Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization’s name.

IMDb [7.7/10]

Rottentomatoes [93%, 97%]

The Mission Impossible series is a bit of a quirky one. The first one [61%, 53%] was okay, more of a thriller, mystery movie than anything. The second movie [57%, 63%] came along and was worse than the first [in my mind], with new director John Woo tried to take it into much more of an action theme. A new crew took on the third film [70%, 63%], including J.J. Abrams directing, and it became the most successful in the series. Now, with most of the same crew on-board, the fourth film has received far and beyond the best critical ratings, and Tom Cruise, the only person who has been involved in every movie, has brought his name back into the spotlight after a less than stellar/productive past few years.

Special Edition: MLG Columbus

Everyone has a favorite thing to do when they get some time to spare for entertainment. Sports, reading, watching television, things of that nature. What if I told you that you could spend an entire weekend among other fans just as yourself along with most every big name person that is responsible for popularizing your hobby and entertainment? Famous athletes, famous authors, television stars, people of that nature. Walking around, watching them do what they do best, being able to talk and interact with them freely. Sounds like a hard to dream to come by, right? Well, not for me.

I play Starcraft.

And this past weekend, in Columbus, my dream came true.

The Killing [TV series]

Follows the police investigation of the murder of a young girl, tying together three interlocking stories as investigators chase a variety of leads.

AMC website

IMDb

AMC is the best television channel on the air right now. There, I said it. I’m a big fan of television dramas, and this is the home base of high quality dramatic shows. AMC is the home for Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Killing, The Walking Dead, and others. That is a monster line-up. And with their scheduling of only one or two shows running at once, there is always a high quality show to watch. Also, all of their shows are on Netflix. All of Mad Men, the first season of The Walking Dead, The Killing, and Breaking Bad is usually on there. I don’t know who runs this channel, but if I could hug a random person on Earth, it would probably be them.

The Killing is a murder mystery show. I know what you’re thinking: “there are dozens of these on the air right now, why is this one any different?” Well, the main reason is that the entire first season is based on one crime, one murder. Most of your murder mysteries do a central theme, but then they have a new crime to solve every episode. You get some character development and some depth and details in the crime cases, but that method is very limited in allowing the viewer to connect with all of the characters and invest emotionally in the show, something that a good drama should be able to do. The Killing’s episodes each take up roughly 24 hours each of the ongoing investigation of the murder, so we are really allowed to learn much about all of the people involved. And with this much time to spare, the show is able to add a lot more branches to the main plot, making the mystery deeper and our curiosity more intense.

The show stars Mireille Enos as Sarah Linden, the lead detective of the Seattle police department. She is set to quit and move to California with her soon to be husband Rick Felder and son, but in the last hours of her last shift, a body is found, and a murder investigation is opened. Working alongside Sarah is Stephen Holder, played by Joel Kinnaman, the new detective in to fill Sarah’s vacancy.

Also unlike other crime mystery series, this show’s production fits in line with it’s slower pace. The lighting is dark, meeting the usually gloomy, rainy conditions of Seattle. The music is slower, drawn out, and heavy. Most everything in this show is dark, drawn out, and heavy. There is a very serious tone, never any comedy or much action. It’s a little depressing, especially with the family of the slain girl being a main part of the story, their suffering well documented.

The acting, the production, the direction and the story are all really well done, and this is the only time I’ve invested time and interest into a murder mystery show.

Season one is available to stream on Netflix, and season two will air with a two hour premiere on April 1 of this year.

Take Shelter

Plagued by a series of apocalyptic visions, a young husband and father questions whether to shelter his family from a coming storm, or from himself.

IMDb [7.7/10]

RottenTomatoes [92%, 93%]

Every year there is a movie that has big critical and festival success, but for some reason gets no recognition from the Academy Awards. This year, I believe Take Shelter takes the award for “Biggest Snub”. You can take a look at this link to see all of the film’s 27 wins and 18 nominations from the year’s collective festivals and award ceremonies.

The Grey

After their plane crashes in Alaska, seven oil workers are led by a skilled huntsman to survival, but a pack of merciless wolves haunts their every step.

IMDb

RottenTomatoes

Writer/director Joe Carnahan [A-Team, Smokin’ Aces] brings us another installment of Liam Neeson‘s being a badass that takes shit from nobody movies. In this particular Jack London styled film, Neeson [Schindler’s List, Taken] plays Ottway, a very skilled hunter who is accompanying some oil workers to a job in Alaska. Unfortunately, their plane doesn’t make it, as it crashes trying to get though a winter storm. Since Neeson doesn’t take shit from anybody, including physics, he winds up unharmed as has to try to lead the other survivors to safety.