New Years Eve Review 2011

Hey everyone sorry for the long silence I've been very busy with a new job searching for a new home. But I'm still here and to give you reviews before the new year.

Captain America: Three words to best describe this film outstanding, realistic, and gorgeous. And to add a far superior attempt for a Captain America film since the Reb Brown Captain America film.

Thor: One more reason that the Avengers film is gonna be awesome nuff said.

X-Men First Class: What can I say that will make you watch this film aside from that it's fresh start from the failed X3 and Wolverine Origins. Honestly it's nice to see different cast of X-Men characters to give a fresh face to the franchise. Especially with the villains (The Hellfire's Club) gives a good hint to non-fans that Magneto is not the only villain plus it feels that they're actually expanding the X-Men universe on the silverscreen. Not entirely limited to certain characters out of popularity and/or not bashing in other characters for the sake of fan service.

The Thing: As much it was nice to have a prequel this film was too predictable. You feel that you know what's gonna happen before it happens. Which really shoot this film in the foot when the scare factors weren't all impressive or subtle. So sadly this film...skip it.

Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows: In short...meh. Not too bad but meh.

Toon Closet Review: Ghost Hunt

So out of respect for Halloween here's Ghost Hunt which premiered on October of 2006. The series follows the Shibuya Psychic Research Center as they investigate paranormal activities around Japan. The main characters in question have interesting character chemistry among each other throughout the series. Mai Taniyama high school student who joins Kazuya Shibuya after the first three episodes. Kazuya Shibuya a paranormal researcher in charge of the Shibuya Psychic Research Center but he goes by through the series as "Naru the narcissistic" a nickname given by Mai. Hōshō Takigawa a Buddhist monk who is apparently in a popular band and wears fashionable clothes through the series he goes by Monk. Ayako Matsuzaki a self-styled shrine maiden. John Brown a young Catholic priest from Australia...very interesting. And then there's Masako Hara a famous spirit medium with her own TV show no less. There are two other characters in the series Lin Kōjo a Chinese onmyoji who is Naru's solemn and taciturn assistant and Osamu Yasuhara who is a high school student who joins SPR after the Forbidden Pastimes arc. With most of the main characters (except for Osamu Yasuhara) have their own abilities to confront paranormal forces. Mai begins to develop a few psychic abilities which includes postcognitive dreams, clairvoyance, and astral projection as the series progresses. The entire series has up to seven story arcs that are split down into three to four episodes. Minus the "Ghost Story in the Park" story which only had one episode. Each of the story arcs are set up rather nicely with a beginning, a middle, and an end that doesn't feel too short or too padded out. Furthermore, each of the story arcs have satisfying conclusions not feeling like some guy in a monster mask ending which that's a real plus.

My Final Verdict: This series is well-thought out and entertaining. Some of the story arc are actually scary at points and are really subtle. The main characters have chemistry with each other and are enjoyable to watch. If you can't get the DVD box set then you can watch the complete series on Funimation.com both dubbed and subtitle.

The Film Vindicator Announcement

Hello everyone I regret to inform you that I won't be able to review Teeth. Oh not because it's a bad film I actually like this film. It's that I don't have any videos to watch to give it a proper review. YouTube, Hulu don't seem to have the film at all and of course there's Netflix which does have the film but I'm still unemployed to make any monthly payments. Yeah I'm so I could use Wikipedia as reference but that would feel plagiarism and lying. So for now my review on Teeth is put on hold but don't worry I'm not ending this year's Halloween special like this. So as back up I'm doing a Toon Closet review of Ghost Hunt so stay tuned for that.

The Film Vindicator Review: Ginger Snaps

Ginger Snaps is one of those werewolf movie gems that tells you two things. One if done right CGI sometimes doesn't solve everything in most films. And two Twilight can go screw itself with its pussy-whipped werewolves.

The film starts off on a normal day in a normal small town of Bailey Downs; until a woman finds her mutilated dog in the backyard. And apparently the near neighborhood kids playing street hockey don't seem to care. We're introduced to two sisters who are the main characters; Ginger (played by Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (played by Emily Perkins). Visually explained through the opening credits, the two of them have a hobby of making staged deaths which is their high school project. Now believe me when I say that these two have far better character development than Belle Swan; oh yeah I went there. The film explains that there's the Beast of Bailey Downs that goes around town mutilating dogs. And yet the people in this town don't seem to be worrying all that much. Ginger and Brigitte sneak off at night to steal Trina Sinclair's (played by Danielle Hampton) dog and make it look like the Beast of Bailey Downs killed it. That plan goes as "The Beast" appears, attacks Ginger, and drags her off into the woods. Brigitte gives chase until she comes across Ginger fleeing from the Beast. The Beast catches up with Ginger and continues to mutilate Ginger. I like how this scene doesn't show much of the Beast almost the same way as Dog Soldiers just show bits and pieces of the creatures. With the power of Polaroid, Brigitte hits the Beast with her camera causing the Beast to stop attacking Ginger as she escapes. They manage to get away as the Beast turns into roadkill as it gets hit by a van. Man don't you just hate when that happens when you're a werewolf? One minute you're chasing your next meal and then BAM! Some asshole with a Buick runs you over; there outta be some werewolf insurance. Not for the assholes with their cars I'm talking about for those poor werewolves. Back home Brigitte checks out Ginger's wounds which are already starting to heal; Ginger asked Brigitte to keep this a secret and that she's OK now. Everything seems to be normal at first. The next at school as Ginger hangs out with some students in a van smoking marijuana. Brigitte begins to notice that it's the same van that hit the Beast the another night. Here we're introduced to its driver Sam (played by Kris Lemche) who's a drug dealer in secret at the school. Brigitte questions Sam of what he hit and Sam surprisingly gives a straight answer that it was a lycanthrope (werewolf). Brigitte slowly believes Sam and that Ginger may become a lycanthrope. Later Ginger and Brigitte notices weird hair growths on Ginger wounds and started bleeding from her vagina. But they think that it's coincidentally Ginger having her period.

There's disagreement between the sisters as Brigitte tries to convince Ginger that something has change about her but Ginger isn't listening. Brigitte is approached by Sam returning her photo of the Beast (now to be a lycanthrope) further convinced that what he hit was a lycanthrope. Back home Brigitte discovers that Ginger started growing a tail; this forces her to go see Sam the next day. However, she lies to Sam that it's herself who's turning and ask for help. They both agree that "her" metamorphosis is like a virus and it can possibly be cure; So Sam gives her a earring made of pure silver in the hope that it may purify her. We cut to Ginger with Jason (played by Jesse Moss) soon to be having sex in his car. Some really rough painfully and unprotected sex. Ginger returns home with blood on herself; but it turns out it wasn't from Jason but from some neighbor's dog Norman as she mutilated him off screen. Brigitte convinces Ginger to have the silver earring pierced to her navel. We cut to the next day in the school's restroom when Jason starts to urinate blood and freaks out. Ugh...it’s that time of the month. Well no it turns out that through unprotected sex with Ginger he's now infected and turning. Upon Brigitte and Ginger arriving at Sam's place he disclosed that there's a plant called monkshood that acts like a detox and might kill the infection. Later Trina shows up at the sisters’ house blaming Ginger that she stole her dog. This breaks out into an argument that lends Trina to slip hitting her head on the corner of the kitchen counter, and dies...ouch. The sisters quickly hide her body in the freezer as their parents return home. When the parents went to bed they bury Trina in their backyard. Again not a good place to bury a body. However, their mother find Trina's finger that left behind in the yard and does discover the body later on. The next day at school Brigitte is confronted by the infected Jason freak out and confuse of what's happening to him until the school janitor interrupts him. Back home Brigitte discovers that their mother brought home some monkshood and can now cure Ginger. Brigitte locks Ginger in their bathroom as she heads off to Sam's place to work up a serum. Upon returning home with the cure Brigitte finds the bathroom door ripped open and proceeds to look for Ginger but only to cross paths with Jason attacking a trick-or-treator. As Jason attacks Brigitte instead she takes the syringe to his neck and injects him with the cure. The cure actually works and Jason is completely returned to normal.

With the knowledge that the cure works she heads to the school only to find a guidance counselor Mr. Wayne (played by Peter Keleghan) killed by Ginger. I'm gonna skip a few scenes and head to the end a bit. We cut to a party at Sam's place as Ginger arrives with a wolf-like appearance. She finds Sam and proceeds to seduce him. Brigitte arrives and decided to let Ginger infect her in order to regain her trust. Sam drives Brigitte and Ginger home where there's more monkshood to make the cure. However, Ginger starts to transform into a fully lycanthrope and believe me it's a pretty gruesome transformation. Well not as gruesome as the transformation scene from Doppelganger; I'll talk about that when I get to review it. Upon arriving home, werewolf Ginger breaks out of the van and runs into the house. Brigitte and Sam manage to make another serum before werewolf Ginger grabs Sam and drags him off. So it's down to Brigitte armed with a kitchen knife and syringe as she comes face to face with werewolf Ginger feeding on Sam. Werewolf Ginger eventually kills Sam and chases Brigitte down to their bedroom. Werewolf Ginger continues to stalk Brigitte until she finally attacks her. But Brigitte was able to stab her with the kitchen knife ultimately killing. The film ends with the still infected Brigitte lying on top of werewolf Ginger as she gasped her last breath.

My Final Verdict: Ginger Snaps is those coming-of-age films that's done right when there's a werewolf twist put in to the mix. The characters in the film are more relevant than the characters from Twilight you don't see the social awkwardness from anybody...except for the sisters' mother (played by Mimi Rogers) who is really out there. Even Ginger and Brigitte have better character chemistry than Jennifer and Needy from Jennifer's Body. And that's because whenever Megan Fox tries to act...she not really trying at all. So you can see some actual effort in comparison. It's a real plus that werewolves in this film aren't here to be your friend; so don't except the werewolves here to go horny for a socially dead high school girl. So Halloween is approaching and I'm down to my fifth film to review in this year's Halloween special. So stay tuned next time as I review Teeth...that's right Teeth so prepare yourself folks.

The Film Vindicator Review: 100 Feet

Now most of you may have seen a lot ghost/haunted house movies rather good or bad. But that same question keeps entering your mind. Why don't the main characters just leave the house? And believe it or not 100 Feet is one of those haunted house films if done right does give a good reason.

So we start off with Marnie Watson (played by Famke Janssen) being escorted to her home in a police car after getting an early release from prison. Upon arriving at her house officer Shanks (played by Bobby Cannavale) places an electronic ankle bracelet on Marine telling her that she can't move no more than 100 feet (Name-drop). And that's the plot-convenience Marine is on house arrest and can't go anywhere. It's explained that she was arrested for murdering her abusive husband who was a cop and was Shanks' partner. Marine tells Shanks that she reported to the cops many times over but since her husband Mike (played by Michael Paré) was a cop nobody just didn't believe her. Some of the scenes in the film you can feel the isolation from Marie when she tries to re-connect with neighbors completely avoiding her. Even the scene where it's Halloween and none of the trick or treaters never showed up at her door. However, she does make friends with a teenager name Joey (played by Ed Westwick) who delivers her groceries. Strange things do happen such as Marine recurring gets abused by the ghost of Mike. The film seems to roll with the punches right away with Marine believing to be a ghost while the same time confronting the ghost. Later Marine attempts to get rid of ghost Mike by exorcising the house; getting rid of Mike's belongings. Of course this pisses off ghost Mike in a abusive husband rage.

Each time Shanks would show up to check up on Marine only to notice some unexplained bruises on her face. Shanks believe that someone killed Mike and is setting up Marine to take the blame. Marine tells Shanks that its ghost Mike but he doesn't take her word for it. The next day after getting a close call having her fingers cut off by the garbage disposal. Marine discovers a bag fill with money hidden beneath the bedroom floor boards. The film never explains what Mike was doing with the money or how he got that large amount of money without anyone noticing. So Marine donates the money to a priest and immediately gets attacked by ghost Mike. This for some reason forces Marine to call Joey and ask to come over. After which she immediately jumps his bones; seriously they quickly have sex in her and Mike's bed. And that's not the end of it they're having sex as ghost Mike watches. That's right Marine has such amount of balls that she has sex with another guy as her dead husband watches. Now everything seems to be back to normal the next day right... No ghost Mike goes abusive husband rage on Joey and it is a gruesome death scene that will make your spine scream. Shanks arrives at her house with a warrant as Marine hides Joey's body in the bedroom crawlspace. Of course that didn't turn out so well as his body falls through the ceiling. As Shanks just about to arrest Marine they both get attacked by ghost Mike. Shanks tries to shoot ghost Mike but gets his hand snapped in a different direction and shoots a gas line in the kitchen starting a fire. Marine and Shanks are thrown into the basement as the fire spreads throughout the house. Marine gets the key to the handcuffs and to the electronic ankle bracelet and just before she escapes through the basement window she gets Shanks out of the basement first. Still trapped in the burning basement Marine makes her last stand as she throws her wedding ring at ghost Mike which apparently kills somehow. Marine manages to get out before the house explodes and out of good faith Shanks tells her to go. The film ends with Marine making her escape as a news report claims that she died in the fire.

My Final Verdict: 100 Feet is above average film; the pacing is a bit slow but I believe that the highlights of the film are satisfying at best. The film was directed by Eric Red who back in 1991 directed a horror thriller Body Parts which I will review real soon. Until then stay tuned next week as I go three for three in the anti-twilight werewolf campaign as I review Ginger Snaps.

The Film Vindicator Review: Trick r Treat

Welcome back to my first Halloween special today I'm reviewing Trick r Treat. And I'm not gonna lie this film is more on the treat department as in you're gonna be in for a real treat watching this film. Trick r Treat was originally slated for a 2007 release but was held back until 2009. Just like Creepshow it's an anthology horror film but unlike Creepshow each of the four stories are somewhat interwoven. Meaning that these stories are happening at the same time just at different places. Furthermore each story has a mysterious pint-sized trick-or-treater name Sam (played by Quinn Lord) making appearances whenever someone breaks Halloween traditions.

So we start off with an opening of a couple Emma (played by Leslie Bibb) and Henry (played by Tahmoh Penikett) returning from a Halloween party. Emma goes to blow out a jack-o-lantern by their fence but Henry tells her not to because it's against. But Emma blows it out anyway as Henry goes inside and not before long Emma is killed off by an unknown assailant and we cut to our first story.

We're introduced to Steven Wilkins (played by Dylan Baker) a school principal who spots a boy stealing candy from his porch. Wilkins offers the boy name Charlie (played by Brett Kelly) more candy to him. But little does Charlie know that the candy is poison and shortly dies as Wilkins calmly watches. Later we see Wilkins burying Charlie's body in his backyard...kinda a bad place to bury a body in my opinion. After finishing the burial Wilkins sees his neighbor Kreeg (played by Brian Cox) screaming from his window. But Wilkins completely ignores him and heads inside; more on Mr. Kreeg later on. Later we see Wilkins helping his son Billy (played by Connor Christopher Levins) carving a jack-o-lantern in their basement. But then we see that it's not a jack-o-lantern but poor Charlie's head; Wilkins sure has a really boring life if he's killing people. Well just be happy he's not writing Twilight books...just saying.

We cut to the next story where we're introduce to a group of kids Macy (played by Britt McKillip), Schrader (played by Jean-Luc Bilodeau), Sara (played by Isabelle Deluce), Chip (played by Alberto Ghisi), and Rhonda (played by Samm Todd). They go around the neighbor collecting jack-o-lanterns before heading out to a local rock quarry. Macy tells a local urban legend that a school bus containing eight children that where mentally challenged and disturbed to the point of needing to be chained to their chairs. She further tells them that the bus driver was bribe by their parents to kill them; so the driver crashes the bus into the lake of the rock quarry killing all of the children as he survives the crash. So the kids thought to place the jack-o-lanterns into the lake so that the Halloween School Bus Massacre children may find peace. This leads up with Macy, Britt, Schrader, and Chip set up a prank against Rhonda but turns sour when the Halloween School Bus Massacre children rises from the dead and attack the five kids. Rhonda was the first to reach the quarry's elevator and closes the door. Macy, Britt, Schrader, and Chip reach the elevator begging Rhonda to let them in the elevator. However, as Rhonda remembers the prank from earlier she decided to take elevator up to safety while the four kids are left to die horribly. If I may use this expression...BURNED!!!

Now in between "The Principal" story and "The School Bus Massacre Revisited" story where we're introduce to Laurie (played by Anna Paquin), her sister Danielle (played by Lauren Lee Smith), and their friends Maria (played by Rochelle Aytes) and Janet (played by Moneca Delain). They're invited to a bonfire party and they're trying to find some dates to the party while that's going on there's a subplot during "The School Bus Massacre Revisited" story of a vampire killing off women unnoticed. A little bit later Laurie is being stalked by the vampire and is attacked. At the bonfire party Danielle gets a bit worry about Laurie; everything goes well until a body falls out of the trees. At first you think it's Laurie now dead but it turns out it's the vampire as Laurie appears unharmed. Upon further examination it turns out the "vampire" is really Principal Wilkins in disguise and wearing fake fangs. Seriously his whole life must be really boring if he's going around killing people and dressing up as a vampire. Again be thankful he's not writing Twilight books. He soon noticed that all the male dates now are dead and here's where things get pretty awesome. All of the girls at the party are becoming werewolves in the most gruesomely creative way possible including Laurie who has the shiting-in-his-pants Wilkins pinned. You can tell that the irony is working overtime on Wilkins as Laurie kills him. This scene is no doubt giving Twilight the big middle finger of SUCK IT! And I love it.

We cut to the final story which takes place at the time with "The Principal" story in the film with Kreeg as a grumpy old man who hates Halloween. So much so that he scares away the trick-or-treaters and here I thought Scrooge was a real jerk at Christmas. However, this doesn't satisfy Sam at all oh crap. We cut to Kreeg throwing some photos into the fireplace and retreats to some bags of candy until there's a knock at the backdoor. Kreeg proceeds outside with baseball bat and sees nothing except for Wilkins of course. Upon going back inside his dog notice something on the front porch. So Kreeg heads out to see that his porch is littered with jack-o-lanterns. Kreeg returns inside and pulls out a double-barrel shotgun; you it's getting serious when a character brings out a shotgun. Kreeg is soon attacked by Sam with a bladed candy bar no less. Desperately trying to escape through the front door until he get attack from behind. Continuing to struggle with Sam; Kreeg rips off the burlap sack over his head to reveal that it's...Pumpkinhead Jr... No seriously the kid looks like flipping Pumpkinhead and quite honestly that's just flipping terrifying. You don't understand this would mean that Pumpkinhead may have knocked up some willing hellhound and it gave birth to this kid. Kreeg manages to get the shotgun and shoots him down but Pumpkinhead Jr. is still going even after being shot three times. Just as Sam is about to give the final blow he stabs a candy bar on Kreeg chest and walks away...ugh...OK. We cut to a close up shot of one of the photos in the fireplace revealing the eight Halloween School Bus Massacre children and Kreeg was that bus driver.

The film ends with Emma and Henry returning home which turns out that it was Sam who killed Emma. Rhonda calmly walks home with her pumpkin in tow. Billy in Principal Wilkins clothes passing the possibly poison candy. And Kreeg gets the scare shitless of a lifetime as he's approached by the undead Halloween School Bus Massacre children.

My Final Verdict: This film is ingeniously good in fact borderline good. I can't describe this film any further go watch it and be glad that it's not as crappy as the Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street remakes. Next week I'm taking on a film with ghosts, house arrest, and Famke Janssen. That's right I'm reviewing 100 Feet so stay tuned.

The Film Vindicator Review: Dog Soldiers

Well it's October so let's give it a good start with the review of Dog Soldiers. The film premiered in May 2002 and that you may have seen glimpse of it on the Sci-Fi channel.

So we start off in the Scottish Highlands where a couple is out camping. They have their tendered moment until they hear a howling noise outside from their tent. Their tent is ripped opened and the couples are horrible mauled off screen. We cut to somewhere in North Wales where we meet one of the main characters Private Cooper (played by Kevin McKidd) who is in a special forces training mission. He fails to carry out the order by his captain Richard Ryan (played by Liam Cunningham) to shoot the Special Forces dog. Therefore he fails the training and is kicked off the Special Forces. We cut to four weeks later in the Highlands of Scotland we meet up with Private Cooper and five another British army soldiers on a routine training mission. Sergeant "Serge" Wells (played by Sean Pertwee), Corporal Bruce Campbell...you heard me Corporal Bruce Campbell (played by Thomas Lockyer). Private "Spoony" Witherspoon (played by Darren Morfitt), Private Joe Kirkley (played by Chris Robson), and Private Terry Milburn (played by Leslie Simpson). So the army guys have their complaint of missing the football "British soccer" game of England against Germany and continue on with their mission. While the army guys are wondering through the woods they're already being spotted by Captain Ryan and his special forces. The army guys set up camp and share some funny stories until a dead animal come falling out of nowhere. A little bit later at the Special Forces base Captain Ryan is on watch but little does he knows he's being watch by something. And through creepy POV shots Captain Ryan gets attacked. The next day the army guys reached the Special Forces base to find it in shambles with no one left alive except for the wounded Captain Ryan. So the army guys load up on live ammo despite Ryan's protest that guns won't work on "them". The army guys...you know what I'm tired of calling them army guys so I'm just gonna call them The BAMs (Big Ass Motherfuckers) instead. So the BAMs have their first causalty when Corporal Bruce Campbell is having gun trouble for some reason. May be if you check to see if the safety's on that could be the reason. So Corporal Bruce Campbell makes a run for it until he ran right into a tree branch impaling himself to death. OK this scene is pretty stupid yet so funny because you have to be really stupid to get yourself impale like that. And to top it off he gets instantly mauled off screen and it's really disappointing that he didn't get to say groovy before dying. The Serge finds Corporal Bruce Campbell's body as he get attacked but only to severely wounded quite gruesomely. I mean his intestines are hanging out of his stomach he shouldn't be alive let alone be able to defend himself but he's rescued by Private Cooper.

We cut to the BAMs regrouping while running from their mysterious adversaries until they spotted a car passing by and haul ass. The car stops as one of the BAMs ran right in front of it and this is where we're introduce to a zoologist name Megan (played by Emma Cleasby). Megan picks up the BAMs and manages to get away from adversaries and headed to a lonely house. As night falls the BAMs have set up camp as the adversaries surrounds the house. Megan explains to the BAMs that these mysterious adversaries are in fact werewolves. Of course the BAMs don't believe her right away except for Captain Ryan but that doesn't chance the fact that they're still being attack by the werewolves. It’s explained that Captain Ryan and his special forces knew about the werewolves and plan on capturing one to be used as a weapon. But we all know what happen with that plan. Further explanation that the BAMs were just bait to lure out the werewolves. Now as most werewolf films go that if you get bitten or scratch by a werewolf you become a werewolf. So it discovered that the Serge and Captain Ryan are infected and Captain Ryan was the first to turn before escaping out of the house. The film pads out with a few of the BAM members getting killed off while trying to escape to the nearest town. Things get really tits up when Megan reveals herself to be part of the same pack that's attacking the BAMs and then turns before Cooper guns her down. OK if she was a werewolf this time why did she bother to help out the BAMs if she was just gonna to turn on them anyway. The werewolves finally got inside the house leaving with Cooper, Spoony, and the Serge defending for their lives. We get an awesome last stand from Spoony as he takes on one of the werewolves unarmed before he dies. Oh yeah Spoony has a moment so bad ass it would make Reb Brown so proud. The Serge cuts a gas line of the kitchen stove letting the gas fill in the room while Cooper escapes to a cellar. And before the transformation takes over the Serge switches on the kitchen stove setting off a spark that causes the house to explode. Cooper manages to survive the explosion...somehow but he's not alone. As the explosion did take out most of the werewolves the werewolf Ryan was in the cellar the whole time. So there's a final fight between Cooper and werewolf Ryan ultimately Cooper kills werewolf Ryan with a silver letter opener. The film ends with Cooper walking away from the demolished house while we get to see the final score of the football match between England and Germany; England wins.

My Final Verdict: This film is a sweet level of brilliance the film didn't relay on crappy CGI for the werewolves and it does a good job of keeping the werewolves hidden at some points. Dog Soldiers feels like an awesome homage to Predator when you think about it. There are some funny moments in the film even with the werewolves attacking the BAMs. So if you're that somebody who's sick and tired of Twilight dumbing down werewolves this film will make you feel much better. So stay tuned next time as this Halloween special continues as I review Trick r Treat.

The Film Vindicator Review: Threshold

Ah yes Threshold another guilty pleasure film from the Sci-Fi channel that premiered in 2003.

So we start off in the orbit of earth where an astronaut is making repairs on their shuttle-craft from the outside. Suddenly a cloud of space-dust approaches the shuttle-craft. With the astronaut still outside a tiny meteor from the space-dust penetrates his suit and embeds into his arm. After the shuttle returns to earth the injured astronaut is taken to a hospital where things take a turn for the weird. His injured arm starts to grow weird cocoons which outcomes dozens of moths. A medical officer Dr. Jerome "Geronimo" Horne (played by Nicholas Lea) and an entomologist Dr. Savannah Bailey (played by Jamie Luner) are called in to examine the body of the astronaut. They discovered alien DNA which came from the tiny meteor was genetically altering the astronaut into some type of human with insect characteristics and an extra set of insect arms. Later at a neighborhood in Houston; the space moths swarmed on the unexpected Frank Hansen (played by Steve Bacic) infecting him with the alien DNA. So now the infected Frank goes on the search for other infested humans to begin their new evolution. Geronimo and Savannah came across an infected woman who was reported missing. They examine the body after the infected woman died of starvation and discovered she had a B-negative blood type.

So it's established that the alien moths can infect people who have B-negative blood types while the people who don't are lunch. That's right if you're not B-negative you're basically food not just to the space moths but to the infected as well. So infected Frank sneaks into a blood bank and gathers a list of people with B-negative blood types in Houston. Obviously the film pads out with the infected gathering people with B-negative blood types. Geronimo and Savannah propose to the government that they have to find where the infected are nesting and destroy them. Instead of you know nuke the site from orbit. Let's face it that kind of response is never the perfect solution in most sci-fi films. Because otherwise the planet would already be F'ed up the ass a thousand times over. Anyway they must destroy the nest before the infected reach the "threshold" population. So Geronimo and Savannah manage to find the nest at a cargo ship. They've encounter some resistance from the infected but they managed to cause the ship's engine to go into overload. Ultimately causing the ship to explode killing all of the space moths and the infected...or did it? Yes there are a few space moths that survived the explosion and yet no sequel has ever been thought up. And trust me its better that way.

My Final Verdict: This film has that 60s sci-fi feel that really tickles me in a good way. There's not all that much of creature F/X except for the space moths. But for the infected they keep the F/X simple and not all that over-the-stop and honestly I prefer it that way for a film like Threshold. I mean would you really watch this film if the infected turned into poorly CGI insect creatures? So I fully recommend watching this with some enthusiasm. Let's see October's coming real soon so to celebrate Halloween I'm reviewing 5 films through the month of October starting with Dog Soldiers. Stay tuned.

The Film Vindicator Review: Darklight

The Sci-Fi channel has it fair share of films that ether cheesy but good, kinda fair, or just straight bad in most standards in story, acting, and special effects. Darklight in my opinion is one of those cheesy but good films. The film came out in 2004 and if you have cable at the time you may have watched it on the Sci-Fi channel. And yes I still call it the "Sci-Fi" channel not that other word that looks like an acronym of a new type of syphilis.

So the film starts off with a opening narration about Adam's first wife Lilith and how she rejected him as her equal. The narration farther explains that Lilith was made from the earth and a magical substance called darklight; therefore possessing demonic powers and appearance. In present day a secret society called the Faith was able to capture her putting an end to her eternal wrath. Three years later we'll introduce to Elle (played by Shiri Appleby) who lives with her guardian and has no memory of who she is. We cut to a secret lab where we are introduced to one of the antagonist of the film Anders Raeborne (played by David Hewlett). Who's been experimenting with an extract from Lilith's blood in attempt to become immortal. After succeeding he becomes a Demonicus and sets to kill a scientific research team that rejected his theory on extended longevity. One of Faith agents William Shaw (played by Richard Burgi) is informed about the Demonicus and is order to find and train Elle (who is actually Lilith before losing her memories). Shaw quickly declines since Lilith was the one who killed his son prior to her capture three years ago. But with some convincing by Faith leader Prefect (played by Ross Manarchy) Shaw accepts this mission.

Bit by bit Elle/Lilith starts to get flashes of her memories. Lilith returns home to find her guardian killed by Raeborne/Demonicus Shaw enters the house rescuing Lilith and escaping. The next few scenes are Shaw helping Lilith to remember her ancient past and then train her on controlling her darklight powers. Early in the film it's been told that Raeborne/Demonicus is carrying the Red Plague and can infect anyone through its bite and tongue. However, the red plague can be cure by extracting an enzyme from its brain. So it's up to Lilith and Shaw to destroy the Demonicus and retrieve its head to develop an antidote. I'm skipping ahead to the near end so there may be some spoilers. Lilith and Shaw head to an abandon warehouse where they fell into a trap set up by Raeborne and Faith Director Chapel (played by John de Lancie). Chapel's intention is start an apocalypse to prove that not only evil exists it prevails...just go with. Basically he used Raeborne to tamper with darklight ultimately starting the red plague. Raeborne chances back to the Demonicus and heads out to kill his father while Lilith and Shaw manage to escape from the warehouse. Shaw heads after Chapel and then kills him before escaping while Lilith heads after Raeborne/Demonicus to protect his father. The film ends with Lilith killing the Raeborne/Demonicus through DECAPITATION...and finally curing the population from the red plague.

My Final Verdict: The whole Lilith mythology seems to be cliff-noted but did does get the plot started. The special effects on the demonic form Lilith and the Demonicus are decent they're not as terrible as the special effects from any Asylum film that's been made. So for something to kill time or just to shut off your brain for a while I recommend watching Darklight. You know what I think I just have enough guilty pleasure for one more film from Sci-Fi. So stay tuned next time as I review Threshold.

The Film Vindicator Review: Generation X

Yeah you heard right I'm reviewing Generation X a made-for-TV movie out came out in 1996 only on Fox. Based on a Marvel Comic of the same name that was met to catch on as a TV series but never did and you can probably figure out why.

So the film starts with a definition of the word mutation I guess to clue in non-fans about what a mutant is. We cut to the film's villain Dr. Russel Tresh (played by Matt Frewer) performing an illegal brain surgery on an innocent mutant until Emma Frost (played by Finola Hughes) interferes. Tresh gets fired from this secret government institution while the innocent mutant is taken away by the "MEA" for being an unregistered mutant. This pisses off Emma and goes to a little psychic rage and then walks away. We cut to five years later and we are introduced to Angelo Espinosa aka Skin (played by Austin Rodriguez) leaving his family to head to the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Later at a arcade place we are introduced to Jubilation Lee aka Jubilee (played by Heather McComb, that's right a white actress playing a Chinese mutant but I digress). Her powers began to manifest while playing Virtua Fighter; you heard me playing Virtua Fighter. This attracts the police she runs away and the police pursues her. She's soon cornered and captured by the police. We cut to Emma checking Cerebro to see that Jubilee has been detained at a police station. She and Sean Cassidy aka Banshee (played by Jeremy Ratchford) head out to the station and got her out. After which Emma, Banshee, and Jubilee head to a bus station where they met up with Skin. They return to the school and given Jubilee and Skin a registration scan before meeting the other students of the school. In the next scene we're introduced to Monet St. Croix aka M (played by Amarilis), Mondo (played by Bumper Robinson), Arlee Hicks aka Buff (played by Suzanne Davis), and Kurt Pastorius aka Refrax (played by Randall Slavin). Fun fact the two characters Buff and Refrax were created for this film as replacements for Husk and Chamber from the Generation X comic. Only because to avoid spending too much money in special effects on their powers. The film pads out for a bit with the students learning the ins and outs of the school. We cut to Skin doing security checks of the school until he comes across a section of the school that's off limits. Skin manage to gain access to this section and discovers that the sealed off room holds a "dream machine".

We cut to a board meeting where Tresh explains dreams can be used in the means of brainwashing or "advertising" the board's products into peoples' subconscious minds. By using a duplicated dream machine Tresh has the means to do so but this causes the board to be really spooked. Later Skin tells Jubilee about the dream machine and the two decided to try it out. Jubilee tries it first to visit her parents in their dreams until being interrupted by Tresh. She freaks out and wakes up leaving Skin to try it out. Skin visits a girl he met earlier at a diner while he and the other students took a drive to a small town. Tresh appears before him and wants to help Skin by brainwashing the girl to love him. They continue to until the police show up at Tresh place and while still connected to the dream machine the police disconnected him from the machine. Causing his consciousness to be trapped in the dream dimension separated from his body. The students head out to a carnival for some fun Buff and Refrax are kissing out and Skin and the girl (Kayla) are hanging out until Kayla's friends drop by to taunt Skin. Fight breaks out between the students and Kayla's friends causing all except M to get arrested. After being released from jail Skin is visited by Tresh and asked him to return his consciousness to his body otherwise he'll go after Skin's family. So Skin does so and this leads Tresh to capture Skin to perform his illegal surgery. His intent is to remove a small portion of a mutant brain and then insert that portion into his brain granting him mutant powers of his own. Skin manages to give out a psychic message to Jubilee...don't ask. So Jubilee tells Emma of the situation and Emma gathers the students a fight against Tresh. The final scene of the film is with the fought and defeated Tresh ended up with his consciousness separated from his body once again.

My Final Verdict: Many people found Generation X cheesy, low-budget, odd, and confusing. So why would I review this film? Well some of the sources say that Generation X came out on TV on February 20th. But as I recall it came out on my birthday of February 19th; which means it has a special place in my heart. If it didn't it still has a special place in my heart. Plus unlike the Roger Corman's Fantastic Four and the Justice League of America film Generation X had an official release date despite the huge flaws that goes on. And believe me there are flaws in this film and yet I still like it. I guess even film vindicators have their guilty pleasures. So if you're as much as a masochist as I am I recommending watching Generation X. So next time stay tuned as review another guilty pleasure of mine straight from the Sci-Fi channel Darklight.

The Film Vindicator Review: Twister

OK a lot of you are wondering where I've been in the last few days. Well it's a long story you see it's none of your business. The point is I'm back and I'm reviewing a movie so let's move on.

Aside from comics, video games, cartoons, and anime. Tornadoes were one of my special interest when I was a kid. Not sure why or how I got into tornadoes but just love tornadoes. Since elementary school I've been reading books about tornadoes, watching TV specials about tornadoes. Hell I even wanted to be a storm chaser when I grow up. And giving the fact that I live in Indianapolis where it's known for having tornadoes; why not review my favorite tornado film Twister. The film premiered in the summer of 1996 and has a rather interesting cast of actors. Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, Cary Elwes, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and no surprise Jami Gertz.

The starts off on a stormy night of June 1969 when a F5 (Fujita scale) tornado appears on an unexpected family. The family rushes to a nearby underground shelter for safety. The door of the shelter begins to loosen, forcing the father to hold it down and you can imagine how that turns out. The door gets ripped off into the twister with the father in tow; this leaves the mother and daughter dramatized. OK out of all the silly things going on in this film this is the scene I'm nitpicking here. Did the father really think that he can hold down a flimsy door with a tornado outside? You would think that living in a tornado area you would have better doors for their shelters. And not only that after the father gets sucked right out; the mother and daughter are perfectly fine. As if the vacuum of that F5 twister just stops right at the doorway. Now I can forgive that director Jan de Bont doesn't understand tornado physics. But my point is that the father sacrifices his life for nothing aside from becoming the biggest dumbass in the film. We cut to present day Oklahoma to see Bill played Bill Paxton (seriously they couldn't come up with a character name for him). He's accompanied by his new fiancee Melissa played by Jami Gertz. Damn it woman stop following me around, although I should be glad that Jason Patric is not in this film. Bill and Melissa arrived at a field station where we meet Jo(who is also the daughter from the start of the film) played by Helen Hunt. The reunion gets cut short when one of Jo's station members gets the call about a possible tornado forming. So Jo and crew pick up and head out while Bill waiting for Jo to sign the divorce papers decided to join them with Melissa in tow. The team crosses paths with the film's douchebag Dr. Jonas Miller played by Cary Elwes. His goal is to take credit for Bill's idea for DOROTHY (a tornado research device) in the pursuit of fame and profit. Mainly throughout the film Bill, Jo and others are attempting to deploy one of these four instrument packs dubbed DOROTHY inside a tornado. If successful they'll have all the data they need to create advance tornado warning systems. Fun fact it's been well known that tornado scientists and storm chasers have created such instrument packs in order to study tornadoes from the inside. So I guess it's safe to say that director Jan de Bont did some research before making this film.

The first two attempts of deploying DOROTHY were unsuccessful due to some extremely close calls. After the second fail attempt the team takes a well deserve break and head out to Wakita where Jo's Aunt Meg (played by Lois Smith) lives. They share a few laughs until a weather report from the TV states that a storm is developing an F3 tornado. The team immediately head to intercept that storm. Once again things didn't go so well when DOROTHY II gets damaged by a falling power pole. It's here that Jo is obsessed of deploying DOROTHY while Bill manages to calm her down. It's night time and team are at a drive-in theater. But then unexpectedly a F4 tornado appears at the drive-in theater; causing the team and movie-goers rushing to a underground shelter. The F4 tornado destroys most of the drive-in theater before moving on. However, the worst is far from over as that same F4 tornado heads to Wakita. After hearing that the tornado is heading to Wakita; the team quickly rushes to Wakita to find the town completely wiped out. Bill and Jo manage to get the injured aunt Meg out of her house before it collapsed. Another weather report states that two storm fronts have combined into one storm creating a really powerful F5. Jo figures out how to make DOROTHY fly; what is it you asked? Well no idea I'm still figuring that out after all these years. Anyway the next morning the team regroups with the two remaining DOROTHYs and went pursuit for the F5 tornado. Some of the scenes are just padding to put some excitement in the last few scenes. Jonas and his wheel-man arrive next to the F5 tornado in position for deployment. However, Bill believes that it might shift its direction and head towards Jonas. Bill tries to warn him but with Jonas being a douchebag he ignores Bill and continues on. A long metal pole fly's through the windshield impaling the driver and the tornado carries the truck away into the air. And if you asked no he didn't survive as the truck crashes in the ground and explodes. With the last DOROTHY left; Bill and Jo intercepts F5 tornado and finally manages to deploy DOROTHY into the tornado successfully getting the much needed data. The final scene is with Bill and Jo running away from the tornado which is really impossible in reality but I digress. They go inside a shed and quickly anchored themselves to some pipelines ultimately surviving the tornado. The film ends with Bill, Jo, and company celebrating on deploying DOROTHY and gathering the new data.

My Final Verdict: Twister is one of those better disaster films that are not over the top with over-saturated CGI or bland character development. Some of logic in this film may be flaw but not to the point of having your intelligence insulted. And through the characters are a bit goofy but really likable. Stay tuned next time as I take you to a school for gifted mutants of the 1990s. That's right next time I'm reviewing Generation X and I promise you Jami Gertz is not in it.

The Film Vindicator Review: The Lost Boys

Well what did you thought I was going to review Batman Forever? Besides I said I’m reviewing a good Schumacher film not a crappy one that nearly raped my childhood. So the 80s was that decade where the classic movie monsters were getting a fresh new style of horror. From The Howling, to Fright Night, to Monster Squad, to well The Lost Boys. The film came out in 1987 with an ensemble cast; Jason Patric, Jami Gertz oh ho thought you two escaped me from Solarbabies didn’t you? Corey Feldman, Kiefer Sutherland, and the late Corey Haim.

The film starts off at a boardwalk and amusement park where we’re immediately introduced to the Cullens of the 80s (also of awesome). David (played by Kiefer Sutherland), Marco (played by Alex Winter), Paul (played by Brooke McCarter), and Dwayne (played Billy Wirth). So the 80s Cullens start some mischief at the carnival soon to get escorted off by a rent-a-cop. Not too long we get to say good bye to the rent-a-cop as he’s being drag off into the night (insert Scorpion’s GET OVER HERE! joke). We cut to the opening credits where we’re introduced to the Emerson family; Lucy (played by Diane Wiest), Michael (played by Jason Patric), and Sam (played by Corey Haim). As they’re heading to their new home in Santa Carlo also known as the MURDER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD! Oh gee I wonder why? So after the opening credits end the family reaches their new home (owned by the brothers’ grandpa/Lucy's dad). We cut back to the boardwalk and amusement park where Michael and Sam are at a rather awesome concert in my opinion. Not before long Michael sees a young girl in the crowd named Star (played by Jami Gertz) and begins to stare at her. So the staring contest causes Star to leave while Michael goes after her with Sam in tow. A little bit later Sam ditches Michael and enters a nearby comic book shop where he meets the Frog Brothers Edgar (played by Corey Feldman) and Alan (played by Jamison Newlander). They exchange knowledge about comics before recommending Sam to read a vampire comic. Later we get another GET OVER HERE moment when the roof of a couples’ car is ripped off and the couple are drag into the darkness. The next morning Sam returns to the comic book shop being informed by the Frog brothers that Santa Carlo is the perfect hot spot for vampires. The next night at the boardwalk and amusement park Michael finally meets with Star before meeting with the 80s Cullens. David persuades Michael to join them at a makeshift home in a cave. A little bit later when they’re eating some Chinese food it turns out the 80s Cullens have some Jedi Mind Tricks as Michael sees maggots and worms in the food. The party really starts when David breaks out a creepy looking wine bottle and gives it to Michael to drink. Michael does so despite being warned by Star (because she too is a vampire) that the bottle is filled with blood. After a trippy party montage things pretty weird from this point Michael starts sleeping through the day, almost attack Sam but was stopped by their dog. Has almost no reflection in mirrors and he can fly…almost. All’s revealed to Michael when David brings him along to stalk some party-goers and I think you know where this is going. Well let me put it like this, the vampires in Twilight are lightweights compare to the 80s Cullens.

Sam is aware of what’s been going on and calls in the Frog brothers for help. They plan on to find and slay the head-vampire in order to return Michael to normal. So Sam and the Frog brothers head out to the makeshift cave during the day where they find the 80s Cullens sleeping Spider-Man style. Not sure which one is the head-vampire decided to slay them all which did not turned out so well. They manage to slay one of them while the rest have woken up in a RED LANTERN RAGE! Sam and the Frog brothers safely escape from the 80s Cullens and hail ass back to Sam’s place. Nearing the end of the film Sam, Michael and Frog brothers gathered some holy water and wooden stakes preparing for coming 80s Cullens attack. Night falls and the 80s Cullens arrived with lethal intent, the second 80s Cullen Paul is slayed by the Frog brothers by throwing him in a bathtub filled with holy water. And oh and a little warning throwing a vampire in a bathtub filled with holy water is not all that great with the house plumbing…just saying. The third 80s Cullen Dwayne is slayed by Sam with a bow and arrow and somehow gravitating towards a nearby stereo. You might say he met his shocking end heh heh...sorry. And the crowning post kill line goes to Sam with “Death by stereo”. A mid-air vampire fight breaks between Michael and David ultimately Michael kills David by impalement on to some gazelle antlers. However, Michael is still a vampire meaning that there’s still one out there. Michael and Sam’s mom returns home with her date Max (Edward Herrmann) (a video store owner that Lucy met earlier in the film). Here it’s revealed that Max is the head-vampire with the intention to have Lucy and the boys to join his family. Or as Edgar said it best “The bloodsucking Brady Bunch”. So who does gonna save everyone from vampire Max? Oh wait Grandpa can. That’s right he drives his jeep backwards through the living room, makes a hard stop for these giant wooden poles to fly off the back of the jeep. One of the poles impales Max gravitating towards the fireplace and then explodes. Yeah as much as that sounds silly, you can’t argue with the result. Plus I think Grandpa deserves some bad ass points. The film ends with Grandpa’s own crowning post kill line with “One thing in the world I never could stomach is all the damn vampires”.

My Final Verdict: Aside from Lifeforce, The Lost Boys is one of the greatest vampire films that ever came out from the 80s. The vampires are far scarier and have better social skills than the vampires from Twilight. Some scenes will scare you and some scenes will make you laugh and you should watch this film because of it. Now there were two sequels that came out...21 years later. I've already watched one of them and let's say they don't have the same flair as this film did. Sure I'll review them...at some point...ish. So stay tuned next week when Jami Gertz makes another appearance here on The Film Vindicator as I review Twister.

Toon Closet Review: The Pirates of Dark Warter

Hey everyone and welcome back to Toon Closet this time we're going on an adventure on an alien world of Mer that's being devour by Dark Water. And only a long lost prince can stop it by finding the lost Thirteen Treasures of Rule. Yeah that was the opening credit narration of The Pirates of Dark Water which aired on February 25, 1991. Before the series premiered on ABC it was originally aired on Fox as a five part mini-series called Dark Water. However, chances were made by Hanna-Barbera and the series was rebroadcast on ABC later in 1991. The bulk of the series revolves around an evil substance known as Dark Water that's bend on consuming the planet. And it's up to a small group of adventurers with the help of the Thirteen Treasures of Rule to stop the Dark Water. In the first few episodes we're introduce to the series main characters. Ren an orphan who learns that he's a prince of once great kingdom of Octopon. Tula an ecomancer with the ability to control the elements and biological life, both sentient and non-sentient, as well as a natural affinity towards nature and animals. Ioz a rogue and pirate who joins up with Ren and Tula initially for the promise of treasure. And Niddler a monkey-bird who once belonged to Bloth (the series' antagonist), until he escaped by aiding Ren's own escape from the pirate lord. Although that each of the characters have their own agendas, their main goal is to find the Thirteen Treasures of Rule which processes mysterious powers of stopping the Dark Water. Aside from the Dark Water that the heroes must face there's also Bloth the evil Pirate Lord who pursues Ren and crew just to keep the Treasures for himself and was the one responsible for the destruction of Octopon.

The series lasted for two seasons with only 21 episodes and was abruptly canceled due to expensive production costs and failing to meet the airdates (according to Wikipedia). Resulting that the series was never completed and that Ren and crew found eight of the thirteen treasures.

My Final Verdict: Pirates of Dark Water is visually stunning, well scripted, and by far an entertaining cartoon series that came out from the 90s. This is a series for all ages to watch and enjoy it's just unfortunate that the series ended without any resolution. Pirates of Dark Water can be found on DVD through the Warner Bros. online store website.

The Film Vindicator Review: X-Men: The Last Stand

Now as I said last week this is a two part review. This part is the review of X3 while part two is my further thoughts on X3 which explains my problem with this film and how could they did it differently.

X-Men: The Last Stand or X3: The Last Stand was the third installment in the X-Men franchise that came out in 2006. While the first two X-Men films were directed by Bryan Singer which I believe he did a good job decided to drop out directing X3 to go directing Superman Returns. So Brett Ratner took over to direct X3 and the final result a complete and utter mess of a film. Now Brett Ratner is most known for directing the Rush Hour film series which is more of a poor man's Lethal Weapon in my opinion.

So the film starts off with flashbacks one with Professor X and Magneto meeting the younger Jean Grey. And another one with Warren Worthington III (Angel) already beginning to mutate which soon after his father finds out and this is basically where the search for the mutant cure begins. After the opening credits we see the X-Men in "combat" with an unseen enemy which turns out to be a Sentinel (giant robots design to hunt down mutants). Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackman) manages to chop its head off ending the "fight" which turns that the whole battle was the Danger Room (the X-Men's training room) As much it was nice to see the Danger Room and a Sentinel in the same film deep down it's a tad bit disappointing and abrupt. The X-Men soon learned that the government has developed the cure for genetic mutation which turns out that the cure is a mutant (named Leech who can dampen or negate the powers of other mutants). Of course this information gets to Magento (played Sir Ian Mckellen) and he doesn't like this at all as most mutants are now taking the cure including Rogue. So he decided to rally up any mutants who don't want the cure which he meets with "The Omegas". Not The Morlocks which that would be your first thought if you're familiar with the X-Men comic series but no they're called the Omegas. Why would they change the name of an established group of outcast is beyond me but I'm saving my argument on that for part two. While that's going on Cyclops (played by James Marsden) (still depress about Jean's death at the end of X2) begins to hear thoughts from Jean and heads back to Alkali Lake where she died. Eventually Cyclops finds Jean (played by Famke Janssen) alive but somehow different resulting Cyclops to die off-screen. Professor X (played by Patrick Stewart) has a psychic sense from Alkali Lake and sends Wolverine and Storm (played by Halle Berry) there to investigate. They find Jean but no Cyclops and brought her back to the school.

It's explained that when she was a child Jean developed a split-personality which called itself the Phoenix. To be fair that's actually pretty good, in the comics the whole phoenix situation occurred in outer space. X2 didn't end in outer space otherwise that would be a little silly. So to change the outer space origin to a split-personality origin actually does works. But unfortunately this explanation is not fully explored further mainly because of the conflicting sub-plots in the film but more on that in part two. So Jean/Phoenix goes ape-crap for a moment and escapes the mansion and somehow has not faced with any resistance whatsoever. Magneto becomes aware of this via Callisto's (played by Dania Ramirez) ability to sense the presence and powers of other mutants an ability she DOESN'T HAVE IN THE COMICS. At this point Brett Ratner is not even trying to match the mutant powers with the characters so expect a lot stupidity of Ratner pointed out in part two. So the X-Men and the Brotherhood converge at Jean's childhood home the Professor and Magneto try to talk her down but doesn't work out well. So Jean/Phoenix starts psychically attacking Professor X while the X-Men and the Brotherhood fight erupts outside. Eventually Jean/Phoenix kills Professor X and Magneto takes her away. With X2 already established the "Phoenix Force" power which is obviously fire/flame of energy but here it's a full on Evil Willow effect ripoff. Why? Moving on the film pads out with the students mourning for Charles Xavier's death while Magneto lends his mutant army to Alcatraz Island where the cure is being distributed. Final scenes of the film take place at Alcatraz with the X-Men defending the humans from Magneto's army. I must say as much as this battle seem awesome to look at but it feel's almost average. Most of Magneto's army appears to have copy-and-paste abilities which make this battle feel unimpressive and lazy. So obviously the X-Men win the battle, defeated Magneto by injected him with the cure, and with Wolverine killed Jean/Phoenix. The film ends with the government beginning to accept mutants with Beast/Hank McCoy (played by Kelsey Grammer) as a mutant ambassador at the U.N. and Storm manages the school as the new Headmistress. The final scene of the film shows Magneto at park playing chess alone with his hand hovering over a chess piece hinting that the mutant cure didn't work after all.

My Further Thoughts: Hello everyone and welcome to part 2 of the X3 review. So basically this part of the review is my thoughts on X3. As I pointed out last week there's a plethora of flaws in X3 that makes you think did Brett Ratner did any research before making this film. Well apparently it doesn't feel it with X3 for one there's at least three sub-plots in the film that are conflicting one other. You have the Cure sub-plot, the Human-Mutant War sub-plot, and the Dark Phoenix sub-plot. At least two of these sub-plots would work together in this film maybe but again there's just too many sub-plots going on. There's two ways they could have done with the plot. One the cure plot could have been use as human propaganda. Meaning that the government has discover the mutant cure but Magneto believes that it's a lie there is no cure it's all human propaganda. So Magneto convinces most mutants by secretly destroying camps where mutants are taking the cure. Making it look like the humans are using this false hope as a way to gather mutants in one place and then capture or kill them. This would lead to the Human-Mutant war due to Magneto's deadly persuasion over most of the mutants. Two have the plot be that the cure is a product of human propaganda to serve as a smokescreen for a secret project developed by the government. Somewhere through the film Magneto discovers this Project Wideawake is a plot to capture or eliminate mutants. So this leads Magneto to warn everyone that there is a cure is a lie but no one doesn't want to believe and you have the Human-Mutant War again. As for the Dark Phoenix plot they could save that for a possible fourth X-Men film, it really didn't need to be in X3. Mainly because it has its own plot that actually last through the film and not to mention introducing new characters to give the film series a breath of fresh air. And again having the Phoenix a split-personality origin really works in its own film instead of clashing with two other sub-plots.

Most of the issues in this film are the completely misuse and inaccurate interpretation of some of the mutant characters. For instance, "The Omega" (The Morlocks) unbelievably misinterpreted Ratner really has no clue what they do, what their names are, or why put them in this film. To start Callisto (played by Dania Ramirez) it's like they try to make her look more intimidating by giving her two different powers from other mutants in the comics. Superhuman speed (Quicksilver) and the ability to sense and track other mutants (Caliban) two abilities which she doesn't have in the comics. Kid Omega (played by Ken Leung) instead of having omega level psionic powers here he has "quill" powers. I'm sorry but if you have Omega in your name it's mandatory that you may become a badass this film doesn't do that which is deeply sad. And lastly Psylocke (played by Meiling Melançon) who her power in this film is the ability to.....go in Predator camouflage mode. So it's bad enough that Ratner brings in characters whose names and powers don't match up at all. Now the only "Omega" character who's truly accurate from the comics was Arclight (played by Omahyra Mota). Yeah don't try to get the popular characters right but have that one character that no one cares just right. Other characters make appearance in this film but they don't do much of anything other than being cannon fodders. Like the Juggernaut (played by Vinnie Jones) whom in the comics he's Charles Xaiver's step-brother yet they don't establish that in the film so basically he's just a bad fan request. At least in X2 they gave a hint hint wink wink in a scene with Nightcrawler and Mystique (that they're mother and son).

My Final Verdict: This film is one of those films that even if you enjoyed it, subconsciously you're gonna be a little unsatisfied. X3 displays how much Brett Ratner is too incompetent for a film franchise like X-Men and again not sure if he did any research before making this film. Sub-plots clash each other without any smooth exposition among the characters nor the main plot. Basically X3 is a mess of action scenes, no purpose misinterpret characters, and misused plots.

Next week I'm reviewing a good Schumacher film in fact it's the only good Schumacher film that I know. That's right next week I'm reviewing The Lost Boys, stay tuned.

The Film Vindicator Review: DOA: Dead or Alive

That's right I'm reviewing Dead or Alive a crappy film based on a popular video game so buckle up. The film premiered in 2006 and stars Jaime Pressly, Devon Aoki, Holly Valance, Sarah Carter, and the Best of the Best himself Eric Roberts. Now unlike Legend of Chun-Li and King of Fighters movie this film is pretty accurate from the games sure it might not look like it but it is.

So the plot is simple a group of fighters are gathered to an island to participate in a tournament Dead or Alive where the winner receives the $10 million prize. However, there are a few subplots that follow before and during Dead or Alive. Such as Kasumi (played by Devon Aoki) leaves her ninja clan entering the tournament in order to find her missing brother Hayate (played by Collin Chou) who was killed or disappeared from the previous tournament. Another subplot that Christie (played by Holly Valance) and her accomplice Max (played by Maximillian Marsh) enters the Dead or Alive tournament to find a vault which holds $100 million dollars. As the film progresses we see matches between fighters from the game to serve as padding since some of the familiar characters such as Brad Wong and Gen Fu don't have that much screen time. A match breaks out between Kasumi and Leon (played by Silvio Simac) (the man who "supposedly" defeated Hayate from the previous tournament) and trust me this is one of many good fight scenes. Kasumi defeats Leon believing that he couldn't have defeated her brother and also believing that Victor Donovan (played by Eric Roberts) (the man in charge of the tournament) maybe lying. While tournament is going on Kasumi gets attacked by Ayane (played by Natassia Malthe) due to that she's honor bound to kill her for leaving the ninja clan. Donovan's intentions are revealed later when Weatherby (played by Steve Howey) tells Helena (played by Sarah Carter) that Donovan had her father killed and took over DOATEC. OK if this guy knew that Donovan had Helena's father killed why did he wait until the following year to tell her that? He couldn't just report him to the cops I don't know. Earlier in the film before the start of the tournament each of the fighters is injected with nanobots that collect data of the fighter's skills. So with the final four fighters Kasumi, Tina (played by Jaime Pressly), Christie, and Hayabusa (played by Kane Kosugi) they are set up in a trap which further reveals that Donovan will harvest these nanobots from the best DOA fighters, creating a technology where the host will be able to predict and adapt to any fighting style and therefore defeat any combatant. Also it turns out that Donovan held Hayate captive after winning last year's tournament in order to experiment this technology on Hayate. With the help of Helena and Weatherby Donovan's plan to sell this tech to terrorists has been stop and the four fighters escape. But not before Donovan makes his escape he actives the island's self-destruct sequence, kind of a James Bond cliche but whatever. The final scene in the film is a fight between the female lead characters and Donovan and a fight between Hayabusa and Bayman (Derek Boyer) which I'm not gonna lie these are really good fight scenes, better then Legend of Chun-Li in comparison. So the DOA fighters manage to defeat Donovan and escape the island before it explodes the end.

Further thoughts on DOA: Dead or Alive: First let me point the flaws, it's obvious that they couldn't use all of the characters from the games so they pretty much hand-picked the popular characters I guess. Not to mention that they created two characters (Weatherby and Max) just for this film they don't exist in any DOA series. As much as they were "useful" it's still unnecessary and awkward to have in the film especially when they made a few scenes a bit off. I can complain about the white-washing of Ayane but I would just be giving pointless ranting so let me put it like this. If you can't get an Asian actor/actress to play an Asian character just get another character or just create a new character. Don't get a White actor/actress to play an Asian character it's neither creative nor a brilliant idea it just tells me that the filmmaker is lazy and some what kind of a racist. And now to the good parts the fight scenes are really good throughout the film. Except for that one fight scene between Tina and Zach (Brian J. White) well not the whole fight scene just that one moment when Zach throws Tina in the air and about to do a spinning back kick. And with the help of crappy Wire-Fu for a split-second Tina just STOPS IN MID-AIR before Zach kicks her down. Plus it's nice to see Eric Roberts still a bad ass since Best of the Best.

My Final Verdict: I take back what I said that it's a crappy film based on a popular video game. Sure it has flaws but it's just so enjoyable in its own right. With Mortal Kombat being the only video game film that's flaw yet still an awesome film, DOA comes second place in the standard of what video game films should be. It's not as great but it's far superior to any other crappy video game films that came out over the years. I understand that most fans of the DOA games may not like this film but I recommend any DOA fan to watch this film. Stay tuned next week as I do a two part review of X3: The Last Stand.

The Film Vindicator Review: Solarbabies

Sorry for the small delay the faulty wiring situation at my house requires some money to fix, so it may take awhile until then. So until that's solve my weekly reviews are re-schedule for Mondays so on to Solarbabies.

The 1980s was a mecca of all sorts of genre and sub-genre films; post-apocalyptic is one of those sub-genres that have been use in films quite regionally in the 80s. This led up to popular films such as Cyborg, Escape from New York, and Yor the Hunter from the Future. But in 1986 Solarbabies is one of those films that I consider it to be the Mad Max for teenagers and I mean that in a good way. The film stars an ensemble cast of actors Jason Patric (The Lost Boys), Jami Gertz (The Lost Boys), Lukas Haas, James LeGros, Claude Brooks, and Peter DeLuise.

The opening starts off with a narrator stating a prophecy that as entity known as Bodahi will descend from the stars to restore Earth. So it's the post-apocalyptic future where most of the Earth's water has disappeared resulting the remaining water supply to be controlled by a military organization the Eco Protectorate. The Eco Protectorate are the obvious antagonist of this film among that they run orphanages which are designed to indoctrinate new recruits into their service. In one of these orphanages we meet our heroes the Solarbabies Jason (played by Jason Patric), Terra (played by Jami Gertz), Daniel (played by Lukas Haas), Metron (played by James LeGros), Rabbit (played by Claude Brooks), and Tug (played by Peter DeLuise). They and the other orphans participate in a pass time sport called Skateball (a hybrid of lacrosse and roller-hockey). One of the Solarbabies Daniel who is deaf came across an orb with special powers (Bodahi). Upon touching the orb Daniel is cure from his deafness. Later on Daniel reveals Bodahi to the group which in turn developed a special bond and decided to keep Bodahi a secret from the Eco Protectorate. That is until Bodahi is discovered by an orphan named Darstar (played by Adrian Pasdar from Heroes) who steals Bodahi and escapes the orphanage. This transaction leads Daniel to escape alone to get Bodahi back which this leads the other Solarbabies to escape to find Daniel and Bodahi. The film carries on with the Solarbabies traveling through the dessert to a small town (Tire Town). There they meet up with Daniel, Darstar, and Bodahi after which the E-Police showed up and captured Darstar and Bodahi as the Solarbabies escapes. In the dessert they've been rescued from two bounty hunters by the Eco Warriors an organization that uses to fight against the Eco Protectorate now went into hiding. The Eco Warriors are led by a man named Greentree who is also Terra's father. Earlier in the film Jason gets a vision from Bodahi of the Protectorate's water storage facility which is the final scene of the film and where the Protectorate is bent to destroy Bodahi. So the Solarbabies head out to the water storage facility and has successfully infiltrated the facility and now the battle between the Solarbabies and the E-Police begins.

I'm gonna take a step back and talk about this battle scene. I'm not saying its bad just that something about it really tickled me. They could have brought along the Eco Warriors with them and could have easily won the battle but instead they went to the facility by themselves with no problem of fighting the Protectorate. Seriously nobody from the group gets hurt, or get shot, hell there's not even an abrupt death scene from one of the main characters. This is sort of reminds me of certain movies such as Red Dawn, Battlefield Earth, and Beastmaster. Movies that always feature a small group of heroes going up against a larger army of bad guys and the heroes actually win the battle with little to no effort. So yeah a large army of good guys will immediately get owned but a small group of good guys have a much better chance of winning. Again it just tickles me and honestly I don't think it's because that the good guys suck it's a bit more on the lines of the bad guys being ether really overconfident or incredibly lucky. Seriously in this film how much do the bad guys suck when they lose to these kids? So the film ends with the Solarbabies defeated the E-Police and destroyed the water storage facility releasing all of the water supply.

My final verdict: I love this film so much it may not be as awesome as Mad Max or Cyborg but its pretty close. And to add that after the apocalyptic future rolls by it's safe to say that break dancing will still be around. You'll see what I'm talking about. OK I will be reviewing next week it's just I can't recall what film due to that my reviewing schedules are on my computer. And that I don't wish to damage it with all of the faulty wiring but don't worry as soon as I know what I'm reviewing you'll be the the first to know. So until then stay tuned.

The Film Vindicator Review: The Tournament

I'm doing this review a day early due to tech difficulties but I deeply hope that it's minor so on with The Tournament. The film came out in October 2009 and it stars Ving Rhames, Kelly Hu, and Robert Carlyle. The plot is that every ten years thirty of the most deadliest killers and assassins are gather together to participate in "The Tournament". The last person left wins the $10,000,000 prize and also this tournament can happen at any place including a town filled with people. This tournament is run by a group of the world's wealthiest and most powerful men. Who also control the international media with their billions therefore they have devised the ultimate entertainment for themselves. The film starts off with Joshua Harlow (played by Ving Rhames) winning the previous tournament and can now retired with the prize money. Or will he? Ten years later another tournament begins in a small town somewhere in Europe, there we are introduced to Lai Lai Zhen (played by Kelly Hu) who like the other combatants are drugged and implanted with a tracker. Not too far in to the film Joshua makes his return to the tournament in search of one of the combatants who killed his wife and unborn child. Most of scenes in the film are mostly the combatants killing each other in the most gruesome way possible. Later in the film one of the combatants removes the tracker and tosses it to a coffee pot which in turn is served to Father Macavoy (played by Robert Carlyle). Macavoy is a failed and drunking priest, the film barely explains why he's a failed and drunking priest he just is. It does get a little bothersome but you'll get over that. So he drinks down the tracker and now all the combatants are after him and that when he runs into Lai Lai who figures out that he's not a combatant and decides to protect him. You're probably wondering does Father Macavoy actually wins the tournament out of sheer bullshit and luck. Well don't worry that doesn't happen he pukes out the tracker later on. Lai Lai and Father Macavoy bonded for a bit to found out that Lai Lai killed Joshua's wife and unborn child. And that she must win the tournament so that she can disappear from the world. So the final fight between Lai Lai and Joshua ends at a church where it's revealed that she was hired by Mr. Powers (played by Liam Cunningham) who is in charge of the tournament in order to trick Joshua in to coming back due to his mass popularity. The fight ends with Joshua killing Lai Lai thus winning the tournament again or did he?

Before I go on I want to say that Ving Rhames is an absolute bad ass in this film from beginning to end. One scene that he gets his index finger chopped off, shot in the leg, and stabbed in the shoulder. Yet he just keeps on being a bad ass, hell there's a car chase scene where he ends up chasing yet he easily walks away. That's right he's practically the flipping Terminator bad ass, you can't mess with him, you can't get away from him. He'll flipping killed you like it's a habit my friends. So the final scene of the film is at a place where the high-rollers are celebrating Joshua's win until he arrives there. Pissed to all hell of what Mr. Powers did to his family he kills him in the most bad ass way possible. That he takes Lai Lai's tracker (which it's been revealed early in the film that they're rigged to explode if there's no winner). Shoves it down Mr. Power's mouth and they both explode. That's right Ving Rhames is that of a bad ass that he dies like a bad ass.

My final verdict: This film is just gruesome and enjoyable and that Ving Rhames is a bad ass. I recommend watching this film. Hopefully next week its back to regularly schedule reviews and tech problems solved as I review Solarbabies.

The Film Vindicator Review: Jennifer's Body

I wasn't kidding when I said I'm reviewing Jennifer's Body and honestly I wish I was. I already did a short review of it back in 2009 I was not even impressed or scared by this. Now during a full review will this get me to understand Jennifer's Body a bit better? No no not really. So the movie came out in 2009 the year that's well known to be the worst year for filmmakers. The film stars Amanda Seyfried and...sigh Megan Fox as high school buddies. Seriously I should have expected this film to be so stupid but had no clue how so stupid upon watching it. Watching the film's trailer is go enough because one the trailer pretty much spoils the whole movie so there's no sense of mystery nor shock value at all.

OK I should talk the film now so the film starts as flashback from Needy's (played Amanda Seyfried) perspective as she is being kept in solitary confinement in a mental institution. So the flashback starts off when Needy and Jennifer (played by Megan Fox) as high school buddies and all the other stereotypical high school crap as if the filmmaker knows what goes on in high schools. Anyway one night they went to a local dive bar and they meet an indie band Low Shoulder a suspicious fire breaks out killing some of the people inside. Further suspicions when the indie band invites Jennifer to go with them and she does so. Now here is where the scare factor of this movie begins to get mediocre real quick. Jennifer mysteriously shows up at Needy's place acts all dull looking and vomits weird black fluid. While Needy is desperately trying act scare by this but in reality not impress at all which on the following morning was completely forgotten. Upon the days that followed Jennifer seduces a high school jock before eating him again there's neither shock nor surprise since the trailer spoils the film. So it's more like a "No Shit" moment for the audience. There's even another "No Shit" moment when Jennifer dates a goth kid and once again no shock or surprise when she eats him. However, it's a nice scene when she's eating his guts out...quite literally. Later on Jennifer explains to Needy that she was virgin sacrifice by the indie band in order to become famous. However, earlier in the film she states that she may not be a virgin through anal sex. So upon not being a virgin she comes back as a demon that needs to eat human flesh in order to survive. You think that if you're going to sacrifice a virgin, a high school student will be the last person to think of. I mean the percentage of a high school student being a virgin can be extremely low in most standards. As much as I appreciate an explanation on how Jennifer became a demon but the film sure does take its sweet time to get there. And that this discovery feels half-assed with the way Megan Fox tells this explanation as if she just came back from a frat party. Needy researches and discovers that Jennifer is a succubus, a succubus a female demon that seduces men in their dreams before killing them. Now take a guess of accurate the actions of Jennifer to the folklore of a succubus, I'll give you a hint NOT EVEN FLIPPING CLOSE! Also how could Needy deduct that Jennifer is a succubus, true she's a demon and she eats men despite not going into their dreams. But that's like if she came back as a zombie and Needy deducts that she's a vampire. OK I'm gonna cut to the ending and trust me it's a new level of stupid. The dialogs in this film are just dump and awkward but not as such when Needy thought that Jennifer only eats boys and Jennifer replies "I can go both ways." I had no idea that when you become a demon eating people of certain gender was OPTIONAL! I'm sorry but when you're demon I don't think it's up to you who to eat it's more of an instinct than an option. Plus that dialog is so stupid that it clearly discards Needy's succubus research theory. Needy confronts Jennifer ultimately stabbing her in the heart killing her and that's why Needy ended up in the mental institution. Having telling her flashback to the audience, Needy ends up escaping the institution via her succubus powers due to being bitten by Jennifer. So what a succubus is related to a werewolf now when the hell did that come from? Why don't you ahead and make the succubae are related to the Cullens from Twilight. The film ends with Needy with her werewolf/succubus powers kills the indie band that started this half-assed film.

My final verdict: This film is labeled as a black comedy horror film, my ass this is a black comedy horror film I get more laughs from Killer Klowns from Outer Space than this film. Jennifer's Body has no clue of what it is; a cheesy Scooby Doo rip off, a TV film made by MTV. Hell for all I know this is a porno spoof based from a popular horror film, but the question is which popular horror film? Watching this film is like watching two crappy episodes of Charmed and I've watched a lot of crappy episodes of Charmed. Aside from the trailer spoiling the film there's no build up in most of the horror scenes that needs build up. The mythology of succubae is both a mess and half-ass by the writers as if us the audience won't bother to think a lot nor do research on succubus. And one more time the trailer spoils the whole film giving no sense of mystery, shock value, and surprise throughout the film. It's like the filmmaker has watched horror films, has grown up with horror films, and has collected posters of horror films. But doesn't seem to know the basis on how to make a good horror film. And there's the unimpressive acting from the cast and yet Megan Fox surpasses anyone starred in this film in unimpressive acting. She spends the entire film being a cliché of what a woman should be in high school. And then when she comes back as demon she practically acts the same person only she's desperately trying to scare the audience. And trust me with her acting skills it does take a lot of flipping effort to pull it off. So if you're really really really curious about this film there's only two ways you can enjoy it. One that you never seen the trailers and two you have to be really terrified of Megan Fox and if you are I feel so sorry for you. Next week stick around as I review The Tournament.

Toon Closet Review: WildC.A.T.s

Hey everyone and welcome to my new segment called Toon Closet here on the Film Vindicator blog. This is where I review toons from American cartoons to Japanese anime whether good or god awful. So let's get started with the WildC.A.T.s, cartoons based on popular comic book characters have been the norm since the 40s. But the early 90s was the milestone for upstarted independent comic companies would get into comics to cartoons genre. One of which was Image Comics with one of comic series the WildC.A.T.s. The series came on the air in October 1, 1994, lasting only one season with only 13 episodes aired. The story goes that long when earth was still primitive two warring alien starships arrived that the orbit of Earth, the immortal humanoid Kherubims and the monstrous Daemonites. After sustaning heavy damage the two ships crashed on Earth, while the Daemonites went into hiding the Kherubims integrated with the naives. In present time a multi-millionaire and owner of the Halo Corporation Jacob Marlowe formed the Covert Action Team (C.A.Ts WildC.A.T.s) to fight the Daemonites after discovering Void the Kherubim starship's AI. Each member of the WildC.A.T.s is a human/Kherubim hybrid possessing genetic traits of Kherubim abilities. When the series went from comic to TV format there were a few chances to make the series family-friendly. BIG chances, such as the human character Jacob Marlowe is a Kherubim named Lord Emp in the comics. The character Voodoo was chance from an ex-stripper to an orphan ballet dancer, and Void is not a starship AI in the comics. Despite the big chances the series by itself is a good series, the plot is self-contain, there's tad of drama that doesn't oversaturate among the characters. And the overall voice-acting and animation is well standard, even though I never the comics back then I love this series. Looking back on it now to this day I still love it just the same as I love the Batman animated series or the X-Men animate series.

Final verdict if you grown up with comics that went to cartoons in the 90s this is the series for you. Don't even need to read the WildC.A.T.s comic to get in to it the series is self-explanatory. If you're lucky you can find the complete series on YouTube or you can buy it on DVD that was released by Funimation.

The Film Vindicator Review: Bug

Sorry for the delay couldn't be helped so on to Bug. The film stars Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, and Harry Connick Jr. and was released in 2006.

At first glimpse it may sound like another conspiracy theory movie but in all honesty it does tends to make you think is it a conspiracy or is the two lead characters are just straight up crazy. I mean you have Ashley's character Agnes who is a drug addict also has mysteriously lost her son and Michael's character Peter a discharged solider who turns out to be mentally ill. After Agnes and Peter made a one night stand everything went really bat-crap when Peter starts "seeing" a few bugs on him who starts to bother him and creeps out Agnes. As the audience you're thinking that it's probably nothing since the film never shows these bugs so you're not sure if there are any bug and that Peter's pretty weird. Later on you see Peter scratching himself then starts placing fly trappers all over the small motel room. At this point Peter explains to Agnes that he was part of biological experiment by the military. Agnes's reaction to this is about the same as the audience you're a bit skeptical to believe him or that he's absolutely crazy. These "delusions" continue to disturb Agnes until she is convinced that she too is part of the experiment involving the "bugs" and that her son's disappearance may be a part of it. The film ends with Peter and Agnes in the same motel room now covered with tin foil and bug zappers, believing that the government may come after them so they dowse themselves in gasoline and burned themselves alive.

Further thoughts on Bug: This film really gets in your head when watching, it makes you wonder is it a conspiracy or is this guy really out of his mind and Agnes is hopelessly drawn in. Usually in conspiracy theory movies they give hints that it's a conspiracy and the main characters have to figure out what it is. But in Bug it doesn't give you any hints the film leaves you to figure out what's going on. Well it gives you a few hints but doesn't spoil the movie. This direction does work if done right and honestly Bug does it right without being confusing. More or less this film breaks you to have two opposing thoughts. The first thought leads to believe that there's a conspiracy despite the film doesn't tell you it's a conspiracy not once does it show who's behind it nor it doesn't show the "bugs". While the second thought leads you to the obvious the Peter character is crazy he's mentally ill and that you really don't believe him despite his determination to prove that there's a conspiracy and the tiny bit of hints that there's a conspiracy. And there's the Agnes character who her life so deeply messed up that she finally breaks into his belief so convincingly that she believes she's a part of it. So you are really concern and scared for these characters as they trap in a convincing barrier between reality and delusion.

My verdict don't pass this film as another conspiracy theory movie I deeply recommend it hands down to watch this film. Tune in next time as I review...sigh Jennifer's Body, ugh.

The Film Vindicator Double Feature Review

Best of the Best: So not long ago I did a double feature of Best of the Best and Best of the Best 2 so why not do a double feature review. Best of the Best is one of those films of the late 80's that most people consider it as a Rocky/Karate Kid-ploitation The film stars Eric Roberts, Phillip Rhee, and Darth Vader himself James Earl Jones. The plot goes that five American fighters are handpicked to participate in a invitational match against Korea's five handpicked fighters. The film does tend to drag a bit because most of the time we see these fighters training but we do see character development from Roberts character Alex and Rhee's character Tommy. Alex is exactly what you think he's more of the Rocky Balboa of the film. Getting back into fighting despite in the film he has a plastic shoulder. Hell there's even a "Cut me Mick" moment when his shoulder gets dislocated during the invitational match. As for Tommy it's revealed that his older brother was killed in a match against one of the Korean fighters years ago. In all Rocky clichés the film ends with the Americans lost the invitational match due to Tommy hesitating to put the final blow on the same fighter who killed his brother. However there's a sentimental moment when the Korean fighters complimented the American fighters.

Best of the Best 2: This is the 1993 sequel with Eric Roberts and Phillip Rhee returning as the main characters Alex and Tommy sorry no Darth Vader this time. Along with one of the Americans fighter from the first film but he dies ten minutes in by this films villain Brakus who is this GIANT MAN MOUNTAIN MOTHERFUCKER! In this film Brakus runs a underground fighting arena where he's the undefeated champion. When he's challenged by Alex and Tommy's friend Travis from the first film; Travis is immediately defeated and killed by Brakus. So now it's up to Alex and Tommy to infiltrate the underground arena and defeat Brakus. Unlike Best of the Best this film has more stuff going on but there are a few things that you fine awkward. For example when Alex and Tommy found out that Travis is dead/missing they went out looking for him. By that I mean Tommy goes looking for Travis while Alex just lingers around his home during absolutely nothing...seriously. Long story short they meet up with Brakus at a casino where the fighting arena is being held and there a small fight breaks out leading to Tommy scarring Brakus's face which made him extremely pissed. Brakus decides to send his gunmen to fine and retrieve Tommy to fight him in the arena. Alex and Tommy decided to hideout at Tommy's relatives who Native Americans...yeah that's another awkward moment in the film. In the first film it's established that Tommy is Asian Americans with Asian parents, how exactly does an Asian American have Native American relatives is anybody’s guess. But hey at least we get to see the actor who played Billy from Predator who is Tommy's...brother...uncle...father...they never explained except that he fought Brakus once before. So the film pads out as "Billy" trains Alex and Tommy until Brakus's men found them and brought Tommy to Brakus. The last twenty minutes of the film takes place at the arena where Tommy has to fight three other fighter before facing Brakus. While that's going on we get to see Alex infiltrate the arena along with one of the Korean fighters from the previous film. Well at least it's nice to see Eric Roberts being a bad ass which is pretty impressive. Now of course it's obvious that Tommy defeats Brakus and then unintentionally kills Brakus. With only a few minutes left we get to see something that's pretty funny, Wayne Newton getting punched in the face by Eric Roberts.

Further thoughts on Best of the Best 2: This may gonna sound weird but I really need say this to get the point across; looking back to this film I keep thinking to myself. Why couldn't this film be a Street Fighter movie? Seriously this film has the applications of being a Street Fighter movie; an underground tournament, an overly powerful antagonist, and well-choreographed fight scenes. It has almost everything that would be deemed passable as a Street Fighter film. Hell the guy who played Brakus (Ralf Möller) makes a much better chose to play Bison than Raúl Juliá I bet he can easily dwarfs Raúl Juliá by ten feet in scale. But I guess he never got the role for Bison due to thick German accent. The plot in the Best of the Best 2 is a bit more coherent from games than both of the Street Fighter films put together. This film was made in 1993 a whole year before the Street Fighter movie, they could have easily written off as a Street Fighter movie. Hell I might as well take the script open it in Microsoft Word replaced the film characters names with the Street Fighter characters and then BAM there's your goddamn Street Fighter movie. You know what I count Best of the Best 2 as the official Street Fighter movie, in fact it replaces both of the Street Fighter films altogether. So what do you think of that?

My verdict while the first film is average but bearable if you're in to Rockyploitation films, the sequel is a tad bit better and much more intentional of being a Street Fighter film. So I recommend giving these films a browse if really bored or just to kill time. Stay tuned next time when I review Bug.