Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson) is an Irish American in Cleveland, working at the docks. He is respected by his coworkers because he is smart and well read. He and his buddies are badly treated by the union, and the union leader Kerry Merke (Bob Gunton) sends his heavy after Danny, but Danny takes him out and kicks out Merke, taking over the union. He makes friends with the local mafia, especially John Nardi (Vincent D’Onofrio) and starts making a huge profit extorting ships out of their money. He meets and marries a waitress named Joan (Linda Cardellini), and has 3 kids. Danny grew up with a local cop Joe Madnitski (Val Kilmer) who is always watching him, and a reporter informs Manditski that he has a bunch of info on Danny, and runs a story. Everyone runs except Danny and he is arrested. The FBI comes in and takes Danny from the locals and make a deal to get information on the mafia from him, and he calls, though never really gives them anything.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Danny gets out out and Nardi hooks him up with Alex “Shondor” Birns (Christopher Walken) a jewish restaurant owner and loanshark. He hires Danny as muscle to collect his money, as Danny can no longer work with the union. Danny gets his friends together in a gang including Keith Ritson (Vinnie Jones) and a friend who got in trouble for gambling. And they become heavies, collecting money and breaking legs. Danny eventually decides to move into trash pickup, betraying a friend of his.

Shondor set up a deal for Danny, but the money was stolen from Shondor’s courier on the way, and Shondor expects him to still pay for the money that he never received, but Danny of course refuses and goes to war over it. And they try to blow Danny up, but he sees the radio go out and jumps out of the car. The Gambinos have gone to war and the explosions would reign over the city.

Green’s own house is blown up with him and his wife in it, but they survive unharmed.

When the mob leader died there was a power struggle and Nardi vies to take control, and is backed by Greene.

A total of 36 car bombs ended up going off in the war, with Danny killing many hit men sent to kill him.

Nardi is blown up in front of him, and dies in his arms.

A hit man from Los Angels had been called in, and Greene is killed by a Car bomb in a car next to his at a dentist,

The FBI though got recordings made during the war, and basically were able to take the whole mob down because of it, and they never recovered in Cleveland.

•••

I have no idea why this movie did not do better, because it is an awesome film, and really worth seeing!

John Milton (Nicholas Cage) driving a classic muscle car takes out another car load of guys in his quest to find Satanic Cult leader Jonah King (Billy Burke). Jonah (nice name) has killed John’s daughter, and is going to sacrifice his baby granddaughter in order to create hell on earth and live forever. Milton meets up with a beautiful waitress named Piper (Amber Heard) driving a hot muscle car, and helps fix it and gets a ride with her. When she gets to her house, her boyfriend is fucking another woman, so she gets in a fight with him, and Milton saves her, and takes her in her car (actually her boyfriends that she paid for) toward Florida where she said she wanted to go, and his business is on the way. Milton is being chased by the Accountant (WIlliam Fichtner), who seems to have supernatural powers, and kills people wantonly on his way to get MIlton, including Piper’s ex.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

They stop at a truck stop of someone who knows Milton. Piper takes a guy to her room, but has him do her nails, while Milton fucks a waitress, and is attacked by Jonah’s men coming for him, but kills them while he continues to fuck the waitress (which has been done in Shoot Em Up), but is shot, though it doesn’t seem to affect him. On there way out they are ambushed by 2 cops under the sway of the accountant, and Piper kills them.

The Accountant catches up with them, and Milton pulls a special gun out that he has only 3 rounds for, which can stop the accountant, but he only wings him, but they manage to get away.

They chase after Jonah and his men, and manage to track him to a Church, where they are ambushed and Piper is taken and Milton is shot in the eye by Jonah and left for dead, but he is not dead, and takes out the remaining cult members and goes after Piper, saving her from the moving vehicle, but not the baby, and the car is shot up.

Milton has Piper call his friend Webster (David Morse) who is confused, as he actually helped carry Milton’s coffin. Webster takes him to his place, and gives Milton a car to go after Jonah, but Jonah has called the cops.

Milton and Piper are ambushed on the freeway by cops with machine guns, but they escape since the Accountant comes crashing through in a hydrogen truck.

They get to Jonah’s encampment and Piper is grabbed by the Accountant who will let Milton do his thing, as if he dies or kills Jonah it is good for him, as Satan hates when babies are sacrificed in his name.

Milton goes in, in his car, killing the cultists, and the Accountant lets Piper go with the God Killer Gun to help Milton. She fires once though and misses Jonah and is thrown back, but Milton gets the gun and kills Jonah.

The Accountant brings Jonah his granddaughter, and he gives her to Piper to raise, who will love her, and protect her, which is why he picked her, and he dies, and she goes with Webster.

Then we see Milton is of course not dead, or actually already dead, so he can’t die again, and the Accountant calls in a 50′s car and they ride to hell with Milton swearing he will escape again. A Meatloaf cover plays as they ride into hell (would have been better if it was the original song).

••••

Ridiculous, and over the top, and Amber Heard didn’t get naked, but still fun.

In modern times some US government agents are called into to the arctic to deal with a huge crashed something that is discovered. They go in and find a red white and blur circular shield and call their superiors. Back in 1942, the head of the Nazi science wing Hydra, Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull (the great Hugo Weaving) smash though a castle in Norway, and steal the cosmic cube, which is said to be something of Odin’s of great power. In New York city, the 98 pound weakling Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) keeps getting rejected for World War II Military service, not matter how many times he lies about where he is from. His best friend Sergeant James “Bucky” Barnes (Sebastian Stan) takes his out before he is to go to duty with two girls. They got to the Modern Marvels of Tomorrow exhibit and see Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) giving a demonstration of a flying car. Steve skips out on the date, to try and enlist again, and a scientist hears his plight, and decides he might be perfect for a secret project. This is Dr Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) from Bavaria who works fro the US Government Strategic Scientific Reserve. He has Steve enlisted, and has him brought to a camp under the command of Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) and SSR Officer Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Phillips doesn’t like Steve right off, as he is the worst soldier, but he proves the most spirit, even jumping on a dummy grenade he thinks is live to save everyone else. He is perfect.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

I Europe Schmidt and scientist Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) manage to harness the power of the cube to power amazing weaponry. When Nazi officials come to take his power, he kills them, and declares he is going to take over the world on his own, and is going after Erskine. Erskine first treated Schmidt with an early version of his super soldier serum, though not willingly, and it had the side effect, of warping his face, making him the red skull.

Erskine tells Rogers of what has happened, and how the serum makes everything in a person stronger, their evil and ambition, which is why the small and good man Rogers if perfect, as he will always appreciate his strength and power.

Carter takes Rogers to a secret shop in Brooklyn as Stark must tap into the Brooklyn power grid to perform the experiment. Senator Brandt (Michael Brandon) and US State Department official Fred Clemson (Richard Armitage) arrive to watch.

The procedure is painful, but Rogers keeps them doing it, and it is a total success, but Clemson turns out to be Hydra spy Heinz Kruger, and he kills Erskine (the only one who knows the secret to the Super Soldier Serum) and takes the last vial. Rogers gives chase across the city, and manages to stop Kruger as he goes in a high tech submarine to escape, but he kills himself before being taken,

Phillips declares the experiment a failure, and is going to have Rogers stuck in a lab, but the senator instead enlists Rogers as an army Captain to go and sell War bonds, as well as make propaganda films.

Rogers takes on the identity of Captain America with his outfit and shield (very close to his original costume even with helmet wings) and is a huge success across the country, until he comes to Europe to entertain troops, and is a total bomb. He sees Carter, who tells him it was Bucky’s unit who was taken by Hydra he was entertaining, and he learns Bucky is either dead or taken.

Rogers decides to go rescue him himself. Carter helps him, getting Stark to fly them in, and he jumps out and goes in alone.

Rogers saves the captured soldiers being used to construct the Red Skulls high tech weapons, freeing the Howling Comandos Timothy “Dum Dum” Dugan (Neal McDonough from Band of Brothers), Gabe Jones (Derek Luke), Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi), james Montgomery Falsworth (JJ Field) and Jacques Dernier (Bruno Rici), and they and the others steal equipment and escape, while Rogers goes to find Bucky.

He finds Bucky who was being tortured and runs into Zola and the Red Skull, but they escape, and blow up the base, but not before Rogers sees a plan with the location of the other Hydra bases.

Colonel Phillips is just declaring Rogers dead when he arrives with over 400 POW’s that he managed to save by himself. Rogers is recruited to destroy Hydra and he gets the men he saved to become the Howling Commandos, his personal team, and they go about destroying Hydra.

Bucky falls from a train seemingly to his death (lets hope they let Johnston do the Winter Soldier movie he pitched to Marvel) but they manage to capture Zola, and get him to give info on the Red Skull.

They go for frontal assault and Steve is taken to the Red Skull, but the howling commandos arrive, along with Phillips and Carter and their division.

The Red Skull manages to take off in his plane, but Phillips drives the Red Skulls car after him, and Steve gets a kiss from Carter and jumps on the plain as it takes off.

Rogers take out the soldiers who were to destroy individual US cities in small craft, and goes to fight the Red Skull, who is seemingly destroyed by the Cube when it comes out of the plane.

The plane is locked to destroy the New York though, so Steve has no choice, but to crash it, though he promises to meet Carter in a week for a dance.

We see the War End and Rodgers declared dead.

Rodgers then wakes up in a room with an old baseball game on the radio, and he mistake the shield agent for Carter (Amanda Righetti seems to be playing Sharon Carter, Peggy’s Niece and Roger’s current love interest in the comics), but knows it is wrong, and escapes, but ends up in Modern Times Square, where he he is stopped by Colonel Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and told he has slept for 70 years, and we see him sad he missed his date.

Then after the credits we see the Trailer for the Avengers (though not in 3D) with Rodgers being recruited by Fury to join the Avengers initiative to save the work from Loki (Todd Hiddleston) and the cosmic cube along with Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Ntasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).

••••

Woohoo, and Joss Whedon is directing and writing that, so I can’t wait. I really loved this film and the effects. I would love to see further World War II adventures as well as modern adventures and a Winter Soldier story would be awesome! Way to go Marvel!

The film starts right where the last one ended, looking at Dobby the house elve’s grave. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), and his best friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) go to talk to the Goblin Griphook (excellently played by Warwick Davis, though he was played by Verne Troyer in the first film) about the Sword of Gryffindor, which Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) thought should be in her vault at Gringot’s, along with something more important, which they figure must be one of Voldemort’s (Ralph Fiennes) Horcrux’s (each containing a part of his soul and each must be destroyed before he can be killed once and for all). Griphook agrees to help them get into the vault. They then go to talk to the wandmaker Olivander (John Hurt) who says Bellatrix lestrange’s wand is still dangerous, but that Draco Malfoy’s (Tom Felton) is now Harry’s as he disarmed him. And they talk to him about the Elder Wand, which was Dumbledore’s (Michael Gambon) but Voldemort now has, and is the most powerful wand and one of the 3 Deathly Hallows (along with Harry’s Invisibility Cloak and the Resurrection Stone). Hermione uses a hair of Bellatrix’s to change into looking like her (and Carter does as an awesome job as her) and they head to Gringots to get into Bellatrix’s vault.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS...

They have to spell a goblin, but they get into the vaults, but a waterfall kills their spells and they again look themselves, and are kicked out of the car, and are saved by Hermione, and must walk to the vault. They have to go by a tortured dragon. In the vault, harry sees the Horcrux, but the rest of the things are multiplying and they are almost trapped. Griphook takes the sword for the Horcrux and tries to leave them, but they ride the Dragon out of the vaults and drop into a lake.

In the water Harry has a vision of Voldemort killing all the goblins, and knowing they are now hunting Horcrux. He also sees Hogwarts and Rowena Ravenclaw, one of the founders, so he knows a Horcrux is there, and he learns the snake Nagini is one too. They head to Hogsmeade to get into hogwarts.

An alarm goes off, and they are pulled into a house by Aberforth Dumbledore (Ciarán Hinds) who has the rest of Sirius Black’s (Gary Oldman) mirror which Harry has a fragment of, and used it to send Dobby to save them in the last film. Aberforth confronts Harry about how he should not trust his brother, but Harry won’t relent, so he sends the painting of his sister to Hogwarts and Neville arrives all battered and bruised and takes them into Hogwarts via a new passage, telling them how brutal it is. Students are supposed to practice the cruciatix curse on first years!

Harry meets his old friends and tells them he is looking for something. Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch) realizes it must be the missing diadem or crown of Rowena Ravenclaw, but no living person has ever seen it.

Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) now headmaster hears Harry is in Hogsmead, and calls the whole school to the now dark great hall, and confronts them, and Harry comes out along with the rest of Order of the Pheonix who are still alive. They force Snape out and Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith) takes over, locking up the Slitherins and preparing the castles defences along with the teachers and the order, putting a big shield around it, and sending statues to defend it.

Ron and Hermione go to get the basilisk tooth to destroy horcrux’s, since they don’t have the sword, and take the horcrux from Harry and Head for the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry runs toward the Ravenclaw common room, but is stopped by Luna who knows who to talk to, the ghost the Grey Lady, the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw, Helena (Kelly Macdonald). Helena does not want to tell Harry, but lets him know that it is in the room of requirements.

Hermione uses a tooth to destroy the horcrux and water comes up around them looking like voldemort and when it subsides, she and Ron start kissing! Woohoo! Then they go after Harry using the Marauders map.

Draco has entered the castle and grabs Goyle (Josh Herman) and Blaise (Louis Cordice) [since Crab is in jail in real life] and enter the room or requirments after Harry.

Harry finds the diadem, but then gets confronted by Draco, and asks him why he didn’t identify him? Ron and Hermione arrive and chase them off, but Goyle sets the place ablaze! Harry, Hermione and Ron use brooms to escape, but Goyle is already killed, so they save Draco and Blaise, just escaping the room, and then destroying the Diadem.

The school is under serious attack from all sides. Neville destroys the back bridge, but things are a mess.

Harry sees that Voldemort has gone to the rowing house (why they changed this from the shrieking shack I will never know) where he calls in Snape. Harry, Hermione and Ron hear Voldemort confront Snape about the Eldar wand which is not fully under Voldemort’s control because Snape killed Dumbledore, so he has Nagini kill Snape and takes off. Harry runs in, and Snape is crying silver memories, which Harry collects.

Voldemort calls off his forces for a moment, and calls for Harry to meet him alone in the forrest. The trio go into the castle and see all the dead. Fred Weasley (James Phelps), Lavender Brown (Jessie Cave), Remus Lupin (David Thewlis) and Nymphadora Tonks (Natalie Tena) are all dead.

Harry goes alone to Dumbledore’s office and uses the pensive (and moves it for some unknown reason), and we see Snape’s memories.

We see a young Lily Potter (Ellie Darcey-Alden) being yelled at by her sister Petunia (Ariella Paradise), but she is stopped by a young Severus (Benedict Clarke) who is also magic, and says she is special, and loves her. He hates it when she is put into Gryffyndor and he is put into Slitherin, and she starts seeing James Potter (Adreian Rawlins). We see Lily (Geraldine Somerville) putting her love onto baby Harry (Tobby Papworth) and then being killed, and how it crushed Severus, as he had warned Dumbledore and betrayed Voldemort for his love for Lilly. And we see a conversation with Dumbledore where we learn Dumbledore would dire from the curse on his hand in a year, and that Snape has to tell Harry that he is in fact a Horcrux, which is why he can hear Voldemort, an that he must die by Voldemort’s hand, which hurts Snape as Harry has Lilly’s eyes. And we see that Snape loved Lilly so much that he also has a doe patronus, which is what led Harry to the Gryffyndor sword in the last film.

Harry tells Ron and Hermione and goes into the forrest. He pulls out Snitch Dumbeldore left him and tells it he is ready to die, and it reveals the Resurrection Stone, and when he touches it his parents Lily and James appear, as does Sirius and Lupin, and he talks to them about death, and them always being with him in his heart (though he does mostly ignore James). Harry drops the stone, so it can never be found and walks into Voldemorts camp.

Very quickly Voldemort spells and kills Harry, and Harry awakens in a white everlasting version of King’s Cross stations. Harry sees a bloody version of the baby Voldemort dyeing under a bench, and Dumbledore arrives to talk to Harry. Dumbledore explains that Voldemort had to kill his own Horcrux and that Harry can either take a train to what is beyond or go back to help kill Nagini and Voldemort. Dumbledore tells him not to grieve for the dead, but to grieve for those who do not know love.

Harry returns and Narscissa Malfoy (Helem McCrory) asks Harry if Draco is alive. Harry nods yes, and she declares him dead, and they have their Prisoner Rubeus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) carry Harry’s body.

They arrive at the castle and show Harry’s dead body, and say they must declare allegiance to him. Draco goes over to them and his parents, and then Neville comes out and gives a speech about not giving up, and pulls the Sword of Griffindor from the Sorting Hat. Harry jumps up and runs, with Voldemort after him, and most of the death eaters run.

Harry and Voldemort battle as he tries to kill Nagini, as do Ron and Hermione, but finally it is Neville with the sword that kills the snake, leaving Voldemort human. Harry then is able to battle with him, and is stronger and overpowers voldemort, destroying him with his own killing curse and taking the Edler wand.

Harry then tells Ron and Hermione that Voldemort was wrong, that Snape was not in command of the Edler wand, in fact it was Draco who took it from him, and when Harry disarmed Draco, he got control of the Edler want, so it responded to him, and that is how Voldemort’s own curse killed him. Even Ron is tempted by the power of the wand, so Harry destroys it.

We cut to 19 years later and Harry and Ginny Potter (Bonnie Wright) take Albus Severus Potter (Arthur Bowen) to the Hogwart’s express for his first year. along with little Lily (Daphen de Beistegui) and James (Will Dunn) and they meet up with Ron and Hermione Weasley and they children Rose (Helena Barlow) and Hugo (Ryan Turner).

Albus is worried he might be picked into Slitherin, but Harry tells him he is named for 2 of headmasters of Hogwarts, and one was Slitterrin and the bravest man he knows, but if he really wants Gryffindor, the hat will take that into account.

•••

Really a great film, and an amazing ending to the series. The effects are fantastic here, even the aging of Harry looks great. This really is the best of the this series, and I am sure they will do special 3D editions with new effects to match this before too long!

Now for some about what seems wrong. Well Dumbledore had the 3 Deathly Hallows, and so had dominion over death, couldn’t he have just used that against Voldemort? Or at least to save himself to help Harry? And if he knew Harry was a Horcrux, why did Harry have to get the memory of Tom Riddle from Slughorn to find out about Horcrux’s, as he knew all along and was raising him to kill him? I mean WTF! Seems like a whole to me that she had not worked out till the end. Still a great movie though!

The film starts with Physicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) taking her mentor Dr. Erik Slevig (Stellan Skarsgard) and assistant Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) out into the New Mexico dessert to see some strange atmospheric affects that Jane’s research had been able to predict. They see a huge flash from the sky and drive into a cloud, barely missing running over, and just hurting a huge strange name, Thor (Chris Hemsworth last seen as Kirk’s father in the Star Trek reboot). He is dazed, and babling and Darcy uses her stun gun on him, and they wonder where we came from, and we go back to Asgard, where Thor The God of Thunder is from.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

We learn that Human’s of Earth used to worship the gods of Asgard, and when the giant frost Giants of Jotunheim (Another of the 7 realms, with Earth, or Midgard being another) came to Earth, Odin the All father (Anthony Hopkins) led the forces to defeat them, losing his eye, but banishing the frost giants and taking their power source the Casket of Ancient Winters. Thor had 2 sons, Thor and Loki and one would eventually be made king.

In modern times, Odin has chosen his eldest son Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to be king of Asgard, but the ceremony is interrupted when Frost giants manage to get into the armory and try and steal the Casket, though they are stopped by Odin’s Robotic creation the Destroyer.

Odin says that the piece is kept, but the warrior Thor does not agree, and behind his back gets his four closest friends, the woman warrior Sif (Jamie ALexander) and the warriors three the fat Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Fandal (Joshua Dallas) and Hogun (Tadanobu Asano) along with his brother, the magician Loki to agree to go with him to Jotunheim.

They convince Heimdall (Idris Elba), the Gatekeeper of the Bifrost Bridge to let them through, and he does as he does not like the Frost Giants got past him.

On Jotneheim, Thor starts a war, and is doing quite well, though his friends do not fair as well, and they are retreating when Odin arrives, and saves his son, and tries to stop the war, but is unsuccessful.

For his arrogance, Thor is banished to Midgard, and his hammer Mjolnir is taken from him, and Odin curses it, so only someone worthy can pick it up and have Thor’s power.

Back on Earth, Jane takes Thor to a hospital, where he gets angry and ends up getting locked up.

Meanwhile some farmers have found Mjolnir and try to pull it out (including Stan the Man Lee), until Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) finds it and takes the land (as we saw at the end of Iron Man 2) as well as taking all of Jan Foster’s research into the occurrences.

Jane meanwhile has seen a photo that showed a man in the light sky, and they know it was Thor, and could have been him coming from another, so they get him, and she takes him to find his Mjolnir.

Back in Asgard, Loki finds that he is actually a frost Giant taken from Jotunheim by Odin, and Odin overcome with stress of the recent events falls into his “Odinsleep” to recuperate, allowing Loki to take the kingship. He travels to Jotunheim and makes a deal with the Frost Giants to sneak in and kill Odin.

Sif and the warriors three meanwhile try to convince Loki to bring back Thor, but he refuses, so they plan to go to Earth to help Thor.

Thor meanwhile has broken into the shield facility to try and get Mjolnir back, and Coulson sends out Clint Barton also known as Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to aim at him, but Coulson lets Thor get to Mjolnir, and he can’t draw it from the stone, and collapses in defeat, and they take him and try to question him.

Loki comes to Thor and lies that Thor has causes Odin’s death and that he is now permanently banished by his mother Frigga (Rene Russo).

Dr. Erik Selvig gets Thor released, though Coulson knows it is a trick and sends men to watch.

Sif and the Warriors 3 arrive and re-unite with Thor, but Loki sends the Destroyer to kill his brother.

Thor helps to get people away, and sends the Sif and the Warriors 3 to fight it, but they are not strong enough, so Thor sacrifices himself to save his friends. Just as he dies, we see Odin shed a tear, and Mjolnier, flies from it’s place and into his hand, restoring his power of Thor and he quickly destroys the Destroyer.

Jane kisses Thor, as she obviously likes him, and he promises to return to her, but most go to defeat Loki.

In Asgard, Loki had betrayed Heimdall, and let the Frost Giants in, but betrays them and kills their king when they attack Odin, to cement his leadership.

Thor arrives and confronts Loki, who admits to his crimes, which he says were only to make good with Odin. Then he goes to the bifrost bridge and turns it on full toward Jotunheim to destroy it.

Thor cannot stop it, so he destroys the Bifrost bridge to stop it, cutting himself off from Jane and Midgard and all other realms, but saving Jotunheim. Loki and he fall off the bridge, but Odin saves them, though Loki lets go.

Thor has Heimdall watching Jane Foster, who has gotten her gear back and is trying to find a way to get to Thor.

Then after the credits we see Doctor Erik Selvig brought to a shield facility where he meets Nuck Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) who shows him a cosmic cube in a box, and says it is unlimited power, but we see in the mirror that Loki is whispering to Selvig,

•••

Really an enjoyable Marvel action film, with great effects, a decent 3D conversion and very well directed. Well worth checking out!

The film starts just as Fast & Furious ends, with Dominic “Dom” Toretto (Vin Diesel) being carted off to Lom Pac Maximum Security Prison for his past crimes, even after helping FBI Agent Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) to bring a major drug lord. Well O’Conner who betrayed the gang once, but let Dom go, and paid for it, can’t agree, with the help of his lover, Dom’s sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) and Dom’s friends Tego Leo (Tego Calderón) and Rico Santos (Don Omar) wreck the bus he was in, and get him, and only him out, and they all head to Rio via separate means. Mia and Brian arrive first, where they meet up with Vince (Matt Schulze) who has a kid now. Vince was in Dom’s family in the first film, and never trusted Brian (mainly because Mia liked him, though he was right) and they still don’t like each other, but Vince has a job that is supposed to be easy money, and since Dom hasn’t arrived they agree to do it. And Mia does it even though she is pregnant, but hasn’t told Brian yet. The job is to steal 3 sports cars off a train going through the desert. Brian and Mia break in and get the keys, and find that they are from an American DEA seizure, and they know something is wrong. Vince and his gang show up in a buggy and cut through the side of the train, and Dom is with them, though disapproving of the job, and Vince takes the first car. The Brazilians are after the Ford GT40, but Mia takes it, but goes to a different location. The Brazillians try and double cross Dom and Brian, and kill the DEA agents, but Brian and Dom escape, only to be captured by more of Herman Reyes’s (Joaquim de Almeida) men. They learn they want the GT40, and manage to escape.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Dom and Brian stip the GTO and find a chip in the stereo and navigation system which shows all of Reyes’s drug and money runs, showing where his 110 million are stashes, and detailing his whole organization. Vince shows up and Dom kicks him out, no longer trusting him, with Vince saying just like before, when Dom trusted Brian over him.

The gang is pegged for the killing of the DEA agents, and a special team is brought in to bring him back. The team is led by Luke Hobbs (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), who teams with a green young police officer Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky) to hunt down Dom. He picks Elena because her husband who was killed 2 years before was a good cop, and when he was killed she joined up and so is incorruptible

The feds track down the team, and give chase, but Reyes men are also after them. Dom runs into Elena, and saves her from being shot by Reyes men, and she gets his fallen cross, which was given to him by his dead girlfriend Letty. She realizes that there is no Dom and his people killed the DEA agents, it has to be Reyes, but Hobbs, doesn’t care, he just wants his target, guilty or innocent. Dom, Mia and Brian escape and Mia tells them she is pregnant, and they decide there is only one way they will get away cleanly, to rob Reyes, and for that they will need a team.

They call in their old friends, the chameleon Han Lue (Sung Kang), Brian’s old friend Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson) and Miami mechanic and electronics expert (Tej Parker (Ludacris) as well as Tego and Rico, and as a weapons expert the Mossad trained Gisele Harabo (Gal Gadot) who Han soon falls for.

Dom goes to get his necklace back, and sees that Elena understands his love for Letty perfectly because of her husband, and she knows he is not a killer.

They go and raid one of Reyes’s money stashes and burn the money, thus getting Reyes to consolidate all his cash, but he does it in a police station. They go in and break into the security cameras, and see that they have a very limited window to do it, and need a fast car to get to the vault. So Dom and Brian go to a Brazilian street race and bring back a Porche, but it is not fast enough, and no other car can make it with any team member. So the team goes and steals 4 tricked out Brazilian police cars, and have a race, which Dom lets Brian win.

Mia goes out and almost gets taken by Reyes men, but Vince saves her, and comes back and Vince lets the old family join the team, to watch Mia.

They go out to draw out Hobbs, and manage to plant a tracker on his armored car, so when he is far away, they set for the heist, but after the firs team leaves, Hobbs shows up, and a has a huge fight with Dom, who beats, him and does not kill him, though he could.

While on the way to the airport for extradition, Reyes men attack and all of Hobbs men except Elena are killed, and he would be too, if not for Dom who saves him, and they get away, and decide to do a straight on rush to do the job, and Hobbs agrees to help take down Reyes, for his dead team, though he will hunt them after.

They break into the police station with Hobbs armored truck and Dom and Brian hook cables to the vault and break it out of the station and go on a chase, dragging the huge vault behind them, with all the corrupt cops after them. It is ridiculous fun, though they must have killed so many civilians! Ha!

On a bridge, they just aren’t fast enough, so Dom breaks Brian’s cable, so he can escape with Mia, but manages to take out Reyes with his crashing car. Hobbs and Elena pull up and when Reyes gets out of his car, Hobbs shoots him, and gives Dom 24 hours, and Brian who did not leave goes with him, but they leave the vault and money. Or so Hobbs thinks, as when he opens it, it is empty, as on the way they put it into a dump truck and hooked up to an empty duplicate vault.

The team opens the vault and splits the money. We see the team members going their own way. Roman shows up with a car that there are only 4 of in the world at Tej’s garage, but he has one two. Han and Gisele are driving on the autoban, and say they are heading to Spain, but will eventually go to Tokyo (where Han dies in Tokyo Drift, which was such a mistake). Brian and Mia are on a south pacific beach with her very pregnant. Dom shows up with Elena, they are now a couple. And Brian challenges Dom to a real race, and he agrees and the credits roll.

After the first set of credits, we see Hobbs at a desk being given a file by Monica Funetes (Eva Mendes from the second fast and the Furious film) which shows a convoy hijack in Berlin that was not done by Dom, but seems to have been done by the dead Letica Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) Dom’s dead girlfriend, who it seems is still alive.

••••

Great fun, and well worth checking out. Just a fun action film with some great characters!

Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) is dying in a hospital bed, and we go back to seeing hoe this all got started. Steven grew up in Virginia Beach, an adopted son, who became a happily married police officer with a wife named Debie (Leslie Man) and a lovely daughter, but his life changed when he was in a terrible car accident. He came out as he was really was, gay, and moved to Miami to change his life. Steven worked in at a grocery, but his extravagant lifestyle with boyfriend Jimmy (Rodrigo Santoro) leeds him into the life of a Con man, until he is caught and sent to prison. In prison Russell meets and falls in love with the sweet and unassuming Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). From then on Steven does anything and everything for his love Phillip, getting transferred to his cell, having people beat up, and doing everything for him.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

When Steven is released, he pretends to be a lawyer and manages to get Phillip released, then keeps pretending as a lawyer to help Phillips’s friends. Steven then scores himself a job at a major corporation, where he is able to steal millions of dollars, though Phillip doesn’t care about money and just be with him.

Steven is of course caught and put in prison, but every year on his birthday makes escapes to get out to see Phillip, but is always caught and brought back to prison.

Eventually Phillip too is arrested as Steven had put some money in his name, so he is an accessory, and is put in prison too.

And then Phillip gets word that Steven is dying of AIDS. Steven is transferred out to an independent facility to await his death, and Phillip manages to get a call through telling him he loves him. And we are back to the beginning of the film.

Phillip learns of Steven’s death and is crushed, and gets a call to go see his lawyer, and it is Steven, who it turns out faked having HIV and his own death, even the facility he was transferred to as an “experimental treatment.”

We learn that Steven’s first boyfriend died of aids while Steven was waiting to go to prison and told him he would meet his true soul mate, and do anything for him, and Steven would, except go straight.

And the film ends with Steven in prison for life, in solitary only allowed out an hour a day, and Phillip having been released.

••••

Really a great film. I can’t believe this did not get more press, because it really is an amazing film!

In April of 2003 Engineer Aron Ralston (James Franco) is heading out to go hiking. He ignores a call from his mom, and can’t find his swiss army knife, only a really crappy multi-tool and heads out in his truck to go hiking in Utah. Ralston is in his element, and having a great time all alone in the wilderness, though he does run into two beautiful hikers, Megan McBride (Amber Tamblyn) and Kristi Moore (Kate Mara) who he shows a secret way to a watering hole, and has them dropping into it from above. The invite him to a party that night, and he agrees, but skips off on his own, electing not to go with the girls. Shortly thereafter he goes into a small canyon and a knocks a rock lose and it falls on him, pinning his right arm under it, leaving him stuck.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Ralston tried to extricate himself, dulling his multitool trying to loosen the rock, but only trapping his arm tighter. He is quite inventive and builds himself a rope sling to hold his body in so he won’t fall further and takes stock of what he has, which is not much. He has some water, his video camera, and his multitool and rope. He ends up using the rope to wrap around himself at night to keep warm in the cold desert nights.

And Ralston starts going through his life in his mind, and as he does he video tapes himself, and he says goodbye to his parents and apologizes for not being a better son. He starts having to drink his own piss, and starts to think he will die.

Ralston sees images of himself as a kid and in life, and finally sees an image with him with a son of his own.

After 127 hours, it comes to him, and he realizes he needs to use leverage to break the bone in his arm, so he can just cut through the flesh of his arm. He breaks his arm, and since he has completely dulled his multi-tool, he uses the bottle opener to cut through the flesh around the bone, and a rope around his arm as a tourniquet.

Ralston stumbles out, and manages to find some water to keep himself alive, and miraculously runs into a European family who are hiking, and get him water, and get some help, and a helicopter to airlift him out.

Ralston survives, and not only goes hiking again (always leaving a note), but also finds the love of his life and they have that baby boy he dreamed of while he was trapped.

••••

Wow! Wow, wow, wow! Really an amazing film and an amazing performance. This is easily the best film of the year. Easily!

Now he has a four hour hike to his

in 1989 the CEO of ENCOM, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) tells a story about a fantastic new world, and then disappears that night, never to be seen again. ENCOM, though owned mostly by Flynn’s son, is run by it’s board of directors in complete opposition to Flynn’s ideas of free software, and they spend each year releasing a new upgrade to their system software (as developed by Edward Dillinger Jr [Cillian Murphy] a nod to ENCOM executive Ed Dillinger who was played by David Warner in the first film) which is really only advertising and doesn’t add anything. The only executive who fights it is Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) who stills believes in his old friend. Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) an adrenaline junky pulls his yearly prank on ENCOM and steals the new OS and releases if for free, before being arrested after base jumping from the top of the building. That night Alan goes to see Sam to tell him that he got a page from Kevin’s old arcade, though the number has been disconnected for 2o years. Sam goes to the old arcade (which strangely features a Tron game instead of the Space Paranoids that is should have, and which they had at the recreation in San Diego for Comic Con) where he finds Kevin’s secret office, and using the same laser as the first film gets digitized into a world created by his father, the computerized world of the Grid.

Sam is taken, stripped and given an identity disc, and forced to fight in the game grid. Sam proves himself to be most able, defeating everyone who goes against him, until he goes up to the raining champion Rinzler who realizes that Sam is not a program but a User. Rinzler takes Sam to see the head of the Grid, Clu (a young looking Jeff Bridges) who is a program that Kevin created to help create a perfect world, and he took over from Kevin and forced him to go into hiding. Clu decides to take on Sam himself in the grid in a light bike competition.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Sam is doing OK on the game grid, but is outclasses by Clu, but is saved by the warrior Quorra (Olivia Wilde). She takes him in a vehicle designed to go off the grid and into the wilds and takes him to see his now ages father Kevin.

Kevin in full the Dude mode, tells his son how he was creating a virtual utopia along with Alan’s program Tron (also Bruce Boxleiter) and a new version of Clu created from himself to create perfection. The thing is, in the virtual work new life forms showed, called ISOs or isomorphic algorithms that had not been written, but when Clu took over, he saw them as defects and hunted and killed them all except Quorra. Kevin’s identity disc will allow anyone to use the laser and travel to the real world, so he has hidden to stop Clu from getting it, and wants to continue to hide.

Sam does not and takes Kevin’s lightcycle and heads into the Grid to meat up with Zuse who Quorra told him about. Sam goes to see Castor (Michael Sheen strangely playing David Bowie here) at the End of Line club, and finds that Castor is Zuse, but he betrays Sam to Clu. Sam is saved by his father and Quorra, but she is hurt and Castor gets Kevin’s identity disc, which he gives to Clu.

The 3 escape to a solar sale to try and get to the portal to the real world, and Kevin manages to save and reboot Quorra. On the way they find that Clu is repurposing old programs into an army to spread perfection in the real world. Quorra is taken by Clu, and Sam goes to get her and the disc, which he does, but he goes up against Rinzler again, who is a repurposed Tron.

They manage to escape in a ship, but are chased by Rinzler and Clu. Rinzler manages to break his new programing as he can’t harm a user, and we see him crash and change from red to blu (sequel anyone). They get to the transfer point, but are confronted by Clu, and Kevin gives himself up to stop him, killing them both and wiping out the whole Grid as Sam and Quorra manage to get into the tranfer point and go to the real world.

Sam takes over Encom, making Alan the CEO and heads out with Quorra to show her the real world.

••••

Honestly WTF! The story and dialogue are laughably bad, I mean Kevin saying, your ruining my Zen man? What is this, the Big Lebowski? And even with the effects, the disc and bike battles are much cooler than the flying battle at the end.

And the story just sucks! It would be much cooler if Clu was working with Encom to take over the world with it’s OS, stealing everything and making them all powerful, not planning on making the real world perfect in his eyes? I mean really! And even Wilde is wasted here. She is one of the better characters, but still so 2 dimensional it falls flat.

This movie had so much potential and all of it was wasted.

Sure I will see it again for the effects, but really they could have done so much more, hell they could have made a real sequel to the first film instead of this crap fest!

•••

Watching it a second time I did enjoy it more, though the special features are a bit on the light side. The Blu-ray does look absolutely incredible though. And they have green lit a third film, which will hopefully be better, though with the same writer and director I am not expecting anything amazing out of it.

Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is a ballet dancer with the New York Ballet company, living with her overbearing mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) who was a failed dancer and now controls every aspect of Nina’s life. The ballet company’s director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassell) has cast away the companies old lead Beth (Winona Ryder) and is searching for someone new to play the White and Black Swan’s in Swan Lake. Nina is amazing as the white Swan, as she is all about perfection, but doesn’t seem to have the emotion to play the Black Swan. And her rival Lily (Mila Kunis) who has just joined shows emotion without even trying. When Leroy tries to kiss her, she bytes him and this surprises him, and excites him, causing him to cast Nina, but wants her to try and find her emotion, trying to get her to seduce him, and giving her homework of masturbating (which she tries but stops when she realizes her mom is in her room sleeping in a chair).

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Nina is hiding strange rashes on the back of her shoulders, and seems to be coming apart a bit, having visions of pulling her skin off. She finds that Beth has walked into traffic and been badly hurt, and Leroy thinks it was intentional. Nina goes to see Beth (who she has previously stolen some makeup from as she worshiped her), but when she sees her ruined legs she runs.

Nina sees Lily, her understudy as trying to steal the part. And Leroy is getting frustrated at Nina not showing her emotions or responding to his sexual advances.

Lily invites Nina out and ends up giving her ecstasy. Nina has a great time and they return to her apartment, barring the door from her mom and she and Lily make love.

Nina wakes up late the next day, and rushes to studio only to find Lily dancing her part. She is furious, and asks why she didn’t wake her up, Lily is confused, until she realizes that Nina had fantasies about her, as she went home with one of the boys.

Nina visits Beth in the hospital and returns her things, but Beth stabs herself in her face with her own nail file and Nina rushes off. At home she sees her mom’s bizarre paintings of her, almost a shrine, and sees that the rash has gotten worse, and black feathers come out and she turns into the black swan.

Nina awakens the next day with her mother hovering over her, finding out that her mother has called the company and said he was too sick to perform. Nina is enraged and fights her mother and rushes off, and she insists to Leroy that she is taking the role, and that the company can’t use the controversy, even though he has already given Lily the role.

The first act goes badly when the prince who is having sex with Lily, drops Nina. In the dressing room she finds Lily in her Black Swan outfit, and she smashes her into the mirror and stabs her with a piece of it, killing her and hiding her in the closet. She then dresses as the black swan and goes out onto stage, dancing it better than she ever has before, and getting a standing ovation.

In the dressing room there is a knock and it is Lily, who is not dead, and congratulates her. The mirror is shattered, and Nina realizes she stabbed herself, but still she dresses at the white swan and dances the final act, doing it perfectly. Nina sees her mother crying in the crowd, and Nina drops onto the mattress and begins to bleed. The cast runs to her as she dies, saying how she was perfect and we hear the audience applause.

•••

WTF? Really! Not a very good film. Just insanity, nothing deep, or well thought out. Really a waste of time!

The young girl Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) heads into town to deal with her murdered father. He was killed by his hand Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). Mattie sends her slave back to her mother with her father’s body, and then sets out to hire someone to catch Chaney. She manages to get money her father was owed, and sell the horses he bought. She decides to hire, the baddest of the U.S. Marshals, the notorious one eyed Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges). Cogburn doesn’t want anything to do with her. A bit of an idiot Texas Ranger named La Boeuf (Matt Bamon) shows up also looking for Chaney, and wants to team up with Cogburn, as he knows the Indian territory an terrain, but Mattie will have none of it, as she wants to take Chaney home to be hanged and not to Texas for his crime of killing a congressman. Mattie does manage to hire the drunken Cogburn, though he gets more than he bargained for, when she decides to come along. Cogburn attempts to leave her behind, and meet up with La Boeuf, since with 2 bounties he can make more money, but Mattie will have nothing of it, and swims her horse along the river and comes along anyway.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Mattie convinces Cogburn that she took his deal so can’t go back on it, and he reluctantly agrees, and La Boeuf sets out on his own.

Mattie and Cogburn find a shack with 2 outlaws in it, and they take them. Cogburn ends up killing the older one, and the younger is wounded and before he dies tells them that “Lucky” Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper who is almost unrecognizable here) are to return later, and Chaney is riding with them. Cogburn and Mattie go up to a ridge to set up a trap, but La Boeuf ride just before the gang and gets dragged behind horses with a rope, before Cogburn manages to shoot enough of them that the rest run off. La Boeuf is pretty badly wounded, and almost lost his tongue. Cogburn gets loaded on whisky, and Mattie tells La Boeuf she was wrong about him, but he ends up leaving, giving up on bounty.

Mattie and Cogburn go off, and when Mattie goes to a river to get water, she runs into Chaney, and is going to shoot him, but her father’s pistol misfires, and Chaney grabs her. Cogburn sees, but is outnumbered, so Mattie is taken to Pepper.

Pepper uses Mattie as a hostage to get Cogburn to ride off as they watch. Pepper leaves Chaney to watch Mattie and they will send a horse back once they reach their hideout, and he orders him not to hurt Mattie. Chaney is unhappy, but agrees.

Chaney ends up attacking Mattie, but he is knocked out by La Boeuf who heard the gunshots and rode back, hatching a plan with Cogburn. They watch as Cogburn rides against Pepper and his 3 other gang members. Cogburn kills 3 of them and wounds Pepper, but his horse is shot out from under him, and he is about to be killed by Pepper. A nervous La Boeuf manages to make a really long range shot with his rifle and save Cogburn, killing Pepper.

Chaney has meanwhile recovered and attacks La Beouf. Mattie grabs his rifle and shoots and kills Chaney, knocking him off the cliff, but the recoil knocks her back and down into a chasm.

In the chasm is a dead body and some snakes, and she is bitten by one in the arm. Cogburn returns and rescues her. They leave the wounded La Boeuf and ride for help as she will die. Mattie fights him, especially as he kills her dying horse. Cogburn carried the girl and just manages to get her to a trading post.

25 years later Mattie now 39 (Elizabeth Marvel) with only one arm, having lost it to the snakebite is searching for the Wild West Show that Cogburn is in and has invited her to see. She finds though that he has died 3 days before. She has his body moved to her family plot and we learn the headstrong girl has never married.

•••

Really an enjoyable western. Great characters, good story, just a good and enjoyable film all the way around.

The film starts with the new Minister for Magic Rufus Scimgour (the great Bill Nighy) giving a speech about how the ministry still being strong, while Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) meets with Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) and the Death Eaters at the house of the very damaged by prison in Azkhaban, Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs). Snape informs them of the exact time that Harry Potter will be moved. Voldemort knows his wand will not kill Harry so he takes Lucius’s wand to do the dead. Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) erases the memories of her parents, erasing herself from her parents lives (an awesome addition to the film). The Dursley’s leave for their safety, leaving Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) alone at the house. Mad Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson) along with Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), Hermione, Fred and George Weasley ( James and Oliver Phelps), Bill Weasley (Domhnall Glesson) and his fiancee Fleue Delacour (Clémence Poésy), the thief Mundugus Fletcher (Andy Linden), Rebueus Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane), Remus Lupin (David Thewlis) and Nymphadora Tonks (Natalia Tena). Half of them take Polyjuice potion and they head out to fool the death eaters, but are ambushed. Harry with Hagrid is saved by his owl Hedwig who is killed, but is still almost taken by Voldemort, but again the wand will not kill Harry, and he manages to get to the Weasley’s house the Burrows. Mad Eye Moody is killed though when Mundugus evaporates, and George is hexed and hurt. Harry wants to leave so no one else is hurt, but Ron convinces him to stay. Scimgeour arrives with Dumbledore’s will. Ron is left his Deluminator to get him through his darkest time, Hermione is given a copy of the Tales of Beedle the Bard and Harry is given the snitch from his first Quiditch game. He is old told he was left Godric Gryffindor’s sword, but not only is it lost, but it belongs to the ministry so it won’t be given to him. At Bill and Fleur’s wedding, death eater’s attack, and Harry along with Hermione and Ron apparate and arrive in London, and start on the run.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The trio go into a diner to get some coffee, and are attacked by Death Eaters, and they escape to Sirius Black’s house 12 Grummauld Place. They discover that the RAB in the locket was Regulus Black, Sirius’s brother and find from the house elf Kreacher (Simon McBurney) that the real locket was in fact stolen by Mundugus. Harry gets Kreacher to capture Mundugus and bring him back and Dobby (Toby Jones) arrives back with him. They find that the locket has been sold to the evil Dolores Umbridge (Imedla Stuanton) who is back working at the ministry.

The three friends use polyjuice potion and sneak into the ministry, which is now run by Death Eaters, and manage to get the locket and escape with their lives, but Ron is squidged as they apparate and is hurt, so they have to hid in the woods, as Ron is too sick to move.

None of them are able to destroy the Horcrux, and find that the wearer gets very negative, and this causes Ron to freak out and leave.

Harry and Hermione go on their own. The two are depressed, and Harry ends up getting Hermione to dance with him to try and lighten the mood (and it looks like he wants to kiss her, but she pulls away).

Harry through his link to Voldemort sees Voldemort killing Gregorovitch, a wand maker who had a specific wand that was stolen years before.

Harry and Hermione go to where he was born to find Bathilda Bagshot, and old woman who is a historian, who supposedly helped with a new expose on Albus Dumbledore. They think she may have the sword, which has become impregnated with Basilisk venom, so can destroy Horcrux’s. It is not Bathilda though, but Voldemort’s snake Nagini, and they barely escape, with Harry’s wand being destroyed. Hermione did find the identity of the wand their though, it was Gellertt Grindewald.

In the woods on look out duty with Hermione’s wand, Harry sees a Doe Patronus, and follows it to a frozen pond where he finds the missing sword. He dives in, but the locket tries to drown him, and he is only saved by Ron, who also followed the Doe, and has been trying to find them. Harry has Ron destroy the locket with the sword, but he sees visions of of his biggest fear, a naked Harry and Hermione kissing, and that pushes him to destroy the Horcrux. They go back to Hermione who is still pissed, but allows him to return to them.

They keep seeing a strange symbol that Harry saw on Luna Lovegood’s (Evanna Lynch) father Xenophilius (Rhys Ifans). Xenophilius teaches them of the deathly hallows, 3 items that give the wielder power over death, the Elder Wand, a Resurrection Stone and Invisibility Cloak (obviously Harry’s Clock which is strangely missing from this film, but must be in Hermione’s bag of holding). Zenophilius has betrayed them though, because the death eaters have Luna, though they manage to just get back to the forrest.

In the forrest the friends are grabbed by a group of snatchers, though Hermione casts a spell on Harry to make him unrecognizable and they are taken the Malfoy Manner and imprisoned, and Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) starts torturing Hermione. Locked up Harry and Ron find Luna, the wandmaker named Olivander (John HUrt) and the goblin Griphook (Warwick Davis). Harry has a vision of Voldemort learning that Dumbledore had the Elder Wand.

Dobby arrives and saves them, helping them escape, but he is killed, and dies on the beach in Harry’s arms.

The film ends with Voldemort opening Dumbledore’s grave to take the Elder Wand.

••••

Lets hope the final film is better, but I am not holding my breath!

Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) are cops who have been partners for 9 years at the NYPD. The two screw up a collar and cause a shootout, so they get suspended without pay. This is bad because Jimmy’s daughter Ava (Michelle Trachtenberg) is getting married, and he doesn’t want his ex wife’s new husband Roy (Jason Lee) to pay the $40,000 for the wedding, so he decides he has to sell a very rare baseball card he has. Paul meanwhile thinks his beautiful wife Debbie (Rashida Jones) is cheating on him with the neighbor, so he sets up a camera in a teddy bear. At the baseball card store the store is robbed by Dave (Seann William Scott) who also steals Paul’s gun, so the two set out to catch the robber. They get Dave, but find he has sold the card and gun for drugs, so they must search for them.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Jimmy looks at Paul’s hidden camera and sees Debbie with another man, but lies to him and says there was nothing on the tape. They go to find the drug dealer Poh Boy (Guillermo Diaz) who is a huge baseball fan, and who tells them he will give them the card if they retrieve a car that was stolen from him.

Meanwhile 2 other officers find that Paul’s gun was used in a homicide and think he is a bad cop.

Jimmy and Paul find the car, and in the trunk is Gabriella (Ana de la Reguera) the girlfriend of a drug dealer, who sneaks away from them, but leaves them her cross, which has a hidden USB card in it with all the drug deals in it.

Jimmy and Paul pay Dave’s bail, getting him out so he can steal the gun and the card, but he falls out of a tree and dies. Jimmy goes in to get the card, but is surrounded by the gang. Meanwhile Paul watches the tape and sees Debbie cheating, but finds that it is her gay cousin and they were fucking with him because they found the tape!

They end up in a huge shootout with Paul shooting Poh Boy, but right through his pocket, and Jimmy’s baseball card. Paul and Jimmy are given their badges back and put back on duty.

Jimmy lets Roy pay for the wedding, and as they are both supposed to give Ava away, but Paul pulls his gun on Roy to make him sit down, so Paul can give his daughter away.

•••

Uuugghhh! Are you kidding me? This was really really really really really bad! WTF!

THe film starts with a voice over explaining how the three gods Zeus, (Liam Neeson), Poseidon (Danny Huston) and Hades (Ralph Fiennes) conspired to take Olympus, with the use of a creature created by Hades, the Kraken, but Zeus betrayed his brother, and when he took over Olympus he had Hades banished to hell forever. Zeus and the other Olympians lived off the love and prayers of the humans who worshipped them, but over the millennia, that worship has waned, and the Gods no longer have the power they once had. A fisherman named Spyros (Pete Psotlethwaite) sees a coffin come from the deep, and in it is a dead woman and her baby son. The fisherman adopts the boy and he grows to be a man, Perseus (Sam Worthington). The fishing is bad, and the are trying new places, and near Argos they see soldiers having declared war on gods knock down the giant statue of Zeus. Hades in response sends his harpies, which kill most of the soldiers, and also hit Spyros boat, killing him, his wife and daughter, sparing only Perseus. Perseus is found by the troops and taken back to Argos and meets King Kepheus (Vincent Regan), queen Cassiopeia (Polly Walker) and their daughter Aphrodite (Agyness Deyn). Queen Cassopeia describes her daughter as being more beautiful than any goddess. Hades meanwhile has convinces Zeus that they must scare the people back into prayer, and set the Kraken against Argos. Hades appears and kills the soldiers and kills Cassopeia. He recognizes that in fact Perseus is a demi-god and a son of Zeus, and threatens Argos to either sacrifice Aphrodite or the Kraken will take the city. Persues is imprisoned by Kepheus. Io (Gemma Arterton from Prince of Persia) a woman cursed by the gods to never age for not falling for the seduction of the God Ares comes and tells Persues who he really is. Zeus, in order to punish the king Acriscus (Jason Flemyng) changed into his form and impregnated his wife Danaë (Tine Stapelfeldt). Arriscus had his wife and her son locked in a coffin and cast into the sea, where the wife died. Acriscus was struck by Zeus and left as a monster. When Persues learns that killing the Kraken will allow him to have his revenge on Hades he agrees to destroy the Kraken and is released.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Perseus heads out with a group of Argos best soldiers to go to the Stygian Witches. These include Draco (Mads Mikkelsen), Eusebious (Nicholas Hoult from Skins), Ixas (Hans Matheson), Solon (Liam Cunningham) and two hunters, Ozal (Ashraf Barthom) and Kucuk (Mouloud Achour). Io follows along as well.

Hades goes and finds Acrisius who has changed his named to Calibos and enlists him to help betray Zeus and gives him power to fight Perseus.

Perseus finds a sword left to him by Zeus that will only work for him, but he refuses it, and his men carry it for him. He then also meets Pegasus the flying horse, but he refuses both, as he wants to do this not as a god, but as a man.

Calibos attacks them and Draco cuts his hand off, but his blood on the sand forms giant scorpions. Persues does well against them, but more scorpions show up and they are only saved by the arrival of the Djinn. Djinn are magic users who have replaced their flesh with stone, and have become immortal. Their leader is Sheikh Sulieman (Ian Whyte) who throws his lot in with them.

They make it to the Stygian Witches and learn that they must get the head of Medusa, which can turn anything living, including the Kraken to stone, but they must go to the underworld to do it. Persues is given a gold coin by Zeus, which they use to pay off the boat driver for the trip to the underworld and they head down.

Io is killed and couldn’t have gone into the temple anyway as only men could enter, and Persues goes in and Medusa (Natalie Vodianova) kills all his men before he learns to use the shiny back of his shield to see her, and manages to take her head with the help of his god given sword.

Hades tells Zeus than in fact he has been betrayed since Hades can now live off fear, while the Olympians need love, and he will take over.

The people of Argos have rebelled against the king and taken Aphrodite and tied her on the battlements ready to be sacrificed, but the Kraken is laying waste to the city on the way to her.

Perseus rides Pegassus with the head of Medusa, flying through Hades Harpies and manages to destroy the Kraken with Medusa’s head.

Hades appears, and Perseus throws the sword from Zeus and manages to banish Hades back to the underworld.

Perseus then refuses the kingship and the hand of Aphrodite and leaves.

Zues comes to his son, and offers him sanctuary, but Perseus refuses. Zeus warns him that Hades will back and people will need a protector. Zeus brings back Io so that Perseus will not be alone.

•••

The most I can say is good effects!

In the near future a corporation called The Union has created artificial organs, but they do not make money by selling them, instead they make more money by selling them at exorbitant interest rates, and when they people go 90 days past due they “reposes” the organs, killing the patient and getting their property back. Remy (Jude Law) is a class 5 repressor, the best of the best, matched only by his best friend and former partner Jake (Forest Whitaker). They work for the slimy Frank (Liev Schreiber) and do their job very well. Remy’s wife Carol (Carice van Houten) wants Remy to move to sales, because she hates his job, and threatens to leave him, though their son does still love Remy. Jake isn’t happy about Remy wanting to leave, as they have been friends since they were kids, and were in a tank in war together. Carol says Remy must quit, but he and Jake find a tanker ship filled with people with past due organs and they go in and take many people including some who had jammers which made them seem normal, though they killed them anyway and took their hidden organs. Remy wants to quit anyway, but takes one last big job taking the heart of a record producer, but his defibrillator malfunctions and he wakes up the hospital after a heart transplant, which he doesn’t want, but he cannot kill anyone anymore, as he thinks of his own heart.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Carol has kicked Remy out and he has to live with Jake, but he keeps lying as he can’t kill anyone anymore, and his 90 days quickly runs out.

Remy and Beth try to get out through the airport with Jammers after learning that it was Jake who sabotaged the defibrillator to keep him working.

Remy and Beth go to an abandoned section of town to try and make his money back, but he finds the singer Beth (Alice Braga) who he has liked her singing. Beth has almost everything replaced, and is not past due as well.

Remy and Beth try to go on the run. He sneaks into the Union to try and erase their accounts, but fails, and they run, but have Repo Men sent after them.

THey go to some Beth’s friends to get help with her organs, seeing Asbury (John LEguizamo) and Alva (Liza Lapiza), but Jake comes and smashes Remy’s head.

Beth gets him away and they get to a safe house that is attacked by Union men, but they make it out, leaving many corpses behind them. He knows they can’t escape, so he decides to go to the Union and destroy all the records. They must get through a pink door where the parts are finally checked in.

The pair must fight off a gaggle of business people who instead of guns all have knives and cleavers, and though badly wounded manage to lock themselves in the pink room using one of Beth’s mods to let them in the door.

Inside their is no computer, only a scanner, so they must scan their own parts. So she cuts into Remy and sticks her hand inside him and scans her heart. Then they must scan all of her parts, and as she lays bleeding and dyeing, Jake and Frank get in, having cut a part out of one of the business people and are going to kill them.

Jake has a change of heart and kills Frank, and then they put grenades into the central computer and escape.

We cut to them on the beach, with Remy having published his manuscript, and Jake and Beth are with him. Then we see a digital glitch (and this world was seen earlier as a screen behind the subway).

We cut to Remy when Jake hit his head. He caused brain damage, and Jake has had him wired up with a new brain and is paying for it with all the repo’s he has just done. He finds Beth, and tells the guys to leave her.

Jake finds Remy’s manuscript and watches as his friend is whealed away and we hear Frank’s sales pitch for the digital brains, which let your loved ones live in a dream world.

••••

THIS MOVIE SUCKED! AWFUL! SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN MADE! WHAT AN EXPENSIVE WASTE!!!

The Expendables are a group of Mercenaries who fight for the highest bidder. They are Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his best friend Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Yin Yang (Jet Li), Toll Road (Randy Couture), Hale Ceasar (Terry Crews) and Gunnar Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) They start by attacking some Somalian pirates and saving the hostages, but the junkie Gunnar goes too far trying to hang the pirates, so they kick him out. When they return Barney Ross goes to see his old friend Tool (Mickey Rourke) to see about work, and learns of a new job. Christmas goes to see his girlfriend, and finds her with another guy.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Ross goes to meet with Tool’s contact’s and finds Mr Church (Bruce Willis) with the CIA with a job on an island in the gulf of Mexico. Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger) shows up as a former friend and rival, who doesn’t want the job. The job is to take out a General Garza (David Zayas) on the island of Vilena.

Ross and Christmas go to Vilena to scout the job. They meet Sandra (Gisele Itié) who helps them, but the army gives chase, along with the former CIA man backing Garza James Munroe (Eric Roberts) and his right hand Dan Paine (Steve Austin).

Of course they manage to escape, and cause some serious damage with their sea planes guns, but Sandra refuses to go and is taken by the soldiers, and it turns out the general is her father.

Christmas goes and finds that his girlfriend has been beat up by the guy she was with, so he beats the hell out of him and his friends and gets her back.

They returns and decide not to do the job, because there is an army there to fight them, but Ross decides to go back and save Sandra. Ying Yang is first to say he is going to go, and they are attacked by Gunnar who has given them up, though they manage to take him and kill the minions with him.

The team all decide to go and they go in without a plan, and all split up. Ross manages to save Sandra.

Munroe kills the General, but the men kill him and save the day.

Back in the US they are back at Tool’s, and all are better. They all have their mojo back, and even Gunnar has returned to them.

••••

This should have and could have been so much better!

Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a down on his luck bass player in the band Sex Bob-Omb who seems to be irresistible to women, but his heart was badly broken a year ago, so now he is dating a a high schooler named Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) who he has barely held hands with. Scott lives in a one room apartment with his gay best friend Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin) right across the street from where he grew up. Scott sees and falls for a mysterious girl named Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who he wants to be with At the bands show in a concert to win a record label, Scott is attacked by Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha) who turns out to be the first of Ramona’s 7 evil exes who he must defeat to be able to date her!

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Scott goes into street fighter mode and starts flying through the air and defeats and destroys Patel, getting his coins and points, and he starts seeing Ramona, though it takes Wallace to convince him he must break up with and break the heart of knives.

Next Scott and Romona go on a walk and end up at a movie set where they run into the actor and skateboarder Lucas Lee (Chris Evans) who turns out to be Ex number 2. Scott manages to defeat him by tricking him into doing too hard of a skateboarding trick.

The next Ex is Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh) who has superhuman powers from being a vegan. He is also the bass player for Envy Adams (Brie Larson) who was Scott’s big breakup when she left.

Scott is being destroyed, until he tricks him into drinking milk, and the Began Police show up to take his powers (love the cameo by Thomas Jane. And Scott is able to win.

The next day Scott is all depressed and is attacked by a girl Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman) though he does not know why, and he gets her to stop, but she vows to destroy him.

At a club Roxy comes in to attack and Romona helps him defeat her.

At the battle of the bands Sex Bob-Omb battles the next 2 exes, the DJ’s Kyle (Shota Saito) and Ken (Keita Saito), and manage to defeat them and Scott gets a one up. Romana was there in the crowd with the 7th ex Gideon Graves (Jason Schwartzman) who is the sponsor of the record contest.

It turns out Romona can’t leave Gideon because he has a chip in her head that lets him control her and she leaves with him, but not until Gideon signs the band sans Scott.

Scott goes to battle Gideon gaining the Power of Love sword. Knives arrives to battle Romona over scott, and Scott is killed by Gideon.

Scott is lost in the desert of his mind, but he uses his one up and comes back.

This time Scott fights for himself and gets the more powerful sword, the Power of Self Respect, and manages to destroy Gideon. He stops Knives and Romona from fighting, but then must fight the dark version of himself, who he makes friends with.

Romana walks off leaving Scott with Knives who obviously loves him, but Knives lets him go, as he obviously loves her, and Scott asks Romona if she can leave with him, and she agrees, and they leave together.

••••

SO MUCH FUN! What a great movie. Edgar Wright is a genius, he really is.

A man is found washed up on a beach carrying only a pistol and a small metal top. He is brought to the japanese household here and the old man who is the master (Ken Watanabe). The man’s name is Cobb, and he is there to help the old man Saito remembers something very important to them both.

At an earlier time we see Cobb in along with his team consisting of Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his architect (who designs the dream worlds they project into) named Nash (Lukas Hass). They are on a train, while jacking into the dream of Japanese the young Japanese industrialist Saito. They are actually in a dream within a dream, which starts to go bad when a woman from Cobb’s past named Mal (Marion Catillard) shows up and starts to work with Saito against the team. The end up in the second dream, but Saito can tell that the details that Nash has created are not correct, so he knows he is still dreaming, and admits that this is in fact an audition for this team. He does not want them to do the normal and steal information from someones dream, but do an inception, which is to plant a dream into someone’s mind so that they think it is their own. Cobb and his team try to run, but they are betrayed by Nash and led to Saito. Saito takes away the traitor and gets Cobb to agree to try to do an inception in exchange for Saito helping Cobb with his legal issues in his home of the united states, where he can no longer return to see his young children. Arthur doesn’t even think an inception can be done, but Cobb says it can, because he has done it before.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS...

Cobb goes to assemble the team he will need. He heads to the middle east to recruit Eames (Tom Hardy) who is a forger who can assume other identities in the dream world. It is hard though, as Cobb is being chased by the company that hired him to steal info from Saito, but he is saved by Saito.

Then Cobb heads to Paris, where his Father in law Miles (Michael Caine) teaches Architecture. Cobb asks for his most talented architect to help him create dream world, and Miles lets him meat his best student Ariadne (Ellen Page). Cobb has Ariadne go into the shared dream world, showing her the ropes and the rules. How you should not create real places, but places based on real places, always new, and how the more you change things the more the people in the dream, that are projections of the psyche of the dreamer will revolt against you and become actively violent. And how dyeing will wake you up from a dream. And about having a totem, and object with a balance that only the dreamer knows, to tell the difference between dream and reality. Ariadne leaves, but can’t help but come back, because dream architecture is so different from real architecture, you can make anything. So Arthur starts giving her lessons in tricks to make recursive loops and the like.

The last member of the team to be assembled is Yusuf (Dileep Rao). He is a chemist who has perfected chemicals to keep dreamers in a dream state, and that will help to achieve 3 levels of dream state. He has a group of people who come to him to dream every day, because without the shared dream tech they can no longer dream, and the dream world to them has become their reality.

The target of the inception is the son of the dying industrialist Maurice Fisher (Peter Postlewaite), Robert (Cillian Murphy). Saito wants the son to break up and sell his father’s company, otherwise the company will achieve total energy dominance and drive Saito out of business. Their only chance to do this is when Robert is flying to Los Angles got his father’s funeral. Saito buys the airline so they can get the rest of first class and the stewardess on their side, and Saito is going along to see if they did it, and if they suceed he will make a call and have Cobb’s crimes cleared, otherwise Cobb will land and spend the rest of his life in jail.

The team stars training. Eames goes undercover at the Fisher company so he can steal the identity of Maurice’s right hand Peter Browning (Tom Berenger).

Ariadne starts designing mazes and the 3 worlds they will delve into, while Yusef works on his chemicals to put them in really deep. Ariadne begins to suspect something is wrong with Cobb as she sees Yusef putting him to sleep in the dream machine by himself, and he will act as an architect himself.

Ariadne goes into the dream with Cobb and finds that Cobb is breaking all the rules and has created a world of his own memories populated by Mal, who is his dead wife, who he is blamed for killing. And Cobb’s memories of Mal are a danger that are going against them, and why Cobb can’t see the mazes that Ariadne is creating, because Mal may go against them.

They go into Robert’s dream, but in the first level find that Robert has had training against dream stealing, so his projections are armed and dangerous, and going against them. They manage to take Robert, but Saito is shot, and they are in grave danger.

And they learn that they can’t just die to wake up, because of the drug they are on they will be drivel to limbo, leaving their body a brainless husk, so they must live.

They have Eames pose as Peter Browning who claims to have been kidnapped a day before, and tells them they want the combination to Robert’s father’s safe which has a second will in it, that claims to want Robert to break up his father’s company and be his own man.

Yusef drives them in a van, while they go down another level into Arthur’s dream in a hotel, where time goes slower and Saito can last longer, and Cobb makes gamble to pretend to be Robert’s own brain’s protection, helping him from outside attack. They convince Robert, and get him to go deeper into dream, pretending to go into Peter’s head, but really doing another level into Robert’s own head.

While the dreamers go, Arthur protects them, and has a good deal of trouble, because he must make a kick to wake them at the same time that Yusef wakes them in the next level, but they miss their first kick, which is the van going off a bridge, and because of that in Arthur’s level they are in zero G (falling in the van) so he must do battle with Robert’s armed facets and get everyone into an elevator so he can kick to wake them up when the van hits the water.

In the 3rd level it is a typical Bond setup with an armed fortress in the snow, and they must go in, but can’t go the full route, because they don’t have time, so they must go in through a shortcut.

Things go badly when Mal appears and shoots and kills Fisher, driving him into Limbo, and Saito dies too, also driving him into limbo.

So the only way now is for Ariadne and Cobb to go into limbo after them, and have Eames shock Peter back to life as they kick out to being awake.

We learn that in fact Mal and Cobb had gone to limbo before, and had created an entire world there, and lived 50 years, growing old, but Cobb eventually found playing god to be not fulfilling and wanted to go back to the real world and to their real children, but Mal did not want to go. So Cobb planted the simple idea that this was not the real world and the only way to get to the real world was to die. So they both died in limbo and made it back to reality, but Mal was not the same, and found that she did not believe that the real world was in fact real, and wanted Cobb to kill himself with her, so they could get back to the “real” world. The Inception had worked too well and changed Mal completely. She went to a lawyer and signed papers saying Cobb was threatening her, to force him to suicide with her, and then she jumped off a building, killing herself and forcing Cobb to go on the run.

In Limbo Ariadne and Cobb are confronted by Mal, but he is over her death now, and he agrees to stay with her in limbo if it will get Ariadne and Robert out, but Ariadne isn’t having any of it and shoots Mal, and she, or her projection from Cobb’s mind dies in his arms. Ariadne leaves with Robert, but Cobb stays as he must get Saito or he will be arrested when they land.

We return to the beginning where Cobb has come to get the old man Saito to remember the real world and to leave Limbo.

Robert in the dream is awakened on the 3rd level and goes into the vault, seeing his father’s will, and the inception works as he comes to the conclusion that the father wanted him to be his own man, and do his own thing and not be a shadow of his father.

They all awaken alright on the plane and Cobb re-enters the US without incident.

Cobb goes to his house and sees his children and their faces for the first time since he left, but he spins his top, his totem, which was Mal’s and it does not fall, like it would in the dream, though we do see it wobble before the screen cuts to black, so ti could be a dream, or it could be reality.

•••••

Wow, awesome movie! Nolan needs to write more of his own films. This is the best take on dreaming I have yet to see, and an incredibly well done movie all the way around. A summer action blockbuster that makes you think! I really wish all blockbusters could be this well done, this good and this thought provoking!

Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) live in a world where lies have not been invented and in fact everyone must tell the honest truth all the time. Making cruel statements all the time, because it is the truth. Mark works as a writer for films, but in this world the only films feature a man sitting in a chair talking about a period of history, and Mark has the dark ages in the 13th century, which does not make for interesting stories, and he is on the edge of losing his job because of it. He manages to get a blind date with a beautiful and successful woman named Anna McDoogles (a very funny Jennifer Garner, especially when we are introduced to her telling that she was just masturbating and probably will go do it again as she gets ready). Despite herself Anna actually laughs and has an enjoyable time, but it is not to be because Mark is just not genetically matched to her, he is too fat and ugly. Mark arrives at work the next day to find his very unhappy secretary Shelley (Tina Fey) celebrating that he must be fired, as well as his genetically superior nemesis Brad Kessler (Rob Lowe). And finally his both Anthony (Jeffrey Tambor) manages to build up enough courage to fire Mark. Mark returns home and his landlord gives him eviction notice unless he can come up with $800 by the next day, which without a job there is no way her can do. Mark goes to the bank, where he only has $300 dollars, and while waiting to get his money, he tells the worlds first lie, that he has $800 in his account. The computer says differently, but the teller assumes it must be a mistake, and gives Mark the money. Mark’s entire world has just changed!

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Mark can’t even explain things to his drunken best friend Greg (Louis C.K.) as and the bartender Jim (Philip Seymour Hoffman). Marks sees a beautiful woman and tells her that if they don’t have sex the world will end, and she agrees to have sex with him, but he can’t get himself to take advantage of her.

Instead Mark writes a fictitious screenplay, saying it is true, and blows Anthony and everyone else’s minds, and gets his job back, becoming the head writer, and getting much more money.

Now that he is financially secure he goes out with Anna again, but she explains that they are not genetically compatible. At the date Mark learns his mother had a heart attack, and he rushes to the hospital to take care of her.

Mark’s Mom is in despair about dyeing and there being nothing afterwards, so Mark lies and tells her that there is an afterlife, and that it is wonderful and she will get a mansion and have all the people she loved there. The Doctor and Nurses hear this and are spellbound and tell everyone, and overnight Mark is a huge celebrity.

Anna and Greg come over and Anna convinces Mark that he must tell everyone about this man in the sky. He writes out his 10 commandments on 2 pizza boxes, telling them to the world, but his efforts to make things better, make things worse, as people thing they have 3 chances to be nasty, and now make use of those chances as much as they can.

Anna asks Mark if a good personality can make up for bad genetics, and Mark does not lie, he tells the truth and says they cannot.

And Anna starts dating Mark’s nemesis Brad Kessler as he is genetically a perfect match for her. Mark hates it, and Anna does not like Brad as well as Mark, but he is better for her, so she continues to see him, and stops seeing Mark.

Finally she goes to Mark to invite him to the wedding, and he has grown a beard, is wearing sandals and wrapped in a sheet (looking like Jesus) and tried to convince her not to Marry brad, but she won’t listen.

Greg comes over and gets Mark cleaned up and they go to the wedding. Mark objects to the wedding, and they ask him if the Man in the Sky objects to the wedding, but Mark refuses to say anything and leaves. Anna comes after him, and Mark tells her about his ability to lie, and that the man in the sky is not real. Anna can barely understand the concept, but she asks him why he didn’t say that genetics could be overcome, why didn’t he lie, and he says it wouldn’t have counted. Anna admits to loving him.

Years later Anna and Mark are married with a son who looks like Mark (Genetics really do make a difference), and now only Mark and his son can lie.

••••

Really a funny and sweet film! Mark could be a bastard, but overall he is not, and he tries to help people, but finds that religion only causes more problems than it helps with.

The film starts with the original teaser, with a bus of US tourists in Egypt going to see the pyramids, and it turns out one has been stolen and replaced with a blow up version. We then return to america and follow the self proclaimed super-vilain Gru (Steve Carell) who we see making children cry. His assistant Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) calls to tell Gru of the theft, and that all other villains are now seen as nothing. Gru then plans his biggest heist, to steal the moon, by first stealing a shrinking ray. He heads to the bank of Evil, but is turned down for a loan by Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett) whose son it turns out is Vector (Jason Segal) who stole the pyramid, and who Gru freezes his head, making an enemy. Gru goes and steals the shrink ray anyway, with the help of his little yellow minions, but as they escape it is stolen from them by Vector, and Gru can’t get into Vector’s base. Gru sees three orphan girls Margo Miranda Cosgrove). Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher) get in while selling cookies, so he hatches a plan to adopt them to get into Vector’s base.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS...

Gru goes and charms the nasty Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig) at the orphanage and adopts the 3 girls, but doesn’t know what to do with them at all, and they cause him trouble, but he does start to bond with them, even having fun with them at an amusement park.

Meanwhile Gru has Doctor Nefario build cookie robots to help with the heist, and with the girls unknowing help manages to steal back the shrink ray. Mr Perkins still refuses the loan, and Gru despairs, but his minions pitch in so they can build their own rocket with their own money.

Dr. Nefariio calls Miss Hattie and has her take the kids back, as they are a distraction to Gru, and he doesn’t want to let them go, but does.

The plan is taking place on the same day as the girls big dance recital, but Gru goes and steals the moon, but rushes back to the recital, but he is too late, and he finds a note that Vector has stolen the girls and wants the moon.

Gru gives Vector the moon, but Vector reneges and leaves with the girls and the moon, but the shrinkray turns out to not work forever, and the moon starts to grow as Gru follows. Gru manages to save the girls with the help of his minions.

Gru’s mother (Julie Andrews) is finally proud of Gru, as he has proved himself a better parent than her, and is now happy with his children.

•••

PRETTY LAME I MUST SAY! Just too kiddy with stupid jokes, and not enough good character. It sounds good on paper, but was not done like it should have been!