Top 10 Movies I'm Looking Forward To In 2013

2012 is over, and that means the movies of 2013 are upon us. Like last year, there's a lot to look forward to. Also like last year, I might not get around to seeing all of these (some of them could end up being rated r and I just don't know about it yet, like with Looper). That being said, if the industry feels like being nice to me, I'll get to see, review, and, ideally, enjoy all of these, and maybe a few more that pop up out of nowhere (Chronicle, anyone). Let's get started.

10. Pacific Rim
Idris Elba, one of the best actors working today, and Guillermo del Toro, who's awesome, are certainly intriguing factors. Part of me does feel like the premise is ridiculous (tell me you didn't think of Power Rangers even once when you watched the trailer?), which is why this only ranks at number 10, but it's that same ridiculousness, and how the movie could, potentially, get past it, is another huge part of what's drawing me in.



9. Carrie
A fan of the book, and Stephen King in general, I am, and I'm certainly interested to see what Chloe Grace Mortez (that's how you spell that, right?) can do with character (she seems almost too perfect for the role). That and the teaser trailer looks really freaking intense. I plan to watch and review the original version from the seventies first, don't worry. The only thing that gives me pause is the March release date, because, let's face it, movies that come out in March have a chronic habit of sucking. Also, I don't, as of right now, know the rating for this movie, and as much as I want it to be PG-13 so I can see it, as someone who's read the book, I know you can only REALLY do this story justice with a hard R rating. So try not to get your hopes up for this review.



8. Much Ado About Nothing
Is this my usual type of movie? No. Does anything with the name Joss Whedon (and the names Nathan Fillion, Amy Acker, Alexis Dennisof, Fran Kanz, Tom Lenk, and Christina Hendricks) pique my interest? Yes. Will I probably wind up seeing it by myself? Yes. Granted, this might not even be shown in the theater in my town- or any theater in the greater Boston area, for that matter- on account of a microbudget indie Shakespearean film probably won't appeal to mainstream audiences (if this becomes a hipster movie my life will be over... or I'll become a hipster), so expect a late review.



7. The Wolverine
Can FOX somehow fit this in with their increasingly screwed up X-Men continuity? Let's hope so (if for no other reason that I don't want the time travel movie to have sort it all out (because time travel makes everything   so much less complicated)). But even if they can't, Hugh Jackman returning to the role he made even more awesome is absolutely worth my money.



6. Oblivion
Tom Cruise AND Morgan Freeman in a pretty epic looking sci if actioner from the director of Tron Legacy. 'Nough said.



5. Thor: The Dark World
I'm excited for Marvel Phase 2 in general, but I'm interested in Thor 2 for a specific reason: the expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos. I'm intrigued about how, in terms of both storytelling and aestetics, they're gonna bring these fanstastical realms onto the big screen. Am I worried it could be a big CGI crapfest? Yes. But I'm still very much interested. That and Christopher Eccleston is playing the villain (Nine for the win!).



4. The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
Say what you will about An Unexpected Journey, I thoroughly enjoyed it (see my review and the best movies of 2012 rant for further details), and I have every intention to see this trilogy through to the end. Plus, we finally get meet Benedict Cumberbatch's Smaug, which will only be enhanced for me personally, because all interactions between him and Bilbo will be weirdly meta.



3. Iron Man 3
New director, new armor, new tone. That's the basic jist of Iron Man 3 if the trailer is anything to go by. I'm more than interested in the direction Shane Black wants to take the character and the franchise, as well as see just how the events of the Avengers plays into it. That, and you've got the Ben Kingsley as the Mandarin, and the nano-bot armor. Plus, it just looks epic.



2. Star Trek Into Darkness
After four long years of waiting, JJ Abrams is returning to the franchise he ressurected and redefined. Benedict Cumberbatch's (he just keeps showing up) villain certainly looks like a formidable threat for Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise (he's apparently named John Harrison, though personnally, I still think he's Gary Mitchell and the John Harrison thing is just the latest case of Abrams lying to avoid spoiling things), and  I can't wait to see how he stacks up. I'm gonna try and keep my expectations in check, but seriously, it's been four years; I, and everyone else, need this to be worth the wait.



1. Man of Steel
Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks it's ridiculous that there hasn't been a good Superman movie since 1980. Not only am I excited about the big guy's return to the big screen, with Christopher Nolan and Zak Snyder at the helm (excitement caused by trailers, that, long story short, make it clear that the film is going to paint a complete emotional picture of what makes Superman tick while plopping him into a realistic setting), but I'm also excited at the apparent Justice League franchise this movie seems fated to launch. Can't wait for May.



Honorable Mentions: After Earth, A Good Day to Die Hard, the Lone Ranger, Anchorman 2

So those are my picks; what are yours?! Comment below, let me know!

The Worst Movies of 2012 Rant

Okay, its THAT time of year. Time for me to expel an absurd amount of negative energy in the best possible way that doesn't involve violence: ranting about the movies I hated this year. Just a few things before we get started: 1., as has been previously established, my under-17 age prevents me from seeing (and therefore reviewing) any of the R-rated flicks that came out this year (though I will be 16 by the time you read this :)). 2nd., I know most websites do their best of the year before their worst of they year, but hey, I'm not most websites, and I prefer to get the bad out of the way before the good. And 3rd., I didn't actually see enough bad movies this year to make a full list, hence this just being a rant. That being said, let's get going.

Okay, so we are gonna start off with the most unnecessary movie of 2012, Taken 2. Even the title is weird, it sounds like Taken to... the movies. Or something like that. And while, as always, Liam Neeson manages to give this some kind of credibility, Maggie Grace's overacting, a plot that's honestly kind of ridiculous, and action scenes with so much shaky cam, unnecessary cuts, and just bad directing that the entertainment value actually managed to get sucked out of them, successfully bogged this movie down to the point of not good. Have I done worse things with my Saturdays in the past? Probably. But this is still 100 minutes (and $6, it was a matinee) that I'm not getting back.The worst part of it is, this was a success financially, to the point where Taken 3 in which they all get kidnapped and the dog has to come and rescue them like in that episode of Smallville I'd rather forget about is most likely coming and I contributed to that. Now that's extreme guilt.

 

Moving on, lets talk about the other most unnecessary movie of the year. Now, in a Hollywood plagued by way too many remakes, you'd think studios would get the idea that we don't want remakes to things that don't need it. Now, rebooting brutally murdered franchises like Batman, Star Trek, and Spider-Man is one thing, but a Red Dawn remake? Really? Now, I have seen the original Red Dawn, and I honestly didn't like it very much, so I went into this with an opened mind that MAYBE it'd be good. Nope. The acting, for the most part was good, except for Josh Peck because he sounded like he had a cold the entire time and I just had trouble taking him seriously (there were was one moment where I legit expected him to say "HUG ME BROTHA!), but the fact that you really don't give a crap about any of these characters (and therefore it doesn't seem to matter when any of them die), and a solution that felt contrived and sort of stupid doesn't do the film any favors. Was there some entertainment value in this? Yes, if you're okay with just shutting your brain off and watching some mindless action, which is what I did. Heck, I did that to the point where I had to create a whole new rating for this movie: Red Dawn might make good background noise.

 

And now lets go back to January. That's right, I'm talking about Red Tails. Now, if you've been following my website for awhile, you might remember I gave this a somewhat positive review. I have since pondered this movie, and realized that there's quite a bit wrong with it. That being said, I also know why I liked it when I first saw it: it was the middle of January, and my friends and I had been through a week of stress studying for mid-terms. On Friday, we took the first two mid-terms, were relieved, but were still stressed because we knew we'd have to take two more come Monday. We were stressed out, so much so that when we got to a theater on a frigid January night, we didn't care about the terrible dialogue, cliched story lines, and general cheesiness; all we cared about was the awesome air battles and black Jesus jokes (you gotta admit, that was funny). There you have it, why I liked Red Tails. Do I acknowledge that its a bad movie? Yes. But do I still like? Yes. Call it a guilty pleasure.

 

And now here we go, its time to talk (type?) about the single worst movie I saw this entire year. The movie that I actively discouraged people from seeing, and that I hope makes it onto many a worst of 2012 list. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm talking about John Carter (of Mars?). When I first saw this, I didn't give it that bad of a review, but I didn't give it a good one either. But alas, its the kind of movie that the more you think about it, the more you hate it. Seriously, I once spent ten whole minutes thinking about his movie, and then I realized I hated it. Because its crap, that's why! I wanted to like it, too, I honestly did, but I couldn't. The first 30-45 minutes, and a lot of the movie after that, is really, really, REALLY, boring, everyone is overacting, especially Gambit from X-Men Origins, like to the point where I thought he was doing a Batman impression, whole chunks of it are just ridiculous (if he can jump wicked high because he's not used to the gravity, why does he fall at normal speed? And if he does, why aren't his legs breaking when he lands), it doesn't seem to know if its a kids movie or an adults movie (one minute their making silly, slapstick jokes, the next heads are rolling), it drags on for like a half hour longer than it should, the action looks cartoony (seriously, the action sequences in Young Justice look more real), the leads have zero chemistry, it was CLEARLY trying to be Avatar, and the ending; don't even get me started on the ending, because there are so many plot holes and so much general stupidity there that I want to scream just thinking about it. Its just crap in every sense of the word.

Alright, there you have it: my worst movies of 2012 rant. Look for my best of 2012 list, which should be easy because I'm gonna post them on the same day.

So, what do you think was the worst movie of 2012? Comment below, let me know!

The Best Movies of 2012 Rant

Hey guys, today's my 16th birthday! Woo! Woo! No, I am not kidding, my birthday is January 1st.

Here we are again. I chose to get the bad out of the way first, so let's talk about the best movies I saw this year. Again, I didn't see enough movies to make this a full top ten list, mainly because I'm still not 17 and still can't see R-rated movies. Here's a little perspective; these are the R-rated movies I wanted to see this year but couldn't because of my age: The Grey, The Cabin in the Woods, 21 Jump Street, Prometheus, Ted, Dredd 3D, Looper, Argo, Seven Psychopaths, Cloud Atlas, Silver Linings Playbook, and Django Unchained. Okay, let's talk movies.

Alright, I'm going in chronological order here, and the first great I saw this year was Chronicle. I went into this movie expecting total crap. It was the middle of February, I was bored out of my mind, Apollo 18 had left me with negative association for found footage, the only reason I saw it was because nothing else looked better. So you can imagine my surprise when it was awesome. The three kids in this movie are all really good actors (I supposed that's why the kid who played Andrew is going to be Harry Osborne), and they were all really likable. Plus, I honestly can't think of another movie that went from feel-good to wicked dark that quickly and made it believable. Plus, the end fight was one of the best I've seen in a movie ever (imagine Superman vs General Zod sans '80s special effects). Here's hoping the sequel we've been hearing about doesn't get screwed over by FOX ('cause as you all know, once FOX realizes they've got something good, they just HAVE to mess it up) and that Josh Trank will succeed in making the Fantastic Four cool.



The next great movie I saw this year came out in May. That's right, I'm talking about the one, the only, the Avengers. Not only did this movie prove that a shared universe can work, but also that Marvel is company of the decade, and that Joss Whedon's talents are far from limited to television, finally giving him the mainstream recognition that he deserves (I would say that I've been waiting years for this to happen, but I've only been a fan of his since I first saw Firefly a year and a half ago). There's not a lot I can say about this now that I didn't say in my review and that you haven't heard already, so let's just say that I am eagerly anticipating Phase 2, starting with Iron Man 3 this April, and I can't wait to see what Whedon does with Ant Man.



Moving to July, prepare to be amazed. That's right, The Amazing Spider Man. Is this a wicked polarizing movie? Yes. But as someone who wasn't a fan of Sam Raimi's butchering-I mean treatment, of my favorite superhero/comic book character of all time, I'm just glad to see the web head done justice on the big screen. Here's hoping Sony and Disney can reach an agreement and get Andrew Garfield into the Avengers 2.



And now the moment you've all been waiting for: it's the Dark Knight Rises. Early this year I named The Dark Knight Trilogy as the greatest movie franchise of all time on my top ten movie franchises list, and before you go calling me a Nolan fanboy... you know what, go ahead, call me a Nolan fanboy; I'm a fan of quality storytelling, sue me. The caped crusader got a fantastic send off, complete with a great Bane, an even better Catwoman, and one hell of a Robin, and I'm happy about that. Did it have problems? Yes, but it was still probably the best movie I saw all year.



Into the fall, specifically the Skyfall. Incredibly lame pun aside, what many consider the Dark Knight of the Bond franchise was actually my introduction to Bond. And what an introduction it was. Daniel Craig's a badass, Javier Bardem's insane, and this movie was awesome. Taking a different look at the character, the movie perfectly combines the old with the new, and the result is great.



And later that month, we were given Lincoln. Spielberg proved that he's still got it, Daniel Day Lewis proves that he will win another Oscar, and for the first time I was able to watch a biopic that didn't bore me half to death. Not only that, but the dialogue, performances, and atmosphere were so compelling, that by the time I looked at my watch, two hours had flown by and I barely noticed. Honest Abe, I salute you.



And last but not least is the return to Middle Earth. I'll say this right now: I did not see this in48 frames per second, my theater only did 24, so maybe I liked it more then you did. And even if I did, don't act like the perfect acting, epic action, and *spoilers* Elijah Woods's cameo didn't make you love this movie even a little bit. You know it did, don't deny it.



So, those are my favorite movies of 2012. Be sure to leave your picks in the comment section below, and happy New Year.

The Top 5 Web Series of 2012

Alright, this is a list that should be made, but won't be by most. I'm honoring 2012's abundance of great youtube-based content. Why? I dunno, I'm a hipster I guess. But there were tons of great new and returning web shows this year, and I'm counting them down. Just a quick note: I've decided to omit any sketch comedy stuff like Smosh and Nigahiga, and I refuse to include Ray William Johnson (because he's a jerkass, that's why). Let's get started.

5. Save the Supers
Channel: My Damn Channel

Sandeep Parikh, of The Guild and The Legend of Neil fame, created this Justice League spoof in style of The Office, following Merman, World Man, Night Knight, Morph Man, Fleet Foot, and Elementra. The series followed the only sane man Merman's attempts control his team... and their budget. Combining awkward hilarity, comic book references, and off the wall comedic zany-ness, the show ran for seven episodes, culminating in the final battle between Merman and evil Seth Green! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it, especially if you're as taken with the current super hero obsession as I am. Plus, Felicia Day in a catsuit!



4. The Book Club
Channel: YOMYOMF

Yes, I know that YOMYOMF is the buttmonkey of the internet at the moment, but this show was freaking hilarious. Starring Danny Pudi of Community fame, a group of 25-40 year old men who form a book club, only to have strange things keep happening. Despite the name, each episode is basically a parody of a different type of movie. It's actually a lot like Community now that when you think about it... It's pretty much the best thing YOMYOMF has ever done, and probably ever will do... unless they make Book Club season 2. Basically, if your into movie reference, Community-esque humor but are pissed about how badly NBC keeps treating Community, check this out.



3. Squaresville
Channel: SquaresvilleSeries

At first glance this might seem like a giant chick flick or just a load of teen angst crap. But, at the advice of literally every other youtube channel I'm subscribed to, I gave it a shot, and realized it was quite a bit more. Following two very nerdy teenage girls, and occasionally their friend Percy, as they do whatever the hell they feel like doing that particular week. Is their some rather angsty drama? Yes, but they do manage to make it fairly compelling, and it plays second fiddle to rather hilarious jokes and geeky references. Plus, it's just realistic in depicting how teenagers behave and and makes the characters relatable and likeable, which takes true skill. Season 2 is coming soon, and I highly encourage playing catch-up if you've missed it.



2. The Guild
Channel: Geek and Sundry

We'll 'nough said. Felicia Day's hit geek-friendly web series soared to new heights with season 5, which spoofs nerd conventions in the best way possible and is absolutely cameo-lishous. Season 6 has been going strong so far, with the season finale soon to air. If you haven't seen the Guild, where've you been.

1. Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome
Channel: Machinima Prime

Following a young William Adama during the first Cylon War, the long delayed series that supposed to air on the douche-tastic SyFy channel finally came to the smallest screen in the latter half of the year. With compelling story involving a covert mission to deliver information, the show boasts great special effects- by web show standards anyway-, fantastic space battles, and a lead actor who's got a lot of genuine talent to burn, this had a lot going for it. Plus, it was accessible to first time viewers but with enough call-forwards and references to the show to please long-time BSG fans. Long story short, BSG Blood and Chrome takes the top spot of best web series of 2012.




So, those are my picks, what are yours? Comment below let me know!

Doctor Who: The Snowmen Review

H-allelujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah!

Spoilers fall upon this page.

Alright, after two months, Doctor Who is back... before it goes away for another four months. Annoying hiatuses that would make my head explode if I didn't know Moffat wasn't busy writing Sherlock (H-allelujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah!) aside, it's time to review the latest DW X-Mas special. Now, like most Whovians, I have mixed feelings about the Christmas specials. I liked the Christmas Invasion, I liked The End of Time, I really liked A Christmas Carol, but for those there's still... the Next Doctor, the Runaway Bride, and the Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe. That's why I was thoroughly surprised when this episode blew me away.

So when this starts off, the Doctor's become lonely and miserable. He's holed up in the TARDIS in Victorian England, he won't talk to anyone except Strax,Vash, and Jenny (great seeing them again), and the deaths of the Ponds still haunt him. But a monster has come to town, specifically the Great Intelligence (voiced by IAN MCKELLAN!!!!), which is using snow and the nefarious Dr. Simeon to reach his goals of attaining a physical form.

I'm not gonna lie, when I first saw the Snowmen monsters in the trailers, I thought they looked wicked cheesy and this episode was just gonna be a showcase for the show's low special effects budget. But not only were the Snowmen effective, albeit slightly underdeveloped, villains (as were Ian McKellan and the guy who played Simeon who's name escapes me), they were far from the main point of the episode.

The point of the episode was Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara. I pretty much fell in love with Clara from the get-go (not just 'cause she's wicked hot-which she is); she was smart (one word answer riddles anyone), she was funny, she was curious, she was tough, she could actually talk faster then the Doctor (apparently that's the reason Coleman was cast) and they had really good chemistry, she was basically everything I liked about Rose amped up to 11, but with the whole River Song-style mystery surrounding her.

The mystery, in case you forgot, was that Coleman appeared in Asylum of the Daleks as well and apparently died, which she did again here. Yeah, you thought Rory was Kenny, now we've got Clara; they obviously didn't explain how she came back to life because that would take the fun out of the whole thing, and I'm glad they didn't, because this is a great mystery. I'm wicked intrigued, and I can't wait to see where this goes. I just have to wait until April to find out. Sigh.

Moffat put in his usual great dialogue into this episode, too. The banter was so hilarious, especially from Vash, Jenny, and Strax (here's hoping for that Spin-off to happen) that I lost track of the number of times I laughed (which culminated when Vash and Jenny showed up at the house and Vash said to the maid "Hello, I'm a lizard woman from the dawn of time, and this is my wife"). The music by Murray Gold was great as usual, same goes for the new, squeal-inducing opening titles and spectacular TARDIS interior (also, loved how they inverted the usual line with "It's smaller on the outside).

Overall, this was just a great episode. It's one of my favorites of the new season/series/you know what I mean, right up there with Asylum of the Daleks and The Angels Take Manhattan.

Final Rating: 95%

Also, just a quick side note: this will be my last post of 2012. I'll be back on New Year's Day with my best and worst movies of 2012 posts, so I will see you then.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey movie review

Okay, so at one point last year I read that David Tennant was almost cast as Bilbo Baggins. My response to this was "hell yeah, forget Freeman. Let's get Tennant." Now that I've seen the movie, Tennant can wait to play Gandalf when they reboot the franchise in 25 years.

No spoilers.

Okay, sorry I'm late with this review, but its here. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey starts Martin Freeman from Sherlock as Bilbo, which, if you didn't surmise from my opening joke, is probably one of the best casting choices ever made. He is perfect as Bilbo. He nails everything: the lines, the mannerism, the whole sense of anxiety, its perfect. That being said, one of my biggest problems with the movie was Bilbo didn't really feel like the main character. I mean I know he is, given the eponymous Hobbit thing, and he does get some great lines and character development, but he really felt more like Han Solo in a New Hope: an important afterthought, but still an afterthought.

Anyway, like I said, Martin Freeman's a great Bilbo, and everyone else is great too; Ian McKellan nails it as Gandalf (still only the Grey at this point) again, this time arguably even more badass then in Lord of the Rings. Granted, he doesn't take on another Balrog, but he's still kicking some major tail. The guy who plays Thorrin who's escapes me is also awesome; Thorrin is basically the Aragorn of this movie, and of all the dwarves, he's the most developed and has the most fleshed out back story.

Let me touch on that: I like all the dwarves so far (their singing is so awesome), but not all of them feel like actual characters cannon fodder. Sylvester McCoy's dwarf is done nicely, as are the two brothers(?) with rhyming names that I can't spell. Beyond that though... Odds are we're gonna start to care about them in the next two... which is when they'll start to die.

And now for the pacing; I'm gonna say the same thing about the pacing that everyone will: it had some issues. There were a lot of scenes that I thought were kind of unnecessary, especially this one part that I won't spoil, but I will say that while it was really cool, after I thought about, I realized it probably should've been left for the director's cut. Don't get me wrong, it was a really freaking cool scene, but still. Same goes for a couple of  other sequences that I just thought could've been either cut down by a few minutes and removed all together. It goes like this: first twenty mintutes: awesome. Next thirty minutes I looked at the clock on my phone a few times. Then after that it really picks up and its absolutely fantastic with awesome fighting and battle scenes and just epic moments in general with great music (as in I'm probably going to buy these songs on my iPod great) and good special effects (I know some people are gonna say it was a CGI crapfest, but wasn't. There is a lot of CGI, but its not horrendously overused), and a lot of great humor too. I actually laughed a lot more then I expected to. Granted, I know that the book the Hobbit is more whimsical then the books the Lord of the Rings, but I was still surprised by the amount of times I laughed.

There are two characters in the movie I think I need to address now, and the first is Radagast the Brown. A lot of people are gonna hate this guy. I personally didn't, heck I even laughed at one or two things he did while he was trying to cure his little CGI porcupine (named Sebastian), but there will be some people who call him the Jar Jar Binks of Middle Earth. Again, I don't think he is, and neither did my friends that I saw it with. But if you do feel that way, he's only like ten minutes of the movie, so don't worry.

The next character is Gollum. Bilbo and Gollum in the cave together was the best part of the entire movie. I could've watched that for two hours. Gollum looks great too; the effects have made it so he really looks like he's there now, and Andy Serkis, as usual, deserves the Oscar that he won't get. But that sequence was just so entertaining. I actually can't even really tell why it's so great without spoiling it, so that's a bit of a bummer.

The last thing I'm going to address is the 48 frames per second speed. I have no idea what I saw this movie in, I really don't. When I was looking at times for showings on my theater's website, all it said was "showing is in 2D". I'm going to assume that I saw it in 24 frames per second because of that fact that at no point did I think it was on fast forward, so yeah.

Also, just as a side note, without spoiling anything, there was a cameo in this movie that people are gonna find polarizing. I personally really liked it; I got a great kick out of it, and really appreciated the way that they did it. That being said, the guy next to me hated it and thought it was totally unnecessary and indulgent. So be warned, you will be polarized.

In the end, I will say that the Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a movie night classic.

Alright, so what's your favorite Lord of the Rings/Middle Earth movie, which can include the Hobbit? Comment below, let me know!

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King movie review

I got no jokes, lets just talk Lord of the Rings.

Warning: this review is spoilerific!

Here we are at the final chapter! Frodo, Sam, and Gollum are almost at Mt. Doom, while pretty much everyone else is going to war.

Okay, last review I started out with Frodo and Co., this one I'm starting out with Aragorn and Co. The Orcs are coming, and as usual, Aragorn doesn't have enough men to fight the battle. So he, Legolas, and Gimmely go to this cave where they recruit and army of ghost soldiers with one of the most epic speeches ever. Aragorn's just like "WHAT HAVE YOU!" and it riles everyone up. Back at the city of kings, Gandalf and Pippin (Pippin's safety is in danger) are there talking to John Noble (terrible idea) and you know what, I'm just gonna skip over all this stuff. Long story short, Pippin and Gandalf are at the city, Merry and Arren are heading into battle, and the trio of awesome are bringing in the cavalry. I swear, first time I watched this, I thought, "everything is falling into place". And it is; they are setting up for the huge battles that will dominate the rest of this movie. Everyone is where they need to be for the fight(s).

Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam are being driven apart by Gollum. Sam knows that Gollum's a nutjob; he's even seen him talking to himself, plotting to kill them to get the ring. But, yet again, Frodo won't buy it. And, in the most painful seen in movie history, Gollum succeeds. Frodo makes Sam walk away, and it was sad. My reaction "No, that cannot happen! That did not just happen!" Haven't reacted like that since Wash died (RIP).

Then Gollum is finishing out his plot by leading Frodo into the den of Shelob, the giant spider. He traps him in the cave, and Shelob wants to eat him. Here's the thing: if you have arachnophobia, fast forward through this seen. I know a guy who can't watch this movie because of Shelob, 'cause it is THAT big. Anyway, Shelob wraps Frodo up, and then Sam, who you knew wouldn't abandon his friend, shows up and shouts "leave him alone!" and takes it down! Its epic. This is the movie that proves not only is Sam an awesome badass, but he is literally the greatest friend ever.

Back at the City of Kings, the fight to end all fights is going down. It is so huge that its almost ridiculous (and so epic). And then Aragorn shows up with his army of ghosts and they mow the enemy down. It was awesome (and so epic). But then after the whole bit is over, Aragorn realizes that Frodo needs time to destroy the ring. So he assembles everyone who's not dead and they go to the gates of Mordor and have the actual battle to end all battles. Everyone just charges in and holy crap it awesome. I can't even begin to describe just how epic this fight is. Just imagine it in your head, just imagine everyone and their grandma trying to waste each other.

Meanwhile, Sam and Frodo have reached Mordor, Sam actually has to carry Frodo into Mt. Doom because the Ring's worn him down that much, and then Frodo is standing over the lava, about to drop the Ring in. But he doesn't just drop it in, because that would be anticlimactic. Frodo gives in puts the Ring on, turns invisible, Sam and you just shout "NOOO!!!" and Sauron's eye freaks out. And then Gollum shows up, which I've never been more thankful for. Gollum decks Frodo and BITES Frodo's finger off the get the ring, and then  falls into the lava, taking the Ring with him. Sam saves Frodo, and the look on my and anyone's face when I saw that was "whoa".

The fighting's done, the Ring is gone, and Sauron's dead, but it doesn't end their. It's time for the Return of the King ending. You might've heard that before: basically, this movie ends five more times in the last 1/2 hour. It is a good thing, too, to give closure to all the characters, but you do start to feel worn out after awhile (I watched the extended version the first time I saw this, too, so at one point I just thought "can this end already?"). Basically, Aragorn becomes king and marries his elf girlfriend and your happy for them, the Hobbits return to the Shire, Sam marries that girl he had a crush on in Fellowship (after what he's been through, he's more then earned it), but Frodo just can't go back to regular life.

I don't blame him, I mean after all that he just can't handle everyday stuff anymore. So he and Bilbo go to the Elven holy land with the elves. This breaks the other Hobbits' hearts, too; Sam's crying, but in the end he lets Frodo go because Frodo needs to. And then in the last scene of the movie is this silent shot of Sam with his wife and kids and the movie ends. Is that a downer ending? Maybe a little, but I loved it. It was the perfect ending- well, perfect five endings.

Return of the King is my favorite Lord of the Rings movie, its one of my favorite movies ever period, and in the end I saw Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King, and there was much rejoicing!

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

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers movie Review

So its pretty obvious who'd win a fight between a Gandalf and Dumbedore. A good question would be who'd win a fight between Treebeard and and army of Ewoks.

Major Spoilers.

The Fellowship is broken: Boromir's dead, Pippin and Merry are captured, Arargon, Gimmely, and Legolas are going after them, and Frodo and Sam are continuing their quest to Mt. Doom. And the forces of evil are trying to kill them all. Yeah.

The movie starts off and Frodo is messed up. Why? Well, he's carrying the Ring and Gandalf just died for starters. So, Frodo and Sam are traveling towards Mordor, but they don't really know where they're going. And that's where Gollum comes in, to which my response is "hell yeah!" Gollum is what happens to you if you've had the ring for too long. He had it for like 500 years or something, it's made him a disfigured nutjob with multiple personality. He is one of the greatest movie villains ever. I feel weird about calling him a villain, too, because in Two Towers he tries to do the right thing at first, but in the end he does give into his desire for the ring. Andy Serkis as Gollum... wow. Just wow. The whole thing was done with motion capture, which the Academy's excuse for not giving him the Oscar for best supporting actor (pathetic excuse, mind you). He should've won an Oscar, which is the highest praise you can give a performance, but it still feels like I'm understating it. It's that good.

So he's leading Frodo and Sam to Mordor, and the entire time he's arguing with himself whether or not to kill the Hobbits and take the Ring. At one point he decides not to because Frodo's the first person to be nice to him in literally centuries, but the whole time you know he's gonna snap. Sam knows that too, and that's starting to drive a wedge between him and Frodo. That doesn't really start to happen until Return of the King, but the seeds are planted in this movie. It's painful to watch, too, because you don't want to see them get driven apart because they basically have the ultimate bromance.

That being said, they're journey to Mordor with Gollum is one of my favorite parts of the movie, especially as you see all these armies just move past them, and at one point they're captured, and you know they're gonna get out, but it just feels epic. At the end of the movie, Frodo and Sam are talking, and goes really nostalgic again because Sam's telling Frodo they'res gonna be books about him, and Frodo tells Sam there'll be books about him too. And you believe it. Sam is the only sidekick in the history of movies that genuinely feel like this story could not be told without him. Usually the only way a sidekick ever seems to matter is if he pulls a Nightwing, but Sam stays by his friend until the end, and it's awesome. And then you cut to Gollum and he's decided to kill the hobbits and that freaked me out.

Meanwhile, the three tall badasses of the story are looking for Merry and Pippin. They're hauling ass looking for them too, because they only have so long before the orcs kill them. And on the way, they meet Gandalf, who, as it turns out, got a comic book death. Except now he's the White Wizard, meaning he is a giant badass. They go to this kingdom, and they free the king who's been under the control of Sauron, and then they realize they need to get to Helm's Deep to fight of the Orcs.

I'm just gonna cut straight to Helm's Deep if that's alright with you guys (yes that means I'm skipping over Gimmely's hilarious speech about dwarves DON'T pop up out of holes in the ground- oh wait, I just did). They're at Helm's Deep, and things are looking pretty bad. A MASSIVE army of Orcs is coming to wipe them all out, and they don't have nearly enough men to hold them off. A battalion of elves shows up to help them out, and you think "okay, they might survive this". And then one of the best battles in the history of movies take place. It is so epic and so many heads roll it is ridiculous. I always loved how during this Legolas and Gimmely are counting how many they kill during the fight to see if they can outdo each other, too, 'cause its really funny.

This battle is actually why I Two Towers was my favorite LOTR movie for awhile. Eventually I decided I like Return of the King better, but seriously this fight is awesome. The fact that anyone makes it out alive is astonishing.

And now I'm going to talk about the thing everyone cites as the bad thing Two Towers: the Ents. I don't the same hatred of the Ents that some people seem to, but I'm not especially fond of them. They're just holding Pippin and Merry captive the for a lot of the movie trying to decide what to do with them, and its a bit slow. It doesn't help that Treebeard, the leader, talks...wicked...freaking...slowly, and that the whole thing is a tad boring. It pays off at the end, because the Ents just show up and trash Tower #1 in an also very sweet fight, but still.

But in the end, I saw Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and there was much rejoicing!

So, what you're favorite second movie in a franchise? Comment below, let me know!

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring movie review

Alright, guys, I know it's been awhile; I decided to take a week off for Thanksgiving because that was just a hectic week for me. But I'm back, and in honor of the Hobbit in all it's soon to be released glory, let's talk some Lord of the Rings.

Spoiler alert!

So, with the Hobbit coming out soon, but not soon enough, I figured this'd be a good way to prepped. So, The Fellowship of the Ring starts off with this big flashback about basically the history of Middle Earth. There was this guy Sauron, who was CRUSHING everyone else until eventually all the humans, elves, and dwarves teamed up to stop stop him. They do that-sort of. Only problem is that his ring survived, and his ring basically has his soul inside of it. Flash forward 3000 years, and we're in the Shire, home of the Hobbits. Specifically Bilbo Baggins, the current owner of the Ring, and his nephew Frodo, the main character of the movie.

Then one day Gandalf the Grey, who's basically the greatest wizard in the history of film (sorry Dumbledore, but Gandalf would kick your ass), comes to see his old friend Bilbo, who's celebrating his 111 birthday. It's at this point that we realize something that I personally love about the LOTR: it's ability to switch tones flawlessly. Let me explain: the first ten minutes, the flashback, are really epic and dark, and then we get to the Shire and it's...happy. Nostalgically happy even. That's something these movies do a lot (go from epic to sentimental to epic again on a dime), and you buy it, too. It's something  in these movies I think people don't talk about enough.

Anyway, so eventually Bilbo skips town, and the Ring (which turns you invisible when you put it on, I should've mentioned that earlier) is now in the hands of Frodo, and at Gandalf's advice, leaves town himself with the Ring. But his gardener, Samwise Gamgee (Rudy himself, Sean Astin), winds up coming along. We don't know it yet, but Sam is going to become the greatest sidekick in the history of film. Along the way they pick up two other hobbits, Pippin and Merry (played by Charlie from LOST!), as well as Aragorn.

Let's talk about Aragorn, shall we: he's the man. He was supposed to be king, but he gave all that up because he wanted nothing to do with it (and 'cause he wanted to shack up with elven Liv Tyler). He's played by Viggo Mortensen, and it's perfect.

Aragorn brings them to Rivendale, where they meet up with Gandalf, Bilbo, Boromir, and an elf and dwarf, Legolas and Gimmley. It's at that point they realize the Ring is evil, and the only way to destroy it is to got to Mt. Doom in Mordor, the place where it was forged, and toss it into the volcano. So they form the Fellowship of the Ring to do the task I just described, and we have the rest of our movie.

From that point on, it's epic. There on the quest of all quests. They're going across mountains, and into caves, and it's awesome. They establish that Frodo is the only one who can carry the Ring because he's the only one it doesn't seem to corrupt (unlike, say Boromir). Then we get to the best seen in the whole movie: they're in this mine that they've been fighting to survive in and then the Balrog comes out. They don't stand a chance, but then, in the event that established Gandalf as not only the greatest wizard ever but also the most badass old dude ever, Gandalf goes up to it while the others run away and screams "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!" They have a fight, and then the Balrog drags Gandalf down with him, and it's the single most depressing movie death since Obi-Wan Kenobi (but like his counterpart in Star Wars, he doesn't stay dead for long, but again, that's another movie).

And then we're in the forrest, where Boromir finally gives in and tries to steal the Ring from Frodo, just in time for the Orcs to show up. There's a huge fight, Boromir dies, and the Fellowship breaks. Frodo's trying to get to Mordor by himself now, but Sam won't let him because they've got the ultimate bromance. Pippin and Merry get captured by Orcs, so Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimmely go to get them, and we have ourselves a cliffhanger.

What else is awesome about this movie besides everything I've just said? How about the acting by literally everyone. Sir Ian McKellan's great, Sean Astin's great, Orlando Bloom and the guy who plays Gimmley who's name escapes is great, and Elijah Wood is great as Frodo. That's important to, because Frodo is really the entire point of this story, and he'd been played by a crap actor, the entire franchise would've been worthless. The characters are great too, and the dialogue is the best possible dialogue you could have in a movie a like this. Add in awesome landscapes, fantastic music, and excellent action scenes (I'm not gonna say epic battles yet, because those don't really start until Two Towers), and you've got this movie. And it's awesome! I actually don't have any problems with this movie, because it's the perfect introduction to this world.

And you know what?

I saw Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and there was much rejoicing!

So, what's your favorite franchise-starting movie? Me, still gotta be New Hope. Comment below, let me know!

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%

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!

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. 

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%