The Walking Dead “Welcome to the Tombs” Review

 Carl looks at the badge in The Walking Dead

Some thoughts on the finale of The Walking Dead and the season as a whole coming right up right after another showrunner change…

“In this life now, you kill or you die. Or you die and you kill.”

-The Governor

Wow what a mess! The Walking Dead’s fall run was easily its best as producer Glen Mazzara seemed to balance the ship and deliver consistently good episodes that didn’t frustrate me to death week in and week out. Then the spring season came and returned the show into the uneven mess it has always been. Sure we got some very good episodes including the best of the whole series “Clear” and last week’s very solid “The Sorrowful Life” (both written by new showrunner Scott Gimple) but for every step forward the Walking Dead took two backwards. The season finale “Welcome to the Tombs” is a great representation of how the show has been as a whole throughout the spring half of the season, a series of good moments marred by some strange decisions and bad characterization that ultimately comes out as an utter mess.

Let’s start with Andrea, poor sweet Andrea who gets the big dramatic moment of the episode by, you guessed it, dying! The way the writers have treated Andrea as a character this season has been a big problem. The dumbness in which Andrea operated with this season was quite startling and her ultimate reasoning of “I wanted no one to die” was forced and really emphasized all the poor decisions the writers made with Andrea this year.  That being said the scene that she shared with Milton after the Governor stabbed him a million times so he would die and turned was fairly fantastic and was a great payoff to Milton’s fairly interesting character.

Andrea’s death itself was fairly well done. While her reasoning for being dumb throughout the season still felt forced, the scene that she shared with Michonne before offing herself was ultimately well done and worked on enough levels to be satisfying. While I didn’t like where the character went this season at least she got a decent, slightly redeeming death, in the vein of Laurie’s death in the first half of the season.

Then there was the Governor’s anticlimactic attack on the prison. The scene in the prison, while decent throughout seemed to drag for the ultimate payoff it gave. The Governor ended up retreating and alive without much harm. Then the scene that followed again seemed to take him away from reality as he went all boogieman and shot up the people he took with him before taking off with his henchmen. The writers don’t seem to know what the Governor character is and ultimately throughout the season he’s gone from kind of grounded to completely over the top. It’s a strange move and it will be interesting to see how the character comes into play come next season.

The other interesting character beat to mention was Carl’s sudden transformation into hardened, Governor like killer whose opinion seems to contradict Rick’s at every turn. I liked the turn and the potential tension it can bring but there didn’t seem to be a character arc to get us from the Carl presented as recently as “Clear” to the Carl presented here. There didn’t seem to be any strong evidence to back up the seemingly sudden turn and while it worked it seemed a little odd.

Ultimately the Walking Dead ends on a strange note. The idea of the Woodburry elderly coming to the prison seems odd even with the Governor’s wrath, as Woodburry seems to have resources and electricity and the prison is well a prison. Either way it’s going to be interesting to see how the next, showrunner/victim Scott Gimple will handle the show going into season 4. He did write the two best episodes of the season after all…

Some other Musings:

• I’m happy that Michonne has become a much better character throughout the last few episodes and her scene with Rick was one of her better efforts to become more sympathetic.

• R.I.P. Glen Mazzara as showrunner of The Walking Dead. Who knows what argument he got into with Kirkman that forced him to part ways with the show but for all intensive purposes he did well enough in his brief time as showrunner.

• Let’s hope Carol doesn’t re-become our super annoying female character that the writers have no idea how to write for. I actually liked her this season

That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?

Fred’s Top 50 Films: 37.The Dark Knight (2008)

Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight

“Don't talk like one of them, you're not! Even if you'd like to be. To them, you're just a freak, like me. They need you right now. But when they don't, they'll cast you out, like a leper. See, their morals, their code... it's a bad joke. Dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you, when the chips are down,these... these civilized people? They'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster, I'm just ahead of the curve.”

-The Joker

At face value Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight can be seen as a dark, unpredictable, and extremely entertaining superhero film. That would not be doing the film justice at all. The Dark Knight is a grand tragedy about the good and sanity of mankind where all actions have real and sometimes horrific consequences.  The film shouldn’t be classified as a superhero film, because it is so much more. It isa film that pushes just exactly what mainstream film media can look like and for that is a masterpiece.

It’s hard to imagine the Dark Knight without Heath Ledger’s terrifying Joker. Ledger’s Joker is unlike any villain seen before. He’s menacing because of his wicked intelligence instead of might or force. The Joker knows how to get into the head of his opponents, how to tear them apart piece by piece until they have no sense of sanity left. The Joker can take even the best man and turn him into an evil incarnate by twisting his buttons in the right way.

Thus is where the tragedy comes in, ultimately while the story can be seen as the conflict between Batman and Joker the main message is carried through Harvey Dent. Dent is the classic tragic who is brought from the height of good and falling to the depths of evil through a series of disastrous events. The sequence at the end of the film involving Harvey attempting to take Commissioner Gordon’s family because “it’s what’s fair”, because the hardships that happened to him are a direct result of the efforts to be “decen tmen in an indecent time” is evidence of the man that Harvey becomes. He’s the archetype of the man that can snap and Nolan’s showcase for the malleability of man’s sanity.

Then there is the fact that the film is just plain entertaining. The Dark Knight is so well written, directed, and acted it’s astounding. The film has a constant energy to it that carries it throughout thefilm. There really is never a dull moment in this film. The other aspect of th efilm is the twisty plot. Just when the viewer can comfortably think that they have just figure the film out Nolan throws a curveball creating a film that isdeep and complex in every way.

The Dark Knight is an amazing film that works both as an action thriller and as a deep, almost Shakespearian tragedy. Perhaps the greatest compliment that can be given to the film is that it isn’t the greatest superhero film because it isn’t a superhero film at all; it is so much more.

-Frederick Cholowski

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Fred’s Top 50 Films: 38.Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

 The Aliens have arrived in Close Encounters of the third Kind

“Have you recently had a close encounter?”

-David Laughlin

In the year of 1977 two great science fiction films were released; the first, George Lucas’ Star Wars is a grand space opera that is legendary for its effects and adventurous plot. The second Stephen Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a simpler more grounded film but it also is a great film with fantastic characters and great uses of suspense and a great finale in which the aliens that the humans encounter are actually nice and playful. All these years, and re-cuts, later Close Encounters remains as fresh and fantastic as it ever was.

The first thing that stands out about Close Encounters is John Williams’ score. Unlike Star Wars Williams’ score in Close Encounters is quiet and atmospheric setting the tone of everything that is to come. Of course the biggest achievement of the score is the unforgettable five tone alien call that would resonate with viewers while. Everything that Close Encounters embodies is embedded in its score which is one of the great John Williams’ very best.

Combined the great score and great visuals present within Close Encounters are perhaps the greatest elements of the film. While the aliens are indeed friendly at the end of the film Spielberg doesn’t let the viewer know this until the very end of the film and provides a tense and unsettling atmosphere throughout the film that is as engaging as anything. This wouldn’t be achievable without some great characters in the film. 

Spielberg cast largely unknown actors who each provided relatable characters for the audience to latch on to. Each of the characters helps convey the tension and ultimately wondrous resolution that would follow in truly grand fashion. 

Close Encounters is just a film that few films are its likes are made anymore. It’s simple yet deep, familiar yet fresh. It provides the power of atmosphere and the beauty of old fashioned scores and visuals. They simply just don’t make them like this anymore.

-Frederick Cholowski

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Fred’s Top 50 Films: 39.The Departed (2006)

Leo and Jack in The Departed

“I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.”

-Frank Costello

Internal Affairs was a good film a fun, gritty B rate Hong Kong action film but something about the film seemed like it was missing. The American remake The Departed, directed by the great Martin Scorsese, took the premise of Internal Affairs and made a masterpiece, an American film tragedy that ranks with the very best. The Departed presents the pinnacle of what a remake can be a film that takes the original idea and improves upon it in every way possible.

The first thing that makes The Departed special are the characters present within the film. The main thing that separates the Departed from Internal Affairs is that The Departed has time for its characters and makes them into complicated three dimensional characters. This depth of each character makes the cat and mouse chase presented by the film even more interesting and engaging. Every character in a main role in the film (and even most of the sideliners) is incredibly deep and varied in every way. Take for example the villain Frank Costello who could have been a wisecracking Jack Nicholson archetype but instead is a role unlike anything Nicholson has played, a villain who is still sly but incredibly dangerous, smart and unpredictable.

Scorsese carries his perfect directorial flair and style throughout the film. The film is dripping with classic style that is resonant not only through the direction but through the entire film. The film feels like a crime classic the whole way through and is masterful because of it.

-Frederick Cholowski

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GI Joe Retaliation Review

The Rock Shoots things in GI Joe Retaliation

GI Joe Retaliation

D

A Review by Frederick Cholowski

The first thought that one should have after watching GI Joe Retaliation is “What the heck did I just watch.” Retaliation may be one of the most brilliant parodies of the modern action film. There is a cut every 5 to 15 seconds, it attempts to be hip and modern, there is close to no plot and it has one of the most confusing, rushed, and awful endings of all time. Heck it was even pulled from its spot last summer to add 3D. That being said it’s most likely not a parody as it seems like some of this film is to be taken seriously, or was taken seriously by the people making the film. In that case this film is god awful, no exaggeration.

There is no plot in this film, really there isn’t. Well there is some I guess but what is there is so paper thin that it’s hardly noticeable. The Rock’s character (whose name I’m still unsure of) and his two backups are on the run after the president of the United States (who’s not really the president of the United States of course) killed off every GI Joe operative so that the Cobra organization can take over the world. Yep that’s it! Nothing else here at all.

The whole film is shot like one big quick cut action film. There is literally a cut every 5 to 15 seconds even when it is just a conversation. The film looks as if a high school film student was doing a coverage exercise. Is this generation really that ADHD? The action scenes suffer from this too as for most of them I literally had no clue what was going on in any of the sequences (save for the one good one with ninjas on mountains). Guns go off continuously and the camera cuts so fast that it’s nearly impossible to see what is going on at all times even during scenes of dialogue.

The whole reason I have the idea that this is parody is that it is so ridiculous and stupid it is hard to believe that anyone would take even parts of this seriously. For example the genius plan that the villains have is to fire off all of the nuclear weapons that the Untied States owns in hope that all of the other nuclear countries fire their weapons and then self destruct the ones they fired in order to get the other countries to self destruct theirs, then use their satellite weapon to destroy all the other countries. It is stupid!!!!!!! It can’t be serious and yet it seems too much like the film is taking it seriously that I can’t take it as a parody.

The filmmakers try to give some back story to the characters but fails so miserably it isn’t even funny (which most of the film is unintentionally). They attempt at the last second to provide a bit of background and plot to the film but do so for all of about 2 minutes. I’m not kidding each character get’s all of 30 seconds of stupid back story. What’s worse is that most of the back story comes off as both sexist and racist. For example the rapper RZA’s sensei character talks in a lisp to try and sound Asian. How did that make it in to this film????

Then there is the ending. We won’t get into that; we really won’t.

If GI Joe Retaliation is really a parody of the modern mindless action film then I will reconsider all the criticisms I have leveled upon them as brilliant bits of parody. If it truly is a parody it is a brilliant one. If not, as I suspect it isn’t, this film is horrid and should be stayed away from at all costs.