2011/10/31

Walking Dead talk

I just watched episode 3 of the Walking Dead for this season and I wanted to talk about it. There are spoilers so stop reading now if you don't want stuff to be ruined.






At the end of episode one Carl was shot. In the next episode we meet Otis who shot Carl by accident while hunting, Carl was petting a deer. Otis and Shane went off to get equipment to save Carl. They find a crap ton of zombies and at the end of episode 2 they are trapped in a school with zombies everywhere. They are then being chased during episode 3. Otis risks his life to draw the zombies away so Shane can jump out a window. He does that, sprains his ankle is about to die when here comes Otis to the rescue and saves Shane. They are both 'running' or limping as the case may be. Shane because of his ankle injury Otis...well because Otis is heavyset. They compare how many bullets they have and Shane then shoots Otis in the leg! He shot him, takes his weapon and the equipment and lets the zombies eat him!

Okay I can see Shane's thoughts but then on the Talking Dead, the talk show that follows TWD, the host, the dude of Napoleon Dynamite and Felicia Day all talk like it is okay for Shane to do this. WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?! I feel like up is down and black is white. THAT WAS NOT OKAY!

They talk about how it is a changed world and it was for a kid. That doesn't make killing a man right. I guess had Shane turned around and shot Otis in the head after they started eating him. To show some compassion maybe I would be okay but that was awful!

The excuse of it being a new different world doesn't work for me. IF anything that should make EVERY life worth trying to save. They were out running the zombies. Otis wasn't any slower than Shane.

I will admit it was me or someone else in that situation, its someone else, and I assume almost everyone else will say that. It the zombies were two steps behind things would be different but that isn't the case.

Oh and for the record the show is doing something right when I, or anyone, get emotionally interested. Its the sign of good writing in my opinion. Also I assumed Otis was going to die, but not sacrificed and executed like he was. I figured he would sacrifice himself to save Carl to make amends for his accident.

I will say that I am really interested in a few things.

1. Where does this take Shane's character? He is a murderer now, no matter the reason and good that came out of it he killed Otis.

2. What will happen when Rick finds out that Shane killed Otis?

3. Does Shane still want to leave the group (he talked about that in episode 1) or does he now think he can do better than Rick as leader

Okay that is enough ranting. Let me end with this, when Shane is zombie food I will not feel bad. I will be extremely happy. Much like when Shane died on the Shield. Maybe it is all TV characters named Shane that are just asses. Oh and I would love to see Zombie Otis come and eat Shane.

Oh and I was so disappointed to hear Felicia Day say she agreed with what Shane did. That made me a very sad panda

2011/10/24

Paranormal Activity 3 review

Over the weekend I went and saw Paranormal Activity 3. Those of you who know me know that I saw the first one in the theater 3 times I believe. I loved the movie. I am a big fan of suspenseful movies like this. What I like about these movies is that it isn't about the scare, although the scare is good, its about the build up to the scare. This one is good, not great but good.

Cons: One of the big drawbacks to this flick is its run time. At 85 minutes it is just too short. I would have liked to see another 15 minutes tacked onto the film to help build the end which was really good. The film does a nice job of building slowly but it is suddenly over with little built up to the final 10 minutes or so. There could have a been a little more there. The other thing I didn't like is that it was a little short on the scares. Of course that goes with the run time as well. The other thing is that this one was slightly more predictable than the first two but that happens when you're the third movie I guess.

Pros: The acting is great. The little girl, Jessica Tyler Brown, who plays young Kristi really does a fantastic job. She plays the creepy little girl amazingly. The other little girl, Chloe Csengery who plays young Katie also does a great job. There is a scene she does while playing the old game "Bloody Mary" which might be the best scene in the entire film. That 5-8 minutes is intense and well done especially by her. The scares were well done and Toby (the demon's name in the flick thanks to young Kristi) is pretty well done when he does his stuff.

Overall enjoyable. I would see it again to see if I missed anything although this one was slightly less involved. I also would have liked to see my crush Katie Featherston (from the first two) in it more only because I enjoy her so much! I would give it 3 out of 4. The run time knocked it down some or it would have been a 3.5 out of 4. Really well done overall. I hope this is the end of these movies as I don't want to see it turned into Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street where it runs its course and then some. They told a great story in the three films, gave you all the info you need and it is time to put these to bed.

2011/10/21

Transformers 3.....the worst film ever?

I must have done something horrible because I just punished myself by watching Transformers 3. It was the most GOD AWFUL thing I've ever seen on film and I've seen "The Room", "Birdemic", "Battlefield Earth" and "Avatar".

Let me start off with what was good about the movie...and that part is done. That isn't true. Patrick Dempsey was good as was Alan Tudyk even though his part was horrible. Okay that really was the best part of this abomination called a movie.

Now to the bad....where to begin....I really don't know. I'll start with the horrible HORRIBLE acting. It was god awful. Shia LaBeouf should NEVER be allowed to 'act' again. Instead of his usual bumbling in the first two he now is a 'tough' guy which made me miss his bumbling! His parents, who I usually like in...especially Kevin Dunn, are horrible. John Turturro, Frances McDormand and John Malkovich I just felt sorry for. How can talented people like that say the horrible lines they were given. It was written like like I would have wrote a movie as a teenager...and probably now...which isn't a good thing!

Lets move onto the writings. They quote Spock and they have Leonard Nimoy say it. Yeah that is where this movies writing goes. You have Sam's mom talking to him about his girlfriends orgasms. You have the usual horrible things said by the Autobots which I have already forgotten.

Now to the point that really angers me, much like the first two films, the way the Autobots act. I grew up with Transformers. I feel like some of these characters are almost family. I remember crying as kid when Prime died in the animated film. Watching Prowl and Ironhide die gave me nightmares! I've known these characters my whole life and the way they act in the films are not the characters I know. Yes i know this makes me sound like a fan boy but that is because I am. I get the comics still (which by the way are awesome). I still collect the toys, not those from the movie, but those based on the old series and the comics. I own the entire original TV series and the movie. I am one of the ultimate transformers fans out there. Optimus Prime, in my opinion, was one of the true good characters out there. Prime often did the right thing even when he shouldn't have. In the movies you have Prime taking trash while ripping Decepticon apart. You have him killing in this movie when he never would. I am going to give spoilers here so stop reading if you haven't seen this movie and think you might...



In this movie Prime fakes leaving the Earth to teach the leaders of Earth that they can't trust the Decepticon. By doing this Chicago is all but destroyed. Really? REALLY!!

I just realized the Transformers portion of the storyline is basically ripped off from two stories from the old cartoon. The first three episodes, a mini-series, is about Megatron bring Cybertron to Earth. There is also an episode where Megatron and a human trick the government into exiling the Autobots.

In the cartoon of course Prime actually leaves because he is honorable and doesn't sacrifice tens of thousands of humans.

Anyway this would be like George Lucas basically taking a character from Star Wars and making him into a whiny baby....oh wait that happened. I know that this is a new 'universe' as it were but man they didn't get anything right.

There is a scene where Soundwave, with the correct voice that made me smile, is about to execute Bumblebee after killing Wheeljack and I wanted him to do it. I wanted Bumblebee to die. I wanted my favorite character to die. My dream car is an old beetle because of Bumblebee and I waned to see his head blown off. I was glad to see Ironhide die. I wanted to see them all die because then there wouldn't be a chance of another movie.

Yes this is a rant from a fan boy. However it is also a rant from a fan of movies. I can stand the first movie, especially if I pretend it isn't a Transformers movie. It was okay. The second was just bad no matter what. This one though, it was horrible. The special effects are okay. The acting and writing are the worst I've seen for some time.

I give this 0 stars. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch. I would watch all those movies mentioned above over and over again before EVER watching this again. May god have mercy on Michael Bay's soul for this movie.