Pandorum

I'm not sure what happened but it was awesome!

Corporal Bower (Ben Foster, looking raggedly handsome) wakes up in one of those hyper-sleep pods that we have seen in many science fiction films. Initially he can't remember anything (a side effect of very long hibernation). An hour later his lieutenant Peyton (Dennis Quaid, looking as raggedly handsome as always) is also awake and together they are trying to figure out what their mission could be.

The space ship they are on appears to be running on limited power and the door to the bridge is therefore impregnable. While Peyton stays behind to try and open the door, Bower sets out to find the reactor and reboot it.

For dramatic purposes the reactor is situated as far away from where they started as possible. While stumbling through the half lit ship, Bower encounters long dead bodies, some hanging from the ceiling. He also encounters monstrosities. They may or may not be mutant travelers and they look like zombies with thorns. Also they are very, very tenacious. You can chop of bits and they will still come at you.

One of the bodies hanging from the ceiling is called Shepard (Norman Reedus, you guessed it, looking raggedly handsome) and is still alive. But not for long. Bower cuts him down but he is quickly re-hung by the monsters, killed and gutted. And then they feed on him. Shepard, we hardly knew thee.

Bower encounters a few more people on his way to the reactor. All of them appear to be from different missions and have woken up at different times. Since then they have been merely surviving the steady raids for food of the monsters.

Peyton, meanwhile, is going insane. Or maybe everyone is. I dunno.

In the end, the reactor is restarted, Bower and Peyton are reunited and then there is a big twist.

Very exciting, this.

8/10

Mimic

Ugh. I hate bugs.

Don't worry, I knew what I was getting into with this as Mimic is a Guillermo del Toro film. As the man himself once said, "I have a sort of fetish for insects, clockwork, monsters, dark places, and unborn things." Dark this is, and full of bugs...big ass bugs living in the New York underground.

From the beginning...

The newly discovered Stickler's virus is spread by the common cockroach and threatens to kill off an entire generation of children. Then entomologist Susan Tyler introduces a genetically engineered bug, the Judas Breed to kill off the cockroaches. The bugs live in a hive system with only one fertile male and are designed to die out after one generation.

Then, three years later, two young boys want to make a quick buck by selling a collection of butterflies and "the weird bug" to Susan, whom they refer to as 'the Bug Lady'. She recognizes the breed as a mutant of her own creation. Together with her husband, Dr. Peter Mann, who works for the CDC, she wants to investigate in the subway tunnels.

What they find are bugs of unbelievable size, all female, and they are all out to kill them. The Judas Breed has mutated through what is known as mimicry, hence the film title, but this should have taken many generations.

In any case, stumbling through the subway tunnels are Susan, Peter, his CDC colleague Josh (who will meet a nasty end), a subway cop and an elderly gentlemen, who made his way through the tunnels looking for a boy (his grandson?), who seems to be autistic. Together, they not only have to stay alive through the bug infestation and try to make it back to street level, but they also have to kill off the entire species of Judas Breed before it can migrate out of the tunnel systems. Not everyone of the group survives, with the cop heroically sacrificing himself for the greater good, but in the end humanity prevails.

The opening credits are visually stunning and those bugs are really disgusting in any size and state of development.

5/10

Floating

Speaking of Norman Reedus...

I clicked around the internet for a bit and ended up watching a stream of the first film he was ever in, Floating. He plays Van, whose plans of going to college are shattered after his father loses both legs in a car accident and his mother took off with all the money and valuables she could get her hands on. Now he is stuck in a small house by the lake without a plan for the future.

Both, father and son, cannot adjust to their new situation and the only diversion Van finds is hanging around with a couple of friends, smoking joints and raiding houses. When Doug moves in across the lake, he and Van become friends. Doug has what looks from the outside like a 'good' family, but suffers under the pressure from his father, who is not willing to accept that his son is gay and puts him down any chance he gets. Doug is on the college swim team but the whole concept of going to college to get away from your family gets defeated by the fact that his father is also his swim coach.

The four friends continue to steal anything they believe they can make into money from the lakeside houses until one of their raids ends tragically.

In the end, there is a glimpse of hope that Van and his dad may just be alright.

A sad and desperate story, but there is a lot of shirtless Reedus to lift our spirits.

6/10

Ollie Klublershturf vs. the Nazis

The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

Connor and Murphy have disappeared from Boston and spent the last 8 years herding sheep in Ireland, when a hit on a priest, made to look like they did it, draws them back to clear out the leftovers.

The opponent this time around is the son of their last victim, the Italian mob boss they executed very publicly in a court room. They have to deal with a short (5'5") assassin (killer of said priest) and a whole posse of bad guys. Yet again they are aided by a few local cops as well as FBI special agent Eunice Bloom, who picks right up where agent Smecker has left off in part one.

They also get a new sidekick, Romeo, who they first come in contact with on they journey overseas. The three take out the majority of the bad guys. Of course, nothing ever goes according to Connor's cunning plans, which makes it all the more amusing.

However, it turns out that the local mob guys are not really in charge of what was orchestrated. Behind everything is someone only referred to as 'The Old Man' or, once 'The Roman', who turns out to be an old acquaintance of Poppa MacManus.

Much like part one, funny and full of quotable one liners.

8/10

The Boondock Saints

The MacManus twins, Connor and Murphy (played by Sean Patrick Falnery and Norman Reedus), kill a couple of Russian mob guys in self defense (sort of). After coming into a Boston police station, where the FBI agent Smecker (very passionately portrayed by Willem Defoe) has taken the role of lead investigator, to explain how the mobsters ended up dead they are suddenly celebrated by the media and the public for ridding the world of evil. Being religious Irish boys, they realize that this is what they should be doing - kill off bad guys.

They precede to take out big chunks of the Russian and Italian mob that infested Boston, aided by their hapless friend Rocco (David Della Rocco), who can finger any number of bad guys, having run errands for the don of the Italian side of the operations. Rocco's involvement causes some confusion for law enforcement and Smecker, at first. A lot of the killings look like professional hits (the brothers' talent runs in the family) but there is always some kills that less talented Rocco does, which stumps the investigators.

When at one crime scene Smecker finds Rocco's shot of index finger and realizes who it is he is actually hunting, he keeps the information to himself and starts aiding the crime fighting killers in any way he can. The Don has recruited a mysterious hitman, referred to as Il Duce or The Duke, to take out Rocco, who he initially believes is the only one responsible for taking out his associates.

During the bloody confrontation with the Italians, that Rocco does not survive, The Duke (Billy Connelly) arrives to take out the brothers only to realize that they are his sons he hasn't seen in a long time. The three team up to take out the last standing Italian mobster.

There is quite the cult around this film and the MacManus twins and now I understand why. The film is bloody, funny and quotable.

8/10