Tonight was the kick off of their new tour for their 6th Album Sainthood which is released on Tuesday (though their album has been streaming on MySpace for a few days, so we could hear it first). The Quin sisters were amazing as usual, not only in their playing, but of course in their banter, which is what makes their live shows so much fun, in fact I think my wife enjoys it more than the show. They are hysterical, honestly they could do a comedy album! Actually I would love to hear an album of theirs with songs, and banter in between each! The show was excellent, and I just wish they were like Pearl Jam and released each concert on MP3 could purchase later, because I would love to have copies of all the shows I have seen of there’s, as they are all great shows, and quite amusing.

The sisters started off they show, with a song that sounded like a 50’s pop song, sung by them, that played before and as they came out over the PA. What this is, I don’t know, but I like it. (If anyone knows what this was, I would love to hear it!)

The set list was a great mix. They started off with a group of popular songs, then rocked through 6 new songs, followed by another 4 or 5 old songs. After this was 7 more new songs to finish out the complete new album, and then back to old favorites.

Tonight there was no encore, they just played through, as it seems Sara hates the awkwardness of Encores, since they are just expected now (which I totally agree with), and it felt like they played a greatest hits as well as the whole new album, so to me it was a nearly perfect set. And the girls were on top form.

I was also surprised to see a lot more guys there this time than at previous shows, though we were still in the definite minority, with lesbian couples making up the majority of the attendees. The only thing bad about that, is the excited audience was so high pitched it tended to hurt my ears, but that can only be expected at a Tegan and Sara concert.

Loved the new light show too. They had 8 lights that would turn around and do all sorts of different lighting things, and looked cool against their large paint by numbers back drop.

These girls rock, and I can’t recommend seeing them any more highly, because they are so much fun to see live, and they will convert you into fans!

Their opening band was a girl from Portland called Laura Veirs, who was very indy. I enjoyed her set, though my wife did not.

Stereogum has photos from the Oct 26th show at their site.

Max (Max Records) is a child living with his older sister Claire (Pepita Emmerichs) and his single mom Connie (Catherine Keener). Max has some anger issues, some stemming from his father being gone (it is never explained why), and he lives in his own little world. He plays outside in the snow, making his own snow fort in a pile of snow left by a snow plow, and tries to get Claire to come and see, but she ignores him. When her friends come to pick her up, he starts a snowball fight, but it gets out of hand and Claire’s friends gang up on him, and jump on and crumble his snow fort with him in. Max starts crying, and Claire ignores him, and goes with her friends, so he freaks out and goes into her room, trampling the whole room in snow, and smashing everything he ever gave her, then realizing he has done wrong, going and cowering in bed. When Connie returns, he shows her what she did, and they clean up the room, using towels to sop up the soaking wet carpet. That night Connie has her boyfriend (Mark Ruffalo) over for dinner, and Max dresses in his animal outfit, and because he is not getting attention, freaks out, screaming at the top of his lungs, and ends up biting Connie, when she yells at him, saying, “what is wrong with you?” Max freaks out and runs out of the house, evading his mom, and finding an abandoned sail boat which he gets into, and sails out to sea, much like he played with a little boat in his blue sheeted bed. Max realizes he can no longer see the shore. Eventually he sees an island, and in the darkening sky he sees some lights and heads for it, barely making it to the rocky shore, and dragging the boat in with him. Max climbs perilous rocks, and goes into the woods towards the light, and gets his first glimpse of the giant wild things.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Love These Posters! Too Cool!

Max witnesses a strange sight around a campfire, with giant wild things, and one is throwing a fit and destroying round balls of hay. This is Carol (voiced by James Gandolfini who is amazing, though so so sad, and performed by Vincent Crowley), who if freaking out because someone called KW (voiced by Lauren Ambrose and performed by Alice Parkson and Garon Michael) has left, and she would want it this way, and Max immediately gets it, and starts attacking the balls too, to the horror of the other wild things, which are Ira (voiced by Forest Whitaker and performed by Sam Longley) the whole maker, his girlfriend the one who always sees the dark side Judith (voiced by Catherine O’Hara and performed by Nick Farnell), Carol’s best friend the birdlike Douglas (voiced by Chris Cooper and performed by John Leary), the never listened too Alex (voiced by Paul Dano, and performed by Sonny Gerasimowicz) and the quiet Bull (voiced by Michael Berry Jr. and performed by Angus Sampson and Mark McCracken). Judith wants to eat Max, but thinking fast, he convinces them he is a king from another land with magic powers who defeated vikings in the past, and can make them all happy. They decide he should be king, much to the depressive Carol’s delight, and pull a crown and scepter from a pile of skeletons of former kings, and declare Max King. He immediately calls for a Wild Rumpuss, and they all dance and destroy the forrest with claws and fists,

KW ends up returning from her sojourn with her other friends, and quickly it is apparent that Carol loves her, but can’t manage to do anything about it, and KW won’t admit if she is back for good, but she does get in a big pig pile, where they all sleep.

Carol ends up taking Max through the dessert to a cave where he has made a huge miniature of his ideal world, the world he wants, and what he wants Max as Kind to make, which includes having KW with him always, and Max wants to help and says he will, though he really doesn’t know what to do.

Max gets the Wild Things to build a huge fort, where they will all live together, and he designs it, and puts Carol in charge of making it, and they set to work making this huge ball fortress, with all using their skills, though it quickly becomes obvious that Max favors Carol, which the others don’t like.

KW ends up taking Max for a walk to the beach, where she picks up rocks, and quickly throws them, taking down 2 owls, and picking them up, and claiming they are her new friends Bob and Terry. KW talks to them, and even ask questions to them for Max, but all he hears are them squawking. KW decides to take them back to the fort.

Carol is enraged, not being able to handle KW and her new friends, and he freaks out, getting angry at Max for ruining everything. Carol runs off, and Max goes to talk to him, admitting that he too, like Carol can only hear squawks from the Owls.

Max decides to stage a war, with dirt clods, splitting the Wild Things into Good and Bad, and causing further dissension, and even getting Alex physically hurt, and causing Carol to storm angry again.

Eventually the truth comes out that Max is not in fact a king, and the wild things tellingly say that he is just like them (angry little kids that did not learn to deal with their lives, and their anger). Carol starts to freak out, even ripping Douglas’s arm off, and causing KW to decide to leave again, because she can’t take Carol’s tantrums.

Max finally understands why his mother was so angry at him, and why he has to learn to control himself, and he decides it is time for him to leave and return to his mother. Carol is not there, but he finds a small heart that Max left him with a C in it, and runs to try and say goodbye, but Max is sailing away, and Carol runs into the water, waving, and they all howl at him goodbye.

Max returns to land, and runs back home, seemingly the same night, and finds his worried mom having passed out at the table. She hugs him, and he eats cake, and looks at her son that she loves.

••••

A good though sad movie, with a great message to learn about controlling ones anger and that you must think about your family, but a bit much for kids, and as I said, probably a bit too melencholy to really do anything big. It could have been more accessible for sure.

The first Doctor (William Hartnell) having fallen to the ground after being radiation poisoned regenerates into the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton). Polly (Anneke Wills) seems to accept this strange, recorder obsessed man as the Doctor, but Ben Jackson (Michael Craze) is not quite so accepting. The TARDIS ends up landing on the planet Vulcan in a strange swamp, and they go out to investigate, where they watch an Earth Examiner get murdered. The Doctor takes the man’s identification and badge, and then head toward the human colony on the planet, where the Doctor poses as the Examiner to gain access. They are found by Bragen (Bernard Archard) and his security team and brought to the colony. There is currently a rebellion going on at the colony, though the Governor does not think it significant, though the good Deputy Governor Quinn (Nicholas Hawtrey) does, but Bragen is out to get him and has him locked up. The Doctor meets the scientist Lesterson (Tobert James) and his assistant the lovely Janley (Pamela Ann Davy) who are experimenting on a capsule that crashed before the colony was established. The Doctor uses a strange piece of metal he got out of his trunk on the Tardis, and opens it revealing 2 Daleks, and the place of a third, but the third is missing, though he and his companions do see a strange creature scurry away. The Doctors attempts to convince Lesterson and the Governor to destroy the Daleks, but the Governor overrules him, and orders Lesterson to try and revive them, without knowing how dangerous they are!

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Lesterson has the 3rd Dalek and with Janley and his helper Resno (Edward Kelsey) they manage to re-activate it, though it shoots Resno and kills him. Janley pretends he was only wounded though, to get leverage on Lesterson, and disposes of the body herself. And they remove the gunstick from the Dalek.

The communications module has been destroyed, and Quin is accused of doing it, and jailed, though in fact he contacted Earth to have the Examiner sent, so he obviously did not do it, but Bragen is given Quinn’s job, which is exactly what he wanted. Lesterson brings the Dalek to the trial, and it recognizes the Doctor, and the Doctor knows they are in a huge amount of trouble, but no one will listen to him.

Lesterson activates the other 2 Daleks, and they all claim to be servants of the humans.

The Doctor realizes he has seen more that 3 Daleks, so he knows they must be making more of themselves, but no one will listen, and the Doctor, Polly and Ben are locked up next to Quinn. The Doctor manages to open the cell by using water in a wine glass, since it uses a sonic key.

Lesterson goes into the capsule and realizes the Daleks are manufacturing themselves, seeing it for himself, and they are against the colony, and loses it, but can do nothing. He watches mutants put into new Dalek bodies, and these with weapons.

Meanwhile it turns out that Bragen and Janley are running the revolution just so that Bragen can take power from the governor, which he does, killing the Governor, but the Daleks attack and take out the colony security, and many people. Bragen is killed by the head of the resistance Valmar (Richard Kane), and the Doctor manages to short circuit the colony power and the static electricity it is making, thus shorting out the Daleks (and the whole colonies power).

Quin is made Governor, and the Doctor, Ben and Polly quickly sneak away.

•••

Quite an amazing opening to the adventures of the 2nd Doctor. I love how quirky he is, but still so smart and in control. SUch a great doctor, it is such a shame these episodes are almost completely missing, as the Dalek manufacturing process would be amazing to see in more than still form.

A research center in Fetch Borough England is being run by the eccentric millionaire scientist Dr. Fendelman (Denis Lill) along with technical Thea Ransome (Wanda Ventham) and paleontologists Adam Colby (Edward Arthur) and his colleague Maximiliam Steal (Scott Fredericks). They are studying a strange crystal skull that was buried under a volcano 12 million years ago, or 8 million years older than man. Fendelmen activates a scanner on the skull, which causes many strange things. First the skull starts to glow. Then a man hiking though the nearby woods freezes and is taken by some force. And finally Thea seems to be taken over by some power in the skull. The Tardis feels the effects as well, being tossed around by a hole in time made by the scanner, so he and Leela decide to investigate. Leela is quite ferral here, almost killing the man they run into, but he does lead them to the Fetch Priory where the scientists are ensconced. Colby finds the corpse of the hiker, which has been completely drained of life, and wants to call the police, but is overruled by Fendelman, who also calls in his own security, led by David Mitchell (Derek Martin) making the scientists his prisoners. Stael does a post mortem on the corpse, and finds a strange mark on the back of the neck, and that the body is decomposing rapidly, and Fendelman has him hide it. Thea once again activates the skull, and seems to merge with it. The Doctor is almost attacked by the same creature that got the hiker, but manages to get away, and it attacks the Prior killing Mitchell, and it only stops when Colby shuts down the scanner.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Colby and Thea find the rapidly decomposing body of Mitchell in the kitchen. Thea changes again, and the Doctor arrives to take charge and find out what is going on. The Doctor sees images of Fendahleen transposed on her, and it worries him greatly, as the Fendahl were a threat to the Timelords! The Doctor tells Colby that the creatures could kill all life on Earth. Fendelman and STael arrive and they lock up the Doctor, while they dispose of the second corpse.

Fendelman tells Colby that he surmises that the skull is not human, and not from Earth, and that it has a pentagream in it’s structure, and that he and Stael are doing secret experiments on it.

Leela meanwhile has overpowered Ted Moss (Edward Evans) in a local cottage, who had tried to shoot at her. Jack Tyler (Geoff Hinsliff) arrives and kicks Moss out of his grandmother’s house, and they wait for Martha (Daphne Heard) to return, but she seems shell shocked, and Leela heads to find the Doctor to get him to help.

Thea once again goes to set off the scanner, but she is knocked out by Stael.

The Doctor has escaped and finds the skull, which sends pain through his body when he touches it, and luckily Leela arrives and pries him off, saving him. The Doctor realizes the skull is feeding on death, and growing stronger. They return to the cottage and he manages to awaken Martha. He explains about the time fissure, which is probably what made Martha a bit psychic, and that is is being ripped open and could kill them all.

The Doctor and Leela return to the TARDIS and look up the records of when the Timelords destroyed the being known as the Fendahl, and put a time loop on it, so that it could never escape, but it obviously has.

Stael it turns out is the head of a local cult, and is taking over at the priory with the help of Ted Moss and other locals, and are to have a meeting in the basement of the priory. Stael has tied up Thea there in the center of a large pentagram, and Fendelman and Cloby are also tied up to watch Stael become a god. Fendelmen tries to tell Stael that he is being manipulated by the Fendal, which has manipulated him his whole life, but Stael kills him, and re-activates the time scanner, making Thea transform completely.

The Doctor and Leela go to the Priory with Martha and Jack, but they see a slug like Fendahleen (pretty cheap looking monsters) appears, and they only escape, because the Doctor manages to get them to believe they can use their legs again, and shooting it in it’s mouth with Rock Salt, and the sends the Martins to get all the salt they can get.

The Doctor has realized the Skull is remaking Thea into a new Fendahl.

In the basement Thea uses her power to change the cult members into Fendahleen, though the Doctor and Leela manage to help Colby to escape. Stael knows he will transform, so the Doctor gives him a gun to shoot himself, which means there are not enough Fendhaleen to allow the Fendhal to fully manifest itself.

The Doctor turns off the scanner, and gets Leela Colby, Jack and Martha, and they all fight the Fendalheen with Rock salt. The Doctor explains to them that the Fendhal can absorb any energy, and the timelords saw this and destroyed the fifth planet hoping to destroy it, but it’s skull managed to get to Earth, and it has had some power over man every since, with these people being genetically predestined to do what they did, especially Fendelman, the man of the Fendahl.

The Doctor realizes he must explode the scanner, destroying the whole base, and the Fendahleen. Colby sets the scanner to explode, while the Doctor and Leela go into the basement and steal the skull, putting it in a lead lined box, and mange to escape, and return to the Tardis as the Priory explodes.

The Doctor and Leela eject the skull into a supernova, so it is destroyed for good.

••••

Silly, and not too impressive overall.

The Doctor (the great Tom Baker) is on his way to Gallifrey after being summoned, and leaving Sarah Jane Smith behind. On the why he has a vision of the future, a vision of the President of the Timelords (Llewellyn Rees) being murdered, and he knows he must do all he can to stop it. As soon as the Doctor’s TARDIS arrives on Gallifrey it is pegged as an old illegal TARDIS type 40 which should be out of service, so soldiers, led by Commander Hildred (Derek Seaton) are sent to arrest it’s pilot. The Doctor realizes something is wrong, and hides. The Castellan Spandrell (George Pravda) is informed of the events. The Doctor runs for a service elevator, and is confronted by a guard, but a cloaked figure kills the guard, and is off before the Doctor can do anything. He realizes he has been set up, but he has to try and save the President. The Doctor sends the lift on it’s way, but sneaks off another way, so that Hildred will search the wrong building. We see the cloaked figure, who is the Master (Peter Pratt) who is watching, and of course has set up the Doctor.

REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS…

(Love Tom dressed as a Timelord, and damn if the Master does not look Nasty as all hell!)

The Doctor is back in his TARDIS, and watches a news broadcast being read by his old classmate Runcible (Hugh Walters) which tells that the President is set to retire, and it is thought that Chancellor Goth (Bernard Horsfall who also appeared as a Time Lord in the final Patrick Troughton Adventure THE WAR GAMES which I have not seen yet, but was the first appearance of Gallifrey) will replace him.

The TARDIS is transmatted into a museum, letting the doctor escape and steal someones Timelord robes, which allows him to sneak into the Panopticon.

The Master watches the events with glee, knowing the Doctor cannot escape.

The President meawhile mentions that everyone will be surprised by his choice of replacement.

The Doctor looks around, spying a camera above him, and he runs to it, finding a sniper rifle next to it. The Doctor sees something below, and grabs the gun and shoots, and the President drops dead, and we are left with one of the best, most manchurian candidate like endings of an episode. Did the doctor do it?

The assumed next President Chancellor Goth pushes for the Doctor to be executed before the next President is elected in 48 hours, his excuse being that it is customary for a new President to pardon political prisoners, and he doesn’t want the Presidents killer to be allowed to go free.

Borusa (Angus MacKay) the Doctor’s old professor is insistent that the Doctor get a fair trial according to the law, and has the Doctor brought forth. The Doctor invokes Article 17, his Timelord right to run for the office of President, which makes him a free man until he loses the election, and then he can be tried.

The Doctor is arrested, though he declares his innocence, and he is tortured, but the Castellan Spandrell starts to believe him, but needs proof, so he orders Co-Oridnator Engin (Erik Chitty) to assist him in the investigation.

The Doctor and Spandrell go to investigate. They check the rifle that the Doctor had, and see that in fact the sight is offset, so their is no way he could have shot the President, and it is no wonder that he missed the Assassin, when he tried to kill him. They realize the real assassin must have been caught by the camera that the Doctor was next to when he found the gun, and they go to it, and find that the the technician who was supposed to be running the camera is shrunken and stuffed into the camera, and the Doctor knows this is the work of the Master and his Tissue Compression Elminator. Runcible is supposed to take the film to be developed, but is killed by a spear.

The Gallifrey computers though have no record of the Master, though the Doctor knows he was there, and must have tampered with them. The Doctor realizes that the Timelord master computer, which houses the brains and intellect of departed Time Lords, called The Matrix must be being used by the Master, and it must have sent the Doctor his premonition. He decides he must go into the Matrix himself to try and find out who is behind it all, though if he dies inside his body outside will die as well.

The Doctor enters the world of the Matrix, where he is attacked in different surreal events. A hungry crocodile tries to eat him, a Samurai knocks him from a cliff and knocks him out, and when he awakens a Doctor is trying to stab him with a huge needle. The Doctor then finds himself in a World War 1 battle, and then stuck with his leg in a train track switch. He sees an insane clown under ice, and gets strafed by a biplane. The Doctor survives when he realizes that this is an all illusion, and he must deny it’s existence, but the creator tells him there is no escape, and his wounds (including a gun shot wound to the leg) return.

The Doctor sees his assassin, a man dressed as a big game hunter with a rifle, though masked, who poisons the water supply. The Doctor steals his grenade and twine to use as a weapon, which the hunter trips, and wounds himself.

The Master sends a guard to kill the Doctor’s real form, but he is stopped by Spandrell.

The Doctor finds the pool of water he so desperately needs, but it is poisoned, and must find other water, then creates a blowgun poisoned with the remains of the Assassin’s poison, and he manages to shoot the assassin in the leg, though shooting the Doctor in his arm. The Assassin then manages to use his antidote to cure himself.

The Doctor finally sees who the Assassin is, and it is Chancellor Goth! Goth goes to shoot the Doctor while in a swamp, but lights the marsh gas, burning himself, but he drops in the water, putting it out, and attacks the Doctor, gaining the upper hand, and at the episode end, seemingly in the process of drowning the Doctor!!!

The Doctor though manages to break free, and hit Goth over the head, defeating him. The Master then tries to trap the Doctor within the Matrix and overload his brain. Engin manages to free the Doctor, but Goth is not so lucky, and is killed.

The master injects himself with a needle, and when they find him he is dead, and Goth is dying. He reveals that he found the dying master in his 12th and last regeneration on the planet Tersurrus, and he helped him and brought him back to Gallirrey in order to get power, because he knew the President was not going to name him as President, but he knew he would win in an election.

Spandrell informs the Doctor’s old teacher Borusa, who orders a cover story to maintain confidence in the government, glossing over the Doctor’s involvement, and getting him to quickly leave Gallifrey.

The Doctor asks the Presidential trappings of office, and he is told of the Sash and Key of Rassilon, and they listen to an old recording of how Rassilon found something called the Eye of Harmony, and the doctor realizes that the trappings are not at all ceremonial, and are in fact what the master was after!

A guard finds the needle the master used, and the Doctor realizes it is a neural inhibitor, so the Master is still alive!

The Doctor, Engin and Spandrell rush to the morgue, and find the Master is awake, and has murdered Hildred. With Hildred’s gun, the Master manages to steal the Sash of Rassilon, and locks the 3 into the morgue.

The Doctor explains what he has realized. The Eye is a black hole, and is the power that allows Gallifrey to run, and gives it’s people the power to be able to travel through time. The Sash and the Key are what control the eye, and with it the Master should be able to break his cycle of regenerations, which will also destroy Gallifrey, and a good portion of surrounding space as well.

The Master enters the Panopticon, and goes to the Eye of Harmony in a large crystal obelisk. He unhooks it’s power cables which power the planet, so he can harness the energy himself.

The Doctor manages to get into the Panopticon via service shafts from the morgue. He fights the master as the whole planet begins to shake, and the floor cracks. The master ends up stumbling into the chasm, as the Doctor reconnects the Eye, stabilizing the planet and saving it.

The Doctor is given back his TARDIS, on the condition that he leave, but he warns Borusa, Spandrell and Egin that the Master may not be dead, as he got some of the energy from the eye before he fell.

As the Doctor’s TARDIS dematerializes, Spandrell and Egin see the Master sneak into his own nearby TARDIS and also dematerialize, realizing the 2 enemies will meet again soon.

•••••

This was made to satisfy Baker’s craving to do a Season without a companion, and with the quality and intensity of the story I wish the BBC had been willing to do more, because this is one of my favorite episodes. Great writing, directing, amazing action, a dark story, and it really makes the timelords much more like petty humans. This is one of my favorite stories of Doctor Who!

The film stars with the most epic version of the Doctor Who theme yet, and we learn that the Doctor’s most notorious nemesis The Master has been exterminated on Skaro (homeworld of the Daleks) for his crimes (Huh? Why would the Dalek’s do something for the Timelords their mortal enemies?!?!??!) and the current Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) was sent to pick up the remains and return with them to the homeworld of the Timelords, Gallifrey, but the remains escape, and cause the TARDIS to make an emergency landing on Earth in the 21st Century, San Franscisco’s Chinatown to be exact. There a Chinese boy named Chang Lee (Yee Jee Tso) is being chased by a Triad, and the Doctor is shot as he exits the TARDIS, with Lee safe behind it the materialized time machine. Lee takes the Doctor to the hospital, where he is quickly brought into surgery. They find the Doctor has 2 hearts, and call in surgeon Dr. Grace Halloway (Daphne Ashbrook). She thinks the x-ray is a double exposure and starts surgery. She inserts a cardiac probe, and the Doctor awakens, and tries to stop her, and tells her he needs a beryllium atomic clock (to fix his TARDIS) then passes out again, and dies of cardiac arrest (and the drugs she gave him supposedly slow the regeneration process, so it does not happen immediately, and also cause the 8th Doctor to have some memory loss, and possibly be half human, which seems completely ridiculous, but so is most of this story). So he is placed in the morgue. Lee quickly sneaks out with the Doctor’s possessions including the TARDIS key. The remains of the master take over the Ambulance driver, Bruce (Eric Roberts) possessing him. He kills his wife, and heads out to find the Doctor’s body, which he wants to use as his own, as he out of regenerations (having passed his 13th incarnation). That night in the morgue, the Doctor regenerates (into Paul McGann), taking a Wyatt Earp costume from someone’s locker for a New Years eve party, and heads out to find Grace, and convince her he is the same man as the one she operated on, to get her help, as his memory is foggy.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS...

Lee goes to the TARDIS, and enters with the key he has stolen, finding inside the Master (Eric Roberts). He convinces Lee that in fact is the Doctor who is evil, and he has stolen his body, and he needs Lee’s help to get it back (when in fact the Master needs the Doctor’s body to keep on living and be able to regenerate).

He takes Lee to the heart of the TARDIS, the Cloister room, and gets his help to open it’s heart, the Eye Of Harmony using his human retinal pattern (Which Bruce’s body would have too, but I am assuming can’t because his eyes have turned yellow, which is stupid, but most of this is).

The Doctor is with Grace, and realizes that the Eye has opened, remembering who he is, as it opens, and closing his eyes, so the Master cannot see though his eye’s using the eye. He realizes he and Grace must shut the Eye before Midnight or the entire planet will be destroyed, and to do so he needs an atomic clock.

Grace does not believe the Doctor and returns to her home, but the Doctor follows and shows that reality is changing by walking though one of her windows without breaking it. Grace still takes some convincing, and she calls an ambulance for what she thinks is a crazy guy, but the two go in it, and end up heading to a science institute where she is on the board, and they are about to start a new atomic clock.

Lee and the Master hear the call for an ambulance, and head in Bruce’s ambulance and go after them.

The Doctor and Grace manage to get the necessary components of the atomic clock, though Grace gets hit with some of the Master’s green bile on her wrist. They steal a motorcycle and go on a chase to the TARDIS. The Doctor manages to install the chip into the TARDIS controls, but realizes the Eye has been open for too long, and that he must revert time to stop the Earth from being destroyed, but before he can finish, the Master takes over Grace using the bile, and captures the Doctor.

The Doctor is chained up next to the Eye, and the Master gets Grace to activate the eye so he can begin to transfer into the Doctor’s body. The Doctor tries to get Lee to awaken from the spell he is under by the Master, but he can’t, but Lee refuses to re-open the eye, and the Master kills him, and gets Grace to do it (though this frees her from his will). Grace goes to activate the TARID, but the Master kills her, though this lets the Doctor get free, and throw the master into the Eye, seemingly killing him, and the activated TARDIS rewinds time, bringing Grace and Lee back to life, and saving the Earth.

Lee gives the Doctor back his possessions and leaves, and he offers Grace (who he has kissed) to come with him, but she refuses, and he sets out on his previous course back to Galiffrey.

••••

Wow, so damn lame. A bad story, and such bad acting all the way around. I mean the Master has been over the top before, but it is just ridiculous here. And too bad because as I said McGann could have been good. I actually want to hear some of his audio adventures with Big Finish now, which are in their 3rd season, but I am glad this did not continue in this form, because it was absolutely awful. It is really too bad this is cannon, it is that bad!

The creation of a scientist as small ragdoll like creature named 9 (Elijah Wood) awakens in a laboratory in a post apocalyptic world, finding a strange device, which it zips into it’s own body, and goes out exploring. Shortly 9 runs into another like itself, this one designated number 2 (Martin Landau) who is exploring. He tells 9 of others like himself, but is then captured by a mechanical beast made with the bones of a cat, which also takes the small device that 9 had found, and heads to a factory seen in the distance. 9 ends up finding an enclave of others like himself, first finding the kind 5 (John C. Reilly) who was best friends with 2, as well as the vision having 6 (Cripsin Glover) who constantly draws the device that 9 found, and the brutish 8 (Fred Tatasciore) who protects their leader 1 (Christopher Plummer), who tries to keep them from the outside world, knowing something that he does not tell the others. Against the wishes of 1, 9 convinces 5 to go with him, and heads toward the factory to try and save 2.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….

The two new friends make it to the factory, and with the help of 7 (Jennifer Connelly) who shows up and cuts the cat beasts head off, they manage to save 2.

9 sees a socket that looks like the device he has retrieved from the cat, and puts it into it, missing the yells from his friends, and it activates, the Machine, which quickly steals 2’s soul away, killing him, and forces 9, 5 and 7 to flee for their very lives.

7 take them to see the other 2 exiles, the researching 3 and 4, and try to find out about the machine, but find nothing. They go back to see 6 since he draws the device, and talks about going to the source.

1 berates 9, and says that he will jut cause more trouble. The hideout is attacked by a new flying creature. They all manage to destroy it, but the base is destroyed, and looking for a new place to shelter a new snake like machine attacks, taking 7 and 8.

( goes to the factory and is able to save 7, but 8’s soul is taken by the machine. 9 and 7 run out as 5 sends a burning oil barrel into the building which explodes, destroying the factory.

They celebrate, but then the Machine comes after them, very much still alive, and 5 is taken by the Machine. 6 tells 9 that the device has the souls in the machine, and that he must return to the source, before his soul too is taken.

9 goes back to where he awoke, the source, where he finds out about the scientist that created them with the Talisman, taking parts of his soul. He had worked for a totalitarian regime, and created the Machine for them, but it’s use was perverted and he created the talisman, and the 9 to be the saviors of the planet, being 9 facets of his own humanity, the last humanity on Earth.

9 goes to get the device from the Machine planning to sacrifice himself, but 1 does it instead, so 9 can get the device, which shuts down the machine.

9, 7 , 3 and 4 set up a memorial for their fallen friends, with the Talisman in the center, we see each of their souls come out, and then rise to the sky, and it creates the first rain since mankind fell, seemingly restarting life on Earth.

•••

Weird ending, and if the souls were meant to restart the Earth, which didn’t it need all 9 of them to work? Just doesn’t make sense. And the ending is too short, but the visuals are fantastic.

Steelhead (Jackie Chan Sing Lung) is a Chinese farmer, who lived happily in his village, until the love of his life Xiu Xiu (Xu Jinglei) loses touch after her aunt dies in Japan, and he goes to find her, sneaking into Japan illegally. He sneaks into Tokyo, and finds his childhood friend Jie (Daniel Wu) and his friends, including Dai (the great Ken Lo, formerly Jackie’s personal Bodyguard) and Lao Gewi (the great Lam Suet), who all live together and do any work they can to survive. Steelhead and Jie do any work they can get, working in a dump, or wherever. When Steelhead saves Hong Kong Boy (Chin Kar-Lok) at the dump, he gives Steelhead a bunch of illegal calling cards, and Steelhead starts to see the underbelly of Japanese society. Meanwhile there is a bit of a power struggle going on within the Yakuza because of the death of a leader, and Mob bosses Taro Watagawa (Kurata Yasuaki) and Toshinari Eguchi (Kato Masaya) vie for power. Steelhead and his friends are working in the sewers when the cops show up, led by Inspector Kitano (the great Takenaka Naoto who I will never forget for his role in Shall We Dance). Kitano chases Steelhead, but when he falls into the water, Steelhead saves the cop, who cannot swim, and the cop looks for Steelhead to settle his debt.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Working on an odd job, Steelhead manages to save a club owner and hostess named Lily (Fan Bing Bing) but refuses to take her money as a reward, having done what he felt was right.

Steelhead is working at a club, when he sees his old girlfriend Xiu Xiu, now known as Yuko, and the wife of the Yakuza boss Eguchi. After this Ironhead goes out drinking with Jie, and they go and get hookers, as Steelhead has broken and his morals are now gone, as he has lost everything now. We learn he lost his papers on the way there, so he can never go back to China, and now he knows the whole reason for him coming is moot, as Xiu Xiu is married.

Steelhead’s attempt to be good is over, and he starts selling illegal calling cards, and stealing purses, and starts dating the hostess owner Lily, and introduces her to his friends. He decides they all need to start losing Chinese, and she promises to help them.

They know Jie does not want to do anything illegal, so they all buy him a cart so he can sell roasted chestnuts, and he goes out and flirts with a Chinese girl, whose father Uncle Tak (Paul Cun Pui) beats him up and steals his cart. Steelhead goes to get car, ripping down a Chinese forbidden sign, and smash up the club, and steals back the cart. Steelhead is almost caught, but he is let go by Inspector Kitano, who gives him his card, and lets him go.

Jie’s bad luck continues, when the Taiwanese Triad leader Gao Jie (Jack Kao) find a tampered with pachinko machine that the Chinese are making money with. Dai leaves it for a minute and has Jie watch it, he is caught, having his face badly cut, and his right hand cut off and cooked in his cart, before Steelhead and his men can get him back.

Steelhead goes with a sword for revenge to kill Gao Jie, but he sneaks him and hears them plotting to kill Eguchi with orders from the head of the Yakuza. Steelhead helps Eguchi escape, and agrees to kill Eguchi’s 2 main rivals in the Yakuza in exchange for Gao Jie’s territories in Shinjuki, and he gets them, and meets Xiu Xiu/Yuko who is happily married with a lovely daughter. Eguchi’s right hand is getting pissed that the Chinese are getting so much, and is doubting Eguchi because of his actions, though he is now the Yakuza boss.

Steelhead tells the Chinese that he does not want them to be illegal, and not do the illegal things that Gao’s gang did, and he does not want to take protection money, though Uncle Tak convinces him he must. Steelhead starts a construction business, gets his papers, and spends his time with Lily, but his gang does not agree, especially Jie who sells drug, and has all the punk newcomers join his gang.

Steelhead gets a visit by Inspector Kitano, who settles his life debt by telling Steelhead about his gang’s wrong doing’s, and telling him he is considered the biggest Triad leader in Japan. He wants evidence against Eguchi, and he knows who Steelhead killed. Lily wants Steelhead to leave with her for Brazil, but he refuses, and she leaves him, and gets Kitano to go with him, he wants to confront the gang.

Jie, now a punk with white hair, again hits on Uncle Tak’s daughter, beating the hell out of her boyfriend when he tries to stop him.

Eguchi gets questioned about the Chinese by one of the elder Yakuza bosses, but he finds them useless, and honors his promises.

Eguchi’s right hand betrays him, and goes to Gao.

Eguchi is meanwhile with Jie to hire his people to murder for him, and settle up the Yakuza.

Steelhead and Kitano go to the gang to confront them, and Eguchi and Jie are there. He says that Eguchi has betrayed them, and he was only trying to make them safe, not into a Triad.. Kitano’s gun ends up getting grabbed by Jie, and Hongkong boy gets killed, as Eguchi’s right hand and Gao’s gang attack with rocks, and then rush the building.

A huge bloody fight ensues. Eguchi gets killed, and gives Steelhead, all the info to take down the Yakuza who betrayed him. Steelhead and Kitano run, and cops come and Kitano is safe. Steelhead calls Xiu Xiu to try to get her to safety, but Eguchi’s men are there, and they betray him, and stealhead is shot, but Kitano and his men kill Eguchi’s betrayer as well.

Steelhead sneaks off bleading into the sewer, and Kitano follows him. Steelhead gives Kitano Eguchi’s info to bust the Triad, and then floats off into the sewer, having done right.

••••

This could have been much better and more interesting, perhaps without Chan, who seems to not allow his character to get as dark as it should since he does go bad, but then refuses to go too bad, even though he has already become a hired assassin. And maybe someone else could have pulled it off better, but then it would not have been as big as a Jackie Chan film. Still I think it is the fact that it is a Jackie Chan film that raised the expectations a bit too high. I mean look at this cast, and it does have a cool premise, so allot is expected, and it is enjoyable, just not as good as it could have been.

A must see for all Hong Kong movie fans.

Twenty something years in the past a large circular alien ship came to earth, and stopped over Johannesburg, South Africa, with a piece, thought to be the command module falling off, and no where to be found. After months of waiting they flew up to the floating ship and cut into it’s hull, finding a ship full of starved insect like aliens. The aliens were quickly houses in a government camp inside Johannesburg, called District 9, which quickly became a slum, ruled by violence, and Nigerian gangsters who trade for Alien weaponry (even though only aliens can use it) and eat aliens hoping to become like them, so they can use the weapons. A private paramilitary organization named the MNU or Multinational United is put in charge of the slum, and the decision to move the camp 200KM outsie Johannesburg to a new “camp” so the citizens can have their city back free of Aliens. To make it appear legal, MNU is sending in teams to get signatures saying that the Aliens, derogatorily called Prawns have legally agreed to it, though they are being forced to do it at gunpoint. Wikus can de Merwe (Sharlto Copley) a bit of a moron working for MNU is assigned to lead the operation to evict the aliens by his boss, his father in law, and he happily takes the position, going in with the paramilitary to force signatures from the Aliens so they can be forcibly moved to the internment camp of District 10.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

While the operation continues, 2 adult and 1 child Alien, led by the father of the child Christopher Johnson search and find some alien technology, which Johnson then distills and puts into a canister, but when the MNU show up he runs with his on, leaving the other Alien to have a run in with Wikus. Wikus ends up finding the canister, and accidently spraying the black liquid into his own face. Wikus takes the canister in a bag in his pocket.

Wikus later finds Christopher and his son, and unlike other aliens, Christopher questions the legality of the action, and wants his rights upheld, so Wikus threatens taking away his son (who is legal), and this is the man that has been burning illegal alien egg stashes throughout the day, so it is a serious threat.

Wikus is not feeling so well, and has black gook coming out of his nose, but he runs home to his wife Tania (Vanessa Haywood) who is having a party for him because of his promotion, but he is really sick, and ends up throwing up black stuff over the cake, and has already lost some fingernails, and has his arm bandaged.

Wikus is taken to a hospital, and when his injured hand is unbandaged it is found to be an alien hand, which is fully integrated with his body, and seems to be spreading. His father in law has him taken to the underground parts of the MNU building, where they have been experimenting on the aliens, and many corpses lay around.

They test Wikus on Alien weaponry, and he can use it, unlike any other human, and not just with his alien hand, but also with his human hand. His father in law, right in front of him, declares that he is to be harvested as a biological weapon right now, before he can fully change into an alien.

They go to harvest him, but his alien parts are strong, and allow him to manage to escape, and run for District 9. He tries calling his wife, but she has been told he is a terrorist, and has been having sex with aliens, so she won’t listen to him, though he keeps his phone (pretty damn stupid to not realize he can be tracked, and it happens twice too).

Wikus ends up going to Christopher Johnson’s hut, and Christopher sees the arm and realizes it can only in fact be the fuel, and he wants it back as he has worked for 20 years to get enough to get the mothership repowered. He tells Wikus he can cure him, but he needs the fuel, and Wikus tells him it is in MNU headquarters, and it would be suicided to go get it. Still they decide to go get some weapons.

Wikus goes to the Nigerian gang leader Obesandjo (Eugene Khumbanyiwa) to get weapons. Obesandjo is paralyzed and in a wheelchair, and eats Aliens so he can hope to become like them and use their weapons, and maybe walk again. When they see Wikus’s arm, he wants to eat it, to gain it’s power. Wikus manages to grab an alien gun, which works, and kill a bunch of the guards, though he lets Obesandjo live, even though he has vowed to murder him and eat him, and gets back to Christopher with a whole stash of weapons.

Wikus and Christopher manage to break into MNU and the secret subbasement and get the fuel canister, but a colonel in the MNU Paramilitary who never liked Wikus is after them with his men, and Christopher freezes when he sees that his people are being experimented on. Wikus finally awakens Christopher and they get back to Christopher’s hut and his son. Under the hut, is the mothership command module, and they now have fuel to power it up and fuel it, but not much power. Christopher tells WIkus he has decided to go back home to get help for his people before he can cure Wikus, and it will take 3 years. Wikus flips out, and just as the MNU forces approach he knocks out Christopher and locks himself and the child into the command module, and attempts to fly it out himself (WHAT?!?!??! ARE YOU KIDDING? This is the only guy who can possibly cure him as he turns more and more alien, and he leaves him to die by the sadistic colonel? You have to be kidding me, this is badly written, and could have been done so much better).

Wikus takes off, but the Colonel shoots an engine off with the command module, and he crashes, and he is taken prisoner just as Christopher already was.

The convoy is then attacked by Obesandjo’s gang, who take him, and get ready to eat his arm.

The child in the command module, powers it up, and activates a robotic suit that the nigerians have purchased for cat food (the aliens favorite earth food), and uses it to kill the Nigerians, and allows Wikus into it. Instead of helping Christopher escape though, Wikus starts to run away, but eventually turns back to save Christopher (if only to save his own skin).

The Suit is badly damaged, but he does allow Christopher back to the command module, and activate a tractor beam which lifts the command module back to the ship and powers it up.

The colonel is going to kill Wikus, who has crawled out of the suit, but and Alien gang comes up and rips him to shreds.

Christopher powers up the mother ship, and it’s engines start, and the ship takes off, blowing out all the windows in Johanesburg.

We see the film end in documentary style interviews, and Tania tells how she got a flower much like the stuff she used to get from Wikus on her doorstep, and she seems to think it is from him. We also see Wikus’s co-worker in jail, for exposing the alien experiments, and what had gone on with Wikus.

The film ends with an Alien making the flower out of scrap in a junkyard, and we know it must be Wikus.

•••

Really an enjoyable film with great effects, but with some writing shortcuts. I mean Wikus already killed gang members, so why not kill the gang leader who threatens him except as a plot point to bring him back (why not have his lieutenant come after him or something). And really he is so stupid as to be traced twice by his cell phone? I mean even if he wants to talk to his wife, he should steal another one. And finally knocking out Christopher and leaving him to die is plain stupid, because it would mean he never gets changed back! I mean, come on! What is up with that?

Still the rest of the film is really, really, really good, and I look forward to getting it on blu-ray and seeing more about it. And of course the inevitable sequel, taking place in district 10, and with Christopher returning to Earth to kick some human ass for mistreating the aliens so badly.

This an excellent, well directed, and enjoyable story, which is EPIC, and world changing, introducing UNIT (the United Nations Intelligence Unit) and also making the second appearance of Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), though only his first as an actual Brigadier. The invasion of london is dark, and thrilling and one of the favorite episodes of Doctor Who of all time, so it is a must see.

The Tardis goes by the Moon, and is shot at by a missile, so it makes an emergency landing on Earth, but the visual stabilizer has been damaged leaving it invisible, and the Doctor (Patrick Troughton) decides to go and get some help to repair it. The Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) and Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury) head out to find Professor Travers (who they know from The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear) to get his help, but things don’t seem all right in London, and they must sneak out of the area where they are with the help of a young man who smuggled them in a truck. They are escaping from the land of a company called International Electromatics. They Tardis crew manages to make it out, and they head to find that Travers has left for America, and now his house had been taken over by Professor Watkins (Edward Burnham) who is working at IE, and his model/photographer niece, the lovely Isobel Watkins (Sally Faulkner). Isobel tells them she has been trying to find her Uncle for weeks, and can’t get ahold of him, or even anyone human at IE. The Doctor and Jamie head to IE to find Watkins who might be able to help them, and Zoe stays with Isobel to act as her model and actually do something girly. Jamie and the Doctor head into IE, and can’t get past the computer receptionist, and when they try to get in another way, the pair is gassed, and brought to the Managing Director, the evil Tobias Vaughn (Kevin Stoney).

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS...

Vaughn apologizes, and lies about Watkins location, saying he can help the doctor, and taking the part from the Tardis for himself, giving Jamie a transistor radio.

As soon as the Doctor and Jamie leave, Vaughn opens a hidden door, and talks to an Alien machine, which mentions that it recognizes The Doctor and Jamie from Planet 14 and is a threat that must be taken care of.

The Doctor and Jamie are then taken by soldiers of the newly formed UNIT (United Nations Intelligent Unit) including Corporal Benton (John Levene) and Tracy (Geogrrey Cheshire) who take them to a military transport plane. Inside is a command center, and the newly promoted Brigadier Lethbridge-Stweart (Nicholas Courtney) who tells them about UNIT, and the fact that it is investigating IE. The Doctor opens the radio and finds some strange tech that he cannot identify.

Zoe and Isobel head to IE to find the Doctor and Jamie. Zoe is frustrated by the robotic receptionist and uses her superior mind to give it an insolvable equation which overloads and explodes the machine. Vaughn orders them taken, and Isobel is used as leverage to get her uncle to work on his machine for them.

The Doctor and Jamie go back to find Zoe, and see a note from her and Isobel saying where they went. They return to IE and find some human sized containers being loaded into a train, one of which has some of Zoe’s clothing hanging out of it’s closed lid. Before the duo can do anything they are captured by Vaughn’s muscle man Packer (Peter Halliday) and once again taken to Vaughn. Vaughn denies kidnapping their friends, and invites them to the country, where the train is arriving, and where Professor Watkins is held.

Watkins has been warned not to divulge the girls location. He shows the Doctor his cerebration mentor, a teaching device that can transfer emotions into people.

The Doctor asks Vaughn about the deep space communicator he saw outside, while Vaughn wants to know about the failed visual stabilizer, even threatening to hand the girls over to Packer if he doesn’t co-operate. Jamie and the Doctor manage to escape anyway in the train and it’s containers, with Jamie claiming that there was something or someone in his container.

Vaughn tells Packer that he is planning to use the cerebration mentor as a weapon against the Cybermen once they have invaded and taken over, so he can take control. They won’t be able to handle the emotions it transfers, and he will be in control, and if it doesn’t work he wants the Doctor’s Tardis to escape in.

Vaughn announces that the Doctor and Jamie have 10 minutes to surrender or Zoe and Isobel will be harmed. The Doctor calls the Brigadier, who sends in a Hellicopter to pick them, and help get Zoe and Isobel out of the 10th floor where they were being held.

Vaughn decides to stop UNIT, and goes to Major Rutlidge and convinces him to order the Brigadier to stop. The Brigadier voes to get authority from Geneva, but has not proof.

The Doctor looks at photos the Brigadier has of UFO’s over the IE factory, and realize that those space ships are bringing the containers to Earth. He and Jamie sneak into an IE warehouse in london, where they see a Cyberman come out of a cocoon, and go to warn the brigadier that a Cyberman invasion of Earth is imminent, and they will be coming out of the sewers.

Vaughn tests the cerebration mentor on some emerging cybermen, driving it mad, and sending it loose in the London Sewers. Vaughn reveals that the transistor the Doctor found in Jamie’s transistor radio will enable the Cybermen to take total control of all mankind.

The Doctor meanwhile has worked out what the circuit does, and has devised a device to block it, but doesn’t have time to make enough before it is is activated.

Jamie, Zoe and Isobel have snuck into the sewers to take pictures of the Cybermen, and only escape with some help from UNIT, and the photos are not good enough for the proof that the Brigadier needs.

Watkins finishes the cerebration mentor, and brings it to Vaughn, finally being convinced to take a gun and shoot Vaughn, but he is bullet proof because he has already been partially cybernised.

Watkins is rescued by UNIT, and he and the doctor make a neurister to stop the Cyber signal, which is broadcast at dawn, taking over humanity.

UNIT sends a team to Russia to launch a rocket and destroy the Cybership in orbit which is broadcasting the signal, and using British missiles to take out the invasion fleet. Captain Turner heads to Russia to launch the rocket, while the Brigadier and Zoe go to the Henlow downs missile site, where her superior mind helps to guide the missiles and take out the fleet.

The Doctor goes to try and dissuade Vaughn, and the Cybermen turn on him because of the missile attack, so he takes the cerebration machine and destroys the Cyber transmitter, and goes with the doctor to fight the Cybermen at the factory.

UNIT arrives and goes to help, but Vaughn is killed, but the homing signal is shut down, and the Russian rocket manages to destroy the Cybermen ship and it’s huge bomb it was sending to Earth.

The Doctor manages to repair the visual stabilizer circuit, and with Jamie and Zoe leave in the Tardis.

••••

AWESOME! ONE OF MY FAVORITE DOCTOR WHO ADVENTURES! So epic, and Vaughn is such a great villain, and I love how long it takes to reveal the Cybermen! Awesome!!

A young beat cop named OJ (Edison Chen) and his partner hear a call about some seriously armed robbers, and they see the car parked on the side of the road, and go to investigate a building off in the jungle. Luckily for them a Sniper team led by Hartmen (Richie Ren) is doing reconnaissance there, and Hartmen orders them in to save the cops. The partner is shot and taken hostage, and OK and Hartmen end up going against the villains, OJ takes Hartmen’s shooting advice and shoots the perp right in the head, and Hartmen realizes he has a potential new member of his elite police sniper team, and he recruits him. The team has some issues. Hartmen’s ex-wife (Michelle Ye) is suicidal, and their daughter finds her. And an ex team member named Lincoln (Huang Xiaoming) who has been in prison, has been released, and has gotten a sniper rifle, and seems to be threatening Hartmen’s family. We also see OJ going to try and give some money to his estranged father (Stephen Tung Wai) with his girlfriend, but this plot just goes away after that.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Lincoln ends up tipping off Hartmen to his help of a Triad boss named Tao (Jack Kao) who with his men (Liu Kai Chi is quite underused here) escapes while being transported to see a doctor. Lincoln also meets up with OJ at a bar, and tips him how he is such a good sniper, by holding his breathe to fire multiple shots, which Hartmen hates, saying it makes the hand shaky, and he makes OK stop doing it. Lincoln meanwhile is doing all this for his girlfriend Crystal (Mango Wong) who he loves very much it seems.

Lincoln ends up joining Tao, to help him plan a big bank robbery that he can deal with the cops on.

Eventually we see that Lincoln was the top sniper on the team, and at a bank robbery being done by Tao, he and Hartmen were ready to shoot Tao, when the came in that the family of the banker was going to pay the ransom and to pull back. Lincoln claimed he saw Tao pull the grenade pin, and shot to stop him from killing everyone, but Hartmen claimed to have not seen it, and Lincoln was sent to prison for 5 years. During this time Lincoln yelled at Crystal and she went home and accidently fell to her death, so he has been seeing someone only in his head, having gone completely mad. Lincoln even captures Hartmen’s number 2, his only friend on the team, and loses it, killing him.

Finally at the big robbery, Lincoln ends up betraying and killing Tao, he only wanted to lead in the Sniper team. The team moves in, and gets mowed down one by one by Lincoln, who is the best shot.

Even Hartmen is hit, and only the skills of OJ are able to go up against Lincoln and take him out. And we see Hartmen smile as he dies, having helped take Lincoln out, because as we see, he did in fact see Tao’s finger on the grenade, and he betrayed Lincoln to be the best Sniper, leaving OJ to be the top sniper, but he will not compete like Lincoln and Hartmen did.

••••

Decent enough, though I personally would have rather seen the complete film instead of having it cut down because of the whole Edison Chen sex scandal. And you would think it would be OK by now, but I guess not.

May (Maggie Siu Mei Kei) has dinner with her old school classmates, where her school lover Ken (Anthony Tang Ho Kwong), who is now divorced admits she was always his love, and wishes she had left with him to study in America. May then jumps up from the table to stop a fight at the bar, and they all talk about how she can’t stop being a cop. She and Sam’s (Simon Yam Tat Wah) teams get a new member, Rocky (Chiu Tien You) who is the nephew of the Super-Intendant and an engineer. Meanwhile “Fatty” Tong (the one and only Lam Suet) goes to a nightclub to talk a half indian guy named Velu Chan (Peter Chan Bei Dak) who has just gotten out of prison (Tong busted him) and who might be able to find out about some rumors of some Indian assassins being hired. May finds out her Philippine maid has all her money stolen by her cousin who was supposed to be getting married with it, but ran off with some Pakistani guy. Velu goes looking for his brother Ricky (Ricky Chan Bo Yuen) who is now working for the gangster Jaga, who deals drugs, and who Velu worked for when he got busted and went to jail for 4 years. Jaga ends up making Velu make a drug handoff out of the car, which pisses him off, so he jumps out of the car, as Jaga did nothing for him while he was in jail, except recruit his only brother.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

May searches for the woman who took her maids money, and it leads her to Velu who talks about Nepalese ripping off women, and tells May where the girl might be broke and hiding.

Yalu goes to see his Uncle, who is Jaga’s father, and leaves some money, promises to come back for his birthday.

The rest of the PTU don’t like Rocky as he is too by the book, only eating at the prescribed places, so he won’t even eat with the rest of his unit. Tong has lunch with May and Sam, telling them he is searching for some assassins, South East Asians.

When searching a parking lot, Rocky sees a robber and runs off, and is dragged by a car. He gets disciplined by May for not following procedure, and running off on his own.

Velu goes to a club to pick up his full Chinese girlfriend, and is harassed by the security guard and gets angry, and PTU is called in. Sam manages to get any charges dropped against Velu because they will post racism charges otherwise.

Sam and Elvis look for pick pockets, and follow a lead to a Nepalese man who is stealing man covers.

Velu goes to his uncles birthday, and ends up drinking with Jaga, who wants him to join him again, but all Velu wants if for him to let Ricky go.

PTU goes and arrests the Nepalese assassins all living in a building, and Elvis must again be helped, this time by May.

Tong goes to Velu to find out about more Assassins, promising this will be the last time he bothers him. Velu goes to Jaga.

Jaga and Ricky do drugs, and Jaga gets Ricky to admit that he has the side job to get more assassins, and Jaga wants him to stop, because he will be blamed though he has nothing to do with it. Ricky ends up beating up Jaga, when he does not believe that Velu is an informer.

We see May in bed with her school love, who wants her to quite the force and Mary him, but she thinks he should accept her for who she is. May interviews the woman who stole her maids money, and finds out about the new group of assassins.

Ricky goes with the assassins who are supposed to kill the commissioner, who is Rocky’s uncle, and Rocky walks by to go see him, while the other PTU eat at the prescribed restaurant. As Rocky walks away, the assassins attack, and he goes back to stop them, though his uncle is stabbed. Velu also comes to stop his brother, and the PTU come, with Rocky shooting one of the assassins, and then being told to hang back when the PTU team arrives.

Velu wants to take the blame for his brother, but instead Rocky is shot, and the kid is saved.

Fatty Tong ends up riding the ambulance with Velu and Ricky. He promises Velu he will not bother him again.

Rocky sees his stabbed Uncle before he is taken in the ambulance, and Sam tells him to stand up straight, and the other cops smile at him, as he is finally accepted on the team.

May refuses to leave her job to get married, says he should accept her as she is. She has her review and does well.

Jaga goes on the run back to India, leaving his father.

Sam talks to Rocky about being a cop, and about feeling bad about shooting. Says if you do well in PTU, you can be a real cop. Rocky then goes with the team to eat in the prescribed, but delicious restaurant. Rocky asks them all if they ever think about quitting, when they get a call for a robbery, and all run out.

•••

Another enjoyable film in the series, and contrary to what I though, it did not explain the events prior to the fifth film, but it was still another enjoyable police drama!

Song Kang-ho (송강호) plays an orphan catholic priest Sang-hyeon, working at a hospital, who feels that just his praying is not doing enough good. He grew up in a Catholic orphanage under the tutelage of the now blind priest Noh (Park In-Hwan 박인환) who wanted him to become a doctor. Sang-hyeon volunteers for an experiment to find a vaccine for the deadly Emmanuel Virus (EV) in Africa, which causes lesions and boils, and always death, though only in men. Sang-hyeon is given the disease, and gets sicker and sicker, losing his nails, and getting boils and finally coughing up blood, so he is given a transfusion, but dies. The doctors declare him dead, but as they cover him, they hear him praying, and he has somehow survived. He returns to Korea, the only survivor, and still a carrier of the deadly disease, and covered in lesions and boils, so he is wrapped in bandages, and the people think he is a miracle, so they want him to pray for them to heal, and people even start camping outside of the congregation. Lady Ra shows up (Kim Hae-sook 김해숙) to get him to pray for her son Kang-woo (Sin Ha-gyoon 신하균). It turns out Kang-woo and Sang-hyeon were old friends as kids, so the invite the priest to come and stay with them, where he also meets Tae-joo (Kim Ok-bin 김옥빈), Kang-Woo’s wife. He had known her as a kid as well, thinking she was Kang-woo’s barefooted sister, but in fact was an orphan they took in, and treated like a dog, and then made her marry the son when she was old enough. Tae-joo is obviously very unhappy, and will do anything to get out. The family holds a majong game with there friends, and that night Sang-hyeon becomes sensitive to all sounds, and collapses and when he awakens he is now sensitive to sunlight, he has become a vampire.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Sang-hyeon is now filled with new desires and wants, and now has superhuman strength, and finds himself drinking blood from a comatose patient he watched slip into a coma before he left for Africa.

He ends up confiding in the blind priest Noh, who also lets him suck his blood, which heals the lesions from EV which keep returning. Sang-hyeon jumps from a building to kill himself, landing on a car, but heals, and his symptoms come back, so he needs more blood, and starts stealing transfusion packs from the hospital.

San-hyeon becomes drawn to Tae-joo, and she eventually comes to the hospital to “volunteer,” where they have sex for the first time, but when he shows her he is a vampire, she runs, but realizes she can use him to get away from the family she hates.

Tae-joo injures her legs with the tool she uses to sow at the traditional korean shop she works at with her mother in law, below their apartment, and that she wants to stab her idiot husband with. She makes San-hyeon think that her husband did it, and the two plot to drown him at a local damn where they fish at night. They drown the man, putting him in a cabinet in an old building under the water, with a rock on it, and report to the police.

Ra gets sick when she hears of her son, unable to move except a few fingers and her eyes, but she is brought home, where San-hyeon and Tae-joo now live together, having sex, but both being haunted by the memories of the dead husband. The couple have a huge huge fight in front of the mother who sees it all, realizing they killed her son. Tae-joo begs to be killed, and Sang-hyeon becomes enraged and does, but then draws his own blood and gives it to her, making her a vampire as well, and bringing her back.

They paint the apartment all white since they can no longer see the sun. And Tae-joo gets EV as well, even though she has a women, and needs blood to survive, but she loves the hunt. Sang-hyeon wants to never kill, though he ends up killing priest Noh, when the man begs to be made a vampire himself so he can see again, and live forever.

The couple fight even more over their way of life, with Sang-hyeon feeling more and more guilt.

Then the majong friends show up for a game, and the mother is able to communicated that the couple killed her son, and they go mad, killing them and hanging them to drain the blood. Sang-hyeon does not kill one friends Philipino wife (Merceds Cabral) though, and they run in their car with the mother.

When Tae-joo wakes up, they are at a cliff’s edge with nothing around, as the sun is about to come up. She tries to hide from the sun, in the trunk, under the car, wherever she can, but he fights her and leaves no place to hide. The two finally drink some more blood, and burt into flames as the sun comes up and the mother watches helplessly from inside the car.

•••

Such a messed up movie, but really enjoyable. We see the girl who wanted to become a vampire right away, and felt no wrong with killing to survive, and Sang-hyeon who has his priests guilt, which eventually makes him kill himself and the woman he thirsts for.

As I have said, this does not touch Old Boy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance or I’m a Cyborg but that’s OK, but it is still a powerful horror film, and well worth checking out.

Only 3 people are left in Torchwood after the events of last season, the leader Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) his lover Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) and of course Gwen (Eve Myles). Suddenly, around the world, all the children stop at once, and start chanting about something coming, causing world wide panic, and Torchwood to investigate. And when it stops, they realize they need children to figure out what is going on. Meanwhile Gwen goes to investigate a man in a mental hospital who also is affected like the children. This turns out to be a man named Clement McDonald (Paul Copley) who smells that Gwen is 3 weeks pregnant, and had escaped an alien abduction in Scotland in 1965. Jack goes to his daughter Alice’s (Luxy Cohu) who pretends he is her brother so her son STeven (Bear McCausland) won’t be too confused, and refuses Jack access to the boy, while Ianto goes to his sister Rhiannon (Katy Wiz) who won’t let him take his niece. The Prime Minster Brian Green (Nicholas Farrell) does not want responsibility, because it seems that all has to do with some event in 1965 sanctioned by the British Government, where orphans were given to an alien race known as the 465 after the channel they communicate on. The buck is passed to the senior Home Office Civil Servant, John Frobisher (Peter Capaldi) who has his secretary call up Agent Johnson (Liz May Brice) to kill Jack Harkness as well as others. A doctor named Rupesh Patanjali (Rik Makrem) who has been trying to join Torchwood, turns out to be working for agent Johnson, and they use him to get Jack and plant a bomb in his stomach. Jack returns to the hub, and Gwen is scanning herself to confirm her pregnancy, and when he touches her, the computer detects the bomb. Ianto and Gwen manage to get out, just before Jack explodes, destroying the hub. Gwen and Ianto barely get away from assassins sent to kill them, but end up splitting up.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS...

Gwen goes and grabs her husband Rhys (Kai OWen) and they flee to London. Gwen attempts to contact Frobisher, who is supposed to be there man in the government, but they get ahold of Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo) a new personal assistant, who has seen what is going on, and decides to help them, and tells them about the killings, and where Jack’s body has been taken, a secret military facility.

Jack has regenerated in the prison, as Johnson had hoped it was the hub that helped him regenerate, so she has his cell completely filled with cement.

Gwen and Rhys end up using Lois’s info to steal a hearse and go to the facility to pick up a body, but they are found by Johnson, but just as all seems lost Ianto shows up with a forklift, breaking out Jack, and Rhys and Gwen with him. Ianto drops the concrete in a quarry releasing Jack and allowing him to regenerate.

The 465 have sent plans to Frobisher, and he has his people building a container tank for them in the Thames House. Frobisher makes a deal with the aliens not to talk about 1965, which Britain has kept secret from the world.

They arrive, and Frobisher is first to meet with them, but Jack calls from Frobisher’s daughters phone, and tells them he wants to talk to them, or he will tell all about what happened in 1965, but Frobisher informs Jack that they have his daughter and grandson. Frobisher is made the official contact for the world.

Gwen manages to get Lois to wear Torchwood contacts that will allow them to see what is going on, and read lips, and they watch the first official meeting with the 456 where they demand 10% of the Earth’s children as a gift.

Jack arrives where the rest are hiding with CLement, who freaks out, as he was the man who gave the children to the Aliens in 1965, and ruined Clement’s life. Jack reveals that they did it in exchange fro a cure to a new flu which would have killed millions. So they gave 12 children, though Clement was left for some unknown reason.

The government wants to bargain, but the 465 have nothing to do with it, and show how they keep the children attached to them to create some sort of pleasure drug, and that the children are not harmed and will live very long lives.

The Prime Minister and his cabinet decide to take the 10% bottom children saying they will be doing a vaccination, saving their own children, and Lois is there recording it, and blackmails them to give Jack and Ianto access to the 456, while Anderson shows up to where Gwen is, and watches the whole thing, losing faith in her bosses.

Jack confronts the 456 saying they will give no children, and the 456 release a virus into the Thames house, killing everyone inside, Ianto dying in Jack’s arms, before Jack succumbs, though of course regenerates once he is out of the house. The 456 also kill Clement by a cerebral hemorrhage.

Prime Minister Green orders Frobisher to implement the plan to take the children, but is then told that his daughters will be taken, to convince people that the government are victims of the aliens as well. Frobisher goes home and kills his 2 daughters and himself rather than letting them be taken.

Jack is taken by the government and Anderson, but sends Gwen to go and save Ianto’s sisters children. Rhiannon has been taking care of neighborhood children, and so Gwen and Rhys take them as well, and run trying to save as many as they can, though the armies are chasing them, as their families have been threatened if they do not comply. Gwen records a final message for anyone who finds this, talking about how the Doctor that Jack knows would be disgusted by humanity at this point.

Jack and a government scientist realize that the 456 are in fact vulnerable to the same frequency they transmit on, and that is why they killed Clement, as he could be used as a weapon against them. The problem is there is only one kid they can use as a transmitter as he is with them, and it is his grandson. Jack uses, and kills the child to save mankind, and kills the 456.

The Prime Ministers plans to pass all the blame, but Frobisher’s assistant Bridget Separs (Susan Brown) has gone and talked to Lois Habiba and has learned how to use the Torchwood contacts, and recorded everything he said, ending his career.

6 months later a very pregnant Gwen and Rhys meet Jack on a hill, as he has been traveling trying to get over what he has done to save the world. Gwen returns his vortex manipulator bracelet, and begs him to stay, but he can’t and he teleports himself away into space.

•••

WOW, WOW WOW! This is so by far the best Torchwood series ever. Brutal, and with a huge story! I can bet they will do this again, and not just have straight seasons after this, because the huge story lends itself so well to Torchwood (even if there are only 2 members left alive, though hopefully they will let Lois Habiba join next). Actually I would like to see another season and then another of these, and then another season, because that would make these so much more powerful, huge world changing stories, so much darker than Doctor Who can ever be.

This is an absolute must see series! WOW WOW WOW!

Inspector Fatty Tong (Lam Suet) has been demoted to a PTU driver, and Sam has also lost some of his cache, and the new Inspector (Ben Wong Chi Yin) favors May (Maggie Siu Mei Kei). And May no longer gets along with Sam either, and is doing everything in her power to promote her people over Sam’s. When they all chase a robber, the two units fight each other, and May gets all the credit for her and her men. The transfers are in a week, and the assignments come up, and May and her closest (Samuel Pang King Chi) get promotions. At the celebration party, Tong gets drunk and when his mother-in-law calls and lost all his money in stocks, he gets drunk and accuses the Inspector of favoring May, and the units get in a fight. The last day before the transfers an armored car is robbed by 4 armed men, who escape into the mountains, and the PTU is mobilized to find them. The Inspector Ho Ka Kitputs May in charge, though Sam is much more experienced, and this causes more dissension.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The teams head into the mountains, and first run into a crazy old man and some kids playing paintball.

The Inspector orders Tong to drive up and deliver food to the PTU, but he gets a flat, and throws away his tire so he doesn’t have to do the inspector’s dirty work.

Sam ends up seeing a hidden hut, and when they go in they find a wallet, and a guy breaks in with a knife and grabs it and runs. May’s best, and Sam’s guy (VIncent Sze) chase the knife, and May’s guy gets stabbed, and Sam’s guy stays with him, and helps him, though they get followed by the guy who wants his wallet back.

Tong gets found by the 4 robbers, who take him and mace him, and get him to help them get away from the Police. They bury his stuff, but he takes a baton, and he manages to get a message to the Inspector that he is in toruble.

Sam finds a PTU helmet with blood on it, and he and May fight, and he disobeys her orders to go out and contact the Inspector (since the radio is not working), and he goes to find the wounded man or men. May’s team gets lost and goes in circles, and gets freaked out, and she ends up falling from a cliff and getting separated from her people.

The Inspector goes in to find men, and finds Tong’s abandoned vehicle.

Tong ends up escaping from the robbers, by knocking open one of their money cases, which activates gas, and he steals the second canister and runs, with them hot on his heals.

The wounded PTU guy give a letter to his father about his promotion to his rival, but the robber follows them.

Sam has a guy sprain his ankle, and he flips on him and orders his men to leave him or keep going.

Fatty Tong sets off the last case accidently, letting smoke off, and ends up being found by Sam. Sam gets angry and leaves the men, to go on his own.

The Inspector chases the crazy old man into the woods.

Sam runs into the guy with knife and chases him, while May runs into the armed robbers. Sam gets attacked by the knife guy, and chases, but ends up finding May. They find a village, and go eat with them, but the robbers show up, and Sam sends May away with the people to save them, while he covers.

Tong gets gun, and he and the two guys go the village, and the Inspector follows the old man there, and Sam’s guy gets there with the wounded guy.

The police finally all work together and take the robbers in custody, and they all realize they must work together.

•••

Very enjoyable.

Went and saw the film a second time, this time in it’s IMAX 3D release. I was skeptical of the 3D because I had not been too impressed with the sharpness of the film UP in 3D, but right from the opening Warner Brothers Logo and Harry Potter logo the 3D was fantastic. In fact it blew me away that it was not shot in 3D, but a process that was done in Post, because it looked amazing. Sure there were some problems, like the fact that the screen was so big that you sometimes had to turn your head to see characters on either side of the frame, and that would throw the 3D off, but that is not the worst of it. The worst part is it is only for the opening 10 minutes of the film, and then it ends, and is never seen again. And this open was not the part that should have been 3D! I mean what about 3D quidich? That would have been amazing. Or the final big scene going for the horcrux? That would have been cool, but it just being the open did not justify the $17 per ticket price tag, nor did seeing a film shot in 35 MM digitally projected on an IMAX screen, because unlike other digitally projected films I have seen of late, I could see anti-aliasing and if I quickly moved my head some strange color patterns which were distracting. Sure the blow up looked pretty damn good, but not $17 per ticket good. And really the 3D was a gimmick used to draw people in, but it ends so soon that it is really a rip off!

This film starts just as the last film ends, with Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) being led away from the ministry of magic by Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) as newsmen take photographs, and Harry looks stunned. We then see Death Eaters fly through london, causing havoc, and knocking down the MIllenium Bridge (which would not have been built when this movie take place) and going into Diagon Alley, kidnapping Mr. Ollivander and destroying his wand shop. Professor Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) is then compelled to make an unbreakable vow with Narcissa Malfoy (Helen McCrory) to help her son Draco (Tom Felton) and carry out the task the dark lord gave him if he does not. Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) performs the magic. We catch up with Harry as he rides subways at night, reading his magic newspaper, and getting hit on by a beautiful waitress when Dumbledore comes to take him someplace. They go to find former potions professor Horace Slughorn (Jim Broadbent). Dumbledore wants a memory that Slughorn has of Tom Riddle, who became Voldemort. He knows that Slughorn likes to “collect” students in clubs, and he uses Harry as bait to get Slughorn to agree to come back. Dumbledore then sends Harry to the house of the Weasleys, where he sees his best friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), and Hermoine Granger (Emma Watson) as well as Ron’s younger sister Ginny (Bonnie Wright) who has started to notice . They all go to Ron’s brother’s Fred and George (James and Oliver Phelps) joke shop, the only thing still open in Diagon Alley, and end up following Draco and his mother to Borgin and Burkes an antique shop in the bad section, where Harry believes Draco has been brought into the Deatheaters. On the train Harry ends up sneaking into Draco’s cabin, and spying, but Draco notices, and ends up freezing him, and beating him, only being found by Harry’s strange friend Luna Lovegood (Evanna Lynch who is just amazing in this role). Harry is convinced that Draco is planning something bad, and no one can change his mind.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The school now has tightened security, and Aurors patrolling. Slughorn is made Potions teacher, and Snape finally gets to become defense against the dark arts teacher. Ron and Harry were not going to take potions because they could not pass with their grades from Snape, but Slughorn has loosened things, and they are allowed in, and fight over books in the cupboard, Harry getting a very old copy of the book, said to belong to the Half Blood Prince, which is scribbled in notes on the potions within, and also with many new spells written in it. Slughorn gives the class a challenge, and the one who makes the best of the potion will win a vial of liquid luck. Harry follows the books instructions, which are much better, and let him make a perfect potion, winning the luck, much to Hermione’s chagrin, since she followed the instructions perfectly and failed. Slughorn says he only had one student in the past who did this well, and declares Harry a potions genius.

Hermione is of course disturbed by the potions book, and the name Half Blood Prince, and wants Harry to return it, but Harry and Ron do not agree!

Ron is up for the Quidich team, and Harry is now the Captain, so they have tryouts, but it looks like Cormac McLaggen (Freddie Stroma) who quite fancies Hermione will take the goal position from Ron, but Ron does OK, and Hermione discreetly hexes Cormac so he misses one ball, and Ron makes the team. This also makes Lavender Brown (Jessie Cave) like Ron even more, much to Hermione’s chagrin.

Dumbledore has given Harry the mission of being picked by Slughorn, so they can get his memory, so Harry does all he can to ingratiate himself, which while in town also makes him have to see Ginny making out with Dean Thomas (Alfie Enoch) which neither Harry or Ron like too well, but it does get him closer to Slughorn, and him and Hermione invited to one of Slughorn’s parties.

At the party we see more of Harry’s feelings for Ginny, and Harry tries to get more out of Slughorn about Tom Riddle who killed his parents.

Harry spends Christmas at the Weasley’s, almost kissing Ginny, before the house is attacked by death eaters led by Bellatrix. Harry and Ginny end up together out in the fields, but are saved by Remus (David Thewlis) and Tonks (Natalia Tena), though the Weasley’s house is burnt down.

Dumbledore starts showing Harry his pensieve memories of the young Tom Riddle, how he first met him in an orphanage, and he also ends up showing him a faked Slughorn memory, where Slughorn does not tell Riddle something about some dark spells, but Dumbledore knows this is false, and gets Harry to work harder on getting the memories.

Hermione and Ron grow apart, as he spends his time snogging Lavender brown.

Harry is also suspicious of Draco, especially when they run into Katie Bell (Georgina Leonidas) under the imperious curse sent to bring a cursed necklace to dumbledore, which she touched and almost died.

Harry tries outright to get the memory from Slughhorn, but scares off Slughorn, but when Ron is accidently zapped by a powerful love potion meant for Harry, Harry takes Ron to Slughorn, and Ron is almost killed by poisoned wine, except for the intervention of Harry and his knowledge gained from the book of the Half-Blood Prince.

In the Hospital Ron mumbles Hermione’s name in from of Lavender, causing her to cry and run away, and make Hermione very happy.

Harry ends up following and finding Draco crying in a bathroom, and the two fight, and Harry uses a curse he learned from the book of the half-blood prince, and almost kills Draco, but Snape comes in and saves him.

Ginny takes Harry to the room of requirments, where Draco has been going and experimenting with a vanishing cabinet, which has it’s sister in the Borgin and Burkes, and she hides the potions books by the Half Blood Prince, also giving harry there first kiss.

Harry decides to use his good luck potion to get the memory, and when he takes it, he heads to Hagrid’s (Robbie Coltrane) running into Slughorn on the way, as he is stealing plants. He gets Slughorn to go with him, and they end up at Hagrid’s, where Hagrid’s giant spider Aragorn has died, and Slughorn takes some of it’s venom, and then goes to Hagrid’s hut and drinks. When Hagrid passes out, Slughorn gets melencoly, and Harry uses Slughorn’s love for his mother to get him to give the memory.

Dumledore and Harry learn from Slughorn’s memory that Tom Riddle has broken his soul into 7 parts using the information slughorn gave him on how to make horcuxes., which allow a person to be immortal until all parts are destroyed. Already Tom’s diary and Ring were 2.

Harry witnesses Snape saying he does not want to do what he agreed to do, but Dumbledore insists that he agreed. Dumbledore gets Harry to go with him to find another, making him promise to obey him. They enter a cave at a desolate coast, and must cross a lake and find a potion filled urn. Dumbledore gets Harry to promise to feed it all to him, no matter how he cries, and Harry reluctantly does, as Dumbledore gets weaker and weaker, and Harry manages to get a necklace from the urn, but when he tries to get Dumbledore water from the pond they are attacked by inferi, and Harry is dragged under the water, only saved by Dumbledores fire spells.

They come back, but Dumbledore is weakened, and he sends Harry to get Snape. Draco appears, and knocks away Dumbledores wand, and wants to kill him. Bellatrix and the other death eaters arrive, having come from the Vanishing cabinet, and egg on Draco. Snape arrives and steps in, and performs Avada Kedavra, killing Dumbledore and knocking him from tower. The Death Eaters leave, Bettatrix breaking windows, and then burning Hagrid’s hut. Harry tried to stop them, but Snape knocks him down, and blocks his attacks, telling him he is the Half-Blood Prince who created those spells.

The Students mourn Dumbledore, and Harry is comforted by Ginny.

Harry, Ron and Hermione talk at the top of the castle, with Harry telling them the Horcrux was fake with a not from an R.A.B. in it to Voldemort, and that Dumbledore died for nothing. Harry plans on leaving the school to hunt the rest down alone, but Ron and Hermione are going to go with him, no matter what. They see Hawkes, Dumbledore’s Pheonix fly away.

••••

Really one of the better films, I just wish they had not made the changes they did. I did not think Chris Columbus got the books, but at least he did not change them, and basically shot them. Curon understood the story, so his changes were OK, because they got the feel, but no one else seems to have really gotten it, and they have made more and more arbitrary changes which to me lessened the movies.

Still very worth seeing, and I will certainly see it again. Looking forward to the Blu-ray for sure.

Detective Lam “Fatty” Tong (Lam Suett) owes money to the gangsters Hung (Gordon Lam Ka Tung) and he wants exorbitant interest added to what he already owes. And it is already considered a bad luck time for the cops, as the chief has taken away their god Kuan’s which they worship before going on patrol. Meanwhile a group of 4 former mainland cops, now robbers led by Berg Ng Tong Yip break in on a drug deal, killing both sides of it, and take the money, but destroy the drugs. Sam (Simon Yam Tat Wah) and May (Maggie Siu Mei Kei) and there teams are in a patrol van, that gets in an accident, right outside of the gun war, and when the robbers come out, they shoot up the van, and then take off, so they find the dead bodies, along with a lot of dropped money. They also find a mainland ID. When Tong arrives, both Sam and May see that he is tempted to steal some money to pay his debts. When Tong gets to his apartment, Hung is there, and is telling schoolchildren that he owns him money, and his wife sees. Tong takes off, and gets an apartment, where he cleans the bloody money he has taken. His wife calls him and tells him she is going to be leaving with their kid for America without him.

REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS…

An investigation is launched of PTU because money has been stolen from the crime scene, and of course May and Sam suspect Tong, but Sam wants to clear his name, as he is a friend.

Tong gives Hung money, but Hung wants more, saying the interest has doubled the money. He makes a bet, and loses, and when the gangsters are about to arrive at his new place, he hears them making fun of him, so he sneaks out the window and into the neighbors place, which turns out to be the robbers apartment. He takes there money, and when out in the hall sees the landlord, and feeling bad pays their late rent, but they show up and pay him back.

Sam gets some of his money and turns it in, and then goes to Tong and takes off his uniform and hits him for what he has done. Sam then goes to see Hung to see if he can pay off the debt of his friend.

Hung and his men are caught by May beating a guy, but the guy won’t press charges. Sam shows up late, and May no longer trusts him.

Tong makes friends with the robbers, and tells them of his driving skills. The robbers realize their current driver has stolen money, so they kill him. When TOng is chased by Hung’s men, he runs into the robbers in their car, and the let him in, and see just how good his driving skills are, drive them to a building, and they have him wait in the car.

Hung pulls up and starts beating Tong, knocking him out, then their are gunshots, and a police officer is shot.

Tong wakes up in his bed, with blood on his shirt. He goes to the crimes scene, and sees it is where he was, and finds a money lender was killed, and a cop shot.

Tong sneaks back into his neighbors apartment and finds money and gun, but is found, and is forced to join them as their driver, and they will give him a million, though they actually plan on just killing him.

Sam runs into Tong praying at the wounded officers room in the hospital and is even more suspect.

Video is found of Hung at the scene, so Sam and May go after him, though he gets away.

Hung meets with Tong and blackmails him for a million, so Tong must join robbers as they rob a chinese antique dealer.

PTU is sent, and Tong shoots the leader in the head, and helps kill the other 2

Tong goes to arrest Hung for usury, as he has turned himself in. He gets a medal for his work, and finally God Kwan is returned to police stations.

•••

I love Lam Suet, so of course I found this an enjoyable addition to the PTU story.

At a Halloween party in 1998 Eric Bottler (Sam Huntington) who works for his dad at a car dealership sees the friends he has ignored since leaving high school. First he runs into the the cute, yet geeky Zoe (Kristen Bell, looking much better here with black here, than she did as a blond on Heroes), then his 3 oldest friends who own and run a comic book shop (where Zoe also works) show up dressed as storm troopers and Darth Vader. These are Linus (Christopher Marquette), Hutch (Dan Fogler) and Windows (Jay Baruchel being done up to look exactly like a young George Lucas, nice!). Botler doesn’t get along too well with his friends, as he basically abandoned them, so he could “grow up” when he got out of high school. The group has always had a plan to infiltrate George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch, and when Hutch and Windows tell Botler that Linus has terminal cancer, he decides it is time to put their plan into action, and steal a rough cut of Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, so Linus can see it before he dies.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Linus is skeptical, but he agrees, and the 4 guys head out in Hutch’s Star Wars painted van. They are going to meet up with Windows online Star Wars love, who will help them get into the Ranch. On the way Hutch takes a detour to Riverside, Iowa (the future birthplace of Captain James Tiberius Kirk) to fight some trekkies, and they do, attacking Admiral Seasholtz (Seth Rogen in one of 2 roles, which is the funniest i have seen the guy) and his crew.

They arrive in Texas and Windows finds that his love is in fact only 10 years old, and in fact the cousin of Harry Knowles (Ethan Supplee) who beats the hell out of him. Then when they pass his Star Wars test, he agrees to help them, and sends them to Vegas to meet his man.

On the way they have car trouble, and end up meeting an Indian medicine man (Danny Trejo) who gives them drugs, and fixes their car. He also handed Linus more drugs, so they run when they are chased by cops, activating their “hyper drive,” crashing, and ending up in jail.

Zoe ends up flying there and bailing them out, and fighting Hutch for the right to go with them to Skywalker, as she works at the comic store, and is a geek too.

In Vegas Linus and Eric meet Harry Knowles contact, and it turns out to be the Man, William Shatner who gives them plans to Skywalker Ranch, and a way to get in. They then get chases and attacked by Seasholtz and his trekkie friends there for a convention.

Meanwhile Hutch has found 2 hots girls, and he and Windows each took them back to the rooms. Windows ends up talking about Zoe the whole time, realizing he likes her, and she is angry because she likes him. Windows finds out they are prostitutes, and then their Star Wars loving Pimp Shows up (Seth Rogen again) and when they run they run into Seasholtz, and the Pimp ends up fighting him, while Zoe and the buys escape.

They make it to Skywalker Racnh, and get in, finding a Star Wars archive, and then getting into Lucas’s office, and finding the Rough Cut on his computer, but the Security guards led by Ray Park and dressed in outfits from THX 1139 find them. The head of Security (Danny McBride) is threatening them, when he gets a call from Lucas, who when he hears the story, agrees to allow Linus, and Linus only to see the film.

On their way home, Linus and Bottler again become friends.

6 months later, Linus is dead, and Bottler, Windows and Zoe (now boyfriend and girlfriend) emerge from their tend where they waited in line to see Star Wars Episode 1. Bottler has followed his and Linus’s dream of becoming a comic book Artist. Hutch has started a detailing business out of his mother’s garage (where he lives) and brings beers. Jus as the movie is about to start Bottler asks his friends, “Hey guys, What if the movie sucks?”

•••

Really too funny! A film made by guys like me for guys like me! NICE! I highly recommend checking out this silly adventure!

The PTU, led by Sergeant Sam (SImon Yam) start a crack down on triad activities in Portland Street. Sam picks on a lowly peon named Fai (Derek Tsang Kwok CHeung) who sells illegal cigarettes for the Triad, and even gets picked on by them. Sam beats him and forces him to help them get into the place where they are selling the cigarettes. The crack down causes the two Triad gangs of portland street go head to head, with both sides blaming Fai, so he can’t even support his hooker girlfriend (Wu Li). The younger hot head (Samuel Pang King Chi) in the gang Fai works for ends up killing a member of the other gang, and they try to pin it on Fai, offering him money to take the wrap, and go to prison, he knows he has no choice, so he agrees.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

When Fai gets to his girlfriend, she convinces him to run, but the hothead is waiting, and beats Fai until he is completely gimped, and rapes his girlfriend, and burns down their apartment. The two are then out on the street, trying to survive, but have to try to stay away from anyone, because the girlfriend is illegal and will be deported if found out (they have to run from a hospital, because the charges are much higher because she is an illegal).

Fai ends up running into the girlfriend when she is giving a blowjob to an old man for bread, and loses it, attacking the old man, and the girlfriend does too, to protect him, but Sam and the cops find them, and the old man presses charges against the girl and she is arrested.

Fai is at the end of his rope, and he buys a knife, and starts following Sam and the other PTU cops including (Maggie Siu Mei Kei) and her unit.

Sam starts to think about Fai, and how they have wronged him, and he wants to make it right. He realizes Fai is after him, because it was him who started it all, so he plans to let Fai get to him, so he can calm him down, and gets his friend (Lam SUet) to get the girl released. The plans are all for naught as Fai is too far gone, and takes a stab at Sam, even with his girlfriend there, and ends up stabbing the Triad boss who betrayed him, and Fai is shot by the other cops, the girlfriend then takes the knife and stabs Sam, before she is killed, as it was too late, and they had no way out.

•••

Wow, this is a depressing on, really, really depressing, but well done, with good acting. And quite bloody and adult for being made for TV. Really worth checking out. My favorite of the first 2 in the series.

12 years since the Death of Captain James T. Kirk at the Enterprise B maiden voyage, Starfleet Captains Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) and John Harriman (Alan Ruck Captain of the Enterprise B from Star Trek Generations) arrive at the about to be christened Museum class replica NCC-1701-M, an exact replica of the original Consitution Class starship. Of course a distress call comes in, and they are the only ship within range, so they must rush to planet M-622, the home of the Guardian of Forever. Charlie Evans (William Wllman) has returned from Thasian space to exact revenge on Kirk, and since he is already dead, he heads back in time to change history forever, sending the three captains into an alternate dark reality where Captain Kirk never lived, and the universe is a much darker and more dangerous place!

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….

Instead of the Federation, there is an evil conquering force, led by the Supreme Being, which controls the whole universe through force. Captain Harriman is Captain of the Conqueror an old Consitution class ship with upgraded weaponry. His first officer is the Klingon Koval (J.G. Hertlzer from DS9) his head of security is Garan (Garret Wang from Voyager) and his communications officer is Xela (Chase Masterson from DS9) are all plotting against each other. Harriman is on his way to Vulcan to prove the Supreme beings power, and the folly of being neutral.

On Vulcan, Uhura lives with her vulcan husband, and son (Ciroc Lofton of DS9 all grown up now) and is trying to convince them, and her friend Tuvok (Tim Russ) that Neutrality is not in fact Logical, as it will eventually cause the downfall of Vulcan. Just then Harriman attacks, and the people all run to try and escape. Vulcan and most ships are destroyed, but Tuvok and Uhura survive, and end up prisoners on Harriman’s ship. Also captured are 2 freedom fighters Ragnar (Gary Graham from Alien Nation the TV show and Star Trek Enterprise) and Kittreck (Walter Koenig is full scowl, and damn if he is not great here) who are plotting to take out Harriman.

Uhura is having memories of the correct timeline though, and Tuvok is able to find them. She knows things about Kittreck, that only a friend could know, but it does not convince him. The prisoners escape, and want to get off the ship, but Kittreck plans to blow up the Conqueror and especially Harriman who killed his whole family.

Eventually a huge battle ensues, as the Rebel fleet arrives (Led by Herbert Jefferson, the original Colonel Tigh from the old Battlestar Galactica) and the Supreme Being arrive, who turns out to be Gary Mitchell (Daamen Krall) along with Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney).

Uhura realizes it is something to do with the Guardian, and though Tuvok is killed, manages to get her, Kittreck and Harriman to the planet with the Guardian, where they find Charlie Evans, who has caused all the trouble, but is now the keeper of the guardian. He manages to fend off Gary Mitchell, draining his power, and allowing the Supreme Leader to be killed.

Eventually the heroes make it back to their correct timeline, setting everything right, with Charlie stopping himself from causing all the trouble.

And Uhura is married to her Vulcan love, with now Admiral Chekov there, as well as Captain Harriman, though they all still remember what happened in the alternate timeline.

•••

This is really enjoyable, I just wish they had done more on filming, and spent more time processing the footage, but this is a totally non-profit production, as they can’t make any money selling it, so it has limitations of course. Still enjoyable and worth checking out.