Sleepy Hollow – TV Review

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It’s taken me a few episodes to decide if I like this show at all. It certainly has its good and bad points, but overall, I’m being won over. Initially, I wondered if it was ever going to get away from being a less-good version of Elementary; a handsome British man (photographic memory, exceptional detective skills) paired up with a woman with far less experience but who quickly starts using her skills to help solve the issue. Luckily, it has monsters.

The story is that Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) wakes after 200 years and is stranded in present-day Sleepy Hollow. One of his last memories was of beheading a soldier who became the headless horseman – and who has appeared at the same time as Ichabod did. He pairs up with Lt. Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) a young African-American policeman who discovers that her newly beheaded mentor, Sheriff Corbin (Clancy Brown) was investigating a wide range of supernatural phenomena in the area. Each episode there is a new threat, a new creature, and by using a passage from the bible (I’m not sure that it is a real passage) that says there will be seven years of torment, the show has been set for a full, seven-year run. If it goes well.

The monsters are fabulous – quite beautiful and gothic and very scary, reminiscent of Pan’s Labyrinth. This is pretty much all that saves it for me. The plot lines are not bad, but every single episode seems to be going along the usual formula of something evil happens, Lt Mills asks her boss for a head start, he reluctantly agrees, things get much worse, and then Lt Mills and Ichabod stop the evil. At least with the cool creatures it may hold my interest.

Cowboys and Aliens (2011) Film Review

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It’s the Wild West, back in the 1800s. Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) has woken with no memory and a strange iron bracelet on his arm. Arriving in a small town, Jake comes across Percy  (Paul Dano), the drunk son of rich landowner Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) tormenting the town. But, their dispute takes a back seat when aliens appear, kidnapping townsmen and exploding a lot of stuff.  Together, Lonergan, Dolarhyde, the mysterious Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), preacher Meacham (Clancy Brown) and barman Doc (Sam Rockwell) take off to save not only their family members, but the world.

There is a lot of running and explosives, some pretty serious alien action, intense gazes just off camera and the odd cheesy line. What more could you want from an action movie? For me, not a lot. Plus, Harrison Ford – its been a while since I’ve seen him doing anything that’s been that great. Well, that’s not strictly true – I didn’t mind Morning Glory. But to get him at his action hero best – it’s nice to see.

Starship Troopers (1997) Film Review

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You want fighting and guns and big teeth and patriotism for the planet Earth? This is your film. Set sometime in the future, with Johnny Rico (Casper Van Dien), Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer), Carmen Ibanez (Denise Richards) and Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris) graduating high school. There are two key options for them; college or service in the army – and with this comes citizenship. The world is in a universe overrun by alien insects, and soldiers are needed. If you get through the battle, you have additional rights that not citizens have. Rico, however, joins because he is in love with Carmen. Dizzy is in love with Rico. Carmen is kind of falling for Rico’s former sports rival, Zander (Patrick Muldoon). It’s not all soap opera, though. In training, these guys meet Ace Levy (Jake Busey) the man with the largest teeth ever and a desire to kill bugs.

Doesn’t sound like sophisticated festival fare? It’s not. It’s gory and gross, and overacted with a cheesy script and generally a whole heap of ridiculousness. I love it. I’ve seen it at least half a dozen times, and I fully intend to watch it again and again.