Drama

At a point in time, women’s fighting was nothing more than usually a side show attraction. As the years went by, the concept of women fighting each other became more and more accepted. There is a women’s boxing league and there are serious women all over the wrestling circuit (and not just t&a shows). There are even rumblings of MMA females (that might be a bit too far though). So, a good plot line for movies would be to interject the female into a man’s fighting world and see how they do. Take underground boxing and the movie: Fight Night, this could be a great marriage.

Sometimes I feel like a broken record. Once upon a time, I adored the likes of Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme. I would spend many hours watching Above the Law or Bloodsport until I had nothing else better to do. When I matured, I left many of those movies behind. However, the spirit of those movies was still within the type of movies I would typically watch. The problem is that both of these starts pretty much went from feature film to direct to DVD. But Jean-Claude has tried to change his image by taking on more serious roles. His newest, JCVD; he takes on the role of himself the actor.

Every once in a while a movie comes along that has a very strong social message, but never comes across as heavy handed or preachy. What Doesn’t Kill You is one of the best of those movies that I’ve seen in some time. It’s based upon the real life struggles of Brian Goodman, who wrote the screenplay while he was in prison. Goodman was a lifelong criminal who was also addicted to booze and drugs. With the inspiration he gained from his two young sons, Goodman turned his life around. He got himself sober and avoided the temptations that would lead him back into a life of crime and ultimately prison.

With so many cast changes, it didn’t really come as too much of a surprise to fans that the series was winding down. Only one more season would follow, and this year never clicked in quite the same way previous seasons had. By now the team was so significantly different that there was little of the cast chemistry that made this one such a winner. With its glory years behind and only one more struggling year to come, we reach the end of our journey with the IM Force.

Animal films have done quite well at the box office in recent years. Who can forget the astounding appeal of March Of The Penguins. With wonderful cinematography and the commanding narration of Morgan Freeman, the film took the box office by storm. There have been countless efforts to reproduce those results ever since. The latest of these to hit Blu-ray is the indoctrination piece, Arctic Tale. I say indoctrination because this movie is never content with following the natural migration or struggles of the animals it depicts.

I’m not a wrestling fan. There is very little about that world that holds any charm for me. I find the grandiose posturing to be rather dull. The characters aren’t all that interesting to me, and I don’t find myself compelled to spend 100 bucks on a “free for all” pay per view event. With that said, this film did bring back a flood of memories for me. When I was a kid, perhaps 11 or 12, I looked at wrestling a little differently. I had an uncle who would watch it from time to time, but the television version never held much for me even then. I grew up in a relatively middle sized town in eastern Pennsylvania. If you play Monopoly, you’ve heard of the Reading Railroad.

After five years on the air, Hawaii Five-O entered its sixth season pretty much unchanged. There was actually very little change over the years. McGarrett was still on the case with his trusted Danno and Chin-Ho. The Hawaiian settings continued to showcase the locations of the island chain as well as much of the state’s local acting talent. But most of all, the show kept up with the quality of stories. The season began with an armless man out to kill the cops he holds responsible for his condition.

So Toby Wilkins will be helming The Grudge 3. That's a bit of a shame. Not because I think he's the wrong man for the project. Rather, it's the wrong project for the man. Or, less glibly but more precisely, he is showing real promise as a filmmaker, and it would be a shame to see more talent squandered on a franchise that should definitely be put out to pasture. I base this evaluation on the evidence presented in Splinter, a nifty little creature flick .

The Last Kiss is based on the internationally acclaimed Italian movie L’ultimo bacio which was written by Gabriele Muccino and adapted for this American version by screenwriter Paul Haggis. From all reports the movie is remarkably similar to the Italian classic with only the ending modified. Haggis tells us in the extras of this release that he attempted to merely translate the original work and performed little in the way of modifications. From the looks of things, the ending was a bit of a struggle for these filmmakers,

“I found out that if you wanna know the purpose of a thing, you can’t ask the thing to tell you. A car doesn’t know why it’s a car; only the manufacturer knows what it was meant to do. And I guess that’s the same way it is with God.”

Not Easily Broken was written by a minister, Bishop T.D. Jakes. So you should expect a very spiritual message when you watch this movie. If that’s not your cup of tea, as they say, this really isn’t going to be the film for you.