Forbidden Kingdom

Karate Kid K.I.A.

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Forbidden Kingdom was a tremendously anticipated - hereby comes the Disturbance in the Force - Hollywood Kung Fu flick, main reason for this is that the output delivers the most popular faces of the genre, a simultaneous canvas presence of truly authentic figures whom we hoped to catch together since times immemorial, indeed. Forbidden Kingdom lives up to it's promise, of course. Jackie Chan and Jet Li are both ready to embarrass themselves in a movie which is loosely - khm, clumsily - based on famous installments of Chinese literature, especially the work titled Journey to The West.

Well, the Kung Fu genre have traveled over the Big Waters already and gave us tremendous results, Kung Fu Hustle, Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, just to name a few. This here effort Forbidden Kingdom scores at box offices big time, yet I tend to think that the main reason for this success is that you can't possibly find an excuse to miss a movie out with Jackie and Jet present in it - that does not mean that the output CAN'T be bad. Actually, it CAN. And, sadly: it IS.

The best attraction you are about to witness herein is the main title screen and corresponding credit list period, I am sorry to say. These moments do unleash a stunning, dare I say this: neo-retro Kung Fu mood with superb, lazy, sinister musical score and famous retina stigmas of the genre, then you are about to witness Jet Li as the Monkey God, showing an army of hostiles their proper place in the quite proper setting to do so: in the Skies, they wage their wars. The flick abruptly loses interest in the hilarious opening, just to collide this truly nice period into a sequence of sheer brilliance: a Kung Fu Geek you witness who have fell asleep via his - probably - usual way: watching one of his favorite 236482348732648 Kung Fus, and now his mind interprets the audio stimuli from the video as elements to incorporate into his dreams about the Monkey God. So, it is quite a flawless concept so far, not a subject to debate about.



And also, it is about the last minute you will enjoy flawlessly, at least according to the strict, yet hopefully rigorously scientific considerations of the Opinion Onion. Behold who you will HAVE to, behold the Michael Angarano, who is about as bad actor as Matthew Fox, only this one is sadder. Am I being a blatant sitorgan opening if I am to voice my curiosity of how one develops elaborate undereye wrinkles by the age of 21? This is the age Angarano threads on as of the release date of this flick, and I must admit, he is somewhat suitable as a New-Age Karate Kid, but ALAS!, let me ask you this:

DO. WE. NEED. YET. ANOTHER. KARATE. KID. ?

The question remained silent once voiced, so let us resonate it again, this time with deep, intense honesty and curiosity:

DO. WE. NEED. YET. ANOTHER. KARATE. KID. ?

Add that this Karate Kid is easily worse than the original, by the way. Michael Angarano is the Everyday Average Loserguy the film gives for you as a role module you could easily relate to in case you have sophisticated collection of checkered shirts and acnes on body parts a decent woman is not even aware of, and surely, director of this here celluloid molestation Rob Minkoff might simply assume that you can't escape being an Everyday Average Loserguy once a fanatic of Kung Fu Classics.

Forbidden Kingdom grows kind of suspicious when you witness Jackie Chan's awkward depiction of an old fella who runs a video rental the Karate Kid is a regular at, - you bet, baby - suspicion though turns into something much more worse when Mr. Big Bully and Co. do start to - well - bully the protagonist. Man. Then again: maaaan! Have you ever witnessed one of those:

"NO! PLEASE TEACH ME HOW TO FIGHT, PUHHULLEEEZ!" - movies? To be perfectly honest, I was blatantly afraid that I am about to witness Michael Angarano's Way to the Exploding Fist, and my fear gained legitimization shortly, though, at least via an infantile mutation which tries to sell itself as cinematic originality, yet utterly fails to deliver saved enriching/abusing you with the experience of a stock-fantasy affair with Jackie, Jet, and two beautiful Chinagirls in it. Still a stock fantasy, and a badly written at that, as well. I will give you proof shortly.

Here are the main assumptions: there is the Angarano, who must, absolutely MUST give the Sacred Weapon of the Monkey King back to it's proprietor, but, as results of an ancient confrontation taking place between the Everyday Usual Final Stage Boss Character and the Monkey King, now the legendary martial artist is petrified, only to be released if his weapon touches on the statue now he takes part in consensus as.

So! The Fearless Angarano and his haircut both (!!) do end up being transported to an alternate reality which resonates nicely with ancient Chinese times and sceneries. I admit that the cinematography is beautiful, no problem in this regard at all. Considering the subject matter these stunning natural environments do deliver on their own, finding UGLY images is the Challenge here, not to show Beauty Blatant which is all over the place. Well, at least something have been done to legitimize focal flaws, since Angarano seems totally out of place and time, let him be put beyond space and time for the sake of fiction functionalization. Sorry about that.

Little time is about to flow away prior the Angarano's encounter with Lu Yan, - Jackie Chan - who is fortunately a perfect speaker of English in ancient China, even better: the waitress in the pub also is totally on the theme when you ask for a refill in English. Lu Yan informs the young protagonist about the Legend of the Monkey King, and they decide to team up to liberate the iconic hero. Little if any do they know that the Final Stage Boss Monster has entirely different plans in his highly sinister mind, even sends a Witch after the Sacred Relic, a Witch who was born to Wolves. And also she is a simulacrum of the great Mortal Kombat character Sindel. This focal role is portrayed by beautiful Chinese actress Bingbing Li, the scenes in which Bingbing and Angarano are both present are of particular interest. I would keenly urge Angarano fans - oxymoron? - to state the Top 10 Reasons why one would take one's eyes off of Bingbing in favor of Michael, me = mad curious, truly. Now is the time to account on Yifei Liu as well, she gives us the female sidekick character, who is in shadow of to the constant threat that Angarano might actually go for the mouthy-mouthy, lypsi-lypsi on her, yet !SPOILER! - he won't have that chance. Yifei Liu gives you similarly solid canvas presence as Bingbing Li, a credit which is due for the Final Stage Boss Monster, Deshun Wang, as well.



Bingbing Li's intact canvas presence gives much needed relief.

An example of flaws and incoherency: a Silent Monk - Jet Li - appears, who steals the Monkey King's Relic from Angarano, yet, as it turns out hastily: he has NO intention stealing the Relic. So, he just - kind of: stole it. Makes sense so far? He states that he Seeks the Seeker of the Artifact. Now check this: when he FINDS the Seeker, he stoles the precious item from him while the Seeker is asleep. Well, asking those trite, redundant question like: "Sorry, dude, aren't you happen to be the Seeker of the Relic who I seek? After all, you have the Relic!" would hardly live up to common sense or coherent script writing.

All is set for the big attraction, you will have the acceptable 10 minutes+ fight sequence between Jackie and Jet, and then some other, acceptable fight sequences as the improbably shallow fantasy story "develops." For your information I wish to voice my aspiration that the term "acceptable" I account the fight sequences as is intended to be a rigorously scientific description, and a scientific description I do aspire to give, none less, not I! Let us scrutinize unto the deep well of the past and let us behold some example movies which delivered easily superior fight sequences to these: the aforementioned Kung Fu Hustle comes into my mind yet again as a piece to courageously and hilariously praise the genre, yet the Tony Jaa films are a must to mention, as well. Remember the final showdown in Tom Yum Goong? Hell, one minute (!) from that fight sequence weights more than the entire Forbidden Kingdom, Your Angy God Forgive that I state the obvious herein.

This here old fashioned new wave Kung Fu hybrid still relies on the most banal fight concept ever revealed, yet so vastly utilized even to this day: there are two types of fighters that can take part in a skirmish: 1. the Infinite Hitter, 2. the One Puncher. The Infinite Hitter always comes back, no matter what. Because he has a focal role. Thus he has superhumanic attributes. Notice that these focal characters are always very skillful, they evade and block the strikes just to counter back, while their associates are usually suck excessively, these are the literal masses and masses of people your protagonist engages in battle with, administering one strike per kopf and client checks out, thank you come again. Surely, it does not mean the tiniest of sense to surround yourself with elite fighters if you are a Final Stage Boss Monster, instead you want to rely on warriors whose asses get kicked around via a little less effort than putting out a bonfire with a water cannon in rainstorm.



Forbidden Kingdom is an excessively awkward, mocked mixture of twisted, inept ambitions, an output lacking any kind of inventive tale appeals or sober seriousness to it, instead it sinks steadily to end up as a very average fantasy-quest with very average fantasy characters, chasing - I am sorry to inform you that you have guessed correctly - very average fantasy agendas. The New Karate Kid Michael Angarano is actually a factor to degrade the output as opposed to enrich it, as his canvas presence currently is nowhere near to that of any other actors he gets unleashed in the same sequence with. In the end one can't help but voice the opinion that even Jackie and Jet can not make a great movie out of the great mess this unfortunate result is composed of and ends as. These two onions I do give for this delivery is not a result of my grouchy nature. These two onions I do give for this delivery is the result of my extremely tender, marvelously kind nature.

Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Moment You Have All Been Waiting For, Has Now Became a Reality!

The Opinion Onion Gives You:

Za! Michael! Angarano! Thing!



- What if I CAN'T do that??
- Oh, you are good at THAT!



The One Dollar Kung Fu Stance!



- ... and then I'll have a HAIRCUT!
- IS the Seeker CERTAIN that he is PREPARED?



- HMPF!
- NOOO, NOT THE HMPF! ANYTHING BUT THE HMPF!



- HOW I gotten into this??
- Mysterious are the Ways of the Tao, no doubt anymore.



- Uhm. Michael. You are on - uhm. Camera?



The One Million Dollar Kung Fu Look!



The Priceless Kung Fu Look!

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Beowulf

Not My Curse Anymore

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Beowulf is the earliest European manuscript we are currently aware of, an Epic poem composed of more than 3000 lines, transcribed though by an unknown author-or probably authors, as the patterns of the letters do seem to originate from two different scribes. Who exactly Beowulf, primal protagonist of the Epic might be, one might ask. Let us answer this question which is not too circumstantial to solve safely and properly, as, quite simply put:

Beowulf Is The MAN!

Relentless facer of gravest dangers most do not even dare to think of, proud victor of monstrocities most do not even dare to describe, and to top all of that: Beowulf, as we will see, also is a legend with a robust moral dilemma which the protagonist won't likely to solve only with muscles, weapons and oneliners. Though all these shall, and - !SPOILER! - WILL be utilized. The truly nice narrative which sings, keeps and praises grandiose myths of ancient times is extremely well suited for contemporary adaptations, especially since scholars state that the poem itself might very well be a record of oral traditions, let us even say: tales. Suspicion hastily arouses that tales are heavily reliant on entertainment, thus the Beowulf Epic may have been the framework of effective plays, performed by Bards whenever an audience was eager and persistent to be entertained via multiple sittings - blatant beer brawls in between sets are optional, yet heavily recommended. The Beowulf Epic was MADE to entertain, and it is so Epic indeed that it is essentially BEGS to be told.

A recognition which reached quite the proper persons Before The Ragnarök Had Cometh!, say that I, herein. Smart, dexterous creator of myriad elegant installments aimed at senselessly radical degrees and forms of popcorn molestation Robert Zemeckis joins up with a high-end CG production assault team financed by Sony to give you this here Anglo-Saxon classic via an animated presentation.

Screenplay writers Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary do deliver a clever selection of the original text, utilizing chosen sequences to construct a fluent foam of narrative which remains heavily reliant on the originator, yet unravels as a smartly researched variant tailored for the big screen. Synopsis: Court and Kingdom - let alone the beerhouse! - of Danish King Hrotgar is under constant terror by a monstrous malediction who lives and hunts in the vicinity, oftentimes exhibiting his physical superiority whenever he finds humans too loud or too disturbing. Or both, which is the intact pawn of a promise that hostile actions are about to be administered to fry some casual mortal butts. This troll goes by the name of Grendel, and he is bad, bad news. After a particularly eventful night characterized by the monstrous creature's somewhat evident presence and - initially - protesting viking limbs deciding - eventually - to walk their separate, autonomous ways: the King sinks into despair. On the Seas comes a hero though, and by the name of Beowulf, a hero comes on the Seas, indeed.



The legendary Geat and his fellow warriors are proposing to banish the demon from Hrotgar's land in exchange for some quality beer, a Golden Artifact of Special Significance, and some more of quality beer. Deal is done, Beowulf is about to face Grendel as an equal rival to him, meaning he is not about to wear armor or wield weapons to confront the malediction. This nice, elegantly simple and simply elegant base assumption is your core structure to sew a truly robust Epic on, a story to offer both a brand new protagonist and a terrible secret that is about to infect these Lands once more, as surely, it already have succeeded on an occasion and now grows more rampant and more determined to unleash terror.

From now on I will assume you did not yet have seen the movie thus I stay away from actual narrative points and attempt to give a hintfoam about the neat traits that you are about to experience.

The Beowulf Epic and thus this faithful adaptation creates terror via corrupting it's focal characters, thus fear is not but an outer sensation which haunts and poisons, rather it is created by the incapacity of the protagonists to act according to everyday common sense - yes, a precious commodity in the world of dragons and trolls - which though is deeply, utterly mocked around by a Forbidden Beauty no Viking Warrior can resist against. No, not even Beowulf, it might be so. The Champion of Champions, Destroyer of Maledictions is consumed by the mere admiration of the staggering beauty he beholds and helpless to resist. Some maledictions won't ever use weapons against their prey, they instead consume them by drowning those calculable spirits unto their very own inventions and emotions, those silly, casual mortal vibes that can be provoked and invoked so fluently once the mask of mere beauty is at the disposal of the Malediction. The Muhahaha! part is especially strong and legit in Beowulf, too.



- OK, you have some skills. My turn.

This here Epic will deliver you such a Demon, and that particular creature has definite access to the tool of beauty, a tool she is even a masterful handler of. The climax of the movie witnesses a Beowulf who is absolutely and necessarily aware of the inner corruption he was subjected to and could not laugh out loudly at, while question arises if this act of him have left more imminent treats to deal with than the possession of a constantly tainted, passive self. And believe you me: the past has left such a thing. And that thing is not about to sit around for long.



The output's realization factor is as high-end as we have ever seen to date. Characters are modeled after real life actors, a cast palette you will find quite a few heavyweights in - yet I think there is no need to pinpoint any of them, as recognizing the originators is great optional fun on it's own merits. Especially Grendel. Hm, who could have been Grendel? Hmmm. Matthew Fox?? Naaah, Matthew couldn't ever touch this. EVVVER! Hell, Matthew would masterfully spoil the output even if his role were nothing more than being cut down in the background shouting: "EEK!!" without even being actually SHOWN. Matthew Fox, what a wonderfully terrible actor!



- He Had Faceth The Matthew Fox, and Hath RETURNED!
- VHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Apart from the story which, thanks to it's ancient written original reigns as unavoidably yet welcomely strong and fluent, dialogs and dramaturgical choices are certainly worth accounting on, as well. Spoken lines, voice registers, facial expressions all do deliver truly pleasant surprises via exquisite channels of pure originality and massively stable conceptualization/revelation of each character, there are literally dozens and dozens of little vibes you can't help but laugh out loud honestly at, and this is not something we can tell everyday, not with the calculated, usual CG punchlines that are safe, suitable, and, most importantly: great ho! ho! ho!-s for All Generations. Just to mention one of these: Wiglaf and Beowulf at the Entrance of a Highly Illegal and Sinister Looking Cave, Second Occasion. Hilarious, brilliant dialog work there, in my opinion.

This here movie Beowulf threads on the realistic CG approach, and does that with weighty, armored boots on, never coming short of convince power and the ability to constantly, flamboyantly surprise and thus entertain it's intaker. Truly not much to elaborate on except maybe my personal notion that this was the best, even bestest - thank you, thank you - realistic CG effort I have seen to date. A related tip yet: in case you have the chance to witness the movie on a device with image sharpening capabilities, I'd say go for it, definitely. A little bit of sharpening filter emphasizes the tremendous detail work that is everywhere to be found, revealing them even more profoundly. Truly a feast for the eyes. To wrap this up I can't help but refrain a memorable sentence of Beowulf which he speaks after showing mercy for one of his rivals, dismissing the defeated warrior after an insightful dialog, concluding the idea-exchange by this here words: "He has a story to tell!"

Quite similarly, all should see this output, - that includes You, Dearest Visitor - as this here output has a definite story to tell.



Naaah, I don't do that every day.

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A Clockwork Orange

Victim of Modern (R)age

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Anthony Burgess, author of the book A Clockwork Orange wrote the text inspired by events that must have had robust emotional impact on him - let alone his wife. The early 1960's were notorious of the antagonistic new generation that characterized the London scenery and corresponding era, an alarming social tendency that unleashed a particularly repulsive experience on Burgess, resulting in a humongous boost to deal with the issue on a wider scale than his innermost private self. Thus experience which is very hard to digest becomes inspiration and primal motivation factor for a creative output that never have lost of it's significance, quite the contrary: the importance of A Clockwork Orange is evidently timeless, even better/worse: the only direction it is capable to go is a definite Forward.

It is time to account the event that led the author to construct his vision. A group of hoodlums assaulted Burgess's wife, unleashing sour inspiration on the writer to deliver his fictional portrait of such a hive entity, especially it's Boss character who is essential element of both the 1962 text original and the 1971 film adaptation by Stanley Kubrick. In A Clockwork Orange, harmony is but a dull, obsolete idea, an invention of enforced constrains, acting as handcuffs on the rampant hands of blissful, sweet deviancy. For your protagonists, Alexander Burgess - a son figure? - and Co. destruction is the most proper and most natural way to express, to affect reality. To alter, influence consensus very efficiently with minimum effort, as no effort is needed to invoke something which is yet to be invented or constructed - effort instead emerges and unleashes on All That Have Been Formed or Constructed Already, let it be materia, flesh or psyche. In the dystopian future Burgess delivers values are but outposts that need to be mocked, abused, denied and eventually destroyed, while violence is the mere language the new breed can honestly express itself in.

Reasons are numerous why this creative output works as fluent to this day as it always had, yet the main factor is none other than the Chigurh Phenomena, though we certainly should regard that as the Alex Burgess/DeLarge Phenomena instead, as Burgess wrote his novel in 1962, that is a Vantage Point < - you DON'T want to click this link, baby - validated by 43 years to the credit of the author of A Clockwork Orange, as the work to incorporate Anton Chigurh, No Country for Old Men comes in 2005.

Notice, nevertheless how the respective authors of A Clockwork Orange and No Country for Old Men - written by Cormac McCarthy - are revealing the same character-module for us. Main protagonists Alex Burgess and Anton Chigurh are both exhibiting flawless capacity to get away with excessive harm they administered without feelings of remorse present to haunt them afterwards, yet surely, Chigurh is a "Complete" anti-superhero while Alex still threads on the same, sweet, ultra-violent path which though would certainly lead to the the state of superignorance Chigurh bizarrely reigns in.



A DEFINITE Start There, Boy!

A Clockwork Orange delivers a narrative construction built up by three major chunks, as Burgess's main interest is not about to gas out once depiction of excessive abuse have happened on multiple occasions. The first series of insights boil down to the delivery of an emerging culture of ultraviolence, while I do realize how twisted it sounds, I truly do think that this is the case: the hoodlums you witness herein have their own existences so reliant on and so massively fused with hardcore abuse that their reality indeed offers a Sandbox Universe in which you are free, even better: invited to deconstruct All You Encounter, a twisted relation in which the actual results of harm are not as important or focal as the capacity, the bizarre celebration of the FREEDOM to harm is.

Surely, a conscious choice is offered and inevitably taken by all participants of a civilized society whether to harm or not to harm. The act of not-harming, though surely you would prefer to, is quite an impotent stance, in my opinion. The act of not-harming because you realize the damage you would do in an individual is a legit stance. A Clockwork Orange delivers you hoodlums who harm to celebrate and express their Total Freedom, I am not entirely sure they do realize what they actually do, in fact, I think they do not. In the Universe they create and live through, Good Old Ultraviolence is the same pleasantry as Good Old Beer and Good Old Cardgames, something to chase void, stale time periods away with, something to offer them incalculable moments and intensity. Maybe, JUST maybe they do get a glimpse of Highly Forbidden Remorse Deep Inside which is surely the biggest NO! NO! to admit in a hive entity as this, yet the core of the matter is this: existence is stale, pointless, and gives you unsatisfactory stimuli if to lived the way as the Elders propagate - therefore you must live it whatever way you please. Claiming of freedom to harm comes with the first three elements in such an ultimately desperate, stale, grey reality. In fact, nothing more remains, nothing else is capable to express freedom so completely as exhibiting the capacity of hurting another person. When they hurt and humiliate they pose as dominant force of society, simply because they deny and throw away the assumption that generally you should NOT break into people's houses, should NOT beat up the man and rape the woman while you sing Singing in the Rain. This is a NO! NO!, yes?

Surely, this might be a NO! NO!, yet we don't need to tell them that, as Alex Burgess and Co. becomes Alex Burgess and Co. exactly by throwing away these elementary assumptions consciously, thus they claim a degree of freedom where terrorizing and beating up persons is totally natural, Good Old Fun, inherent element, but some casual asset originated from natural, Good Old COMPLETE Freedom. The fact that Alex sings Singing in the Rain while he administers kicks to the man in my opinion tells us clearly that he does nothing but pretty much celebrates the Complete Freedom he just claimed and now demonstrates. How often do you break into someone's house just to beat the inhabitants down and to sign some sentimental melodies above their abused bodies? I bet this is not something you do on a regular basis. Neither do I. Why do not we do this? Does it mean that by NOT doing this we do NOT possess Total Freedom? Yes, it does mean that. Alex and Co. whom are doing it as daily routine have Total Freedom though, and notice how unacceptable this Total Freedom is.

I think these are the basic assumptions Burgess arrived to via conceptualizing the operations and rampant interests of this new breed, the generation that works via an equation which states that claiming Total Freedom is absolutely acceptable granted you can get away with Good Old Fun by beating the Hoile Spirit out of someone - something which Alex actually does, leading to the second chunk of the buildup of A Clockwork Orange.



This here second chunk is the most essential part of the narrative, I'd say. Suffice it to say that Alex ends up in jail, and later he hears rumors about a new treatment called the Ludovico Technique. The method is intended to rehabilitate convicts as totally harmless individuals. Alex manages to get the chance of undergoing the treatment, in exchange for instantaneous freedom.

The Ludovico Technique is a form of aversion therapy: patient is strictly constrained to an observer position, while he gets subjected to repulsive vision-and sound stimuli. The catch is this: some funny substance is administered prior to the actual treatment, thus the observer develops associations between violent acts and gruesome physical distress. Once violence is present in the vicinity the affected person grows effectively sick: no chance whatsoever to commit violent acts anymore, as he would collapse on the floor the moment he would try to do that. So Alex ends up as a new man, and a new man he ends up as, indeed. Yet Burgess asks you this: is he became a better person indeed? The author elegantly points us to the notion that the protagonist did not undergo a honest transformation, rather he got deprived of the free choice whether to commit violent acts. This truly nice, narrative touch that definitely poses as focal importance in the buildup is used to fuel the third and final chunk of A Clockwork Orange, a period to account how - if anyhow - Alex manages to get along in society with his deeply altered self.

One of the final sketches is particularly powerful, surely I do refer to the scene in which Alex meets with one of his previous victims. This is the period I regard as simply the most important of all that A Clockwork Orange delivers, as I get the impression that the previous victim effectively tries to forgive for Alex. Whether he succeeds or not - remains to be seen by you.



Stanley Kubrick's output is robust, vivid and comes with an eternal grin, a grin which have lost nothing of it's seriousness during the four decades it have shown itself for already. Now it seems evident to me that Kubrick had some funny fixations as a film maker, what I find of especial note is his constant usage of classical music pieces as background score. Evidently his personal favorites, no? Same is the case here: you will have the exquisite chance to listen to Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony pretty much in it's glorious eternity, and this is a superb thing both to do and to take part in, not a matter to debate about.

Surely, A Clockwork Orange reigns in position as one of the most important influence factors ever to enrich popular culture: the vivid London atmosphere, that naked, dangerous, explosive vibe and hilarious visual appeals/costumes it so blatantly delivers envisioned the emergence of a culture which was legendarily rampant and remained of essential significance to this day - please see Punk, please see Sid Vicious, please see Sex Pistols. And please: do see A Clockwork Orange.



- Who we beat up on This Fine Day, lads?
- Me lad, question is, who we DON'T??

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Event Horizon

to HELL With It!

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A stable, elegant installment to consort the exquisite focal elements of the Doom phenomena with the Alien direction, Event Horizon remains among the few sci-fi outputs that not particularly need to fear of the Ultimate Conqueror many must regard as: Time.

Surely, writer Paul Eisner had an evident fixation on Stanislaw Lem's Solyaris back in the day he - Eisner - came up with the story of this flick, yet the final result coats and keeps borrowed elements within an integral buildup which is not afraid to deliver pretty descent space-time novelty disturbances throughout the nicely realized presentational setup the film speaks in.

A pretty pleasant surprise to enrich the period characterized by the Year 2K Hysteria, Event Horizon sends a massive spaceship to no other dimension than the one many feared would collapse on Earth: Hell. Now, what may prove even more interesting that this? Easy: a flick needs to send the ship BACK from Hell. And, OH!, that it does indeed, giving us the exquisite chance to join a small everyday spaceparty trying to see what exactly went by on the vessel. One surely anticipates the darkest events, and darkest events one sees on the horizon, indeed.

Director Paul W.S. Anderson had great moments before, and I find Event Horizon to be one of those. The movie has a cold, ignorant atmosphere surrounding it with no pleasant findings to be made, neither promised of whatsoever. The screenplay follows entirely classic sequences solidified to be cute, welcomed traditions probably by the first Alien film. These elements include the absolutely not-to-be-left-out period in which crew members having their meals just to have their casual briefing of the situation that have previously occurred, yet seldom are the times when such happenings would propose fruity events to come. Not to mention how important it is to commence briefing while your crew members shovel boiled eggs and stuff related into their respective heads.

Event Horizon gives you two focal characters: great actor Sam Neill portrays Dr. William Weir, the Mastermind behind the Event Horizon spacehip, the first vessel with the capacity to travel along the shortest way between two different points. What the shortest possible distance between two different points might be, one might naturally ask. Consensus awareness surely would tell us that the shortest possible distance between these - eagerly cited and joyfully praised - two different points is: the Straight Line. Yet the Event Horizon operates by entirely different concepts, realized and put to the test by Dr. Weir himself. This great scientist states this: shortest distance between two different points is NOT the Straight Line. It is: Zero.

The spaceship's engine is an artificial Black Hole, - and here comes the intermediate spacehead talk, check this: - capable to bend the fabric of space-time in a way that starting point and destination point would occupy the same space and same time - thus through-travel can occur, while the artificial Black Hole would release the highly illegal (?) parallel dimension it just created to travel on, leaving consensus space-time ultimately intact. A very nice fictionfoam by Paul Eisner in which this focal idea remains strong originator, while he relies on Lem's similarly masterful inventions to forge quite effective support elements from, as we will eagerly scrutinize.



The other key protagonist the movie offers is Laurence Fishburn, giving you Captain Miller. The Skipper of the rescue vessel which happened to be sent out to investigate the Event Horizon does not seem to have much admiration for fairy tales, yet little!, if any!, does he know that he and his crew is about to experience a frightful one of those. I notice we have gotten ahead of ourselves, which is cool once you attempt to astral project, a definite no-no if to review a piece of entertainment. The Event Horizon's first journey was registered as a failure, the vessel got lost at unknown coordinates, never to be heard from again. You know the classic twist:

Until Now

Seven years following it's vanish, the gigantic ship reappears, begging to be checked out thoroughly. A brief, yet elegantly spent time period accounts the ship as more of a living entity than a construction of human knowledge and materia, suggestions do constantly reveal that the vessel has "seen" and "undertook" phenomenas, events and experiences that are way beyond the capacity of mankind to comprehend. These cautiously hinted elements are to reach their relative peek points via the finding of the records the previous, of course entirely disappeared crew of the Event Horizon have made. The message they recorded firstly appears only in vocal form, stating: "Save Yourself from Hell" in Latin, yet the investigators do have a hard time to decipher the input correctly. As it turns out later on, though: the crew of the Event Horizon had quite a hardcore party for quite a while prior to their complete banishment to a plane and form of existence you not necessarily want to experience without a superthick glass to separate you from it.



- Dude! You are LEVITATING!
- And figure THIS: that's how it goes the whole DAY!

The buildup has a nice rhythmization to it, as the unpleasant atmosphere reigns more than ready to send out vibes that are totally capable to compromise the inner operation of the investigators. One young dude - Jack Noseworthy, what an exquisite name! - comes into contact with an abomination the ship exhibits, this entity is only referred by the boy as "the darkness in me". A highly inventive creative death scene is about to occur by this time, as the character -I assume - chooses to act according to the darkness he experienced, thus he abruptly finds himself in an airlock, opening up wildspace on his body. Let me tell you this: human anatomy exhibits a blatant handicap if to face off wildspace, and of this, Event Horizon informs you clearly, convincingly.

This memorable sequence poses as focal point in the fabric, as the boy's highly successful attempt to demonstrate extreme space tourism correlates with the fresh assumption that the Event Horizon been and came back to and from Hell Itself. Lem's fiction from Solyaris is skillfully implemented: respective sour conscience manifests and haunts everybody onboard. The Event Horizion materializes your darkest, bitterest secrets, and amazingly: this truly great idea indeed reigns in an altered position once it operates on entirely negative registers. While Lem uses his idea to voice and unleash emotional and spiritual issues, Eisner translates them to voice and unleash fear and terror. I particularly like the tagline of the flick, stating: Infinite Space, Infinite Terror. Sexy, no? The effectiveness of Lem's output remains brilliant in both cases, yet the original variant does offer optional, yet very interesting routes to furtherly wonder on, I think. If you are interested, please be sure to check out my Solyaris review which I wanted to link for you, yet almost forgot.



A key point to conduct focal observations from is the depiction of Hell's foul breath the vessel brought back with itself, and I would say that Event Horizon delivers an acceptable novelty feast to satisfy twisted curiosity with, though these revealed atrocities themselves have a hard time to deconstruct what we belive to be "proper" and "legit" beyond flesh. Therefore flesh remains the element to abuse when Hell is about to claim it's rampant presence. The movie takes a cute, even decently realized adjustment to the imagery of the classic RPG game of the day, Diablo by Blizzard Entertainment, placing the good doctor Weir - who, SPOILER!: goes massively nuts and chooses to worship Hell - into set pieces that harmonically resonate with the weighty dark fantasy appeals the aforementioned hack'n slash role playing classic enriched popular culture with.

Thus, strangely enough: my concerns are the same as my delights, as Event Horizon shows you a Hell which is fair 'nuff once the agenda is nothing more than to reveal surficial traits of it, yet the flashy, brief, novelty-showaround of abused flesh and blood do weight in as the Primal Conclusion Hell can shock you with, at least according to the vessel and it's narrative creators. I do not think that this would be the case in an "Ideal Proper Hell", though. In "Ideal Proper Hell", such affairs as Event Horizon depicts certainly should be but the beginning of something much, much worse. I am ready to assume that this particular field to contain experiences much worse than pain is a risky deal to reveal, let alone: to invent and to construct. Event Horizon thus gives you but the naturally anticipated, considers you will be quite satisfied and shocked with it, and dismisses you abruptly, while I am sure "Ideal Proper Hell" would "stand" in front of you just to ask:

Ready to see - MORE and - DIFFERENT?

Event Horizon never asks you this, yet it certainly delivers an acceptable novelty showdown to conclude it's storyline, even better: the final twist has some extra appeal to it, especially considering that the event it gives you does NOT, in fact, happen in the film's reality. It does happen nevertheless in the respective realities of those whom have confronted with Dr. Weir's highly deformed, final form. I think this is the aspect "Ideal Proper Hell" STARTS from, also remains an aspect that Event Horizon exhibits no massive interest in.



- Doctor, what does the term "hardcore" mean to you?
- Question is what I mean to the term "hardcore".

This 1997 output remains a charming variant on science fiction ready to communicate via a darker tone, it even seems unfortunate that recent sci-fi directions do not aspire to offer tales and narratives on this particular register. Solid acting, some surprisingly good environmental ideas and related special effects, let alone the possibility to peek unto Hell through a keyhole: the Event Horizon's Black Hole is BUT a keyhole, yet it's welcomed existence emphasizes the possibility and, maybe, satisfiable need to check out other Hell !S! in the future, just to make sure we respect them, rejecting their keen invitations to take part in them in any other way than for the sake of development, fun, and inventive, quality entertainment.

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Below

Hunter Haunted

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David Twohy is a notable face of science fiction related entertainment whose name is probably most familiar from the Riddick series, featuring Vin Diesel and two inherent movies to date - let alone the great video game variant which is a significant piece of all the content the franchise offered so far.

The time period to interconnect the two Riddick outputs gives you a nice independent collaboration between David Twohy, Lucas Sussman and Darren Aronofsky, resulting in the story to fuel the 2002 horror buildup below Below, a submarine tale set in the World War II era. Submarine, horror, World War II: a combination which is a must both to scrutinize and to thoroughly analyze.

Below has that special appeal to it which a film to rely strongly on mechanical and spatial isolation evidently should aspire to possess. Submarines do seem both plainly lethal and lethally beautiful to me. These huge instruments are among the most sophisticated tools mechanized warfare ever invented, lone, secret hunters to terrorize and threat absolutely all on the surface of waters. Isolation affects the hive entity of the vessel's crew all the time, thus best way to deal with constant stress is to attempt to make fun of it, though there are things you can not handle neither with elegant sobriety nor with scientific rigorousness once they are revealed to share the submarine's dualistic reality.



A dicey reality indeed which is created and contained by the mere hull of the vessel, characterized by an endless fabric of mechanical intestines for one aspect of its dualistic nature, while the literal pressure of zillion tons of water to surround it clearly informs all living beings inside that the mechanical language spoken by the vessel manifests through a virtually permanent kind of spatial, modal voice - and you advised to get acquainted with it, as you can be sure that the submarine won't ever get tired of exhibiting the constant demands of accepting, handling, digesting the environment it surrounds you with.

These are the focal aspects which do fascinate me immensely about submarines, and surely, it seems as these strange appeals would have had the evident interest of the author trio, as well. Fortunately, Below is a masterful delivery as far as the image quality and "depicted environments" are concerned, though these latter elements naturally - and frankly, quite welcomely - do narrow down to the showcase of the submarine's countless variants and takes on its mechanical infiniteness and secretive interiors, yet satisfactory glimpses of majestic open waters are offered, too.

The basic buildup of Below recognizes and reveals these sweet potentialities according to their respective robust functions and significance, yet it even seeks out what elements could build tension up to ceiling levels, and surely, it gives you the cunning answers. The movie starts out while the crew gets instructions to help out a couple of survivors nearby, yet one person of this little trio turns out to be: a woman. This is bad news, as a woman is anything but a man, and, as such, has chance to give vivid ideas via her sheer presence. If one surprise would not suffice to one particular day, then the little group of newcomers will give us yet another, even a bigger one. Suffice it to say that a surprise big enough to reduce the number of newcomers from three to two is underway.



Below relies on a very stable screenplay that sports two or three focal turning points, showing us a story with a genuinely staggering punchline to it, while the least convincing appeals the output reaches out for are originating from good (?) old BOO! scare traditions, so the situation regarding this matter is similar here to the classic equation: once a BOO! scare's smell is in the air - and the simple biggest problem with BOO! scares is that their smell is always in the air, trust me - so you start to anticipate its peak moment with your fear registers turned to maximum all the while then there is no way you could be surprised. Below tries nevertheless, yet of course these cheap scares remain as but novelty items to support the more frightening and more robust drama both the story and the movie steadily and fortunately do give for you.

The primal portion of the fun we have signed on for here will be a massively haunted patrol deep beneath dangerous waters, and, as implied: Below does not have problem presenting us with a stable conclusion that reveals nice, comfy, coherent places for all puzzle pieces priorly presented or even just hinted at. The story therefore is quite decent, haunted only - hah! - by redundant, supportive scare mechanics which though remain quite easy to tolerate and to live with.

Biggest credit is due to the submarine's interior, I'd have to say. The mere place, the environment is the primal protagonist of this flick, a spatial/modal entity "whose" inherent nature is even more convincingly presented and emphasized by the great actors to take part in its mechanical reality, let alone the past the vessel have been "subjected to." Whether these quotation marks are to be taken seriously or not, the film informs you thoroughly of.



Best thing about Below is that simply NO bad actors are present in it. In fact, there are just good ones, I think. My favorite from the buildup is Holt McCallanay, giving you Loomis, while the Captain of the ship Bruce Greenwood is pretty good, too. Matthew Davis is just some goodie-guy character, one in every bush, truly. McCallanay and Greenwood are the key figures, I'd say, the other characters are quite strong supportive figures, oftentimes masterfully revealed comic book archetypes, even delivering highly original, badass oneliner dialogs on stable humor registers, carrying out acts to functionalize themselves as integral, intelligent elements of the setting. Surely this all should be natural, but it is not. Thus it is nice to see a movie in which: it is. Representatives of the crew do operate on the exact same channels you would cautiously anticipate them to, forming an easily approachable and likable community which you can, and probably, will care for during the film.

Same is the case with the leading roles. It is hard to decide whether McCallanay is giving you an arrogant sob here or simply represents supersolid authority, but this mere question proves how great of an actor he is: imagine how Lost - ahahah! - Matthew Fox would be in this role. In Below, I think that McCallanay has the charismatic touch of Clancy Brown's Kurgan portrayal, yet channels Brown used to give raw, rampant, naked emotions on becomes sobriety which demands obedience and quick actions to serve it in McCallanay's portrayal of Loomis. Since McCallanay actually can "play" that authentically it is not really a play: he becomes Loomis, which is the maximum we can anticipate from an actor, similarly high end quality performance you will witness from Bruce Greenwood to top it all. I think many practitioners of the craftmanship would look utterly laughable in such roles. Agree, Jack? Jack Lost it, haha! I think I will knock it off, though. Did I mention that Matthew Fox is not a mediocre actor? He is THE mediocre actor. At best. And I do consider him that because I am an immensely nice person. All in all, Below was a very pleasant and weighty surprise when it made its debut back in 2002, and it seems safe to say that neither its story nor its impressive execution lost anything of the inherent strength and sinister charm it firmly, timelessly offers and possesses.



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Vantage Point

Ingame Cinematics Motion Picture Entertainment!

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Vantage Point is the worst output I have seen with easily the biggest ambitions to conceal it's improbable clumsiness with. Pete Travis's amazingly hideous movie follows Barry Levy's perplexedly shallow videogame-cinematic short, YET! There is a: CATCH! You will have the exquisite chance to see this particular videogame-sequence from eight different angles, offered through the respective perspectives - sorry about this - of eight comic book figures. Sounds interesting? Yeees? Girls and boys, I feel for you intensely. Sadly I have to recommend never mind if it does, as there is a slight requirement a minor story, even an ingame cinematic should live up to. Nothing THAT major, really - yet a short story of any kind whatsoever at least supposed to aspire for a certain degree of inventiveness, let alone freshness, Your Angry God Forbid, originality, wouldn't you agree?

Vantage Point though chooses to rely on an entirely different formula. The effort gives you a pile of You Thought That Quite Correctly My Friend and gives you a rather massive variant of it. Now, what do we have if we got to see a Huge Pile of Do We Think Of The Same Thing Here from EIGHT! different angles? Trust me, the results are staggeringly impotent, even worse/better: - take your pick - the movie features Lost Star Matthew Fox, whom I do NOT consider a mediocre actor. I consider Matthew Fox to be THE mediocre actor, and I do so because I am an immensely nice person in case you ever wondered. I am a fan of Lost by the way, yet this has absolutely nothing to do with how mediocre of an actor I consider Matthew Fox to be, which I - on rigorous, scientific bases, mind you - do. I invite you for a pleasant laugh herein about this recent insult Vantage Point that would look almost-acceptable as an in-game cinematic for a tactical FPS shooter, - because you can usually skip those sequences thank you come again - but... a cinema experience?? Oh, duuude!

Even worse: great actors Sigourney Weaver and Holt McCallany have been sadly tricked to take part in this amazingly surficial output. How superior McCallany to Matthew Fox as an actor is, one might ask. This much, I think:

Holt McCallany > Matthew Fox

Still, Matthew Fox goes away with the key role, I think he might actually believe that he has Talent! In sober reality though, he seems to have no Talent neither awareness recognizing that taking a focal role in a garbage such as Vantage Point is a fatal mistake that probably - and, frankly: hopefully! - will solidify him as the archetype of the B-performer that he: IS. A B-performer, which he is slightly defendable as, but do not overrate Matthew Fox, please: granted you are persistent enough, then I am pretty sure you can find a B-actor with the talents and abilities of Matthew Fox behind every single bush you encounter. His role in Lost solidified him as a notable B-molester of television screen, that's all, even earned him some extra chances to shine - chances he usually wastes though to deliver hilarious, unintentional results of humorous awkwardness. When Matthex Fox gives you his emotionally-hurt-figure: that is surely B-terror Par Excellence, and let me tell you this: Matthew Fox usually gives you this emotionally hurt character to gain some attention, as he is masterfully sucky at giving anything else.

What I mean is this: I'd have no problem laughing my ass off when confronting the Angry Matthew Fox, but, OH!, the Deeply Hurt Matthew Fox seems to be in such a desperate need of a helping hand and an understanding pair of eyes that you truly have no conscience to laugh at him. At least not loudly. Bah! A terrible actor, to be honest. On pair with Bill Pullman, other worst I had chance to see to this day.

So, actually it is quite fruity that he took a focal role in this here hideous movie Vantage Point. Let's make evident that he is a bad actor, at best: THE mediocre actor. Revealing a face in this movie is dicey business, great actors have exhibited this suspicion quite soberly, therefore they seem eager to abruptly vanish from the flick as soon as possible. While Holt McCallany has but a little cameo to render his presence almost unnoticeable, Sigourney Weaver needs a massive ten minutes to escape from the canvas. Poor, good lady! Now I am TRULY not sure which Planet I do post it to.

A brief question to start this out: how many movies/videogames/comics have you seen or read with this particular premise to them:

Focal representatives of different nations are preparing to take part on a summit which is organized to declare a mutual rejection of terror, and to form beneficiary compromises with each other. Little if any they do know that the Emperor's Battlefleet ha... I mean that there are terrorists present in the vicinity, and they have plans to unleash an ambush on the event!!

Bah. There are countless narrative inputs present already to rely on this exact same textbook concept, latest I have seen it was in the videogame Ghost Reckon Advanced Warfighter II, though the creators were embarrassed enough to rely on such a trite direction that they presented but one level with this narrative support. Barry Levy finds it refreshing and superintegral though, so he does HELLUVA' nice job destructing it by:

Za Mad Skillz, Brada'!

The concept is this: summit starts, everyone is happy. The President of the United States then gets FILMED! and even SHOT!, never do think that fictional terror has no space to compromise consensus further on, though! A bomb explodes and people and stuff go like: vhoaaaaaaaaaa!

From that point on the main attraction of Vantage Point is about to unleashed on you, presenting the 15 or so minutes prior the ambush from eight points of views. A highly violated buildup, and here is why: as you will see the story has the not particularly convincing dose of the definite 0 invention factor and the complete absence of desire to commit such deeds in it, therefore it attempts to substitute this massive deficit via showing around it's weakness proudly from eight different perspectives. The focal problem is that no character of the movie has any chance whatsoever to develop, badly drawn comic figures you see to present trite vibes about a series of events hastily, lazily realized and executed.

Almost the entire film plays out in two hotel rooms and an arena which the summit takes place in, but you got to see real masses and OH! so likeable characters! There are two scenes included to account a friendly, big black guy with camera and a cute little Latina girl with corresponding mother, these happy trio approached by a similarly friendly Arabian man to share a moment of mutual joy and happiness, all this documented by a cheerful Japanese dude on the broadcast team. Well, I AM truly at the verge of sighing up helplessly filled of tender emotions of supersweet qualities - yet I have to voice my immense un-satisfaction as a person in wheelchair certainly should have been included to call it a politically correct scene!



Just Another Day ON The Office.

Now where was we? Ah yes, the bomb just exploded. I'd give this kidney back, have my own ones, thank you very much. Bomb exploded, and with it: the concept of the entire flick flew away, Good Bye, Blue Sky. A nice point of intersection between the individual scenes to present the different points of views is their shared incapacity to keep you particularly interested, mainly due to the hinted shallowness of the characters, let alone the actual happenings they take part in. Let me offer you some glimpses of the attractions Vantage Point has in store for you:

Car chases!

Shootouts!

The President's exchange to a simulacrum!

I'd have a nice sum to bet if I'd have a nice sum to bet that you never heard of such things and occurrences in a movie, right? I can't help but assume that writer Barry Levy did not indeed, as he presents "his idea" of President exchange as Top Level Science-Fiction Excellence, not to mention how he kills "his own concept" later in the buildup, when the President's closest men do engage into a hilariously nonsenical discussion about how the totally integral, Real President of The United States should NOT give instructions regarding ANY matter now that his simulacrum is lying dead. God, what degree of storytelling idiocrity. If these are the men closest to the President, imagine the furthest ones to work directly to him. I mean, in Barry Levy's world.



- Pictures I take say: "Please Remove the Lid!"
- GADGETS these days!

Vantage Point reaches a - notice the skillful repetiton flaw - point which from on it absolutely needs to present a blatant surprise, this particular surprise that the film does deliver indeed has immense of a chance to catch you off-guard granted you never have been subjected to the sensation of lifting a bottle up which you thought will be full just to be revealed as empty - causing you to almost throw the object up. Well, Vantage Point offers you a surprise representing the similar weight class the aforementioned sensation reigns in, at least Levy is happy with it, I hope.

The output marks the starting point of a potential, rather unfortunate tendency of making movies based on videogame-custcene narrative concepts and "appeals", a true achievement of failing miserably at presenting action or conspiracy decency. I find this effort to lack any kind of appeal and seriousness whatsoever. I realize I might be sound like a lower portion singing a one note song of rage here, but I assure you that this is not the intention, hopefully not even the case: I was OK with the recent Die Hard movie - minus idiotic sidekick, megaminus for lack of trash talk - or even got away sort of OK with immensely action-oriented sci-fi commercial-feasts like The Island. But Vantage Point is entirely different. This is a totally impotent output which had the financial tools to conceal itself as a decently done work of stable action/conspiracy mechanics. At the end of the day though, it delivers nothing at all, yet takes and aggressively propagates liberty to communicate nothing in a senselessly loud manner. Surely, Vantage Point attempts to depict Tragedy. But it does WAY better than that. It delivers JUST that.

And now I will plagiarize masterful UFC Ring Announcer, the Veteran Voice of the Octagon, Bruce Buffer.

Khm.

Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Moment You Have All Been Waiting For Has Now Became a Reality!

The Opinion Onion Gives You:

Za! Matthew! Fox! Thing!



Looksie! Matthew Fox is in some Slightly Serious Acting here! (on the Right, btw)



Looksie! Matthew Fox is in some Highly Serious Acting here! (on the Left, btw)

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UFC 83 Serra VS St. Pierre 2

Introduction

Mixed martial arts clearly became a significant form of both mass entertainment and - as Bruce Lee put it - an expression of the human body, the latter being, no doubt, the original field of operation of these ancient traditions, now living and breathing through competitive events around the world. Though many may consider men who enter the proving grounds little more than hired human pitbulls to rip each other apart for hard cash and radical amusement, I tend to utterly reject this rudimentary view, concluding that professional level mma is the combat of highly disciplined human spirits, opposing each other for the duration of the bout, probably ending up as unified in the process as we could conceive, simply through their magnificent shared experience of being in a cage where the damage one suffers is the wit one failed to exhibit. That is how, in my opinion, the mma fighter fights against herself/himself.

Japanese people compete to gain an insight of their own current abilities through the collision process of their skills with that of other's. To me, the ultimately glorious moments of mixed martial arts are not of those of KOs and submissions. They are of those of hugging the formal rival at the end of the bout, circulating the most honest, uncompromised, pure respect each fighter deserves simply by stating themselves on the proving grounds, regardless of the results. The ensuing peace between fighters after a good collision is such a palpable, legit sensation that it never got old so far - and won't ever will.

This here is a review of the UFC event UFC 83 Serra vs St. Pierre 2, time to punch that Read more button, baby!

Introductory thoughts about the more significant lineups

I assume it will shock you considerably that the focal point of this night concerns reigning UFC Welterweight Champion Matt "The Terror" Serra and Georges "Rush" St. Pierre, the latter being not only a native of Canada where this event takes place for the very first time in the history of the organization, but also many - including illustrious UFC Referee Big John McCarthy and those who do but do not admit - consider GSP the textbook ideal of modern day mixed martial arts warrior.

The two had some decent trash talk going on between them prior this night when they are to face off again, feeding off of their mutual history which they developed in form of quality mma entertainment back from the days when a welterweight trio of Hughes, Serra and St. Pierre seemed to have the potential to characterize the division.

Serra had his tremendous moments and unfortunate downs in the UFC, coming back to the elite in the Ultimate Fighter Reality TV Show where he exhibited a charismatic personality and a widening array of mma tools. He earned himself the chance of going for the belt which have been held by GSP at the time, coming to this bout - as many claimed - with ridiculously shallow chances to go away with a belt and a W. Serra loves to be underestimated, he prefers to be an underdog, though: his biggest success so far was evidently the upset he delivered by that particular night, beating GSP in UFC 69 Shootout prior you would have had the chance to confirm it is popcorn you try to confuse with your jaws hitting the floor, stopping the precious feed in consensus mid-air.

These two great warriors behaved as gentlemen after the match - for a while, at least. From a certain point on GSP offered - in my opinion - not particularly offensive comments about how he was not 100% at the match, yet Serra regarded these statements as cheap excuses, nevertheless - so the rematch between the two seemed to be more and more imminent as in the period to follow up their first collision GSP casually crushed Matt Hughes for a second time and all other opposition whom have been put in the ensuing way between him and the belt.

GSP is as athletic of an mma fighter as you have ever witnessed, has truly immense skills on the ground, controlling and defeating such talented fighters in this form of combat as Josh Koscheck let alone Matt Hughes whom GSP submitted in a quite dominating fashion, while standing up with this contender is similarly a risky business to do as he seems quite comfortable on his feet as well. They don't call you modern day mma fighter ideal for nothing. He got caught hastily in his loss against Serra so GSP is now aware that The Terror can be a potential threat in the stand up. This latter notion originating from Serra gains a supportive comment to build extra anticipation factor as Matt assures us that he is more than ready to wage war on feet with GSP or be taken down, as he has stuff in his ground arsenal he is dying to show.

Serra is among the best of Jiu-Jitsu practitioners and has not much if anything against coming forward, yet his considerable reach disadvantage against St. Pierre has not been exploited by the French Canadian so far. Let us see if it remains a tradition or will GSP introduce a first stepping stone to start marking a way leading for an entirely different one.

Nate Quarry vs Kalib Starnes

Ultimate Fighter 1 veteran Nate Quarry is coming back to the fray from a back surgery and the corresponding pause period in his mma career, facing off Kalib Starnes, a fervent fighter of quite promising qualities himself. Strangely 'nuff, Starnes is unable to dictate the pace and fruity tenaciousness he is recognized of, as Quarry's vicious leg kicks seem to claim a rigorous toll on the opponent's composure while the relentless stand up attacks Nate unleashes on Kalib causes a rather interesting phenomena one could regard as MMA 10 Meters Dash. The match pretty much plays out with Kalib effectively running away from Nate's attacks, offering some unconvincing counter resistance which is easily avoided and even punished by the veteran.
The match therefore has it's immense, though, in my opinion absolutely uncalled for "BOO!" periods delivered by the Canadian audience, whom, in the end, do exhibit truly great mass personality as we will see into this aspect later on.

As hinted, this collision truly boils down to the current inability of Starnes to offer noticeable answers or punishment for his opponent, even a hilarious, absolutely memorable moment occurs when Quarry grows completely fed up with Starnes's relentless, even highly skillful runaways. Quarry takes the positional stance of a professional dasher, miming the wide movements utilized by top level runners in an absolutely humorous fashion, surely mocking all dignity out of his opponent momentarily. Starnes gives the finger and the consecutive run-away period, while the match comes to a conclusion with Quarry demonstrating an Amazing Special Move! in loop format, one that is guaranteed that no one ever saw before.

Quarry of course goes away with a tremendously high point-based victory, as noted by commentator Mark Goldberg: probably the most immense point difference ever to occur in the UFC so far. Some aftermath does occur yet, namely neither the corner of Starnes nor Starnes himself is pleased with Quarry's clearly humorous behavior, yet I can surely understand that they feel as Quarry would stomp on the dignity of Kalib. Well, what one can say beyond what Quarry does in the interview: it is quite hard to deal with when you came here for a fight, and you can't connect because the opposition makes a sport of running meters away from you.

Kalib does some trash talk on live feed just to earn himself consensus disrespect of the crowd he himself, as Canadian is representative of, and: all of a sudden Quarry is in favor, while Kalib has to face evident dislike concerning his behavior. The veteran proves to be a quite sober and charismatic personality at the post fight octagon interview, stating how absolutely everyone have BOO-d him here and how grateful he is for the crowd that they awarded him the credit even against a native when they witnessed their mutual performance, one in which Quarry fought in a quite integral manner, delivering a neat extra via voicing the highly rare channels
of potential, and, quite frankly: in my opinion absolutely proper octagon humor. Quarry even offers a nice thought about the process he was winning over the crowd by. He states this, simply: If I can change, and You can change, then Everyone can change.

Travis Lutter vs Rich Franklin

Rich "Ace" Franklin held the middleweight belt for a period of more than a year - it is NOT like he was holding it above his head all the while, mind you - he was Champion, you see - when Anderson "The Spider" Silva came and crushed The Ace's nose from his now-legendary Muay Thai Clinch. Almost the exact same event happened the next time they faced off to deliver a rematch opportunity for Franklin so belt-reclaim could have been committed, yet The Spider defended his belt in a way very reminiscent to the results of the occasion they first collided by led to.

Franklin is a very mature fighter, a true professional from whom I never ever heard a bad word neither about Silva or how he was drugged and, in fact: been blindfolded with an invisible bandana when faced off with The Spider on both occasions. Instead, Franklin handles his losses in an absolutely professional way, now facing off Travis Lutter, who himself had the chance to confront Silva before, too. And HE lost, too. Even worse: he failed to weight in according to the demands of the weight class on a Championship Bout he would have earned himself back in UFC 67: All or Nothing. Thus it was a match without stakes beyond win or loss. Travis had his moment, nevertheless: he mounted Silva at a certain point and delivered some bombs, yet The Spider's chin seemed to be made of granite, as it looked like Lutter might as well just continue pounding him, Silva truly never could care less. He escaped, caught Travis in a funky quasy-triangle leglock and elbowed out a victory.

Now it is a question who should face Anderson next, as he defeated all whom he confronted in a quite convincing manner. Travis Lutter though tells us this: he might lose again, but he will never, ever lose again against Silva. Well, that might very well be the case indeed as there are no guarantees as of the day of UFC 83 that he will have yet another chance either to lose, or to win against The Spider at the firs place. Nevertheless, Lutter clearly voices his intention and desire to face the Middleweight Champion again. If intentions are this clear, though: then he should have no problem to destruct Rich Franklin's butt, yes?

Reconsider, OH! UFC fans. Rich Franklin looks amazing in the fight, even better: exhibits very sympathetic octagon behavior, keeping himself from annihilating Lutter with sheer aggression and raw power - traits he could easily rely on, seeing how this match turned out as in the second round. Lutter has one particular moment earlier in the match, a very nice armbar that does seem inescapeable, yet Franklin rolls out of it and dominates the octagon by integral skills and sobriety from that point on. A precise knee and consecutive kick connects on Travis's head whom noted, current weakness of lack of conditioning kicks in just for a third aspect to strike him.

While Franklin fights on as fresh and sober as he was in the first round, Lutter is easily in a Championship Bout, threading the last minute of the Fifth period. Immense phase delay here between the fighters regarding conditioning. Completely gassed and having no power left to offer integral defense let alone opposition, this time Rich takes Travis apart in calm, evenly paced attacks that eventually prove both too hard and too futile to take further on - a Referee stoppage earns Franklin the victory, letting us wonder what is next to The Ace who have just proven that there are falls that can be taken, and falls that can make one shine even more noticeably if one uses ones demons as tools opposed submitting to them as nutrition.

Matt Serra vs Georges St. Pierre

According to Serra, there is ONE thing better than to shock the world: to shock it twice. I apologize for spoiling this account of the event in this here second sentence of it but let me tell you this: Serra lost this match by the moment he approached the octagon. Serra is not a fighter, first and foremost. Instead, Serra is an excellent actor, first of all. AND and excellent fighter, as well. But he can not hide tension once it builds up in him to peek levels, and you can see it in the look in his eyes that he has an immense amount of it, controlling it with iron determination - yet the tension is there, no matter how good he controls it. Tension ideally should not be there, as such immense amount of it consumes more of it's possessor than it does consume opposition. Easy to say, I assume, once you approach the octagon to compete against the Arena Favorit, especially when he goes by the name of Georges St. Pierre.

It seems that Serra stumbles, though it is barely noticeable, when he approaches the proving ground. In the consecutive moment he secretly takes a glimpse if anyone noticed that among the 21.000 thousand people watching PLUS the casual millions witnessing the event on TV. No, I don't think Serra believed he will be victorious here. Not after he showed up before the audience. As implied, my personal impression is that The Terror was immensely suspenseful, an inner composure he tries to hide masterfully, but ironically: this masterful concealment is the sheer hint to give him away.

You need an element though to defeat a tense Serra: you need an elite fighter who performs masterfully. And there is nothing less than these what and how GSP delivers this night. Folks, I think it is safe to say that Serra had not one, not ONE particular moment he could shine in by the night. This was GSP's game right from the very start, and remained so to the point where he banged out the victory over The Terror with vicious knees to the ribs. The match boiled down to St. Pierres's masterfully executed gameplan of disorienting Serra with swift changes between brief stand up periods, takedowns, and ground and pound sequences, aspects St. Pierre is equally superb at. What is to remain then? A good question. Now this St. Pierre is the same St. Pierre that crushed Matt Hughes, disposing quickly and convincingly from Serra, too. Let me emphasize this: I am a fan of both dudes, - meaning Serra and GSP, have not much against Hughes but I do think he needs a smaller head - yet I think now it is safe to conclude that St. Pierre's athleticism is supported by a rare degree of versatility composed of pretty much immaculate elements. Even better: this particular "pretty much" is subject to evolving even more I guess as GSP trains on with his rigorous regime intact. Also never forget how young this man is. 26 years by the day he reclaims his title.

Now a sequence to account The Terror. I absolutely remain a fan of him, and can't wait to see what others have said about him, in fact, I will do that once I wrap this up and finish off my coffee with the ruthless efficiency I tend to approach coffee with. In my opinion, it would be immensely false to regard Serra or Hughes as not that great fighters: they are absolutely elite fighters, evidently at the top of this game, it is more like that GSP stands out with his cited, almost superhero-like cartoon-athleticism, supported by the ever-increasing degree of maturity and versatility he exhibits and commands as a warrior.

I do have suspicions though concerning future events: in UFC 85 Bedlam, Matt Hughes will face off Thiago Alves. Now events tell us clearly that Hughes has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, as GSP crushed Serra in a similar fashion he crushed the UFC Hall of Famer before. A match should have been happened already between Hughes and Serra, but The Terror had to withdraw due to a back injury. This was the event GSP jumped in to substitute Serra back in UFC 79 Nemesis. Now it seems safe to conclude that Hughes vs Serra should be realized, even safer to state that it WILL be.

As for this Championship Match wherein GSP rises to reclaim the belt from Serra: complete domination in which the French Canadian never offered, more precisely: denied chances for and from The Terror to make any notable statement or move whatsoever. Credit for all two fighters, can't wait to see who GSP will face with next, not to mention my curiosity of how Serra will handle the defeat and what kind of a fighter he comes back as.

Mark Bocek vs Mac Danzig

Winner of the Ultimate Fighter 6 Reality TV Show Mac Danzig is a seasoned veteran of the sport who exhibits a sober, calm behavior both in the octagon and as a personality. This attitude is subject to change without notice - OR in fact, with QUIE some notices - when in competition. I am yet to see Danzig in a situation where he would look clueless or desperate, a quite mature yet quite young veteran we do talk about who now faces Canadian native Mark Bocek, an immensely talented takedown artist who plans to claim a victory over a now-noted face of the UFC.

Bocek looked good with his relentless takedowns, many of which he could utilize decent foams of downward attacks from, yet hurting Danzig proves to be a task not easily achievable even when Mac occupies the lower position. But mild, bothered frustration is implied by Danzig's facial expressions of how he would prefer to wrap this up on feet, one could not say he would have been in desperation for any of the down-periods. Demonstrating tremendous defense skills and relentless counter maneuvers he manages to offer decent ground opposition, connecting though with a blatant knee on the jaw in the second round. Yet another one of those opens Bocek up on the brow, eventually leading to a doctor check and a consecutive choke-out from Danzig - affecting of course Bocek, not the good doctor in question.

Michael Bisping vs Charles McCarthy

The British favorite Michael Bisping transitioned down a weight class and now looks for yet another rampant run, following a - naturally - highly successful winning streak that have been compromised by Rashad Evans in UFC 78 Validation, though many - me = included - do think that Bisping's latest victory against Matt Hamill was an arguable decision. Bisping already faced and took the not particularly warm mass input for this though, and now looks quite good in the weight class which he states is the most natural for him.

Charles McCarthy is not impressed by Bisping, the Ultimate Fighter contestant with the Hardcore Mood Swings in his specials-arsenal does state that he considers Bisping to be the worst of the most hyped warriors. The collision between them boiled down in relative haste: McCarthy performed in a quite mediocre manner, delivering one truly impressive moment to claim a brief period of brilliance in the octagon: a quite exquisite, multi-stories takedown he punishes Bisping with, solidifying an armbar in the consecutive period. A tight one it is, as well, and you do not want to underestimate McCarthy's submission tool set and test your suspicion in the next moment, as this here warrior have all his wons via submissions. Bisping has an evident hard time releasing his arm, yet he manages to do so.

A mildly, but evidently frustrated McCarthy then offers glimpses of below-average psychological warfare, making immensely silly faces at Bisping whenever the British Bulldog - I do know about the WWE cross-reference, please ask me in comments if I do care - connects. And let me tell you this: Michael "The Count" Bisping does connect on numerous occasions, even to the point when McCarthy is forced to defend his head from a thunder of knees with his lower arms. No point letting these rampant attacks to flow on, a stoppage puts an end to the contest. Intense period that asks us the question how one could escape from such situation, also a conclusion to a match that had evident character but also had considerable skill set differences in the stand up game it is, as my personal impression is that McCarthy made the silly faces to substitute the tools he currently was lacking against the Count. In the end, they fortunately chose to consider personal differences to be settled, giving mutual hugs and good wishes. Tender is the world of mma.

Of the remaining bouts I had not bear much interest, therefore I wrap this up, having the definite focal points of the night accounted on. Hope you had a fine evening and found the review useful - thank you for reading it, and see you next time.

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