Reviews

There's honestly too much to talk about when it comes to pointing out the great things about Breaking Bad, but the thing that mainly stood out, for me, were the character relationships. They were so well-defined, and I mean every one of them. You could feel respect between characters, hatred, fear and love. Of course, the one that stands out is Walt and Jesse. Never before has there been such an unpredictable, volatile and constantly shifting relationship in any sort of media.

The actors who portay them add so much to that equation, of course, from Dean Norris to RJ Mitte to the great Jonathan Banks and the stellar Anna Gunn, but there's those two performances that rise above the rest. Aaron Paul is Jesse. The childish tendencies and bitter self-loathing that Paul brings to the character, among other things, is truly impressive. But then there's Bryan Cranston. Dear God. It almost goes without saying, but his is some of the best acting ever. His transformation from hen-pecked nerd to intensely intimidating monster is just awe-inspiring.

One of the best shows to ever grace the small screen, I'm glad I finally caught it and will probably be kicking myself for the next few weeks for putting it off for so long.

I'm not much of an anime fan, in fact, outside of a few select films (Akira, among others) and one other television series (Cowboy Bebop), I don't care for it at all. But Death Note is one of the most intriguing, intelligent, gloriously stylized television series to ever blaze across the small screen. Now, I've only seen the first 12 episodes, but I can't wait to see more.

Death Note conveys the story of a young high school student who discovers a notebook, owned by a death god, that can take the life of the person whose name is written in it. Light, the student, decides to use this power to bring justice to criminals, but he soon develops his own perception of justice, killing innocent people who stand in his way, like police officers and FBI agents.

The intrigue of Death Note lies in the character of Light Yagami. He's a mix of intelligence and arrogance, and his twisted sense of justice remains the most interesting part of the show. Light aims to create a world where he is god, by eliminating evil-doers, but has become a evil-doer himself, by taking the lives of innocent people. Add this to entertaining supernatural elements, multi-layered themes, exceptional voice work, solid writing and fitting music, and you have Death Note, a show that defied my expectations and is becoming a fast favourite.

Psychiatrist Kris Kelvin is called to a space station orbiting Solaris, a strangle planet-like object. Once aboard, strange occurrences begin and Kelvin is joined by his long dead wife Hari. Through disbelief and love, Kris begins to connect with the replicant of Hari.

Solaris is a film to be seen. It's a beautifully crafted, sci-fi masterpiece that owes much of it's brilliance to it's director. Andrei Tarkovsky is a wonderful filmmaker and he has made none better than Solaris. Excellent camera-work, with shots that admittedly go on a bit too long and slow pacing, because Tarkovsky takes time to tell his story. I also love how color plays a major part in this film. The colors are wonderfully light, yet textured. Solaris is a marvelous film to look at.

At the center of this film, though, is an understated turn from Donatas Banionis as Kelvin, a unhappy, middle-aged who initially struggles with, but soon accepts through disbelief, redemption and ultimately love, his new version of reality and his regained relationship with Hari. It's a very strong turn from Banionis.

Other than that of Natalya Bondarchuk, the other performances in this film are superfluous. The film is full of big ideas and is open to interpretation, but works best as an often tense, sci-fi love story. Highly recommended.

I loved American Psycho. Simply putting it, it is one of the greatest comedies of all time. That is how I see it, anyway. American Psycho is a sharp satire of the 1980's and a damn good film.

Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) is a yuppie 80's business executive with a cold blooded urge to kill for no reason. That's the plot in a nut shell, but the film is so complex, especially in it's portrayal of the main character.

Patrick Bateman is brilliantly portrayed by Christian Bale, in a knock out performance. A true tour de force and he is probably the main reason to see this film.

American Psycho is recommended for horror, black comedy or thought provoking film fans.

***/****

Haven't seen a Kevin Costner movie in ages, I was looking forward to this solid horror. After his wife leaves him and his two kids, John James (Costner) and his children move to a isolated farm. But then, his daughter starts acting weird and it has something to do with a large mound near his home. Kevin Costner and the rest of the cast act well, but the star of the show is director Luis Berdejo for making a suspenseful, tense, well crafted thriller. Plenty of effective scares and a truly terrifying ending, The New Daughter is a solid horror film.

7/10.

Rated PG-13 for strong violence.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is one of the best games in history. Well, if not the best, certainly the coolest. Brilliant voice acting (with an all star cast including Ray Liotta, Bill Fichtner, Danny Trejo & many more), awesome visual design and the highlight, exciting gameplay with fun missions.

In the game, you take control of Tommy Vercetti (Liotta), a mafia enforcer. After a botched drug deal, Tommy must find who is responsible.

Fun, violent and too cool for school, Vice City is worth a visit.

10/10.

2010.

When Clyde Shelton's family is murdered, he decides to take the law into his own hands, punishing the people involved in letting the killer off on a light sentence. His attorney must race against time to stop Shelton before he finishes his gruesome agenda of murder Suspense thrillers are a regular used genre in film making. Films like Se7en showed us they could be edgy & creative. Films like Law Abiding Citizen show us they can be creative, but not quite as good as some other modern murder movies. Formulaic & predictable, LAC is surprising, but ultimately forgettable. The surprise of the film is the quality of acting delivered by the two leads. While Jamie Foxx hits the right note as a District Attorney who just wants to get the job done, Gerard Butler gives the best performance of his career as a man who will stop at nothing to get revenge. His performance deserves to be praised compared to the likes of The Bounty Hunter.

Save for the leads two performances and a gruesomely creative murder scene, LAC is more of the same.

Law Abiding Citizen **1/2 out of *****.

The Saw series descended to absurdity in the second sequel of the franchise. Saw III picks up where Saw II left off with Jigsaw conducting his final test.

The performances are average, the violence bloody and extremely gory and the storyline? Watchable, but not gripping. Saw III is most definitely the worst Saw in the never-ending series.

For hardcore Saw and horror fans only.

5/10.

Rated R for Extreme Violence, Some Coarse Language, Drug References & Brief Nudity.

Saw IV is by far the best sequel in the Saw series. While Saw II & III were sadistic in their violence and storyline, Saw IV is a perfect sequel. You don't expect much, but it surprises you by being quite good. And while the violence is graphic and bloody, its toned down compared to other Saw movies (with the exception of the first) and necessary to the storyline. The performances are quite good for a fourth installment in a horror series; again you don't expect too much, but then you're surprised by how good the actors perform.

Saw IV solid **** out of *****.

Rated R for Graphic Bloody Violence & Language.

Daybreakers joins the ranks of the years above average horror films with Case 39 and many others. Daybreakers is the story of a plague that has turned people to vampires. The remaining human population is hunted down and farmed for blood supply. Meanwhile, a vampire scientist (Ethan Hawke) joins a covert band of humans (including Claudia Karvan and a surprisingly funny Willem Dafoe) to help find a cure to the plague.

Daybreakers is by no means a classic horror film, but has enough humour and gore to make it pretty damn good. The storyline is copied from other horror films but makes it work.

If you are a fan of vampire films then don't miss this one.

Daybreakers: 7 out of 10.

Fight Club. What can you say about Fight Club. It's awesome? Not enough. Brilliant? Not there yet. Should've won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay? You're on the right track. Stay with me and I will run you through the whys.

Why should it have be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay? Not just because it was adapted from a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk, because it spoke to a generation that understood all the philosophical bullcrap that came out of Tyler Durden's and the Narrator's mouths. But the philosophical bullcrap actually makes sense and shows perfectly each character's state of mind.

Why should it have be nominated for Best Supporting Actress? Helena Bonham Carter was the only person who could've played Marla Singer. No one else could have acted as perfectly in the role as she did. As probably the only main female character in the film, she performs just as well as the rest of the male cast.

Why for Best Supporting Actor? It should need no explanation. When you finish watching Fight Club, what do you remember most about the film? Brad Pitt. As Tyler Durden, he is more than perfect. He is the spokesperson for rebellious outcasts, a role that has done many times before, none as good as Pitt who immerses himself into the role. Slick, cool and crazy, it is undeniably one of the best performances of all time.

Best Actor? Edward Norton matches Brad Pitt's performance with the key component of subtlety. Norton gives the performance of his career as the Narrator, a guy who has taken so much crap, he doesn't really give a damn. His performance as the Narrator tops his other brilliant performances in Primal Fear, Red Dragon and even American History X.

Best Director? Fincher took Chuck Palahniuk's twisted novel and twisted it even more to make a world of his own vision. Without Fincher, this movie wouldn't be the same. It wouldn't be the same cult classic that a lot of people come to love and worship.

If you put all of these element's together, you get Best Picture. A story of violence, philosophy and soap. Fantastic direction, amazing cast and a brilliant screenplay put the pieces together.

There you have it. Also, kudos on the editing and the music.

Fight Club ****out of****.

Rated R for Strong Graphic Violence, Language and Sexuality.

The remake of the 1979 film The Amityville Horror is much more satisfying than the original. There are much more convincing performances than the 1979 version and much more horrific scares. But there is much more violence and gore than the original. For the squeamish, proceed with caution.

Highly recommended for fans of the genre and fans of general films. You won't be disappointed.

The Amityville Horror(2005) ***OUT OF****.

Rated R for Violence, Language, Sexuality & Frightening Scenes.

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Melissa George & Phillip Baker Hall.

I went to a video store and bought Affliction for $10. I bought it home and I watched it with my grandmother. My grandmother did not like it, nor did I that much. But there were some good elements The acting was tops. James Coburn completely deserved his Oscar, Nick Nolte also deserved the nomination. In fact, the whole cast was brilliant. But, they were all unlikeable characters. There was a well written screenplay, but what was the point of it? The world wasn't depressing enough? I did not like Affliction and I was surprised to see how many on this website did. So I file this title under "Not For Every Taste".

Affliction: ** out of ****.

Rated R for Extremely Depressing Subject Matter & Language.

The first half of the infamous Grindhouse bill is less stylish than Death Proof, but fun all the same. It is a wild ride of horror violence and a great premise, but has an unsatisfying ending. The story is this: one legged go-go dancer Cherry Darling (Rose McGowan) and many others try to survive a hellish plague of zombies.

Planet Terror 8.5/10.

Rated R/MA for Strong Graphic Horror Violence And Some Language & Sexual Content.

Look out for Quentin Tarantino in a lecherous cameo.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez

Cast: Rose McGowan, Bruce Willis, Freddy Rodriguez, Marley Shelton, Josh Brolin, Tom Savini, Michael Biehn, Stacy 'Fergie' Ferguson, Jeff Fahey, Quentin Tarantino.

The makers of the utterly hilarious "Shaun Of The Dead" have done it again, with this side splitting action comedy. The story is like a lot of other cop movies: Sgt. Nicholas Angel is moved to a remote country town and is partnered with a rather oafish idiot named Danny (Nick Frost in a similar role to Ed in Shaun Of The Dead). Soon, the town's residents begin dying in a series of grisly "accidents", but Nicholas believes that it is murder.

Utterly brilliant.

10/10 Rated R for sequences of grisly violence and some strong language.

Wow, what a film. Quentin Tarantino's 4th film is his most violent yet. With a terrific script, sharp humor and interesting characters, this is QT's 3rd best film (2. Inglourious Basterds & 1. Pulp Fiction). But while QT's other films are laced with more dialog than anything, this film is solid action, but with some raucous dialog. The performances in this film are nothing short of brilliant. Uma Thurman is excellent as The Bride, Lucy Liu is just as good and David Carradine is the star of the show as the title character. If you want a solid action film, this is it. But be warned, the gore and extreme violence in this film is not for every taste. It is seriously over the top.

Kill Bill ****/****.

Rated R for Extreme Violence & Some Language.

The anticipated sequel to "Silence Of The Lambs" came as a shock to most viewers. How could so many Hollywood heavyweights (Anthony Hopkins, Ridley Scott, David Mamet) make such a crappy production?

While there is a brilliant plot, it is terribly written and acted (although Hopkins performance is a definite high note). It has an interesting start, but quickly descends into the weird and confusing. The sequences of terror mainly involve the use of extremely gruesome and graphic violence.

Stick to Silence Of The Lambs.

Hannibal: **/***** Genorously rated R for extreme gory violence and some language.

"AVPR is a mindless, sometimes enjoyable mess with a lot of strong gory violence" is what an adult would say. But a teenage boy would say "Dude, this is like the coolest frigging movie of all time!". I am still in my teen years and I enjoyed this immensely (a lot more than the original). But there is hardly a storyline to follow, cardboard performances and who was in charge of the screenplay? I have never seen so much crappy dialogue in a film. But there is action aplenty and brilliant fight scenes between the two species of monsters.

AVPR 6.1 out of 10. Rated R for Strong Graphic & Gory Violence, Some Language & Brief Sexual Content.

Clutch Powers is Lego City's best explorer. His latest mission is to capture a criminal mastermind who is also a wizard. Teaming up with other Lego characters such as Brick, a weapons expert, Peg, a smart botanist and Bernie, Lego's best engineer, they travel into space and into medieval times to stop the wizard and his comical sidekicks, Skully & Bones, two skeleton warriors. It is better than it sounds. Humorous and lots of fun, this was a lot better than expected, with some standout scenes and interesting characters, this Lego homage to explorer films is a lot of fun for kids and adults.

Rated G Some Scary Scenes.

Pulp Fiction rules. It is one of the pinnacles of cinema. But for all the people who like to spoil the fun by asking the question why, here's why: excellent performances (especially Samuel L. Jackson & John Travolta as a pair of hit men), fun characters and possibly the greatest screenplay of all time. For anyone who hasn't seen Pulp Fiction, watch it. For those who have seen it, watch it again and revisit Butch, Jules, Vincent, Mia, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny. Thank you, Quentin.

Relive one of the greatest films of all time 10/10. Rated R for Strong Graphic Violence, Frequent Language, Strong Drug Use and Some Very Disturbing Sexual Content.

Wow. Look how far Quentin Tarantino has come. First, his brilliant crime caper Reservoir Dogs. Then, film classic Pulp Fiction, which won him an Oscar. Lastly, dialogue driven Jackie Brown and action homage Kill Bill Films. Now, his newest film Inglorious Basterds has dazzled us all and showed us Tarantino can never make a bad film (Four Rooms was only a segment, so it does not count). Tarantino's graphic,funny WWII masterpiece is both hilarious and outstanding because of it's ingenious screenplay, expert direction and excellent performances. Brad Pitt is hilarious as Lt. Aldo Raine, Eli Roth is smashing as The Bear Jew, Diane Kruger is equally good, but the star of the show is Christoph Waltz as Colonel Hans Landa. Suave and sophisticated, he is one of the best bad guys ever. Nominated for 8 academy awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay & Best Supporting Actor for Waltz. Oscars, don't you dare snub Tarantino now.

Let's review, shall we? Child's Play: Fun and original. **** out of *****. Child's Play 2: Good performances and humorous scenes. ***&1/2 out of *****. Child's Play 3: Boring and a complete waste of time. * out of *****. Bride Of Chucky: Humorous improvement over Child's Play 3. **&1/2 out of *****. Seed Of Chucky: Stupid, contrived, crude, gory and did I mention stupid? *1/2 out of *****. One question to the makers of this movie: Why? Seed Of Chucky might be the most disappointing sequel in the history of horror films. It relies on gore, crude sexual humor and moments of nudity to bring laughs. Jennifer Tilly is excellent as both Tiffany and herself, but at times Tiffany is unfunny and annoying. Billy Boyd is OK as Glen/Glenda, but near the end of the movie, his character turns weird and confusing. And where has the originality and freshness of Chucky gone? The killer doll is the biggest disappointment in this lame excuse for a movie. Avoid this piece of crap and watch the original Chucky movies instead.

Seed Of Chucky(2004) Rated R for Graphic Violence, Gore, Nudity & Sexual Humor.

Plot: Stan (voiced by creator Seth MacFarlane) sends his son Steve (Scott Grimes) to a refugee camp in Africa, thinking it is a summer camp. Ordered by his wife Francine (Wendy Schaal) to bring him back, Stan and hippie daughter Hayley (Rachel MacFarlane) fly to Africa. While there, Stan wants to Steve to experience to summer camp. So they stay for a few days and summer camp hilarity ensues. Meanwhile, Francine and Roger (a side splitting MacFarlane) their "adopted" alcoholic, wisecracking alien pose as a married couple which ends in hilarious disaster.

From the first parody of T2 to the final joke, this episode is nonstop hilarious antics as the whole family experiences new and often funny situations.

Don't miss the camp talent show sequence.

American Dad: Camp Refoogee (#2.1) 10 out of 10.

Tim Burton had made by far a most spectacular and brooding joyride with the original Batman. Then, three years later, people flocked into cinemas to see this remake of Tim Burton's masterpiece. I have to say though, there are some good elements to this sequel, but are weighed down by the bad elements. Like the villains. Danny DeVito captures the Penguins personality perfectly, but Michelle Pfeiffer is totally unconvincing as Catwoman. How come she tries to kill Batman, but is romantically attracted to him? Michael Keaton gives another good performance as Batman, but has too few scenes in the film. And don't get me started on Christopher Walken and his bad haircut! Anton Furst's Gotham City was so much better than this new production designer's. But, I must admit there are some moments of the film that held me to my seat.

The second best of the early Batman anthology, some scenes will have you captivated, others will have you yawning.

Batman Returns 7 out of 10.

Helen Hudson (Sigourney Weaver) is a criminal profiler giving a lecture to college students. Shortly after, she is attacked by serial killer Daryll Lee Cullum (an appropriately creepy Harry Connick Jr). Cullum is arrested and Hudson is left agoraphobic. Meanwhile, detectives Monahan (Holly Hunter) and Goetz (Dermot Mulroney) are investigating the deaths of three women and go to Hudson for help. Hudson soon identifies the culprit as a copycat killer and the game of cat and mouse begins.

A masterpiece of it's genre, Copycat is the perfect serial killer film. The story is excellent and the cast is better. Weaver, Hunter, Mulroney and William McNamara are all excellent, but the star of show is most definitely Harry Connick Jr as a twisted serial killer. How he missed out on a Oscar nomination I don't know.

Copycat 10 out of 10