The Top Ten Movie Franchises

At long last, a new top ten list. Haven't done many lately, sorry about that, but they take awhile and I've been a tad pressed for time. But better late then never. The list has a simple enough idea: the best movie series ever made. To qualify, it has to be a series of at least two movies, and each film in the series has to be at least as good as the others. In other words: the Matrix trilogy is NOT here. Let's get started.

Honorable Mentions:

Men In Black trilogy:
There will always be a place in my heart these movies, but it wasn't quite consistent enough to qualify. Sorry, Mr. Smith. Sorry Mr. Jones.

Also, if you need the absence of the Godfather trilogy explained, and this is to my everlasting shame, I have never seen the Godfather. Bring on the troll comments.

10. The Back to the Future Trilogy
I almost considered leaving this off the list, but in the end, the fact that the first Back to the Future IS my favorite movie of all time (totally serious about that. If I made a list of my top ten favorite movies of all time, it would be number one) has to count for something, and the fact that these were effectively the time travel movies to give birth to almost all other time travel movies has to count for quite a bit. And hey, the sequels might not have kicked quite as much ass, but they're still enjoyable movies and I'll watch them if they're on. Marty McFly, Doc Brown, I salute you.



9. The Toy Story Trilogy
No matter how old you are, you love these movies. You know you do. Some of the best animations ever made, the Toy Story tells a story about childhood and growing up that anyone can relate to, and, in a lot of cases, cry to (no matter how old you are, you've cried at least once watching one of these movies. You know you have.). They're funny, nostalgic, brilliant, relatable, and at some parts, freaking epic (how else would you describe 3's take on the Great Escape?) You can only imagine how I reacted when I found out Joss Whedon wrote the first one.



8. Harry Potter
Don't judge me. Okay fine, judge me, but this is staying on the list. I'm part of the generation that grew up with these, sue me. I used to be the king of staying up until two AM reading the books. And in there lies the brilliance: the fact that they're some of the best adaptations to ever come along. The fact that the casting directors managed to pick great actors out of the army of 11 year olds doesn't hurt. Telling one of the most brilliant, epic, and carefully laid out stories ever told about a boy wizard finding his place in the world, the Harry Potter franchise captivated a generation and occupied an entire decade. Did the last two leave something to be desired? Yes (making book 7 two movies was a stupid decision, plain and simple), but I will always love these movies, and everyone knows someone who feels the same way.



7. Marvel Cinematic Universe
Yes, this counts. The MCU represents one of the biggest gambles in movie history: adapting seperate comic books into their own solo origin-story movies that take place in a shared universe and having a crossover in the penultimate pile of awesome The Avengers (one of the best movies of the year, IMO). Something like this shouldn't have worked, but it did. Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, and Captain America were all established in some pretty kickass solo movies, and, along with Black Widow and Hawkeye, met up to save the world. The beauty of it is that it's still expanding, too, with Iron Man 3, Thor: the Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ant Man all set to be released withing the next two years, leading up the Avengers 2. Marvel's now company of the year, Joss Whedon is finally getting the praise he deserves, and it is a good time to be a Marvel fan.



6. Monty Python
In my mind, they're all in canon. And there all hilarious, but you knew that. Holy Grail and And Now For Something Completely Different both had me laughing till my sides hurt, Life of Brian is one of the funniest movies ever made in my opinion, and the Meaning of Life, even if it was really weird and offensive, was still good. And it says something that the highest movie rating on this website is a play off a quote from Holy Grail.


5. Indiana Jones
Some of the most badass movies ever made and the biggest reason Harrison Ford didn't become a typecast like everyone else in Star Wars, Indiana Jones is awesome. Does it really require further explanation?



4. Bourne
These are the best spy movies ever. End of discussion. In 2002, Matt Damon's status as one of the best actors working today was confirmed, and by the third movie, it was cemented. Identity redefined the spy movie genre, Supremacy raised the stakes, and Ultimatum is one of my favorite movies of all time (like in the top ten, maybe even the top five). The fourth entry, Legacy, came out this previous August, and while many found it polarizing, I personally enjoyed it. Combining uniquely intelligent scripts and story lines with with badass, and often brutal, action and some amazing acting, the Bourne movies rock. Here's hoping for Bourne five with a Jason Bourne-Aaron Cross team-up.



3. Lord of the Rings
There are probably those of you who are thinking "why the hell isn't this number one?!" At this point, the entries are more or less interchangeable and could all be in first place, but I had to put a number in front of each of them. Amazing writing, even better directing, stunning landscapes, awesome characters, phenomenal acting, great special effects, incredible action, and a tone that's epic and yet oddly sentimental at the same time, the third one won an Oscar and yet all three of them probably could have.The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is coming out this December, and you can bet I'll be lining up to see it.



2. Star Wars
It's Star Wars. 'Nough said.



1. The Dark Knight Trilogy
In 2005, Christopher Nolan did something unexpected: resurrect a franchise that had been dead at the hands of Joel Schumachuer for 8 years and turn it into the greatest series of comic book movies ever made. He also redefined comic book movies by making it gritty and as realistic as you could make something like this (Nolanizing is now a term that means exactly that). Batman Begins proved to us that Batman is supposed to be dark and then some, The Dark Knight is the Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises capped off the franchise in a more then satisfactory way. This, folks, is what happens when you make a movie based on one of the best comic book heroes ever with one of the best directors working today and some of the best actors working today. To paraphrase YouTube movie critic Jeremy Jahns, the The Dark Knight movies are like the actual account of what happened in Gotham if it were a real place, and all the other movies and comics are just exaggerations. To put it simply, TDKT is awesome in every sense of the word.

Arrow: Pilot Review

Insert obligatory Justin Hartley joke here.

Spoilers follow.

So, the CW has decided it needs a superhero show to share a night with Supernatural, and this is their answer is Arrow, which is about the DC Comics hero Green Arrow. Be warned, this is not the lighthearted fun of it's predecessor Smallville, this is a dark, gritty show. And that works to their advantage. The writers left the Green Arrow origin story more or less intact: billionaire Oliver Queen is shipwrecked on a deserted island for five years, during which time he becomes a BAMF. He's rescued, returns to his native Starling City, finds that a lot has changed, and becomes the vigilante Arrow to fight crime and destroy the people left for him in a list by his father.

I'll start with the positives: Stephen Amell is makes a brooding, intense, and downright badass Green Arrow. He's was a good casting choice, because, at the very least, I really bought that he was this crime fighter. As the irresponsible playboy, not so much; he doesn't have the charisma or the swagger to pull it off, but hopefully that'll be a small part of the show. Katie Cassidy plays Laurel Lance (Black Canary?!), and when I first heard that I groaned. Loudly. But she's actually really good in this show. I not only bought that she was a lawyer, but I thought she had one of the episodes better performances. I never thought I would say those words. Oliver's friend Merlyn's cool to, even if he will probably turn evil. Oliver's mom, on the other hand, felt a bit undercooked, but hopefully she'll be explained a bit more. The whole bit with Oliver's sister Thea, who may or may not be Speedy, felt a forced, while I'm on the subject.

The action, which was badass, and the tone, were both great, and served the episode well. But those couldn't save the episodes faults. Where do I start? How about with the pacing and the editing, which felt really rushed and choppy. A two-hour pilot might've been a better idea, seeing how the episode was trying to tell an entire superhero origin story, something that takes a movie about 2-2.5 hours, in under 45 minutes. Oliver's groan inducing voiceover didn't help (this is why I hate voiceovers). Hopefully it, along with the rest of the cheesy, cliched dialogue will get cut. You've also got a weak villain, some disappointingly small sets and weak CGI (then again, this is the CW), and certain sense that they're borrowing a bit much from Batman Begins.

All in all, this was not the best pilot episode I've ever seen. To be fair, if you're supposed to judge an entire series on it's pilot, people probably wouldn't hate Terra Nova so much, and I did have a pretty good time with this episode, good enough to come back next week, at least.

Final Rating: 73%

Revolution: Plague Dogs Review

And with this we can all more or less agree that Revolution has major stones.

Spoilers for the episode.

So we're a few episodes in to Revolution, and so far it's been good. Not great, but good. This week was no exception. As usual, we've got four plot lines: Charlie and company, being stocked by both Nate and and psycho with some dogs at an old amusement park, Danny and the Militia in a storm, Rachel and Monroe, and flashbacks for both Maggie and Rachel.

I'll start with Danny and Militia, or, more specifically, Danny and Neville. Thus far, I've been glad the writers haven't decided to make Danny the whiny, annoying "forget the world, my problems are what matter" jerk most genre shows seem to love in teenage boys (and as a teenage boy, I've gotta say I find that cliche a bit offensive), and I found it interesting when he and Neville get trapped in a storm cellar together. Neville has a son, apparently, something I'm intrigued by, who Danny reminds him of. The captain also gives Danny a crash course in post-electricity ethics. Here's hoping for a Neville-flashback episode soon. Anyone with a high opinion of Danny had it lowered by the end of the episode, when Neville manages to guilt trip the boy into saving him, and recuffs him. Fail on your part their, Danny boy, you're gonna have to wise up.

By the end of the episode, we've learned that Monroe needs Danny so he can torture him in front of Rachel for information. Now that is evil. Speaking of Rachel, her flashbacks show us when she first left her family, apparently because Miles, back in his militia days, recruited her for something. In the words of Hurley: "Uh... what?". Looking forward to seeing where that one goes. The Maggie flashbacks, the main point of the episode, were heartbreaking: she was stranded in America after the blackout, walked all the way to the east coast from Seattle, and couldn't find a single boat to take her back to England and her kids (bit of a stretch, but hey). This was to the point where she was about to do herself in, and then the Matheson clan found her. Hat's off to Anna Lise Phillips for really selling this one.

At the amusement park, Miles is considering leaving because he'll get everyone hurt, much to Charlie's dismay. And then they're attacked, Nate is drafted into their little group (really?), Maggie gets stabbed in the leg, Charlie gets kidnapped by a villain (who had a backstory, which I thought was unnecessary because he was only onscreen for about 8 minutes and just ate up screen time), Miles goes all BAMF-tacular, and Maggie dies. Yeah, you read that right. Was it the most heart-wrenching TV character death I've ever seen? No (still either Fred or Charlie), but it took major balls to kill off someone important in episode 4 (even Whedon waited for episode 9 kill Doyle), and it got me a little bit. RIP. The writers were trying to stress the point that everyone leaves Charlie, which I and probably most people were picking up, and it was really sad when you thought about it, but then Charlie actually said "everybody leaves me" while crying her Tobey Maguire tears, and I rolled my eyes a bit. A message to the writers: we get the point. You don't need to be so blatant about your underlying statements, so stop driving them home to point where they lose their impact. Assume people watching your show are smart. Miles is staying though, so that's good, and apparently Nate is too (rolls eyes).

In the end, Revolution maintains it's status as a good show. Will it ever be great? Time will tell, but that probably won't happen until it's stops cramming too much into one episode and being so blatant about what it's saying (and maybe has Charlie take some acting lessons. That Tobey Maguire crying is getting old).

Final Rating: 75%

The Lone Ranger Trailer Review

Alright, I haven't done a trailer review in awhile, so here we go.

Believe it or not, I only found out sort of recently about the Lone Ranger movie, and my reaction was "yeah, sounds like it could be cool." I haven't been like hugely anticipating it like I am with Man of Steel or Star Trek Into Darkness (and no, I don't plan on reviewing the three-frame clip from it they showed on Conan Thursday), but I will probably see it. And the trailer was good.

You start off seeing/hearing this monologue about trains and the power they're going to create, you have a lot of great visuals and western music, though you can't help but feel like it'll be a little stupid if the entire movie's conflict is driven by trains. And then you cut to the Lone Ranger (Armie Hammer) and Tonto (Johnny Depp). A lot of people didn't like that Depp was cast as Tonto instead of a Native American actor, but just so you know, Depp is 1/4 Native American. So yeah. My problem with that is that Depp will be so good as Tonto (which all know he will) that it'll overshadow the Lone Ranger himself and make it the Tonto show. Those fears aren't exactly subsided when out the two, Tonto has the only lines in the entire trailer, and Depp's name is mentioned first. The best we can hope for is a The Fighter-type thing, where they're both main characters, but Tonto wins the Oscar. Which, let's face it, he probably will, because he is gonna be awesome as Tonto. Am I making any sense right now?

In the end, I liked the trailer, I'm looking forward to the movie, I'm not gonna be hugely upset if it's more about Tonto then the Lone Ranger, but I'm sure someone will.

Taken 2 Movie Review

Okay, I'm gonna dodge all the jokes involving a "Very particular set of skills" or the sheer stupidity of trying to kill Liam Neeson and say that when I got the movies yesterday, my choices were this and Frankenweenie, and my undying hatred of Tim Burton (yep, I just said that) repelled me from Frankenweenie. Maybe I should be a little less hard on Tim Burton...

Hey guys, guess what? This is my 200th post. In retrospect I wish I'd planned this out better.You'll get something good for #300, don't worry. Anyway, I saw Taken 2 yesterday, and the plot is as follows: the family of the people Liam Neeson killed in the first movie are out for revenge, so they take try to take Liam Neeson and his entire family while they're in Istanbul. Seriously? This guy is a Greek god and Narnian god, he's fought wolves to the death with his bare hands, he's trained Batman AND Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he's just a flat out badass, and you're really gonna attempt to hurt him. (Okay, I lied, but you know I had to make that joke.) This begins rehash.

I know that's the big problem most people had with the movie, that it's a rehash of the first one, but, and this is to my everlasting shame, I haven't the first Taken. Bring on the troll comments. That being said, I know that it's a rehash, I just can't be as PO'd about that as someone who's seen the first one would be. Let's move on.

So, the biggest overall problem I had with this movie was that they tried to make Maggie Grace's character (I'm huge LOST fan, so seeing her as a brunette is weird...) relevant and competent. Normally, I'd be all for that kind of thing; I've watched Buffy and BSG, I love BAMF girls. There are two problems with that idea though: the idea of her character suddenly being competent after all the screaming and crying she did in the first one (I haven't seen it, but we all know about that part) just isn't believable, and Maggie Grace is a lousy actress (even when she was on LOST, I just felt like "Sayid, man you could have any girl on that island except Claire, and you're going for the one who thought you were a terrorist?"). She was always over the top and Tobey Maguire-crying and just saying her lines badly. It was annoying. And they tried to make her suddenly competent, and I just didn't buy it.

The main villain in this the father of the first one's main villain, and he's not a great villain. Is he intimidating? Kind of. But the thing is, he never gets his hands dirty. He always has someone do it for him. Seriously, this is the guy who killed your son; wouldn't you wanna personally put a bullet in him?

After that there's little things, like location fails, Maggie Grace throwing grenades into the city so Liam Neeson can hear where she is, the fact that no shot lasts more then 10 seconds, especially in the action scenes, where every punch has about ten cuts, twenty angles, and it's in close-quarters shaky-cam, you know, bad directing. (A fun drinking game would be you watch Taken 2, and every time there's a cut you take a shot; after about 15 minutes you'd passed out).

But at least there's plenty of Liam Neeson killing people, right, because that's probably what you saw the movie for? Wrong. There's a confusing lack of Liam Neeson kicking ass. If you want to see that, watch the first Taken (that's what I'm gonna do), watch Batman Begins, heck, watch Phantom Menace, because there's more Liam Neeson badassery in that then in this.

The movie did have a few saving graces, though. Liam Neeson just being there somehow adds credibility, because he was great in it, like he always is. Famke Jansen was good as his wife, too, and the score was really good. Seriously, the score was epic. I was gonna say the music was epic, but they borrowed a lot of their non-score songs from Drive, and at the begininng of the movie, this song starts playing, and when I heard the first note, I was like "wait, is that that the Bourne (I will review those eventually) music?" It wasn't, but you get the idea.

All that being said, I was mildly entertained for most of the movie. I mean, at no point, was like "make it stop, make it stop, for the love of God make it stop", i.e.m it's not The Losers bad. It's the type of action movie where you're entertained when you're watching it, but you don't actually like it that much, if that makes sense. You know, like Terminator 3.

In the end, Taken 2 doesn't suck, but avoid paying to see it like the plague.

So, what's you're favorite Liam Neeson movie? Comment below, let me know!

Supernatural: We Need to Talk About Kevin Review

Hey guys, I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in awhile, but last week was hell for me and just couldn't get around to it. But I'm back now, and while I'm not gonna be able to review every new episode from this week that I saw, I figured I should talk about at least one; specifically, the season 8 premier of Supernatural.

Spoilers follow.

After one year, Dean has somehow busted out of purgatory, and he brought a friend with him: a vampire named Benny. After finding Sam, the two argue a bit, and then realize they have to find Kevin, who Sam kind of abandoned.

All in all, this was a strong start to the season. Both the brothers have changed a bit: Dean is more of a battle hardened soldier then ever, while Sam is reverting back to civilianism a bit, as he gave up hunting in Dean's absence. Now he's got a girlfriend, and a dog. The altered dynamic was certainly interesting, and I liked the way the season appears to be shaping up.

Also a high not: Kevin. The kid's BAMF'd up a bit, destroying demons, tricking this years apparent Big Bad, the one and only Crowley, finding out that there's a way to permanently close the gates of hell, and saying the best line of the episode to his girlfriend: "There's a demon in you... and you're attending your safety school." I felt like he could lead to some cool story lines when he was introduced last season, and so far I'm right.

The flashbacks were great too, both Dean's plan to bust out of purgatory with Benny and Sam meeting his new lady friend. At the very least, watching the brothers argue is always fun. Not mention the Impala and some good old fashioned classic rock has made a triumphant return. Mark Shepard is always welcomed, and let's face it, Crowley's awesome.

SPN has a new showrunner this season, Jeremy Carver, who's promised a complex, multi-season arc that'll take the show through season 10, and so far so good. All in all, good episode, and a good start to what'll hopefully be a step-up from last season.

Final Rating: 88%

Doctor Who: The Power of Three Review

It's a metaphor, you see.

Spoilers Follow.

The Ponds are on their way out the door, and this episode was the set-up for that; so, as Amy and Rory are beginning to question whether or not they should keep going on these random trips with the Doctor whenever he feels like popping in, billions of small black cubes fall from the sky and do... nothing. At first, anyway. Over the course of the year, as the mystery begins to unfold, we start to see just what kind of impact the Doctor has on his friends lives.

So, how was this episode? Mostly good. Don't get the wrong idea from that, though; the cube mystery was cool, and I thought the episode did a great job of showing just what people would actually do in this situation: panic, test them, take them home, take them for granted, and then forget all about them. And I gotta say, as an alien invasion strategy, it's actually sort of brilliant. UNIT's return was more then welcomed this week as the people who are trying to figure out what the hell's going on with all this, especially the head of operations once you find out she's the Brigadier's daughter. That's right, a little Lethbridge-Stewart. (They never do actually say "Brigadier", though).

For the most part, though, this was an emotional episode, and it strikes a real chord with that. We see how the Ponds keep trying to move on with their lives, but it just never works. We see how they've grown as people, and we see the Doctor finally explain that he's not running away from anything, he's running towards everything. It was heart-wrenching, and we weren't even supposed to get that until next week. On lighter notes, my theories that the Doctor has a cosmic case of ADHD are finally confirmed, and Brian becomes the best companion the Doctor never had, waiting in the TARDIS console staring at cubes for 4 straight days without so much as a bathroom break. He does what the Doctor tells him to, and lets face it, not many companions can really make that claim.

As far as negatives this week went, the biggest one was the big reveal behind the invasion. The villain, who looked suspiciously like Darth Vader with his helmet off, was pretty undercooked, and you just weren't very effected by him. That's probably a result of the episode being a bit rushed in places. There were other little things too (what was up with the nurses, bit disjointed in places), but that was the big one.

On a totally unrelated not, the vortex in the intro keeps getting darker. Could that be a way of showing that the Doctor is going all dark again, which he kind of is?

Final Rating: 84%

The Producers 2005 Movie Review

Okay, I should probably clarify right now that I'm not talking about the 1968 movie or the Broadway musical; I'm talking about the 2005 remake. We've established that? Good.

No spoilers, don't worry.

Alright, So I've decided that my new goal should be to review at least one older movie every week, and since it makes the most sense to review movies I watched recently, I'll be talking about the last movie I watched: The Producers.

So, the producers is about a failing Broadway Producer played Nathan Lane, who teams up with an accountant named Matthew Broderick (Bueler? Bueler? Bueler?) to make the worst play ever made after realizing that a producer could actually make more money off a flop then a success. And we have our movie. But wait, it's a musical. That might turn some of you off at first glance, and it turned me off a little when I realized it was a musical about twenty minutes in, but I wound up telling myself to get through it because it's funny. I regret nothing. As a musical, this is good. I can't say its the best I musical-movie ever made, because I know nothing about musicals. My only points of reference are Dr. Horrible and the Lion King. But the songs were, for the most part good. Heck, they were most of the funniest parts of the whole movie, and believe it or not, they were catchy. That's weird too, because a lot of them are really inappropriate and offensive, but it is a Mel Brooks movie (I forgot to mention that, didn't I? It's a Mel Brooks movie), so that's not really a surprise. And like I said, the songs were catchy, and more often then not, funny.


As a movie though, the Producers is still very funny. It starts off with this opening scene with Lane and Broderick's characters and it's hysterical. I won't spoil it, don't worry, but it's hilarious. And then the music starts and they start working on the play, and Will Ferrel shows up as this Neo-Nazi that may be one of his best characters ever. I didn't know he was in this going in either, so when I recognized I geeked out a little bit, and then he started talking, and I laughed and laughed and laughed. It was like that pretty much every time he was on screen, too, I mean he was probably the best part of the movie. Actually, a lot of funny people were in this but I didn't know it in advance; Uma Thurman's (playing herself, i.e. a hot blonde Swedish girl with an obscure name) in this movie, John Barrowman's in it (*fist shakes* Barrowman!), and it's so funny. And then we finally get the play itself, and I had the stupidest grin on my face the whole time, and when I didn't, it was because I was laughing.

Don't get the wrong idea, this isn't a perfect movie: some of the songs and a few of the scenes were so raunchy and offensive that I actually cringed when I saw them, so those parts weren't to pleasant. My biggest problem with the movie, though, is that it's too long. The ending was really drawn out, and it could've easily been 15-30 minutes shorter. There are funny moments in those minutes, it gives that Return of the King kind of feeling, you know, like it ends four times, and then when it doesn't you're like "oh God". Then again, it least it doesn't end twenty times in thirty minutes like what I was comparing it too, twenty-five if you watch the extended version.

In the end, I will say that The Producers Is A Movie Night Classic.

I wanted to bump it up to There Was Much Rejoicing, but I just... couldn't because of the cringe-inducing scenes.

Doctor Who: A Town Called Mercy Review

So if the first episode of this season was DW's equivalent of Alien, and last week was it's Snakes On A Plane, that would make this it's Cowboys and Aliens. My only question now is whether or not there's gonna be a homage to Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanomo Bay. Import questions, people.

No spoilers, don't worry.

So, after last week's sort of let-down Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, the Doctor is saddling up and going to the wild, wild, west. Specifically Mercy, Texas (I think it's supposed to be Texas, anyway). He, Amy, and Rory land in Mercy, which is being menaced by a alien-cyborg-cowboy-assassin who's holding the town hostage until they give him the alien doctor.

I'm gonna go right out and say it: this episode was awesome. The Doctor in a stetson AND riding a horse? Nerdgasm, man. Right from the get-go they're in the old west (they skipped the Doctor picking the Ponds up this time, thank God. We just assume he popped them to take them on vacation), and the action begins. And I mean action in more ways then one: yes, there were some 'splosions, and guns (and weird laser-things) are fired (Amy with a gun, man), and that's always welcomed, but aside from that, stuff happens. Doctor and company quickly find themselves in a moral dilemma a la Batman, which the Doctor takes a surprising side in. The Doctor seems to have been going kind of dark ever since AOTD, and this week really shows that. I know that there's mixed feelings about when the Doc goes dark (and how 11 seems to do it a lot more then 10), I personally am one of the people who like it just because I like what it does to the character, and in this one he's terrifying. Let's just say that he's reminded of something he did that wasn't proud of (the actual words are never said, but longtime fans will get it).

So, the occasionally-appearing dark side of the Doctor makes another round this week, easily being the best part of the episode, with Smith absolutely nailing it, and Amy taking the opposite stance, doing a convincing job of showing WHY the Doctor needs his companions. I won't even tell you what Rory does. All the guest stars this week were spot on, and made it even more awesome. And then there's the directing, which was fantastic. I think they shot this episode in Spain, and the town really does look like the old west, which was, well, necessary. And this, and the scared town, I forgot to mention that but they were cool, is all just backdrop to showdown at the end that was nothing short of epic. Toby Whithouse wrote this episode, and this is up there for him. I can't decide if this is his best episode (I'm still partial to School Reunion myself), but definitely up there.

The only part of the episode I actually didn't like, and I know that this is gonna sound really nit-picky, was the voice-over at the beginning and end of the episode. I don't know why, I just didn't like it. I've said I have mixed feelings about voice-overs in the past, and this is and example of why.

Overall, this was a great Who-episode and an awesome homage to classic westerns, I had a lot of fun with it, you guys should to0.

Final Rating: 88%

Last Resort: Captain: Review

So, a lot of the events in the episode just made me think, "if Captain America ever watched this, he'd die of a broken heart."

Spoilers ahead. Sail forward at your own risk.

So, yet another pilot episode has been released online ahead of schedule, thus leading me to review. Last Resort is about the submarine USS Colorado, the most powerful nuclear submarine in existence, headed by Captain Marcus Chaplin (Andre Braugher) and XO Sam Kendall (Scott Speedman). They receive orders to release all their fire on Pakistan from a secondary network that's only supposed to be used in the event of an attack on the US, which they know isn't happening. After they question their orders, they're fired on by their own people, swim the hell away, take an island hostage, and declare themselves a nuclear nation. There you have it.

I've been looking forward to Last Resort for months now, ever since I saw the first trailers. Because it looked awesome, that's why! And was it? Oh hell yeah. The premise alone kicks all sorts of ass, because I am a sucker for government conspiracy stuff. I like thinking that the man is out to get me. I shouldn't, it's clearly a sign that I watch way too much TV, but I do. And in this, there is clearly a conspiracy going, probably more then one, and it is cool. Halfway through the episode, it's implied that the US is now at war with Pakistan; I did not expect that to happen, and it gets you thinking about what's happening, why it's happening, who's behind it, the kinds of things a show like this is supposed to get you thinking about.

The thing with this episode is that it literally is all set-up for the premise. Seriously, if you've read story details for the episode, you know 99% of what's gonna happen in the episode. And yet it's still really good. Usually when a pilot episode is all set-up, I groan a little bit, because I know what's gonna happen, and yet I still have to watch it unfold on screen. Not here, I was entertained and gripped the entire time. Part of that is this is really intense. And I mean REALLY intense. Watching this, you'll be engrossed the whole time and there are parts where it's actually a little bit hard to breath there's so much happening. For me, intense=awesome, so I was impressed. The best example of this was at the end of the episode, when they actually fire a nuke at the US, and I was just like "OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!!!!". It's fine in the end, which, you know, bit convenient, but it's kind of a sigh of relief, too. And just by the way, the end of the episode was pretty freaking sweet.

Let me talk about the cast: it's great. Andre Braugher is kicking all kinds of ass as basically Bill Adama on a submarine; he's cool, he's BA, and above all, he's intimidating, and he needs to be, because when you really get down to it, he needs to pass himself off as a terrorist and a dictator if he wants to stay alive, and I'm really looking forward to seeing more of that in the rest of the season. Scott Speedman's cool in this too, and no, he's not Saul Tigh on a submarine, as he's not a one-eyed drunk (he could be a robot though. You never know), but you do get the sense that there's some history between him and the captain, and you can tell he's conflicted about what he's doing and I like that. Jessy Schram (AKA Creeptastic Karen from Falling Skies) is his wife, she's really good in the like five minutes she's on screen. Robert Patrick (from the last two seasons of the X Files which I will not hold against him. You can if you want, but I'm just gonna remember him as the T-1000) plays this Admiral whose daughter (tough but hot Navy woman who gets no respect from sexist cretins) is on the Colorado, and he's really good in this too, and I hope he's a big player in all this. There's other characters in this too, like this Navy SEAL with the Colorado crew who is a major badass, hope he sticks around, that hot girl from Dollhouse who's name escapes me, and a couple of NATO workers who get caught in this island-hostage situation, and they're all cool. Most pilots don't nail character exposition, especially for an ensemble cast, like this does.

There were things wrong the episode, though: like I said, a few plot conveniences and forced moments that I sort of rolled my eyes at, and there was this one scene where this woman who basically designed the Colorado, is spelling the whole thing out in black and white, and I just thought "Okay, nobody would be telling someone that in that situation! That is not natural!" There was one kind of cheesy moment, too, between Scott Speedman and Jessy Schram, but I'll let it slide for now. Plus, midway through the episode, there was this exchange of captaincy that was undone after about ten minutes, and it didn't feel necessary in anyway, and I really doubt it'll resurface anytime soon. Maybe it will, and if it does I'll eat my words, but for now, yeah.

So basically, I like the episode (the CGI was really good, I forgot to mention that), I like the premise, I like the set-up they do, and I'm definitely gonna keep watching to see where the story goes.

Final Rating: 91%

Red Dawn 1982 Movie Review

Okay, so this past Saturday I had a bunch of friends of over to celebrate the fact that a., we'd survived the first week back to school, and b., I'd finally gotten Netflix. We were originally going to watch Minority Report, but apparently that's not available on Netflix Instant on the Wii. So we settled on this.

Warning: Spoilers have been sprinkled in. 

That's the biggest reason I'm writing this review, if you're wondering; that and I don't review as many older movies as I should, and this was the last one I saw, so yeah. 

So Red Dawn came out in 1982, the height of the cold war, and so naturally, a movie comes out that's about an alternate version of history in which the Soviet Union and Cuba begin invading the United States. A large amount of troops are stationed in a small Colorado town, which parachute into and take over (the black guy died first, like always. groan). They force the entire town into submission, except for a bunch of kids led by Patrick Swayze who managed to escape into the woods while the invasion was happening. After that, they start waging guerrilla warfare on the enemy, calling themselves the Wolverines, and we have our movie. 

So how is the movie: it was alright. Seriously, I don't know how else to describe it. I'm usually not the type of person who says a movie is okay, you know, for me it's usually it sucks or I love it. But this one is different. So the three main kids are Patrick Swayze who looks weirdly like Kurt Russel in this, his brother whose name escapes me, and Charlie Sheen (thirty years and 300 pounds of crack ago). There are a bunch of other kids too, but most of them either don't get lines or you just don't care about them. Honestly, the only character you care about is Patrick Swayze; the rest of them get killed off in truck loads and you don't care. That's how underdeveloped they are. Heck, even Patrick Swayze dies at the end of the movie, you still don't care, or at least I didn't, because to someone of my generation, Swayze's already been dead for what, five years now. Reliving it doesn't bring tears to my eyes.

So, you don't care about the characters, which is bad because most of them die, and most of them are really good actors. This is Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen here, folks. But that aside, lets get into the real reason I, you, or anybody is gonna watch this movie: all American action! (America! Hell yeah!). This whole movie starts with the actual invasion of the town, and its a huge, awesome, and a little bit terrifying action sequence. It was cool. And then we fast forward to more action against some comically stupid Russians (one of whom dies because Swayze goes Hawkeye. After that I kept expecting Captain America to come riding in on the Hulk to save the day), and the guerrilla warfare begins and there's an explosion every twenty minutes. Seriously, at one point, Charlie Sheen blew something up, and I said "CHARLIE SHEEN FOR THE WIN!!!" After that, someone went FTW every a big fireball came on screen, and my friend said this movie should have an FTW meter at the bottom of the screen. And then when there was about twenty explosions in thirty seconds, well lets just say the FTW meter broke. So lots of explosions, and that was awesome. As far as being All American, you do get jazzed a bit when by the whole Americana thing, so the movie does its job there. The thing is that beyond those two things, the movie kind of falls flat.

There are a few more problems though: a bunch of scenes have what I call '80s logic (watch any '80s action movie and you'll see what I mean), and there are a few slow scenes, and I found myself cracking jokes throughout most of it (if I really like a movie, I'm dead silent the whole time), but like I said, you really just don't care a lot of the time. If this movie had much better characters that they took the time to make us care about and then killed them off, I would've been much affected.
The bottom line is that this is great action mixed into a mediocre movie that you don't care about half the time with a great premise.

Ladies and Gents, Red Dawn is A Fun Way to Kill A Few Hours (if you're with friends you can make commentary jokes with and have plenty of snacks :))

Doctor Who: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship Review

Just imagine if Samuel L Jackson had been in this episode (I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHER (expletive removed) DINOSAURS ON THIS MOTHER (expletive removed) SPACESHIP!

Warning: Spoilers for the episode follow.

So, when I first heard this title, I was excited; we all were. Dinosaurs, on a spaceship! How could that go wrong. And the dinosaurs were awesome; they looked cool, whether it be in CGI form or the animatronics/puppetry, they did there job, and from fetch-playing triceratops to snoozing baby T-Rex, the dinos did their job, and with style too (sort of...). And it was a good thing, too, because there were some holes in this episode.

First, we've got Queen Nefertiti and hunter John Rydell; they both had their funny moments (though some of them were a tad inapropro...), but they were basically there as plot catalysts, and it seems a tad convenient that the Doctor happened to be with Nefertiti when he was called about the spaceship, and then decided he needed a gang for this adventure that included Rydell and the Ponds (speaking of which...). Granted, it was awesome when Rydell and Amy teamed up to tase raptors, but you get the point.

Ah, the Ponds. And Rory's dad. Was that one a plot convenience? Oh yeah, totally, but it was a great one. I'll admit it, when I first heard that they were going to have Rory's dad (played by Ron Weasly's dad from Harry Potter, no less), I though to myself "That could be really funny, but...". You get the idea. Fortunately, I was wrong, because Brian Williams was a boss: hilarious banter with Rory (and everyone else, while you're at it), playing fetch with a triceratops, flying a spaceship with the power of his mind, and sitting on the edge of the TARDIS, looking down at the earth while eating a sandwhich, Brian did in one episode what every companion dreams about, and it was cool. Thumbs up for Brian, everybody.

The Ponds themselves are always welcomed in my book, and they were cool this week, what with Amy showing she's picked up a thing or two, and Rory showing off his mad nursing skills. We also get dropped a few more hints regarding their eventual departure by way of Amy's telling the doctor that while she still likes him popping in a taking them somewhere, it's starting to play hell on her personal life.

As far as the main villains this week: ehh. Solomon was okay, but his robot friends were sort of annoying. Not racist robots from Transformers 2 annoying, but still pretty grating. Solomon's motivations were there, and he was pretty obviously evil, but I just didn't get anything out of him like I do from other Who-villians, other then that he sounded weirdly like Davros. The only really great thing about him was when the Doctor let him, that's right let him die;I really like it when 11 goes into the grey area morally, because that's the main thing that separates him from 10, and it's really badass.

Overall, this was a good episode. Nowhere near the awesomeness that was last week's outing, but still enjoyable.

Final Rating: 81%

Revolution: Pilot Review

My personal theory is that the blackout was the result of a Dharma Initiative experiment.

So, the new Eric Kripke (creator of Supernatural) created, JJ Abrams (creator of LOST) and Jon Favreau (director of Iron and the pilot episode) produced sci fi series Revolution doesn't premier for a few weeks, but NBC has released the pilot episode online for advanced viewing. Terrible marketing strategy if you ask me, but I'm pretty sure no one is, so yeah.

No spoilers, don't worry.

Fifteen years after all the world's electronics have stopped working, a militia of the dictatorship running part of America comes to a town looking for a guy who might know something. They wind up killing the guy and taking his son, prompting his daughter Charlie and compatriots to go looking for his brother Miles in Chicago, who can help get brother Danny back. And the adventure begins.

I was excited for the show when I saw the first trailer awhile back, and I jumped at the opportunity to watch the pilot early. It's Kripke, man! I'll start by saying that I think this is a really good premise; I also think it was a good idea to flashforward fifteen years instead of showing the immediate aftermath. It lightens things up, which the show needs to do to differentiate itself from those other post-apocalypse shows. And if you're upset they didn't give you the morning after, they're obviously gonna give it to us in flashbacks.

I also really liked the journey the people were going on; it was cool, and did feel like a mythic quest! Plus, there's swords (and for those of you who've been bitching about how it doesn't make sense that guns don't work in a world without electricity (you know who you are), it's not that they don't work, the government has made it illegal for citizens to own firearms)! As for the characters, so far... not terrible. The main characters is Charlie, and I really liked that they decided to go for a female protagonist (though you can't help but feel it's in vain of the Hunger Games...) because it's cool when they do that. Her character is fairly interesting, though some of her lines felt really cheesy (shame on you, Kripke!). The actress who plays her does a good job with the whole wide-eyed, headstrong thing, but she also overacted/just didn't say right some of her lines. If this was made four or five years ago, I would've said Summer Glau should've played this part, just because it's perfect for her, but these days, it would be a bit of a stretch for her to play a 19 year old.

The supporting characters whose names escape me were good for what they were, which isn't saying much given how little screen time they got, but I like em' for now. The real talent on this show though is Uncle Miles and Captain Neville. Captain Neville, played by a guy whose name I can't spell, is, at the moment, an awesome and thoroughly badass villain, and the actor who plays him nails it. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him. And then there's Billy Burke (yes, the dad from Twilight. I groaned too, don't worry) and his show stealing role as Miles. He is the man! He is a total badass, and he's actually really funny, too. He's the biggest character I want to see more of as the show goes on.

The directing of the awesome was pretty darn awesome. I give mad props to Jon Favreau making what looks like movie designs on a TV budget. He made some awesome sets, landscapes, and sword fights. Seriously, the fight at the end was epic. And there were some pretty awesome twists that'll get quite a few of you automatically on board for at least the next episode.

This was not a perfect episode, don't get the wrong idea. It honestly felt kind of rushed. I personally think they should've done a two-part pilot, but maybe that's just me. There was one or two poorly written parts of the episode, and like I said above, some cheesy lines and bad delivery. I will say this is a good episode; I like what they have so far, and I think they can do some really cool stuff with it, but there's room for improvement. The question still stands: will this be the next LOST, or the next The Event?

Final Rating: 79%

Grimm: Quill Review

So I saw the promo for this episode, and I was like, "alright, yes, a Monroe episode! Maybe we'll finally learn his last name!" Which we didn't, BTW.

Warning: Spoilers for the episode.

So what happened this week in Portland? A virus that turns Wessen into extras from the Walking Dead hits, infecting, among others, Rosalie, just as she and Monroe are having there first date (it's called "MonRomance", a word I suspect will be in Urban Dictionary by the end of the weekend). Nick and Hank are investigating at the same time, but that goes without saying.

I'll start with the virus itself, which was pretty cool. I did kind of feel like it was rushed and that maybe this should of been a two-parter, or at least ten-minute longer episode, but they did the best they could with 45 minutes. The rash the virus gives actually makes the CGI almost passable, if you can wrap your head around that idea. The infected Wessen were cool and a little bit scary too, and the action scenes with them were cool, or in the case of the one Wu was in, very funny (is that guy ever gonna get a first name?) So, cool premise. They didn't establish why the virus was suddenly in Portland, or if anyone else has it, so I'm hoping this'll come back to haunt our heroes, sort of like the Croatoan virus did in Supernatural. Here's hopin'.

So, last week it was established that Hank is now in the know. If you read my review of that episode, then you know that I felt like it was kind of a cop out. OK, yeah, I was being a bit harsh, but I wanted to see more of jumpy, on-edge, confused Hank. I thought that was interesting. But this week, they did a really good job with Hank. It was cool, Nick showing him the ropes, and they set-up that Hank is still gonna be in the dark about a lot of stuff until Nick explains it, which could lead to bad things further down the line, so I really liked that. Congrats Hank, you're officially in the Scooby Gang (wait... wrong fandom)

The MonRomance between Monroe and Rosalie we've all been expecting pretty much since her character was introduced came to be in this episode. I'll be blunt: if these actors didn't have such good chemistry, the whole thing would've felt cheesy and forced. Fortunately, they have great chemistry, and they worked well together. At the very least, I bought it. And then Rosalie gets sick, and then I noticed there was only like five minutes left in the episode, and I thought "wait, is she actually gonna die...". She didn't, though she was a WD extra for a few minutes, and that's why I felt like the episode was rushed. The promo was mostly about Rosalie getting sick, but she only was for about ten minutes. So, I was a little bit disappointed. On the plus side though, we got to see Nick's Grimm Death Grip!

As far as Juliet went, she's trying to remember Nick, but the best she gets is remembering Beaver-Plumber-Man (BPM), who, hell yeah, shows up! For new viewers, you'll have no idea who he is, but for long time fans, you might have a nerdgasm when he shows up on screen. BPM lets the word Grimm drop during his conversation with Juliet; Gee, I wonder what that's gonna lead to.

Biggest, and coolest, loose end this week was the arrival of a new Wessen-assassin, courtesy of Renard's family, but much to his dismay. We'll see how that goes, though I'm thinking we're heading into another cool fight.

Final Rating: 86%

Doctor Who: Asylum of the Daleks Review

So, me and my follow fans have had to wait exactly nine months and fifteen days for this episode, the longest fans have ever had to wait between episodes (save for that brief, 16 year hiatus a few decades ago). And was it worth the wait? Oh hell yeah!

Warning: Spoilers for the episode follow.

Something I should actually point out is that this is my first ever Doctor Who review. I started this website back in January, and the last episode was in December, so yeah.

The Doctor, the TARDIS, and the Ponds are all back. Things start off with a bang, or rather a pretty epic voice over, as the Daleks capture the Doctor and the soon-to-be-divorced Ponds, and bring them to their parliament. And we see a ridiculous amount of Daleks. Seriously, the sheer scale of the episode is obvious given the amount of Daleks we see at once, and it just felt epic. And then the Daleks tell the Doctor they want him to save them. All this before the opening credits even come on (love the new opening credits by the way, the vortex looks really cool).

Overall, this episode kicked ass. Moffat has said that his plan for the season was to "slut things up" with blockbuster of the week episodes, and if every episode this season is like this, think series 7 can be called a winner. The tone was really different then past episodes too; it was intense and kind of frightening, partly do to the introduction of new monsters the humanoid Dalek shell (and the Dalek zombies, those were awesome). And the entire time, you felt like you needed to feel: like (expletive removed) is going down. And it was.

Some have complained that Matt Smith's Doctor is too childish, and this episode is why they're all writing Mr. Smith formal apologies; Smith flawlessly transitions from the usually zany, playful, and very funny Chin-Boy Doctor to the menacing, powerful, and more then a tad scary Predator of the Daleks Doctor, and he sells all of his lines perfectly. The dialogue went up a step too, being appropriately snappy and wonderful. As for Amy and Rory's marital issues, there's some legit reasons behind those: because of what happened to Amy and Demon's Run, she can't have kids, and she kicked Rory out so he could one day, at which point we all said "Oh God." Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill once again, nail all there lines and mannerisms, and you felt for the two (more then usual, I mean).

But the real winner in this episode was the surprise appearance of future companion Jenna Louise Coleman as Oswin Oswald. She was smart, she was funny, she was sassy, she was crazy hot, she and the Doctor worked well together, heck, she stole the show. And she wasn't even supposed to show up until the Christmas Special! In a world of leaked spoilers, its nice to know that Moffat can keep one or two things under wraps. And then there's the real twist: she's a freaking converted Dalek! Nobody saw that one coming, and you really felt sorry for her when you found out she was made a Dalek against her will (apparently the evil pepper pots are taking a page from the Cybermen). So yeah, pretty amazing twist. Even more so when you take into account the fact that she'll be the Doctor's companion in a few months. The idea of the Doctor taking a self-aware Dalek as a companion might sound kind of awesome on paper, but Moffat isn't that crazy! Is he? My personal guess is that the Doctor will meet Oswin earlier in her own life, and her character arc will revolve around the Doctor knowing what's going to happen to her and knowing he can't prevent her becoming a Dalek and apparently dying. We'll find out.

The only real letdown of the episode was the Daleks themselves. Don't get me wrong, it was great to have them, especially when they were scarier here then they've been in awhile (and let's face it, it can be tough convincing new viewers that a bunch of evil R2D2's are frightening.) and the new way of saying their catchphrase was quite excellent, but the one of the parts of the episode that was advertised was "every Dalek ever", and that didn't happen. There were a lot of Daleks, but none of the Daleks of yore I was hoping for were present. But hey, at least there were no Mighty Morphin' Power Daleks. By the end of the episode, Oswin (gotta love that... girl?) has edited the Doctor out of all the Dalek's memories. It'll be interesting to see how that effects the ongoing struggle between the Predator and his prey in the future.

Final Rating: 95%

So, the Doctor Who season premier: What'd you think of it? Comment below, let me know!