Richard ‘Richie’ Kuklinski was a contract killer who worked with the New Jersey mob in the 1970s and 1980s, at the behest of Roy DeMeo (here played by Ray Liotta) and killed over 100 men over the course of that career. In this film, we see how he starts a family alongside this murderous work, with his wife (Winona Ryder) and children being none the wiser about the true nature of his job....
In between a smorgasbord of debauched 80s opulence we witness a man pushed to unnerving psychological limits, thanks to Cranston’s trademark craggy performance. Indefinitely spiralling downwards, he submerges into his undercover role as the slick, high-rolling, money-laundering businessman Bob Musella, in the mother of all CIA stings. Embarking upon Operation C-Chase, Mazur teams up with fresh faced agent Kathy Ertz (Diane Kruger) and streetwise subordinate Emir Abreu (John Leguizamo) who together circumnavigate drug lord Pablo Escobar’s seemingly impenetrable criminal hierarchy....
There was the Vietnam war to bring pictures of flag covered coffins to the newscasts, the assassination of the Kennedy brothers, the Soviets pushing the world to the brink of extermination, Marilyn Monroe dying in suspicious circumstances, Dr. Spock solemnly declaring that children shouldn’t be disciplined, and the ingesting of hard drugs. The only area where there seemed to be an effort to improve, rather than destroy, what had gone before was in the film industry....
If all goes to plan, Captain America and his compatriots, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow, will be hitting cinemas on May 4th 2012. Building up slowly, the Marvel comics movie machine has handled this epic geek event pretty niftily, considering how complex an Avengers ensemble picture is. To construct an elaborate and confusing, but possibly effective metaphor, the point we’ve now reached is the part in the story where Captain America has climbed up the mountain and done the grunt work, in order to reach forward to an epic new horizon beyond....
The world bows down, kisses your confident bare butt cheeks and proclaims you’re a genius warrior hero in this idyllic vision. Except, you’re not a movie messiah. In fact, you’re a very naughty boy. The world is alienated, Mad Max looks level-headed in comparison and you still have a girl’s name. This is ‘Melcalpypto’, which in the Yucatec dialect means ‘the undoing and great shaming of warrior who was once Braveheart....
The battle to bring back magic that began in the season two finale continues, but just because spell-casting doesn’t work doesn’t mean all of the power is gone. Appropriately enough, the cast shared their insights from the set of the Muntjac, a magical boat that features prominently in The Magicians season 3. “This season the theme is about trying to get magic back,” explains Dudley, “but there are still things that are magical in our world....
Built to purpose, the stars in The Magnificent Seven shine brighter than Rihanna’s favourite diamond. The impeccable Denzel Washington, the charm radiator Chris Pratt and the aggressively hipster Ethan Hawke may have their names emblazoned highest on the posters, but this is not just about star power. Under the publicity veil is a cast as diverse as a Western has ever seen. As Fuqua put it himself, this is the tale of “black, white, Asian, Mexican, Native American, a white woman, all coming together to fight injustice....
1.11 Apres Moi, Le Deluge Apres Moi, Le Deluge addressed the question of whether the witches’ Harvest was a scam or whether the sacrifices would indeed rise again once completed, and the results will have a massive emotional impact on all of the remaining characters. No matter how old, powerful and murderous the Mikaelson family are, they still aren’t in the business of slaughtering children, and what went down at the graveyard was unflinchingly brutal....
2.22 Ashes To Ashes We began season two with the promise of Esther and Finn back from the dead, for instance, and since then have seen Esther, Finn, Kol, Mikael, Klaus’ biological father, Dahlia and Freya all resurrected from the dead at one point or another. What’s more, they’ve all had a couple of bodies each, and some of those bodies are still kicking around as independent characters. It was a deviation from last season’s ‘rival mobs of New Orleans’- shtick but, when everyone on screen is still swearing vengeance against someone else, it doesn’t feel so different....
The story sees the luxuriantly-bearded Pirate Captain (voiced by Hugh Grant) determined to up his status in the piratic world by winning the Pirate of the Year award. The problem? Despite his bouncing, full-bodied facial hair and loyal crew, he’s considered something of a laughing stock amongst the popular pirate clique (Salma Hayek, Lenny Henry, and Jeremy Piven). To win their approval and the award, the Pirate Captain needs booty, and lots of it....
The Terror Episode 9 The Terror moved at lightning speed tonight, providing quite a few sendoffs in its most terrifying hour yet, as we finally arrived at the cannibalism portion of this doomed adventure in the Arctic. If you’ve been following my reviews for the past few weeks, you already knew this was coming, but it’s no less shocking when the men begin the work of carving up the dead for food....
The Theory Of Everything delves back to the university years of Hawking’s life, and tells a story that, as its producer Tim Bevan says, “nobody knew much about.” But the film isn’t just about Hawking, but also about his future wife Jane – how they met, fell in love and remained together, even as Hawking began to display the worst effects of motor neuron disease. At first, Hawking’s illness seems to go unnoticed, to himself as much as anyone else; but as the basis for his PhD thesis coalesces in his mind – it’s about black holes, inspired by a lecture given by Roger Penrose (Christian McKay) his body begins to fail him....
Nonetheless, help is at hand. Because over in the States, the first batch of critics have been unleashed onto the film to release their verdict. And, it seems, the knives have been just a little bit sharpened. This is a surprise. We’d have expected the presence of director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Gods And Monsters) to have given the film an added lift, but – if you believe this first batch of critics – that doesn’t appear to have been the case....
This review contains spoilers. It’s taken them nineteen episodes to get there, but things are finally heating up in time for the finale on The Vampire Diaries. Heart of Darkness is mostly concerned with the various love stories/triangles (probably to make room for more exciting stuff in the last three weeks) but, as always with this show, nothing much is resolved on that front. Jeremy and Tyler also make a return, along with Rose the ghost and the worst mother in the world, Esther....
5.19 Man On Fire There’s a reason the show’s nosedive in quality coincided with Alaric’s death back in the season three finale, and then again when Klaus and Elijah departed for New Orleans. The bond between Stefan and Damon was all we had left in that department, and it was far too reliant on their shared love for Elena. Somewhere along the way, conversations between the Salvatores became less about their historical dysfunction and unconditional co-dependence and more about which one got to share a bed with Elena, and that’s when everything went to hell....
5.1 No Sanctuary When you examine The Walking Dead as a series, there are only three characters who feel like they are definitely not killable: Rick, Carl, and Daryl. Rick and Carl are the basis of the show; Daryl is the break-out character whose death would cause fan riots. Eventually I believe Michonne will be up there with them, but for now, everyone else is expendable. Granted, Abraham, Rosita, and Eugene are too new to die right away, and they’re clearly going to become the plot drivers for this season, but there are enough other characters on the show—including my beloved Carol—who could potentially be zombie chow....
6.2 JSS After Carol’s impromptu cooking lesson, the episode lingers on some domestic drama. After all, Rick executed a guy in front of the town last season, and they haven’t seen that type of behaviour at all. Jessie is dealing with a cranky teenager with a knit cap, Eugene and Tara are hanging out with the new doctor Denise Cloyd (Merritt Wever), and Maggie and Who The Hell Is Deanna are discussing expanding the town, planting crops, and restoring some normality to the town....
6.4 Here’s Not Here We’ve seen Morgan at every stage of his post-apocalyptic life. We’ve seen the father struggling to keep life normal for his son in walker-haunted King County. We’ve seen the schizophrenic, trapped in a lair of his own making, muttering about clearing in between homicidal outbursts. We’ve seen the walking ronin, trailing after Rick and company. Now we’ve seen Morgan the born-again pacifist, letting Wolves go free and avoiding killing thanks to his strong moral code....
The X-Files Season 10 Episode 4 The abrupt end to “Home Again,” another mystery that vanishes into thin air, is not about agents who can’t close. Writer-director Glenn Morgan’s episode is a brutally honest look at our desire for closure – and the fun and frustration of The X-Files is that we usually never get it. Following up his brother’s already beloved Monster-of-the-Week comedy episode, Morgan sticks to a similar formula that long-time writing partner James Wong used in “Founder’s Mutation....
His script kicks off with a short prologue in 1960s Scotland, which sees a busload of small kids walking towards a strange light. Before you can say Close Encounters, we’re back in modern day Wales, as Torchwood picks up from where the dramatic second season left off. The team are down to three, with Jack and Ianto now a ‘couple’ of sorts (that accounts for a good minute of dialogue in the episode), and yet the depleted group are about to face arguably their mightiest challenge to date....
