The Following (TV-14)

      Disclaimer: the Following is a television show that may cause you to awake screaming in the middle of the night. All jokes aside, the Following is, in my book, a new favorite. This television show stars Kevin Bacon as the unflappable Ryan Hardy. Hardy is an ex-FBI agent who left the Bureau after being critically wounded while investigating the murders of young women. Hardy discovers that a professor named Joe Caroll (played by James Purefoy) has committed the murders believing, due to reading of Edgar Allen Poe, that murder is the true way to live. Years after his arrest, followers of Caroll's continue his maniacal ways. When Hardy is called back to help the FBI, he discovers that Caroll is masterminding all the murders from his jail cell.

One of Caroll's followers reciting Edgar Allen Poe

       Although graphic and terrifying, the Following is certainly a show you shouldn't pass up watching. The show's writers will keep you on the edge of your seat as the plot takes twists and unexpected turns. Kevin Bacon's acting is truly excellent. However my favorite character in the Following is Joe Caroll, mastermind murderer. James Purefoy gives us the stunning performance of a murderer who is not only twisted, but clever and witty. As strange as it sounds, it is refreshing to have a criminal in a television series who is not just a punk or a rich man who is tired of his wife.
      The Following is certainly a show that will make you jump but it is also one with substance. If you are ever in a mood for a unpredictable thriller, I highly recommend this show to you. In my opinion the Following scores a 3 out of 4 stars. Thanks for reading!


Image courtesy of: http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/the-following-poe-mask.jpg

Premium Rush (PG-13)

      I enjoy action movies. After all, who doesn't? However, action movies are, sometimes, violent for the sake of violence. However, Premium Rush was not one of those films. Premium Rush centers around a young and daring bicycle messenger (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) in New York City. This messenger, named Wilee, is considered the best at what he does. After being in an accident while on a delivery, Wilee has removed the gears and brakes from his bike saying: "brakes are death." The young protagonist races through the clogged New York streets, sometimes just barely avoiding cabs and trucks. At the start of the film, Wilee picks up a envelope from a college student named Nima with the instructions to deliver it to China Town by 7:00 p.m. Little does Wilee know the danger of the mission he has just undertaken. As soon as Wilee picks up the envelope, a dirty cop named Bobby Monday (played by Michael Shannon) pursues him throughout the city in search of the envelope. As the movie progresses we find that the ticket inside the envelope represents an exorbitant amount of money that Nima plans to use in order to smuggle her son out of China. Monday, on the other hand, wants the money to pay off a lone shark he owes money to.

Wilee races through the New York streets

      Allow me to digress for a moment here. I am extremely impressed with Joseph Gordon-Levitt's body of work recently. He has played leading characters in four highly successful movies just last year (Lincoln, Premium Rush, the Dark Night Rises, and Looper). Not only that but he has displayed skillful acting capabilities in all four movies. In this film, Premium Rush, Gordon-Levitt did a great job playing the daring Wilee. Another character I really enjoyed in Premium Rush was Manny (played by Wole Parks). Manny is, to use the words of Wilee himself, "a 'roided-up freak". Manny is another bike messenger who is not as daring as Wilee but faster. Manny's arrogance brought some comic relief to an otherwise suspenseful movie.

      Perhaps my favorite thing about Premium Rush was the editing done to show you Wilee's position in the Big Apple or even whats going on in his mind. On occasion, the camera would zoom out to show an aerial view of New York with a yellow line tracing Wilee's route. This was interesting to see because it shows the audience how brutally long some of these bike routes really are. Even cooler than this was what happened whenever Wilee was in a particularly sticky situation. Time would freeze and Wilee would give thought to alternate routes. For example, at one point, Wilee stops to consider where to go at an intersection and sees that if he went one way he would take out a baby stroller, while if he went another, he would push a pedestrian into the path of an oncoming bus.

     My only complaint about Premium Rush would be that at times, the number of flash-backs made the story somewhat hard to follow. However, all in all, I found this film to be an edge-of-your-seat thriller that is definitely worth watching. That's all for me and as always, thanks for reading!

Picture courtesy of: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/08/24/arts/24PREMIUM_SPAN/24PREMIUM_SPAN-articleLarge.jpg 

      

Lincoln (PG-13)

Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln

      Considering today is Oscar Sunday, I figured a logical review would be that of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. I enjoyed this film a great deal. Although it is nominated for 12 Academy Awards, I went into this movie thinking that it would be a film only for the history buff. Clearly, I was incorrect. Lincoln is based off the book, Team of Rivals: the Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It centers around Abraham Lincoln's struggle to pass the 15th Amendment to the Constitution during the twilight of the American Civil War. If you don't know, the 15th Amendment outlaws slavery and gives African Americans the right to vote.
      I was very impressed by the performance given by Daniel Day-Lewis as our 16th president. At times, I forgot that I was watching a film but rather footage of Abraham Lincoln himself. As ridiculous as this sounds, Day-Lewis looked exactly like the man himself.
      Of course, Day-Lewis wasn't the only extraordinary actor in this movie. Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones graced us with their performances as well. Sally Field portrayed Mary-Todd Lincoln who had lost her son to tuberculosis only a month before his fourth birthday. Field gave a stunning performance as the grief-stricken First Lady. Tommy Lee Jones played Pennsylvania senator Thaddeus Stevens, a member of the Republican party who hated slavery. During the movie, Stevens fought tirelessly alongside Lincoln to pass the    15th Amendment.
      Although there were some historical inaccuracies in Lincoln, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is nominated for 12 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. I suggest seeing it if you have not yet. Thank you for reading my review and feel free to subscribe!