Among Friends (2012)

Title: Among Friends

Director: Danielle Harris

Starring: Alyssa Lobit, Jennifer Blanc, and AJ Bowen

Rated: R

Released: 2012

Personal Rating: 5/6

Oscars: N/A

Plot: A group of friends get together for a murder mystery party, but things take a dark turn when one hijacks the evening and is out for blood.
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Low Budget Movie
Now I don't post many reviews of b-movies to this blog, this because they can be difficult to review is a good manner. Yes, I'm a reviewer with a fondness for b-moives. So it's strange that I'd put a review of Among Friends on here. However, this movie is just so damn good that I don't care. I watched it late one night (or early one morning depending on your point of view) and was scared shitless by the end. That's the kind of scare I want in a horror movie. And this movie gave me that which is part of the reason I love it so much and decided to review it on this blog.

Reason for the Torture
Since I can't get too in depth with this part as I like to keep my written review spoiler free (and/or free of major spoilers) all I can say is that Bernadette has found out some really nasty things about the group. In retaliation of this she is showing everyone everyone else's secrets and making them pay. On one hand I see Bernadette as professing some great viewpoints on how fucked up people can be, but I still feel sorry for most of the pain that the group is put through.

Michael Biehn Cameo
If you haven't guessed by now: I am a Terminator fan. While I think The Terminator is the weakest of the films so far (I'll hold out opinions until Terminator Genesis hits theaters in 2015 for my least favorite Terminator film) I praise it on atmosphere, Arnold Schwarzenegger performance as the Terminator, and I can't think of Biehn without picturing Kyle Reese. So when I saw his cameo in the movie I clapped in glee in between being freaked out.

Final Thoughts
This movie is a ride, but it is not for everyone. The gore and subject matter can get too graphic and disturbing for some viewers (there is a small rape scene and if you're like me, you like to be forewarned about that stuff before viewing). However, if you can handle that you're in for a great time. Yes, it is cheaply made but it uses that to its advantage. Finally: Lobit's performance is to die for.

The Eternal Heart: Angelic Savior 1

"No, no, no." The cook told me and I had to hold back a sigh.

I had been accepted into the Resistance but that didn't mean much when my fellow comrades didn't trust me. Every day, sometimes every hour, it seemed there was a new rumor about me. The rumors usually focused on how I was secretly still working with Skynet. I assumed once John got things under control I'd be free to do what Resistance Fighters usually did.

For now I was doing simple jobs like kitchen duty.

"Sorry," I replied and stopped chopping up the vegetables.

"Do you know how rare these things are?" The cook asked me. Her voice seeming to tremble even before it left her throat.

"Really rare." I told her and tried to limit the sarcasm I put into those words.

"Yes, rare." She agreed. "Three days ago some soldiers came back with these and I'll be damned if you make it so that they're served wrong."

I held back a comment about how you couldn't really mess up chopping things. Well...I did for a few seconds.

"I'm chopping up vegetables, I think Skynet covered the chopping part in my programming." I replied.

"Maybe the human part of you didn't allow that part of the programming take hold." The cook said and I was silent. "Jash, you're a hybrid. I have heard talks about how you things are made."

"I'm sure when I was human I was very smart." I finally countered.

The cook just laughed.

"I'm sure and then you allowed yourself to be captured by Skynet." The cook said as she showed me how she wanted the vegetables to be chopped up.

"Well, maybe I gave my body to science because I thought Cyberdyne was a trustworthy company." I said and now she was silent as I started chopping as she had shown me.

While I didn't fully understand the cook, I knew enough to allow her what she wanted in the vegetable manner. Vegetables were extremely rare as Judgment Day had destroyed the ability of people to have a lot of successful harvests.

So finding a place you could farm at and get out even one successful harvest was a big deal.

"I didn't mean to-" The cook started.

"No, you didn't, cook." I said. "All of you just see the metal side of me, the side that Skynet used to control for a short time."

"I'm sor-" She tried again and didn't remark on the fact that I didn't call her by her name.

"No, you're not. You think you're sorry but you're just feeling momentary guilt that will go away when I leave."

The rest of the cooking was done in silence and even when she gave me instructions she didn't speak. Maybe she was feeling guilty. Maybe her view on me had changed after the many meals we had prepared together.

But that was too much to hope for. She would most likely tell the others that the metal she had worked with had frightened her and that maybe it was still working for Skynet. Then the others would congratulate her like she had taken on Skynet all by herself.

The smells had become thick when the cook gingerly tapped me on my shoulder. Her head and hand movements indicated that I was to go now. I didn't know why, but took the opportunity to leave anyway after cleaning up.

Leaving the kitchen I ran into two Resistance fighters that were recounting their latest battle. Like the majority of fighters, they weren't happy about fighting. They understood that in war you lost friends and that not everyone survived.

Some of them had even encountered that lesson first hand.

The Resistance fighters looked at me and I looked away. I didn't have a friend here. No one treated me like an actual person that had been hurt by Skynet. Only John Connor understood me. It was only by his word that I had lived this long.

But I feared that a Resistance fighter would get it into his or her head that it was safer if I was dead.

The only thing that was protecting me was John Connor and the fear the others had of me.

If only I could talk to John and have him help me with my confusion.

Was it good that I now lived or was it better if I had died?

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Terminator Salvation (Two-Disc Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]

Pretty Little Liars "Close Encounters" Review

I haven't talked about the show that much lately on this blog. I have not forgotten about it, far from it, but haven't been able to post about it for awhile. I like to get my reviews written the day after a show airs since I DVR nearly everything.

So what did I think about this week's episode?

I know the Aria cheating (?) on Jake with Ezra thing was supposed to be a big thing but I didn't really feel angry at Aria at all. It might be because a lot of time has seemed to passed when it hasn't. Hell, I had forgotten who Jake was until this episode.

So if I had remembered who Jake was before this episode...I don't know. On one hand I'd be mad at Aria for getting back together with Ezra before she told Jake that they were through but on the other hand Jake was going to go anyways. Ezria always looks like they're breaking apart and then they just come back together. In any relationship on this show I assume when someone is with another that they are exclusive (aka they don't see other people).

The Alison plot line is continuing nicely. She manages to get Emily alone, but then the meeting is ended when Spencer interrupts them. While Emily is mad about this Spencer brings out a good point: Alison is trying to split them apart. She made Emily seem special so that she could be manipulated.

Emily is mad about that but, really, Alison seems to be a jerk in all the flashbacks. Why the hell WOULDN'T she do that? I mean...why do the girls think Alison is some angel when she isn't?

Alison has been saying that she can't return to Rosewood because she's scared of someone. While I believed that to be A (aka Ezra), I am loving some of the theories where Spencer has a split personality disorder.

This would be why Toby and her father are trying to not expose the truth about what happened at Radley.

I know this probably isn't going to happen, but I so wish it would. It probably would happen on another network, though. But ABC Family is a light and fluffy channel.

Yes, Pretty Little Liars is light and fluffy even with how many dark turns it takes.

The Sandman Movie

I am not a big comic book person, but I've been meaning to catch up on a lot of lost time for awhile. One of the few comics I read when I was younger was Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series. My library didn't have all of them, so I only could read part of the series.

I have since begun to adore Gaiman's work and it would be interesting to see The Sandman on the big screen.

Now there is hope for such a movie as Joseph Gordon-Levit is producing the film and working with both David Goyer and Neil Gaiman.

I'm always a little more hopeful for an adaptation when the writer is involved.

For now imDB doesn't have much information on the movie and I got my information from THIS article.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II (Dagobah)

Sorry I haven't had a new part up in awhile. For Christmas and New Year's I was at revrezner's house and when I got back I didn't have time to play (I was keeping up with tv shows). So I was really excited to get back to the game today.

So let's get started!

At the end of the last part Starkiller was headed to Dagobah and he arrives there at the start of this one.

One thing that was irritating to start off with, but I didn't mind so much as time went on, was the fact that you can't use your Force Powers OR lightsabers at any time during this level.

Okay, that's partly not true as around half way through you're able to control enemy minds so that they attack each other. That's useful since you have no real means to attack any other way in the level.

On one hand I like getting a new Force Power but on the other hand Force Lightning is my baby.

The atmosphere on this level is just lovely to behold. In place of fighting the level decides to try and freak you out.

You are going through the cave that Luke Skywalker entered in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back so, of course, it's going to be scary and really the only reason that you don't have Force Powers the majority of the time (though I still wonder why not before you enter the cave and the game's reason seems to be that Starkiller doesn't think it'd be a good idea). And I think things that happen in the cave are symbolic.

As I haven't checked the facts before writing this, these are my own personal opinions so take them with a grain of salt: Starkiller runs into a dark version of himself that he first sees behind a crystal wall. I think that is meant to represent that he feels the Dark Side in himself and maybe that the original Starkiller (if this game's protagonist is a clone) would've been consumed by the Dark Side if he had lived.

You later on see many Dark Starkillers which shows that Starkiller just thinks he's one of a large group of clones. And that, to me, was the spookiest damn scene in the level.

Of course there is Juno that represents, of course, the fact that Starkiller loves her. Even if he doesn't believe he's the REAL Starkiller.

Finally there's Darth Vader whom Starkiller fears for very obvious reasons. Such as he's the Sith Lord that 'created' Starkiller and is a danger to Juno.

There are these other creatures but I just think that they are there to make the atmosphere even more spooky.

The only real 'challenge' this level had was a jumping section. I so wish I could edit videos right now since I had some good jabs. I loathe jumping but this part was fairly easy minus the fact that there are some things that will crumble and you'll die if you jump on. Figuring out what to jump on is fairly easy.

In this part Dark Starkiller is separated from you by a crystal wall. Watching him might provide help, but I didn't pay any great amount of attention to him and I survived.

Now for the story part:

Starkiller arrives on Dagobah and is spooked so much that he decides not to use his Force Powers or lightsabers in fear that whatever he senses means to do him harm if it feels threatened.

He quickly runs across Yoda who is his usual mystic and non-helpful self. I really wish there was some humor to his scene but that isn't the case.

Starkiller goes inside the cave and, after encountering different horrors, he sees a powerful vision of the future. In it he sees Juno in danger of dying.

After that he goes and picks up Kota and they join the rebel fleet. Kota informs Starkiller about how the Rebels have acted after his death. It seems that Juno is the real force behind the movement as she is looking for any victory, even if it is just symbolic, to make the troops feel better.

Starkiller informs Kota that Kimono is a good place to attack by providing the Jedi Master with files.

Kota says both that he hasn't told Juno about Starkiller and that he doesn't think it matters if Starkiller is a clone or not.

Before the conversation can continue, there is an attack on the rebel fleet.
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The Divergent Movie Trilogy

The Divergent books revolve around Tris and the society she lives in. They are great books and I recommend you read them ASAP. The first two are golden while the third one does provide answers and an end to the trilogy, but it doesn't hold up to the first two that well.

On March 21'st of this year we'll get to see Divergent on the big screen. I am very suspicious, as always, about how well the filmmakers will make the adaptation.

However, this blog post isn't about my uneasiness. This blog post is about the fact that it seems the other two books in the series are lined up for film adaptations too!

I admit it's confusing to me how the other two are greenlit when the first isn't even released yet. How do those in charge know if the other two will be financially successful?

Depending on how well the first one does will define how I think the other two will turn out.

Insurgent has a 2015 release date for now.

Of all the books, I got the most out of Insurgent. Divergent had opened me to the world then Insurgent came in to expand on it and had a killer cliffhanger ending. I don't know how I survived the wait for the final book.

Allegiant has a 2016 release date for now.

I am surprised that Allegiant isn't being broken up into two movies as that seems to be the rage nowadays. Maybe that will happen later?

I saw one person say Allegiant shouldn't be made into a movie since it has a very depressing ending.

Two things about that:

1.) I have seen (The Grey with Liam Neeson) and read (Cujo by Stephen King) endings that are far sadder than Allegiant's ending. Allegiant has a really sad and shocking ending, but it's not the saddest I have dealt with in the past.

2.) Having a sad and depressing ending doesn't mean you can't film it. If that were the case, some great movies wouldn't have been able to be filmed.

Allegiant's ending (without spoiling anything) showed that Veronica Roth treats Young Adults like adults. She basically said in the ending, "I know you can handle this."

The outcry from the readers might be from not expecting an ending like Roth gave them and had them confuse the sad ending for a bad one.

The Following "Resurrection" Review

My review of the Season 2 premiere!