Reviews

I knew season eight would be the last season, it was announced it would be before season eight really even debuted along with the exit of Anna Faris. With Anna Faris exiting I was sure season eight would suffer and I was right, the show revolved around Anna and Allison (I've been quite happily watching episodes from earlier seasons). With Anna's departure Mom became a show that I watched only to see it through to the end as I had been invested since the beginning and had come to care. This particular episode, the series finale you can tell wasn't supposed to be a series finale and it shows. Adam has cancer and yet we'll never know the outcome? Jill and Andy get married and begin preparing for a new baby but we'll never know the outcome? They introduce two new characters who aren't well written at all and I doubt we'd see them more than a few episodes of the show had continued... Maybe they're supposed to be what Bonnie and Christy might've been if they were at a really bad extreme (I don't know)? And once again Wendy is all but ignored by the writers.

You can't argue that no one knew things were coming to a final end with this season, it was reported as such early and with plenty of time to create an actual end even with a retrospective and perhaps featuring a few kind words from Anna Faris if not a quick cameo. Perhaps a time jump so Jill could have her baby? Perhaps an ending involving a young couple who want to get clean and it's Bonnie's and the group's turn to help them and have a better outcome (Jody). But this ending we got, this was utter drivel, this was crap... I missed the episode somehow and so I just bought it on Amazon for a $1.99 and frankly if I could I'd like my $1.99 back.

What could've been an inspiring and visually stunning film devolved quickly into a film that I was glad I didn't have to pay to see (I got to stream it for free), and if it hadn't been for the lead actress Britt Robertson whom I admire I'd have just turned it off.

What could've been a movie about an alternative land, Tomorrowland which is a visually stunning place initially, instead turns into a decayed message about war, climate change, how we treat one another and what not. These bad vibes are being transmitted across inter-dimensions and to our world by Tomorrowland never mind it's supposed to be fun, exciting, imaginative and a happy place. Never explaining what changed, they're doing this to our world and lamenting about how bad our world is. So...maybe...turn the darn thing off? Maybe if you weren't projecting bad vibes over then things would improve? Just say'n.

As I said it's never explained so far as I can tell how Tomorrowland went from a place of fun, excitement, imaginative to a dark desolate place. The actress Britt Robertson in her first feature length blockbuster movie is just wasted as what should've been a tag team effort between her character and Frank Walker, as played by George Clooney, Robertson quickly devolves into sidekick status and the tag team effort is between Walker (Clooney) and Athena (Cassidy). Athena isn't actually a cute smitten little girl but a robot that could give a terminator a run for its fighting money which is not at all believable. She knows where Frank lives in exile but needs someone like Casey (Robertson) to jump start Frank's desire to set things right? What went wrong to begin with? It's never explained fully... And did no one ever notice a rocket ship being built UNDER the Eifel Tower which transforms into its launch platform?

I've been wanting to see Tomorrowland for a while, because I'm a fan of Britt Robertson. An initially visually stunning movie quickly devolves into something you'll wish you had passed on. As I said, I'm just glad I got to stream it for free...

Don't listen to the naysayers about this movie... First, they're probably SJW's in how they're perceiving negative messages towards young girls. Politics invades everything I guess... Seems no one can just sit down and be entertained??? I saw a young female lead that was well written and holding her own against the young male talent. A character who's written to be athletic, intelligent, not afraid to stand up for herself and not wearing things that would be inappropriate for a girl of her age or a movie of this type. I saw both young males with whom she associates with protect her modesty, treat her right and stand up for her against that stereotypical dog of a guy. Secondly, have they read the source material? This movie is based upon a book of the same name. The movie is probably just as "lite hearted" or "cheesy" or "cringy" as the source material. I mean it's for teens, it's not some Oscar caliber movie after all.

I might've toned down the scene where Noah strikes a vehicle and yells at Elle and also chosen a college closer to home for Noah rather than test a budding relationship with him going to college on the East Coast (they live on the West Coast) so you could imagine they get together on the weekends and school breaks. Lee and Elle being both born at the same time to different parents who themselves are friends function was siblings. As the movie winds down I thought that the Lee character seemed rather clueless as Elle despite rules made in conjunction with Lee that run their friendship still can't help but fall for Lee's older brother Noah. I can understand that Lee feels as if yet again big brother Noah gets whatever he wants, including Elle, but playing up the Rachel character which Lee seems smitten with (and her with him) could've helped assayed any awkwardness or cluelessness...

This is the type of movie that should be made more often, it doesn't preach, it's a good way to spend a couple of hours...

I"m not one for besmirching Sully Sullenberger, the man saved one- hundred fifty-five lives that day he was able to use his experience to land safely in the Hudson River. The man is a hero. But while an excellent movie, I have to take an exception with it.

I never got around to seeing this movie while in theaters, so I had to rent it recently. It was interesting to see things from afterwards from the perspective of our hero. Cool and calm when the situation demanded it, but haunted about what might've happened, what he might've done differently. Usually when someone does something positively that's news worthy, that's all we hear about and then the news moves on. No one usually knows how, whatever the situation is/was, effected the individual afterwards.

But the exception I have to take is the NTSB being made to be the villain. I mean I guess you have to have a villain for their to be a movie, otherwise what's your hero going to fight or campaign against? The villains role should've been the birds the plane ran into, but their birds, they didn't strike the aircraft out of malice or ill intent. So you've gotta find a villain in order to make your movie. That's the NTSB. The NTSB did it's job, they investigated the accident - looked things over, ran some simulations and agreed with Sully that it was the best outcome. But the movie deviates from Sully's book, from the NTSB's investigation and makes them the villain needlessly.

The audience would've been better served with a documentary style piece, but they don't normally translate to big budget films. Guess when the story doesn't fit your intentions, you fudge the story. Which is why I'm giving it a seven out of a ten.

Rouge One is perhaps one of if not the best of the Star Wars movies. While admittedly starting a bit slow, Rouge One quickly takes off and doesn't look back. As more than one critic has stated, this is a war movie first and foremost. The characters don't spend time on sappy dialog and the sets, scenes and action are visually awesome and stunning. The movie viewer can appreciate the Empire being at the height of its power (troopers being able to actually hit things, and haven't some of us ever rooted for the Empire - just a little?), as well as rebels whom don't give up, don't need any hokey force but rather throw themselves into things with all they have and never give up.

Rouge One succeeds very much where Episode Seven failed. While both movies are visually stunning, their action scenes roller-coaster awesome and their female lead characters inspiring and believable. Rouge One is very much an original story, while Episode Seven - a really good film in its own rite - is also a disappointing rehash in several aspects (and that's confirmed by folks leaving the theaters - both at the end of Episode Seven and Rouge One - that I overheard).

I appreciate the Vader, and Leia for that matter, only really make cameos. It makes sense in that it keeps them from taking over the movie, and also a character like Vader; well you know HE would've never lost the plans for the Death Star. It also allows others within the Imperial military to shine, I mean while Vader might've been the most famous Imperial there were others of recognition also and this movie really allows them to come into their own.

Felicity Jones, whom I've admired for years, is going to see her career made by this movie. She's had a reputation for being careful in the films that she chooses to do, she'd rather do a film of substance rather than a hopeful blockbuster. She made the right choice in picking this movie, not because it was going to flop - I mean it' Star Wars - but rather it's a rare caliber of a blockbuster that draws in the viewer and you forget that you're "watching" a blockbuster. I wish Ms. Jones all the best of luck that this movie will bring to her, she deserves it as does the rest of her motley band whom knowing the odds still embraced a mission for the cause.

Okay, so my take on Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life… I found myself saying, "...it's nice to be home..." at the opening pan of the first episode, Winter. During the closing scene of the final episode, Fall, I found myself saying, "...really? What's happened to my girls? Those were the four words we've heard about all these years?"

Color me disappointed, it's like waiting all season for that new video game at Christmas time, you've anxiously awaited the day and then it comes. You unwrap your gift, plug it in to your console of choice and some time later you're left asking really? What happened to the reviews I read online? What happened to the gossip I heard about it? Those pictures in the online magazines? The clips on YouTube? Anyone who's fallen victim to video game hype will know what I'm talking about…

Rory's become a failure and an adulteress? She's basically without the drive and the passion we saw her with all those years ago, aimlessly floating through life...

Lorelei has lost that fire and whimsy we saw in her during the series. Maybe Luke and she are in a rut, maybe the inn is just bumbling along, but she's like just not there... What happened to the writers? Could they not find that passion they had during the show?

Emily has just lost her husband of fifty years, okay you'd expect her to mourn, you'd expect her to shut down. But she also just welcomes people into her house? The Emily Gilmore that I know would've taken charge, would've only taken on a maid she could actually talk to, would've been aghast at supposed family members underfoot. There's taking a new lease on life, then there's just being plain weird...

A musical? Cringe... Time within time I'm never going to get back. Sutton Foster whom could've had some very nice scenes with Lauren Graham (they look and act - if you ever saw Bunheads - so much alike) but she's wasted in the additional episodes.

Sookie leaves in order to study new plant growing techniques? What's new? Nutrient rich soil, plant, water and cultivate. Any high school or college agricultural lab can do what she's doing. That's all you can come up with ASP?

Everyone it seemed who had ever been of note had to make an appearance. Like checking off a list, a staple of reunion shows that everyone it seems has to have a scene or a cameo.

Sleeping Beauty, an art house film, is difficult to watch on two fronts. Let me just say to begin with that I really enjoy Emily Browning, she's one of a few actresses that I'll make an effort to watch whatever she (or they) may be involved in. If it weren't for Emily, I'd have passed on this movie; as it was it was necessary to push one's way through the movie just to see how it would wrap itself up.

Okay, so this movie was difficult to watch as it was first an uncoordinated mess in that nothing is ever explained… Why is Lucy allowing herself to be used for medical experimentation? Presumably she needs the money, which is alluded to in that she has trouble paying her portion of the rent. But perhaps a more plain explanation of exactly what experiment is being visited upon her? Exactly why a balloon catheter is being slipped down her throat? Delve into her personality, why is she so detached seemingly from all but a select few? How does she know the recovering drug addict who's teetering on his sobriety vs. relapsing? Why, when he overdoses and is about to die, she doesn't attempt to obtain help (like most anyone else would), but takes her top off and climbs into bed with him? I can appreciate the nude female form, but when I'm faced with imminent death I think I'd prefer the medical attention… And she's not even holding him and comforting him but rather he's holding her? Secondly delving into what the film is actually about, the Sleeping Beauty as it were, the film would've been better served with just how she came to be at such an extreme that she would accept a job from a stranger involving being sedated, put into a bed naked, then fondled, manhandled and whatever else short of penetration which she is assured won't happen cause it's a "rule." Well rules can be broken, particularly when you're unconscious and unable to even know whether or not it was enforced. I've never met you before, but after only a few minutes (probably a couple of hours in movie time), I'm going to strip myself nearly naked for inspection, allow myself to be sedated and whatever done to me because I have your "assurance" and I'll be well compensated afterwards.

Now I can enjoy a good art house film, but in addition to the aforementioned which should've sent any sane girl for the door. The film becomes difficult to watch as in the first scene as the Beauty, while naked, she's inspected and caressed by a man old enough to be her grandfather before he snuggles with her lifeless form. In the second scene, her lifeless like body is accosted by an overweight tyrant of a man whom seems to slobber all over her head and perhaps burn her with a cigarette. The third gentleman simply picks her up but can't seem to support her (perhaps a heart condition is implied), so he nearly tosses her on the bed but because of the way Ms. Browning's weight is distributed she flops head first off the bed. A shout out to the acting ability of Ms. Browning in that she put up with each, particularly flopping on to the floor, without a detection or hint that she's only acting and not really unconscious (which I'm assuming even they wouldn't do for the sake of the script) as any girl were this to happen in the real world would've said that's it and ended any business relationship...

The script for this movie could've been MUCH BETTER. It left me wondering just who writes this stuff? Say, our girl Lucy is hard up for cash to pay for her studies, a place to live and some spending money.

While staying with whichever friend of the moment will have her, she appeals to the university office of financial aid and unfortunately there isn't much if anything that can be done for her. Before she leaves, a young student overhearing her dilemma drops her some advice about how she can pick up some cash doing dinner service at a party (albeit she finds out it requires nudity but she needs the cash). Alas this is on the edge of what she happens to be studying, and it doesn't seem so bad. Perhaps we even have a few scenes between the two girls so the second can fall into the background and it be believable. A few more dinner services go by but then the house mistress, for whatever reason, needs a new Sleeping Beauty on the spot. Promised an opportunity at advancement if she proves herself, Lucy accepts both for the increased compensation, but also as this flirts with the edges of what she's studying. Then over the course of several men, we watch as she journeys from being a researcher to embracing (or not) the lifestyle. She could even accept the position for the benefit of moving into the house and an increase in her quality of life as benefits.

So there, I've just rewritten the movie so that it makes sense. It actually has a plot and a feasible script now which is what was lacking in this movie. After finishing this movie, I don't know how I did but I did, I looked up some reviews to try and make sense of it all and to assure myself I wasn't a perv for watching a little girl with men old enough to be her grandfather. I can't believe this film was so well received around the indie film circuit. Only because it was somehow well received and also an art house film rather than a mainstream release do I think it won't damage Ms. Browning's career.

So for what's really a family's nightmare, Finding Carter is surprisingly a really good show. With a well developed cast of characters and an original premise, this show doesn't fall into the routine of other procedural or typical family drama as the family works to rebuild after a said crisis.

There's very few things wrong with this show - namely Carter believes to easily in her kidnapping but you can't dwell on it as you've gotta move the show along. Her "twin sister" is the biggest thing wrong with the show in that it should be noted as a fraternal twin as most people hear twin and think identical and they're not. And Carter's guy/boy friend is just to dumb.

It'll be interesting as the show unfolds. Hopefully we'll get flashbacks of Carter's life with her kidnapper mom, we'll see family life after she was kidnapped. Why did Lori kidnap Carter? Elizabeth's, and the authorities, hunt for Lori. We'll see how Carter impacts the family and they her. I'm glad that Carter throws down with Elizabeth, her birth mom, and still identifies with Lori, her kidnapper mom, as this show could've become a very sappy family reintegration show if it had wanted to.

So I fell victim to a movie commercial again, in that they often make the film seem much better than it actually is. I saw Vampire Academy this opening Friday, and while an enjoyable film it ultimately in afterthought left a lot to be desired. Ever flip on some channel and turn on a movie that you've missed about half of? Well that's VA, which in my opinion would've made a much better film if they had put an opening movie in front of this particular feature, although by the box office returns this'll probably be the only film of the series made (ouch – 7th on opening weekend)… But Zooey Deutch, whom I really went to see, was an energetic delight with her spunk filled portrayal of Rose. Loyal to her friend Lissa Dragomir to no end I really enjoyed her attitude and that of her being still a novice and not attempting to have the audience believe she's the end all be all of good vampire guardians in the body of a teenage girl who's probably not old enough to legally drink and would get carded if she tried.

Otherwise the film is mediocre at best and leaves a lot of questions unanswered. So a car accident is just a car accident (which itself is unusual for these types of films but fine). But exactly how are Rose and Lissa related to each other? Siblings? Friends? I mean one's a full on vampire and the other is only half a vampire / half human? Explanation please? And why exactly are they on the run? I mean I know we find out that Rose was compelled to take Lissa away and then to forget why, but even the initial reason was kind of ambiguous and weak. For a vampire princess in a school of vampires, Lissa really is treated poorly by her student peers. Sarah Hyland as Natalie was convincing enough as the chatterbox friend, but as a villain? No not really. And to have been turned evil by your own father… What kind of father turns his own daughter? And when exactly was she turned because I thought it was implied that the bad vampires were near rabid in their nature but she seems to be in control just fine.

So while an okay film, I can applaud its quick pace (no running to get a snack in this movie), this film really felt like they had taken the entire series of books and tried to cram it into one movie. Those whom either haven't read the books or need to be led along might feel there's a lot left to be desired.

Spoilers possible during the course of this review, you've been warned...

After reading up in Wikipedia about this movie I wasn't expecting much. But after viewing another movie at the same theater I was able to see The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and was really surprised. Despite what the critics had to say, I thought it was a really good movie... It was well shot, wasn't very much at all sappy, not to violent, and as a story held together well enough despite a couple of things.

Those couple of things are (spoilers) - 1) That the heroine Clary doesn't recognize that her male friend whom she see's akin to a brother is actually in love with her? That the guy whom she becomes attracted to and even kisses, we find out later in the movie could very well be the brother she never knew she had (which being slightly incestuous aside, is just a weak plot device in both film and book from which the movie is taken). 2) The villain, Valentine, wasn't as intimidating as I would've thought the way the characters were telling of him to Clary.

Lily Collins is a beautiful site to look at and also a standout performer. Quickly taking the title of Hollywood's new "it" girl, she does the film justice with her abilities. She really rocked her role in this movie and any of her fans will not be disappointed.

First of all, this may contain or elude to spoilers...

That being said, I want to be open minded. I acknowledge that Star Trek has become bogged down as often being "message" heavy. And maybe perhaps Trek does need a reboot, or at the very least an injection of more action and less talk.

So, I'll give props to where props should be given. Star Trek by JJ Abrams is a beautiful looking movie. The effects were by no means skimped on and to those whom that sort of stuff matters, you will not be disappointed. I also appreciated the cast as they were the right people for the role with the exception of the individual whom played Checkov (to young for the role). And lastly, the storyline with the exception of a few minutes held itself together and kept moving. I observed no cell phones lighting up with people attempting to check the time until the movie would end. It was very much a hold on and lets go kind of storyline.

However there's also a lot wrong with this movie. As a Star Trek purist I should have heeded Abrams advice and stayed home. JJ Abrams takes wide license with this movie and that's saying it nicely. While it's interesting to see the beginnings of each character as their origins has never been "officially" delved into, we're also to believe the following...

JJ and crew have at best taken a wide license with interpretation or at worst didn't bother to actually watch an episode of old Trek for the purpose of research.

Engineering abroad the Enterprise and the USS Kelvin look more like a vessel from Battlestar Galactica or a contemporary freighter. Open, dank, dirty, pipes and conduits exposed and everywhere. And the Enterprise herself? What were you thinking JJ? What have you done? That's just has to be the worst interpretation (okay, just horrible) of the starship Enterprise I've ever seen. Some things you just don't mess with. Trek is known for its crisp and clean look, inside its starships and out.

And whom builds their starships actually "on" Earth? Starships are massive vessels and are built in space for obvious reasons. Not the middle of Iowa (which is convenient for young Kirk I guess). But there's a reason that the US Navy for example doesn't build carriers in Iowa but rather along the East Coast. Use some common sense JJ!

The interior corridors and the bridge where a significant amount of the movie takes place look like something out of a video game. I mean I understand that in reality, time changes things. For those whom watched Star Trek: Enterprise, set one-hundred years or so before TOS, did you really expect something that looked like it was from the 70's? Well in the movie I certainly wasn't expecting the bridge of the Enterprise to look like something you'd see on Playstation or XBox.

A Romulan mining ship that can time travel? Really? Since when? And just what kind of future arms a mining ship with enough fire power to take out a flotilla of Star Fleet vessels that it itself dwarfs?

JJ, you destroyed Vulcan! That's just not right man! How could you? Star Trek has enough unexplained areas for you to play with, but somethings you just should leave alone. If you accept this movie as part of the Star Trek lore then it fundamentally changes everything. It means that the Vulcan everyone knows and refers to is actually the "new" Vulcan and Spocks mother is killed in the process of said planets destruction (despite appearing in a few TOS episodes and movies). It's as if someone were to reboot say...Star Wars and decide Vader didn't need to die at the end of the last movie or something as equally paramount. Why bother destroying Princess Leia's homeworld with the Death Star. It looks menacing enough. Did you even bother to watch any of the episodes in order to see what you should've left alone???

I'm really am crossed about this movie. I want to both like it as it really reinvigorates Trek. It instills it with new energy that some of you will agree that it needed. But also I'm disappointed with this movie for the reckless abandon that was used in writing it without caring about the damage being done. Trek fans are already arguing over which series cast they like better, or the interpretation of this or that... Now we're going to argue over which movie reality we like better to!

KB

I had wanted to see this movie when it had originally been in theaters. However, I never got around to it and had to settle a longtime later for renting it on DVD. Now not being an avid theater person, I really don't feel like I missed anything by waiting for the DVD but I will say this.

I did enjoy the movie. I enjoyed how it was different from a generic scare fest because it was a period piece. It wasn't yet another movie where a generic family moves into a generic house that's described as haunted by the local folks. Dating this movie to 1818 allowed for witchcraft to be taken seriously as a cause, and setting the movie in a small village in the country added to the spookiness as opposed to having a modern movie set in a modern metropolis.

The acting was first rate. The girl whom played Betsy was really good and should have a good career ahead of her should she continue to act. The rest of the cast was also good. I'm not a big fan of Donald Sutherland, the family father, but I can't lodge a complaint against him in this movie.

Now, where the movie begins to fall apart is when it tries to link the spirit terrorizing the family to child molestation??? You spend the entire movie wondering if Ms. Batts could really have put such a curse on the daughter of the family she had had a land dispute with. Then when that's answered, you wonder just what the family could have done that was just so-so bad? And seemingly out of no where comes child molestation? Where did that come from? Cause maybe I need things explained to me, but until the flash in time sequence at the very end of the movie I would have never guessed that. And from the resources that I read about the movie and how it picked and chose what it wanted from the Bell witch legend and then added its own material I'm not even sure the molestation was real or the product of a fancy writer and/or director's imagination. Maybe it's saying something about them???

The spirit is attacking Betsy throughout the movie? Why? If she is a victim of on going child molestation by her father then it's her fault and she has to be punished? You'd think the spirit would be going after the father from the beginning. The movie would have been much better if the spirit had simply been caused by Ms. Batts with whom the family had had a land dispute and she put a curse on the daughter.

The commentary on the DVD describes the opening and ending scenes with the girl being chased by a mysterious force in the snow and then later being taken away by her father to the horrific realization of her mother as bookends for the movie in between. Really? You actually put thought into shooting these scenes? They could've been left out entirely and it wouldn't have affected the movie. And I'm still not convinced the father driving off with his daughter at the end of the movie had even done anything wrong. At least I didn't see it on the girls expression. And the spirit is terrorizing her in the modern period of time presuming she's even a victim? If they had wanted to convey something then they sure did a bad job.

If you want to see a really good movie in a similar vein then see The Possession of Emily Rose. That's a good movie about a decidedly religious family and their daughter whom is terrorized by a spirit and possessed by the devil. While set in a modern time it doesn't make the same mistakes that An American Haunting made.

KB

First let me say this. I enjoy Terminator and didn't hate the pilot episode. I don't worship it, but I enjoy it as much as most fans. When I heard that Terminator was coming to television as a weekly series I was instantly curious of the storyline and quality as the movies and mythos are such that a series is a very tall order. Well if I had to phrase things then I'd say that the pilot, while good, fell several inches short of being tall.

First the cast. Lena Headley and Thomas Dekker are good enough as Sarah and John Connor. I've got no trouble with them. Lena Headley brings a believable routine of life but also caution to Sarah. While Thomas Dekker brings a believable portrayal of John having moved from T2's almost enjoying the excitement to years later the weight of his predestined life overbearing him. The reluctant hero as they'd say. I love Summer Glau, I'm an avid fan, and think that she's an interesting choice to actually be a terminator. Understanding that terminators likely come in different shapes and sizes to avoid being instantly singled out, I still can't be bias and so I feel that she's perhaps to small against the beefy bad terminator played by Owain Yeoman the way she's thrown around like a doll. I also had trouble with how she acts to human, not enough monotone in my opinion, to make you initially curious. Regardless of how advance she may be she needs to deepen her voice and no longer apologize like she did to John in the pilot for "lieing" to him. She lied in order to get close to him, it's what she does. However I remain open minded, and knowing her range of abilities as an actress from Firefly and Serenity, I'm more than willing to give her a chance, cause it was only the pilot episode and I gave that same chance to Sarah Michelle Gellar, whom I had never heard of before, as Buffy Summers and Katherine Heigl in Roswell whom I thought would just be T&A after a few episodes, and Shiri Appleby also in Roswell whom I had only ever seen before in two episodes of Xena Warrior Princess!

Owain Yeoman I don't like. He needs to be more cold, more machine. Right now he's trying to hard. Robert Patrick as the T-1000 exuded both those attributes in spades while having a lot more wicked fun. He needs to take some lessons and get some memorable lines of which I only heard one while he was shooting up the school.

Understand me when I say I did like the pilot overall. It could have been better, but hey it's only the pilot episode. I already do like how the writers and producers acknowledge that they intend to stay away from the terminator of the week, meaning we'll see other stories and developments. I also like how Summer as Cameron Phillips uses her computerized brain as much as her indisputable brawn. And this time around, it looks as if future John Connor has sent back what could amount to caches of materials that can be used in their fight and flight in future episodes. As the series develops it'll be interesting to watch how things coalesce and what the writers can come up with. Let's just hope that they can stay original, stay away from the mundane, and that the fans are willing to give this show a chance and not savage it because it may not be T2 in quality on a weekly basis.

KB

Exactly what the summary says folks.... I'll be the first to admit that there'll always be an audience for every type of movie, and I'm meaning the blood and gore set here. But as I sat and watched the trailers that fit with this movie play by I realized something, that the over whelming number of horror genre films out there are just that, blood and gore and general over indulgence. Now maybe I'm older than my years, but whatever happened to the bloodless horror movie? The movie that you didn't know who the villain was? What was around the corner? Where the protagonist(s) did more than run around in situations that were going to certainly end in their deaths? In When a Stranger Calls, they did a very nice job of paying attention to the details and you can tell. I mean what teenage girl now-a-days is all that athletic (in the movies)? Our girl Jill appears physically in shape and in fact she runs track. That conveys reality when she has to fight for her life and those she's sitting for. And show me an attractive teen girl who's going to be sitting around on a weekend night also. Again the attention to detail. Boyfriend, relationship trouble no less, equals abnormally high cell phone bill. She generally doesn't want to be around him. And because of her cell bill is grounded. Grounding gets our girl alone. Her father making her pay her own cell phone bill forces our girl Jill to find a quickie job. And her boyfriend being at the school bon-fire means he can't conveniently be there to save her and the day (old horror movie cliché)...

And the villain is just that. A villain. No big grandiose history linking Jill to our villain. No master plan. Anyone who's been a victim of a random crime can testify that bad people do bad things to others with or without cause and they don't necessarily care who you are.

When a Stranger Calls can be appreciated for its beautiful scenery and its attention to detail. It can be appreciated that for once in an otherwise typical genre the girl is the fighter (which seems to be the in thing now). And she looks the part of an average girl to, not someone whom should be walking the catwalks in Milan or Paris but rather the casual friend you'd hang out with.

Camilla Belle as Jill is an extremely talented up and coming star. A fan of hers, she's why I went to see this movie and I'm glad I did. She's believable in her fighter and victim role as Jill Johnson, and deftly carries the film through its entire run. Camilla Belle is one of a type of actresses that you want in your movie not necessarily because she's known and will thusly sell seats, but because she's the right actress for the role your looking for. And it's rare to find that and even rarer that Hollywood casts it. I should know, reading up on this movie I learned that the people behind When a Stranger Calls had to really work to get Camilla to join them. They felt that strongly about her.

When a Stranger Calls could be a little more suspenseful, I'll grant you that. While still very much enjoying the movie I thought that it did drag just a bit in places and the last second in the hospital was out of place. But in the absence of so much blood and gore that you need a poncho, and in the absence of the need of a multi-volume set of books to keep up with the backstory. This is a very simple and enjoyable movie.

KB

For the most part I really enjoyed this movie (contains some vague possible spoilers).... The script was really there, wasn't at all unreal with a few minor exceptions. And the actors really were on their game. In particular singling out the ever talented Danielle Panabaker, whom I've really been a fan of for a long while and feel she really has a future in the acting world. The mother of a child at only sixteen, she as did her character's family, demonstrated that having a child so young is really hard and isn't something that should be taken lightly. So often you'd expect to see a family rallying to the cause in a movie such as this, but in this movie you didn't and because her world wasn't coming up roses despite the fact of having had a child really made it all the more interesting.

What wasn't interesting however, and where those exceptions come into play, was when it started to become preachy documentary. As you would expect for a movie of this type, it quoted facts and statistics and then had what I'd call a "7th Heaven" moment in the school auditorium. I may be saying the wrong thing here, but since when have schools given more than a fleeting conversation or class time to such a thing as teen pregnancy? Maybe that's what's wrong with schools? I myself can only remember one and only one health class in my four years of high school, and that was more about STD's. I'm also not belittling teen mom's, but on parade? Didn't we at all expect that at some point in the movie once Jacey started hanging out with the other teen mothers? Maybe perhaps it would take something like that to scare kids into changing their ways, like putting a wrecked out car on the school front lawn to demonstrate the possible consequences of drunk driving, but I'd more likely guess that today's kids are rather very set in their ways. Cause even wreaked out cars aren't keeping our children from in some cases drinking and driving themselves to death.

I lastly had a serious problem with the girls choice of dress and the guys reaction to them. I couldn't imagine a girl being allowed into my school, or most any reputable school dressed such as some of these girls were dressed. And guys hooting and hollering at them such as they were? Do I dare ask if that even goes on? Overall I really enjoyed this movie. I didn't so much like the preachy moments as stated above. But I also liked how such an event as befell Jacey wasn't just a speed bump in the road of her family's life but rather a train wreck. Cause sure, by the end of the movie it was all roses, but it definitely didn't start out that way.

Bello