Yowazzup: A Directory of Happening Things

Edge of Darkness is a thriller starring Mel Gibson who plays a homicide detective Thomas Craven. As he investigates the death of his activist daughter, he uncovers not only her secret life, but a corporate cover-up and government collusion that attracts an agent tasked with cleaning up the evidence. Starring Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Edge of Darkness opens on January 29, 2010.

Popularity: 1%

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the fourth film of the series and is directed by Steven Spielberg and co-written by executive producer George Lucas. Harrison Ford stars as the older but wiser Dr. Henry Jones Jr. a.k.a. Indiana Jones.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), “Mutt” Williams (Shia LaBouef) and Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The movie opens with a group of teenagers joyrides through the Nevada desert in a vintage car, listening to deafening rock music from the radio. It is obviously the 1950’s. Indiana Jones and his friend George “Mac” McHale (Ray Winstone) have been kidnapped by the Russian military led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) and are brought to Area 51. Spalko wants Jones to locate a mysterious object in the warehouse and when they have found the box and unearthed it, it seems to be something from another world. Before long, Indy escapes after realizing his friend “Mac” works for the communists.

After surviving a nuclear test by hiding in a refrigerator, Indy’s back to the classroom teaching. While in the train, he is pursued by a young man called Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf) who looks like James Dean with slicked hair, motorcycle and a pocket knife. Mutt tells Indy that an old colleague, Professor Oxley (John Hurt) is going to be killed and gives him letters from Oxley. This leads them to find a crystal skull in Peru without knowing “Mac” and Spalko are following them relentlessly.

Indy and Mutt manage to find and rescue Oxley and Mario Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy’s love interest from Raiders of the Lost Ark who happens to be Mutt’s mom. Together, they make a daring escape not once but twice, the second time succeed after a rough topsy-turvy battle through the jungles. Along the way, Mutt displays some superb skill of swordplay and even he even swings like the monkeys and ends up in the jeep with Indy. When Indy encounters “Mac”, “Mac” tells Indy that he works for the CIA and Indy believes him as easy as a pie. Everyone runs helter-skelter after they all landed on the colony of gigantic siafu ants. Miraculously, the ants avoid crystal skull, so Indy and Colonel Dovchenko (Igor Jijikine) are able to battle it out hand-to-hand combat on the ant’s colony.

After escaping from the Russians, Indy and the gang (including “Mac”) ends up in the water when Ravenwood makes an unbelievable attempt at driving through the cliff only to land on a tree besides the cliff which safely brings Indy and the gang down to the ground. After falling through three waterfalls, everyone survive without barely a scratch (we are not talking about the normal waterfalls, these waterfalls are almost like the size of Victoria Falls). Through the final waterfall, they have discovered the entrance without knowing “Mac” has secretly dropped a tracking device for Spalko to track their location.

The Indiana Jones movies are always exhilarating and bring never-ending excitement and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is no different. Though there are flaws in the movie like none of core characters got injured, jumping jeep from the cliff and landed safely, falling and surviving waterfalls, surviving nuclear bomb in a refrigerator, we all know Indiana Jones is an action hero and Harrison Ford does it right again. Shia LeBeouf has apparently grown up from the Transformers movie into a rougher young adult while Cate Blanchett plays her role well as a Russian communist, in fact, she even speaks flawlessly in Russian accent. Besides the usual heart-pounding excitement, the movie is somewhat lightheartedly funny. Like it or hate it, the movie is put together perfectly by the brilliant Spielberg and Lucas and are played well, every bit of it.

My ratings: 9 out of 10.

Popularity: 2%

Beowulf (pronounced as Bear-wolf, /?be??w?lf/), being the oldest epic tale in the English language, is brought to live by Robert Zemeckis by employing the most modern technology. If you are planning to watch Beowulf, it is the best to experience it in IMAX 3D and Digital 3D theaters with Dolby Digital 3D.

The cast members of Beowulf were filmed on a motion capture stage and were later on altered on screen using computer-generated imagery, but their animated counterparts bear much resemblance to themselves.

SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.

With exceptional visual and sound effects, Beowulf, the movie primarily focuses on Beowulf (Ray Winstone) fighting scenes with Grendell (Crispin Hellion Glover) and later on, with a dragon. Other than that, you should just sit back and relax while enjoying the movie in awe.

The movie begins with King Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins) merrily celebrating his win in a war with his men in a Danish mead hall called Heorot. Their drinking and singing has strongly annoyed Grendel who lives in a cavern. Without any warning, Grendel has launched an attack, killing most men in Heorot except a few – Hrothgar, Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn) and Unferth (John Malkovich).

Receiving the news about the monster, Grendel, Beowulf and his Geat men who hail from Geatland (Sweden) has striven through dangerous seas to reach Denmark in order to help Hrothgar to kill the monster. When Beowulf arrives, most of Hrothgar’s people do not believe his words – "I am here to kill your monster" (sound hilarious). Unferth, Hrothgar’s faithful servant does not believe Beowulf’s words, in fact, he even insults Beowulf with the stories he has heard of. Only King Hrothgar knows of Beowulf’s real strength and boldness. He knows Beowulf come to the rescue because Hrothgar has once saved Beowulf’s father.

Beowulf has unmatched strength

Beowulf and his men waste no time as they prepare for the arrival of Grendel in the mead hall, Heorot. Beowulf, amusingly but obscenely takes off his armor and feigns sleep while awaiting Grendel, saying that Grendel is also weaponless and does not wear any armor. So, Beowulf’s Geat men sings and continue to sing until Grendel comes knocking. However, unlike the previous attack, Grendel does not know what’s awaiting him. The Geat men has locked the door with a colossal piece of wood, so when Grendel knocks open the door, he hurts his hand in the process. Beowulf’s men even mock Grendel when he has had a hard time opening the door, let alone, fight them. The fight between Beowulf and Grendel is short. Though Beowulf has a few men killed in the process, he has no problem in his slaughter of Grendel. Grendel’s size shrinks to human size and even has his arm pulled out from his body by Beowulf. With an arm left, Grendel escapes back to where he comes from.

When everyone thinks Beowulf has killed Grendel, they again prepare to celebrate, thinking that he has lifted the curse.

Meanwhile, Grendel dies in the cave as his entire body shrinks even further. This angers Grendel’s mother (Old English: Grendles modor, portrayed by Angeline Jolie) who discreetly visits Heorot and kills Beowulf’s remaining men except Wiglaf who was preparing the ship on the previous night.

Beowulf wakes up to see all his men dead (except Wiglaf), hanging on the ceiling of Heorot, he wastes no time in questioning Hrothgar. Hrothgar, in return tells Beowulf that it was not Grendel who has attacked again but it was his mother. This creates an amusing scene with Beowulf asking whether he needs to kill Grendel’s father, mother and cousins, and maybe the entire family!

Beowulf’s encounter with Grendel’s mother

Beowulf and Wiglaf then goes to the cave where Grendel comes from to encounter Grendel’s mother. Beowulf enters the cave alone to face Grendel’s mother while Wiglaf has decided to wait outside. Beowulf boldly yells for the appearance of Grendel’s mother but to his disbelieve, a beautiful woman comes out of the water. Instead of killing Grendel’s mother, Beowulf is charmed by the seductive demon who promises him wealth and kingdom if he helps her to bear a child.

Beowulf goes back to the town with Grendel’s head while claiming he has slaughtered Grendel’s mother as well. Hrothgar, who has created Grendel, knows what exactly has happened and announced Beowulf as his successor before he jumps to death from a very high tower.

Many years has passed since Beowulf has become the new king and nothing has happened all these years until one day, where an old treasure which is given to Grendel’s mother got stolen by Cain. This rudely awakens Grendel’s mother and the dragon, which is believed to be Beowulf’s own son. The dragon’s attack is almost unstoppable – even though Beowulf has managed to kill the dragon in the end with his bare hand and losing an arm for it, he eventually dies after falling to death together with the dragon.

Beowulf’s body is later on placed on a boat together with tonnes of gold and is burnt and it sails away.

Wiglaf who takes over the throne from Beowulf as the king later on sees Grendel’s mother in the sea, partially nude but yet he becomes the latest victim in a century old tradition of deceit and destruction that has sentenced many kings and their kingdoms to misery and death.

The film deviates significantly from the original poem in many areas including the relationship between Beowulf and Wealtheow, Beowulf and Grendel’s mother, and the lengthy time span before Beowulf fights the dragon. Also, according to the original poem, Beowulf is buried in a barrow and not as how the film has mentioned.

Overall, the movie has very impressive visual and sound effects but lacks a strong screenplay.

My rating: 6 out of 10.

Popularity: 1%

Beowulf is a movie based on the world’s oldest epic poem and it’s directed by Robert Zemeckis, who’s popular for his superb CGI movie, The Polar Express.

Popularity: 1%