No Ordinary Family - No Ordinary Marriage

I gave this show another chance and I am so glad I did.  The second episode was an improvement on the pilot, which means I will keep watching this show and you should be too.
The family is learning to deal with their new abilities.  Jim Powell is trying to catch a bank robber and jumps in front of their get away van when they run over him!  He realises he needs to practice stopping cars, so his D.A. friend, George, drives cars into him!  He can't stop the cars and keeps getting run over.  Meanwhile, his wife keeps running everywhere until she trips over a bike while doing over 600 miles per hour!  She scrapes off a lot of skin in the process but due to her increased metabolism, she can heal rapidly.  Because of this accident, both Jim and Stephanie decide to not use their powers till they know more.  This doesn't last long as Stephanie runs to another state (!) to collect a sample of the water from the Amazon so she can isolate what gave them their powers.  When George is in a bank when it is robbed, he is taken hostage and Jim goes to rescue him.  Once again he gets run over but he stops the car and flips it but then the cop, Yvonne turns up and sees him leaving the scene.  She confronts him and he reveals his powers to her.  She tells him to leave things alone or she will arrest him.  Meanwhile Stephanie's boss sends his henchman to find out who saw the guy teleport (in the pilot) and he starts with Yvonne as she was the one that shot him.  He confronts her in her apartment and reveals that he has the power of telekinesis!  After suspending her in the air, he turns her gun on her and shoots her.
Oh and the kids are dealing with their particular issues.  Daphne is trying to deal with all the voices in her mind by listening to music through headphones until her Mum teaches her how to focus on something good.  J.J. is getting A's for his maths and so his teacher assumes he is cheating.  His sister says to try shooting lower to not put the focus on him but his teacher still thinks he is cheating.
The story is getting better, so looking forward to the next episode.

Parenthood - Hard Times Come Again No More

So this is the season finale for year two with the Braverman Family.  Amber survives the car crash with some breaks and bruises, but doesn't appear to have understood the impact she has had on her family.  While the family were waiting to hear the news, Jasmine turns up to offer her support but completely ignores Crosby.  When she leaves, he follows her out and tells her about the house but she says no.  Julia comes across a past teacher of Sydney's at the hospital who is about to have a baby and has no support there, so Julia stays with her for the birth.  Adam is told that his boss has sacked the design manager without telling him and with everything that has gone on at the hospital, he goes off.
The fallout of all of this is that Amber's grandfather shows her the wreck and then tells her she is not allowed to destroy his dreams of his grandchildren and to basically pull up her socks.  Crosby goes to see Jasmine and tells her he won't be pursuing her anymore, so this actually brings her back to him and she looks at the house and sits and talks with him.  (Personally I think she is a selfish control freak that once he didn't want anything to do with her, she came back to him.  What a bitch.)  Julia goes back to the mother and holds her baby and decides she's not finished wanting another child and tells Joel that she now wants to adopt.  Adam's boss decides that Adam is no longer a good fit and fires him.
When Adam arrives home, and is looking for a lost retainer for Max, he comes across a positive pregnancy test and assumes it is Hettie's.  However, it is actually Kristina's!  He's going to be a father again and he has no job!  Makes for an interesting third season.
As a final note, Sarah's play is a huge success.  What is her future going to hold?  We'll have to wait till next year now to find out.

Empire - Issue 124

I can't believe I have finished another issue of Empire within the month it was issued! Especially since it is a Giant 164 page collector's edition! I even read a novel this month!
I must say thank you to the creators of Empire Magazine Australia.  This would have to be one of the best issues EVER!
Firstly, thanks for the exclusive image of David Tennant as Peter Vincent!  I just can't recognise him!  I loved the original Fright Night movies (when do they get the Blu-Ray special edition treatment?), especially Roddy McDowall.  Looking forward to how Dr Who shapes up against Colin Farrell.  The crossword was especially tough this month and I have not been able to work out the scrambled celebrity's name.  Anyone out there who can help me?  My Movie Mastermind was fun with the two Zucker Brothers and I just LOVED The Grill with Cybill Shepherd.  She is STILL incredibly sexy!  Bruce, please put away your differences and join her to make a Moonlighting movie before some Hollywood bozo decides it's ripe for a reimagining with some teenage wannabees in it.  Please be David Addison for us one more time!
The classic shot was timely as I only just watch L.A. confidential for the first time this month.  The Top 10 Crazy Schemes was 'crazy'.
And then there is Harry Potter.  Can I say, this was the most amazing way of covering the conclusion of a decade-long saga.  While it was light on in words, the words were special.  Quotes from all the major players as the movies went along.  But the images were just incredible.  I loved the photo shoot with all the stars.  I know that after I have seen this last film, I am going to have a sense of loss, similar to how I felt after finishing the last book.  At least we will have the Hobbit movies to fill the void!
Great article on Super 8 and lovely photo of Marion Cotillard.  Woo Hoo!
Thank you for revisiting one of my favourite comedies from the eighties, The Three Amigos!  I am a huge Steve Martin fan (he does very funny tweets, check him out) but I was pleasantly surprised at how much these three guys are friends.  It was heartening to see this in the otherwise shallow world of Hollywood.  Very funny photo shoot for this article too.  It must have been an absolute blast for Nick De Semlyen to do this interview.
Not big into fighting movies (though I did like Rocky and The Fighter, go figure) so I am not sure how I feel about Real Steel and Warrior.  I was blown away by the Michael Jackson 'Moonwalker' article.  This was a 'movie' that was an unusual thing that was special.  It had all the special effects that I loved, with a hint of the stories I liked, fantastic MJ music and that incredible Smooth Criminal video.  Finally, (and I am not too sure if I am happy about this or not) the secret of that famous lean in the video is revealed.  I always wondered how they did that! I had no idea he was such an incredible control freak.  I have seen a three minute version of Ghosts but I really would love the see the full version.  They mention it has never had a DVD release.  Why would they not release it on the Visions DVD they recently put out which was supposed to have all of Michael's videos remastered?  And why no Blu-Ray version?
A couple of movie posters again. And yes, I am gonna keep saying it, make them bigger, separate from the mag and single sided, PLEASE!
And it is about time that The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy is recognised for being the Masterpiece it is. A very well written article and a great way to round off the best Empire ever.  If you haven't yet bought it, get down to your local newsagent and grab a copy before the next issue comes out next week!

NCIS: Los Angeles - Bounty

A good episode of NCIS-LA but with one major fault that I will talk about in a moment.  The episode commences with a man buying a birthday card and then going to a clandestine meeting where he is tasered and kidnapped.  The next day, his body turns up tortured and then shot in the head.  Turns out he was an ex-marine who knew the where-abouts of a Taliban bomb maker and was going to collect the reward.  While at the scene of the crime, a man in a suit is watching and captured and he turns out to be the dead man's brother-in-law but also a secret operative who was working with the dead man to capture high profile targets and share the reward.  After hunting down and killing the Afghanastani operatives, the team are no closer to finding the killer when they find the birthday card the dead man had sent to his son contained a photograph with an invisible mark that gave the location and time to locate the bomb maker.  They worked out that the killer had incorrect time info, so they were able to travel to Afghanistan and capture the bomb maker and then wait for the killer to reveal himself.  It happened to be the brother-in-law.  Surprise surprise.
A good story and it was good that they travelled, but two things wrong in their story telling.  How did the Dad put a bag of money under a hidden floor board in his son's rented flat if he hadn't spoken to him for years?  How did he know the kid had a space in the floor to hide things in and then a space under that to hide the bag?
Secondly, why did the brother-in-law go back to the scene of the crime?  He says he was confirming it was his brother-in-law but he killed him so he knew that.  If he had not returned to the scene, NCIS would never had known about him and he would have got away.  Poor plot device.
I did love Hetty's line of "I sense impending mayhem and perhaps an outrageous petty cash request!" - Classic.

NCIS - Kill Screen

This week's episode of NCIS, Kill Screen, is a very clever story, filled with red herrings that works so much better than their Los Angeles cousins.  A pick pocket is discovered with a handbag filled with fingers and teeth that were one part of a marine.  The dead marine's ex-girlfriend, Maxine,  is into computer games and plays laser tag at the same place McGee plays.  She mentions the marine left her with an envelope which was not meant to be opened unless he didn't come back from the war.  When McGee accompanies her back to her apartment, someone shoots up the place while he is discovering that Maxine is a famous game player who has just finished a new game.  She mentions that when she clocked up a new record she got a kill screen which she took screen shots of.  It is discovered that the kill screens are actually a program to hack into the Pentagon.  So the real target is Maxine, the killer thought the marine had played the game and got to the kill screens.  A tense episode continues with the search for the programmer, the killer and then trying to stop the program from getting through the Pentagon's firewalls and deleting all files.  Another great episode of NCIS.

Supernatural - The French Mistake

The second episode of Supernatural this week is probably one of the best episodes of the show ever.  It was absolutely hilarious!  The story has Sam and Dean being visited by Balthazar and Castiel who are running from Raphael.  Balthazar gives the boys a key to where the weapons of heaven are stored and then sends them to an alternate reality, where they are Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles staring in a television series called 'Supernatural'!!  There are so many in-jokes on the actors real lives, like Jared being married to the actress who played the demon Ruby, just like in real life and Misha Collins tweeting like crazy, which he loves to do!  The director is Robert Singer, who the character Bobby Singer is named after and even the original show runner, Eric Kripke makes an appearance.  It's hilarious as the boys try to 'act' in a scene.  Misha is brilliantly funny and it just shows how silly they must all feel while they make this show sometimes.
Magic doesn't work in this world and they have no idea how they can get back, when one of Raphael's angels gets sent back to chase the boys and goes on a killing spree. 
This was clever television.  It would have been very cheap to make but ended up being one of the best episodes ever.  Loved this!

Supernatural - Mannequin 3: The Reckoning

This was a particularly creepy episode where men are being brutally murdered by mannequins.  Yes, mannequins.  You see, a girl who worked at a clothing factory was ridiculed and tricked by some of the male workers and was accidentally killed by them.  She returned to exact revenge by inhabiting mannequins and killing the men, one by one.  To stop her, the boys need to burn her bones, but for some reason, this doesn't stop the killing.  They then discover that the woman's sister has one of her kidneys!  How will they stop the killing?  This episode does not end well and makes the brothers question what they are doing. 
Also Dean gets a call from Ben saying his Mum, Lisa, is locked in her room and won't talk to him.  When Dean rushes to see what is wrong, he discovers Lisa is about to go on a date.  Ben tricked him to come to hopefully fix the relationship but Lisa makes it clear, it is over.  This was quite a sad episode.

X-Men: First Class

The X-Men movie franchise has been a huge hit with audiences, introducing the non-comic reading public to what is considered to be the pinnacle in comic stories.  The movies we have had so far have to a great extent been Wolverine-centric, but the movies have an entire plethora of characters. all of which have their own back stories.  First Class gives us answers to some of the questions we may have asked, like how does Professor X end up in the wheelchair and what happened between him and Magneto to make friends into enemies.
The film has a number of connections to the movie series we have had so far.  Bryan Singer has a producer and writing credit on this film.  The opening sequence in the concentration camp is from the first X-Men movie and there is a certain cameo which I won't reveal if you haven't seen it yet, but you will love it.  Best line in the movie!
The movie is ably directed by Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn and stars James McAvoy (Wanted) as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Basterds) as Erik Lehnsherr.  I love James McAvoy but I was surprised at Michael Fassbender.  As Mathew Vaughn has said, he embodies James Bond throughout this film!  It is like watching a Bond film from the 60's.  When Daniel Craig finishes his stint, I think Mr Fassbender could ably step into the role.
The thing I love about this film is the historical setting of this film with the world coming to the brink of atomic war between Russia and America and the Cuban blockade.  It not only fits this story exceptionally, it allows the whole climate of mutant fear to come to the fore.
I love that this also stars Aussie Rose Byrne, Oliver Platt and the ever reliable Kevin Bacon.  As an origin movie, it is difficult to be surprised considering we have four other movies in the franchise set after this one.  Having said that, I think they did a fantastic job with the story.  I hope they now do a Magneto movie staring both Michael Fassbender and Ian McKellan.  By the way, don't bother waiting till the end of the credits for a bonus, as there isn't one.  Ripped off! 8/10.

House - Bombshells

Bombshells would have to be the finest episode of House all season (so far!).  Cutty finds blood in her urine and House is convinced it is nothing to worry about it.  He doesn't want to face the possibility that she could be terminally ill, or that he may have to face the hurt that would come with losing someone you love, so he deflects.  A tumor is found in her kidney and still he will not show concern, even when spots are discovered on her lungs indicating that the cancer has metastasised.  She believes he won't let her down and will turn up to be by her side.  When he does, he stays with her and cares for her and then they discover that the tumor was benign and the spots were a reaction to anti-biotics.  He still stays with her.  While all this is going on, both House and Cutty are having dreams about their relationship and these are absolutely brilliant!  One is when Cutty needs to consider who will care for her daughter if she dies.  she picks her sister because her dream has House and Wilson as a bad 'My Two Dads' type sit-com with House teaching her daughter to not get caught when shoplifting!  House dreams of a wrecked hospital and his staff turned into zombies!  At least he brought his Axe-Cane!  Hilarious!  Another dream is a take off of the end of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, complete with Panavision 2.35:1 ratio and washed out sepia-like colour scheme!  There is also a Leave It To Beaver type dream and a surreal song and dance number where Hugh Laurie's voice gets to belt out Get Happy!
##SPOILER ALERT!!##
At the end of the episode, Cutty suddenly realises that the only way House could have coped and been there for her was if he was taking Vicadin again.  She confronts him and tells him it is over.  He is destroyed.  The episode ends with him sitting on the floor of his bathroom, reminiscent of his breakdown from couple of seasons back, taking more tablets.  He truly loves Cutty and this was just heart-crushing to watch.
Oh and there was a patient that they couldn't diagnose until House has an epiphany near the end of the episode.  Blah, blah, the usual rubbish, but it didn't detract from an exceptional episode.  Brilliant television.

Downton Abbey - Episode Five

This show is just getting better and better with each episode.  This week's episode is set two months after last week's episode and starts with Bates walking in on Thomas stealing a bottle of wine from the cellar.  Thomas and Miss O'Brien conspire to set Bates up for stealing a snuffbox from the Earl before he can say anything about the wine.  Anna realises what is happening and she and Bates locate the snuffbox in Bates room and relocate it and then ask Carson to do a search immediately.  Thomas and Miss O'Brien quickly tear their rooms apart to locate the box and restore it to it's rightful place before they are found with it.
Anna and Bates finally reveal their feelings for each other (Anna even tells Bates that she loves him) but he says he is not a free man and for now, he cannot do anything.
The annual rose garden competition is on again in which the Dowager ALWAYS wins.  Isobel confronts her and challenges her to let Moseley's father win this year.  When it comes time to announce the winner, it is officially the Dowager, but she proves that she is really a nice person after all and awards it to Mr Moseley.
Sybil continues to try and get Gwen a job as a secretary and they sneak out only to have the horse throw a shoe on the way back.  they even fall int he mud trying to get the horse to move!  They get back very late, but are not discovered.  Unfortunately, Gwen is still not successful, but Sybil will not give up.
Meanwhile, Mary is still dealing with the fall out regarding the death of the Turk.  She is finding she is attracted to Matthew but she is fighting with her sister Edith and end up pushing Matthew away.  Edith finds out the horrible truth about Mary and the Turk from Daisy and the episode ends with her writing to the Turkish Ambassador.  What a spiteful little witch.  What is going to be the fallout for the family after this?  What has Edith done?  Can't wait for next Sunday's episode!

Glee - Original Song

A big episode of Glee and surprisingly a bit anti-climactic.  The Glee class are up for Regionals again (which was what the entire first season was about) and decide to write original songs to perform.  I have to say, some of these were very good and quite funny (Trouty Mouth and Big Ass Heart!) but the ones they chose to sing in the competition were a bit weak I thought.  In fact the boys from Dalton Academy were heaps better, though it was better to listen to them sing Pink than to watch them.  It just took the toughness of this song away.
Talking about Dalton, Blaine finally realises his feelings for Kurt and expresses them with a kiss!  They are officially on.
The episode also featured celebrity guests stand-up comedienne Kathy Griffin as a Christian politician and Loretta Devine (Eli Stone) as a Nun who used to be an exotic dancer (!?!).
##SPOILER ALERT!## Of course the McKinley High kids win but it just seemed so, Oh well, and yes they are up for Regionals and they won, ho-hum.  Let's move on to the Nationals.  Where's the drama?!

NCIS: Los Angeles - Anonymous

This week's episode has the NCIS-LA team trying to find a terrorist cell who have had their faces modified by a plastic surgeon and they don't have any idea of what they look like, except for the wife of the plastic surgeon who did the job.  They'd ask the surgeon himself but he has been killed by the terrorists.
This episode would have been brilliant if it hadn't been for two things.  Firstly, the wife as a character was incredibly annoying in her reaction to things.  Firstly she is being shot at outside a FBI building and instead of running up a couple of more steps AWAY from the shooter and into the safety of the FBI, she runs down the steps and down the street!  Why would anyone do that? And then at the end, when the team are hunting down the last terrorist at a crowded party, instead of staying at the bar where it is safe, she WALKS into the line of fire!!  That was a very lazy way of writing and not what I have come to expect from the NCIS team.
The second thing is that Christopher Judge from Stargate was criminally underused!  I think he actually only got one or two lines and was in it for only a couple of minutes.
This was a clever story but was clumsily executed.

Lost In Translation

Sofia Coppola has crafted a beautiful love story between two lost souls in Japan.  This is a wonderfully understated slow-burn of a story.  If you are looking for Michael Bay explosions, this 'aint' the movie for you.  However, if you like exceptional acting tinged with some bittersweet mature humour, then this movie is right up your alley.
Ghostbusters Bill Murray is an aging action star (Bill Harris) doing a Suntory Whisky ad campaign in Tokyo for a couple of million dollars.  He is on his own in a country where he understands nothing that is being said to him.  Scarlett Johansson (Charlotte) is married to photographer Giovanni Ribisi who is in Japan to shoot a spread for a band but he leaves Scarlett alone in their hotel room every day.  Neither Bill nor Charlotte can sleep at night for the week they are both in Tokyo and they end up seeing each other in the bar and the hotel pool.  They are two people in a frantic neon light filled world where there are so many people but they are actually alone. Eventually Charlotte invites Bill to join her when she catches up with some people she knows and an unlikely friendship blooms between the much older Bill and Charlotte.   While they never have sex, their friendship grows to the point they can both fall asleep with each other.  In fact, when Bill ends up having sex with the lounge singer and Charlotte discovers him in the morning, she is jealous.  It almost ends their friendship.  When the week is over, will they part friends?
Almost every scene that Bill Murray is in is hilarious, but not like slapstick funny.  A great example is when he is filming the commercial for the whisky and the director is speaking to him in Japanese and the interpreter converts it to English and it seems the director was saying so much more.  Bill Murray can make me crack up with laughter with just a look.  Brilliant.
This is a very slow movie but just wonderful to experience.  I really enjoyed this.  9/10

Field Of Dreams

Field Of Dreams is one of my all time favourite films.  I have seen this movie so many times, I can quote it as the movie plays.  I used to have it on VHS but of course now own the DVD.  I even have the novel the movie was based on.  As I was channel hopping on Friday night, I was very happy to see it starting, so of course that is where it stayed.  My wife said that she didn't see my attraction to this film as it is just about baseball, and my response was while it is about baseball, that is not the story, it was really my first foray into magic realism in film.  It was a real story with real people (the baseball characters and their circumstances are based on real ball players), in an extraordinary situation and the key players go with it.  They don't fight it and they, and us, are rewarded because of it.
The story has a corn farmer, Ray Kinsella, in Iowa who hears a voice while out in his field saying "If you build it, he will come", he sees a baseball field where his crops are and then Shoeless Joe Jackson.  Because his Dad was into baseball, Ray knew all about the players from the past, especially the eight who were suspended for life for throwing a game, one of which was Shoeless Joe Jackson.  Ray believes he is being asked to build a baseball field, so Shoeless Joe Jackson can come back from the dead to play again.  Because he is afraid of becoming his Dad, who never did a spontaneous thing in his life, he decides to plow under part of his corn to build a beautiful field.  His wife, Annie, accepts what is happening and supports him.  Her attitude to her husband is so positive and powerful and shows just how much she loves him.
I don't want to go into the full story but in short, Ray hears other messages, goes across country to collect the J.D. Salinger-ish author, Terrance Mann and take him to a ball game where they get another message to collect another ball player, Moonlight Graham, who died in 1972!  Meanwhile, the farm is in debt and Annie's brother, who can't see the ball players on the field, buys the debt and threatens to foreclose.
This is not just a story about baseball.  It is really about a son reconciling with his deceased father (Ray never got to apologise to him before he died for a nasty thing he said about Shoeless Joe) through a common love, baseball.
The movie stars my favourite actor, Kevin Costner as Ray, the wonderful Amy Madigan as his supportive wife, Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe and Darth Vader himself, James Earl Jones as Terrance Mann.  It also has Burt Lancaster in his final major film appearance as Moonlight Graham.  The director is Phil Alden Robinson who also made another of my all time favourite movies, Sneakers, but that's a story for another time.
This is a magical film and if you are one of the three people on the planet who haven't yet seen it, rent or better still, buy a copy now.  You will love it.  10/10

Inkheart

New Line Cinema has become synonymous with bringing fantasy literature to cinematic life.  They dove in with Lord of the Rings and perhaps feeling they could walk on water after that phenomenal success, they tried The Golden Compass.  Finding that they were not able to float so well, they then went on to try Inkheart, a novel by Cornelia Funke, which surprisingly almost doubled it's money but still was not considered a success by Lord of the Rings standards.
The story involves a book repairer, Mo, played by Brendan Fraser, searching for a copy of the novel "Inkheart".  You see, he is a 'Silvertongue' which means that when he reads aloud, he brings what is written to life.  However, he discovered that when something comes out of a novel, something else must go back in and so, when he read Inkheart and the evil Capricorn, played by a CGI-less Andy Serkis,  and his henchmen materialise, Mo's wife, Resa disappears.  So he searches for a copy of the book to read her out of the book.  But if he does that, then something must go back in and Capricorn does not want to go.  Therefore he has been collecting all known copies of the book and burning them.  Another character that came out but does want to go back is Dustfinger, played by Paul Bettany, who unfortunately is a dubious character and often will screw over a friend if it will save him.  However, he is deceived by Capricorn when he betrays Mo, and he is not read back into the novel.  Capricorn wants to bring the evil Shadow from the novel into our world to destroy every living thing but the Silvertongue he has, has a stutter (hence his henchmen and other monsters brought out of novels, all have words tattooed on them because he hasn't successfully read them in to our world.  So Capricorn needs Mo.  Then they all discover that Mo and Resa's daughter, Meggie, is also a Silvertongue so Capricorn captures her instead.
This is not a bad movie, it is just not great for some reason.  There were some nice touches, the tattoos, the use of monsters from other novels, and the inspired casting of Helen Mirren as Mo's Aunt and Jim Broadbent as the author of Inkheart.  Paul Bettany even gets to work with his incredibly gorgeous wife AGAIN, Jennifer Connelly who has a small role as Dustfinger's wife!  The Shadow was a great character and the effects to realise it were brilliant but it was not utilised any where near what it should have been and it felt like a wasted opportunity.
There is an issue for me with the whole point to this story and it would be that what happens if you read someone out of a story and then reread the same paragraph, would another copy of that character show up?  What happens to people who go into the book?  How do they exist if their character is not in the book originally?  Where did Jim Broadbent get the paper and pencil from while in the dungeon?
Not a great movie but it had potential to be so much more.  Such a shame. 6/10

Species

This is a movie that now has three sequels but I still hadn't seen any of them.  Before I bought this series on DVD, I really wanted to at least see the first one.  As it starts, it is obvious that they were going for the 'Alien' vibe with the credits mirroring the opening of Alien and the creature even being designed by H. R. Geiger.  It is a shame that it could not live up to it's much more superior forebear.
I was surprised with the cast, Ben Kingsley (Oscar winner for Gandhi), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs),  Alfred Molina (Spiderman 2), Forest Whitaker (Vantage Point), Marg Helgenberger (CSI) and introducing Natasha Henstridge (Eli Stone) but the acting actually atrocious!
The story has Ben Kingsley grows a little girl out of alien DNA which escapes, grows into a woman (Natasha) and proceeds to try and mate with an eligible male, killing those that do meet her exacting standards.  Ben puts together a team of experts to help track her down and kill her.
I am very surprised that this was not better made as the director, Roger Donaldson has made some OK movies such as No Way Out, Cocktail and Dante's Peak.  It seems it was just a good opportunity to get Natasha to be naked alot, which is not such a bad thing.
Unfortunately, the effects which I am sure would have been good at the time, have not stood up too well.
The final showdown occurs in a massive cave filled with oil just off a sewer.  After they think they have finished off the alien and it's devil spawn, they merrily climb out of the cave while Marg finishes with the line "I never thought I would be so happy to be back in a sewer", which pretty well sums up how I felt after wasting two hours watching this crap.  You know there is even something similar to a line out of Aliens with their version "Let go of him you Motherfucker!" (aliens came out a year later, but that doesn't mean they didn't find out about the Aliens line, "Get away from her you Bitch!" and do their own more adult version.
Suffice to say, I won't be buying this on DVD!  3/10.

No Ordinary Family - No Ordinary Pilot

I was very keen to watch this new show starring Michael Chiklis (Fantastic Four) as the Dad, Julie Benz (Punisher: War Zone) as the Mum, Kay Panabaker (Monsters Inc) as the daughter and Jimmy Bennett (Star Trek) as the son.
They are an ordinary family where no one really gets along, the Dad is a police sketch artist who can't connect with his work-aholic scientist wife, his daughter won't put out for her boyfriend and the son just can't seem to get a decent grade.  Mum has to travel to Brazil, so Dad sees this as the perfect opportunity for the family to reconnect on a holiday.  However, things don't go very well when their plane crashes into a river during a storm.  Soon after they all arrive home (the pilot didn't make it - perhaps this pilot shouldn't have either!), Dad catches a bullet in his hand and finds he can leap over tall buildings.  Mum is always rushing around, working, looking after the family and her home and finds she has super-speed.  The daughter finds she can start to read people's thoughts but the son has nothing and resents everyone's gifts.  But by the end of the episode he finds he can solve complex problems and can get through an exam with ease!  The main story sees the introduction of a villain who also has powers to de-materialise and materialise rapidly, which makes him difficult to catch but he is eventually killed.  Later we see the Mum's boss, played by Stephen Collins (Star Trek The Motion Picture) with the villain's body in a lab.  What is he up to?
This was OK, but it didn't grab me.  The casual way people accepted these incredible powers was just unbelievable for me (the fact a man can catch a bullet is OK though!) and the daughter was the weakest link for me.  She looks about twelve (obviously she is older in the show) but to hear her talking back to her parents and swearing and talking about sex was too disturbing for me.  I always give new shows two chances to become good, so one more episode and we will see how this goes.

Blue Bloods - Family Ties

This week's episode of Blue Bloods was not of their usual high standard and was pretty run of the mill.  The son of a Russian mobster is shot and killed at his engagement party while he is with another woman.  The episode spends it's time chasing red herrings with Danny's partner conveniently going to school with the woman who was to be the future Mother-In-Law.  Not the best episode.

Sugarbabes - Overloaded The Singles Collection

Now, I am not normally into girl bands but I remember seeing the film clip for a song called 'Round Round' and loved the effects of the wind and the debris flowing around the singers while they sang this brilliant song.  It and nearly all the songs on this best of album are just fantastic to listen to.  Some songs are sexy and a little naughty ("Easy" & "Freak Like Me"), some have important messages about self confidence ("Stronger", "Shape" and "ugly"), some are lovely slow songs ("Too Lost In You" - which is our movie link because it was used in the movie 'Love Actually') and some are just fun songs about female empowerment ("Red Dress", "Good To Be Gone", and "Hole In The Head").  All these songs are one of the best collections of hits for any group. 
Now don't get too confused trying to figure out who is who in the band as the girls have had a few changes of members over the years to the point that the group is now made up of entirely new girls!  None of the originals are still in the band, but they still have an unmistakable sound!
If you like to get down and dirty, pick this collection up now!  It certainly pushes my buttons!

Supernatural - Unforgiven

This was the second episode screened this week continuing the saga of the Winchester boys.  When Sam had his soul restored he did not have any memories of what he had been up to since he got out of the cage over a year ago.  This episode commences with him receieving a text with coordinates to a town on Rhode Island where they discover three women have gone missing.  When they investigate they discover Sam was here previously with Samuel hunting a monster called an Arachne because a number of men had gone missing. (Another crappy monster that is actually in human form!  When do they battle a monster that is not in human form?  Come On!).  When they were previously here, Sam and samuel had used the local Sherriff, Dobbs, as bait to capture the Arachne but it got him instead.  When they found the lair, they killed the Arachne and discovered all the bodies of men who had gone missing, but they were still alive.  Sam was uncaring and believed it would be better if they were dead, so he shot them all in cold blood.
While trying to discover what is going on now, Sam starts to remember and they realise that the women that have disappeared now were all bedded by Sam (whether they were married or not!  Go Sam!).  It is all a trap to lure Sam back for revenge, because ##SPOILER ALERT!!## the new Arachne is Sherriff Dobbs!  The bullet didn't kill him because he had already started to become an Arachne a year ago when Sam and Samuel found him. Sam used the only way to kill him, which is to decapitate him.
When the boys get home, because Sam has been trying to remember what happened on Rhode Island, he breaks through the wall that was built to stop him remembering his time in the cage and he collapses.  The episode finishes with him remembering burning alive in the cage.  A shocking conclusion!  How is this going to go for Sam next week?  Can't wait!

Supernatural - Like A Virgin

Another double episode this week!  We might actually catch up to everyone around the world in just over a month at this rate!
The first episode was a little weak, in that it is about dragons!  Yes, the medieval kind which conveniently can turn into human form.  The other convenient parts of this story were that Bobby had previously had a relationship with a professor of Medieval Mythology who knows all about killing dragons for real!  PLUS she just happens to have a sword that can kill a dragon, in a stone which is only one of six left in existence, but it can only be removed from the stone by someone truly brave.  In a funny scene, Dean tries unsuccessfully to remove the sword but eventually destroys half of it while trying to blast the boulder away!!
The dragons have been collecting virgins so they can throw one into a fiery pit (which also just happens to be in America, not England for some reason) and the one they throw in turns into the "Mother Of All' the new super-baddy for the series.
Dragons?  Really?

Be Cool

This is the sequel to the movie 'Get Shorty' that I reviewed a couple of months ago.  Once again, they don't mind being self-referential and have a go at the movie business.  The very first line John Travolta speaks is " I hate sequels"!  He's talking about "Get Lost", the sequel to his movie he made in "Get Shorty" but he is equally talking about this movie and the Hollywood factory itself.
The story has Chili Palmer unsatisfied with his movie-making career.  While a music producer, played by James Woods, is pitching his idea for a movie about his life to Chili, he is gunned down and Chili sees the Russian gunman responsible.  Chili then goes to see the widow, played by Uma Thurman, together again after Pulp Fiction.  He finds out her husband owed a lot of money and he decides he wants out of the movie business and to get into the music business.  To start with he gets Linda Moon, a singer in a group called The Chicks, and tells her manager that she is with him now and is out of her 5 year contract.  Her manager is played by Vince Vaughan, annoyingly hilarious as Raji, a guy who talks like he is a black man, a very bad stereo-typical black man!  His bodyguard is played by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a gay man who wants to get into movies.  He is very funny.  Vince Vaughan's boss is played by Harvey Keitel who holds the contract to ransom. 
MEANWHILE, there is a gangsta rap music producers also wanting their money that is owed to them by James Wood, who had hired the Russian's to kill him.  This movie is just as convoluted, if not more, than the first film!
Steven Tyler from Aerosmith plays himself when Chili asks to get Linda to support his group at an upcoming concert.  Steven says "I'm not one of those singers who appears in movies!" Also The Black Eyed Peas play a concert where John and Uma get to dance together again!  That was cool!
Another funny thing was John gets his car replaced, AGAIN, but this time by a hybrid.  In a little wink, he looks up to a billboard showing Tom Hanks, who is very passionate about his hybrid vehicles!  Danny DeVito returns as Martin Weir and they share a moment about the car: Martin asks Chili about the car and Chili replies, "It's the Cadillac of hybrids".  Martin then asks about the speed, implying they are not very fast, "If You're important, people will wait!"  Nice line!
This wasn't a bad movie, it had some funny lines in it but wasn't as good as "Get Shorty". I give it 6/10.

Downton Abbey - Episode Four

This is such a wonderful series but I have to say I don't think the rapid time movement is conducive to the storyline.  This episode is set in May 1912, more than half a year after the end of last week's episode but the characters act as if only a week has transpired.  They are still talking about the issues presented the previous week.  nothing is resolved and no characters have actually progressed in all that time.  If they are going to jump in time so far, they need to present the characters changing. Or maybe that is their point.  That at this time of great change in the world, these people stayed the same and hence they became 'extinct'.
This week there is a fair in the village and all the staff attend along with the girls.  Mrs Hughes meets up with a past suitor who asks her to marry him (well actually he doesn't - maybe that was his problem?) but she decides to stay with the Crawleys.  Meanwhile Anna, the Head Housemaid, has come down with a cold and is consigned to bed so she cannot attend the fair.  Bates takes her some food, reminiscent of when she brought him food earlier in the series, and while nothing happens, the sparks are really flying between these two.  Let's hope they get a happy ending.
Young Daisy is falling under the spell of Thomas, who while gay, asks Daisy to the fair because William wants to ask her.  She starts to treat William like Thomas does, which is incredibly unfair.
The other story is between the Dowager Widow and cousin Matthew's Mother, Isobel.  When Molesley is suffering from an affliction on his hands, Isobel incorrectly diagnoses it as a disease and prescribes some medicine herself which does not work.  The Dowager takes one look and realises that he has been handling hedge trimmings which is just an allergic reaction and will settle down if he wears gloves.  This brings Isobel down a peg to realise she isn't a doctor and to best leave these things to others who may know better.

Meanwhile, the Dowager goes to Matthew to ask him to investigate how to get out of taking the inheritance if he does not want it.  He tries everything and there does not appear to be any way to do it.  when he goes to tell the Earl, the Dowager barges in and does not believe he has tried hard enough.
We are now over the half way mark of this first season.  What does the next three episodes have in store for us?

Harry's Law - American Dreams

This week's episode of Harry's Law saw Tommy asking Harry for help with a group of Albino Tanzanian illegal immigrants who have been caught after being in the country for over two years.  This was a very heavy handed episode and you could tell it wasn't primarily written by David E. Kelley.  I thought the writing wasn't as smart and witty as usual and was 'too' political.  It is important that the stories deal with real issues but this was not handled well in my opinion.
The other story had Jenna trying to get her stolen car back and she confronts the person who stole it.  His sister gets her car back and goes on a date with Malcolm, but what is her issue?
This was not a great episode again.  That's two in a row.  I don't normally go any further than that.  So will have to make a decision as to whether I keep watching this.  It has been renewed for a second season.

Next

I saw this Nicholas Cage movie on the weekend and I was incredibly surprised!  This did not do very well at the box office (in fact it lost money) but I really don't think it was marketed very well.  The story by Gary Goldman (Big Trouble In Little China) is quite good.  Nic Cage is a two bit Las Vegas magician who has a very real power that he was born with: he can see two minutes into the future.  Therefore he knows what people are going to say and do before they do it.  However, once it has been viewed, the future can change.  To keep out of the view of the authorities who might want to take advantage of his power, he keeps to a low profile and doesn't take advantage of his power.  A good example of this is he only wins small amounts at the casinos.  Unfortunately, he does come to the attention of the FBI, namely Julianne Moore, who needs him to help them locate where a nuclear bomb will go off so they can stop it, but he doesn't want to help in case he gets poked and prodded.  Into the mix is Jessica Biel, a mysterious woman he keeps seeing but she never materialises.  Is he now seeing longer than 2 minutes ahead?  Suffice to say, they end up together and while the bombers are trying to kill him so he doesn't help the FBI, they take her hostage to bring him out into the open.  I liked the way they show him looking at all the different possible outcomes so he can choose the right actions.  Very clever.
Lee Tamahori (Die Another Day) actually does a fantastic job of directing this all the way until the very end of the film.  ##SPOILER ALERT!!## I thought the film would keep going at the end as Nic goes off with Julianne (very clever way of getting them to this point - no I am not giving the big spoiler away!) but it just ends!!  What the Hell?!  They could have at least made the end more conducive to going to a sequel, then we might have been guaranteed one.  But the story hasn't finished.  Does he get the bad guys?  (I suppose he does as he knows where they are.)
I really liked this movie but felt robbed with the ending.  I hope they make a sequel so there is more to this story.  But what was with having Peter Falk in this film?  He literally has a walk on/walk off part - a bit like a Bob Hope cameo!  I am going to give this movie a 7/10.  It would have got an 8 but for the ending.  I recommend giving this a go.

L. A. Confidential

L. A. Confidential is a 'noir-ish' style film (though it is in colour) set in 1950's Hollywood about police corruption.  For a Hollywood film, it showcases some brilliant Australian talent, from it's two leads (not withstanding Mr Kevin Spacey) in Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce to The Mentalist himself, Simon Baker (billed as Simon Baker Denny).
The story takes a while to come together (I had trouble following what was happening at first) but I stuck with it and all the threads come together beautifully if rather violently.  When Russell Crowe's partner is murdered in a Night Owl Cafe along with all the patrons, he vows to find the killers.  He already has anger management issues, so when it is revealed that the police have identified some coloured kids with shotguns, he wants retribution.  However, Guy Pearce's character is the voice of reason.  He does everything by the book and soon discovers that perhaps, the kids are innocent and there is something much more sinister going on.  It is all linked to a movie star look-a-like hooker, played by Kim Basinger.
The story is based on a novel by James Ellroy and is directed by Curtis Hanson (8 Mile!).  Other stars include, James Cromwell, Danny DeVito, David Strathairn and Ron Rifkin.
I have to say, I really enjoyed this movie.  The inevitable shoot out at the end is nail-biting stuff but I have to also say, I really loved the very end of the movie and was so glad they didn't go the usual way a tough crime film would go.  I can't believe it has taken me this long to see this movie.  If you haven't seen this yet, sit down and watch it.  But don't tell anyone I sent you, it's off the record, on the QT, and very Hush-Hush! 8/10

Parenthood - Slipping Away

Unfortunately, the title for this week's episode relates to all the Braverman families.  Firstly, while driving, Adam and Kristina receive a call from Haddie who has accidentally activated the speed dial on her phone while having sex with Alex and now they know.  When Kristina confronts Haddie, she at first denies it, but then comes back to her Mum and tells her.  Her Mum tries to be supportive, but her Dad is shattered and does not know how to handle the situation.  As a father myself, I dread that day coming for my daughters.  They have lost their little girl as she is now a young woman.
Meanwhile Crosby continues to renovate the house even though Jasmine has made it clear to Julia that she is never going to forgive Crosby. Is he doing this all for nothing?  As he said, this is his last chance.  What happens when she finally rejects him?
Julia is still dealing with the news that she will never be able to conceive and is trying very hard to connect with her daughter, who, because she is just a child, wants some space from her mother, which crushes Julia.
She also has to contend with Amber who quits her internship at her work while high and consequently embarrasses Julia as she storms out of the building.  She physically pushes her Mother and Brother away when she jumps into a car with her boyfriend.  While high, they run a red light and are T-boned by another vehicle.
Nothing is going right for the Bravermans.  This week's season finale is going to be huge as everything comes to a head.

Parenthood - New Plan

Crosby decides he needs a new plan to win back Jasmine, so he makes the bold move to sell his houseboat and buy a house, a unique 'fixer-upperer'.  Actually, it's a dump, he even has to sell his motorcycle to pay for some of the repairs, but the whole Braverman clan pitch in to help, even Adam comes round.
Meanwhile Adam and Kristina have concerns about Hadddie's Prom night and whether she will have sex for the first time.  She assures them it is a cliche, but then on the night, she convinces her boyfriend, Alex, that she is ready.
While Sarah is fighting to get her play finished so it can be read, her daughter, Amber, is spiralling out of control because she can't get into college.  The last straw was going to the prom and being reminded that she did not get in, and so she plummets into drugs.  This is not going to end well.

Beowulf - Original Soundtrack

This movie and soundtrack are surprising better than at first expected but not brilliant.  Mr Alan Silvestri (Back To The Future), has a certain touch to his themes which immediately identifies the music as his, but this is missing from this soundtrack.  I suppose because the story is set in the age of Vikings and not the twentieth century. Once again, he has teamed with Robert Zemekis to bring music to Mr Zemekis' striking visuals. Besides being heavy with war drums and male choirs singing incomprehensibly, the beginning of this soundtrack is rather non-descript and there seems to be no thread to hold on to for the music. 
We are then treated to Robin Wright Penn singing Gently As She Goes from the film, a very Medieval sounding piece.  She returns to sing the theme from the film, A Hero Comes Home and suddenly it is as if the soundtrack has found its purpose and picks up on the melody of this song and reproduces it throughout the rest of the tracks beautifully.  The album is rounded off with a beautiful version of A Hero Comes Home by Idina Menzel.
Not a great soundtrack but certainly not unable to be listened to.

Downton Abbey - Episode Three

The respectable lives of the Crawley family of Downton Abbey is about to be shattered.  Lady Mary has a suitor, the Honourable Evelyn Napier, whom her mother, The Countess convinces to her to invite to Downton.  He is currently escorting the Turkish Embassy attache, Mr Kemal Pamuk, who Mary finds incredibly attractive.  He is also being looked at by the footman, Thomas, who is gay.  When Thomas makes an advance, Mr Pamuk is horrified and angry and threatens to have him fired.  Instead, he decides to use him to get into Mary's room at night where, while making love to Mary, has a heart attack and dies.  Mary is mortified and incredibly ashamed and does not know what to do.  She goes to her maid who suggests they get her mother, The Countess for help.Mary is afraid of the shame to her and what it will do to the family if they find out he was in her bedroom, so the three women carry his body back to his room, but they are unknowingly spied by the lowest maid, Daisy.  I am sure there will be repercussions for this in future episodes.
Meanwhile, Mr Bates decides to try a revolutionary new appliance on his leg to repair his limp but he is in constant pain.  He is eventually confronted by the well-meaning Mrs Hughes, The Housekeeper, and it is revealed the appliance is tearing up his leg.  So she forces him to throw it in the lake!  It appears, Mr Bates is being accepted by most of the staff.
This is such a wonderful series and we are now up to date with what is being shown here in Australia. Can't wait for tomorrow night's episode.

Mulan - Original Soundtrack

Jerry Goldsmith's (best known for his work on the many incarnations of Star Trek) superb soundtrack for Disney's animated version of the story of a girl who disguises herself as a boy to go to war in the place of her father, Mulan, is one of my favourite ever soundtracks.  I am a huge fan of all Disney animated films and especially their soundtracks.
Firstly, I must say, my favourite piece on this album is without a doubt, Suite from Mulan.  It is a mix of all the music from the film, but I just love the incredibly beautiful music from about the five minute mark.  The last two minutes are amazing to listen to.  Just close your eyes and feel this piece flow over you.  I get goosebumps every time I listen to it.  I always replay these last two minutes, generally more than once!
Now out of the songs on the album, even though I am not a fan of boy bands, I really love the 98 degrees duet with Mr Stevie Wonder for the track True To Your Heart.  The other song I really enjoy off this album is Mr Donny Osmond (yes, Marie's brother!) singing I'll Make a Man Out Of You.
Of course Reflection gets a couple of versions, the film version and Pop Princess herself, Miss Christina Aguilera who does a cracking version.
The rest of the music is a wonderful blend of Chinese music and Western Orchestral sound.  There is some really powerful percussion that gets you right into the music.
Love this movie and love this soundtrack.  If you have not had the pleasure of seeing the film and listening to the music, do it now!

Downton Abbey - Episode Two

This exceptional television show continues with the arrival of the new heir, Matthew Crawley and his mother.  He is like Jed Clampet turning up in Beverley Hills.  He has no concept of having a staff to look after him and he wants to continue working as a successful solicitor.  In fact he practically insults his butler/valet, Molesley. When speaking to the Earl, he mentions he will let Molesley go.  The earl is horrified and asks, so when he takes over Downton, will he fire all the staff?  He impresses on Matthew that each person has a purpose and that that purpose is important to the person.  After this, Matthew allows Molesley to do things for him.  Meanwhile, his mother, who used to be a nurse, visits the hospital where a local man is suffering from dropsy with liquid on his heart.  She suggests a radical treatment to remove the liquid and then pump adrenaline back into the heart.  The Dowager, who doesn't like the mother, tries to stop her from being allowed into the hospital but she forces the doctor to perform the risky surgery and it works.  The Earl is the patron for the hospital and makes the mother the new Chair, making the Dowager having to work with her.
Meanwhile, Bates spies the Butler, Mr Carson being suspicious in the village after he is seen stealing food from the pantry.  Soon a man arrives to speak to the Earl while everyone is out.  Bates realises this has something to do with Mr Carson and tries to protect him by getting a maid to get him to return to the Abbey as soon as possible, but the Earl arrives at the same time as Mr Carson and it is revealed that Mr Carson used to be in vaudeville and the man was his partner who was blackmailing him for money and he was going to reveal the butler's past to shame him because he refused to pay the money.  The Earl showed his support for Mr Carson by paying the man twenty pounds and threatening to have the man arrested if he ever showed up again.
This really is a wonderful show and I look forward to seeing what happens to the Crawley family and their staff in future episodes.

Downton Abbey - Episode One

Downton Abbey is an exquisite television show.  It is set in 1912 at the emergence of electricity and is set in the palatial home of the Earl of Grantham and his family.  It is essentially two stories entwined.  One of the rich family and the other, the staff and the entire machinations of the behind the scenes of running such a huge home.
The story starts with the announcement of the sinking of the Titanic.  Unfortunately, the Earl's heir and his son were passengers and the earl didn't have any sons, so he no longer has an heir.  Checking the law, they discover his estate and his wife's money must go to a third cousin who they have never met.
Meanwhile, the Earl's new valet, John Bates, arrives but he has an injured leg and requires a cane to walk.  It is revealed that he and the Earl were in the war together and the injury is from shrapnel. Because he has taken the role off the young First Footman Thomas, the staff conspire to get him fired by talking badly of him to the family and tripping him in front of a visiting Duke.  The Earl is forced to let him go but then at the last minute changes his mind.  This is sure to cause some ripples within the staff!
It is also revealed that Thomas is gay and was having an affair with the Duke.  He wants to get out and be with the Duke who has had second thoughts.  He tries to blackmail him, but the Duke has discovered where Thomas hid the Duke's love letters and he burns them.  Thomas is trapped.
This is an extremely well made show and stars Hugh Bonneville as the Earl and Brendan Coyle as John Bates (both from Tomorrow Never Dies), Elizabeth McGovern as the Countess of Grantham (Kick-Ass) and Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess of Grantham (Harry Potter series).
If you haven't seen this, make sure you track it down and give it a look.  You won't be disappointed.  I have to say, I was very impressed with watching something different to what I usually love to watch.

Supernatural - Appointment in Samarra

This was the second episode aired this week and is the better one of the two.  This was a huge episode.  Firstly, Dean goes to an old physician who used to fix up his Dad, played by Freddy Kruger himself, Robert Englund!  He has to kill Dean (how ironic!) for three minutes (ends up being seven!).  While dead, the Reaper Tessa comes for him and he asks her to summon Death who appears.  Dean asks him to get Sam and his brother Adam, souls out of the cage.  Death agrees to get one soul but Dean must choose, and he chooses Sam.  There is a catch or two.  Firstly Dean must wear Death's ring for one day and do his job and if he takes the ring off, then the deal is off.  Secondly, he advises that Sam's soul is very damaged but he can build a temporary wall to hide the memories of hell.  Dean agrees and goes to work as Death!  Firstly he takes a robber, then a fat man who has a heart attack, but then he has to take a 12 year old girl with a heart condition. He refuses and she makes a miraculous recovery.  But Dean soon discovers he has upset the natural order and the nurse who was looking after the little girl is killed in an accident because she got to leave the hospital early.  The knock on effect is that her husband drinks himself into a stupor and gets in his car and is going to kill himself.  Dean tries to stop him and realises he has to remove the ring to do so.  After the man survives the crash, Dean returns to fix up what he should have done in the first place and takes the girl's life.
Meanwhile, Sam is trying to work out how NOT to get his soul back and is told by Balthazar that he has to kill his father.  Because his Dad is already dead, then the next closest thing will do, Bobby.  Just as Sam is about to kill Bobby, Dean arrives and stops him. 
Death then arrives to get his ring back and finds that Dean has learnt all about the natural order of things and agrees that if he had to do it all again, he would take the girl in the first place.  Dean is upset that he failed in the task but Death agrees to get Sam's soul back because Dean has learnt a valuable lesson and that Sam and Dean keep coming back and upsetting the natural order on a global scale and now that Dean understands the implications of that, perhaps they will stay dead next time!  Death returns with Sam's soul and returns it to him, painfully.  Have they done the right thing?
I have to say, I love the character of Death (I can't believe I just typed that!).  He is neither good nor evil, he just is and that matter of factness has a refreshing normalness to it.
That was the halfway mark for the season.  Can't wait to see the rest of the season!

Supernatural - Caged Heat

Ooh, another twin shot of Supernatural this week!  Must be trying to play catch up for being so far behind.  I am happy with that.  The first episode is Caged Heat where Sam and Dean decide it is time to take the fight to Crowley to get him to give Sam his soul back.  An old foe, Meg the demon arrives running from Crowley who is disposing of all demons who were on Lucifer's side.  The boys and Meg form an unlikely partnership to give her a chance to kill Crowley in exchange for Sam being able to ask him something (for the return of his soul).  The only way to find him is to ask Samuel, who at first refuses to help, but then later relents.  Crowley has promised to bring back his daughter, Sam and Dean's Mother.  So the team, including Castiel, attempt to break in to Crowley's monster prison, but then Samuel double-crosses them and sends Castiel away with a sigil and has the boys locked up and Meg tied to an operating table, after she fought off Crowley's Hell Hounds single handed.  Suffice to say, the boys escape with Meg and confront Crowley who tells them he can't get Sam's soul and agrees with Castiel that it is incredibly damaged by being torn apart for the past year in the cage with Lucifer and Michael.  Meg tried to kill him but he beats her and breaks out of the demon trap the boys set.  Castiel comes to the rescue with Crowley's mortal remains and asks him again to get Sam's soul.  When Crowley says he can't, Castiel burns the bones and kills Crowley!
There is a very funny scene where Castiel is watching a porn video and is asking the boys why the Pizza boy is slapping the babysitter's rear!  Then he gets a boner!  Later, when Meg volunteers to stay and fight the Hell Hounds, he grabs her and kisses her longingly.  He says he learnt it off the Pizza Boy!  Cas gets some action!
As you can see this episode had a lot going on, including another failed attempt to get Sam his soul back, alliances with the enemy, betrayal by family and the death of a major player in Hell.  Another great episode but still not as great as the next episode.  My next blog is coming soon.

I Still Know What You Did last Summer

I saw the first movie before I started doing this blog and I can't where I tweeted my thoughts on it.  I remember it was better than I was expecting but not brilliant but I did like the way the killer wasn't supernatural at all, just a guy that had survived and was out for revenge.  Seem to make it more real which made it more scary.
Then I was advised not to see the sequel, but of course I had to.  Back from the first one are Julie and Ray, played respectively by Jennifer Love-Hewitt and Freddie Prince Jr. 
##SPOILER ALERT##
Of course I picked who the bad guy was immediately, it was like he had a sign post over his head and I picked that he had to be the killer's son.  That was just too obvious and the way they got to win the trip, by answering a question by a radio station, did they not turn on the radio so that both Karla and Julie can hear the call?  How did Will do that?  Anyway, it is a totally conceivable story to have the killer work on the island (he is a fisherman after all) and he would know when the quiet time for the resort would be.  I didn't like the way he picked off the staff at the beginning, but I suppose he needed carte blanche to run around and try to kill Julie and her friends.
If they had left the story with the death of the fisherman by gunshot it would have been an OK set of two movies but then they of course ruined the entire two films with a little epilogue.  Julie and Ray are now married in their own home and everyone is happy until Julie hears something in the house and it ends up being the fisherman under the bed and he drags Julie under with him.  So is he supernatural now?  Can he come back from the dead?  See this goes against the original book and the point of the films to have him be a real person.  I have since found out there is a straight to DVD third movie where the fisherman is a ghost!  Now that is just taking things too far.  That part just ruined the movie for me.
The movie also starred Brandy, Mekhi Pfieffer (ER), Bill Cobbs (Night At the Museum), Jeffrey Combs (Enterprise), Jennifer Esposito (Blue Bloods) and as a stoner pool boy, Mr Jack Black!
A disappointment. 4/10.