Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

"Just because I'm telling you this story, doesn't mean I'm alive at the end." -O California marijuana dealers, Ben (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Chon (Taylor Kitsch), reject a deal from the Baja Cartel to take over their business and plan to flee the country.  Before they can, the cartel kidnaps their girlfriend, O (Blake Lively), to get the guys to cooperate.  To get her back and live to tell the tale, Ben and Chon will have to bring out the darkest parts of themselves. What Works: Taylor Kitsch is hands down the best part of this movie.  His character is a troubled Iraq War veteran. He's extremely violent, but tactical and has no problems doing what he has to do to get O back.  I love his take-no-prisoners attitude and how competent he is. There aren't as many action sequences in this movie has you might think.  There are only two, but are both well done.  We see Chon and his team launch a three pronged attack on a cartel convoy,

"So, you wake up in the middle of the night, you grab your Jesus stick, you race off into the jungle.  You don't call, you don't write..." -Charlie Pace The penultimate episode of season 2 actually takes place entirely on the island.  The flashbacks show us what happened to Michael (Harold Perrineau) after he locked Jack (Matthew Fox) and Locke (Terry O'Quinn) in the hatch.  Michael is quickly captured by the Others and held prisoner while being interrogated about Walt (Malcolm David Kelley).  After finally being allowed to see Walt, Michael makes a deal with the Others.  He has to free Henry Gale (Michael Emerson) and bring Jack, Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Sawyer (Josh Holloway), and Hurley (Jorge Garcia) to the Others.  In return, Walt will be returned to Michael and they will be given a boat and allowed to leave the island. In the present, Michael struggles to get the four people he needs, and only those four, to accompany him on his mission.  Mic

"One man alone cannot fight the future." -Conrad Strughold After a building is bombed in Dallas, Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigate when reports fail to add up.  The two agents delve into a web of conspiracy and discover answers Mulder has been searching for his entire life. What Works: I love The X-Files TV show.  I'm watching through it chronologically for the first time.  It's a really fun show and it's great seeing this story with a budget.  We get bigger action and some really cool visuals that couldn't have been done on TV. We also get a huge payoff to the conspiracy storyline that has been building for five season.  This movie gives us a ton of answers about what the Syndicate is hiding and just how high the stakes are.  It actually adds some nuance to the antagonists and makes their actions much more justifiable.  They aren't evil for the sake of being evil, they are after the

"Welcome to the Human Race." -Snake Plissken After an earthquake turns Los Angeles into an island, the President (Cliff Robertson) turns it into an exile for anyone he declares to be morally decadent.  After his daughter, Utopia (A. J. Langer), steals a super weapon and flees to Los Angeles, the President forces the recently captured Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) to enter Los Angeles to retrieve the weapon. What Works: I actually like the idea for how Los Angeles is used as a prison.  In the last movie, New York was a prison for criminals, but this time around the prison is for people who smoke, drink, eat red meat, and worship different religions.  Most of you reading this blog, and even myself, would be shipped off to Los Angeles.  That's an interesting twist, I only wish more was done with it. At the beginning and end of the film, Snake spends a lot of time interacting with the President and the two people in charge of Los Angeles security.  Th

"You better watch what you say about my car.  She's very sensitive." -Arnie Cunningham Nerdy Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) buys a junker of a 1958 Plymouth Fury called "Christine" and works on fixing it up.  Everyone notices that Arnie is taking on the persona of a 50's greaser and becomes obsessed with the car.  People who disrespect Christine start winding up dead.  Is Arnie behind the murders, or is it Christine? What Works: I have to give major props Keith Gordon for his very dynamic performance.  He starts off as a likable, but awkward nerd, but over the course of the film he becomes more aggressive and arrogant.  It's a believable arc for the character and Gordon does a great job in the role. The score is also excellent, which comes as no surprise when you discover John Carpenter scored the film as well as directed it.  Carpenter has created some of my favorite movie scores of all time and he made another great one for Ch

"If you will not continue to push the button, John, I will." -Mr. Eko "?" picks up with Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) having a dream where both Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez) and his brother, Yemi (Adetokumboh M'Cormack), tell him he must make Locke (Terry O'Quinn) take him to the question mark.  Eko journies to the hatch, where he, Locke, Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) discover Ana Lucia dead and both Michael (Harold Perrineau) and Libby (Cynthia Watros) with gunshot wounds. Mr. Eko and Locke try to find Henry's (Michael Emerson) trail, but Eko quickly reveals he actually wants Locke to take him to the question mark and when Locke refuses, Eko knocks him out.  Later, Locke shows Eko the drawing he made of the blast door map.  They follow it and it takes them to the plane that Yemi was on.  They eventually figure out the plane is on top of another Dharma station, the Pearl.  They enter it and lea