The short-lived small-town-mystery started in April 2010 and was cancelled twice

A period of peace following a series of unsolved kidnappings is cut short when a new crime has everyone talking in the small Minnesota town of Haplin. The townsfolk are convinced the crimes are committed by the so-called “Magic Man”, a person whom Merritt Grieves (Sam Neill) describes as having “an ability that bordered on the mystical.” Six [Haplin townsfolk] vanished, never to be heard of again.” As the series progresses it seems evident that the disappearances are related to town matriarch Peggy Haplin and an old German film she possesses titled Die Blaue Tür (The Blue Door).

Episode 01: In This Home on Ice
I already reviewed this one during the last TV season. Click here to read it. 6.5/10

Episode 02: I Came to Haplin for the Waters
A surprisingly good episode, even though I am still thinking that the series has way too many characters. Henley (Lauren German) seems to be the person with the biggest mystery part in the show (in the pilot revealed as Chloe, and now victim of a car accident, which probably wasn’t an accident), but she is totally uninteresting so far; then we have Merritt, who somehow has a connection to the older ladies, but he and the old ladies are totally uninteresting. Only Tommy (Geoff Stults), his staff in the sheriff’s department, probably his father, his wife (when Amy Acker has screentime), Georgia (Sarah Gadon, thanks to her kidnapping this episode) and Big Dave (Abraham Benrubi) are persons of interest at the moment, but just because this episode centered around them.
I was surprised that Dave was to be revealed as Friddle’s killer – I would have thought that the Magic Man was the killer, but now the series doesn’t even have the Magic Man in the story now. There are only talks and discussions about him, which is actually interesting. The Tommy/Dave confrontation was good, and it showed that Dave could be a crazy character. And the series needs a few crazy characters.
Georgia’s kidnapping was interesting, too, and the introduction of it very creepy and suspenseful, but the story was concluded too soon – after three minutes, it was already over, and the writers didn’t go back to it. Tommy beating up the Stivilettos was just a stereotype story and didn’t bring anything.
Oh yeah, I think I know who the Magic Man is: I say it is Rachel Conroy, just because I saw Amy Acker in some villain roles these last weeks and months… 7/10

Lying on a street and bleeding in a beautiful way...

Episode 03: Polly Wants a Crack at Her
Hm, okay… Some parts were good, some parts were ridiculous, and some parts were taken from Eastwick and put in this episode. At least I’ve had this feeling while watching this episode. Especially Henley’s night out with her mysterious saver was completely ridiculous, and I was even more rolling with my eyes, when the old ladies recognized him. So, we have another mysterious character in the town now and another suspect of being the Magic Man. But I still don’t give up the hope that Amy Acker is the big bad, even though she was part of the pretty good cliffhanger. The last three, four minutes were interesting and showed that the series wants to be a “Twin Peaks” clone (but is always failing). On the other hand the cliffhanger showed me that the cliffhangers are the best parts of the episodes so far.
Tommy kinda protecting Big Dave is totally awkward. Tommy knows that Dave killed Friddle, and he doesn’t say anything about it to anybody, especially when the state police will be after Dave after a short while? After all, Tommy is sheriff, and he said that the law has to be taken seriously by everybody, but he still keeps his mouth shut about Dave killing Friddle – that is such a bad story at the moment. At least the whole Andrew (Ben Schnetzer)/Georgia deal was very nice and touching (love can do anything) and sadly the story didn’t have much screentime. And the rest of the episode was just boring: Tommy arresting Andrew was a boring twist; Tommy having to deal with the Stiviletto brothers is boring (though a bit funny, when they came with their own lawyer) and the rest I can’t remember anymore. 6/10

Episode 04: Slight of Hand
Well, the quality of the show is falling and the episodes are becoming more boring. I didn’t care about most of the stuff happening in the story, and it was mostly predictable, especially the story of Rachel’s kidnapping. Seriously, producers have to take killing off main characters under advisement. Just because Amy Acker is considered a main actor in this show doesn’t mean she returns alive and healthy at the end of the episode. That twist was just stupid, boring, absolutely uninteresting, not thrilling and lame. As if the writers didn’t even had a proper idea to get the Magic Man back into the story, after he was just the talk of the town these last three episodes. So the Magic Man suddenly kidnaps Rachel, cuts off the hand of the first victim and puts Rachel’s ring onto it? Seriously? Well… the mystery is just not interesting.
The rest of the episode was boring. Henley and Greggy (Warren Christie) are humping each other, and I don’t know why and how they even developed a relationship that fast, and it seems like the story doesn’t have anything to do with the main arc (but it does, so it is predictable that the hammer is important, and Henley, who still has nothing to do in the series, and the mystery around her being Chloe is still open). And I don’t even remember the other rest of the episode, since it seemed so unimportant. But at least the writers managed to bring Merritt into the story now, just his “I answer this question tomorrow” behavior is ridiculous – somehow the writers of new mystery shows are watching how the Lost writers did it… Come on, that is just bad writing and stalling a story. But that doesn’t work anymore. 5/10

Old women use their shotguns.

Episode 05: This is Why We Stay
A boring episode. The series reached a point, where I just want to cancel it, not write about it and forget it very fast. The only interesting story in this episode was Rachel being scared, since it seemed to be the only story connected to the mystery around the Magic Man. Her little hypnosis session with Merritt looked interesting and mysterious, with all the underwater sequence, but other than that, the writers didn’t even manage to put any more interest in this story.
The rest of the episode was boring as hell. Greggy is suddenly suspect number one, but then not anymore; Andrew and Georgia are in the woods for some love adventure and find a “mysterious” trailer (and I still wonder, why those two are in the focus of the story, they seem so damn unimportant); the sheriff’s department thinks that John Haplin (Steven Weber) might be the next best suspect number one (a lazy effort to keep the characters in the story); and Henley did some deal with Peggy (Frances Conroy) and can’t get out of the city. Not to mention the really ridiculous scene with that fishy animal coming out of the hand, in the same moment when the female cop opened the box. Muhaha. The cliffhanger seemed to be interesting though. But I believe that the writers only have a cop-out to offer in the next episode. 5.5/10

Episode 06: Questions and Antlers
Ehm, really?!? Georgia and Andrew were in the hands of a state police cop? And this guy wants to find Friddle’s murderer? I kinda don’t know where the meaning is in this story, especially since the writers brought Dave’s action back into the series, even though I already couldn’t begin anything with it earlier and was happy, when it wasn’t mentioned during the last two episodes. But now, Friddle’s wife and the state cop are coming into focus, and the story is back up. Blah blah fucking blah.
That the writers didn’t know how to handle John as a character makes the episode even more ridiculous. First he was a person of interest, then he killed Friddle, then he could go, and even though Roger (Robert Wisdom) knew that Dave was Friddle’s killer. And Tommy really killed Dave at the end in a scene, which failed to deliver character moments. And of course the cages and the dead birds were gone, when Dave wanted to show Tommy the cages. This episode was so damn predictable. In addition, I never could believe that Tommy and Dave were childhood friends.
The date Merritt and Peggy had was uninteresting too. It almost looked like the writers tried to bring together an old couple, because they don’t have anything new to tell in the story. Merritt could have had a better plan to distract Peggy for his and Henley’ future plans to bring her down, and it didn’t even come over in this episode, than it had to come over. Even Rachel seems to be normal again.
Really a lame episode, I was bored all the way. No wonder why the series flopped two times. 4/10

The typical "What just happened?!?"-face

Episode 07: Dallas Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
It seems like the writers are going straight for the season/series finale. The story around Dan Farmer (Peter Outerbridge) was interesting to watch, though it looks like he will not be the Magic Man, so I hope that the writers don’t spend too much time on him in the next episode. But they could have done something different with this character, since Dan is really a shitty written character. He behaves like a serial murderer, he is state police, and he does anything, so that the whole town keeps thinking of him as the Magic Man – who would do such stupid shit?
The Merritt/Henley adventure was nice too, though the twist of Henley being the decoy and Merritt the thief was uninteresting as hell, and it didn’t even come to me that it was actually a little twist. But Henley looked kinda sexy in her 40s/50s outfit, and when she was playing Merritt’s daughter, unfortunately the scene didn’t focus on that one and wet back way too fast into old habits.
The rest of the episode was boring again. Tommy didn’t do much after Dave’s funeral (and they really were childhood friends?), the police didn’t do much with Tommy, even though he behold evidence against Dave, Rachel’s story seems to be completely gone now, and even Greggy has absolutely nothing to do. I have the feeling the writers have a pit full of characters and they don’t know what to do with them. 5.5/10

Episode 08: Blame it on Rio Bravo
Well, it looks like the highlight episode of the series, because stuff actually happened for once; the “Assault on Precinct 13″-copycat in the middle of the episode was interesting to watch, but very much out of the series’ character, and Tommy’s mother Alice (Dee Wallace) is actually alive and kicking, and is the Magic Man? Of course the Magic Man is a woman, and of course the Magic Man is somebody we didn’t see so far, after the writers spent quite a lot of time to bring all the main characters into the suspect pool during the eight episodes. But the revelation at the end was pretty lame, I hadn’t even any interest in Alice being the Magic Man. The fact that the Haplins are somewhat diabolical looked to me way more interesting than the whole Magic Man storyline (especially the thing with the old movie). It could have brought the series into the supernatural genre (the Haplins being a family of witches and maybe demons; the Magic Man being a supernatural element as well), and maybe the series could have gotten better. But when the writers need so damn much time to set up all the mystery, they shouldn’t be angry about the audience not watching their show.
I wonder why Henley was so interested in giving Tommy the information about the hammer, and I wonder why she was so different in her “Chloe scenes”. Likewise Merritt, who suddenly frees Dan, even though Dan and Merritt were looking for the Magic Man separately – there is just no reason why Merritt played the “bad guy” all of a sudden. And not to mention that there is any kind of answers missing in the Haplins story. Or why the Conroys are so deep into this whole Magic Man thing. 7.5/10

Season average is 5.88. I won’t miss this show, and I wonder, why ABC didn’t decide to burn it off during the summer months. It reminded me too often of Eastwick, which was basically the same series situated in the same town – and Eastwick already failed to be interesting.
I just hope that future writers learn from these mistakes. Apart from that, the second season of 90210 will be finished very soon, right before the start date of the third season.

Reviewed by Alicia Glass

Creator: Andre Nemec, Josh Applebaum

Studio: ABC

Age: 16+

Website: Happy Town

After a five year vacation from the mysterious machinations of the villain called the Magic Man, Haplin Minnesota (“It’s a happy town!”) endures a murder and a whole bunch of strange phenomenon.

I wasn’t sure what to make of this new attempt at an on-going horror/sci-fi show about the oh so traditional murder committed in a small town – how many of you remember Twin Peaks? Started off well and went completely bonkers at the end. Well, Happy Town seemed to be following the now-standard formula of murder in a small town leads to all sorts of other evil and weirdness, but now begins to throw it’s own Stephen King-like spin on things. The Sheriff who babbles about someone named Chloe who isn’t there (so we think), the dangerous redneck boys called the Stivelettos, the boarding house with the Ladies who Lunch and the Blue Door, and my personal favorite, Sam Neil as the curator of a movie memorabilia shop. Followup episodes have thrown in Greg Bryk and Peter Outerbridge of Regenesis fame, which is awesome and brings more drawing star power.

It’s not bad, so far. One really has to be a master storyteller to weave all these elements together to make a truly unique horror series in our time. Happy Town starts off with solid foundations and fantastic actors, I just hope that writers don’t succumb to any kind of peer pressure and cave to the revealing of the entire Magic Man plot before the first season is over. And if they do, they have a ready replacement plot.

A flight from Germany lands in Boston but no one on board has survived the trip.  FBI agent Olivia Dunham is assigned to the case; finding herself being pulled into the world of “fringe science”.

“Fringe” gets itself off to a strong start in the pilot.  The characters are intriguing and the plot itself leaves the audience wanting more.  Despite the dramatic nature of the situation, action and humour and pleasantly interspersed as well.

Flight 627 from Hamburg lands in Boston on autopilot but when the FBI investigates they find that everyone on board has suffered a horrible death.  Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and John Scott (Mark Valley) are sent to follow up on a tip at a storage facility.  Olivia finds ammonia in the trash and John spots a man trying to flee the area.  He chases him but ends up being blown up in an explosion of chemicals.  Olivia wakes up in hospital and, after being told about John’s predicament, sets off to find out how to cure him.  She comes across research that is relevant to his symptoms by a Walter Bishop (John Noble) but he has been in a prison mental hospital for 17 years.  In order to access him she needs family permission thus she goes to Iraq to find his son, Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), and blackmails him to return and help her.  Talking to Walter, Olivia realizes he may be useful and has the FBI rebuild his lab.  He doesn’t know what chemicals were present at the explosion and suggests that Olivia connect to John through brain waves to ask him about the identity of the man he was chasing.  Olivia sees the man (Steig) and gives a sketch to the FBI.  They bring him in for questioning and Peter threatens him before he finally gives them a list of the chemicals.  Walter treats John but Olivia finds that he was actually threatening Steig.  John escapes the hospital and Olivia chases him through traffic.  His car flips and he is killed before he can tell Olivia who he’s really working for.

Olivia Dunham played by Anna Torv is an FBI liason at the beginning of this episode.  She proves she’s a good deal more useful than all the rest of the agents though as her boss, Philip Broyles (Lance Reddick), tries to send her on a wild goose chase essentially but she comes back with more than anyone else combined.  Her feelings for John leave her unwilling to give up on him, doing whatever is necessary even taking possibly crazy men out of prison then allowing him to have his lab back (complete with cow), travelling to Iraq and blackmailing a man to help her and taking a whole group of drugs including LSD just to save his life.  Too bad he’s not so devoted to her.  Still I think Olivia will certainly make for an interesting main character.  She proves her value to Broyles (initially not impressed with her previous work) and eventually he offers her a job investigating these sorts of crazy, paranormal occurrences.

In Iraq Olivia finds Peter Bishop, played by Joshua Jackson, a very smart man with a very large debt.  With Peter’s father being the one Olivia is actually searching for it would have been very easy for the writers to skip over Peter in this episode but they don’t.  Peter stands out in his own right for more than just his brains.  He helps to control Walter and Olivia, warning them when they start to take things too far.  Peter also uses the fact that he has no affiliation with the FBI or law enforcement to get information out of Steig that Olivia would likely have never obtained on her own.

17 years in a mental institution/prison is likely to make anyone insane, even if you weren’t to begin with.  Walter Bishop (John Noble) was clearly once incredibly intelligent and at the forefront of what he calls “fringe science” but the years have taken a toll leaving him with difficulties keeping his focus and remembering what he’s already said or done.  With his research being so unique, it’s sometimes difficult to discern whether Walter is describing something seriously or whether he has just become confused.  I do wonder how after 17 years out of the real world he has no trouble operating the computers he’s given though. I’m quite sure computers have changed significantly in the past 17 years. Walter also brings a comic relief to the show that I’m sure will continue in the future.  He does have a cow in his lab after all.

“Fringe” seems a little similar in idea to the “X-Files” but I’m sure it’s difficult to start up a show about paranormal investigations without seeming similar to that show.  Regardless, the three main characters will certainly bring a different dynamic.  They all show their own unique traits and balance each other well.

In terms of the pilot’s story, the incident on the plane is a somewhat terrifying thought.  Finding yourself trapped, thousands of metres above the Earth’s surface and watching people melting is not something anyone wants to experience I’m sure but it certainly brings a sense of foreboding to the episode.  Watching John slowly go through the same affliction adds to the affect as well.  In general the idea is simple, chemicals get mixed in the wrong way killing everyone onboard, but pilots are always best when they’re kept simple.  With character introductions needing to be included as well time is certainly constrained in any series’ pilot episode.

The pilot also does a great job at balancing drama, action and humour and keeping it evenly spaced throughout.  Many pilots suffer from putting all the action sequences at the beginning or the end leaving the middle overly full with dialogue and preamble about the character’s lives.  “Fringe” manages to show us the history of the characters without spending undue amounts of time describing it.

Overall “Fringe” brings in the audience and has us invested in the characters and story immediately.  I’m looking forward to watching the rest of the series.  In the tradition of my co-reviewer on “Fringe” I’ll finish this off with the Walter Bishop quote of the episode:  “The only thing better than a cow is a human! Unless you need milk. Then you really need a cow.”

Andrea

The second episode of Happy Town throws out a whole new set of questions, as well as reiterating some questions from the first episode.  However, for all the questions floating around we have already been provided the answer to one of the major questions of the first episode, thankfully forgetting to drag it out for a larger part of the season (I will now refrain from saying the word “question” again).  I mean, one mystery man is enough for us to deal with, so now we can watch the drama revolving about the revelation of the murderer’s identity while still trying to figure out who the Magic Man is.

This episode continues with the ending of the premiere, following Tommy arriving at the hospital with the Sheriff, who is minus his left hand.  However, you don’t need that appendage to continue to spew out some crazy lines, continuing the question of what his connection is to Chloe as he continues to talk about her/to her in his mumblings of gibberish (I’m going with dad).

With the sheriff being out of service Old Lady Haplin forces Tommy into the new role of Sheriff replacement even though he expresses his lack of desire for this position.  Apparently a new sheriff in town means a new way of dealing with things, and Tommy’s way seems to be violence, including a rage induced beating of the Stiviletto brothers.

Though this attack was a little outside the law, it sure is warranted.  Prior to driving out to their home, Georgia, the babysitter of Tommy’s daughter, shows up at their house crying and still suffering the effects of being drugged.  To make a long story short, while at the hospital visiting the Sheriff, the grandpa she never had, she borrows the creamer from a mysterious man with an affinity for tapioca pudding sitting at the table next to hers.  This cream was actually drugged, so he follows her, questions her about what she saw at the pond the night of the murder, begins singing “You’re So Vain,” and then dumps her at the Stiviletto’s house after she blacks out.  When she comes to they are singing another rendition of the song and she books it out of there before we can figure out what the heck is going on, running all the way to Tommy’s house, thus leading to his attack on the brothers.

Though Tommy is far from being comfortable in the role of Sheriff, one thing we get out of his violent outburst is a clue he needs to realize who the murderer is from the first episode.  And that murderer is Big Dave.  All the random scene placement at his restaurant makes sense now because without it this revelation wouldn’t have been that significant for the viewer.  So hopefully we will now be getting to see some other dining establishments in the town.  But I digress… While searching Big Dave’s adorable mother’s basement, Tommy finds Dave’s secret lair full of articles of the kidnappings and photos of the man murdered in the first episode.  Apparently he got it in the mind that this man was the Magic Man, but the problem with this, as Tommy points out to him, is that there is no way he could have kidnapped numerous victims thanks to solid alibis.  Whoops…  So now Tommy must make a choice, and he goes the protecting the best friend route instead of obeying the law.  Oh how this will haunt him later…

And finally, one last character to check in with this episode is Henley/Chloe.  At the end of the last episode she is making her way up the blue staircase to the off-limits 3^rd floor, which just so happens to end with a locked door.  Well, we may not know if she really knows how to make candles or play the guitar (that’s right, I still don’t think she really brought one), but what we do learn is that she knows how to copy keys.  The hiccup from the previous night with the door aside, the following night she is able to get into the 3^rd floor of the boarding house.  To her surprise, she walks into a room filled with caged birds.  But she seems to know what she is looking for, finding something under the floorboards that resembles a hammer with a goat’ head.  What that can be, who knows, but the Magic Man’s hawk must not want her to have it because (after watching her pull it from the floor) it decides to crash through the windshield of her newly purchased car, causing a wreck to end the episode.

Some things to consider:

-When first coming into the hospital, the sheriff is still spewing some random words, which brings us to Sheriff ramblings #1: “Chloe, I’m coming back for you someday.”  And then…

-…Sheriff ramblings #2: “Tommy.  These people…they’re wicked.  And I don’t mean ordinary wicked.  I mean, they’re blood is black…and they’re souls are hideous.  Diabolical.”

-Oh, and his wedding ring falls off again.  It may be stretching, but I really do think that he had an affair with Chloe’s mother, which is why the ring keeps falling off lately following all this crazy Chloe talk.

-While setting up for the festival Lincoln Stiviletto asks Big Dave about the water he ships in from New York to make his pizza.  Though this helps make the connection in the viewers mind later when this become the clue leading to Tommy realizing Dave is the murderer, what isn’t explained is the Stiviletto brothers connection to all of this.  Why was he asking about the water?

-And speaking of the Stiviletto brothers: What is their connection to the man who drugged Georgia?  They say that they just found her lying in their living room, but they have to have a connection to each other somehow cuz it’s hard for me to believe that that many people like tapioca pudding without being connected somehow.

-When Tommy has to go see Old Lady Haplin, he tells his wife he is going to Weeping Wall.  This might be alluding to the Western Wall/”Wailing Wall” in Jerusalem, which is a place of mourning in the Jewish religion.

-This show is also riddled with pop culture references, a major one being a Casablanca quote off between Henley/Chloe and Grieves.  Though I am not quite sure what the significance is for using the Casablanca figure to make a key, this movie allows Henley/Chloe to say, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”  To which Grieves responds, “indeed.”  What I want to know is why he is helping her?  He knows that she was trying to get into the 3^rd floor of the boarding house, and then later when she is running to make a copy of the key, he distracts Mrs. Meadows from noticing that Henley/Chloe is gone, as are her keys.

-Why is Old Lady Haplin so gung ho about Tommy becoming Sheriff?  Something tells me it is more than her just being racist.

-Sheriff ramblings #3:  “In my younger days I felt sorry for myself that I had no gloves, until I met a man with no hands.”  Technically I am not sure if this really counts because Georgia heard this when the drugs were kicking in, but I thought it was still worth noting.

-Why is “You’re so Vain” suddenly so popular?  In the first episode Georgia’s secret boyfriend sings a song to this tune in which he makes fun of her father’s drug addiction, and then she responds to this by saying that he isn’t allowed to make fun of her musical taste.  In this episode it is heard on 3 separate occasions.  First, the man who drugs Georgia sings it after questioning her in the elevator, and then the Stiviletto brothers are singing it when she wakes up.  And finally, the song is playing in Henley/Chloe’s car before the hawk comes crashing through the window.

-Sheriff ramblings #4: “The serpent always hits us where the sweet bird sings, Chloe.”  (At first I thought he said circle and not serpent, but Tommy repeats it later as serpent, so I will go with that).

-When Henley/Chloe is on the phone with her mom she says that she is going to reveal herself.  What all she has to reveal, and to who exactly is still yet to be determined.  But hopefully we will get a scene between the Sheriff and Chloe sometime soon because I really want to know if he really knows who Chloe is, or if he is just crazy when he is rambling.

-The guy who drugs Georgia later reveals himself to be from the state police.  Does anyone go about doing things in accordance with the law?  And how did he know that Georgia was at the pond that night?

Anything you picked up on that you feel like sharing?  Let me know!

I just realized that a “Saw” sequel was released every year since the original. So it made me wonder when they would stop delivering us torture porn. Even though I do not particularly like the “Saw” franchise, I’m inclined to watch each movie that comes out because of my curiosity. In “Saw VI,” it was the same old formula: Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) gave his mindless and psychopathic minions (Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell) cryptic envelopes from the grave that contained photos of people who “needed to learn how to appreciate life more.” I’ve never and will never agree with Jigsaw’s illogical rationalization of “teaching” people but it was brainless entertainment so I went along with it. I enjoyed saw “Saw VI” more than “Saw IV” and “Saw V” because it focused more on one individual (Peter Outerbridge) which was one of the leaders of an insurance company who devised a formula that decided whether the company would cover the cost of a person’s treatment for an illness. I also enjoyed (I’m not sure if that’s the right word) the opening scene which involved sacrificing the most amount of flesh for one to survive and the carousel scene. Other than those, the filmmakers threw the audiences random flashbacks designed to explain how “everything is connected.” For me, it’s all smokes and mirrors and I don’t see any brilliance in them. While most audiences would probably go, “Oh my god, that’s so smart!,” I just sit there and think, “That’s it?” because I could sometimes guess what the twist was (such as in this instance). While watching the movie, I actually thought of the possibility that one day, a writer would reset the franchise and make a hard-boiled procedural film (somewhere along the lines of “Zodiac” or perhaps even “Se7en”) about the Jigsaw murders instead of just featuring one torture scene after another. Instead of seeing the murder from a psychopath’s perspective (which we’ve been experiencing since “Saw II”), it would be nice to see it from a detective’s point of view. But not just any detective; a detective who is a good person even though he or she has her inner demons. A little bit of intelligence and heart would certainly benefit this franchise because so far, it hasn’t offered me anything new. But will that stop me from watching “Saw VII”? (Come on, I bet it was already in post-production by the time I saw this movie.) Probably not.

Some thieves make an escape that the police cannot explain and Will goes underground into the world of the Folding men.

“Folding Man” helped Sanctuary to grow a little on me. It was better than the previous fare but still not up to the standards I was hoping for.

In this episode Helen and Will take up a police investigation when the suspects of a robbery seem to have mysteriously disappeared in a dead end alley way. With the help of some of Will’s old colleagues they discover the underground network of drug addicted Folding men (if we can really consider gold a drug) led by a man called Nomad. They capture one of these men but he is not who he claims leading to the kidnapping of Will.

The highlight of this episode for me was really Peter Outerbridge. He managed to play the scared, drug addicted victim and the heartless leader of the Folding men and be utterly convincing at both.

It is a little unfortunate that so early in the show we are already at the point where the guest stars are more interesting than the main characters. There is a little development of Will though, as we see that he is sometimes wrong about people despite his training and super-instincts. So far, the other main characters continue to be underdeveloped.

A favourite thing of mine to look for is always continuity. Since Will apparently only joined the Sanctuary two weeks ago, I was glad to see the scratches Ashley received last week were still present. It’s always nice when a show doesn’t forget the little details that make it seem just a little more real (as real as a show filmed almost entirely with green screen and involving crazy creatures can be).

The motivations of the Folding men and why they would decide to follow Nomad into drug addiction and despair are rather unclear. Perhaps he promised them something better. I would have liked to have delved a little further into this. As it is, it just seems that the other Folding men are not terribly smart.

In general, Sanctuary could do with more character development for its leads. It feels like we have no idea about their personalities, flaws, biases, etc. It is only the fourth episode but the show tends to be focusing more strongly on its guest characters in a given episode so far.

Andrea

Director – Kevin Greutert

Cast – Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Mark Rolston, Betsy Russell, Shawnee Smith, Peter Outerbridge, Athena Karkanis, Samantha Lemole, Tanedra Howard

Release Year – 2009

Reviewed by John of the Dead

After the first four very positive installments to this franchise, Saw V gave us something we had yet to see in this franchise.  What was it you may ask?  One word: disappointment.  So naturally when I first heard that Saw VI was greenlit, I had low expectations.  When the film debuted it got some positive buzz around the horror community, and after viewing this film for myself I can see why.  Saw VI redeems the franchise by throwing in a really interesting story full of twists and moral revelations sure to please it’s fans.

This film takes place right from the conclusion of Saw V.  Agent Strahm is dead and it seems Detective Hoffman is out in the clear and ready to fully take on his successor role to Jigsaw’s legacy.  However when a major plot twist from Saw V is revealed, the FBI gets the upper hand in it’s battle with Jigsaw’s successor, Hoffman, who just so happens to be working with them.  With the FBI closing in on figuring out his true identity, Hoffman must sets off a series of traps to complete his legacy, and it is only then when he comes face to face with Jigsaw’s master plan.

Personally, I’m glad this film redeemed the franchise.  I honestly believe that Saw III should have been the last installment, but Saw IV was great, and I thought to myself “at least they are still fun to watch, and it’s fun to see how they continue the story”.  Due to Saw being what I consider to be one of the best horror films this decade, I really did not want this franchise to potentially end on a bad note, and Saw VI took care of that.  Yes, Saw VII is already in the works, but if for whatever reason it were to never finish production, at least this film is sufficient as the franchise’s last bow.

For one, this film’s writing was pretty well done.  I liked the moral message this film sends about the insurance/health care industry, and how cruel these people can be.  This was really by no means a political message, just a way of making a point and putting those who decide who lives and who dies into the same situation as their clients.  Awesome.  There were a lot of characters in this film, and a lot of different unique traps as well.  I’m glad these filmmakers have not gotten lazy with the traps, and constantly give us ones we never would think of.  The film’s climax is also a great one, and one filled with multiple twists and turns.  These guys never let up when it comes to the climax, and I like that.

First time director Kevin Greutert did a fine job with this film, and I am honestly not very surprised.  Mr. Greutert was the editor for the first five installments to the Saw franchise, so naturally his guy has a knack for the series.  The pacing was very well done, and the film keeps you intrigued throughout it’s entirety.  He also didn’t skimp out on the gore either.  As we all know, gore is a necessity in these films in order to move the viewer and put you into the character’s shoes, and I really was surprised this film got away with the amount of gore it showed(for an R-rating).

Overall, this is a positive watch that I recommend fans of the franchise give a watch to.  This flick redeems what was lost in Saw V, and does so with great moral commentary and lots of spilled blood.

Rating: 7/10

Como fã, por tempos defendi a franquia Jogos Mortais – ao invés de só me focar nos erros do filme, preferi ver o lado positivo de todas as sequências, levando em conta o prazo que a produção tem para finalizar um filme inteiro e também, considerando o desempenho do gênero terror que está cada vez mais fraco.

Mas também confesso que a cada ano que passava, meu fanatismo pela série acabava – e apesar de sempre tentar parecer inteligente, as sequências nem eram mais tão surpreendentes, e o motivo que me levava a ver fora ‘completar o circulo’ que já havia começado, eram as cenas de violência.

Ano após ano mantive minha esperança na série, esperança de que os roteiristas responsáveis tomassem consciência do que estavam fazendo e, finalmente, alterassem o curso do Jogos Mortais voltando a fórmula que os fez chegar tão longe. O terror psicológico do primeiro filme. Hoje, nesta sexta sequência, vejo que a mente dos caras não muda, mesmo em meio a tantas críticas eles parecem se fechar e seguir o errado, o que acreditam estar dando certo – o terror caricato, sanguinário e surreal do segundo, terceiro, quarto e quinto filme.

O que quero dizer e que jogos mortais não mudou nada desde o segundo, as vítimas trancafiadas dentro de um porão sendo testadas pelo já falecido Jigsaw seguem uma série de jogos onde devem decidir quem deve viver e quem deve morrer, assim como fez Jeff no terceiro, como fez Rigg no quarto, como fizeram as cobaias no quinto – e assim como vai fazer William neste sexto.

É uma pena que a franquia esteja se esticando tanto, não era pra ser assim. É não so a série parece estar sendo afetada por isso, o astro principal Jigsaw que o diga. Os roteiristas estão segurando tanto seu personagem que o velhinho já está ate se contradizendo, e pior, está mostrando as falhas em sua tese – exemplo: quando Hoffman pergunta a uma sobrevivente que se mutilou se ela aprendeu a dar valor a vida apos o jogo – ela responde injuriada : ‘Como posso aprender com isso’ mostrando o braço amputado. Da mesma forma como Jigsaw também se contradiz quando faz a vida de um punhado de pessoas depender da escolha de um homem… Ué? a escolha não era pra ser individual? que escolha essas pessoas tem então se não depender unicamente da sorte?

E pra quem pensa que por causa da pouca arrecadação que jogos mortais 6 teve os produtores vão parar por ai, estão enganados. A queda tem explicação:

1 – O filme não foi devidamente divulgado.

2 – A censura é para maiores de idade.

3 – É difícil alguém que nunca acompanhou a saga por completo, pagar para assistir uma sexta sequência tendo em mente que todos os filmes da série são interligados e é necessário assistir um para entender outro.

4 – E, a produção gasta muito, mas muito pouco para fazer um filme, ja a arrecadação é muito maior, por mais baixa que seja.

Portanto já está ate confirmado, JM 7 vem ai, pegando a onda do 3D, JM 8 também, e quem sabe, ano que vem ou ate 2011, JM 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15…33 não sejam confirmados também… Mas pra mim já chega – vou continuar acompanhando todos – mas sem o mesmo fanatismo de antes.

PS1 : A violência está cada vez mais caricata, embora aqui sendo bem melhor realizada em relação ao quinto filme, as pessoas optam por escolhas difíceis sem pensar duas vezes, sendo que no primeiro filme, foi preciso trabalhar no consciente dos personagens e criar um clima de desespero para que eles se auto-mutilassem. Portanto o primeiro filme na minha opinião foi sem dúvidas o mais realista ate agora.

PS2 : Quero James Wan na direção e Leigh whannell no roteiro de volta (responsáveis pelo primeiro filme), Só assim vou voltar a acreditar na franquia de novo.

Ao invés da nota – observe o gráfico abaixo :

Para conferir vídeos, álbum de fotos, curiosidades, informações e mais sobre o filme : www.xcine.com.br/filme_jogosmortais6.html

“Saw VI”
a review by Darby O’Gill

Well, it’s that time of year again. No, not Halloween, it’s time for another installment of the Saw series. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Darby, do we really need six of these movies? And the answer… These are not really movies. Okay, I know I can’t see you reading this, but I’m willing to bet most of you have a puzzled look on your face right now. Let me explain. The Saw movies are more like a TV show. Instead of getting twenty – four one hour episodes over the course of a year, you get one two hour movie every year around Halloween. Believe me, I wish that were the case for a few TV series out there. Now, the first Saw movie was fantastic! And, Saw II… Well, that one was a train wreck. But luckily Saw III was able to save the series, and it also started the ongoing storyline that is now the Saw franchise. The only problem with that is, if you haven’t seen the previous installments, you may be a little lost on who’s who. In the interest of full disclosure, I must tell you that I personally know the writers that took over the series from Saw IV to Saw VI. So, with that being said, I will not be pulling any punches; but this was my favorite of their three installments. I think the most impressive thing about their writing, is their ability to write movies for a main character that died three movies ago. Sorry if I ruined it for you, but come on it’s the sixth movie! It’s been six years, why haven’t you watched these movies yet? Getting back to comparing Saw to a TV series, I think the best comparison would be LOST. Much like LOST, the storyline is always being moved forward by telling you about things from the past you didn’t know before. That style of story telling definitely sets the Saw series apart from the other slasher flicks out there. Also, they  have stepped up the gore over the years. A friend of mine was saying last weekend, that the thing he liked most about the first Saw movie, was that they didn’t really show the gore. You thought they were going to, but it was the thought of it that seemed to bother you the most. In the later installments they just seem to show you more and more, leaving less to the imagination. With all of this said, I think the Saw series still works. I’m not sure how much longer they’re going to be able stretch this series out. If I didn’t know that Saw VII was already written, I might have thought this could have been the last one, but I guess we’re just going to have to wait and see what’s next.

Rating:

La franquicia SAW es como la Micebrina, sólo que en lugar de una al día, es una al año. Así que puntualmente ha llegado la sexta entrega, que arranca justo donde la dejamos hace justo un año. El Agente Special Strahm está muerto, y el Detective Hoffman ha aparecido como el incuestionable sucesor del legado de Jigsaw. Sin embargo, y a medida que el FBI se acerca cada vez más a Hoffman, éste se ve forzado a poner en marcha un juego y por fin el gran plan de Jigsaw adquiere sentido. El film lo dirige el que ha sido el montador de toda la saga hasta el momento, hablo de  Kevin Greutert y que fue el asistente de Richard Kelly en “Donnie Darko”.

¡Qué dolor de cabeza me provoca Jigsaw!

Uno creía, porque había leído hace un año, que esta franquicia era una sexalogía, así que entré en la sala pensando que era el último capítulo. Pues no. Sus guionistas Marcus Dunstan y Patrick Melton, que lo son desde la cuarta entrega, han dejado un final abierto, y en IMDB uno puede ver que están ya en preproducción de la séptima. Esto ha sido lo que peor me ha sentado, porque no os voy a engañar, el film me sorprendió, os lo prometo. Últimamente los guionistas andan muy ocurrentes, y si Sam Raimi daba cera a los bancos con el asunto de las hipotecas en “Arrástrame al infierno”, Dustan y Melton le dan caña a las compañías sanitarias privadas. Así, Jigsaw se convierte en un feroz defensor de la sanidad pública, me quedé en clavado en la butaca con la propuesta de la película. Por ese motivo le voy a subir una estrella mi calificación. Obviamente, a parte de esto que os he comentado, es una más de la saga, sin grandes novedades, y no comprendo nada de lo acontecido en España.

Mi propuesta como próximo consejero de sanidad de la Comunidad de Madrid.

El pasado 23 de octubre me llegó un escueto comunicado del departamento de prensa de Buenavista, filial de Walt Disney, en la que se me comunicaba que estreno previsto para viernes 23 de octubre ha sido suspendido por razones de calificación que había sido recurrida y que andaban a la espera de su resolución. La calificación otorgada por  el ministerio que dirige Ángeles González-Sinde (más conocida en la red como la menestra sin descargas) a través del ICAA (Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales), ha sido de película X. I can’t believe the news today, me dije. Un largometraje puede obtener esta puntuación por dos motivos, bien porque su contenido sea pornográfico, y sobrepasa la línea del erotismo, o por hacer apología de la violencia. Con la normativa vigente, la cinta solo podría ser exhibida en salas destinadas a tal fin. Encima, la distribuidora tenía pensado estrenar el film con 300 copias. Tened la certeza de que ese número supera al de las salas destinadas a tal fin en toda España, eso sin hablar de lo que un espectador común se puede encontrar en dichos locales de exhibición, que obviamente le podría herir la sensibilidad, y esta vez sería de verdad.

Peter Outerbridge, que intepreta a William, es una suerte de Güemes.

En EEUU, el estreno ha pasado sin pena ni gloria. El film ha obtenido la calificación de R (Restricted), que conlleva presentar en el momento de la compra de la entrada un documento identificativo (pasaporte, carnet de conducir, etc) que acredite la mayoría de edad del espectador. Si esto se hiciera en España, pues no pasaría nada, y el adulto que quiera comer lentejas que sea libre de hacerlo, que unos cuantos hay.

La vida es una tómbola, tom, tom, tómbola.

Os prometo que no he visto nada novedoso y sobre todo que no haya visto en otras de la saga. Es más hasta os diría que al haber más crítica política da menos tiempo a asesinatos, y los que vemos posee un nivel cotidiano de violencia. ¿Cuál es el motivo por el que no calificaron “9 songs” cuando se ve explícitamente al actor realizar un coito con final a lo grande? ¿Y la propia película escrita por la menestra “Mentiras y gordas“? A mí me puede parecer en un momento dado (que no lo es) más obsceno ver a Mario Casas repartiendo extasis en una disco como si se tratara de un cura repartiendo la comunión del domingo tras la apertura del tercer ojo en un cuarto oscuro de una disco.  Así que creo que la persona que puso la calificación tanto si era hombre o mujer, estaba sensible ese día o estaba testiculando u ovulando, a saber.

Uno que anda ya curtido en esto del splatter ha visto “Martyrs” o “À l’intérieur”, que son mejores films, sin dudarlo y que hacen que SAW VI sea un juego de niños. No acabo de entender la decisión del sacrosanto Ministerio de Cultura, que se ha equivocado radicalmente, one more time, para desgracia de unos, Buenavista, y de otros, los fans de la saga.  No hay nada más atractivo que lo prohibido, y harán que SAW VI en España sea el film más descargado de la historia de Internet. Este es un film para los fans, y nunca se me ocurriría recomendarla a alguien que no lo sea, al igual que hice con SAW V, porque ya entonces la trama me parecía harto insostenible, y desde luego esta entrega carece de la menor verosimilitud. Que estos dos guionistas se atrevan a decirme que todo lo visto por mis preciadas retinas en la sexta entrega estaba planeado ya en la primera, no se lo cree nadie.

A esto hay que sumar que la acogida en ha sido fría, éramos tres espectadores en una sala enorme, de uno de los cines más famosos de Hartford. Aquí la película del momento no es otra que  “PARANORMAL ACTIVITY”, y como bien podéis comprender la sexta entrega se ha pegado en el Box Office un fenomenal batacazo. Parafraseando a Jesús Hermida: “se oye, se dice, se comenta”, que esta derrota puede significar el principio del fin para lo que había sido esta lucrativa franquicia de Lionsgate, a pesar de que esté en marcha SAW VII con la tecnología 3·D.

Al rico puré de policía

Lo que es obvio es que la franquicia no pasa por su mejor momento a tenor de la fría acogida en la taquilla recibida aquí en los Estados Unidos sumado al problema de las salas X en España. La señora González Sinde, adalid de la lucha contra la piratería en España, debería ver lo que firma, y pensárselo dos segundos, dos. Que bajo la apariencia de progre se encuentra una persona que rebosa moralina por los cuatro costados, y para botón de muestra el que quiera que visione su gran guión llamado “Mentiras y gordas”. Os prometo, no hay nada nuevo bajo el sol, esto es más de lo mismo, y que los más morbosos del barrio apaguen motores, que esta no es su película, que todo lo que se ve ya lo hemos visionado con anterioridad. Y sin que sirva de precedente me voy sumar a la opinión del crítico de “La razón“.

Esto va pa lante como los de alicante, VII, VIII, IX y lo que rondaré

Click here to read more.

Based on the short story “We So Seldom Look on Love” by Barbara Gowdy, Molly Parker stars as the young medical student Sandra Larson, who was “always been fascinated by death – the smell of it, the feel of it, and the stillness of it.” Since she was a kid she dealt with the dead more different from all the others she knew. She holds ritual funerals for dead animals, which includes rubbing the cadavers on her own flesh. When she starts to work in a funeral home under the supervision of Mr. Wallis (Jay Brazeau), she even begins to take excessive interest in her clients – young men, who are dead. Soon she meets Matt (Peter Outerbridge), who develops interest in Sandra’s fetish and soon becomes more obsessed with the topic than Sandra herself.

Let’s keep it short for this one, because I don’t really have to say a lot about this movie. The movie might be great, the story is definitely serious, the characters are real characters you can meet in the real world, and the actors are very well, but Kissed was for me just boring.
It began with the character Sandra; I don’t even know why she is so obsessed with the dead – we see her rubbing a dead animal cadaver on her body (while she gets her first period) and I don’t know why she is doing that. Where is the obsession coming from and why can’t she stop with it (as she later mentions to Matt)? Why is she failing in the world of the living and is always running back to the funeral home to do her “ritual” to the dead men who are lying on the stretcher?
It was good to see that Sandra’s efforts to live the love life among the living, compared to her love life to the dead (I call it love life for now, even though it isn’t really love she is feeling for the dead people), is actually failing and gives a contrast to her time in the funeral home, but I still wanted to know why Sandra is acting like that. I don’t know if she had a difficult past with her parents (in an abusing kind of way) or if she even had experience with somebody dying – everything is in limbo.
Another problem is Matt himself. Because his obsession with Sandra’s obsession is coming from nowhere. It is nice to see that he understands Sandra without any questions, but he develops way too fast to a person, who has even a bigger obsession with something than Sandra does. And for that the movie is with its 78 minutes too short (I didn’t see the 88 minutes alternate version, which was obviously shown on some film festivals).

Other than that the movie is very quiet and takes its time for the story and the characters. Molly Parker has a sense for her role and together with the “teenage years” of Sandra, the character is probably one of the most beautiful ones in the history of 90s character drama (with the exception of the real reason of her being necrophilic). Which makes the movie itself to a beautiful one – movies with a difficult topic like pedophilia or incest are always difficult, and
most directors are likely to do a real and dark drama about the character’s effort to live as someone like that, but Kissed is not a movie about Sandra trying to live a normal life as a necrophilic. It is a simple love story with a bit of heart and with a bit of an unhappy end. The movie isn’t shocking in any kind of way and pretty much open minded for everybody; even for viewers who are not ready to watch a movie with this sort of topic. Kissed is for that not really serious enough and puts most of the value in the love story Sandra/Matt and Sandra’s off-comments, which go with her life.
The beginning of Kissed was the most interesting part, though. Maybe it would have been better to tell a bit more about Sandra in her teens, feeling how she felt and dealing with her obsession.

All in all Kissed did a good deed and brought us closer to a difficult topic, but with a bit more seriousness in the story and especially more background about what and why Sandra is doing this and that, the movie would have been better. In this form it was nice, but nothing more. Which is sad.

Hier soir, nous avions droit à cette affiche qui nous montre un nouveau piége mortel du Jigsaw.

Et bien voici une vidéo de ce fameux piége.

L’image du haut est celle que l’on trouve en ce moment au comics Con de San Diego et nous avons aussi une en flash par ici

Lucky Number Slevin is Josh Hartnett and Paul McGuigan’s second film together, after Wicker Park. They’re an odd pair, or at least were when they got together–McGuigan makes tough violent films and Hartnett was, at that time, about to become Brett Ratner’s Superman. Slevin is easily McGuigan’s best film, just because he’s got so much to do–it’s not just witty banter between crooks or violent scenes or even an incredibly touching love story (the date in Slevin is the best movie date in years)–but it’s also a serious story about fathers and sons. I actually can’t wait to watch Slevin again, because without the fear of the Duffy, I can appreciate the film’s depth. It’s touching in small moments, small ways, ways maybe one cannot understand the first time through… maybe that critic was correct in that regard.

Still, for the first viewing, Slevin is constantly entertaining. There’s a slow start at the beginning, but once Hartnett appears, it starts. Nicely, it starts with Lucy Liu (as the love interest) popping in. She and Hartnett are great together in the film, but their relationship is so well written it’d be hard for them to be bad together. The other acting is all excellent, particularly Ben Kingsley. It’s his loosest role and he has a great time with it. Morgan Freeman is good, but he’s playing Morgan Freeman again. He’s been playing Morgan Freeman since Unforgiven or so. Stanley Tucci is in the film for a bit and he gets to say “fuck” again. He’s got one particularly great scene with it. Bruce Willis has a difficult role, since he’s supposed to be the enigma, but he manages to do a couple nice things with it. Hartnett’s back in his usual, excellent form (Mozart and the Whale seeming like a high school play).

I remember the back of my Sabrina (the remake) laserdisc. It said, approximately, everyone knows what’s going to happen, so the joy of Sabrina is watching it happen. I might not have predicted everything in Slevin (though the fiancée did), but I certainly did enjoy watching it unfold–McGuigan does a masterful job with it. He’s getting to be a singular talent.

CREDITS

Directed by Paul McGuigan; written by Jason Smilovic; director of photography, Peter Sova; edited by Andrew Hulme; music by J. Ralph; production designer, François Séguin; produced by Chris Roberts, Christopher Eberts, Kia Jam, Anthony Rhulen, Tyler Mitchell and Robert S. Kravis; released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Starring Josh Hartnett (Slevin Kelevra), Bruce Willis (Mr. Goodkat), Lucy Liu (Lindsey), Morgan Freeman (The Boss), Ben Kingsley (The Rabbi), Michael Rubenfeld (Yitzchok), Peter Outerbridge (Det. Dumbrowski), Stanley Tucci (Det. Brikowski), Kevin Chamberlin (Marty), Dorian Missick (Elvis), Mykelti Williamson (Sloe) and Scott Gibson (Max).

Related posts:

• Push (2009, Paul McGuigan)
• O (2001, Tim Blake Nelson)
• Red (2010, Robert Schwentke)
• The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990, Brian De Palma)
• Sin City (2005, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez), the extended version