A Skull Above Any Other (The Skulls Review)

How do you define a movie like The Skulls?  The name Skull and Bones brings about whispers and murmurs and rumors of powerful men who control the world.  When this movie came out back in the year 2000, only three known Presidents of the United States were members of this Society but as of the end of the Bush Administration four known U.S Presidents have been Skulls, with countless Senators also being members of the same Society.  Some of the most powerful men around the world are Skulls and this “Secret” Society helps groom them into being the most powerful.  Which is part of the opening to the movie a very brief history of the Society, which states this?  “Every year at certain Ivy League Colleges, an elite group of students is chosen to join Secret Societies.”  “Unlike fraternities, these Societies conceal their actions as they mold the leaders of the future.”  “At least 3 U.S. Presidents are known to have been members.”  The opening itself accompanied by those quotes is short and simple and in so few words tell you that this movie is about the machinations of most elite Secret Society which is based in Yale, The Skull and Bones Society.

Let us begin with the cast of this movie, shall we?  “A skull above any other!”  Joshua Jackson (The Mighty Ducks Series, Dawson’s Creek, Fringe)  Paul Walker (Lord of the Flies, The Fast and The Furious, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Fast and Furious) Hill Harper (CSI: Miami, CSI:NY) Leslie Bibb (Popular, Iron Man, Iron Man 2) Craig T. Nelson (Coach) William Petersen (The Contender, Haven, CSI) Christopher McDonald (Happy Gilmore, Super Hero Movie, Fanboys).  Hill Harper has the fewest lines but he plays one of the biggest roles in the movie.

Lucas “Luke” McNamara (Joshua Jackson) isn’t your run of the mill Ivy League Student, he didn’t come from a wealthy family and from the looks of his high school buddies he wasn’t a great student.  But looks can be deceiving; he is a senior at Yale University, with his eyes set on Harvard Law.  A member of the Yale Crew Team (Row Boats for those of you unfamiliar with what Crew is), and a hard working prelaw student with excellent grades Luke is your typical bad boy turned scholar.  Now you have Caleb Mandrake (Paul Walker), rich daddy’s boy born into the world with a silver spoon in his hand.  The world is at this young man’s finger tips, groomed for greatness, Yale Boxer, excellent marksmen and snappy dresser to boot he is everything Luke wants to be.  These opposites are destined to attract to each other because their skill sets compliment the others and it is why they are chosen to be soul mates in the society.  Their teamwork when they work together can accomplish anything.  This is demonstrated during the Council’s test of the new class of Skulls to get the Symbol of a Rival secret society.

This movie takes place in the course of what I am assuming is the first couple of months of the school year.  During the Skull’s yearly Revealing process, a period of time to acclimate new members to the society they are about to join.  The process starts with being tapped, it usually a test of endurance and timing ending with a drink that knocks the drinker out and when the tapped person awakes they wake up in a coffin, a symbol of being reborn.  Next is the council’s test which requires all tapped students to work as a team to obtain a single goal.  After being tapped and passing the test, all new members must proceed to the ritual room where they are then branded with the mark of the skull to show their loyalty and commitment to the society.  To which a gift is bestowed upon the new branded member.  Brand new watches to place over the branded wrist too keep their membership subtly secret.  Once this is done all members are given a starting 20,000 dollar reward wired to their bank accounts without the tapped member’s knowledge.   The following week, the new members are taken to a private island where they stay for the weekend and have a welcoming party, where they introduced to women specifically selected for them by types, tastes and general compatibility with the tapped member.  They are also given a key to the meeting place and a rule book “our rules supersede the rules of overall world.”  After attending a few meetings, the members are once again brought to the island for their full acceptance into the society with a check for 100,000 dollars.

I do not know about you but the perks of being a skull sure as hell makes me wish I had done better in school so I could go to Yale.

The story and main plot point comes just after the branding, Luke’s best friend and non-skull member is found hanging in his office at the School paper.  Which then descends into a mystery to figure out what actually happened to William Beckford, was it suicide or was he killed for knowing too much?  As the story unfolds Luke finds himself in a web of lies and blackmail all connected to what happened to William Beckford.  It is during the most troubling of times; Luke reaches out to a senior member of the society, Skull Council Member and Senator from Virginia, Ames Levritt (William Petersen).  Levritt becomes a crucial key to finding out what Litten Mandrake (Craig T. Nelson) is up to.  But Levritt is always clear that keeping the ideals of the Skulls intact should be maintained for everyone’s safety.

The events lead up to a duel between Luke and Caleb…… THE FATE OF THE WORLD SHALL BE DECIDED BY THE OUT COME OF A CHILDREN’S CARD GAME.  Wait what the fuck, no no no.  The duel is your standard gentlemen’s duel to the death.  Ten paces and then turn and shoot with a single shot in the gun.  Can Batman and Robin survive, or will the Joker have the last laugh find out.  When you watch the movie!

Overall this movie is well developed, acted, directed and produced, I do not say this very often but this movie has come to find a place in my top ten favorite movies.  I watch this movie over and over and I do not get bored with it.  With that in mind, I give this movie an eight of ten.  Why eight you ask me?  Well because there is a few flaws here and there with the pacing and timing of the scenes.  There is also a few times where the camera man leaves product placement while filming the actors in the shot for too long.  Product placement is fine in a movie but when it is on the screen for almost one to two minutes that is over doing it.

I hope you enjoyed this review, please remember to leave me comments in the comment section and follow me here on the blog.  Thanks for reading

The Fast and The Furious Tokyo Drift (Movie Review)

Probably one of the most underrated films in its franchise, “The Fast and The Furious Tokyo Drift”, sticks out from its three counter parts in many ways.  Let’s just jump right in and get our heads wet as we break this bad boy down piece by drifting piece.  Coming out in the summer of 2006, Tokyo Drift was met with some uncertain feedback particularly from the core fans of the franchise because one it did not have the main characters from the previous two films billed to reprise their roles…..mostly.  It keeps to the basic formula for the most part only really straying to a different plot device to drive the story.  In “The Fast and The Furious” and “2 Fast 2 Furious” the plot device is undercover police work to take down crime.  Tokyo Drift however strays in this factor using a rebellious teenager who is on his last chance to stay on the straight and narrow only to be shoved into a life he is used too yet at the same time not used to.  The ONLY star of the original film to make an appearance is Vin Diesel and that is a brief cameo at the very end.  The story and the concept and the lack of the original stars were what drove away some of the core fans from Tokyo Drift.  I have to admit, I was reluctant to watch this movie because of those very reasons, but once I saw it on DVD I went out and purchased it. 

The cast is mostly made up of unknown actors the only possible actor people may know is Lucas Black.  He was the kid from Slingblade and the male lead of that crappy Legion movie.  But let us take the film’s roll call.  Lucas Black (Slingblade, Jarhead, Legion);  Shad Gregory Moss A.K.A Bow Wow (Like Mike, Roll Bounce, Lottery Ticket); Brian Goodman (Blow, Catch Me If You Can, The Last Castle); Nathalie Kelley (This is her first Major Role); Brian Tee (Also Debut Role); Sung Kang (Fast and Furious); Sonny Chiba (Kill Bill Volume 1, Battle Royale II) Zachery Bryan (Home Improvement).  There is the class of this film, lets jump in deeper.

The movie opens with a subdued beat which also mixes in a slightly fast paced techno beat which gives it a nice harmony.  We meet Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) a typical high school senior (I say senior cause he drives) who is into cars, at first glance he has this look to him that says I would rather be someplace else.  You can tell his mind is not on his work because he is drawing car engines into his notebook.  As the credits and music play over his day in school, we are finally greeted with some dialog.  Enter the bimbo blonde who thinks her shit doesn’t stink because she is dating the captain of the football team.  She would be good looking if she didn’t look so plastic.  I am assuming Lucas Black has had that thick Texas Accent all his life because it is in every movie he has ever been in (I have no beef with people from Texas, I am just saying).  The two start off talking about Sean’s car and how it isn’t ride but the rider you have to judge.  “It’s not the ride.  It’s the rider!” Just put a thick Texas Accent on there and you have way that statement sounds.  As the two talk we are greeted by Brad….  I mean Clay (Zachery Bryan) captain of the football team and your stereotypical brain dead jock.  “Dur, you talk to my pretty lady, now me smash you face in trailer trash.”  He doesn’t say that but that is how I hear jocks in my head.  The two are about to throw down fists and the football team Vs Sean and his heavy wrench.  UNTIL Bimbo Barbie steps in and says the two should race instead. 

Here is one aspect of the movie that boggles the shit out of my mind; you are racing going maybe eighty to ninety plus miles per hour.  When you start to lose, why you would start crashing your car into the other car is beyond my comprehension, maybe steroid rage and you slut of a girlfriend is taunting you is to blame, but smashing your 80,000 dollar car into a custom built car just to keep your girlfriend for prom isn’t a good idea especially at those speeds.  But not only this race but later on also the guy who starts to lose towards the end of the race just tries to kill Sean via car crashing at eighty to ninety plus mile per hours.  I tell you man, these fucking people are stupid.

After both cars become totaled we are sent to the Sean, Brad….CLAY GOD DAMNIT, and Bimbo…I Mean Cindy sitting in a police station waiting to talk to the cops.  Sean, who had won the race and the girl, gives Cindy a bloody smile (Epic fail dude Epic Fail).  JUMP TRANSISTION to the interrogation room where Sean is being given the fifth degree by his case worker.  Sean’s mom comes to the rescue, true to form, the woman is dress and acts like a skinnier Peg Bundy, and she decides to flirt with the cop and ask to smoke in a non-smoking room.   Once Sean leaves the room, we find out that no matter what happens Sean is losing his license and possibly facing jail time unless he agrees to live with his father in Japan.

Here is the thing, this movie at least to me is a lighter version of the franchise as a whole, and the main three movies are gritty and seeded with higher stakes and greater consequences.  Tokyo Drift has high stakes but it just doesn’t have the whole air of dread for the characters that the other three have.  Tokyo Drift is great in its own right and holds its own in the franchise, and for that I give it major props. 

Sean having been uprooted from a culture he knows and planted in a new one is off setting to the rebellious teenager because he has to deal with a whole new set of social order and culture of Japan in general.  Like the whole taking your shoes off before entering a room “WAHBAKI WAHBAKI” and the food strange looking to us, normal to the Japanese.  In lunch in the new Japanese school we are introduced to Twinkie (Bow Wow) he is an army brat, moving from place to place with his family and surviving in new places being a hustler selling goods to people and getting cash.  Twinkie and Sean hit it off quickly enough before we are introduced to the worst looking modified car ever.   Twinkie’s Hulk car that’s right Hulk Car, it is supposed to look like the Incredible Hulk is busting out of the car, but it just looks odd, well done but odd. 

The main characters of this movie is the hot cars and Japan is full of hot cars with even hotter girls and for some reason girls with white ALL the way around their eyes like a white mask I counted eight in the entire movie.  The cars in the first scene before Sean’s first drift race are off the hook all imports and tuned to not only look awesome but probably tuned to race also.  The next main character in a Fast and The Furious movie is the love interest that keeps getting the main character in trouble.  We find that character in Neela (Nathalie Kelley) and how does she get Sean in trouble, why just by talking to the idiot, inciting her Yakuza want to be, boyfriend Takashi D.K (Brain Tee) to come over and defend his turf.  Sean being unable to control his idiocy or his hard on for Neela in check, bad mouths his way into a race against D.K.  D.K Stands for Drift King, a prestigious title in the Japanese racing world.  After a HUMILIATING defeat, Sean is indentured to Han (Sung Kang) and becomes his pickup and delivery boy “I may call you once a day or every hour, I do not care if you are sick as a dog or in bed with Beyoncé, I call you show.”  

My feelings on the characters can be summed up to that while they are likeable and developed well, they are odd and feel out of place in their settings except for Han, Sean and Twinkie.  The rest feel like they were cut and pasted into the movie for extra space.  Sean grows a lot in this movie and for Fast and The Furious that is quick.  It took two movies to mature Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) into a believable character.  Neela while decent in her acting just seemed a bit underwhelmed and cautious when it came to her lines, she felt like she was forcing herself to be the character.  Han is by far the best character in this movie, calm cool and collected he is the balance to the turbulent world around him.

To avoid spoilers I will leave it at that.  My take on the movie, is this.  It is a good movie, good fun if you have ninety minutes to waste.  The dialog and pacing is a bit choppy but it still gives you enough coherence to get you to enjoy the story.  The cinematography and the CGI is well done and believable, my only complaint would be some of the odd angles during the races.  The direction was good for this movie and its actors and actresses.  Personally I enjoy this movie; it is defiantly worth a rent and given a chance.  On the scale of one to ten, I give this movie a seven. 

Remedy to help Soothe the sickness

1. LOTS OF REST
2. If you absolutely have to function throughout the day, drink Hot Green Tea with honey.  The Antioxidants in Green Tea will help energize you.  The honey will help clear the mucus in your body.
3. Orange Juice, with lots of pulp.  Even if you hate the pulp keep it in that is extra Vitamin C.  Vitamin C will help you get better.
4.  Eat Chicken Soup, it is not just for the soul, it helps nourish your body and it has natural vitamins in it that helps you get better faster.
5.  Hot bath or shower before bed, this will help your body relax
6.  Also before bed, drink a cup of Hot Chamomile Tea with honey.  Chamomile is a natural sleep aid and it helps relax your muscles, resulting in a more fitful sleep.


Rinse and Repeat

Upcoming Review

The next movie I will be reviewing is The Fast and The Furious Tokyo Drift.  Despite my personal liking of the movie, I will be fair and Balanced in my review.  So keep an eye out for it, Should be up by the end of the week.

Most Broken Character Race Ever

Created by HieiYYH2

Race: Saiyan
Favored Class: Barbarian and Fighter
Language: Saiyan
Bonus Languages: All
Level Adjustment +8

Racial Features
STR: +4
INT:  -3
REF: +3
WIS: +3
CON: -3
CHA: (Male +3)  (Female +4)

Saiyans are strong and stupid but flexible and Street Smart

Racial Hit Die:  4d8+10 at 1st level

Battle Memory: Once per day prolonged Combat (4 rounds or more) causes the Saiyan to gain the effects of Barbarian Rage without using a per-day use of Rage (If they are a Barbarian)

Battle Stamina: Should a Saiyan take more than half his hit points in a single attack, he does not have to make the usual Fortitude check to stay conscious.  Instead his Strength and Constitution increases by +2 for remainder of the encounter.

Greater Rage: Character Level Five and Higher Saiyans 1/day can go into greater rage  giving them +8 to Strength and Constitution and +4 to Will and -4 to AC for 3 rounds

Die Hard: (See Feat Description in Players Handbook)

Near Death experience:  Once they reach a class level of ten.  A Saiyan who is dropped to negatives by either a single attack or by being beaten to this point.  Once fully recovered all Stats are permanently increased by 1 can only be done twice in the characters life time.

Super Saiyan: Once every other month at character level fifteen A saiyan’s  rage can cause a bodily change.  The Saiyan’s Strength, Reflex, Constitution  and Speed are doubled for the encounter.

Wereform:  Saiyans have the ability to change form during a full moon, this change causes the Saiyan to go from Medium Size to Huge and all Stats are doubled during the duration of the transformation.  Saiyans in this state gain the effects of Berserk and cannot distinguish between friend and foe.   They also obtain a breath weapon

Breath Weapon: A Burst of energy shot from the mouth does 1d8 /every two character levels (Limit 12d8), this attack can only be used during Wereform.

UPDATES From the creator

Updates get all your updates.  TWENTY FIVE CENTS A COPY……….WHAT…. no I am not charging twenty five cents a view that would be ludicrous.  Just thought I would drop in with some updates for everyone.  My work schedule has started to affect my post frequency; I am trying to get as many posts out as I can with work and all.  BUT on a good note the amount of views on the blog almost doubled from the amount of 138 in October to 228 in November, I am hoping to get into the three hundreds this month, which would be epic.  NEWS UPDATE With the amount of posts I can post in a week I am going to try to make a schedule for reviews.  Like Sundays will be Movie Day, Monday will be Videogame News Day and Friday will be Anime Day with a possible Saturday post of something random.  So look out for that, in the mean time I want to thank all my readers for their continued to support and to all my new readers, thanks for giving me a chance.

Most Popular Topic on my blog http://adamtalks-hieiyyh2.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-superbad-superbad-review.html 

My Superbad, Superbad Review

With a funky psychedelic opening theme and trippy colors flying at you like an old style 70’s movie Superbad kicks on the screen.  This movie came out back in 2007 staring Jonah Hill (Get him to the Greek, Knocked Up, Megamind, Forgetting Sarah Marshal), Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim Vs the World, Nick and Nora’s Infinite playlist, Juno) Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Role Models, Kickass), Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, The 40 Year old Virgin, Pineapple Express), Bill Hader (SNL, Pineapple Express, Venture Bros.), Martha MacIsaac (Greek) and Emma Stone (Zombieland, Easy A).  Right off the bat we are introduced to the best friends Seth and Evan (Hill and Cera), inseparable friends to the point where they start their conversation via cell phone, before even getting to Evan’s house to pick him up.  Without skipping a beat, they are continuing their conversation while hanging up their phones.  Despite the witty typical best friend back and forth banter.  A common connecting point is Evan’s obsession with Becca (Martha MacIsaac) and Seth’s hatred for Becca, to which Evan instantly becomes defensive. 

Seth (Jonah Hill) is your typical run of the mill sexually frustrated male who talks big but is really a scared child inside looking to make himself seem more awesome then he really is.  Seth does come off as more willing to do anything to get what he wants out of woman then Evan does.  He even goes so far as to steal beer from some maniac’s basement fridge.  He is awkward and over the top with his seemingly confident persona.  He breaks the rules and doesn’t care because like most seniors about to graduate he feels invincible.  The problem Seth has with Evan’s love interest Becca stems to a problem he had in the fourth grade (for those of you who have only ever seen this movie on TV and not on DVD or in Theaters you never see this scene), Seth could not stop drawing male private parts.  It was ultimately Becca who found out and told on him out to the principal, after that Seth labeled Becca a bitch and never forgave her.  The counter balance to Seth is Evan.

Evan (Michael Cera) is the unconfident friend and less willing to do something big unless it involves him getting a chance with Becca.  A fact which Seth uses more often than not to get his way with Evan when it seems like Evan is going to chicken out.  Evan is the balance to Seth and the reason why they are such good best friends; they are opposite sides of the same coin.  When they work together they accomplish the seemingly impossible.  Evan likes to set the moral high ground and will do anything he can to appease all parties.  This is brought to light when having to deal with Seth and Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) at the same time.  Evan however is hiding a secret from Seth, a secret that will throw off the harmonious balance of the friendship.  Evan will be rooming with Fogell in college, while Seth goes off to another school.  GASP OHHH NOES, TEEN ANGST AND DRAMA *clicks remote back to the story*.  Evan only hides this because he is afraid of how Seth will react, which we find out later on that he doesn’t really care.

The story itself is what you would expect of a high school comedy, it takes place in one day and one night, the misadventures of two friends with the help of hot girls, idiot cops and a party.  The story starts off with the friendship of Evan and Seth and how they have to face the fact that they will be separated for the first time since they were eight years old.  You add in their mutual friend Fogell or as Seth likes to call him Fagell.  Fogell becomes the catalyst that sparks the explosion of comedy to ensue during the movie, when Seth and Evan find out that Fogell will be getting a fake I.D.  Seth throws on his fake nice act to use Fogell to get alcohol for a party he and Evan will be going to, to get with the girls of their dreams.  With only a few hick ups, the plan of Fogell’s fake I.D working nearly succeeds  except for the fact that it may fail because of the name on the I.D.  Fogell changes his name to McLovin no first name just McLovin.  “You sound like a gay Irish rapper.”  “Of all the names you could have picked, you just happen to land on McLovin!?” 

With some debate on the validity of the plan, the trio meet up outside of Fogell’s place of work, which he will not use his fake ID for because they know.  Does this stop Seth from going into the store to try his luck?  No, it does not.  The following scene is one of my favorites in the entire movie.  You have Seth walking into the supermarket and walking straight to the liquor section where he proceeds to have three separate situations play out in his mind.  1.)  He buys the liquor himself, telling the cashier he is twenty one with no question or asking to see an I.D and paying for all the booze with an eighty dollar bill.  2.)  The old lady in the liquor section drops her purse and Seth offers to help her shop, to which the lady realizing what he wants, offers to buy his liquor.  “Enjoy your remaining years!”  “Have fun fucking Julies!”  “I WILL!”  3.)  Seth goes to pick up the Gold Slick Vodka for Evan to give to Becca, only to have the Security guard kill the old lady and then Seth himself.  With a look of defeat Seth leaves the supermarket to take Evan and Fogell “McLovin” to the liquor store.

“If you don’t go in there, I will kill you, I will kill you and cut of your stupid face and where it as a mask and buy the alcohol myself.”  After a few pokes and prods from Seth, McLovin goes into the liquor store albeit a tad nervous to buy the alcohol for the party.  During this time the store is quickly robbed and McLovin punched out.  Enter the bumbling idiots Officers Michaels and Slater.  These two are the epitome of bad cops, not corrupt, not just bad.  They make the most idiotic officer you ever met look smart.  Not only can they make the most simple police task like taking down a description seem difficult, they cannot even restrain a drunken bum properly.  But it is through these two where the most laughs come from, when not on the main characters.  Teamed up with McLovin the side kick trio as I will affectionately call them.  The hijinks they get into pre-party is comedy gold.

With that “brief” summary of the movie I will leave you with my final verdict of the movie.  For a comedy it is good mindless fun, that if you do not take seriously you will enjoy.  But besides for film critics who is going to into a comedy movie expecting to see a cinematic masterpiece.  On a scale of one to ten this movie receives an eight.  For its ability to keep the watchers enthralled and engaged in the characters, somewhat believable dialog in certain scenes.  But do yourself a favor and rent the movie in the unrated version and do not DO NOT watch this film on a TV release, you will be disappointed otherwise.