On Her Majesty's Secret Service Mini Review

My favorite one. I don't care what anyone says, George Lazenby was a natural for the part and the story was the meatiest Bond story up to that point. Bond gets married. He falls in love. The plot was much more down to Earth than the volcano lair and Telly Savalas made a great Blofeld. Aside from some continuity issues, like Bond and Blofeld face to face (again!) without recognizing each other, it's a fanatastic film from Peter Hunt. It gets forgotten a lot, not because of the quality, I think most would say it's great and only wish it were Connery instead, but because it's a one of. Sean returned for the next and the tone went fanciful again. Still, any true Bond fan must respect this film. No song over the credits. A musical montage scene. Bond in a kilt. The first ski scenes. The death of Diana Rigg's Tracy. And Christmas to boot. A fucking wonderful Bond film and a classic overlooked film. Can anyone seriously think Connery had the range to fall in love? I'm thinking not.

Games of 2009=Games of 2005-2008

Another year done and another one looming. For games at least, 2008 was a big year and hopefully 2009 will be as good, if not better. As it stands, with the craptastic economy, I might just be delving into the backlog, the pile of shame for some gaming. Now that the fall flood is over. I've already thrown God of War II into the PS2 and it's as good as ever. Too bad it's in SD. Man that looks like shit once you move onto HD. But, for 2009 I have two must have titles on my list: God of War III and Uncharted 2. Seriously, PS3 titles? Looks like it. Until then, I'll go back and complete some titles and spend more time in online games like Left 4 Dead and COD. I've got plenty to play. I don't need to buy anything. For now at least. Let's wait until Resident Evil 5 hits.

Some Thoughts on Taken

Liam Neeson is basically Jack Bauer, on a mission to save his daughter from human traffickers. Taken is a tight action pic from Luc Besson's team, so it's a little more European in feel than most. After Neeson's daughter goes off to Paris for fun, she is immediately kidnapped and thrown into prostitution. Just like her hyper paranoid father warned her about. Never mind the extreme fatherly paranoia of Neeson, this is a clear example of how driven a father can be when his daughter is threatened, and it's not pretty. Nesson stars as a former "preventer" who has retired to be closer to his daughter. Yet, the ex-wife has remarried and Nesson can catch a break. As soon as he warns her of the dangerous world, you just know something will happen to her. Besson and his team give Neeson 96 hours to bring her back alive. Neeson may be older than most, but he could easily take on Bond or Bourne and probably win. If this were a regular Hollywood pic, we'd probably get a younger lead and a flashier director like a Tony Scott, but the film would suffer for it. The world Neeson searches for his daughter in is not pretty, it's full of Albanian slavers and French cops who turn the other cheek. It's got things to say about this problem that we so often ignore and something to say about over protective fathers and laxidaisical mothers, but it moves to fast for us to really think about them. Neeson leaves a serious body count behind him. In the end, I'm left wondering if this could be a franchise. Sure, the plot wouldn't do with a sequel, but the matter-of-fact manner with which Neeson works is refreshing. He's a professional and he does everything he needs to to accomplish his goal.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army Blu-Ray Review

It's about time that I saw this film. I tried to catch it in theaters and missed it. It was the least successful of this summer's glut of comic book features and that's a shame becuase Hellboy 2 is damn fun. It's bright, eccentric, imaginative and beautiful to look at. It's better in every way than the first film and creates a fantasy land that is rich and full of life. Hellboy continues to grow and remains one of the most interesting film heroes. Even Abe gets more to do this time. Plus the added characters are as bizarre and unique as Red and Blue. It makes a lot more sense than the first did and the plot moves well. It's easily recommended, especially if the weight of The Dark Knight was too much for you. This is light comic book heroics at its best. Better than Incredible Hulk for sure and miles better than Wanted. This comes in right behind Iron Man and TDK. It was the superhero year and it's nice to know that they were actually good ones this year. Not just good comic book films, but good films. And Hellboy 2 on BD look frickin amazing. Great addition. The colors del Toro uses just pop on screen and it's great to see such a fully realized world that blends CG, makeup and every conceivable FX technique in the world. One of a kind and probably in my personal top ten for 2008.