2.5 Razors

Arrow – Guilty

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Arrow – Guilty
  • wiki: link

Arrow - Guilty

More than any episode of Arrow in recent memory, “Guilty” struggles with a pair of stories that move forward character development but struggle to in terms of creating a compelling hour of television. Much of the problem can be laid at the feet of J.R. Ramirez as Ted “Wildcat” Grant who is simply too young to sell the premise of the city’s long-forgotten vigilante when he’s basically the same age of as every member of Team Arrow rather than a contemporary of Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne) which would make a hell of a lot more sense. The storyline involving gang members murdered in a manner to point the police in Wildcat’s direction is awkward because never once are we given any reason to suspect that he could be the person responsible (and proof of his innocence).

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Less Than Heavenly

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Kingdom of Heaven
  • IMDb: link

Kingdom of HeavenOrlando Bloom as a blacksmith turned soldier defending a stone fortress against a vast army, or a man who falls in love with a married queen from across the ocean? Liam Neeson as a dying knight with an apprentice? Haven’t I already seen this before?

Kingdom of Heaven features a fine cast and some good visuals, but I think you will find, as I did, that much of the story is a little too familiar, much too preachy, and more than a little dumb.

Okay, so Godfrey (Neeson) is a crusader except he’s about as pleasant and courteous one as you could ever expect to find.  He doesn’t rape and pillage but just kills people to keep the peace. On a short vacation he takes a horse ride up from Jerusalem to France to find his son (the result of the raping a pillaging he did before he grew one with the Force, um, I mean matured) who is the blacksmith from Pirates of the Caribbean (Bloom) whose name is now Balian.

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Kill the Messenger

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Kill the Messenger
  • IMDb: link

Kill the MessengerBased on accounts written by Nick Schou and Gary Webb, Kill the Messenger offers a rather one-sided look at San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb’s (Jeremy Renner) investigation and publishing of a story concerning the CIA supporting the cocaine smuggling of Nicaraguan Contra Rebels and the sale of those drugs inside the United States.

After a brief set-up introducing Webb’s family and co-workers, the movie follows his journey uncovering the biggest story of his career, the initial success garnered by its publication, and his quick fall from grace as the media at large began to poke holes in the story (which the script suggests were at the behest of the CIA and the United States Government).

When Kill the Messenger is focused on the story itself it works well. When the focus shifts to Webb’s decline, making him, rather than his work, the story (going against the overall message of the movie), it starts to falter down dark conspiracies and paranoia. Unwilling to see the gloom to its inevitable conclusion the script by Peter Landesman simply stops offering an ultimately unsatisfying ending.

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Stalker – Pilot

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Stalker – Pilot
  • IMDb: link

Stalker - Pilot

Maggie Q stars as the head of the LAPD’s Threat Assessment Unit tasked with investigating stalking, voyeurism, cyber harassment, and crimes of passion that often leave victims both physically an emotionally damaged. The “Pilot” introduces Dylan McDermott as a former East Coast homicide detective and newest member of the team who shows up just in time to help Lt. Beth Davis (Maggie Q) look into a pair of stalkers whose obsession has turned deadly.

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Castle – Driven

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Castle – Driven
  • wiki: link

Castle - Driven

Well, that was… different. However the lingering effects of last season’s finale eventually play themselves out it’s hard not to see Castle‘s Seventh Season opener as anything but a misstep caused by cowardice at either (or both) the network level or in the show’s own writers’ room about finally, permanently, putting Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) together. I thought the show was past the increasingly unnecessary and lame attempts to keep the pair apart, but it appears those days aren’t behind us after all.

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