The film starts with an overture featuring the amazing score by Jerry Goldsmith, which later because the opening theme to Star Trek the Next Generation. Then we see a vast energy cloud which 3 Klingon Vessels go in to attack (this is the first time Klingon’s have had the skull ridges which so define them later), and are quickly completely destroyed by powerful energy beams. And it turns out the cloud is on a direct intercept path to Earth. Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) has a meeting with Star Fleet command, and is given command of the Starship Enterprise, which has been being refit under the command of Captain Willard Decker (Stephen Collins) for the past 18 months, and is basically a new ship. Kirk is taken over in a shuttle pod by Engineer Montgomery Scott (James Doohan) where he learns the ship is not quite ready, and needs a shakedown cruise as many things are not in order, but they need to launch in 12 hours to intercept the Energy cloud. Kirk informs the angry Deckard that he has been demoted to first officer, and Kirk is taking command. The new Vulcan science officer is killed in a transporter accident while beaming over to the ship. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy (DeFirst Kelley) is drafted, and brought back into service thanks to Kirk, and McCoy isn’t too happy about it, or the refit of the medical bay. Kirk orders the ship into Warp speed, and they are dropped into a wormhole along with an asteroid. Kirk orders phasers to fire it, but Deckard belays that order, and has Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) now weapons officer (having been replaced as Navigator by Ilia (Persis Khambatta) a Deltan with a former relationship with Deckard who had to take an oath of celibacy to join Starfleet) to fire a photon torpedo, which destroys the asteroid and they safely make it out of the wormhole. Kirk confronts Deckard for countermanding his order, and Deckard informs him he doesn’t know enough about the refit enterprise, and the phasers are now routed through the warp drive, and were cut off. Meanwhile Spock (Leonard Nimoy) on Vulcan was attempting to gain total logic, but his mind felt the presence of the mind of the cloud entity, and does not attain total logic, so he takes a warp shuttle and goes to join the Enterprise, lending his expertise to help with the Warp Engine troubles.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….

Spock quickly helps Scotty and they are able to fix the warp drive and intercept the energy cloud a day before it reaches Earth. The Cloud fires an Energy ball at the ship, and while damaged, the new shields hold, and the ship survives. The crew attempts to communicate, but isn’t able, though Spock hears something with his mind, and realizes the Energy creature is trying to communicate, and manages to send off a signal just in time to save them from a second Energy attack. Kirk brings the Enterprise inside the Energy Cloud to the huge ship inside it.

An energy probe appears on the ship, and attempts to take over the ship computer, attacking Spock when he smashes the controls, and taking navigator Ilia. Decker blames Kirk for her disappearance.

Ilia returns to the ship as another form of the probe, to learn of the carbon life forms, who she thinks are infesting Enterprise, but there seems to be some or all of Illia’s memories in her, so Kirk uses Decker to try and get through to Ilia so she can help them, before V’Ger destroys Earth because it’s signal is not being answered by it’s creator.

Spock meanwhile goes out in a space suit with an emergency booster to go in and try and contact the enemy, V’Ger directly. He goes in and sees images of it’s journey, of a homeworld of machines, and the whole universe it has seen, and it’s search for it’s creator on Earth, he mind melds with the image of Ilia’s sensor on his neck, and is blown back to Enterprise, where Kirk saves him and brings him aboard.

Spock realizes that V’Ger is a living machine, and is much like a child, and should be treated as such, and is asking is there more.

Kirk takes a gamble and tells Ilia that he knows why the Creator has not answered, but will only tell V’Ger directly. The Enterprise is pulled further inside the giant ship, and an atmosphere is created, so Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Deckard and Ilia can go out side, and walk to V’Ger.

The get to the heart of the ship, and find that it is fact the Earth probe Voyager 6, and they realize that it had gone through a black hole, and crashed on an alien planet with living machines, who realized it’s code, to learn all that is learnable and send it back to it’s creator, so they constructed the massive ship, and set it out, and on the way V’Ger became sentient.

Kirk gets the transmit codes for the probe from the Enterprise, and sends them, but V’Ger breaks it’s own relays as it wants to meet it’s creator in person, and join with it. Deckard says he wants to do it, and keys in the code manually, joining with V’Ger and Ilia, and becoming a new life form, one not based on total logic, which can expand and go beyond this universe. Kirk Spock and McCoy rush back to the Enterprise just as the V’Ger ship and it’s weapon disappear, saving Earth.

Kirk orders the Enterprise out, on it’s next mission, as he is back where he wants to be with his ship and friends.

••••

I actually enjoyed this much more than I remembered, but part of that may be that it looks amazing on Blu-Ray and really shows off Douglas Trumbles effects, and Goldmsmith’s score, plus I am also a huge fan of the Enterprise, so it is good to see it so lovingly treated.

The film starts with the police having to launch an internal investigation, because a surveillance camera picked up 3 PTU officers brutalizing a suspect in an alley. CAPO (Complaints Against Police Officers) is sent in to investigate, and to try and find the suspect who has not reported. The unit in question is led by Sam (Simon Yam), and he sets off to find the suspect first and get him to clam up. Meanwhile one member of his unit, the straight shooting Eight (Lee Kwok Lun) is such an honest cop that he has confessed he is in bad debt to their superior, so he is getting transfered off active duty, and is totally distraught about it. He has never done anything wrong as a cop, and always goes by the book, and feels he is being punished for it. Sam has his friend leading another unit May Cheung (Maggie Siu Mei Kei) and Officer Lo (Lam Suet) helping out in the search, as CAPO is on their trail at every turn.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Sam finds out the location of the silver haired suspect from a local triad boss, and ends up having May and her team get him and bring him in, and they give Sam a chance to go and talk to him before CAPO, but they can’t make it because of Eight.

When Sam and his team were looking for the suspect, they saw him in a drug deal, and Eight chased down the other guy and caught him, but he got in a fight, and ended up beating the suspect just as their superior pulls up. The superior suspends Eight, and has him go back to base and turn in his gun, but when Sam and the guys return they can’t find Eight, and he has been acting weird, and has not turned in his gun. Eight plans on shooting his superior, not knowing that not only did he try to get Eight cleared of the debt, but he also tried talking to Lo to see if he could talk to the suspect first.

Lo meanwhile owes money to the suspects boss, so he takes him to the bathroom, but they learn that the boss who gave him up has died from wounds given by the suspect, so he can’t let him go, but the suspect takes Lo’s gun, and runs in the police station.

Eight goes to shoot his superior, but ends up running instead.

The whole force locks down the station to get the suspect, and Sam and his men go for Eight on the room, but end up finding the suspect, and Eight goes after the suspect, and gets him, but is shot by the suspect, before the other cops kill him.

The film ends with Eight now working in a court as a bailiff, unable to have a gun, but seemingly happy when he talks to Sam.

The head of the police then meet as they got a better video, which shows Sam and his guys beating the suspect, but they agree to destroy the evidence because CAPO has already closed it’s investigation.

•••

A good cop drama, but certainly not nearly as good as PTU which it is based on. Still enjoyable enough though, it just doesn’t live up to the promise that this cast engendered.

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is an employee working on the moon base Sarang on a 3 year contract extracting Earth’s new clean power, helium 3. He is the only one there, and is nearing the end of his 3 years, happy to be going home to his wife Tess (dominique McElligott) and young daughter he has never met Eve (Kaya Scodelario). His only companion is the robot Gerty (Kevin Spacey), and Sam is going a little loopy, starting to see a teenaged girl. There are harvesters that mine the helium-3, and when they are full, Sam goes out and picks up the extraction and sends it back to Earth. Currently one of the harvesters is broken, but the other 3 work. Unfortunately the lunar satellites are down, so Sam has no realtime communication with Earth, so his communications are slowly routed through Jupiter. When Sam is out on an extraction, he sees the girl again, and crashed into the harvester. Sam awakens to Gerty, explaining their has been an accident, and Gerty tells him he can’t go out. Gerty tests Sam to see how his skills are, and Sam sneaks out of bed and swears he sees Gerty talking realtime to Earth. Sam decides something is wrong, and fakes an accident with the station to get Gerty to let him out, and he takes a rover to the newly broken extractor and finds the crashed version of himself, in bad shape, but still alive, who he brings back to the station. Now there are 2 Sams, one younger and surlier, and one older and scruffier, both on the base.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The younger Sam still has a major temper, and starts ripping the base apart to find a “secret room” destroying the older Sam’s model of his hometown he has been making so long, he doesn’t remember starting it.

Eventually the two Sams start working together, and they go out in rover’s past where they have ever gone, and find transmission towers that are blocking communications to the base. The older and scruffier Sam makes call to Earth to talk to his wife Tess, but gets a teenaged version of his daughter Eve, who tells him Tess is dead, and she call for her father, and we hear Sam’s voice on the phone, before Sam hangs up.

The scruffier Sam heads back to base, while the younger Sam keeps looking for more towers. The older Sam starts searching the base, especially the room where he is supposed to get sent back to Earth in, which turns out to be an incinerator, and Sam finds a room, which when the other Sam come back they go into and find a room under the base filled with clone Sam’s.

Meanwhile a cleanup crew is on it’s way to “fix” the base, and it’s problems, so they don’t have much time.

The older Sam is getting much worse, and with Gertie’s help he realizes that he only has a 3 year lifespan, and that he is dyeing. The younger Sam makes a plan to send the older Sam back to Earth in the Helium 3 launch vehicle, and gets Gerty to wake another Clone, so they can kill him, and have him in the crashed vehicle when the fixers arrive.

The older Sam knows they can’t kill themself though, and he is dyeing anyway, so he goes with Sam to be the Sam crashed in the rover. The younger Sam goes back and puts the coordinates of the towers into the extractors so they will be run down, and manages to launch in the Helium-3 vehicle just before the fixers land and find the new clone, and the dying clone in the rover.

The film ends with the craft going to Earth, and we hear a radio broadcast about the clone Sam testifying before congress about the companies illegal actions.

••••

Really an enjoyable and well done science fiction film. I really enjoyed it, and think it is a must see.

Sam Rockwell is amazing, especially acting with himself (hard for someone trained to improve off another actor), and showing the progression of the character all at once. We have the older version of himself, that has learned much about himself and control temper, and the younger version with a horrible temper, which was part of what made him come to the moon and leave his wife and unborn daughter behind for 3 years.

Really worth checking out. I am looking forward to seeing what Duncan Jones goes on to direct.

This film as usual with Pixar films starts with a short film, this is called Partly Cloudy and is directed by Peter Sohn. And as usual the whole story is told without dialogue, which always works so well. This is the story of clouds in the sky who make baby’s, puppies, kittens, and other creatures for storks to deliver to expectant parents, but their is one different cloud named Gus who is a gray cloud, and all his creations are dangerous, from crocodiles, bighorn sheep and a porcupine, which his poor delivery stork Peck must deliver, getting well thrashed along the way. Peck finally flies away to another nearby white cloud. This makes Gus sad, and he cries and thunderstorms, but then peck returns, and finds that the other cloud made him shoulder pads and a football helmet for protection. Gus is elated and gives Peck an electric eel which shocks him right through the protective gear, but he flies off happily to deliver it, if a bit harried.

UP starts almost like another short film by them, with the love story of a young boy named Carl Fredrickson (Ed Asner), and the woman he will marry, Ellie (Elizabeth Docter). Carl’s hero is the famed explorer Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer) who pilots an airship, and who discovered a strange bird in a hidden South American locale named Paradise Falls, but his discovery was claimed to be faked, so Muntz headed off to get a live bird, and was not heard from again. Carl was a huge fan, dressing like him, and as an 8 year old he met the young tom boy Ellie who also loved Muntz, and they eventually married, always promising to go on an adventure, but life got in the way, and they never had enough money, especially working at a zoo with Carl selling balloons to children. They had a lovely life together, but Ellie never got to finish her adventure, where she wanted to move her clubhouse, and abandoned house, that they later bought and fixed up to Paradise Falls, and she died giving him the boom. Carl is then all alone in his house, and the city grows around him, with a big consruction going on around him. Their is one nice worker named Tom (John Ratzenberger who is in all Pixar films), but when Ellie’s mail box is crushed, Carl gets angry and hits a worker, and the developer is able to get the city to say he must give up his house and go to a retirement home. Carl is crushed, but he has an idea, and when the men come to take him away, he goes back in, and using all of his balloons, lifts his house into the air, planning on taking it to Paradise Falls. The one problem is that he has picked up an unsupecting passenger, a Wilderness Explorer named Russell (Jordan Nagai) who wanted to help the old man to get his last badge so he could become a full Wilderness Scout. Carl had sent the boy on a snipe hunt, and the boy had returned at the wrong time. Carl does not want to let him in, but they are up in the sky, and they must. Carl decides he must try and let the boy off, but that doesn’t work so well, an they end up going through a huge storm.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The unlikely duo must tie everything down so it does not fall out, and Russell manages to steer the house with his GPS navigator, and has gotten him to the other cliff on the other of the falls. By this time the house has lost many balloons, so the duo are able to tie themselves to the house and pull it along behind them while they try to get to the falls, then Carl will send Russell home via bus (what a fair that will be).

Russell talks to Carl, and starts telling him about his father who has left, and he doesn’t see much, but he promised to come if he got all his merit badges, so Russell is working hard to do it. On the way Russell and his chocolate end up finding a huge bird, which he names Kevin (not realizing it is a female), and the bird starts following them, much to crusty Carl’s chagrin.

Later they run into a dog named Dug (Bob Peterson) who can talk with the help of a special collar. Dug is send out to find a special bird. He is the laughing stock of the pack, and they have sent him out to get him out of the way, but it turns out he is trying to find Kevin.

Dug ends up being owned by Muntz, who has been trying to find the bird all these years to prove himself, and when Carl and Russell go and meet him on his airship, they are initially happy, but Carl realizes that Muntz wants to kill and stuff Kevin, and immediately wants to get away from Muntz and his pack of talking dogs led by Alpha (also Bob Peterson) whose color is broken and he talks comically high pitched.

Carl and Russell leave quickly with Dug and Kevin, but Kevin is hurt by Alpha during the escape, and Muntz is able to track them with Dug’s collar.

Carl and Russell plan on getting Kevin to her chicks.

Muntz sets Carl’s houe on fire, and must chose his house or Kevin, and Muntz is able to take Kevin with his dogs. Carl is able to get his house to where Ellie wanted it, but Russell is now angry with him.

Carl finds Ellie’s adventure scrapbook, and instead of being empty it has their whole life together in it, and it encourages him to have an adventure of his own. Carl is invigorated and goes to find Russell, but he has gone off to find Muntz. Carl starts dumping stuff from his house to lighten it, so he can after Muntz along with Dug.

Russell manages to get in the airship, but is captured by Alpha and the dogs. He is tired up and left to fall out of the ship, but is saved by Carl and his house, though he is kept tired up., Carl and Dug go in to save Kevin.

Carl and Muntz end up dueling with a sword and cane, while DUg takes control of the dogs from Alpha. Russell frees himself, but is is hanging from a rope connected to the house, and being attacked by dogs in biplanes. Russell is saved when Carl yells squirrel, distracting the dogs, but he is now battling Muntz on top of the airship.

Muntz shoots some of the balloons and the house lands on the edge of the airship.

Carl tricks Muntz into the house, while getting Russell out of it, and Muntz falls to his death, and his house drifts away.

Carl takes Muntz’s airship and returns Kevin to her Chicks, and then brings Russell back to the city. When Russell’s father doesn’t show up at his ceremony, Carl presents Russell with his last badge, giving him the grape soda badge Ellie gave him when they first met.

Afterwards Carl acts like a father to Russell living in his new airship. And we see the house has landed exactly where Ellie wanted it at the falls.

••••

Such a fun and lovely film (though I was surprised to see Muntz getting killed, I though he would be saved). Ed Asner is perfect as Carl, and Nagai does a great job as Russell. This is one of this years must see films.

In 2283, the USS Kelvin, a starship in the united Federation of planets runs into a strange electrical storm in space, and reports it to Star Fleet. Out of the storm comes a strange, and huge Romulan ship, the Narada, which is from 154 years in the future, and easily defeats the Kelvin and demands that Captain Robau (Faran Tahir) comes over in a shuttle craft. Robau agrees, and turns command of the Kelvin over to George Kirk (Chris Hemsworth), telling him to run if he can, and to abandon the ship to save the crew. Robua is brought over to the Narada where he is question about a strange starfleet vessel and Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and when he tells the stardate, the Captain of the Nirada, Nero (Eric Bana) kills him. Kirk orders the crew to abandon ship, including his wife Winona (Jennifer Morrison from House) who is in labor, and he plans to set the ship on auto pilot, but when the auto pilot does not function, he stays on the ship and pilots it into the Narada, telling his wife he loves her and helping to name their son James Tiberius Kirk, as he badly damages the Alien ship.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

On Vulcan we see young Spock (Jacob Kogan) getting teased for being half human, and fighting back, and talking to his father Sarek (Ben Cross) about his path.

On Earth we see the young reprobate James T. Kirk (Jimmy Bennett) stealing a classic, car and running it off a cliff when chased by a cop.

Years later on Vulcan, we see grown up Spock (Zachary Quinto) being doted on by his human mother Amanda Grayson (Winona Ryder) and then going in front of the Vulcan Council which includes his father Ambassador Sarek. We learn that Spock passed perfectly and will be allowed into the Vulcan Science Acadamy, but they question why he also applied to Starfleet, and when they talk down to him because he is half human, he declines, and goes to join starfleet.

Back on Earth Kirk (Chris Pine) has grown up to be even more a reprobate and in a bar, he hits on a Starfleet Academy Student named Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and gets in a fight with her 4 friends, and gets the tar beat out of him, and it is only stopped by the arrival of Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood). Pike studied George Kirk for his dissertation, and he challenges Kirk to join starfleet and become an officer in 4 years.

The next day at the Shuttle launch, Kirk shows up and joins up saying he will be an officer in 3 years. On the shuttle he sees Uhura, and meets another student, the older Doctor, Leanord McCoy (Karl Urban) who is scared to fly, and explains that he lost the planet in the divorce, and all he has is his old bones, earning him his nickname.

Kirk tells McCoy he will be taking the Kobayashi Maru command test a third time, and wants McCoy to be there the next day.

3 years later Kirk is womanizing, and learns that Uhura received a strange message from Klingon that sounds like the incident where the Kelvin was destroyed.

Kirk takes the test, and is nonchalant, eating an apple, and something happens to the simulator during the rescue, and is able to win the no win scenario, with no losses. The instructors ask the programer, Spock how he could beat it.

The next day Kirk is up for a possible court marshal for cheating, accused by Spock, but before he can defend himself, and emergency on Vulcan comes up, and since the fleet is elsewhere, the cadets are mobilized.

We see Uhura given another ship by Spock, but since they are in a relationship convince him to give her Enterprise where he is Science office and First Officer. McCoy also gets Enterprise, but Kirk is unassigned because he is on academic probation. McCoy has a plan though, and gives Kirk an injection to make him sick, so he can bring him on the Enterprise.

On the ship, they are preparing to go, with a new helmsmen, Hikaru Sulu (John Sulu) and the 17 year old Navigator Chekhov (Anton Yelchin). Chekov makes an announcement about an electrical storm at Vulcan, which Kirk hears, and Sulu screws up the launch, so the Enterprise leaves last.

Kirk hears the message, and realizes it is just like the Kelvin, and goes to find Uhura about her Klingon message, with McCoy in tow because Kirk is having an allergic reaction to the treatment.

Kirk gets to the bridge and tells Pike it is a Romulan trap, and Spock wants to throw him in the brig, but what he says makes sense, and when they arrive, they find the other ships all destroyed and the Nirada about to drill into Vulcan.

When Nero sees it is the Enterprise with Spock on it, he doesn’t destroy it, but calls for Pike to come over as a prisoner in a shuttle craft. Pike gets Sulu, Kirk and Spock to go with him, and makes Spock Captain and Kirk first officer. He then gets Kirk, Sulu and a third guy to suite up with bombs to parachute from the shuttle and destroy the drill, while he is taken captive.

The 3 go down, but the 3rd guy holds too long on his parachute, and misses with the bombs, so Kirk and Sulu are on the drill, and first must fight off Romulans before destroying the drill, but Sulu falls and his chute is broken, so Kirk dives after him, but his chute breaks too. The transporter chief can’t make the lock, so Checkov runs down and just manages to get Kirk and Sulu.

Nero drops a red matter bomb into the planet, so Vulcan will be eaten by a black hole, and has only minutes, so Spock beams down to save the council and his parents, though Amanda his mother is not saved.

The Enterprise manages to get away, and is going to head to rendezvous with the fleet, while Kirk wants to follow the Nirada to Earth and try and stop it, and Spock ends up having him kicked off the ship.

Kirk is marooned on the Ice planet Delta Vega, where after being chased by some creatures he finds Ambassador Spock, who mind melds with him to show him the future. Spock was in an advanced ship trying to use the Red Matter to save Romulus from a supernova, but was too late, and was attacked by the grief stricken Nero, and both ships were sucked into the black hole, but the Nirada was first, and was sent back 20 years earlier, running into the Kelvin. Spock just came through and was taken by Nero along with his ship and the Red Matter, and marooned so he could watch Vulcan’s destruction and feel just like Nero.

Kirk and Spock head to the Federation outpost and meet Montgomery Scott (Simon Pegg) who was posted there for beaming Admiral Archer’s dog into nothingness. Spock tells him he will create transwarp beaming, which allows beaming into a ship at warp, and shows him the formula, and sends Kirk and Spock to the Enterprise. Kirk must make Spock show he is emotionally unfit for command so Kirk can take over and go after the Nirada, and does not let Kirk tell Spock of his older self so noting bad will happen.

Kirk and Scotty make it to the Enterprise, though Scotty ends up in a water coolant pipe, and must be saved by Kirk. They are taken by security to the bridge. Kirk confronts Spock, and makes him attack him, which means he loses command, and Kirk as First Officer takes over.

Kirk orders the ship after the Nirada, and makes a plan with Spock to keep the Enterprise hidden and beam over to get Pike, and Ambassador Spock’s ship.

The 2 end up in a firefight, but find Spock’s ship, and Spock realizes something is strange as the ship recognizes him.Spock takes the ship, while Kirk goes and gets Pike. Spock attacks the Nirada, and almost killed, except the Enterprise saves them, and Spock sets a collision course, using the red matter to destroy the Nirada, and Kirk, Spock and Pike are beamed to safety, and get away from the black hole with some quick thinking by Scotty.

Back at Earth Kirk is given a medal, and command of Enterprise from Admiral Pike.

Spock and Ambassador Spock meet, and Spock tells him he is planning on leaving Starfleet to help the 10,000 remaining Vulcans rebuild. Ambassador Spock tells him he can be in 2 places at once, so he should stay where he is needed, and explains he lied to Kirk about telling him about older Spock so he could show the two of them how well they work together, and allow them to become friends.

On the Enterprise Spock comes on board and asks to be considered for First Officer, and Kirk makes him First officer. And the crew is together.

••••

Really an enjoyable film, and I have seen it twice now. I hope they do an extended cut on Blu-ray, because this is a great re-boot for Star Trek, and I would love to see a new show made out of this.

In Canada around 1845 a young sick man named James Howlett (Toye Sivan) sees his father John (Peter O’Biren) killed by his friend Victor Creed’s (michael-James Olsen) father Thomas (Aaron Jeffrey) with a shotgun. The young man becomes enraged, and bone claws extend out through the skin on his hand and he stabs and kills Thomas, but not before Thomas can tell the young man that he is in fact his real father. Victor and James then run off as brothers saying they will always protect each other, and we see them fight in the Vicil War, World War 1 and 2 and then in Vietnam. In Vietnam Victor kills a superior officer who is trying to rape a girl, and the two are to be executed by firing squad, but don’t die thanks to their healing abilities, and they are recruited by William Stryker (Danny Huston) to join his elite mutant hit squad.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….

On the team are the sword wielding non-stop talking Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), teleporter John Wraith (Will I Am), the super strong Fred Dukes (Kevin Durand), marksman Agent Zero (Daniel Henney) and the machine controlling Chris Bradley (Dominic Monaghan). First the team invades a diamond trafficing operation, to get a meteorite which was being used as a paperweight. They follow that trail to Nigeria to find the origins of it, and when Victor and the others start murdering the town, James flips out and leaves.

6 years later James, now going by his true last name Logan, is working as a lumberjack in Canada, living with his schoolteacher girlfriend Kayla Silverfox (Lynn Collins), and is very happy. Victor though is hunting down his old team, and has killed Bradley and Wade. Stryker comes to warn Logan, wanting his help, but Logan refuses, and the next day Silverfox is murdered by Creed.

Logan joins with Stryker who uses the metal from in the meteorite to make the indestructible adamantium, and hoping to bond it to his skeleton and let him survive because of his mutant healing power. Logan has his dogtags changed to Logan on one side, and Wolverine on the other, from a story that Silverfox told him, and he has the metal attached to him. Logan almost dies, but when he does survive, stryker plans on killing him, and using his samples to give his healing factor to Weapon XI, wolverines replacement, but Wolverine hears, and breaks out, and is indestructible now.

Logan ends up at a kindly old farming couples house, which take him in, and even give him their dead sons clothes, but Zero comes in and kills them, and tries to kill Wolverine, but he manages to take Zero out of the sky, and kill him.

Logan goes to find his old teammaters John Wraith and Fred Dukes (who has now become massively obese, and thinks when Wolverine says Bub, that he is calling him Blob). Logan fights Dukes, and beats him, and finds out that one man escaped Strykers base, the Island, so he and Wraith head to New Orleans to find him.

Stryker meanwhile has captured a kid named Scott Summers (Tim Pocock) who shoots powerful beams from his eyes, and has taken him back to the Island.

Wolverine goes and confronts the escapee, a man named Remy LeBeau (Taylor Kitsch) also known as Gambit, who can charge up any object he touches and throw it to make it explode.

Outside Creed kills Wraith, as Logan is knocked through a wall by Gambit. Logan gets Gambit to help take him to the island, which turns out to be three mile island.

On the island Stryker is working on Weapon XI (Scott Adkins) the Deadpool, who was Wade Wilson, who has been given all the powers he can take, healing, blades in his arms (though rididculous samurai swords that would never fit) adamantium, but his mouth is closed over. Stryker also lets Logan know that in fact Silverfox is still alive, and used her power to keep him in check, and was not killed. They have her sister who can turn to diamond as a captive at the Island along with many other mutants.

Logan helps the mutants escape, then goes back to fight Deadpool, where he ends up confronting Creed, and the two fight Weapon XI on top of a reactor housing, where they manage to cut off Weapon XI’s head and destroy the housing. Silverfox is badly wounded in the escape, and Stryker uses adamantium bullets to shoot Logan int he head until his brains are so scrambled, he will heal, but not remember anything. Gambit tries to get him to go with him, but he goes on his own. The mutant kids get picked up by Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) who takes them to his special school.

After the credits start we see Stryker walking on bloody feat, after being compelled by Silverfox, being arrested for killing a general.

After the credits they have 2 different endings, I saw one with Weapon XI picking up his own head, and it makes a hushing sound as it pulls it back to itself.

The second ending was Logan in a bar in Japan drinking to remember.

••••

Hugh Jackman is perfect as Wolverine, but the movie is at best mefiocre andI just don’t like what they did with Weapon XI / Deadpool. Maybe he will be more of himself in the sequel (or his spin off) but in this they kind of ruined him.

Brainless and mediocre, had so much potential but just wasted it. Not well written or directed.

In 2084 on Earth there is another planetary sized cold war going on. One side runs underwater missile bases, which can launch the countries strategic nuclear missiles, one such base us Sea Base 4 which cannot be activated without a human operator to sync his mind with the computer, but the base operator has recently been killed, so the Commander Vorshak (Tom Adams) has put an apprentice Ensign Maddox (Martin Neil) into that position, as he is the only one who can sync, though he does not feel up for the job at all. The base notices something on it’s long range sensors. Outside there is a Silurian battleship led by Icthar (Norman Comer) who plan on taking Base 4, and also plan on reviving their warrior cast to do battle. In the Tardis, the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) has promised to take Tegan (Janet Fielding) to Earth’s future, and Turlough (Mark Strickson) is along for the ride. The Tardis ends up in orbit around the Earth, and is attacked by an automated defense robot, and has to make an emergency materialization aboard the Sea Base so the Doctor can affect repairs. The base computer initiates a missile run, which turns out to be a practice, but it is too much for Maddox and he faints, and he is taken to the bases medical officer Doctor Solow (Ingrid Pitt) and Nilson (Ian McCulloch) who are in fact enemy agents. They get the captain to ggive them a program disk, and use it to program Maddox to destroy the ships computer. Meanwhile the crew realize they have intruders, and the Doctor rigs the reactor to overload so they can escape, but it doesn’t work, and they are found (after the Doctor is almost killed) and brought to the Captain.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The Siluirans review their warriors, the Sea Devils led by Saucix (Christopher Farries) and they launch an attack on the base. The Doctor tries to stop the Captain from fighting them, but is too late, and the attack is on, and the bases defenses neutralized. The Siluriuans send the Sea Devils to one airlock and the evil Myrka to the other.

Maddox is activated and begins dismantling the computer, and kills his friend Karina (Nitza Saul).

The Myrka gets into the airlock, with the Doctor and Tegan, but Turlough forces Nilson to open the door to save the doctor, thus letting the monster into the ship, and it starts heading for the bridge. Solow is killed by the creature before the Doctor can use an ultra violet light generator to kill it.

The Silurians head to the base with a device called the manipulator, and come in with the Sea Devils who have broken through.

NIlson is revealed to be a traitor and takes Tegan hostage, but the Doctor blinds him with his device, and he is killed by the Sea Devils. The Doctor and Tegan are taken prisoner by the Silurians on the bridge.

The Doctor recognizes Icthar and confronts him about the massacre of the crew. Icthar reveals he plans to use the base to make a global war to kill off all humans so Silurians can again take over Earth, which seems to be less honorable than their old tactics.

The Doctor escapes, and finds some gas which is lethal to reptiles, and though he does not want to do it, he hooks up the gas to the central air system, and they feed it in to stop the missile launch which is now possible with the manipulator.

The warriors all begin to die, but Tegan and Turlough give them oxygen to keep them alive, and the Doctor syncs with the computer to stop the missile launch. The Captain is killed by Ichtar who is then killed by Turlough.

The Doctor believes their should have been another way.

••••

Really a violent Doctor, and a violent solution to global armageddon, which does not even stop the cold war. Quite enjoyable, and Turlough is quite a strange companion.

9 years after Series VIII, the Dwarfers are still going alone on Red Dwarf, but much has happened (a missing series it seems). Dave Lister (Craig Charles) spends his time either playing pranks on Arnold Judas Rimmer (Chris Barrie) or mourning the death of his love Kristine Kochanski (Chloe Annett). The Cat (Danny John-Jules) spends time being the Cat, and the andriod Kryten (RObert Llewellyn) has been on vacation. They discover their is a problem with the only remaining water supply, it seems their is a giant squid monster in it. So Rimmer runs the controls, while Dave, Cat and Kryten go in a diving bell to fight the creature and are almost killed, but manage to just survive. Just then a new ships hologram arrives, this is Katerina Bartikovsky (Sophie Winkleman) a former science officer on the crew, who gives 24 hours to Rimmer before she will shut him off, and then plans on helping Lister repopulate the species. She uses the dimension hopping capabilities of the squid to open a portal back to Earth, though it claims that their dimension is fake, and they begin to get sucked into the portal.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Back on modern Earth in a Television store some customers discuss getting a new TV, and the fact that Red Dwarf is returning to TV, while the crew comes flying out of the TV set into this reality. They find the DVD’s of their adventures, and realize they are in fact not real, and they must seek out their creator, and since the last DVD says they are going to die, they want more life.

They seek out their fans, and use them to find a man who worked on noses (instead of eyes like in Blade Runner) and go to find Craig Charles, traveling in a fans car converted to look like Starbug (now that is damn cool!). They end up meeting Craig, who is tripped out by meeting the characters they play, and sends them to meet their creator Doug Naylor,

Naylor living in the tower much like the Tyrell corporation in Blade Runnertells them he plans on killing them, and they can do nothing about it, and they all die in a Blade Runner like scene running through glass and getting shot, but instead they end up killing their creator, and Lister takes over the typewirter, making them do what they want, but when they realize stuff is happening out of their control, they realize this is a fake world, and they must wake up.

Lister refuses, realizing he can be with Kochanski here, so Cat, Kryten and Rimmer wake up back on Red Dwarf finding that the squid was in fact a female despair squid, that Cat had kept and lost, and instead of Despair it made happiness.

Dave realizing that Kryten lied to him and told him Kochanski was dead, when she actually dumped him, decides he has to go back to reality to find her, his real true love, and he awakens from his coma. And the crew is back together.

•••

Funny enough, but not as funny as it should have been. I do love the new sets and effects though, which look fantastic. Here is hoping this does well so they will do more Dwarf!!!

Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), his girlfriend Leticia “Letty” Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez) and his crew, including Han Lue (Sung Kang) who are robbing gasoline trucks using tow trucks that they spin around, and break off one fuel truck at at time, and Letty freezes the hitches and breaks them with a hammer. Of course they are noticed and things go bad, with Dom barely saving Letty, and the two of them almost getting killed. It seems the cops are on their trail too, so Dom breaks up the money, and tells Han who says he will head to Japan (for the fhird film) and Letty doesn’t want to be left alone, but Dom thinks it is too dangerous, so he leaves her. Dom gets a call from his sister Mia (Jordana Brewster) telling him Letty was murdered. Meanwhile Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) is now an FBI agent, and working on a case trying to take down a Mexican drug lord named Arturo Braga, and of course with Letty’s death they want him to catch Dom as well.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Dom comes bak and sees Mia, seeing that Letty had been fixing up his dad’s car he crashed in the first film, and goes and sees where Letty was killed. He sees burns which could only be from nitormethane, which leads him to a mechanic who installs it, and which leads him to a Korean named David Park.

Brian is also after Park, and shows up while Dom is interrogating him. Dom gets away, but Brian gets Park. They find out about street races going on, which get you a position on a racing team running drugs into the US for Braga. Brian visits Mia, who he dumped after the first film, and warns her to stay away from Dom. She asks why he let Dom leave before, and he says he doesn’t know, and she leaves.

Dom works on his Chevy Chevelle which he plans to enter the race, so he can find and kill Braga, and whomever killed Letty.

Brian is given a Nissan SKyline GTR from police impound, and modifies it for the race.

Dom and Brian enter the race, and Dom manages to win, because he plays dirty, so he gets the position. Brian then has another racer arrested on trumped up charges, so he gets another position on the team.

Dom and Brian meet Braga’s right hand man Ramon Campos (John Ortiz) and they get invited to a party. Dom finds the car that killed Letty and finds out it is a driver named Fenix (Laz Alonso) and Brian tries to find Braga.

The next day the drivers are all smuggled on trucks into Mexico and their cars are loaded with heroin, and are told they will meet Fenix on route and he will lead them across the border and under US sensors. They make it through an underground tunnel, and Dom realizes they will be shot, so he booby traps his car, realizing this is why Letty was killed. The cars explode, and Dom and Brian steal the heroin and take off.

The FBI wants the money, but they hide it in a police impound lot. Brian claims Dom owes him a 10 second car, so the steals one from impound, this a Subaru Impreza WRX. They go to Brian’s place and meet up with Mia who patches up a gun shot Dom got. Dom goes through Letty’s stuff, and finds her phone, and Brian’s number, and realizes she working for him when she got kille,d and wants to kill him, but he manages to say she did it to get a deal so Dom could come home, because she just wanted him back with her, so Dom does not kill Brian. And Mia forgives Brian.

Brain tells his superiors about a plan to lead Braga into a trap for us $6 million, and he wants a pardon for Dom for his help. Campos agrees to the deal, and they dhow up with Braga, but an FBI agent who hates Brian springs the trap early, just as Brian and Dom realize that it is not Braga, and in fact Campos is Braga, and he manages to get away, but Dom saves a woman who works for him named Gisele (Gal Gadot) who helps them to find Braga in Mexico.

Dom and Brian go into Mexico to get Braga, and find him in a church, and they take him, but his men give chase including Fenix. Brian has Braga and is being chased by Fenix through the tunnels, while Dom tries to block the other drivers. Brian and Braga crash, and Fenix is going to kill Brian, but Dom drives into him, killing him.

The cops arrive, and Dom does not run. At the hearing the judge says he listened to Brian’s please for clemency, but because of Dom’s record, won’t let him go, and gives him life without parole in Lompoc.

Dom is being transported in a bus to Lompoc, when Brian comes up in a Dodge Charger R/T with Mia driving a Honda NSX and Dom’s friends from the dominican republic Tego (Tego Calderón) and Rico (Don Amar) in a pontiac trans am to break him out.

••••

Fun fun fun! Looking forward to a sequel which I assume will lead into how Dom got to Japan for his cameo in the 3rd film. Too bad Han and Letty are dead now, but it is fun to see Mia is now going to be racing. Haven’t seen Jordana Brewster in much except the under appreciated Chuck, which looks to be cancelled soon.

Two kids traveling in Amsterdam, Colin Frazer (Alastair Cummings) and Robin Stuart (Andrew Boxer) have lost their passports, so they go and stay in a crypt, but something happens to Colin, and Stuart has to take off. It seems a Timelord has turned traitor, and is working with a creature from theanti-matter dimension known as the Renegade (Ian Collier), and has helped it by stealing the Doctor’s bio-data and sending it, which is caught by a technician named Damon (Neil Daglish). Using the data, the Renegade invades the Tardis, and attempts to take over the Doctor, but does not manage it. The Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companion Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) realize the Renegade is hiding in a place called the Arc of Infinity which can shield anti-matter. The Timelord High Council, led by Lord President Borusa (Leonard Sachs) as well as Chancellor Thalia (Elspet Gray) and Cardinal Zorax (Max Harvey) and the Doctor’s old friend Councilor Hedin (Michael Gough) activate the recall switch on the Doctor’s Tardis to force him to come back, as they realize that to destroy the creature before he can destroy the universe, they must kill the Doctor., an

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The Doctor and Nyssa arrive, and attempt to escape, and get some help from Damon, who has the proof of a traitor on the high council, but Castellan (Paul Jerricho) sends out his dour soldier Commander Maxil (Colin Baker, who would go on to become the 6th Doctor, so weird to see him here) manages to capture the Doctor and take him before the council, where a warrant for his termination is issued.

Nyssa attempts to save the Doctor, but is stopped, and the sentence is carried out, but the Doctor has in fact had his body hidden by the Renegade, and his mind is now in the Matrix, the repository of all Timelord Knowledge, where the Renegade is hiding itself, and it wants to return to this Universe.

Meanwhile in Amsterdam Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) has lost her job at the airline and has arrived in Amsterdam to visit her cousin Colin Frazer. She finds Robin, and the two try to figure out what happened, and end up being kidnapped by the Renegade. The Renegade realizes that Tegan knows the Doctor and uses him as bait to keep him from stopping him, and lets the Doctor out of the Matrix.

The President is now under suspicion as the traitor, because Castellan has found that the codes used were his, but in fact it is Hedin, who is awe of his new master, the Renegade, who is in fact the First Timelord named Omega (from The Three Doctors). Hedin plans to release Omega, not realizing he is completely mad from being alone for so long. Castellan kills Hedin, but Omega manages to take control of the Matrix and this all time travel.

The Council does manage to distract Omega so that the Doctor and Nyssa can head to Amsterdam to try and find Tegan and Omega. They find the crypt and the Doctor manages to reverse some of Omega’s equipment, and the Tardis is wrecked, though he manages to make transference, though not fully. The Doctor tries to convince him to go back, because it won’t last, but Omega pulls off his mask, and he now looks like the Doctor and runs. Omege starts to decay though, and they find him, and he will destroy the universe, but the Doctor uses his anti-matter converter to expel him back to the anti-matter universe, saving the universe.

Tegan checks on her cousin who is OK, and tells Nyssa and the Doctor she has lost her job, so they are stuck with her now, and she once again rejoins the crew of the Tardis.

••••

Just a really fun one. I love ones with the Timelords (and hope they come back in the current show) especially because they mostly seem so much less altruistic than the Doctor, and always cause him great deals of trouble.

This is a most enjoyable series and a must watch.

The film starts with the people of the Red Cliff and Liu Bei’s (You Yong) men awaiting the attack of Cao Cao (Zhang Fengi) from across the river. Zhuge Liang (Kaneshiro Takeshi) and Zhou Yu (Tony Leung Chu Wai) plot their attack on Cao Cao’s forces. Sun Quan’s (Chang Chen) sister Sun Xiang-Shang (Zhao Wei) has infiltrated Cao Cao’s camp as a male soldier, and is sending messages back to Zhuge Liang. Cao Cao has the superior force, so he is confident, and has his troops train in kick ball, and has his admirals strap the ships together with iron beams so that the ground troops won’t get sea sick on the crossing. He does have some sickness in camp, and uses it to play dirty, sending the corpses over to Red Hill, where soldiers and townspeople are exposed. The sickness is weakening the side badly, and causes Liu Bei and his troops to pack up and leave, though Zhuge Liang stays back to keep his promise to Zhou Yu and help in the fight. Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang compete to each fulfill a seemingly impossible task in the help of the battle against Cao Cao, each if they lose agreeing to give up their heads. Zhuge Liang agrees to get 100,000 arrows in 3 days, and Zhou Yu promisses to get the heads of Cao Cao’s two admirals Cai Mao (Yi ZHao) and Zhang Yun (Jia Hongwei). Meanwhile Sun Xiang-Shang befriends a enemy soldier (Tong Dawei) who is good at kickball, and is made a troop leader of arrow men, the two play together, and Xiang-Shang uses him to help finish her map of the enemy camp, but does start to truly like him as well.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Neither seems worried by there bet and don’t do much of anything about it for days.

Finally on the last day Zhuge Liang goes out in a fleet of boats, having predicted the fog, and has his boats covered in straw and when Cai Mao and ZHang Yun attack, his boats get so filled with arrows they must turn around so the other sides can get filled up or they will tip over.

Zhou Yu hosts an old friend for drinks, but the friend works for Cao Cao and was always getting tricked by Zhou Yu as a child, so Zhao Yu lets him have a note that is purportedly from Zai Mao and ZHang Yun saying they will deliver Cao Cao’s head, and he lets the man go with it.

Cao Cao is incensed, and when the admirals return saying they have been in battle with the enemy, and find one stray ship which is fake and covered in arrows, and with the note, has them beheaded without thinking about the fact that he will have no admirals anymore.

Both men have completed their tasks, and become even closer friends.

Zhuge Liang then predicts that their will be a weather change with the wind heading back to Cao Cao, while Cao Cao plans to attack with the good wind.

Sun Xiang-Shang returns from the camp, almost getting her friend in trouble when she leaves, and gets help to leave.

Zhao Yu’s gorgeous wife Lady Mi (the lovely He Yin) learns that Cao Cao started the war because he wanted her, so she sets off on her own to try and slow down Cao Cao until the wind changes, not worrying about herself or her unborn sun. And she does manage to bewitch Cao Cao and delay him until the wind shifts.

Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu set off lanterns as they ready to attack, and send fire ships into Cao Cao’s fleet. The wind shifts and they attack with fireboats, starting the locked together fleet into an inferno.

And the lanterns have their effect, and Liu Bei and his army who are waiting on all sides of Cao Cao, so his troops are surrounded. The Navy is decimated, and the loyal troops go in, using shield tactics to get through, and decimate Cao Cao’s forces.

Sun Xiang-Shang sees her friend killed trying to defend Cao Cao and is crushed.

They go in and fight the leaders of Cao Cao’s army, though they have taken Lady Mi hostage. They manage to save Lady Mi, and take out all of Cao Cao’s men, letting only him go, completely defeated.

Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu have a final conversation about them being such good friends, and not wanting to ever be on opposite sides. Lady Mi gives ZHuge Liang the foal he helped to birth, but makes him promise to never use it as a warhorse, and he agrees.

••••

Really a fantastic film all the way around, with great action, directing, cinematography, acting and effects. IN fact it is great all the way around. Sure it is not 100% accurate to the book, but it is a good adaption, and captures the spirit very well. A very enjoyable film.

Well Red Cliff just lost to Ip Man for best film in Hong Kong, but it did manage to pick up best visuals, art direction, costume and make-up, sound effects, and score. I think John Woo was ripped off, as this is such a better film than IP MAN! 

The Concorde Golf Victor Foxtrot is coming in for a landing at Heathrow, when it’s signal breaks up, and the plane disappears. On the TARDIS, the Doctor (Peter Davison), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and the reluctant Tegan (Janet Fielding) hit some turbulence, and end up being drawn to the spot where the Concorde disappeared, so they land at Heathrow, and go out to see what is going on. The authorities see the police box, and the Doctor has them call Unit, and is put in charge of the investigation. They get another Concrode, Gold Alpha Charlie, and have the Tardis loaded aboard and the Doctor and his companions go with Captain Stapley (RIchard Waston) to go find the other Concorde. They find the disturbance, and the Concorde passes through it, though it seems they are landing at Heathrow, in fact they have travelled back 140 million years into the past, and it is a form of psychokinetic energy that is making them see things, and when they manage to clear their heads they find the other Concorde, as well as a citadel, and the remains of an alien spacecraft that has crashed some time before. The Doctor of course sets out to investigate.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….

The Doctor and Tegan go to investigate, and Stapley, and his crewmembers Bilton (Mihael Cashman) and Scobie (Keith Drinkel) see the other crew under some control, and stealing the TARDIS. The only one not under control is Professor Hayter (Nigel Stock) who believes they have been captured by Russians. The people are helped by beings called Plasmatons which are controlled by the psychokinetic energy.

They head to find out what is happening, and find a strange, seemingly oriental entity named Kalid (Anthony Ainley) who is using some mechanical devices to use he psychokinetic energy. Nyssa seems to hear something from the energy as well, and it wants to help them, so Kalid used the plasmatons to encase her, and keep her from doing anything. Tegan stays with Nyssa, and the Doctor heads to the Citadel with Stapley and Hayter, where the find the cre of Victor-Foxtrot under mind control, and trying to get into a strange sealed chamber. The Concorde crew works to get the other human’s to break the illusions, while the Doctor confronts Kalid. Kalid is using the human’s as slaves to get into the strange capsule.

Kalid lets Nyssa go, as he must use the power, so Nysaa and Tegan head to the Citadel, and somehow get into the chamber the human’s are trying to break into. Nyssa trys to smash the center console of the chamber, and there is an explosion, which stops Kalid, and reveals that he is in fact the Master in diguise, who is trapped in this time zone after escaping from Castrovalva, and he needs a new power source, and wants what is in the capsule.

The Master takes the Tardis from the Doctor, but Stapley has screwed with it, and has the Doctor. THe Doctor and Hayter go to get to the chamber, just as the passengers break in, and they manage to get in and find Nyssa and Tegan who were knocked out.

They find the power source is a sarcophagus containing the power of the ancient race called the Xeraphin, and right now two sides are battling, the good who were trying to recreate their race after it was almost destroyed, and the other who want to get power and go with the Master. Professor Hayter tries to join with them, but is evaporated.

The Master can’t get into the chamber, but he builds a power loop around the chamber, and uses it to get the power, and manages to transport the sarcophagus into his Tardis along with his human slaves. It seems the Doctor is beaten.

The Doctor trades some parts with the master to get him to release the humans, and the Master leaves. They then fix up the one Concorde, and with the Tardis on board manage to bring it back to modern times and land it at Heathrow, and the Doctor who put a limiter in the parts he gave the master, puts his Tardis where the masters should have gone, and the Master’s Tardis is bounced away, sent to modern day Xeriphas, where he hopes they will take their revenge on the Master.

In a rush to leave before being questioned by authorities the Doctor leaves Tegan behind at HEathrow, where she always wanted to get back to, but she is crushed as she wanted to leave with the Doctor.

•••

Quite an enjoyable episode, and the Doctor lost another companion so quickly after Adric, big changes all the way around.

In a house in the English countryside two people figtht, and a servant is killed. The killer goes into the room of a young woman. We then see the man tied to the bed, and guarded by an American Indian. The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) plans to take Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), but the Tardis takes them to Earth in 1925, they arrive at a train station, and when the step out a chaffuer walks up to them and tells them that Lord Carnleigh (Michael Cochrane) is expecting the Doctor. Intrigued they get in the car. They arrive at the estate, and Lord Cranleigh is blown away, because Nyssa looks just like his fiancée. Meanwhile they get the doctor into their Cricket game, and he proves both good at bowling and batting, and wins the game for them, so they take them up to the house for the nights events.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

They meet Lady Cranleigh (Barbara Murray) as well as Sir Robert Muir (Moray Watson) the constable in the area, who congradulates the doctor on his cricket skills, saying he is worthy of the Master, though he means the other Doctor W. G. Grace (which I assume is a cricket joke). And they tell them there is a fancy dress party than night, and Lord Carnleight says he has costumes for them all.

They also meet Lord Carnleight’s fiancée Ann Talbot (also Sarah Sutton) and everyone is amazed. They all order drinks, Tegan getting a screwdriver, and the rest Lemonades.

Tegan sees a black Orchid in the lviing room, which Lady Cranleigh says was found by her eldest son George who was an explorer, and botanist, but died in the Brazillian rainforest. Anne and him had been engage to him before he disappeared.

We see the bound figure struggle and escape, and the Indian is hit on the head.

Lord Cranleigh takes the Doctor and Adric to take showers and get dressed, giving the doctor a clown outfit with mask.

Nyssa is given an identical outfit to Ann’s, by Ann to confuse everyone, though Tegan learns that Ann has a mole to tell them apart. They join the party, and Tegan even gets to do the charleston.

While the Doctor showers the figure comes in from a secret passage and takes his costume, the Doctor sees the passage and goes into it.

The man in the Doctors costume comes in and dances with Ann, and brings her inside.

The Doctor follows the passages and finds a room filled with stuff from from George’s travels as well as a dead servant in a cupboard. He runs into Lady Cranleigh and the Brazillian indian named Latoni, and shows them the body, who she identifies as the servant, and asks him to keep it quite until after the ball as to not alarm the guests.

The figure in the Doctor’s costume grabs ann, and when a butler rushes to aid it kills him, causing Ann to faint. It them returns the costume, but when it goes to Ann’s room, Latoni captures the horribly disfigured man.

Lord Cranleigh is told about the killing, and when the Doctor arrives in Costume Ann says he is the killer, so Sir Robert wants to arrest him, and send the guests home. The Doctor look to Lady Cranleigh to tell them what they just saw, but she remains mute. So the Doctor tells the truth that he is a time traveller like in H.G. Wells, and in the cupboard is now a doll. The also find out that the Doctor that was supposed to play cricket couldn’t come, so they don’t know who the Doctor is, and they arrest him.

On the way to the police station they stop off at the train station, but the TARDIS is missing, but at the police station it is there, and the Doctor takes them inside, and proves he is not lying, and uses it to return to the Cranleigh house.

The figure has again escaped, this time killing Latoni, and then burns his way through the door to escape.The figure grabs Nyssa thinking it is Ann and runs to the roof, and the Doctor follows.

Lady Cranleigh reveals the figure is her eldest son George (Gareth Mine), which the Doctor had figured out from seeing the Orchid and Latoni.

Lord Cranleight admits the truth, that George was injured by indians for taking the orchid and was disfigured and had his tongue cut out, but he was saved by by another tribe which Latoni was a member and that George killed Digby the servant. Lord Cranleigh goes to confront George along with the Doctor. Nyssa is freed and George falls to his death.

At the funeral Ann gives Tegan and NYssa their costumes, and Lady Cranleigh gives the Doctor a copy of George’s book, the Black Orchid.

•••

Nothing too special about this one.

In Japanese occupied Manchuria, a rich and powerful man sends a very important map to be sent to the President of the Japanese Imperial Bank, named Kanemaru, who is traveling by train. He then hires his associate Park Chang-yi AKA the Bad (Lee Byung-hun) to go with his gang of robbers to steal it back. Meanwhile the Korean independence movement has hired Park Do-win aka The Good (Ju Woo Sung) who is also sent to get the Map, but also to get the bounty on Park, who he believes is a man called the Finger Chopper who has been chasing for some time. On the train Kanemaru gets robbed by a third man, The Weird also known as Yoon Tae-goo (Song Kang-ho) who gets the map, just as Park and his gang shows up and stops it, and Yoon shows up gunning for Park, but ends up going after Yoon and the map. Yoon though is picked up by his friend Man Gil (Ryoo Seung-soo 류승수) on a motorcycle, and they go off to figure out the map.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Yoon shows the Map to his friend, who figures it is a map to buried treasure, and Yoon wants to find it and get money for he and his Grandmother to go where they want. Yoon is hunted by a gang from the Ghost Market, an illegal market that sells anything, and it’s leader Byoung Choon (Yoon Je-moon 윤제문).

Park returns to his benefactor without the map, and kills him, and takes his money, then heads out to get the map, and the treasure.

Do-won manages to capture Yoon, and they go to get the map together. Do-won admits to Tae-goo that he is after the Finer Chopper who he believes is Chang-yi.

Man Gil sells a copy of the map to Byoung Choon, but then gets caught by Park, and gets all sliced up by his knife techniques, and is about to die, but Do Won and Tae-goo show up to save him, and a huge shootout follows in the ramshackle town of the Ghost Market, with 2 gangs, and the bad ass Tae-goo taking on as many as he can.

Tae-goo runs for it on a motorcycle, with Tae-goo following, but so are Chang-yi and his men, and Byung Choon and his men. Tae-goo ends up going to a border town brothel, and gets robbed, but the proprietor who works for the Japanese selling Opium, but manages to escape with some kids and the map.

As he runs, the Japanese army shows up, and now he has 3 groups chasing him. Do-won shows up, and kicks some serious ass, taking on much of the Japanese army himself, and allowing Tae-goo to get away.

Tae-goo finds the location on the map, and doesn’t know what it is. Do-won shows up and they find a big pit, but don’t know what it is (Seems to be an oil well), then Chang-yi shows up with some treasure, and says they will have a 3 way shoot out for the treasure. Tae-goo doesn’t want to join, but when Chang-yi tells how Tae-goo is the finger chopper who cut off his finger, then Do-won makes him join too.

The shootout occurs, and all are badly shot, with Do-won shooting Chang-yi last. Do-won’s sister shows up to take him away, and then Tae-goo awakens, it seems like Eastwood he used a metal plate to protect his chest, and is still alive. He drags Chang-yi into the well and tires him up with explosives, finding his bag of huge diamonds. The Japanese show up, but Tae-goo sets off the dynamite, blowing the well, and getting away.

The film ends with Chang-yi’s wanted poster being ex-ed out as Tae-goo’s is changed to $3500, and Do-won is now on the hunt for him.

••••

Such a fun film, especially Song Kang-ho who just steals the show. This is an absolute must see film! A must see!!

Donnie Yen plays the titular Ip Man a Wing Chun martial arts master in a town of masters named Foshan, but one who likes to keep his skills secret, as he is not a show off. Ip Man lives a quite life with his wife Wing Cheng (Lynn Hung) and young son. One day Ip Man is challenged by a fellow master named Liao (Chen Zhi Hui) and Ip man easily bests him, and this is witnessed by a local named Aha Da Yuan (Wong You-Nam) who was getting his kite from a tree. Sha Da Yuan goes into town and tells everyone what he saw, publicly humiliating Master Liao. Master Liao starts a fight, and local Inspector Li Zhao (Lam Ka-Tyung) intervenes, saying people fight with guns now, and not fists, though Ip Man easily disarms him, and removes the cylinder from the gun. A martial artist from out of town named Jin Shan Zhao (Fan Siu-Wong) comes in and starts challenging the masters of all the schools, and defeating them all. The teahouse owner who is also a martial artist named Lin (Xing Yu) tells Ip Man, but Ip man can’t help because of his wife’s disapproval of his fighting.Jin comes to challenge Ip man, and starts breaking things, and this causes Wing Cheng to allow him to fight, and he quickly defeats him. The whole town starts to respect Ip Man, and his Wing Chung.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The Japanese invade in 1937, and everyone’s lives turn for worse, and Ip Man loses his house and he and his family are forced to move to a decrepit abandoned house.

Ip Man refuses charity from his wealthy friend Zhou Qing Quan (Simon Yam Tat Wah) who he had lent money to start his cotton mill, and instead takes a job as a coolie working at a coal mine where many martial arts masters are working.

Ip Man is reunited with his friend Lin, and he tells him that his brotehr Sha Da Yuan is missing.

The japanese troops of General Miura (Ikeuchi Kiroyuki) arrives to get martial artists to go and fight the Japanese offering rich as a ward. They are lead by Sato (Tenma Shibuya) along with Li Zhao who is now an interpreter for the Japanese. Lin and some of his friends go to take up the challenge.

Miura agrees to fight 3 men at once, and that includes Lin, but Lin will not give up, and is beaten to death.

Ip Man notices his friend is gone, and decides to go fight. He sees Master Miao fight to earn rice, and then is shot by Sato and killed. Ip Man also learns that Lin was killed here, so he demands to fight 10 fighters, and quickly brutally cripples them all, refusing all the rice, except MIao’s bag which was covered in his blood, and Miura wants him back the next day.

Ip Man ends up getting help from Li Zhao who hates the Japanese, and helps to hide his family.

Ip Man goes to hide at the Cotton Mill, where it has recently been attacked by a gang led by Jin Shan Zhao and Jin Shan Zhao is one of them. Ip Man hides there, and then trains the people to fight back, and when Jin Shan Zhao comes back they beat him. And Ip Man gives Jin a metal box he got from his brother, and see it has his old kite in it.

The Japanese look for Ip Man and raid the mill, so Ip Man turns himself in, and getting Zhou to take his family out of Foshan.

General Miura offers to spare Ip Man if he will teach the Japanese Army martial arts, Ip man refuses and challenges Miura to a dual.

Sato says he will kill Ip Man if he wins.

Zhou leaves with Ip man’s faily.

Ip Man manages to beat Miura, but Sato shoots Ip Man in the shoulder, and the crowd goes crazy and attacks the Japanese and Sato is killed.

Ip Man escapes with his wound to go to Hong Kong.

••••

Quit enjoyable, with great action.

The film just won the best film in Hong Kong, beating  out John Woo’s RED CLIFF, which I am really surprised about, because I think both RED CLIFF films blow IP man out of the water. Maybe it split the votes with the 2 parts? I don’t know, but I don’t think Ip Man comes close to RED CLIFF.