Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

 "The record is spinning again.  We're just not on the song we wanna be on." -Daniel Faraday "LaFleur" picks up just after Locke (Terry O'Quinn) leaves the Island and stops the time flashes.  Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), Miles (Ken Leung), and Daniel (Jeremy Davies) decide to go back to the beach to wait for Locke to return, but come across a skirmish between the Dharma Initiative and the Others and eventually realize they are stuck in 1974. They kill the Others and save a Dhama member, Amy (Reiko Aylesworth), but not her husband, Paul.  Suspicious of her saviors, Amy walks through the sonic fence with earplugs in, which knocks out the rest of the group when they follow her.  Sawyer is met by the leader of the Dharma Initiative, Horace Goodspeed (Doug Hutchinson).  Sawyer convinces him that they were the crew of a shipwrecked salvage ship and were looking for the rest of the crew.  Horace buys this, but pla...

 "I've seen this movie before." -Sidney Prescott In the town of Woodsboro, Ghostface returns and starts attacking and killing people.  The deadly game draws in plenty of suspects, both new and old, and no one is safe. Spoilers ahead.  The Scream movies are all whodunnits, so of course there are going to be spoilers in this review.  If you like the Scream movies, you'll like this one a lot, so drop what you're doing and go see it. What Works: I'll start with the opening.  The Scream movies are famous for starting off with a well-know actor getting killed off in a terrifying opening sequence.  This time around, it was all over the marketing, and we all knew Jenna Ortega's character, Tara, was going to bite it very quickly.  And it looked like we were all going to be right.  She gets brutally attacked and it's one of the gorier moments in the franchise.  Except, she lives!  In a twist I was not expecting, Tara lives and is a major player in...

 "You're a kite dancing in a hurricane." -Mr. White After M's (Judi Dench) death, James Bond receives a video tape from her telling him to kill a man named Marco Sciarra (Alessandro Cremona) and then attend his funeral.  This leads Bond on a collision course with an organization known as SPECTRE and their leader, whom Bond has very personal connection to. What Works: I really like the first 2/3rds of Spectre and it starts with an excellent opening sequence and the best part of the movie.  The initial long take to open the film is extremely impressive craftsmanship and the following fight in the helicopter is spectacular.  This movie certainly perks early, but it's a very high park. The next few action sequences are also a lot of fun.  We get a classic car chase and Craig finally gets a car laden with gadgets.  Unfortunately, not all of gadgets were loaded into the car when he took it.  The airplane/car chase in the Austrian alps is also very well done ...

 "Welcome to Scotland!" -Kincaid During a mission in Turkey, James Bond (Daniel Craig) is shot and seemingly killed in action.  Three months later, MI6 is attacked which draws Bond out of retirement.  He is sent to find the person responsible for the attack and learns it is someone from M's (Judi Dench) past. What Works: Skyfall 's villain, Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), is my favorite Bond villain of the entire series.  He's extremely unique in that he is completely unhinged.  We've never had a Bond villain this crazy before and Bardem plays him as a bit of a tragic cartoon character.  His introduction is extremely memorable as he tries to make Bond sexually uncomfortable.  Silva doesn't show up until about halfway through the film, but he still manages to steal the show. The action is fantastic throughout and we get some really creative sequences.  The opening is really dynamic as we get a car chase, a shootout, a bike chase, and a fight on a trai...

 "The first thing you should know about us is we have people everywhere." -Mr. White After capturing Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), James Bond (Daniel Craig) and M (Judi Dench) are betrayed by a fellow MI6 agent and White escapes.  Bond embarks on a violent quest for vengeance as he attempts to learn more about White's organization and tries to find the man responsible for Vesper's death. What Works: The best part about Quantum of Solace is Daniel Craig's performance.  This is another vengeance based Bond movie, like License to Kill, so of course Bond is pissed off the entire time, but he isn't just angry at the world, he's angry with himself.  This movie is about Bond letting go of his pain and anger and that aspect works well. I also really like both Bond girls.  Olga Kurylenko's Camille is on her own quest for vengeance and the man she's after is far easier to hate than the film's main villain.  She's really likable and competent.  I wo...

 "Christ, I miss the Cold War." -M Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a banker for the world's terrorist organizations, loses a large amount of his clients' money in a failed scheme.  To make it back, he hosts a high-stakes poker tournament with the winner getting nearly $150 million.  MI6 gets James Bond (Daniel Craig), a recently promoted 00 agent, into the game, but the inexperienced agent doesn't know as much as he thinks he does. What Works: The character of James Bond has always been a character without much in the way of flaws.  Sure, he has plenty of vices, but they've never really prevented him from doing his job with ease.  Daniel Craig takes the character in a different direction.  Since this is a reboot of the series, we're able to see Bond on his earliest missions and he has a few things to learn.  Sure, he's generally the smartest person in the room, but he is arrogant.  It's great to see more flawed take on the character.  It's an in...

 "Read this, bitch!" -Jinx Johnson James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is sent on a mission to North Korea, which goes terribly wrong.  He is betrayed, captured, and tortured for 14 months.  He is finally traded for a terrorist named Zao (Rick Yune).  Bond soon goes rogue in order to track down Zao and find the person who betrayed him. What Works: I know a lot of people consider this to be one of the worst Bond movies, but I'm a big fan.  This is probably the silliest and most over-the-top of all the Bond movies.  This has never bothered me.  My favorite Bond film is  Octopussy for crying out loud.  Sure, we have invisible cars, face changes, space lasers, and sci-fi power suits.  Does any of this bother me?  Nope.  I think it's incredibly fun and I'm always laughing along with the movie when it gets ridiculous. The action is really excellent throughout the entire film.  The hovercraft chase to open the movie is very inventive and...

Normally, I do a 10 Worst Movies of the Year post, but I actually only saw 7 movies that I would consider bad.  So we'll do a 7 Worst Movies instead.  From Best to Worst, here is my list! #7. Voyagers I'm not exactly a big fan of Sci-fi movies, but I thought the trailer for this one was interesting and had a sort of mystery element.  That isn't really the case, which is a shame.  I do like the 1st act of the movie and the predicament the characters find themselves in.  Colin Farrell does a good job and the technical aspects are all great and really set the mood.  However, these characters are beyond stupid and really take me out of the movie.  The dialogue is way too on the nose, the characters are extremely unlikable, and the danger presents itself in the form of rape at times, which makes the movie much harder to enjoy. #6. Space Jam: A New Legacy Most people will probably be surprised I don't have this movie lower, but it does a few things better th...

 "There's no point in living if you can't feel alive." -Elektra King A bomb is set off in MI6, which kills a friend of M's (Judi Dench).  The deceased's daughter, Elektra (Sophie Marceau), appears to be the next target and James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is sent to protect her.  It turns out, the terrorist is an old an enemy of M's, Renard (Robert Carlyle), a man who can feel no pain. What Works: The best part of this movie is definitely Sophie Marceau's performance as Elektra.  She's one of the most dynamic characters in the run of the series and makes the movie worth rewatching.  She and Brosnan have great chemistry and she elevates every part of the movie she's in. The action is also solid, as per usual.  Boat chases are very hard to make interesting, but The World is Not Enough gives us the best one of the series and Brosnan's signature moment as he adjusts his tie underwater.  The ski chase and the fight on the submarine are both very good...

2021 is finally over and it's time for me to pu my Top 10 list together.  While there were a lot of great movies this year, I didn't see much that was truly amazing.  Granted, there were a handful I missed with Dune probably being the most notable, so forgive me not having it on my list.  Let's do this! #10. Pig  Part John Wick, part...something else, Pig gives us one of Nicolas Cage's best performances of his entire career.  It's not hammy.  It's not over the top.  It's a grounded performance and one that will devastate you.  The story is engaging and leave you baffled as to what is coming next.  The music is excellent and and it boasts one of the single most emotional scenes of the year. #9. Nobody Speaking of John Wick, I expected Nobody to be good, but I was not expecting it to be just as badass as John Wick .  The action sequences are very exciting and well done and both Bob Odenkirk and Christopher Lloyd kick a ton of ass.  I ...