Monday, November 12, 2012

The Walking Dead: Say the Word Review

How does one characterize Rick Grimes? Well...

Spoilers.

So, after some major death and what-not last week, you'd think this'd be a repeat of the one from last season after Dale died, right? Wrong. At the end of last episode, Rick appeared to be losing his mind. And is he? Oh yeah, totally. The man is storming through the prison, ganking walkers and performing c-sections on their deader bodies. He only says one word the whole episode, and it's at the very end. Beyond that, its just grunts and screams. Andrew Lincoln just does such a great job with this character, that, only did I by that Rick was going crazy, I was disturbed. I was actually a little bit frightened by what I was seeing, and that speaks volumes about the actor and the script. As for the one word he said at the end, we'll get to that in a bit. By which I mean right now. His answering the ringing phone and uttering hello was certainly a good cliffhanger, one I can't wait until next to see resolved.

One of the main points of the episode was Woodbury, where you see the Governor's previously mentioned daughter. And she's a walker. And the Gov' was combing her hair and then put a bag over her head so she wouldn't bit him. Holy crap. And I reiterate, this episode was a bit on the disturbing side. As has been previously, Michonne doesn't trust the Gov' , as is demonstrated by her breaking into his house, stealing her sword and chopping up some zombies he's keeping in a cage. Say what you will about Danai Guirrera and her overacting, in this episode, or at least this scene, it works, because seeing her waste about ten zombies in under two minutes all samurai style was beyond badass.

As has also been previously established, Michonne and Andrea have been arguing about whether or not to stay. You want to think Andrea's right about Michonne just being paranoid, but Michonne's right, so I personally wanted to scream at my TV and tell them to get the hell out before they get their heads stuffed in jars (something occurred to me: if those heads got out of the jars, they'd be zombie heads and, you know, writhe around on the floor biting. Here's hoping for that by the end of the season). Michonne does, Andrea doesn't. Hopefully, Michonne will find our heroes at the prison and that'll lead to all sorts of interesting stuff. Andrea's staying leads to us seeing that Woodbury basically does gladiator fights in wrings of walkers. Yeah. I wasn't sure how I felt about it at first, but I realized A., it's disturbing (their's that word again), and B., it shows just how much of a control freak the Gov' is, tricking people into thinking walkers aren't dangerous to maintain power.

Back at the prison, the main focus is on the newly dead and the newly born. They still haven't decided on a name for Carl's little sister, though Daryl's suggestion of "little ass-kicker" (for some reason reminded me of turnip-head) seemed to go over well. In the end, they'll probably decide on Lori, though. Just being realistic. There was a focus on Daryl and Maggie having to go get formula from a nearby town, but I couldn't help notice the plot-hole of "why couldn't they just have one of the girls breast feed it?" Just can't shake the feeling they did that to kill time. The scenes of Glen digging the graves were nice, and you find out he knew T-Dog before the outbreak (T-Dog's getting more interesting now that he's dead. Speaks volumes). It was all very sad and such, but you can also tell just how hardened the group has gotten due to the lack of tears being shed. Still no sign of Carol. Hopefully they'll bring her back with Morgan (they need to bring him back!).

Best developed character so far besides Rick? Daryl. The guy is the man, immediately stepping up to help, and he makes ponchos look cool. Who'd have thought that was possible?! Leaving a flower on Carol's grave shows just how complex the character is.

Overall, great episode, not as good as last week, but last week was the best episode of the whole series thus far, so that shouldn't be too big of a complaint.

Final Rating: 87%

Saturday, November 10, 2012

SkyFall Movie Review

At long last, a good fall movie that ISN'T rated R!

So, Skyfall is the new James Bond movie, which was my main motivation for wanting to see it. If you remember my fall movie preview,  I said "James Bond, gotta see it." That being said, and this is to my everlasting movie, Skyfall is the first Bond movie I've ever watched all the way through. I've seen parts of The World Is Not Enough (I remember thinking "Brosnan's awesome, but this movie sucks) and like ten minutes of Quantum of Solace, but this is the first time I've ever sat down and seen the whole thing. And how was my first legit Bond experience? Pretty freaking sweet.

So, first off, you've got Daniel Craig as James Bond. 'Nough said. Or at least it should be, but I'll elaborate a bit. He perfectly embodies everything Bond, or at least this version of Bond, is supposed to be. He's badass yet classy (he jumped into a train and then fixed his cuffling. That IS Bond.), and he's damaged. He really is. Could have something to do with, you know, being shot by your partner and almost dying, but in this movie he's really messed up. Take into account that and the fact that he might be passed his prime, and you've got a really compelling take on the character.

And then you've got Javier Bardem as the villain, the other surviving rat, if you will; let me tell you, this guy is channeling Heath Ledger's Joker. He is totally out of his mind, but at the same time, you get why he's doing what he's doing, if that makes sense. Let me explain: he has legit motivation behind his vendetta, but that motivation has driven him nuts. That's a potent combination. Even his hair screamed crazy.

As for the rest of the characters, awesome. Judie Dench was great as M, can't say I'm surprised, and, like with Bond, I liked the direction they took her character in. And then you have Naomi Harris as the newest Bond girl, and she's great because she's relevant. She matters to the plot beyond her and Bond having tension. Among other things, she's the one who gunned Bond down by mistake, she's got good chemistry with Daniel Craig, and she's just cool. I like it when the female characters are relevant is what I'm saying. And then you've got Q. Q is the man. He's a super genius, he's hilarious, and his character is just great. He and Bond have this friction at first, but then they start respecting each other, and that was just great to see.

And how's the plot and dialogue? Fantastic. The movie starts off with this amazing action sequence that leads up to Bond falling from the sky, and it's thrilling and what not, and after that things start building up and building up and it's all great, with awesome dialogue and bits of action here and there, I mean I was engrossed the entire time, and it climaxes in one of the greatest finale battles ever. It's so intense and epic and thrilling that I was on the edge of my seat. I can't give anything away, obviously, but it's great.

The movie was a lot funnier then I expected, too. I figured there'd be a one-liner here and there, but I actually laughed a lot. Most of it is the aforementioned great dialogue, but there's also a lot of throwbacks to the Bond movies of yore (pop-culture icons that you can ID even if you've been living under a rock) that made me LOL.

My only beef with the movie: the CGI. There's more then one scene where I just looked at something and instantly thought: yeah, that's animated. It doesn't drag the movie down too much, but it put me off for a second or two.

In the end, I saw Skyfall, and there was much rejoicing!

So, what's your favorite Bond movie? Comment below, let me know!

Monday, November 5, 2012

The Walking Dead: An Evil Within Review

.....................I, uh, I... I almost cried.

Spoilers galore follow.

So the episode started off a bit weird, by which I mean everyone was happy: Hershel walking on crutches, Carl and Beth resisting the urge to make like Glen and Maggie, who's location results in a pretty major laugh, people are cracking jokes, heck, Rick's even making eye contact with Lori. And then the prison starts getting sabotaged and zombies attack. And people start dying.

May as well get the big one out of the way first: Lori is dead. When she started giving birth in the middle of the zombie attack, I figured this was just something to amp up the intensity and it'd all pan out. And then the blood shows up, and she tells Maggie she needs to give her a C-section, one she won't survive. And Carl has to watch. It's never been easy tolerating, let alone liking, Lori, that much isn't a secret. But the amount of intensity and emotion in the scene, as Carl said good bye to his mother and Maggie sliced her open to retrieve the baby, nearly had me in tears. The actors did such a good job in this scene, perfectly portraying what was happening, just selling it perfectly, and, well, bringing the audience to tears. This was easily the most dramatic moment of the entire show thus far. And then as Carl had to put a bullet in his dead mother's brain to stop her from turning, briefly flashing back to Rick's advice in season 2, well, any Carl haters are now silent. This boy is a man.

Before this even happens though, T-Dog gets bit, at which point I realized I was in for a heavy episode. It was on the shoulder to, so I was more or less convinced they'd just amputate his arm and he'd live right up to the point where he charges a few walkers so Carol can get away and gets eaten alive. As emotional or disturbing as Lori's death? No, but probably more shocking. The shame in it is that T-Dog had finally gotten some development just twenty minutes earlier, campaigning for the other prisoners to be able to join the group. He was finally more then just a throwaway character. And then he dies.

The implication is that Carol is now dead, as we were meant to surmise from her head scarf. Of course, if this is the case, it was off screen and was overshadowed by two other deaths, so it didn't really resonate like it should have. That's assuming she's actually dead. I'm not saying the Walking Dead writers don't have the stones to kill three people off in one episode, but if we didn't see it, assuming it actually happened in a twisty show like TWD might be a mistake. Granted, it could just be we don't want her to be dead, but I'm not writing a Chewbacca-eulogy for her just yet.

The big reveal of who's behind all this really took me by surprise: Andrew. He absolutely had the motive, what with Rick all but handing him to the walkers, but that's kind of it: how the hell'd he survive that? Doesn't really matter, he's dead by other prisoner who's name escapes me now, an action which might get him into the group, but the reveal still caught me off guard in an episode that'd already thrown me for quite a few loops. I mean that as a good thing, obviously.

The Woodbury scenes felt a tad out of place, but they were still good, providing a bit of breathing room and some info: the Governor's name is Phillip, his wife's dead but his daughter's still around somewhere, and he's pining for Andrea. Merle's wants to look for Daryl, but his sense of obligation to the Gov keeps him from pushing it. And while Michonne is putting a tad much into her acting, it was fun to see her play detective.

The final scene hammers home the emotion, as Maggie and Carl walk out with the baby but no Lori, driving Rick into a full on breakdown. I was speechless, and really wanted to watch the next episode before next week. TWD is one of the best things on TV right now, and this episode couldn't be a better example of why.

Final Rating: 100%

Good Will Hunting Movie Review

And I reiterate, I need to review more older movies, and I just watched this on Netflix for the first time this weekend, so I figured its as good a place as any to start.

No spoilers, don't worry.

So Good Will Hunting stars Matt Damon; he's janitor at MIT named Will Hunting who didn't go to college, lives in South Boston, and gets drunk with his best friend Ben Affleck every night; basically, he's a white trash nobody. But here's the thing: he's super genius. He sees math equations three other people in the world can solve and cranks out an answer within minutes. Peter Skarsgard plays a professor who catches onto this, so he has his underachieving community college professor friend Robin Williams give Will some therapy so he can move on with his life. And we have our movie... er, well, parts of it.

So, is this movie good? Hell yeah. I'll start with the performances. So, first off you've got Matt Damon kicking ass as Will. In the year 2012, it's really not necessary to say Matt Damon did a good job in a movie because he's Matt Damon, you know, probably the best actor working today other then Bryan Cranston or Gary Oldman. But this was 1997 (year I was born! Woo!), Matt Damon was not Jason Bourne yet, and he still had yet to prove himself truly as an actor, which he does in this movie. Will is a more relatable character then you'd think, too; yeah he's a white trash super genius who's yet to do anything with his life (think Doctor House if he were white trash), but he's going through something we've all been through at some point: asking himself what the hell he's doing with his life. Come on, we've all been there. And they do a great job at that. Add in that Will's funny and kind of a BAMF, and you've got a great protagonist.

The other performances were awesome, too. It's hard to say who really steals the show, just because everyone's so good in this movie, but my first choice for that's Robin Williams. He does so well as his character, and his character is awesome too. His character is the kind of guy we all hope we can be: he's happy with his life and the choices he's made, even though it hasn't all worked out for him and he hasn't been as successful as he could've been. And then you've got Ben Affleck: first, his character is named Chucky. That in itself is funny, then just add in how freaking hilarious he is in this movie. He's also the ideal best friend, too, because even though he's always screwing up, he has Will's best interest at heart. They make pretty much everyone else relevant, too, like the professor and even Will's girlfriend's a complex character. That's the beauty of it, really: they feel like people and not archetypes.

One of the things I love most about this movie is the idea behind, which they do a great job of showing without force feeding it to the audience, something lots of movies and shows stumble over. That idea is that when you have a gift, a lot of the time there's a difference between what you're "supposed" to do and what you actually want to do, hence Will not being particularly inclined to take up any of the jobs he's being offered. At the same time, the movie does a great job with the flip side of that: a lot of the time, there's also a difference between what you want and what you owe to yourself. That's another thing where we've all been there, and I love stuff like that.

Another huge thing in this is the script, which won the Oscar for best original screenplay, and that really shows, especially in the dialogue. The dialogue isn't only realistic, but it's just plain awesome, and a lot of the time hilarious. I've said hilarious a lot in this review, so I'm starting to get scared that I'm sending the wrong message. So let me make it clear: this is a drama with comedic moments, not a funny. It can be kinda heavy sometimes too, and a bit slow. That's my only beef with the movie actually, that it can be a kind of slow sometimes, but that's where the great dialogue comes in handy. Plus, I need to watch slow movies once in awhile to prove to myself that I can watch things that don't have explosions.

So, Good Will Hunting is on Netflix Instant right now, and you should all go watch it because it's awesome. Seriously, IMO this is one of the best dramas ever made, or at least that I've ever seen. Because it's awesome.

In the end, I saw Good Will Hunting, and their was much rejoicing. 

Friday, November 2, 2012

Arrow: An Innocent Man Review

You've heard the Batman voice! Now, prepare yourself for the Green Arrow voice!

Spoilers follow.

So who's on the list this week? A guy who framed another guy for murder. Arrow decides he needs a friend in the courts to pull through on this one. Three guesses as to who he picks.

That was the biggest thing in this episode, actually: Arrow confronting Laurel and wanting to use her as his friend in the courts. I'll say that if Arrow has anything over Smallville, it's that they've gotten a to a point in four episodes that Smallville took eight and a half seasons to reach. And I gotta say, this was really cool to watch. They worked well together, and it lead to some really badass stuff, most notably Oliver nearly forcing a guy to get hit buy a train, beating the crap out of a bunch of prisoners, and arrow-zipling off a roof (okay, now you're just showing off). This also eventually leads Laurel to realize that both Arrow and Oliver are selfish in their own ways, which could go down some interesting roads.

The real show-stealer this week though was David Ramsey's John Diggle. After Oliver reveals his secret to him and offers for him to be his Kato, Diggle takes a bit of down time to reevaluate his life. Ramsey does a fantastic job as always in his role, really selling his own inner conflict.

The whole Moira is evil thing gets advanced a bit this week after being more or less forgotten in the last two, as Walter finds the ship in a warehouse and Moira visits John "Fist Shakes" Barrowman in a limo. I'm intrigued.

And then we have the cliffhanger ending of Oliver getting arrested on the charges of being a vigilante. I'm very interested to see how he gets out of this one. Right afterwards we saw a trailer with Death Stroke in it, so you can bet I'm looking forward to next week.

There were a few issues, as was expected, mostly by way of Laurel and Arrow getting handed some pretty lousy dialogue and Thea being forced into the plot. I can't say I'm too fond of Thea so far; she's just kind of annoying, and I don't care if she is Speedy, these writers need to either get rid of her or come up with some stuff for her that isn't painful to watch. But hey, at least Tommy was nowhere in sight.

Final Rating: 83%

Revolution: Season 1 Episode 6 Review

Yes, I know I didn't use the name of the episode in the title. I'm trying to keep things relatively clean, alright.

Spoilers Follow.

For it's first five episodes, Revolution has been consistently "good but far from great." With this episode I can say things got kicked up a notch in terms of quality.

So, Nora's knife wound at the hands of Lapidus in "Soul Train" comes back to haunt her by way of an infection, for which she needs help that can only be provided by Miles' drug dealer "friend" Drexel. Things go south very quickly.

I'll start with Drexel: he was cool. On top of a few very funny lines, he was really REALLY evil. I mean that. The guy kills women because he can, and wanted to use Charlie as an instrument of revenge. That is evil. And he reveals the latest tidbit about Miles' less then honorable past: he used to take payments to off Drexel's competition. It hasn't really been a secret Miles used to do a lot of bad stuff, but that's just messed up.

Believe it or not, I actually liked Charlie in this episode. OK, maybe not liked, but its a step in the right direction. She's toughening up, she's getting rid of all the fluff, she was completely willing to off old Irish guy who's name escapes me and was about to when Miles stops her. And she did exactly zero Tobey Maguire crying (and there was much rejoicing). I know that there's a lot of hardcore Charlie haters out there patrolling the web probably waiting to inflict death by trolling upon me for saying that, and don't get the wrong idea, I'm not saying I'm suddenly team Charlie, I'm just saying she was a lot more tolerable this week then in weeks past. Still plenty of work to do on her part, but we're making progress.

Here was the real surprise this week: Aaron-centric flashbacks. I let out a bit of a groan when I read that bit in the episode description, as his attempted comedy relief has proven a bit flat in past weeks, but the flashbacks were surprisingly strong. We got a glimpse of a guy who had everything, only to have the blackout take it all away and make him useless. He really felt it too: he couldn't protect his wife, and abandoned her because he thought she'd be better off without him. Cowardly? Sure, on a whole new level really, especially as she wanted to stick with him. But this adds an unexpected layer to Aaron, and certainly makes him more interesting as a character. I can only imagine what'll happen when he runs into her again (oh, don't act like that's not gonna happen. We all know it will). Aaron got a few more good moments when he literally became willing to take a bullet for his friends. Well done.

Only weak link in the episode was Danny's finally meeting his mother, which, because of the limited screen time for build up, didn't have a whole lot of impact. There were also one or to moments, and this keeps happening on the show, where the characters explain a common knowledge fact through dialogue that doesn't need explaining. Seriously, writers, assume your audience is smart.

Final Rating: 81%