Above the Law

In the last years Steven Seagal has turned himself into a joke, but let me take you further, to the year 88 whe the guy was still relevant, to his screen debut Above the Law

Nico Toscani (Steven Seagal) is a Chicago cop, son of Italian immigrants with an interest in martial arts that lead him as far as Japan, where he mastred aikido and other martial arts, this virtuosity led him to be remarked and recruited by the CIA, to serve in Vietnam for a short while, caused by his refusal to agree on severe interrogation techniques used by a superior Kurt Zagon (Henry Silva)

And since the world is a tiny place Nico who is now a honest Chi Cop married to Sara (Sharon Ston no less), is invistigating a routine drug deal, which turns out to be not such a routine drug deal, since it would involve explosives, Senate hearings, and the Invasion of a South American country funded with dirty money, leading to a nice big shodown, a la Charles Bronson, all this in the Jazzy athmosphere of the Reagan Era's Chicago

I watched that movie back in the nineties in a movie theater in Algiers, and it was so wonderful that we watched it several times, although we were short on pop culture references, this movie held still, and it's enough to say that the partner of Seagal is played by her blaxploitation majesty Pam Grier herself

Now is it still relevant, to some degree it is, Steven Seagal played a somehow autobiographical role (he learned martial arts in japan, like his character and was somehow invloved in governmental stuff), which means it did not need him to have actor's studio training, and some of the scenes are still action classic, and it's enough to be said that If you missed the eighties like Sina you should catch this one just to have an idea how the world was before the berlin reunition and the first invasion of iraq, good people were good, evil were evil, it was a whole diffrent mindset, and frankly it is righteous to miss it a little bit

Year: 1988

Director: Andrew Davis

Starring: Steven Seagal, Sharon Stone, Pam Grier, Henry Silva

Featured shortfilm: Our Wonderful Nature

Tomer Eshed created this little clip around two water sheds getting in a fight and won first place in the jury category at the Aniboom Awards 2008 with it. And he deserves it, we love it!

Underworld : Rise of the lycans

Continuing the story from the very beginning

"Underworld : Rise of the lycans" is a prequel showing the background behind the story you already know if you've watched part 1 and 2 which are stated in the modern days.

The vampire lord in the past keeps lycans for slaves and pets. He also made a deal with the humans to save them from the lycans in the wild for high taxes they've got to pay to him. And everyone who doesn't pay will just die. It has been going like this for years when one amongst them, Lucian, decides to rise against the empire. Together with his secret lover Sonja, the daughter of the king, he goes to battle for freedom.

If you enjoyed the first two movies, you will also like this prequel. However it is set somewhere in the dark age and conditions to make it look really cool with nice effects are harder. Still the movie has a lot of good points and I liked it. It continues the movie series very well without much confusion.

Underworld : Rise of the lycans - Released 2009

The Day The Earth Stood Still

An unnecessary remake

An alien race has decided to prevent the earth from dying by wiping out the human race. The alien Klaatu is sent to deliver the message to them before their end but when he meets Dr. Helen Benson he starts understanding the other, not destroying, side of the earthlings.

One should think there could be not so much wrong with a well animated movie that even has Keanu Reeves in it but after seeing this remake of the 50's classic that had such a better story, you see there can be much wrong.

The movie is just boring. There is the climatic topic of "The day after tomorrow" missing that let you stunned. There is the action from "War of the worlds" missing and after all it seems like a movie you've already seen somewhen. Not my cup of tea!


The Day The Earth stood still - released December 2008

Role Models

Supposed to be funny

Wheeler (Seann William Scott) and Danny (Paul Rudo) were usually working for an energy drink producer doing advertising anti-drug/buy it sessions at schools. Their job sucks and somewhen they just mess it up. When their car is to be towed off they just jump in and try to escape. Well, they try. Not to go to jail they are signed up for a social program to care about kids, one kid each for a suitable amount of hours. But it turns out the kids they got are not just very different but also a bit complicated to handle. It all ends in a literarry battlefield.

Ok now, this movie is obviously supposed to be some kind of comedy. I guess. Problem is, I didn't really find it funny. Maybe that's just me, however it might not even be a movie you wanna watch with some popcorn and friends. But they certainly had only the best intentions with it ...


Role Models - released 2008

Religulous

The big religions put to the test

You may know Bill Maher, the maker of "Religulous" as a cynic political comedian so it may not really have surprised you that he checks out religions for his documentary.

So what is this docutainmentary about. It is about the absurdities in all the big religions. It is not really against them, it's not stating the fact that we should all become atheists. The movie just shows us the religions we believe to know from a different side, a weird side where you will find yourself even shaking your head on your maybe own religion for a while. We get a critic look on christianity, judaism, islam, mormones, scientology and an outlook on older religions.

It is not a really serious documentary and it plays with the interviews as it likes but in the end it also states facts. Religion is dangerous when it is played in the interests of very few people and maybe that's the message the movie wanted to give us but maybe it came around the corner the wrong way to do so.

However it is an entertaining documentary if you don't feel offended quickly by anything that makes you think about your beliefes. I don't wanna take a side on this, I just find it a good piece of work by Bill Maher and if you usually enjoy entertainmentaries you may actually find yourself liking it.


"Religulous" - released 2008