Taken, the TV show - Bullshit

So I was a big fan of Liam Neeson's movie franchise Taken, until Taken 3, that is. Liam Neeson makes for a great tough guy, ex CIA agent Bryan Mills, and the show's first two movies were right on. In fact, at the end of movie 2 it had set up a third movie. It went something like this: The sons of the Albanian father Neeson was about to kill would come after him. "For sure," the father said. After which Neeson's Mills character says, "Then I'll kill them too."

Okay. All set for Taken 3. But what happens in Taken 3? None of that. It was as if someone from CAIR complained that the heavies were Muslims. Never mind they were Eastern European Muslims, and not Arabs, just the fact that they were Muslims seemed to be enough for the franchise to drop them as heavies. Instead they made up a complete bullshit story line about Mills' ex-wife's current husband as the new heavy.

To that I say, WTF? Which leads me to the Taken TV show. I had not watched it for the same reason I never watched the Transporter TV show, nor did I bother watching the 4th installment of the Transporter franchise, because it was sans Jason Statham. And it was Statham who made that show, so without him, forget it. I wouldn't bother.

But my wife and I were searching for something to watch, so we went to Netflix and gave the TV show of Taken a try. The first two shows were okay. Only okay. Cllive Standen plays the main character of Bryan Mills, and he's no Liam Neeson, not even close. Worse, they changed the Bryan Mills character completely. He's a young guy, now and not a former CIA agent as Neeson's Bryan Mills was in the movies. Instead, he's a former soldier who served in Afganistan and Iraq. Yeah, he's still a badass, but not quite the same kind of badass. He's more of a sniper type of badass. Still I was able to stomach it at first. It was watchable.

It was the third show where the bullshit came in. As if in deference to CAIR, they have an Iraqi immigrant, (Muslim, of course) be the victim of an AMERICAN terrorist group. (Terrorists planning to kill Americans, that is.) Say what? Yeah, they kidnap the innocent Iraqi man so as to frame him for a terrorist attack against Americans, so the American politicians will up American's involvement in the wars in the Middle East. And then we had to watch a Muslim woman, the man's wife, decry how persecuted she is in this "terrible, racist, Islamophobic" country of intolerant Americans where she suffers from fear every single day. Yeah, right.

To set the record straight, I have no problems with Iraqis. I have had friends from Iraq. They are great people, (like any people,) and not once has any of them relayed to me how they live in fear everyday from the terrible American citizens among whom they live.

I know about the horrible incidents, like Oklahoma and Las Vegas, and several other homegrown horrors that have happened in this country. But that happens in every country, and it has been happening throughout history in every country. But to ask me to watch Americans as terrorists is not agreeable to me. And because of that I say the Taken TV show is Bullshit. That's all.

Jason Statham in a Shark movie?

It seems that Jason Statham is a hot commodity right now and he's even getting roles that are not his usual genre. It will be interesting to me to see him as something other than a great fighter who kicks ass, but I am wary because he might be out of his comfort zone.

Now it's true that a great actor can excel in any genre movie and in any role. That's what makes an actor great. But the reason I liked Jason Statham so much as an actor is because he's a real fighter, really trained in martial arts, and has even competed in the Olympics, albeit as a diver. He was even a real race car driver, too.

So when you see Statham in the action movies, it's real. And it doesn't hurt that he is in top movies with top writers, directors, and producers.

So this new movie is called The Meg, which I'm assuming is short for Megalodon, which is a prehistoric shark. And if it is indeed a megalodon, then that is a very intriguing premise for a movie. Megalodons were giant sharks that make the great white shark of "Jaws" fame look like a minnow.

As for Statham's role, he's a deep sea rescue diver and the hero of the show. Well, it suits me. I'll be looking forward to seeing Jason Statham in a new movie, but instead of fighting bad guys, he'll be fighting a megalodon, and in it's own element, (the ocean), which I don't think will be an easy task at all, considering that megalodons were indeed quite monstrous.

Here's an artist's rendering of a megalodon, and from what I've read, it can be as big as 60 feet long. And I do believe those are whales it's getting ready to chomp on. So this should be a great movie, considering today's special effects are really really good.

I mean they made Jaws look good and that was with 70's technology. Think about the Jurassic Park movies, and how they made those dinosaurs look real. Now we'll be treated to some great visuals of a megalodon. Yikes.

Here's the difference between a great white shark's tooth and a megalodon's tooth. So, yeah, I'd say that Jason Statham will have his work cut out for him. To say the least. And no pun intended.

Another Jason Statham Homerun

Hands down, Jason Statham is number one. One day it might have been Sean Connery. Another day it was Burt Lancaster. Then it was Vin Diesel. But lately and still running strong, for me, at least Jason Statham is the number one movie star.

Just saw another Statham movie I hadn't seen before. It's called Parker. And it was fantastic. I mean I haven't seen a Statham movie yet that I haven't liked. They are all great. I remember seeing Wild Card recently and I raved about it. Chaos wasn't as great as Wild Card, but it was still good. But this movie Parker, was just as great as any of them. I mean just as great as The Transporter franchise, and The Mechanic. It was super great even.

And as a bonus, Jennifer Lopez was in it. Still in her prime too. I never have been a JLo fan, but she was fantastic in this movie. I was so relieved that I didn't have to watch her beat up ten men all at once, like Hollywood has been forcing me to do the last few years. No. JLo was a real estate agent. Just an ordinary real estate agent. Albeit a very pretty one, but I've seen pretty real estate agents before, so it's not as unbelievable as a pretty FBI agent.

JLo's part was great. And you know what? I have not seen a JLo movie since she starred as Selena years ago. She was good in that, but I haven't seen her in anything else. So watching her in a Statham movie was interesting to me. And she was great. I mean her acting was great. She played the part super great. Statham was great as always, but so was JLo. She was great.

So glad the movie makers left the fight scenes to Statham, though. Yeah, JLo had a brief moment of action when she found the gun Statham had stashed under the table, but it was all believable. All of it. Totally believable. And that's what I appreciate. Believable.

Because when I see a 5' 2" 110 pound woman beating up men who are twice her size, and then two, three, four, five and six all at once, it is just not believable, and the movie for me is no longer enjoyable. It's trash at that point.

I can believe a woman holding her own, MAYBE, against a single male antagonist, that is, if the woman is highly trained, and the male antagonist is not as trained. But if a woman, even a highly trained woman goes up against a like-trained male opponent, she just won't have a chance. At all. That is not a misogynistic opinion. It's a fact.

Look at it this way. If Ronda Rousey (who is a highly trained female fighter) were to go up against a male fighter, who is similarly trained, she would get destroyed. And that's just life. So if any women are offended by this, they shouldn't be. It's just the way it is.

So back to Parker and why it was so great. The fighter was Jason Statham. The real estate agent was Jennifer Lopez, and both were terrific. And btw, kudos to the Parker character for staying true to his girlfriend and resisting the romantic advances of JLo. That is a man of integrity. And a man of honor. It was terrific to see that. It was a terrific movie. Parker. What a show.

Limitless - the movie- Even Better

So I watched Limitless the movie the other night and it was better than I had hoped. Of course, the actor, Cooper Bradley was hands down the best actor considering performances by actors, but that should have been expected. After all the guy's an "A" list actor these days. And he was terrific as the main character who becomes Senator Mora in the short-lived TV series of the same name.

But it's the first show of the Limitless franchise, so I had to see it. Now that I have, I'll enjoy Limitless the TV series even more. At least Cooper Bradley has some cameo appearances in some of the episodes. You never really know when he'll show up, but when he does, he lifts the show miles higher than it already had been. He's just that kind of presence.

I remember first seeing Cooper Bradley in that movie Silver Linings Playbook. You know, the movie in which he co-starred with Jennifer Lawrence. It was Jennifer Lawrence who won the Oscar for best actress in that movie. I don't think Bradley even got nominated. But you know what? He should have been not only nominated for best actor in SLP, he should have won it. Not Lawrence.

Because Jennifer Lawrence didn't even act in that movie. She was always possessing the same demeanor throughout the movie. Not like Bradley's character. Bradley's character underwent a plethora of different mood swings. He played a man with special needs, although that's not to say he was handicapped really, he just had some emotional issues. And to act out those emotional swings took a great performance and Bradley delivered.

Lawrence's character had the same facial expression throughout the movie. It was like her character was stuck on morose mode throughout the story line. She didn't smile, she didn't laugh, she didn't cry, she didn't do anything. So how was it that she won best actress for a part in a movie she didn't even have to act in is beyond me. I guess she's just Hollywood's latest darling. You know the type. Usually they're the ones who make you sick.

(By the way, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos was a far superior Mystique than Jennifer Lawrence was. Why the X-Men franchise changed from Romijn-Stamos to Lawrence for the part of Mystique is beyond me. Oh, wait, it's not beyond me. Lawrence is Hollywood's new darling, I already had that figured out. Too bad. I'll take Romijn-Stamos over Lawrence as Mystique any day.)

But I digress. Limitless was yet another example of a terrific acting performance from an actor who is quickly joining my list of favorite actors. They include Jason Statham and Vin Diesel (of late) and Sean Connery, Burt Lancaster, and Kirk Douglas (of the old days.) But even better was the writing was superb. Yeah, I had a couple minor issues with it, but by the end of the movie I was stoked. It was a great ending, leaving you feeling great. Not like those stupid movies that end making the viewer feel like shit. I hate those movies. But Limitless wasn't like that. I was feeling terrific when it ended. I might even go buy the DVD. (or Blue ray.)

So, here's to Cooper Bradley. To me one of the best actors out there today.

Limitless - Quite Good!

It's still a slow phase for me in the publishing world. So I'm using this time to comment on some shows I've seen, both on the big screen and the small.  I'm not a movie goer much anymore, so the small screen has held most of my attention when it comes to viewership. And I've been critical of much of it, (with the big screen too btw.)

But I can make some positive comments about a show I've been watching recently. Limitless. It came out a couple years ago, I think, and it's based on a movie of the same name, which I never saw. I never watched the series either, but now with the Netflix connection, I can watch it without those hated commercials, and whenever I want. And I like it. Unfortunately there's only one season but there's a lot going for it.

First of all, it doesn't feature a woman as the main character as so many shows do nowadays. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But for me at least there comes a point when I want to see a man as the hero again. Let me stress I am not a misogynist or a chauvinist. But when every show (well almost every show lately) both on the big and small screen features a woman as the hero, and the men are all incompetent second fiddles to her heroism, it gets tiring.

So Limitless has a male hero. But of course he's not really a hero, because the main character is a college drop out and a drug user, which I don't think much of either really. But whatever. He takes a pill and can use 100% of his brain. He's the only one who can do that because some senator played by Cooper Bradley, (who's an actor I like) provides him with a monthly shot to counter the side effects. But the premise is the FBI doesn't know he is getting those shots. They think his immunity to side effects is something normal in him. I've since learned that the senator was the original user of the drug from the movie. I'll have to check out that movie sometime soon.

But even though those premises I just described are really things I don't agree with, I like the show anyway for another reason. A simple and basic reason. It's entertaining. The actor really nails his part. And the writing for each show I've seen so far is outstanding. I'm about midway through season 1 right now, (which seeing as how it's only one season, that means I'm halfway through the entire series.) But whatever, so far so good.

I just watched the episode where Brian Finch has put together his own team, and it at first seemed like a light-hearted story. But it turned out pretty heavy. It had some serious drama, and I thought it was realistic. But that depended on the viewer buying in to the character's boyish behavior, which I do, because a lot of dudes are like that in real life. So yeah. It's believable.

I also like the female lead. She's the FBI agent in charge of Brian and they cast the right actress for the part. Why? Because she's not a beauty queen. Most actresses they hire to play FBI agents or female cops are total lookers. I mean they could be models or, well, beauty queens. But FBI agent Rebecca Harris, played by Jennifer Carpenter is not a beauty queen. She looks like, well, she looks like a female FBI agent. so there you go.

Anyway, I'm not surprised that a TV show I like only lasts for one season. I'm still surprised The Blacklist is sill going strong. (Although I'm hearing rumors about that one being cancelled soon.) But for the moment, I'll be enjoying what's there. And it is what it is. Enjoyable.

Alien Covenant - Worse

I did like the Alien movie franchise, at least somewhat, and Ridley Scott had always been a director I thought was highly talented. But his latest installment of the Alien franchise was way below the standard he had set years ago with the first movie Alien.

I remember the chilling first Alien movie well. It reminded me of the old black and white movie called It! The Terror from Beyond Space. I knew from the beginning that the first Alien movie was a copy of that movie, but it was no big deal to me. Fifties movies should be redone. I'm still waiting for Earth vs. the Flying Saucers to be redone, but I digress.

The latest Alien movie sucked. "Covenant" is so full of holes that it's a sieve. And Scott's directing was a total disappointment. First you have a space woman acting like a crazed 10 year old the first moment that trouble hits. Then she locks her friend, another space woman in the room with the sick guy who's getting the "alien" bursting out of him. Never mind that there was plenty of time to let her out before the monster baby alien popped out, but that would have been too logical.

Before that you had the spacemen disembarking from their landing craft with no breathing apparatus whatsoever. They are breathing another planet's air without testing for pathogens or dangerous elements that might infect them. And of course, that's exactly what happens. It was just too stupid and unbelievable.

Finally you have the redone concept of the robot going bad. How many times have we seen that in movies and sci-fi stories? Even the first Alien movie had that bad robot concept. It's tiring. And here we go again.

The bottom line is that when I see the characters acting stupid and completely illogically, then I can only call that movie stupid and not worth watching. It is what happened in Covenant, and I'm sorry I wasted my time watching it. Probably the worst of the lot.

Counterpart - Boring!

My wife and I started watching the new STARZ show Counterpart. It seemed like a cool concept at first. A parallel world - with identical counterparts living in it. Of course, it's not an original concept. The concept has been done before. Star Trek's Mirror, Mirror episode from the original series comes to mind. But still, the concept remains cool even though it's not original.

And I like the actor J.K. Simmons, who I first saw play the part of J. Jonah Jameson, in the first Spider-man movies. You see him on TV a lot these days as an insurance spokesman on commercials, but he was doing a fine job of acting in Counterpart. He plays two roles - a timid clueless dude on the original earth, but on "the other side" he's a mean, competent spy type dude.

So yeah, that concept was pretty cool. I had some problems with it though even from the start. First of all the story line is BORING. And I really mean it with those all caps btw. Another problem is that the writing so darn LAZY. And the all caps are appropriate there too. Why? They never explain just how the earth got duplicated. It's not like in Star Trek, where other dimensions existed by nature.

I think the whole premise is that earth, or our universe, or our dimension, somehow was duplicated. But they NEVER EXPLAIN JUST HOW THAT HAPPENED. I can only conclude the writers themselves don't even know how it happened. Because at this point the fist season is almost over, and not once have they even tried to explain just how it happened.

So the viewers are just supposed to buy in to the premise that the universe got duplicated. I'm not quite that gullible. I need at least some kind of attempt at an explanation. Even if it's far-fetched. Since they never made that attempt, it tells me the writers themselves are clueless. Perhaps they don't even care. If they don't care, why should the viewers?

And now with this latest episode I've had enough. That means I won't be watching anymore. Like I said, the story line is boring as hell. Another thing is here we go with another bad-ass chick. Yeah, a little 110 pound woman again, is a bad-ass assassin from "the other side" and she can beat up men twice her size and twice her strength.

But even worse, there's a nerd guy who has a wife. And he finds out a duplicate from the other side came over and took over her life, which means his real wife is probably dead. But does he turn her in? No. He says the timid clueless dude, "(J.K. Simmons' part) is the mole, not the fake wife who murdered his real wife. So to that I say bullshit, and I'll call this show what it is. Bullshit.

Bottom line on Counterpart. Good acting from J.K. Simmons, but it's boring as hell, with lazy writing, and bullshit choices by the characters. Not for me. Nor is it for anyone with a brain.