For those of you wondering which actor is going to be playing that sicko bastard The Governor in the Walking Dead TV series, then wonder no more as he has been cast!
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
David Morrissey has most recently been in the movies Centurion and the Jason Statham cop thriller Blitz. Morrisey also has quite an extensive TV career, but nothing of which I’ve heard of, but feel free to check out his resume’ at IMDB.
For those of you not familiar with the good ole’ Governor, he is the leader of another group of zombie survivors in the town of Woodbury. Now this guy is completely freakin’ nuts. Reading the issues of Walking Dead with him in it were some of the most sadistic and gruesome things I’ve read in comics. Of course now a bunch of comics follow suit with the gruesomness in The Walking Dead, but at the time there wasn’t a whole lot besides The Punisher MAX and maybe Preacher that were as graphic as the Governor issues. Just know that this guy will most definitely change the face of the show if they even remotely stick to the comics. Lord knows they’ve taken plenty of liberties with the show thus far not having it follow the comics exactly, and I agree that the show is better of for it.
I’m not the biggest fan of the Walking Dead TV series, but I may have to jump back on board just to see how they handle a lot of scenes with the Governor and what kind of spirit that David Morrissey brings to the role. I’d love to see the picture below play out on screen.
It’s been pretty official by now that Darth Maul is returning, and kudos to Lucasfilm for their clever re-release of the Phantom Menace and his simultaneous Clone Wars appearance which is sheer marketing genius. It seems like I can’t go into any store where there are toys or books without seeing that ugly Sith bastard adorned on something. Even my McDonald’s Happy Meal toy was a top spinner with him on it! But anyways….
Maul is back and whether you like it or not you have to admit the trailer for his return in the final season’s arc looks pretty excellent. Not to mention the fact that he is being voiced by none other than Sam Witwer who is a sort of sci-fi superstar at the moment. Witwer has done extensive work with the Star Wars franchise, starting off with the Force Unleashed video games as Darth Vader’s secret apprentice Starkiller who kicked major ass with his uber force abilities. Some may not know that he also voiced the Emperor in the Force Unleashed and did a damn fine job. This is also not his first appearance on the Clone Wars as he also played the Dark Side being “The Son” in the Mortis Trilogy. He also played a large part in the 8th season of Smallville as Davis Bloome A.K.A. Doomsday and is currently playing the vampire Aidan on the American version of Being Human. Being Human was recently renewed by SyFy for it’s third season. And all of that on top of a missed chance to be featured in an entire flashback episode of the Walking Dead in a storyline that was set up by show creator Frank Darabont, but was ultimately discarded after his “leaving” the show. The guy is a talented actor no doubt, but his voice acting sure packs a punch too. Check out the video below to see how intense Witwer gets when he is slipping into his crazy Darth Maul persona:
Freaky ain’t it? For more of the half Sith Lord, check out the FULL trailer below the bump and prepare to change your underpants afterwards:
So it would look as if Ventress is choosing to side with the Night Sisters of Dathomir and that Dooku may be getting some payback for their attempted assassination of him: Grievous style. I’m interested to see the Night Sisters in combat, particularly Mother Talzin who is seen in the trailer unleashing some crazy witch powers on the Separatist forces. But let’s face it, that’s all bantha poodoo compared to what I think may be the best part of the episode arc and that’s Obi-Wan v.s. Maul…. the rematch! This has potential to be one of the best moments on the Clone Wars, overshadowing even the awesomeness that was Savage Oppress’s debut last season. But then again I thought that with the return of Boba Fett and I was left quite crestfallen. But this has to be way better than the little half pint bounty hunter. The part where Maul emit’s a harsh “Jedi!” and his mechanical leg steps on the ground before Obi-Wan was chilling and gave me a case of the goosbumps. What’s everyone’s thought on the whole deal? Expanded Universe blasphemy or totally awesome? I for one am glad they stuck with the Star Wars Visionaries robo-legs concept. It wouldn’t have done to see a Darth Maul walking on his hands and using the lightsaber with his mouth.
Out of all the names being tossed around to play the Holy role of the son of John McLane in the latest Die Hard movie, I was hardly expecting that it would be…. Jai Courtney. Puzzled by the name? Me too. The face however is certainly familiar as Jai Courtney played the role of Varro on Starz Movie Channel’s Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Varro as you may or may not know was the best friend of Spartacus on the show and the two were indeed an enjoyable duo to watch. It will be hard to see Courtney without his trademark blonde curls that he had in the show, (not to mention the accent.) but I’m sure he’ll be better off without them as he is firing multiple rounds into bad guys side by side with Bruce Willis.
Here’s an official confirmation of the story from the forthcoming A Good Day to Die Hard from Fox:
[box_light]”A Good Day to Die Hard puts McClane on an international stage — truly a NYC fish out of water in Moscow — and introduces his estranged son Jack. An apple that has not fallen far from the tree, Jack may even be more of a hardass than his father. Despite their differences, they must work together to keep each other alive — and the world safe for democracy.” [/box_light]
This sounds good to me as long as Justin Long stays out of the picture this round. I wouldn’t mind another cameo from Kevin Smith and even one from Mary Elizabeth Winestead though. The plot I’m sure will turn out to be a little more in depth as production gets rolling, but at this point there is excitement enough that movie is now going to be on the fast track into theaters. And it’s needless to say that Jai Courtney has an opportunity to send his career into the stratosphere with this gig. After all he is starring next to one of the most recognizable stars in Hollywood for the past twenty years and one of the best, if not THE best action movie franchise. Now all that is needed is a villain…
Let’s hear some comments below! Not what anyone was expecting or better that a relatively unknown actor will be playing the role of Jack McClane? (Or will it be Gennaro?)
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance easily surpasses it’s predecessor, but not by much. They definitely ignored events of the first one and started from scratch, getting straight to the point with the opening sequence. Given that, it still seemed like the filmmakers were sort of relying on you having seen the first movie so you had a better understanding of what the Rider is even though they explained everything in five minutes. Nicolas Cage is at his quirky best in the film, acting half crazed in several scenes as he struggles to keep Ghost Rider within himself.
The plot of the movie reminded me a lot of the plot from Drive Angry, another Cage starring flick involving a satanic cult attempting to take a child that will be used to bring the devil to our world and create hell on Earth. The premise was the same in Spirit of Vengeance, but the execution was less ridiculous than it was in Drive Angry. The devil himself walks the Earth in Spirit of Vengeance, played by Ciarán Hinds. Hinds, who has most recently appeared in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy seems to be wasted in the role of the devil. (Or Roarke as he is known in the movie) I remember back to when Rome was still on HBO and he played the role of Caesar and just can’t pinpoint why he would accept this role except for the cash. The same could be said for actor Idris Elba, but he seems right at home in the role of Moreau, the French, wine drinking holy man who assists Johnny Blaze in trying to regain his humanity in this installment of Ghost Rider.
Nicolas Cage used to be a great actor, but now he has become a sort of caricature of himself in many ways. It’s known that he had financial troubles in recent years and it’s now common knowledge as to why he releases nearly six movies every other year. I’m not saying I won’t go see any Nicolas Cage movies anymore, I’m just saying he’s no longer the actor he once was, we just can’t expect anything spectacular out of him anymore performance wise.
Even though the movie’s plot was dog crap and typical of many supernatural movies in recent years, the special effects in regard to Ghost Rider himself were excellent. The first time you experience him in the movie he is definitely a creepy sight to behold as his movements as he walks toward a victim are choppy and erratic. His head tilting and screaming were also a bit disconcerting. This wears off later in the movie, but I thought they couldn’t have done a better job with the character who is pretty one dimensional in the comics anyhow. The action sequences weren’t all that bad either and was one of the main things that even kept me awake during the movie. I loved the concept of the Rider being able to change any vehicle he rides into a flame spewing death machine.
*Minor Spoiler*
I never looked much into the origin of Ghost Rider aside from his human host making a deal or being cursed, but in the movie we are treated to one. It turns out the Rider was formerly an Angel called Zarathos, the Spirit of Justice, who was sent to Earth to help mankind. Unfortunately he was driven mad after being captured by the forces of hell and now in his form as Ghost Rider he punishes everyone no matter the severity of their crime. I thought that was an interesting take on the character.
Overall I give Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 2 out of 5 grizzlies.
It wasn’t as good as I expected, but it was definitely better than the first Ghost Rider movie. I honestly hope at this point that they might be done with trying to make Ghost Rider something more than he is. I wouldn’t think they would make yet another movie to attempt correcting the things wrong with this movie, but it is Hollywood so you never know. I think Ghost Rider is in the same boat as Punisher, he has a faithful following but not enough to elevate him into the box office smash hit like Spiderman or Iron Man. It was a nice try for the studio to make up for the first Ghost Rider though.
What can I say about Journey 2: The Mysterious Island? It was a little better than I expected and had some great visuals. Also, even though it seems like the Rock is just put into movies to lure the mindless masses into the movie theater, he actually kind of made the movie better than it would have been. The plot seems to be loosely based off of the first movie which I only saw bits and pieces of, but Josh Hutcherson (Soon to be in The Hunger Games.) returns as Sean Anderson who is an adventurer/scientist on a mission to find his grandfather Alexander Anderson who has gone missing and has apparently been looking for Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island for about half of his life. Really, it seems like they just cobbled together the pretense for them to head out and find the grandfather and mysterious island in about thirty seconds…. Which they probably actually did. Anyways, the Rock, who plays Sean’s gigantic, ex-Navy, stepfather decides to help Sean break a code sent from his grandfather in an attempt to be closer to him family wise. What Mr. The Rock didn’t count on was Sean being right that there is indeed a Mysterious Island. A Mysterious Island they have no way of getting off of before impending disaster strikes.
Really, the movie was never meant to be an Academy Award winner and it definitely wasn’t. With the acting talents of Vanessa Hudgens and Luis Guzman (As the father-daughter helicopter team that brought them to the island) intermingled with those of Josh Hutcherson and The Rock, they don’t measure up anything near to Michael Caine. What Rock doesn’t have in acting ability he more than makes up for in hilarity. There is a scene in the movie where he “pops” his pectoral muscles for about three minutes as he urges Josh Hutcherson and Guzman to bounce berries off of them. This as you know, is a sure fire way to win over any woman. The scene had me laughing my ass off, the Rock urging Hutcherson to “Feed them. They’re not going to stop until you do.” As funny as I found the scene, I can only imagine that young kids and their parents were probably left puzzled as to what in the shit they brought their kids to. But oh well, it made me laugh.
It seemed like the rescue of Naevia was going very well in the last episode. They infiltrated the mines after killing the guards and disguising themselves as Romans. They even seemed to have Glaber’s troops fooled when they came searching for the rebel slaves, until Ashur had to go and ruin things for them. Now they are on the run with Naevia in hand, but absent most of the men they went in with, including Crixus who is now captive of the Romans! Along the way of escaping Spartacus will lose even more of his followers and one begs the question of whether or not Naevia was really worth the cost of so many lives. The fight scenes mingled in between all of the political machinations this episode were awesome and entertaining even though they didn’t progress the story so much. I would imagine those not interested in political maneuvering at all were probably pretty bored with the episode as a whole. I definitely enjoyed it even though it didn’t live up to the other episodes of the season.
It was pretty obvious that Agron and reinforcements were going to show up at the end when Spartacus and Mira were making their last stand, but it was a nice touch when it turned out that the approaching “Roman” soldiers were really Agron and his men. I’m hoping Nasir survives the wound he took protecting Mira in the episode because I’m really enjoying his character and how far he has come in regards to his loyalty. I have a little notion in the back of my head that he is only doing many of these things to gain Spartacus’ trust so he can get close and ultimately kill him, but his loyalty to their cause seems genuine. Especially with him wanting to be called by his Syrian name and taking a sword in the stomach for Mira, but only time will tell.
Ashur was in rare form once again in helping the Romans track the rebels. He even actually showed a little fighting prowess…. By stabbing an ex-gladiator in the back, but at least he is still willing to get his hands dirty. His decision to kill the Roman commander and retreat from Spartacus instead is probably going to be deemed as cowardly by a lot of us viewers but I think it was smarter. If Ashur was a viewer of the show he’d know like us that Spartacus was pretty much unstoppable against a squad of Roman soldiers, but as a character Ashur was able to see every victory Spartacus had in the arena up close and in person. I applaud him for knowing it was futile to fight the ex-champion of Capua. I wonder what Glaber will do to Ashur when he returns still alive but with many troops lost. He sure as hell won’t be happy.
As I said above, the political battle between Glaber and Verinius continues into this episode with Glaber being forced into hosting a party in the honor of Verinius since he kind of embarrassed him last week by having his troops pull a no-show. Very surprising to me is Illythia’s willingness to simply abandon Glaber by having her marriage dissolved and get together with Verinius. It seemed like she was always right by the side of her man but after seeing him receiving aid from Lucretia and listening to her dad talk of how great Verinius is the last couple episodes it would seem she’s more than ready to move on to greener pastures. After receiving a pretty solid yes from Verinius (you know what I’m talking about) on the stipulation that her marriage be dissolved things couldn’t be going better for Illythia. That is, until she finds Lucretia banging her dad! Lucretia claims that she did it for Illythia to convince her father to dissolve the marriage between Glaber and her, but Illythia has doubts about it.
Lucretia is back to her scheming and plotting self fully now and one wonders what she convinced Illythia’s father of while doing the nasty. It would seem after Seppia’s failed seduction of Verinius that her and Seppius’ part in the show would be over, but I think it might still linger. Glaber already planted a seed of discontent in the mind of Seppius with that comment about Verinius banging his sister and he probably won’t see past her being cast aside for Illythia. It could be that an alliance is brewing between Glaber and Seppius that will culminate against Verinius and Illythia. One must wonder where Lucretia intends to land during all of this. Honestly, I don’t think we’ve seen Glaber’s dark side at this point, even though he has done much. I would fully expect there to some major retribution coming Illythia’s way once he finds out that she plans to betray him. Who knows, once she is out of the picture (potentially.) Glaber may gain the allegiance of Seppius by taking his sister as a wife.
Overall I can’t wait to see Crixus, Oenomaus and Rashko fight in the arena once more. The scene that Lucretia had alone with Crixus for a moment was about as tension filled as it gets and I can’t help but think that he shouldn’t have told her about Naevia being alive. It would be revenge enough seeing Crixus in the arena as a hated enemy of the state but if Naevia were to be recaptured and a slave again that would be the ultimate torment to the Gaul. I give the episode 3 out of 5 grizzlies. Good but not the greatest, but it definitely had stiff competition to go up against with the brilliance of the last episode.
I’m more than ready for the coming episode as we were treated to a preview at the end of this one featuring none other than ex-champion Gannicus! There will be arena fighting and more to come so stay tuned!
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Grizzly Bomb 