dealing with 'troubled' properties and you have a show where real-estate agents that work to sell haunted properties. 

The concept shouldn't really work. Having a haunted house of the week to sell does seem like a trap to become episodic, where the house is sold at the end of the episode, wrapping up each episode nicely. But this series does two things right. First, have a story arc that continues from episode to episode and second, have interesting characters that while at first seem to be caricatures, are fleshed out bit by bit in each episode. 

The audience's surrogate is the new real estate agent to the agency, Susan. She gets introduced to the team by the Roman, the owner of the agency and is brought up to speed on the type of clients they deal with. Often, other agencies hire them to take care and sell the haunted properties. As the series progresses, each team member's past and secrets are exposed. None more interesting though than Roman and Susan who both have abilities which make them most suited for their jobs. The supporting team don't disappoint but the joy in the series is in the discovery, so no spoilers here. 

It's not too heavy nor is it to gory but the horror beats are real and can be unnerving if you have kids.

Watch SurrealEstate 

The Dark Knight Rises above all other comic book movies

Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway,

Category: Action 
How much are we willing to pay for peace? In many places in the world, peace is often at the cost of freedom. Because freedom, while desirable, can be an agent for instability. And peace, while appreciated, can really mask instability. Those are two of the many themes of the final installment of Chistopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises.
The movie begins a number of years after the events of The Dark Knight. Although Gotham is peaceful and prosperous, Commissioner Gordon carries the weight of guilt on his shoulders. Guilty in perpetrating the lie of Harvey Dent's death and in the vilification of it's true hero, Batman. Moreover, the result of this lie is a tough law called the Dent Act which reduces Gotham's criminal elements to a bare minimum. It makes his job easier but Gordon is driven by the ghosts of the lie, never letting down his guard and going about with a sense that he will pay for his sins. For everybody else, prosperity reigns most and people go about their lives blissfully unaware.
Bruce Wayne also carries a heavy burden. He feels guilty for the death of childhood love Rachel and his choice of putting what was right before his personal feelings. He feels that his chance for happiness is gone, having not only lost a friend but someone whom he could have shared both of his lives with. He is also a broken man, the scars of his battle with the Joker taking it's toll on his body and spirit.
From seemingly out of nowhere comes the villain Bane. He has an agenda for Gotham, an agenda that seems to have no source or background. Although it appears to be that he is some sort of mercenary, it's quite clear  that he is his own boss. Bane is ruthless and without mercy.
Bruce Wayne's shuttered existence is interrupted when his safe if broken into and his mother's pearl necklace is stolen by Selina Kyle, a master thief. He finds himself impressed by her skills and intrigued by her motivations. Selina's actions inadvertently leads to Gordon being taken by Bane. He is saved by Officer John Blake, who goes against his superior's orders to save him. This and Bane's actions, forces Wayne to bring Batman back.

Blane's trail leads Batman/Wayne back to Selina. He sees a kindred spirit in her, someone who also wishes to leave everything behind, as he had done when he left Gotham. He tries to reach out to her but she is too jaded with the world. Nonetheless, she helps him and Batman with their efforts to thwart Bane.
In the meantime, Wayne faces problems at Wayne Enterprises. A business rival, John Dagget, is trying to gain control over Wayne Enterprises. Helping him to defend his empire is fellow board member Miranda Tate. Alfred, in despair over what he sees is the return of the self-destructive drive of Wayne behind Batman, reveals a dark secret he has been keeping from Wayne which leads to a confrontation between them.
All that and the movie is barely a third of the way through! This three hour long movie provides a huge amount of entertainment value. It makes time pass quickly whether you are a Batman fan or not. Even if you haven't seen the first two movies (and I know there are four of you out there), you can come in an enjoy the movie as just an out-and-out action movie.

Sucker Punch Explained

This was a single article which got split into two. This is the spoilers section. The review of the movie Sucker Punch is here.
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SPOILER ALERT
By the truck loads. There is no way to explain how to see the movie Sucker Punch without giving it away entirely. Which makes it hard for word of mouth promotion or any promotion at all. So you end up with the focus on the action and the girls.
The best way to understand the movie is to accept that what you have seen most through the movie was the imagination of Baby Doll on two levels. This is like the Kaiser Sozey myth of the Usual Suspects. Whatever you watched, you saw, never really happened. Or happened in a different way.
In the beginning of the movie, as Baby-Doll was being brought into the asylum, she saw the elements she needed to escape. She knew she only 5 days to escape and went about getting those items quickly. She was also befriended other girls who were with her on the scheme. The asylum was run on the inside by the orderlies led by the orderly called Blue in the movie. The escape plan went wrong and the girls were hurt badly but in the end, Baby-Doll realized she had to sacrifice herself so that Sweet Pea could manage to escape. As she was about to be lobotomized, she imagines a dream world. In this world, she replaced the asylum with a brothel. Baby-Doll probably had been able to build dream worlds to replace reality during the times she was molested by her father. This is what she did and what we saw during the brothel sections of the movie was a mix of her reality in the asylum and her imagining it as a brothel. This was her final escape before being lobotomized. You could see the world of the asylum crept in her dream world like the visions of the kitchen, the dorm and the grimy hallways. Whatever was replaced by the brothel imagery (of lights and stages and costumes) were probably pushed out by Baby-Doll from her mind. When she began dancing and entering her dream sequences, she was basically replacing her experience of stealing the items with her fantastic imaginary worlds, only keeping the memory of the excitement and the rush of adrenalin pumping through her. So like a Russian doll, the movie begins with the real-world (asylum), goes into the dream world (brothel) with the imaginary worlds (action scenes) at the center. The movie re-enters the dream brothel world and ends in the real world.

The title of the movie is spot on. Even at the most basic level, the ending will leave you wondering whose story is the movie really about. Despite of what the movie narration alludes to, it is still Baby-Doll's story. Since Baby-Doll goes catatonic, she never really sees Sweet Pea get on a bus. That probably is part of her dream world, too. The return of the wise man, is probably an indication that the vision we see is hers, justifying her sacrifice in exchange for Sweet Pea's escape.
Although the structure of the story seems unique, it has been done before but better. In comparison, the sucker punch was truly delivered by the Sixth Sense.

Underworld Awakening: reboot or remix?

In an effort to recover from the last Underworld movie, the producers decided to do a reboot of sorts with Underworld: Awakening. They decided to change the world that it is set in to a time in the near future. Good choice because the last Underworld movie which was set in the past, didn't quite work out. But isn't it the same decision on but in a different way?
This time around they brought back the husband and wife team of Kate Beckinsale and Len Wiseman (in a producer's role). The story goes that the humans have discovered the war between the Vampires on one side and Lycans and werewolves on the other. They have also discovered that both of the races are the result of a virus. This becomes the motivation for their course of action. Vampires, Lycans and werewolves are hunted as infected animals, to be culled. The effort is successful as the Lycans are believed to be extinct while what is left of the werewolves are running wild like packs of dogs. The Vampires are driven into hiding as the humans go door to door in search of Vampire, Lycan and werewolf.

When am I not holding a gun in this movie?

However, the Selene, the Death Dealer and heroine of first two Underworld movies, was not killed but cryogenically frozen. She is freed and with the help another vampire, David, she finds out that she is connected to Eve, another escapee from Antigen, the company that had been holding her captive. David brings here to what remains of the Vampires and they are set upon the Lycans who seem to want Eve for their own purposes. In the battle, she encounters a werewolf that is immune to silver. Selene learns and accepts the truth about Eve and sets about freeing her from the Lycans, which mysteriously brings her back to Antigen.
That is about more than 50% of the plot. Despite what people have written elsewhere, there is a lot of plot in Underworld Awakening. Unfortunately, a lot of it gets explained to the audience rather than being discovered or allowed to unfold. In fact, of the important plot points, all that is left as a surprise is a key revelation that may come as a real surprise to some (check out the spoiler parts below for more).
The mythology of the world remains largely intact. Although some question as to what is the point to cyrogenically freezing Selene as she is immortal anyway, I think it is more a way to imprison her than anything else.

Prometheus Review: Prometheus Delivers Something Else

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace
Category: Sci-fi Action Adventure Horror

If you are a sci-fi movie fan, this movie is for you. If you like monster movies, you will like the second half of the movie. If horror movies are your thing, there are plenty of moments in this movie that will make you happy. If you are an Alien franchise fan, this movie is not meant for you. You can enjoy it as one of the others kind of movies but if expect this adds to the Aliens lore and the world that it lives in, you may not like what you see.

Prometheus generated a lot of interest because of it's links to director Ridley Scott , who directed Alien and the fact that it is a movie about aliens. It wouldn't be impossible to draw links to it and the Aliens franchise. The genesis of this movie is in fact from a pivotal scene in first movie, Alien. This is when the crew of the Nostromo walks into a cavernous chamber and find it filled with Alien pods on the floor. At the center of the chamber is a giant creature sitting in throne of something that looks like a telescope pointing skyward. The brief image and the question of who is the Space Jockey has been a source of popular fascination in the Aliens popular lore.

The Space Jockey in Alien

There have been no clues in the other movies so the identity of the Space Jockey is a mystery to most people. The novel Aliens: Original Sin doesn't count.

So it this movie a prequel? Yes and No. You will have to read the spoilers section at the bottom for an explanation.

The movie starts with a mysterious figure who looks like he committed suicide. That's a great way to start a movie, a mystery that will make the audience talk about after the movie. The problem is that it encourages the audience to think and look for clues that may answer that mystery. Unfortunately, this movie is enjoyed best without doing that.

Another view of the Space Jockey in Alien

The movie then jumps to two archaeologists who make a startling discovery in a cave: a pre-historic cave drawing of people pointing to a group of planets. They take this as proof (to them at least), that we were visited by aliens at different times in our history. And that they wanted us to go to them on their planet. (Really? Is that the first thing that comes to mind?)

The Weyland corporation then sponsors them to go to this planet. The group consists of a company representative played by Charlize Theron, the ship's crew, the two scientists, some other scientists, some security personnel and an android. The android has a disturbing fascination with Lawrence of Arabia and spends time on the ship, while the human crew are in stasis, watching the movie and dying his hair blonde. Lawrence of Arabia is not a great choice for an android to be taking lessons from. The main character is manipulative and rather unstable. Two traits you don't really want in a robot.

They reach the planet and find a hill with a landing strip that they think holds the key to the identity of these aliens. Then the movie gets out of hand. The scientists, in the spirit of Christmas, go headlong into the hill, exploring it's caves. They are giddy as children with a new gift and as reckless.

They make more discoveries that lead to more questions. Things start to go wrong and they discover that they are not alone. Not alone on the ship and not alone on the planet. Some of the crew get infected and all hell breaks loose. The movie then moves from science fiction to more action and horror elements.  

Prometheus has everything going for it. A great cast, a good premise, huge budget, a good director and a strong interests from an existing fan-base. So it's not hard to expect great things from it. The movie is good but unfortunately, not great. It'll keep you talking and thinking when the movies ends but not for the right reasons. The movie does not live to it's full potential and having everything going for it makes it harder to swallow.
The cast were underutilized. Not quite up to the level of Clash of the Titans but the movie does have Charlize Theron just standing and glaring for the most of it. Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender do the hard lifting in the acting department and scenes where they are the important ones in the movie. Like the what the Weyland Corp. did in the movie, the producers could have just hired a generic support crew.
The movie has an epic quality to it. Definitely, a huge chunk of the budget is on-screen. But it is more so when it comes to size. Everything is scaled to make the humans look small. Huge hill/mound in a valley surrounded by towering mountains. Enormous sandstorms. The fact is, the aliens are quite big. You can see that even in the original Alien movie. The Space Jockey was a giant. The message here I think is clear: Humans are not the biggest beings in the universe. Now behave like it.

I also made the epic mistake of watching the trailer despite having understood the hidden code of trailer makers. I enjoyed the movie less because I watched the trailer. If you want to enjoy this movie, don't watch the trailer or forget what you saw.
Having said all that, this movie is still quite good. Come to it with no expectations and you will not be disappointed. 

Clash of The Titans: Flush of the Brain Cells?

Starring: Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton
Category: Action Adventure Fantasy

I finally watched this inadvertently at a friend's place. He put it on but people weren't watching. I was not interested in the conversations and decided of the two, the movie was probably better choice. Turns out, not by much.
I will spare the plot because basically this is a ride movie. You get on it and it tries to dazzle you with it's visuals and technical wizardry. Impossible zooms and camera angles only made me believe it less.
What was disappointing were two things. First, that quality of the cast could have made this into something special if they were allowed to. They weren't. A script that was short on expression made sure of that. Instead of fitting into the story-line, it chose the shortest, most hyperbolic way to convey the intended message. Which made for odd moments in the movie. Second, editing that favored special effects over acting. It seems that every time a moment's pause was needed after a short dialogue, it was cut out to save time for the special effects. In fact, thinking about it, cut were made almost the moment the dialogue ended. It didn't even bother to capture the reactions.

To be fair, a lot was happening. But some subplots could have been dropped or done with less special effects. The truth is, we don't need to see everything. Like Perseus's conception. We didn't need to see the entire event. In fact, by not telling it would have lent some mystery as to why Calibos was so bent on destroying Perseus. It could be told to him in a dramatic revelation, perhaps just before Calibos dies. But that would have made the audience think. And for this movie, it would have been a bad thing.
In fact, I think the people behind the movie had no intention of making this any form of cerebral challenge. The less people thought, the better. More distraction with special effects was the priority. I think they were afraid that if people used their brains in any capacity during the movie, the illusion would be lost and they would realize how bad this movie is.
Would I recommend this to anyone. Yes, I would. I would recommend this to anyone who wishes to not think for an hour and a half. Especially if they thought the conversations would have had an even worse effect on their brain.

Source Code movie a source of confusion?

Starring: Michelle Monaghan, Jake Gyllenhall

Category: Science Fiction, Thriller
Source Code is hard to pin down and harder to categorize. While it clearly makes itself out as an action-suspense thriller, the main thrust of the movie is science fiction. The idea behind the movie is that the military has found a way to go relive another person's life for 8 minutes in the past. They could send someone, in this case pilot Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal), to re-live the last 8 minutes of someone else's life who has died. Stevens is re-living the life of Shawn Fentress, victim of a train bombing. He is riding the train with Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) on the way to work.

At first Stevens is disorientated but with the guidance of Captain Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farminga) he begins to learn the limitations and capabilities of his capability. Goodwin and Dr Rutledge, the man who build the machine, want Stevens to focus on finding the bomber, who they believe is on the train. But Stevens wants to find and disable the bomb. Goodwin and Rutledge try to convince Stevens that the reality he is in is a simulated world and that the events have taken place. So disabling the bomb is useless. At the end of each 8 minutes, Stevens is pulled out of the world and back into the machine. Each time he is sent back, it begins at the same place and the same things happen again. But Stevens begin noticing that although each 8 minutes he re-lives is basically the same, some small differences do happen, which gives him hope that he can change things.
Meanwhile, he begins to learn of his fate and how he came to 'pilot' the machine. He learns about the lost time in between his last memory of Afghanistan and where he is now. He also begins to connect with Christina and falls in love with her, much to the chagrin of Goodwin. But it is this connection that keeps him going as he falls into a state of despair as each attempt fails to reveal the bomber.
The movie is quite successful in being suspenseful despite working within cycles of 8 minutes and recurring events. Stevens goes through a process of elimination as he investigates each suspicious passenger. He evens 'builds' a plan to get a gun in an attempt to go after a suspect, making progress after each 8 minutes.
Halfway through the movie though, I struggle to push out the spoiler thoughts while I tried to enjoy the movie as it is. For those that can tune out, this is a great 'ride' movie. But to even a casual science fiction fan (if there is such a person), its very clear where the movie is heading even though they don't know how it will end. 
The characters were believable in their own way. Stevens is the driven hero but is made human with his regrets. Goodwin is sympathetic to Stevens' situation although as being in the military, she will follow orders when given. And even though her character is somewhat limited and repetitive (being the only main character that exist only in the 8 minute cycle) Michelle Monaghan, is able to make the most of it and able to portray Christina as a woman clearly at the crossroads in her life when it comes to love and life. The one most identifiable to me is Dr Rutledge, the myopic scientist in pursuit of his goals (some of them not necessarily scientific in nature) and discarding other conclusions than his own.

Watching Games the next movie experience?

I am not a gamer. I stink at games. Puzzles? OK. Point and click adventure? If I have the time. Shoot-em-up? My last real one was the original Doom and Doom2. Even that was mostly played in co-op mode. Yep, it was over a network, something very rare back in the day. But I digress.
Games now are so much like mini movies. They have that cinematic quality to them. Everything is on a big scale. Most game budgets dwarf movie budgets now. It's no longer just during the cut-scenes. Some games used to be so bad, it consisted mostly of cut-scenes. You just basically play for a while until it reaches a point where it plays another cut-scene. 
Great games make you feel like you are living a movie. Wished you were Indiana Jones? Wish no more and be a Lego version of him. 

Games tie-ins have been around for a long time. But it's fairly recent that gameplay has come close to make you feel like being part of a movie. This brings up a problem. So what if you don't play games? Not just don't play them. Can't play games. Even if your life depended on it.
Do the next best thing: Watch someone else play! 
Walkthrus or Walkthroughs are videos of people playing games. People do this to show how it is played or the best way to play through a game. Walkthrus used to be long text files that describe the mundane and trivial. Reading a walkthru before playing a game will most likely tick you off and discourage you from playing it. The opposite is true with current walkthrus which are recordings made while someone else plays the game. YouTube is full of them and they come in a variety of styles. Some have witty commentary to explain what to do and why. Others just have the player make occasional remarks while allowing the viewer to listen to the game itself.
Basically, walkthrus are to help other gamers who are stuck in the middle of a game. It shows what to do and does it and shows what to expect when you do it. It's also like watching over someone's shoulder while they are playing the game. This is cool because 

1. You don't have to actually stand around. 
2. You get to pause and rewind what's happening
3. That person you watching doesn't get annoyed.

If you're not sure about a game, I recommend starting with an intro of a game to see whether they are worth watching. Some games have trailers and are as useful as movie trailers.. which isn't. RoosterTeeth have their YouTube channel that showcases some games under the This is ... playlist. This series show off a few minutes of gameplay.




Once you like a game, go ahead watch a walkthru. Some games are more cinematic and lend themselves to the viewing experience. For example, Alan Wake's American Nightmare is a game that borrows heavily from movies and movie making which makes it a good watch. It also has a rich back-story that is told through radio broadcasts and short clips that appear on TV.  The atmosphere is very "Twilight Zone"-ish and the cheesy voice-over harks back to TV-land of yesteryear. 






Your mileage may vary. Some games a best enjoyed in short clips which shows off key actions sequences. I'd like to hear some of the walkthrus you've watched and what do you recommend. 

Americans May Love Cars But The Kings Are Still In England. TopGear still rules

Update to this post on the great motoring show TopGear: A lot of big stars are now making Top Gear their stop and taking a drive around the test track. If it's good enough for Tom Cruise, it's good enough for everyone else. He even led the leaderboard.

This is because the BBC relaxed it's rule on promotions on the show. Previously, they weren't allowed to promoted anything directly (below is the hilarious Ferrari Enzo segment where they bend this rule to the breaking point). Recently, they are becoming more popular to the point the series is now franchised worldwide with Top Gear USA being the latest.
Now, you can head over to their YouTube channel for archives of their old shows.
Here is the original article.

Who knew what fun a socialist government funded program can produce?

Sweet Karma: Action Indie Movie

Starring:  Shera Bechard  Category: Action
If you've been reading this site for some time, you would notice that I don't review action movies that much. Not that I don't watch them. But most of the time they fall into two broad categories, Hollywood and low-budget. Hollywood types are those that are full of crazy, expensive, over-the-top action and a simple enough plot to follow along and seem interesting. Low-budget of course are the B-movies and where blood is spilled by the pint-load. Add a dash of intrigue and it would be more of a thriller or mystery. Add a bit of comedy and it'll more funny than bang-bang. Most of the time there is nothing interesting to write about either of them. They may be a good ride but there is nothing to take away with you once it's done.
There are notable exceptions to the first category. Comedy and action are just at the right mix in Die Hard. The Bourne series capture the even more elusive mix of action and mystery. And then there is Hot Fuzz, mixing action, comedy and mystery in almost equal amounts. Most of the action is at the tail end of the movie, though and it does have the advantage of being in awe of and drawing inspiration from other action movies.
Basically, an action movie has to be special for me write about it. It has to fall outside of the two broad categories or be interesting enough to write about. It has leave an impression.
Which brings me to Sweet Karma. It is one of those movies other people tell me I should check out. I watch more than my fair share of crappy movies and feared the worst. I put it off for fearing it was the result of a few rednecks with a camera trying to get away with a Saturday Night Special (pun intended). After watching it, I wasn't sure what movie I had watched. But I was sure I had just watched a star being born. 
The movie starts with Russian girl Karma being duped into a job in Canada by the recruiting agent for a human trafficking syndicate. I use the term loosely because it's not really human trafficking if you are utilizing the "workforce" yourself. It's worse because basically it's kidnapping for prostitution. Then it gets interestingly confusing because Karma lands in the promised land of maple and honey but does not get corralled with the other girls. The Russian mob are not looking for her either. We then find out she is really seeking revenge for the death a girl that was previously duped by these people. And that she killed the recruiting agent after she got her papers. Thus begin the killing spree.

If that were just the movie then it would have fallen into the B-grade low budget action movies. But more twists and turns come up. The narrative shifts time moving from the present to the past with slightly confusing flashbacks. It moves the plot along and provides more information at the same time. The dead girl turns out to be her sister. Karma is also not a trained professional nor does she transform into one right after her first kill. That is squarely Hollywood territory. She is nervous. She messes up, gets caught twice. Some more twists follow. More killing and graphic scenes of violence. All leading to a, let's call it "eventful", ending.
For all the movie's faults, it was made up by lead actress Shera Bechard's brilliant acting. She was so good that at times her acting looked out of place with the other actors. They would look okay doing a scene together but then Karma walks in and suddenly they looked bad by comparison. Did I mention Karma was mute? So Shera had to really act to convey her emotions and thoughts. Her facial expressions and her body language had to make up for the missing dialogue. Sometimes looking at her eyes, you would know what is going on in her head. I think this also had the added effect of the audience having to relate closer with her, to get what she was trying to get across. The audience would have to pay close attention to her to better understand what was going on. Which they had to because of the various twists and turns. No exposition on who was who. In Hollywood movies, there is a conscious effort to introduce the key characters, so that the audience can follow. This doesn't happen in this movie. Some characters look alike enough for me to get confused. And a minor character at the beginning suddenly becomes a key character half-way through the movie.

The Good, the Bad and the New of TV: The New

This season, it seems like there are a lot of new shows. I waited for a few episodes to pass by before saying anything. I feel like not talking about shows that don't make it because it will be another Love Bites all over again. So frustrating. Here are the new shows I am watching in no particular order.

• Person of Interest - Jesus with a gun. Jesus kicks butt. The saviour saveth the damned and the guilty alike. He is the right arm of god and while the other guy used to think he was. I could go on and on but I'll spare you the more cornier taglines. Whatever the reason is, people love watching Jim Caveziel save people; either all at once or one at a time. And the creepy guy from Lost is back in the shadows pushing buttons, just where we like him to be. It got creepier last week because he crossed into the area of the consequences of changing fate. 
• Whitney - The first episode was a bit too loud, both in terms of music and characters but it got better. It pushed the wrong buttons initially with me but by the third episode, its found a solid footing to build on. Definitely this year's quirky-sexy sitcom in the tradition of Friends and How I Met Your Mother. For once, it is not set in New York but in Chicago. But since most of it is on set, you won't notice the difference. This situations that the characters find themselves in are both unsettling and funny. One to watch. 
• The New Girl - Zooey Deschanel's shtick is cute in movies and the directors usually tame it within the context of the story and with editing and directing limits. It works great that way. I'm not sure it should be unleashed to its full force weekly. Partly, the problem is her co-stars. I'm sorry, but you have to bring your A game to go up against Zooey and her energy. Every week. Right now they are just two-dimensional, over-sized adolescents. Not in a funny way. While she is alive and quirky, the other characters seems bland and often cartoony. It has gotten a pick-up but I think unless things change, this could be a single season series.
• 2 Broke Girls - Kat Dennings is in her element as a smart-mouthed waitress (the other type being the waitress with the heart of gold) who takes in the privileged daughter of a rich embezzler. Her father's assets are frozen so all that she has left is what hers. Which is just her wits (and often lack of). They both want to open a bakery and are saving up for it. It is a nice mix of street-smart humor and fish-out-water situations. Strangely enough, there are depths to the main character that are revealed regularly and makes the series stand above others. 
• Unforgettable - Think of Psyche without the humor. Falls into the "crime solving with a super power" category. Poppy Montgomery is Carrie Wells, a detective with the ability to remember details from any day of her life. Although not the center of the series, it does act as a key feature. She is drafted by he ex-boyfriend to help him in difficult cases. The nice thing about this series is that it has several running themes: the leads past relationship and their near flirtations, a long-running arc about Carrie's search for the person who killed her sister and Carrie's relationship with her mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. I just can't get it out of my head how similar Carrie is to Olivia from Fringe. 
• Prime Suspect - Gritty cop series with a less than cordial squad room. I think they were aiming for House with guns. At the center is a unlikeable but efficient detective, who solves the difficult cases. Constantly with a chip on her shoulder, she gets what she wants at almost no thought to others.
• Terra Nova - Family-centric drama set in the pre-historic times of Earth. It's great that they spend more time on the family drama than the whole adventure aspect. Haven't seen much yet. But good actors, quality scripts and a strong storyline will make this a one to savor. 
• Hart of Dixie - Medical student Zoe Hart is forced to move Alabama and do General Practice for a year by her professor when he points out her terrible soft skills (bedside manners, interviewing skills). She is about to give up when finds out that the practice she has inherited is from her real father and decides to stay. Full of typical fish-out-of-water scenarios, this soft-focus series on life in the South has it's charms but is still feeling about its ways. At first more Doc Holywood than anything else, then taking a lesson-of-the-week format, it needs to bring those long story arcs into the forefront to make it stand out.

There'll be more on each series as the season progresses.

Charlie Valentine. Mob movie unfinished

Starring: Raymond J. Barry, Michael Weatherly
Category: Action
It is a story of an aging mob enforcer who has no qualms as to who he is nor what he does. He knows he is just a thug in nice clothes. There is no pretense of glamour. He likes the life though. The money, the girls. He understands that his skill for violence is a tool and does not let it consume him. He appreciates that his style and the image of the mobster is attractive to some but shrugs them off knowing well that the image is not real. He knows that he is a survivor and that the most important thing to him is to keep living, to keep surviving. Deep inside, he knows he is a coward.
He decides to hit his boss for that last score to go off and retire. He gives specific instructions to not carry guns which everyone in his team ignores. Although an odd request, he knows that if they get caught without guns, they may be in for a beating but will probably live to see another day. It goes wrong and everyone but him is killed. He makes a run for it with his 'retirement plan': His boss's prize Cobra sportscar. With no place to go, he reconnects with Danny, his son. Danny is a former convict who idolizes his father. He works for Ferucci a low level mobster running a strip club. Finding a new lease on life and being in the odd position of being looked up to, he begins to groom his son into his image.
But is he redeeming himself? He may be reconnecting with his son but he is bringing him deeper into the underworld. Charlie teaches him reluctantly at first but is energized by his enthusiasm. He knows he has made all the wrong choices but will he let his son see them as the right ones?
This low budget mob movie is gritty and focuses on the reality of a mobster. It strips away the glamour and polish, leaving the violence and broken lives of the people living by crime. The violence is graphic and obviously where most of the budget went. I never though I'd ever say this but they should have spent a bit more on the set. The locations were great. There warehouse where Rocco makes his office is a telling reality of his life. The cash he deals with maybe a lot but it doesn't buy him the luxury you would expect a mobster at his level would have. But that is reality. In a crime organization, only the top tier live anything close to the mobsters in Scorsese movies. Rocco may collect a lot of cash, but he has to hand it up to his bosses as well as to pay for the people around him (who pay others below them). I guess that is why respect, another form of currency, is so valued.

Sucker Punch: It does what is says on the tin

Starring: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino and Scott Glenn
Category: Action-Fantasy
Update: I decided to split this review into two because I still get asked about what this movie is about. This is the review of the movie itself while the explanation of the movie is here.

When the movie was about to end, I thought that is was an exciting action movie driven by this hard-to-follow story of a girl's fantasy of escaping from an asylum. I didn't think much about it even with the kicker at the end. It was after a few days later when I watched it again then I realized what the story structure was. It was different and imaginative but ultimately it's downfall. People who saw it didn't get it. I didn't the first time but looking back, the directors must have thought it was literal as it was right there in front of us. We just got distracted with all the visual candy.
Basically, it's the story of a young woman who was put in an asylum by her father and her attempt to escape. Her mother had died and left everything to her and her younger sister. The father, who seemed to have been molesting her for some time, decides to take his rage out on the younger sister. The young woman got hold of a gun and in the attempt to shoot her father, accidentally shoots her younger sister. His father puts her in the asylum to shut her up and pays off the head orderly to have her lobotomized so that she can't tell her side of the story. Don't worry I haven't given much away. All the above happens in the first 5 minutes.

The remainder of the movie is a bit more messier. The movie takes a sudden left turn and suddenly everybody is not whom they were a few minutes ago. We never know her real name but young woman is called Baby-doll for the rest of the movie. She is now in a brothel where she discovers that she enters another dream world when she begins to dance. In this world, she is given a list of items needed to escape and goes about collecting these items with her new friends. This is where it got really confusing. In the dream sequences, she goes about looking for the items and gets them. At the end of the dream sequences, she gets the items from the dream for 'real'.

Not Your Average Japanese Yakuza Movie: Sharkskin Man Peach Hip Girl

Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Sie Kohinata
Category: Action Comedy

The Japanese title of the movie is "Samehada otoko to momojiri onna".
The only way I can begin to describe this movie is that it feels like a cross between a live action anime and a dark indie comedy. In a good way. The movie begins with two storylines meeting up. The first is the tale of the young maid at a mountain inn who is trying to escape her uncle, the manager of the inn. Her uncle clearly has designs for her, twisted designs. The second is the tale of a yakuza henchman on the run after stealing the mob's money. It isn't clear how he stole it but the yakuza is pissed enough to send in multiple groups of killers from HQ, despite friction between the groups. It is obvious they each have their history with each other. Led by a senior member, they want the money back even though it is not a huge sum by their account. At first I thought it was that they wanted to make a lesson out of him but as the story progresses, it seems that they are as interested in the money as they are the henchman (Sharkskin Guy). The maid (Peach Hip Girl) and the henchmen cross paths. The henchmen first thinks that he is taking her on the run but later realises she too is on the run and decide to run together.
The movie is filled with stereotypes from an anime movie or a manga comic. We have the boss's off-the rails son in ultra-fashionable clothes who fancies himself to be the most ruthless killer around, the senior yakuza boss with a collector's streak, the gay killer for hire who is hired by the uncle to track and kill whoever she is running with and a few more characters that manga readers will recognise immediately. The movie is also very Japanese. There is a scene where the henchman stops by the roadside to buy cigarettes from a roadside vending machine. You read right, a roadside vending machine. Where you would normally find a mailbox, exposed to the elements. Anywhere else in the world, the vending machine would be toast, banged up and broken into. But not in Japan. (Look up their recent conduct after the tsunami and you would appreciate the unique culture of the Japanese).

The World of Starship Troopers: A Utopian Dream?

Starring: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards, Dina Meyer, Neil Patrick Harris, Director: Paul Verhoeven
Category: Sci-Fi, Action
Warning: The post is political. If that offends you, please don't read the rest. I am not usually political but the intrigue and maneuvering between the Republicans and Unions in Wisconsin in the news triggered my mind to an an old unfinished post. The main part of the post below was originally written many years ago but was never finished. I just went over it once over and posted it.
***
Starship Troopers was viewed as a popcorn action movie starring teen movie actors when it came out. It was more notable as a special effects extravaganza of it's day. Looking back, director Paul Verhoeven also brought to life the world of Starship Troopers. Starshup Troopers and it's world was first thought up by it's author, Sci-Fi legend Robert Heinlein. Verhoeven added his visual touches, bringing the world to life. But if you look past the Nazi-like uniforms, you will find both a world that are heading for as well as a world that we already in.

Jonah Hex. More like Jonah Heck

Starring: Josh Brolin, Megan Fox
Category: Action

Some graphic novels want to be movies. The art form, although dependent on the theater of the mind (aka your imagination), lends itself to be the closest thing the written word can be to the multimedia extravaganza today's Hollywood movies are. In fact, movie storyboards, which is a key tool in planning and developing movies, resembles a graphic novel without dialog.
Some movies want to be graphic novels. Why? Why try? The graphic novel is powered by imagination. How ever the director tries to create something to replace your imagination, you can probably imagine something more. More stylish, more beautiful and more action-packed. All a director can aim for is to distill the essence of a graphic novel and work with that, perhaps extending it a bit more in one or two directions. Case in point: Hellboy. Director Guillermo del Toro understood the Hellboy backstory and focused on known and loved traits of the character. He then added the love story with Liz Sherman. The movie was both a tribute to the novels as well as bringing the story to people who would not normally buy a graphic novel. But distill a graphic novel too much and you end up with Judge Dread. Some graphic novels are simply not just film-able as exemplified in the Punisher movies.
Which brings us to Jonah Hex. To say the movie went everywhere is a kind statement. It was schizophrenic at best. It could not decide whether to be stylized western (Danger! Wild, Wild, West area) or a comicbook super hero movie. It jumped from superpower show-off scenes to supposedly dramatic encounters to animated flash backs to dream-while-awake sequences to Wild E. Coyote-esque set-ups (I was genuinely looking for the Acme logo on the boxes of explosives). At some point, I was thinking, "How many people were directing this movie?"
What a waste of talent this movie was. Most reviews blame Megan Fox but I think she was just a victim as Josh Borlin and John Malkovich was. An actor never really knows how the movie will look like once it is edited and CG are added. For them, the gamble was lost.
For us, what could have been a great story is lost.

War: Is as messy as this movie

Starring: Jet Li, Jason Statham
Category: Action
If you've been reading this blog ever, you'd notice that I don't normally write about action movies. It's not that I don't watch action movies, I just don't have anything to say about them most of the time. Mostly it's because if I do, it'll sound about the same. Great action. Fantastic ride. Don't think about it too much.

This time it's different.

After watching War, I thought, 'Argh, I've got to write something.' This time it's different. I have something to say. Unfortunately, it's not nice.
War is mostly a movie about two opposite sides of the law. One is a cop, with revenge on his mind. Another is a killer with, well, killing on his mind. The cop is looking for revenge for the death of his partner and his family in the hands of the killer. The killer has motives that are his own and the movies tried to make it not so obvious. The bad news is, it is very obvious. I don't know why but I had the twist in the end figured out right about a quarter through the movie. I am not saying that the movie is that transparent but you get a sense of it, where it's going, what's going to happend and you realise that you don't want to go there.
Which is a waste really. With two of the top action heroes from East and West on call, you'd expect better action sequence. The least that the director could have done was make up two unique filming styles for the action sequences for Jason and Jet Li. You know, Jet Li gets all graceful and slow mo while with Jason it's so close and raw, you can feel each jerk and thud.
What you get is a sense that the director was aiming to recreate a 70s action movie feel. With modern sensibilities. Bell-bottoms were the rage back then but now bell-bottoms are fashionable only for the fashion conscious (when bell bottoms were 'coming back'). And the twist in the end required a bit more dramatic acting than Jason could muster. Or was it the script because he suddenly sounded small and whiny.
War is a mess and so is this movie

Commentary: Movie Trailers and their evil existence

Trailers are supposed to entice the public to see the movie. Have you ever noticed that trailers are always uncredited? Often, it's not the moviemaker who creates the trailers. Sometimes they don't even have a say as to what goes in it. Yet the success, financially at least, of a movie rests in part on trailers and the buzz they generate. So the reason for a trailer's existence is to make people want to see the movie, regardless of anything else. Even if it means including scenes that never make it into the movie. Even it it means showing scene from the ending. Whatever it takes to make moviegoers want to see the move and go to see the movie. Given this nature of which trailers are born and the controversy it stirs up with the moviemakers, the trailer-makers would probably prefer to remain anonymous.

From the various DVD commentaries and interviews I've heard, what usually happens is that after principal shooting is over and the editing process begins, the marketing people look over all the raw footage and choose what "works" or what might interest people. Damn story or any sense. That's why in trailers you'd see things that either do not make it into the final cut (nor in some cases even the extended cuts) and things that are right at the end of the movie, giving it away.

Not all trailers are like that. There are teasers. These just give glimpses of what the movie will be. It may not even contain any actual part of the move. Just look at the Harry Potter movie teasers or the Terminator 3's teaser's. The best of these are Pixar's. Their teasers tell something about the movie but doesn't contain any scenes from the movies. In fact, it is accepted fact that Pixar's teaser scenes will not make it into the movie. Yet, it does what it's supposed to do: make people want to watch the movie.

I think that there is a hidden code in trailers put in by trailer-makers that goes something like this, "If the movie is bad or I don't like it, the trailer will include a scene from the end of the movie or close to it or include something that'll give the movie away." Maybe it's a way of telling other trailer makers what they think about the movie without breaking confidentiality agreements. Perhaps some trailer-makers think they are doing a public service by doing so. That way, when you get close to the ending, you go, "Hey, I've seen this already. He'll do this and she'll do this. What the..? The ending is given away in the trailers". Those who understand this will pass it along... and the result is the movie not liked and watched by few.

But this has become a trend in trailers that even good movies suffer. I have watched movies and liked it while watching it only to be disappointed to see that the ending was shown already in the trailers. I understand it if the movie was a 'ride' movie, something that you get on and know what the end of the ride is going to be. However, this 'format' of trailer making is the norm now. It has come to a point that I don't even watch trailers anymore, fearing it might spoil my movie-going experience.

So the thing that was created to garner interest has done exactly the opposite. What a shame. I used to really enjoy trailers. The movie might be months away but by the time it comes, I really want to watch it, having watched the trailer for the upteenth time. Now, I don't bother. And I am not alone. If those marketing types have detected this trend, they are not flinching. They keep on following the same format. Doing otherwise would be an admission of guilt.

Revenge of the Sith

Category: Action Adventure

I finally took time off to see this. And boy I sure wasn't disappointed.

What is interesting to me is that if George Lucas did actually tried to make the Star Wars movies in sequence (e.g. The Phantom Meanace first in later 70s), he would have gotten at most to Attack of the Clones. Even if he was lucky, by the time he got to Revenge of the Sith, the budget would be so low, it would have been a direct to video release or worse, a TV movie. Fortunately for us, he didn't.
Revenge of the Sith is what a StarWars movie should be. Full action punctured with comedy and poignant moments aka character development. From the get go (which for those watching the Clone Wars animated series is a pleasant surprise), the action is piled high and furious. We know all the players already from the past two movies and now the game is afoot. From Coruscant the plot moves between action, intrigue and drama. We know what is going to happen. So everything is spectacle. George Lucas knew that and what a spectacle he delivered.
It is enough for me to say that even if you are not interested in StarWars, Revenge of the Sith will be a great action movie with enough drama for the date.
 

Constantine

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Rachel Wiesz
Category: Horror, Action

Spiderman and X-Men set the standard for comics to movie conversions. Before Spiderman and X-Men, a movie conversion meant death to the comic's storyline, characters and all that was sacred to comic readers. They were sacrificed by Hollywood execs who claim to know what sells a movie, what we want see. The comic license was just another face, another costume to wrap over a formula which sold 10 million tickets.
But they don't GET IT. If the comic is successful, surely somebody did something right. Is it too hard to focus on that and make that the same ingredient that will make the movie successful? People buy it, it is popular = a lot of people like it. That is what got their attention anyway. Why change or strip out the very thing that makes it popular? Spell C-O-U-N-T-E-R-I-N-T-U-I-T-I-V-E. Or do these people think that they can actually make it better? I agree that comics and movies are two different mediums. Make the adjustments for that but no more than that. We need to go no further than Punisher to see what went wrong. Twice.

Of course there will be comics that will be harder to be accepted by the mainstream. Get a clue. These comics fill a niche. These comics are different. These stories are probably comics because they are not mainstream. Well, not when they were first conceived. But as people change, these comics too, become closer to the mainstream.
Fortunately, I haven't read Hellblazer. So, I didn't come in with an expectation. But I came out of it realizing that whatever made the comic into what it is, that was there. Of course, the Hollywood touches were there. There was a gadget supplying guy (a Q, as in James Bond's) and the emotional puller (someone who dies in the end but spends the whole movie gaining your sympathies). But it had the right touches and didn't treat the viewer with kid gloves. I hate it when the pace pauses to explain things to the viewer (actually it does at times in this movie too). In Constantine, things just happen that you need to figure out yourself. It forced you to think while watching, which is not easy to do or to create either. Maybe the whole point is to get you in to the theater a second time.

A lot of people complain on-line about John Constantine, about how unlikeable he is, or how contradictory he was. There is a point to whole unlikeable-ness. He was mean. He was skeptic. He was condescending. Despite all this, he still wanted to go to heaven. Problem was, he is technically destined for hell. The problem with John was that unlike the rest of us, he knew how things work. Or at least the heaven and hell part of it. And like most people who know how the system works, he wants to exploit it. To use it for his own end. And what is that? To get into heaven. The whole 'buying your way into heaven' sub-plot.
Another thing is that I thought John being contradictory only made him more believable. As humans we can be contradictory. A lot of people question why isn't he pious because he has seen Hell. Ok, so he knows that he is going there. He need to not go to hell, that is go to heaven. So how do you get into heaven? Like everybody else? Not when all those half-breeds keep pointing out to him that he is going to hell regardless. That is when he realizes that what put him in that position is just a system. So the only way out he saw was to work that system. Find a loop hole somewhere. John sees piety has nothing to do with getting into heaven. Thus his vocation.

Another contradiction is the way John abuses himself like he doesn't care about himself but at the same time spends all his efforts in the chance of redemption. Wouldn't you want to live long enough to get the redemption, the ticket into heaven? Why is he cutting his own fuse? That is a contradiction worth thinking about. And I love movies that make me think.
The other actors were great. While I very much enjoyed their performances, the main beef I have with this movie is the main plot. The spear and what it is supposed to do. Totally unbelievable. Of course, there is probably a story of how the spear got to Mexico but at the beginning it was a chance that brought it back to light. To have such a coordinated plot be triggered by chance is just bad. What if it wasn't found?
All in all a good movie to watch. Enjoy the ride once but if you get to watch it again, put yourself in John's shoes. It may just be scarier than the movie itself.