The Vatican Tapes - A Forgettable Possession Horror Movie

It's been a while since I had a free Saturday night at home, and last night I browsed through the channels of cable TV in the hope of finding some nice movie which I can watch. When I bumped into the usual Saturday Night Premiere of a "new" movie with above title played on HBO, I immediately saw the brief synopsis and it raised my interest. So at 8 PM, I already sat in front of my TV to watch it.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with scene from Vatican, Rome where two priests, were watching a video of Angela (played by Olivia Taylor Dudley - Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension) who seemed to be possessed by evil spirit. Cardinal Bruun (played by Peter Andersson - Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit) decided to visit US to investigate the case. Vicar Imani the other priest (played by Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond etc) wanted to go but he was told to stay and continue the works of Cardinal Bruun and the other priests on the possession cases.

Movie then showed the scene 2 months before when Angela was going to celebrate her birthday with her boyfriend Pete (played by John Patrick Amedori) and her father Roger (played by Dougray Scott - Taken 3 etc). She accidentally cut her finger while cutting her birthday cake. Since the cut looked bad, they decided to go to the hospital to get it fixed and they met with Father Lozano (Michael Peña - Ant Man) who told them that it really needed doctors to look at. After given some stitches and medicines, they allowed Angela to go home.

Following day, a raven seemed to start following Angela and it flew inside the bus where Angela and Pete were in. It also pecked her finger making things worse on the cut. At night, she seemed to be drunk and fainted. Angela woke up after a while but Pete and Roger decided she must go to the hospital again. When she was finally released, during the drive back to her home, somehow she managed to hijack the wheels and caused accident, making her into a coma, while Pete and Roger only having bruises. After 40 days, Father Lozano encouraged Roger to unplug the life support. However, once the last rites completed, Angela came back to life.

This was where the scary part would begin as Angela now started to show signs of being possessed. She was able to speak Aramaic, managed to be in 2 places at same time and convinced other patients to do violent acts among themselves including murder and suicide. The psychiatric doctor Richards (played by Kathleen Robertson) who was treating her decided that it would be best to let Angela out of the hospital.

The time is now in sync with the start of the movie where Cardinal Bruun has decided to come to US and perform exorcism.

So can Cardinal Bruun helped Angela? How will Peter and Roger cope up with such heavy burden of seeing Angela possessed? Find them all till the completion of the movie. 

End of Brief Story Line

I have to admit that there were very very few scary moments in this movie. I was hoping for a good old fashion scary possession movie but this one rather disappointed me. Furthermore, they were trying to make some of the scenes as found footage but it just made the movie odd. (I mentioned about found footage camera in my other review of "Project Almanac"). I mean if you want to make it found footage, then do it in full.

And finally the ending. OMG, I do not know what they had in mind when they prepared the ending. I personally think it was a foolish idea to make it that way. But maybe the film maker was thinking it was a good way to finish it off? Not sure. Anyway other horror movies would definitely do it differently or wait till the very end to show the surprising twist. I usually have an open mind when watching movies and I generally would always be able to see something good in a movie no matter how bad it was reviewed by critics. But I have to say that I root for them in this case.

So if you got nothing better to do and happened to stumble this movie on HBO, you can choose to see it and maybe give me an idea or two whether I am too harsh on this movie. Or maybe you can just ignore and see other movies which I strongly believe would be worth your time. I hope you are not making the same mistake that I did when I chose to watch it. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 2 out 5 stars

Independence Day: Resurgence - War Between Humans and Aliens. Again!

I still could not believe that it was 20 years ago when I first watched the original movie. That time, the special effect truly blew my mind as looking at the various landmarks of the world being blown away by alien attack was really amazing. Of course 20 years later, the sequel definitely is a must see movie for me and my wife. I even personally take a day off from work to watch the premier of this movie today. Yes, it was a little bit much, but having so many un-utilized leave days made me decided that this is as good time as any to take that leave. So we went to 1 of the theater nearest our home that was supposedly having Dolby Atmos effect. But we were both surprised that it was the usual 7.1 surround system (Cinema XXI Epicentrum, how could you???). Anyway, let's get on to the movie.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with scene of the alien from the original movie who was looking at the distress signal with messages from president Whitmore (Bill Pullman - While You Were Sleeping etc) and looked set to return to earth. He was no longer the cool president that led the fight between humans and aliens back then, but rather a tired & unbalanced looking older man. He was having dreams of the aliens. His daughter, Patricia (Maika Monroe - It Follows, The 5th Wave etc) currently worked for the new US president, Elizabeth Lanford (Sela Ward - The Day After Tomorrow, Gone Girl etc). They were preparing for 4th of July speech and was meeting captain Dylan Hiller (Jessie Usher) who was the stepson of Steven Hiller (played by Will Smith in the original movie). He was about to embark to the moon which now becomes the defense system against aliens.

In the moon, we were introduced to our 2 main characters, i.e. Jake Morrison (Liam Hensworth - The Hunger Games, The Expendables 2, etc) and his good friend Charlie (Travis Tope). Jake was given a hard time by his superior and was grounded despite his help to avoid an accident. Jake was apparently the boyfriend of Patricia and was good friends with Dylan, but due to some rivalry few years before, they have grown apart.

Dr. Levinson (Jeff Goldblum - Jurassic Park, Mortdecai etc) was meeting up with a warlord named Dikembe who was able to kill aliens in his country. They were investigating the only alien ship still left on earth during the first invasion. They found out there were some activities going on near the alien ship's location, and they were also curious about a special circle sign that kept popping up. 

After all the introductions of the characters, which took around 30 minutes or so (yes, it's that long), we will finally see some action. An alien object suddenly appeared in the moon base and all the leaders of the world council decided to attack that object despite the objection from Dr. Levinson. After it was attacked, there was no casualty and the object did not show any danger detectable. 

Jake and Charlie wanted to investigate the alien object and they enlisted the help from Dr. Levinson accompanied by Dr. Marceaux (Charlotte Gainsbourg), Dikembe and Floyd (Nicholas Wright). During this investigation, the mother alien ship much larger than the one from first invasion suddenly appeared near the moon. Moon as the defense center was instructed by President Lanford to attack, but to no avail. Jake and his friends' ship was stuck with the mother ship which was on the way to earth, creating all sort of panic and destruction on earth such as China, London and the US coast.

Dylan, Rain (Angelababy) the Chinese pilot who Charlie had a crush on and some other pilots escaped from the moon and returned to earth. General Adams (William Fichtner - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles etc) led the soldiers that were going to retaliate the aliens mother ship. Their plan was to drop fusion bombs by a bomber plane which would be protected by legions of war planes where Jake, Charlie, Dylan and Rain were amongst the pilots.

So can the humans successfully defeat the alien ship? What was their plan after 20 years of wait? What was the alien object that was shot in the moon earlier? And what will happen to all the characters introduced from the beginning? Watch them all in this exciting and tense war between humans and aliens.

End of Brief Story Line

Well, I gotta say that it was a good thing there was a lot of action after the 1st half hour as I believe it was having a slow pace and became little bit boring. There was plenty of dramatic moments here and there during the action packed 1.5 hour later. And some funny scenes were also included, usually involving Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner) and Floyd.

I enjoyed the special effects of the war and the major fight before the end of the movie. I even enjoyed some of the short touching moments in this film. However, I got to say that the special effects of the destruction seemed rather obviously computerized (perhaps due to so many movies nowadays that having CGI). But you will not be disappointed with the other special effects as this movie is directed by Roland Emmerich who had plenty of experience directing major destruction movies like The Day After Tomorrow, Godzilla and of course Independence Day.  

For those of you who enjoyed the original movie as much as I did, definitely better not miss this one. It will bring back some of those nice memories. I think the new characters also quite enjoyable to see. While the characters from original movie such as president Whitmore, Dr. Levinson, his father (Judd Hirsch) and of course Dr. Okun were also cool and fun to see and certainly made the absence of Will Smith's character not really felt. And I think they are planning for another sequel since the ending did give us that impression.

Oooh, I do not believe that watching in 3D is better than in 2D. Also there is no additional scene after the end credit. So if you happen to hold going to the rest room during the 2 hours, you can leave your seat immediately. 

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Finding Dory - A Wonderful Sequel to an Outstanding Original

At last, after 13 long years, the sequel to 1 of the most outstanding Disney-Pixar animated movies Finding Nemo finally materialized. And what better way then to put the spotlight on the partner of Marlin, our favorite blue colored fish with short term memory loss, Dory with her iconic saying "just keep swimming"? As my wife and I already committed that we shall see this movie together, we wait until both of us are available which happened to be just last night. We decided to watch in 3D and using a promotion from a bank where we could buy 1 free ticket for purchase of 1 ticket, we could sit in a very cool cinema with only 15 reclining seats in 1 theater. As usual with all Disney-Pixar movies, there was a short movie before the movie starts titled Piper about a very young bird learning how to look for its own food in the beach

Brief Story Line

Movie started with young Dory who was being taught by her mom and dad never to get caught up in the short wave of the ocean and also how to locate their house in case she forgotten by following the shells which would lead her to her home. Dory as a cute small fish with her very big eyes and cute voice was very worried if she forget her parents, but they assured her she would never forget. One day, Dory was somehow separated from her parents and she was stranded by herself. Panic and could not remember, she anxiously ask every other sea animals around her about her parents and her home. Due to her short term memory loss, she later would forget what she was asking and the other animals could not help her. She did this all the time until she was mature (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) and met Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks - The Simpsons Movie, Drive etc) who was looking for his son Nemo. You know the rest of that story.

Story moved to current time, where Nemo and the younger children were learning from Mr. Ray about fish migrating to their home town. Dory started to have memory of her home and decided that she would look for it. Nemo encouraged his father to assist Dory in finding her home which she remembered somewhere in California. With the help from turtles from the previous story, they reached California where Dory because of her excitement of sudden memory recollection of her parents, started to shout their names and resulted to them being chased by a large squid. Marlin scolded Dory because of the danger she brought on to Nemo with very strong words that made Dory felt guilty and wandered by herself. She was caught by some people who were working in a marine life institute nearby.

Dory was being tagged in the institute where she met a seven legged octopus named Hank (voiced by Ed O'Neill - Modern Family tv series) who was hoping to get tagged so he could be sent to Cleveland where he would be staying there without ever being put in the ocean. But Dory who just realized that the institute was her home, asked Hank to help her find her parents before she would agree to give her tag. Hank who was rather desperate finally agreed to help Dory.

Meanwhile, Marlin who felt guilty after being highlighted by Nemo that his words were very hurtful to Dory, were confused where to look for Dory. They finally met 2 sea lions who suggested that Dory would be brought to the marine life institute and advised them to look for Dory there.

So Nemo and Marlin would embark their journey to finding Dory. While Dory also embarked on her own journey together with Hank to locate her parents. Can Nemo and his father find Dory and can Dory finally meet her parents? And if Dory indeed find her parents, what would happen to Nemo, Marlin and Dory's relationship? Find them all in this lovely adventure movie. 

End of Brief Story Line

I really enjoyed this movie, and my wife especially loved it. There were many touching moments in this film and the story was very lovely. It was a simple enough movie, no need to over think how fish or octopus or any others could do the stuffs they did in this film. Just enjoy them and feel those loving moments.

There were some new characters that were also quite fun to watch such as Destiny a whale shark with near sight problem (voiced by Kaitlin Olson), my personal favorite: Bailey, a beluga whale with specialty of ecolocation (voiced by Ty Burrel) and of course Becky the bird. The 2 sea lions also have some noteworthy parts in the movie (voiced by Idris Elba and Dominic West). 

This is certainly a movie of all ages. Young children would love the colorful ocean, the fun adventure, the cute fishes, while the more adult can just enjoy the drama and learn a thing or two perhaps from Dory's parents' unconditional love. This can even be recommended as dating movie.

Last but not least, please do not leave your seat till the very end. There was a funny scene after the end credit completed, which would be too bad to miss.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Central Intelligence - CIA Agent and An Accountant to Save the World?

After having a psychologically tiring day at the office, I felt the need to watch some funny stuff and fortunately, this movie (which I believe should be funny based on the trailer I've seen earlier) just premiered. Coincidentally, my wife was having the same feeling, so she agreed to watch this too and she helped me buy the tickets for 7.15PM show. Since the time was quite late, I still managed to have a bite before the movie started. There were some new trailers of the upcoming movies prior to the start of the movie, which made my wife and I ecstatic such as Tarzan, Ghostbusters, Independence Day:Resurgence and some others. Anyway, let's start with the movie itself.

Brief Story Line

Movie started with scene from 1996 where a young high school student was bullied for being different by some other students led by Trevor and thrown into the school hall naked where all students were present to hear speech from Calvin "Golden Jet" Joyner the student voted to be most likely to success. Calvin felt sorry and immediately gave his jacket so the boy can cover himself. He was very thankful to Calvin and ran out of the hall.

Twenty years later, Calvin now become an accountant and was feeling down after seeing his former assistant promoted to a partner in his firm faster than him. He expressed his disappointment to his wife Maggie who was his high school girlfriend (played by Danielle Nicolet) and rejected Maggie's request to go to the high school reunion since he wanted to avoid being asked how he was doing now and so on. 

When Calvin was at the office, he befriended with a guy called Bob Stone in Facebook who claimed to be his high school friend that was bullied 20 years ago. Calvin met Bob in a bar and was very surprised to see him changed into a very big, tall, muscular guy (played by Dwayne Johnson - Fast Furious series, San Andreas etc). He was even more surprised when Bob was apparently having a good fighting skill and fend off some bad guys in the bar.

After having a fun night, Bob requested Calvin's help to look into his personal offshore account, using Calvin's knowledge in forensic accounting. The account seemed to be an account used for bidding and after Bob accidentally dropped the coffee on the laptop, they stopped checking and Bob stayed for the night.

On the following day, few CIA agents led by Agent Pamela (played by Amy Ryan - Birdman, Goosebumps etc) came to Calvin's house to arrest Bob who was apparently a former CIA agent himself but selling a secret data that can open up the information of all agents around the world and murdered his partner Phil (played by Aaron Paul). Calvin who was surprised of these facts was forced to help CIA to capture Bob. He was used as bait and came to office where all hell breaks lose when Bob really came and made Calvin unwillingly became his accomplish. Calvin managed to escape from Bob and again asked by CIA agents to help them capture Bob. 

So will Calvin help CIA to capture Bob? Is Bob really the bad guy that CIA claimed to be? Is there some other explanation? Find them all till the completion of the movie.

End of Brief Story Line

My wife and I quite enjoyed the film. There were quite a number of fun scenes and some touching scenes. Kevin Hart gave a lot of funny remarks and I personally think that he was the star of this movie. He was quite believable as a high school student who seemed to be having the brightest future but fail to live up to expectation (at least according to himself). Meanwhile Dwayne Johnson gave a good performance in the fighting and action sequence. There was also a surprise showing of Jason Bateman as the older Trevor and cameo appearance by a famous funny actress before the end of the movie.

I believe this movie can be classified as action-comedy with emphasis on giving a strong moral message about the bad things of bullying as it would usually leave the person being bullied scarred for life. And the worst part was generally, the person who bully did not even realize or felt sorry for bullying just like it was pictured in this film. 

If you want to enjoy some fun, without over thinking and watching Kevin Hart's jokes combined with The Rock's fighting skills, this one certainly fits your liking. But please do not expect non-stop laughing as sometimes it was combined with the relationship scenes between the two of them. There were plenty of enjoyable scenes as well, but my most memorable scene was during the therapy session of Calvin, Maggie and Dr. Dan. 

Please do not leave your seat very fast as there were some funny bloopers/gag reel (scenes that did not make the movie as they were usually wrong acting, or the actors laughed at serious scenes etc). This would give you extra laughter.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

(TV SERIES) LUCIFER Season 1 - The Devil Taking Vacation on Earth

Yes, you read it correctly. This is a story of Lucifer, the Angel who was cast out of heaven and condemned to rule Hell for eternity but felt bored and decided to take a vacation in Los Angeles. That's the premise of the TV series and definitely what interest me. It's a brand new series in 2016 and only consisted of 13 episodes, so pretty short and did not take me a long time to watch the whole season completely. Anyway, here is the story from the first season.

Brief Story Line

The pilot episode would introduce us to Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis mostly played in British TV shows), the devil who had the power to compel people exposing their deepest desire and charm people to do stuff they would not ordinarily do and also ladies to have sex with him. Lucifer owned a night club called LUX and he had a bartender named Mazikeen usually shortened to Maze (played by Lesley Ann Brandt - Spartacus series) who was actually a demon that left hell together with Lucifer for Los Angeles.

In first episode, a pop star named Delilah who knew Lucifer from days before her fame was shot to death while together with him. Lucifer who was immortal survived the shooting and wanted to find out the person behind Delilah's murder. So when detective Chloe Decker (played by Lauren German - A Walk to Remember, Hostel Part 2 etc) was assigned to this case, Lucifer offered his help to solve the murder which was rejected by Decker.

There was also another detective Dan Espinoza (played by Kevin Alejandro - True Blood series) who was Chloe's separated husband. He suggested Chloe to close the case fast as it was considered just a drug deal gone wrong.

Lucifer who would not take no for an answer easily, tried to do his own investigation and he met Chloe again who finally decided to better let him help her rather than interfering. In this episode we were also introduced to an angel named Amenadiel (played by D.B. Woodside - 24 series, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 etc). He kept on encouraging Lucifer to return to hell since he was stuck with the task of guarding hell while Lucifer was taking this vacation. Lucifer would always reject Amenadiel's requests.

During their investigation, Delilah was found out having a lot of session with a therapist named Dr. Linda Martin (played by Rachael Harris - Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Barely Lethal, etc) who would later become Lucifer's therapist as well.

Lucifer and Chloe were doing quite well together solving the first crime, despite Chloe's uncomfortable feeling with Lucifer's apparent self confidence, narcissism and claiming to be the Devil. She felt that Lucifer was able to provide some good insights and out of the box thinking. Lucifer himself was very curious on Chloe since he was unable to use his charm on Chloe at all. Lucifer also despise children, so he was very annoyed with Chloe and Dan's daughter Trixie, even though Trixie liked Lucifer as she thought he was funny.

In the following episodes, Lucifer who felt good after helping solving case, used his charm to convince the police and let him be the civilian consultant for police and partner with Chloe. There was also a long outstanding case that involved Chloe where another police named Malcolm was shot and in a coma stage (referred to as Palmetto case). Some of the police, especially Malcom's partner felt that it was Chloe's fault and blame her, which is why Chloe having difficulty getting a partner.

The cases that Lucifer helped Chloe would usually be murder from various background and also a case of robbery. Their ultimate case would be in episode 12 which continued to episode 13. In each episode, Lucifer would always try to seduce Chloe and find out why his charm did not work on her, while Amenadiel would always try to find ways to make Lucifer go back to hell using various methods from good to bad for an angel. Meanwhile Maze would also despise the fact that Lucifer was getting more and more attracted to humans and becoming less and less of a devil.

So, could Amenadiel successfully make Lucifer got back to hell? What would Lucifer's relationship with Chloe develop into? Is Dan going to get back to Chloe? Will the Palmetto case be solved in this first season? 

Find them all in this very interesting first season of Lucifer!

End of Brief Story Line

I truly enjoyed this series a lot. The first few episodes got me hooked, but somehow it became a little bit slower, until the 6th episode where the ending gave us quite a surprise and 8th episode which gave a bit of a cool twist. Then the series got a bit more serious as it gave something extra than the usual seduction of Lucifer to Chloe and his crazy acts during investigation. While the final 2 episodes were cool and gave us a nice ending where it would make us getting wildly speculating of how the second season would be.

I also felt that Lucifer was very charming and truly believable as a Devil who can compel people and a real ladies man with his British accent. Chloe's sometimes disgust and disbelief of Lucifer's claim to be the Devil with God as his father was also very funny, especially in a scene in episode 4.

Overall, this series is something different than the usual police procedural series. Lucifer's charm combined with Chloe's insecurity as a police due to her background makes this one a good watchable series. There were of course many hilarious moments involving Lucifer's craziness.

So if you would like to watch the Devil taking vacation on earth, this is definitely a must see one.

Mike's movie moment rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Special Note:

This is an adaptation from comic books created by Mike Carey and published from Vertigo (different line) of DC Comics which is like a brand name where certain comics with more adult content are published. Some of notable comics from Vertigo include Sandman, V for Vendetta, A History of Violence, Constantine and others.

Now You See Me 2: The Great Illusionists & Magicians Returned

This was 1 of my most anticipated sequel this year. The original was released back in 2013 and I truly loved that one. Hence, when I saw the trailer to the sequel, my wife and I decided to watch this one at the earliest screening. So when it premiered yesterday, and coincidentally my wife's supposed function was rescheduled, she was able to buy the tickets for 6.25 PM show. Lucky for me I still managed to get to the studio on time despite the heavy traffic when I went back home due to the fasting month. Anyway, let's continue to the story.

Brief Story Line

Story started with scene from 1984 where Lionel Shrike a very famous magician then, was trying to do an escaping act from a locked safe which was chained and dropped into a river, while Thaddeus (played by Morgan Freeman - Million Dollar Baby, The Dark Knight and many others) was narrating in front of TV. The escape act was some kind of challenge from Thaddeus. Before the safe was thrown, Lionel still managed to speak to his son and ensuring him that as magician he would always have backup plan. Those of you who watched the original movie would know the outcome of this escaping act.

Moving to the current time, FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes (played by Mark Ruffalo - Avengers, Foxcatcher etc) was trying to convince his new boss Agent Natalie (played by Sanaa Lathan - The Best Man, Alien Vs Predator etc) to allow him catching the 'Four Horsemen' whom he was unable to "catch" for doing heist and acting like Robin Hood in the original movie. Though Agent Cowan was suspicious of Dylan's involvement in the four horsemen's previous act, Dylan was allowed to capture them using his own personal time.

One of the Four Horsemen, Atlas (played by Jesse Eisenberg - Batman VS Superman etc) was having some contacts with "the eye", the supposed behind the scene organization that arranged for their acts few years before. Atlas was feeling that he should be the leader of the horsemen instead of Dylan, but he was told to wait. When Atlas got back to his home, he found a lady who seemed to be able to do lots of magic tricks named Lula (played by Lizzy Caplan - Cloverfield etc). She managed to escape from Atlas' house after he tried to capture her. 

Atlas later went to meet the other horsemen Merrit McKinney (played by veteran Woody Harrelson) and Jack Wilder (played by Dave Franco - 21 Jump Street etc). They were introduced by Dylan to the newest member of the four horsemen, Lula who would replace Henley (Isla Fisher). Though the other three horsemen were surprised, but they followed Dylan's instruction to move on. Dylan later shared their next target of heist would be to infiltrate a tech company on the verge of releasing a new handphone which would download private data from the users.

During the launching of this new handphone, all of the four horsemen would show their talents including Lula the latest member. Meanwhile Dylan would operate from the outside. However, things went haywire when suddenly the FBI were able to find out about their plan and they had to escape.

The four horsemen who were now in Macau were met by the person responsible for their disclosure. They had no choice but to assist him acquiring a computer chip that can expose and delete any data from any computer from a seemingly impossible "fortress". For this heist, they would be provided with items from a magic store keeper named Li (played by Taiwanese actor/singer Jay Chou - The Green Hornet) and his aunt.

Due to the complexity of the story and the various plot twists, I will not be able to write any more without breaking some spoilers. Therefore, it would be better if you just continue watching and see whether these four horsemen can achieve their goal.

End of Brief Story Line

Watching this movie would put you into a sense of awe when the four horsemen were showing their act. There were 3 scenes of such cases, where the 2nd one was more tense because of the worry they could be caught, while the last scene was more awesome in the individual magic/illusion act. There was also a cool fighting scene involving Dylan with some thugs using his own ability to use illusions.

I like this movie and had good experience watching it. But if you asked me, personally I believe the original is more superior to this one. I guess maybe I was having too much admiration towards the original and felt that the elements of surprise was not so surprising here. I also think that the new Lula character was not too believable as a good magician, and I really believed there is no necessity in having the Chase character as a relative. He can be any random character and it would still make sense. Maybe the film maker just want to make it funny, though I think it's not necessary.

But of course, the illusions, the fast hands were the good part of this movie. I saw David Copperfield's name mentioned in the credit scene (not sure I remember the role, perhaps as consultant). There were also some funny moments in this movie. 

If you are a fan of the original, this one may disappoint you a bit, but it is still an OK sequel and it's certainly a different type of genre altogether compared to comic book adaptations or plain action movies. If you have not watched the original, please ensure you watch it first before you watch this one, otherwise you will be left with wondering about the movie's plots.

Mike's movie moment rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows - Fun Sequel to a Fun Movie

It has been a while since I watched a movie on Saturday night, and finally I got the chance to do it last night with my wife. I have bought the ticket since lunch time and sitting in a restaurant writing on my review plus reading some other stuff while waiting for the movie to start. Well off to the story then.

Brief Story Line

If you have watched the 1st movie earlier, you would know that the turtles which consist of the leader Leonardo (voiced by Pete Ploszek), the muscle Raphael (voiced by Alan Ritchson), the brain Donnatello (voiced by Jeremy Howard) and the so called joker Michelangelo (voiced by Noel Fisher) were the ones who actually caught Shredder (played by Brian Tee) and his foot soldiers. But in order to avoid the spot light, Vern (Will Arnett) took the fame. The turtles were happy to be under the radar but they had always yearn to be able to stand out and be normal just like any other people. During a basketball game where they could only watched from the top of the field, April (played by Megan Fox - Transformers) was trying to find out if Dr. Baxter Stockman (played by Tyler Perry - Gone Girl etc) was actually having something to do with Shredder.

(TV SERIES) CONTINUUM - Changing History to Change the Future

This series caught my eyes few years ago when I was looking for interesting tv show. The premise of a police from the future who had to go through time to catch a bunch of terrorist in current year sounded like fun. But I never got the chance to see it until just recently and I was able to finish it in short time as it consisted just 4 seasons where the series finale was in October 2015.

Brief Story Line Season 1

The pilot episode was introduction of the main characters of this series. Agent Kiera Cameron (played by Rachel Nichols - GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Star Trek etc) was a member of police team that caught Edouard Kagame (played by Tony Amendola - Zorro, Annabelle etc) a leader of terrorist group known as Liber8, but not before his team blown a building nearby killing thousand of people in the year 2077.

Kagame with the other Liber8 members caught by police such as Travis Verta (Roger Cross), Sonya Valentine (Lexa Doig) and few others were sentenced to death. During the time when all 7 of them were about to be electrocuted, Kiera saw something was passed amongst them and suspected foul play. So she wanted to capture them but there was huge explosion and she was caught together with them.

All these were seen by various people such as Kiera's husband and an old person who seemed important.

Later we would see the ruins of the explosion that caused by this incident. Kiera who survived it, wanted to capture the terrorists but unable to do so. Being a police in 2077, there was an instrument planted in her brain (called CMR) that can give her communication access to police head quarters. When she was asking help while trying to capture Lucas, her line of communication was responded by a young man who was confused why some random people can access to his experimented equipment. Lucas was finally caught by the police, while Kiera went away and finally realized she had gone back to the year 2012. The reason she was able to use CMR was the equipment already invented in that year by Alec Sadler (played by Eric Knudsen - Saw II, Saw V, Scream 4 etc).

The following day, Kiera would go to the scene of explosion from the incident and met with detective Carlos Fonnegra (played by Victor Webster - Dying of the Light) who immediately felt that Kiera was a person with the law and requested her cooperation. They would later become partners where Kiera would declare herself as a member of some secret government agent called Section 6. The police headquarters were led by Dillon and also aided by Betty for anything related with IT.

Kiera would be an added worthy asset for the Vancouver PD providing various insights of Liber8 and their ways of doing terror. In later episodes, Kiera who had become the unofficial partner of Fonnegra would solve crimes involving Liber8. Meanwhile, within Liber8 itself, there was a little bit of disharmony, e.g. Kellog who wanted to gain money using his knowledge from the future, and also Curtis Chen's ambition to be the leader of their small group. This happened also because of their leader, Kagame was thought not able to make the time jump.

On the other hand, Kiera also was having so much personal problem, especially relating to her separation from her only son and her husband.

There were also some important characters such as Julian Randol (played by Richard Harmon - The Age of Adaline) the step brother of Alec Sadler and Jason who seemed to know a lot about time travel and of course the old Alec Sadler (played by William B. Davis - the smoking man in X-Files tv series) who had huge influence and power in the year 2077.

The first season would be more towards the struggle of Kiera adapting to life in the 2012, plus avoiding being found out as person from future by her partner and police. Each episode would pit Kiera and Fonnegra against Liber8 various tactics from kidnapping, robberies even attack on police and instilling influence on the future mayor of Vancouver.

The season finale was the first major incident that actually had a major role in what the future would be. 

Brief Story Line Season 2 (spoiler warning from season 1)

In the second season, after Kagame's death and Travis shot by Sonya, the Liber8 members were fighting among themselves. Travis aided by Garza, while Sonya aided by Lucas. Kellog had his own agenda of investing his future with Alec Sadler to setup a new company with major invention.

Julian was also imprisoned for his indirect involvement in bombing of a building in the season 1 finale. However, he would later be released due to some actions done by Liber8. Julian aka Theseus in future started to have some loyal followers who created some havoc in this season.

Things were also complicated in season 2 as Kiera was suspected of having some relation with Liber8 and being a mole in police dept. Agent Gardiner from Canadian secret agent investigated Kiera in depth and Kiera had to do few things to shake his suspicion, leading to various implication.

There was also the relationship between Alec and his girlfriend Emily. Jason who was revealed in season 1 as a time traveller from future had some information about people called "freelancers" who were supposed to be a team of people guarding the proper time continuum. He was also the one who informed Kiera about a very important & rich person who will have major impact in future, i.e. Mr. Escher.

All the complications in season 2 would culminate to a quite shocking finales in episode 12 and 13 which I believe was a total changer of what season 3 would be.

Brief Story Line Season 3 (spoiler warning from season 1 & 2)

Season 3 started where season 2 finale left off, with 2 Alec and 2 Kiera present in the present year. The present Kiera was found dead, and the only Kiera that existed now is the Kiera from 1 week before who was sent by the Freelancers led by Catherine to ensure the timeline continuum stay correct by ensuring only 1 Alec Sadler who would maintain the future is alive and killing the other Alec. 

Fonnegra who already knew from season 2 about Kiera's coming from the future was shocked to find out about present Kiera's death and was having mind breakdown. Meanwhile the present Alec was shocked to find out that he inherited Piron organization by his father Escher. Whereas the other Alec (I refer to the 1 week older Alec as "the other Alec" to easily differentiate) was very happy to find Emily still alive and wanted to take her away from all the problems.

Kiera who was dilematic about her task of finding the "correct" Alec and kill the other finally made her mind up. Which Alec that Kiera choose, this one I will leave you all to see. Meanwhile, Sonya and Travis who have already reconciled in season 2 also did a lot of things to alter the future, especially coordinating attacks on the major corporate in 2077 such as Sonmato who had created biochemical weapon as well as its antidote. They also captured Jim, the current mayor and forced him to give announcement relating to the bad things about corporate & statement about his "agreement" with Liber8's position.

With time kept on changing because of the time travel done by Kiera and Alec in season 2 finale, the future had become so dynamic and there was no indication of which future will be the one Liber8 and Kiera wanted. This was indicated in episode 11.

There were also some new characters in this season, with 1 particular person stands out, which is a john doe who had amnesia and only remembered Kiera Cameron's name. 1 old character also re-appeared in this season. 

The final episode of season 3 would provide you some surprise on how Kiera would handle the situation to maintain the proper future.

Brief Story Line Final Season 4 (spoiler warning from season 1, 2 & 3)

This is the final season and only consisted of 6 episodes. The story revolved on how Kiera, together with Brad Tomkin from season 3 had to deal with the armed forces from 2039 where Brad originally came from. They were sent by Kellog who had become some kind of warlord in 2039 and had his own agenda.

Travis, Lucas and Garza the only living existing Liber8 members by now had already cooperated with Kiera and were helping her to maintain the proper time continuum. Alec who was ousted by Kellog in season 3 finale from Piron also tried his best to retaliate against Kellog. He was also aided by Julian who was having doubts on how he should deal with his future of possible killer of thousands to achieve his agenda.

Meanwhile Kiera whose longing to meet her son made her set her mind up to return back to her own time where Alec truly tried his best to do so. 

So can Kiera achieved her target to return back to the time she want and see her son? Will the future be a better one or actually a worse one? What will happen to the rest of the Liber8 members and also the 2039 assault team? Find them all out in this last season.

End of Brief Story Line Final Season 4

I totally enjoyed watching this TV series for the 1st season. Although there were some cheesy moments (supposed to be dramatic, but unfortunately I could not feel it), but the time travel thing was nice and the build up of Liber8 organization & struggle of Kiera adapting to life in 2012 was fun to see. 

But in season 2, I felt the pace was slower and felt forced to make into 13 episode. However, the last 2 episodes did not disappoint and I did not see that coming.

As for season 3, the pace was also slow with 1 or 2 episodes that I felt forced to be added. But again the episode 11 and 13 were great one to me.

Finally the final season. I kind of felt a little bit sad as I know this would be the last one. I had pictured what the finale would be like but the writers have given something different. It left a bitter sweet feeling after seeing this series finale.

In conclusion, if you are interested in watching some time travel combined with police procedural genre and various twists & plots about the universe paradox due to the time travel and would make you think, this series would be good for you. The special effects are not the "blow your mind" type but just nice for TV series. 

The total of 42 episodes to complete the whole story might be too long for certain people, but if you are the dedicated kind like me, maybe this one suits you as well.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Money Monster - A Hostage Situation Shown Live on TV

After having such a roller coaster day in the office where all the news that I received was either very good or very bad, I felt I needed a refreshing. Having heard about the new movie playing in theater since last Friday about a TV host for stock advice being put on ransom during the show, I felt this would be a good movie to watch (also because it's the only movie I have not watched in the theater near my home). Anyway, I went home quite fast that day and reached the location in time to buy ticket. Surprisingly for Tuesday night, it was almost fully booked. Maybe they were interested because of the actor/actress playing, I don't know. Anyway, below is my view of the movie.

Brief Story Line (I will try to put as little info as possible to avoid spoiler, but if you are really worried, maybe you can skip this part)

The movie started with some news on TV about a company called IBIS Clear Capital which was having a glitch in their trading algorithm and resulted to a heavy loss of USD 800million in 1 night. Later scene moved to our main character Lee Gates (played by the famous George Clooney), a host for TV show called Money Monster, a fun show giving advice on stocks to buy/sell in the market getting ready for another show. The director Patty Fenn (played by the famous Julia Roberts) who was giving some info & instruction to Lee about today's show which would discuss about the IBIS matter. They have also invited the Chief Communication Officer (PR) of IBIS named Diane Lester (played by Caitriona Balfe - Now You See Me, Escape Plan) to give insights on what actually happened with IBIS.

Before the show started, Ron the producer (played by Christopher Denham - Argo) informed about a new product from a company about an erectile cream which got approval on the health regulator and the producer's stock supposedly would increase. Lee jokingly asked Ron to try it on to confirm that it was as good as it said.

When the show just started a while, a person bringing 2 boxes seemed to be a courier lost in the show area. Suddenly the person went into the show and flashed a gun. He threatened everyone at the studio that the show must go on, otherwise he would shoot Lee. Patty who was worried about showing this to the audience finally decided to continue airing. She later instructed everyone in the studio that was not directly involved should leave. By then, the person who later on revealed to be Kyle (played by Jack O'Connel - Unbroken, 300:Rise of an Empire) had forced Lee to put on a jacket with bombs and he was holding the switch that when released would detonate the bomb.

Later police would be involved and the show itself became quite public. As we would have guessed, Kyle was a grumpy investor who lost his money through the investment on IBIS, which was advised by Lee and he blamed Lee also Walt Camby the CEO of IBIS (played by Dominic West). His purpose of this action was to find out the truth on the reason for the loss of his investment and if it's a mistake from IBIS, he wanted Walt to admit it. 

So what would happen next on this drama of hostage taking on TV? Can Lee, Patty and the rest of the crew get out of this alive? Can IBIS people assist on this matter? And what will happen to Kyle? All of this would be answered by the end of the movie. There would be plenty of noteworthy scenes till the conclusion. Make sure you are watching them without any interruption as there were scenes that would only reveal the connection at the end.

End of Brief Story Line

I truly enjoyed the moment watching this movie. Surprisingly there were some funny moments even in the tense situation. Slowly we would also be revealed on what actually happened with IBIS. So I guess this movie can also be put under thriller genre.

I also like George Clooney's character here as he was very charming as a TV host. I felt that Julia Robert's character was very believable as a director (like a "mother figure" to a boy in Lee). I also symphatize Jack O'Connel's character as I believe other viewers would be. In a drama movie, characters would be the strong attraction. So having 3 main characters plus some other supporting characters like Diane Lester, Ron the producer, Lenny the cameraman and other smaller roles that have just the perfect playing time was very good.

I believe this movie is a hidden gem. Not many people may want to watch this, if they are more interested in action movies that are currently playing in theaters. Sadly enough, it's not playing in a lot theaters today as there is a new movie already playing.

For those of you looking for thriller drama with some funny scenes and interesting story with strong performances as well as current day's condition and directed by Jodie Foster, this one is really worth watching. I myself totally forgotten about my office's challenges after watching this movie.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars