Pandorum

Like I suspected, we have another Event Horizon on our hands. And a little mix of Blade II. The real question is, is what we are watching real? We had to ask ourselves the same question as we did in the 1980's blockbuster Total Recall.

3:10 to Yuma's Ben Foster stars in this movie as Bower. The movie begins with him coming alive out of a deep sleep in some space ship. The space ship seems small at first but it is later revealed throughout the movie progress to be a massive vessel. He is a single soul on this ship, he does not know where the ship is headed or how to contact anyone. Help comes when Lt. Payton pops out of his honey comb. This is Dennis Quaid's new movie, it is a far cry from Any Given Sunday.

This plot is mindnumbing and I can not even figure it out after close scrutinization. Bower and Payton begin to work together to attempt to turn the ship around and/regain control of the ship. They believe they are in the outer stretches of the milky way and as far as they know, they may be. Bower is sent to try to connect wires in tight fits and spots and soon begins to see dead bodies. He is doing this with communicaton and help from Payton. Then it gets worse, there is a nasty creature on the ship. It is fast and lethal. Soon, it is known they have little moral character. They are not alone and this creature has many friends. It is a humanoid creature, barbaric, they sleep together, all bunched up, sort of reminescent like the Aliens did in that movie.

Bower makes a few friends, one of them is Antje Traue who plays Nadia. She and three guys fight with these humanoids in several brutal encounters. They do not know each other that well but they must work together as a team if they want to survive.

While they are engaging this seriously athletic enemy that equal the strength of five men. The top fighters in this nasty race seem to have the strength of a Predator but could be quicker and faster, which says alot. Bad ass Never Back Down's Cam Gigandet appears as Gallo. He seems to be some sort of psychiatrist but what actually happens is he is Payton. They are one in the same. This aspect is never really explained but that is typical in many movies now. I do not like it since everyone who sees it has a different opinion on what actually occurs. It would be a novelty if a movie actually explains itself. This part of the movie, with Payton and Gallo, is a farce, everything else was actually occuring. Payton is suffering from a pandorum episode. This is a condition that can occur in space that compels someone to hallucinate and can push them to become crazy.

Payton, apparently, has been playing God. This movie occurs about 150 years in the future and Earth is struggling. There is about 24 billion people on this planet by the looks at the final scene, they have been wiped off the surface of the planet. I am not sure how.

Payton and Bower come to a conclusion that if they can rejuvenate the nuclear reactor on the space ship, they can return home. The movie hints that Earth has been destroyed by something massive, or a stunning event. But this turns out to not be true.

Bower has and adventure and with Nadia, they eventually fight their way back to the bridge and then they have to fight a lunatic Payton. These disgusting creatures used to be humans but they have evolved to survive the confines of the vessel. They live off humans who come to wake out of their space stupor, which is also known as a form hypermetabolic stasis. I was hoping these creatures would lay into Payton, his own invention, sort of, turning onto their helping creator. But this does not occur, the water pressure gets him and the surviving creatures. Most of these humanoid beasts are incinerated with the nuclear reactor is revived. But some make it to the bridge to be devasted by the pressure of the water. That is right, this ship was never in outer space, it somehow crash landed in the ocean with the bridge being pounded into the sediment.

Bower and Nadia hop into an escape pod and they shoot to the surface very quickly. This movie did not want to discuss what would occur to a human who ascends in water rapidly, it is called the bends and it is a terrible way to perish. OK, the good side wins, ofcourse some are killed in the chaos. One by Payton himself after he survived many battles with the deranged creatures.

Soon after their pod shoots up out of the water, about 70 other pods do the same. I guess life can not return to Earth. Hopefully Barnie Frank is not recreated. This movie has life, it is a thriller. There is not any wasted scene that I can illustrate. Payton and Bower, the scenes just bounce off of them throughout the movie. The battle that the struggling humans have with these amazing but horrendous creatures are passionate and enduring. But, the movie did lack some humor and copied too many scenes from previous science fiction productions. I saw Aliens, Predator, and a few others in this film. I do not care if it was made based on the book, the producer borrowed ideas from those movies and tossed them into this one. The idea and script and ending were satisfying though. It was not better than Surrogates, its main rival though.

I allocate this movie three stars.***

Surrogates

This is another high tech thriller from Hollywood. This movie is carried by a megastar in Bruce Willis who is goes by the name of Greer.

This movie catches the viewer up to speed in a clever manner which is ofcourse entertaining. I am not sure what is the year of this movie, I would have to say around 2040. The first moments are 14 years prior though, so 2026. Robotic technology has advanced, with the advancement in about 15 other technological breakthroughs, to enable people live their lives vacariously through a robotic surrogate. Hence, the name. There is a scene where a monkey controls the movement of a robotic arm with his mind. All of the assumptions and ideas proposed in this movie are not that far off. They are feasible. This movie tosses in a breaking news segment that is authorized from the Supreme Court that people can live their lives through the body of the surrogate.

Why would someone want to live this way? Well, imagine if one is crippled or has been heavily scarred in a fire or another accident? Some people would say so what but many others, and perhaps I, would welcome this wonderful acheivement.

So how does this work? Is this a virtual world? No, regarding the latter, I thought this movie was going to be another Gamer type movie. I should not have thought that since Willis is no joke and does not make second rate movies. I am not saying Gamer is one of those but this movie has more impressive acting, has more thought behind it, and is a superior movie. OK, a person lies prone with an eye set on, that pleasantly resides on one's head. There is some other connections to one's body but it really simple to take off and on. I think I saw an eye set like that in another Willis movie called 12 Monkeys but I could be mistaken. The person has a robotic surrogate. The surrogate could look like anyone, I guess there is not any rule to this. I wonder if someone would say something if all the surrogates were black females. But I doubt this would be the case, not to slam black females at all, people would most likely choose to be the same sex and have the identical skin color they do real life. I am sure in certain organizations, they do not want the surrogate to that much of a departure from the actual person. It could affect the psych and if the real person ever had to make an actual appearance at work, it would not the talk of the office.

Willis is a police detective, an FBI agent. But his person does not leave his bedroom. He controlls the surrogate who goes to work and he manipulates the movement of his surrogate with his mind. Would the real person's muscles atrophy? People would have to exercise every day but this was not shown. They did show some of the real people how they actually looked and they looked in bad shape. The surrogates are not ugly, who would want to buy or "become" an ugly surrogate? No one. The surrogates in this movie are either hot or handsome. Greer does not really like to use a surrogate but it seems to be like showing up to work without shoes.

OK, here we go. The movie begins with a surrogate being killed. But it is later revealed that this improvised and scary weapon not only kills the surrogate but incinerates the mind of the actual user. Uh oh. The surrogates are made by mianly one company, like the futuristic Microsoft. This company is called VSI if I recall correctly, I forgot what the acronym stands for. There are some licensed competitors but that is not any point of this movie.

Greer's partner in crime is Radha Mitchell who is Peters. They begin to investigate this intriguing case. It blows up when another person is killed, the actual person, when their surrogate is eliminated. Greer and Peters use surveillance cameras to detect the killer of this surrogate in the first part of the movie is using some sort of powerful weapon. Their investigation leads them to VSI and also to the military. Them seem to be the logical cohorts behind a weapon like this. This weapon overwhelms the surrogate, breaks the safety barriers, and this energy causes a urge of energy back to the surrogates user's brain which is a mortal wound. This is what happens to Canter who is played by James Cromwell. Yes, the same one in Minority Report and iRobot. This man does not care about being type casted.

Canter is the creater of this technology, he brought it to the world. The US military is seen laying in a massive room, prone, controlling a surrogate in another country fighting an enemy with the support of advanced helicoptor gunships. The surrogates are just dropped off by large cargo helicopters. What is the enemy using? I doubt they have funding like the Defense Department. It would be all relative though, the US dominates now and hopefully does for my entire lifetime. Although too many more Obamas and we will be just another chump on the block, begging for cheese.

1/2 a Bond girl Rosamund Pike is Maggie, Greer's wife. 1/2 because she was not a full Bond girl, Halle Berry was the main Bond girl of the movie but Pike still had relations with Bond. She likes her surrogate and this lifestyle. Greer wants to see his real life. Both of them lost their son in a car crash, perhaps this is why she is on so many pills. Their relationship is teetering though but it comes together in the end. In an intense foot chase, Willis uses his surrogate and shows the impressive jumping and running ability a surrogate maintains. It would be very hard for a human to escape. Greer is chasing the man who killed the surrogate in the beginning and possibly Canter's son. But this chase extends to part of a city where surrogates are not allowed. Some humans have cordoned off a section of the city for themselves. They loath surrogates and everyone is magnetically searched upon entering this ghetto. It is called the Dreds I believe. This human pawn is saved by humans and he escapes with the weapon. Willis's surrogate is shot and killed by an old hag with a shotgun.

The FBI suspsends Greer since he was not allowed into the Dred' neighborhood. These humans are controlled or managed by a self proclaimed prophet. A dread locked Ving Rhames who is The Prophet. He spreads his message in a protected radio studio. He offers regular speaches to all who will listen and has some bully looking body guards to boot. They follow this nobody and confiscate this weapon he has been carrying and hiding.

Canter is not happy with VSI. Their relationship is contentious at best. Canter wanted to restrain surrogates on moral grounds but the VSI board found this preposterous. They loosened and cut the reigns tying VSI with Canter. Canter was banished from his own creation. He grew bitter, this was a public fiasco. His credibility tarnished. He returned to his mansion but still receives royalties for each sold surrogate.

Greer's and Peter's supervisor is Boris Kodjoe who is Stone. He is caught up in this somehow. Hmm... Greer determines his boss is dirty and outsmarts him in his own office. I like this movie because Surrogates have some physical advantages over humans but they are not the Terminator. In fact, the strength of the T-800 in Terminator Salvation was just preposterous. It violated the story line, T-800's are susceptible to shotgun rounds, Connor was hitting it with a grenade launcher without an affect. This is ludicrous. Surrogates are not bullet proof and their wiring and ligaments can be devastated by gun shot wounds, much like our bodies can.

The villian in this movie is not only Stone, but VSI and Canter. The military created the supercharged weapon but seized their production and destroyed them. In fact, when Greer informs the master sergeant that the weapon is in the Dreds, he takes off with a strike team and they eliminate The Prophet. But The Prophet is a surrogate. He is manipulated by Canter. Canter has multiple surrogates. Canter is a high tech wizard, it is hard to contain him and his ideas.

Peters is killed by a real run shot. Canter takes over her surrogate which fools Greer. He uses Greer to obtain the information from Stone. Canter wants to wife away much of humanity. All surrogates, which is about 1 billion strong. He wants to ignite some sort of powerful wave from the FBI's secret command and destroy all surrogates, their users for living a fallacious and artificial lifestyle, which in turn will also devastate VSI. Canter is about to do this before Greer tracks him down. Canter must pay a firm for body guard surrogates. I just thought about this. Canter has Peters who is a surrogate inside the central command where a high tech FBI employee manages this tech center. He is tied up though. Canter dies off, he thinks this is the right course of action. The hero, Greer knows this is a murderous and outlandish idea. Greer takes over the surrogate as Canter slides off the chair. Greer instantly unties the computer manager and tells him it is Greer and demands this techie help him out. Ofcourse the tech obliges, he is on the right side. Switching computers, Greer with the expert advice from the obese techie, interupts the process. He saves the users. But Greer allows the surrogates to die. A million car crashes occur simultaneously. People wake up all over the world, a world without surrogates. Greer would not have it any other way, now he can love his actual wife.

Greer never did like surrogates. VSI was not innocent here but I forgot that facet. The world either got real uglier or prettier depending on what one thinks. The actual crippled or scarred people would want their surrogates back. This movie is extreme in its simplicity but it provokes some severe thought. There would be less babies born and the spread of STD's would come to a stand still.

I would be afraid someone would break into my home while I was using a surrogate and just rob my place or harm my actual body. The idea behind surrogates is to become instantly prettier and to live longer. Also, to enhance one's lifestyle.

There was a scene in this movie which fomented some agitation in me. I felt Greer's frustration when his wife refused to show her actual self, invited some loud and disrespectful friends over and they were enjoying some surrogate drug which induced a high. They treated Greer poorly in his own home, mocking him, he ended up beating one down. I do not blame him. The rest were laughing at him, enjoying his obvious aggravation, I wish he shot them with his weapon. It would not be murder. They are surrogates. They are in his home and then his wife was upset at him. Ouch.

Is this movie more noteworthy than iRobot or Minority Report? I think Minority Report is the one filled with the most fiction. iRobot and Surrogates are awefully accurate I believe. iRobot was exceptional and had more one liners than either. Surrogates is predominant but both of these others carried by Hollywood heavyhitters as well are paramount as well. I think it goes iRobot, Minority Report and then this one. The ending in iRobot and Minority Report had more dramatic endings, certainly iRobot did, but this is open to debate. I thoroughly enjoyed Bruce Willis and this new movie was mind boggling. Surrogates was the real deal.

I allocate this movie four stars.****

Jennifer's Body

I remember when Sean Hannity was arguing with a race monger on a show that I wish was still around called Hannity and Colms and this guy would state this phrase every time Hannity would offer a cogent counter argument: "Here we go again." This is what I was thinking when watching this movie, another vampire movie. Anyone could have played the role of Megan Fox but with her Transformer success, she is probably the go to girl now. Jennifer Check is her characters name in this futile picture.

Actually Jennifer was not a vampire, she was more of a demon. There were some similiar qualities revealed though. I would still toss it in the same genre.

Amanda Seyfried is the real attractive female in this movie. She weighs more than 80 pounds for one. She also shares a goofy name which is Needy Lesnicky. Fox is highly attractive, don't get me wrong but she is not any Jennifer Love Hewitt and never will be. She is not even Scarlett Johansson, no way, no how.

Jennifer is a vampire with super powers and she is doing the usual thing, she is killing people. It is mainly young boys who are her age. Needy knows Jennifer is guilty of these killings but is not bright enough to obtain proof. Jennifer displays her healing powers in front of her and this is shocking too Jennifer as it would be to most folks. It is hard to believe but Seyfried is a geek in this movie. She is not her usual highly attractive self. I guess the producer only wanted one hot girl in this film which is sort of strange. But it is part of the plot. Seyfried has been hanging out with Jennifer since Jennifer is the hottest and most popular girl in school. There does not seem to be a boy of her stature at this remote high school.

Jennifer is not only a vampire she is nasty as well. She uses Needy as a companion. The climax of the film is when Needy's boyfriend is seduced by Jennifer and Jennifer kills him.

This movie is nothing special. It is designed for young audiences. Needy seems to not have any parents, her home is perpetually empty and dark. The same with Jennifer. Jennifer's mother makes an appearance at the end after Needy kills Jennifer. Jennifer's mother does not have a clue about Jennifer's lunatic, offbeat, and peculiar behavior. But this is her little baby who can not do anything wrong.

This movie is about as simple as they come. It is called Jennifer's Body because an emerging rock group thinks killing a virgin will offer them the power to become a popular music group. They do not want their music and hard work to carry them ahead of the pack but they believe Satan is the answer. Jennifer agrees to go with them in their uncomfortable looking travel van after the town's club/bar burns down. This scene is copied from a horrific incident that occured at a rock n' roll event in a medium sized locality several years ago. In the movie, I thought everyone escaped and I did not see anyone burning. There seemed to enough time for members to escape. Jennifer and Needy both easily escape. This band does not even stick around to help out the town members. They just take off with Jennifer who volunteers to come with them. This seems to be the real reason this urban band even accepted this venue.

They are not interested in Jennifer as a fan or as a possible date, they want to sacrifice her for Satan. Where they obtain this idea is beyond me. How they think this will generate some sort of power for them is detestable. How they think they would get away with it is also ludicrous. But this is a movie for people who may not ask these types of questions. Jennifer survives the brutal treatment and the band rolls on their way. One of them would eventually admit this repugnant act years later and everyone one of them would have been strung up. All for the sake to become rich and famous. It is good they will never see either.

This movie was not worth seeing. Fox will continue to make movies and Seyfried will to. Last year's Twilight was only slightly better because it has a few more decent characters. But Twilight was over the top as well, a vampire running from Oregon to Phoenix is just beyond the scope of one's imagination. Atleast mine. This scene was no more realistic than a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

Jennifer's Body had one decent scene towards the end when she rose out of this pool and floated about 15 feet above the water. But it was only far-out for about 2 seconds when Jennifer bloated out just one of her many sarcastic comments. Jennifer would have wiped out Needy and her boyfriend if her boyfriend did not stick a large pole through her midsection. Johnny Simmons
plays Chip and he should have believed Needy for what she was saying. Like me, Chip needed a haircut. Horrible murders and events were all around him, what Needy was warning him about was not that outlandish. His better judgement failed to kick in. But who is going to turn down an attractive girl? That is the ultimate question.

I actually liked the ending. Jennifer was an immoral child and abused her powers. Needy going after the rock band will return the favor full circle to that rotten band. Too bad this movie did not have better music.

Certainly I can not wait to see Fox in Transformer's III.

I allocate this movie one star for all the reasons offered.*

Shrink

This movie is interesting, well written. If you enjoy explosions and action, this movie is not the one for you. Just skip this listing, do not expect this movie to stimulate you. It is like American Beauty and look and behold, who was one of the stars in the movie, he is here too, Kevin Spacey is making another dramatic appearance. This is his speciality. Not sure why this movie does not have monetary support, it just seems a little low key. Perhaps studios are only focusing their efforts on movies like the stunning Transformers II, movies that have more of a guarantee to bring home the bacon.

Spacey plays Henry Carter who is a recognized psychologist. He has some interesting conversations but this is normal, we expect this. He is not happy even when he has an ongoing and healthy practice. He smokes marijuana in remote urban areas with a typical young week seller and many times alone. His friends realize he is experience severe depression. When they confront him and inform Carter that they have arranged a room for him at a reknown treatment clinic, he is furious. He is too good to be there. He is too good to not be able to handle the problems and advice he commonly advises to other people-his clients. Carter's father is there with Carter's close friends and Carter admits his wife committed suicide. Everyone else thought she was in a fatal car crash. Now they know why he is experience internal troubles.

This movie also has a relation to a film like Crash. It bounces around alot with many unrelated characters and situations.

Carter's home is a pig pen. It needs a revival that is for sure. The young kid who he buys weed from is funny. Who is this guy? He is like another Napoleon Dynamite. He is Jesse Plemons
and his name is Jesus. He is the man with the weed.

Another character, one that has some depth is Keke Palmer who plays Jemma. She has having severe issues with teenage life. She is smart but for some reason is not coping well with the world. She has issues with her family, it does not seem like she has a mother to speak too. That is a strong missing bond. Carter is her relief and he barely wants to see her. His intuition instantly tells him that she probably has a real case, urban issues that he knows little about. He is being a wimp at first but he realizes after speaking to her that he can probably learn as much from her as she does him. Jemma wants to see movies with him as a coping mechanism. Carter has to respectfully decline.

What actually happens is that Carter is slowly gaining strength to deal with nagging innate matters that were slowly leading him down an abyss. Jemma is his savior. Her departures centralizes things for him, they make him realize he has the ability to help others and that he is not the only one with revolving demons to deal with.

Robin Williams is Holden, His character is goofy, he is a sex maniac. Or someone with terrible morality issues.

Another character going through a spin of things is Mark Webber, named Jeremy. Jeremy hangs out with Jemma and uses her life story and reflections to write a script. Webber is also friends with Carter despite a sizeable age difference. Somehow this script is read by her, this is a stretch of the imagination. But it is titled with her name and her travails are described in this script. Basically he is trying to enrich himself off of her reality. He should have titled it differently atleast, not with her first name.

This movie is devoid of music. It does have some attractive faces unlike 500 Days of Summer but the latter had an amazing musical score.

There is another charactor plot this movie dives into. It is of a wachy and germophobe played by Dallas Roberts. He is a Hollywood agent, who works hard to put his clients in the best possible films and situations. Patrick is his name, he is a prick but he has the working ability and multi tasking skills to shake up Hollywood. He devotes himself to his task and that is why he matters. But this does not make him a good person, and being successful on earth does not guarantee anything after he passes.

The script called Jemma passes the mark set by Patrick. Patrick actually decides to produce or back a script with depth.

Holden gains some control of his urges and Carter seems a little more level headed.

There were a couple more character plots that I left out. Not all of them merge at the end but they do not have too. This movie is more entertaining than 500 Days of Summer just because of the range characters and subplot. But I would not recommend either to most folks. Both of these films are absolutely ten times better than Cage's Wicker Man.

I recommend this movie two stars.**

(500) Days of Summer

This is the quintessential female movie. A slow, juiceless, drudging movie filled with endless amounts of dry humor. The two main love birds in this movie are Joseph Gordon-Levitt
who plays Tom Hansen and Zooey Deschanel who is Summer Finn. First off, Levitt is not that funny, he does promote any charisma. What is so special about him? Because he is thin? Perhaps it was the writing but I would not pay to see him in a movie, not based on this performance.

I have seen Zooey before and she makes a solid supporting actress. But she is not cute enough to pull this off. She is cute at best, this movie has very little to offer in terms of attractive females. Why would pay to see a girl which any guy would not bat an eye over if she was working as a cashier at the great Home Depot.

This movie is about a guy who can not be happy unless he has a girlfriend. He is uncomfortable with himself despite having some good friends, emanating from a healthy family, and someone who has their health. Perhaps he needs to spend some time in Mexico to see genuine misery.

The movie does have some excellent start up music with Regina Spector. The opening is harmonious because they have some light humor issued from a narrator. That is unique. But this enlightening beginning soon dissipates and these platitudinous characters take full control.

This movie has a funny narrator which pits the viewer's opinion with what the writer wants us to think. I actually like when narrators in movies because it makes it easy for me. I guess I am lazy when watching a movie, I do not want to think when seeing a movie like this. Though this movie was agony to sit through, that is I did not really, but this movie is different than Seven or Apollo 13. I would hate a narrator in a movie like this, every scene is too riveting and there is too many characters. Narration in a movie with such limited characters and slow scenes, narration is simple. Despite this uncomplication, I enjoy the narration.

Hansen is a holiday card writer and Summer is his manager's assistant. There relationship issues affect the work place that surrounds them which is something everyone should want to avoid.

The movie shares this title since falling in love in the summer could make the summer seem longer. Or it could make it fly through even quicker. Another angle, a huge breakup in the summer could also make the summer seem to never reach its ending point. But the makers should have thought about the viewer since this movie requires alot of patience. Some scenes are insipid and I am wondering if this would be the case if Jennifer Love Hewitt took Zooey's place?

I have to give some credence to the musical director, there are some good songs that chosen for this movie. I do not understand why many movies do not have actual songs in them. I just Whiteout which was much better than this movie, far more entertaining, I think a song mixed in could have been a stronger edition. Do not get me wrong though, Whiteout was Wolverine or anything.

This movie does highlight the fact that what we plan on doing may not occur. How we think things should be, it may not work out that way. We have to be able to change and to accomodate certain conditions. Hanson learns this with Summer, she walks away. She does not want to marry him, the reason does not matter. Forcing someone to marry you is not wise, it will not work out and could actually spin out of control.

The soundtrack is superior to this movie. The movie was almost unwatchable in the first half but it did have a strong message in the final minutes.

I allocate this movie 2 stars.**

Whiteout

The gorgeous Kate Beckinsale has returned in a mystery thriller that involves a little Cold War historty and alot of cold. I thought this was going to be a monster movie but that is what I get for assuming things.

Beckinsale is Carrie Stetko, funny name for an American. She is a US Marshall who had a tough case in Miami. This movie has a minor subplot which dives further into her character a little more. Her partner was going to sell her out to a high priced drug dealer but Carrie fought off this drug kingpin and then was forced to eliminate her partner when he dried to draw down on her. This event forces her to question her confidence since she failed to effectively read her partner's whims.

Carrie accepts a case in Antarctica. The beginning of the movie shows a series of flags, England and Canada's I believe, a couple of others but not a US one. Despite most the personnel seeming to be Americans. Strange. This post Carrie chose is extremely isolated but it is safe. There are not any drug dealers or arms smugglers here. I am surprised the US Marshalls has a officer in this location.

The film begins with a Russian Cargo plane flying over the South Pole. The pilots have a odd conversation. One of them takes some American liquor and pops the cork for the crew members. The crew members were elated. The Russian co pilot purposely drops the bottle which infuriates the crew members. The co pilot pulls out a hand gun and shoots one the crew members. But he is either slow with the weapon or the other crew members are about half way as quick as Doc Holliday. A shootout erupts, the pilot is destroyed, and the plane critically damaged. The camera shows us viewers a locked treasure type box for several moments. This is in 1955, around then, I forgot the exact date. The plane crash lands without any survivors.

Present day South Pole, their is a multi nation research and science station in full throttle. There are multiple labaratories and with experiements and ice samples being taken and examined. Carrie has just completed the rounds she is required to take around the compound and buildings when a pilot calls in and says he just saw a body on the ground out in the ice. How the pilot sees this body is open to speculation. The body is located by Carrie, Tom Skerritt who plays Dr. John Fury, and Columbus Short who is Delfy, the pilot.

Fury and Carrie quickly determine that this is a homicide. Carrie knows this investigation will be lengthy. With winter approaching, everyone is flying out for what is going to be a half a year whiteout. It is not a whiteout every day, and that is not the best description, it is hurricane like conditions but with terribly sub zero degree temperatures. Walking outside in this weather almost impossible and every structure has a thick wire that connects the buildings. Without this wire, someone can just fly off into the freezing weather and tremendous amount of energy swirling by.

Carrie knows who this person is, the dead person that was found 50 miles or so from their main compound. She quickly finds out where this person was working and attempts to call this station. It is a Russian station in the middle of no where, about 50 miles away. She receives a response in her queries and this man seems agitated and informs her she must come there and he can explain everything. She travels there with Delfy. But this is where she makes her first and almost fatal mistake. Delfy remains in the plane, as she walks to the Russian bunker and begins to search inside. She finds this man on the coach with his throat slit. Immediately, she is attacked by an unknown assailant. She should have gun drawn already. She is unable to dig her gun out from her weather clothes while this man does his best to impail her with a rock climbing stick.

She barely makes it back to the plane but she loses one of her gloves and two of her fingers are badly frozen. Delfy finds her unconscious and tapes up her fingers. She returns to the compound with Delfy, this time gun is drawn. The assailant is not there as they search the Russian research center. As her investigation continues, Gabriel Macht enters the fray as Robert Pryce. Pryce is a UN investigator who arrives unnanounced and seems to want to dictate the investigation. He says he is there because the UN wants to keep this situation from becoming an international incident. But it just started, that is odd. Also, who cares if it is big news. Will Antarctica be embarrassed or distressed? Whatever.

Pryce is actually there since someone has found what is in the box in the buried Russian cargo plane and is tried to auction it off to a arms trafficker they have been monitored. So he is dispatched in what seems to be as fast as lightening.

The Russians or this team is searching parts of Antarctica. They are doing this under the radar. The man who attacked Carrie also had a plane and he made it back to the main compound. Carrie, Delfy, and Pryce find the Russian plane which crashed half a century prior using the maps at the Russion compound. This movie is solid, it is a twister, and has a pretty good plot. Whiteout is a successful thriller, what the characters say has repercussions that appear later on in the story.

With the multi national outpost cleaned out of euphoric and celebratory researchers and scientists, Carrie is still hot on the case. She has lost two fingers, Fury had to amputate. Only four people remain in the comfortable American outpost. But there is still a killer on the lose who has killed three people. Before the planes took off with gear and people, this suspect was arrested. Carrie knocked him from behind as he was killing one of these guys who was searching for this plane. Pryce and Carrie seem to be perfect partners which is a stretch since they have not worked together for that long. They torture this suspect which is hilarious since Pryce works for the liberal UN. This suspect is Australian and demands to speak to his consulate. Yeah right, he talks trash that Carrie has lost two of her fingers. But they later get their revenge.

The interrogation is interupted since he says he has this precious cargo in his gear. While they run off too search this gear, they do not even handcuff him or duck tape him. They just lock him in a secured closet. He mysteriously escapes so another struggle with him ensues. Both of them working together, in the furious winter storm, they disconnect his saftey belt from the saftey wire and he flies off.

Carrie still does know why this man was killing these people and what was in that box. It could be uranium. She searches the flight manifest and realizes some items are not fully checked off. She goes to the bodies that have been recovered or killed and they are cut open and sewed up. She opens one of them and fines what appears to be clear but plastic ice cubes. They are pre cut diamonds since Fury tells us. Fury has orchestrated everything. He wants to be wealthy, but his greed has ripped his integrity asunder. Fury steps outside into the raging storm without proper clothing and as Carrie watches. Good, it saves alot of paper work and tax payer money.

How Carrie is supposed to continue her career as a US Marshall with two missing fingers is beyond me.

The movie's script was intriguing and gripping. Several scenes could have been watched twice. Carrie decides to remain a US Marshall but this matters very little if the movie was lame. There was action and some riveting events. There was not any wasted scenes, I do wish some facets were explained a little more. It was not that long though, Carrie never seemed to smother her makeup despite terrifying events popping up around her, and there was not that many characters. Beckinsale was also the only pretty face. I hope she does not get any skinnier.

I allocate this movie three stars.***

Sorority Row

This movie was full of young beauties but this does not compensate for having a weak plot. It does depict being in a sorority is a vast distraction from studying and concentrating on the realities of the future. Future success is tenuous, what does being part of a sorority do for one? Perhaps it allows one to make some first class contacts while being an undergrad. Or perhaps it gives ample opportunity for illegitimate pregnancy and embarrasing behavior which will follow someone around for decades.

The characters in this movie are almost all devoid of reason, they are shallow. Not one of them dominates any scenes so there is very little reason to name any of them.

The movie begins with a group of sorority girls who team up to lay a steep prank on one of their brothers. One of their actual brothers, I am not sure if he attends the school. It seems he is an outsider, he probably has a nearby labor job. Either way, he is a murderer and should have been given the death penalty for his first degree homicide. His sister, seems to be the charismatic leader of these hot females and who leads her so called friends down a dark path. The brother is one of the boyfriend's of these girls and was not loyal. So his sister decided to play a trick on him. She snuck the girl, during another outlandish party, a pill that induces vomiting. She took this pill to vomit during some foreplay with the brother. The brother freaks out and since the sisters were watching on a covert camera in an adjacent room, they run over and act surprised. Somehow, they take the supposed severly sick sister to the hospital. But they divert to an abandon mine.

The next scene is even more bizaare. The brother turns into a lunatic and stabs the acting sick sister in her chest, his supposed girlfriend. He stabs her with, it seems to be a manual egg or food mixer. It punctures her chest cavity, the sisters try to save her to no avail. There was not any phone service, but I doubt that would have helped any how. The girl was maimed fatally. The girls should have called the police and laid everything clean but the shot caller sister protects her deviant brother, two others do not want to go to prison, one is just too appalled to decide definitively.

The rest of the movie is a copy of the world class beauty Jennifer Love Hewitt's I Know What You Did Last Summer. Someone or something is targeting the unprecious, empty, and superficial girls. Are we supposed to feel sorry for them? An unethical doctor is erased, but is running a brother, not a health clinic.

Watching this movie is proof why this country is in massive debt and the US educational system needs an overhall, along with Medicaid. Medicaid is eating us alive and US colleges allowing this ridiculous behavior is a largely attributable to the US not having its priorities straight.

The movie's soundtrack is halfway decent. There is a small subplot where the leading sister is on the verge to be engaged to the son of a Senator. This Senator has a strong chance to be chosen to be the vice president. Oooooh.... So he wants his son to not be tied to any female with a shaky and stirring background. This Senator has an uncanny resemblance to the current big government promoter and anti American VP Joe Biden.

The variable brother is killed deep in the movie by his sister. Good riddance.

The dishonest sisters return to the mine shaft and Megan's body is no where to be found. One of the sisters, Cassidy, was in Step Up 2: The Streets and probably the only one in this degenerate film with any real natural talent, she has outstanding dancing ability, chose to be lowered down to the bottom of this mine shaft. Yeah right. How Cassidy is lifted back up is not shown? The chain broke when she was being lowered into the dark man made hole. How would the chain broke when it is only holding up 110 pounds is uncertain.

The sister that was killed in the beginning is Megan. So this movie is akin to The Grudge as well. Megan's spirit could be the one who is tapping off her former sisters. This does not make alot of sense since she was in on the joke, ofcourse it was not a joke when she was stabbed. I am sure Megan would react the same way as any of these unprincipled sisters. It seems one must be licentious to become a member of this soriority. Ofcourse looks matter as well but looks usually do.

All the garbage boyfriends pop out in the end. Who is the real killer? This is a copy cat film but pretends to be original.

I allocate this movie one star.*

Blood and Bone

Michael Jai White has turned himself into a tremendous fighter. I am not sure if this is a recent phenomenon or if he has turned up the heat for himself. He is Isaiah Bone in this B rate film. His nemesis is Eamonn Walker who is James.

Walker is James in this movie is a organized crime gangster in a area in a city in the USA. It could be any city. It is most likely an east coast city but I am not sure which one. He has a posse on the payroll and he has a massive fighter who pummels all opponents. Until he meets the force of Bone.

This movie is unoriginal really, last year had Fighter and the year before that had Never Back Down. Every year I am sure has a similiar film but it seems this type of genre was recently started with Never Back Down. The latter certainly had the hottest girls.

Bone was sent to prison for reasons I can not describe but he meets a guy in prison and befriends him. He is killed in prison, Bone's friend. His friend had a child and gorgeous wife on the outside. He was framed by James and James took over his wife. Her name is Michelle Belegrin and her character's name is Angela. She is stunning. James is classless for his treatment of her.

James wants to hire Bone to fight the world's best. James hustles up some money, $5 million and takes a racist and controversial lecture from Julian Sands who is Franklin McVeigh. McVeigh is an Irishmen who is the globe's financier of malitias and gangster world wide. McVeigh funds third world wars, perhaps both sides. James knows McVeigh through the underworld dealings.

McVeigh has a stud European kickboxer who is a world class fighter. But after James puts up the money to order the fight, Bone backs down. He was not in it for the money but for mucking up the world of James. Bone knows James is a terrible person and killed his friend in prison. He has knows this man should not have been in prison in first place, James framed him. James reaction is all wrong when Bone says he will not fight McVeigh's superstar; he did not have to grab Bone's landlord, a nice woman. He could have just threatened her without her being known and Bone would know he can not protect everyone. Bone kills all of James' thugs in the next 20 minutes. But James knows Bone is coming for him but McVeigh collaborates with James and has his men and fighter ready. There is a stage set up in grand finale.

This movie was largely unimpressive unless Bone was fighting. White should be given some serious roles since his fighting ability is superb. Perhaps Statham and Walberg can act a little better but that is debatable. This fight scene at the end is amazing. It does equal some of the Tony Jaa's fight scenes in The Protector. The Protector was overall superior by far but this final knuckke up meeting between McVeigh's star and Bones is worth the weight. In fact, just skip the entire picture to this scene. It takes about 5 minutes and it is magnificent. The music is helpful as well.

James ends up losing his hand when Bones purposely loses. I am not sure who wins the $5 million. McVeigh does not deserve it since his boy was finally beat by Bone. A sword fight ensues between James and Bone. Again, another over reaction by James. James, for all his lectures about profanity and controlling one's emotions, he is a poor example. He could have just implored to McVeigh that he should win the money, recieve his $5 million in return plus another $5 million as well. McVeigh seemed impressed with Bone and probably would have obliged. James is arrested and I am sure McVeigh has his bases covered. He seemed pretty confident.

I allocate this movie two stars.**

Gamer

This movie is a combination of two movies and the frightening potential of nanotechnology. Jason Statham's 2008 Death Race where he plays Jensen Ames is one of them. The original is Arnold's Running Man which was based on a Stephen King book, although considerable different.

300's Gerard Butler plays a convicted murder named Kable. He is in prison for murder but we really do not. It turns out he was beyond framed but controlled by a power hungry but technological maestro played be Michael C. Hall who is Ken Castle. Castle developed some technology that interested the military. It was mind control by injecting nanobytes into peoples' brains. For some reason, the military disengaged itself with this notion-their conscious took command for the better. It was not that much different, but with technology and not psychology, that was occuring in Manchurian Candidate.

So Castle takes this technology and must have hired construction workers to make a section of the city, perhaps about 20 acres or so, into a fantasy world. This world would have to have strict and secure access to only those who are legitimate customers. This is where Hitch's Amber Valletta falls in as Angie. She allows some fat loser to control her. He only controls her for perhaps a couple of hours a day and only in the confines of Society. In Society, it appears people are riding skateboards, kissing, engaging in lewd behavior, and satisfying people's desires. Angie would not remember anything when her "shift" is over with. The real society views these people as basically whores. It is a stigma to hire yourself out.

Castle also creates an area where gamers control inmates. I am not sure who the inmates are fighting, but this is not digital but an actual violent game. This is not an exhibition. Gamers must put up some serious dough to take over an inmate. This area is about 25 acres or so, but cameras being everywhere like in Running Man were not shown. Viewers can possibly see through the eyes of the convicts as they maim and attack each other. Kable is not necessarily the toughest fighter, he just happens to have an exceptional computer geek/yuppie controlling him. It could help that Kable was trained for combat and knows how to move and flow naturally in battle. Kable's controller is gaining in popularity and is famous since he has survived after 27 "session." Once 30 is reached, the convict is released. The government has authorized this event. This event is paying for all of the prisons in the USA. Not a bad deal.

The convicts volunteer to be taken over and to fight in the game. They are probably lifers in prison. The ratings of this event are spectacular.

Ludacris is a Humanz Brother. The Humanz have hacked into Castle's virtual empire and realize the threat he poses. Castle has the technology and is ready to deploy it. It is nanobytes that would invade our brain, end our free will, and would be linked to Castle's computer dominated brain. It is far fetched, about 30-40 years out, and this movie does take place in the future. How Castle controls this technology, it is not really revealed nor explored. Which, to me, is mandatory if the film wants to be taken seriously. It is not on the level of Running Man, Running Man did not push the evelope like Gamer does and is still longer in length. It is probably as good as Death Race though, but Death Race had a hotter star actress.

Castle is like a Saddam Hussein blended in with Steve Jobs. They-Humanz-suspect Kable has been framed. They somehow pinpoint he had a relationship with Angie as well.

There was a strange scene where it seemed a prison inmate jumped away or out of the prison while correction officers (CO's) gave chase. I am not sure what was the purpose or outcome of this.

Kable is slowly receiving information from a female correction officer. She is not really a CO, this is not really explained. Kable is in solitary confinement for some unkown reason. Kable is given the ability to speak to his gamer or controller in session 29. This computer wiz is shocked. But Kable would actually be a superior fighter if he had full autonomy. There is a slight delay in when the gamer makes a move and the ping which signals to the convict to move left, shoot, look up, etc. Not only does Kable prove he is an adept fighter in the final must see session, he escapes from the game. This shocks the public and infuriates Castle who was going to kill off Kable with
Terry Crews. Crews plays Hackman who is the powerful and physically counterweight to Kable. Kable fights off Crews and escapes.

Kable also enters the Society game and breaks out Angie. This is where this game becomes frightening. But perhaps it is still safer than being a present day homeless person or prostitute. Kable beats up a guy who is about have sexual intercourse with Angie. Hackman enters the picture and actually kills two people kissing. In this society game, these humans move like they are being controlled, like robots. It is bizaare but would possibly reduce the unemployment rate. I doubt Obama would care about that though or any future liberal politician/president.

Kable eventually beats up a bunch of guys, sort of like Keanu Reeves did in his Matrix movies. Caslte is a suck human being, not unlike The Joker. He has a devious plan which involves controlling millions of unsuspecting human beings. This is as mind boggling as Orwell's 1984, perhaps worse since North Korea is very similiar to Orwell's vivid must read and actually persists.

John Leguizamo plays a strange role as Freek in this movie. He is inside the prison as Kable. I know times are tough, Leguizamo has to take what he can obtain. It is a far cry from battling DiCaprio in Romeo and Juliet about 11 years ago or so.

Gamer ends up a mint condition basketball court at the end. Humanz, is a meritorious Internet group operating in a covert manner. They are eliminated by Castle's hit man in the end. I would not mind that happening in reality to Ludacris. Pretty sad if one's fictional character is more praiseworthy than one's actual personality.

The funny lipped but voluptious Kyra Sedgwick plays a media darling known as Gina Parker Smith. She is not cute in any manner but her cleavage keeps half the viewers on point in this movie. This not a film for children and this movie is designed for males. There are many attractive females in this film. Sedgwick's TV character is much more principled as her Gamer's character. Castle is not only taken down by Kable's muscle in this movie but the computer geeks, Smith, and perhaps a remnant of the Humanz group.

Is Butler trying to be the next Statham? Perhaps so. He has not made anything on the level of The Transporter yet but there is time. Hollywood seems to be willing to give him many chances with more to come.

This movie was not that long and many parts were taken from previous scenes. The aspect of Society is interesting though, that is new take for me. Much of the action was fake though, it was like a video game but real. To me, this undermines the action. This movie is not something to generate that much enthusiasm. Albeit the effort was genuine.

I allocate this movie two stars.**