Mortal Kombat: Annihiliation (1997)

Rayden: I am proud to die... a mortal


Ya, well as we saw with the end of Mortal Kombat, a sequel was pretty much a guarantee.  And we got this.  Don't get me wrong, parts of the movie are quite entertaining.  But overall, it was forced and an excuse to get more MK characters on the screen.  Some though, were not named or only on screen briefly, so the appeal of this movie was more towards the hardcore players of the game.


One part of the games is that in addition to fatalities, the characters could also execute animalities.  Yo know, change into an animal and finish off their opponent.  *sigh*  I was not a fan of them in the game, and here they fell flat.


Not to mention the lack of the return of most of the cast from the first one.  Liu Kang and Kitana are the only actors to return.  Unless you also count Johnny Cage, who i killed five minutes in.  Clancy Brown look alike James Remmer played Raiden this time around.  And ya, he brought a certain something to the role that Christopher Lambert didn't.  I dunno.  This was not a film that lived up to its predecessor.


Fun yes. Worth watching?  Yes, but as background noise.  Nothing here really that requires great thought or attention.


I give it 3/5 useless character cameos.

The Other Guys (2010)

P.K. Highsmith: Did someone call 9-1-holy shit!'


Man, oh man did I love this movie.  From the opening narration (done by Ice-T) to the adventures of Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) and Danson (Dwayne Johnson) this movie delivered.


And then we got to the other guys (see what I did there?)


In short, Highsmith and Danson meet an...epic end, and there is a void to be filled in the NYPD.  Who but to fill this void but Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg)?  Gamble is a forensic accountant who gets on the track of some shad scaffolding permits, and leads him to an embezzlement scheme where the target is the police pension funds.  His partner Hoitz (who once shot a famous person) is less than enthusiastic about this plan.  Major Payne Damon Waynes also stars as a fellow cop and Bruce Wayne Michael Keaton plays their captain...who also works at Bed, Bath and Beyond.


Anyway... oh, did I mention that Eva Mendes plays Gamble's wife?  That gets played out for a couple of good laughs.


Lets see, what else...Oh!  There were two henchmen that I am certain were meant as a nod to Sammy Jacksons character from Pulp Ficton and Uma Thurman's character from the same movie.


While overall a very funny and entertaining movie, the end credits left me with possibly a different take on the movies message.  The end credits are played over slides of information showing how CEOs and banks have tons of money and such.  Given that the movie focuses on taking down a huge investor, is the director trying to send a message about the state of banks in America?  I doubt it, but it does make one pause and re think the movie.


I give this 4/5 desk pops.

Some of the bigger TV cliffhangers known to man...

TV's Biggest Unresolved Cliffhangers - UGO.com

Once again I bring you commentary on a list found amongst the piles of information that can be, um, found on the  Internet.

In this instance, its a list of the (allegedly) biggest cliffhangers that the producers of television have foisted upon us.  I'm going to come right out and share what number one is, mostly because I disagree with it whole heartedly.

LOST.

Yup, the painfully obvious choice.  I discount this from ANY spot on the list because unlike some other notables on the list, LOST knew it was ending.  They had plenty of time to give us the answers they wanted to.  I for one am satisfied with all the closure that LOST gave us.

Moving on...

I have not seen everything on this list, so I will contain my ramblings to those shows of which I have personal frustrations.  That being said, our first contestant is...

24. Star Trek: The Next Generation - 'Conspiracy'
This is one that I'm ok with never being resolved.  The short version is that Picard and Riker find out that Starfleet Command has an Invasion of the Body Snatchers thing going on.  At the end of the episode the parasites have sent a message into the great unknown.  And they are never heard from again.  This was written and aired before the onset of overall story arcs, so never resolving it doesn't bother me.  There was more than enough awesome to go around in TNG.

19. Tru Calling
19?  19?!?!  Seriously, this needs to be a bit higher.  Yes, the first season was uneven, but it ended with the question of who is doing the right thing... Tru, by saving people, or her nemesis Jack from making sure those same people die.  In the second season, the idea of what happens if Tru saves somebody who did not ask for her help was setting up for even more awesome.  Oh, and did I mention that Tru's mom had the same power and her dad shared Jack's?  Um, ya.  Needed some serious closure there.

14. Flash Forward
Ya, this one I'm meh about.  Decent show, but plagued by show runner issues it never caught on like it should have.  Yes, the ending was non conclusive, but it worked.

11. Carnivale
Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with what should have been number one.  Out of all the shows I've listed thus far, THIS had the biggest of all the cliff hangers.  The ending shots offered so much potential of what could have happened, and to have it just end...  damn you HBO, damn you.

9. The Sopranos
And here is the other predictable one.  I for one LOVED the ending to The Sopranos, after yelling at my TV. Dead or alive, the Soprano family lives on.

Honorable Mention, or lack thereof

Journeyman.  A Quantum Leap-esq show, this dealt with the main character who was  being thrown through time to figure something out.  I don't remeber much, other than this show was awesome.

Mortal Kombat (1995)

Shang Tsung: Flawless victory!


It is with great geeky glee I write this review.


I never really played the games as much as some of my friends, but when I heard about this movie, I remember being quite excited for it.


In short, this movie is based on the video game franchise of the same name.  Several of Earth's heroes (Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage) are persuaded, tricked and trapped into going to the realm of Shang Tsung, a real bad ass sorcerer.  But, good for the Earth Realm peeps, they have the Thunder God Raiden along to help them out as he can.  In the end, the Earth heroes defeat Goro, Kano, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Reptile and Shang Tsung to protect Earth Realm.  Oh, did I mention that if they lost, that would mean 10 straight victories for Shang Tsung?  Yup, after 10 straight victories that means our world is toasty.  However, all is not well as at the end of the movie, the Emperor Shao Khan appears, and challenges the victory, shall we say.


This was a very well done movie.  Plot, pacing and cinematography are awesome.  Cast is nothing special, with the exception of Christopher Lambert as Raiden.  Also, it seems that Cameron Diaz was originally cast as Sonya Blade.  I read this before I watched the movie, and tried picturing Ms. Diaz in the role.  Wasn't working for me, so I'm glad she ended up not filming the part.


Of course, this spawned a sequel, but that is for a different time.


I give this 4/5 fatalities.

Double dose of George RR Martin News...

George RR Martin fans rejoice!  Not only did Entertainment Weekly post this AWESOME trailer for the new HBO series...

Go ahead, watch it, I'll wait...

Game of Thrones trailer

Pretty awesome, huh?

But, the next book in the series got its release date!!  Woo Hoo!!

A Dance With Dragons release date...

July 12th of this very year will see the release of this book...

Ya... its a good day to be a George RR Martin fan...