2 Razors

Non-Stop Mediocrity

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Non-Stop
  • IMDb: link

Non-Stop MediocrityNon-Stop is the kind of fast-paced dumb action thriller which Liam Neeson seems to so enjoy making these days. Well-paced, the story about an air marshal aboard a transatlantic flight hijacked by an unknown adversary has all the trademarks of a cliched action thriller including an uber-smart bad guy, protocols which keep putting innocent lives in danger, a down on his luck hero who breaks the rules, the tease of a romantic distraction (Julianne Moore), quick-cut blurry action sequences, plenty of implausible coincidences, consistently dumb choices from pretty much every character, and enough red herrings to feed half a theater full of movie goers.

Trouble begins halfway through the flight when Marshall Bill Marks (Neeson) receives a text message from a hijacker promising to kill a passenger every 20 minutes until he is paid $140 million all while making it appear to both the outside world and the passengers on the plane that Marks is the one responsible for the hijacking.

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Extant – Re-Entry

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Extant – Re-Entry
  • IMDb: link

Extant - Re-Entry

Created by Mickey Fisher, the first episode of CBS’ new sci-fi series stars Halle Berry as astronaut Molly Woods who is slowly readjusting to life after spending 13 months isolated on a privately-owned space station. Her family life back on Earth is far from normal even before her return as her husband (Goran Visnjic) is a robotics inventor obsessed with creating human-acting artificial intelligence the prototype of which he has created as the pair’s son Ethan (Pierce Gagnon). Of course life on the space station wasn’t any more normal as somehow Molly got herself impregnated by some kind of alien apparition taking the form of her long-dead first husband (Sergio Harford). Cause, you know, in space shit happens.

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Uncanny X-Men #22

/ / Comics

Uncanny X-Men #22After months of slowly building towards a showdown between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the X-Men by both Mystique and an unknown puppet master from the shadows Uncanny X-Men #22 delivers a conclusion that’s less than satisfying. Quickly wrapping up events, including the recent limitations on Cyclops‘ powers (which would also mean Magneto and the rest should soon be back to full strength as well), the issue sets up a climactic battle involving out-of-control Hellicarriers about to go nuclear and Sentinels only for a single former X-Men to step-in and stall long enough for our baddie to… unceremoniously die all on his own?

The reveal of the Age of Apocalypse Beast as the brains behind the overly-elaborate plan is almost as big a letdown as the pathetic nature in which the creature meets his end. Other than Hijack most of the X-Men, along with Maria Hill and her troops, are all pretty damn impotent here. At least the fallout from all the recent events does put Dazzler firmly back in the X-Men camp, returns Magneto to the team (but for how long?), and at least temporarily cools the animosity between Cyclops and Beast.

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Motive – They Made Me a Criminal

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Motive – They Made Me a Criminal
  • tv.com: link

Motive - They Made Me a Criminal

The police procedural Motive puts as much emphasis on the killer’s actions both before and after the crime as the detectives attempting to solve the case. Jennifer Beals guest-stars as a dance studio owner in “They Mad Me a Criminal.” Revealed to be the killer in the opening scene, the episode slowly winds its way to explain the motive for the crime and why her estranged husband (Martin Donovan) would be willing to take the fall for killing the young man (Sebastian Gacki) who the police wrongly believe to be his wife’s lover.

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Vampire Academy kinda sucks

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Vampire Academy
  • IMDB: link

Vampire AcademyBased on the series of young-adult novels by Richelle Mead, Vampire Academy is a mash-up of Harry Potter, Underworld, and Mean Girls that is far less interesting than it sounds. Set in an actual Vampire Academy, the story centers around a vampire princess (Lucy Fry) and her half-human/half-vampire protector and best-friend (Zoey Deutch) traversing not only the terrors of high school but a much dangerous plot as well.

The confusing tale of vampires, mind-control, magic, teen drama, student vs. teacher dynamics, secrets, and first love is a clunky mess only saved, at times, by Deutch whose charms are wasted on this dog of a film that struggles to make use of a large ensemble which includes Sarah Hyland, Olga Kurylenko, and Gabriel Byrne.

Released on both Blu-ray and DVD, extras include an alternate opening better explaining the three vampiric races, a short introduction by Mead, and a collection of deleted scenes. The Blu-ray also includes an Ultraviolet digital copy of the movie.

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