The movie opens in the not-too-distant future here in America. There seems to be global and economic chaos reigning supreme. We hear a news announcement in the background that “the federal government has announced it will declare bankruptcy within the next 90 days”.
Then the camera slides over a bunch of trash and an overturned grocery cart then hones in on Jude Law. He is being haunted by the question of the scientist who was doing experiments on these cats. He goes on to say that he has no special love for animals nor the plight of what happens to them.
What confused him was the scientist said the cat could be both dead and alive at the same time. This would be a recurring theme of this movie throughout.
In this not-too-distant future some would say it is morally bankrupt. Others would call it morally questionable but it definitely gives you pause.
They have developed the ability to grow artificial organs either through cloning or through actually manufacturing them from scratch. How they do it was never discussed in the movie just the fact that they had all the organs they needed available. Obviously, the corporation who controls these artificial organs has massive power.
And they use that power to totally rape people.
Organs cost $300,000-$600,000. And they offer payment plans at 19% to over 25% interest until you pay it back. Basically it was a lifelong sentence because hardly anyone ever paid off their organs. So they were indentured servants to the artificial organ company for the rest of their lives.
And everyone signed up to get them because it was the only way for some of them live if they needed a heart or a liver.
It had virtually shut down the organ donor list because there is no longer a need for it.
But the side effect was very dire and insidious. Some would even say evil.
Obviously, some people felt they were being treated unfairly. Others just simply couldn’t pay. So what would happen in this instance?
You guessed it… they had repo man for people’s organs.
Somehow they got it passed through Congress that if people don’t pay their bills they have up to 96 days to be delinquent. On day 96 the company sends their repo men after them. Jude Law’s character is one of these repo men.
They actually get to taze the person and then while they are basically unconscious to cut them open and take out whatever organ is artificial. Then they just leave them to die. The rationale is that the person would’ve been long dead already were it not for this artificial organ so it’s not murder.
But it seems very gruesome and vile anyway.
Jude Law’s wife in the movie doesn’t like his job and wants him to switch over to sales. But he’s not much of a salesman and the commissions paid to salesmen aren’t near as high as the commissions paid to the repo men. So there’s a big conflict which goes down because Jude Law won’t give up the good job he has to do what his wife wants.
There are some trust issues and apparently some broken promises made which you know causes great conflict. She takes his son away even though he is attempting to become a salesman.
He has one last job. It’s the old ominous last job.
Something goes terribly wrong when he is using a defibrilator machine which ends up shocking himself. His heart was stopped but thanks to the company he works for assuming he would sign on the dotted line they would give him the artificial heart.
Now is where the irony in this story kicks in because the repo man is now on the clock owing the company basically his life. And you just know something’s going to happen where they’re going to send his former coworker to repossess his heart.
So he’s just woken up out of a coma, he has an artificial heart, his wife and son and left him, so he’s questioning whether his life is worth living right now.
He does end up meeting a new girl and falling in love again. Unfortunately, she is just as sad sack a case as him because she has many artificial organs. And she is well past due on them also.
So the repo men are after them. His only friend in the world is someone he’s known since fourth grade. His friend is also a coworker and one of the repo men.
So you know there’s going to be a confrontation between these two. Finally, his friend reluctantly accepts the bosses command to repo Jude Law’s heart. Jude Law has already killed one of the repo man sent to get it.
There’s a big finish and a total surprise ending that shocked me. Overall this movie started out slow and I wasn’t liking it too much.
But it’s very rare for a movie to surprise me and by the end I really liked this movie. I give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.
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The WolfMan starts out with a slight surprise in that we see Benicio Del Toro up on stage doing some sort of what looks like a Shakespearean play. It’s in a theater and we can tell that it’s set in the 1800s in England we suspect.
This strange woman played by Emily Blunt comes to him during the cast after party. After some reluctance the gatekeeper lets her in and she tells Benicio the story of how his brother is dead. She wants his help to find out who did it. But he tells her he’s under contract for the next 30 days.
Her argument ends up winning out and he heads back to his hometown of Black Moor.
There are a number of plot lines but one of them is the prodigal son returning home. Another is the fierce heroin who stands behind her man and even her man’s brother even under the most dire of circumstances. She never loses faith and this will play a big role toward the end of the movie.
There’s tremendous tension between his father Anthony Hopkins and himself.
I got the sense from watching it that he had vowed when he was younger to never return to this little “backwater town”.
His father is a bit surprised to see him as well. The reception they give each other could at best be described as chilly. His father tells him that he’s never gone to see one of his plays but that he understands his son pretending to be other people has garnered him lots of fame and adulation.
He vows to see one of his sons theatrical performances so he’ll know what everyone’s talking about.
But it was said almost out the side of his mouth which would make you believe that the promise will never be kept.
His father gives him an ominous warning almost the moment he gets there. “Don’t go out tonight son because it’s a full moon.” Very few people other than the gypsies believe in werewolves but apparently his father is among the believers. But it gets far darker than that.
Being the estranged son you just know that he is going to ignore his father’s advice.
And of course he gets into a mad struggle with the crazy Wolfman that night. He ends up losing the battle but not the war though he is bitten and now affected.
Many details of both the myth, the legend and the reality of the lycanthropy are revealed throughout the rest of the story.
Benicio senses something is wrong so tells the Emily character to go back to London because it’s no longer safe there. He packs her up in the middle of the night and literally send her packing. Things are getting very dark.
Then simply what amounts to a lynch mob comes to the house to take Benicio. Fear is running rampant but his father stops these men.
Then maybe the most interesting side character was the guy who played agent Smith in the Matrix movies. This guy always plays an awesome characters and does an excellent job. In the Wolfman movie he is one of the lead inspectors from Scotland Yard.
Benicio’s dad betrays him and he ends up back in London in the insane asylum he was formerly a patient at.
They subject him to all sorts of what seem like medieval torture tactics, electric shock, and an early form of waterboarding. These are all done in the guise of scientific cures for mental ills but I don’t see how any of them could possibly help.
It’s been a while since the full moon and there’s no way we believe that this insane asylum is going to hold him. When the full moon comes the head doctor views it as a chance to prove that there’s nothing wrong with him and he will remain a man. You just know that guy is going to die.
There’s a crazy scene where he’s running a rampage through the streets of London and on the rooftops. Agent Smith is hot on his trail with his army of guys from Scotland Yard.
But this is not quite the movie’s climax so the new Wolfman makes his escape. You know from the start the prodigal son going to have to have a confrontation with his father before the story can be complete. There’s just something about daddy issues which have to be resolved.
There’s a cool finish with a master battle between the 2 wolves, a big-time fire, and a scene in the woods were Emily’s character is involved. Of course, agent Smith is also there as well.
The movie ends off with a wolf howling and without giving away the ending of the story it leaves it open for a sequel.
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This episode of Two and a Half Men starts out with Charlie and Alan sitting on the couch together at night watching TV. It highlights one of the most recurring story lines that has made the show so funny over the years.
Alan is at the same time whining as he is psycho analyzing Charlie. Alan has always been a lame duck in the show and his ungratefulness for his brother Charlie’s generosity is both baffling and hilarious at the same time.
In this particular instance he is complaining that Charlie is watching the weather Channel and wondering if this is Charlie’s life now…sitting here at home alone waiting for Chelsea to call or come by. Charlie seems perfectly content for this to be his life.
Then the phone rings and Charlie gets very excited answering it saying “Chelsea”.
But then that kid on Christmas morning smile on his face goes away when he finds out it’s Judith.
The expression on Alan’s face also drops into sadness and melancholy as he takes the call. She tells him her grandfather died.
Another recurring storyline throughout the seasons is Alan’s forced continued interaction with his ex-wife Judith who hated and resented him while they were married and now is a bloodsucker sucking him dry with the exorbitant child support and alimony payments. She’s been a constant nag and one of the biggest reasons he can never get his head above water financially.
We learned a few seasons ago she doesn’t even really need the alimony but is just taking it because of perceived sleights she felt he made against her during their marriage. When he was having particular problems financially she told him he could delay the alimony payment because her grandmother left her a sizable inheritance.
This time she actually gives him some good news that her grandfather died. He is not so much happy about that but what follows is she tells him her grandfather left him a very old and valuable grandfather clock. He’s giddy with excitement thinking about the cool things he is going to buy with that especially the new car which turns out to be a Lexus convertible he wants.
He invites Charlie on the drive because the grandfather lived in Sacramento. Charlie has never hidden his feelings about not wanting to spend very much time with Alan and so declines.
Charlie’s seething rage and continuously building resentment towards Alan is another main plot line that has underlied the series since the beginning.
Alan has stayed inexplicably chipper over the eight seasons even as calamity after calamity affects him. He takes Charlie’s rejection with a grain of salt and says it’s okay because he’ll just take Jake with him.
This gets Charlie very excited because for once he’ll have the house all to himself just like he likes it.
Charlie has been having trouble sleeping because of his broken heart. He wants Chelsea back.
He goes to the funny pharmacist guy who’s been one of the most memorable minor characters in the series. The guy tells him that if he wants to sleep he needs to get this sweet weed that he’s got. Charley unexpectedly says “but I don’t have a prescription for that”. The pharmacist wonders what he’s doing following the letter and the spirit of law only in this one instance.
This starts a very funny exchange between Charlie, the pharmacist, and a new player which is a doctor from Sri Lanka. You have to see it because it’s hilarious.
Jake and Alan are having a typically uncomfortable drive up to Sacramento.
For a father and son they have very little in common. Jake is still dumb and this frustrates his father to no end.
Jake has a simple mind with simple wants and desires. And it’s almost a single-minded focus to his detriment many times.
You can probably guess because Alan inherited the grandfather clock what is going to happen during the transport. He is being so careful with his driving on the way back because he can see, feel and almost smell that new car smell as he’s driving his new Lexus convertible.
Overall another quite funny episode of 2 and 1/2 men. I’m definitely glad Charlie Sheen has signed on for another two seasons of this great comedy.
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Robin Hood was a movie that I thought was just going to be a another regular very ordinary remake. I figured it would be like Robin Hood Men in Tights, Robin Hood with Kevin Costner, and all the cartoon Robin Hood’s that have told this story over and over.
Much to my surprise this told the story of how Robin Hood himself was made.
We get to see the man Robin before he became the outlaw Robin Hood.
The movie opens in the depths or the midst of the Crusades which ever you would like to think of it as. Robin and his group of archers, of which he is the leader, are fighting as part of Richard the Lionhearted’s army. They are in France assaulting the final castle before they are to head home.
The King is in a reflective mood and decides to seek out someone who is an honest man who will tell him the truth. He sees Robin and the guy who will become Littlejohn fighting because Littlejohn feels like Robin cheated him in a game of chance. There is this ball and these 3 cups which Robin is moving around. Littlejohn doesn’t believe the ball is under there anymore.
Robin proves him wrong and then punches fly.
The king has a talk with Robin and is amused at how plainly he speaks. But Robin did say one thing that got him put into the stocks. He said that the 1 time they had the engagement where they put to death women and children that is the point where they lost God.
Meanwhile in Nottingham where our story will end up the people are starving and the church is hoarding the grain. Friar Tuck is following the orders of the bishop hoarding all the seeds as well as most of the wealth. The people of Nottingham are being taxed into the poor house.
Back on the battlefield as the assault on the Castle continues the King grows more bold. They have lit the castle door on fire and now can break through. King Richard gets a little too close and takes an arrow right to the neck killing him.
A group of his bravest knights are entrusted to take his crown back to England so that his brother John may be crowned king.
But the character who would become the main villain in this story Gottlieb is an Englishman who has gone over to the French side. But only none of the English know it yet. He is basically a double agent for French King Philippe.
He ambushes this group of knights not knowing exactly what they carry. They do discover the Kings horse running away and so Gottlieb orders some men after it.
During the confusion back at the castle one of Robin’s loyal men has released him and his comrades from the stocks.
Being the pragmatic guys they are he orders them to go to the coast so they can find a boat before “3000 English soldiers crowd the place wanting voyage back home.”
Very smart thinking to beat the traffic.
But they also see the King’s horse and end up taking out these Frenchmen. But unfortunately one of the nights Robert Loxley was still barely alive and asks Robin to do him a solemn favor. He wants Robin to take his sword back to his father in Nottingham.
So now the next part of our hero’s quest is set. He reluctantly agrees because he just wants to get back to England and live his life.
But we know from the story that living a simple quiet life is not in Robin’s destiny.
He makes his way back to England and much to the surprise of his now only three remaining men Robin decides to keep his promise and go to Nottingham. They have taken on the guise of the knights carrying the crown and he ends up presenting the crown to the new King John.
This would be a ominous foreshadowing because the King seems to recognize him.
The King entrusts Gottlieb to start collecting taxes. Behind his back Gottlieb has ordered French troops to the shores and they are collecting the taxes and raiding towns. King John is quickly losing the goodwill and favor of the people as he taxes them into starvation.
But he is not the king his brother Richard the Lionhearted was. Their pleas fall on deaf ears.
The movie comes to its predictable climax when Gottlieb and the French forces led by King Philippe have a massive confrontation on the shores of the beachhead with King John. Robin and his archers will also play a major role.
King John is woefully incompetent in matters of war and so basically Robin and one other of the King’s advisers are leading the assault. I won’t give away the action but it’s a big battle that’s well staged. Definitely the best part of the movie.
As this movie ends we see the familiar proclamation making Robin Hood outlaw for inciting the people to rise up and riot. As the Kings messenger is placing the letter he shoots an arrow which stamps it in to the wooden post.
The stage is now set because Robin Hood has achieved his outlaw status. Don’t worry Maid Marian plays a big role getting close to Robin. Overall this is an excellent movie that I give 3 1/2 out of five stars.
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I just got done watching Kick Ass and I have to say it totally surprised me in a good way. In seeing the previews I didn’t think I would like it but after watching it it was a very engaging and even heartwarming story.
Superhero stories are often quite unbelievable and this one had one main element which was extremely far-fetched. But we’ll get into that in a moment.
I’m not much into comic books or the whole superhero thing though I do enjoy some of the movies. They all seem to follow the similar storyline of some tragic accident, nuclear situation, crazy insect or animal bite gone wrong which causes a mutation.
This one is the story of a completely Joe average guy who some would say isn’t even average but is below average. The guy looks like a nerd but doesn’t even seem to have the nerdy intelligence or the tremendous computer savvy. He seems like a totally average guy who gets ignored by girls and isn’t even the funny guy of his group of regular guy friends.
It’s basically the story of the bored kid who becomes a hometown hero.
He decides one day that he’s tired of living this ordinary life. There has to be something more and the catalyst for this change in action is a traumatic experience which has happened to him so many times before. He and his buddy are walking back to their houses after visiting the comic store when they get jumped by these two guys who always steal their money and their cell phones.
This time is different because there’s a man watching from the window across the street on about the fourth floor of an apartment building.
Our hero Dave calls the guy out on this in his mind. “How can somebody just stand there and watch?” he wonders to himself.
He decides that he is no longer going to stand around and watch, he is going to get into the action. As you can probably tell this is going to lead to disaster. This kid has no special skills, no special talents, and no fighting or military training at all. It’s almost like a blind man attempting to become a fighter pilot. Only the blind man would probably have better odds of surviving.
He starts to do a little bit of training and buys this gay costume from the scuba store. At one point in the movie he is called by one of his antagonists “the green condom”.
He gets entangled in some serious stuff. And of course there is a girl. Like all other girls she doesn’t notice him or really even know who he is.
The first time he is on the prowl he has his costume on underneath his regular clothes. He comes upon the two guys who robbed him earlier and they are currently attempting to steal someone’s car. At first he is afraid when they tell him to go away. He runs behind the alley but then decides he is no longer going to live in fear.
He comes back out in his Kick Ass costume and calls the guys out. They get into a scrum and Dave gets a few shots in on them with these police looking batons that he uses. One of the guys stabs him in the gut then the two antagonists run away. As he is staggering from his knife wound in the gut he gets hit by a car.
You’d think this would cause him to reevaluate what he is doing but all he’s worried about as he’s near death is that if his dad finds out the dad will kill him.
He gets patched up with metal plates and thinks it’s cool because his x-ray looks like Wolverine.
The worst part is he made the EMS guy promise not to tell anyone about the costume but unfortunately this meant he was naked. So there were the inevitable gay rumors floating around along with a very awkward gay question situation with his dad. Comedy gold.
He is able to befriend the girl under false pretenses because she thinks he’s gay. They get very close and you just know it’s going to be an awkward moment later in the movie.
There is an element of The Punisher as well as Spiderman in this movie. And they even bring out the Clint Eastwood dramatic fight scene instrumental music from one of his western movies when it was time to have the big showdown with the bad guys.
Nicholas Cage’s character is called “big daddy”. He’s got a little girl named Mindy whose superhero name is “hit girl”.
Dave gets tangled up running an errand for his new female friend Katee and she tells him about this guy who’s been hassling her. This is where he first meets hit girl and big daddy. Mostly through hit girls efforts but with an assist from big daddy they save his tail as he is about to get killed by the bad guys.
So now he knows there are true superheroes around and he is at a crossroads. He is questioning his decision. He’s feeling overwhelmed because he’s way in over his head and he’s getting way more than he bargained for.
He just wanted to help a few people without being in grave danger and now he’s neck deep in the quicksand.
The hometown boy who would be hero is thinking about retiring, hanging up the costume forever.
He wants to reveal his identity to his love Katie. Hit girl and big daddy come to visit him in order to make sure he stays quiet. They see potential in him but he expresses his self-doubt to them.
There’s a big battle coming because the elements of The Punisher will become apparent to you in the big daddy character. He was framed for a crime he didn’t commit by the head drug dealer kingpin. When he went away to prison his wife was too weak and ended up killing herself but there was a silver lining. The daughter she carried inside of her was taken out and live.
Now he’s on a vendetta against the drug dealer D’Amico.
I won’t ruin the ending for you but I will say there’s definitely a big finish with a number of surprises. One of the main characters does buy the farm. An unexpected hero emerges. And our main character finds inner strength he never knew he had. We don’t know whether it’s out of guilt or an emboldened sense of courage because of the trials he just went through.
And much like the original Spiderman they leave it open for a sequel.
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The Blind Side was an interesting and heartwarming movie which will have you laughing at times you wouldn’t expect and potentially bringing a tear to your eye at others.
It’s an amazing story which starts with an education on football.
It’s no doubt a horrifying beginning for Joe Theismann. They show the play which turned out to be the last play of his career. It started out as a normal flea flicker but unfortunately since he was playing those ravenous New York Giants defenses of the late 80s and early 90s it turns out to be anything but normal.
It’s the play where he eludes Carl Banks and Lawrence Taylor ends up taking him down where his lower leg both the tibia and fibula are shattered. He would never play football again.
It’s really the story of this white family who takes in this young black boy who has been basically wandering around with noone to care for him. He’s gone from foster home to foster home since his mom’s a drug addict. He’s been a ward of the state for quite a while.
At one point he reveals to his new mom he’s never had his own bed.
At first he is carrying around this plastic bag with a T-shirt in it. He has the clothes on his back and this one T-shirt as he walks into this laundromat. He turns on the water in the sink to wash off his shirt. A fat black woman is also there doing her laundry and gives him this look followed by a slight nod. She leaves her washer running and walks out the front door to do something.
He takes the hint and throws his shirt in with her laundry.
Talk about dire straits. You know you’re in trouble when you don’t have a quarter to insert into the washing machines.
But things are looking up because this woman LeAnn takes pity on him. He becomes a regular part of her family and has a new brother and sister. He becomes very protective of them and they get him to start playing football.
He’s very good at it after some prodding and a talking to from Leann.
She knows he tested 98th percentile for his protective instincts. So she uses this to get the best out of him.
The kids are taking some flack at school from the other students because of this unusual arrangement. But they stick together and stand by Michael. He learns how to play the game and becomes very skilled. He’s getting recruited by all the biggest SEC schools.
When it comes time to make his decision he chooses the family school of Ole Miss.
An NCAA investigator wants to question him because of his decision.
Things get a little crazy so runs out searching for his mom again just like he did when he was younger. There’s a shootout, a confrontation between LeAnn and the black guys who were shooting, and a heartwarming finish.
I thought it would be too much of a feel good movie for me but I definitely enjoyed it and if you haven’t yet seen get out there and watch it right away. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
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