Once More Into the Fray with The Grey

Right off the bat I will say that the marketing for this flick will convince you that you are seeing another movie. A movie in which the Liam Neeson from Takenspends a couple of hours giving a bunch of wolves broken bottle enhanced knuckle sandwiches. The previews lie.

Instead what you'll get is a chilling fight for survival by a struggling group of plane crash survivors in the freezing Alaska wilderness. What this movie does is put a handful of hard edged characters in an impossible situation and asks them how hard are they willing to fight to live.

The group of characters don't always come across as likable, but they mostly come off as real. You are given enough to know about the characters to make you care about their fate. As you would expect, Liam Neeson does a fantastic job as the leader of the group, Ottway.

The movie does a great job at doing what these kinds of movies should do, putting you in that situation and having you wonder how you would react. We are dealing with a group of people who slowly come to realize that they are probably about to die and as the audience we can't help but think if we were in such extreme conditions, would we be willing to try to fight through it?

Director Joe Carnahan uses the wolves and the elements fantastically, giving us a really good idea of what these people are going through. You can almost feel the chill of the blizzard through the movie screen. What he's also adept at is ratcheting up the suspense. One of the most suspenseful sequences I think I'll see in any movie this year deals with a treacherous climb via rope over a deep ravine. Carnaharn let's you off easy for the first couple of trips for the characters over. He waits until its the turn of the guy most nervous about that trip, then he once again takes us hand over hand over that ravine and its truly effective terrifying stuff.

The best thing I can really say about the movie is that after giving you enough chills and thrills to keep your heart rate up for the running time is that the images and the questions it asks linger with you days after the credits start rolling.

Cost of Living with Brandon Routh and Bret Harrison

A new short film has hit the internet in the past couple of days and this one is a little different.  A first time film from director BenDavid Grabinski, it has a couple of recognizable names in it and looks more polished than the usual amateur short.

The flick is very obviously inspired by James Cameron's Aliens and is about a couple of security guards who work for a corporation that deals in making monsters.  Their job is simple, when the monsters escape, hunt them down and stop them.  Silas and Jerry are played by Brandon Routh, who you may know as Superman from Superman Returns and Bret Harrison of the TV show Reaper.

It's about 10 minutes long and is an effective throwback to the action/horror movies of Cameron's heyday that relies on suspense and lighthearted character work.  It will probably disappoint monster movie fans looking to see some cool creatures, as these guys are left to our imagination.  The director does an effective job in using camera work, the reactions of our heroes and the female voice of the computer to build suspense.

It's a neat little way to spend a few minutes of your afternoon with some nice one liners with an almost Ghostbuster-esqu blending of blue collar work with the supernatural to ground the far fetched premise.  I enjoyed it, as I did Routh's play on the stereotypical gruff voiced hero who throws out his one-liners as if he doesn't care how they land.

Couple of Geek Notes for the film:  Not only is the doomed voice we hear over the transmitter basically quoting Bill Paxton from Aliens, it is played by Michael Rosenbaum who was the most multi layered of live action Lex Luthors in Smallville.  Kind of a worlds colliding thing with Routh being the big screen Man of Steel.  Worlds also collide in a smaller way with the voice of the computer being portrayed by Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who starred with Routh in Scott Pilgrim as his ex-girlfriend.

You can watch the movie here: http://www.foindustries.com/

PS for those with sensitive ears, it is R rated.

UFO Found Underwater!

I think they've finally cracked it.  They've found proof of a spaceship and they found it underwater.

Peter Lindberg was out searching for a sunken ship looking for that greatest of treasure, rare bottles of Champaign.

Funded by The Continental

Taking sonar of the bottom of the Gulf of Bothnia, his team came across an image of something round.  Something... unworldly.  Something that looks like it might be more at home in the night sky than sitting on the bottom of the sea.  That's right, a lot of people are assuming that it is an actual UFO.  While I do agree that something is amiss here and something is not quite right about a big circular object on the sea floor, I would have to disagree that it is a UFO.  A UFO means Unidentified Flying Object. In fact, looking at the image, I can safely identify what kind of object we are dealing with.

Many Bothnians died to bring us this information.

That's right, it's the Millennium Falcon.  As everyone knows, the Millennium Falcon is definitely a spacecraft and also easily identified.  Every nerd and his mother knows that ship just by looking at the outline or hearing the sound of it's perpetually malfunctioning hyper drive ramping up to make the jump to light speed, so to call it an Unidentified Flying Object is a falsity.

I can only hope that both it's captain and it's co-pilot, Han Solo and Chewbacca, managed to evacuate to safety before the ship crash landed in the ocean.  Sadly, it looks as though it's hyperdrive finally malfunctioned one too many times.

Looks like George Lucas has some 'splaining to do.

Original Story Here

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol May Be The Best One Yet

Went to check out Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol last weekend. My first thought is that I really wish I could have caught it when it first came out in IMAX. Life being what it is, it's hard to get to the theater with any regularity nowadays, so I missed that opportunity, but at least I didn't miss the movie itself. It was definitely a thrill ride from start to finish.

After sitting through it, I didn't know how I would stack it up with the others in the franchise. What I think is cool about this particular movie series is the fact that you have different distinctive directors having a go at each one, so each movie feels different than the last. After seeing Mission: Impossible III, I really loved the fact that they made it a little more personal for Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt character. The stakes felt real and you felt like you had an emotional investment in what was going on. When I saw that one, I knew it was my favorite.

After a few years, I think I lean more towards the first one being my favorite again, just because I felt the twists and turns are handled better and the action sequences were more suspenseful. And after giving it a couple of days thought, I feel Ghost Protocol is up there with it. Like the previous installments before it, this one has a bit of a different feel to it.

The action sequences were top notch through and through. Not once do you feel disoriented from what's going on and in the vein of great action masters like Spielberg, Brad Bird builds each sequence like a roller coaster ride, with one thing leading logically to the next more daring moment of the stunt. Seriously, we're watching the birth of a master live action craftsman here (Yes, I realize Bird's been doing this awhile in animation with "The Iron Giant" and "The Incredibles"). This is the Mission: Impossible movie that finally gives us a sequence that is right up there with the CIA break-in in the original flick. Yes, I'm talking about the window climbing on the hotel in Dubai. Holy crap, that was breathtaking. And like all good action sequence, every scene ups the stakes from the previous scene. You know nothing really bad is probably going to happen to Hunt during the stunt, but it's staged in such a way to really notch the suspense factor up to 11. That's just the beginning of the Dubai sequence that ends with a pretty neat chase through a sandstorm featuring Tom Cruise doing that Tom Cruise run that only he can pull off.

Another thing this movie does a little differently is that it simplifies the main story. This is not a bad thing. Whereas the other movies weave a tangled web of intrigue and who-done-it, this one is fairly straightforward. Bad guy wants to start a nuclear war, Ethan Hunt and his team have to stop him. I would compare this movie to Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones and his friends are doing everything in their power to get the Ark and keep getting blindsided at every turn. This is not an easy mission for our heroes. Virtual nothing goes right or to plan. A lot of improvising is done and the joy of the movie is watching them have to struggle to overcome the hiccups that impede their progress. Yes, I said "Them." This movie is not about Ethan Hunt alone, even though he is the main focus. This is about the team having to come together, cut off from their government, and use each other's strengths to get the job done. Jeremy Renner is good as the analyst that is forced to join the team when things really go south, Simon Pegg brings his usual brand of humor as the tech guy turned field agent and Paula Patton is the agent who has something to prove after her last operation ended badly for her lover. Ethan Hunt is still in the midst of all the action, but this time we see him start to become more of a team leader than he has been before in a scene where everyone else is doing the heavy lifting and he has to direct as he flows through the room.

Another thing about this movie that I found interesting was despite all the intense action scenes and the heavy nature of the story, it probably has more humor than any of the other movies in the franchise. A lot of that has to do with Simon Pegg, but they also managed to incorporate a lot of humor into the action to break up the suspense a little bit. I enjoyed it and thought it worked well for the flick. Say what you want to about the craziness that is Tom Cruise, but the man knows how to work his Tom Cruise magic into a movie and make it an enjoyable ride, and he was finally able to do so again with this, probably one of the two best Mission: Impossible movies out there.

Who Ya Gonna Call on Blu-Ray? Ghostbusters!

Still going through my very small Blu-Ray library and kind of reviewing them.  This time it's the great comedy classic, Ghostbusters....

Ghostbusters has been, since I was a wee lad, a favorite movie of mine.  It would be hard for me to review the flick objectively because of my deep seated love of it going back to my younger years.  I loved the cartoon, played Ghostbusters on the playground, had all the toys and my favorite was always Egon for some reason.  Maybe because of that cornucopia looking hairdo he rocked in the cartoon.  The great thing about this movie is that the reasons I loved it when I was little are different than the reasons I love it now.  Back then, I loved it due to the massive scale, cool ghosts and the idea that one could entrap them.  Also it had a giant Marshmallow man.  Nowadays, it's the humor that I didn't catch then, the great performances of the leads and the blue-collar idea of equating busting ghosts with that of being a fireman. Also it has a giant Marshmallow Man. It's a big comedy that puts all of these elements that I loved as a kid and as an adult and fuses them so seamlessly that makes it work as well as it does for as many people as it does.  I can't think of another high concept comedy off the top of my head the blends everything together so magically.  The special effects work very well for the time period and don't age as badly as you might think, but the movie doesn't work because of those effects.  Mainly it's the cast riffing on a terrific script and idea that's so absurd, they can make it seem a normal everyday thing.  Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson ground this thing and make it relatable to anybody who's just doing their job.  Their job just happens to be catching ghosts.

The blu-ray at first glance doesn't seem like it offers much, but after a quick look you'll find that its full of goodies.  It still has the commentary from the original DVD release that's very good, though now it no longer has the MST3K effect of their shadows watching the movie, but I can live with that.  You'll find a lot of fun docs, like the restoration of the Ecto-1 and an 1984 produced behind the scenes look.  There's a lot here about the making of the video game that I found interesting, as it reunites the cast and writers, even if it really has nothing to do with the actual movie.  Also available is the "Slimer Mode", which allows you to watch the movie with a trivia track and picture in picture interviews at pertinent moments of the movie.  It's very cool and informative.

Picture quality is great.  Yes, there is some grain to be had, but that seems to be how the movie was originally shot, so I'm not gonna complain about it.  The fact is, the movie is about as crisp and clear as it's ever been and it's the kind of movie you would definitely want to upgrade from the original DVD release to the blu-ray. 

This is one of my favorite movies of all time, and the blu-ray version is, barring a chance to see it in theaters, is the only way I would want to watch it from now on.  I'm very happy with it and it's a great price to boot.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit is Portable Fun

So, while everyone's throwing a big hubbub over the new Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS, I, being the cheapskate that I am (not necessarily by choice, mind you) decided to go old school and finally pick up for Mario Kart: Super Circuit for the good ol' GBA.

As a fan of the Mario Kart series, I was anxious to finally pick up and play Super Circuit years after it's release. I've had a ton of fun on Mario Kart Wii and its always interesting for me to go back in the past a little bit to see how the games have progressed.

First off, Super Circuit is fun. It's a perfect portable game. The tracks are not so long as to take up too much time, yet they are long enough to not feel too cheap and tacked on for the sake of putting a Mario Kart game out. There is a nice selection of tracks to start the game off that each require it's own type of skill to master. Sure, as always, there is a track or two that sometimes feels unnecessarily frustrating, but the fun you have on the other tracks more than make up for it. Once you get the hang of sliding around corners, using the jump button to control those turns and coming out of them with a nice little boost to shoot you ahead of your opponents, you'll be having all kinds of great fun.

There are a few different modes to choose from. You can of course go for the classic Grand Prix mode with 50, 100, or 150ccs and test your mettle against your computer foes (I hate Peach). There is the Time Trial mode in which you can learn to master the tracks with no fear of being rear ended with a dreaded red turtle shell at the finish line, and then there is the Quick Run, in which you can simply load up any track you want and race against the CPU without worrying about doing an entire Cup. Unfortunately, you need another person with a Gameboy Advance and a connector cable to play Multiplayer and since I don't have that option, I can't comment on it. All I know is that I've heard that it is better if the other person were to have their own Super Circuit cart as well. You can play with only one game and a connector cable if you wish, but it will limit your character selection.

Super Circuit also harkens the return of the coins from Super Mario Kart, which means that the outcome of the race will rely on skill as much as it does luck. Whereas the newest incarnations of the Mario Kart franchise usually require an big chunk of luck (you tend to get punished for being good), you will have to collect as many coins as you can to help your speed and to keep you from spinning out each time you get hit, which will happen when you run out of coins. Collecting coins also brings up another cool thing about the game; if you collect 100 coins in each cup after getting gold in it, it will unlock that cup from the original Super Mario Kart. So, when all is said and done, you have the potential for unlocking another five cups for a grand total of 40 tracks to race. Not too shabby for a portable racing game.

Honestly, I found this game to be more fun than I expected. It's absolutely perfect for what it's intended for. When you are out and about and have your Gameboy Advance with you, it's great for playing bite sized chunks at a time. It takes very little time to compete in a cup and be done with it if that is what you wish. On the other hand, there are enough tracks and it is enough fun that you could sit in your living room or on a road trip and play it for hours. I recommend this game heartily for those that are fans of the Kart.

Ernest Goes To Camp on Blu-Ray, knowhutimean?

Just for the heck of it, I'm gonna start going through my blu-ray collection and reviewing what I have.  Which at the moment isn't much.  I'll start with our main man, Ernest...

Let's get this out of the way at the outset, you either like this guy or you don't.  He's either hilarious or excruciatingly dumb.  I identify myself as an Ernest fan, and I will admit that that has a ton to do with growing up as a child in the 80s.  He was a product of his time, aimed toward a certain audience and I was of that time and audience.  I find the man hilarious.  Ernest Goes to Camp isn't my favorite Ernest movie, but it is easily one of the better in his never-ending catalog.  The crown, for me, goes to Ernest Saves Christmas, but as with many, my movie introduction to the man came when he went to camp and made the staggering leap from inept handyman to inept, but caring, camp counselor.  Of course, I'd known Ernest for a while because of the prevalent commercials on tv at the time, but his brand of wacky and physical humor always did it for me.  I firmly understand that this humor isn't for everybody, but I enjoyed it.  I found Jim Varney to be, despite the quality of the movies he was in, a very gifted creator of characters.  The movies really took off when he was able to riff on different personalities, but unfortunately, he didn't do too much of that in his debut film.  Instead, he inhabits his character with the very quality of the name he'd given him and injected him with a massive amount of heart.  He may bumble around like a fool, but like the wayward kids he was put in charge of, he wins you over with his unending optimism and good nature.  It's refreshing to find a good, clean movie that you aren't afraid to show your kids that puts forth a nice message amongst all the silly goings on.  Best of all, you will learn what to never, ever do if you run across a mess of badgers.

The movie on blu-ray, unfortunately, isn't much to write home about.  The video quality is probably better than the dvd version, but I don't know that it's enough or the type of movie that mandates an upgrade to the superior format.  The special features are lacking, but it is a good price.  If you don't already own the regular dvd version and are a fan of the man in the hat and denim vest, it's a good, cheap pick up.  If you however already own the dvd, an upgrade probably isn't very necessary unless you're just a completist.  And if you are, as I said, it's not like the movie costs an arm and a leg.

I enjoy this movie, even as an adult.  The humor probably doesn't work on me as well now as it did back in the mid 80s when I was 6 or 7, but I get a kick out of watching the man do his thing.  If anything, re-watching the movie reminds me that I miss Jim Varney and I wish he was still around entertaining the kids and the kid in us with his wacky characters.