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Twilight is a young adult vampire/romance novel written by author Stephenie Meyer. It was originally published in hardcover in 2005. It is the first book of the Twilight series, and introduces seventeen-year-old Isabella “Bella” Swan who moves from Phoenix, Arizona, to Forks, Washington, and finds her life in danger when she falls in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen. The novel is followed by New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.

If you aren’t familiar with the book, you may want to read the story line below to get an idea of what to expect. If you have read the book, don’t read any further as it may spoil the movie for you since no movie can ever be totally true to the book.

Isabella “Bella” Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona, to rainy Forks, Washington, to live with her father, Charlie. She chooses to do this so that her mother, Renée, can travel with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, who is a minor league baseball player. In Phoenix she was a bit of an outcast, so it surprises her that she attracts much attention at her new school, and is quickly befriended by several students. Much to her dismay, several boys in the school compete for shy Bella’s attention.

When Bella sits next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, Edward seems utterly repulsed by her. He even attempts to change his schedule to avoid her, leaving Bella completely puzzled about his attitude towards her. After tricking a family friend, Jacob Black, into telling her the local tribal legends, Bella concludes that Edward and his family are vampires. Although she was inexplicably attracted to him even when she thought Edward drank human blood, she is much relieved to learn that the Cullens choose to abstain from drinking human blood, and drink animal blood instead. Over time, Edward and Bella fall in love.

The seemingly perfect state of their relationship is thrown into chaos when another vampire coven sweeps into Forks, and James, a tracker vampire, decides that he wants to hunt Bella for sport. The Cullens plan to distract the tracker by splitting up Bella and Edward, and Bella is sent to hide in a hotel in Phoenix. Bella then gets a phone call from James in which he says that he has her mother, and Bella must give herself up to James at her old dance studio, to save her. She does so, and while at the dance studio, James attacks her. Edward, along with the rest of the Cullen family, rescue Bella before James can kill her. Once they realize that James has bitten Bella’s hand, Edward sucks the venom out of her system before it can spread and change her into a vampire. Upon returning to Forks, Bella and Edward attend their prom and Bella expresses her desire to become a vampire, which Edward refuses to let happen.

The target audience is young girls and women. The box office opening clearly proved their power for a movie. The movie clocks in at two hours. It seems a little slow at first, but when it begins to move, hold on to your seat. Integral to the angst expressed  in the book, I guess it needs to be a little slow. Facial expressions, body  language, and cast chemistry is the key to this movie’s success. The two principles did a fantastic job of conveying feelings and emotions without  dialogue, making it an interesting watch. Also, the cinematography was quite superb. If only the Anne Rice movies could have fared so well. Since we already  know there are 3 more books and hopefully at least 3 more movies, there is, of course, the cliffhanger making you want for more and feeling satisfied at the same time. The cast in this movie demostrated the sensuality that should have come across in the Anne  Rice movies which were absolute bombs primarily because of no cast chemistry.

The books were targeted to the young high school female and the movie succeeded in focusing on that same audience. I personally would have preferred a little more gore, but it was very refreshing to actually see a movie that didn’t thrive on four letter words.

This movie is a “chick flick” but certainly worth taking a look.

Rating: 4.3 out of 5

(I would have given it a higher rating except  that it is more focused to the teen audience than the adult audience.)

It looks like SAW will be replacing Freddie Kruger, Jason, and the Halloween franchises for the October horror flick. There never seems to be an end to the types of devices and methods for inflicting carnage. This one, did some flashbacks. Hopefully Saw VI will begin to move forward with a younger and healthier vigilante (of sorts) and spend a little more time drawing out the demise of the miscreants.

Following Jigsaw’s grisly demise, Mark Hoffman, the final apprentice to the serial killer is deigned a hero. Meanwhile, Agent Strahm is tested and puts the pieces together. While Strahm realizes that Hoffman is helping Jigsaw, five seemingly unconnected people face a horrible lesson about teamwork.

Strahm follows all the leads he can get off Hoffman, including the death of his sister and why he joined Jigsaw. Hoffman and Strahm circle each other until it boils down to a gruesome and bone-crushing finale.
The film starts with Seth in the pendulum trap. The trap is later revealed to be unwinnable, but Seth is made to believe that the aim of the trap is for him to push buttons inside of two devices which would crush both of his hands before a bladed pendulum (intended to slice him in half) descends upon him. Meanwhile, Agent Strahm shoots Jeff and enters the room where Jigsaw died. After investigating and finding Jigsaw’s corpse, the door is locked on Strahm. Strahm manages to exit through a secret door, and finds a recorder. The recording warns him he can find salvation or die in the room, and urges him to make the right choice. He disregards it, then is attacked by a figure in a pig mask. He wakes to find himself in one of Jigsaw’s traps. His head is in a sealed box, which quickly starts to fill with water. Before he runs out of air, he performs a tracheotomy with the tube of a ballpoint pen in order to breathe. The police make it to the Gideon warehouse, and Hoffman emerges carrying Corbett, claiming that he saved her. Strahm is carried out on a stretcher, still alive, but badly injured. The next day the police hold a service for all the people who have died chasing Jigsaw. The Chief of Police announces that the Jigsaw murders are over. Jill is given a videotape and box from John’s lawyer. The contents of the box, says John, are of grave importance to her. After looking in the box, Jill leaves without telling John’s lawyer what’s inside.

Strahm is shown mourning next to a empty hospital bed, because Perez died in the night. Hoffman walks into the room. Strahm starts to act strange and says that Perez’s final word was “Hoffman.” Hoffman worriedly says he has no idea what Strahm is talking about. He heads back to his office and finds a note for him saying “I know who you are.” Hoffman gets worried that the fact that he may be in danger.

Meanwhile, five people wake up in a sewer, in a neck tie trap. This trap involves pulling against a cable to get a key at the end of the room to release themselves. The consequence for not completing the trap is to be beheaded. Mallack gets anxious and runs ahead, starting the timer. In the end, the whole group, except for Ashley, get their keys. Ashley is eventually beheaded by the blade once the cable is pulled tight. The group walk through a door to another room.

Strahm, contemplating what his deceased partner said, starts to go mad and heads over to FBI headquarters to find files on Hoffman. He finds a file saying that Hoffman’s sister was murdered, and her killer (Seth) was killed in his trap, which was revealed to have taken place before the events of the first film. Strahm comes to the conclusion that Hoffman killed Seth, but staged it as a Jigsaw trap. A flashback depicting Hoffman looking at the pendulum trap ensues, as he was the person watching at the start of the film. A couple of weeks after Seth’s death, Hoffman is kidnapped by Jigsaw. Jigsaw blackmails Hoffman into working for him, which Hoffman reluctantly agrees to. Hoffman is then shown, through flashbacks, setting up the house trap, talking to Jigsaw before the events of “Saw IV”, and kidnapping Paul. By the end of these events, Hoffman is a willing apprentice to Jigsaw.

Back in the sewers, Charles, Mallick, Luba, and Brit make it to the next trap. In this trap, the group has to smash jars and find keys to enter bomb shelters before a bomb goes off in the sewer. Charles smashes Mallick’s jar in an attempt to steal his key, but fails. Brit and Luba pick up keys. Mallick attempts to pick up a key but Charles steps in his hand and takes it. Just as Charles is about to enter his shelter, Luba hits him with a pole and gives the key back to Mallick. The trio enter the shelter and leave Charles to die by the explosion. Luba, Mallick, and Brit make it to their next test. In this test, they have to find a way for a cord of electricity to make it into a bath of water to complete a circuit opening the door to the next test, but the cord is not long enough to reach the bath, so they think they need to use a person’s body. Luba tries to kill Mallick to use his body, but Brit stabs her in the neck, saying she never trusted her. Mallick and Brit use Luba’s body for the electricity to reach the bath, and the door opens to their final test.

Meanwhile, Hoffman plants Strahm’s cell phone at the house where Brit and Mallick’s game is being held, in hopes to frame him. Strahm is now sure that Hoffman is Jigsaw’s apprentice. Meanwhile, Brit and Mallick make it to their final test. In this test they have to stick their hands into saws and bleed into a beaker. When the beaker fills with their blood, they will be free to go. Before they start the test they realize that there are five saws, they then realize that everyone could have made it through every test alive, if hurt. Only one key was needed to unlock each neck restraint in the first trap, the bomb shelters had room for two in the second trap, and each person could have sustained a mild electric shock to complete the circuit in the third trap. It is also revealed that they were all connected by an act of arson that happened some time ago which resulted in the death’s of 8 people. In the final test, each could have given just just two pints of blood each and easily lived. With no other options, Brit and Mallick begin sawing their arms in an attempt to fill the beaker meant for five with 10 pints of their blood. Just as Brit and Mallick fill the beaker with blood, finishing the final test, a FBI agent named Erickson (Strahm’s superior whom Hoffman fooled into trailing Strahm’s cell phone signal) makes to the scene. Both pass out from blood loss as Erickson calls for backup. It appears as though Brit and Mallick survived. FBI agent Erickson, having found the Jigsaw files Strahm took and his cell phone, issues an APB on Strahm, assuming him to be the other Jigsaw accomplice.

Strahm follows Hoffman to the location of the current game, and enters a room with a transparent box filled with broken glass and a recording. It urges Strahm to have trust and to get into the box. He’ll be hurt, but has a chance at life. Strahm shuts off the tape when he hears Hoffman walking in the distance. Shortly after, Hoffman walks into the room and Strahm then comes from behind and shoves Hoffman into the box and seals him in. Hoffman signals for Strahm to play the rest of the tape. The rest of the tape starts to play and explains the rest of the rules to Strahm, making him realize he would have lived if he had gotten into the box, stating that if he wouldn’t, the room would become his tomb, and he would simply “vanish”. The walls begins to close in on the room as the glass box lowers into the floor, safe from the enclosing walls. Strahm attempts to break into the glass box by shooting it and trying to pull it open, but the glass material is impenetrable, leaving Strahm on the outside to be crushed by the walls. Strahm starts shouting at Hoffman, “I know who you are!”. Soon the walls come close enough for Strahm to attempt in climbing up to the ceiling and escape by the roof filter, but it is too late, and he becomes slowly crushed by the walls while Hoffman watches Strahm getting crushed from down below. With all evidence planted to frame Strahm for being the next Jigsaw accomplice, Hoffman is now able to continue his work as the next Jigsaw, undetected, leaving the Jigsaw legacy pinpointed at Strahm who is in fact dead.

I would like the movie to be a little longer than the traditional 90 minutes and certainly the more victims the better. While we look at Saw (I) as the standard, there just weren’t enough “victims” to suite me. Let’s face it, October is fright time, so lets spend less time with plot and a lot more time with the unique and unusual forms of torturing, maiming, and killing the miscreants.

Rating: 3.8 our of 5

Roger Ferris (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the best man U.S. Intelligence has on the ground, in places where human life is worth no more than the information it can get you. In operations that take him around the globe, Ferris’ next breath often depends on the voice at the other end of a secure phone line — CIA veteran Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe). Strategizing from a laptop in the suburbs, Hoffman is on the trail of an emerging terrorist leader who has orchestrated a campaign of bombings while eluding the most sophisticated intelligence network in the world. To lure the terrorist out into the open, Ferris will have to penetrate his murky world, but the closer Ferris gets to the target, the more he discovers that trust is both a dangerous commodity and the only one that will get him out alive.

Rotten Tomatoes rated this 5.9/10; it got mixed review and for the most part was panned as a bad venue for two great actors. I think Ridley Scott did an excellent job with this not only with the underlying plot line of “people in the trenches” know more of what is going on and how to deal with it than the politicians and bureaucrats at the top. Also, the utilization of spy technoloogy and the sufficient carnage makes this an excellent movie. I think this makes a good political statement as well as an excellent movie. I  am glad to see DeCaprio working with good, seasoned (albeit tempermental) actors and continuing to mature as a dramatic actor.

Rating: 4.7 out of 5

Chris Mattson (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa Mattson (Kerry Washington), a young interracial couple, have just moved into their California dream home when they become the target of their next-door neighbor, who disapproves of their interracial relationship. A stern, widowed-single father of two, LAPD officer Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) is the watchdog of the neighborhood. His nightly foot patrols and overly watchful eyes bring comfort to some, but he becomes increasingly harassing to the newlyweds. The persistent intrusions into the lives of Chris and Lisa ultimately take a turn for the worse when the couple decides to fight back.

Samuel L. Jackson is the disturbed cop who for some reason doesn’t like his new neighbors, probably because it is an interracial marriage and he comes across as one who does not approve of such. Since his wife died, he has become a very strict disciplinarian to his two children.

After all the predictable foibles of back and forth harassment, it also ends predictably.

Although not a new plot line, and certainly with no real surprises, it is still watchable. Definitely matinee fodder.

Rating: 3.7 out of 5

I found it quite interesting that while the movie theaters displayed the promo poster, I had never seen a trailer for the movie and really never considered it until it was released.

The City of Ember is a 2003 apocalyptic book by Jeanne DuPrau. It revolves around the underground city of Ember, the one known surviving settlement and “the only light in the dark world” that’s slowly dying as supplies run low and the electrical system starts to fail.

Ember is a self-contained, self-maintained city. All food and supplies come from giant storerooms under the city and a handful of greenhouses. All the books in the library, apart from the city history “The Book of Ember” and the schoolbooks “The Book of Letters” and “The Book of Numbers”, have been hand written by residents over the years of Ember. All the light in the city comes from lamps and floodlights; when these are extinguished, the city is completely dark, no stars, sun, or moon. The electricity in the city comes from an ancient hydro-electric generator in the underground Pipeworks; keeping the aging generator operational is a constant task. Beyond the borders of Ember are the dark Unknown Regions, which are unexplorable because none of the Emberites can produce a mobile source of light. Ember was constructed many years ago by the Builders, but nothing is known about them other than the facts that they built the city and provided its supplies.

The movie begins 200 years later than the book, which begins immediately after the construction of the city. Two of the Builders discuss what will happen when supplies run low and conditions become bleak, and decide to leave instructions for escape in a special sealed box, which will open automatically after 200 years, when it will be safe to leave the city. The box is entrusted to the Mayor of Ember, who passes it down to the following Mayor when he leaves office. While the Mayors do not know what the box contains, they keep it safe over the years and do not tell anyone about it. However, the box is lost and forgotten when the seventh Mayor unsuccessfully tries to open it and then dies before he can pass it on to his successor.

The movie begins shortly after the box has counted down to zero. It is Assignment Day at the Ember school. On this day, the 12 year olds finish their education and enter the workforce. They are assigned jobs at random by drawing pieces of paper from a bag held by the mayor. One student, Lina Mayfleet, draws the job of Pipe-works Laborer; which will require her to work underground in the huge Pipeworks that power Ember and deliver its water, repairing lights and pipes as needed. Another student, Doon Harrow, becomes a Messenger. The Messengers are Ember’s communication team, who run around the city relaying personal messages between citizens.

Both Lina and Doon dislike their chosen jobs, and therefore exchange them. Doon wishes to become an electrician because he is seriously concerned with the state of the city and the generator. Blackouts and power outages are becoming common in Ember. In addition, supplies are dwindling, buildings are crumbling and the city seems to be breaking down piece by piece. On the job in the Pipeworks, Doon explores the tunnels and tries to discover a way to save Ember. He even sneaks into the room containing the giant Generator, but realizes at once that he has no idea how it works, much less how to repair it.

Lina is thrilled to have the job of Messenger because it allows her to run and explore every corner of Ember while she delivers her messages. She works hard, puzzling over secret messages passed to the Mayor from a strange man named Looper. She also copes with her grandmother’s ever failing health, and cares for her little sister, Poppy.

Poppy discovers an ancient piece of paper in a box in the Mayfleet apartment. By the time Lina manages to pry it out of the toddler’s hands, the paper has been chewed and torn to pieces, and the writing has been obscured in many places. Lina hangs on to the scraps, and becomes convinced they hold a special message. She shows the paper to certain friends and neighbors, including her old classmate Lizzie Bisco, but nobody has any clues as to its significance.

Lina’s grandmother cannot explain the paper either, but incoherently rambles on about finding “something that was lost”. Her health continues to fail, and she dies. One of the Mayfleet family’s neighbors, a kindly woman named Mrs. Murdo, offers to take Lina and Poppy in. Lina accepts this offer.

Eventually, Doon and Lina piece the paper together and a friend tells Lina that the message contains “Instructions for Egress”–instructions to leave Ember. They descend into the Pipeworks and discover that the instructions are indeed valid, and that the underground river holds the key to escape from the city. They also discover that a man named Looper is stealing the disappearing resources of Ember from the storerooms and giving them to the Mayor in a secret room in the Pipeworks. They report the Mayor’s theft to City Hall, confident that he will be arrested.

However, the Mayor sets his guards upon the pair, and orders their arrest for “spreading vicious rumors.” Before they can tell the residents of Ember about the Instructions for Egress, they are forced to flee the city. Lina manages to take her little sister Poppy, and, with Doon, goes down into the Pipeworks and flees Ember by boat on the underground river.

The river eventually leads to a great rock slope.  After a long and arduous climb, Lina, Doon and Poppy emerge from the rocks into a new world, where they discover sunlight, moonlight, stars and nature.

Doon and Lina explore a nearby cave. Looking down from a high cliff in the cave, they are amazed to see Ember below them–and realize that they have been living underground all along. In a last-ditch effort to save their city’s citizens, the three write a note with the Instructions for Egress, wrap it in Doon’s shirt, and hurl it down into Ember. In the book is found by Lina’s guardian, Mrs. Murdo who takes care of her. In the move, it is found by Doon’s father.

Since the movie is only about 1 hour and 40 minutes it does not have the epic detail of the book. However, the occasional comments made by the narrator as the story progesses, does a pretty good job of filling in the total plot line. The movie is watchable, has interesting cinematography, and a couple of strange monster rat-like creatures and big moths. The movie is rated PG and I enjoyed it at least at Senior Citizen admission charge.

Rating: 3 out of 5

While this movie got mixed reviews, I personally cosidered it one of Spike Lee’s best movies. Miracle at St. Anna follows four black soldiers of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division who get trapped near a small Tuscan village on the Gothic Line during the Italian Campaign of World War II after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy.

The story is inspired by the August 1944 Sant’Anna di Stazzema massacre perpetrated by the Waffen-SS in retaliation to Italian partisan activity. There is also a reference to a sculpted head from Ponte Santa Trinita in Florence that acts as a plot device.

Even at 2 hours and forty minutes the movie keeps a good pace. There is ample graphic violence. The acting is superb as is the cinamatography. I would hope that this would get strong consideration at the least best supporting actor and so far a potential contender for best movie. While I would say that Robert Downey, Jr. should get best actor for either Tropic Thunder or maybe Iron Man, currently the only other contender for best movie so far this season has been The Dark Knight.

This movie probably won’t apppeal to every one, however, it is definitely one not to be ignored. Spike Lee will probably be best remember for his docudrama, When the Levees Broke, this is a movie not to be missed. It will not leave you feeling good, but it will certainly give you pause and make you think.

Rating: 4.7 out of 5

One would think that with two fantastic actors, you could actually get to seem them act and have a decent plot line. The whole crux of the movie rests on the quasi-surprise ending which probably kept most of the people in the audience from asking for their money back. Even the anticipated gratuitous violence was weak. A potentially good, but stereotypical “vigilante cop” plotline, but how many of these have we seen before. Tired plot and apparently two tired academy award winning actors. Don’t waste your money.

Rating:  1 out of 5.