Shutter Island

This movie was not what I had expected. From the previews I’d seen, I thought it was going to be about something supernatural. Well, they made it out like it was in the beginning, but as the guy gets to talking to people, you kind of realize there’s nothing supernatural about this, just a bunch of people keeping secrets. But I thought it was really good. Better then what it would have been if it’d gone the way I thought it was going to. And the ending was amazing to me. I don’t think in real life, something like that would work, though. The human mind doesn’t deal with reality as well as they made it out, if they’ve convinced themselves that reality, is just a lie they made up to keep you quite. At least that’s what I think.

Plot, taken from Wiki

In 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo), go to the Ashecliff Hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island. They are investigating the disappearance of Rachel Solando (Emily Mortimer), a patient who vanished from a locked room. Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley), the head psychiatrist, explains that Rachel was institutionalized after drowning her three children. She believes, however, that she is still home and that her children are still alive.

The cliffs surrounding the perimeter make it impossible for Rachel to have reached the nearby caves. Teddy sees a lighthouse but is told it has already been searched. The Marshals question the staff and learn that Rachel’s psychiatrist, Dr. Sheehan, left for vacation that morning. Teddy asks to see the hospital’s personnel files but Cawley refuses. That night, Teddy has strange dreams about his wife, Dolores (Michelle Williams), who died in a fire two years before. She tells him Rachel is still on the island, as is Andrew Laeddis, the man who started the fire.

In the morning, they interview patients from Rachel’s group therapy sessions, one of whom passes Teddy a warning to run. Teddy explains to Chuck the real reason he took the case: after being transferred to Ashecliff, Andrew Laeddis disappeared. When Teddy investigated, he met a former patient who claimed that the facility was performing human experiments. Rachel is finally found near the lighthouse but when returned to her cell she is unresponsive to Teddy’s questioning. He eventually finds George Noyce (Jackie Earle Haley), the man who told him about the experiments. George says that the whole situation is a game for Teddy’s benefit and that he is afraid of being taken to the lighthouse.

Teddy tries to reach the lighthouse and discovers a cave where the real Rachel Solando (Patricia Clarkson) is hiding. She was a doctor at Ashecliff until she found out about the experiments and was committed as a patient. She explains that the hospital is using psychotropic medication in an attempt to master mind control, with the goal of creating sleeper agents for use in the Cold War. She says that Teddy has been similarly drugged since he arrived on the island.

Teddy finally makes it to the lighthouse and finds Cawley waiting at the top. The doctor reveals that Teddy is actually Andrew Laeddis. He murdered his manic depressive wife after she drowned their three children, and then created a fantasy where he was a hero to cope with the pain. He invented Rachel Solando as part of his delusion. He has been under the care of Dr. Sheehan, the man he thought was Chuck, for two years. Sheehan and Cawley decided to try a roleplay experiment, allowing Andrew to live out his delusions in an attempt to bring him back to reality.

Andrew’s memory comes back and he makes peace with his past, but later, while talking to Dr. Sheehan, he once again refers to him as “Chuck”, indicating that Andrew believes he is Teddy and that the experimental therapy was unsuccessful. Dr. Sheehan silently indicates to Dr. Cawley the failure of the experiment. Andrew asks Dr. Sheehan if he thinks it would be worse to live as a monster or die as a good man and walks away with the orderlies to prepare for a lobotomy.

Alice

Alice by Avril Lavigne. Avril Lavigne used to be my favorite singer. But after awhile, I started to get tired of her songs. I haven’t listened to her since. But I heard this song at the ending credits for Alice In Wonderland and really liked it. I wanted to find out who it was by. When I found out it was by Avril, I was shocked. It’s been so long since I’ve listened to her, her voice has changed. She sounds much better then what she used to. I might have to start listening to some of her new songs. But I really like this song.

Trippin out
Spinning around
I’m underground
I fell down
Yeah I fell down

I’m freaking out, where am I now?
Upside down and I can’t stop it now
Can’t stop me now, oh oh

I,I, I’ll get by
I,I, I’ll survive
When the world’s crashing down
When I fall and hit the ground
I will turn myself around
Don’t you try to stop me
I,I, I won’t cry

I found myself in Wonderland
Got back on my feet, again
Is this real?
Is this pretend?
I’ll take a stand until the end

I,I, I’ll get by
I,I, I’ll survive
When the world’s crashing down
When I fall and hit the ground
I will turn myself around
Don’t you try to stop me
I,I, I won’t cry

I,I, I’ll get by
I,I, I’ll survive
When the world’s crashing down
When I fall and hit the ground
I will turn myself around
Don’t you try to stop me
I,I, and I won’t cry

Alice In Wonderland

I never liked the Disney cartoon version. Never. But I loved this one. Though, actually, Disney’s movies aren’t the same as they used to be. They’ve started doing movies that even I would like.

I wanted to see this because Johnny Depp played the Mad Hatter. I love his characters. They’re all either creepy (in a good way, I know, weird), or their weird, or dark and mysterious, or they’re really funny. He did great and was really funny. I loved the weird dance he did at the end. It was just to funny. It must have been a lot of work with digital effects to get his head to spin around and his legs and arms as well.

I noticed that Johnny used some of his Jack Sparrow voice from Pirates of the Caribbean when he was suppose to be very serious. It made the Mad Hatter kind of creepy, but in a good way.

It ended great, as well. Though, I had it stuck in my head she would stay in Wonderland instead of going back home. But, all well.

Plot, taken from Wiki

Troubled by a recurring dream featuring strange creatures, nineteen-year-old Alice Kingsley (Mia Wasikowska) attends a party at a Victorian estate shortly after the death of her beloved father. She learns that the formal affair is actually an engagement party to eventually wed her into the Ascot family who now own her father’s trading firm. Unsure of how to properly reply to Hamish Ascot’s proposal, Alice runs away and follows the White Rabbit, Nivens McTwisp (voiced by Michael Sheen). She then falls down a rabbit hole into Underland, a bizarre world she previously visited as a child, although she has lost most memory of it and believes what she remembers to have been a dream. It is explained throughout the course of the film that Iracebeth, the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), conquered Underland by stealing the ruling crown from her sister Mirana, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), but Alice will slay the Red Queen’s guardian, the Jabberwocky, on the Frabjous Day using the Vorpal Sword. However, a misunderstanding of words from Absolem the Caterpillar (voiced by Alan Rickman) makes everyone believe that Alice is the wrong one. The forces of the Red Queen attack and capture McTwisp, Uilleam the Dodo (voiced by Michael Gough), and Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Matt Lucas), whilst Alice escapes. The Knave of Hearts Ilosovic Stayne (Crispin Glover) informs the Red Queen of Alice’s return; the Red Queen orders Alice’s capture.

Alice is found by Chessur (voiced by Stephen Fry), a grinning cat, who leads her to Tarrant Hightopp, The Hatter (Johnny Depp), March Hare (voiced by Paul Whitehouse) and Mallymkun the Dormouse (voiced by Barbara Windsor). As Stayne searches for Alice, The Hatter flees toward the White Queen’s castle with a shrunken Alice, but he is caught, leaving Alice and his hat behind. A bloodhound named Bayard (voiced by Timothy Spall), who was forced to work for the Red Queen due to his imprisoned family, aids Alice in sneaking into the Red Queen’s castle to rescue The Hatter. McTwisp, now a page for the Red Queen, gives Alice some food which makes her grow to a large size, but she fools the Red Queen into believing she is “Um from Umbridge”, and The Hatter is made the Red Queen’s hat maker. Alice learns that the Vorpal Sword is hidden in the den of the Bandersnatch, whose eye was removed by Mallymkun earlier. The eye is restored by Alice, making the Bandersnatch choose to side with her and escape from the castle with her and Bayard. Chessur saves Tarrant and Mallymkun from execution, and they lead all of the enslaved Underland creatures to flee the Red Queen’s castle. Alice delivers the Vorpal Sword to the White Queen and returns to her normal size, but she remains unsure whether she can kill the Jabberwocky.

Absolem, going into his pupa stage, reminds Alice of her past visit to Underland and gives her the courage and belief to fight the Jabberwocky. On the Frabjous Day, the forces of the White and Red Queens converge on a battlefield to decide the fate of Underland. The White Queen offers her sister a chance for peace one last time, but the Red Queen declines, summoning the Jabberwocky (voiced by Christopher Lee). Alice fights the Jabberwocky and is nearly killed but the Hatter distracts it, starting an all out brawl between the Red and White Queens’ forces. The Hatter fights and overcomes Ilosovic as Alice resumes her battle with the Jabberwocky, climbing onto its back and being thrown into the air, using the height to deliver a slash that beheads the Jabberwocky. Enraged at the death of her pet, the Red Queen demands Alice’s head, but without the Jabberwocky, no one fears her any more and everyone sides with the White Queen. The White Queen regains her crown and then banishes her sister and Stayne to the outlands forever. Alice returns home by drinking the blood of the Jabberwocky. She then refuses Hamish’s proposal and becomes an apprentice for Hamish’s father with the idea of beginning trade routes with China. The film ends with Alice sailing away on a ship with Absolem, now as a butterfly, fluttering off and away from her shoulder.

Ninja Assassin

Really great movie. LOVED the blood. This movie isn’t horror, yet it shows more people being cut up then any of my horror movies. I think even more then my Saw movies. Haha.

It’s a good thing my aunt let me watch this before she did. She hates gory or bloody movies. So I had to warn her on how much there was. My mom had told her that it was the type of movie I’d like, and my aunt and mine movie tastes are completely different. She likes movies where it ends happy. I like movies that end with, if possible, every character dying. Bwahah!

The whole ‘heart on the other side of your chest’ part, I thought was just something they made up for the movie. But it turns out it is a real thing. It’s called Situs Inversus. It’s actually kind of neat.

And what makes it even neater, is that Sanji from One Piece (an Anime I watch) has Situs Inversus as well. I didn’t know that until they made a reference from it on the Situs Inversus Wiki page. I guess I missed that episode. Haha

Plot, taken from Wiki

Raizo (Rain) is raised by the Ozunu Clan to become one of the most lethal Special Ops ninja assassins in the world. As a child, Raizo experiences severe training under the guidance of his “father”, Lord Ozunu (Sho Kosugi): he is whipped and/or cut whenever he fails and is encouraged to hurt his ninja kin for their training failures. The only kindness he ever receives is from a kunoichi (female ninja), Kiriko (Anna Sawai).

As they grow older, Kiriko and Raizo develop a romantic bond, however Kiriko’s desire to leave the Ozunu Clan for freedom is greater.

One stormy night, Kiriko decides to escape from the clan. She encourages Raizo to join her, but he decides to stay. They kiss and she then climbs over the wall to freedom; only to be caught and brought back by her ninja kin. Branded as a traitor, Kiriko is executed (a katana through her heart) by her elder ninja brother Takeshi (Rick Yune). As a result of Kiriko’s death, Raizo begins to harbor resentment and doubt towards the clan.

After completing his first assassination, Raizo is instructed by Lord Ozunu to execute an escaped kunoichi like Kiriko. He rebels against his master by slashing his face with a kyoketsu shoge and fights against his ninja kin. Barely surviving, he escapes by falling into a nearby river. Raizo recovers and begins to intervene in Ozunu hits by foiling their attempts.

While staying in Berlin and waiting for Ozunu’s next move, Raizo rents a small apartment where he secretly continues to refine his training until it is time to act.

Meanwhile, Europol agent Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) has been investigating money linked to political murders and finds that it is potentially linked to the Ozunu Clan. She defies her superior, Ryan Maslow (Ben Miles), and retrieves secret agency files to find out more. The clan, finding out about the investigation, attempts to assassinate her but she is rescued by Raizo.

Mika convinces Raizo to meet with Maslow for protection and to provide evidence against the ninja clan, but Raizo is intercepted by a task force for interrogation. Mika feels betrayed that Maslow would trick her that way, but Maslow secretly assures Mika that he is still on her side and gives her a tracking device for emergencies. While Mika warns Maslow of the dangers of keeping Raizo, the Ozunu ninja infiltrate their secret base and slaughter all the officers.

Mika frees Raizo and he lures the ninja away as Mika tries to escape. Raizo kills and fends off as many ninja as he can while Takeshi continues to trail him. He and Mika manage to escape but Raizo suffers mortal wounds around his stomach. Resting in a private area, Mika implants the tracking device into Raizo. Unable to fend against the clan, she hides outside the hotel until special forces arrive to help her. By that time, the ninja have recovered Raizo and taken him back to their base, bringing him before Lord Ozunu for prosecution.

While hidden inside a steel locker Raizo uses his healing techniques to heal all major injuries before being reunited with his “father.” Lord Ozunu decides to have Raizo executed as an example but is infuriated by Raizo’s defiance to the end; Ozunu strikes against Raizo’s internal organs, causing him to spit out the tracking device.

Europol Special Forces Counter-Terrorism tactical teams lead by Maslow storm the hidden Ozunu base and kill most of the ninja in the court yard. Takeshi and Raizo face each other in the burning Ozunu training hall. Raizo slays Takeshi and confronts Lord Ozunu in a sword duel. While Ozuno initially has the upper hand, Mika, fearing for Raizo’s life, distracts and shoots Ozunu with her pistol.

Before Raizo can recover, Lord Ozunu stabs Mika in the heart. Emotionally ravaged, Raizo uses the ‘shadow blending’ technique for the first time and finishes off Ozunu. Mika, seemingly fatally wounded, is in fact saved by a quirk of birth: her heart is on the opposite side of her chest. Mika and Europol leave the destroyed Ozunu compound while Raizo stays behind. Symbolically, he climbs the same wall Kiriko did all those years ago and looks out at the surrounding countryside. Recognizing his freedom for the first time in years, Raizo smiles, ending the film.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

I don’t understand why they don’t just call it ‘The Lighting Thief’ like the book.

Well, through the whole movie I was comparing things from the book. The one thing that irritated me the most was that Chiron is WHITE. White I tell you. Not brown. Such a small detail out of all the things they changed, but that one annoyed me the most. But you know, with all the other Centaurs, you’d think they would keep that in, since it makes him look different from the other brown ones and such. And since he’s a character, rather then someone they just stuck in the background.

I knew who had done it through the whole thing. But since I read the book. Hehe. It took my brother at least over halfway through the movie until he figured it out. And not too soon, since they were about to tell who it was. Or figure it out, actually.

What shocked me-and still does-is how BIG the gods were in their scene close to the end. It was awesome. What a great affect. And Uma Thurman as Medusa was funny.

I think I annoyed my mom, though. I kept leaning over and telling her what was wrong and what they changed from the book.

Pretty good movie overall, though. Now, for class Monday, I just have to remember not to compare the movie and book, since we’re only suppose to talk about the book. But I do love correcting people, even if they don’t know I am. Haha.

Plot

At the top of the Empire State Building, Poseidon (Kevin McKidd) meets with Zeus (Sean Bean), who comments that the storm clouds have no lightning and and that his master bolt has been stolen. He blames Poseidon’s son for the theft. Despite Poseidon’s claims of his son’s innocence, Zeus gives Poseidon 14 days to return it, lest war break out.

During a field trip to an exhibition of Greek and Roman art, teenager Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman), is lured away from the crowd by a Fury disguised as his substitute English teacher, who then attacks him, questioning him about the lightning bolt. The incredulous Percy, who has no knowledge of this, is rescued by his Latin teacher, Mr. Brunner (Pierce Brosnan). After dispatching the Fury, Brunner gives Percy a magical pen. On Brunner’s instruction, Percy’s best friend, Grover (Brandon T. Jackson), takes Percy to a training camp for demigods, Camp Half-Blood, along with Percy’s mother, Sally Jackson (Catherine Keener). During their trip to the camp, Percy attempts to learn about his biological father from Sally, but they are attacked by a Minotaur. Although Percy and Grover, who is revealed to be a satyr, make it to the camp, its defenses prohibit entrance to Sally, who is captured by the Minotaur, and disappears before Percy. Percy engages the Minotaur with the magical pen, which turns into a sword named Riptide, eventually killing the creature with one of its horns.

In touring the Camp Half-Blood, Percy learns that Brunner is the mythological centaur Chiron, and the camp’s trainer, and that his father is the god Poseidon. He also meets Luke Castellan (Jake Abel), the son of Hermes, and Annabeth Chase (Alexandra Daddario), the demigod daughter of Athena. While at the camp, Percy learns that water has the power to heal his injuries, and allows him to manifest his magical abilities.

Hades later appears and reveals that Sally Jackson is his prisoner, and proposes she be traded for the master bolt. Chiron instructs Percy not to bargain with the demon, but to go to Olympus to convince Zeus of his innocence. Percy sneaks away from the camp to travel to the Underworld, along with Grover and Annabeth, who secure for him from Luke a portable shield, flying shoes and a map to Persephone’s pearls, one of which will reveal the exit from the Underworld when retrieved.

At Aunty Em’s Garden Emporium, the trio are attacked by Medusa (Uma Thurman), but manage to decapitate her, and take the pearl from her bracelet. They also take her head, which they later successfully use against a hydra that attacks them during their acquisition of another pearl from the crown of a giant statue of Athena at the Parthenon replica in Nashville, Tennessee. They acquire the third and final pearl from a roulette wheel at a hotel casino in Las Vegas, in part with help from Poseidon, who aids them against Lotus Eaters. The map reveals an entrance to the Underworld in Hollywood, California.

The trio enter the Underworld, where, after traveling across the River Styx, they encounter Persephone, who takes them to Hades. Percy attempts to explain to Hades that he is not the lightning thief. During an ensuing melee, Percy drops his shield, whose handle conceals the missing master bolt, which Hades takes. However, the trio manage to reacquire it before escaping the Underworld with the rescued Sally. They are transported to the top of the Empire State Building, which they learn is the location to the entrance to Olympus. They are confronted by Luke, who reveals himself to have been the real lightning thief. Expressing his desire for a new generation of rulers to take over Olympus, he explains that he had hoped that the trio would not have escaped the Underworld alive, and after stealing the bolt from Percy, the two engage in battle. After using his water powers to dispatch Luke, Percy arrives in Olympus, where he presents the retrieved bolt, and reveals the truth about Luke. Poseidon explains to Percy the reason why they could not know each other during Percy’s childhood, but expresses his love for his son. Percy returns to Camp Half-Blood, where he resumes his training. Sally forces Gabe out of their apartment, and as he goes to get a beer from the fridge, opens it only to be turned to stone because Medusa’s unprotected eyes are staring right back at him.

Legion

Good movie. I liked all the action in it. And I always love movies where the characters have wings. Even though they didn’t have people with wings in very often, since the main character cut his off in the beginning.

Movie Cover

Plot, taken from Wiki.

After God loses faith in humanity, the Archangel Michael (Paul Bettany), who has become a fallen angel, is the only one standing between mankind and Armageddon. This time using angels to execute the Last Judgment, God’s wrath descends on Earth to exterminate the world’s population. In a desperate, last-chance gambit, Michael leads a group of strangers in a small New Mexico diner to become unlikely heroes to protect a young waitress (Adrianne Palicki) who is pregnant with what is believed to be Earths only hope for survival.

Public Enemies

Loved the movie. Johnny Depp makes a great…whatever John Dillinger was. He really has the appearance of one when they dressed him in all black like that. Kind of like a mobster.

The ending made me wish he hadn’t died, even though he was a murderer and bank robber. But in my opinion, I think he went down way to easy, compared to all the chasing they did to him through the movie. I mean, I know they knew where he was, and he didn’t know they knew, but even then, you’d think after all the running he did, he would be far more careful of how he walked around. He wasn’t even glancing around to make sure he was safe… Jeez…

This is now my favorite movie of all. And by far my favorite Johnny Depp has played in. Even more then Sweeny Todd. I love the characters he always plays.

Movie cover

Plot, taken from Wiki.

The film opens in 1933 as John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) is brought to the Indiana State Prison by his partner John “Red” Hamilton (Jason Clarke), under the disguise of a prisoner drop. Dillinger and Hamilton overpower several guards and free members of their gang including Charles Makley (Christian Stolte) and Harry Pierpont (David Wenham). The jailbreak goes off without a hitch, until gang member Ed Shouse, Jr. (Michael Vieau) beats a guard to death. A shootout ensues as the gang makes its getaway. Dillinger’s friend and mentor Walter Dietrich (James Russo) is killed, and a furious Dillinger kicks Shouse out of the car. The rest of the gang retreats to a farm house hideout, where crooked East Chicago, Indiana cop Martin Zarkovich (John Michael Bolger) convinces them to hide out in Chicago, where they can be sheltered by the local Mafia.

Later in East Liverpool, Ohio, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) and several other Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and East Liverpool Cops are running down Pretty Boy Floyd. Purvis kills Floyd and is promoted by J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup), who is struggling to expand his Bureau into a national police agency, to lead the hunt for John Dillinger, declaring the first national “War on Crime.”

In between a series of bank robberies, including a violent one at the First National Bank in East Chicago, Indiana, where Dillinger kills an East Chicago cop, Dillinger meets Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard) at a restaurant and proceeds to woo her by buying her a fur coat. Frechette falls for Dillinger even after he tells her who he is, and the two quickly become inseparable.

Melvin Purvis leads a failed ambush at a hotel where he believes Dillinger is staying. An agent is shot and killed by the occupant. After the man escapes, Purvis realizes the killer wasn’t Dillinger but was Baby Face Nelson. After this incident, Purvis requests that Hoover bring in professional lawmen who know how to catch criminals dead or alive, including Texas “cowboy” Charles Winstead (Stephen Lang).

Police finally find Dillinger and arrest him and his gang in Tucson, Arizona after a fire breaks out at the Hotel Congress. Purvis arrives that evening and briefly talks with Dillinger; Dillinger tries to size Purvis up and manages to unnerve him with his talk about the agent Nelson had killed. Dillinger is extradited back to the Lake County Jail in Crown Point, Indiana, where he is locked up by Sheriff Lillian Holley (Lili Taylor) pending trial. Dillinger and a few inmates, chief among them is Herbert Youngblood (played by Michael Bentt), carve a fake wooden gun and use it to escape the jail in Sheriff Holley’s Police Cruiser. Dillinger is unable to see Frechette, who is under tight surveillance. Dillinger learns that Frank Nitti’s (Bill Camp) Chicago Outfit associates are now unwilling to help him; Dillinger’s crimes are motivating the U.S. government to begin prosecuting interstate crime, which imperils Nitti’s lucrative bookmaking racket.

Later, Dillinger meets fellow bank robber Tommy Carroll (Spencer Garrett) in a movie theater; with him is Ed Shouse, who wants to rejoin the gang. Carroll goads Dillinger into a bank robbery job in Sioux Falls, promising a huge score. Even though Baby Face Nelson is involved, whom he doesn’t like, Dillinger agrees. A shootout (triggered by Nelson shooting a cop outside the bank) occurs in which Dillinger is shot in the arm, and Carroll is shot and left for dead. They retreat to Nelson’s wilderness hideout in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin, where Dillinger’s wounds are treated; the gang is disappointed to find that their haul is only a fraction of what they expected. Dillinger expresses hope he can free the rest of his gang still in prison, including Pierpont and Makley, but Red convinces him this is unlikely to happen.

Purvis and his men apprehend Carroll (who is still alive) and torture him to find the rest of the gang’s location. They arrive at Little Bohemia and Purvis organizes another failed ambush, in which several civilians are killed in the cross-fire. Dillinger and Hamilton escape separately from Nelson and the rest of the gang. Agents Winstead and Hurt (Don Frye) pursue Dillinger and Hamilton through the woods on foot, engaging them in a running gun battle in which Hamilton is shot and fatally wounded. Trying to escape along the road, Nelson, Shouse and Homer Van Meter (Stephen Dorff) hijack a Bureau car, killing several agents in the process, including Purvis’s partner Carter Baum (Rory Cochrane). After a car chase, Purvis and his men kill Nelson and the rest of the gang. Farther down the road, Dillinger and Hamilton steal a farmer’s car and make good their escape; Hamilton dies later that night and Dillinger buries his body, covering it in lye.

Dillinger manages to meet Frechette, telling her he plans to do one last job that will pay enough for them to escape together. However, when Dillinger drops her off at a hotel that he thinks is safe, he watches helplessly as she is captured by the FBI. An interrogator, Agent Harold Reinecke (Adam Mucci) slaps Frechette repeatedly to learn Dillinger’s whereabouts until she fabricates a location where Dillinger is hiding. Agent Reinecke investigates and realizes that he has been lied to. Once Reinecke returns, Frechette begins sneering that they missed their chance to capture him at the hotel, and that Dillinger will be very angry because she was mistreated; Purvis and Winstead arrive and angrily break up the interrogation. Meanwhile, Dillinger is meeting with Alvin Karpis (Giovanni Ribisi), who tries to recruit a disinterested Dillinger in a train robbery with his associates, the Barker Gang. After hearing about the massive reward, Dillinger agrees to pull the robbery and flee the country the next day. Dillinger receives a note from Billie through his lawyer, Louis Piquet (Peter Gerety), telling him not to try and break her out of jail.

Through crooked cop Zarkovich, Purvis enlists the help of a madam and Dillinger acquaintance Anna Sage (Branka Katic), threatening her with deportation to Romania if she does not cooperate. She agrees to set up Dillinger, who is hiding with Sage.

That night Dillinger and Sage see a Clark Gable movie called Manhattan Melodrama at the Biograph Theater. When the movie is over, Dillinger and the women leave as Purvis moves in. Dillinger spots the police, specifically Reinecke and is shot several times before he can draw his gun against the cop who harmed Frechette. Agent Winstead, who fired the fatal shot, listens to Dillinger’s last words. Purvis departs to inform Hoover that Dillinger is dead.

Later, Winstead meets Frechette in prison. He tells her that he thinks Dillinger’s dying words were “Tell Billie for me, ‘Bye bye Blackbird.'” The closing text reveals that Melvin Purvis quit the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935 and died by his own hand in 1960, and that Billie lived out of the rest of her life in Wisconsin following her release in 1936.

G-Force

G-Force was funny. Just hilarious. I don’t usually like watching Disney, and after watching Up, I had pretty much given up on Disney movies altogether. But since this one had Guinea Pigs in it, and the light brown and white one looks just like my Guinea Pig Squeaky, I really couldn’t help but want to see it.

Though, Disney is definitely not what it used to be

Plot

The film revolves around an special FBI organization of trained secret agent animals, equipped with advanced tools including an advanced earpiece that allows the mammalian members to talk to humans. In addition to a team of cockroaches, the primary field team consists of guinea pigs Darwin (Sam Rockwell) (team leader), Juarez (Penelope Cruz) (martial arts), Blaster (Tracy Morgan) (weapons/transportation), star-nosed mole Speckles (Nicolas Cage) (cyber intelligence), and fly Mooch (reconnaissance) (Dee Bradley Baker). Hoping to impress his superiors on the eve of a budgetary review, the unit’s leader, Ben (Zach Galifinakis), orders an unauthorized infiltration of the residence of home electronics and appliances magnate, Leonard Saber – Owner of Saberling Products, who has been under FBI investigation for years. The team is able to successfully retrieve considerable sensitive information about a sinister scheme that is set to occur in 29 hours. However, when Ben’s superior arrives for his evaluation, his astonishment at the team’s capabilities and technology is overcome by his indignation at Ben’s unauthorized mission and the fact that the downloaded intelligence appears to be useless information about Saber’s coffee makers. As a result, the government agent orders the unit shut down, the equipment seized and the animals to be used as experimental subjects to be killed as security risks. With the help of their human compatriots, Darwin, Juarez, Blaster, Mooch, and Speckles escape with hopes of stopping Saber’s scheme, but find themselves in a pet carrying case bound for a pet shop.

Now trapped in the store’s pet rodent display case, G-Force meets Hurley (Jon Favreau), a gluttonous guinea pig, Bucky (Steve Buscemi) an irascible hamster and three sycophantic mice. Although Blaster and Juarez manage to get themselves sold to a family with plans to return to extract their comrades, Speckles’ own attempt to escape by playing dead ends disastrously when he is thrown into and apparently crushed in a garbage truck. Meanwhile, Mooch manages to return to Ben to tell him where his mammalian agents are, but Darwin escapes (with Hurley, who is convinced that Darwin is his brother, tagging along) before he can arrive to collect them.

While Blaster and Juarez escape their new owners to return to Ben, he and his partner discover that the discredited intel has a destructive computer function that apparently hid the scheme. At this time, Darwin and Hurley make their own way to their superior. On route, Darwin sees a Saber coffeemaker and decides to investigate it, but his examination of the machine makes it come alive as a dangerous fighting robot that he and Hurley are barely able to defeat. Now with his suspicions vindicated, Darwin and Hurley transport the wreckage to Ben. However, upon arrival, Ben has lost all confidence in his team and confesses the shattering information that they are not special genetically enhanced animals as previously told, but ordinary ones Ben took in and trained for the team. However, Hurley lifts them from their despair by reminding the team of the astounding feats he has seen them do and the fact that they obviously made themselves extraordinary on their own.

Emboldened but with little time to stop the scheme, Ben provides the field team with the means to infiltrate the Saber residence and plant a virus in the computer mainframe. Unfortunately, FBI agents are ordered to capture the animals dead or alive, forcing the team to elude them with an extended pursuit thanks to a high speed vehicle especially designed for them. After that is accomplished and the team infiltrates Saber’s mainframe, the plan is put into motion, and the resulting battle separates the group, only leaving Darwin to take the mainframe down. At the same time, Leonard Saber is shocked to discover that his appliances have become killing machines, expecting them to simply be able to effectively communicate with each other, while FBI takes advantage of this obvious pretext to finally openly move against the industrialist. When Darwin reaches the mainframe, he finds out that Speckles, whose home and family had been destroyed by humans, is the mastermind of the plan, whose masterstroke is to cause a massive planetwide bombardment of space junk pulled from orbit to make the planet surface uninhabitable. Speckles promptly amalgamates the various appliances in the vicinity into a giant walking being, which, combined with a localized bombardment of orbital debris, soon overpowers the police forces gathered at the mansion. Darwin manages to persuade Speckles that his new family is with the rest of the team and Ben, who had taken them all in. Speckles consents, and tries to shut it down, but realizes that it has gone too far. However, Darwin uses the computer virus on his PDA to take it down.

At the end of the film, the guinea pigs are personally commended by the FBI Director who also appoints them special agents of the FBI. Furthermore, G-Force is reinstated as a unit of the Bureau and expanded with Hurley, Bucky and the mice inducted as new recruits. Meanwhile, Saber makes the largest product recall in history, and Speckles is given the punitive duty of personally removing the malicious chips from all Saber products, which number in the tens of thousands.

Sherlock Holmes

Awesome. I love Sherlock Holmes, and I think Robert Downey Jr. did a wonderful job with the roll. As did Jude Law. I was a little shocked to see that Rachel McAdams was in the movie, but she did great with her roll as well. She been in a lot of newer movies, it seems.

I tell anyone, this is a must see, even if you don’t like Sherlock Holmes. It’s the best Sherlock Holmes film ever.

Poster for the movie:

Plot

In 1891 London, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) race to prevent a human sacrifice ritual conducted by Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). Holmes and Watson stop the sacrifice just in time and neutralize Lord Blackwood, after which the police, led by Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan), arrive and arrest him.

Blackwood’s execution occurs three months later, during which Holmes has become bored without a new case. Watson prepares to leave 221B Baker Street to establish his own business, and he intends to marry Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly). Blackwood requests Holmes’ presence on the day of his execution, and warns him that three more deaths will occur after his execution that will change the very nature of their world. Later, Blackwood is executed by hanging, declared dead by Watson himself.

Holmes is re-acquainted with Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), the only person who has managed to outwit him. She offers him a sum of money to pursue a case of a missing red-haired midget by the name of Reardon. Holmes disguises himself to find the identity of Adler’s employer, but can only surmise him as a professor (based on the faint trace of chalk dust on his jacket). Three days after Blackwood’s execution, his tomb is found shattered, from the inside out, and an eyewitness reports seeing Blackwood walking away. Holmes, Watson, and Lestrade find Blackwood’s coffin contains the body of the red-haired midget. Holmes follows clues from a pocketwatch on the body to the midget’s home, where they discover several chemistry experiments. They narrowly avoid capture by three thugs that have arrived to destroy the evidence in the home, but subsequently are arrested for property damage. Watson is released on bail by Miss Morstan, while Holmes is taken to the Temple of the Four Orders, an occult-dabbling secret society. Their leaders reveal Blackwood was a former member, and plead for Holmes to help stop him. Holmes declines their generous offers of reward but continues to investigate. As Holmes and Watson investigate, the two senior members are killed through apparent magical means by Blackwood, and he assumes control of the order, desiring to use the Order’s power to push for England to retake the United States after their civil war has weakened their defenses. Blackwood orders the Home Secretary, a member of the Order, to issue a warrant for Holmes’ arrest.

Holmes and Watson follow clues to an industrial slaughterhouse, where they are taunted by Blackwood and forced to rescue Adler from a deathly conveyor belt trap. Watson chases after Blackwood but is caught by a tripwire, setting off an explosion; Watson is able to warn Holmes and Alder to safety but is badly injured himself in the explosion. Holmes learns he is wanted by the police and goes into hiding, and reflects on the clues he has collected. He comes to realize that Blackwood is attempting to cast a spell based on the sphinx, with the three murdered tied to three of the mythical creature’s animal constituents: man, ox, and eagle. Holmes deduces the fourth, the lion, is symbolized by the English Parliament. Holmes allows Lestrade to capture and bring him to the Home Secretary. Overconfident, the Secretary reveals Blackwood’s plan for wiping out all the Lords but save those loyal followers of his. Holmes escapes, diving into the river Thames, and is rescued by a waiting boat with Watson and Adler in it.

Regrouping with Watson and Adler, Holmes takes them to the sewers below Parliament where they find a machine devised by the midget that is operated by a remote trigger held by Blackwood that will release a cyanide derivative into the Parliament chambers. The three fight off Blackwood’s men and dislodge the cyanide cylinders from the machine. Adler grabs the cylinders and races away, followed by Holmes; Blackwood becomes aware his machine has failed and shortly follows thereafter. The three arrive at the top of the Tower Bridge, still under construction. Blackwood knocks Adler to a lower platform, where she falls unconscious. Holmes tricks Blackwood into becoming entangled in the ropes and chains, and Blackwood is soon hanging precariously from these over the Thames while Holmes recounts that all of Blackwood’s “mystical” acts (including faking his own death) were simply applications of science and trickery. Holmes intends for Blackwood to stand trial but, tangled in ropes, Blackwood falls and is hanged by the chains. Holmes helps Adler recover, though handcuffs her. She explains that the mysterious caped man in the carriage is one Professor Moriarty. Adler warns Holmes that Moriarty “is just as brilliant as he is, and infinitely more devious”. Holmes drops the key to the cuffs in Adler’s cleavage and leaves her, returning to Watson. The police arrive to report a dead officer found near Blackwood’s device, and Holmes deduces that chasing Adler and fighting Blackwood was a diversion by Moriarty, who used the distraction to take a key component of Blackwood’s remote control device from the machine. The film ends with Holmes accepting the case.

Up

‘Shortest movie title EVER!’ Said in a Comic Guy way. Haha. I couldn’t resist.

Just saw Up. First Pixar Movie I have seen in a long time. I’m more into thrillers and horror movies, so it wasn’t very good to me. Most disappointing about movies like this, is no blood. Bah.

Plot, taken from Wiki

Carl Fredricksen, a shy and quiet young boy, meets an energetic and outgoing tomboy named Ellie, discovering they share the same interest in exploration as their hero, the famed explorer Charles F. Muntz. Ellie tells Carl of her desire to move her clubhouse to Paradise Falls in South America, and makes Carl promise to help. Carl and Ellie wed and grow old together in the old house where they first met while making a living as a toy balloon vendor and a zookeeper respectively. Unable to have children, they repeatedly try to save up for the trip to Paradise Falls, but other financial obligations arise. Just as they’re finally about to take their trip, Ellie passes away, leaving Carl a lonely and bitter old man with nothing to live for and missing his wife terribly. As the years pass, the city grows around Carl’s house with construction as Carl refuses to move. After a tussle with a construction worker over Carl’s broken mailbox, the court orders Carl to move into a retirement home. Carl comes up with a scheme to keep his promise to Ellie, and uses his old professional supplies to create a makeshift airship using tens of thousands of helium balloons that lift his house off its foundations. Russell, a Wilderness Explorer trying to earn his final merit badge for “Assisting the Elderly”, has stowed away on the porch after being sent on a snipe hunt by Carl the day before.

After a storm throws them around for a while, they find themselves landing on a great plateau across a large ravine facing Paradise Falls. With their body weight providing ballast allowing Carl and Russell to pull the floating house, the two begin to walk around the ravine, hoping to reach the falls while there’s still enough helium in the balloons to keep the house afloat. As they walk towards Paradise Falls, Russell finds a colorful tropical flightless bird, which he names Kevin, not realizing that the bird is actually female. They later run into a dog named Dug wearing a translating collar that lets him speak. They discover Dug’s owner is the elderly Charles Muntz himself, who returned to South America in his immense dirigible several decades earlier in a quest to find and bring back a large species of bird to restore his reputation, tarnished by accusations of fraud. Muntz invites Carl and Russell into his dirigible and Carl is initially thrilled to meet his hero. However, when Carl realizes that Muntz is after Kevin and will kill without a moment’s thought in order to capture her alive, he takes steps to save the bird and escape with Russell. Thanks to Kevin and Dug they flee the dirigible and escape Muntz’s pack of vicious dogs, led by Alpha, but Kevin is injured during the escape.

As Carl and Russell assist the injured Kevin to her chicks, Muntz and his dogs arrive in his airship, led by a tracking device in Dug’s collar, and sets a fire under Carl’s house, forcing Carl to choose his house over Kevin. Muntz and his dogs quickly capture the bird and fly off. Though Carl successfully gets the house on the ground overlooking Paradise Falls per Ellie’s wish, he has lost Russell’s favor. Carl, settling down in his house, finds Ellie’s childhood scrapbook and discovers her mementos of her life with Carl after they were married, and a final note from her thanking Carl for her adventure of marriage with him and an encouragement for him to go on his own. Invigorated by Ellie’s last wish, he goes outside to find Russell, only to find him suspended from balloons to give chase to Muntz. Carl lightens the weight of his house by dumping his furniture and other possessions, allowing him to chase after Muntz in his house with Dug by his side.

Russell enters the airship through a window, but is captured by the dogs. He is tied up on a chair and left to fall to the earth from the dirigible’s access ramp. Carl saves him however, but keeps him tied up in the house for his own safety. Carl and Dug board the ship and are able to lure the guard dogs away from Kevin to free her. Carl and Muntz duel face to face and fight (Muntz with a sword, Carl with his cane), while Dug is able to wrest control of the dogs and the dirigible from Alpha. Russell frees himself but clings to a lifeline as he finds the house in a literal dogfight with biplanes piloted by Muntz’s dogs. When Carl shouts for help, Russell distracts the pilots and regains control of the house to rescue his friends, who are now on top of the airship. In pursuit, Muntz shoots out some of the balloons, causing the house to land and slide off the airship. Carl manages to trick Muntz inside the house while saving Russell, Dug, and Kevin. Muntz accidentally lets go of the rope and plummets towards the earth below, while Carl’s house drifts off into the clouds — a loss Carl gracefully accepts as being for the best.

Carl takes Muntz’s dirigible and returns Kevin to her chicks, then flies Russell and Dug back to the city. When Russell’s father misses his son’s Senior Explorer ceremony, Carl fulfills that role himself to proudly present Russell with his final badge, the grape soda cap badge that Ellie presented to Carl when they first met. Afterward, Carl, reinvigorated in both spirit and body from his adventure, becomes a cheerfully active community volunteer with a strong father-like relationship with Russell and the other Wilderness Explorers. Whilst Carl now resides in Muntz’s airship, his old house has landed exactly where Ellie envisioned it — overlooking Paradise Falls. The last speaking scene before the credits shows Carl and Russell eating ice cream seated in front of Fenton’s, a real-life ice cream parlor in Oakland, California.