20161119: Comedy Review--No Reservations

Name: No Reservations (2007)
IMDb: link to No Reservations page

Genres: Comedy   Country of origin: USA.

Cast: Catherine Zeta-Jones as Kate Armstrong, Aaron Eckhart as Nicholas Palmer, Abigail Breslin as Zoe, Bob Balaban as therapist, Patricia Clarkson as Paula, Jenna Wade as Leah, Bryan F. O'Byrne as Sean.

Directed by: Scott Hicks.  Written by: Carol Fuchs (screenplay), Sandra Nettelbeck (screenplay).

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Kate is the chef at a posh Manhattan restaurant.  She's a bit intense, and her boss Paula has demanded that she goes into therapy.  Kate fends off her therapist by cooking him dishes that he seldom can resist.

Kate's sister comes to visit.  On the way, she and niece Zoe are involved in an accident.  Zoe is OK, but the sister is not.  Kate has to take over care of Zoe.

Delineation of conflicts:
While Kate took time off, Paula hired Nick.  Nick and Kate have a number of differences about cooking.

Zoe and Kate do not know each other.  That takes time.  Zoe starts to like Nick, his Italian food, and his confident exuberance.

Kate's boss Paula gets on Kate's nerves one too many times.

Resolution: People get to know each other; this often solves romantic and familial problems.  The problems between Paula and Kate are harder to address.

One line summary: Two alpha cooks get to know each other.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 6/10 Fuzzy.  I did not like it.

Sound: 8/10 Mostly OK.  Most of the music was good accompaniment.

Acting: 6/10 I usually like Aaron Eckhart, but I disliked his acting a lot in this one.  Ms Zeta-Jones was fine, as was Bob Balaban.  Abigail Breslin, as usual, was better than expected.

Screenplay: 8/10 As romantic comedies go, this was rather nice.

Final rating: 7/10

20161016: Action Review--Bourne Identity

Name: Bourne Identity (2002)
IMDb: link to Bourne Identity page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, Franka Potente as Marie Helena Kreutz, Chris Cooper as Alexander Conklin, Brian Cox as Ward Abbott, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Wombasi, Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons, Clive Owen as The Professor, Gabriel Mann as Danny Zorn.

Directed by: Doug Limon.  Written by: Tony Gilroy, W. Blake Herron (screenplay),  Robert Ludlum (book).

Outside Embassy

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
On a rainy night after a card game, Italian fishermen spot a man's body floating in the Mediterranean Sea. They reel him in, attend to his medical needs, and take him to Marseilles.  He has amnesia.  He also has clues: two bullet holes in his back, and an implant that tells him he has an account at a bank in Switzerland.

His safe deposit box proves helpful.  He has passports from various countries under a host of names, lots of currency of different countries, a modern pistol and other odds and ends.

His opening the safe deposit box triggers all sorts of reactions.  His going to the US Embassy does not help, since the Marines and the CIA are now after him, as well as the local police.

Delineation of conflicts:
The CIA wants Jason Bourne (at first just a name on one of his passports) to be dead, or to come in peacefully to their deadly embrace.  The CIA wants him silenced and covered up quickly and completely.

Jason needs to figure out who he is.  Marie is drawn into helping him after he pays her handsomely just to give him a ride to Paris, where one of his aliases lived.

The CIA, lead by Conklin, Jason's former boss, continues to hunt Jason.  Jason continues to unravel his past and evade capture.  Jason wants to know much more.

Resolution: The CIA manages to bury much of the project that Jason was involved in.  Jason figures out why he got shot and why he was floating in the Mediterranean.

One line summary: Best of the Matt Damon versions of Bourne.

Jason and Marie

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Mostly well done, but with some shades of shaky cam.

Sound: 7/10 I could hear the dialog.  Music was a minor asset; the best part was the music over the end credits.

Acting: 7/10 I liked the performances of Franka Potente, Clive Owen, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Julia Stiles.  Matt Damon was a mixed bag, which is much better than usual.

Screenplay: 7/10 Amnesia has been done to death, but this was a well-written take on it.  Bourne discovers all sorts of things about himself due to external situations triggering muscle memories, which was a well used but nice touch.  The scenes where Bourne confronts the people he trusted, the people who tortured him, the people who bamboozled him were discouragingly bad.  This would continue into the next two films unfortunately.  The good parts of the film, which seemed fresh and interesting in 2002, were just copied over in 2004 and 2007.  Those parts (fighting choreography, chase scenes, evasion) were a bit stale in 2004 and off the cliff bad in 2007.  The writing about Bourne's dealings with those who screwed him over were bad at the start (film 1, 2002) and got worse.

Final Rating: 7/10 I watched it again this past week and still liked it.

20161004: Action Review--Skinwalkers

Name: Skinwalkers (2006)
IMDb: link to Skinwalkers page

Genres: Action, Fantasy, thriller   Country of origin: Canada.

Cast:
Jason Behr as Varek/Caleb Talbot, Elias Koteas as Jonas Talbot, Rhona Mitra as Rachel Talbot, Natassia Malthe as Sonja, Kim Coates as Zo, Sarah Carter as Katherine, Matthew Knight as Timothy Talbot, Barbara Gordon as Nana, Tom Jackson as Will.

Directed by: James Isaac.  Written by: James DeMonaco, Todd Harthan.

Rhona Mitra

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Young Tim starts a walk through town with his tall, alert Nana.  In parallel, some biker thugs ride toward town.  Two or so minutes later, everyone in the town and all the invaders are in full-on deadly combat.

The invading murderers claim loudly, "We just want the boy."  Everyone in town would like to live, but each of them is willing to die to protect Tim, especially if they can kill the damned bikers first.

Delineation of conflicts:
The bullet-ridden dialectic reaches an impasse which enables a bit of narration.  The local werewolf (skinwalker) population has been present for quite some time, but it has become divided and polarized. There is a prophecy that a hybrid (Tim) will be born.  There will be three nights in which the blood moon will shine near the thirteenth birthday of the boy.  On the midnight of the third such night, the power of the hybrid will be manifest.

That power is the ability to end the curse that werewolves suffer.

Some of the werewolves embrace the power and bloodlust that the curse brings.  They want the boy dead.  The other faction cherishes their humanity, and wishes the hybrid to survive, to flourish, and to completely fulfill his destiny.

Resolution: Much of the prophecy is fulfilled while each of the two factions quite effectively reduce the numbers of the opposite side.  As the witching hour draws nigh, secrets are revealed and the plot moves forward from one last minute fight to the next.

One line summary: Not your typical werewolf elimination derby.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 7/10 This is a good-looking film, especially the daylight shots.  The dark inside and night time shooting was better than most in this genre.  The skinwalker masks were pretty poor, though, and there was a lot of werewolf footage.

Sound: 8/10 No particular problems.

Acting: 8/10 Rhona Mitra, Tom Jackson, Elias Koteas, and Barbara Gordon gave fine performances. I never expect much from child actors, but Matthew Knight was pretty good.  Jason Behr was better than I thought he would be.

Screenplay: 7/10 Daybreakers (2009) owes the current film for some of its concepts.  Daybreakers had a bigger budget, a more highly regarded cast, and a more detailed script.  Daybreakers was more on the science side of fantasy, while Skinwalkers was more in the traditional fantasy horror side.

In any case, I liked the film's energy, its nice combination of plot elements, and its ending.  Right up until the finish, I thought this was one of the usual bloody 'kill them all' movie.

Final Rating: 7/10

20160811: Action Review--Ice Sharks

Name: Ice Sharks (2016)
IMDb: link to Ice Sharks page

Genres: Action   Country of origin: USA.

Cast:
Edward DeRuiter as David, Jenna Parker as Tracy, Kaiwi Lyman Mersereau as Michael, Clarissa Thibeaux as Alex, Travis Lincoln Cox as Sammy, Mia Danielle as Val.

Written and directed by: Emile Edwin Smith.

image courtesy of TMDb

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
A group of young (25-35-ish) scientists study warming patterns in the Arctic icepack.  A nearby Norwegian camp has been losing hunters in the last month or so.  Some of the underwater warming patterns seem alarming, so Sammy is sent out to check the sensors.

Delineation of conflicts:
The sharks would like to kill and eat the humans.  The humans would like to survive.  The sharks show behavior similar to teamwork.  For instance, the sharks manage to sink the station since the ice underneath it is so much thinner than it has been historically. The humans exhibit cleverness and bravery in countering the effects of the shark attacks on the station.  They seal out the sharks and get a new oxygen source while underwater.  Will they hold off the sharks long enough for help to arrive?

Resolution: The results were sad, but not as bleak as in most elimination derbies.

One line summary: Sharks vs environmental scientists in the Arctic.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 5/10 Where it was not shaky cam, it was good.  However, much of the SFX were truly, deeply, POS bad.  For instance, the model of the station was shabbily obvious for all too many minutes, rather like bad 1950s creature features.

Sound: 8/10 No particular problems.

Acting: 7/10 Some of it was a bit wooden.  On the other hand, the team showed courage and intelligence in the face of adversity.  The usual acting in such a film is to scream a lot, then do something extremely stupid.  This group was definitely better than that, which takes more acting skill.

Screenplay: 7/10 Unlike in a typical teen elimination derby, the somewhat older group in this film cooperated and had several small victories.  This did not compensate entirely against the depredations of the sharks, but it made for a better film.  There were adults present, and the adults wisely called mayday early on, which was a partially saving grace for the group.

Final Rating: 7/10 Yes, I must be in a generous mood, but this is the best Asylum film I've seen so far.

20160211: Thriller Review--The Hunter 2011

Name: The Hunter (2011)
IMDb: link to The Hunter page

Genres: Drama   Country of origin: Australia.

Cast: Willem Dafoe as Martin David, Frances O'Connor as Lucy, Sam Neill as Jack Mindy, Marc Watson-Paul as Jarrah Armstrong, Finn Woodlock as Bike (Jamie), Morgana Davies as daughter Sass.

Directed by: Daniel Netheim  Written by: Alice Addison.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
Martin contracts indirectly with Red Leaf, a biotech firm that is looking for some rare DNA.  Unfortunately, the only source of these items is the last remaining Tasmanian tiger. There is restricted intelligence (which will leak) that there have been two confirmed sightings of the rare and elusive beast.

The probable site for the hunt is in central Tasmania.  Martin has to deal with lack of electricity, decidedly unfriendly locals, children of the owner of the house he stays at, and foul tap water.  Jack Mindy gives him some guide services that he did not ask for.

Delineation of conflicts:
Martin wants to get paid and stay out of jail.  Red Leaf wants the organic samples so as to make lots of money.

The locals in Tasmania have logging as a main source of income.  Other locals (and outsiders) are involved in a campaign to save the trees.  The early take on Martin is that as an outsider, he's a tree hugger, a 'greenie', and should be dealt with harshly.

Jack Mindy has his own agenda which does not seem to be aligned with Martin's.  Martin is by no means alone when he is out hunting in the middle of nowhere.

To make matters worse, the tree huggers score a moratorium on logging so that the government can find the Tasmanian tiger.  That means no logging and no pay.

Resolution: It's a dark tale with a dark ending.  Several of the lies get exposed.  Will Red Leaf be patient if Martin takes too long?

One line summary: Capturing the last of a species.

Statistics:

Cinematography: 8/10 Bright and sharp.  The Tasmanian countryside chosen for the film was impressive.

Sound: 7/10 The music is often foreboding, which is a nice touch for this sort of property.  I could have done without the Springsteen, but it was a part of the story.  The actors were well-miked.

Acting: 7/10 Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill were fine.  Morgana Davies was entertaining.  The actors playing Tasmanian anti-tree huggers locals were effective as thugs.

Screenplay: 8/10 The story hangs together well.  The exposition of motivations was good.  Some might find it a bit slow.  On the other hand, hunting is often slow.

Final rating: 7/10 

20160131: Action Review--Badasses on the Bayou

Name: Badasses on the Bayou (2015)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Action   Country of Origin: USA

Cast: Danny Trejo as Frank Vega, Danny Glover as Bernie Pope, John Amos as Earl, Loni Love as Carmen, Davi Jai as Chief Broussard.

Jimmy Bennett as Ronald, Sammi Rotibi as Geoffrey, Colby Arps as Cal, Jon Arthur as Sheriff's Deputy, Deborah Ayorinde as Taryn, Lucius Baston as HS Security Guard, Allen Boudreaux as Detective, Chelsea Bruland as Marissa, Ross P. Cook as Ass Kicker, Miles Doleac as Talk Show Host.

Written and directed by: Craig Moss.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux:
We open in Los Angeles.  Frank's gym and Bernie's bodega were bombed and burned in the last film.  They apply for a loan to rebuild, and are being turned down when a bank robbery starts.  Our heroes break up the heist, and receive Internet and television accolades for it.  Rosaria had moved to a new job in Florida. Carmen, their friend in LAPD, calls from Baton Rouge.  She's getting married to Geoffrey.  Her father is a generous mood, and springs for flying them in from Los Angeles.

Delineation of conflicts:
The reception in Baton Rouge was lovely.  Then there is a break in at Carmen's family's estate.  The intruders kidnap Carmen.  Frank fights them, but there are so many that they prevail.

The Sheriff is not interested in the help of the Bad Asses from Los Angeles.  The kidnappers want 5 million USD.  Frank and Bernie heed the call from Carmen's mother to find her daughter.  Carmen's brother Ronald finds a clue: a Mr Buford at a racist strip bar.  The guys are off on the chase, and it looks tough from the get go.  The people behind it seem to be a group who has it in for Carmen's rich black father.

Ronald keeps getting bullied by Kyle, the son of the Sheriff's deputy.  Frank and Bernie help him out, but Earl makes the case for pacifism.  The kidnapping tests that pacifism severely.

Resolution: Frank and Bernie uncover some unfortunate connections.  Do they have too much stacked up against them?

One line summary: Frank and Bernie against Louisiana corruption.


Statistics:

  a. Cinematography: 8/10 Nicely shot.  Captures the grittiness of Louisiana poverty, the excesses of the wealthy, and the squalor of the oil industry installations.

  b. Sound: 8/10 A bit smoother than the last film; some lovely background music.

  c. Acting: 7/10 Trejo is still effective as a buff and decisive senior citizen.  Glover was more fun than in the last film.  John Amos was good as usual.  I was glad to see Loni Love get a larger role.  Davi Jai gave a nice performance as the corrupt Sheriff.

  d. Screenplay: 6/10 The story is fairly straightforward, with reasonable beginning to middle to end. It provides Trejo and Glover opportunities to be ordinary citizens dispensing righteous justice against institutional corruption.

Final rating: 7/10

20160103: Comedy Review--Casino Royale 1967

Name: Casino Royale (1987)
IMDb: link IMDb

Genres: Comedy    Country of Origin: USA.

Cast: David Niven as James Bond, Peter Sellers as Evelyn Tremble, John Huston as M/General MacTarry, William Holden as Ransome (CIA), Charles Boyer as Le Grande (le deuxieme bureau), Kurt Kasznar as Smernov, Orson Welles as Le Chiffre, Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd, Joanna Pettet as Mata Bond, Deborah Kerr as Agent Mimi, Jean-Paul Belmondo as le Legionnaire, Derek Nimmo as Hadley, Woody Allen as Jimmy Bond (the nephew), Barbara Bouchet as Moneypenney, Peter O'Toole as Corbett, Jacqueline Bisset as Miss Goodthighs.

Directed by:  Ken Hughes, John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, Richard Talmadge.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: The 'real' James Bond is retired.  Since the intelligence services of US-UK-FR-RU have been decimated, M from UK, Ransome from US, Legrand from FR, and Smernov from RU approach the retired Sir James Bond to help them solve the problem.  This does not go as expected.

Delineation of conflicts:  Agents seem to be exercising their reputations as sex maniacs (as Bond put it), and getting killed by groups of women.  So, who is the boss behind it all?  Bond starts training agents to resist women.  He enlists Vesper Lynd to get Evelyn Tremble's help (in re baccarat) with the sinister card player (and SMERSH agent and hokie magician) Le Chiffre.  Jimmy Bond is always in trouble, and seems to be yet another wild card in this potpourri of weirdness.  Sir James recruits his daughter by Mata Hari, Mata Bond, to infiltrate the group of women spies that have been attacking western spies.

Resolution: There are lots of opposing processes at work here so one might expect lots of action, but this is a comedy, after all.

One line summary: Artsy and bizarre take on Fleming's book.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 10/10 Beautifully shot.  The art direction is between interesting and amazing, and at times sumptuous.  The East German interior sets were quite something.

  b. Sound: 8/10 Good, with some nostalgic pop tunes included.

  c. Acting: 8/10 David Niven was fine.  Joanna Pettet was a lot of fun to watch.  Peter Sellers and Woody Allen were up to their usual standards.  The many cameos were clever and funny.

  d. Screenplay: 4/10 Bullshit, start to finish.  Most of this script makes no sense at all.  The film has next to nothing to do with Ian Fleming's book, and has continuity problems, such as abrupt and unexplained changes in venue.  Also, the references to the books Dr No and Goldfinger were head scratchers. This is the work of five directors, and the resulting chaos is rather clear.  The segment with Woody Allen was perhaps the worst.  On the other hand, I had at least 10 good laughs for sight gags and witty lines.

Final rating: 7/10

20151211: Horror Review---Dark Was the Night

Name: Dark Was the Night (2014)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Horror.    Country of Origin: USA.

Cast: Kevin Durand (Noah, Real Steel) as Paul Shields (the Sheriff), Lukas Haas (Transcendence, Inception) as Donny Saunders (deputy), Steve Agee as Foreman, Ethan Khusidman as Adam Shields, Billy Paterson as Ron (local horse owner), Bianca Kajlich as Susan Shields.

Directed by:  Jack Heller.   Written by: Tyler Hisel.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: The very beginning of the film is consists of archival footage of logging backed up with atonal, jump-out-of-your-skin music.  Trees are ripped apart, with chunks of them turned to chips by automatic machinery.  Tree trunks are dumped skinned (figuratively speaking) of their bark, separated from limbs and roots, on the ground for future pickup.

Next we switch to a staged logging site with modern photography, no current tree destruction, and next to no sound.  The site is closing down for the weekend; a winter storm is coming in.  The foreman checks up on the last crew still on the (moderately) secure and closed site.  This does not go well.  The early splatter set my expectations going in the wrong direction for a moment.  This is more of a suspenseful film.

Delineation of conflicts:  Near the town of Tanner, the logging company cuts down trees to produce lumber to sell.  Creatures in that wooded area are forced to move to find a new habitat.  In Maiden Woods, to the south of Tanner, the local animal owners would like their animals to be safe, while the new creatures in the woods are hungry.  Hunters would like to shoot deer as usual, and wonder about the migration of animals.

The local Sheriff, Paul Shields, his wife Susan, and their remaining son Adam are separated after the death of their other son, Tim.  Everyone in town wants the sheriff to heal from this, but he is wallowing in it.  Various religious themes are batted about with little consensus.  Is the creature the devil, or some animal thought extinct?  Does the Sheriff need to reconnect to the deity, or is he just lost in sorrow?  Was the deputy from New York City 'meant' to have moved to the film's small town, or was this just a single workaholic man drifting through life?

While dealing with his emotional issues, Paul has to help out the town, the horse owners, the hunters, and the Sheriff's department by figuring out what's going on.

Resolution: The Sheriff, Deputy Saunders, the forest rangers, and local hunters get closer to understanding the threat to Maiden Woods.  Is there a workable solution?

One line summary: More suspenseful than the usual creature feature.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 7/10 Focus, framing, depth of field and a number of other characteristics of good visuals are spot on.  The dark palette dominated by grey, black, and muted blue fit the story lines well.  So the visuals help set the tone of the film as dreary, sad, with a big side of foreboding.

  b. Sound: 8/10 I could hear the dialog, and the background music was better than most creature feature films.

  c. Acting: 7/10 Kevin Durand and Lukas Haas were fine.   Most of the other actors were OK.

  d. Screenplay: 7/10 The usual creature feature progressions move right along, which was quite welcome.  The sheriff's family's emotional mess drags on and on, which I could have done without. Toward the final act, Paul has focused on the problem, and shares information with other affected local communities. It looks like progress is possible, which was nice.  The conclusion was definitely that of a horror film.

Final rating: 7/10

20151129: Comedy Review--Kingsman

Name: Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Comedy, Action, Parody    Country of Origin: UK.

Cast: Colin Firth as Harry Hart/Galahad, Michael Caine as Arthur, Mark Strong as Merlin, Samuel L. Jackson as Valentine, Sofia Boutella as Gazelle, Taron Egerton as Gary 'Eggsy' Unwin, Sophie Cookson as Roxy, Mark Hamill as Prof James Arnold, Hanna Alstrom as Princess Tilde, Samantha Womack as Michelle Unwin, Jack Davenport as Lancelot.

Directed by:  Matthew Vaughn.  Written by: Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn (screenplay); Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons (underlying comic book series, The Secret Service).

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: In 1997, the Secret Service is running an operation in the Middle East.  During interrogation, the target manages to trigger a grenade. Lancelot yells a warning and covers the problem.  Galahad is touched with gratitude, and gives Eggsy (Lancelot's son) means to identify himself to the Secret Service.

In the present, the Secret Service needs new recruits to replace lost personnel.  Eggsy, discouraged by Michelle's choice of second husband, decides to take up Galahad's offer.  Valentine, a sociopathic billionaire, reaches out to scientists and world leaders who are willing to further his demented plans.

Delineation of conflicts: Valentine (and Professor Arnold and others) believe that Earth is the body, and humans are harmful viruses; the viruses need to be scourged or eliminated.  Some of the elite leaders around the globe side with his cause.  The Secret Service, once they have a full idea of what's going on, wish to stop Valentine.  Eggsy wants to join the Secret Service and help their cause, but his hoodlum step-father and his gang are not helping his efforts in life.  The Secret Service has high standards, and Eggsy has to compete against other elite young adults while training for the job.  The recruits versus the training (conducted by Merlin) is a substantial sub-arc.

Resolution: Who will succeed at the training?  Will the understaffed Secret Service be sufficient against Valentine's well-funded and far-reaching efforts?  Will Eggsy rectify his homelife situation?

One line summary: Action packed self-aware spy parody with laughs.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 10/10 No problems.  Professional workmanship.

  b. Sound: 10/10 No problems.  Professional workmanship.

  c. Acting: 5/10 I liked Michael Caine as always.  I expected to dislike Colin Firth as a fish out of water, but no.  He's good at tongue in cheek comedy as well as doing a better job than most at action performance.  The church scene was very engaging, largely because of Firth.  Mark Strong as Merlin was great.  I had not seen the work of Taron Egerton or Sofia Boutella before, and thought they both excelled.  The bit players (the step-father, his hoodlum friends, the upper crust Secret Service candidates) did well.

Samuel L. Jackson's performance was excruciatingly jarring.  I'm still not sure what the director was after, but I longed for scenes without SLJ, and enjoyed all of those.  Without Jackson, I would have rated the acting as 8/10.

d. Screenplay: 6/10 I do not like parodies.  I do not like the use of meta language in film.  I do not like breaking the fourth wall.

Consider the scene where Arthur asks Eggsy what JB stands for.  James Bond?  No.  Jason Bourne? No.  What then?  The guy in 24 (Jack Bauer).  Ah, good choice.

More egregiously, when Valentine and Galahad have a confrontation, Valentine terminates it with "this is not that kind of movie."  I'm sure a number of viewers find this use of meta construct to be amusing.  To me it is just plain bullshit.

Having said that, the script handled motivations, weaving of threads, and viewer engagement rather well.  That is why I gave it a 6/10 instead of the 0/10 I would give to such nonsense as any of the Austin Powers films.

Final rating: 7/10

20151118: Comedy Review--Stung

Name: Stung (2015)
IMDb: link to IMDb

Genres: Horror    Country of Origin: Germany, USA.

Cast: Matt O'Leary as Paul, Lance Henricksen as Mayor Carruthers, Clifton Collins as Sydney Perch, Jessica Cook as Julia, Eve Slatner as Mrs Perch, Benni Diez as Firefighter, Cecilia Pillado as Flora.

Directed by:  Benni Diez.    Written by: Adam Aresty.

The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: The rich widow Mrs Perch holds an annual garden party at her country estate. This year is a bit different.  Her gardeners have been using dubious fertilizer boosted by growth hormones.  The fertilizer has spread here and there.  Developing wasps have been super-duper-hyper mutated by this into seven foot monsters. Two caterers, Julia and Paul, are at the party when this happens.  They attempt to remedy the wasp situation.

Delineation of conflicts: The mutant wasps like to lay eggs, and have bigger appetites than the original version.  The human beings in the area would like to continue living.

Resolution: Elimination derbies end in only a few ways.

One line summary: Creature feature about giant mutant wasps.

Statistics:
  a. Cinematography: 7/10 The setting is beautiful: the trees, the lawns, the cultivated plants, the greenhouse, and so on.  The CGI wasps were not so well done or convincing, but were not terrible.

  b. Sound: 7/10 The sounds of the wasps in flight were pretty good at increasing tension and threat.  I could hear the dialog.

  c. Acting: 6/10 Matt O'Leary was mighty irritating early on, but got better when the situation became dire.  Lance Henriksen, one of my usual favourites, seemed a bit tired and out of it, but still showed his abilities in several passages.  Clifton Collins was his usual self, but put on a good spin as the unhappy and despised son of the rich old lady.  Jessica Cook did her best.  Much of the rest of the cast was not that good.

  d. Screenplay: 7/10 The script and direction does a good job of convincing me that all or most of the characters should die miserably and as soon as possible. That is good for elimination derbies.  It was also good at deepening the central characters to the point where I was rooting for some of them to make it to the end.

Final rating: 7/10

20151031: Fantasy Review--Zhongkui

Name: Zhongkui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal (2015)
IMDb: Zhongkui

Genres: Fantasy   Origins: Mainland China

Cast: Chen Kun as Zhong Kui/Demon King, Li Bingbing as Snow Demon/Little Snow, Winston Chao as Zhang Dao Xian, Zishan Yang as Zhong Ling (Kui's sister).

Directed by:  Peter Pau, Tianyu Zhao.  Written by: Chen Kun, Li Bingbing, Winston Chao.

The Three Acts: 

Initial Tableau: Every 1000 years at July 15, a period of travel among Hell, Heaven, and Earth ensues, where travel is done by reincarnation.  Devastation results as demons reincarnate near the village of Hu on Earth.  The powers that be in Heaven dispatch a volunteer, Zhang Dao Xian, to help out the humans caught in the crossfire.  Zhong Kui steals the 'Dark Crystal' from an active ceremony in Hell itself, and is spirited away by Zhang, one of the gods.  The Snow Demon volunteers to the Demon King to fetch back the crystal.  Her sister, Little Snow, is being held captive by the King, so her compliance is assured.

Delineation of Conflicts: Snow Demon wants the crystal for her King.  Heaven wants to keep it, so as to restore all the souls taken by demons.  Zhong Kui is assigned to protect the Dark Crystal as it lies hidden within Hu.  When a traveling troupe of entertainers arrives from the west, Zhong finds that Little Snow came with it.  Can Zhong help free Little Snow from Hell, or will she seduce him away from his primary duty to Heaven?  Will he successfully defend the Dark Crystal and the captured souls within it?

Resolution: There are some major reversals during the final segment as resolution approaches.  Those were quite well done.

One line summary: Grand fantasy, Chinese style, from the video game of the same name.

Statistics: 

Cinematography: 8/10 Variable.  Most of it is quite good.

Sound: 8/10 Some instrumental sections of the background music are way too florid for my tastes.

Acting: 7/10 Again, quite variable.  Some of the bit players are not very skilled.

Screenplay: 7/10 Being a fantasy involving three realms, the film has to deliver a lot of context in a short time.  I watched this on Netflix, and was glad to be able to roll back and clarify points now and then.

SFX: 7/10 Quite variable. Some of the effects are amateurishly bad. The majority look mature and impressive.

Final Rating: 7/10

20150503: Drama Review--Transcendence

Transcendence

1. Fundamentals.
1. Title: Transcendence
2. IMDb: Users rated this 6.3/10 (136,413 votes)
3. Rotten Tomatoes:
   19% of critics liked the film of 196 participating
   38% of users liked it of 63,091 who rated it
   Critics Consensus:  In his directorial debut, ace cinematographer Wally Pfister remains a distinctive visual stylist, but Transcendence's thought-provoking themes exceed the movie's narrative grasp.


4. Status: Released
5. Release date: 2014-04-17
6. Production Companies: DMG Entertainment, Alcon Entertainment, Syncopy, Straight Up Films
7. Tagline: Yesterday, Dr. Will Caster was only human...


8. Budget:  100 million USD
9. Revenue: 103 million USD
10. Runtime: 119 minutes.
11. Genres: Drama, Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller


12. Directed by: Wally Pfister; written by Jack Paglen


13. Starring: Johnny Depp as Dr. Will Caster, Paul Bettany as Max Waters, Rebecca Hall as Evelyn Caster, Kate Mara as Bree, Morgan Freeman as Joseph Tagger, Cillian Murphy as Agent Donald Buchanan, Cole Hauser as Colonel Stevens, Clifton Collins, Jr. as Martin, Falk Hentschel as Bob, Kristen Rakes as MIT Programmer


14. TMDb overview: Two leading computer scientists work toward their goal of Technological Singularity, as a radical anti-technology organization fights to prevent them from creating a world where computers can transcend the abilities of the human brain.


2. Setup and Plot


1. Dr Caster makes some fundamental breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.  He figured out how to upload human personality to a computer system.  While giving a public lecture on the subject, he is accosted about wanting to create a god.  Soon thereafter, he is given a fatal trace of polonium to his bloodstream.  His wife Evelyn finds his research and decides to secretly upload Will's personality before his body dies.  Max helps her do this, then regrets it as soon as it works.


2. A terrorist group led by Bree kidnaps Max and works to get him to see their way of thinking.  Meanwhile, Evelyn works furiously to make Will's expanded consciousness as independent of human connections as possible.


3. Will invents nanotechnology that can cure almost any injury.  However, it has other side effects: the cured people are not at all the same as before the injuries.  Can humanity actually stand Will's new status?  As Will rapidly evolves, is there anyway to stop him?


4. Max contacts Joseph on the sly.  Can the two of them plus unlimited covert government (and terrorist) assistance stop Will?  If so, what are the consequences?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: A fine attempt to describe the impact of a transcendent being.
2. Seven of ten


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Brilliant. I would give it a 27/10, but I'll have to stop at 10/10


2. Sound: 8/10 I could hear the dialog, and the background music did heighten the tension somewhat.


3. Acting: 8/10 Bravo!  I thought almost all the actors did well, especially Mr Depp.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Well done, except for a glaring error.  One of the new intelligence's first acts was to re-write its own code, part of which Max wrote.  There was no way for the virus to work, or for any human-written virus to work.  The virus would fail and the transcendent being would go on.  Max was defeated before he even tried his subterfuge.  The movie, however, took different approach, deciding the course it originally set was too difficult to handle.  That is, it sided with the terrorists who murdered Dr Caster to begin with.

20140710: Action Review--SAGA: Curse of the Shadow

SAGA: Curse of the Shadow (Curse of the Dragon Slayer)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, rated , 105 minutes, action, adventure, fantasy.
2. IMDB: 4.9/10.0 from 1768 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet...' and 34% liked it from 81 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.0/5.0 from 134,953 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: John Lyde
6. Starring: Danielle Chuchran as Nemyt Akaia, Richard McWilliams as Keltus the Wanderer, Paul D. Hunt as Kullimon the Black, Adam Abram as Fangtor Bloodmoon, James C. Morris as Gyramuck/Maggut Gulbrow, Eve Mauro as Tarsa, Danny James as General Drennon, Kyle Paul as Mulgrut, James Gaisford as Kethku, Bailee Mykell Cowperthwaite as Prophetess (body), Stephanie Breinholt as Prophetess (voice), Michelle Aiden as Delorus the Mermaid, Clare Niederpruem as Mulva the Mermaid, Christel Edwards Anthony as Gipple the Mermaid.


2. Setup and Plot

1. Filmed in Utah, with lots of sand, caves, and huge rock formations.


2. Prehistory: the Gods, on some planet, at some time, have put down civilization for some reason, and killed a big portion of humanity.  The Order, led by the Prophets, tries to restore civilization, while the Shadow rises and awaits the awakening of the God of Death.  So, we have a familiar environment for swords, sorcery, battles, revenge, and conflicts on a dying world.


3. We open the narrative with a fight between the female elf bounty hunter Nemyt and the male orc thief Fangtor Bloodmoon.  Nemyt kills Fangtor, but Fangtor curses her body as she delivers the fatal blow with her sword.  The fight scenes here were absolutely terribly done.  Meanwhile, Keltus interrogates a dwarf to discover the motives of the Shadow in the current conflict.  The dwarf tells him of Kullimon's Raiders, who will deliver some artifact ('the Vessel') to the representatives of the God of Death.  Among the orcs, Mulgrut and Kullimon have a bit of a disagreement.  Kullimon loses, and Mulgrut takes leadership of the 'Horde' of ten orcs.  Oi, totally disappointing.


4. When Nemyt goes to collect her bounty reward, she is imprisoned by the local magistrate because of the Mark that Fangtor cursed her with.  Keltus, the Ambassador of the Prophetess, releases her in the hopes that she will aid him find the Bone Vessel.  On the way, they meet up with Kullimon, who has been tied up, bleeding, and left for dead by his erstwhile allies.  The absurd trio advance to get the Vessel, so that the God of Death (Goth Azul) is not awakened.


5. As they advance, they encounter difficulties, and best them, but usually with stiff prices.  When Nemyt meets Mulgrut as representative of the Shadow, things get very dicey, very fast.  The real representative of the Shadow appears, and the hopes of Goth Azul being kept contained slip away.


6. Will the trio reverse the disaster at hand?


3. Conclusions
1. Blood on the camera lens: nonsense.  The fight choreography could have been better.
2. One line summary: Middling good, nicely shot, low-budget fantasy adventure tale.
3. Seven of ten.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Rather good for this sort of tale.  The costumes were a bit better than I expected, at least here and there.


2. Sound: 10/10 Amazingly good.  I seldom experience fantasy films with such excellent musical accompaniment.


3. Acting: 6/10 The actors who play the three protagonists hit their marks and speak their lines.  However, the orc Horde was about as convincing as the Keystone Kops.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 A story was told, and the plot moves along, but the dialog is stilted past the point of believability.   Orcs taking the higher moral stances?  An orc leader singing like he was on Wagon Train?  An orc sounding like Yoda?

20140622: Animation Review--Vampire Bund

Dance in the Vampire Bund

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Japanese animated episodic television series, 2010, rated TV-MA, animation, action, drama. Twelve episodes, 24 minutes each.
2. IMDB: 7.0/10.0 from 271 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: no results, at all.
4. Netflix: 3.9/5.0 from 370,639 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Akiyuki Shinbo.
6. Starring: Monica Rial as Mina Tepesh, Alpha Lagrange as Akira Kobaragi.  For much more detail, see wikipedia.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Take the TV-MA rating seriously.


2. Mina Tepesh presents herself as the queen of contemporary vampires.  She appeals on television for a Vampire Bund, that is, real estate where vampires can be free to be vampires.  As a being who has had a long life, and who understands things like compound interest and capital appreciation, Mina's personal and family wealth is enormous.  She uses this to pressure legislators to go along with her plans.


3. There are humans who are in favour of the proposed Bund, and those who are opposed to it.  Similarly, there are vampires in favour, and vampires against the proposal.  This goes back and forth throughout the series.


4. Mina has a connection with Akira, a teenaged human.  Akira is also a werewolf, and sometime earlier in his life he vowed to protect Mina as best he could.  About the time Akira took his vow, he also lost a big chunk of his memory.


5. So, the series is about the conflicts mentioned above, about Akira protecting Mina, and about Akira regaining his memory.  Toward the end of the series, the elders of three ruling vampire clans descend upon Mina, and force her to own up to a promise she made to the clans in the past.


6. As the series draws to a close, everything is revisited, and everything cast into doubt.  The clan leaders set up a fight between Akira and their own chosen assassins.  If Akira wins, Mina can continue; if not, they force her into submission about rule of the vampires.


7. So how does this pan out?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Vampires seek a homeland and acceptance in animated Japan.
2. Seven of ten.


4. Scores
1. Art/Animation: 7/10 Quite a bit of the art was fabulous; some was a bit too abstract and weird.


2. Sound: 6/10 Typical action stuff, but neither great nor poor.


3. Voice Acting: 8/10 No particular problems.  Often good, sometimes a little screechy.


4. Story: 6/10 There are a number of issues, mostly about motivation.  Just what was the reason that Akira is so devoted to Mina?  The suggestion that Mina might not be the 'real' vampire queen was not resolved.  The reference to cloning was interesting, but I would have liked to have seen more detail about that.  The strong, repeated statements that there was another queen candidate in the wings was never quite brought to fruition.  The comedy vignettes about the maids shown after the credits were usually pretty funny.

20140520: Action Review--The Avengers 2012

The Avengers (2012)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2012, PG-13, 142 minutes, action, scifi.
2. IMDB: 8.2/10.0 from 659,742 audience ratings.  Estimated budget: 220 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 92% on the meter; 91% liked it from 1,098,456 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 4.5/5.0 from 5,956,605 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Joss Whedon.  Screenplay by: Joss Whedon, story by Zak Penn.
6. Starring: Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man/Tony Stark, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk/Bruce Banner, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye/Clint Barton, Stellan Skarsgard as Selvig, Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, Chris Evans as Captain America/Steve Rogers, Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Loki travels to Earth with the help of aliens who intend to invade.  Loki steals the Tesseract in order to open a portal from the invaders' location to Earth.  While doing this, he instills a large amount of tension among certain SHIELD operatives.


2. The SHIELD project 'Avengers' gets started to counter Loki's activity.  By the time the Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America) get done dealing with each others' egos, Loki has opened the portal.


3. When the invaders flow through to Earth, the Avengers and the SHIELD flagship are already bruised and battered.  Will the Avengers save Earth?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Lots of action in the Marvel universe.
2. Seven of ten.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 The blend of SFX and real photography was consistently well done.


2. Sound: 5/10 The volume levels were wildly out of control.


3. Acting: 7/10 Better than I expected.  I liked the performances of Downey, Hiddleston, Ruffalo, Johansson, Renner, Skarsgard, and Gregg quite a bit.  In contrast, Chris Evans, Cobie Smulders, and Samuel L. Jackson were, as per recent experience, reasons to stop watching.  So, seven pluses and three zeros to be charitable.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 The story was well told.  Two hours and twenty-two minutes is fairly long, but went along very smoothly.

20140320: Horror Review--Argento's Dracula

Argento's Dracula 3-D

1. Fundamentals, reception.


1. Italian live action feature length film, 2012, NR, 110 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 3.6/10.0 from 2,039 audience ratings.  Estimated budget: 5.6 million euros.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 11% on the meter; 18% liked it from 1,179 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.8/5.0 from 30,847 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Dario Argento.
6. Starring: Thomas Kretschmann as Dracula, Marta Gastini as Mina Harker, Asia Argento as Lucy Kisslinger, Unax Ugalde as Jonathan Harker, Rutger Hauer as Van Helsing, Maria Cristina Heller as Jarmila, Miriam Giovanelli as Tanja.



2. Setup and Plot


1. In the opening segment, a young woman, Tanja, has a tryst with her married lover.  They have a spat.  She walks back home alone; an owl targets her.  She calls for help; a taxidermist comes out of his house, but does not help her after she falls.  The owl transforms into a humanoid vampire and bites Tanja.


2. In the next segment, Jonathan Harker arrives at a small train stop after the only coach of the day has left.  He commissions a horse, and rides to Passburg.  He quarters his horse, and stops at the Gasthaus for a hot evening meal and a night's lodging.  He observes a number of shady characters lurking about.  Later the shady group dig up Tanja's grave.  The taxidermist who did not help Tanja fight off the vampire attacks them.  By the time they have subdued him, Tanja is gone.


3. The next morning Jonathan visits Lucy, the daughter of the mayor.  Lucy wonders where Mina is; Jonathan says she was delayed.  Jonathan eventually makes his way to Count Dracula's castle, where he is to be the librarian.  The Count shows him his collection, and Jonathan looks forward to the cataloging and the reading.  Unfortunately for Jonathan, Tanja is still a young out-of-control vampire, and she sets about to get his blood.  When she's drawing from his neck, Dracula throws her off and takes her place.  Escape fails the next day.


4. Mina arrives at the train station and is met by her old friend Lucy instead of Jonathan.  Dracula visits Lucy that night, and Lucy looks terrible the next day.  Lucy talks her into going to the castle.  Mina, alone on horse, is attacked by wolves, but saved (hm) by Dracula and taken to his castle.  Mina thinks Dracula looks familiar; Dracula feels the same.  Jonathan is not at the castle, so Mina heads back.  Lucy has passed.


5. What will become of Jonathan?  Is Mina one of Dracula's wives re-incarnated?  Will Lucy rise as a vampire? Will Van Helsing ever show up?



3. Conclusions


1. One line summary: Serviceable remake of Dracula, based mostly on the novel.
2. Seven stars of ten.



4. Scores


1. Cinematography: 7/10 Other than some gratuitous camera shake, the film was well shot.  The sets and costumes were beautiful on the whole, conveying the impression of the Europe of around 100 years ago.  The CGI interludes (few and short) were seriously bad, such as the praying mantis segment, the blood effects, and a couple of the wolf transformations.


2. Sound: 7/10 The lip synch needed improvement.  Some of the instrumental music sounded like throwbacks to the 1950s or 1960s; this was not a plus.  The choral background music was far better.


3. Acting: 8/10 I was put off by Kretschmann's performance at first, but got to like it as the film progressed. When Van Helsing accomplishes hard-to-believe feats against the vampires, I only kept watching because Rutger Hauer was the actor.  Marta Gastini was good in the pivotal role of Mina.  My favourite was Miriam Giovanelli as Tanja.


4. Screenplay: 7/10 I liked the meeting of Dracula with the town leaders.  They mention their pact with Dracula: he helps them financially, while they allow him certain liberties.  After a number of deaths in short order, the leaders consider breaking the pact.  Dracula lets them know his power; only his true ally survives.  That would have been a good place to start wrapping up the film: there is no defense against transcendent power.  Let everyone know (or suspect) this, then end it. -- The film stays with the book's tradition, though, which is unfortunate.  For instance, if Dracula can change from human form to a swarm of insects back to human form in a second or two, why would he allow himself to be destroyed? -- This movie answers that question better than any other I have seen.

20140318: Animation Review--Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American animated feature length film, 2008, PG-13, 98 minutes, animation, adventure.
2. IMDB: 5.7/10.0 from 31,520 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 8.5 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 18% on the meter; 39% liked it from 160,314 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.5/5.0 from 856,956 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Dave Filoni.
6. Starring: Matt Lantner as Anakin Skywalker, Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano, Christopher Lee as Count Dooku,  James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Nika Futterman as Asajj Ventress, Tom Kane as Yoda, Dee Bradley Baker as Rex, Catherine Taber as Padme Amidala.


2. Setup and Plot
1. This film is a story in its own right, and it serves as an introduction to the animated series that followed it.  The characters Asajj Ventress (Dooku's assassin) and Ahsoka Sano (Anakin's padawan) are introduced in the film, and are regulars in the animated series that follows.


2. The Republic is at war with the Separatists.  The Republic armed forces, composed of clone soldiers and sailors plus Jedi commanders, is fighting valiantly against the droid forces often led by Count Dooku.


3. In order to secure passage in the Outer Rim, the Republic must deal with Jabba the Hutt, whose son has been kidnapped by Dooku's henchmen.  The Jedi work and fight to free the small Hutt, while Ventress and Dooku's forces counter them.


4. Senator Padme Amidala contacts Jabba's uncle Ziro the Hutt on Coruscant to try to resolve the issue.  However, Ziro is in league with Dooku to overthrow Jabba and replace Jabba with Ziro as head of the Hutt clan.  Ziro captures Padme, and things look worse.


5. Can Padme escape Ziro?  Can Anakin and Ahsoka deliver the Huttlet safely to Jabba, or will Dooku's elite droids capture her?  Will Anakin defeat Dooku?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Animated Star Wars segment set between live action movies 2 and 3.
2. Seven of ten.


4. Scores
1. Art/Animation: 9/10 As good as the sound is bad.  The motions were a little stiff.


2. Sound: 5/10 Wow!! The sound level difference between music (too loud by far) and conversation is just too big and the up/down jumps occur frequently.


3. Voice Acting: 9/10 Nicely done all around.


4. Story: 7/10 Some of the dialog was a little raw, like the remarks between Ahsoka and Anakin.  Otherwise, it was competent adventure material, opening to middle to exciting conclusion.

20140302: Horror Review--Hellraiser 5 2000

Hellraiser V: Inferno

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2000, rated R, 99 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 5.6/10.0 from 8,307 audience ratings. Estimated budget, 2 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No scores yet,' and 'No score yet' from audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 221,998 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Kevin Yagher, screenplay by Peter Atkins.
6. Starring: Craig Sheffer as Det Joseph Thorne, Nicolas Turturro as Det Tony Nenonen, James Remar as Dr. Paul Gregory, Noelle Evans as Melanie Thorne, Doug Bradley as Pinhead, Nicholas Sadler as Bernie, Carmen Argenziano as the Captain.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Det Thorne is a hypocritical cop.   He has a wife and child and an above board appearance, but also consorts with hookers and beats the crap out of 'suspects' or whoever bothers him.  He finds a puzzle cube in the course of his investigations.  Then the dreams start, and he finds the latest hooker he has been with dead in the shower in the place where they last met.


2. He enlists (with a bit of blackmail) his straight-shooting partner Det Nenonen to help him cover up the hooker's murder.  The two of them descend deeper and deeper into the seedier side of life in Denver.  After one of his confidential informants is killed, Thorne receives a tape showing the CI being killed by a cenobite.  When he shows the tape to his boss, his partner, and a tech specialist, the content is gone.  Ouch.  They investigate the scene, and everything is as Thorne described it from the tape.


3. Since Thorne cannot substantiate his sightings of the cenobites, his boss recommends that he spend time with a shrink, Dr Gregory.  The shrink turns out to be Pinhead in disguise.  His wife starts to object to his unexplained lengthy absences.


4. How well does Thorne deal with his demons?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary:  The series returns to 'take responsibility for your own actions,' Twilight Zone style.
2. Seven of ten.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Good-looking film until that jumpy nonsense towards the end.


2. Sound: 6/10 Nothing special.  Sound was not all that important to the film, which could have been quite an asset.


3. Acting: 8/10 Nicholas Turturro is as bad as ever.  Craig Sheffer gave one of his better performances.  James Remar and Carmen Argenziano gave their usual competent plus performances.  Doug Bradley was quite good as expected.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Not nearly as complex as HR4, but tremendously better executed.


5. SFX: 9/10 The SFX are much better in HR5.  Most of them concern Thorne's hallucinations, and most of them are rather good.