Dredd

I just finished watching the remake film Dredd and thought I'd throw my thoughts up on here. I was originally holding off until I could watch the orignal, but could never bring myself around to watching it. So I'm coming at this with a fresh perspective. This movie is intense. If you like exciting action thrillers, you will like this movie. There's non stop action and an okay amount of story to enhance it. While not an award winning script or story by any means, it has enough content and twists to keep the viewer interesting. The design work of the film is pretty intense. The world is grim and the setting portrays it very well. Performances all around were good enough to match the blandness of the characters. The only thing acting-wise I wish was different was Lena Headey. She did well, I just wanted her to be a little creepier as the drug lord of the 200 story Peach Trees building where the entire movie takes place.

The strengths of this movie come from it's parameters. As it is a "fishbowl" plot, we see almost nothing outside of Peach Trees once we get there. This allowed them to create the look of the building and use a practical set to minimize their effects which is almost always a plus. Speaking of the visual effects, the story revolves around the use of a drug called Slo-Mo. To represent the effects of the drug they use a slow motion camera and sound effect that did a lot to emphasize it. They use these effects very cleverly, especially when Dredd and the new recruit burst in and start shooting the drug users. They go back and forth between the slow motion of the druggies's POVs and the normal Dredd POV. Karl Urban is quite excellent as the always grumpy looking Judge Dredd.

My favorite scene was the very clever battle of wits when the psychic recruit interrogates a man inside his head. The use of the special effects to have the recruit appear behind the guy and turn his thoughts against him was really clever and very visually fun.

All in all this was a great action flick. It's simplicity was not interrupted by stupid love stories or overly complicated sub plots. Definitely a solid 6.5 for me.

TV

Community started up last night. This show is hilarious and arguably more nerdy than The Big Bang Theory. Not in content manner, just in the subtlety and intelligence of the humor and writing. That being said, the newest episode History 101 was an amalgam of two story lines that both had enough content for one episode. Each one could have easily had it's own episode, or my thought was to have the comeback for the almost full year hiatus be an hour long special where they could more thoroughly explore each story line. Regardless, I'm glad this show is back and am looking forward to #sixseasonsandamovie. #hastagsdontworkonblogs. #Iknowthat.

Netflix has decided to make their own shows now starting with House of Cards. The series is based on the 90s UK Series and novel of the same name. The show follows Francis Underwood who devises a revenge plan against the president after being passed up for being the Secretary of State after being promised the position by the president elect. There's corruption, relationships, drugs. All the staples of corrupt politician stories. The writing is alright, not overly incredible but there are enough twists and surprises to keep it interesting. Granted I'm only four episodes into the series, so I can't speak to the latter half of the season. I am enjoying the show but it's not one that holds my focus 100% of the time. The cast is solid. Kevin Spacey stars as Frank and the only complaint I have is that I don't like his accent. It doesn't seem consistant and sounds off to me. It's such a minor detail though and one to easily overlook. Two of the female characters are stars of two of my favorite movies (Robin Wright was Buttercup in The Princess Bride and Kristen Connolly as Dana in Cabin in the Woods). Kate Mara plays a young journalist who is working with/being used by Frank in order to spread insider information. Despite the big name directors (David Finch, Joel Schumacher, Allen Coulter, etc...) this show isn't overly groundbreaking apart from the whole season being released on one day. In short, a nice character drama surrounding DC politics. Worth a watch, but not the top of the queue.

Next week starts the new TV show Zero Hour. It looks like a Da Vinci Code-esque conspiracy show. I'm looking forward to it. Scott Michael Foster is a star and he was awesome as Cappie in Greek. Almost the only reason to watch that show at times, so hopefully this one will be better.

Fringe ended. I'm glad it's over as I didn't like the route it took after the second season. It was a great ending to the show. Fox had a lot of shows that were being cancelled after last year. In order to keep the turnover down a bit, they gave Fringe a final 13 episodes for them to finish off the story. While again I am not super happy the direction they took with it, I am thoroughly pleased with how they executed the ending. I am wanting to do some podcast episodes on Fringe as a whole so I will be getting more in depth when we get to that.

Anyways, looking forward to Justified each week as that's still going strong. My guilty pleasure Face Off on Sy Fy is still fun. Think Top Chef meets film special effects. Walking Dead is coming back soon. I hope HIMYM is actually onto their final season next year. It's a good time for television I think as Joss Whedon's SHIELD spin off series has been in production for a few weeks and I cannot wait for this show to happen!!

Alright, I'm rambling about nothing important now. Thanks for stopping by.