A betrayal and a lot of dead bodies

The Mechanic starring Jason Statham and Donald Sutherland is an action packed drama that has a predictable ending.  A "Mechanic" is a "hit man".  He is called when he is needed to clean up someone else's mess.  Trouble starts when his assignment is to exterminate his mentor and friend.  When he finds out who is behind this and then tries to make amends with his mentor's son, his house of cards starts to tumble down around him. These is not much more to tell with this story.  There is a lot of shooting and dead people all over the city and problems start to get solved.  The movie is fast paced and entertaining. If that is what you are looking for and no more, then this would be a nice movie to rent.

Christians on a witch hunt

Season of the Witch starring Nicholas Cage and Ron Perlman is a short film, just 96 minutes.  A crusade of Christian army men are attacking cities who are home to non Christians and who are sanctioned as devil worshipers because they harbor witches.  They come across one city where mothers and children are killed and they start to question their leader and their beliefs.  They decide to quit the crusade and survive on their own.  Some time after, three witches are found and hung and die except for one young witch. She survives and needs to be transported to the monks to be judged.  Cage, Perlman and a small band of Christians, go on a journey to transport this witch to the monks.  Little do they know what truth is behind this young witch and what they will face when they arrive at their destination.  Season of the witch is not a bad movie but it becomes apparent as to what is going on and fizzles out in the end.  Oh well...it is a short movie and it's entertaining.

A teacher trying to find his way

Sometimes I pick up a book that is ridiculously funny and unbelievably shocking.  That's what The Mystic Arts of Erasing all Signs of Death by Charlie Huston conveys.  Webster Fillmore Goodhue (Web) makes a career change because of a tragedy, from teacher to joining the clean team.  The clean team cleans up grisly L.A. crime scenes.  Web feels that he has a steady gig but of course nothing is ever simple.  One job is for him and the clean team to sponge up a Malibu suicide's brains from a bathroom mirror. While doing his job, Web starts flirting with the deceased man's daughter and afterwards things turn weird when the deceased man's daughter asks Web for a favor.  Someone normal would run away but Web agrees to meet her at midnight to see what she needs.  After meeting her he sees that gun-toting California cowboys start showing up on his doorstep.  Something is going on and he finds himself an unfortunate victim in this whole mess.  If you are looking for a funny disturbing and entertaining read then this is the book for you.

Harry Potter ends

Harry Potter, Hermime and Ron are together one last time.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 was a fast paced and emotional movie for all the Harry Potter fans.  The battle of good verses evil and the final fight of Harry and Voldemort bought excitement and anticipation to us all.  There were a lot of questions answered which was nice.  Many fans will miss Harry Potter, but what a wonderful run of very likable characters.

Green Nonsense

O.k., I heard many negative comments about the Green Lantern.  I was still curious to see for myself if what was said was true.  Well, it was.  The story starts by trying to explain the origin of Green Lantern.  Apparently there is 3,600 of them of different species and planetsand are supposed to be smarter than humans.  One of their own seeks revenge because as intelligent beings they are not above wanting control and power over something that cannot be controlled.  Fear!  The Green Lantern are supposed to be fearless but the ring picks a human who is filled with nothing but fear.  This ring comes in the form of a wounded Green Lantern who tried to fight this beast and lost.  This horrible monster is on the way to the Green Lantern world but gets turned around to attack all humans on Earth instead.  Hal, now ( the "Earth" Green Lantern) has to figure out who he really is and how he is supposed to help save his planet.  The story fails because the writing fails.  Superheroes are supposed to be protected of their identity with the mask but Hal is recognized by several people, Green Lantern suit and all.  Green Lanterns are supposed to work collectively and so on and the only thing I saw them do collectively was raise their rings to the sky.  The CGI was fine and costumes nice.  People in the theatre started walking out and when the movie was over, there were more questions than answers.  One being, who are the Green Lanterns?  I'm sure there will be a sequel and hopefully a more cohesive storyline will come a second go round.

Hannah - revenge at it's best

Hannah, played by Saoirse Ronan was wonderful.  I like the fact that not only did she play a foreigner but she looked so European as well.  It just made the movie more authentic in my eyes.  The story about a genetically produced child trained to protect herself because she becomes too dangerous to have around anymore.  Hanna is taught through books and fairy tales and wants to get out and experience all she has learned.  She finds out things that make her more dangerous and sad and gives you a feeling that revenge can be sweet.  Eric Bana, who plays her father surprised me with his acting abilities in this movie.  There wasn't that much in the way of dialogue but he was threatening in stature.  Cate Blanchett played a tough selfish agent bent on keeping what she had done for her country and herself secret.  This story is not an "original" story but the acting and the closeup shots were incredible.  I wish there were more shots showing the scope of the countries they shot in, but you can't have anything.

Sucker Punch - Punchless...

The movie Sucker Punch is a fantasy based cgi movie that takes a young girl (baby doll's) life which is tragic and pitiful and is supposed to remove her from her unfortunate circumstances and give her a chance at happiness.  The story gets lost when she goes into this fantasy world kicking butt with her new found friends.  Things start to become complicated when she realizes that this journey is not only about her. The graphics in this movie was terrific, but the story fell short in what it was trying to accomplish.  Too bad the writers or the director didn't work as hard on the direction and the story or give the talented actors  much to work with as they did putting in the time to get the graphics right.