Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

"This argument is irrelevant." -Sayid Jarrah Season 2's 3rd episode, "Orientation", starts off with Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Michael (Harold Perrineau), and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) being attacked and knocked out by people who might be the Others.  They are dragged off and trapped in a tiger pit.  Later, a woman is thrown down with them, Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez), who was also on Oceanic 815.  When Sawyer reveals he has a gun, Ana Lucia attacks him and takes it.  She then shouts to be let out and is revealed to be part of the group that attacked our heroes. In the hatch, Kate (Evangeline Lilly) gets a gun and attacks Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) and a bullet is accidentally fired into the computer, which causes Desmond to panic.  Jack (Matthew Fox) and Locke (Terry O'Quinn) allow him to work on repairing the computer after Desmond tells them he was told pressing the button saves the world.  Jack doesn't believe him, but Desmond has them wa

"You abandoned us all!" -Magneto All across the globe, mutants face extinction as they are hunted down by robotic Sentinels.  In a desperate move, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) goes back in time to stop Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from assassinating Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), the man who designed the Sentinels.  But in order to stop the death of mutant-kind, Wolverine has to reunite the young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender). What Works: Days Of Future Past finally brings together the original characters as well as the younger versions from First Class and it is truly awesome.  The time-travel elements are an absolute blast and a really ingenious story.  For the most part, it takes the best elements from the previous movies in the franchise and combines them together. The scenes with the original characters are really well done and very moving.  The movie kicks off with a bunch of mutants, including Bobby Drake (Shawn

"What if this is the flashback?!" -Jeff Corrigan South Park' s 23rd season gets off to a great start with "Mexican Joker."  When ICE starts conducting raids in South Park, Cartman seizes the opportunity and tells them the Broflovski's are in America illegally and Kyle gets sent to a detention center.  Kyle takes it upon himself to try and convince his captors that what they are doing is wrong and could create a super-villain; a Mexican Joker.  Stan gets Cartman sent to the camp as well and he and Kyle continue to try and get freed and it works, but not how they intended. Randy continues to run Tegridy Farms, but notices his profits are down.  He discovers people in town are starting to grow their own weed.  He tries to get the town government to ban home-grown weed, but fails.  Instead, he teams up with a large weed corporation and blows up all of the home-grown weed.  Towlie is disgusted with Randy's behavior and leaves Tegridy Farms.

"He reminds me of an ex-boyfriend." -Noura Salman Here we are, season 39 of Survivor .  I have to admit, I wasn't looking forward to this one.  Final 4 fire-making and another dumb twist.  Ugh.  But the premiere was a very solid episode with plenty of funny moments and interesting strategy.  Plus watching Rob and Sandra smack-talk the newbies was really fun, but let's get into the gameplay! Who Played Well: Let's start over on the Lairo tribe with Elaine.  She had an excellent read of Ronnie and saw right through his B.S.  It was really impressive.  She's also a part of two alliances, one with Tom and Vince and one with the women.  She managed to convince Aaron and Ronnie to vote for Vince over herself and got her biggest threat, Ronnie, eliminated.  An impressive night for her. Karishma, Missy, Tom, Vince, and Chelsea all got into at least one alliance and were on the right side of the numbers.  Vince and Chelsea did screw up the pu

"This city, this whole country, is a strip club.  You've got people tossing the money and people doing the dance." -Ramona Vega After the 2008 financial crisis, many Americans fall on hard times.  To get by, a group of strippers, led by Ramona Vega (Jennifer Lopez), team up to steal money from their rich, Wall Street clients.  They start off successful, but things quickly begin to spiral out of control. What Works: I was pretty shocked at how good this movie was.  It looked fun, but I wasn't expecting a ton from Hustlers .  This movie is a blast.  It's got great energy, a talented cast, and is simply a lot of fun, but doesn't shy away from the emotional moments either.   Jennifer Lopez is the standout of the cast and does an amazing job as the leader of the group.  She has an impressive screen presence, a great character arc, and steals the show every time she is on screen. The rest of the cast is pretty great too.  Almost everyone

Well, I finally went and watched all 6 films in the Paranormal Activity series.  I had watched the first 2 in theaters, but had never seen the rest.  Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with the rest of the series, but there were definitely some disappointments along the way.  So let's rank these bad boys from best to worst. #1. Paranormal Activity (2009) Of course the original takes first place.  How could it not?  It's so simple, yet so effective.  It slowly grooms you into being afraid of a bedroom.  It has some of the most memorable scares and a chilling ending.  I will never forget watching this for the first time and I don't think it can be topped. #2. Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014) I remember when this one came out and thinking the series was running out of steam, but, man, this movie was a treat.  The characters are great, there are some excellent scares, and the ending is out-of-this-world bonkers.  I wish the movie had a few slower

"Next time I'm just gonna stay at Mom's!" -Mike Fleege The 6th film in the Paranormal Activity series follows the Fleege family.  After moving into a new house, Ryan (Chris J. Murray) finds a strange video camera and some tapes.  The tapes show the events of the 3rd film and what happened afterward, while the camera shows supernatural forces that are invisible to the naked eye.  As Ryan watches the tapes, he realizes that dark forces are reaching out across time and are coming for his daughter, Leila (Ivy George). What Works: The Ghost Dimension has one of the best protagonists of the series with Ryan.  He's smart, likable, funny, and a good father.  He realizes what is going on quickly and takes a very proactive approach to solve the problem.  It's very refreshing actually and the film makes it easy to root for Ryan. Ivy George does a very good job as Leila and is one of the creepiest kids I have ever seen.  The scene where she ref

"I feel like I'm losing time." -Jesse Arista The 5th film in the Paranormal Activity series follows teenagers Jesse Arista (Andrews Jacobs) and Hector Estrella (Jorge Diaz).  When Jesse's downstairs neighbor is mysterious murdered, Jesse and Hector start filming the strange events happening around them.  It's fun at first, but after a strange mark appears  Jesse and he starts to change, things start to become less fun and more terrifying. What Works: One thing I like about The Marked Ones are the main characters.  Jesse and Hector are not the most likable characters ever, but they feel very real and natural.  They are teenage boys and best friends that cause a bit of mischief.  I totally buy it.  Hector in particular has a really great character arc and becomes very likable over the course of the film.  He's scared and worried for his best friend and actor Jorge Diaz does a great job. Everything involving Oscar Lopez (Carlos Pratts) makes my sk

"What kind of monster are you?" -Shingen Yashida Some time after the death of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) lives as a hermit until he is found by Yukio (Rila Fukushima), who brings him to Japan to speak to her master, Ichirō Yashida (Haruhiko Yamanouchi).  Wolverine saved Ichirō's life during World War II and he offers to return the favor by taking away Wolverine's immortality.  He refuses and quickly finds himself embroiled in massive feud across Japan and he doesn't know who he can trust. What Works: Hugh Jackman has always been and will always be perfect as Wolverine.  He understands this character so well and is always fun to watch. While this is definitely a smaller scale  X-Men movie, we still get some solid action sequences.  I really like the fight at Ichirō's funeral and the bullet train fight is freaking awesome and my favorite sequence of the movie. For a large chunk of the film, Wolverine's

"He does not like you." -Robbie Five years after the events of the first film, Paranormal Activity 4 follows the Nelson family.  When their neighbor, a single woman, is taken to the hospital, the Nelson's agree to let her son, Robbie (Brady Allen), stay with them until she is well again.  Soon, strange activity begins occurring and Alex Nelson (Kathryn Newton) sets up cameras to record it, but can she stop it or are the Nelson's already doomed? What Works: I don't like kids and I usually find them creepy, so it's nice that we're not supposed to like Robbie or Wyatt (Aiden Lovekamp) in this movie.  They both do an effective job at being unlikable and creepy, so good job on both actors. Alex is a very solid protagonist and I like how proactive she is.  I have some issues with the casting of her boyfriend, Ben (Matt Shively), which I'll get to later, but they have good chemistry.  Ben is also a likable character as he is goofball,

"Kiss me, fat boy! -Pennywise 27 years after the events of the original film, all of the Losers have moved on from Derry and forgotten their fight with Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), except for Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa.)  When people in Derry start to die and disappear again, Mike calls all of the Losers back to their hometown to defeat the evil clown once and for all, but it won't be easy and not everyone is going to survive. What Works: The cast of Chapter 2  is pretty spectacular.  It's pretty much a dream team.  We all knew Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, and James McAvoy were going to be great, but even the smaller names are excellent.  James Ransome is perfect as my favorite Looser, Eddie, Isaiah Mustafa makes Mike much more interesting than he was in the first movie, and Jay Ryan looks so much like his younger version it's uncanny. The highlight of the group is Bill Hader as Richie Tozier.  Hader is amazingly talented of course and he brin

"What did one snowman say to the other snowman?" -Desmond Hume The second episode of of Lost 's second season is focused on Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau).  In flashbacks we see Michael attempting to legally stop Walt's (Malcolm David Kelley) mother, Susan (Tamara Taylor), from leaving the country with Walt.  Eventually, Susan manages to convince Michael to let Walt go.  Michael gets to see Walt one last time before they leave and gives him a stuffed polar bear. In the present, Sawyer (Josh Holloway) saves Michael from drowning and the two of them are stranded on the destroyed raft with Walt kidnapped and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) missing.  The two of them argue with each other, get the bullet out of Sawyer's shoulder, and fight off a shark before getting back to the island, where they run into Jin, who has his arms tied behind his back and is shouting about "Others."  They then see a group of people approaching them from the jungle. In

"One of us is gonna be dead by the end of it." -Randy Rosen This prequel to the first two films follows a young Katie (Chloe Csengery) and Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown).  Their Mom, Julie (Lauren Bittner), makes a sex tape with her boyfriend, Dennis (Chris Smith), and while looking at the footage, Dennis notices an invisible figure.  Dennis sets cameras up all around the house and continues to record strange activity that seems to be connected to Kristi's imaginary friend. What Works: Paranormal Activity 3 gives us by far the most likable protagonist to this point in the series in Dennis.  He just seems like a super nice guy and is nothing but kind and caring to Julie and her kids.  It's nice to see a a positive step-dad figure.  It's a character we don't get enough in movies.  He's a great lead character and an excellent lens to view the plot of the movie through. What I find really interesting is the gender-role swap in the film

"We can't let this affect us that much.  If we do that, the terrorists win." -Daniel Rey A prequel to the first film, Paranormal Activity 2 follows the sister of Katie (Katie Featherston), Kristi (Sprague Grayden) and her family.  After their house is vandalized, Kristi's husband, Daniel (Brian Boland), has security cameras installed all around the house.  The cameras pick up strange activity and Kristi becomes worried that the evil presence from her past has returned and wants her son. What Works: The biggest improvement this sequel has over the original film is the characters.  Ali (Molly Ephraim) is really likable and Daniel is very funny.  He has a few moments where he's a jerk, but they all feel earned for the most part.  Kristi is mostly bland, but she isn't unlikable.  Katie and Micah (Micah Sloat) both return for a few scenes and even they aren't so bad this time around.  It's very refreshing to have characters to root for.

"I'm moving out." -Dr. Dan Cain Eight months after the events of the first film, Dr. Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) and Dr. Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott) return from Peru with an ingredient to improve West's serum of re-animation.  As foes, both old and new, close in on the scientists, West and Cain attempt to resurrect a version of the woman Dan loved. What Works: Just like the previous film, Jeffrey Combs is brilliant as Dr. West.  He's slightly more likable this time around because he and Dan have gotten closer, but he's still the strange weirdo we know and love.  Combs shines every time he is on screen and is easily the best part of the movie. Bruce Abbott also does a good job here and I like his performance.  He starts off the movie as West's partner, neck deep in all of the madness, and he begins to want out, but as West convinces him to press on, Dan starts to lose it.  It's a fun performance and Cain is a great foil for West.

"I feel it breathing on me." -Katie  Ever since she was a kid, Katie (Katie Featherston) has been followed by an evil presence.  Now grown up and living with her boyfriend Micah (Micah Sloat), the evil presence has returned stronger than ever.  Micah decides to buy a camera to try and catch the strange phenomenon on film, but that only seems to make the presence angrier... What Works: For such a low budget film, Paranormal Activity is actually really creepy and takes the "less-is-more" mentality seriously.  The brilliant aspect of the film is the continuous use of one particular shot.  The movie grooms us into being afraid of the famous bedroom shot.  Just looking at is enough to make you feel uneasy.  It's some effective filmmaking, that's for sure. They also manage to pull off some really scary moments with a minuscule budget.  The footprints, the shadow, Katie being dragged down the hall, doors slamming, and strange noises.  It

"That's Kong.  He's king around here." -Hank Marlow As the Vietnam War comes to an end, a mysterious island is discovered.  A team of scientists set out to explore the uncharted island along with a group of soldiers.  Their helicopters are all quickly brought down by the ruler of the island, Kong (Terry Notary).  Now the survivors have to find a way off the island and discover that Kong isn't the worst thing that lives there. What Works: Skull Island is a beautiful film.  It's a work of art.  The cinematography and visual effects look amazing and are truly a sight to behold.  This is how you do CGI.  If it doesn't look good, why bother having it? This was the first monster movie I had ever seen, so the fights between Kong and Skullcrawlers were an absolute blast to watch.  Since this movie came out, I have seen plenty more monster movies and the fight scenes here still hold up.  The final battle is a lot of fun and very exciting.