MOVIE REVIEW: Red Planet

RELEASE DATE: November 10th, 2000

RUN TIME 1 Hour 46 Mins

RATED: PG-13

STARS 8

FAMILY MOVIE SCALE 6.5

DIRECTOR: Antony Hoffman

MAIN CAST: Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss

IMDB Story Line
Astronauts, and their robotic dog AMEE (Autonomous Mapping Evaluation and Evasion), search for solutions to save a dying Earth by searching on Mars, only to have the mission go terribly awry.

WHAT I LIKED 

I really liked the the movie made you feel that this was not earth any more and that your all alone feeling, even when the full crew was alive, I liked the believably of the story line and the robot dog. I liked the exploration of the red planet, and the green like bugs they found.

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE

I was over all pretty happy with the movie, and did nit find any faults worth complaining about.

SIDE NOTES

Movie was rated a well deserved PG-13, this movie could be a great family movie adventure. It can be intense and may scare younger viewers. I gave this movie a 7, while it is a great movie it does not rate with my favorite SyFy movies.

MOVIE REVIEW: Beyond Skyline

RELEASE DATE: December 15th 2017

RUN TIME: 1 hour 46 min

DIRECTOR: Liam O'Donell

MAIN CAST: Frank Grillo, Bojana Novakovic, Jonny Weston

IMDB Story Line

A tough-as-nails detective embarks on a relentless pursuit to free his son from a nightmarish alien warship.

WHAT I LIKED

Is that it was much better then the 2010 movie Skyline. The movie has a great plot, The actors did a much better job of delivering a story line that you could understand. Action was good. Some of the things I did not like in the first move was done much better.

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE

There was some moments I thought that did not needed to be in the film, and slight over acted parts that made you ask why.

SIDE NOTES

This movie was rated R and I thought it could be a PG-13, However it's not a family movie because of intense SY-FY action and violence and slight foul language. Here is a link to my review of the first Skyline, I gave this movie a 6 on IMDB.

MOVIE REVIEW: Arrival

RELEASE DATE: November 11th 2016

DIRECTOR: Denis Villeneuve

MAIN CAST: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

IMDB Story Line

When twelve mysterious spacecraft appear around the world, linguistics professor Louise Banks is tasked with interpreting the language of the apparent alien visitors.

WHAT I LIKED

For a movie about a visitors from outer space, it was very different in thinking. For me it was not so much about aliens as it was communication and how as humans we fail at it because we always think we know what is being said from the other side. This was ever so true in this movie. I also like how they took time in building up to seeing the space craft. Even though I saw the trailer and knew what it looked like, the suspense grabbed me. It was a slow build up and usually I fall asleep during a movie like that, but it was so well written I was glued to the screen.

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE:

I found parts hard to understand, It was truly the action and the story telling that kept me interested. I found the ending confusing and asked myself what that was all about and what did I watch and what was the purpose of the movie. I will watch it again with subtitles on, because the movie was to well written to have that type of confusing ending. I had to miss something

SIDE NOTES

Movie received a PG-13 rating, I think it could have been a PG.I think this could be a family movie but younger viewers may find it boring and some may find the alien life form scary. I did not see this movie at the theater but did buy it on VUDU cloud on a discounted price. I gave this movie a 8 out of 10 on IMDB because of confusing parts  

MOVIE REVIEW: The Great Wall

RELEASE DATE:February 17, 2017

DIRECTOR: Yimou Zhang

MAIN CAST: Matt Damon, Tian Jing, Willem Dafoe

IMDB Story Line

European mercenaries searching for black powder become embroiled in the defense of the Great Wall of China against a horde of monstrous creatures.

WHAT I LIKED

I have always loved monster movies, especially Godzilla, or anything that destroys Tokyo, Japan, I like Asian Horror movies, Asian Karate movies and Movies like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and the list goes on so I think you get the idea.

This movie was all that combined, and it felt like a great war epic. I was very happy with the action and flow of the story. It was not so much about The Great Wall as it was walls that we face in life. It had drama. In the past I have been a harsh critic of Matt Damon's acting, But Martian was the last movie I watched with him and he was awesome in both of them. I did have issues with the Martin, but it was not his acting. I felt in both movies he was not as stiff as he was in previous movies. 

The action and and epic scale of the movie was awesome and I am so glad I did not wait for the DVD, this movie was made for the big screen. Just over all and very enjoyable.

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE

The only problem I had with the movie, is as vicious as the monsters were I wish they would have explained how they knew what they knew about the monsters, It seemed to be missing a fuller explanation not that we needed a full origin of the beast, but just something to connect the dots they gave us.

SIDE NOTES:

I went to see the movie at Cinemark and I am very happy I did as I said earlier. I will most likely buy the DVD, I did not see the 3D version, but this would have been a good movie to see in 3D. The movie was rated PG-13, it was very violent, but I would not consider it gory. It could be a family movie depending on your family standards, even with the my dis-likes I gave this movie a 10 on the IMDB scale because I just over all liked the movie.     

My 2014 Top Ten Favorite TV Shows

In the past I have listed every show and explained why it was Favorited in over another. Not this year, I am going to list my favorites in order of my priorty, just because I like to watch them. This is my must see TV list for 2014

1) Game of Thrones

2) The Walking Dead

3) Gotham

4) The Americans

5) Hell on Wheels

6) Madam Secretary

7) The Flash

8) NCIS: New Orleans

9) Once Upon a Time

10) Forever

 There is a few more I have to watch

Honorable Mention

1) Nashville on ABC

2) NCIS on CBS

3) Criminal Minds on CBS

4)  The Last Ship on TNT

5) The Leftovers HBO

6) Gracepoint on FOX

7) Z Nation on SyFy

8) Helix on SyFy

9) Hawaii Five 0 on CBS

10) True Detective on HBO

I have other shows, but there is only so much time in a day, week, year and etc.

The Walking Dead Vs Z Nation: PLEASE SHUT UP!

Well there is a new Zombie series on SyFy Cable network called Z Nation, and while it may have a few short comings it's not that bad of a show. No it's not the same as The Walking Dead. However there is a very vocal debate on the social media outlets calling it blasphemy to watch Z Nation if your a Walking Dead fan. OH PLEASE! I am a fan of TV shows and what I chose to watch is my business. If the quality of Z Nation was anything close to what The Walking has given us, people would be swearing they copied the show. It is still a free country and we are free to watch and like what we want till they cancel the show. 

For those of us that have forgotten, not everyone's imagination is not the same as mine or yours. I welcome new story ideals and shows. Look how many popular detective shows are out there, and fantasy/horror is finally getting a hold on main stream TV. OK, some may be not so well written, I get that. I lose interest myself in some shows, but I don't lose interest in a detective show because I am a fan of the popular CBS franchise C.S.I

Lets not forget that the 1966 soap opera Dark Shadows on ABC is the one that started the ball rolling on Fantasy/horror TV series. Networks have been competing with networks for decades. Networks have tried and failed to copy a genre over and over again. Look at the ABC Network 2004 series LOST, how many times have other networks tried to copy that ideal of you never really know whats going on in the show?

You always knew where a network got the inspiration for a series, but really never cared. I always give a new show a chance. If I liked it I watched it, if I did not I changed the channel. But TV is not religion.I don't stop watching a cop show on NBC because they have a cop show on CBS, so I will not stop watching a Zombie show on SyFy because I  like the one on AMC more. I have never heard such backlash on a TV series since 1981, when ABC premiered night time series Dynasty to compete with CBS 1978 series Dallas, and that was before the internet and social media.

What we could do with out is all this reality TV programming like Honey Boo Boo, Jersey Shore and Keeping up with the Kardashians. However they do have a audience, but I chose not to watch. But that is my choice. I just don't want that to be the only choices on TV.