Review on Breaking Bad series (season 5 premiere - July 2012)

Creator: Vince Gilligan
Stars: Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn and Aaron Paul
Original channel AMC

Original run January 20, 2008 – present

Season 5 premiere - July 2012
Nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Another 26 wins & 65 nominations See more awards »
Rating: around 9.3 on IMDB

Plot:

Breaking Bad is an American television drama series telling the story of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) - a high school teacher who is diagnosed with lung cancer. In the beginning of the series he is told that he is going to live for a few months and that is why Walter turns to the life of crime. He starts producing and selling methamphetamine with his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), so that he can provide for the financial future of his family before he dies.

Review:
I would definitely say that Breaking Bad is one of the best TV series on the American television casted in the last decade. The series has a compelling story, build on a masterpiece of a script and as a result it won six Emmy Awards—including three consecutive wins for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Cranston (known for the comedy 'Malcolm in the Middle').The central question in the story of Breaking Bad is - What makes a man "bad" - his actions, motives or his decision to be a bad person?- and the answer is for the viewer to decide. When you watch the series you will pity, judge, hate and like Walter as well as the other characters in the series.Even more compelling is that every episode is filled with unexpected turnovers and tension that is keeping the interest of the viewer up to the end of the show. One of the interesting techniques in Breaking Bad is the retrospective story-line used on some of the episodes like in the pilot which starts with Walter holding a gun, half naked, waiting for the cops in the middle of a desert.
Cranston's acting in the series is at its best. He presents us with some humorous parts in the series which cool down the tension so that it could be build up back again. This makes Breaking Bad somehow "fresh" in comparison to the other TV-series out there and that's why I recommend it to everybody who hasn't watched it.

Movie Review on Fight Club (1999)

139 min - Drama
Director: David Fincher
Writers: Chuck Palahniuk (novel), Jim Uhls (screenplay)
Stars: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter
IMDB: Top 250 #12 | Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins & 13 nominations See more awards »
Budget: $63 million
Box office: $100.9 million

Plot:
Fight Club is a 1999 American film, based on the Chuck Palahnik's novel with the same name. Norton plays an unnamed everyday guy, that goes to the meeting for people with cancer so that he can cope with his insomnia problem. After his apartment burns down Norton's character decides to call a guy who he met on the plane - a soap seller called Tyler. Soon they both create a way to treat aggression and the treatment is called Fight Club - an organisation where men gather to fight each other. Soon however the idea begins to spread and get out of control

Review:
Recently I have talked with a guy how awesome Fight Club is and how he watched it every day and that is why I decided to watch it again. I was literally blown away from the details and the meaning I have missed (in the last 5 times I have watched it) and how I haven't understood the movie at all. That's why I read an article about the movie that gave me a different and somehow "deeper" understanding. It doesn't mean that it is true... these are just my thoughts about the movie  and the the things I have read about it from other bloggers.

The movie has a fascinating story-line that caught my attention right from the beginning. If you miss even a second of the film you would end up wondering what did just happen. After you see the film a couple of times you would realize that it represents the story of the life of the anarchist and the evolving of chaos and civil disorder. In the beginning of the movie after the Narrator's apartment burned Tyler said "Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may." With this statement begins the denial of the organized world and the embracement of the anarchy.

Through the whole movie the story compares the human values an their denial. Fait, hope and love are denied in almost every second in the movie. Tyler slaps the Narrator and tells him "Listen to me! You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you, never wanted you, and in all probability, he HATES you. It's not the worst thing that can happen." That makes the denial of God easy to spot. However, the religion as an implement of control is embraced by Tyler.In the movie he is presented somehow as the preacher of "Fight Club". He even came up with the 8 rules of Fight Club that we can compare to the Ten Commandments. Another example for that we see in the middle of the film when the Narrator says: "In Tyler we trust" (a reference to the words written on the dollar bills - In God we trust.) Adter that we can see the denial of hope it  is shown in this quote: "And then, something happened. I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete. I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom. " As we know the every person is on the pursuit of freedom and everybody is craving for it. However the so called "freedom" that Tyler is preaching is close to Chaos. At the end of the movie there is even a comparison between the both - Tyler's operation "Chaos" and the government's operation called "Hope". The third denial - the denial of love - is maybe the most obvious one. The relationship between the character of Helena Bonham Carter - Marla Singer -  and Tyler  is just plain sex. He doesn't share Marla's affection neither he is showing any emotion towards her.

Although the movie can be understood in many ways, one is certain - it is one of the best movies ever made (and that is why I wanted to make a bigger review on it) and it must be watched. If you have a different understanding of the film, please, live your thought in the comment section below

Movie review on Equlibrium (2002)

(2002) - 107 min - Action | Drama | Sci-Fi
Director: Kurt Wimmer
Writer: Kurt Wimmer
Stars: Christian Bale, Sean Bean and Emily Watson
Budget: $20 million
Box office: $5,359,645

"Equilibrium" is Sci-Fi action movie that takes place in the near future, after the third World War where the feelings and artistic expressions are prohibited because they are considered to be the root for the beginning of every conflict. The citizens must take every day a drug called Prozium to suppress their emotions and whoever brakes that law must be executed. John Preston (Christian Bale - known from American Psycho and The Dark Knight) is an enforcement officer, thought the Gun Kata - a gun-fighting martial art disciplin. His job is to maintain the order in the city and to destroy every book, painting and anything that can lead to emotions. After accidentally breaking a dose, Preston begins to experience emotions which make him question his morality, actions and the system he is living in. Without the drugs he took he tries to help the resistance while trying not to be detected by the suspicious society in which he lives.


The first time I saw "Equilibrium" it reminded me a lot to "The Matrix" movies. Probably because of the Gun Fu in the movie and the costumes of the actors. Overall the movie is good and I give it 4 stars rating. However the movie received mixed reviews from the critics. Some of them said that the movie had borrowed a lot from some Sci-Fi classics like Fahrenheit 451 (great book by the way). However, I think the story is good and the movie makes a point.
Equilibrium Fan Site - Photos

Hollywood News: The production of Dumb and Dumber 2 is set to begin in September

It is official - Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels will be in the "Dumb and Dumber 2" - that reported comingsoon.net on 1 April (and it is not a big fat joke)

"We're getting set to shoot 'Dumb and Dumber 2' in September," says Peter Farrelly. "It's the first sequel we've ever done and we've got Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels back."


"We did not do 'Dumb and Dumberer,'" he continues. "That was a studio thing. So we've always wanted to do a sequel and finally Jim called up. Jeff always wanted to do it. We always wanted to do it. Jim was busy, but he called and said, 'We've got to do this thing again.' He had just watched 'Dumb and Dumber' and he said, 'This is the perfect sequel. Let's do it.'"
Source: comingsoon.net

Dumb and Dumber is one of the beak out roles for Jim Carrey and one of his best. The production of the new Movie will begin in September.

Watch the Eureka series (season 5 premiere on the 16.04.2012)

Creators: Andrew Cosby, Jaime Paglia
Stars: Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield and Erica Cerra
Original channel: Syfy
Original run: July 18, 2006 – present


Eureka is probably one of the best a science fiction TV-series that I have ever seen on TV. Time travel, Worm holes, spaceships, flying buildings, black holes are something common in Eureka. The show started in 18th July 2006 on Syfy and up until now there are 4 seasons released and a 5th, and maybe final, is filmed. The 5th season premiere starts on the 16.04.2012 on Syfy.


Plot:
The show is in a fictional town called Eureka, where almost everybody is a scientist or a genius. The town a huge scientific research community that work for the government. The top-secret town was founded by Einstein in the end of World War II. He convinces the president Harry Truman that the future is in the hands of scientists - not soldiers. That vision of Ainstein created the perfect working envirounment and almost every significant science breakthrough in the last several decade is made in Eureka. However, a perfect community cannot exist. After a half a century in isolation, the human feelings - love, envy, addiction and depression - had came out even in Eureka forcing the the town to face crisis situations on the daily basis and in a town full of geniuses the only one who can make things right is the town sheriff Jack Carter.


Watch Eureka Online

Watch the boldest series on television: Spartacus

Director: Rick Jacobson

Writers: Steven S. DeKnight, Steven S. DeKnight (creator)
Stars: Andy Whitfield, John Hannah and Manu Bennett
Original channel: Starz
Original airing: January 22, 2010

Spartacus is a TV-series with graphic violence and explicit sex which started in 2010 with the title Spartacus: Blood and Sand. In the pilot episode the Romans convince the Thracians to join them in the war in defeating the Getae, a tribe who have been burning Thracian villages to the ground for generations. However, one of the traicians refuses to join the battle and reblles against the Romans but loses the fight and finds himself enslaved along with his wife Sura. The Thracian is transported to Capua where he is forced to fight against gladiators in the arena. However, he manages to survive and embraces the name of Spartacus that was given to him from Senator Albinius. 

Spartacus has managed to preserve his life and becomes a property of Quintus Batiatus which house is a gladiator training school. In time he will become a God of the arena but the only thing he will search for is his wife and vengeance.

The series remind us of the 300 movie with the bloody graphic combat action and slow motion cameras in action scenes. Spartacus has 3 seasons and is revealing us the roman way of life with conspiracy, affairs, sex and death. Unfortunately the actor from the first season Andy Whitfield dies after the first season from cancer. In the second season the series return with retrospection of the house of Batiatus and along with it with his previous God of the arena.

Watch Spartacus: Blood and Sand Online
Watch Spartacus : Gods of the Arena Online
Watch Spartacus: Vengeance Online