John Wick: Why Daisy had to die

***Review main contain spoilers***

A man believes he's put his dangerous past behind him. He's moved on. Gotten married, and is happy. That is until his wife dies, someone steals his car and kills his puppy.

When I first saw the previews for this movie I was in from jump. Why? Because Keanu Reeves is in it. I know, he's not the best actor and chances are he'll never win an Oscar but the man knows how to party. So with that said, I wasn't looking for stellar dialogue and awesome cinematography or any of that stuff. I expected a bloody explosion of gun fights, chase scenes and car crashes and that was precisely what I got.

John Wick loses his wife Helen (played by Bridget Moynahan - Blue Bloods)--not because of anything he's done but because of an illness-we're going to say it's cancer since they weren't specific and Cancer seems to always be the movie fallguy for terrible illnesses and deaths of loved ones. And he has no idea how he's going to go on. Then a night later (which is strange because I don't know a delivery company that delivers so late) he gets a delivery of a puppy along with a note from his wife telling him in order for him to learn to love another woman, he should start with the puppy. Now as you can imagine, he instantly clings to this thing for it was from his beloved and the pup's name was "Daisy" which they never explained why that was significant.  Anyways, John drives this kick ass muscle car (I think it's a Mustang Boss) to put gas in it with the puppy. These punks see him and wants to buy the car but John tells them it's not for sale because I mean come on! The car is sexy! They couldn't take no for an answer, breaks into his house in the middle of the night, beat him up, steals his car and killed his puppy.

Yes, ladies and gents--they killed his puppy.

John Wick then sets out to kill the guys who killed his puppy--but other people kept getting in his way so they too had to die.

It's a simple enough plot I think. Some may believe him going for blood for the death of a puppy is a little too much but you have to understand. Emotionally he was just gone because his wife is gone and the one thing he has left of her, that one thing he's placed his love into because she was dead was ripped from him too. That is what the lovely people of Criminal Minds call a "stressor" and had to be appeased.

The fight scenes could have been better choreographed. For example, one scene in a club where John is fighting with the bad guy's henchmen, he punched one guy, was about to shoot him when he realized the gun was empty. The guy stood there, waited for John to reload and shoots him in the head. There were way too may gaps--meaning the timing was off on many of the fight scenes.

And I cannot end this whole thing without the Hotel for Assassins. Who came up with this nutball idea? This is a hotel where ALL the city's Assassins hang out....at the same time....and all know each other....and are polite and cordial....and one bomb could have taken them all out! Now I know this is a movie and in movies we let things go and use our imagination but gimme a break! I mean come on! And I'm not even going to talk about the cop who knocks on John Wick's door after the neighbours complained of noise, looks in, sees a dead body and just go "well, have a good night John!"

That's another thing - with all this mayhem he causes in the city, dead bodies, car crashes, there was no one cop in sight except for the patrol officer at the beginning of the movie--say what now?

There were holes in the movie--I mean a lot of them--I mean mundo holes. The final fight scene was more than a little bit chaotic. The camera angles could have been way better and much tighter. A lot more work could have been done with this movie to make it something people could really sit down and enjoy--even with the superficial plot line. This had potential. I mean there were some awesome cameos in it like John Leguizamo and the guy who plays Coach in Death Race with Jason Statham as well Lance Reddick from Fringe - but I was let down.

I don't know. I'm a little on the fence with this one because I adore Keanu so hard and was really hoping it was something I could really gush about. But, it needs work--a lot of work.  Even William Dafoe's star power couldn't save this one.

If it comes on TV and you are home and bored and want something you don't have to think about, watch it. But don't expect anything major. I really don't think Daisy was avenged at all. Daisy was probably watching it going "dude, I died for this?"

*hugs*
KATO

REWIND - No go

The other day I fell into the youtube black hole--you know the one? Where you go on youtube to watch a certain video then get fascinated by one or more of the videos on the side and that leads to another then another and soon you've spent like three hours on youtube and have no idea how that happen? Yup, that black hole.

Anyways, I went on to find a trailer for a movie called BIG GAY LOVE - it has that guy who played Zander in Buffy the Vampire Slayer in it so that equals hilarious. Then suddenly more movie previews popped up at the side and I clicked and clicked until I crashed into a full episode (and apparently the only episode) of a tv show that was made for SyFy called REWIND. The premise behind this show is as follows - and this is in my own words, okay?

Old guy loses wife, goes nuts, built a bomb, puts it in the middle of New York City, turned himself in, refuses to talk even through torture about how to disable bomb even during torture, ex-military guy goes on and tries to talk him out of blowing up the city, old crazy guy refuses, New York City and its 9 million residents went Kabloo-ey, military guy gets thrown into prison (still unsure of what charge they'd file against him), then military creates a time travel program....

The minute I started watching this show, I fall in love with the main characters - to add to my racing heart, the best friends are interracial and I am a HUGE fan of interracial friendships. But the whole scenario seemed eerily familiar. Then ten minutes in and it hit me - HA! SEVEN DAYS! Seven Days starring Jonathon LaPaglia, Don Franklin and a few others. This show was basically about a secret government program called Project Backstep, where they send Jonathan's character, Frank Parker, back seven days to stop a major catastrophe that happened in present time. It lasted from 1998 - 2001 and was a major success.

REWIND is a similar show but it only lasted one episode - from what I could see before it was dropped.

I think the major issue with this is that there is not much creativity in television these days. Think about it--most of the successful shows on tv are so called reality shows--Big Brother, Survivor (that's been on for like 20 seasons now), Bachelor/Bachelorette, Wipeout, American Ninja Warrior and the list goes on and on--not much writing or creativity required.

So when people get tasked with finding new actual show that requires writers and researchers someone screws the pooch by getting and thinking brilliant! Let's do that! without actually going in and looking to make sure the idea wasn't actually out there already. And repeating an idea isn't bad--but you have to go in with the idea this was done before so how do you make it better?

Either way, this show did not make it past pilot - The acting wasn't all that bad and the premise was solid, they just shouldn't have assumed no one remembered Seven Days.

Kato

[LGBT] Undertow

**May contain spoilers**

An unusual ghost story set on the Peruvian seaside; a married fisherman struggles to reconcile his devotion to his male lover within his town's rigid traditions.

Miguel (Played by Bolivian actor Christian Mercado) is a fisherman living in a small village where he has a pregnant wife and a family. His community of friends and family is what keeps him going and he thinks life is perfect - That is until Santiago (played by Manolo Cardona) comes visiting the small town and Miguel's perfect life goes spiralling out of control. 

Where to start with this movie. You know when television stations have this thing where they give you a free preview for a month so you can check out some of their stations and after the month if you don't sign up they take the station away? I was lucky enough to have OUT TV for a little while at my place and one night I scrolling through the channel and noticed a movie was starting. I left it where it was on the channel and tuned in to this movie. I didn't know the actors and the movie was in Spanish. Even though I do speak some Spanish I was thankful the movie had subtitles. The moment the movie began I was sucked in. It started out giving a view of life in a small village and everything (the good and the bad) that comes with it.  Miguel seems happy at first but as you pay closer attention you see just how miserable he is and when he and Santiago get together, it just proves to him and the viewers what happiness is for he

Christian Mercado

laughs more.  But the truth of the matter is, in small towns or villages, secrets come out faster than usual and when they do, someone almost always winds up dead or in big, big trouble.

Even though life sucks, Miguel manages to carve out a routine - he'd spend some time with Santiago, basking in real love with this man, laughing and critiquing Santiago's art. Then he'd go home and cater to his wife who soon becomes pregnant.  He fights to be a family man, to hide his gay secret from the people he surrounds himself with and to be happy. Then Santiago dies and Miguel suddenly have the perfect boyfriend--well aside from the death bit. He can walk down the street with Santiago and hold hands with him for only he can see Santiago. But Santiago's death doesn't make life any easier for their love. If anything, death merely complicates it.  To make matters worse, they enter Santiago's place and found naked artwork of Miguel littering the place.

Manolo Cardona

This movie was heartbreaking. It shows what happens when you want to be true to who you are and what you are but life just doesn't want to corporate.  When you force someone to play inside a box that doesn't fit them it can lead to madness and when the smoke clears everyone and everything would be destroyed.  There is such a poignant love story in this movie, a love that transcends death and mortality. It didn't matter that the true love was between two men your heart will just sob for them. There is such misery in losing a life you believe is yours and no one else's. 

And when the person you love isn't the person society thinks you should love, what happens when the love Society endorses find out about the other? Do you fight for what society wants or what you want? Do you fight to save face and break your own heart or fight to do what's right for someone who, at least for a moment--however fleeting, gave you the best moments of your life and loved you more than you ever thought possible or could ever understand?

Undertow is a brilliantly written, wonderfully acted and the music--perfection. If you're looking to a movie that rewards you for watching and feeds you in ways you've given  up on movie ever doing in these days of remakes and superhero fluff, this movie will do it. 

Oh and have a box of kleenex or two handy, you are SO going to need it.

Hugs,
Kato

GODZILLA ***Small Spoilers*

The world's most famous monster is pitted against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity's scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence (Imbd).

When I first heard they were going to make a new Godzilla, I thought here we go again. I mean, I don`t trust these remakes as far as I can throw them because most often than not, they screw it up. So let's break it down, shall we?

The movie begins with some 'historical' footage of people nuking things - am talking mushroom cloud kind of nuking. Fast forward years later to  1999 where Dr. Serizawa and his team are flown into the Philippines because a mine they were digging at caved in and they found some fossils and a weird looking cocoon thing hanging from the ceiling of the cave.  Around that same time, Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston - Walter from Breaking Bad) his wife and son live in Japan--a place called Janjira. He has a job like Homer Simpson at a nuclear power plant in Japan - and incidentally he works there with his wife and he's been picking up some strange readings--sorta like aftershocks from earthquakes and they're getting bigger, more forceful--to make matters worse, they're picking up major EMP interference.  All hell breaks lose when something cause the power plant to be destroyed, killing Joe's wife and most of the people working at the plant. 

Now skip ahead fifteen years, Joe's son Ford is all grown up (played by Aaron Johnson - Kick-Ass from Kick-Ass), a high ranking soldier in the army with a wife, Elle (Elizabeth Olsen - yes she's sisters with the twins). He just gets home when he gets a call telling him his father was arrested for trespassing in the quarantined zone - Janjira. Now Ford has to go back to Japan to save his father and somehow gets talked into going back to the quarantined zone. Soon, the two are caught up in a game of cat and mouse with two large cockroaches looking monsters and a Godzilla on the hunt.

For the beginning of the new Godzilla was slow. While I understood why it was like that, I couldn't help sitting there thinking, wow--it needs to move on already. About forty five minutes in, things picks up. Though it leaves some confusion as to where they're going with the story. While there are some things, militarily that would never go over well with the real military and the soldiers never once saluted or stood at attention when their superiors entered a space - that I found a little problematic. Why? Whoever research military procedures really screwed up on that end.  There were a few times when I thought someone didn't fact-check a few things and other times when I wondered what the point of a scene was for they carried the story to a certain point then merely let it go and you're left wondering.  There were a few times I found I was laughing with my friend because of something that probably wasn't meant to be funny. A few times everyone one else in the theatre erupted in laughter as well.

The movie was great - if you look past the typical nit-picking that I'm doing with this movie.  I mean what movie doesn't have some continuity/scripting issues? The graphics were stellar, the monsters, the crushed buildings--it was so real. The acting was amazing. I was very happy to see Bryan Cranston playing the role of Joe Brody. The new spin of the Godzilla monster was something I welcomed, even found myself cheering for the him. Aside from a few Godzilla fat jokes but that as it. Sitting there, watching the newly designed model tear ass from Japan to San Francisco, I was positively giddy. 

All in all I had a great time with this movie aside from the typical.  If you want a good, kinda scary, plenty of eye-candy movie with monsters galore, then check this movie out. If you're obsessive compulsive about military procedures then you may want to skip it but everyone else - you will enjoy GODZILLA!

Hugs,
Kato

Gang Related - New Series on FOX

So, for a few weeks now I've been seeing ads for this new show coming to FOX called GANG RELATED and I figured, wow, okay, this looks promising. Then again I try not to get attached to shows on FOX because we all know what happens - They get canned like FIREFLY and ALMOST HUMAN - yes my friend, ALMOST HUMAN went the way of the dinosaurs. 

Anyway, I watched GANG RELATED what a load of bullshit! (pardon my French) but come on. Who writes this stuff? It's the same racist crap they've been trying to shove down our throats since forever. Well I guess Racist is such a strong word let's downgrade that to stereotypes--and not in the best of ways either. The question now becomes -  Why is it that this show has a visible minority cast and they are ALL dirty? Think I'm overreacting? Let's break it down-- oh and Bee-Tee-Dub, if you're going to watch this piece of crap, you may not want to read the following because there WILL be some spoilers.

1. The Korean cop has links to the Korean Mafia. The only saving grace is I LOVE Sung Kang (From the Fast and Furious movies - he plays Han)
2. The Hispanic cop (that dude from HOSTEL that got his fingers cut off) who should be the lead good guy turns out he's a dirty cop who is just on the force since his "adopted" father is the head of a Mexican mafia and his primary job is to find out when the cops are gonna go busting the others so he can go report it to his mafia 'father' - and this guy is also in love with his brother's girlfriend--oh wait, scratch that, fiancée 
3. The ONLY African American's in the first episode are a bunch of uzi totting, crack smoking bad guys
4. The Caucasian male - (That old dude from LOST and 5-0 - Terry Quinn I think his name is) is the head of a group of good cops on a task force .
5. A Caucasian ADA (that chick who played Quinn in One Tree Hill - come now ladies I know our eyes were somewhere else but she was in there, I promise- who incidentally is the daughter of the head of the task force *eye roll*
6. Another blond guy who is a part of Internal Affairs
7 Rza - he's in it and is a cop on the task force - I think- but you see him like twice in the whole episode but apparently he's in 10 episodes so far.

What makes me really upset? The in your face stereotypes in this television show. Trust me, you are not doing us any favours by putting on a television show with the main cast being visible minorities and still making them gun-crazed, disloyal, dishonest, egotistic assholes that no one can like.  

I think this television show is a load of crap. The acting is shitty, the writing is boring and it is the SAME old the Mexican has to be Mafia, the Korean has to be in a gang, the black has to carry around guns blowing crap to kingdom-come and the white guy always does the right thing and saves us all *eye roll* how predictable? The only thing missing from this barage of crappy stereotype is the black guy dying first!

Don't waste your time  (it's horrible) and don't get attached (it's on FOX). Go watch LONGMIRE over on A&E, it's better writing, better characters and a better soundtrack.

Kato

A Man from Nowhere

A Man from Nowhere is about a quiet, pawnshop broker with a mysterious past must take on a group of drug and organ dealers to save a little girl--who is his only friend.

Cha Tae-Sik (played by Bin Won of MOTHER) is living his life as a simple pawnshop broker in a quiet part of town. He wants to be left alone but this adorable little girl, So-Mi (played by Sae-Ron Kim from Can you Hear My Heart ), who's mother is a stripper and drug addict who by the way started this whole train going to hell to begin with by ripping off a drug drop. So-mi spends her time hiding from her abusive mother at Cha's place and painting his nail while he's asleep. She is so adorable.

Needless to say Cha goes on a rampage to find his little angel after she's taken by the drug dealers. He's calculated and methodical. He doesn't speak much with his lips but he has a way about him that makes the badguys quiver--not enough from stopping them from trying to kill him or pissing him off. They always end up paying for it in the end. This character is fabulous. His a mixture of Neo from the Matrix with kick ass martial arts abilities and the precision of trained killer. Then he looks at little So-mi and you can see his heart melts and something forms in his eyes and you melt right along with him. This movie was the first Korea movie I've seen so far that I have given five stars on Netflix. Why? I love it that much.  For those who love a good love story - this isn't that kind of movie. If you love blood and gore, knife wielding, gun brandishing, heads blowing off, blood spewing from amputation - then this movie is for you. If you're a girlie girl you may wanna go watch something else--something a little cutsie.

Bottom line, this movie is for all those action movie lovers with just the right hint of heart to make it sizzle and draw a few tears.

Bin Won

Sae-ron Kim

Hugs,

Kato

Leave It On the Floor

When his homophobic mother kicks him out of the house, Bradley (played by Ephraim Sykes of Dance Flick, SMASH, 30 Rock ) falls in with the House of Eminence trying desperately to fit in and make the most of a bad situation. This movie started out breaking my heart. It had me wondering how a mother could treat her son so unfairly and full of hate. She called him a loser, and that was the last thing she said to him before he left the house with his things to live in his car.

Leave It On the Floor is an amazing movie full of music, heart break, love and so much soul. If you're not tapping your foot to the beat or wanting to get up and run-way walk through your room/house then you have no pulse. There is just something so catchy and endearing and just so spectacular about this movie and I don't precisely know what is it. It touched on the reality of some thugs who are out there, gay but has this reputation to uphold so they are on the down-low. It shows what happen when people lack respect for those around them and the repercussions of being young and foolish at times.

 This movie shows the ignorance that's in the world of people who can't put their hatred aside, even through loss and hardships. It's a sad narrative on the way most of us are; we see "gay" before "human."

 All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed Leave It On the Floor. I would highly recommend it. Oh and have a box of kleenex handy because you're going to cry, laugh, sing, dance--it's an amazing roller-coaster ride.

Hugs,
Kato