VHS Vault: The Truth About ‘Missing in Action 2’

Chuck Norris. That should be enough to make any action hound jump up in joy. It’s a sequel that’s a prequel so we should be in for a wild ride here. We don’t learn much about Chuck other than he is bad ass (which we already knew) but we learn a little more about his surroundings and the reason he is a bad ass in part one. Okay, you want more plot information, well here you go. Chuck plays Colonel James Braddock, a mostly quiet, reserved guy keeping an eye on his troops. You see, it’s just after the Vietnam War and these poor soldiers have been held captive by the evil Colonel Yin for 10 years.

NBC Thursday Nights Might Get Shorter, Possibly Less Funny

NBC really loves to do the short seasons so much that perhaps the only saving grace to everyone’s critical and cult hero yet ratings challenged darlings on Thursday nights might be the route they choose.

According to Deadline via WarmingGlow, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, and Community are in the running to get shorter seasons with 30 Rock leading the way with 13-14 episodes for the smaller and most likely final season. Alec Baldwin has been very vocal about this being his final season and some of the episodes have gotten stale in the last few years in my opinion. However, just like with Chuck, they appear ready to send the show off the right way instead of letting it fade out into the night with no resolution like Alf (seriously, most random end to a series because Alf is basically screwed at the end, go watch it).

Also on the short season path could be P-Rex (what the cool kids call it) and Community. However, the shorter 13 episode season seems to be more likely for P-Rex [Ed. Note – No one calls it that] as opposed to Community. They are saying the chances for Community still run at 50-50 so we shall wait until the NBC Upfronts happen and the mass panic about people’s favorite show that no one watches reaches the boiling point. All I have to say is that if they bring back P-Rex, that’s cool but it’s time to shut The Office down. Used to love the show, now it’s just buried in my DVR for the last 8 episodes. I cannot defend that show anymore. Steve Carrell, we miss you.

I can’t let the post end on a bad note though, Whitney is probably going to be put out of its misery. Rejoice in that I guess.

Grizzly Review: Killer Elite

Last night I saw the newest Statham movie, and I have to say I was surprised. Not at all what I was expecting. In the trailer (which we talked about in June) we heard ’80s rock and got lots of punching and shooting and all around violent types of imagery. So naturally I expected your general type of Statham movie. However, we were rewarded with something even better (Well, depending on your mood), a real movie with an actual plot.

Taking place in 1980, Killer Elite revolves around the desired redemption of the disgraced Sheikh Amr. For Amr to gain said redemption and lift his exile to return home, the men who murdered his 3 sons must confess and be killed themselves. That seems straight forward enough, but where the twist comes in, and what seemed to confuse others in the audience, was just how exactly Jason Statham gets sucked into this vendetta. And as it turns out, it’s all a result of multiple betrayals, as well as his own loyalty.

From the trailer it looks like a movie full of Statham vs. Owen, but in truth they are little more than pawns, neither really knowing the real reason they are there. And that reason is something I don’t really want to give away, because I’m gonna go ahead and recommend  you see this movie, so I don’t want to ruin anything. I can say this though – the trailer is not the most accurate representation of a movie that I’ve seen.

The vague overview: De Niro takes the job from the Sheikh blindly, and then upon learning further details tries to back out. This doesn’t go over well with the powers that be, so old Bobby D is held captive. This forces his old friend (the Stath) to end his freshly begun retirement, and complete the job in exchange for De Niro’s release. Statham puts together a team and proceeds to hunt down the men responsible – all Ex-SAS officers that were under orders at the time of their crimes.

Enter Clive Owen, an ex-SAS soldier in his own right, acting out on the behalf of ‘The Feathermen’, a much older group of retired SAS. He’s looking to stop Statham, and in the background is all sorts of politicking our principles don’t know about.

Overall I found the movie quite enjoyable, though if I had to nitpick there is one thing that bugged me, which was the camera work during the fight scenes. So of Director Gary McKendry I might ask that next time – pan out. The super fast extreme closeup angles during the  action scenes make it hard to see the action. But that’s really about it. I liked the movie more than expected. DeNiro had a scene so badass the audience cheered, ‘Mr. MFWIC’ – [Mother F–ker Whats In Charge] was amusing, and Dominic Purcell‘s mustache was too awesome to criticize. I went to see a mindless action movie and instead got an action movie that actually stimulated the brain as well…

I’ll give it a 4/5 Bears. Booyah.

Also, for the Chuck fans out there, I should mention that Statham’s girl is played by Yvonne Strahovski…