REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Things are already going downhill before the final mission, when you get a chance to say goodbye to all your friends. Now you know Shephard won’t make it, again. I mean she already died once, and now she will have to die to save everyone, and won’t get the happy ending she deserves, but it gets worse.

You are in London, and making the final dash to get to the Citadel,and stop the Reapers, and have destroyed another Reaper, when a bunch more Reapers show up and start blasting on you, and blasting everyone around you, and you get hit, and are fried. No more armor and bleeding heavily. She gets up and heads or the portal, not even checking to see if her 2 squad mates are OK ( for me her oldest friend Garek, and her lover Liara). She gets to the Citadel as does Admiral Anderson, and both go through a hell of bodies and quickly limp to the Citadel Control panel, but the much tech Illusive Man shows and takes control of them and tells of his plan to take over the Reapers and not allow them to be destroyed. Then the Illusive man makes Shepard shoot Anderson, and you must perform a Renegade action to stop him and not die (why is it it evil to kill the villain). Shepard and Anderson commiserate, and Anderson dies. Shepard gets a call from Admiral Hacket that the Citadel is not powering the weapon, so Shepard crawls to a panel, but the floor lifts her to a control room.

A hologram of the little boy that Shepard saw die, and has been dreaming of is there and is the Catalyst. And the Catalyst controls the Reapers, which are repositories of all the races they have destroyed, and they stop synthetic life and natural life from destroying each other in each cycle, but it will no longer work. And all this besides the fact that I have spent the whole game proving this wrong, even getting the Quarrians and Geth to work together, and making EDI a friend and valued member of her crew! Not only that but isn’t the Catalyst an AI too? And if the Catalyst controls the Citadel and the Reapers, so why I’d Sovereign have to take over the Citadel to begin with in Mass Effect 1? And if the Catalyst is an AI trying to save organic life, doesn’t that also newly the fact that AI’s and organics will destroy each other?

You are given 3 choices if you did well, all bad. As all 3 will destroy the Citadel and all the Mass Effect Relays. This of course ignores the fact that we know that destroying a Mass Effect relay in a system releases the energy and kills all life in the system! So even if all life is not killed, then Civilization is destroyed, and all the races and their fleets are forever trapped at Earth forever, not able to rebuild their destroyed worlds or even see their families again.

We get the choice to kill all Synthetic life, the Reapers, Geth and EDI. Or do what the Illusive man wanted and take control of the Reapers, or the 3rd option to merge all synthetic and organic life in the universe. All will stop the Reapers. All 3 endings are very similar, except the way Shepard dies, either destroying the computer, taking control or jumping into a light beam. Then the beam from the citadel is one of 3 colors and goes and destroys all the Mass Effect relays. Then for some reason the Normandy has run from the battle, and is running from the battle and the beam, which catches it, and the ship crashes on some jungle world.

In the destroy and control endings Joker comes out, then Garrus and Liara (who seemed to have survived the Earth and somehow got back to the ship). Strangely in the destroy ending we get an extra shot of rubble and an N7 dog tag and we see Shepard’s hand coming out of the rubble (why does killing you allies help you survive). And in the change ending we see Joker come out of the Normandy with glowing technology eyes and ears, the EDI comes out and the two hug and walk out into the jungle. Then after the credits we see a man and child with the an telling the child of the stories of Shepard, a hero from the past.

None of these are satisfying. Even if Shepard does survive, without the relays she will never see her lover again, and no one will ever get home. This is a messed up ending, that doesn’t even follow itself. It all feels like a cop out. I mean the reapers and the Illusive man are the enemy, why introduce a new one, that is unexplained, and basically screws everything up.

Honestly after 70+ hours and all Shepard has been through, don’t we all want a happy ending. The universe needs to continue and Shepard should be able to go and retire with her lover, and all her friend’s deserve to go home and rebuild their worlds. Shepard should not have to die again!

BioWare needs to RetCon this ending, and give a real happy ending of what you have been working toward this whole game, where ever race gets a place on the council. Why else did we solve the genofage? Why did we bring the Quarian’s and the Geth together? Why liberate the Quarian’s home world if the whole fleet is stuck at Earth? These endings really negate the whole game! They make no sense, and are such a downer, and no extended ending will make this better, they need to do a new proper happy ending!

Honestly, I would even be happy with a solid unhappy ending. In my opinion Shepard would have told the Catalyst to fuck off, and called Admiral Hackett and targeted all ships onto her location to destroy the control of the Reapers. And that would be a worthy death, but it wouldn’t even have to be. Joker could fly the Normandy in and snatch Shepard away just as the bombs were about to hit, then the Catalyst is destroyed, and the Reapers lose all central control and can be easily mopped up. Then you either have a Hero’s welcome or a funeral for Shepard. And the Mass Effect relays are not destroyed, only the Citadel, which all the remaining fleets can quickly rebuild using all the Reaper tech left around.

CHange.org has a petition to get a new ending and there are a ton of polls on the BioWare forums. Lets hope they fix this or I am never buying another BioWare Game again.

Now the Arclight Sherman Oaks is a different story. As there are a number of problems there that bother me. First off being that for $18 a ticket this movie should not have been shown on a tiny screen! And then the 3D glasses, while active (for higher resolution) have yet to be clean any time I have sene a 3D film here, and if you try and clean them the film on the lenses just gets worse and looks smeared which does not help the 3D experience at all. Not only that they have cheaped out and don’t even have napkins out, they hand you some if you get popcorn! For the ticket price, they can have napkins out! Anyway, back to topic.

I have to say the $18 million dollar 3D convert of Titanic is fantastic! The film looks really damn good, and the 3D was damn near perfect (except it always looked funny in the dissolves). And most of the film held up pretty well with a few exceptions. The big fly around of the ship in the daylight didn’t look very good, and the digital people are downright awful. And most glaring is the face replacement in the scene with the flooding corridor which looks beyond awful. And it was interesting to see that Cameron didn’t even remove the camera reflection from a glass door when Jack is going to the rich dining room for the first time. Strangely though I do hear that he did update the stars so they were correct for that position and time (as some scientist had been complaining since the film first came out). Honestly if a 3D upconvert can be this good, I can see it working on a lot of films, but at $18 million a pop I don’t think this level of upconvert will happen too often, and if they are going to do it they should do it right.

As for the film, it still holds up pretty well. Sure there are problems, but nothing too bad. The Romance doesn’t go on too long before you get Kate Winslet naked (and in 3D! Nice) and when the romance is really heating up the ship hits the iceberg and the action starts in. My biggest problems with the film are with the wrapper, as the whole thing with the old woman bothers me. Especially her dropping the priceless diamond into the sea instead of giving it to her family! And it is not only that, as we see her wheelchair bound for the whole film, not even able to get out of the helicopter and yet she walks fine to drop the diamond into the ocean! Why not put the diamond on after telling her story and die, and then go down into the ocean with her friends instead of dropping the diamond and doing it.

I will finish the review soon, but just wanted to get this up quickly after seeing it this weekend.

Yang (Jang Dong Gun) is a member of an assassin clan and the best swordsman in the world. He wipes out the last members of his clans enemy except a little baby girl, who he saves, but by doing so he makes an enemy of his clan, an they will be after him. Yang heads to the United States to visit an old friend who runs a laundry in a western town named Lode along with the baby. The down is completely run down and Yang is dead, and the residents are trying to rebuild the town into a circus to draw people back to what was once the Paris of the West. The town is run by the midget Eight-Ball (Tony Cox) and he almost meets the town drunk Ron (Geoffrey Rush) and Lynne (Kate Bosworth) who was friends with Smiley, Yang’s dead friend, and who adopts him and helps him take over the laundromat. Of course all is not good in the town, as it has been ravenged by a gang led by The Colonel (Danny Huston) who previously shot Lynne after trying to rape her and killing her parents.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Yang begins to like his life in the little town, as he learns to plant (strangely flowers instead of vegetables) and clean and have a normal life, but he also starts to train Lynne in the ways of the sword, and she ends up kissing him.

Meanwhile his clans leader Saddest Flute (the great Ti Lung) heads to America to find Yang, and waits to hear his sword drawn, but Yang has sealed his sword so he won’t use it.

The Colonel arrives, and sends most of his men away, but keeps a few and is going to rape a young woman with good teeth, but Lynne goes to him to try and kill him, but he recognizes her smell and is going to kill her, and she is saved by Yang (which alerts Saddest Flute to his location), and the Colonel escapes by dressing as one of his men, and Lynne kills the man dressed like her.

The town must then prepare for a siege. Yang is going to leave with the baby, but he stays to help the town, and Eight Ball gets Ron to come out of retirement, as he is the best shot there is, but swore not to shoot again when his wife died. And they have a hidden cache of weapons and dynamite, and Ron goes to the top of the ferris wheel to shoot dynamite and blow it up as the gang enters the town. Many of the town are killed in the battle.

And as the bandits attack, Saddest Flute and his men arrive.

Yang and Lynne fight the Colonel and she ends up killing them, but then Saddest Flute confronts them, and says that the little girl is his enemy, and will he tell her that he is her enemy and killed her whole clan?

We see Yang’s training as a boy and having to kill the puppy he raised himself, and he kills Saddest Flute, cutting his throat.

Yang then hands the baby to Lynne, and leave, staying as far from her as he can, as the clan can track him.

The film ends with Yang in the snow being attacked by a woman, who he kills with a fish, and then being attacked by clan members, and we see his katana has the baby’s pacifier in it, as he loves her.

•••

A ridiculous, strange and yet sort of fun film, with great action and visuals.

This time around ghost fighting Taoist priest Yin Chek Ha (Louis Koo Tin Lok) on his first mission was sent to destroy the spirits at Black Hill, especially the 10,000 year old Tree Demon (Wai Ying Hung) but instead fell in love with the Fox Spirit Siu Sin (Liu Yifei), when he finally realized they could not be together, he used his ultimate weapon, which was meant for the tree spirit on Siu Sin to make him forget him completely. Then young bumbling scholar Ning Choi Shan (Yu Shaoqun) arrives at the town at the bottom of the hill, which is dyeing for lack of water, and they get him to go into the black hills to get the water flowing, along with a gang of convicts. They find the water source, where the tree is, but Siu Sin’s demon sisters take the convicts and eat them. Siu Sin likes the sweet Ning Choi Shan who gives her candy just as Yin did before, and Yin shows up and starts killing the spirits, and Ning Choi Shan thinks he is a murderer.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Ning Choi Shan uses a bomb to free the water, and gets back to the town, but the people are being turned into trees by the water. The Tree Demon must be destroyed to save them.

Yin Chek Ha’s master arrives, who lost his arm in the battle with the Tree Demon, where Yin no longer had his powerful weapon, this is Xia Xuefenglei (Louis Fan) and his sister Xia Bing (Wang Danyi) who are determined to kill all the spirits and the tree demons.

Of course the Tree Demon has to be destroyed, and Ning Choi Shan is determined to save Siu Sin by getting her remains out of the Lanruo Temple.

IN the end Yin Chek Ha takes the weapon out of Sui Sin, which makes her remember him, and sacrifices himself, using himself to hold the demon, and the weapon to destroy the beast, and the temple is sucked in on itself, and Sui Sin goes with it to be with her true love Yin Check Ha, leaving Ning Choi Shan alive, but alone.

••••

Really a let down, and pointless, even if it does look good. And changing the love story really ruined it altogether, as you can’t care about it, because it is not real, only a shallow replacement fro the true love story.

Andy Lau Tak Wah plays Warlord Hou in the early 1900′s fighting to carve China up. He chases a rival General to Shaolin where many refugees have gone to seek food and shelter. Huo’s right hand Tsao (Nicholas Tse Ting Fun) has shown some mercy, but Huo shoots his rival on the sacred grounds, teaching Tsao that he has to be non-compromising. Hou then makes a deal with a general who is a friend of his to marry his daughter to the other generals son, but in fact sets him up to betray him, but in turn is betrayed by Tsao. He runs with his daughter, but Tsao knocks them over a cliff and his little daughter is hurt. Both Huo and his wife (Fan Bing Bing) end up at Shaolin Temple, and they watch as the daughter dies, and Huo’s wife leaves him. Huo with no where to go stays at Shaolin, being apprenticed to the cook Uncle Wudao (Jackie Chan) and slowly starts practicing his martial arts and learning the ways of Shaolin.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The head student at Shaolin (Wu Jing) is dealign with some of his students sneaking out to steal food for the people at Shaolin as well as with Huo who he eventually lets train with them in Martial arts.

Huo also learns from WuDao who had trained in Martial arts at Shaolin, but then became a cook, but unknowingly uses his martial arts in his cooking. He always talks of leaving Shaolin, but is scared to leave, as he has never been anyplace else.

Huo eventually gives up his external life and becomes a monk, though of course things can’t all be good.

Tsao returns and his intent is to destroy Shaolin, and he has Huo’s wife as his prisoner. Tsao also has brought foreigners and their weapons with them. The monks must protect the people and get them out. Uncle WuDao leads out the people as the Temple Head gives his life to stop the soldiers, and Huo fights Tsao.

Huo though tries to save Tsao, but Tsao keeps fighting and is killed by the canon fire from his ‘allies.’ And the temple is destroyed, but Huo and the monks escape with all the refugees and of course Shaolin will survive as they survive. And Huo’s wife forgives him, as she likes and loves the man he has become.

•••

Good martial arts, great production design, and an epic story. Sure it could have had better writing, and some of the acting is iffy, but the film is fun, and Andy Lau is great, and the Jackie Chan cameo is a highlight.

Benny Chan may not be the best dirctor, but this film is totally enjoyable and worth checking out.l

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!

In the year 2199 the earth has been under attack for 5 years by the evil aliens the Gamilus, and they have turned the Earth into a irradiated planet without a chance for life, and humans have moved underground to live. An Earth Defense Force Fleet led by Captain Jyuzo Okita (Yamazaki Tsutomu). His fleet is destroyed, and he is saved by another captain Kodai Mamoru (Tsutsumi Shinichi) who dies to save his commander. Fighter pilot Mori Yuki (Kuroki Meisa) also survives. On Earth former Ace Pilot Kodai Susumu, Mamoru’s younger brother works searching for hidden metals on Earth’s surface, but while out, something crashes, and he finds a probe, but is badly irradidated, and should die. He is saved by Okita’s ship, but blames the captain for his brother’s death. The doctor Sado (Takashima Reiko who is OK, but not as good as the older male character from the Anime) thinks Kodai should die. The message contains plans for a new engine, and space coordinates. Okita gets the Earth defense to let him have the Earths last Battleship the Yamato with the new engine, to instead of evacuate Earth with the best and brightest to follow the plans to give Earth Hope, and they ask Civilians to volunteer.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Kodai volunteers, and gets back his position as Black Tiger Commander, though pissing off Yuki. His old squad happily join him, though Yuki hates it. They are taking the former Japanese battleship Yamato, which has been refurnished with the new specs, and which destroys a Gamilus missile as it about to destroy them.

The Yamato makes it’s first warp thanks to it’s pilot, and Yuki is almost killed, but Kudai goes out saves her, but Okita has Kodai locked up for disobeying orders. Meanwhile the crew is allowed a minute to contact their families, though Kodai has no one to talk to.

After a warp they find a lone Gamilus ship, and take it in, and the Alien attacks, and when they shoot it, a crystal forms and the ground commando Saito Hajime (Ikeuchi Hiroyuchi) is possessed by the Gamilus leader Dessler (Ibu Masato), Kodai stuns Saito, and kills the alien.

Okita passes out, and hands command to Kodai. THe fighter they took in has a homing beacon, and they are attacked. A Gamilus ship is locked onto the 3rd bridge, and Kodai orders Yuki to shoot it and save the ship, killing the 6 crew members. Yuki is crushed, and Kodai goes to apologize and they kiss.

They are attacked again as they arrive to Iskandar, and their main weapon the Wave Motion Gun is plugged up, so they can’t use it. They have to randomly warp, and end up on the far side of Iskandar, seeing it looks just like Earth after the radiation attack. They go down to see the coordinates they were given with Kodai leading the way in his Cosmo Zero fighter.

Most of the fighters are destroyed, but Kodai, Yuki and the ground forces make it in, and go in a tank. They are mostly killed, and Yuki is taken over by the Iskandaran’s, who are a branch of the same race as Gamilus, but they want peace, and are willing to die instead of killing another race to save themselves, and they go in Yuki to save Earth from the Radiation. Sanda (Yanagiba Toshiro) and Saito (Ikueuchi Hiroyuki) go to destroy the Dessler power source and die, but destroy it, while Kodai and Yuki make it back to the Yamato with the Gamilus defeated.

The Yamato arrives back at Earth, but a Gamilus ship arrives and sends a missile to Earth. The Gamilus leader shows up on the Yamato to tell them that he has defeated them, and Kodai sends the crew off to Earth with Yuki to save the Earth. Yuki does not want to leave, but Kodai makes her go, and he crashes the Yamato into the missile as he fires the blocked wave motion gun, destroying the enemy, the Yamato and himself, but saving Yuki and the Earth.

•••

I hate the changes. They are pointless. I am OK with Yuki being an ace pilot, but they gave her bridge stuff to another woman for no reason. Dr Sado is a younger woman for no reason. And the Dessler are nothing like themselves in the Anime, and there is no twin planets with Lady Starsha saving humans and Kodai’s brother being alive. And Kodai killing himself to save the Earth is horrible, and is like the horrible Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato.

This could have been much better if they just followed the original great story, instead of changing it for no reason whatsoever.

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!

Big Finish has gone and made Audio Adventures of past Doctor Who’s, starring Peter Davison, the fifth Doctor, Collin Baker, the sixth doctor, Sylvester McCoy, the 7th Doctor, and Paul McGann, the 8th Doctor, as well as old and new companions in brand new audio adventures. And these are not like a read story, but a complete audio adventure with sound effects and many actors, and most of them are pretty amazing.

I wanted to do individual reviews, but I just haven’t had the time, so I will say it is well worth checking some of these out. If you are a fan of the past doctors, then these new adventures are for you.

Even Paul McGann who had such a short thrift in the awful US TV Movie, has a real new life, and I really love his audio adventures with his companion Charley Pollard (India Fisher), and he also has whole season outside the normal range (the normal range, which you can subscribe to has various adventures of each of the 4 above doctors).

Big Finish is also doing Lost Stories, which were scripts or stories that were meant to be shot, but never were, and Companion chronicles with various Companions of the Doctor, which is a way of having adventures of them without their doctors (like the first 4 doctors). And even more exciting is that Tom Baker the 4th Doctor has joined Big Finish to record a new Season of adventures coming out in the near future.

•••

I can’t recommend you check these out more highly. They really are a gas, capturing the feel of the old doctor who, but allowing your imagination to take over. What a great thing, it makes me wish they did audio things like this in the US, but we really only do music or plays, no audio only stories like this.

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!

This film starts just as the last film ends with Tien (Tony Jaa) having been captured by Lord Rajasena (Sarunyu Wongkrajang). Tien is beaten, and almost manages to escape, but is overpowered by superior numbers and his elbows and knees snap and he is held as a trophy. Some rebels try to free him, but fail when Bhuti Sangka (Dan Chupong) comes and kills them. Lord Rajasena tries to hire him, but Bhuti refuses and says he will come to him begging to remove the curse that is driving him crazy. Rajasena orders Tien to be killed, but one of the kings men arrives and pardons him and takes his broken body to be healed at Kana Khone village. Rajasena of course sends out assassins to kill Tien, but he is losing it and even kills some of his closest advisors.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The assassins arrive and slaughter the kings men and his people and others, but just manage to kill the villains. Master Bua (Nirutti Sirijanya) sets out to revive Tien, making a a buddha statue of him to help save him from the sins of his past life. The woman who has loved Tien since they were children, Pim (Primrata Det-Udom) helps, but when he wakes up he is crippled and rejects her.

Tien with the help of Master Bua starts to work on himself to fix his broken body, and slowly manages it, also learning dance from Pim, which is a healing art, and he starts to see something beyond revenge.

Rajasena visits Bhuti to remove the curse, but Bhuti kills him and becomes king (what the fuck, so the big villain is just dead by another villain?!?!??!?!?!?), though Bhuti is cursed by the severed head of Rajasena before he dies.

Tien returns from his training a new man, but finds the village destroyed and Pim taken.

He goes to the capital to confront Bhuti bent on revenge, and seeing Bhuti kill Pim, so Tien slaughters all in his way, but Bhuti kills him with a spear. And Tien realizes that being the spirit of vengeance was wrong, and time rewinds and he goes in with good intentions and Bhuti’s dark spell is broken and the people released, and Bhuti loses his evil powers.

The two fight, with Tien in the lead this time, and finally Bhuti is impaled on an elephant tusk and killed.

Tien and Pim return to the village and pray before the Buddha statue.

••••

What the fuck? I mean come on! This movie is a stinker, and I hope Tony Jaa gets his head together. He has gone and taken the vows at a buddhist temple and is currently a monk. Maybe he can get his head together and come back a better man. I would love to see Jackie Chan direct him!

Loy (Jacky Cheung Hok Yau) is getting older and has had only one real love in his life, and she got left him and got married, and so he has never grown up. He would sleep through every day if he could, though his aunt (Mimu Chu Mi Mi) wakes him and tried to get him going. His mom, Mrs Chiang (Bau Hei Jing) who runs an appliance store where he works keeps trying to set him up with women, and he is introduced at a dim sum lunch to Oi Ling (Tang Wei) a girl whose uncle and aunt adopted her and she works at their toilet shop. The meeting does not go well as Loy doesn’t care and Oi Ling has a boyfriend, a punk named Xu (Andy On Chi Kit) who is currently in jail for beating someone up. They do end up meeting again though, and make friends, going to a restaurant where the meet an Indian waiter, who keeps showing up, and they want to know who he actually is. The title refers to the road which you must cross to go from one’s parents shop to the next and changing neighborhoods.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Loy ends up with his childhood love (Maggie Cheung Ho Yee) back in his life, and back in her bed, though she obviously doesn’t care for him too much, but he does help her get new air condition for her art studio which she has gotten from her money from the divorce.

Mrs Chiang wants her son to do better, and also wants her relationship with Uncle Ching (the great Danny Lee Say Yin) who does their books and is an accountant, and whose little dog almost comes between Chiang and her sister.

Loy and Oi Ling keep hanging out, and becoming closer, and when Xu gets out of jail Oi Ling moves in with him, but sees what a rat he really is. He may have saved her once, but he is really not a good man, and only knows how to fight. And Loy sees how his love doesn’t really care about him, but she does enjoy the ease she has with him.

Xu beats Loy up, trying to get him to prove he can take care of Oi Ling, and he will. And eventually the two end up together, because their slow friendship is what is best for both of them.

••••

An enjoyable character piece. And Jackie Cheung is awesome as is his whole family. This is really a character piece and a very enjoyable film all around. And a must see for those not out for the typical romantic comedy.

In deep space is an orbital space station shaped like a cross, which is a prison facility and psychiatric station for criminals who are the worst of their kind around the fiery planet of Dante 01. A new shuttle arrives with a Vietnamese scientist named Elisa (Linh Dan Pham) who has come with new techniques from the company to test on patients and also brought another patient. This is a strange man who the prisoners end up calling Saint Georges (Lambert Wilson). He was found on a ship with the rest of the crew dead, and completely covered in blood. He doesn’t talk and is pretty out of it. He meets the other prisoners. The leader César (the great Dominique Pinon), the viscous recluse Bouddha (Bruno Lochet), the large Moloch (Francois Hadji-Lazaro), César’s right hand Lazare (Francois Levantal), the computer hacker Attila (Yann Collette) and the religious Raspoutine (Lotfi Yahya Jedidi) who believes that the new patient is actually Saint Georges come to slay the dragon and set them free, and he just might be right. Elisa immediately buts heads with the station commander Perséphone (Simona Maicanescu) who objects to her nanotech experiments, but the other researcher Charon (Gérald Laroche) sides with Elisa and the company over her old boss, but not before setting Attila to start hacking to find out about Elisa and what is going on and he finds out that all the prisoners are expendable.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Boudhha goes to strange George to supposedly alleviate his suffering, but César stops him, and the Warden uses gas to knock them all out. Elisa has the 2 security guards take Bouddha and they inject him with the nanotech designed to fix his problems, but which seems to only cause him great pain.

George goes towards Boudhha’s pain and when he comes in he sees what looks like a tentacled Alien creature in his chest which he eats, relieving Boudhaa’s pain, and stopping the nanites and creating a disciple.

Moloch attacks George, but Raspoutine jumps in and Moloch is accidentally sliced from ear to ear. Gas is poured in, but George runs to assist Moloch, and when the guards find him Moloch is fine. They leave, but first inject César with the nanotech, putting him into extreme pain.

Perséphone also believes Geoge is a miracle worker, but Elisa ignores it.

Moloch and César plot to take out George who they see as taking over in the prison. César though is incapacitated by the nanites, and so Moloch and Lazare go to take out George.

Attila who has taken Charon’s password contacts Charon to tell him he has taken over the computer system and set the station to crash into Dante 01.

Lazare gets to George and stabs him multiple times with a shiv. The dead George is taken by the Guards, but awakens, seemingly fine and takes Elisa as a hostage to get himself back into the prison quarters. George goes to César and sees the strange tentacled creature and eats it out of César, curing him and making him a friend as well.

Atilla tells the prisoners of his plans to kill them all, and he runs and hangs himself so that he can’t stop the process.

The scientists learn of the problem, but there is only a 2 person shuttle and the access to the actual bridge is through the prisoners section. The prisoners agree to help and lead them to the hatch, but Elisa activates the knock out gas, and preps the shuttle, but Lazarre grabs her, as he is able to hold his breath for 10 minutes to escape the gas. The two Launch, but Attila has reprogramed the shuttle and it crashes right into Dante 01.

THey get the panel open, but the the path has filled with super heated liquid from the coolant systems since the station is moving closer to the super hot Dante 01. César volunteers to go through the water and enter the code to save the station. They wrap him in insulation, but the water seeps in, and he makes it through only to die on the other side before entering the code.

Now this is where it gets weird. George then comes out of the station in a spacesuit and we can see the strange tentacled energy within him. He sees it also in the planet, and sucks it up from the planet, destroying himself along the way, but somehow the planet is transformed into a lush and verdant planet and the fall of the station is stopped.

•••

OK I didn’t say it wasn’t weird, I just said that I enjoyed it. And it is visually pretty cool, and enjoyable to watch until the way out there ending. Interesting to say the least, and I will certainly look for more Caro films should he make more.

Prince Albert, Duke of York and son of King George V (Colin Firth) makes a speech at the 1925 Empire Exhibition, stammering his way through it. He and his wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter here in non-insane mode) have him go through stammer cures including smoking and trying to talk with his mouth full of marbles, but none work, and he vows to stop trying to cure his stammer. Elizabeth, the duchess of York goes on her own to meet with an Australian speech therapist named Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) and persuades her husband to try his radical treatments. Logue and Albert but heads right away, as Albert has quite a temper, and does not like being treated as an equal, which Lionel insists on. He calls Albert “Bertie” which only his family calls him, and makes him stop smoking. He also bets him a shilling he can make him read without a stammer. Lionel has Bertie listen to music on headphones while he reads Shakespear’s Hamlet soliloquy and records it. Bertie is convinced he stammered throughout, and Logue gives him the recording with him reading it perfectly as a memento.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

King George V (Michael Gambon) makes his Christmas Radio address to the nation, telling Bertie he must become a skilled actor, and bullies his son.

Afterwards Albert puts on Logue’s recording and is stunned to here a perfect recitation of Shakespeare in his own voice, so he returns to Logue. Logue insists on daily lessons working on muscle relaxation and breath control as well as probing the mental cause of the stammer. We see that Albert had so much pressure as a child with his strict father, his left handedness, painful treatments for his knock-knees and a nanny who did not love him, but loved his brother Edward much more. Slowly the doctor and his patient become friends.

When George V dies, the eldest son Edward VIII (Guy Pierce) is named King, but he is in love with divorced socialite Wallis Simpson. Albert confronts his brother and is shocked when he learns that Edward intends to marry the divorced Wallis. Albert points out that he can’t keep the throne and marry a divorced woman, and Edward accuses him of plotting to steal the throne, which he says is further proved by his speech lessons.

Albert can only talk about that to Logue, who says he could be king, which enrages Albert. He taunts Logue with his failed acting career and humble origins.

Edward abdicates, and Albert is made King George VI and goes to Logue’s to apologize.

Albert insists that Logue be in the king’s box at the coronation, but the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang (Derek Jacobi) doesn’t like it. He finds that Logue has no actual credentials.

Albert confronts Logie, and he sits in King Edward’s chair. Albert rails that he is just as worthy to be king as his brother or anyone else before him!

When war is declared in 1939, Albert is given a 3 page speech to read on the radio. He summons his friend Logue, and the rehearse for 40 minutes with all his techniques. They got to the broadcast room, just the two of them, and Albert gives his speech, with Logue there coaching him, using the pauses to be dramatic, and make the speech a success.

Albert takes a fake photo of himself giving the speech at his desk, and then goes out to the adoring public with his family.

The final credits tell that Logue helped the king in every speech from then on and he was given the honor of being in the Royal Victorian Order for this service to the king, and the two remained friends for life.

••••

Really a great and powerful film, and I love that Rush helped get this film made. Really a fantastic film.

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