Living in a small town, you know everybody, and everybody knows you as well. Most of the time you are pretty tight with your neighbors since they are the only ones around. Knowing what all is happening at all times and being able to pinpoint who will be getting in trouble when they get home, it is something that many people would like to do in their later years. With no secrets, no hate and no ill will hearts, it would be heaven on earth for so many people, but what if all of these things actually did come to town. 

Getting away with murder is something that Buddy and Purvis have been getting used to, but once again while slitting a sleeping man’s neck, Purvis comes up short. Not cutting all of the veins and arteries, the sleeping man wakes up forcing Buddy to shoot him. The gunshot alarms a group of riders to the camp and the two men must escape before being found out. Moving through the canyons, the two find themselves in the middle of an Indian burial ground and have to move through it to safety. But when they start to hear strange things in the bushes, Buddy is attacked by an unseen hunter and killed on the spot while Purvis is able to make it back to the nearest town.

The town of Bright Hope does not have much going on and the empty bar is the true sign of how the economy is going there. When an out of sorts Purvis shows up in the bar, nobody knows what his story is, but old man Chicory knows that he has seen the man before burying something in the plains. Alerting Sheriff Hunt about what he saw, the Sheriff has no alternative than to go and check out the situation. As Hunt can tell that the stranger to his town is lying to him with every answer, the Sheriff tries to bring Purvis to the jail, but when he tries to escape, Purvis gets shot in the leg. Being taken to jail, the Sheriff tries to get the town Doctor to come and take a look, but he is deep into his bottle of spirits, so the town nurse comes in his place. Leaving her husband for the time being, Samantha is ready to get the stranger's leg fixed, but there is someone in the shadows with an alternative motive.

Waking up to hear that his deputy, prisoner and Samantha have all been kidnapped, Sheriff Hunt finds out that they were taken by a band of Indians called Troglodytes who make their homes in the canyon walls. With only a location to look for, Sheriff Hunt, Chicory, Samantha’s husband Arthur, and the town smart man Brooder mount up and go in search of the missing folks. Being told that the tribe is a band of cannibals does not help the cause, but keeps them pushing as hard as they can, but being constantly slowed down by Arthur’s broken leg, they may have to look for an alternative. Not wanting to give up on his wife and get her help as soon as possible, Arthur allows the group to move on without him and when he is able to catch up, he is able to see what is happening around them with better perspective. It is a race against time and not knowing who or what they are really looking for, the group is able to locate the captors, but they are not as prepared as they should be when it comes to knocking them off.

I have been waiting to see this movie ever since I saw the actors that were attached to the project. I must admit that it did not disappoint in my eyes since I really did not know what was going to happen until it was on the screen in front of me. I really liked seeing the relationship between Samantha and Arthur, just to know how far he would go for her, especially if she was in trouble. But I must admit that Chicory stole the show with his little quips and usefulness to the group, I really liked the ‘old man’. It’s just your gold old western story that has a bite of cannibals in it to juice up the movie a little bit. It’s not too bad with the blood if that is not your thing, but you get to see more than a few characters meet their maker and very quickly. Happy Viewing.

Each and every one of us have a story to tell when it comes to our love affair with motion pictures, and that story speaks to how exactly we fell in love with movies in the first place and how every time we go to the theaters or settle in to watch something on cable or online, that familiar flutter arrives in the center of our chest because movies truly are something special and they accomplish wonders for our body and our soul. But what’s truly fascinating is how this particular story is so supremely different from person to person, which helps to remind us of how every single film out there is unique in its own right and personally, what helped me fall in love with film, was its ability to make the impossible, possible.
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For our imagination knows no bounds, and it can produce the wildest ideas while we sleep or as we daydream and seeing movies that quite frankly, capture that part of the human mind are what allowed for me to fall for this style of storytelling in the hardest fashion imaginable. Because there is something that sends my spirit soaring when incredible ideas come to life on the silver or small screen, and of the many motion pictures that I’ve taken the time to enjoy over the years, one of the first that sucked me into this medium is one that I revisit time and time again thanks in large part to its ability to still inspire a sense of awe and wonder. For it truly transported me and so many viewers to another world with its stunning visuals and fascinating story, all revolving around a struggle to restore, The Dark Crystal.

Now obviously, we won’t bother discussing the plot today, for this is another one of those movies that everyone knows in some capacity or another. Instead, we need to take the time to discuss what exactly helped to create this film’s enduring and rich legacy and really, that starts with the fact that it is a true technical marvel through and through. Because this movie was released in 1982, where computer rendered graphics were virtually impossible at that point in time, meaning that everything here is handled with puppets from Jim Henson’s legendary studios and good heavens, did Jim and his team outright create a beautiful and alien world that features thriving and elegant beings, the kind that are indeed ripped from the depths of our imagination, and they help to draw us in because they inspire us to know more and see more when it comes to this majestic world.
Yet what truly impressed me about this story, and still does to this day, is its incredible story.

Because when I saw this in my youth, it was likely my first real experience of settling in with a tale that featured the age-old of battle of good versus evil and while that is easy for all to comprehend, I couldn’t help but notice that as I’ve grown older and enjoyed this film on a fairly consistent basis, that heavier themes are present within the framework of this sweeping epic. For in many ways, it also speaks to our battle with the darkness within that we struggle with as a species, since the Skeksis represent the darkest parts of the Mystics’ souls and well, that’s just brilliant. Because it’s rare to see a children’s film feature that level of depth and thoughtfulness and it really is incredible to uncover new themes when I watch this film now, and know that likely, that was part of the plan to begin with.

But all surprises and thematic concepts aside, this really is a beautiful motion picture through and through. For its visuals take your breath away as you explore the majestic world of Thra with Jen and Kira, and the powerhouse story grabs onto you tightly and never lets go and really, in the end, this is simply a modern epic in its own right. Because this carefully crafted world has the feel of a Tolkien story with its magnificent depth and richness and it’s one that I return to time and time again in large part due to the fact that it’s a wondrous trip down memory lane but also because, there really is nothing else like it in cinema, making it a powerfully original story that has never been rivaled. And while I am delighted to no end that Netflix is taking us back to the beginning with The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, nothing can top the majesty of this particular tale, because they simply don’t make movies like this anymore, the kind that take a chance and throw caution to the wind, all in the name of telling a great story.

While we all lament the fact that Hollywood loves to use gimmicks to draw us into the theaters from time to time, sometimes the wild and quirky idea(s) they come up with are pretty darn effective in garnering our attention and getting us to the theater. Because once in a while, an off the wall gimmick just seems too good to pass up and you have to know whether or not the gag that the movie planned is going to work in seamless fashion or not, and that particular brand of curiosity is precisely why I felt the need to head to the theaters to see the new movie Good Boys, since its premise was quite the gimmick when all is said and done.
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Because, let’s be honest, everything that popped up advertising wise for this motion picture made it seem as though it was going to be Superbad with a bunch of tweens, and that does sound like an intriguing venture in its own right. After all, the aforementioned Superbad was a wonderfully hilarious comedy, one that captured the essence of the high school experience to a tee, and when considers the fact that a fair chunk of the creative team behind that movie was involved with this one, such as Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, one would expect that this particular picture would feature a similarly hilarious story that tugs at your heart strings and well, the good news is that Good Boys accomplishes all those things.

For it really is a damn funny film through and through, and much of what makes the inappropriate jokes work here is the sheer fact that we are dealing some naïve tweens who simply don’t quite understand some of the things that the audience does and some of the awkward moments they find themselves in because of that, leads to some side splitting moments for certain and the wonder of the jokes don’t end there. Because there are also some wonderfully original jokes to be found in this film, the kind that leave you with tears streaming down your face as you watch these kids get into some unique situations and while the comedy is wonderful in its own right, it’s the heart present in this movie that makes it worth your while.

Because this motion picture really does take you back to those days when you were in your tweens, where you wanted nothing more than to be cool and fit in at a new school, and where you started to believe you knew what was best for you, when you really didn’t and this is honestly quite the incredible plot element to find within the framework of a comedy movie. Because it’s really what draws you in, and it’s really what keeps the film going in your mind long after it has come to an end, because you find your mind drifting back to those days in particular, where everything was handled in absolutes and the drama was at an all-time high and that wistfulness just makes this film special in its own right.

In the end, this a movie that I highly recommend. Because you really can’t go wrong with losing yourself within the framework of a raucous comedy for an hour and half, and in all honesty this is one that I honestly might need to see again in order to make sure I didn’t miss any particular joke or gag while I was wiping the tears from my eyes. But all hilarity aside, what makes this movie truly special is the sheer fact that it really does elicit a sense of self-nostalgia while you watch, since it reminds the audience of a simpler time in our lives, when the biggest problems we faced was whether or not we’d make it to a big party or see our friends and well, being able to reflect upon that while having a hearty laugh is a wonderful and magical experience, one that you’ll only find on the silver screen. 

​After watching Birdman, I decided to jump back through a couple of my Michael Keaton movies and try to find one where he is basically playing the same character, but in a completely different way. Now being a child of the 80s, it was not that hard to find a good one since that is where his career really took off. Looking through the different genres that he has played in, I found a great movie where his character has to reinvent himself, in a gangster movie called Johnny Dangerously.

In the year 1910, Johnny Kelly is trying to earn himself a living and wants to take care of his mother and brother at the same time. Without having a father, Johnny has had to learn the rules of the streets on his own, or so he thinks, when he gets offered a job by a notorious gangster Jocko Dundee. Now Johnny never wants to do anything to break the law, but with his mother’s ailing health and medical bills pilling up, turning to a life of crime is the only way that he can get the money he needs to take care of her. With a little job turning into a career, Johnny Kelly joins the Dundee gang and changes his name to Johnny Dangerously.  

As the years go by, Johnny is living a double life, one as his mother’s son that has done nothing wrong and the other as the famous gangster Dangerously who has a heart of gold. Johnny will do anything to help out his family and the people of the old neighborhood, as long as nobody tells his family about who he really is. But Johnny is walking a thin line as his little brother is going to law school and when he graduates, he wants to focus on putting all of the people that break the law away and that includes the infamous gangster Dangerously. 
 
Johnny does not want to hold his brother back and decides to go straight, but when he is found in the police commissioner's office with the dead commissioner, he has been framed for a murder that he did not commit. Having to put his brother behind bars is the hardest thing for little Tommy Kelly to do, but when he finds out about the frame job, he will have to pull together everything he can to earn his older brother his freedom once again.

This is by far one of my favorite movies from the 80s and for good reason. There is so much star power in the movie, along with a ton of one liners that will make you wonder why they don’t even try to make you laugh in today’s movies anymore. Now, I know I did not hit everything that happens in this movie, with the betrayal by Danny Vermin, or the ‘Fargin War’ with Roman Maroni, or how awesome Jocko Dundee really is, or how Lil can keep pace with Johnny’s witty remarks. I was just looking at the aspect of changing one’s self to become someone new. That is really what the story is trying to tell, but it might be lost with all of the comedy that is being shoved into your face. With some over the top performances, you might need to check out this movie at least once… once. Keep Laughing.  

Trying to reinvent yourself can be one of the hardest things to do. When you have been living your life as one person for so many years, it is hard to break free of the mold that you have set for yourself.  If you are able to make this work however, no matter who you were, you feel as if you have achieved something, even if you did not need to do it. There are many people out there that want to change things in their lives and never take a chance to do it since there is a high probability that they will fail, so if this is something that you are looking to do, take small steps, do one little thing at a time and see how it benefits you before taking the large leap.

Former comic book action star Riggan Thompson is trying to make one of the biggest leaps in his career, by moving from the big screen to the stage, and not just any stage, but Broadway. Wanting to prove his worth as a true actor, he has written his own adaptation of Raymond Carver’s, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. As his first previews are just hours away, Riggan knows that he does not have all of the pieces he needs yet to make the play a success and needs something drastic to happen. When a lighting rig falls on one of his problems, Riggan is blown away to hear that one of the best actors in the city is available and willing to join his production.

Mike Shiner is as big as they come and leaves all of himself on the stage. The fans and critics love him alike and he will be the one person that could make or break the play from day one. Seeing what Mike brings to the character, Riggan is in awe and wants him on the stage alongside of him, but Mike has also been known to take his character a little too seriously and will challenge his boss at every step of the game. Riggan has to find a way to control his new actor, while trying to make up for all of the lost time he has with his former drug addict daughter Samantha as she has taken the job of his assistant. Riggan has so many balls in the air to juggle concerning his play and home life, he does not have time for the voice of his old character to come calling.

Whenever Riggan gets stressed, the voice of his most popular character starts talking to him, telling him the truth of what is happening to him and commenting on what is happening around him. Wanting him to give up on this new venture on the stage, Riggan tries to ignore it, but the voice has been with him for too long and he knows what it is saying, is true. Being the first superhero on the big screen, opening doors for all of these other fluffy comic book heroes to make their movies, Riggan is owed plenty, but all he wants is to make it through one of his previews without a hiccup. As opening night quickly approaches, Riggan is getting beyond stressed with everything that is being placed on his shoulders, and when trying to make sure that everyone knows that he is there to help them, the stress is getting to be too much and he will have to find a way to leave all of his emotions on the stage.

This is a different type of story than you are used to seeing on the big screen. You usually don’t get to see what happens to a star after they have faded away from the spotlight and the troubles they have going forward. I love how the theater life comes into full view with everyone in the cast and some of the things they say make me double over in laughter. But this story captured my attention, not because of the one liners, but how Riggan’s eyes were opened to the real world out there and how much help he needs to see it. And once his eyes are opened, he finds what truly becomes important to him. While the fame is great, there seems to be a little bit more hiding in the back of his head that he is not willing to let the world see. I would have loved to see more of the superhero that opened doors for all of the new fluffy ones, but hey, they could be in the sequel, if it ever gets made. Happy Viewing.

The meaning of life is paramount to our survival. We feel as though we must have a purpose, a direction, something that makes the food we eat, the air we breathe and the memories we hold near and dear have a purpose. Without having that meaning we feel that life is simply not worth living and we fear what life could be without it.  

Yes, the thought of having no purpose or meaning in this life, is one to scare all of us to our core. It drives us to find that meaning and while some folks discover it and find the peace they have been so desperately looking for, there are others still searching, and they feel the fear closing in.  It is a quest that has driven man to its greatest achievements and its darkest hours and it is that search for meaning that is central to Terry Gilliam's The Zero Theorem.  

Qohen Leth is a brilliant man. He is wonderful at the work he performs, in fact his work comes natural to him. But something is amiss about him.  He is distant from other people, so much in fact that he would prefer the solitude of working at home rather than facing others, so that he can finally receive an important and life changing phone call. Yet his desire to disappear has put him front and center in the eyes of his employer and management puts him on a special task. He is to analyze the Zero Theorem, a theory that questions the purpose of reality and our existence and it will turn out to be Qohen's greatest challenge yet. For in the process of trying to discover the secrets of the universe, he will also discover there is no escape from the fabric of humanity that he is a part of. 

To say that The Zero Theorem is a thinking man's film is nothing short of an understatement. Every second, every moment of this motion picture is oozing with symbolism and thought and that makes it an absolutely brilliant motion picture. It is a film teeming with so many layers with its thoughts on the meaning of life, its damnation of modern technology and quite frankly, what it means to live.  ​

In fact at its core this film is a tragedy through and through for Qohen is a man completely and utterly broken to pieces by his past. We learn much about him and the pain he carries thanks to an outstanding performance by Christoph Waltz.  Qohen is a man who wants to shun the world due to the fact it has been and in many ways continues to be cruel to him. While he may seem like an everyman, he is anything but. He is a flawed hero in his continued quest to find some kind of purpose. His fear of life without it is heartbreaking to watch, especially when it comes to the simple dramatic twist that he expects the meaning of life to arrive to him with a simple phone call. 

It speaks volumes to the quest we are all on as we wait for that perfect moment when the universe tells us our own purpose. But for every wonderful breakthrough he experiences, there are setbacks, more pain, more suffering and it makes you root for Qohen on so many levels because we have all been there, hoping for the best but seeing everything collapse one moment at a time.  

That's the beauty of The Zero Theorem. Despite the fact that Qohen is surrounded by incredible technology and separated from other people much as the world is in many ways now...humanity finds a way to sneak in and while we may hide behind our glowing screens, we can never escape the fact that every last one of us needs purpose...and meaning. This is truly a beautiful film, and I encourage you to see it as soon as you can, you certainly won't regret it.  ​

How far would you go to protect your loved ones if you had a choice? I would hope that it would take you to the ends of the earth, but everybody finds a different meaning with that saying. Fighting to keep the ones you hold dear to your heart is something that everyone seems to be willing to do and if you are given an option between them or yourself, well, that might be where the reality starts to step in. Defending someone is different than defending yourself and that is where the line starts to be drawn in the sand as you take up arms against the people trying to hurt you or your loved ones.

Waking up in a cell, Jamie is thrown into a hallway with a stranger that she has never met nor seen before. As the woman named Sabrina starts to speak, Jamie does not believe what she is in the middle of.  Sabrina is stronger and faster than her and keeps saying that she needs to fight and by the end of the encounter, Jamie is left dead on the arena floor and Sabrina lives to fight another day. Returning to her cell, all of the victors are given praise by the man upstairs for their efforts on this fine day, but the reality that they are facing is becoming more real.  Watching the loved ones of the fallen women get murdered in cold blood, they understand how high the stakes are if they lose.

As Sabrina and her fellow winners are gathered up and taken to meet their captors, Joseph and Elizabeth, they are let in on a little secret. The grand winner of the blood sport will be released back into the real world and no harm will come to them or their families ever again. The women believe this is a promise that their strange overseers will fulfill, so they continue to fight. Day after day, match after match, two strangers are thrown into a small space and forced to kill each other. But when the women on Sabrina’s corridor find out she is ex-military; they start throwing out ideas of escaping. Sabrina tries everything that she has learned to find a weak spot, but the only way out of this hell hole is to win…or be killed.
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This movie is filled with fighting, blood and strong women bringing beat downs at every turn. I did not know what to expect when reading the little blurb on Netflix about it, so I just gave it a watch. Not a bad movie overall and I enjoyed how some of the personal lives were brought into the fights.  Not only looking to survive themselves, the women that are being forced to fight are trying to protect their loved ones first, and then themselves.  With too many women to name, since there were fifty fighting for survival, each one had their own little back story and even though you only catch a glimpse of it, you understand who they are fighting for and what is driving them to make it to the final round. Happy Viewing.

​Learning never ends, especially when you get older. You might put the books down, but there is so much more to life than just what you learned in school and several things that school will not prepare you for. For those who always like to keep their ear to the ground and find out as much as they possibly can, I have to applaud you since it seems to be a lost skill set over the years. It is much easier to learn things at your own convenience rather than having to learn it on the spot when you don’t have time to truly understand what is happening around you.

With the discovery of water on Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, Europa, the space agency is ready to get a ship into orbit and see if other life can be found in the universe. Being the most significant manned mission in history, all sorts of records are being written along the way. The ship is loaded with everything the crew could possibly need on their adventure to another planet and as the mission starts, it is a blinding success. But something that good cannot last forever as the ship suffers its first loss on the mission when the communications go down. Not being able to communicate with anyone back on Earth, the crew decides to move on with their mission to the water covered moon and find the results that they are looking for. 

Losing one member of the crew while trying to fix their communication array, the crew sees how dangerous the mission will be without setting foot on the moon. But with Europa in their sights, they cannot turn back no matter the cost. Landing on the moon, the crew is miles off of where they are supposed to be, but not being able to afford another burn with their engines for fear of not being able to escape its gravity, they have to set up and get to work.  While strange lights are seen on the surface of the small moon, it is chalked up to being solar flares and the crew continues with their work. 
 
Finding signs of life on the moon in the ice, the crew is excited to prove that life does exist on another planet and are ready to return home, but when a fuel line freezes preventing them from getting off of the moon, all hell breaks loose. When the strange lights that they have seen under the ice start to target one crew member after another, it is only a matter of time before they find out that the life they have been seeking may be more hostile than they previously believed.

This is an interesting look at the dangers of going to outer space when not knowing what you are really looking for. With radiation, extreme cold and an alien threat, it would be hard to imagine why anyone would want to be an astronaut that lands on a foreign surface. But for the sake of discovery and gaining knowledge about something that has never been seen before, I can see the appeal.  This movie was wonderfully acted, I just did not like how the story jumped around so much from day to day or month to month.  Even though I am not a huge fan of flashbacks, I think it might have fitted better in this movie, rather than it being a found footage space/alien movie.  But besides that, it was a good ride and I hope that we do not discover an alien race anytime soon since we really have no idea what they are capable of. Happy Viewing.

People have different ways in which they learn. Being a part time instructor before, I have noticed many different traits that people have and none of them are wrong, they are just different. I am the firm believer that writing things down and then doing them is the best way for someone to retain the information, but I have found that it is not the same for everyone. Whichever method is yours, stick with it and don’t let anyone influence you to change it. You have found a way to learn and retain knowledge since you were a child and no matter the situation, it works for you and changing it later in life might truly mess with your learning curve.

A woman is brought a dead body to start her transformation. Taking the dead woman’s clothes, she dresses up to make her way into the public eye, but is looking for something more. Getting to the local market, she finds the clothes that in her mind are more appropriate for her mission and once she is ready, she takes to the streets to find her first victim. Keeping an eye out for men walking alone, she stops and asks directions to either the next town or to the local supermarket. Offering the men a ride to their final destination, she starts asking more questions about their life and when finding out that they are single, she lays on the seduction.

When she is able to get a suitor that is ready to make the conversation a little more physical, she takes them to her place and shows them everything that they want to see. Never allowing the man to have full contact with her, she stays several steps in front of them and while walking towards her, they are pulled into a holding tank for further evaluation. The mission does not persist of just one man, it will take several to gain the information she has been sent to receive, so she continues to take to the streets. While at the beach, she finds a man that is free from the seduction mold when she sees him put himself in harm’s way to save a family from drowning in the water. Figuring out that there is more happening in these men’s mind than just pleasures of the flesh, she is reprogrammed by her master to keep working and at a faster pace.

When picking up a man with a deformed face who has no friends and has never been with a woman before, she sees starts to understand that there is more to these men than previously thought. Freeing the man from the holding tank, she is ready to partake in some human pleasures she has been missing out on. Trying to eat a piece of chocolate cake and becoming sick from it, she is ready to move on from her mission and do something else. Meeting at stranger at the bus stop, she is shown how a true gentleman acts around a woman and does not even try to seduce him as he treats with class. Not trying a move on the young woman, the man shows her what life is like on this planet with someone that cares for her, but when she is ready to take the relationship to the next step, she will experience more than she bargained for.

As far as Indie movies go, this one is not half bad. I have a hard time with pacing in these movies since they seem to jump around, but this one was steady and kept moving to its own beat. You need to keep your eyes and ears open when it comes to this movie, since the clues are there about what is going on, it is not spelled out for you like some movies. I was blown away by the transformation of the woman, when she sees what she is doing might be wrong and tries to get away from the man that is controlling her. The movie is shot beautifully and if you like long shots and great imagery in a movie, this one will not disappoint. Working on a mission that you do not believe in may change your outlook on what and who you believe, just remember that you should be in control of yourself and never give that up to anyone. Happy Viewing.