DVD Review: 45

.45 (2006) R

***

WARNING: This review might contain SPOILERS!

LIZ: "You are a woman, You have POWER and you need to use it. Lips, Tits, Hips. All Woman"

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. I bought it sight unseen used from Ebay for only .50¢ (+ $3.00 postage). I didn't realize at the time of purchase that I was going to receive a previously RENTED copy (the Ebay listing said it was used but didn't mention it was a previous rental which is risky) from Wally World video (the disc hub has printing that was marked out with a sharpie/magic marker that had a phone number and "WALLY WORLD Video" on it) So at first I thought I might have a crappy copy with the extras deleted but fortunately the Disc plays fine and all the extras are still there not blocked or deleted.

As for the plot of the film judging from the cover I thought for sure it was going to be a La Femme Nikita/ Point of No Return spy-espionage action film, but it is not like that at all. It is an urban drama with mild violence, some gun play a bit of sex and tons of the F-Bomb.

Milla Jovovich plays Kat a young woman who lives in a bad neighborhood of New York with bad boy Big Al (Angus Macfadyen) who is the gun running/black market crime king of the neighborhood. Kat stays with Al because of their shared love of guns and the fantastic sex due in part to his massive manhood. At first things are OK even though Al is a tough alpha male and short tempered, but Kat soon realizes that she needs to get out of the abusive relationship. Part of the tension comes from her best friend Vic (Sarah Strange) a lesbian and the most sensible of the circle of friends that Kat has, but Al can't stand her. Vic also happens to be in love with Kat but knows she can't have her. Also in love with Kat is Reilly (Stephen Dorff) an associate/friend of Al who is starting to turn over a new leaf and trying to avoid the dark path that Al is on. Reilly is also attracted to Vic and tries his charms on her but fails a few times.

After a huge round of abuse from Al that gets him arrested and the attention of social service counselor Liz (Aisha Tyler) Kat starts to realize the only way she can make her dreams of getting out of the neighborhood is to get away from Al. At one point Vic tells Reilly that if he kills Al she'll sleep with him, he tells her that he couldn't  kill Al he couldn't "do" a friend. He does start to take it into serious consideration though. Kat eventually gets her revenge on Al by setting him up for the murder of one of his associates.

As I said I was pleasantly surprised by this film, however, the use of some straight to the camera "interview" type monologues I didn't like. They were useful in moving the plot along and by giving some exposition and needed background info on the main characters, but I didn't like them. The story could have been told without them but the director chose that style to tell the tale. The entire film has bookend monologues by Kat to show the audience that she made her dreams a reality. During the commentary the director/writer said for some scenes he only had one camera available, and would have preferred to have two to capture more of the action.

Starring: Milla Jovovich, Angus Macfadyen, Stephen Dorff, Sarah Strange, Aisha Tyler

Directed by: Gary Lennon

TH!NKFilm

DVD Release Date: 24 April 2007

Region 1

1 Disc - 97 Minutes

I give the film itself 3 stars *** and the DVD for it's quality 3.5 stars ***.5 I would have liked the DVD to have had English subtitles, the disc itself only has Spanish, fortunately my TVs closed caption subtitles worked for this disc.

Fryday Fourtoon: Numba 43

"The smallest deed is better than the biggest intention."

LEARN CHINESE - Strawberry - câo méi
Lucky Numbers - 54, 25, 48, 39, 7, 45
 

*Fortunes and Lottery Numbers just posted for entertainment purposes only.

Warehouse 13 Wednesday: Lost And Found

EPISODE 4.18 "Lost & Found"

Original Air Date: 24 June 2013

Artie: "You know how a ladder works, Right?"

 Warning: this review may contain spoilers

Wow what a FANTASTIC episode. This is the type of episode that makes me question why Syfy is canceling Warehouse 13 next season when it is still IN IT'S PRIME!

This episode barely had a B Plot, it was more of a supplement to the A plot. Things started out surprise with some minor bantering at the bread and breakfast (that is becoming too cliche' for this series now) when Artie rushes in telling the team they got a big ping on something he has been waiting for since he "borrowed" one half of a puzzle box, the other piece of the puzzle box. They must act fast and meet the black market seller who has the other puzzle piece in Buffalo, New York. The puzzle box was from a pirate Roaring Dan Seavy who had stolen from artifacts from Warehouse 12 off of a cargo ship that was transporting the artifacts during the transition from Warehouse 12 to 13. The mysterious black market seller of the other piece of the puzzle box turns out to be Charlotte Dupres. Reluctantly Artie, Myka and Pete agree to work with her to find the missing artifacts. The puzzle box reveals the longitude and latitude to where Seavy had hidden a clue that leads to where Seavy's body and his treasure are buried.

Meanwhile Nick Powell (Josh Blaylock) the kid from last episode turns out to be the 515some years old immortal son of Charlotte Dupres, who is in reality the immortal Countess of St. Germain (from episode 4.11 "The Living And The Dead" ). Using Franz Mesmer's Magnets which create a "whammy field that causes the victim to see hallucinations from the power of suggestion, Nick tricks Claudia to take him to the Warehouse thinking he is Steve, and tricks Steve into thinking he has an impossibly huge stack of report files to sort through.

Artie, Myka and Pete discover the main artifact, Aleister Crowley's Ruby Studded Universal Hexagram Necklace which creates a smoke monster spectral projection of the user that lasts well beyond the user's death. In this case Roaring Dan Seavy. With the help of Charlotte, whom they thought had been killed by the smoke monster, they manage to snag and bag the amulet.

Things come to a head, and a nice cliff-hanger when Nick releases Renaissance astrological alchemist Paracelsus (Anthony Head) from the Bronze sector of the Warehouse and they escape. Oh gee didn't we see this with Macpherson back in the Season 1 to 2 cliffhanger. Yes and No.

This is episode is now one of my favorite episodes of the second half of Season 4. There were a couple of sort of inside jokes that made me chuckle. The first is a true inside joke or rather fan query that seems to go unexplained and probably will stay that way concerning Artie's "Bag of Tricks". Pete asks "How come that bag always has exactly..." but Artie shushes him. The other inside joke is a little bit of dialogue that Pete brings up about Comic-Con, and Myka asks "What is Comic-Con?".

I give this episode 4.5 Warehouse artifacts ****.5

Myka Monday: Sexy Superhero

MILD MANNERED AND SEXY SUPERHERO!

Myka looking sexy flashing the leather and packing some super powers in Warehouse 13 Episode 2.2 "Mild Mannered"

Fryday Fourtoon: Numba 42

"Do not be afraid of competition."

Daily Numbers 7 2 1

Lotto Six # 's 44 16 27 25 30 22

*Fortunes and Lottery Numbers just posted for entertainment purposes only.

Warehouse 13 Wednesday: What Matters Most

EPISODE 4.17 "What Matters Most"

Original Air Date: 17 June 2013

Claudia: "All right, Bilbo Baggins, you're on!"

 Warning: this review may contain spoilers

Once again, in my opinion, we have an episode where the B plot is more interesting than the A plot. It concerns a more exciting artifact with effects that are more apparent when first discovered. Finding the artifact though is potentially more difficult but fortunately, Team Warehouse finds it, maybe too fortunately but I'm getting ahead of things.

Things start off in a posh gated community suburb in Ohio where the area District Attorney goes out to get his morning paper, screams about burning up and dies, the initial report Artie receives is he died of several symptoms and suspected poisoning. Myka and Pete are sent to the picture perfect "1950s" suburbia to investigate. Meanwhile in New York there is a report of a teenager writing graffiti in the form of advanced mathematical and physics formulas instead of the usual gang tagging. After some minor bickering at the B&B, partly because of some breakfast scones Abigail made/bought, Artie and Claudia go to the big apple, while Steve remains behind with the excuse that the rest of his stuff finally arrived and he needs to "unpack". He and Abigail will be the subject of Plot C cleaning out the Warehouse neutralizer/Gooery and Steve getting his chance to be analyzed by Abigail and follow her advice.

Myka and Pete have little time to figure out what the artifact is that they are looking for and who has it. They are eventually led to the neighborhood gossip who turns out to have been widowed and took her revenge on neighbors who had "sinned". The artifact is a salt mask form the time of Sodom and Gomorrah, made from the impression of Lot's wife who was turned into salt for disobeying God's order to not look back at the city of Sodom while he was destroying it. Of course the show doesn't specifically say it was Lot's wife they just said it was made from someone who was "encased" in salt (slightly inaccurate Biblical references). The housewife baked some of the salt into some cookies and whoever ate the cookies were punished by their greatest unconfessed sin.

Artie and Claudia find the boy who is suffering from seizures caused by is young developing mind being tapped by Orville Wright's aviator goggles. The goggles allow the wearer to psychically tap into someone's mind and sending them into a trance to use their brainpower to perform a mental task and mirror it. The boy claims to be an orphan who has been in the foster system and doesn't want to return to anymore bad foster parents. Claudia having "been there, done that" takes pity on him and invites him back to the B&B for a while until he can decide where he wants to go.

Overall I enjoyed the episode, but as I said the A plot was not as exciting as the B plot. There were a few very strong emotional moments near the end that I won't spoil. Also the mysterious lady from a few episodes ago, who was named in this episode's "Previously  on Warehouse 13" prologue, Charlotte Dupres (Polly Walker) looks to be returning next episode. I have a feeling that she will be involved in Season Ending Cliffhanger as she is part of an ongoing season arc.

I give this episode 3 Warehouse artifacts ***

Myka Monday: Stuffy Pilot Nerd

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Fryday Fourtoon: Numba 41

"You are headed in the right direction. Trust your instincts."

14 16 23 29 36 45
3 6 7

This one didn't have anything to tell you what the numbers were.

*Fortunes and Lottery Numbers just posted for entertainment purposes only.

Warehouse 13 Wednesday: Runaway

EPISODE 4.16 "Runaway"

Original Air Date: 10 June 2013

PETE: "Look, don't blame me if you get swallowed up by lava"
MYKA: "I'm totally blaming you."

 Warning: this review contains spoilers

The episode started out with a blast, or rather an oozing of molten lava. A couple of prison inmates escape with the help of an artifact that spews molten lava like an acetylene torch on high spray reminiscent of a WWII flame thrower. The artifact is a Amphora from Pompeii originally owned by a merchant who survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. The prison escapees have ties to a gang called The Turks. Things get interesting quickly as it is revealed that the US Marshal, assigned to tracking down the escapees,  Liam Napier (Charlie Weber) is the ex-boyfriend of Steve Jinks.

Meanwhile for plot B Artie is planning surprises for Claudia's 21st birthday. While collecting some artifacts from the warehouse to enhance the party decorations, which includes Jerry Garcia's blackbulb - a black lightbulb that enhances any artwork by converting the visuals to neon colors to make the colors literally "pop" out, Artie gets "popped" by an original bouncy ball which repeatedly hits his face and the face of Ludwig Van Beethoven's Clock. The clock causes the victim to hear Beethoven's opuses and eventually go deaf. He and Claudia discover they need to find a specific statue that neutralizes the clock's effects to restore Artie's hearing.

While tracking the escapees Myka and Pete having realized that Liam is Steve's Ex manipulate things to pair up Liam and Steve in the investigation. One of the escapees is killed by the other and the remaining escapee is hunting down Turk gang members to keep his son from joining them, but he might be a bit too late.

Steve and Liam eventually make up and together with Myka and Pete retrieve the amphora. I found it interesting that Myka didn't burn her hand off when she closed the lid of it to stop the flow of lava, maybe a little miscue from the special effects. Artie and Claudia retrieve the neutralizing statue and the team celebrates Claudia's birthday at a nightclub sans clowns at a night club A la The P3 in "Charmed". The final scene is complete with a music act in the form of Cherie Currie (of The Runaways with Joan Jett) who brings birthday girl Claudia on stage with her, hands her an acoustic guitar, and with no previous rehearsal they jump into the Runaway's hit song "Cherry Bomb". Anyone who has seen the biographical movie "The Runaways" (2010) is probably sick of that song as it was repeated ad nauseum in that film. This is the second or maybe third time the series has showcased the singing/musical talent of "Claudia" played by Allison Scagliotti.

Had they left out the Charmed-esk end scene I probably would have liked this episode a little better (I love Charmed but the final scene in P3 with some current yet obscure new wave/pop/rock band was way over done in that series), but then without the scene there would be one less reason for this episode to be called "Runaway". The three inspirations for the title seem to be the prison escapees, Jinks original split with Liam and of course Cherie's appearance.

I give this episode  3.4 Warehouse Artifacts***.4

Myka Monday: That Little Black Number

Um yeah 'Nuff Said.

Fryday Fourtoon: Numba 40

"Your dearest dream is coming true."

Daily Numbers 2 6 7
Lotto Six #'s  3 16 37 2 41 15

*Fortunes and Lottery Numbers just posted for entertainment purposes only.

Warehouse 13 Wednesday: Instinct

EPISODE 4.15 "Instinct"

Original Air Date: 03 June 2013

H.G. Wells: "In all my years of hunting artifacts, I've never seen anything like it."

 Warning: this review may contain spoilers

After the memorial day break WH13 returned and guess who made a return appearance? H.G. Wells (Jaime Murray). The Myka/H.G. "shippers" fangirls and fanboys are still screaming their heads off over it. This may have been the best episode of season 4 at least of the second half of the season. Both the A and B plots were exciting even though the B plot was restricted to the warehouse.

The episode opens up with a scene in a police station squad room where a guy rushes in yelling a confession to a murder. He gets booked and put in a holding cell. The court appointed lawyer is wondering why he would burst in with a confession like that, a forensic scientist collects his DNA for processing. The scientist is H.G. Wells. While H.G. is swabbing his hand she notices he physically changes and then he calms down and he himself is confused about why he confessed like that.

Artie while relaxing in the warehouse experiences a tremor and calls the team, who are breakfasting at the Bed and Breakfast, and asks them if they felt the earthquake. They didn't so he recalls them to the warehouse for a meeting. As they are leaving Myka gets a phone call from H.G. about the criminal confessing his crime and an alleged coconspiritor dying from fright of something. Myka and Pete go to see what is up with H.G. while Claudia, Steve and new member Abigail (The shrink and owner of the B&B) go to Artie and the warehouse. Using an arrtifact to retrieve a hi-tech satellite that was scrapped by the Government in the 1950s, something he called the F.I.S.H. Artie determines that the "quakes" he has been experiencing are confined to the warehouse.

Pete and Myka learn that the artifact that H.G. had noticed the effects of is a prehistoric hyena's jawbone that induces primal fear into its victims and forces them into flight or fight.

Meanwhile at the warehouse the tremors are traced to a malfunction in the warehouse's automatic expansion system that keeps the warehouse big enough to house all the artifacts and their powers. They find that the cause of the malfunction is that a railroad spike from the Transcontinental Railroad is trying "fix" the joints that are trying to expand. This has created a massive tornado like energy storm/field that is threatening to destroy the warehouse. With the quakes there are bolts of energy that zap Claudia in the rear. She tries to cover the fact up but Steve begins to notice.

While Pete and Myka are dealing with their jawbone artifact H.G. explains to Myka that she has met a man and his young daughter whom she cares about and doesn't want the adventures that hunting artifacts for the warehouse brings. She is trying to find a normal life. The daughter is about the age H.G.'s daughter would be. Myka thinks that is what attracted H.G. to the guy. Myka selfishly tries to convince H.G. to forget him and come back to the warehouse, she eventually sees that maybe trying to have a normal life is the right thing for H.G. [This must have rocked the Myka/H.G. shipper's world.]

Back at the warehouse a plan to shoot nutralizing goo onto the railroad spike closing. While working on how to deliver the  goo to the problem spike Steve confronts Claudia about her getting zapped in the butt. She explains that she thinks the warehouse hates her. Claudia modifies a rocket launcher into what she dubs a Gazooka. Things look like they will only get once chance to fix things. Steve takes a shot at the spike but misses he needed to be closer. Claudia cleverly thought up to make two gazooka missles since Claudia is getting zapped and suddenly Artie gets injured it is up to Steve to take the Gazooka up a rickety high diving ladder for a closer shot. While he's climbing a few of the rungs break and Steve loses his balance and has to hang on for dear life.

Claudia talks to Abigail and mentions that she really wants to become the warehouse caretaker, but can't get around the warehouse hating her thing. Abigail suggests that maybe instead of hating her the warehouse is trying to get her attention for help. Claudia takes the gazooka and the final goomissle straight to the base of the energy vortex and risks getting zapped to dust by entering it. After some tense moments of crossing throught the storm she reaches the eye of the energy vortex and gets a clear shot to the problem spike. After a spectacular gooing we see Claudia taking a hero walk back to the others, she is covered in goo.

After taking care of their primitave artifact Peta and Myka, well Myka mostly bid H.G. an emotional farewell till we see you again. I think since it was already known that Jaime Murray would be smack dab in the prduction of Defiance, this scene was a way for the wrtters to sort of semi-writeout H.G. for a while. I'm fairly sure it was filmed before any decisions to cancel WH13 were even mentioned to the production staff. Future of the show known or unknown at the time this was a very emitional scene. I'm sure the fangirls were balling their eyes out crying over it. If it was much longer I might have started to tear up some.

I give this episode  4 Warehouse Artifacts ****. 

Myka Monday: The Big Hubba Hubba

ONE CLASSY DAME

Here is Myka in Classic Black and White from episode 4.13 "The Big Snag" Hubba Hubba Sweetheart. Now do you see why I'm in love with this woman?