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Title: Ender's Game (2013)
Directed by: Gavin Hood
Screenplay by: Gavin Hood
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Hailee Steinfeld, Ben Kingsley, Abigail Breslin
Run time: 114 minutes

The book vs the movie

I realize that there is a lot of controversy over this movie, mostly to do with Orson Scott Card's insistence on sharing his personal views with the world. I try to ignore author wank, but some of the things he's done in recent years have really offended me. Still, I am of the belief that a book and its author should be judged separately, and as a piece of art, Ender's Game is a great story.

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Title: Silenced (International)
Title: The Crucible (“Dogani” in Korean)
Release year: 2011
Directed by: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Screenplay by: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Starring: Gong Yoo, Jung Yoo-mi
Based on the novel “Dogani,” by Gong Ji-young

Summary: Based on actual events, it depicts the brutal physical abuse of children at a school for the hearing impaired. One of the victims is a deaf mute boy, one is a mentally handicapped girl, and the other is a deaf girl. The movie sparked controversy and brought about a change in legislation that went through in late October 2011. Called the Dogani Bill, it changed the statute of limitations for sex crimes against minors and the disabled in South Korea.

Pick up a copy from Amazon.

The minute I read the blurb I knew this was going to be one of those movies that was going to completely wrench my emotions. I was right.

I would still watch it again.

This was such an excellent movie that it forced me to see passed its subject matter. The rape of the children was depicted in a manner that highlighted just how brutally they were treated, yet the camera angles and cutaways mean that it’s not as graphic as it seems.

Title: The Faculty (1998)
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez
Written by: David Wechter (story), Bruce Kimmel (story), Kevin Williamson (screenplay)
Actors: Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Clea Duvall, Famke Janssen, Jordana Brewster, Laura Harris, Jon Stewart
Genre: sci-fi, horror
aStore: DVD, Blu-Ray

So this is one of those teen movies where a bunch of kids fight the alien invasion by killing people and doing drugs. Basically, it’s high school.

Btw, this movie has a crazy number of famous actors in it — Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Jordana Brewster, Clea DuVall, Shawn Hatosy, Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Christopher McDonald, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Patrick, Usher, and Jon Stewart.

*spoiler alert* Elijah Wood is Casey Connor, a nerdy kid being bullied. At the very beginning, he’s grabbed by his arms and legs by a bunch of jocks and slammed crotch first into the flag pole. So at the end of the movie, I hate the fact that Casey doesn’t use his newfound popularity to help that poor kid getting his ass kicked. He was totally hating life while he was being bullied, but he doesn’t do anything to help some other poor shmoe? Forget that you just saved the world or whatever, you’ve lost a ton of cred with me.

Anyways, watching this movie, I like to imagine what would have happened if it turned out they were just hallucinating the alien invasion and they went on a drug-fueled killing spree. It’s like, what if the Matrix isn’t real, and Neo is just some crackpot with a bunch of machine guns running around in too much leather.

Also, the ending was weak because in real life, they totally would have blamed those kids for everything during the clean up, and there would have been a massive government cover up. Maybe the guys who came … Read the rest “RE MOVIE: The Faculty [sci-fi, horror]”

Title: Con-Air (1997)
Genre: action
Directed by: Simon West
Written by: Scott Rosenberg
Actors: Colm Meaney, John Malkovich, John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Dave Chappelle

aStore: DVD

I would just like to state for the record that the best thing about the movie “Con-Air” was Steve Buscemi.

There was just something so enthralling about his creepy serial killer cannibal guy character (he did eat people, didn’t he? He totally seemed like he did on the creep meter). I just couldn’t look away whenever he appeared onscreen.

So there’s like Nicolas Cage running around trying to help John Cusack’s cop-guy character and John Malkovich is the bad ass guy they’re trying to stop. There’s all of these convicts running around on a hijacked prison plane, then stuff about taking over an airport – it’s been a long time for me –  and there’s lots of explosions and car chases and some people end up dead.

“Con-Air” is just an action popcorn flick of no real importance to the world at large. All I can remember is that it was fun to watch and Nic Cage had longish hair and I think Monica Potter was in it as the pretty young wife.

But Steve Buscemi totally stuck out. And that’s something he’s always done for me.

“Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Reservoir Dogs,” “Charlotte’s Web,” “The Sopranos,” “Big Daddy,” “The Adventures of Pete and Pete,” “Monsters Inc,” the list goes on and on. And in every single one of the movies or television shows Steve Buscemi has appeared in, he has always done a most excellent job.

He is a real icon.

Which is why, whenever I think of “Con-Air,” it’s not John Cusack or Nicolas Cage I think of. It’s Steve Buscemi in that white jump suit sitting down … Read the rest “RE MOVIE: Con-Air [action, escaped convicts]”

Hello darkness, my old friend,
here I am to gaze again
upon the beauty of thy cheek,
your loving Will dost make us weep.
To see you both so rudely parted,
our hearts were broken,
then restarted, with the fire of our yearning,
for "Season 4!" our hearts are burning.
--Hannibal