There has been little news on the upcoming Mad Men season five beyond the release date, and that’s the way the shows creator Matthew Weiner likes it as he continues his reign as the Bill Belichick of TV production. Roger Sterling especially might remember the term “Loose Lips Sink Ships” but in this case I suppose it would be more along the lines of “Slipped Spoilers Mars MadMen” that’s being enforced.
That being said, a lot of extrapolation is coming out of comments made by Jon Hamm about the upcoming season, and the potential for relations between Don Draper and Christina Hendricks’ Joan.
It’s the pairing that fans of the show have most been salivating for as Don and Joan seem to be the two most likely candidates to hook up, but somehow always keep their worlds apart, or at least their bedspreads. Personally I don’t see it happening this season.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance easily surpasses it’s predecessor, but not by much. They definitely ignored events of the first one and started from scratch, getting straight to the point with the opening sequence. Given that, it still seemed like the filmmakers were sort of relying on you having seen the first movie so you had a better understanding of what the Rider is even though they explained everything in five minutes. Nicolas Cage is at his quirky best in the film, acting half crazed in several scenes as he struggles to keep Ghost Rider within himself.
The plot of the movie reminded me a lot of the plot from Drive Angry, another Cage starring flick involving a satanic cult attempting to take a child that will be used to bring the devil to our world and create hell on Earth. The premise was the same in Spirit of Vengeance, but the execution was less ridiculous than it was in Drive Angry. The devil himself walks the Earth in Spirit of Vengeance, played by Ciarán Hinds. Hinds, who has most recently appeared in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy seems to be wasted in the role of the devil. (Or Roarke as he is known in the movie) I remember back to when Rome was still on HBO and he played the role of Caesar and just can’t pinpoint why he would accept this role except for the cash. The same could be said for actor Idris Elba, but he seems right at home in the role of Moreau, the French, wine drinking holy man who assists Johnny Blaze in trying to regain his humanity in this installment of Ghost Rider.
Nicolas Cage used to be a great actor, but now he has become a sort of caricature of himself in many ways. It’s known that he had financial troubles in recent years and it’s now common knowledge as to why he releases nearly six movies every other year. I’m not saying I won’t go see any Nicolas Cage movies anymore, I’m just saying he’s no longer the actor he once was, we just can’t expect anything spectacular out of him anymore performance wise.
Even though the movie’s plot was dog crap and typical of many supernatural movies in recent years, the special effects in regard to Ghost Rider himself were excellent. The first time you experience him in the movie he is definitely a creepy sight to behold as his movements as he walks toward a victim are choppy and erratic. His head tilting and screaming were also a bit disconcerting. This wears off later in the movie, but I thought they couldn’t have done a better job with the character who is pretty one dimensional in the comics anyhow. The action sequences weren’t all that bad either and was one of the main things that even kept me awake during the movie. I loved the concept of the Rider being able to change any vehicle he rides into a flame spewing death machine.
*Minor Spoiler*
I never looked much into the origin of Ghost Rider aside from his human host making a deal or being cursed, but in the movie we are treated to one. It turns out the Rider was formerly an Angel called Zarathos, the Spirit of Justice, who was sent to Earth to help mankind. Unfortunately he was driven mad after being captured by the forces of hell and now in his form as Ghost Rider he punishes everyone no matter the severity of their crime. I thought that was an interesting take on the character.
Overall I give Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 2 out of 5 grizzlies.
It wasn’t as good as I expected, but it was definitely better than the first Ghost Rider movie. I honestly hope at this point that they might be done with trying to make Ghost Rider something more than he is. I wouldn’t think they would make yet another movie to attempt correcting the things wrong with this movie, but it is Hollywood so you never know. I think Ghost Rider is in the same boat as Punisher, he has a faithful following but not enough to elevate him into the box office smash hit like Spiderman or Iron Man. It was a nice try for the studio to make up for the first Ghost Rider though.
This episode began right where episode 8 left off. Rick, Glenn and Hershel are in the abandoned saloon. The three of them are waiting by the door to the bar because the friends of the men that Rick shot are looking for them. Rick yells to the men that their friends drew on them and they begin shooting into the bar…
Lori flipped her car into a ditch last episode, and is still there. A walker tries getting through the glass and as glass scrapes his skin off of his face, she grabs a sharp object from her car and stabs him in the eye. As she exits her crumpled up vehicle, she forgets that zombies are sneaky and doesn’t check her surroundings. Another walker attempts to attack her, and she hits him in the head with a rim. Fantastic.
As the rest of the group sits down to dinner, Shane realizes that it has been a long time since anyone has seen Lori. Shane takes the car and heads out to find her. He finds her walking down the road and tells her that Rick and the boys are already back and safe. She trusts him… because he has never lied to her before, right?
As the boys try to get to the car from the bar, the dead men’s friends are shooting at them. Hershel shoots one of their friends, and the rest of the guys decide to get out of there. One of the group jumps off of the roof and (surprise!) hurts himself. His leg was pierced all of the way through by the top of a gate. Rick and Hershel attempt to cut his leg off while Glenn watches out, but the place is crawling with walkers, so Rick rips his leg off of the gate and they head out. [It was AWESOME.]
A new I Am Legend movie is currently in the works. Produced by Warner Brothers, and with a screenplay penned by Arash Amel, the reported follow up to the 2007 film has little else as of now. Writer Amel’s only other writing credits are two films that are currently in production, including a CIA thriller starring Aaron Eckhart called The Expatriate.
There’s little news as to what direction the film might go in, but since Will Smith’s character died at the end of I Am Legend, it’s unlikely that a sequel would be the right way to go if Warner Bros. wants to cast Smith in the lead, which they do. Then again, a prequel wouldn’t be much better, would it? It’d essentially be two hours of Will Smith watching everyone in New York die before his eyes while him and his dog just chill out and watch.
Thus far, the film, whose original is based off the novel of the same name by Richard Matheson, has neither a director nor a star. Warner Bros. are shooting to get the original film’s director, Francis Lawrence, back behind the camera. They’re also shooting to get Smith back in the lead, but the more I think about it, the less sense it makes.
To be perfectly frank, the 2007 I Am Legend was a great Will Smith action flick that worked extremely well as a standalone film. Making $585 million dollars worldwide on a $150 million dollar budget, as well as earning a positive 69% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film was both a critical and commercial success backed by a great performance by Will Smith.
Matheson’s novel has been adapted into films two times. The first being The Last Man on Earth in 1964, and a second time in 1971 with the name, The Omega Man. The fact that Hollywood execs are trying to squeeze out a sequel for a movie that was obviously meant to be stand-alone isn’t surprising, but it’s definitely disappointing. Personally, I hope that Will Smith denies it, but he’s got to put food on the table, right?
What can I say about Journey 2: The Mysterious Island? It was a little better than I expected and had some great visuals. Also, even though it seems like the Rock is just put into movies to lure the mindless masses into the movie theater, he actually kind of made the movie better than it would have been. The plot seems to be loosely based off of the first movie which I only saw bits and pieces of, but Josh Hutcherson (Soon to be in The Hunger Games.) returns as Sean Anderson who is an adventurer/scientist on a mission to find his grandfather Alexander Anderson who has gone missing and has apparently been looking for Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island for about half of his life. Really, it seems like they just cobbled together the pretense for them to head out and find the grandfather and mysterious island in about thirty seconds…. Which they probably actually did. Anyways, the Rock, who plays Sean’s gigantic, ex-Navy, stepfather decides to help Sean break a code sent from his grandfather in an attempt to be closer to him family wise. What Mr. The Rock didn’t count on was Sean being right that there is indeed a Mysterious Island. A Mysterious Island they have no way of getting off of before impending disaster strikes.
Really, the movie was never meant to be an Academy Award winner and it definitely wasn’t. With the acting talents of Vanessa Hudgens and Luis Guzman (As the father-daughter helicopter team that brought them to the island) intermingled with those of Josh Hutcherson and The Rock, they don’t measure up anything near to Michael Caine. What Rock doesn’t have in acting ability he more than makes up for in hilarity. There is a scene in the movie where he “pops” his pectoral muscles for about three minutes as he urges Josh Hutcherson and Guzman to bounce berries off of them. This as you know, is a sure fire way to win over any woman. The scene had me laughing my ass off, the Rock urging Hutcherson to “Feed them. They’re not going to stop until you do.” As funny as I found the scene, I can only imagine that young kids and their parents were probably left puzzled as to what in the shit they brought their kids to. But oh well, it made me laugh.
It seemed like the rescue of Naevia was going very well in the last episode. They infiltrated the mines after killing the guards and disguising themselves as Romans. They even seemed to have Glaber’s troops fooled when they came searching for the rebel slaves, until Ashur had to go and ruin things for them. Now they are on the run with Naevia in hand, but absent most of the men they went in with, including Crixus who is now captive of the Romans! Along the way of escaping Spartacus will lose even more of his followers and one begs the question of whether or not Naevia was really worth the cost of so many lives. The fight scenes mingled in between all of the political machinations this episode were awesome and entertaining even though they didn’t progress the story so much. I would imagine those not interested in political maneuvering at all were probably pretty bored with the episode as a whole. I definitely enjoyed it even though it didn’t live up to the other episodes of the season.
It was pretty obvious that Agron and reinforcements were going to show up at the end when Spartacus and Mira were making their last stand, but it was a nice touch when it turned out that the approaching “Roman” soldiers were really Agron and his men. I’m hoping Nasir survives the wound he took protecting Mira in the episode because I’m really enjoying his character and how far he has come in regards to his loyalty. I have a little notion in the back of my head that he is only doing many of these things to gain Spartacus’ trust so he can get close and ultimately kill him, but his loyalty to their cause seems genuine. Especially with him wanting to be called by his Syrian name and taking a sword in the stomach for Mira, but only time will tell.
Ashur was in rare form once again in helping the Romans track the rebels. He even actually showed a little fighting prowess…. By stabbing an ex-gladiator in the back, but at least he is still willing to get his hands dirty. His decision to kill the Roman commander and retreat from Spartacus instead is probably going to be deemed as cowardly by a lot of us viewers but I think it was smarter. If Ashur was a viewer of the show he’d know like us that Spartacus was pretty much unstoppable against a squad of Roman soldiers, but as a character Ashur was able to see every victory Spartacus had in the arena up close and in person. I applaud him for knowing it was futile to fight the ex-champion of Capua. I wonder what Glaber will do to Ashur when he returns still alive but with many troops lost. He sure as hell won’t be happy.
As I said above, the political battle between Glaber and Verinius continues into this episode with Glaber being forced into hosting a party in the honor of Verinius since he kind of embarrassed him last week by having his troops pull a no-show. Very surprising to me is Illythia’s willingness to simply abandon Glaber by having her marriage dissolved and get together with Verinius. It seemed like she was always right by the side of her man but after seeing him receiving aid from Lucretia and listening to her dad talk of how great Verinius is the last couple episodes it would seem she’s more than ready to move on to greener pastures. After receiving a pretty solid yes from Verinius (you know what I’m talking about) on the stipulation that her marriage be dissolved things couldn’t be going better for Illythia. That is, until she finds Lucretia banging her dad! Lucretia claims that she did it for Illythia to convince her father to dissolve the marriage between Glaber and her, but Illythia has doubts about it.
Lucretia is back to her scheming and plotting self fully now and one wonders what she convinced Illythia’s father of while doing the nasty. It would seem after Seppia’s failed seduction of Verinius that her and Seppius’ part in the show would be over, but I think it might still linger. Glaber already planted a seed of discontent in the mind of Seppius with that comment about Verinius banging his sister and he probably won’t see past her being cast aside for Illythia. It could be that an alliance is brewing between Glaber and Seppius that will culminate against Verinius and Illythia. One must wonder where Lucretia intends to land during all of this. Honestly, I don’t think we’ve seen Glaber’s dark side at this point, even though he has done much. I would fully expect there to some major retribution coming Illythia’s way once he finds out that she plans to betray him. Who knows, once she is out of the picture (potentially.) Glaber may gain the allegiance of Seppius by taking his sister as a wife.
Overall I can’t wait to see Crixus, Oenomaus and Rashko fight in the arena once more. The scene that Lucretia had alone with Crixus for a moment was about as tension filled as it gets and I can’t help but think that he shouldn’t have told her about Naevia being alive. It would be revenge enough seeing Crixus in the arena as a hated enemy of the state but if Naevia were to be recaptured and a slave again that would be the ultimate torment to the Gaul. I give the episode 3 out of 5 grizzlies. Good but not the greatest, but it definitely had stiff competition to go up against with the brilliance of the last episode.
I’m more than ready for the coming episode as we were treated to a preview at the end of this one featuring none other than ex-champion Gannicus! There will be arena fighting and more to come so stay tuned!
Grizzly Bomb 
