Dolby Digital 5.1 (Thai)

Death is unfortunately something that comes to us all.  It's not something we can prevent, even if we do all that is necessary to prolong it.  In the same breath, we can control to some degree what we can pass on to our family and loved ones, whether it be our spouse, children, both, or perhaps none at all.  Whether it be wealth, property, movie collection (son, you have no idea), or perhaps some sentimental trinkets, a simple will and responsible caretaker should be all you need in order to pass it on.  However, responsibility can sometimes be fleeting.  Today, we look at a movie called Cracked, where pieces of art are passed down from a father to a daughter with frightening results.  Let's take a look.

New York: a monorail train speeds by in the big city.  Ruja (played by Chayanit Chansangavej) is in her apartment with her daughter, Rachel (played by Nutthatcha Padovan).  Rachel is asleep, and Ruja is on the phone with an unknown party.  The mother is asking for money that she desperately needs.  At one point, the person on the phone obviously refuses, and we are also now aware that Rachel needs eye surgery, or else she will go blind.  The conversation ends with a click, and the phone goes dead.  Nearby, it appears that the daughter is awake and listening.  She asks her mother if she really is going to go blind.  Through the blurry child's eyes, the two embrace as the mother comforts her and tells her everything is going to be OK.

Fight Fans welcome. We have for you today in the center of this ring, the story of four young men from different backgrounds but who have all come to fight in the Beatdown. The Beatdown is a place where passion can fuel the desire of the fighters to become the very best. But, there are many obstacles in their way in life and in the ring. What exactly will happen and how many broken bones will take place? Join me in the cage and we shall experience, Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown.

Are you ready?, I said are you ready? Then for the thousands in attendance (or just me and two nervous cats) and the millions (or possibly dozens) watching around the world (okay domestic United States and possibly Canada), let's get ready to go down the cast page and story plotline. We have some interesting characters tonight and there is no way you can follow the action if you don't have a program to go by. Programs are sold at the door and are available at www.donttakethisseriously.com.

Written by Diane Tillis

Raging Phoenix is a film of particular tastes and appeal. As someone who has very little experience with martial arts films, I may be the wrong person to comment on the quality of the fighting sequences or how it compares to other martial arts films. I will leave those comments to the people who are devoted fans and love these films. I can comment on the quality of the DVD so that those who are looking for a great addition to their martial arts film collection will know what to expect.

Pulse:

Plenty of Japanese horror films have storylines that vary from the oblique to the opaque. Pulse is no exception, so forgive me if this synopsis is a bit confusing (or confused). An internet website offers visitors the chance to see actual ghosts. Viewing the footage seems to make one vulnerable to an actual visitation, and when someone encounters a ghost, that person withdraws from others, shunning all society, and becomes consumed by loneliness to the point of suicide or something even more bizarre. All of this is slowly being uncovered by two groups of friends, even as the plague of ghostly encounters spreads far and wide.

Remakes are a fact of life. It might seem now more than ever that we are plagued with this reality, but it's been true for a very long time. It's not so new, as you might expect. Even the lauded Cecil B. Demille The Ten Commandments was a remake of his own silent 1923 film. They've existed almost as long as the movies themselves and will continue to exist for the foreseeable future. So, the question should be: Why should a particular film be remade? Often technology catches up with the content in a film. The ability to create on the screen something that was simply impossible originally is a legitimate reason to tackle an older film. Sometimes the movie is so powerful that it bears retelling for a new generation.

But then there are the reasons why a film should not be remade. There are some classics that simply should be off limits forever. Would anyone even dare attempt to remake The Godfather? There are those films that are just not worth being remade. How many versions of Piranha do we really need? Then there are the films that are remade in title only, like the 1999 version of The Thomas Crown Affair.

Who doesn’t remember the original Witch Mountain films from Disney back in the 1970’s. They were clever family films. They were camp, to be sure. But, most of us remember them fondly, if not as particularly outstanding films. While Disney’s reimagining of the franchise doesn’t have a great deal in common with those earlier films, you can pretty much describe the reaction as being spot on. Race To Witch Mountain isn’t going to be breaking any box office records, but it is the kind of film you get a pretty warm feeling for, and like its predecessors, you’ll end up remembering it with fondness.

A flying saucer crashes in the Nevada desert near Las Vegas. The crash just so happens to coincide with the arrival of a huge UFO convention in Sin City. The Defense Department has secured the crash site. They quickly discover that the ship’s passengers have slipped through their perimeter. Now it’s a race to find the extraterrestrials before they can hatch whatever nefarious plan has brought them to our planet. The investigation is spearheaded by Henry Burke (Hinds). Meanwhile Vegas cabdriver Jack Bruno (Johnson) is busy ferrying the “nut jobs” to the UFO convention. Bruno was once a gifted race car driver as well as excelling in demotion derby driving. He had once worked a stint as a mob driver and has gotten out of the business. But, as we all know by now, you don’t just retire from the mob. So, there are some goons after him to “persuade” him to return to the job. All of a sudden a pair of teens appears in his car loaded with a huge wad of cash and a mysterious electronic device. The teens request to be taken to a remote location that appears to be being directed by the unknown gizmo. When his cab is assaulted by a convoy of black SUV’s, Bruno thinks it’s his old mob heavies, but it’s Burke and his ET hunters after the kids, who happen to be the escaped aliens. For the rest of the film Bruno and his unusual passengers, Sara (Robb) and Seth (Ludwig) try to locate a device that contains information that will stop an impending attack on the Earth. The kids must find the device, get their ship out of Burke’s hands, and return to their own planet before an all out invasion is launched at our planet. All the while the group is being pursued by the mob, Burke’s boys, and an alien bounty hunter with a ton of weapons at its disposal. They have two weapons of their own. First, the kids have some remarkable powers. Sara can move objects with her mind and talk to animals, and Seth can manipulate the density of his molecular structure, thus enabling him to pass through solid objects or withstand a head-on collision by an oil tanker. The second weapon is Dr. Alex Friedman (Gugino), an attractive scientist who speaks at these UFO conventions for a living, who happened to be one of Bruno’s earlier “nut jobs”. Together they race against time to save the planet, interacting with some peculiar characters along the way.

Autism is commonly defined as a brain development disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. Sometimes, due to that lack of social interaction and repetitive behavior, the people affected develop a special skill or heightened senses. The results can be amazing. However, in film, autism is rarely shown as what it truly is, a disorder. To find a film that not only embraces the special skill as well as show the difficulty it takes to exist and function normally is pretty rare.

Zin (played by Ammara Siripong) is involved with Yakuza Boss Masashi (played by Hiroshi Abe). There is just one problem with that. She was previously the girlfriend of a gangster simply known as No. 8 (played by Pongpat Wachirabunjong). No. 8 in his own jealous rage decided to shoot his own toe and forbid Zin from ever seeing Masashi again. She decides to flee and tells Masashi to not follow.

On the surface it would seem that Linewatch is going to tackle the controversial illegal immigration debate that is going on in the United States these days. At first it seems that’s exactly what’s going on. We meet border patrol officer “Mad Dog” Dixon (Gooding, Jr.) doing patrol in the hotbed of illegal immigration the Southwest. He comes across a group of illegals dead and has a run in with a citizen patrol which acts much like the Minutemen in the media today. The way the film is set up you are expected to believe that this gung ho group of patriots is perhaps responsible for the carnage. It turns out they’re on the war path for the coyote who did kill the group. So, before long we’ve got the makings of a nice relevant story on our hands. Then something goes horribly wrong, both for Mad Dog and for us, the viewers. It turns out that Dixon was once a member of a Los Angeles street gang called The High Noon Gang, or HNG for short. Now the old gang pops up at his home. It appears that Dixon has killed their drug runner, and now their stash is on the wrong side of the border. The gang threatens to kill Dixon’s wife and young daughter if he doesn’t help get the stuff across. Now we no longer have a border story but a typical, done before a million times, gang banger tale. All of the Minutemen setup is used as gunfight fodder, and the issues are explored no further.

 

Screwball comedies can be fun, sometimes. The comedy where the main cast members have the intelligence of a three-toed sloth...combined. Dumb & Dumber was a good example. Gags that get created simply on the premise of their inadequate brain power. However, Dumb & Dumber created an awful sequel. What's worse is that created a few wannabes in the process. One of those films arguably is Brothers Solomon. However, this viewer hoped just for a second that I wouldn't be holding my head in my lap the entire ninety three minutes asking for my very painful headache to go away.

John & Dean Solomon (played by Will Arnett & Will Forte) are brothers whose mother had died and were brought up in the arctic by their father Ed(played by Lee Majors). However, Ed goes ill and lapses into a coma. According to the doctor, his last wish is to have a grandbaby. However, John & Dean are not exactly very bright nor very lucky in love. After a few crappy dates, they decide to explore other methods of having a baby. They decide to contact a lady, Janine (played by Kristen Wiig) who was interested in carrying a baby for them to term. After brief negotiations (which somehow ended higher than the price Janine started out at), the brothers end up in a sperm donor bank. Janine is successfully impregnated and the journey really begins as the brothers learn to become fathers and hilarity ensues.