The Colony

This is an apocalyptic film. IMDb writes, "Forced underground by the next ice age, a struggling outpost of survivors must fight to preserve humanity against a threat even more savage than nature." The more savage threat other than the flu - cannibals. Most of the movie is just sweeping snow scenes and people walking in the snow. The part of the film with people talking and fighting seemed to only last 30-45 minutes. Fishburne (Hannibal) is the leader. Paxton (Aliens) is the second in command. Zegers (The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones) is the one that will lead the remaining people from the colony to safety. Sullivan (Rookie Blue) is Zegers girlfriend in the movie. All in all, I say: SKIP IT

Lover Avenged: Black Dagger Brotherhood 7

Amazon describes the plot as: "Rehvenge is used to living in the shadows and dealing with the roughest night walkers around—including the Black Dagger Brotherhood. As his secret identity as a sympath is threatened, he turns to the only light in his ever darkening world—a female vampire untouched by corruption, who’s the only thing standing between him and eternal damnation." This book was the longest so far - well over 500 pages. There was nothing for me to skip over - everything was essential to the plot as well as the future plots of other books in the series. If you are into the series, buck it up and read this to understand the next one. The King is blind by the end of this book which I'm sure is going to be significant somehow later. Rev is made King of the sympaths which will definitely be important later. Xhex is kidnapped by Lash, so guess who is going to risk his life to go save her - John Matthew - which is a problem because the last guy that tried to save her was killed - the Brother that was exiled because he loved her. There is a war coming and I think all the pieces are falling into place. Also there is some foreshadowing that a female might actually be allowed to join the Brotherhood - shock, gasp! All in all, I say: READ IT if you read the others - otherwise SKIP IT

RED 2

DC Comics has created a sequel. Retired Extremely Dangerous 2 - takes the surviving characters from the first movie and puts them in harms way again. This time the group is being blamed for helping a scientist smuggle a weapon of mass destruction into Moscow, Russia. Everyone wants them dead of course. Willis - born in West Germany by the way- (The Cold LIght of Day), Malkovich (Being John Malkovich), Mirren (The Queen), Cox (Troy) and Zeta-Jones (Chicago) are all former CIA or KGB operatives. Korean actor, Byung-hun Lee (The Good, the Bad, the Weird) is an assassin hired by CIA to take out Willis. He does all the big action, martial arts scenes. Thewlis (Seven Years in Tibet) plays a Frenchman code named the Frog who helps the group get information. Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs) is the crazy, mad scientist. The agent from the last movie (Urban from Dredd) is not in the film instead McDonough (Star Trek: First Contact) plays a CIA operative out to get the group. The comedy is good just like the last. There is one really memorable scene.
M: If there's one thing I'm good at that's women and covert ops.
W: That's two things.
L: No...grasshopper. It's not.
I saw it at AMC, but I think it will be just as good on small screen.
All in all, I say: SEE IT - if you saw the first otherwise - SKIP IT

Volcano

I like disaster movies especially from the 90s. This one was playing on Showtime recently. Heche (Men in Trees) is a scientist studying some strange events in downtown LA. She comes across some information that leads her to believe the is going to be a volcanic eruption on the tectonic plate under LA. Jones (No Country for Old Men) is the head of the rescue people - whatever the department is called. Once the lava approaches he has to coordinate everyone to get the lava stopped before it destroys all of downtown. At the time there was a lot of racial animosity going on in LA - at the end of the film there is this cheesy thing where a kid says look they are all the same or something like that. All the people are grey because of the ash in the air. Hoffmann (Field of Dreams) plays Jones' daughter. Cheadle (House of Lies) is Jones' number 2. It follows the typical disaster plot, but it Tommy Lee Jones for crying out loud! All in all, I say: SEE IT

Backdraft

A classic Ron Howard (Rush) from the early 90s. I saw this film like half a dozen times when I worked at Cineplex Odeon. It was so good - the effects - the acting. Russell (Escape from LA) was back as an actor after being gone a while and looking good - played a Lt. at a firehouse 17 in Chicago. Baldwin (Hawaii Five-O), William, was at the height of his popularity - saw his father die in a fire and put off being a fireman like his brother and father. DeNiro (The Deer Hunter) was being DeNiro - he had a low key part as a fire investigator. Sutherland (MASH), Donald, was was pyromaniac - an excellent and creepy job he did too. If you don't watch the whole thing you have to see the scenes with him - eerie. He is a good bad guy. Leigh (Weeds) was working in city politics and dating Baldwin - she had a small annoying part. They all had great accents - working class Chicago. The city is really out on display in this too. Glenn (Training Day) did a phenomenal job as the fireman that helped raise the two brothers after their father dies. He also has a shower scene which - wow! De Mornay (Rock the Cradle) was the estranged wife of Russell. Gedrick (Iron Eagle) was just starting to be really popular - played a wounded fireman. The fire is the main character and there is a really poetic explanation of fire from DeNiro in a monologue toward the end of the movie. It was really well written, edited, and filmed. All in all, I say: SEE IT - Showtime was playing it this weekend.

Kiss the Girls

I don't really read much James Patterson. I've never read his series with Alex Cross. This was the first movie from that book series to be made. It was really good. Morgan Freeman (Glory) is Alex Cross and he was perfect for this role. Ashley Judd (High Crimes - also with Freeman) is the girls who escapes the serial killer. Goldwyn (Scandal) and Elwes (Princess Bride) are the serial killers - Gentleman Caller and Casanova. I don't know if the movie was good to people that have read the series, but I loved it. I recently rewatched it on Showtime during one of their 90s weekends. Sanders (Glory - also with Freeman) is an FBI friend. Cross is involved in the case only because his niece is one of the abducted girls.

All in all, I say: SEE IT.

He Said, She Said

Classic Kevin Bacon - I loved this movie when it came out - I think I saw it several times when I was working at Cineplex Odeon at Stone Mountain. I recently rewatched it on Showtime - they do some oldies on there.

They write editorials in different newspapers - they always disagree. When the papers merge they compete for the same job only to find that the readers like hearing from both of them. This leads to a spot on local tv. They fall in love. The movie begins with them breaking up and each one goes to a friend and recalls their side of the story. That's the best part - seeing where they both change things - we see things so different from others. Bacon (Footloose) and Perkins (Weeds) are the writers. Lane (The Birdcage) is the tv studio producer. Stone (Casino) is Bacon's ex who is still in his life. LaPaglia (Without a Trace) is the guy secretly into Perkins. All in all, I say: SEE IT - remembers it's the early 90s and go with the flow.
Australian, LaPaglia is aging well.