What is the world coming to when the President is forced to rely on a preteen kid as his only means of protection? Or at least that is what I’d be wondering if I was Samuel L. Jackson in Big Game. In fact, if I was him, I’d probably fire my entire staff after this adventure. Crash-landed in Finland, the President finds himself alone and being hunted with his only ally being a young kid who is undertaking a traditional rite of passage. I have to say, despite the high stakes, the movie managed to keep things somewhat lighthearted, thereby allowing it to appeal to larger audience. Movie watchers are about to see SLJ in a completely different role as the President instead of his usual action-packed roles.

One of the most powerful men in the world is reduced to prey after Air Force One is brought down over the woods of Finland. Seemingly the only survivor of the wreck, President William Alan (Jackson) Moore is found by young Oskari (Onni Tommila), a native boy who was in the woods to complete his people’s traditional hunter rite of passage, which requires spending the night in the woods and bringing back a trophy. Unaware of his surroundings, President Moore must rely on Oskari’s knowledge to survive, all the while attempting to evade the men who brought down his plane for the purpose of hunting him like prey.

by Dustin P. Anderson

Honoring the memory of her husband, Addison Davenport sets off to a cabin in the woods with her four friends on the anniversary of his death. The friends go on their road trip, and once at their destination proceed to party. Little do these women know that they are not alone. A killer makes their presence known and starts torturing the girls. This could have been a great homage to classic eighties horror/slasher movies, but the creator couldn’t make a lot of the dialog coherent, nor could he make a meaningful plot. The dialog ranges from all the bad things we hated about the eighties horror scene, to all of the dialog I have grown to hate from newer horror films. It takes the “vulgarity for the sake of being vulgar” shtick from such classics as Friday the Thirteenth and Halloween. It takes the overly-dramatic pleading from torture films like Cry Wolf and Hostel. Neither of these themes are the greatest portions of the movies we hold as classics, and I would rather not be forced into remembering it. The plot has two twists. The first twist misses the mark so tremendously I had to avert my eyes. I am not going to go into too much detail, but after the twist is revealed, the killer loses all credibility and just turns out to be crazy. The second twist was just thrown at us. Like the dialog, it is trying to remind the audience of when twist endings at the end of a horror movie gave you one last scare. This twist left me less scared, and more annoyed. It seemed out of place and cheap.

by Dustin P. Anderson

Our story follows Camilla, a young girl living with her family and going to school in Manhattan during the year 1948. Her family is very wealthy and wants for little, but they are experiencing a difficult time in their life right now. Camilla’s mother is having an affair with a French man due to her husband being distant and supposedly uncaring. While going through this difficult time, Camilla is caught in the middle and unsure of what to do. Should she say something to her father or be faithful to her mother? Her friend Louisa tries to help her through this troubling time, but Louisa has troubles of her own. Louisa’s parents constantly fight, leaving Louisa and her older brother, Frank, to pick up the pieces of the parents’ failing relationship. One day when Louisa is nowhere to be found, Camilla runs into Frank, and the two take off together before Frank’s parents can begin to fight again. A relationship starts to bloom, and Camilla is uneasy about what will become of her new relationship, her friend Louisa, and her parents’ marriage.

I consider myself an optimist, so even when something looks bad, I try to look for the good. I searched for 84 long, painful minutes to look for good in Panic 5 Bravo. It’s a tale of four paramedics in an ambulance at the edge of the US/Mexican border that I, sadly, don’t ever give a dang about. There’s Richard, a curmudgeon days away from retiring; Josh, the rich-boy newbie; Bobby, the good-oops no bad- girl, and Alex, the eye-candy –a golden-retriever loving Mexican-American who is getting ready to propose to his girlfriend. Kuno Becker (Alex) also wrote, directed, and starred in the film. Just within the first few minutes of the interior shots of the ambulance which we never leave, there’s a lot of F words for the sake of filling up a script with a lot of holes, I guess.

A disgusting penal initiation hazing of the rookie Josh by the three older paramedics gets interrupted by a call of 5 Bravo. The crew watches as a young man just a few feet away lies on the ground bleeding to death from a gunshot wound on the Mexican side of the border. The four watch what unfolds without moving and discuss meal options. Finally paramedic Alex pleads with his coworkers to drive illegally into Mexico to rescue the shooting victim. These four geniuses decide with Alex’s prodding to venture where they have no business being and rescue a man who unbeknownst to them is wanted by the cartel – well not the man, but drug-filled condoms inside of him. Guess what -- predictably bad things happen… like the cartel bad guys using a vehicle to ram and flip over the ambulance.

“Life is a collection of moments. The idea is to have as many good ones as you can.”

Anton Yelchin’s reaction to the discovery of the existence of an actual block of time carved out for illicit affairs is probably one of the most comical moments of the film. To further explain, Yelchin’s character has a chance meeting with a beautiful older woman and after a few more scheduled meetings discovers that she is in fact married. The funny thing is the nonchalant way in which she reacts to the revelation, commenting that she told him that she was only available during the hours of 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. I now find myself wondering if this a real thing in European cultures. Have other societies set a time block for having affairs? If so, I suppose that‘s efficient.

In 1887, readers of the popular periodical Beeton's Christmas Annual were to receive quite a special treat. There wasn't much fanfare or hype to the event. Inside the pages of the magazine was a story called A Study In Scarlet. It was a detective story, perhaps like many published before, except for the detective himself, a certain Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Together with his faithful companion and chronicler Dr. Watson, Holmes would win the hearts of those holiday readers. It might have been an ordinary day, but the world was about to change. Sherlock Holmes would become the most famous detective in the world. His stories would remain in print nearly 130 years later. Over 100 films would be made featuring the character. There would be television shows and cartoon spoofs. No other character has appeared in more productions. When his creator dared to kill the beloved detective in order to move on to newer stories, his very life was threatened. It would seem that Doyle was on the verge of becoming a victim much like those in his stories. There was only one man who could save him from such a grim fate, and he did just that. It was Sherlock Holmes himself.

Modernizing Sherlock Holmes has been a popular trend in film and television lately. We have seen two slick action film adaptations courtesy of Guy Ritchie, a contemporary BBC adaptation (Sherlock), and now there is Elementary, which transplants Sherlock Holmes and his loyal companion Watson from Victorian Era England to modern New York.