Area 51 (2015)

Sometimes, it’s hard to tell if my mother’s being serious.  She’ll make something with broccoli and swear that I love it.  I suspect she may be trying to use some psychological trick to get me to eat it.  It may also be that because she’s seen me eat it before that she honestly thinks that I like it.  I keep telling her that not complaining isn’t the same thing as liking.  Netflix seems to have a similar problem.  They seem to think that sitting through a movie is the same thing as liking it.  Just because I didn’t set my computer on fire while watching one movie doesn’t mean that I’ll like other similar movies.

Take the movie called Area 51.  It’s a found-footage movie about a guy named Reid who wants to break in to, of all places, Groom Lake.  (Groom Lake is commonly referred to as Area 51.)  Reid brings along two friends, Darren and Ben.  Darren is eager to go while Ben doesn’t think that Reid will go through with it.  They’re a little hesitant to meet Jelena, but her father worked in Groom Lake until he started asking questions.  She has information that could be useful.

Well, she gets Darren, Reid and herself in while Ben waits for them in the car.  Amazingly, they just run past security and manage to get all sorts of shaky footage of top-secret stuff, including a UFO.  It all comes to an end when they trip an alarm and have to run out while being chased by armed guards and what I assume is a tall, thin alien.  As you might guess from the found-footage status, things don’t end well for the four main characters.

The Blair Witch Project seems to be the go-to movie for found footage and for good reason.  When it came out in 1999, it was all new and edgy and people were so scared and everything.  While movies before it had used the plot device, The Blair Witch Project was the first to get some attention.   Area 51 came out in 2015.  It doesn’t seem to have contributed much to the idea.  It’s the same concept of someone finding footage and presenting it to the public.

Lunopolis, which I liked, dressed it up as a documentary.  With Trollhunter, we at least had people making a documentary when they stumble upon the truth.  Europa Report was about a scientific mission.  Here, there’s no compelling story.  The characters aren’t really that likable.  There’s nothing special about the movie other than the topic.  You have three guys that manage to luck their way into a secure facility only to meet an ambiguous ending and I didn’t even care.

Most of it is the lack of a real story.  The first third of the movie is pure filler.  The next third is suspense.  The last third is a bunch of shaky camerawork and some somewhat interesting special effects.  I feel like we could have cut out the first half of the movie and used some minor exposition to explain how we got to Las Vegas.  (“What’s whith him?”  “Oh, he was abducted by aliens and now he’s obsessed.”)

Also, Reid manages to break into an employee’s house and steal a badge and a bottle with a fingerprint.  Ok.  I get that you need a fair amount of suspension of disbelief to get them in, but it seems odd to me that it’s possible to steal and use a badge and a fingerprint that easily.  This isn’t even accounting for the fact that they guy who was robbed probably would have reported the missing badge immediately.  (I guess he was too embarrassed that it was stolen so easily.)

And could someone please tell me how three people can walk around a secure facility without being noticed?  It would make more sense to have them caught and use the found footage during interrogation.  The only problem would be explaining how the footage got out at all, but I don’t think it would be that hard to come up with something.

I had wanted to watch the movie all the way through to see if anything interesting happened.  I was sorely disappointed.  I’d recommend skipping this one.  The shame of it is that Netflix has been recommending other similar found-footage movies.  Those, I’ve stopped watching about halfway through.  I can only hope that Netflix doesn’t count that as a like.

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Parallels (2015)

I remember being excited when Sliders first aired.  It was a show about four people who are thrust into different universes, each with a slightly different set of circumstances.  One week might show a world where the United States was still a British dependency.  Another might show a world where advanced technology had been banned.  The concept wasn’t new.  Lots of movies and TV shows have used the concept before and since.

When I saw Parallels, I expected something similar.  Instead of a wormhole, we have a building.  We have three friends, two of whom are brother and sister, going from world to world with a stranger.  The first is a post-apocalyptic world.  It turns out that their father nuked the surrounding area.  They manage to escape to a futuristic world.  The date is the same, but technology has advanced quite a bit beyond what we have.  It’s apparent from graffiti inside the building that there are all sorts of other worlds.  (In one, the attack on the Twin Towers happened on a different date. In another, all live births are twins.)

I had wondered why I hadn’t heard of this airing on TV, as it gives the impression of being a TV pilot.  It turns out that Netflix produced it and has it available streaming.  It could very well be made into a TV series.  On that note, I see a lot of similarities with Sliders.  You have two children finding out that they weren’t born on the Earth that they were raised on.  They’re trying to seek out their mother to find their home world.  (In sliders, they were trying to find both parents.)  They also gain control over which world they go to next.

With Netflix producing original content, I could see this being made into a TV series.  (Since the movie was released earlier this year, I don’t know how long it will be before we hear of any news.)  Constance Wu, who plays the stranger, is apparently staring on Fresh Off the Boat.  I don’t know how that would affect anything.  She wouldn’t be the first character to be recast and/or replaced when a movie was made into a TV series.

The main problem would be the similarity to Sliders.  I’d imagine that there would be a similar slew of alternate worlds being used as social commentary.  The main difference would be that other story lines are introduced from the onset.  Sliders kind of jumped the shark when they started having Cromags and the search for the brothers’ real parents/home world.

Another problem I’ve had with alternate universes is how many of the main characters are in the other worlds.  Yes, I realize that it’s easier to use the same actors.  However, do you realize the odds of the same sperm meeting up with the same egg?  The slightest variation could produce a totally different person or not result in a pregnancy at all.  I always found it odd that each world the Sliders visited had most, if not all, of the main characters.  I’d hope that if this movie is made into a show, it might rely on this less.  Given that there’s the potential for a whole new, potentially expansive, mythology, I might very well get my wish.  That is, assuming it gets made into a series at all.

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Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Sometimes, it’s hard to break out of a mold.  If you’re destined for greatness, you don’t question this.  However, if you’re destined to be the bad guy, you may just want a chance to prove you can do better.  Such is the life of Wreck-it Ralph.  He’s a good guy, but he’s been cast as the villain in a game called Fix-it Felix, Jr.  Everyone loves Felix because he comes to the rescue.  No one wants anything to do with Ralph because he’s a big oaf and all he does is destroy stuff.

This is how the game was designed.  Characters have to stay in character while the game is on, but this seems to extend into their off time, as well.  Ralph has his purpose, but he also has his place, and that place happens to be a pile of bricks at the end of the day.

One day, he decides to take matters into his own hands.  One of the residents of the building he always destroys tells Ralph that if he can win a medal, he can have the key to the penthouse.  He then goes into a first-person shooter game called Hero’s Duty and manages to get the medal, but inadvertently puts another game at risk.  Also, since Ralph wasn’t in his own game, Fix-it Felix, Jr. is assumed to be broken and may be unplugged.  He’s given the key he was promised, but is further ostracized.  To make matters worse, he has endangered a third game called Sugar Rush Speedway.  While in the game, he meets a character going through a similar plight.  (Vanellope von Schweetz isn’t even allowed to participate in her game.)

This is one of those movies where you can probably figure out what’s going to happen.  If Ralph doesn’t get what he wants, he’ll at least put things back close to the way they were and maybe earn some respect.  The fun of the movie, at least for adults, will be nostalgia.  We get to see a lot of video-game characters for 30 years ago, like Pac-Man and Q*bert.  Some of the games were designed for the movie, either to make it easier to write the story or to at least avoid copyright issues.  The characters live in their own universe with games connected by the power cords.  (Those whose games were shut off live in power strips.)

You’d think that animated means simple, but this was one of the more interesting animated movies I’ve seen in a while.  The main character is a villain trying to be a hero.  He meets another character that also just wants to be accepted.  Yes, a few of the characters are a little exaggerated, but this is a movie about video games and their characters.  This is to be expected.  You can empathize with Ralph; the people in his game aren’t necessarily nasty to him, but they could do a lot better.  He’s not asking for much.

There were a lot of references to video games, a few of which I missed.  Those that grew up in the 80s will probably recognize many of the characters and games.  There are a lot of throwaway jokes based on games, both classic and current.  Most are simple, like graffiti in bathrooms and stuff.  It’s definitely a fun movie.  I’d recommend renting it.

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Dark Girls (2011)

I remember a line from CSI that went something like “It’s not what they call you.  It‘s what you answer to.”  (I’ve found similar quotes attributed to Tylor Perry and W. C. Fields.)  What people call themselves, or at least what they answer to, varies quite a bit in Miami.  Just because you have dark skin doesn’t mean you’re African-American.  Your lineage may have come through any one of a number of nearby countries like Jamaica, Haiti or The Bahamas  Even those that trace their ancestry directly to Africa may have no immediate ties to the continent.  They were born here, as were their parents and grandparents.  It’s not that easy to apply one label to such a diverse group.

This is brought up in Dark Girls.  As you might imagine, the movie is about women of color, which is a very general designation.  This includes many different women from many different places.  In the beginning, we get to see a girl reject the label of African-American, as her family doesn’t come directly from Africa.  The movie goes on to show how darker skin is often seen as worse.  A girl is given five drawings of a child.  The outline is the same for each; the only difference is the color.  When asked to pick the smartest or prettiest, she picks the lightest one.  When asked to pick the worst, she picks the darkest.

From there, the movie tends to ramble.  We have lots of people talk about what it means to be darker or lighter in a society that values being lighter.  We see how women are lightened, both digitally and cosmetically, so as to look prettier.  Several women were told by older relatives to marry lighter so as to have lighter children.  This isn’t even something that’s confined to the United States.

I’ve heard of lighter being better in India and Brazil.  (The movie points out that the reverse is true in only one country.)  I recall one story I heard years ago of a women applying for a role in a commercial featuring a husband, wife and a maid.  She wanted the role of the wife, but was thrown a maid’s uniform because she was darker.  It tends to be harder to love yourself when the media portrays your group as being lesser or worse.  It may not always be overt, but it is there.  (The fact that there’s an industry devoted to lightening skin is testament to this.)

The documentary isn’t great, but it could be used as a starting point.  It’s the kind of thing that I could see schools or other organizations using to get a conversation started.  Race is a very complicated thing.  I’m not sure one documentary could do it justice.

Consider that we share 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees.  Imagine the difference between any two humans.  Such a small difference is what makes us judge one another, whether accurately or not.  I’ve often thought this may explain the Fermi paradox.  Aliens bay be looking at us and seeing how we treat our own species.  How can we be expected to treat an alien race fairly?

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Le tableau/The Painting (2011)

Some movies I watch because I want to watch them.  Either they have an actor I like or the trailers look interesting.  Some movies I watch to see how bad they are.  Usually, these are the ones that have a reputation for being bad.  They may be on one of those combo packs, in which case I’m just looking for a review.  There are others that I come across that I want to watch just to see how they handled special effects or subject matter.

When I came across The Painting on Netflix, I added it to my list.  It’s about characters in an unfinished painting that go in search of the painter.  I had wanted to see how they put painted characters in the real world, but kept putting off watching it.  I knew that it was supposed to be an allegory for class.  There was also the issue of the characters finding their creator.  Either aspect could come across as contrived if not handled well.  Eventually, curiosity got the better of me.

In the movie, there are three classes: Allduns, Halfies and Sketchies.  Allduns are those that are fully painted.  Halfies are partially painted.  Sketchies, as you might expect, are just rough sketches.  Allduns live in luxury, leaving the others to fend for themselves in a garden.  Even those that are nearly finished aren’t good enough for the Allduns to associate with.  Several of the characters go out to find The Painter, hoping that he will complete the painting.  (At the very least, he might at least explain why he abandoned the painting.)

The CGI was almost obvious, especially when the painted characters cross over into the real world.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing and may have been intended, as they’re basically from a two-dimensional world.  They leave their painting and search several other paintings, which serve as portals to a shared universe.  They explore this universe before going to find The Painter.

There were a few scenes where it seemed like it was geared towards younger audiences.  There is some artistic nudity and one scene where Death chases the characters, but I don’t recall anything that would scar anyone for life.   It seems like the kind of movie that would be appropriate for teenagers and above.  The movie doesn’t hit us over the head with class issues.  We see what the lower-class characters have to go through, but rather than make us feel sorry for them, we get to see them attempt to do something about it.

It was also fairly obvious that The Painter was supposed to represent The Creator.  (Why would The Painter/The Creator abandon them?  Why would he allow them to suffer?)  It didn’t seem preachy.  Instead, it was incorporated into the story line fairly well.  (The characters even wonder who created their creator.)

This ended up being one of the better Netflix finds.  The only problem I had was that I was forced to go with the subtitles.  I’m not sure if there’s an English dub, but I usually like having the option.  I’d definitely recommend watching the movie if you get a chance.


IMDb page

The Painting - Now on DVD [Official US Trailer]

The Gate (1987)

There are some movies that can withstand the test of time.  They have a quality that allows them to be understood and enjoyed equally by any generation.  Such movies can be watched and rewatched and never lose their appeal.  The Gate is not such a movie.

The movie starts with a boy named Glen returning home to find it abandoned.  It looks like his family left mid meal.  He goes to his tree house, which is promptly hit by lightening.  He awakens to find it was just a nightmare.  When he looks out of his window, he sees said tree being cut down, leaving a geode exposed.  Glen and his friend, Terry, manage to dig it back up after the workers burry it.  Glen’s parents are going out of town for the weekend.  In their absence, Glen’s sister, Alexandra, will be in charge.  (This basically means that Alexandra will be inviting her obnoxious friends over.)

If you’ve seen a lot of mid-budget horror movies, you’re probably wondering by now what could possibly go wrong.  Well, the hole that’s been reopened by the boys happens to be a portal to a netherworld.  Inside the geode is a set of instructions meant to let a demon and its minions through to our plane.  It just so happens that Glen and Terry manage to set off a series of bizarre and horrifying events.

When I say horrifying, remember that this is a 1987 movie.  It’s not for small children, but it’s not particularly nightmare inducing, either.  (Teens on up should be fine.)  Those that grew up on more modern movies will probably find the effects and the scary parts laughable.  The scariest thing is a large demon coming out of the floor.

There are also some things that would be either cliché or lost on today’s audiences, such as playing a vinyl record backwards for a satanic/subliminal message.  You don’t really hear about that much any more.  (I guess it wouldn’t be hard to play an MP3 backwards, but still…)  I also find it odd that there’s always exactly one character that knows exactly what do to.  It just so happens that Terry knows all about the portal.  This is because he has a record made by a band that had previous dealings with the portal.  This one and only album has liner notes with very helpful instructions.

Also, despite the characters’ best efforts, various requisite acts, such as offering blood, occur either accidentally or without the main characters’ knowledge.  I don’t want to give away too much, in case you want to experience the movie for yourself, but when you have instructions on how to open a portal to hell, you have to know that every step will eventually be followed.  (How is it that Glen is even able to read the instructions, anyway?)

I vaguely remember seeing this movie when I was in middle school.  I also remember a friend referencing the movie’s sequel, which I may look in to.  I don’t remember if I overlooked the movie’s shortcomings at the time because it was on par with other stuff of the era or if it was because I was 11 when the movie came out.  I’m not saying that it’s a total waste of 85 minutes. I suppose if you have just over an hour to kill, there are worse things you could watch.  I’m just saying that there are probably better horror movies if that’s what you’re looking for.

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Frequencies/OXV: The Manual (2013)

Sometimes quirky works.  Not always, but it sometimes makes for a better movie.  Frequencies is about a reality very similar to ours, except that people have frequencies.  It seems to work like an IQ in that 100 is considered average or neutral.  Lower numbers indicate negative aspects like awkwardness and bad luck. Those with lower numbers also tend to be more emotional.  Those with higher numbers tend to lead a more privileged life, finding that good things just happen to them.  Those with higher numbers tend to be more logical.  Bring together two people on opposing sides of 100 and you get strange, dangerous results.  It’s also seemingly impossible to change your frequency.

The movie centers around Zak and Marie.  Zak has a lower frequency, but is placed in a school for those with higher frequencies.  There, he meets Marie.  Her frequency is so high that she can’t feel emotion at all.  Zak also has a friend, Theo, who is more moderate in frequency.  Zak has a thing for Marie, but their union can never be, as there’s a one-minute time limit per year imposed by the physics of this universe.  That’s when the bizarre and dangerous stuff starts to happen.

Zak is able to find a way to borrow energy from other people, which allows him to increase his time with Marie to the point that they can start dating.  Zak and Theo find that by using some two-syllable nonsense words, Zak can control people.  This catches the attention of an organization that kidnaps Marie and Zak, as well as a few others, and has them do further research and study.  It turns out that they’ve known about this for a while.  The details been lost and rediscovered over the years, with 1066 and 1760 being important years.

I’m not sure what to make of this film.  It’s one of those movies that is just obvious enough about its message (privilege and class structure) that we get it but not so forward with it that we feel like we’re being beaten over the head with it.  It’s a world where high- and low-frequency people literally can’t exist together.  There’s also the issue of fate.  Theo wants to build a machine that will let him know how the universe will unfold.  What would it mean to build such a machine?  Does it even matter?

A lot of these things aren’t really explored in the movie.  For instance, many of the characters are named for important people in our universe.  Zak’s full name is Isaac-Newton Midgeley; Marie is Marie-Curie Fortune.   No one speaks about their namesake, so we don‘t know any historical details about these people.  Certain things seemed contrived, like the use of an irony particle and music as an inoculation.

It’s one of those movies that I can’t really not recommend, but I’m not sure who I would recommend it to.  I was able to get it streaming from Netflix.  If you have Netflix and are able to stream, you could give it a try.  It’s not much of a loss at 105 minutes.  I don’t know that I would have gotten it if I had to wait for it to be mailed to me.  Would it be too cliché to say that watching it was my destiny?

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Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Groundhog Day was an interesting movie.  In it, Bill Murray played a weatherman doomed to repeat the same day.  It was a comedy, so I doubt that much technical thought was put into it, but I always wondered if each day went on without him being aware of it.  A similar concept was used in Edge of Tomorrow.  Tom Cruise plays Major William Cage.  Earth has been overrun by an alien that seems to know what we’re going to do.  It’s impossible to defeat them until we start inexplicably winning.

Cage isn’t big on seeing actual battle, but he threatens the wrong guy and gets sent into battle where he’s killed.  He awakens to find himself in the staging area before he’s sent into battle.  With no way out, he has to repeat the following day or two.  He realizes that he can use this to his avoid getting killed.  This is huge because this is supposed to be the battle that ends the war, except humanity is getting slaughtered.

Any comparisons to Groundhog Day are totally understandable.  Each has a main character that is able to repeat a specific time period and use it to his advantage, despite being in a situation that they‘d rather avoid altogether.  The details differ a little, but the underlying motive each character has is to get it right.  One big difference is that Cage has Rita Vrataski, who was able to do the same thing until she had a blood transfusion.  (She has an amazing win streak that’s attributed to a new suit, but you kind of know that it’s not really the suit.)  She understands what Cage is going through and is able to help.

There’s very little repetition in Edge of Tomorrow.  Whatever repetition there is exists only to let us know what’s going on.  There are a few clichés that manage to work their way in.  It seems that whenever someone is doomed to repeat time, they always start at a bad time.  If it’s not waking up to a song they hate, they’re having a door opened in their face.

The character in a time loop is also given limited options to get away.  If Cage were to wake up before insulting his CO, there would have been no movie.  Here, Cage wakes up on a base to someone calling him a maggot.  He has nowhere to run.  Yes, there’s one time loop where he goes to a bar, knowing that it doesn’t really matter, but Cage realizes that he’s needed.  (Note that there’s a similar scene in Groundhog day; Phil’s epiphany also takes place at a bar.)

There was one question I had, though.  If Cage is repeating the day, how is he able to go back before the accident and still be able to repeat the day?  His power comes from absorbing the blood of an alien.  Theoretically, the alien blood shouldn’t go back with him.  I suppose that if we can accept that he’d retain the memories, the alien blood going back with him shouldn’t be a stretch.

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Elysium (2013)

When I first saw the coming attractions for Elysium, I liked the idea.  There was someone who had to go to an orbiting space station because they had what he needed.  I was wondering how it was handled.  When I was finally able to rent the movie, I liked it, but I was a little disappointed.

Matt Damon plays Max. Max is a factory worker in Los Angeles.  One day, he’s exposed to a lethal dose of radiation and basically written off.  He’s given medication to deal with the side effects, but he has just days to live.  This sucks, mostly because the technology to cure him does exist.  There’s just one problem:  It’s all on an orbiting space station called Elysium.

Elysium is where the upper class lives.  They get all the good stuff while everyone else gets to live in slums.  If someone from Earth tries to go to the station, their ship is destroyed.  It’s basically the ultimate gated community.  Max has basically zero hope of making it there to get the help he needs, but he has to try anyway.  He has help, but it’s still no cakewalk.

I can understand the movie not being perfect.  This is Neill Blomkamp’s second movie.  His first was District 9, though.  The problem with coming off such a good movie is that people will have much higher expectations.  The message of District 9 was a little more subtle.  Here, it’s more like, “We get it already.”  The movie makes too much of a point of showcasing the immigration and healthcare issues that Earth and, by extension, Elysium have.  Elysium has all the good stuff and the people of Earth need it pretty badly.

It was a good idea that wasn’t executed as well as it could have been.  I have to wonder why there were no medical machines on Earth.  You’d think someone would at least make a bootleg version.  People try to sell panaceas all the time.  In this future, it’s not hard to imagine that someone would have a fake or sub-par med bay.  It would have made for an interesting side story, at least.

I know most people will freak out if I talk about the ending, even if I don’t give away specifics.  However, that was really the only bad part for me.  I felt like it wasn’t as strong as the rest of the movie.  At least the bulk was relatable.  Max is in need of attention and he’s willing to go to great lengths to get it.  The ending almost didn’t seem to fit the rest of the story.  This is one of those movies that I may have to watch again to pick up on things.  I’ll probably wait to watch it with someone else.

IMDb page

Grabbers (2012)

As easy as it is to watch streaming movies, I had been putting off watching Grabbers.  I had seen a movie called The Host, which was probably how I found this movie.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to watch to similar movies so close together.  However, the only real similarity is a large creature terrorizing people.

The movie starts with a streak of light across the sky.  Three people on a boat witness it; it’s the last thing they ever see.  Cut to a police officer, Lisa Nolan, transferring from Dublin to Erin Island.  She’s filling in for the local supervisor, who is on vacation.  Her temporary partner, Ciarán O'Shea, likes to drink, which is in stark contrast to Lisa’s never having had a sip of alcohol.  Being that the supervisor is on vacation, they’re basically hoping that nothing major happens.  Of course, it isn’t long before people start disappearing.  Oh, and there are these strange eggs, too. 

What follows is pretty straightforward:  The strange creatures start feeding on the local population.  (They’re called grabbers because they simply grab and eat.)  It isn’t long before someone realizes that, like Lisa, the aliens have no tolerance for alcohol.  The locals’ best defense seems to be getting drunk, but that’s a stopgap measure.  Eventually, the alcohol will run out.  The people have to figure out something and quickly; it doesn’t take long for the eggs to start hatching.

This is one of those movies where simplicity seems to be its biggest asset.  The monsters aren’t complicated, but are scary enough to get the point across.  The solution is simple enough that it doesn’t take long for someone to realize what’s going on.  Alcohol is common enough that you’ll be able to find a lot of it nearby.  (Even if it’s illegal, it wouldn‘t be hard to come up with something.)

I can’t really think of another movie similar to this one, except a South Korean movie called The Host.  The Host was more of an outright sci-fi/horror film whereas this one is more of a mystery.  People try to figure out what’s going on rather than simply trying to kill it.

The CGI was impressive.  So was the acting.  (Being that it’s a British film, I didn’t know many of the actors.  The only actor I recognized was Russell Tovey from Being Human.)  I don’t imagine that it’s easy having to deal with a problem that isn’t actually there.  The aliens produce lots of little aliens that swarm the area.  The entire town has to be drunk and scared of something that they can’t see.

It’s an interesting premise to have to stay drunk to stay alive.  It’s the kind of thing that, if not handled properly, probably wouldn’t come off as well.  The movie could easily have been a bad joke.  I’d recommend watching it.  It looks like it’s still available for streaming through Netflix.

Official site

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CheckPoints app

Many years ago, when I bought an iPod Touch, I decided to see if there were ways of making money with it.  I came across CheckPoints, a program that would allow me to check in at various stores.  You could also scan products for extra points.  Alas, my iPod Touch was the last generation of iPod Touches not to have a camera.  (Not that it mattered.  You have to have a phone to scan stuff.)  After several app updates, I found that I could no longer use CheckPoints, as it needed a more-current version of iOS.  When I recently got an iPhone, I installed CheckPoints.  I couldn’t wait to get into a store and test it out.

The idea is simple.  When you open the app, you’re given a list of nearby stores, usually grocery and drug stores.  You’ll see CVS, Walgreen’s, Kmart, and so on.  Each has a number next to it indicating the maximum number of points you can earn in each store.  Each store has a different assortment of products.  The Home Depot, for instance, is 50 right now.  There are two CLR products you can scan for 25 points each.  Kmart, for some reason, has Hasbro board games for 19 points and Doritos for 15 points.  Even though you might be able to find Doritos in other stores, it’s not necessarily listed there.

I’m not sure what determines where you can scan each product or how many points you can get.  I’d imagine it’s up to the individual stores and/or manufacturers.  (It’s also possible that they don’t want you scanning everything all at once.)  Interestingly, there are five Vick’s products, all Nyquil and Dayquil items worth five points each, that are available in all stores that would carry them.  The only problem is that I haven’t been able to scan them.  (The app says that I’ve gotten the points, but it doesn’t show as being credited.  I reported it.  Customer service was quick to respond, but it hasn’t been fixed yet.)

I’ve also seen products listed that aren’t available in the store it’s listed under.  I went into a Best Buy and found the printer paper, but they didn’t have the correct brand.  I tried scanning other brands to no avail.  It’s probably that not all stores carry all brands all the time.  It’s possible that that particular Best Buy doesn’t carry that particular brand or was simply out of it that day.  I’ve also noticed this in Publix and Winn-Dixie.  It’s possible that the brands in question are regional.

For the most part, it’s fairly easy to get points.  I find that I can get sever hundred in a day.  In addition to scanning products, which accounts for most of my points, you can watch videos and refer people.  (My code is seacow99, which has to be entered when you first sign up.)  There are also other places, like restaurants, that only give points for checking in.  I find that many don’t have any points, but a few will give you two if you can find them.  (The only way to know is by clicking on each location.)

You may be wondering at this point what you can do with the points.  You can’t get cash, but you can get gift codes and products.  You can enter sweepstakes for a gift card for as low as 40 points or you can just get the gift card for a set number of points.  The conversion seems to be at around 325 points per dollar.  You can get a $1 Amazon gift code for 335 points.  A Redbox gift code goes for 420 points. (It says it’s good for $1.20 off you first day’s fee, but I haven’t used it since their recent rate increase.)

If you want to save up, a $25 Subway gift card goes for 8,675 points.  All you need for a $500 gift card Neiman Marcus or Louis Vuitton gift card is 154,500 points.  (That’s 309 points per dollar.)  The most expensive reward, point wise, is a Hermes Birkin handbag for 418,500 points.  (I did a search on Google; the cheapest I saw was $10,000.)

Back when I had the iPod Touch, I had been redeeming for Redbox codes.  It seemed like it took forever to get one code.  I’ve had an iPhone for about two weeks now and I already have enough for three.  At this rate, I should have that handbag in no time.

CheckPoints Web site

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 (2013)

Note:  This is a review of a sequel.  I’m going to give away some details of the first movie.  If you don’t like spoilers, be warned.


Some movies are harder to get people to watch than others.  Movies based on other media, especially books, can be hit and miss.  Sequels are also hit and miss, depending on how it was planned.  Also, not everyone goes for animated movies.  When Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs came out, I noted that the style wasn’t quite what I was used to with CGI.  The sequel is in the same exaggerated style, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing depending on the audience.

In the first movie, Flint Lockwood had invented a machine that makes food from water.  This sounds great.  You have limitless food.  The downside is that it became harder to control.  The entire island of Swallow Falls is covered in food.  It requires the deactivation of Flint’s machine, the FLDSMDFR.

The sequel picks up not long after the events of the first movie.  Chester V, CEO of Live Corp, gets the job of cleaning up Swallow Falls.  He does this because he knows that Flint’s machine survived and is still working.  If Chester can get his hands on it, it could make him rich.  The only problem is that the FLDSMDFR has a mind of its own and is capable of fending off Chester’s people.

Chester’s last and only home?  Send in Flint on a super-secret mission to retrieve the machine.  This, of course, leads to the characters from the first movie finding out and going along to help.  Flint’s hesitant to risk the lives of his friends.  The way Chester tells it, there are all manner of dangerous creatures living on the island.

On the island, the group finds many of these animals, like a strawberry with arms, legs and a face.  Flint is initially terrified, as he’s the only one aware of the potential danger.  However, it becomes clear that the strawberry poses no threat.  Most of the other hybrids seem to be innocuous, as well.  Shrimpanzees, from shrimp and chimpanzees, seem to be ok.

When Chester discovers that Flint brought friends, Chester goes to the island with his orangutan assistant, Barb.  Chester saves them from a cheeseburger spider.  It eventually becomes evident to everyone in Flint’s party, with the exception of Flint, that Chester is manipulating Flint.

Despite the exaggerated animation, this isn’t a movie exclusively for children.  Yes, it’s one of those animated movies that has a few references for adults.  It kind of puts me in an odd position for recommending the movie.  The overall style of the movie seems to be geared towards small children.  It’s goofy and you get lots of puns, like repeatedly finding a leek.  (There’s a leek in the boat!)  It’s also predictable, like you might expect from a children’s movie.

There are also some more adult themes, like Chester, the evil CEO of an Apple-like company.  I don’t recall anything that would overtly offend younger viewers, but I wasn’t really watching it with that in mind.  (I don’t have kids, so I do really think it terms of what a kid should watch.)  Yes, there are a few dangerous situations.  The cheeseburger spiders can be scary.  However, I think the worst thing that a parent would have to sit through is all of the puns and food-related portmanteaus.

If you’ve seen the first movie and liked it, there shouldn’t be any surprises here.  The movie comes off as a continuation of the first movie without recycling too much of the original movie.  I’m a fan of animated movies, but I think most of the replay value will be for kids, though.

Official Site

IMDb page

R.I.P.D. (2013)

I usually have a pretty good sense of when I want to see a movie.  When I first heard of R.I.P.D., it looked like an interesting premise.  A Boston police officer dies and, rather than be sent to Hell, is given a chance to police the afterlife.  When someone dies, they’re normally sucked into this huge vortex.  It was designed when Earth’s population was much smaller.  In 2014, people manage to slip through the cracks.  Nick is partnered up with Roy, who’s been doing this since the Civil War.

It’s pretty easy to find someone who hasn’t crossed over.  Just look for death and decay.  Anything like a cellular dead zone indicates that a possible ‘deado’ is nearby.  It isn’t long before Nick and Roy uncover a rather nasty plot to bring back the dead.  As if that weren’t enough, one of the recently deceased has transformed and is wreaking havoc on the greater Boston area.

This ended up being one of the few times that I was kind of disappointed.  The movie was apparently based on a series of comics.  This usually means that many of the background details have been worked out.  Even a relatively short run should give you enough for a decent two-hour movie.  Instead, it goes through the motions.  It seemed more like a pilot for a TV show.  We get to see Nick’s moment of death.  We get to see the Rest In Peace Department’s office.  We get to see the two detectives try to do their jobs.  Given how serious the situation was supposed to be, I didn’t get the sense that they were taking it all that seriously.

If you’ve seen other similar shows, such as Dead Like Me, you can guess that Nick and Roy don’t appear as themselves to normal humans.  Nick is played by Ryan Reynolds, but appears to be James Hong to the living.  Roy is played by Jeff Bridges.  When a living person approaches him, they see Marissa Miller.  This means that we get to see some guy try to flirt with Jeff Bridges a few times.  Each time, he has to play the part of an uninterested woman.

Also, we get a few undead/afterlife jokes.  When R.I.P.D. officers go bad, they have to deal with Eternal Affairs.  There’s also a scene where Nick goes to his own funeral, only to be kicked out when no one recognizes him.  I should also warn you that Roy likes to talk about his own death, where coyotes and vultures had their way with his corpse.  This is not something that small children will necessarily enjoy.

Nick is supposed to be the new guy.  Even though he was a police officer in life, he has things to learn about the afterlife.  This lets him be a stand-in for the audience, yet be good enough to do his job.  Still, it doesn’t quite work.  Like I said, the movie comes across as too simple.  We don’t get to see much of the afterlife.  We don’t get to actually see Heaven or Hell.  There’s no commentary on who or what actually awaits you.  (Nick’s new boss makes reference to him being pulled down, despite his being a relatively good person.)

Also, curry is used as a test for deados.  I’m not sure what the significance is.  I’m sure this is something that’s explained in the comics.  When Nick and Roy approach someone they suspect as being dead, they have to ask a series of questions about how the suspect would handle a series of similar situations.  If I understood, the person becomes a caricature of their sins when exposed to curry.  One such person becomes rather large with a grotesquely deformed mouth.  He’s referred to as Fat Elvis throughout the rest of the movie.

There are also scenes where Jeff Bridges tries to hard.  I won’t say overacting, but his performance does come across as a bit strong.  I don’t know what the director was trying to pull off there.  It wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t stand it, but it did get to be a little annoying at times.

This is one of those situations where I’m glad I was able to get the movie for free.  (I was able to rent it through Redbox from a code I won on Listia.)  The plot is interesting, but I think it could have been handled better.  If this had been a pilot episode, certain aspects could have been pushed back to later in the series.  Nick left a widow, who you know will eventually find out the truth.  Nick is killed by his partner, which involves at least some foreshadowing.  These are things that might be left as ambiguous in a movie.  Instead, it seemed kind of forced.

Official Site (Universal Studios)

IMDb page

Galaxy Quest (1999)

It’s funny how one show or movie can become a cultural icon while others of similar quality are never noticed.  Even those who have never seen Star Trek would probably know the names of the ship and at least a few of the characters and main races.  This is what makes it perfect for parody.  Everyone gets the joke on some level.

Galaxy Quest starts off at a convention for a show called, appropriately enough, Galaxy Quest.  The main actors didn’t have much of a career outside of doing conventions, promotions and whatnot in character.  (Alexander Dane, played by Alan Rickman, is never seen without his prosthetic forehead, even during the one scene where he’s in normal clothing.)

Tim Allen plays Jason Nesmith.  Jason Nesmith plays the captain of the NSEA Protector.  At a convention, he overhears what a washed-up, good-for-nothing, unpopular person he his.  He realizes that it’s true and takes it out on a group of fans.  On his way out, he talks a group seeking his help.  This group happens to be actual aliens in need of actual help.  When they approach Nesmith at his house, Nesmith is hung over.

He still agrees to go with them, thinking it’s some other job.  Little does he realize that he’s actually supposed to negotiate with a hostile alien named Sarris.  It isn’t until he’s sent back home that he realizes that any of it was real.  His fellow actors dismiss him as drunk until the aliens show up again, requesting further help.  Everyone goes, including an actor who had appeared only as an extra in one episode.

They soon realize that the Thermians are advanced enough to build a replica of the ship from the show, but have no idea that the show was a work of fiction, which apparently doesn‘t exist in their culture.  They refer to the episodes of Galaxy quest as historical documents, thinking that the actors are actually astronauts.

The actors play along until they realize that all Nesmith did was to aggravate Sarris and subsequently get his ‘crew’ into danger.  The second incident with Sarris goes poorly, resulting in a badly damaged ship, which they do manage to repair.  Sarris eventually attacks the ship again, nearly winning.  With a little help, the day is saved.

Very few of the jokes are specific enough that you’d have to watch the series to get them.  Some of them are more generic, like having to race through an improbable obstacle course.    Some do require a bit more knowledge, like references to particular characters.  (Sigourney Weaver plays Gwen DeMarco, shown to be little more a love interest for the captain.)

The movie is almost like an accidental A-Team movie with a Star Trek twist.  Sure, the abducted-by-naïve-aliens thing has been done before.  Sure, coming through despite not really being able to has been done before.  Sure, I’d love to see if they try a sequel.  (So far as I know, the last one is still in the speculation stage.)

It comes across as a movie that makes its point without being preachy.  It pokes fun at the people without being insulting.  (Isn’t it every fan’s dream to help out the star of their favorite show?)  I don’t know that it would make my list of top ten films, but it does find that balance of being fun and being smart.  I’d recommend watching it if you get a chance.

IMDb page

Thale (2012)

I have to wonder how many movies there are out there that I’ll never come across.  It’s hard enough distinguishing yourself from the countless scripts that never even make it into production, let alone find any sort of release.  With all manner of movies being released, there are so many that I will hear about and get around to watching.  This is why I tend to review a lot of foreign and independent movies.  Maybe I’ll be able to introduce someone to an enjoyable movie that the might not otherwise have come across.  Thale is a movie I came across while looking at movies on Netflix.  I’m not sure if I came across it while browsing titles they have streaming or if it was recommended to me after watching another movie.

The movie is about two guys that clean up crime scenes for a living.  Well, actually, Leo is the professional.  He invites Elvis along to help when his partner needs to take some time off.  This is most evident when we see the two of them working.  Leo is obviously desensitized to it while Elvis spends much of the beginning of the movie vomiting.  (Elvis would probably rather be doing something else, but he’s short on cash.)

This changes one day when they find a woman at one of their job sites.  Elvis wanders into the basement and comes across her in a bath of a milky liquid.    Leo calls it in, but backup won’t arrive for a while.  This leaves the two of them to watch her.  You wouldn’t think this is so hard except that she’s mute.  And they make some unusual discoveries, like audio recordings of a man, presumably the deceased, who was also presumably caring for the woman, named Thale.

It’s not explicitly clear how she came to be in his care or what their situation was.  We don’t get to hear much of the tapes, but Thale is a touch telepath and is able to impart some images to Elvis.  We also have a group of people hunting Thale and others like her.  IMDb lists the leader as Hvittkledd, which translates as White Dressed.  Mr. White is apparently able to track her using biometrics.  He is very interested in taking her with him.  She’s a huldra, but not like the others that the movie shows.  Others of her kind are also apparently in the vicinity, although they don’t appear to be that aggressive towards Elvis and Leo.

The movie reminds me of Timecrimes in that there aren’t many characters and the story is easy to follow.  I’m glad I was able to get this streaming.  It’s a short movie at only 76 minutes, but I think the simplicity worked for the movie.  There were very few parts that dragged and I think the movie would have suffered if it had been stretched out.  It was also not like many other movies that I’ve seen.  This might be because I’m accustomed to American movies.  This may be typical of Norwegian movies.  (Yes, the movie is subtitled.)

In that regard, I’m not sure how much is lost in translation.  I’m not sure that there’s an analog for the creature in American folklore.  Also, the movie listed on Netflix as a horror film, but it’s not really what I’d call horror.  I’m sure if I watched the movie with someone familiar with the background, they could point stuff out that would have gone right over my head.

I could see this movie being hit and miss with a lot of people.  I might have viewed it differently if I had watched it another day.  It’s not a particularly suspenseful or action-packed movie.  It is, however, only 77 minutes.  The movie is able to tell a story in a short amount of time.  With a little tweaking, we could have a viable pilot for a TV series.  IMDb has Thale 2 listed as in production, so the story does go on.  I’d be interested to see what happens next.

Official Site

Wir sind die Nacht [We Are the Night] (2010)

I’ve never hidden the fact that I have a thing for vampires, particularly of the female persuasion.  When I came across We Are the Night on Netflix, I decided to add it to my queue.  Here was a movie about vampires with three attractive women on the cover.  Add to this that it was available streaming and it was just a matter of time before I got around to watching it.

The story goes that Louise, Charlotte and Nora are the three female vampires you see in Netflix’s image.  One night, Lena stumbles upon a rave that they’re throwing.  Louise sees Lena and knows that Lena is the one that she’s been looking for.  Louise turns Lena first chance she gets.  This makes Lena a little nervous.  To have some random woman bite you is strange.  It’s not like she has many people to turn to, though.  She’s out on parole and doesn’t really want to make waves.  So, she goes to sleep and wakes up to discover that she has no reflection.

So, she goes back to try and find Louise.  Louise lets her in on their history.  The three women rock and roll all day and party every night.  Being undead, they can do whatever they want.  Coke?  Won’t kill you.  Sex?  You won’t catch anything.  In fact, the movie starts with Louise, Charlotte and Nora killing everyone on a plane and jumping out the airlock.  That pretty much sets the tone for the movie.

You don’t necessarily see a lot of killing or sex.  Much of it is implied.  This isn’t to say that it’s not an interesting movie.  Louise & Co. don’t turn men.  They feel that men are arrogant pigs and any male tendency is only amplified by being a vampire, making them a pain to have around.  So, yeah.  It’s all about four vampire women having as much fun as they want.  They steal sports cars.  They bribe a security guard to let them into a high-end store.  They do drugs without any regard for consequences.

This does draw the attention of the police.  Lena is sold to a pimp, expecting her to feed off him.  It doesn’t go as planned and they have to kill him and torch the evidence.  The problem is that they leave a living witness, who reports the incident to the police.  The police are able to piece everything together and find the four vampires.  They have a plan to leave town quickly, but it‘s not enough.  The police have them surrounded.  Will they escape or is it the end for the vampires?

One thing that gets me about vampire movies is that they always tend to use a few clichés.  I’ll admit that I expected this coming in to the movie, but I always feel compelled to bring these up.  The most obvious is the use of mirrors.  Yes, I understand that we need a way for someone to either identify themselves or someone else as a vampire and the easiest way to do this is to look in a mirror.  It’s easy and effective.  Still, I could never figure out what it was about a mirror that prevented a vampire from being seen indirectly.  You can see them.  They cast a shadow.  This means that they should also have a reflection.

Bursting into flames in sunlight is another one.  At least this one can be explained as an Achilles’ heel.  You’re given all of these neat powers like quick regeneration and super strength.  There has to be a down side.  I guess combustibility isn’t that hard to believe.  Sunlight is pretty powerful and there does seem to be some variation on this.  (For example, vampires might only be hurt by sunlight or can use sunscreen.)  It also gives the vampires an obstacle.  Then again, the main reason I watched this movie was to see four beautiful female vampires.  Vampire movies end up being horror or soft porn, depending on the male-to-female ratio.

I also got it streaming, so I can forgive a few inconsistencies.  Yes, the constant partying and increasing body count do catch up with them.  I do find it odd, though, that they were so careless suddenly.  Lena is the new addition.  The others have been around long enough to start counting age in centuries.  They should have learned to better control their impulses.

Overall, it was definitely one of the better movies that Netflix has available to watch online.  If you have Netflix, I’d recommend checking it out.


We Are The Night – IFC Entertainment - IFC Films

We Are The Night - Official Trailer [HD]

Transcendence (2014)

I’m usually a good judge of whether or not I’ll like a movie based on the coming attractions.  When I saw the coming attractions for Transcendence, it looked interesting.  A guy is able to upload himself to a computer.  I was thinking it would be about all the horrors that might ensue from having a human mind freed from the constraints of a human brain.  The movie wasn’t anywhere near what I expected.

Dr. Will Castor is said guy.  He’s an expert on AI.  He’s even had success copying the brain of a nonhuman primate to a computer.  Not everyone likes his work.  They fear what they don’t know.  Some are so afraid that they confront and shoot him.  Castor survives the bullet, but not the radioactive material it was laced with.  He’s forced to upload himself to a computer.

But is it really him?  We have no way of knowing if it’s his consciousness or just a program using his memories.  Will’s widow, Evelyn, is convinced it’s him.  Others, not so much.  The group behind the shooting are after her and the AI.  They’re even able to turn his friend to their cause.  Still, Will (in AI form) is able to set up Evelyn with more money than she’d ever need.  She uses the money to build a complex to house Will’s AI, allowing him to make all sorts of medical breakthroughs.

Things turn sinister when it’s revealed that by treating people, Will is able to absorb them into a collective consciousness.  Evelyn can’t stand the thought of losing what remains of Will.  Everyone else sees the inherent danger.  Eventually, she comes around, but the odds of her being able to help don’t look good.

For those of you that don’t like spoilers, I should warn you that the movie starts with the final scene, making it somewhat obvious that things don’t end well.  I’ve always hated this movie because I’m constantly wondering what brought the movie to that point.  I’m always trying to read things into everything.  It doesn’t really work well here.

Also, I know I’m not the first person to point out that the movie is kind of derivative in many respects.  Fear of AI is nothing new.  Could Will help people by curing all manner of problems?  Yes.  Could humanity lose its humanity?  Maybe?  Is it really Will?  As I said, there’s no way to be sure.

Also, the idea of uploading consciousness has been seen in The Lawnmower Man, Max Headroom and Caprica.  The idea of assimilating people has been done with Star Trek’s the Borg and Doctor Who’s Cybermen.  If you are the kind of person that really likes science fiction, you’re going to notice parallels to other movies and TV shows.

That was my big thing here.  I don’t feel like the movie did anything new with any of the ideas.  Actually, I don’t feel that the movie did much of anything with any of the ideas.  Most of the movie is Will in computer form.  The other characters are worried about what this could mean.  The most obvious threat is that he could absorb all of humanity and/or bring about The Singularity.  There isn’t much said about this other than it’s happening.

There are other issues that could be explored here.  Will is a nice guy.  What would happen if a dictator had uploaded himself?  Also, power corrupts.  Will is shown as being a little more aggressive, but at no point does Evelyn ever state that it’s gone to his head, so to speak.  Will is able to do almost anything he can think up.  What would stop him from becoming a dictator?  Is it better to stop him out of fear of him becoming ruler of the world or do you let him help people?

The movie seems like an episode of The Outer Limits stretched too far.  Where does humanity end and technology begin?  How do you stop someone who could easily become unstoppable?  The movie touched on these subjects, but not very well.  It was a 48-minute concept that the writers had to stretch to two hours.  It seemed forced.

Ultimately, the movie fell flat.  I kept waiting for the action to start and it didn’t.  There was no suspense.  There was nothing to make you think or feel for the characters.  Once Will is dead and uploaded, he’s not really shown as being in any danger.  The danger lies with Evelyn, who’s effectively being held hostage.  However, she has a nice-looking place to live and enough food and water to last her indefinitely.  The only problem is that she’s at Will’s mercy.  The movie presents the issue, but doesn’t deal with it.

I had used a free Redbox code to rent the movie.  I’m glad that I didn’t have to pay money for it.  It ended up being a disappointment.  It ended up being a movie in desperate need of a direction.

Official Page

Particle Fever (2013)

The Higgs boson walks into a church and is immediately asked to leave.  The Higgs boson asks, “But, without me, how can you have mass?”

The Standard Model of physics states that there is a set of fundamental particles, quarks   There are also fundamental forces, each with their own carrier.  Electromagnetism, for instance, has the photon as a force carrier.  Scientists have been able to confirm predictions made by the standard model, but some work remains to be done.  (I don’t think a graviton has ever been confirmed experimentally.)

Particle Fever follows part of the work done to confirm the Higgs Boson, which is said to be responsible for mass.  Part of the movie shows the Large Hadron Collider and the problems that arose during the planned experiments.  Some go well, but others have to be delayed due to parts breaking.  (Nothing ever goes entirely as planned.)  The other part of the movie deals with the background information.  We’re presented with different theories on what the Higgs Boson might look like and what different results might mean for the scientific community.

The movie isn’t particularly heavy on the science.  Someone who made it through science in high school should be able to follow what’s going on.  The movie is primarily about the search and the people who want to find it.  There is some science.  There is some basic stuff on what the Standard Model is.  We also learn why the specific details of the Higgs Boson is important.  If it’s on the lighter side, there would still be more to figure out about the universe.  If it’s too heavy, it would mean that there’s little left for us to confirm experimentally.

One of the problems with documentaries is that you often know the outcome.  If you’ve been reading the paper or watching the evening news, you’ve probably heard that the experiments were successful.  (I doubt I’d be ruining the movie for anyone by stating that.)  the movie at least shows what it was like doing the work.  When all you see is a headline and a brief article, you may not be aware of how the whole story went down.  The documentary gives is able to go into more detail and show some of the people that made it happen.

I haven’t met many people that are particularly interested in science.  As long as the GPS works, we tend not to worry about how understanding relativity helped make that happen.  The Internet and the World Wide Web came out of a need to share information.  Interestingly, CERN put up the first Web site.  I always wonder if they realized that it would evolve into a place to find pictures of cats.

Official movie website

The Large Hadron Collider | CERN

The Unbelievers (2013)

Some movies are so great, you could spend hours extolling their virtues.  There are some so bad, you could spend days picking them apart and still not be satisfied that you found everything wrong with it.  Then, there are some that are neutral.  Somehow, you manage to watch the whole thing, but you’re left wondering why.  I came into The Unbelievers thinking it would be some sort of documentary or something on Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss.

Instead, it came across like Chariots of the Gods in that it was just a bunch of random footage strung together.  We get to see one of them talking on a radio show.  Next, we have someone giving a telephone interview.  (We only get to see their side of it.)  We get to see Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame and Penn Jillette, among others, speaking at a rally that Dawkins and Krauss also spoke at.  It’s almost like someone had a bunch of really great footage from other projects, but they didn’t know what to do with it.  Instead of throwing it all out, they gave it to someone to edit together.

This is where it’s going to be difficult to recommend watching this.  There’s no real plot and there isn’t enough of anything for it to be interesting.  I’m not even sure what the context was for each situation.  It’s almost like a best-of album or highlight reel.  It would have been nice if we had been able to see maybe one or two full interviews or lectures.  Instead, we’re off to the next engagement before we can form any interest in what’s going on.

I found this movie on Netflix through their streaming service.  I’m not sure if the DVD comes with any special features, but it would have been interesting to watch the movie with some sort of commentary track from either Dawkins or Krauss (or, preferably, both) explaining what was going on.  There’s so much potential here.  I thought this was going to be something about the advantage of science, as both men are advocates of reason.

This is something you’d probably watch out of desperation after you’ve gone through most of your other streaming options.  In this regard, I’m not entirely upset that I watched it.  At least I didn’t have to wait for it to be mailed to me.  As for my recommendation, It’s kind of like what the police might say in a move crime scene.  Move along.  Nothing to see here.

Official Web Site

THE UNBELIEVERS (2013) - Official Movie Trailer (Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss)

Non-Stop (2014)

There’s not a whole lot you can do on an airplane.  With movies, any confined space is going to present problems.  It worked in Exam.  Several people are competing for one job.  When the turn on each other, not being able to leave the room adds to the suspense.  With Non-Stop, you have a similar problem.  Liam Neeson plays an air marshal named Bill Marks.  He’s not the best person.  He drinks.  He argues with people.  He even sneaks a smoke on the lavatory.  The good news is that he gets to travel a lot.  The bad news is that it’s the kind of work that can take a strain on you and your family.

It’s shaping up to be another routine flight when Marks gets a message over the secure network.  The person on the other end threatens to kill passengers at regular intervals unless money is transferred to a specific account.  He initially assumes it to be a joke by the flight’s other air marshal, Jack Hammond.  Hammond denies everything, even showing Marks his own pager.

It doesn’t seem like it would be that easy to pull off something like this.  There are several suspects, though.  Could it be the friendly woman that put forth some effort to sit next to Marks?  It would be too obvious if she took out a pager.  Could it be the angry guy that talks back?  Maybe it’s the token Arab/Muslim guy that everyone’s ready to point a finger at.

It doesn’t help that Marks has no proof.  At best, he looks paranoid.  Things get worse from there, especially when people actually start dying.  You’d think someone would notice a fellow passenger sending texts and turn them in.  The movie manages to go on for 1:46 with the bulk of it in the airplane.  You’d think Marks would be able to see the person given the right vantage point.  It’s never that simple.

That’s the big problem I had with the movie.  The movie is entertaining, but requires a certain suspension of disbelief.  You’d think two trained air marshals could figure out who one person is when the person they’re looking for is typing something on a wireless device.  It shouldn’t take that long to figure everything out.

It’s as if someone got the idea and tried to get it as close to two hours as they could.  It’s interesting to see how the next person will be killed, but that’s not really exciting enough to carry the film.  There is also part of the movie that would be a good candidate for Mythbusters, assuming there’s a way to test it at all.  Knowing that there’s a bomb on board, Marks proposes that they bury the bomb in luggage at a weak point in the plane to direct the blast.  I’m not sure that it would go down as expected.

This is one of those cases where I’m glad it was a free rental from Redbox.  The premise wasn’t enough to get me into the theater, but I did want to watch it.  The movie came off as a little too cliché to me.  If you can get it through Netflix, I’d say go for it.  Just don’t ask too much of the movie.