prazbin Reviews

Cold Squad: And the Fury: Part 2 (2005) Season 7, Episode 13

An episode of regret to end forever

[10/10 · 24 October 2006]

Part 2: And the Fury is one of Cold Squad's finest episodes. It's the episode that makes all of the series come to an end and it well better be over for all its characters. Right at the end, when Sgt. Ali McCormick shoots by accident the prime suspect she's been suspecting of a little girl's kidnapping, she cries at the end, she really regretted what she's done right as the episode ends. Before she kills the guy, she's being the villain, what kind of police sergeant is being ? That last scene when Ali cries as she regrets what she's done, is also the moment when all she has done in her career as a cop, she regrets because she went throw a lot of trouble bringing justice to Vancouver. I wonder what would Det. Tony Logozzo be doing if he appeared in this episode. I think Ali regrets some things she as done in other episodes of the series, like breaking up with to boyfriends in the past, quitting her job at the end of season 6 and getting back to it in episode 1 of season 7, punching some suspects she tracked before sending them to justice, not being convinced by Sgt. Len Harper to release Lila Nelson in Borders after the drug bust, and a hole lot more things to mention, the list goes on.

As far as the others characters are concerned, Sgt. Len Harper does regret anything even if he should, finding his own daughter Kassia when she was missing, relieves him from avoiding any regrets in his own career as a cop. Det. Samantha Walters should regret what she's done to her family after she arrests her own father, which she deserves to in the end, regret it that is. Can we believe that she was an exotic dancer before becoming a cop, according to her backgrounds ?!?! Just comes to show that this is the episode from which we digged deeper in the personal lives of the investigators. Period.

This Is Wonderland: Episode #3.1 (2005) Season 3, Episode 1

Caitlin Flannery or Ali McCormack

[24 March 2006]

Great episode of This is Wonderland. It pushes aside episode 5 of season 2 as my favorite This is Wonderland episode, with the accused stripper Belinda Peters and her naughty colleague. Now I hate that episode. I don't care much about strippers and their tricks.

With Julie Stewart in it as struggling Caitlin Flannery in court, this takes her a long way from being Sergeant Ali McCormack, this sort of female Sherlock Holmes in the series Cold Squad.

See how she feels as an accused instead of an accuser... that kind of funny, because I wonder what would bylaws see if the tables turned around, if they were the accused.

Wanted (2005)

Good enough as a good cop show !

[6 December 2005]

I never saw The Shield so, I can't compare myself this show with the other. I find this show should be called a bounty hunter show instead of cop show. I don't see the arrests in hand-cuffs being done much in any episode of this series (which is OK at my taste, because I think hand-cuffs today are pesky instruments), I see the crooks being killed (which I'd never wanna be one of them, seeing this throw their eyes). On the first episode, we see three characters being killed, the blonde stripper gets shot in her apartment by the crook, the crook gets shot by Cony as he fights and kills one of Cony's alcoholic colleagues, how tragic is that ?

Maybe the show is a mess at the beginning, because of three people dying, especially that blonde stripper, who didn't deserve to die. The next episodes are cool, looks like the makers of this series used the strategy of making this show look bad at the beginning but it turns out OK in the end. Most shows I watch should be like that !

The Order (2003)

Anti-blasphemous movie

[7/10 · 28 November 2005]

The Order tells the story of Fr. Alex (Heath Ledger) who seeks the Sin Eater. Very interesting story, if this movie got a lot of bad reviews, it's probably because they are fewer worshipers in God as predicted by the Irish prophet Malachie today, and people think this is nonsense. In every existing faith on earth, each representing God at different perspectives, the Devil is present in all of us, so is God, The Order takes you to the point in between good and evil as seen by the Catholic perspective.

What makes this movie mysterious would be the flat beat in the end of the movie, showing the ending credits, played in the bar in the middle of the film, too. If this movie got bad reviews, people are scared of God and His will, they shouldn't be.

Amen !

Maria Full of Grace (2004)

What a movie...Quepasa !

[24 October 2005]

This HBO films production was quite interesting. From other movies about drug trade, like Bad Boys II, this one was very realistic. A lot of drugs come from Colombia, the trade there seems to turn into a legalized trade even if it isn't.

When Maria has to go throw the Customs and she nearly gets caught, looks like her unborn child saved her from being escorted out the airport in hand-cuffs behind her back just like the curly blonde Colombian woman being escorted in front of Maria. For a moment there, I feared Maria would be next to be escorted in hand-cuffs behind her back out of the airport, I was both enjoying and getting heart-pumped about that scene; I enjoyed because I love to see young woman in hand-cuffs, especially whores more than mules. I got heart-pumped, like I was feeling Maria's fear of not getting inside the US.

With Maria being in the Colombian community in Queens, New York, it really shows a side of the place unknown to the average American. Glad in the end, Maria stays in America, because the country always gives hope of a better life or it use to. If this is based on a thousand true stories, then it must have been settling in the 90's, before 9/11 !

Downfall (2004)

Down...fall, a movie that expresses depressive emotions

[10/10 · 17 October 2005]

Downfall or Der Untergang is a great movie. It really teaches a lesson in history on the side of the enemy, because most WWII movies told the story about the war on our side, never on our enemy's side. You may see that us Allies, we were as evil as the Nazis (maybe more the Soviets than the American-British-Canadian-French together, were more evil).

For the reasons in the previous paragraph, this WWII is like none other. It came out in theaters at a great time here in North America, marking the 60th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe, a great time to learn the lesson in history.

Seeing Hitler (Swiss actor Bruno Ganz) so depressed, shows him like never before. The way he was being so emotive, reminded me of harsh moments in my life, I view this movie to confront this moments as I remember them, it doesn't help nor the opposite, it simply expresses my own emotions for me !

Alegría (1999)

What wonder Alegria gives !

[10/10 · 16 October 2005]

I never knew a movie about one of the Cirque du Soleil's best circus acts was given a motion picture adaptation. I felt like a child again, immortalized by watching this movie, couldn't resist its wonder. Previous credits give it 10 out of 10, I must agree with them.

As of Gullieta, I thought French actress Vanessa Paradis played her, like it was one of her first roles ever, but it turns out to be a British actress called Julie Cox, don't know her much. All actors in this movie, I don't know, its the first time I'm amazed from viewing an indy film.

Back in 1998, when it must have come out, I went to see Saltimbanco in Ottawa with my teachers and classmates of elementary school. The ending scene reminded of that first time at the Cirque du Soleil !

In America (2002)

I never seen a better movie to remember my childhood

[10/10 · 9 October 2005]

I was so touched by this movie when it premiered on The Movie Network in December 2004, a great time for me also. Watching this movie with the father, the mother and their daughters moving to a suburban New York apartment, the year they spend there with the seasons passing, and third daughter born, I cried and smiled as I watched the end. It was a good thing for it to be Oscar nominated.

From watching this movie, I looked back at the good things that happened to me during toddler-hood, making me realize how treasured I should keep it. A time I which to relive, but it's totally impossible.

Of all the blessings this movie grants, I'd say Amen !

Showgirls (1995)

Getting so hooked to the strip scenes

[5 October 2005]

WOOOOOOOOHHHHH!!! (like WWE wrestler Ric Flair says) The strip scenes by Elizabeth Berkley and Rina Riffel gets men like me, young and old, so hooked and tempted like always in real life strip bars. You can just constantly watch the moves these two actresses make by rewinding the strip scenes. It practically bursts the imagination of guys with sexual thoughts.

When you see Nomi's face (Elizabeth Berkley), she looks so confident about stripping. Thinking about too much sex, its difficult to resist the temptation she brings....WOOOOOOOOHHHHH!

One more WOOOOOOOOHHHHH! For the part when both Nomi and Hope (Rina Riffel) dance on one pole together topless in red panties, pant-sing themselves one at the time. It's the best strip scene in the hole movie.

WOOOOOOOOHHHHH!... for a ten year old movie!

The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

The time stopper sort of movie

[1 October 2005]

It was quite a big surprise when I attended the premiere of The Phantom of the Opera, starring Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler. It was in the middle of December, a week before Christmas, I came to the special premiere in Ottawa at Famous Players Gloucester Cinema with my mom and sister who had special passes, which my sister obtained from her acting classes, the theater was full but we managed to find sheets, the movie just started and the music just took me to a different dimension.

Even if it's at the Paris Opera house that the story goes, it reminded me about the Opera House in Vienna, Austria, I passed just two months before the premiere, when me and my pop took an around Vienna in nine hours tour to spend time waiting for the flight to take us back to Canada. I'd have wanted to spend more time visiting the Opera House.

The best part of the movie is when Christine (Emmy Rossum) is at the cemetery, looking for her father's grave and it's snowing. I widely opened my eyes at that scene, it was breathtaking until the part with the duel between Raoul and the Phantom.

There's a lot of great Opera signing in this movie, the type of movies like it rarely comes out these days. I'd give it ten on ten !

Joan the Maid 2: The Prisons (1994)

The closest story of Joan of Arc as of all movies about her

[10/10 · 30 September 2005]

Sandrine Bonnaire captured my attention in this old early 90s movie which can give the impression that it's 60s or 70s something movie.

I was eight years old when the two part movie came out, but I only seen it this year. The story really is the most original of all the movies made about Joan of Arc, like Joan of Arc (1999) and The Messenger (1999), these movies couldn't compare to Jeanne la Pucelle. What's original, you hear the French speak French and the English speak English like it would have been at the time of the real Joan of Arc, the 1999 movies don't have that.

When Joan is burned to the stake, she's dressed like a priest (with some sort of pointy hat like the pope), holds her hands in prayer with a small cross in between, screams once for Jesus and the ending credits appear. As I watched this, I stood in front of my TV making the sign of the cross, it was a very sad part, but was the best ending in a Joan of Arcs movie do to the drama.

Amen !

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Never knew, they'd be so much history in this film..!

[16 June 2005]

The great battle of Gondor and the distraction on Sauron by Aragorn to help Frodo destroy the ring have a lot of historic facts Tolkien must have bored to finish his story, from the Balkanic wars implicating Arabs, Ottoman Turks, Byzantines and, Bulgarians in the Middle Ages.

Minas Tirith is nicknamed "City of the Kings", the same nicknamed used for Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium or Eastern Roman Empire, which makes Gondor, the Byzantine Empire at Tolkien's perceptive.

When the Orcs of Mordor attack Minas Tirith, it's like the Arab and Ottoman invasion on Constantinople and as the Rohirrim cavalry is summoned to help Gondor win the battle, it's like the one time alliance between Byzantines and Bulgarians to fight together, pushing back the Arab invaders in the years 710-714 a.d. .

But the Orcs are more like the Ottoman Turks and the mercenaries on the olyphants are more like the Arabs, since they're portrayed as this Arabic dressed soldiers.

King Theoden has this personality bored from one of Bulgaria's greatest czars, czar Simeon the Great (893-927 a.d.) who was a great defender of his country and as for Aragorn. When his crowned king of Gondor, not only it's like he's crowned new Byzantine emperor, but from his coronation reestablishing a kingdom, it's like the restoration of the Byzantine Empire in 1204 after it was divided in many kingdoms after the Crusaders sack its capital two centuries earlier.

Middle Earth is Europe imagined by Tolkien and on its map, Mordor looks a lot like the Anatolia peninsula which is an entrance to the Muslim world from Europe. Finally, when Aragorn leads the soldiers in battle to distract Sauron and allow Frodo to destroy the ring, his speech about "The men of the West" gives the impression that they're like the Crusaders off to fight the Islamists.

All of this fits in, history lovers like me can agree that this movie(only the last chapter of the Rings trilogy), has so much of it. But Tolkien's perceptive is simply a new way of learning it.

Lost in Translation (2003)

Very interesting Asian movie, I say !!!

[7/10 · 14 June 2005]

I find Lost in Translation to be very interesting, because of the culture and the places you can visit while in Tokyo. I like the sceneries where Charlotte (Scarlett Johanssen) visits the Buddhist temple in the botanic garden, the panoramic views of Tokyo's anti-sismetic skyscrapers seen from the window hotel rooms of Charlotte and Bob (Bill Murray). The part where Bob is in the strip bar, is something we can really enjoy (if you're a man, of course) from the movie.

Yet what's more important is that from watching this movie, I've been encouraged to visit Tokyo sometime in my life. Viewers like me, might wanna visit the place sometime in their lives after watching Coppola's film !

Eve (I) (2002)

This movie... a masterpiece !

[10/10 · 17 May 2005]

Eve is an eye opener, because of the great sceneries and the tech-no music in the backgrounds, we hear. This movie shows a good aspect on the human body being God's creation and to considerate about it, viewers can earn better respect on the legendary story of Adam and Eve (either if it's true or just a fairy tale, depending on what we believe) from watching this movie. Actress/model Inger Ebeltoft's impersonation of Eve is so good, there's no good word to describe her performance, and I can't imagine having another actress being Eve. This movie to me, comes in really handy for the type of therapy of stress relief. We'd never fell so relax then before from watching this movie. This movie is a masterpiece, God supposedly wanted this movie to be made in the first place!

Mr. Razbin!