The Desolation of Smaug

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
  • IMDB: link

The Desolation of SmaugThe quest of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) and his dwarves to reclaim the lost kingdom of Erebor under the Lonely Mountain continues in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Captured by elves, attacked by orcs, and journeying into the depths of the lost kingdom, the sequel is more successful than The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey but still suffers from director Peter Jackson taking his damn sweet time with unnecessary subplots and a host of new characters to introduce.

Of all the new faces in the second of three films needed to adapt a 300-page children’s book, Evangeline Lilly stands out. In Tauriel we finally get a prominent female elf who is more warrior than ethereal plot device (Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler). The plot thread of Tauriel forced to balance here duty to her king (Lee Pace) and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) against her unexpected feelings for a dwarf (Aidan Turner) is one of the film’s most-successful storylines.

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Captain Phillips

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Captain Phillips
  • IMDB: link

Captain PhillipsBased on a true story, Tom Hanks stars as Captain Richard Phillips whose cargo ship was hijacked in April of 2009 while making a supply run down the Somali coast to Mombasa, Kenya. The latest from director Paul Greengrass and screenwriter Billy Ray (who adapted Phillips’ own accounts for the film) can be broken up nearly equally into two halves. The first-half of the film deals with the set-up, rising tension, and attack of the Somali pirates (Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M. Ali). It’s here Greengrass is at his best with the focus on the looming attack and its immediate aftermath.

The film’s second-half, although still well-made, lacks the same focus as the pirates kidnap Phillips and the cargo ship’s lifeboat in hopes of ransoming the captain to make up for the less than profitable venture. From here Captain Phillips jumps around quite a bit from Phillips’ captivity, to the Naval Destroyer called in to deal with the situation, to the crew still aboard the cargo ship, and finally to the SEAL team eventually called on to bring an end to the situation.

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Beautiful shots of Dianna Agron Galore

/ / Books & Magazines

Dianna Agron - Galore (2014 Calendar Girl Issue)

Headlining Galore Magazine’s one-year anniversary “Calender Girl” issue, former Glee star Dianna Agron poses for a full photo shoot as well as discusses her upcoming film projects, the role of Quinn Fabray, beauty secrets, growing up in San Francisco, her role in The Killers’ latest music video, and the possibility of doing an album of her own. You can find pics from the photo shoot inside.

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Smallville Season Eleven: Alien #1

/ / Comics

Smallville Season Eleven: Alien #1Okay, I have a love/hate relationship with Smallville. The decade-long television show was high on promise (and I’ll admit I liked Tom Welling as a youngish Clark Kent) but often short on delivery which may have something to do with stretching its premise of Clark’s pre-Superman adventures far longer than anyone involved with the show originally thought possible.

Despite writer Bryan Q. Miller’s involvement in the new series I found it hard to give the title a fair shake (although I was sorely tempted when it looked like Stephanie Brown might get new life in its pages). With my dissatisfaction with much of current New 52 Superman (I’ve already decided to scratch Superman/Wonder Woman #2 from my pull list after only two issues), I decided to try the first issue of this new mini-series.

On the plus side the Smallville version of Superman’s costume is actually less ridiculous than the New 52 version and the character has more than a bit of the old Clark Kent who I’ve been missing (along with several pre-New 52 versions of the DCU).

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Arrow – Three Ghosts

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Arrow – Three Ghosts
  • wiki: link

Arrow - Three Ghosts

Picking up from last week’s cliffhanger Arrow‘s mid-season finale begins with Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) saving Oliver‘s (Stephen Amell) life but in doing so the city’s vigilante begins experiencing hallucinations of Shado (Celina Jade), Slade Wilson (Manu Bennett), and Tommy (Colin Donnell). Unable to trust himself fully, Oliver shares his information on Cyrus Gold (Graham Shiels) with former-Detective Lance (Paul Blackthorne) but all that does is get Detective Hilton (Roger R. Cross) killed and Lance a trip to the ICU.

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