An unconventional documentary that lifts the veil on what's really going on in our world by following the money upstream...

And yes, it's the banks. It makes sense too. It really gives you the whole pyramid scheme - in a good way, even if the torus, questionable quotes and a somewhat flimsy visual background journey that weaves you through the facts distract. It's an ambient setting though, so if you focus on the problems at hand: it really does lift the veil.

How far you're willing to believe is up to you, but that the Rockefellers, Rothschilds and Morgans are at the top of the food chain; controlling the financial climate and large parts of the resources of the world in turn - that part is clear. How involved they really are is another matter.

How money's really made is explained too. How banks work. How and why the economy really benefits the rich. How even the government is just a puppet. All this is told primarily from a US point of view, where it seems like everything is way worse than anywhere else in the world.

Maybe you have to be edged in to these ideas over time to really grasp them, but I definitely have been before this movie, so this... it put things in place for me. It added some key pieces to my world puzzle.

The movie is basically a long lecture and series of interviews detailing the financial truth of the New World Order - sometimes a bit too long, yet with interesting guests and hosts handing out this information along the way.

That free energy bit... there may be some truth there too, but I feel like it distracts you from the main issue. They could have cut that bit out and saved in on that extra length. Maybe split the whole saga into two individual movies - one with that, and one with the money.

My money's on this one. It's an enlightening documentary. Foster Gamble's a good host, and Kimberly Carter Gamble with him. Seems she's not in either of the sequels, but I'm hoping to watch those eventually too.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

Now here's a patriotic movie done right!

It's a true story too, loosely, about a Navy navigator shot down over enemy territory, who is ruthlessly pursued by a secret police enforcer and opposing troops, all the while his commanding officer goes against orders in an attempt to rescue him (lightly paraphrased from IMDB).

Owen Wilson plays the main man, and though I usually don't feel like this guy's suited for more serious roles he did alright here, accompanied by Gene Hackman as the commanding officer! What a combo. The rest of the squad I don't think I know, but they all seemed authentic.

The soundtrack was an interesting mixture of the techno/trance of the time, marching music and more typical movie music... and some regular songs. A strange combo, but it worked! The movie incorporates pretty interesting angles, rapid fire close-ups and some impressive action choreography and pyrotechnics too, and good props.

Not all has aged authentically, but it shows they put a lot of work into it, and it seems they had fun filming it too, experimental as it often is. Fun fact: there's a lot of fun facts on this one! ;)

The setting? Pretty exciting! Albeit not always the most realistic it's a solid war movie from a rather unusual place, with a rather unusual actor for such a role, and cinematography that's both brutal, fun, and at times: almost poetic. It's interesting also because it's in a time and place that doesn't directly seem to be at war, yet the elements of it are all there.

Really enjoyed this one. Great watch.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

I would have loved to watch this on for the story, and action, but unfortunately propaganda signals kept popping up to bug me.

What signals? Signals like how the bad guys were dressed in dark and the good guys in light. How the foes binoculars were black with red lenses, and the right side had no color at all. How the patriotic music keeps playing in the background. How the final helicopter flight was highlighted. How the Americans were always at the center of the action, and the others stood idle on the side. How they were always right, and even their Afghan allies - grizzled veterans of a warring desert country, often wrong. Those signals.

The ending redeemed it a bit though. You can't ignore the truth when the credits come streaming. They all survived. The General became Vice President. And they fought on horseback! In this day and age.

Was this Al Qaeda's biggest failure? Was it all as glorious a battle as they portrayed it? I don't know, but when you know it's based upon a true story it becomes a pretty empowering movie nevertheless.

Even if a lot of it gets repetitive towards the end, even if they never properly build up relations, even if there's no sacrifice so notable or a sadness so great it tilts their world around, and even if the special effects fire wasn't very realistic... it wasn't bad. The explosions looked authentic, and the action great. Chris Hemsworth seemed like an odd choice at first considering his other roles (and nationality), but he worked. They did good.

One person on the team actually looked somewhat like his real-world counterpart too! See the photo before the credits roll. ;) Good movie.

 rated 3/5: not bad

This movie was bad in so many ways. Bad because of all that it could have been. Bad because of all the original games were that this one was not. Bad because the third game was a third-rate game that didn't capture the essence of the originals more than a tiny bit - and the director who made this molded the movie after that third-rate game entirely.

The blood looked like paint buckets, the player IDs (an ode to id Software?) were more like gamer tags, and some of the 3D hasn't aged well... but it did have its bright sides too. The darkness, for one.

The entire movie played out in an underground lab, with a group of elite soldiers creeping through corridors and murky depths; getting killed off one by one by lab people gone crazy... it might sound cliche but they captured that cagey feeling well.

They brought in a good-looking doctor too (Rosamund Pike), The Rock was one scary Sarge gone wrong, and the plot played out in a vengeful way... it wasn't all bad after all.

With the isolated underground milieu and horror ambience it's almost like a mixture between Doom and Resident Evil... but a little bit worse.

Overall it's a gritty action movie with plenty of gamification and gore, and if you only forget to compare it to the iconic game franchise it was sculpted after and failed to measure up to... it's not a bad movie. For this review I feel I've made peace with my demons.

Props Karl Urban and Dwayne Johnson (and the rest) on a solid performance. For some reason I imagined Sanchez was in this movie too, but I guess I'm mixing it together with one from the SWAT franchise.

 rated 3/5: not bad

This is the one about the camp, and Debbie, and the baby.

It seems like everyone's falling in love here, the family expanding, the dances enhancing... maybe it's a bit too much, though? There's not just the one red thread, but plenty of moving back and forth between the different ones, and though Gomez (RIP Raul Julia) is as fantastic as always all those fancy stunts and acrobatics of the first seem waned away.

Same with the treasure troves, the full house tour and all the wacky first-time introductions. But it's not just not as good because it's old now, but because it's just not as thorough. Not as rich or deranged in every little derailing detail. There's even an element of... normality.

It's still fun! It's still the Addams. It's still unlike any family or movie franchise out there, and I wish they'd made at least one more sequel, but it just wasn't like the first. Not the best, but an entertaining sequel nevertheless!

 rated 3/5: not bad

A Swede is the new Tomb Raider! :D Hell yeah! Just had to watch this one at the movies, and was happy to see Daniel Wu in the secondary role too. Walton Goggins makes a convincing villain as well.

Alicia Vikander put on a great performance overall, but comes across a bit flat, even if they manage to capture her curves at all the right angles. Both filming and script often feel superficial like this, and unnecessary in how she often risks much for little gain. Was she always this reckless?

I like to think the normal Lara would've taken the smarter route. Sure she'd jump over a bed of spikes if there was no way around, but if there was a way around she'd definitely take that way. Brave but not reckless. She seems a bit lost in this movie - not really herself, yet at the same time she's as confident as ever. Sometimes it's a strange combination.

They do have the puzzles, the chase, the crisis - all the necessary elements, yet it doesn't really feel like Tomb Raider until the end of it.

I also don't like the soundtrack, because it never sleeps. There's always something brewing in the background. It's never simply atmospheric noise or ambience. Never a quiet moment. No time for contemplation.

When they're making their way through the catacombs it's more like a horror movie than an adventure with the music they put in, and the special effects... what is this?! When did they start getting this lazy with special effects? The plane, the jumps... there's a lot of it. B-movie vibe.

I also don't like how her dad is portrayed more and more as a helpless old fool the further the movie goes. Lara's the one with the brains in the family. Yeah. Seven years might do that to you, but it was just sad to see him in such a state for their one reunion... wasn't he more than that? Doesn't Lara have some of his blood pumping through her veins?

Alicia gets a bit overly aggressive sometimes too. Trying too hard, maybe? Sometimes she's out of character. She's not perfect, but following Angelina Jolie she definitely has a lot to live up to, and this... it's a good start.

In summary: The movie didn't have all as much action as I hoped, nor all the adventure it could have had, and a bit too much horror for a Tomb Raider movie, a bit too much sound, a bit lazy special effect sequences (mostly in conjunction with the character) and some loose ends with all those early friends she leaves in the end, yet in the end... I did enjoy it.

I am looking forward to more. I did like the adventure, and I feel that if the twist with the tomb was presented in a better way, and her father wasn't kept alive just to let her say goodbye, her friends didn't all mysteriously vanish and get replaced by guns, she acted as vulnerable as she some times seemed, and a whole lot of other things... this could have been great. I would have loved to go higher but I just can't push this all the way past a...

 rated 3/5: not bad