The Walking Dead: Season 4, episode 10: Inmates

Oops, a bit late with this one. The eleventh episode already premiered, so I'll try to write about it as soon as I can. 

We finally learn about what happened with everyone, short stories of each group: Beth and Daryl, Maggie, Bob and Sasha, Glenn and Tara and Tyreese, Lizzie, Mika and... yes, Carol!

!!! Spoilers !!!

At first we see Beth and Daryl who are in search for the rest of the group, and mainly Maggie. Beth is a bit hysterical and well, there isn't much interesting happening with them besides some walker attacks. It does show a good image of how dangerous it is again, they are not behind safe prison walls anymore. 

After that we follow Tyreese, Lizzie, Mika and Judith. Which also finally solves the case of Judith, there was a big question if she was save, since her carrier was filled with blood.. It's kinda cute to see this big guy with all these children. Lizzie and Mika are a bunch of weird children if you ask me, Mika is only crying and stuff, which is actually the most logical reaction for a kid, nevertheless, very annoying. Then there is this kid Lizzie, who actually scares the hell out of me... what the f is up with this kid?! She holds Judith, a baby, who cries and then she starts suffocating her! Dude, not a very logical reaction... I assume that this is were Carol came in because in the next scene we see everyone alive and well. I still think that Lizzie is the one who fed the zombies, since she seems to be a bit fucked up sometimes.

Overall this was an interesting short story, it showed Lizzie's weird side and it put Tyreese in a very uncomfortable position. At this point I'm not sure if Tyreese knew about Carol's action, since his reaction towards her was really normal and not aggressive, so I assume that they didn't tell him yet. It's also good to see Carol back again, these girls really need some sort of mother figure, and who's better at that other than Carol?

We also follow Maggie, Sasha and Bob. Maggie is in search of Glenn and it's a bit heartbreaking to see her searching the bus. Of course, it's a good case that he wasn't in there. Their happenings weren't too interesting. Bob was injured and it made him seem nicer somehow, Sasha is still the same and Maggie seems somehow lost without Glenn.

And then there is Glenn and Tara. Glenn who is badly injured seems to be glad that he found another person alive, even though she was on the 'bad side'. He doesn't seem very bothered by it, since he is in need of some sort of help. Again, not very interesting all together. I think that Tara in an annoying character, she only whines and cries and she isn't of much use. After a walk they encounter three new people, but this is where the episode ends, so it's still a mystery who they are.

The good thing about this episode were all the different groups. We see all these different 'couples' that seem rather unlikely to us, this is what makes their survival even more interesting, since they are not used to each other. The new thing in this episode were of course the three strangers, but I'm sure we'll find out who they are in the next episode, they will probably play a bigger part in the rest of this season.
Overall, I'm actually still waiting for a big shocker/amazing episode.

Review: Halloween 2 (1981)

Halloween II

IMDB rate: 6,5

Genre: Slasher

Oh dear, I've watched this movie a few weeks ago and I totally forgot to write something about it, silly me. I finally own all the Halloween movies, so that means that you can expect a whole lot of Halloween reviews! Well, I own every one of them besides Season of the Witch. Technically it's the third Halloween movie, but since it has no connection to the Michael Myers Halloween stories, I won't count that one.  

Forgive me if I ramble about useless things that aren't related to this movie, I already mentioned that it has been a few weeks since I last saw it, and to be honest, I can't remember everything of it anymore... 

It's the same night as the original Halloween. Michael Myers is around the neighborhood, after being gunned by Dr. Loomis six times. Now, he's in a hospital where the girl Laurie Strode was taken. And there's a reason why Michael is after her...

As mentioned, the movie starts where the previous one left off. A good point if you ask me, Michael Myers is wounded but unfortunately he is still very dangerous. This guy literally is some sort of superman, he is indeed wounded, but is not really affected by it. I like that they started where the previous one left off because it continues all the happenings of Laurie and Michael. Laurie is wounded, Michael is wounded, which (should) make them both easy victims. Or well, who am I kidding? It makes Laurie the easy victim of course. 

In my previous review I was complaining about the story of Michael. There was still no reason why Michael was chasing Laurie. In this movie it is finally revealed, Laurie is of course, Michael's sister. If you've seen the remake you know this already in the first movie. Personally, I liked that better for the storyline. What wasn't good about the remake of the first movie was the fact that Michael wanted to be connected with Laurie, which made him kinda weak looking. In this movie it's not that case, he seems to be after her purely for his own killing satisfaction. 

What I didn't understood very well was when Laurie was born exactly. What I understood in the movie was that Laurie was already born and is older than Michael, this doesn't really make sense to me. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but a younger Laurie (as in the remake) is just so much more logical.

Now, about Halloween II itself, I'm not really sure what to think of it. It wasn't a bad movie, but I did think it was a bit... boring? It was very slow and kinda predictable, there wasn't a whole lot of action in this sequel. 

I do think it's a reasonable movie though, now the truth about Michael and Laurie is known, it all makes so much more sense. Laurie is a strong female character, who is prepared to fight even in her weakest state, and Michael is a very interesting character. 

Great camera work, there are two amazing shots that actually were scary. And of course, an amazing soundtrack.

It's absolutely not comparable with Rob Zombie's sequel, to be honest, that was a terrible movie and is absolutely unrelated with the happenings in the original Halloween II.  

My personal rate: 6,5/10

Berlin

In berlin for a week, no updates!

Review: Joy Ride 2 (2008)

Joy Ride 2

IMDb rate: 5,1

Genre: Survival, Revenge

Time for Joy Ride 2, I saw this movie a few years back and I couldn't remember a whole lot of it, besides the fake emo. Now I've watched it again I remember that the movie sucked. Really, the first one is nice and stuff, but this one is just exactly the same. With these movies there aren't a whole lot of things you can change in the setup, so it's never very original.
By the way, this year Joy Ride 3 will be released, whoopdidoo.

While driving to Las Vegas for the bachelor party of her sister Melissa and her fiance Bobby, Kayla stops the car in the gas station to meet her date, Nik, a guy she met on the internet. Nik convinces her to take a secondary road under the protest of Bobby but the car breaks down. They find a house in the middle of nowhere and decide to take the car parked in the house's garage to the next city, and return with a rented car to pay for the damages provoked by Nik; Melissa leaves her cell number. However, they discover that the owner of the place is the sadistic truck driver Rusty Nail and they have to pay a high price for what they did.

Joy Ride 2 wasn't very good, not even tensive like the first one. There was just too much going on and it was all very lame. Seriously, if all that happened to me I would go to the police, no matter what sort of threat there was.
Was I liked most about the first Joy Ride were the actors, they were all excellent and they are what made the movie good. With the sequel... well, the actors were terrible. There was absolutely no chemistry between the actors, not between the married couple, not between the sisters and obviously not between the new couple, who met through Myspace.

The storyline is very predictable unfortunately, there's not tension at all. It's boring and the actions are very lame. The characters are very bad and unbelievable, seriously, what's up with this emo dude? He's very rude and everyone seems to be too okay with that. The whole situation is unbelievable because there's just too much going on.
I would have liked the movie a lot more if Rusty's motives are known, now he just seems like some random dude torturing these kids for no reason, not very spectacular. Why does he not kill them immediately, if he's doing it just for fun? His story would make it all a bit more interesting.

The special effects aren't too bad looking. The bloody scenes are fairly convincing, also the truck driving of the cliff is pretty cool.

Joy Ride 2 isn't the worst movie ever, but it's definitely not as good as the first one. It's a good time waster, if there's really not anything else.

My personal rate: 4/10

The Walking Dead: Season 4, episode 9: After

And, we're back! Yes people, it's that time again, the midseason premiere has finally aired! It has been a few months already, and personally I'm glad that it's back on again. But, I must say that it's a bit stupid to have such a long break for only a few episode. 

This episode wasn't much special in my opinion. It was a good episode, but for something that we've waited quite some time for, it wasn't much special. 

As you might remember, the last episode was very spectacular, a familiar cast member got killed off and well, the entire group split up. This episode continues pretty much from where it left off, we see Rick and Carl leaving the prison and while leaving we see this beloved ex-cast member beheaded as a zombie. Personally, I thought it was a small but very sad moment in this episode. I love that they continued from this point instead of putting a huge gap in it. 

!!SPOILERS!!

We follow Carl and Rick who are in search of food and a place to stay. Rick is injured very badly and Carl is being very juvenile. They find a house and they stayed over to sleep. The next day Carl is talking to Rick who seems rather dead and Carl is talking and talking and doesn't really seem to care. So he goes on path to search for food or something, putting his life in a lot of danger for a total of 3 times. Then he goes back to Rick who still lies in the exact same position as Carl left him, and Carl doesn't seem a bit concerned that the guy might be dead. Well, in the middle of the night we hear growling from Rick, so we're expecting he's a zombie, but well then he talks so apparently he's not dead.

This was a bit lame in my opinion, Carl not giving a shit that Rick looked dead as fuck. Or giving us the impression that Rick died while we all know that he is the main character of the show, so he probably won't die for awhile. It wasn't very scary since we can expect that he won't die. If this happened with Carl I would be worried while watching, but with Rick... nah, not so much. 

Also, Carl was being the biggest dick ever in this episode, shooting everything he sees and above that, missing everything that he shoots on. 

Rick and Carl aren't the only ones that we followed this episode, the other one we follow is Michonne. Michonne is all alone and she seems rather disturbed by that fact. She takes two walkers with her again,  cutting of their arms and mouth. Normally she walks around confidently and badass, but this time she seems lonely and lost. She walks with her two walkers in between a lot of other walkers, and she seems disturbed by a walker, who looked a lot like her. At this point we see a few of Michonne's flashbacks. In this we see her brother and her fiancee, talking about some camp. Michonne holds a little baby, and she seems more happy than ever. Her brother and fiancee are by the way her walker companions from season 3. Michonne gets sad when she sees the walker that looks like her, and kills her, along with every other walker around. 

She wanders around rather lost, until she sees Carl and Rick sitting in a house, and suddenly she cries of happiness.

This was the good part of the episode, we finally learn a bit more about Michonne. Her story is still not complete, and I'm very curious about what we'll learn more about her. Also, Michonne seems like a rather emotionless character, and in this episode we finally see her with emotions because she's with people she knows, again, very curious about how this will unpack.

Again, the episode wasn't much special, but it wasn't bad either. It was a tiny bit boring, but that's mainly because Carl was being such a dick. Rick seemed half dead and well, there just wasn't much interesting going on. The Michonne part was interesting though, it gave a lot of insight in her character. 

I've read a few synopsis's for the next episodes, and to me it doesn't seem very interesting yet. I just hope the group will be together very soon again, but it's doesn't look like that will happen. Anyway, I can't predict the future of course, so we'll see what will happen!

Oh, next weeks episode short review won't be up until the week after, since I'm staying in Berlin for a week!

Review: American Horror Story: Coven [Season 3]

American Horror Story: Coven

Season 3

IMDB rate: 8,5

Genre: Supernatural, TV Show

The third American Horror Story review! I already mentioned in my previous review what I thought of this season, but for those who didn't read it: I liked it quite a bit. It wasn't as good as the first season, but with that being said, I liked it a lot more than the second season.
There wasn't as much going on as the first two seasons, and perhaps that they could have made it more interesting, but it definitely was a lot better than the second season, since there was just too much going on in it. The amount of things going on in the first season was actually just right, it was a lot, but everything that happened was explained, something that season 2 missed.

Again, great actors in this season. Of course there's a whole lot Jessica Lange in it again, but that doesn't mind because she's simply an amazing actress. Sarah Paulson is back too, this time with a bigger role and in my opinion, a very interesting role. Evan Peters is also back, this time in a small role unfortunately, but hey, he's in it, so it's something! Taissa Farmiga is also back, again as a very lovable character. New this season is Kathy Bates, our queen from Misery, more bitter than ever.

The most interesting role was Kathy Bates' one. We see her in the 1800's (?), as a racist woman, who tortures black people and uses them for slavery. She was given some sort of immortality potion, and afterwards she is buried in the ground. Fiona (Jessica Lange) digs her up which leads to funny moments where Kathy Bates' character is adjusting to this modern world. Most surprising to her is the fact that the president is black, which makes her cry in front of the "magic box" (or as we call it, the TV).

The season was quite good. It's set in the modern age, so a lot of influence by modern technology. But there are also flashbacks to the 1800's (again ?), which is of course an immense difference. As I already said, this leads to funny Kathy Bates moments.
The subject of this season are witches and their covens. In theory an interesting subject, but at times it was a bit boring. There's a whole lot of arguing about who the next supreme is, and this many woman in one house can't do anything else than lead to huge fights. These fights are funny, but again, it becomes a bit boring sometimes since they fight a lot with each other. Basically, every one is a bitch.

American Horror Story is most familiar for it's weird creatures, but in this season there weren't a whole lot. There were zombies, a creepy butler, and some bull-man but besides that, it was quite mild.

My favorite episode was probably the last one, but then again I wasn't completely satisfied with this 'magical' ending of Coven. I expected a bit more action in the last episode of the season, but it was all very simple and it was all a bit too easy. Nevertheless, I liked it a lot, the things happening were kinda fast, so it was not as if they tried to make it the biggest mystery ever who the supreme was. We found out fairly quickly, so that's a good thing. The supreme self wasn't much of a surprise, perhaps a little bit, but it was fairly predictable that this person would show up with more powers.

Coven was a good season in my opinion, but it was also a bit boring. I missed these 'weird AHS' things, like strange creatures and plot twists.  I did liked this season better than the second one though, since season 2 seemed way too random to me. Unfortunately, in my opinion there isn't a season yet better than the first one. Perhaps we can have big hopes for the fourth season, there are stories going around about a Circus, german accents and special talents, so who knows what we might expect!

My personal rate: 8/10

Review: American Horror Story: Asylum [Season 2]

American Horror Story

Season 2

IMDB rate: 8,5

Genre: Possession, Mad Scientist, TV Show

It has been sometime since my last American Horror Story review, the one about season 1. I think that American Horror Story deserves a review for each season, since every one is about some different subject and isn't related in anyway to the previous seasons.

I know I'm a bit late with my review, I already watched it quite some time ago but I never really felt like writing a review about it. Yesterday I watched the last episode of season 3, so I figured that it had to be done. 

I know that the opinions are very different for everyone, personally I liked the first season best, including the third season, and I liked the third season best after that, which makes this season my least favorite one this far. 

The most noticeable thing about American Horror Story are the actors. There are a few main actors who show up in (almost) every season, not a strange thing of course, but what does make it strange is the fact that every season has a different subject. This means that there are new characters and new supernatural things going on, but still with the same people. I must admit that it was a bit strange for me at first, especially in the second season, but in the third one I was already used to it. The problem with this setup could be that you're starting to make comparisons a lot easier. In a way, 'oh I liked her character better in the first one', things like that.
I've said this already in my previous review, but again I want to mention the incredible acting of Evan Peters and Jessica Lange. Other ones that I would like to mention are Sarah Paulson, Lily Rabe and Lizzie Brochere.

American Horror Story definitely has a great cast.

I thought this season wasn't very good to be honest. Probably not an opinion that's appreciated a whole lot, since most people liked this one most. I thought it was messy. It was messy in the first one, but almost everything was linked back to something, so there weren't a whole lot loose ties. With this season I felt like they threw in 20 random stuff and failed to explain these happenings. 

There were the aliens, sure it could be good but that wasn't rounded up completely. Then there are these creatures created, also, very scary but they weren't shown a whole lot, and they just seemed very random as well. Or the Anne Frank part, personally I loved that part of the season, but again it seemed thrown in quite randomly, since it only lasted two episodes or so. And this is definitely not everything yet, there was so much more stuff that was random and not really relevant.

If I have to choose an episode that I liked best I would choose for the 'I Am Anne Frank: Part 1 & 2'. But like I already mentioned, the Anne Frank part was thrown in kinda random and it was very interesting, but if it was a bit more expanded it would be even better. 

I wouldn't say that this season was very bad or anything. It was entertaining, all these things going on are always fun to see. And of course the actors are all amazing. But a better connecting storyline would have made it so much better. My review of season 3 will be up this week I think, I liked 3 a lot more so it's a bit more positive compared to this one ;).

My personal rate: 7,5/10