The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects

A Bryan Singer film that brought home a best supporting actor Oscar for Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects is not an idiot's entertainment. Written by Christopher McQuarrie, the movie starts out on a freighter, where murder is committed, followed by arson. Various scene switches tell the story of Caesar Soze from the point of view of the slowest weakest character in a crew of hijackers. Verbal Kint, a gimp who specializes in the short con method of extracting money from stupid people is the only survivor of a massacre on board a ship that is supposedly carrying a huge shipment of coke. Ninety One Million dollars worth.
Plot synopsis can be found at IMDB, but suffice it to say this is a thinking man's caper movie, with plot twists and turns enough to satisfy even a Sherlock Holmes aficionado.
This is a movie best seen at least twice, for enjoyment. You miss things the first time around, little details that show the fine performances that each of the actors bring to this production.

Gabrial Byrne is Keaton, a man driven by pride to take back some of the dignity that the police steal from him, Benico Del Toro as Fenster, a natty dresser whose accent is barely recognizable. Pete Postlethwaite, as Kobayashi, the lawyer, cool and calculating as the puppet master behind all the events leading up to the ship assault.
Dan Hedaya's office, with all the little details on the wall that are woven into the tale that Dave Kujan, US Customs extracts from Kint before he posts bail and is released from custody.

All these details you miss on the first pass, and all of them fall into seamless place on second, third, and more viewings of this excellent film. Buy it, watch it, again and again. It's better than Cats, and you won't get bored.

Critiquegod's Rating E for Exceeds Expectations.

Dexter

Here we are talking about Showtime's Dexter, not cartoon Dexter.

Two season's so far, depicting Dexter Morgan's search for happiness, or at least peace and quiet.

Season one follows the novel that inspired the series almost to a T, with all of the major plot components falling into place as we get to know Dexter Morgan, through his eyes from his rescue from the inside of a container where his Mom and 2 other people are butchered in front of him and his older brother Brian. Dexter doesn't remember his Mom or his brother, and is taken by Harry Morgan as a foster child. Harry is a Miami Metro Police Officer, and is known as a great cop. Harry has a daughter, Deborah, who is seriously keen on following in her father's footsteps. Dexter just wants not to disappoint his foster parents, but has these urges to kill things.

What I like about this series is not the depiction so to speak of a serial killer, but the relationships that are developed over the course of 12 one hour episodes. Dexter has no feelings, but analalyses every interaction he has in an effort to be "normal." He has a girlfriend, Rita (Julia Benz) who is just as broken as he is but for different reasons. He brings donuts to work every morning, but really isn't interested in interacting with his co-workers.

His work in life is to control his urge to kill indiscriminately by taking only the lives of others who kill and get away with it. He's very good at this, and we get to see his methods and interactions with his victims as he stalks them, lures them, and finally disposes of them into the ocean.

Season One is being shown on CBS finally, and dramatically edited for the sensibilities of the average, but the Showtime version is worth seeing if you don't have those sensitive natures, or if you are, as Dexter says, "good at compartmentalization."

CritiqueGod's rating E for Exceeds Expectations.

The Dresden Chronicles

By Jim Butcher, Published by ROC fantasy, a division of Penguin.

Harry Dresden, wizard. The premise is that magic exists, and Harry Dresden is a real time, real world wizard. He solves problems, and creates some, because that is who he is. Fatally flawed with a damsel in distress handicap, Harry through the course of 5 novels collects a small entourage of recurring characters. Lt Karrin Murphy, a Chicago PD detective who is too short, and deadly. A fairy godmother, the Leansidhe, who has offered to shapeshift him into the form of a hound, that he might be happier. Ebenezer McCoy, his teacher, a scots wizard who is also the White Council's BlackStaff, a breaker of rules and enforcer in the magical world. Ramiriez, a young talented hispanic wizard from the west coast who is pure of heart, and body. Wizard Morgan, Harry's nemisis, a Warden, who has on occasion been tasked with Harry's execution for past transgressions.
Rarely do I ever rate writers, but Jim Butcher is an exception. He is a writer with a consistent, humorous, and poignant storytelling ability.
I can't say enough about the Dresden Files. Buy Them, Read Them, Loan Them to friends. Fantasy in the modern world has few masters, Jim Butcher is one of them.

Critiquegod's rating: O for Outstanding!

A Shot in the Dark

Classic Humor.
Peter Sellers, Burt Kwouk, Herbert Lom, Elke Sommer, to name the most memorable.

Inspector Clouseau to the rescue!

A staffing mistake puts the bumbling Inspector onto the case of the murder of a Spaniard in this 1964 detective classic.

Who killed who is really not the question after 30 minutes of twisted detective logic, and absurd situations. Herbert Lom's Chief Inspector is quite right in his mad desire to rid the world of Insp. Jacques Clouseau's supreme incompetence. Brilliant slapstick entertainment. Still makes me laugh after all these years.

Critiquegod's rating: O for Outstanding

Porco Rosso

Ok, anime is always a good thing, but most times the disjointed storytelling is really annoying. The writers and animators seem to think you've been following their story arcs since inception, and if you haven't, don't care enough to fill in enough backstory to tell you what the plot is really about. Porco Rosso is different.

The storyline is clean, well exposited and easy to understand. That is to say, written for an average Western audience, aged 5 to 7 years. Few anime conventions are present beyond the absolutely required. the artwork and voice-over is very well executed, and if I have any issues, it is with the popeye villains, but even they are well rendered and more than cardboard cutouts.

The cast includes many famous North American actors such as
Michael Keaton, Cary Elwes, Susan Egan, Brad Garrett, David Ogden Stiers, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Bobby Edner and Bradley Pierce, and has seamlessly integrated the english dialog into the original japanese mouth movements, not an easy task.

Great flick for the family. Parents, adults and small children, will all enjoy this tale of pirates and love and realization.

Critiquegod's grade O for OUTSTANDING!

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Ok, Jessica Alba is a very pretty lady, but Sue Storm is a pretty gutsy lady. Michael Chicklis and Julian McMahon as The Thing and Dr. Doom are very good. The movie wasn't worth the price I paid to watch it. Stan Lee's appearence notwithstanding, I was very disapointed. Galactus was a shadow figure of Doom, not a hyper appetite with reason, and the ease with which the character of Reed Richards seperated the Silver Surfer from his board was annoying. Not to mention the agony of put upon celebrity weddings. Special effects can only tell so much of a story, and they were really hard pressed to tell anything of the story. Go to your local library, read the comics, save your money, and your sanity.

Critiquegod's rating D for Dreadful Not even a semi nude Alba could save this turkey

The 11th Hour

Ok, so my wife is a closet member of the PSEB, and so I've had to watch just about everything that Patrick Stewart has ever acted in. Some of it is great, both in concept and in execution, and some of it isn't.

The 11th Hour is a 4 part TV series built in concept and written originally by Stephen Gallagher of Dr. Who fame and was presented as a drama of sorts, written to showcase the terrible dangers of science and the evils thereof.

So I watch as the main character, Ian Hood, played by Patrick Stewart finds himself in a field where stillborn fetus' have been buried, along with crucifix's by a person who is in the employ of someone who Mr Hood has dubbed Jepeto. Fortunately for the plot the person who was hired to dispose of the "medical waste" has an attack of conscience once he realizes that what he is being asked to dispose of is unborn children. However it is not enough of an attack to make him call the constabulary and report his part time employers. The labyrinthian trail leads us to a 19 yr old pregnant girl with a truly repulsive ex boyfriend, and then on through a somewhat torturous path to a multi-millionaire who lost his son to a genetic disorder.
So, lets keep this short. You can find the plot summaries on Wikipedia.

The problems that I have with this is not the acting. Mr Stewart does an admirable job with what he is given, as does Ashley Jensen, who acts and Mr Hoods bodyguard and police (sorry Special Branch) and who actually fires her weapon at the fleeing car that they have managed to track down. Ms Jensen should have gotten a role on the new series Torchwood, she isn't nearly as naive as the current police girl.

No, the problem with this program is that they didn't see fit to assemble an ensemble that could engage the brain with the different areas of science portrayed. CSI is more than just Grissom. It's Grissom, Katherine, Warrick, Sara, Nick, Hodges, and Brass. 11th Hour is Mr Hood and his trusty bodyguard. It's not enough. I believe there can be some truly awesomely intelligent people in the world, but nobody is the best at every aspect of science. Hood apparently is. This isn't even Dr. Who, which suffers in my humble opinion, from the "pennies" budget problems. The sets were fine, the locations fine, the acting fine, but the stories just wouldn't hold me. I watched 3 of the episodes, and just couldn't really watch the 4th one.

Critiquegod's rating A for acceptable (but you better like Patrick Stewart)

Political Blogs I've been reading.

So, I'm a political junkie, and you've all read the OCD post about webcomics so it should come as no surprise that I read the news, depressing tho most of it is, and I follow the political football game that is played out on so many of the world's stages.

I've run across a bunch of political blogs that I like, and some that are just annoying as hell... I'll mention the ones that I like.

The Onion. Satire at it's finest.
Loliticz.com Political commentary and humor in the general theme of the lolcats meme. Sometimes dang funny, mostly current, and some interesting srsly articles inside as well. Promotes voting if you live in a democracy.
Jon Swift's Blog Jon is a conservative blogger who likes to skewer pols almost as much as I like to see them skewered.

Ok, that's it for now... I'll add to this list as I get more time..

all of the above get an E for exceeds expectations.

Boondock Saints

This is a movie that was pulled from general release due to the Colombine Tragedy, but even in our Politically Correct Society this movie should have been re-released and hyped for all it was worth.

Boondock Saints is told from an odd point of view, with information displayed on the screen so even the less gifted among us can follow along. We are introduced to two young men during a church service, who seem to have their own ways of worship. We follow through several clips of these two young guys working in several jobs, none of which seem to click with them, and all of which seem to show the audience that they are prone to solving many of their problems by fighting. A third character is introduced as a "runner" for the local mafioso, and he is seen to be the two brothers friend, at least in as much as he is defended by the brothers when trouble (in the form of three Russian mobsters) rears its head in the brothers favorite pub. This defense has consequences that are rather dire for the mobsters and the brothers as well, and leads them down a path towards more violence, in the name of eradicating evildoers. The appearance of an FBI crime task force expert on the scene (played by Willem Dafoe) serves to lend the film a rather surreal atmosphere while helping the narrative along by showing the audience various other crime scenes and interpretations. Comedic relief is provided by Dafoe's character singling out one of the detectives whose theories are most absurd.
We are led down a slippery slope of somewhat theoretically Christian based vengeance to a conclusion that is exceptionally graphic and thought provoking. Should individuals be entitled to commit the worst of crimes to defend the innocent? This movie asks the question and lets the audience answer as it will.

Critiquegod's grade O for OUTSTANDING!

Web Comics

Ok, I'm ADD, I'll admit it... phwew... When it comes to web comics, I will start at the beginning, and work my way through the entire set, and then be all frustrated with the fact that web comic creators just can't create fast enough for me... I have the same problems with my favorite authors too but normally I vent my frustration at their publishers. RANT: (David Weber and John Ringo's WE FEW, published in the spring of 2004, and not released in paperback until Sept 30 2006 by BAEN PUBLISHING is just criminal.)
So my significant other is wont to sic me on comics, despite the knowing that doing so is the fastest way to lead me into temptation, and mess up my ability to get any work done or sleep until I'm caught up on the various story-lines. So she sends me this comic link today. http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html
It's an rpg comic, and bloody hilarious...

Critiquegod's Rating E for Exceeds Expectations

The Bourne Supremacy

Hey all

Tonight's review is of a movie inspired by a book. Robert Ludlum's Bourne Supremacy is not a movie for the critically stupid. It is however action packed enough to hold the attention of even the terminally couch potatoed of the world on a slow night.
Matt Damon's performance, as Jason Bourne is very good, with the young actor insisting on doing almost all of his own stunts. One in particular stands out, the evasion scene at the Canal/Rail Station. In this scene Bourne is attempting to evade the German Politzei, and he uses a clever stratagem of knowing the train schedule's and a practical eye to skip from the train station bridge to the barge and back up underneath the bridge using a found boat hook. A combination of clever lighting and exemplary stunt work make this truly an excellent scene. I will not dwell on the wonderful combat sequence that occurs when Bourne seeks out an old agent, except to say that finally someone got a real fight between experts on tape. Performances by Julia Stiles and Joan Allen are awesome. Brian Cox is also at the height of his game as an actor in this movie. I'm eagerly awaiting the next movie in this series of works.

Critiquegod's Rating O for Outstanding

Law & Order

Hello all...

I have to admit that I am a fan of Dick Wolf's series Law and Order. I really like the ongoing topical nature of this program. It's always interesting, even the re-runs, and if it is a choice between some third rate action flick, or B grade horror or comedy, the characters on Law and Order always will win out in the channel surfing war. I'm not a New Yorker, but I loved Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach), and the rotating cast of assistant DA's always held my attention. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) seems to epitomize the 60's protester who turned to society's legal system to beat the draft and to fight for as much social justice as the office of prosecutor would permit. A DA with a heart. As the show heads into its 17th season the myriad crimes that are available to the writers have not diminished and there is every reason to believe that the high quality of the production will continue to attract fans from every walk of life.

Critiquegod's rating E - Exceeds Expectations
O - Outstanding
E - Exceeds Expectations
A - Acceptable
P - Poor
D - Dreadful
T - Troll
N - Not with your eyes
Yes, these are Hogwarts grades, and I've added one on the bottom.

Critiquegod

Hello World....

As the title says this is a critique site for just about everything. I will not respond to abuse, as that kind of "flameage" is both juvenile and moronic, and deserves to be sent to the hell of fimbulvetr. That being said, feel free to talk to me about any post if you have reasoned or even non-reasoned civil comments. I can be reached at critiquegodATSigngmail.com, but I will not guarantee a response, ever. If you find me here, enjoy.

Critiquegod