The Pink Panther 2

PLOT:

When the master thief, the Tornado, begins stealing expensive artifacts (the Magna Carta in London, the Turin Shroud in Turin, and the Imperial Sword in Kyoto), the Government of France assembles a Dream Team of Amateur Detectives to solve the case. Inspector Clouseau is reassigned from his task as a parking officer by Chief Inspector Dreyfus to join the Dream Team in Japan, site of the Tornado’s recent heist. At the airport, as soon as he is officially leaving France, news breaks that the Pink Panther Diamond has also been stolen. Clouseau travels back to the scene of the crime, where the other members of the Dream Team, Inspector Pepperidge (Great Britain), Vicenzo (Italy), Kenji (an electronics specialist from Japan), and Sonia (a researcher and criminology expert from India), are gathering. They go to Rome to investigate a black market fence, Alonso Avellaneda, who deals with The Tornado. Assuming he is The Tornado, the Dream Team question him while Clouseau snoops around. Avellaneda successfully vindicates himself by demonstrating that he lacks a bullet-wound to the right shoulder- the Tornado was shot in that shoulder during a theft over a decade ago. After they leave, Avellaneda meets with The Tornado himself.

Later on that night, Clouseau and his partner, Ponton, spy on Avellaneda, using a wire they have planted on him, as he takes a date out for dinner. Unfortunately, the mission is compromised when they find Vicenzo and Clouseau’s girlfriend, Nicole, together at the restaurant. Having been banned for burning down the restaurant three months earlier, Clouseau disguises himself as a dancer and attempts to switch the wire to Nicole’s table. In the process, he ends up burning down the restaurant again. At the same time, The Tornado steals the Pope’s ring, an act which begins to turn public opinion against the Dream Team. When Clouseau’s acts of foolishness aggravate the situation, he is voted off the team, with only Sonia sympathizing with him. Shortly afterward, Clouseau is called to an office where they see the Tornado has killed himself, and left a suicide note claiming he destroyed the Pink Panther- regarding it as being so beautiful that he could not bring anyone other than himself to own it- and left the other treasures to be recovered. Examining a key they found in the Pope’s Chambers, they successfully match the DNA of the victim with DNA of the Tornado acquired when he was shot, and thus believe themselves to have solved the case. However, Clouseau is unconvinced and believes the Tornado was not the thief.

For their victory in recovering the stolen items (minus the Pink Panther), a celebration is thrown in the Dream Team’s honor. Clouseau, who was not invited, tries to convince Dreyfus that the real thief is still at large, but is ignored. Dreyfus relays to the group that Clouseau told him Sonia was the thief, and the group, treating the idea as a joke, works out a plausible explanation for how she could have done it; as the Tornado’s ex-lover, she would have in-depth knowledge of his methods, and has set up a situation to draw all attention to the thefts of the other artifacts while leaving her free to sell on the Pink Panther as the only treasure that could be cut up and sold on without suspicion. As Sonia tries to leave, Nicole asks her to take everything out of her purse. Sonia pulls out a gun, and after initially threatening to shoot Nicole, she shoots Clouseau, but the bullet ricochets off the medal of honor and kills the waiter instead. She then runs upstairs. Clouseau and the rest of the Dream Team chase her all around the building, while they all—except for Clouseau—make fools of themselves. Finally cornered, Sonia threatens to destroy the Pink Panther, and Clouseau successfully goads her to do so. Clouseau reveals that she had destroyed a fake gem he had switched with the real one, and that the Tornado, a master thief and a recognized authority on valuable gems, would have recognized this; therefore, his suicide note—where he praised the beauty of the gem—was forged and he was actually murdered. He reveals that he had given Sonia’s car a ticket two days before the Pink Panther was stolen, contradicting her alibi of having been delayed to the crime scene because of her flight. Dreyfus tries to claim credit for having appointed Clouseau to his parking job, but Clouseau, remembering Dreyfus told him to deny this to anyone who asked, rebukes the claim. Clouseau later marries Nicole, though the wedding is shortlived after Dreyfus fires the cork out of the Champaigne bottle onto a security device, causing Black Ops to storm the party in a manner similar to an eariler event in the film. Clouseau and Nicole ditch the wedding and head for the airport for their honeymoon with the animated Pink Panther watching them leave. The Pink Panther looks into the camera as he walks into the chaotic wedding and closes the door.

REVIEW:

To this day  still don’t understand what exactly the Pink Panther has to do with these movies, but I’ve always been a fan of him and his theme song, so any excuse to get exposure to both, I’ll take.

Steve Martin has been doing comedy do long, its like second nature to him. In the original films from the 60s and 70s, Inspector Clouseau was a bumbling idiot played by Peter Sellers, here Martin takes up the mantle (and a bad accent). As with all things Martin, there is plenty of physical comedy to go around. These classic Martin moments are what make this film so entertaining.

The Dream Team, comprosed of veteran actors Alfred Molina, Andy Garcia, and newcomer Yuki Matsuzaki actually work well with Martin. I especially liked the first meeting between Molina and Martin. who would have veer thought Molina could do comedy?

What’s a good film without some beautiful ladies to throw in for good measure? The Pink Panther 2 has two, the lovable and cute Emily Mortimer and Aishwarya Rai, who has been called the most beautiful woman i nthe world (you can say she’s an upgrade from Beyonce in the first film, if you like). Mortimer reprises her role from the first film as Martin’s assistant who is still madly in love with him. She’s such a cutie, you can’t help but feel sorry for her. Rai is one of those women that can stop every man (and some women) in their tracks just with a look, let a lone waking into the room, but I had no idea she could act. Honestly, she’s not half bad.

Jean Reno, John Cleese, and Lily Tomlin, as well as a cameo from Jeremy Irons fill out the rest of the cast. Not a weak link to be found among them. As a matter of fact, Tomlin’s character plays off Martin’s idiocy so well that if there isa third film, she is mandatory for it, in my opinion.

The film starts off alot funnier than it finishes, but that seems to be the case with most comedies these days. At least it doesn’t lose the light hearted tone and get all serious on us, but rather it just loses some steam.

I read one review that wondered when Steve Martin stopped being funny. I’ve always found Martin funny. Yeah, this isn’t his funniest picture, but it’s still some fine work. do I think this film could have been better? Well, see, I’m not so sure.  Maybe, but if you start messing with this and that, you’ll end up having to change the tone here, take out a key joke there, cut a character here, and these are what makes this film so good, so it’s hard to say if this could be any better, but rather just enjoy it for what it is, a good comedy that everyone can enjoy. There are so few of those these days.

4 out of 5 stars

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

PLOT:

The movie opens with Chun Li narrating her experience growing up aspiring to be a concert pianist. As a child, she moves from San Francisco to Hong Kong with her family. There, along with piano, she learns Wushu from her father, Xiang, who is a well connected businessman. One night, her home is attacked by Bison and his henchman. Chun Li’s father fights them off until Balrog grabs a hold of a young Chun Li, forcing him to surrender. As Bison and his men are leaving with Xiang, Chun Li’s mother tries to stop them. Balrog just punches her.

Years later, Chun Li grows up and becomes a talented concert pianist. At the end of one of her concerts, she receives a scroll written in Ancient Chinese text. On her way home, she sees a mysterious homeless man getting assaulted by street thugs. After the thugs leave, Chun Li tends to him and notices a spiderweb tattoo on his hand. Meanwhile, Xiang is shown working for Bison as a prisoner. In return for his services, he is allowed to view pictures of his daughter all grown up. Back home, Chun Li’s mother finally loses her battle to cancer as Chun Li and her servants mourn her loss at a funeral.

Elsewhere, we see Nash and Maya investigating a murder of several heads of criminal syndicate families in Bangkok. Chun Li on the side is meeting with a wise old lady in town who studies the scroll and tells her to either find a man named Gen in Bangkok, revealing to her an image of the same spiderweb she saw tattooed on the homeless man’s hand. With a new goal in mind, Chun Li leaves her home and heads to Bangkok. After days of searching for Gen without any luck, she sees a man being assaulted in an alley by thugs. Chun Li comes to his rescue and fights them. After a long battle ended by finishing them with a Bike Rack Drop Ultra move, Chun Li collapses in exhaustion. There, we see Gen pick her up to take her to his home.

Gen tells Chun Li that he knows how to find her father and that Bison has him, but that she also needs anger management. In response, she goes to an internet cafe to find out more about Bison, who is now holding the families of property owners hostage in order to force them to sign their property over to him. Upon leaving, one of the owners is asked to hand over the rights to a docking harbor, allowing the shipment of the “White Rose”. Chun Li overhears this. Meanwhile at Interpol, Nash figures out that Bison’s headquarters are right across the street from the Police Station.

Later that night, Cantana, one of Bison’s secretaries, goes to a nightclub. Chun Li spies on her and notices her eyeing the girls in the club. Chun Li moves in and seductively dances with her before casually walking away into the bathroom. Cantana follows her and locks the bathroom door. Chun Li beats Cantana until Cantana reveals the location of the White Rose. Cantana’s bodyguards come back and Chun Li escapes after fighting them off.

We are then told of Bison’s origins. He is the son of Irish missionaries. He grew up an orphan having to steal fish from people in Thailand. In order to lose his conscience, he forced his daughter out of the womb of his wife prematurely. This transferred his conscience into her, thus Bison no longer had/has a conscience. Back at Gen’s home, Bison’s henchmen come after Gen and Chun Li. Gen fights them off until Balrog blows up his house with a RPG. With Gen gone and nowhere to be found, Chun Li runs off. She is then attacked by Vega, who she defeats soundly and hangs upside down over the side of a building.

Chun Li then heads to the harbor and interrogates an employee into telling her the arrival time of the White Rose. Later that night, this turns out to be a trap as several Shadaloo soldiers capture her. Chun Li is then taken back to Shadaloo headquarters and is reunited with her father. Bison tells her that Xiang outlived his usefulness and breaks his neck, killing him. Bison and Balrog leave Chun Li to the henchman to finish off. Chun Li however escapes when they try to swing her around from the ceiling like a pinata. As she runs away, she is shot in the waist by Balrog. Before Balrog could recapture her, the crowd begins throwing durians at him. This scares Balrog as he drives off in his Mercedes-Benz. Chun Li meanwhile, is rescued again by Gen, who narrowly escaped death and survived the explosion in his house.

Chun Li approaches Nash and tells him she needs backup to take down Bison. Nash and Maya oblige as Chun Li approaches the dock employee who set her up last time. The employee tells her that he was forced into deceiving her and tells her the real arrival time. Chun Li doubts him at first, but he points to the white board at the arrival time, proving that it is true. At the dock later that night, Interpol agents engage in a shootout with Shadaloo soldiers. On a ship, Chun Li finds a girl asking where her father is. Meanwhile, Gen fights Balrog and kills him by stabbing him with a pipe spraying nitrogen. We later find out that the girl is Bison’s daughter and her name is Rose, making her the White Rose. Bison takes her in and welcomes her warmly.

Bison walks into his office where he is ambushed by Gen. Gen however is no match for him. Sensing his daughter in danger, Bison goes back to his daughters room, where he finds she is gone. Gen shows up again and ambushes Bison, getting beaten up again. Chun Li then comes in and fights Bison. After a long battle, she hits him with a bamboo pole and drops sandbags on him, startling him and making him unaware of what is going on. She then charges up a Kikoken and shoots it at him, knocking him off the scaffolding they were fighting on, then jumping on his head and twisting it all the way around, breaking his neck and killing him.

Back home, Chun Li is settled down as Gen pays her a visit. He shows her an ad for a Street Fighter tournament, telling her about a Japanese fighter named Ryu. Chun Li declines, saying that she’s home for now.

REVIEW:

I’ve always been a fan of the Street Fighter game. I haven’t bothered to watch the original film that came out back i nthe late 80s, though, I will soon enough. It can’t be any worse than this. There is a reason this was released when it was and not during a time when it could really make some bucks.

When I heard they were thining of doing films on the characters from Street Fighter, I was excited. As with many video game characters, each has a very interesting backstory. The problem is getting that story to translate well onto the big screen and getting the right people for the parts. Chun-Li is an interesting character, although, for me I can count on one hand how many time I’ve beaten her. Still, I wouldn’t have picked her to be first, I’d have gone with M.Bison, Ryu, Guille, or someone of that caliber. Still, the story is not this film’s downfall, but rather the atrocious acting from two of the leads.

Kristin Kreuk, who apparently is from Smallville, somehow won the role of Chun-Li. Good for her for winning the part and all, but I would have given it to a more Asian actress, such as Maggie Q, Kelly Hu, etc. That’s just me, though. Kreuk is very wooden and unbelievable as Chun-Li. For someone who loses her mother and dad is missing, you’d think there’s have been some emotion going on, but nothing. Even after she is reunited with and watches her dad get killed, there is little to no emotional depth to her. The narration was even worse. If I wanted to hear monotone speaking, I’d listen to Ben Stein. Kreuk just made this film painful for me.

Another bad acting performance comes from Chris Klein. Look, this guy has come along way in his career, but someone needs to advise him to take better roles. Now, he may be a fan of the game, so taking this one may have just been because of those feelings. Klein, though, has to give his worse performance on screen I’ve ever seen from him. I’ve seen better acting from elementary school theater productions. Not to mention his character seems to be just thrown in there to throw some sort of subplot into this already convoluted movie…I’ll get to that in a bit.

Not all the acting was bad, though. Neal McDonough steals the show as M.Bison. He makes this thing watchable, that’s for sure. On top of that, his accent seems authentic, even if I can’t place where it is exactly he’s supposed to be from.

Robin Shou has a bit of an ironic role here. You may remember in Mortal Kombat, as Liu Kang, he was a bit of a rebellious “chosen one”. Here, he’s on the other side of that coin. His role as Gen has him teaching Chun-Li various fighting techniques and whatnot to survive. I found a bit of humor in that. Like klein, he appears to be a lot smaller than he was in the role we know him best for, but his talent (acting and martial arts) has not dwindled at all.

Moon Bloodgood is a nice piece of eye candy for those of us that are not really attracted to Kristin Kreuk. Her role, though, isn’t that big, and actually involves that convoluted subplot that really doesn’t need to be in this thing. Come to think of it, she might have made a good Chun-Li.

Michel Clarke Duncan fits Balrog to a ‘T’ and Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas shows up as Vega. Both characters though seem to be thrown in just to let the viewers have some characters from the game.

This film has too much potential to be this bad. Everything is in place for it to succeed, except two things. The afforestation bad acting and the convoluted subplot involving Interpol and trying to catch M.Bison’s crime syndicate. Now, I understand they had to stick something in there to play up the bad guy role of Bison and all, but this just felt tacked on and pointless. Also, they spent way too much time on the early years of Chun-Li. Obviously, this is an origin story, but people aren’t watching it to see drama and a little girl hanging on her dad for 30 minutes. We want some action, and there just wasn’t enough in it for me.

Video games just don’t make good movies 90% of the time. There are a few exceptions. Of course, it wasn’t that long ago that the same could have been said for comic book movies. All it takes is the right one to catch on. Unfortunately, this is not it, and may very well be the first and last of the origin films. I haven’t heard of any more in the works. As you can tell, I’m not fan of this picture, and kind of knew it wasn’t going to be any good before I even popped it in the DVD player, but I still watched it anyway, hoping I would be wrong. As I always say, you should watch and make your own decision, you’ve just read my opinion,

2 out of 5 stars

Eight Legged Freaks

PLOT:

In the quiet mining town of Prosperity, Arizona, an exhausted trucker carrying a cargo of toxic waste swerves off the road to avoid killing a rabbit, loosening one of the barrels, which rolls down the sandy slopes and into a swamp where a small population of insects live. Nobody notices this and the toxins begin polluting the pond and the surrounding area. By next week, an exotic spider collector named Joshua has been making regular visits to the site, where he collects crickets for his spiders. Although the bugs have ingested the toxins, he is oblivious since the insects seem unaffected.

Days later, a young boy named Mike Parker is riding on his bicycle down to the man’s spider collection store to visit Joshua. Joshua is excited to show him how much larger his spiders have grown, and declares that he finally received his newest spiders from Brazil: an enormous female Orb Weaver named Consuela and around a dozen males, who bring live food to Consuela to earn her trust and the right to mate. After Mike leaves, Joshua is bitten by an escaped tarantula and is driven into a frenzy and falls on a group of glass spider cages. He is soon wrapped and the spiders make their home in his store, growing larger and larger before heading into his backyard.

Mike attempts to return but is stopped by his mother, Sheriff Sam Parker (Kari Wührer) and Deputy Pete pulling the toxic barrel out of the pond. Sam scolds Mike, reminding him that the spiders are dangerous and he shouldn’t be seeing Joshua. Sam forces Mike to get in the car, however Sam has to stop a group of motorcyclists who are speeding and give them a ticket. Sam’s daughter Ashley (Scarlett Johansson) is riding on the back seat of one of the motorcycles with her boyfriend Bret, who is the mayor’s stepson. Bret is given a ticket and Ashley is subsequently driven home by her mother and teased by Mike.

Wade, the Mayor of Prosperity, is holding a town meeting in the mall (which is ironically placed, seeing as few people live in the town) about whether they should sell the mines and relocate. Chris McCormick, whose father owned the mines before he died ten years ago, shows up and stands against Wade’s proposition. Chris also sparks a romance with Sam.

Mike sneaks out on foot and finds Joshua and the spiders missing, although he sees an enormous spider shadow in the mines and tells Chris that the spiders have grown to enormous sizes, based on a giant spider leg he found at the mine entrance, as well as Joshua’s web-laden boot. Chris is understandably skeptical despite the evidence. Meanwhile the mines have reopened with the miners searching for a famous gold load, dismissed by many as a myth seeing as the witness of this gold was a dying man, McCormick’s father. They are soon consumed by the orb weaver family, who have made the mines their home. Seeing as the entire town is connected in some way to the mines, spiders show up in many different places. Pete’s cat is eaten by a growing specimen (though from the imprints made on the wall the cat puts up a good fight against the spider), some ostriches from Wade’s private ostrich farm are eaten by large trapdoor spiders, and Chris’ skepticism is overcome when his Aunt Gladys and her dog are abducted by a male orb weaver in her basement. He also finds an even bigger leg. Ashley breaks up with Bret, who soon after witnesses his entire motorcycle gang being attacked and killed by jumping spiders, with himself surviving after fleeing into the mines. Sheriff Sam Parker is also skeptical, and is convinced Chris and Mike are delusional. However, her skepticism fades when she witnesses a giant spider attempting to abduct Ashley in her room. The spider is shot, but the threat enlarges as Mike concludes that the spiders come out at night to feed, and the whole town is in danger.

Sam contacts Pete and tells him to bring all guns in the police station’s possession and, after a scuffle with some jumping spiders, they travel to the trailer of an eccentric UFO enthusiast named Harlan (Doug E. Doug), knowing he has a radio station that he operates from within his trailer. As Sam broadcasts the threat over the radio with Harlan standing by in disbelief, a giant tarantula assaults the trailer. As the town listens to the broadcast, they at first scoff because of Harlan’s reputation, but soon hear the screams of the people within the trailer as the tarantula overturns it. They escape as the arachnid struggles to its eight feet. As the town is assaulted by vicious spiders, Sam tells everybody to get to the mall because it has concrete walls and steel doors. The mayor, who happens to be near the mall seems to be happy that everyone is coming to his mall, but this joy is replaced with terror once he learns the reason. The main characters make it in safely, and the children and wounded people are told to go down to the basement as the able-bodied townsfolk hold off the spiders. Wade sneaks into the mines and encounters Bret before being abducted by orb weavers. Meanwhile, Harlan and Chris climb onto the roof and ascend the radio mast and try to get a signal to call the police, but are believed to be pranksters and are forced to fend for themselves. Harlan jumps from the roof after the tarantula breaks open the gates and lets the spiders enter the mall and lands in some bushes, where he meets up with Pete. The two run from spiders as Chris meets up with Sam Parker and goes down to the basement with the remaining townsfolk. Ashley is reunited with Bret, who finds Wade and frees him. Chris expresses his love for Sam, then goes to look for his Aunt Gladys in the mines. He finds Gladys and the gold his father was searching for, but is confronted by a massive Consuela. He uses Bret’s motorcycle to escape, and blows up the spiders and the mines utilizing Gladys’ smoking addiction and the high concentrations of methane gas. The police finally arrive (brought by Pete and Harlan) after the danger has subsided. They had not believed the stories of the spiders, but came to investigate the screaming that had ended up going over the airwaves. The authorities end up believing Harlan’s alternate story of invading extraterrestrials.

As the story ends, Harlan is heard making a radio report about the spiders. He concludes that the town has decided to cover up the whole incident, but have let Harlan continue broadcasting the incident, knowing nobody will believe him. He also mentions Chris reopening the gold mines and putting everyone back to work, but tells us “that is another story altogether.” As the camera pans in on his mouth, it is clear that he now has three gold teeth.

REVIEW:

I’m a little pressed for time, so please excuse the crudity and shortness of the review.

This is not as bad a film as critics want you to believe, but at the same time, it’s not the best either. It’s just what you would expect from a horror comedy.

The cast isn’t bad. Scarlett Johnasson showed even at this younger age how talented and hot she would be. I don’t think David Arquette should have been the lead, though. He just doesn’t work for me. Maybe its because of his previous work, but I’m not sure.

The spiders, I thought, were pretty cool. I’m sure those out there with (or that have seen) Arachnophobia nearly wet themselves if they even bother to watch this. Not really sure why people are so scared of spiders, but I guess if giant spiders were running all over the place, I’d be a little freaked out, myself.

Best thing I can say about this film, though, is that it knows what it is, but at the same time it pushes the envelope towards becoming a serious horror flick. Some may say that is its downfall, but I actually liked it, for this particular film. Not saying that every movie needs to go out and do the same, though.

Unless you’re scared of spiders, or can’t stand David Arquette, you should enjoy this film. Trust me, the posters and artwork advertising it don’t do it justice and make it seem like a silly comedy which it most definitely is not. Don’t believe me, watch and see for yourself.

3 out of 5 stars

The Wolf Man

PLOT:

Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) returns to his ancestral home in Llanwelly, Wales to reconcile with his father, Sir John Talbot (Claude Rains). While there, Larry becomes romantically interested in a local girl named Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers), who runs an antique shop. As a pretext, he buys something from her, a silver-headed walking stick decorated with a wolf. Gwen tells him that it represents a werewolf (which she defines as a man who changes into a wolf “at certain times of the year”.)

Throughout the film, various villagers recite a poem that all the locals apparently know, whenever the subject of werewolves comes up:

Even a man who is pure in heart

and says his prayers by night

may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms

and the autumn moon is bright.

That night, Larry attempts to rescue Gwen’s friend Jenny from what he believes to be a sudden attack by a wolf. He kills the beast with his new walking stick, but is bitten in the process. He soon discovers that it was not just a wolf; it was a werewolf, and now Talbot has become one. A gypsy fortuneteller named Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya) reveals to Larry that the animal which bit him was actually her son Bela (Bela Lugosi) in the form of a wolf. Bela had been a werewolf for years and now the curse of lycanthropy has been passed to Larry.

Sure enough, Talbot prowls the countryside in the form of a two-legged wolf. Struggling to overcome the curse, he is finally bludgeoned to death by his father with his own walking stick. As he dies, he returns to human form.

REVIEW:

Someone once called the wolfman “the runt of the horror monsters”. This was no doubt referring to his legacy compared to the likes of Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. I can’t deny that, but I can say that I believe this film is underrated, especially when you consider the major stars that are in the cast.

The myth and lore of the wolfman tends to be different with every werewolf incarnation, but I believe that The Wolf Man is the original (on film, anyway).

Lon Chaney, Jr. was apparently a very talented actor, so for him to be reduced, for lack of a better word, to a growling, snarling beast, and have such a legacy etched in cinematic history is no surprise. As a werewolf, though, we don’t really see him until the last half hour of the film. I have issue with that. It is my belief that they could have taken out some of the unnecessary dialogue and replaced it with the wolf hunting, but that’s just me.

Claude Rains is the consummate professional as he portrays Sir Talbot. His best scene, though, may be one at the end where he doesn’t speak, but the expression on his face says it all.

With the mixture of all sorts of mythology and religions going on in this flick, I’m surprised that it was allowed to be released, given the time period its from. That could just be my assumption, though.

There’s nothing like a classic horror film. Although this isn’t the scariest picture you’ll ever see, even by 1940s standards, its still pretty good, and a good intro into the werewolf lore. If not for this film, all subsequent werewolves (in just about any media) probably would not exist, so why not see where they all came from?

3 1/2 out of 5 stars

The Thing From Another World

PLOT:

A U.S. Air Force re-supply crew is officially dispatched by Gen Fogerty (David McMahon) from Anchorage, Alaska at the unusual request of Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite), the chief researcher of a group of scientists working at a remote base in the Arctic, Polar Expedition Six. They have evidence that an aircraft of some kind has crashed nearby. The crew takes along Scotty (Douglas Spencer), a reporter and former war correspondent, who is at the base in search of a story. A minor sub-plot involves a romance between the commanding officer, Captain Patrick Hendry (Kenneth Tobey) and Carrington’s secretary, Nikki Nicholson (Margaret Sheridan).

After being briefed by Dr Carrington, including high speed photos by Dr Redding (George Fenneman), Hendry’s crew and the scientists land at the crash site. They are shocked to discover that the shape of the craft is round—a flying saucer—with an airfoil of some sort protruding from the surface. They all agree to free it from the ice with thermite heat explosives, but in doing so, accidentally destroy the craft. However, the crew chief (Dewey Martin) has a geiger counter and locates a body nearby frozen in the ice.

They excavate the tall body, preserving it in a large ice block and return to the research outpost as a major storm moves in, making communication with Anchorage very difficult. Some of the scientists want to thaw out the creature immediately, but Hendry orders everyone to wait until he receives orders from Air Force authorities. Feeling uneasy guarding the body, Cpl Barnes (William Self) covers the ice block with a blanket, not realizing it is an electric blanket, and the creature thaws out, revives and escapes to the outside cold.

The creature is attacked by sled dogs, and the scientists recover an arm, bitten off by the dogs. They examine the arm and as it warms and ingests the blood from one of the dogs, it begins to come back to life. They learn that, while appearing humanoid, the creature is in fact an advanced form of plant life. Dr. Carrington is convinced that the creature can be reasoned with, but Dr Chapman (John Dierkes) and a few collegues disagree. The Air Force men are just as sure it cannot be reasoned with and may be dangerous. But Carrington soon realizes that the creature requires human blood to reproduce.

Carrington later discovers the hidden body of a sled dog, drained of blood, in the greenhouse. He has volunteers from his own team, Dr Olsen and Dr Auerbach, to stand guard overnight, waiting for the creature’s return.

Later, Carrington secretly uses plasma from the infirmary to incubate and nourish seedlings he has taken from the arm, failing to advise his colleagues or Capt Hendry of what he has done, or of the now-dead bodies of Olsen and Auerbach, drained of blood. Dr Stern (Eduard Franz) is almost killed, but escapes to warn the others. Nikki reluctantly updates Hendry when he asks about missing plasma. Hendry confronts Carrington, where he sees that the creature’s planted seed pods have grown at a tremendous rate — and need blood. Dr Wilson (Everett Glass) advises Carrington that he hasn’t slept, but Carrington is unconcerned. The creature returns and the USAF crew, after failing to affect it with firearms, trap it in the greenhouse. The scientists soon realize that the wounded creature will need more blood, and that it will not be confined for long.

Nikki notes that the temperature inside the station is dropping quickly, and Hendry relates that it’s probably due to a cut fuel line. The creature soon escapes and breaks back into the camp. But Captain Hendry and his men, following a suggestion from Nikki about how to deal with vegetables, set it alight with kerosene and it flees into the night.

The cold forces the scientists and the airmen to make a final stand in the generator room. The crew chief suggests that electricity is hotter than flaming kerosene, and they immediately create a walkway trap for the creature using high voltage electricity on overhead leads as a weapon. The group carries anything they can use to defend themselves. Lt McPherson (Robert Nichols) wonders aloud if the creature can read their minds. Lt Dykes (James R. Young), carrying a pickaxe comments, “He’ll be real mad when he gets to me”. As the creature advances on them, Carrington twice tries to stop the creature’s demise; once by shutting off the power, and the second by running out onto the trap and trying to reason with the creature. He fails and the creature throws him aside to suffer a minor injury.

The creature is electrocuted, shrinking to a husk as it is killed. Its seedlings are also destroyed. As the film closes, Hendry and Nikki are set to become engaged as Scotty files his “story of a lifetime” by radio, imploring his listeners to “Watch the skies!”

REVIEW:

I just watched this film for the first time this afternoon and have to say that for the first time. I was not impressed with a classic film. Maybe it was the high expectations I had for it, since it is a classic sci-fi film, but it just didn’t deliver.

For the most part, this picture is just flat out boring. I hate to use those words when describing a film in this genre, but its true. For a film that is about an hour and a half, it takes almost an hour to get anything going. Citizen Kane has more exciting things going on the same span of time, which is quite sad.

The film focuses exclusively on the military personnel at an Alaskan outpost. I can’t recall what they are doing up there, but the decision to focus on them is not necessarily a bad thing, per se, but for the most part this felt like a military propaganda movie by their choice to do so.

James Arness, of Gunsmoke fame, plays the monster (who is only on-screen for maybe a total of 5 minutes).I don’t have any criticism for his performance, but there isn’t enough of it there to critique in a positive or negative way.

I wish I could say that I loved this film and that you should rush out and see it, but that would make me a liar. I was dozing off as I sat and watched this. It was quite painful. No, this isn’t the worst movie ever made, but it isn’t that great. See it if you must, but keep in mind, its not that great.

2 out of 5 stars

Practical Magic

PLOT:

The Owens women are witches in whom the Craft has been passed down through every generation into modern times. The story concerns sisters Frances (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest), and their orphaned nieces Gillian (Nicole Kidman) and Sally (Sandra Bullock). The Owens family is cursed: if an Owens woman finds true love with a man, he will die tragically, as was the case with the father of Gillian and Sally, whose death also brought on their mother’s death “from a broken heart,” which can be understood as suicide. As a child, Sally casts a true love spell to protect her. She dreams up a series of odd traits for the man of her dreams, confident no real man could ever be like the man in her spell, preventing her from ever falling in love.

The sisters grow up, and Gillian runs away as she is impatient with small town life. Packing her bags and leaving at night, they cast a binding oath to each other using blood from both of their hands and then mixing the bloods by clasping hands. Without Gillian around, Sally feels lonely and craves a normal life. Her aunts, wanting her to be happy, cast a spell that helps Sally fall in love with a man named Michael. Sally marries him and has two daughters, Kylie (Evan Rachel Wood) and Antonia (Alexandra Artrip). When Michael falls victim to the curse and dies, Sally and her daughters return to the Owens home to live with the aunts.

When Gillian’s latest boyfriend Jimmy (Goran Višnjić) turns abusive, she calls Sally for help. Sally goes to collect Gillian, but Jimmy kidnaps both of them. Sally puts belladonna into Jimmy’s tequila to knock him out, but she uses too much and accidentally kills him. The panicked sisters attempt to resurrect him using a forbidden spell from their aunts’ book of spells. The spell works, but when Jimmy is revived, Sally is forced to kill him a second time to stop him from killing Gillian. The sisters bury his body in the Owens home garden, where they hope nobody will notice, but his spirit begins to haunt them.

A State Investigator named Gary Hallett (Aidan Quinn) arrives in town looking for Jimmy. Gillian prepares a banishment spell using the syrup from their table to get rid of Gary, but Sally’s daughters thwart the spell when they notice that Gary fulfills a number of conditions of Sally’s true love spell. Sally confesses that she killed Jimmy, and that she cast a spell to summon Gary to her. Gary has an encounter with Jimmy’s ghost, and decides to leave town without arresting Sally.

Jimmy possesses Gillian, and the aunts decide that in order to dispel Jimmy, a coven needs to be formed (nine women, “twelve’s better”). Sally is forced to ask the aid of townswomen who had feared and excluded her. The women come out of curiosity and a desire to help. The exorcism is a success due to the strong bond between the two sisters; Jimmy’s spirit is dispelled and the 300-year-old curse of the Owens women is ended, when Sally repeats the spell that was mentioned as Gillian first left, by clasping their hands to mix each others blood once more. It brought Gillian back.

Sally receives a letter from Gary that she and her sister are cleared of any suspicion or wrongdoing in Jimmy’s case. Gary eventually returns to the town to be with Sally. The Owens women, daughters and all celebrate All Hallows Eve dressed up in stereotypical witch costumes, but they are embraced and welcomed by the townsfolk.

REVIEW:

Witches living in a small town, eh? Lemme guess, the townspeople are crazy paranoid and there is some sort of curse about them, right? Yeah, that pretty much covers most of Practical Magic.  Then you throw in the whole dead guy who won’t go away and you’ve got it all.

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman play the Owens sisters, two witches who, after their parents’ deaths went to live with their aunts. while living there, they learned how to use their magic. Gilly (Kidman) decides to leave when she gets older, while Sally (Bullock) stays behind.

Both Bullock and Kidman show why they are such accomplished actresses, especially Kidman. Sally is the typical character that Sandra Bullock plays, insecure, conservative, a little frumpy, etc. Somehow, this works for her, despite it not being her natural personality. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Kidman’s Gilly is full of rebellious spirit. It is that spirit that gets her into trouble and leads to the plot of the movie.

The sisters accidentally kill Gilly’s boyfriend and then try to bring him back to life, which as anyone with common sense will tell you, is never a good thing. turns out that he becomes some sort of ghostlike form and possesses her, prompting Sally and the aunts to form a coven with some townswomen so that he can be excised. During this exorcism, Kidman shows a flair for convulsions that we had not seen from her before, and haven’t seen from her since.

Diane Wiest and Stockard Channing portray the aunts. There aprts are not big, but they are crucial to the story. Similar in a way that Hilda and Zelda were always thay for Sabrina in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, it appears that these aunts perform the same task. Channing seems to have some sort of southern accent. She actually puts me in the mind of Ouiza.

Aside from the witchcraft and exorcism, there is a bit of a tragic love story to be found in the convoluted film. The detective that is investigating the case makes a trip out from Arizona and meets Sally, who apparently had cast a spell when she was younger that was meant to bring a guy with one blue eye and one green eye to her. There are some sparks that fly between the two, but there is also that air of mystery about did he really come because she cast that spell or because of his own free will.

I kind of liked this film, but, like many others that have watched it, I felt a bit confused as to what was realy going on. The tone of the picture is a problem. I’m on of those people that has no isseue with mixing genres, but make sure you establish your major category first. Practical Magic fails to do that, and as a result becomes a lesser film than it could be. There is so much potential here for this to be a great picture, but it just doesn’t deliver anything more than just an above average picture that mostly appeals to women and those into witchcraft. Such a shame!

3 out of 5 stars

First Knight

PLOT:

The film’s opening text establishes that King Arthur of Camelot, victorious from his wars, has dedicated his reign to promoting justice and peace and now wishes to marry. However, Malagant, a Knight of the Round Table, desires the throne for himself and rebels.

The movie opens with Lancelot, a vagabond and skilled swordsman, dueling in small villages for money. Lancelot attributes his skill to his lack of concern whether he lives or dies. Guinevere, the ruler of Leonesse, decides to marry Arthur partly out of admiration and partly for security against Malagant, who is shown raiding a village. While traveling, Lancelot chances by Guinevere’s carriage on the way to Camelot, and helps spoil Malagant’s ambush meant to kidnap her. He falls in love with Guinevere, who refuses his advances. Though Lancelot urges her to follow her heart, Guinevere remains bound by her duty. She is subsequently reunited with her escort.

Later, Lancelot arrives in Camelot and successfully navigates an obstacle course on the prospect of a kiss from Guinevere, though he instead kisses her hand. He also wins an audience with her husband-to-be, Arthur. Impressed by Lancelot’s courage and struck by his recklessness and freewheeling, Arthur shows him the Round Table which symbolizes a life of service and brotherhood. Guinevere is subsequently kidnapped by Malagant’s followers and imprisoned in an oubliette. Lancelot poses as a messenger to Malagant only to escape with Guinevere and return her to Camelot. Once again, Lancelot tries to win her heart, but is unsuccessful. On the return journey, it is revealed that Lancelot was orphaned and rendered homeless after bandits attacked his village, and has been wandering ever since.

In gratitude, Arthur offers Lancelot a higher calling in life as a Knight of the Round Table. Amidst the protests of the other Knights (who are suspicious of his station), and of Guinevere (who struggles with her feelings for him), Lancelot accepts and takes Malagant’s place at the Table, saying he has found something to care about. Arthur and Guinevere are subsequently wedded. However, a messenger from Leonesse arrives, with news that Malagant has invaded. Arthur leads his troops to Leonesse and successfully defeats Malagant’s forces. Lancelot wins the respect of the other Knights with his prowess in battle. He also learns to embrace Arthur’s philosophy, moved by the plight of villagers.

Lancelot feels guilty about his feelings for the queen and in private announces his departure to her. She grants him a kiss, which turns into a passionate embrace, just in time for the king to interrupt. Though Guinevere claims to love both Arthur and Lancelot – albeit in different ways – the two are charged with treason. The open trial in the great square of Camelot is interrupted by a surprise invasion by Malagant, ready to burn Camelot and kill Arthur if he does not swear fealty. Instead Arthur commands his subjects to fight, and Malagant’s men shoot him with crossbows. A battle between Malagant’s men and Camelot’s soldiers and citizens ensues, and Lancelot and Malagant face off. Disarmed, Lancelot seizes Arthur’s fallen sword and kills Malagant. The people of Camelot win the battle, but Arthur dies of his wounds. On his deathbed, he asks Lancelot to “take care of her for me” – a double entendre referring to both Camelot and Guinevere. The movie closes with a funeral raft carrying Arthur’s body floating out to sea, which is set aflame.

REVIEW:

Medieval times are probably my third favorite era in history, possibly second on film. I’m not the type to dress up and head to Ren-Fairs or anything, but I do like a few things from that period in time. One of these things is the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

Lancelot is hands down, one ofthe most popular of Arthur’s knights. Richard Gere brings him to the screen in a way that mnay of the legends tend to forget, and that is he makes him a bot of a rouge looking for his way in the world.

Julia Ormond is great as Lady Guinevere. Her beauty is matched only by her talent. This is not an easy character to play, and she does so flawlessly.

Sean Connery lives for roles such as this, but I have to wonder if he ever tires of playing Arthur or King Richard. It seems like he’s always one or the other in these films. Having said that, this is one of the few times where he actually gets to star, rather than cameo as Arthur.

I don’t know much abpit Malagant, but apparently he is a very important part in the Arthurian legends. This film does a good job of bringing him to the knowledge of people like me who don’t know about him.

Camelot looks beautiful in this film. Its the kind of place you definitely wanted to live in back then, and may even still want to live there today. The set the used, or castle they found is breathtaking.

There are two major fight scenes in this film. The first is Lancelot saving Guinevere from Malagant’s clutches and shows off his stunt double’s skills. The second is the climactic battle for Camelot. For such an epic battle, I kind of felt a little let down, but it was still pretty good.

This film could have gone one of two ways. There was the action route, which they focus on here and there and there’s the drama angle which they use for a good chunk of the film. As good as this film is, I think it would have been better served as an action picture than a drama. Still, the dramatic parts are pretty good, mainly because of two of the most talented actors of our time, Richard Gere and Sean Connery. This, mixed with the very well choreographed fight scenes make for a very entertaining picture.

4 out of 5 stars

Galaxy Quest

PLOT:

In the film’s universe, the TV series Galaxy Questwas a highly popular space-drama, until it was canceled after only four seasons. Seventeen years after the series ended, the stars of the show have been reduced to convention appearances and store openings. Only Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen), the egomaniacal star and crew “commander”, enjoys the devoted fanbase. His other crew members are less enthusiastic, fed up with being typecast by their roles on the show. At a convention, Jason meets an eccentric group of people claiming to be extraterrestrial beings called “Thermians” led by “Mathesar” (Enrico Colantoni), who ask him to appear in what he assumes to be an amateur episode. Jason humors them, whereupon the Thermians transport him to their spaceship to negotiate with Sarris (Robin Sachs), a reptilian humanoid warlord engaged in a genocidal war against them. Sarris demands the “Omega 13”, a device mentioned (but not used) in Galaxy Quest’s final episode. Due to a hangover, Jason thinks the situation is fictional and orders them to attack Sarris before asking permission to return home. Jason is sent to Earth through space in a gelatinous “pod”, and realizes the ordeal was real. Jason tells his co-stars about it, and they reluctantly join him and return to help the Thermians.

The Thermians turn out to be a peaceful, naïve, octopoid alien race whose society had fallen into disarray some time ago. However, they then discovered Earth’s TV transmissions and, having no concept of fiction, theatre, or lying, mistake the Galaxy Questepisodes as factual “historical documents”. Observing the success of the crew in the show, they then proceed to model their entire society after the show’s example, building an actual version of the show’s spaceship (the NSEA Protector), using “appearance generators” to make themselves appear humanoid, inventing actual versions of the fictional technologies portrayed in the show, and following the show’s inspiring ideology. Thus, the human cast is obliged to assume their television roles in order to survive. Sarris attacks the Protector, and the ensuing fight forces them to flee through a minefield, which damages the ship’s reactor powered by a “beryllium sphere”. The actors travel to a nearby planet to secure a new sphere, and the crew narrowly escapes being attacked by goblin-like natives, leaving Jason behind at the mercy of a giant rock monster called “Gorignak”. He is teleported back aboard the ship by Fred (Tony Shalhoub), but in his absence Sarris has invaded and taken control.

Interrogated by Sarris about the Omega 13, Jason reveals the truth about the “historical documents” to him; Sarris understands the truth of the show and orders Jason to tell Mathesar, who is crushed. Sarris returns to his ship while his men remain behind and activate the self-destruct sequence. Using a gambit from the show, the actors escape and proceed to try and rescue the Thermians. To deactivate the self-destruct sequence, which Jason and Gwen (Sigourney Weaver) don’t know how to do, Jason contacts Brandon (Justin Long), a Galaxy Questfanboy who he accidentally traded communicators with at a convention previously. Brandon, excited at the show being “real” as he secretly suspected, guides Jason and Gwen through the Protector’s dangerous inner systems to the core’s control center and tell them how to shut down the self-destruct sequence. On the way, Jason and Gwen end up underneath the Omega 13 itself: Brandon reveals that according to fan speculation, the Omega 13 may either be a bomb capable of destroying the universe, or a time-machine which can send the user back thirteen seconds. Meanwhile, actor Sir Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman) and a young Thermian named Quellek (Patrick Breen) free the Thermian prisoners, and Fred transports the monster Gorignak onto the ship to attack Sarris’ soldiers. Taking back control of the ship, the actors and Thermians engage Sarris’ ship in combat and destroy it with mines from the aforementioned minefield, child-pilot Tommy (Daryl Mitchell) having practiced piloting by re-watching old episodes of the show. Celebrating their victory, the actors return to Earth.

On the way, Sarris sneaks aboard the ship disguised as Fred and attacks, wounding the crew as the ship nears Earth. Jason activates the Omega 13 and is sent back in time thirteen seconds, long enough to incapacitate Sarris and land the ship safely. With Brandon’s help to provide a bearing, the crew lift off from the Protectorin a separate craft, leaving the Thermians to pilot the bulk of the ship back to their galaxy. The craft crashes at a Galaxy Questconvention, where the crowds assume it to be part of the show. As the crew emerges from the wreck, Sarris revives and attacks, but Jason finally dispatches him with a blaster pistol. This spectacular display leads to a revival of the Galaxy Questseries, starring all the original cast, in addition to a Thermian named Laliari (Missi Pyle), who chooses to stay as a lover of Fred’s, and former redshirt Guy (Sam Rockwell) as a new crew member, “Security Chief ‘Roc’ Ingersoll”.

REVIEW:

I’m no fan of  Star Trek, so you can imagine that I’ve never been to a Trekkie convention. Since I haven’ been, I can only rely on the stories and sterotypes as my knowledge of that universe. Based on what I know and have heard, Galaxy Quest does a good job of poking fun at those events.

Tim Allen’s character, Jason Nesmith, is every bit as cocky and deluded as William Shatner appears to be. When the film starts, he is your typical washed out, has-been who has delusions of grandeur. However, as the film progresses and we get into the plot, he evolves more into the character that Nesmith played on the Galaxy Quest TV series.

Just as Allen channeled Shatner, Alan Rickman was all but a clone of Leonard Nimoy. The relationship between Nesmith and Dane seems like it was literally lifted from a book about Shatner and Nimoy. On hos own, Rickman is his usual snarky, sarcastic self that has become his trademark.

Let’s face it, Sigourney Weaver does not normally look this hot, but a little bit of padding and a good push up bra work wonders. Her character seems to have issues with the fact that on the show all she did was repeat what the computer said. I don’t know if there is a corresponding Star Trek character, though.

The Thelmians introduce the plot to us. These are some strange aliens, indeed. See if you can find Rainn Wilson and Missi Pyle among them.

A young Justin Long pops up as a fanboy who has all the blueprints to the ship and, thanks to a chance collision, is able to be contacted by the crew from outer space so he can save them from destruction (with help from his friends, of course).

This film has the look of a low budget flick, and that works just fine for me. I believe the CGI is supposed to look  little outdated, which is fine. It really sets the tone for the film.

I love these spoof type films, but had some fairly low expectations for this one. I should have known better than to do that. This film is funny in all aspects, and there is that redeeming quality near the end that just HAS to be put in to satisfy critics (as if they care). Everybody that sees this is gonna love it!

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Fanboys

PLOT:

On Halloween night, 1998, Eric Bottler (Sam Huntington) reunites with his old high school buddies Linus (Christopher Marquette), Hutch (Dan Fogler), Windows (Jay Baruchel), and Zoe (Kristen Bell) at a costume party. There is tension between Bottler and his old friends, due to Bottler being the only one that matured since high school. Bottler, now a successful car salesman, finds that his friends haven’t changed a bit since high school; the number one thing they still have in common is their love of Star Wars. The gang expresses their anticipation for the latest installment to the franchise, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Linus proposes an idea that Bottler and he had been plotting since they were children: to infiltrate Skywalker Ranch and steal a rough cut of the film.

The next day, Hutch and Windows meet Bottler at work and inform him that Linus has cancer. The doctors estimate that he only has roughly four months to live; Episode Icomes out in six. To make peace with his former best friend, Bottler decides to go through with their plan and infiltrate Skywalker Ranch. While on the road, Hutch decides to take a detour to Riverside, Iowa (the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk) in an attempt to start a fight with some Trekkies. Hutch gets his wish after attacking a Trekkie by the name of Admiral Seasholtz (Seth Rogen) in retaliation to Seasholtz calling Han Solo a bitch.

After arriving in Texas, the group encounters Harry Knowles (Ethan Suplee). After explaining their situation Harry gives them information on one of his contacts that knows how to successfully enter Skywalker Ranch. They are told to meet Harry’s contact in Las Vegas, but before they get there they are arrested for fleeing a police vehicle. Zoe arrives to bail them out of jail, and accompanies them on their journey. Once in Vegas, Hutch and Windows make an attempt to have sex with some girls while Bottler and Linus go to meet Harry’s contact. They are shocked to find that his contact is none other than William Shatner. Shatner gives them the information they need and leaves. Upon his departure, Seasholtz and his Trekkie friends, who were attending a Star Trek convention in Vegas, attack them. Meanwhile, Hutch and Windows discover that the girls they were with are prostitutes and their angry pimp (Seth Rogen) wants them to pay up.

The group escapes their adversaries and eventually arrive at Skywalker Ranch. Shortly after breaking in to the Ranch, they are discovered by security guards and are caught after a brief chase. The Head of Security (Danny R. McBride) tells them of their impending doom when he receives a phone call from George Lucas himself. Lucas tells him that he will drop all charges if they can prove to him that they are “fanboys.” After a short quiz, the Head of Security confirms that they are fanboys and Lucas drops all charges. Being aware of Linus’s illness, Lucas allows him to watch the film alone. After the film ends, Linus joins his friends around a campfire and mends his friendship with Bottler.

Six months later, Bottler, Windows, and Zoe emerge from their tent they used to camp out in while waiting in line for the first showing of Episode I. It is revealed that Bottler followed his and Linus’s dream by becoming a comic book artist, Hutch has finally started his own detailing business, and Windows and Zoe are now in a relationship. Hutch arrives at the theater with beers he smuggled in, which they use to toast to Linus’s memory. Just as the movie starts, Bottler asks his friends, “Hey you guys, what if the movie sucks?”

REVIEW:

I’ve been seeing trailers and previews for this thing for about 2 or 3 years now, but I don’t recall it ever being released in theaters. They say good things come to those who wait, though, and that is so true with this film.

As a Star Wars fanboy myself, I found myself a little torn about the subject matter. I mean, the idea of taking a trip across country in 1998 to see the Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace never crossed y mind, but now that I think about it, may not have been a bad idea.

Parodies such as this one give me conflicting emotions. Not all of them can be as good as the Robot Chicken versions. Luckily, Fanboys, doesn’t suffer that fate.

The fanboys are true fanboys (and a girl). They are your typical nerdy guys who live in their with their parents (even though they should have left years ago), no girlfriends, and know everything about the Star Wars universe down to the color underwear Harrison Ford was wearing when he auditioned for the part of Han Solo.

The actors that play the boys aren’t household names, as a matter of fact, with the exception of Eric, this is the biggest role most of them have had.Let me take that back, they’ve been in major films, but none have had major roles. Its good to see a film where the major characters are all new faces, but as I was looking at these guys I was thinking that had this been made a few years earlier, they could very well be Judd Apatow’s boys (Jonah Hill, the McLovin’ kid, Michal Cera, and someone else they get off the street).

Kristen Bell is hot as always, even her smaller role, but she has a bit of teen angst. Its kind of like she took her character from Heroes, Elle, and used her as a basis for this character, without all the evil intentions. Guys, admit it, you’re just waiting for those final scenes when you get to see her in a Princess Leia costume.

There are a ton of cameo in this thing, from Carrie Fisher (who isn’t playing a nurse for once), Billy Dee Williams, and Ethan Suplee to Kevin Smith, Jason Mews and Seth Rogen (who plays two characters).

It is quite obvious the lvoe the filmakers and actors have for the lore of Star Wars. Something that seems to have been forgotten by George Lucas himself as he keeps pimping out and adding stuff to what is already perfection, but I won’t go into that here.

With the almost non-stop laughs in the film, there is a serious subplot involving Linus having cancer, which is indirectly responsible for the whole trip in the first place. I know that there are those that feel this should have been touched on more, rather than just mentioned maybe 2 or  3 times. You guys can just get over it. This isn’t some Lifetime Movie of the week, its a comedy, that means the focus is supposed to be on making people laugh, not depressing them with a kid who’s about to die.

I love this film, not just becuse I’m a huge fan of the Star Wars franchise, but because I can can actually relate to the characters. I guess I’m just a big geek when all is said and done, and belong in a group like these guys. My recommendation is for Star Wars fans to run out and see it ASAP. It is hilarious. Everyone else can enjoy it too, but some of the humor may be lost on you unless you’re an aficionado.

5 out of 5 stars

The Chronicles of Riddick

PLOT:

The film opens with a narrative, explaining the motives of the Necromongers, a race of conquerers travelling across space toward the Underverse, a dark mirror of the normal universe where death has no meaning. Their leader, the Lord Marshal (Colm Feore), commands his troops to overrun worlds and convert their inhabitants into Necromongers; those who oppose conversion are killed.

The story begins on the icy world of UV VI where Richard B. Riddick (Vin Diesel) is evading bounty hunter Toombs (Nick Chinlund) and his crew. Toombs is trying to collect the 1.5 million bounty placed on Riddick’s head. Riddick kills or disables all but Toombs and leaves the planet with their ship, setting a course for the planet Helion Prime, from which the bounty originated. In the Director’s Cut, Riddick is plagued by visions from a character named Shirah during the flight, who tells Riddick he is the last of a warrior-race called the Furyans.

When Riddick lands on Helion Prime, he confronts Imam (Keith David) in the city of New Mecca, believing he is responsible for the bounty. Imam explains that he only gave information on Riddick’s location to the one who placed the bounty. Imam also tells Riddick that Jack, the other survivor from Pitch Black, went looking for him several years earlier, missing his brother-like influence. She became a criminal and was sent to prison on the planet Crematoria. He introduces Aereon (Judi Dench), an envoy of the Elementals, who arranged for Riddick to be brought to Helion. She explains he is part of a prophecy that states a lone Furyan will one day challenge an unstoppable evil and bring balance back to the universe, and says the Necromongers are the ones the prophecy foretells.

Following this revelation, the Necromonger army attacks Helion Prime, wiping out the planet’s defenses in one night. Imam is killed in the attack while protecting his family. An enraged Riddick heads to the city forum, where the Helion Prime leaders are gathered before the Necromongers and the Lord Marshal. He challenges and dispatches Imam’s killer easily. Suspicious of his abilities, the Lord Marshal has Riddick taken into his fortress to confirm his identity. Placed before the psychic Quasi-Deads, who claim Riddick is a Furyan, the Lord Marshal orders his death. Riddick escapes, only to run into Toombs again. Toombs hired a new crew. Riddick allows himself to be captured so he can be transported to Crematoria, a dead world where daytime surface temperatures scorch the face of the planet.

Riddick is reunited with Jack (Alexa Davalos), who now goes by the name of Kyra. She blames him for leaving her and Imam in New Mecca, but eventually they reconcile. Back on Helion Prime, the Lord Marshal commands Necromonger Commander Vaako (Karl Urban) to find Riddick and have him killed, so Vaako sets out with a small group of Necromongers and a Purifier (Linus Roache) to bring him down. Vaako is curious as to why the Lord Marshal is so afraid of Riddick. With encouragement from his rabidly ambitious wife, Dame Vaako (Thandie Newton), the two learn, before he achieved his current title, the Lord Marshal destroyed the Furyans’ homeworld of Furya and its citizens. This occurred after a seer foretold that a male Furyan would cause his downfall. They deduce Riddick is the one in the prophecy.

When Toombs and his crew argue over Riddick’s bounty with the prison warden and his guards, the warden reveals he has pictures of the incoming Necromongers, who have picked up the trail left behind by Toombs’s ship. A gunfight erupts, with the staff emerging victorious. The warden and guards depart, running through man-made tunnels towards the ship hangar, locking the rest of prison down to prevent the inmates from escaping. Riddick, Kyra, and some of the inmates decide to reach the hanger first by traveling on the surface, surviving by keeping pace with the temperate zone created between the scorching heat and freezing cold of Crematoria’s daily cycles. They reach the hangar, but Vaako and his contingent of soldiers have arrived on the planet, hastily taking out the warden and his guards. Riddick and company are forced to fight the Necromongers.

Amidst the numerous casualties, Vaako narrowly defeats Riddick. In the Director’s Cut, Riddick suddenly manifests a powerful energy burst which knocks out both himself and most of the Necromongers. Vaako leaves Riddick for dead as the rising sun burns Crematoria’s surface. Vaako and the surviving Necromongers make their escape, taking Kyra, who believes Riddick has perished. Riddick nearly burns to death, but is suddenly saved by the Purifier. He states the Lord Marshal has offered to spare Riddick’s life in exchange for assurance that Riddick will not attempt to kill him; however, the Purifier goes on to say Vaako will likely claim Riddick’s death, in fear of failure, leaving the Lord Marshal vulnerable. Before walking into the sunlight and his death, the Purifier reveals himself to also be a Furyan.

Vaako returns to the Legion Vast, where the Lord Marshal promotes him. Riddick flies Toombs’s ship back to Helion Prime, intending to rescue Kyra. Not quite convinced of Riddick’s death, the Lord Marshal orders the “Final Protocol”, which will ultimately destroy all life on Helion Prime. Dame Vaako spots Riddick, who has infiltrated the mother ship. She suggests to her husband that he be allowed to fight the Lord Marshal, hopefully injuring him and allowing Vaako to deal the final blow so he may assume power, based on the Necromonger philosophy, “you keep what you kill.” Riddick makes his way to the throne room, where he comes face to face with the Lord Marshal, who reveals Kyra has converted to their faith. After lamenting to himself that the Necromonger has killed everyone he loved, Riddick does battle with the Lord Marshal, whose unique powers prove too great for Riddick to handle.

Before the Lord Marshal can deliver the coup de grâce, Kyra stabs him in the back, but he backhands her into a spike on a column, mortally wounding her. Vaako, sensing an opportunity to vanquish his superior and claim leadership, strikes out at the Lord Marshal, who narrowly escapes the blow. Riddick, however, has positioned himself where the Lord Marshall has retreated to, and stabs the Lord Marshal in the head, killing him.

Riddick turns to the wounded Kyra, and she dies in his arms. As he collapses on the Necromonger throne, the Legion Vast kneel before him, and Riddick remains silent while Aereon ruminates on the irony of the situation. In the Director’s Cut, the film abruptly ends with Riddick repeating the Necromonger adage “you keep what you kill,” realizing he is the new leader of their empire. In the theatrical cut, the Necromonger fleet abruptly departs, sparing Helion Prime. The epilogue of the novel adaptation goes even further with Riddick ordering the Necromonger fleet to the Threshold, gateway to the Underverse.

REVIEW:

Pitch Black introduced us to Richard B. Riddick, a tough criminal/murderer, who ended up being a reluctant hero of sorts. The Chronicles of Riddick gives us a little bit more insight into the character…not that I said a little bit.

This film is filled with action and adventure, as well as some interesting plot twists. The fight scenes involving Riddick are quite intense and the part where the inmates from Crematoria are running to escape the sun is enough to get your blood pumping hoping that they make it before the sun catches and fries them.

Vin Diesel is not going to win any Academy Awards with this acting, at least not anything I’ve seen, but for this character, he’s perfect. That could be because they pretty much wrote the part with him in mind, and it shows. As hardened and action junkie as Riddick is, he shows some compassion towards Imam, his family, and Kyra.

Speaking of Kyra. In Pitch Black, she was called Jack. My, my, my has she grown up in 5 yrs (partially becuse she’s being played by a different actress). They briefly go into her story, but not really enough to say they do. Apparently, that is something that is covered in the animated DVD. Alexa Davalos is responsible for bringing Kyra to life, and doesn’t give a bad performance. She even holds her own with Vin Diesel in a couple of fight scenes.

Karl Urban plays Vaako, the Necromonger Commander who has aspirations of taking the throne by betrayal. Ironically, he played Julius Cesar in Xena: Warrior Princess, and as we all know, that ended with him being betrayed. Vaako is your typical second in command, and unfortunately, there’s nothing special about him, except maybe his wife.

Thandie Newton plays Dame Vaako (not sure why they couldn’t come up with a better name for her). Her character seems to be playing puppet with her husband, as she is the one pulling all the right strings behind his desire to overthrow the Lord Marshall. I know there are those that think this woman is very beautiful, and she isn’t an eyesore, that’s for sure, but her look just doesn’t sell me on being a villain and really took away from her acting, which was really good, probably the best in the film.

Dame Judi Dench has a fairly small role as Aereon, the elemental. As far as I could tell, she is some sort of soothsayer with the power to glide a bit. Her character is pretty impressive, but when you have an actress as talented as Dame Judi, you would thik they’d give her more screen time., but at the same tme, I would imagine a role like this must be a break for her and just what she wanted.

The biggest issue I have with this film, is that it doesn’t seem to stick with the story. What I mean by that is that it jumps around from here to there and everywhere without regards to the story. For example, it takes a good hour for things to really get going in the first place. On top of that, the Necromongers, who are the villains in the film, are off screen for a good chunk of the mid section of the film. I sort of understand why they were M.I.A., but at the same time, it wouldn’t have hurt to do a quick shot of Vaako plotting, or the lord Marshall consulting the Quasi-dead, etc.

I’m not sure if I like this better than Pitch Black, but it is pretty good. The film doesn’t suck, but at the same time, it didn’t blow me away as I was expecting it to. I’m not going to dissuade you from seeing this film, but I will offer you this tidbit, it’s best to not go in thinking this is a non-stop action flick. Yes, there is plenty of action, but it seems as if this one depends more on the story to drive it, which isn’ bad, but could have been executed better.

3 out of 5 stars

Short Circuit 2

PLOT:

Benjamin Jahveri (Fisher Stevens) has moved to New York City where he is selling toy versions of Johnny 5 out on the street. Struggling department store buyer Sandy Banatoni (Cynthia Gibb) sees the toys and works out an order for 1,000 units. Ben gains the help of street hustler Fred Ritter (Michael McKean) for the project, and Fred borrows money from a loan shark to get equipment, temps and a warehouse to build the toys.

Unfortunately, the warehouse is the base of operations for a duo of thieves hired by bank teller Oscar Baldwin (Jack Weston) to tunnel underground to his bank’s vault across the street where they hope to steal a set of jewels known as the Vanderveer Collection, worth $37,862,000. The thieves attempt to scare off Ben and Fred, trashing their equipment and causing their temps to flee, making it impossible to meet their deadline.

A large crate arrives from Ben’s friends Stephanie and Newton, which contains Johnny 5, who has been sent to help Ben with his business. Johnny can build the toys rapidly, allowing Ben free time to study what he must know to become a U.S. citizen. Considering Johnny’s thirst for knowledge, Ben makes Fred swear not to reveal the nature of their location to Johnny, believing (correctly) that the robot would go nuts if he knew he was living in a major metropolis filled with input.

When Fred accidentally lets it slip to Johnny that he is in the city, the robot leaves the warehouse to explore New York, and inadvertently makes friends with Oscar himself.

Fred, having learned from Ben that Johnny is worth over $11 million, tries to sell the robot to a few high-profile businessmen. When Johnny learns that Fred plans to sell him, he escapes and wanders alone through the city. Johnny soon realizes through his interaction with passers-by just how lonely he is, because of his inability to convince anyone that he is alive. Johnny is later found and retrieved by Ben from the NYPD’s stolen-goods warehouse. The two have a heart-to-heart conversation, and Johnny encourages Ben to ask out Sandy on a proper date. After an awkward start, Ben and Sandy find a connection.

The thieves, pressed for time to steal the jewels, lock Ben and Fred in the freezer of a Chinese restaurant, while Oscar persuades the overly trusting Johnny to help finish the tunnel leading to the bank. Johnny completes the tunnel, breaks into the safe, and unlocks the safe deposit box that holds the Vanderveer Collection. Johnny finally becomes aware of Oscar’s true intentions but, after a brief chase through part of the city, Oscar and his goons severely damage him.

Although Johnny manages to get away from the thieves, he is slowly dying. Ben and Fred also manage to escape from the freezer thanks to Sandy, but when they return to the warehouse, Ben and Sandy are falsely captured by the police for the robbery, while Fred escapes and attempts to find Johnny. After a long, heavy search of the city, Fred manages to find Johnny in an alleyway. Fred is startled by how smashed up Johnny is, and helps patch him up enough to reconnect his main battery and memory, which is enough for Johnny to make the remaining repairs himself.

Despite his injuries, Johnny is determined to bring Oscar and his cronies to justice. After a brief chase, he finds and corners them at a construction zone near the Hudson River. Oscar’s gang is captured, but Oscar himself flees by stealing a boat. Johnny makes use of a crane to capture Oscar from the moving boat, who is then arrested and the diamonds are returned. The effort drains Johnny’s remaining power reserves, causing Ben to frantically use a defibrillator in an effort to save Johnny. Ben succeeds, and manages to keep him alive long enough to make full repairs on him.

The final scenes show that Johnny has become an overnight celebrity, his face (and tale with the jewel thieves) adorning the front pages of newspapers and magazines everywhere. As a result of this newfound fame, his look-alike toys have become a hot commodity, allowing Sandy, Ben, and Fred to go into business for themselves as a successful corporation known as Input, Inc. The film concludes with Ben’s inauguration into U.S. citizenship, which he shares with a newly-restored—and gold plated—Johnny, officially recognized as a living, thinking, citizen with all the associated rights and privileges. Asked how he felt about his new status, Johnny enthusiastically jumps into the air, shouting that he feels “alive!”

REVIEW:

Many of the films that were released in the 80s left us wanting a second film. In theory, there is nothing wrong with that, if said sequel can maintain the parts that made the original such big hit. Short Circuit 2 does not fit that bill.

Johnny 5 returns still looking for input, and as you can imagine in a bigcity like New York City, he gets into lots of trouble, especially being as naive as he tends to be. Unlike in Short Circuit, he doesn’t have the military chasing after him, so he doesn’t have his weapons anymore. However, he does get the crap beat out of him and nearly dies, this causes him to get pissed off and seek out he people that did this to him. That whole sequence reminded me of when Gizmo got pissed off in Gremlins 2.

Ben Jahvari was the comic sidekick in the original, but here is the lead (human) character, complete with his own set of issues, such as studying for a U.S. Citizenship test, fitting nto a new city, making money, and talking to girls. Fisher Stevens still does a great job of making the audience belive he realy is Indian, but something about Ben has been lost. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s something that isn’t quite there that made him such a lovable character in the first film.

Michael McKean’s character is such total douchbeag for most of the film, that you really wish something bad would happen to him, but near the film’s end he actually becomes a bit of a hero, and you don’t want to kill him. Still, I have to give him his props for playing such a horrible character.

The scene where Johnny gets trashed is quite sad. You almost feel the pain that he is feeling as he’s getting the hell beat out of him. Along those same lines, when he finds out that Ben and Fred were only kidnapped where as he was nearly “disassembled”, the anger that flows through him flows through us all.

There are a few comedic scenes, almost exclusively involving Johnny 5, that keep this film from slipping into a coma.

I don’t hate this film, but it just doesn’t stack up to the original. I believe they made this just to make a few quick bucks (the same way they intend to do with the Short Circuit remake that has been greenlit). Unfortunately, in their quest to make a quick buck, they didn’t make a quality product.

3 out of 5 stars

Ducktales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp

PLOT:

In this film, Scrooge McDuck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Webby Vanderquack and Launchpad McQuack search for the treasure of Collie Baba and his forty thieves. They find a magic lamp and a genie (voiced by Rip Taylor) that can grant them all kinds of wishes. Unfortunately, Merlock the Magician (voiced by Christopher Lloyd) wants that lamp, and he and his sidekick, Dijon the Thief, would do anything to get their hands on it.

REVIEW:

As a kid, I would rush home after school everyday to see Ducktales and the rest of the Disney afternoon cartoons (back when cartoon actually came on in the afternoons). I was so excited when the movie came out. It has been quite some time since I’ve seen this, and let me tell you, I think I love it even more today than I did back then.

As with the series, the film follows the adventures of Scrooge McDuck and his nephews as they search the globe for various treasure and money making ventures to help his empire. This time their adventures have them in the Middle East where they come across a treasure that Scrooge has been searching for for 40 years.

Of course, once they get their hands on it, Merlock, the Magician appears and steals it. However, similar to Jafar in Aladdin, all he wants is the lamp.Unfortunate for them, though, it is Webbie and Scrooge’s nephews that have the lamp and free the Genie.

This genie isn’t as charismatic or funny as Robin williams’  genie, or as naive (and hot) as Barbara Eden in I Dream of Jeannie, but as with all interpretations of what a genie should be, this one has his own distinct personality, powers, and limitations, but in the end he just wants his freedom.

Christopher Lloyd’s voice brings a real gravely, yet comic, tone to Merlock, while rip Taylor’s distinctive timbre gives the genie life.

The climax to the film felt a little rushed, but not to unbearable levels. My belief is that there was some bad editing in there to make it feel that way.

So, if you were a fan of the show back in the late 80s and early 90s, you probably already know about and have seen this, if not, then shame on you! Go track it down and watch it! For the rest of you, this is a good example of what Disney cartoons (that weren’t the screen masterpieces) were, as opposed to Phineas & Ferb and the like. It’s all around good fun for everyone! Watch and enjoy!

4 out of 5 stars

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

PLOT:

Five days after the end of the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth and Michael O’Laughlen, both members of the Knights of the Golden Circle(KGC), enter a tavern and approach Thomas Gates (Ben Gates’ great-great-grandfather), a well-known puzzle solver, to decode a message written in Booth’s diary. Thomas recognizes the message as using the Playfair cipher and begins to translate it. While he does so, Booth leaves for Ford’s Theatre to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Thomas solves the puzzle, a clue to a treasure map, and realizes the men are still loyal to the Confederate cause and have a sinister motive for finding the treasure. A fight breaks out, and Thomas rips several pages from the diary and throws them in the fireplace. Thomas is shot, and the gunman attempts to retrieve the pages, but only obtains a page fragment. As Thomas dies, Thomas tells his distraught son, Charles Gates, “The debt that all men pay…”

Over 140 years later, Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) is telling his great-great-grandfather’s story at a Civilian Heroes conference. Black market dealer Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris) shows one of the 18 missing pages of John Wilkes Booth’s diary, with Thomas Gates’ name on it, convincing everyone that Thomas was not only a conspirator, but the grand architect of the Lincoln assassination. Ben sets out to prove the innocence of his great-great-grandfather. Using spectral imaging, Ben discovers a cipher pointing to Édouard Laboulaye hidden on the back of the diary page. He travels to Paris, where he finds a clue engraved on the torch of the scale model of the Statue of Liberty on the Île des Cygnes, referring to the two Resolute desk.

Ben then heads to London to look at the desk at Buckingham Palace with the help of his friend Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and estranged girlfriend, Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger). From the Queen’s desk, he obtains an ancient wooden plank.

Meanwhile, Wilkinson broke into Patrick Gates’ (Jon Voight) house and cloned Patrick’s cell phone in order to track Ben’s whereabouts. Wilkinson eventually obtains the wooden plank, but not before Ben manages to photograph the symbols carved into the plank. At Ben’s insistence, Patrick reluctantly asks his ex-wife and Ben’s mother, Dr. Emily Appleton (Helen Mirren), a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, for help in translating the symbols. She does so, but points out that some of the glyphs are partial, leading Ben to conclude another plank must be hidden in the other Resolute desk located in the Oval Office. Ben and Abigail coax Abigail’s new love interest, Connor (Ty Burrell), a curator for the White House, into letting them into the office to see the desk. Ben discovers that the second plank is missing, but he does find a stamp bearing the seal of the Book of Secrets. Riley tells Ben that the Book of Secrets contains documents collected by Presidents for Presidents’ eyes only, covering such controversial subjects as the JFK assassination, Watergate, and Area 51.

Ben crashes the President’s birthday party at Mount Vernon, where he meets the President. Ben convinces the President (Bruce Greenwood) to follow him into a secret tunnel under the House where he confronts him about the book; the President sympathetically warns Ben that his actions will be interpreted as an attempt to kidnap the President, confirming a conclusion Ben and his companions have already reached; Ben is now wanted for committing a federal offense. Ben convinces the President to reveal the location of the book, which is at the Library of Congress. The President also tells Ben to read page 47 along with the information he needs.

In the book, Ben finds a picture of the missing plank from the desk and an entry by President Coolidge, who found the plank in 1924, had it destroyed, and commissioned Gutzon Borglum to carve Mount Rushmore to erase the map’s landmarks in order to protect the treasure. Ben, Riley, Abigail, and Patrick head to Mount Rushmore where they meet Mitch, who has kidnapped Ben’s mother. Mitch helps them find the entrance of a cave containing the legendary native American city of gold, Cíbola. Once inside, they encounter several traps, and everyone gets separated. Eventually, they find the city of solid gold behind Mount Rushmore. However, in order to leave the city of gold, one person has to stay behind to hold open the escape path. Mitch sacrifices himself, asking Ben to give him the credit for finding the treasure.

Ben clears his family’s name with the discovery and is cleared of all charges when the President tells everyone that Ben saved his life. Ben also ensures Mitch receives joint credit for the find. The President then asks Ben about what he read on page 47 of the Book of Secrets, to which Ben replies, “It’s life altering, sir.”

REVIEW:

The biggest mystery about this film, is not what is on page 47, but rather how they managed to make a film that was just as good, if not better, than its predecessor. That page 47 mystery comes in a close second, though. Rumor has it that if they make a third film, we may find out what is written in there.

So, Ben Gates, having discovered all that treasure from the original National Treasure, has now gained a bit of respect in the academic community, which is why they’re letting him give a lecture, but of course someone has to enter a plot point, right? Enter Ed Harris as Mitch Wilkinson, who believes that Thomas Gates was in on the assassination of President Lincoln based on what his Great-Great Grandaddy told him.

Harris plays the villain pretty well, but he isn’t as good as Sean Beam was in the previous film. He does have a believable Southern accent, which is something that not many actors can pull off.

The major characters all return for the sequel. Riley, who is the comic relief, gets a much bigger role here, but he kinda gives off the impression that he was trying too hard to belong. Of course, when you’re running around with a bunch of history buffs that can pretty much tell you the entire history of any and everything all the way back to its Latin roots, then I think you may have the same issues.

Diane Kruger and Jon Voight also return. Nothing spectacularly different about them that wasn’t in the first. Helen Mirren joins the cast as Ben’s mother, who just so happens to be an expert on Native American hieroglyphics (how convenient). Harvey Keitel also returns, this time instead of being a dick FBI agent, he is an agent who will do his job, but knows what’s going on.

I have to mention the excellent job that Bruce Greenwood did as President. Sure there have been lots of movie presidents, but not many that have convinced me they could actually have the job for real.

As with the previous film, there is a climactic scene that leads to the discovery of the treasure. One review I read said it was a bit drug out. I kind of felt that way, too. Don’t get me wrong, I love action just as much as the next guy, but it just felt like they were in a bad episode of  Survivor. The part where they were on the platform that had to balance was pretty cool, though.

As with many film of this ilk, the mysteries and theories that are uncovered, as well as the facts that are presented actually taught me something. As a matter of fact, I believe I learned more history in these two films than I did in my college History classes. How sad is that?

There’s not much this film could do to be better than it is. It’s not the perfect film, but it is still pretty good. The mystery of page 47 needs to be resolved, though, for the sake of the audiences sanity!

4 1/2 out of 5 stars