Season Review: Spartacus: Blood and Sand

If you never turned on the Starz original series, you are missing out. I will admit that when I did a review on the first episode I was less than excited. I thought it was an "okay" show, but nothing spectacular. Oh man did it get better! More sex and violence than any other show I've ever seen and that includes True Blood, The Tudors, Rome, The Sopranos, or any other show that has been on TV and known for its "mature" thematic elements. Every episode drew you more and more into the story. Leaving you rooting for the "Champion of Capua" and wishing for the downfall of Batiatus(John Hannah). Now I was hooked on the show probably by the 2nd or 3rd episode, but WOW! The season finale made that hook permanent. It is possibly the greatest episode of a TV show I have ever seen, absolutely amazing, and more blood and guts than you can possibly imagine. Now I don't recommend you watch the season finale without seeing the rest of the season first, but, if you refuse to watch it all, just watch the finale, you will not be disappointed.

UPDATE: due to the series star Andy Whitfield being treated for lymphoma, Starz has decided to do a 6 part prequel that will highlight the rise of the house of Batiatus, leading up to the days when Spartacus makes his first appearance at the gladiator school.


Rating: 5 STARS

Movie Review: Daybreakers

The next stage in the evolution of the vampire movie is upon us. In this movie starring Ethan Hawke(Training Day, Before Sunrise, Taking Lives), Willem Defoe (Spiderman, Shadow of a Vampire), and Sam Neil (Jurassic Park, Merlin, The Tudors), the vampires are the main population and the humans are the ones being hunted and on the brink of extinction. It is your regular vampire movie, except backwards, as we see all the everyday societal functions (police, bus drivers, students, vagrants, government officials, etc.) all being vampires. The vampires basically farm the humans they catch for blood to feed the growing population of vamps. Edward (Hawke) is a human sympathizer as he never wanted to be turned into a vampire in the first place. He is a hematologist searching for a blood alternative in hopes that the need to hunt humans will stop. Although he doesn't find the blood substitute, he does stumble across a cure. A way for a vampire to become human again. The question is, is it in time to save the human race before its extermination? Well worth a watch. It did not get good reviews so I was skeptical, but as usual, I completely disagree with the critics. So check this movie out.

Rating: 4 stars

Movie Review: Legion

Paul Bettany stars as the Archangel Michael who falls from heaven, clipping his wings, in order to save humanity from God's wrath. I must say, going into the movie I was expecting to see angels vs. demons, not angels vs. angels. It is an unusual portrayal of angels, how often do we think of them as evil (other than Lucifer, of course). In this film, hundreds of thousands of angels have descended from heaven, possessing the weak minded humans and turning them into killing machines. Michael must protect the unborn child of Charlie (Adrianne Palicki). This child is the key to saving humanity. Michael does his best to try and protect the baby and the other archangel Gabriel does his best to destroy it. The movie was entertaining, it's no The Prophecy, but good enough to keep you entertained. Just remember it's not heaven vs. hell, it's heaven vs. earth.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Movie Review: Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

The late Heath Ledger's last movie. That alone is enough to see it. Whether you liked him as an actor or not, he was part of some great movies over his short career (10 Things I Hate About You, A Knight's Tale, Dark Knight). In Parnassus Ledger plays one of three Tony's. The others are played by Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Ferrell, who all volunteered to fill in for Ledger after his passing. This movie was not the best I had ever seen, but it kept my interest and anyone who knows me knows how hard that is to do. As for weirdness, this movie gets a 10, no question. As you can imagine (no pun intended) the "imaginarium" depicted in this film is a very strange and unusual place where the dream of whomever enters comes to life. The trick being that in this dream world, Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and Mr. Nick "The Devil" (Tom Waits) are fighting over the souls of those who enter the imaginarium. This movie is basically one big acid trip, but in a good way. It's entertaining and worth a watch if for nothing more than some great special fx, so check it out.

Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Movie Review: Twilight: New Moon

Team Edward or Team Jacob? Who the hell cares, other than teenage girls? The truth is that I will probably watch all of these movies because they are "vampire movies" and I use the term loosely, very loosely. I would more likely just say that these movies are really just a regular teen drama that happens to have vampires and werewolves in it. But again, I use those terms loosely. Vampires do not twinkle in the sunlight, they burn, and werewolves, well, they just looked horrible. As a whole this sequel was ten times worse than the original. It was too long, and way too boring. I remember mentioning in class how little I thought of this movie and how I was unleashed upon by some of the young ladies in the class. "OMG, it was so amazing." "Jacob and Edward are so hot!" Good to know. I am not a young girl, so I tend to disagree. Truth is, if you want a sappy teen drama then this movie is for you. If you want a vampire movie, look elsewhere. It's that simple.

Rating: 1 1/2 stars

Movie Review: Surrogates

I will open this review by asking a question. Did you enjoy I, Robot? If your answer is yes, then you will probably enjoy this movie. I found Surrogates to basically be a sequel to I, Robot. This may be due to the fact that in both movies, the "robots" were created by a doctor played by the same actor (James Cromwell). They are not actually the same character so this is not really a sequel, but it basically has the same plot, just takes place in an even lazier society than in I, Robot. This movie stars Bruce Willis as our protagonist, Tom Greer. He is a cop trying to solve a string of murders, yes it is the usual "who done it" movie. Basically people have become completely isolated and never leave the safety of their homes. They instead use surrogate robots to walk the streets in their place. They can make these surrogates look any way they please, and live vicariously through them using some form of virtual reality.
Someone has an advanced weapon that is being used to kill surrogates, Greer's surrogate is destroyed and he must walk the streets "for real" for the first time in years to find out who is killing the surrogates and why.
I really viewed this movie as a lesser version of I, Robot. With that said, Surrogates isn't the best movie I've ever seen, but its not the worst either. If you need your fix of Sci-Fi action/thrills, this will do the job just fine.

Rating: 3 of 5 stars

Movie Review: Adam

Adam, played by Hugh Dancy(Confessions of a Shopoholic, Basic Instinct 2), is a young man hindered by Asperger's Syndrome. It is a social disorder which makes Adam's interactions with other people to be quite difficult. Early on in the movie he meets Beth(Rose Byrne) who finds Adam to be endearing regardless of his mental state. They begin a relationship and although it is not a conventional one, love blossoms anyway. There is plenty of humor and drama that goes along with this story. I thoroughly enjoyed the first 3/4 of this movie, the last 1/4 was less than stellar in my opinion. Is it worth a watch? Without question. It is a very emotional and impactful film, so watch and enjoy. Just don't say I didn't warn you about the end of it.


Rating: 5 of 5 stars for the first 3/4 of the movie, then 2 of 5 for the last 1/4, so in total it gets
3.5 of 5 stars.