Netflix Addiction: Leverage

By Temper

The show stars a hacker, a grifter, a hitter, a thief, and a mastermind. Each of them is the best in their field and prefer to work alone, until a wealthy aerospace executive persuades them to steal aeronautical plans which he alleges have been stolen from him by a competitor. After they succeed in taking back these plans, the team is double crossed and find out that the stolen plans really did belong to the so-called thief. Now set on returning the plans and getting revenge on the man who tricked them, this crew sets off on using their skills to turn their life of crime into a life of helping the less fortunate fight against those with the resources to make them go away.

Leverage has a very structured story: meet the client, research the villains, find their weakness and decide which con to use against them. Each con uses each of the Leverage team’s special set of talents. Towards the end of the episode, while it seems like the villain has the upper hand, a series of flashbacks clues the audience into how the Leverage team pulled their scheme off. This formula is followed from seasons one to seasons three, and each season has a two part, large scale con designed to take down the major adversary of that particular season. Adversaries include an insurance agent, an international crime financier, and a seemingly untouchable criminal who runs a fake South American country.

The show lasted 5 seasons, and in my opinion was one of the best things produced by the cable channel TNT in recent memory. The acting is great, with cameos that includes Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation), Mark A. Sheppard (Crowley from Supernatural), and Adam Baldwin (Jayne from Firefly). Asides taking down adversaries, the team has their own complications, both personal and emotional, designed to have the audience identify more with each character. Overall, if you loved heists movies like Ocean’s Eleven, you will enjoy Leverage. Now, let's go steal us a jetpack.

Robocop: Reviewed

by: Silent Jay

We've been getting a lot of movie remakes lately and none of them have been any good. I'm a fan of the original Robocop, so when I learned that they where making a PG-13 remake I thought "they're going to f@#$ it up". So I went to watch it ready to scream at the screen, but to my surprise I didn't.

This new version of Robocop does something different from the original. The original was a social satire, full of gore and violence (which was awesome). This one's main theme is human nature. Most of the movie's focus is on Murphy's transformation, his acceptance of what he has become and not losing what is left of his humanity, which surprisingly makes for some decent dramatic scenes.

The new Robocop suit design was another surprise, when I saw the first pictures, I didn't like it. It looked too small, almost like a power ranger. But in the movie, it actually looks big and bulky like it should be. My only complaint is that they kept one human hand for no reason. There is a scene where they show you what's left of Murphy's real body that will make you ask: "What was the point of keeping that hand?".

There is a big cast in this movie, so I'll talk only about the strongest actors. Joel Kinnaman acting as Alex Murphy / Robocop was ok. Gary Oldman as Dr. Dennett Norton is one of the main reasons as to what makes this movie good. His acting is what makes the dramatic scenes so good. Michael Keaton as Raymond Sellars is great, acting like a greedy manipulating C.E.O. but still being subtle about it. Samuel L. Jackson as Pat Novak was good, his scenes are where you get social critique and some funny bits. Having Samuel  L. Jackson doing a Bill O'reilly kind of character, just makes it better. I just wish they had had more of those scenes in the movie.

So in conclusion, it's a good movie. It's not better that the original nor worst; it is different.

If you've got the time, go watch it. If you need a score, I give it a 7/10.

The Walking Dead: Mid Season Comeback.

Carl strikes again. Yup, I have to start with that. 

Damn, that kid thinks he is such a bad ass. Picking up where we left off, the Mid Season Finale, we saw how Carl dragged Rick to safety. The prison has officially fallen. Everyone is now separated. 

We got an interesting look at Michonne's past with a scene that looks as if she had a baby (no such baby was seen in the comic) therefore it’s a new move from Kirkman. 

It's not a bad start, they are doing this new format (since the Governor episodes) where we look at different stories simultaneously. 

The second episode is probably one of the best episodes in this season, since it focuses more on story, rather than action. We get to see Glenn escape the now graveyard Prison with an awesome Riot suit and almost being eaten by a horde of walkers. Then we see Daryl and Beth survive in the woods. Beth is very much in denial, while Daryl is without hope; we’ve never seen that aspect of him before. 

Tyreese is with the girls and baby Judith, when suddenly Carol steps in by surprise. Maybe it'll be a happy reunion, who knows? Maggie, Sasha and Stookey look for the escape bus to see if Glenn is alive, only to find walkers and have to kill them one by one. 

It's still a lot of drama with a hint of bash and slash. I think that they have delivered a good start for the mid season. They keep doing this new format, the simultaneous story lines as the new narrative, which is very reminiscent of the comic book style. Let's see how long this lasts. 

Oh, and watch out for Abraham! (Suspense Music!)

Tune in next time, new episodes every Sunday at 9|8c. For more info, go to www.amc.com.

Mrvandyk