Tag: Rhona Mitra

Shooter

Being a big fan of anything that involves snipers – movies, video games, books, etc – I am surprised that I haven’t heard anything at all about “Shooter“.  It is one of those niche things that is done for the fans only.

The story is not particularly thick or twisted.  On the contrary, it’s quite straightforward and predictable.  But that didn’t spoil the film too much.  It was shot nicely, with some really nice photography.  And the casting was excellent – Mark Wahlberg, Danny Glover, Rade Serbedzija, Rhona Mitra, and the rest did their job very well.

Overall, there is not much too say more.  If you are a fan of snipers, this movie is a must see.  If not, then I don’t know – it’s a nice action movie based on a rather weak story.  4 out of 5.

The Practice

I have just finished watching all eight seasons of “The Practice“.  Getting through all of it took me longer than usual, but I still did.

The way I watch TV series is pretty much the way I watch movies and read books – from cover to cover and, hopefully, in one go.  If I want to watch a single episode, chances are I will watch the whole season.  If I want to watch a season, I will probably watch all available seasons.  I don’t know why I am like that and that’s not really important right now.

What’s important is that I found out about “The Practice” after watching all “Boston Legal” and wanting more.  There were no more, but there was “The Practice”, which was pretty much a prequel to “Boston Legal”.  It was created by the same David Kelley and even featured some of the same characters.  The character that I was the most interested in – Alan Shore – was introduced in the last, eighth season of “The Practice”, and initially I wanted to see just that season.  But how could I?  What if I miss something? What if there is more to be had?  I just had to watch all eight seasons.

I can’t say that I regret it.  “The Practice” is a very good TV series.  There is everything I want from my TV – entertainment, interesting stories, good acting, humor, drama, and characters I can associate with.  “The Practice” offers all of that and more.  But it wasn’t until I actually got to season eight, not until Alan Shore (played by the excellent James Spader), that I recognized why it took me only a few days to watch “Boston Legal”.

“The Practice”, as good as it is, takes itself a bit too serious.  There is a lot of realism and drama.  “Boston Legal” is a much lighter TV series.  There is more humor, it’s easier on the audience.  Both of the TV series provide plenty to think about.  But “Boston Legal” does it in a more suggestive way, while “The Practice” pretty much slams you with an idea and demands you make up your mind about it before the episode is over.

Overall, as I said, it is still a very good TV series.  If you like good quality TV, that’s something to watch.  Especially if you enjoy legal context to your stories.  But if you really enjoyed the lighthearted way of the “Boston Legal”, than I suggest you just watch the last, eighth season of “The Practice”.  It is very similar to “Boston Legal”.  Prior seasons are very different.

Rating? I’ll give it a solid 4 out of 5.

Boston Legal

I just finished watching all five seasons of “Boston Legal“.  As it often happens with me and good TV series, when I start watching I don’t stop until I’ve seen all of it.   Too bad there won’t be any further episodes.  However, now I am interested in “The Practice” which were TV series preceding “Boston Legal”.

While I got hooked from the first season, I’d have to say that the second and the third seasons are the best of all.  Fourth and fifth are pretty good too, but they vary from episode to episode.  Second and the third seasons don’t.

“Boston Legal” is about lawyers.  I do realize that law system in real life is probably very very different from what is shown here.  But the purpose of this TV series is entertainment, not precise documentation.  And as far as entertainment goes – “Boston Legal” does splendid.  There are many characters, picturing a variety of human quirks.   There is plenty of humor.  And what I consider even more important – there is plenty to think about.  The setup provides for a plethora of cases, which can be argued both ways, and in this TV series many many problems are explored from a number of different viewpoints.  Really, anything goes – abortion, capital punishment, corruption, politics, family values, religion, racism, disabilities, and more.

On top of that, there is something in here that is rarely seen in other TV series – examples to follow.  Not one, but several characters show what a decent human being is, what friendship, loyalty, and humanity are; how one should behave oneself in difficult situations, and how one could correct own mistakes.

With all of that, I can’t rate it anything less than 5 out of 5.  Highly recommended.

Doomsday

Doomsday

With all the movies coming out of the Hollywood these days, one needs some set of mental filters (aka stereotypes) to pick good films and avoid all the rest.  But, as with any other area of human life, stereotypes can heal and harm.  According to the set of movie stereotypes in my head, I was totally going to avoid the movie “Doomsday“.  I’ve heard that it was about some virus outbreak, sealed contaminated area, and a bunch of people going in to find the cure.  That’s all I knew, and that sounded a lot like something along the lines of “28 Days Later“, “Resident Evil“, and many other movies.  Those movies, they aren’t bad, but I’ve seen enough of them.

Luckily, my friend and colleague Igor likes this type of movies a lot.  So he managed to persuade me to go and see “Doomsday”.  And I’m glad he did.

The story of the film was very much like I expected it.  But, we weren’t there for the story, were we?  It’s how one tells the story.  And in this type of films, it’s all about how you show infected people, their mutations, human flash, body parts, horror, black humor, and the rest of the visual effects.  “Doomsday” was pretty good in this regard.  I’d say it was a little bit more bloodier than it needed, but no serious complains in this department.

All that is not very important however.  Because “Doomsday” has something that so many other movies don’t.  It has the spirit.  The atmosphere, if you will.  And it suits it very well.  It is a very rock-n-roll movie.  So much rock-n-roll, that it is much closer to punk rock in its spirit (and literary, most of the characters appear to be some serious fans of punk rock music).

Doomsday scream

There are a few places in the movie, which are either boring or a little bit too far fetched, but, gladly, they are very few and very short.  In most of it, the film provides excellent entertainment and positive energy boost.  It is mostly funny, and hilarious at places.  It has excellent special effects and strong characters in it.  There are a few memorable quotes, including some very peculiar ways of using an F* word (the film is very British in its nature).

So, if you like uncensored punk rock with lots of fun, if you are not easily destabilized by motion pictures, if you don’t truly belief that people in the movie suffer in pain or die in pieces, if you welcome the creativity of the creator even if it is a little bit out of your bounds sometimes, if you enjoyed “Mad Max” trilogy and darker (non-romantic) side of “Waterworld” than I strongly recommend to watch this movie.  You won’t regret it.

7 out of 10.