Movie #004- Taken

Released: January 30th, 2009
Length: 1hr 31min
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: Pierre Morel
Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace

"Taken" is a parent's worst nightmare. A story about an ex-CIA operative chasing down his kidnapped daughter through the world of sex trafficking in Europe. Kim (Maggie Grace) takes a vacation to Paris with a friend only to be immediately abducted by the Albanian Mafia. The story then follows Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) and his efforts to rescue her. It's a good story, equipped with high energy, heavy-hitting action, but also a strong emotion performance by Neeson, who conveys the horrors of the situation both as a parent, and CIA agent, quite well. Is he over the top? A little. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, his daughter is being sold as a sex slave for gods sake. Maggie Grace's character is, for lack of a better word, annoying. She's a bit too stereotypical teenager, and the limited amount of time she spends in front of the character is filled with cheesy dialogue. However, Grace does play the role of annoying, high-maintenance quite well, such as her character "Shannon" on ABC's "LOST". The bad guys, characterized as scum of the Earth gang bangers are just as crude and villainous as you want them to be. Neeson's encounters with them are skin tingling. The adrenaline rush of the chase and the peppered-in action scenes complete a solid movie. And that's what "Taken" is...solid. It has a bit of everything from sex to daddy issues, all the way from guns to remarkable plain Parisian apartments. The climax of the movie, for fear of spoiling is simply thrilling. It doesn't disappoint on any scale, and the emotion and intensity bleeds from the screen. If your looking for an action movie that will hold your attention, "Taken" comes recommended. Or if you like "happy endings". Your call.

Score: (86/100) B
Characters- B-
Story- B+
Visual Presentation- B+

#001- Harper's Island Ep. 11 "Splash"

Airdate: June 27th, 2009
Episode Title: "Splash"
Episode #: 11
Starring: Elaine Cassidy, Christopher Gorham , Katie Cassidy, Cameron Richardson, Adam Campbell, CJ Thomason

Harper's Island is the most underrated summer series of 2009. An original idea for a television program, Harper's Island is a twisted whodunit murder mystery following the guests of a wedding party on an island off the coast of Seattle. The island has a tradgic past, where a serial killer John Wakefield murdered six people, including the mother of the main character, Abbe Mills (Elaine Cassidy). The bride, Trish Wellington (Katie Cassidy) and the groom Henry Dunn (Christopher Gorham) have their wedding disrupted when numerous guests go missing and end up dead. The cast is supported by the best man, Sully (Matt Barr) and Maid of Honor, Shea (Gina Holden). Harper's Island has a bit of everything, including some humor, like the rivalry between Sully and Cal Vandeusen (Adam Campbell) over Cal's girlfriend Chloe (Cameron Richardson). But it also has a bit of forbidden love, between Abbe and her old flame Jimmie (CJ Thomason), a local boy who was barred from her by her father, the sheriff (Jim Beaver). But without giving much a way, for those of you who haven't been watching, go to CBS.com immediately and start. This is a terrific series that started out slow, but has really picked up momentum in the recent weeks. We as viewers love murder mysteries, that's why shows like CSI and Law and Order are so popular, and Harper's Island gives us a chance to play detective, but throws in the unforeseeable twists and turns of a serialized drama. The cast, played by all basically unknown actors and actresses, do a marvelous job of pulling you into the storyline. Sure, it's not perfect, and the story features a few hand-waves (parts of the storyline that are irrationally blown by for convenience sake), particularly in this episode when Cal, who had been shot by the unseen killer, was almost magically and instantly healed by Sully, who allegedly was talked through the procedure of removing a bullet. But besides the occasional hiccup the story has kept me guessing and even through eleven of the thirteen episode run, I still have no idea who the killer is. But for those of you not wishing to spoil anything from the first eleven episodes, I suggest you stop reading here.

"Splash" was slightly less impacting than I had hoped. The big reveal from the previous episode, that John Wakefield was alive and kicking, sputtered out by the pseudo-crisis cliffhanger. A pseudo-crisis cliffhanger is a situation where the viewer is left with the sense of a character being in dire peril, only to have the danger resolved almost immediately following a commercial break or into the next episode. This being, Wakefield ran off at the start of the episode, when Henry and Danny came out of the woods, essentially saving Abbe conveniantly. The episode was heavy hitting, with a lot of "who is next?" moments. Wakefield (Callum Keith Renne) goes on a tear in this one, and his silent demeanor and wicked smile gives you chills down your spine. However, his invisibility is a little ridiculous. He has a sword and they have shotguns, and all of the characters suddenly fall victim to the storm trooper effect (a cliche phenomenon in which all characters become ineffective in firing their weapon accurately. This gets it name from the "Star Wars" saga, where stormtroopers, the best trained shooters in the universe, could kill minor red-shirt characters, but were somehow unable to ever hit a major character). Abbe, Trish, Henry, Sully, Danny, and Cal all have clean shots at Wakefield and they all miss. In fact, I don't understand how Wakefield WASN'T shot, especially when Trish fired through the door when he was directly on the other side of it. However, the show has let us know that there is another killer besides Wakefield lurking in our midst, and I still have NO idea who it might be. This episode promotes Jimmy as the potential assistant to Wakefield, which immediately makes me feel like he is a red-herring, trying to dupe us into believing he is the second killer. And he was conveniently not present when people were dying throughout this series. But if I had to pick a winner, my money is on that of...drumroll...Abbe Mills herself. What a twist that would be? If the main character, the good girl we've watched unravel through the course of this entire, traumatizing experience was the perpetrator? Abbe could very well be lashing out at an island that has caused her so much pain and misery. Who knows, it certainly would be a good shocker for us all. But remember, you heard it here first. All in all, I very much look forward to the Harper's Island finale in two weeks (July 11th) from 9-11 PM on CBS. I suggest you catch up by then if you can find the time, we're sure to be in for a wild ride with a high body count.

Scores are below, each episode score is calculated based on the performance of the characters, judgment of the storyline both as a standalone and as part of the series as a whole. Also, how creative was the episode, was it original and thoughtful or unimaginative and old hat? And finally the impact of the episode, how well do it move you, excite you, make you laugh, or make you cry. Basically, when those credits rolled, did it meet your expectations?
Episode Score (out of 10): 8.6
Characters: B
Story: B
Creativity: B
Impact: B

Movie #003- Inkheart

Released: January 23rd, 2009
Length: 1hr 46min
Genre: Fantasy
Director: Iain Softley
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Eliza Bennett, Paul Bettany, Andy Serkis

I rooted for Inkheart. It seemed like an interesting story about a man who can bring characters to life by reading them aloud. Sure, it was probably going to be a little cheesy, but overall, I was expecting a good sound 2 hour journey into books. What I got was good special effects coupled with disappointment and unrest. It felt like "Inkheart" a screen adaptation of the novel of the same name by Cornelia Funke, was thrown together too quickly. Brendan Fraser's character, Mortimer Folchart a.k.a. "Silver Tongue" who when he reads aloud brings the characters out of the story and into his world, in exchange for someone of our world going into the storyworld, is kind of flat and doesn't get nearly enough screen time. The drama surrounding him, mainly the loss of his wife into the storyworld's titular novel "Inkheart" where most of the storyworld characters are from, and his own personal demons with his "ability" all kind of happen to fast. It's like "hey I can bring books to life" and "oh by the way my wife is trapped in one". The villain and the storyworld hero, Capricon (Serkis) and Dustfinger (Bettany) respectively, give solid performances. I liked Serkis as the villain, he was funny, crude and hateable. Dustfinger was a sort of anti-hero, who was fighting his own personal desires (to be reunited with his family in the story world) with those of Brendan Fraser (who wanted his wife to be brought back). But this seems like a simple solution, does it not? Swap Dustfinger for Resa Folchart (Sienna Guillory) and problem solved. But for whatever reason, Mortimer refuses to do this just long enough for the bad guys to show up and burn the last copy of Inkheart (or so it seems) and thus trap both Dustfinger and Resa in their respective worlds. Luckily, with the help of his daughter Meggie (Eliza Bennett), and one of the forty thieves that was "read" into our world (Rafi Gavron) the group sets out on a journey to find a copy of Inkheart and right all the wrongs. The special effects are fun, in particular the characters from the Inkheart world, who have bits of text scripted on their faces. Also, the feared "Shadow", Capricorn's secret weapon, is well done and imaginative. However, as much praise as I have for this movie, I have disappointment. It never really lived up to its potential and focused too much on Dustfinger, who is really a supporting character given lead character screen time. It should have been more about Mortimer and his daughter Meggie and their ability and less running around. Overall, the movie was fairly entertaining, and had some humorous moments and some creative ones, but its not a movie I'd recommend you rush out and see. If your into fantasy story's, your welcome to give this a try, otherwise "Inkheart" is not for you.

Overall Score: (77/100) C+
Characters- B-
Story- D
Visual/Presentation- B

Movie #002- The Unborn

Released: January 9th, 2009
Length: 1hr 27min
Genre: Horror
Director: David S. Goyer
Starring: Odette Yustman

Most would agree that supernatural thrillers like "The Unborn" aren't viewed with high expectations. But even by lower standards, this movie falls flat on its face. If it's not over exploiting Yustman's physical beauty, its using cliche' scare tactics that are predictable and unimaginative (upside down heads?) The story line is so vague and confusing, the alleged "twist ending" in the final few seconds is almost entirely pointless. The movie explore a Jewish mythology of a mysterious paranormal demon called a dybbuk, which is trying to seek entrance into our world. However, the explanation to its origin and why it has chosen Casey Beldon (Yustman) are hand-waved with a fancy World War II flashback from Casey's grandmother which actually doesn't offer any explanations at all. Casey also experiences a lot of strange flashbacks to her mother's death (allegedly caused by the dybbuk) but the emotional impact of this trauma is overacted by Yustman, who's dialogue feels like she's reading it off a cue-card. All of the characters seemed to be unrealistic and talk to eachother like they've rehearsed it a million times. There are a lot of convenient hand-waves in this movie, where everything just sort of happens nicely and without a lot of effort on the characters (like the strange old woman being Casey's grandmother, the Book of Mirrors being found in about three milliseconds, and Casey figuring out that her never-born twin is trying to kill her without any reason to jump to that outlandish conclusion). All in all this story is strange and really hard to watch. I actually stopped it 55 minutes in and went to sleep because I honestly was bored to tears. It has a few moments that make you jump, only because its a scary face with a loud noise and it offers very little in the ways of actual horror. The climactic scene at the end has its positives, and was the most entertaining ten minutes of the movie, but don't get me wrong it fails at producing an interesting, plausible and understandable storyline. Avoid at all costs (Unless you just want to stare at Odette Yustman)

Score: (48/100) F
Characters- D
Story- F
Visual/Presentation- F

Movie #001- Angels and Demons

Released: May 15, 2009
Length: 2hrs 20 min
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer


As an avid Dan Brown fan, one could say I was excited (beyond excited) to see director Ron Howard's second try at a film adaptation of one of Brown's marvels. I had higher hopes for "Angels and Demons", it just felt like a more screen friendly story than the mega popular "Da Vinci Code". Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. Tom Hanks, a terrific actor, was brilliant as Robert Langdon, the lead character. However, some of the supporting cast, primarily Vittoria Vetra, portrayed by Ayelet Zurer was a cardboard and flat character than didn't seem to ever come to life the same way she did in the pages of the novel. Ewan McGregror's adaption of the Carmelengo, the would-be villian of the story, was breath-taking. He gave a great performance of a religious man trapped in the battle between science and religion, and he was as lovable as he was hatable throughout the film.
Overall, this film was a win. A terrific adapation of a complex story that made it enjoyable throughout. In comparison to the book, it is cliche to say that the book is always better, and some screenplay changes made by Akiva Goldsmith and David Koepp, did detract from the story. Noneteless, it was an action packed ride and eventful religious meets science thriller capped off with a punctiuation of twists and turns to the very end.
Angels and Demons is a movie worth-seeing in 2009, and a must-see for Dan Brown fans.

Overall Score (88/100) B+
Characters- B
Story- B+
Visual Presentation- A-