The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor(R:2008)
Director: Rob Cohen. Starring: Brendan Fraser … Rick O’Connell; Jet Li … Emperor Han; Maria Bello … Evelyn O’Connell; John Hannah … Jonathan Carnahan; Michelle Yeoh … Zi Juan; Luke Ford … Alex O’Connell; Isabella Leong … Lin; and many more.
The Mummy Returns to the blockbuster screen with a new twist as the adventure goes to Asia instead of Egypt. The retired couple O’Connell’s decision to go back to work as they take an offer they couldn’t turn down where they are ployed into resurrecting the Han Emperor (Jet Li) and go through a quest ranging from the catacombs of ancient China into the frigid Himalayas. Rick (Brendan Fraser) reunites with his son who joins the adventure – Father, son, wife, brother – a family affair off to stop a 2,000-year-old mummy curse that threatens the existence of life as we know it. An immortal double-crossing sorceress assists them in stopping the Dragon Emperor and his 10,000 warriors that are the silent terra cotta army that comes alive. Great adventure and twists … even though I liked the first movies best, this one was worth its weight in terra cotta. Rating: 4 stars out of 5.
Trick r Treat(R: 2008) Director:Michael Dougherty. Starring: Dylan Baker … Steven; Rochelle Aytes … Maria; Quinn Lord … Sam / Peeping Tommy; Lauren Lee Smith … Danielle; Moneca Delain … Janet; Tahmoh Penikett … Henry; and many more. The movie is a single story of 4 interwoven tales … sorority-like girls from the big city on prey in the small town for cute boys they just want to gobble up during a bonfire party where things are not what they appear and transformations take place as well as ghastly flesh tearing horror; a couple returns from the city halloween fest to bicker about how the woman doesn’t like Halloween and flicks out a jack-o-lantern, cursing her existence into a ghastly death by some hidden creature of the night; a kid who kicks over jack-o-lanterns doesn’t check his candy and is poisoned and gets turned into a jack-o-lantern by the town’s school principal; pranking kids try to scare a local ‘special’ girl with tales about the Halloween bus massacre and meet an untimely death; A bitter old man meets revenge from spirits of the past to get his; and all along a pumpkin headed midget is somehow behind it all. Classic. Great plot and funny film. Definitely abide by the rules of Halloween or you’ll get yours. Rated 4.5 stars out of 5.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472050/. Director: Brian Hecker. Starring: William H. Macy … Ernie Stein;
Cheryl Hines … Beth Stein; Steven Kaplan … Danny Stein (as Steven J. Kaplan); Alia Shawkat … Camille; Chad Jamian Williams … Bart Beeber; and many others. Its another one of those coming-to-age movies about nerds, the prom, and high school. It carries its humor as it tells the tale about Danny Stein who is a virgin loser who books a hotel room for him and his date for prom so he could lose his virginity. Problem of course for the nerd is that he has no date yet, just the plans. He’s aiming higher than his acceptable standard, and ignores his best friend who does like him and is interested. Of course he’s double-crossed by his other best friend. Interesting high school fun in the genre of American Pie. Rating: 3 stars out of 5.
* NR/Showtime: 2006-2010 * http://www.sho.com/site/dexter/ * Starring/Cast/Staff: Michael C. Hall … Dexter Morgan (48 episodes, 2006-2009); Julie Benz … Rita Bennett / … (48 episodes, 2006-2009); Jennifer Carpenter … Debra Morgan (48 episodes, 2006-2009); Lauren Vélez … Lt. Maria Laguerta (48 episodes, 2006-2009); David Zayas … Angel Batista / … (48 episodes, 2006-2009); James Remar … Harry Morgan / … (48 episodes, 2006-2009); C.S. Lee … Vince Masuka (47 episodes, 2006-2009); Christina Robinson … Astor Bennett / … (43 episodes, 2006-2009); Preston Bailey … Cody Bennett / … (32 episodes, 2007-2009); Erik King … Sergeant James Doakes (24 episodes, 2006-2007); Desmond Harrington … Joey Quinn / … (24 episodes, 2008-2009); Geoff Pierson … Captain Tom Matthews (20 episodes, 2006-2009); and many more.
A great series on Showtime about a serial killer named “Dexter Morgan” played by Michael C. hall who works for the Miami Metro Police Department as a blood splatter analyst, utilizing his job to hid his uncontrollable addiction to gruesomely kill his victims he believes need to die. The series is based on Jeff Lindsay’s novel series “Darkly Dreaming Dexter”. The Fourth and Fifth season are in the works. The show follows the life of Dexter, day to day, as he goes from work, struggles with his internal demons, carries on relationships, and seeks to lash out his addiction to find the heartbeat of life in killing his victims. Dexter was a young boy who was adopted by a Miami cop named Harry Morgan from a blood bath murder scene of his mom. Harry, knowing Dexter would be changed from the incident for life, nurtured the murderous thirst in his son harnessing it to kill only those who deserve it – other killers who have escaped the legal system or were never suspects in the first place. He was taught by his father how to hide the evidence and to get away with the crimes while holding up a facade of normalcy. Slowly Dexter unravels the mystery of his family, his mother’s murder, and his psychotic father. Dexter learns to fake normal emotions which leads him into a torrid love affair with Rita. Fine to Dexter, his relationship with Rita goes slow, as she is slowly healing from past rape and abuse damages from her former husband, who is later released, and becomes ravelled up in Dexter’s madness. Through Dexter’s crazy life, working as a police scientist, he helps unravel the case of notorious murderers, the first of which is the “Ice Truck Killer” who turns out to be of his blood relations that his adoptive sister Debra gets involved with. Dexter continues to play normal, but police Sargeant James Doakes suspects something is wrong with Dexter which spirals him down to become a victim of Dexter’s insanity. As Dexter unravels his past he has to come to terms with his future. He kills his brother and pursues a deeper relationship with Rita. The Madness continues in Season 2 when Rita gives Dexter the ultimatum of joining Narcotics Anomynous thinking Dexter’s addictions is drugs rather than killing. Through the sessions, Dexter finds confidence in another addict, a con artist named Lila who becomes Dexter’s sponsor and mistress. Dexter’s murderous remains become found and he strives to frame someone else for his murders as Dexter becomes known as the “Bay Harbour Butcher” a name Dexter abhorrs. Now that Dexter has Rita’s ex-husband permanently out of his way, his love affair with Lila is discovered, and Rita dumps Dexter. As Dexter and Rita patch things up, Lila is outcasted, which drives her madly insane – out to get Rita and her children until she starts to discover Dexter’s real addiction is not recovery from drugs. Lila saves the day from getting Dexter discovered as the murderer, and joins Dexter’s list of people to “off”. In Season 3, Rita discovers she is pregnant with Dexter’s child. They decide to get married and have the baby. Dexter becomes allied with a district attorney who also has a thirst for blood, murder, and vengeance. Teaching Miguel Prado how to kill, Dexter quickly resents having told his darkly secret and struggles to erase his mistake. While struggling to hide his urges from Rita, trying desperately to be normal, Dexter is whirlwinded into a world a cloak and dagger as him and Miguel go on a killing spree until Miguel doesn’t listen to Dexter and runs astray risking everything. Dexter cleans up his “mistake”. This leads Dexter to become a victim of the infamous “Skinner” killer who he barely escapes from before walking down the aisle with Rita. Interesting enough, this series has become quite controversial through the conservative world because it has become blamed for making murder attractive, killing people o.k. and for influencing the youth. There has been a few missing person cases that have been linked to the series as having influenced murders in real life. In December of 2008, filmmaker Mark Twitchell in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada was charged with murder of 38 year old John Altinger whose body is still missing. He filmed footage of the “House of Cards” a horror-romance that is similar to Dexter’s clandestine murders, where he allegedly snuffed Altinger. The Detective on the case was quoted to have said “We have alot of information to suggest he definitely idolizes Dexter”. Twitchell also had apparently created a series of facebook statuses where he suggest that he had alot in common with Dexter Morgan. He has been released even though still suspect for the murder. In November of 2009, Seventeen year old Andrew Conley was arrested in Rising Sun, Indiana after killing his 10 year old brother Conner. Andrew told investigators that he identified with the character “Dexter”. The series is addicting and compelling, hard to walk away from, and quite captivating. Very enjoyable and thought provoking. Rating : 4.5 stars out of 5.
* NR/BBC: 2007-2009 * http://www.bbcamerica.com/shows/primeval/ * Starring/Cast/Staff: Andrew Lee Potts … Connor Temple (23 episodes, 2007-2009); Hannah Spearritt … Abby Maitland (23 episodes, 2007-2009); Ben Miller … Sir James Lester / … (23 episodes, 2007-2009); Juliet Aubrey … Helen Cutter (23 episodes, 2007-2009); Lucy Brown … Jenny Lewis / … (18 episodes, 2007-2009); Douglas Henshall … Nick Cutter (16 episodes, 2007-2009); James Murray … Stephen Hart (13 episodes, 2007-2008); Ben Mansfield … Captain Becker (10 episodes, 2009); Laila Rouass … Sarah Page (10 episodes, 2009); and many more.
An excellent science fiction television series that is produced for ITV by Impossible Pictures in Britain. Created by Tim Haines and Adrian Hodges is a story about a team of five scientists who investigate time portal anomalies that keep popping up across Great Britain allowing dinosaurs and other creatures to enter this world from the past and future. The series started in 2007 and finished airing in 2009 with the ending of Season 3. They cut the Seasons short at 3 while they originally intended to go further. The penultimate episode of the second season was written by Dr. Who’s Paul Cornell. The show begins with evolutionary zoologist Professor Nick Cutter who is lost with the disappearance of his wife Helen eight years ago. He investigates a strange creature in the Forest of Dean with his friend Stephen Hart and a new student Connor Temple who is an archaeology student and a conspiracy theorist. They discover the anomalies and dinosaur creatures that are entering from the past into this world. Abby, a zookeeper joins the team to investigate the oddness as she stumbles upon the team, the anomalie, and a dinosaur hunting a local boy. The British Government gets involved and hires the motley crew to get a grasp around the new anomalie problem and the primeval monsters that are now plaguing Britain. They discover that Nick’s lost wife Helen had entered an anomolie and is time hopping while causing trouble. As the episodes continue forward within the seasons, we watch the team progress technologically in studying and predicting the anomalies while turning to fight Helen who is out to destroy the human race. One by one the team gets killed off, and they replace the old with new team members who are out to save the world from prehistoric and futuristic creatures. Season three ends with hopping back and forth to a future where humankind is destroyed, and discovering a device that can create anomalies. Its a fight to Helen’s death as she attempts to destroy the first primate ancestors of humankind. Rating : 4.5 stars out of 5.
Director: Rick Popko, Dan West. Starring: Rick Popko … Deputy Rick / Porn Actress / Doctor / Ripper Detective; Tony Adams … Agent Russo; Michael Allen … Institute Director; Shamika Baker … Living Dead Girl; Jello Biafra … Mayor Anton Sinclaire; Scott Britton … F.B.I agent; and others. The film’s name defines the quality of this flick … in the same genre as Tromo films, a really bad zombie flick gone poop. In a sense it is Rick Popko and Dan West’s sequel to their faecal flick Monsturd. Its about the mad Dr. Stern who is performing whacked experiments on special needs students that turns them into flesh craving zombies. The town descends into chaos dealing with the undead. Poor effects and low budget. The directors actually star in the film as the idiotic deputies. It has its moments of humor for some, but didn’t captivate my attention much at all. Its gory, in a cheap fake sense, and vile. 1.5 stars out of 5.
Fuel(NR: 2008) * Director: Joshua Tickell * Starring: Joshua Tickell … Himself / narrator; Barbara Boxer … Herself – Senator – California;
Richard Branson … Himself – Founder, Virgin Group; George W. Bush … Himself – President of the United States (archive footage); Jimmy Carter … Himself – President of the United States (archive footage); and many more. *
A well done and informative documentary on America’s addiction to oil and what kind of solutions exist as a viable alternative. Documentarian Josh Tickell takes a 11 year journey around the world to investigate the oil industry, the recession, the auto industry’s collapse, unemployment, national debt, and humanity’s demand of energy. The documentary exposes the fix we’ve put ourselves in and explores the green industry as a means of saving the world. The documentary doesn’ just expose the horror, but rather focuses on an optimistic future with viable alternatives and sustainable solutions. Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5.
