A virus sweeps the world and incites social disarray and sickness...

It's a typical story. A lost little white man in the woods - a former accountant who lost his wife and daughter and headed away in search of answers and purpose, meets a big black man with a silver cross who saves his life and shows him how to survive.

...and then the Illuminati come in! A group set on killing all religious people. And our weak main man's handed a bible - which the Illuminati are looking to destroy - and develops some pretty impressive bow-related skills and they head off to a place called Safe Haven together - a tiny little refuge headed by a preacher, and together they make one final stand against their foes...

They pose the age old question of why God doesn't save us if he exists, and in the end they don't answer it, as usual.

They also script the movie as if us agnostics are heathens totally unaware of the scriptures, or who this 'Jesus' guy is, and I'm initially a little on edge after having been to a party with a few religious relatives who really shouted out another relative who used a cuss word they considered blasphemous, enforcing this feeling I have that religious people tend to be somewhat unreasonable in their beliefs; secular; overly preachy; care more about how they appear and act in the eyes of God than about their brethren - whom you'd think it'd be more important to treat kindly, if they live as the teach... but the movie never took the wrong road in that regard. It stayed light-hearted even through the hardship. It didn't judge.

I gotta give props. I'm impressed how well they handled it after all.

It may not have motives I consider as noble as those who believe of course do; may not be made in a way that'd sway my own fundamental beliefs on what it means to be human, or what we're here on this Earth to do... but they stayed true to the faith.

It's kinda great. A little naïve maybe but also inspiringly so...

It's a budget movie with a small cast but it's not all bad. Kinda refreshing.

And it kept me watching all the way.

 rated 2.5/5: almost not bad

AKA Shun Liu Ni Liu.

I remember this one fondly. I forgot how good it was. How easily it walks the line between life and death, and love and hate, and the complexity of our so sometimes stupidly human struggle.

The soundtrack's sparse but well-weighted. The action scenes are ferocious. Love is in the air. Emotions are heavy. Contemplations are all over the place. It's messy, yet oddly refined and wholesome when it's all over.

The special effects haven't aged great, but fortunately there's little of those. Mostly with the explosions.

The style: You could say it walks a line between Hard Boiled and Black Mask. Somewhere between those two. With hard-pressed bad-asses who feel no pain, with realistic gunfire and weaponry, and with theatrical smoke-screens and explosions. It's got it all. In moderate dosage.

It has a fridge scene that rivals the Indiana Jones one too.

Plot-wise it may feel a bit fragmented, but it's a gem.

Of violence and of the world. Of all the things that somehow merge and make our place in time possible. It starts with the end of a life, and ends with the start of a new one, on so many levels...

I mistook this title for Tokyo Raiders earlier btw. It's not even close. This is it.

Don't miss.

 rated 4.5/5: almost awesome

The NY Zoo friends help a lost goose reunite with his family in this short little holiday special.

It took me a while to get into the visuals - which seemed way too kidified for my liking - with characters that all have disproportionately big eyes and small; chibby bodies - but when it's all said and done... I love it.

I mean I definitely preferred the adult variants but the kids ain't bad either.

It's a movie clearly aimed at a younger audience, but it's an appreciably uplifting one too. It may be overly cutified, but it is fun, and wholsome.

Music = mediocre. Animation = decent. Upliftment factor = it's there.

 rated 3/5: not bad

It's almost like Marvel's own take on Batman, isn't it?

But not really. It's darker. It's more about vampires. The city feels similar though, in both it's grandeur and the grimy underbelly thereof. Gothic. And both Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) and the more villainous Milo (you wouldn't expect it at first!) by Matt Smith do a great job.

It's a great movie overall.

I'm just disappointed with some of the CGI and directional choices they take with the falling fights, and unnecessary slow-mo.

The fights remind me a bit of similar ones from Black Panther.

Just too heavy CGI with 'em. And no redeeming fight choreography.

Apart from that you just might say it's even better than Venom. A little realer; a little darker, sometimes... and a great cast.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

Regardless of the title this is the story of a hitman and a little girl - maybe all the more of the little girl. It's a story of two people from dysfunctional families who somehow find themselves in the same place; whose paths cross and converge in a lethal but fascinating and beautiful way.

They're different ages. From different strides of life - but maybe not as different as you might think

The girl loses her family in a drug bust gone wrong, seeks refuge with the hitman, and he teaches her to kill. Though he takes some convincing.

She teaches him to read. She teaches him to live. She tries to teach him to love, too.

They're two plants without roots that somehow find their way to the same pot.

It's one of Luc Besson's early movies, back before he'd gone mainstream entirely, though there's still Gary Oldman, and Jean Reno, and young Natalie Portman as the wonderful Mathilda. Albeit also dangerously spontaneous, and reckless, and maybe a little naive as to the wild ways of the world.

Though at times you wonder which of them is really living the biggest fantasy.

It's fun sometimes, it's scary sometimes, but for the most part it's heartfelt, and real - though so dangerous it couldn't possibly be, and the scenes are choreographed so well. From the first bang all the way till the finish.

It's a movie you don't forget, this one.

On IMDB it's one grandfathered into the greats of all time just like The Godfather, and dare I say... it's really a little better.

It gets me in my feels every time, but (and maybe that's also precisely why) I love this movie.

There's something so pure about it too, brutal though it may be.

I love that too.

 rated 5/5: friggin awesome

There's a new Chris Rock special out! And the big sell is the Oscar slap... it's kind of sad.

I appreciate him - don't get me wrong.

I loved how he handled the situation at the Oscars. With unexpected finesse. I'm glad he didn't instigate further, and I'm glad he at least seems to be going strong since; putting out specials; moving onward but... I'm just not feeling the jokes here!

I wonder if he is.

Is this the real him? I haven't seen a special with him before.

I wonder if my appreciation for Chris was somehow tainted by the incident too, since now that I'm seeing this I just feel like he's bitching about unnecessary things. Like he's bitter with the world. Like he doesn't have anything better to speak about. Like he really has some deep-rooted scars he could use some therapy for - and that this special definitely won't help him with that - no matter what he claims.

He takes the strong route, and that's cool... but he doesn't come across a victor here. To me. He feels weakened by the incident.

He was a fan of Will too apparently. He truly does seem hurt, still. He fucked up his final joke. It's sad to see.

An IMDB review summed up a large part of this pretty well too, they found the word I was missing.

Crass.

It is a fun special, somewhat - at least the audience seems to be enjoying it, but it is... crass. Unnecessarily so.

It takes about forty minutes for him to finally start shitting on himself at least a little. Humor at the expense of oneself is my favorite type. I relax a bit then. I start feeling like maybe he's alright after all - when he can make jokes on his own behalf he must feel OK about himself, but by then we're over halfway through...

He shouts all the time too initially, and it feels forced.

Maybe he's just attempting to do the 'outrage' justice. Maybe he feels like he has to. Maybe he doesn't still feel hurt so much as a pressure to cater to expectations since.

Eventually he calms down a bit and things get better but... he's just not all there. He repeats lines as well. He repeats jokes. He has a few good ones but I didn't actually laugh at all, not just not whole-heartedly, not at all...

It all entails more grimace than good fun, and it's a shame, cause I really was rooting for him. Will Smith left a bad imprint on everyone with that slap, but in the end I wonder if he won't make a comeback anyway.

He still has the charisma. He's still Will. This guy on the other hand... I don't know. And it's unfortunate, cause he definitely seems the kinder of the two. The one most rooted. The one in tune with the world.

Maybe he never was that good a comic, I haven't seen enough to know, but if he was this really isn't his best work.

Props on staying at it though! Keep being you. I'll catch the next one too; hope you're on your A game then. Maybe you got this out of your system with this, and can move on again hereafter.

Otherwise maybe best catch some movies instead of specials. The movies I've seen him in - where he's acting and stuff - were all good.

 rated 2.5/5: almost not bad