Terminator: Genesys

Terminator Genesys is the fifth movie in the Terminator franchise and the second one I watched (the other being Salvation) but since the Terminator franchise is referenced so often in other movie and TV shows I feel I know much of the story about the Terminator coming to the past, Skynet, the liquid-metal terminator, Sarah Connor, …

If I interpreted this movie correctly most of the stuff that happened in the previous movies is gone since the timeline is changed unless they go with the alternate universe theory I heard online.

Genesys is a good movie to watch with great special effects but if we start to think about the story and time travel stuff too much it all goes to hell. One example: why did they teleport to 2017 with only 36 hours to stop Genesys Skynet from going online when they could have teleport to 2016 and they would have a year to do that. 

  
The acting is ok and when you realise that Arnold Shwarzenegger is the best one in the movie you know something is wrong. It’s disappointing to see Emilia Clarke wasted on that role. 

Maybe a future Terminator movie could give some answers to the mess that was created in Genesys but at this point I think they should just put the franchise to rest and start something new. At the very least stop the time- travel crap and stick to show us the future since some of the best moments of the movie happened at the beginning when they are in the year 2029 fighting the machines. 

In 2029, Human Resistance leader John Connor (Jason Clarke) launches a massive final offensive against Skynet, an artificial general intelligence system seeking to eliminate the human race. Before the Resistance wins the offensive, Skynet activates a time machine and sends back a T-800 Terminator to 1984 to kill John’s mother, Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke). John’s right-hand man, Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), volunteers to travel back in time to protect her. As Kyle floats in the machine’s magnetic field, he witnesses John being attacked and receives new memories from his childhood about events in 2017.
Upon arrival in 1984, Skynet’s T-800 is disabled by Sarah and the Guardian (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a reprogrammed T-800 sent to protect her when she was nine years old. Kyle arrives a short time later and is immediately attacked by a T-1000 (Lee Byung-hun). Sarah and the Guardian join Kyle and destroy the T-1000 using acid. Sarah and the Guardian reveal they have constructed a makeshift time machine similar to Skynet’s, and that Sarah plans to travel to 1997 – the year Skynet becomes self-aware. Realizing the timeline has been altered, Kyle is convinced that the future has changed due to the warning he received in his childhood vision. He persuades Sarah to travel to 2017 instead to stop Skynet.
In 2017, Kyle and Sarah materialize in the middle of a busy San Francisco highway and are apprehended by city police. While being treated for injuries, Sarah and Kyle learn that Skynet is called “Genisys”, a soon-to-be-unveiled global operating system that is being embraced by the public. John Connor appears and rescues Sarah and Kyle, but the Guardian appears and immediately shoots John, revealing that he is an advanced T-3000 Terminator. While Kyle was being sent back through time, Skynet was in the form of a T-5000 (Matt Smith) disguised as a member of the Resistance. It attacked John and transformed him into a Terminator. John was tasked with ensuring Cyberdyne Systems survival and traveled back in time to assist them with the development of Genisys.
Able to escape to a safe house, Sarah, Kyle, and the Guardian make final preparations to destroy Cyberdyne’s Genisys mainframe. They head toward Cyberdyne’s headquarters with the T-3000 in close pursuit. During an airborne chase, the Guardian divebombs into the T-3000’s helicopter, causing it to crash. The T-3000 survives the crash and enters the Cyberdyne complex, where it advances the countdown from 13 hours to 15 minutes. Kyle, Sarah and the Guardian plant bombs at key points in the facility while holding off the T-3000.
In a final encounter, the Guardian traps the T-3000 in the magnetic field of a prototype time machine. Both are destroyed, but just prior to the explosion, the T-3000 throws the remains of the Guardian into an experimental vat of mimetic polyalloy liquid located nearby. Kyle and Sarah reach a bunker beneath the facility, and the explosion sets off the bombs successfully preventing Genisys from coming online. The Guardian appears, upgraded with mimetic polyalloy components, and helps them find a way out of the debris.
The trio travels to Kyle’s childhood home, where Kyle tells his younger self about Genisys and instructs him to repeat the warning in a mirror – critical insurance that the events lead to their arrival in 2017. Sarah, Kyle and the Guardian drive off into the country. A mid-credits scene reveals that the system core of Genisys was located in a protected subterranean chamber and has survived the explosion.

  

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Barely Lethal

Without competition this week Barely Lethal was the best movie available from those I haven’t seen yet. 

Barely Lethal had the ingredients to be a good movie. It had Hailee Steinfeld, Sophie Turner, Samuel L. Jackson, Jessica Alba and a interesting premise but right from the start it became obvious the director chose the cliches and predictability instead of substance. 

One thing that annoyed me was the constant references to how High School is the worst place in the world. The trained secret agent specialised in combat can’t survive High School because the other kids are so mean. Another thing that annoyed me was the constant cultural references that make the movie feel dated today. I don’t anyone will be watching this in 10 and if they do they won’t be able to relate to any of those things. 

  
Some movies have stupid plot and horrible lines of dialogue but manage to have great action sequences. Not Barely Lethal. For an action movie there’s not enough action sequences and the ones that do exist are filled with stupid dialogue or follow some sort of cliche that makes them predictable. 

By the end of the movie the secret agent High School girl realise that the nice guy who befriended her at the beginning was her real love all along instead of the hot empty headed musician, the other girl found out the idiot was actually a deep guy with feelings, the trainer of the secret agent girls as feeling for this one and comes to the rescue and the big enemy woman turns out to be number One the first girl ever to be part of the program. I saw all of this coming since the beginning of the movie

If action movies are your thing The Kingsman is a recent movie that is much better than Barely Lethal. 

The girls of Prescott Academy are taught practically since birth how to become trained assassins. Their number one rule is “no attachments”. Number 83 (Hailee Steinfeld) has always had curiosity of the world outside the Academy, however. Despite her excellent work in the field, she has dreamt of a normal life. Her mentor Hardman (Samuel L. Jackson) has always discouraged her and the other girls from becoming attached to anything. 83’s skills have also made her rivals with 84 (Sophie Turner). Hardman assigns the girls to capture wanted arms dealer Victoria Knox (Jessica Alba). The agents head to Chechnya to apprehend her. 83 goes undercover as one of those captured and brought before Knox. She manages to latch herself and Knox onto an oncoming jet with Hardman on it. When they get high and far enough, 83 drops herself into a river while the other agents apprehend Knox. They find no sign of 83 and declare her MIA.
83 goes into hiding to start her new life as a regular teenager. She brushes up on her teen culture through popular magazines and watching movies like “Mean Girls” and “Bring It On”, then enrolls in a high school and goes through an exchange program to live with the Larson family under the name Megan Walsh. She is picked up by Mrs. Larson (Rachael Harris) and her children Liz (Dove Cameron) and Parker (Jason Ian Drucker). Parker already likes Megan but Liz is cold and distant.
Megan picks a ridiculous outfit for her first day of school and is immediately laughed at. Liz gets embarrassed and gives her new clothes to put on. Megan gets introduced to the students at an assembly where she says she is from Regina, Canada, but she pronounces it to rhyme with “vagina”. The students laugh at her, but she is saved by the school’s most popular guy, Cash (Toby Sebastian), as he goes up to play his guitar and sing. He then performs onstage with his band, Emotacon.
As Megan continues her new life as a high school student, she makes friends with a geeky kid named Roger (Thomas Mann), who has an interest in her, despite her attraction to Cash. Megan finds out she’s in a biology class with him and hacks the system to make him her lab partner, to the ire of two mean girls. As retaliation, the girls convince Megan that Cash loves girls with school spirit and suggest she try out for the position of school mascot. Using her combat skills in her tryout, Megan scores the position. During a game, a few kids from a rival school come and try to kidnap Megan as part of an annual tradition. She kicks their asses and the video of her doing this goes viral. It earns her some popularity, but also annoys Liz.
Back at Prescott, Hardman is holding Knox in captivity. 84 walks in on them as Knox tells Hardman that Prescott destroys lives, and she’s not just talking about the targets.
Megan spends more time with Cash, to Roger’s dismay. As she’s walking home, she is apprehended by a Prescott analyst (Jaime King) and is brought back to Hardman. He is ready to have his minion Pedro (Steve-O) torture Megan under the assumption that she is working with enemies of Prescott. He injects her with a truth serum and realizes she is honest when she says she only wanted to enjoy a normal life outside the Academy. Pedro also sympathizes with Megan as she cries. Hardman lets her go but warns her that if she gets into trouble, they won’t be there to bail her out. They dump her on the front porch of the Larson house to make Megan look like she’s super drunk.
Megan gets invited to a big party at the home of the school’s class clown Gooch (Gabriel Basso). Mrs. Larson encourages Megan to go and makes Liz join her. At the party, Megan continues to hang out with Cash, while Liz gets drunk with Gooch in his bathtub, learning that his name is really Bernard and that he’s not a total jerk. To Megan’s surprise, 84 is there, now going by Heather. Megan thinks Hardman sent Heather to shadow her, but she has her own plan brewing. She goes after cash to piss Megan off, forcing them into a game. Megan eventually wins Cash’s attention and gets asked by him to the homecoming dance.
The next morning, Mrs. Larson is upset with Megan and Liz since Liz passed out and got a dick drawn on her face. Megan is later about to take the bus to school when she sees that Hardman is driving a bus and only passes through to warn Megan that Knox has escaped from Prescott. Liz drives Megan to school, but they are pursued by a masked assassin. Megan steers them away from danger and admits to Liz her secret. They crash in a junkyard while also getting the assassin to crash. Megan goes to investigate and smells what she recognizes to be Ke$ha perfume, meaning it was Heather that tried to murder them.
Liz is in the hospital after the crash. Megan tells her she has to leave before anybody else gets hurt. Liz responds that Megan trying to abandon the family would be worse.
The girls go to the homecoming dance. Megan realizes that Cash is kind of a boring person and dumps him. She goes to apologize to Roger, who is still sort of upset with her, and then she finds out that his date is Heather. She provokes Megan’s rage and they fight in the gym. They spill punch on the mean girls, who then start to fight each other. Heather chases Megan into the hallway where they end up in the kitchen. Heather says she joined Knox for the chance to kill Megan herself. She also brags about making out with Cash AND Roger. Liz sneaks up on Heather and stabs her in the leg with a corn dog stick, allowing Megan to whack Heather over the head and knock her out.
Megan returns home to find that Knox and some goons have taken Parker and Mrs. Larson hostage. Megan fights the goons but Liz gets captured as well. Knox reveals that she was the very first Prescott girl, but she left and turned against them for robbing her of her life. Hardman shows up with reinforcements to take out the goons and tranquilize Knox. Megan knows Hardman came back to help her, despite his denial, and she hugs him. Parker asks Hardman how he can get in on the action, and he tells him to apply for the Prescott boys school. He excitedly asks his mom if he can. In a mid-credits scene, Heather is in a car with a former minion of Knox. She stares at a photo of Megan on a screen and orders him to find out where she is going to college and/or safety schools.

  

Ted 2

I enjoyed the first Ted movie so when I heard about a sequel I was on board. 

Ted 2 is fun but I agree with a lot of the critics that there’s not enough Mark Wahlberg to ground Ted a bit more. 

That being said the movie still as plenty of jokes spread through it even if some of them fall flat. The sequences at comic con where fun specially the big fight scene with cosplayers dressed as Super Saiyan Son Goku, Dalek and more.

  
The story itself as some interesting parts like Ted and Tammi-Lynn fight at the beginning and the whole court thing to decide wether Ted is a person or property is well played and the actors helped with Amanda Seyfried doing a good job playing a stoner/lawyer and Mark Wahlberg once again doing a great job playing a rather childish character. From the many guest actors that appeared in the movie I have to say Liam Neeson was the best even though I didn’t see the after credits bit but I thought that he would show up to save Ted at some point during the movie

Some parts are predictable (the big death sequence at the end) and others don’t make sense (how did the 3 of them leave the car while it was stuck in the barn) but if you shut down your brain a little Ted 2 is one of the funniest movies of the year. Sure it has a very particular kind of humour but I think most people will like. 

John Bennett is six months divorced from his wife due to their relationship not working out. Ted marries his girlfriend Tami-Lynn. One year later, their marriage suffers as Ted and Tami-Lynn fight constantly. In order to preserve their relationship, the two decide to have a child. However, since Ted is incapable of reproductive functions, he goes to John for help. At the same time, Ted is trying to encourage John to start dating again, but John is reluctant to repeat another failed relationship. However, when Ted discovers on John’s laptop that John has gotten increasingly addicted to incredibly disturbing pornography, John sees it as a wake-up call, and Ted encourages him to date the first woman whom he meets.

Ted and John attempt to get a sperm donor, asking Sam Jones and breaking into Tom Brady’s house, but ultimately Ted accepts John’s donation offer. Unfortunately, it is discovered that Tami-Lynn herself is infertile, having ruined her ovaries through excessive drug use. Tami-Lynn and Ted’s inquiries into adoption draw attention to his status as property, resulting in the loss of his job and financial accounts. Furthermore, Ted’s marriage to Tami-Lynn is annulled. John suggests that the two take the issue to court. As the two are unable to afford a good lawyer, their case is assigned to the novice Samantha Leslie Jackson. The two are initially reluctant to hire her as Ted’s lawyer, as they fear that she is too young, but they quickly change their minds when they discover that she shares their love of marijuana, although they are constantly frustrated by her lack of knowledge of popular culture. The three bond as they prepare to present the case in court.

Meanwhile, Donny, after his unsuccessful attempt to kidnap Ted in the first film, is now employed as a janitor at the Hasbro Toy Company headquarters. With Ted’s impending case making headlines, Donny convinces the company CEO to hire an expert attorney to ensure that Ted loses and maintains his status as property. Donny proposes that Hasbro then capture Ted and study him in hopes of discovering the secret to creating more living teddy bears.

Despite the trio’s high hopes and Samantha’s impassioned appeal for justice, the state rules against Ted. Dispirited but desperate, the three turn to one last hope: overturning the decision with the help of Patrick Meighan, a highly respected civil rights attorney. The three take a road trip to New York City to meet with him, but their car goes off road due to Ted’s irresponsible driving, and the group spends the night in a hidden marijuana patch. While sitting around a campfire, John and Samantha realize their attraction for each other and share a kiss.

The next morning, the group frees their stuck car and proceed to New York City. Meighan is sympathetic to Ted’s plight, but ultimately refuses that case, as he believes that Ted hasn’t significantly contributed to humanity due to his irresponsible and hedonistic lifestyle. Ted, frustrated over the injustice and jealous of John and Samantha’s new relationship, runs off to be left alone. Unbeknownst to him, he is being watched by Donny, who follows him as he wanders into the New York City Comic-Con. Once inside, Donny poses as a fan, dressed as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and asks Ted for a picture, but Ted flees as soon as he reveals himself. He manages to steal a phone and contact John before Donny knocks him unconscious.

John and Samantha arrive at Comic-Con and search for Ted. They arrive as Donny is about to cut Ted open. John knocks Donny down and releases Ted. As the three cross the convention floor, however, a vengeful Donny cuts the cables holding up a model of the Starship Enterprise, which threatens to crush Ted. John throws Ted out of the way, causing the model to collide with him instead, and is knocked into a coma. Security takes Donny away.

Ted, Tami-Lynn, and Samantha are awaiting news of John’s condition when a doctor informs them that John did not make it. As the group sheds tears over John, however, he startles them by revealing that he is alive, wanting to get back at Ted for pretending that he was retarded when he came back to life during the events of the first film. As the group rejoices, Patrick Meighan enters and tells them that having seen how Ted impacted John in a way that he would be willing to give his life for him, he has been inspired to reconsider taking the case. Meighan gets the ruling overturned by pointing out that Ted is self-aware, feels complex emotions, and is capable of empathy. As Ted walks out of the court, a reporter asks if he has any words to say as a person for the first time, so Ted re-proposes to Tami-Lynn. After the two get re-married, Ted adopts the surname of “Clubber Lang,” and he and Tami-Lynn adopt a baby boy whom they name Apollo Creed Clubber Lang. John and Samantha happily pursue their own relationship.

After the credits, Liam Neeson re-enters the store with his box of Trix, having bought it earlier in the film and grilling Ted about it being ok for adults. He is stumbling, having apparently being beaten up. He sets the box on the counter and walks away after giving whoever is in the store a dirty look.

  

San Andreas

San Andreas is a cliché riddle super hero movie where the villain is a non stopping earthquake that wasn’t defeated by the end of the movie to leave room for a sequel where The Rock will punch the crap out of it. 

I’m not even kidding on the super hero part. There was a classic moment where The Rock tries to save is daughter who’s drowning but can’t get the door to open until she actually drowns and The Rock goes Super Saiyan and finally opens the door. If he had hair it would have turn yellow at that moment. When the daughter dies at the end I thought they would make a sequel where the four survivors would go look for the 7 dragon balls to ressurect the daughter but then after about 2 minutes of not breathing she magically comes back from the death. I’m pretty sure she should at least have some sort of brain damage after that. 

  
The CGI in the movie could be better at moments. The first moment where a car goes down the road (I’ve seen better CGI sequences at CW shows) is a good indication of some of the quality of CGI in the movie. Maybe if they had done a better job on the CGI and kept the camera steady the movie would be more enjoyable. 

The acting is not great with many moments reminding the classic super hero movies in the way they talk, move or stand tall while looking at the distance. The best moments of the movie revolve around Alexandra Daddario while the worst have to be the ones involving Ioan Gruffudd who happens to be a talented actor but whose role as to be one of the stupidest characters I’ve seen in a while. 

In conclusion San Andreas is not a good movie but still manages to be entertaining if you shut down your brain and believe it’s normal that our heroes always manage to escape just in time. If you looking for a good super hero movie you probably better at looking through the Marvel catalogue. 

Raymond “Ray” Gaines (Dwayne Johnson) is a Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter-rescue pilot. In the midst of a divorce from his estranged wife, Emma (Carla Gugino), he calls his daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario) to discuss their upcoming trip to San Francisco. Meanwhile, Caltech seismologist Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti) and his colleague Dr. Kim Park (Will Yun Lee) are at the Hoover Dam making a breakthrough in earthquake prediction when an unknown fault nearby ruptures, triggering a magnitude 7.1 earthquake that collapses the dam and kills Park in the process when he stays on the dam to save a little girl. When Ray is called into work, Blake reluctantly decides to go with her mother Emma’s new boyfriend, Daniel Riddick (Ioan Gruffudd), a wealthy real estate developer, to San Francisco where he is completing a downtown high-rise building.

Hayes discovers that the San Andreas Fault is starting to shift, causing a massive 9.1 earthquake that starts ripping apart major cities along the fault line. At the same time, Emma is having lunch with Daniel’s sister Susan (Kylie Minogue) when the quake hits Los Angeles, destroying much of the city with Susan among its heavy casualties. Ray is able to save Emma, and they barely escape the city onboard his helicopter. Much of Southern California becomes affected by the quake. In San Francisco, Daniel brings Blake to his office building. Blake waits for Daniel in the lobby, where she meets Ben (Hugo Johnstone-Burt), an engineering student from the United Kingdom seeking employment at the office, and his little brother, Ollie (Art Parkinson). Daniel returns and attempts to leave the office with Blake, but the two become trapped in their car in the parking garage of the building after the string of earthquakes begin to strike the city, partially collapsing the garage. Daniel leaves the car in search of help, but flees in terror, leaving Blake behind. She is found by Ben and Ollie, who help free her from the car and escape the collapsing building. The trio find a working phone line and Blake calls Ray, who begins to fly toward San Francisco with Emma to save her.

While enroute, the engine in Ray’s helicopter suddenly fails, forcing him to make an emergency crash-landing into a mall below them in Bakersfield, where massive looting is taking place. Among the chaos, Ray steals a Ford F-150 from the parking lot, and the couple resume their journey on the road, but find they are trapped by the expanding fault line. The couple comes across an older couple broken down on the side of the road, whom they learn own an airplane. The older couple agrees to give them the keys to the plane in exchange for their vehicle, and the two continue to head north in the air. Meanwhile, Blake, Ben and Ollie try to find a spot in the city where Ray and Emma can save them; seeing that their planned rendezvous point, Coit Tower, is already engulfed by flames. With help from news reporter Serena (Archie Panjabi), Hayes is able to warn others of a much bigger earthquake in San Francisco, just in time before it hits; becoming the largest earthquake ever in history, recorded as a 9.6.

Ray and Emma eventually arrive in San Francisco, abandoning their aircraft and parachuting into AT&T Park just as the aftershocks continue to destroy the city. They commandeer a boat and hear a warning over the radio that a tsunami is approaching the city. Along with other evacuees with boats of their own, they are able to get over the incoming wave near the Golden Gate Bridge. Daniel, who is on the bridge, is killed when a cargo ship slices the bridge in half and a loose shipping container crushes him. The tsunami floods the city, causing massive casualties and knocking over several buildings. Blake, Ben, and Ollie manage to run into Daniel’s building moments before the water hits. They move up floors and manage to signal Ray and Emma, who are searching nearby for Blake. As they see the trio, the building starts sinking into the ground, causing water to flood the building. Ben and Ollie are able to escape, but Blake becomes trapped in the rising water, runs out of air, and drowns before Ray can get to her. Emma crashes the boat through the building’s thick window panes in an attempt to get everyone on board before escaping as the building completely collapses. Now aboard the small boat, Ray performs CPR on Blake and finally revives her after several minutes.

The five make it to a relief camp in Marin County. The now reconciled Ray and Emma, along with Blake, Ben, and Ollie, talk about their future as the sun slowly sets on the now destroyed Bay Area, now swarmed with different military organizations and rescue vehicles initiating the relief process. The camera pans out, revealing the quake has changed the geography of the San Francisco Bay Area.

  

Spy

Rick Ford: You really think you’re ready for the field? I once used defibrillators on myself. I put shards of glass in my fuckin’ eye. I’ve jumped from a high-rise building using only a raincoat as a parachute and broke both legs upon landing; I still had to pretend I was in a fucking Cirque du Soleil show! I’ve swallowed enough microchips and shit them back out again to make a computer. This arm has been ripped off completely and re-attached with *this* fuckin’ arm.

Susan Cooper: I don’t know that that’s possible… I mean medically…

Rick Ford: During the threat of an assassination attempt, I appeared convincingly in front of congress as Barack Obama.

Susan Cooper: In black-face? That’s not appropriate.

Rick Ford: I watched the woman I love get tossed from a plane and hit by another plane mid-air. I drove a car off a freeway on top of a train while it was on fire. Not the car, *I* was on fire.

Susan Cooper: Jesus, you’re intense.

This conversation is just one example of why Spy is the best comedy of the year so far. 
Spy may not be perfect and not all the jokes work but I don’t remember the last time I laugh this much watching a movie. 

I expected a lot of jokes coming from Melissa McCarthy while Jason Statham as the serious guy but Statham had some of the best lines in the movie while acting intense. 

  
The movie as a good cast and while both McCarthy and Statham stole the show the other did a good job specially Peter Serafinowicz and Jude Law. 

The action works well in the movie and they play on most of the spy movie tropes with double agents, infiltrated agents and the fake identities. 

Susan Cooper (Melissa McCarthy) is an unassuming, desk-bound CIA analyst guiding her partner Agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law) on a mission to Bulgaria from the CIA office in the US, using a radio connected to his earpiece. After witnessing Fine accidentally killing his target without finding the suitcase nuke bomb they are after, Susan guides him on his escape back to the United States. Meanwhile, the agency learns that the target’s daughter Rayna Boyanov (Rose Byrne) might know the location of her father’s device, so they send Fine to infiltrate her home. However, Fine is apparently shot dead by Rayna, which enrages Susan, who also discovers that Rayna had known the identities of all the agency’s top agents, including Fine and Rick Ford (Jason Statham). After Fine’s funeral, Susan volunteers to become a field agent. Since she never was one before, her boss Elaine Crocker (Allison Janney) agrees as long as she does not get close to either Rayna or her contact, Italian playboy Sergio De Luca (Bobby Cannavale), as she could break her cover. Ford quits, disgusted with Susan being chosen over him for the assignment.

Susan is sent to Paris, where the agency places her to spy on De Luca. After unexpectedly finding Ford there also, she sees an assassin working for De Luca (Nargis Fakhri) exchanging his bag with a bomb; she is successful in warning him which leads to Ford throwing the bomb into the river where it explodes. Susan then follows the assassin, but he is killed during a fight with Susan when he falls off of a high rise building. Susan follows De Luca to Rome, where she meets her contact Aldo (Peter Serafinowicz), a clumsy informant who makes inappropriate advances towards Susan. She soon decides to break her cover by going inside a casino just to retrieve more intelligence on De Luca. She instead meets Rayna, and quickly becomes part of Rayna’s inner circle after successfully preventing Rayna’s assassination. Gaining Rayna’s trust, the two use her private plane to go to Budapest. Along the way, the pilot tries to kill Rayna, but Susan is able to subdue him and take control of the plane in time before it crashes onto the Alps. When Rayna believes Susan to be an undercover spy, Susan convinces her that her father secretly hired Susan to be Rayna’s bodyguard. In Budapest, the two encounter Susan’s best friend Nancy (Miranda Hart), who is sent by Crocker to make sure of Susan’s condition, and Aldo. When a vehicle fires at them, Nancy tries to get Rayna to safety while Susan pursues the vehicle on a Vespa. Susan finds out that the shooter is CIA double agent Karen Walker (Morena Baccarin), who sold Rayna the names of the agents. As Walker is about to kill Susan, she is suddenly shot and killed by an unknown sniper.

That night, Susan and Nancy are set to witness Rayna meeting a contact who intends to purchase the nuclear device at a party. The contact turns out to be De Luca’s associate, who Susan pursues on foot while Nancy gets arrested for assaulting 50 Cent on stage to distract Rayna from seeing the associate. Susan fights the assassin in a kitchen, exposing her true identity as a spy just before Fine, revealed to be still alive, throws a knife at the assassin’s chest. He states he is working with Rayna and has become her lover. When Rayna has Susan and Aldo locked in a warehouse, Fine goes to Susan and reveals he shot Karen Walker and that he faked his death in order to gain intelligence on the device’s location by posing as Rayna’s lover. Eventually, Aldo and Susan cooperate to escape, with Susan joining Rayna and Fine at De Luca’s mansion by posing as a double agent who’s betraying her agency. A third party, led by Russian gangster Dudaev, arrives only to be shot dead by De Luca, who reveals his true motives of wanting to an even higher bidder. As De Luca tries to kill Rayna next, Ford spectacularly fails his rescue entrance, adistraction that allows Susan to save Rayna’s life yet again. De Luca escapes with the device on his helicopter, wounding Fine in the process. S usan and Ford jump onto De Luca’s helicopter, but Ford soon loses balance and falls down into the lake, leaving Susan to confront De Luca over the device. With the help of Nancy, Aldo, and 50 Cent (who appears to have a mutual sexual interest in Nancy) in another helicopter, Susan is able to kill De Luca as both he and the device fall down to the lake with less success than Ford.

In the aftermath of her successful mission, Crocker arrives to recover the device, as well as promoting Susan to field agent, which she happily accepts. 50 Cent gloats over his involvement in taking down the terrorists, going as far as mocking fellow rapper/rival Kanye West for never accomplishing such a thing. Fine is treated for his wounds, and Ford takes off on a speed boat to seaside destinations, unaware he’s on a lake. Rayna is arrested, but not before she and Susan jokingly exchange profane insults subtly implying that Rayna has grown to like Susan. Aldo re-introduces himself as Albert, an undercover British MI6 agent who invites Susan to dinner should she ever find herself in London, which Susan accepts. Fine then asks Susan to dinner but she declines, deciding to have a “girl’s night” with Nancy.

Before the closing credits roll, Susan is shown screaming after waking up and realizing that she has spent the night with Ford.

  

Jurassic World

Welcome to Isla Nublar.

Jurassic Park came out in 1993. I was 6 at the time and I already rewatched the movie a few times since then. I love Jurassic Park but the sequels The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Jurassic Park 3 (2001) were nowhere as good as the first. 

Jurassic World is not perfect but it’s the best Jurassic movie since Jurassic Park. 

There’s plenty of moments in the movie where we revisit the classic either by talking about the incidents that happen on the island, one of the tech guys having a shirt with the original logo on it or the kids going to the original entrance hall where the T-Rex killed the Velociraptors in the first movie and riding the original jeeps from that movie. 

  
The main antagonist of the movie is the Indominous Rex a hybrid created in lab designed by a man that has ties to the army. The army intends on replacing soldiers with smaller versions of the Indominous or even the Velociraptors. It’s this army part of the movie that takes some of the magic away. I think this is mostly a way to justify making a new dinosaur that would be “better” than the T-Rex. 

Jurassic World while not perfect is very entertaining and as some dinosaur-on-dinosaur fighting sequences that are better than most monster movies. This movie does a better job at showing the dinosaurs and present the Indominous as a real threat than Godzilla did it’s monsters. 

Visually the movie is great and the CGI is very well done even if it seems to fail a little on faster sequences like when Zara is killed. 

For me the best moment of the movie as to be when Claire opens the T-Rex cage and leads her into the fight against the Indominous and then when it looks the Indominous has won and the Velociraptor shows up distracting the Indominous leading the T-Rex to win the fight. 

I want to end this post by saying that no amount of hybrid dinosaurs with whatever characteristics scientists can think of will ever be as cool as the Velociraptors and the best one of all the mighty T-Rex. 

22 years after the Isla Nublar incident, Zach and Gray Mitchell go to visit their aunt Claire Dearing, the park operations manager of Jurassic World, a fully functional dinosaur theme park located on Isla Nublar, an island off the coast of Costa Rica. Upon arriving on the island, they find that Claire is too busy to spend time with them and are left in the care of her assistant Zara. Simon Masrani, the park’s owner, arrives and takes Claire to see their new genetically modified dinosaur, the Indominus rex. Upon inspection, he tells her he wants Owen Grady, a Velociraptor expert and trainer, to make sure the enclosure is adequate.

Owen is approached by Vic Hoskins, the head of InGen security, who proposes to use the raptors as a weapon. However, one of the staff falls into the raptor enclosure and Owen rescues him before barely escaping, proving that the raptors are not tame. Gray and Zach leave Zara and explore the park before travelling on the monorail to the gyrosphere attraction. Claire arrives at Owen’s bungalow, having previously shared a relationship with him, and asks him to accompany her back to the Indominus enclosure; he reluctantly agrees. After arriving at the enclosure, they find that the Indominus has seemingly scaled the wall and escaped. After Owen and two staff enter the enclosure for further inspection, the Indominus ambushes them, having faked its escape, and kills both staff. Owen escapes by hiding under a vehicle and cutting the fuel hose to douse himself in gasoline to hide his scent.

Masrani sends an ACU team led by Hamada to capture the Indominus, but find that she has clawed out the tracking device they implanted in her. The entire team is then killed by the camouflaged Indominus. Claire closes off the northern part of the park but Gray and Zach take a gyrosphere off the road and are attacked by the Indominus, although they escape to the now-derelict Jurassic Park visitor’s center. There, they manage to repair a jeep and drive back to the park. Owen and Claire arrive at the visitor’s center soon afterwards but are attacked by the Indominus. Masrani flies after the Indominus in his helicopter, causing it to breach the Jurassic World Aviary. Pteranodons and Dimorphodons attack the helicopter and crash it into the aviary, killing Masrani and freeing the other animals inside.

Zach and Gray arrive back at the park as the pterosaurs begin attacking tourists. Zara finds them but is quickly picked up by a Pteranodon and dropped into the mosasaur lagoon, where she is eaten. Owen and Claire arrive and reunite with Gray and Zach. Hoskins takes command of Jurassic World and decides that they will use the raptors to find and kill the Indominus, with Owen reluctantly agreeing. However, the Indominus communicates with the raptors, revealing that it was made with raptor DNA. The raptors turn on the team and begin killing the soldiers while the Indominus escapes, with Owen escaping.

Hoskins and the InGen team evacuate via helicopter with dinosaur embryos. After entering the innovation center, Owen, Claire, Zach, and Gray find Hoskins packing up the laboratory and he discloses that they plan to turn the Indominus into a weapon to be used in wars before being killed by a raptor. Owen, Claire, Zach, and Gray escape but are cornered by the raptors outside, though Owen manages to reestablish his connection with them. When the Indominus arrives, Owen and the raptors attack it, but the raptors are all apparently killed. Realizing they do not have the power to defeat the Indominus, Claire opens up the Tyrannosaurus enclosure, luring it into a fight with the Indominus. The Tyrannosaurus is quickly overpowered, but one surviving raptor reappears and attacks the Indominus. The two fight the Indominus and defeat it, after which it is eaten by the mosasaur. The Tyrannosaurus and raptor then depart and the group is evacuated to Costa Rica. Zach and Gray are reunited with their parents, while Owen and Claire leave together. On Isla Nublar, the Tyrannosaurus surveys the destruction and roars.

  

Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome

To some Beyond Thunderdome is the best movie in the Mad Max original trilogy but to others it’s the worst. To me they all pale in comparison to Fury Road and I can’t understand why people love these movies so much. 

Beyond Thunderdome is complicated to describe. I liked some parts like the fight at Thunderdome or the final chasing scene that reminded me a bit of Fury Road but there’s so many bad moments like every time Tina Turner shows up or the scenes that involved those annoying kids. 

The visuals remain as crazy as the Road Warrior and it’s clear where most of the inspiration to Fury Road comes from. 

Once again were talking about an old movie that came out before I was born (July 10th 1985) and to me it suffers from it. Fury Road takes full advantage of the technology we have today and clearly takes some inspiration from other movies that came out after the original trilogy ended while keeping several elements from the trilogy. 

Fifteen years after defeating Lord Humungus, Max Rockatansky crosses the Australian desert in a camel-drawn wagon when he is attacked by a pilot named Jedediah and his son in a Transavia PL-12 Airtruk, stealing his wagon and belongings. Continuing on foot, Max follows their trail to the seedy community of Bartertown. While refused entry at first, Max is brought before the founder and ruler of Bartertown, the ruthless Aunty Entity. She offers to resupply his vehicle and equipment if he completes a task for her.

Aunty explains that Bartertown depends on a crude methane refinery powered by pig feces, which is run by a dwarf called Master and his giant bodyguard Blaster. “Master Blaster” holds an uneasy truce with Aunty for control of Bartertown; however, Master has begun to challenge Aunty’s leadership. Aunty instructs Max to provoke a confrontation with Blaster in Thunderdome, a gladiatorial arena where conflicts are resolved by a duel to the death. Max enters the refinery to size up Master Blaster and befriends Pig Killer, a convict sentenced to work for slaughtering a pig to feed his family. Max finds his stolen vehicle in Master Blaster’s possession, and helps disarm his booby-trapped engine to converse with him. Here he discovers that Blaster is exceptionally strong but extremely sensitive to high-pitched noises.

Max then faces Blaster in the Thunderdome and uses his weakness to gain the upper hand. He refuses to kill him after discovering he is developmentally disabled and has the functional mentality of a child, telling Aunty it was not part of their deal, revealing her plot. Master is furious and vows to shut down the refinery and, by extension, Bartertown. An enraged Aunty has Blaster executed, Master imprisoned, and Max exiled, bound, masked, and sent on a horse in a random direction to the wasteland. As his horse perishes in a sinkhole, Max frees himself and presses on.

Near death, Max is found by a desert dweller named Savannah Nix, who hauls him back to her home, a primitive community of children and teenagers who live in an oasis. The children, survivors of a crashed Boeing 747, were left by their parents who went to find civilization. They believe Max to be the flight captain, returned to fix the plane and fly them to civilization. Max denies this and insists that they remain in the relative safety of the oasis, knowing that the only “civilization” within reach is Bartertown.

Some of the children, led by Savannah, leave anyway, determined to find the prophesied “Tomorrow-morrow Land”. Max stops them by force, but another tribe member known as Scrooloos, sets them free during the night and leaves with them. Their leader, Slake M’Thirst, asks Max to go after them, and he agrees, taking a few of the children with him to help. They find Savannah’s group in danger but are unable to save one of the children from a sand pit. With no supplies left, they are forced to head for Bartertown.

They sneak in and with Pig Killer’s help free Master and escape in a train-truck. Aunty leads the inhabitants in pursuit, catching up to the train. Max’s group slows them down while Scrooloos hijacks one of the pursuing vehicles. The group comes across Jedediah and his son, and Max coerces Jedediah into helping his group escape with their plane. Max uses his vehicle to clear a path through Aunty’s men, allowing the plane to take off and escape, leaving him at Aunty’s mercy. Aunty spares his life, having come to respect him; she says sardonically, “…Ain’t we a pair?”, and departs to presumably make good on her vow to restore Bartertown.

Jedediah flies the children to the coast, where they discover the ruins of Sydney. Years later, the children have established a small society of themselves and other lost wanderers in the ruins. Savannah, now leader of the group, recites a nightly story of their journey and the man who saved them. Still alive in the desert, Max wanders on to places unknown.