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The Wolfman, a review by Achim

The Wolfman (2009)

Saw this in the cinema and found it to be a rather mixed back (the friend I watched it with thought the entire film was utter garbage).

The story follows the original fairly loosely, with some rather liberal changes (unless I am remembering the original wrong), such as
. Lawrence Talbot is once again injured by another werewolf, which in turn obviouisly will make him the same. He returned home after his brother had died (turns out he was killed by a vicious creature) to help his father and the fiancee of his now-dead brother. He is institutionalized in an asylum for thinking crazy thoughts, turnign into a werewolf is just ridiculous; or is it? The professor of the asylum presents the crazy man to his colleagues on a night of a full moon...

All the main elements are there. We even get good acting from Benicio Del Toro, Hugo Weaving and others in the cast and Anthony Hopkins is there too. The special effects are up to standards and the transformation scenes look painful and ferocious. The killings are extremely violent and ferocious.

But why do we get the werewolf shown as a rabid animal, killing everyone in site, even hunting them down, without purpose, like a lunatic serial killer? I always felt a werewolf kills for food or because he's provoked, so this was just wrong to me. Then there is the highly underdeveloped love story, which should have been given more attention to more powerful at the end. Then there is the music, which painfully reminded me of Bram Stoker's Dracula more often than it should have.



(From The Wolfman (2009) on February 24th, 2010)

Star Trek (2009), a review by Rich

Title: Star Trek

Runtime:122
Certificate:12
Year:2009
Genres:Science-Fiction

Plot:
Director J.J. Abrams (Alias) re-teams with his MI: III screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci to bring a new vision of the greatest space adventure of all time. Featuring a young, new crew venturing boldly where no man has gone before, Star Trek depicts Romulan time traveller Nero's bloody quest for revenge against Spock and the Federation.

My Review:
A welcome glossy revamp of Star Trek, and it really is a fantastic piece of work. The casting is superb, Pine as a feisty Kirk is excellent in the role, and the choice of Quinto as Spock inspired. The love interest between Spock and Uhura (Saldana) was a little twist that was unexpected but works well, and Urban playing the sarcastic and dry Bones better than the original. Pegg as Scottie was ok for me, and with Chekov and Sulu played well we have a full house.
The effects are jaw-dropping, the first view of Nero's Romulan ship is stunning, and the huge budget is evident in every minute of the movie. Audio is knee-tremblingly solid, and you are immersed in the film from the first shots.
I was not happy with the one to one between Nimoy and the new Spock, but that is about the only negative I can list about a fresh, exciting storyline. I am sure ST purists may find more fault, but I was never into the ST enough to notice any continuity or design anomalies. Seeing the history of Kirk literally from birth, and the early schooling years of Spock, give us an insight to their characters strengths and flaws before joining Starfleet.
I believe you don't have to be a trekkie to enjoy this film, standalone it is a great movie, and I take my hat off to Abrams for this modern day sci-fi action classic.


(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 21st, 2009)

Tom's Glee Marathon, a review by Tom

Glee
Season 1.04 Preggers
Writer: Ryan Murphy (Created By), Brad Falchuk (Created By), Ian Brennan (Created By), Brad Falchuk (Writer)
Director: Brad Falchuk
Cast: Dianna Agron (Quinn Fabray), Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel), Jessalyn Gilsig (Terri Schuester), Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester), Jayma Mays (Emma Pillsbury), Kevin McHale (Arty Abrams), Lea Michele (Rachel Berry), Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson), Matthew Morrison (Will Schuester), Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones), Mark Salling (Noah "Puck" Puckerman), Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang), Stephen Tobolowsky (Sandy Ryerson), Patrick Gallagher (Ken Tanaka), Mike O'Malley (Burt Hummel), Iqbal Theba (Principal Figgins), Jennifer Aspen (Kendra Giardi), Kurt Fuller (Mr. McClung), Naya Rivera (Santana Lopez), Heather Morris (Brittany Pierce), Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike Chang), Dijon Talton (Matt Rutherford), Earlene Davis (Andrea Carmichael), Hisonni Johnson (Nick), Bill A. Jones (Rod Remington), Frank Pacheco (Jerky Player)

This episode was a turning point for me for this series. Before this I thought it was nice, but not really great. But this episode surprised me. Especially the ending. It has shown me for the first time that Glee can have great moments, which makes it worth to watch even if it often has stupid moments.

Heather Morris, who plays Brittany, was first hired because of this episode. Her only job originally was to instruct the actors to do the Single Ladies dance, as she herself was dancing it with Beyoncé on her tour. Though then she was also hired as an actor as there was still an opening for a cheerleader character.

This episode also introduces "Sue's Corner". A segment on the local news TV program hosted by the Glee club's rival, the cheerleader coach Sue Sylvester played by Jane Lynch. The segments are hilariously politically incorrect.

In this episode Kurt's father Burt is introduced. At first he appears to be the stereotypical redneck, who would never be able to accept a gay son. When at the end Kurt started to come out to his father, the first time I watched the episode I expected a huge backlash. But then the episode surprised. The reaction of Burt was a simple "I know".
And that he still loves him. He will turn out to be one of the best characters of the entire series. How he constantly supports his son against bullying and other discriminations, even though he himself is not 100% percent comfortable yet that his son his gay.

Another character which gets some depths is Puck. Introduced as the series bad boy, he shows his good side here when he tries to be supportive when he learns that Quinn is pregnant with his baby.

Tina-Watch:
Tina has a storyline here. Which will be dropped soon after. Mr. Shue tries to get her into a more vital role in the Glee club. He seems to drop this agenda after this episode and Tina is doomed to be a background character.

Finncompetent:
He really believes Quinn story, that he got Quinn pregnant even though they never had intercourse, only because there were in a hot tub together making out, where he then ejaculated.


Notable music:
This episode hardly contains music. It includes Single Ladies from Beyoncé, but it is not sung by the cast. Only danced to by Kurt, Tina and Brittany and later the football players. There is only a few seconds of a songs sung by cast members. One of them is Rachel is singing a Celine Dion song ("Taking Chances") for a musical audition. I liked it.

Rating:

(From Tom's Glee Marathon on August 16th, 2012)