The Office Season 6 Premier

by Nick Mills | 9/23/2009 09:24:00 PM in | comments (0)

Office fans should be excited to know that the 6th season began on Thursday September 17th. Michael, after feeling like an outcast for not knowing the hot gossip that two of the summer interns were dating, feels inclined to tell everyone in the office the news that Stanley is having an affair. Once Michael realizes that the rumor is actually true, he tries to cover his tracks. He then proceeds to fabricate a rumor about every individual in the office; with hopes that once all the rumors are uncovered, they will all be disbelieved.


A season premier typically has two jobs in my book. One, resolve the cliffhanger from the last season, and two, set the pace for the remainder of the year. Now we were all left off last season with the news that Pam was pregnant. And we all hoped that their would be some more details about that. However, the episode leaves you very unsatisfied with information on Jim and Pam’s future plans.

Now the story of the episode wasn’t too boring, but it seemed like more of a filler episode that you would typically see halfway through the season. There just wasn’t anything interesting or funny that made you sit back and think “man, I’m glad that this shows back”. If this episode were to set the pace for the season, the The Office may be finishing a little below where your used to.

If you want to see the only funny part, watch the Free Running spoof before the opening credits. Then go back and watch the episode where Michael burns his foot on the George Foreman Grill….classic.

C-

I'm sorry about whatever happened to our twitter.

by Anonymous | 9/22/2009 03:28:00 PM in | comments (0)

So, we've got a twitter feed that used to be on the right side of the screen and I just saw that there were a lot of very bad things written there. I've checked our twitter page, and those posts weren't there. So, I'm not sure why our twitter app on blogger was pulling from other twitter accounts, but I apologize if you saw something offensive. It was not any of our staff and I corrected it as quickly as possible.

-Kris

Sorority Row (2009)

by Caleb | 9/12/2009 04:12:00 PM in | comments (0)



A by-the-numbers slasher flick that was actually entertaining. Of course we have nothing new here except for the fact that SORORITY ROW is a return to the fun splatter slasher films of the 80's and mid 90's. I really have not had a problem with the latest horror remake craze because it sure beats that awful run of American J-horror remakes that infested multiplex's since the early 2000's. SORORITY ROW still suffers from a problem that Hollywood will never fix, the stereotypical CW channel teenager character casting. At least these teenagers are not as bad as the one's in the FRIDAY THE 13TH remake, those kids had stereotype written on their forehead they were so bad.




When five sorority sisters accidentally cause the murder of one of their own during a prank gone wrong, they decide to cover it up and never speak of it again. 8 months later after graduation the dirty little secret comes back to haunt them in the form of a masked killer seeking revenge for the death of Megan, the one they killed. Is Megan back from the dead, or does someone know the deadly truth?




Some may think that SORORITY ROW is just a rehash of I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER or URBAN LEGEND but in actuality it's a remake of THE HOUSE ON SORORITY ROW. I have heard about the original for years but never got around to finding it or renting it. I am curious because I can still enjoy watching early 80's slasher movies.




What I enjoyed most about this movie is that mostly all of the suspense and kills were executed very well. It did remind me a lot of the slasher films from the late 70's and early 80's, so I liked that a lot. Some of the dialogue was weak, too much hip hop lingo and MTV speak. The ending had some good moments but did not know when enough was enough. Overall I was impressed since I was going in with very low expectations.




C+






Whiteout (2009)

by Caleb | 9/11/2009 04:57:00 PM in | comments (0)


A murder mystery has two jobs, good characters and a murder mystery that is worth getting the audiences attention. WHITEOUT sad to say failed at these two things. The unusual setting of a murder happening in Antarctica was just not enough for me at all. I love movies and watch a lot of them, so I watch something that is "by-the-numbers" storytelling I am okay with that just as long as the story has interesting characters. By the time the film became a mystery I was just bored and didn't care.


In WHITEOUT Kate Beckinsale stars as U.S Marshall Carrie Stetko who transfers to the South Pole because of some bad history left behind in Miami. After two years of being stationed at a research facility Carrie is ready for a vacation. Her bags are packed and ready to hit the tropical climates until a body is reported in no man's land. The body is from another research lab, someone else gets killed, a plane under the ice gets discovered, mysterious contraband, and none of this is even remotely interesting. The sum of all the parts just equaled to nothing.


D+

The Last Starfighter (1984)

by Caleb | 9/07/2009 07:18:00 PM in | comments (0)



One of the greatest science fiction B-movies from the '80's was released on Blu-Ray and I got the pleasure to view it. The Blu-Ray HD transfer makes THE LAST STARFIGHTER look the best it has since seen in theaters. It is amazing how the HD really sucks you into what is happening on screen. The very dated 1984 CGI has been given new life.






Alex is a young man who lives with his younger brother and mother in a trailer park. He helps run the park with his mom by doing most if not all of the maintenance around the place. He has big city dreams and one day will leave the trailer park behind. Whenever Alex is not with his girlfriend or helping out a neighbor, he plays an arcade game called Starfighter. One day when life is not going his way Alex takes his frustrations to the game and beats his high score. Later in the evening an alien by the name of Centauri shows up and tells Alex he has to leave with him to join others in the Star League to fight a huge battle. You see, Centauri built the arcade game to recruit potential Starfighters to fight against Xur, commander of the Kodan Armada.






Some viewers may complain at how crude the special effects look nowadays, but I think that it adds to the whole video game aspect of the movie.






Gamer (2009)

by Caleb | 9/06/2009 05:05:00 PM in | comments (0)



Summer is offically over and you want to know how I know, it's not the cool October days we've experienced last week; no sir, it's the movie GAMER! Every year towards the end of August and into the Fall season months movie theaters across the nation receive the "not good enough for summer nor Christmas" movies. This is the end of the year dumping ground for movies. Fall and late winter always seem to be when the dullest of the dull are in theaters. During this time a good B-movie will show up here and there. GAMER was not one of the good ones.


GAMER is the new film from the guys that brought us the "willful suspension of disbelief" masterpieces CRANK and CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE. Neveldine/Taylor have a unconventional style all their own that make them good exploitation filmmakers. The problem I have with them is that they don't know when enough is enough. The CRANK films went to extreme moments that I loved and hated at the same time because it all became too much.


Seeing that GAMER was made by Neveldine/Taylor I sort of knew what to expect but at the same time wished for something different. What I got was just a bunch of flashy incoherence noise.


If you have not seen the previews the story goes a little something like this, RUNNING MAN meets DEATH RACE. In the not so distant future a new kind of video game is created where the gamers play with real human beings. The hottest game is called Slayers, in this game real death row inmates become video game avatars and kill for survival via controlled by remote players. Kabal and his player Simon are 3 games away from a 30 game winning streak to freedom. 30 wins equals freedom but as we all know an offer like that is bad for business.

I like action movies and GAMER would have been a good one if you could actually follow the action and just not be bombarded with noise and chaos, much like today's video games.


D+

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Another view, from Kris:

I'll have to agree with Caleb on this one. Not one of the better action movies I've seen. The choice of editing gimmicks, obscenely loud sound effects, over use of nudity, and general camp of the movie drug it down several notches (it didn't start very high to begin with). There are a few note worthy aspects of the film:

1) Throwback to Halo, someone teabags someone in real life. Haha!
2) A cool shot of a blood splatter in a rave under blacklight, looks nifty.
3) Michael C Hall's "puppet" dance at the end.
4) Totally offbeat cameos: Peter Petreli from Heroes, John Leguizamo, Allison Lohman, and Shawn AND Juliet from Psych.  

Which brings me to the one thing I really liked about this film: everything Michael C Hall. I've never watched Dexter, but Michael easily steals every scene he's in. I can't wait to see what other sinister characters he can play. Easily the best performance of the movie. If you liked Crank and Crank 2, watch this one. If not, wait for DVD.

-Kris

The Mummy (1999)

by Caleb | 9/05/2009 06:30:00 PM in | comments (0)



By the time Christmas rolls around this year, the plan is that it will be a Blu one. This weekend I got a chance to play around with a PS3 (thanks Kris) and while the point was to play the new Batman video game, I honestly became more excited to finally watch a movie on Blu-Ray. So 1 HDMI Cable and 1 movie latter, I was ready. The movie choice was a difficult one (naturally) because I did not want to spend a lot of money on a movie and I wanted to make sure it was something I knew should/would blow my mind.


It has been I would say 8 - 10 years since the last time I had seen THE MUMMY so the viewing experience more or less would like be seeing it for the first time. From the beginning I was in jaw dropping awe. For a CGI based film from 1999 the Blu-Ray high definition made the special effects look like they were done today. This set the mood for an excellent movie night, I was enjoying the movie more than I ever have before. A B-movie never looked so good.


In 1923, a group of archaeologists find a tomb at Hamunaptra. Inside the tomb is the body of Imhotep, a high priest of ancient Egypt. Some in the group end up unveiling a curse which has risen Imhotep, and it's going to take a lot more than guns to send him back where he came from.


Not a classic nor one of the best movies from the '90's, but I enjoyed it more than I did back when I saw it in the theater. I don't even own a player yet and the Blu-Ray format has already spoiled me.

Thursday Trailers!

by Anonymous | 9/03/2009 02:47:00 PM in | comments (0)

Well, I think I'm going to start posting some of the best trailers on Thursdays (maybe Friday's) for you to all see.

1) Inception



2) Where the Wild Things Are




3) The Wolfman



4) Extract




5) The Lovely Bones - I was surprised by how much I liked this one.




6) Avatar




7) Daybreakers



-Kris

Five Deadly Venoms (1979)

by Caleb | 9/01/2009 08:02:00 PM in | comments (0)


One of the best old school kung fu films I have ever seen. Not only does it have great martial arts action it has really good characters and suspense. The direction is technical and has a visual style that is above and beyond many movies of it's nature.


A dying master gives one final request to his last student to check on the activities of his five best students. Each of the five are equipped with a lethal martial arts skill: The Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Lizard, and the Toad. The master knows not the identities of his former students because each of them wore a mask signifying their special style. The styles are very deadly and the master regrets teaching them and fears that some of the "five" may be using the skills for evil purposes. Besides just knowing only little of each fighting style, the young student has the challenge of finding these vipers hidden in normal society. The young student must find and team up with the good ones to destroy the evil ones, but who can he trust?


It took me years of waiting for a nice clean DVD transfer of this kung fu classic. A real must see. This film also has a major influence on the KILL BILL films, the reason I sought it out in the first place. Helpful hint: do not watch dubbed, at least for the first time.


As far as old school kung fu films go I give FIVE DEADLY VENOMS a solid A!




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