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Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com. Cite this page: Editor: Stephen Smith. Publication date: Jun 3, 2019. Publisher: OpenBible.info. Christian Canvas Art
Now King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre. He was a widow's son from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in bronze; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill for doing any work in bronze So he came to King Solomon and performed all his work. He fashioned the two pillars of bronze; eighteen cubits was the height of one pillar, and a line of twelve cubits measured the circumference of both.read more. Christian Canvas Art
He made two cherubim of gold; he made them of hammered work at the two ends of the mercy seat; one cherub at the one end and one cherub at the other end; he made the cherubim of one piece with the mercy seat at the two ends. The cherubim had their wings spread upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings, with their faces toward each other; the faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat. Share Your Faith Products
He also made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits and the height of the other capital was five cubits. There were nets of network and twisted threads of chainwork for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital. So he made the pillars, and two rows around on the one network to cover the capitals which were on the top of the pomegranates; and so he did for the other capital. The capitals which were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily design, four cubits. There were capitals on the two pillars, even above and close to the rounded projection which was beside the network; and the pomegranates numbered two hundred in rows around both capitals. Thus he set up the pillars at the porch of the nave; and he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz. On the top of the pillars was lily design. So the work of the pillars was finished. Christian Canvas Art
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Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. ... Christian Gifts
The house that I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him? So now send me a man skilled to work in gold, silver, bronze, and iron, and in purple, crimson, and blue fabrics, trained also in engraving, to be with the skilled workers who are with me in Judah and Jerusalem, whom David my father provided. Christian Gifts
And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth." Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" ... Christian Canvas Art
"See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you: ... Christian Gifts
He also made two capitals of molten bronze to set on the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits and the height of the other capital was five cubits. There were nets of network and twisted threads of chainwork for the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital. So he made the pillars, and two rows around on the one network to cover the capitals which were on the top of the pomegranates; and so he did for the other capital. The capitals which were on the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily design, four cubits. There were capitals on the two pillars, even above and close to the rounded projection which was beside the network; and the pomegranates numbered two hundred in rows around both capitals. Thus he set up the pillars at the porch of the nave; and he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz. On the top of the pillars was lily design. So the work of the pillars was finished. Now he made the sea of cast metal ten cubits from brim to brim, circular in form, and its height was five cubits, and thirty cubits in circumference. Under its brim gourds went around encircling it ten to a cubit, completely surrounding the sea; the gourds were in two rows, cast with the rest. It stood on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east; and the sea was set on top of them, and all their rear parts turned inward. It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was made like the brim of a cup, as a lily blossom; it could hold two thousand baths. Then he made the ten stands of bronze; the length of each stand was four cubits and its width four cubits and its height three cubits. This was the design of the stands: they had borders, even borders between the frames, and on the borders which were between the frames were lions, oxen and cherubim; and on the frames there was a pedestal above, and beneath the lions and oxen were wreaths of hanging work. Now each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles, and its four feet had supports; beneath the basin were cast supports with wreaths at each side. Its opening inside the crown at the top was a cubit, and its opening was round like the design of a pedestal, a cubit and a half; and also on its opening there were engravings, and their borders were square, not round. The four wheels were underneath the borders, and the axles of the wheels were on the stand. And the height of a wheel was a cubit and a half. The workmanship of the wheels was like the workmanship of a chariot wheel. Their axles, their rims, their spokes, and their hubs were all cast. Now there were four supports at the four corners of each stand; its supports were part of the stand itself. On the top of the stand there was a circular form half a cubit high, and on the top of the stand its stays and its borders were part of it. He engraved on the plates of its stays and on its borders, cherubim, lions and palm trees, according to the clear space on each, with wreaths all around. He made the ten stands like this: all of them had one casting, one measure and one form. He made ten basins of bronze, one basin held forty baths; each basin was four cubits, and on each of the ten stands was one basin. Then he set the stands, five on the right side of the house and five on the left side of the house; and he set the sea of cast metal on the right side of the house eastward toward the south. Now Hiram made the basins and the shovels and the bowls. So Hiram finished doing all the work which he performed for King Solomon in the house of the LORD: the two pillars and the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the two pillars, and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the top of the pillars; and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network to cover the two bowls of the capitals which were on the tops of the pillars; and the ten stands with the ten basins on the stands; and the one sea and the twelve oxen under the sea; and the pails and the shovels and the bowls; even all these utensils which Hiram made for King Solomon in the house of the LORD were of polished bronze. In the plain of the Jordan the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan. Solomon left all the utensils unweighed, because they were too many; the weight of the bronze could not be ascertained. Solomon made all the furniture which was in the house of the LORD: the golden altar and the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence; and the lampstands, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers and the lamps and the tongs, of gold; and the cups and the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons and the firepans, of pure gold; and the hinges both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, that is, of the nave, of gold. Thus all the work that King Solomon performed in the house of the LORD was finished And Solomon brought in the things dedicated by his father David, the silver and the gold and the utensils, and he put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD. Christian Gifts
My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. ... Scripture Verse Wall Art
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Christian Gifts
Early Christian art survives from dates near the origins of Christianity. The oldest Christian sculptures are from sarcophagi, dating to the beginning of the 2nd century. The largest groups of Early Christian paintings come from the tombs in the Catacombs of Rome, and show the evolution of the depiction of Jesus, a process not complete until the 6th century, since when the conventional appearance of Jesus in art has remained remarkably consistent. Christian Gifts
Solomon made all the furniture which was in the house of the LORD: the golden altar and the golden table on which was the bread of the Presence; and the lampstands, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner sanctuary, of pure gold; and the flowers and the lamps and the tongs, of gold; and the cups and the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons and the firepans, of pure gold; and the hinges both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, that is, of the nave, of gold.
"You shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, six of their names on the one stone and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, according to their birth. "As a jeweler engraves a signet, you shall engrave the two stones according to the names of the sons of Israel; you shall set them in filigree settings of gold.read more. Christian Canvas Art
Much of the art surviving from Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire is Christian art, although this in large part because the continuity of church ownership has preserved church art better than secular works. While the Western Roman Empire's political structure essentially collapsed after the fall of Rome, its religious hierarchy, what is today the modern-day Roman Catholic Church commissioned and funded production of religious art imagery. Christian Canvas Art
At Wayfair, we want to make sure you find the best home goods when you shop online. You have searched for bible verse wall art and this page displays the closest product matches we have for bible verse wall art to buy online. With millions of unique furniture, décor, and housewares options, we'll help you find the perfect solution for your style and your home. Browse through our wide selection of brands, like Trademark Fine Art and Tangletown Fine Art. If you aren't finding the perfect product in the results for your current search for bible verse wall art, you can try searching again or using the Department navigation on the top of the page.
I've always liked the lyrics of the popular hymn that state "It is well with my soul." It was only when I researched some of the background for this post that I learned some of the story behind these famously sung words. Did you know that words to this hymn were penned by Horatio Spafford after the tragic loss of ALL 5 of his children? You can read the story behind the hymn and the full lyrics here. Share Your Faith Products
For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ... Christian Canvas Art


To deploy Unified Access Gateway using PowerShell script, you must use specific versions of VMware products.
VMware vSphere ESXi host with a vCenter Server.
PowerShell script runs on Windows 8.1 or later machines or Windows Server 2008 R2 or later.
The machine can also be a vCenter Server running on Windows or a separate Windows machine.
The Windows machine running the script must have VMware OVF Tool command installed.
You must install OVF Tool 4.0.1 or later from https://www.vmware.com/support/developer/ovf/.
You must select the vSphere data store and the network to use.


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Q: How to get the projectId in pom.xml from GCLOUD_CONFIG for the endpoints-framework-maven-plugin For the Google endpoints documentation I need to provide a <hostname>${endpoints.project.id}.appspot.com</hostname> but I want that to come from the GCLOUD_CONFIG. How is this possible?
Plugin Configuration
 <plugin>
                <groupId>com.google.cloud.tools</groupId>
                <artifactId>endpoints-framework-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.0.0</version>
                <configuration>
                    <hostname>${endpoints.project.id}.appspot.com</hostname>
                    <serviceClasses>
                        com.example.pratyum.guice.AllEndpoint
                    </serviceClasses>
                </configuration>
                <executions>
                    <execution>
                        <phase>prepare-package</phase>
                        <goals>
                            <goal>discoveryDocs</goal>
                            <goal>openApiDocs</goal>
                        </goals>
                    </execution>
                </executions>
            </plugin>

A: It is currently not possible to use the GCLOUD_CONFIG setting for making the SDK fill in the service hostname.
It is not possible also to use it as the means to provide a suffix/prefix with the project ID.
The most common use cases (replacing projectId and version) have very specific behaviours. The first replaces the string with the project ID and the second generates a unique version ID.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


There are many wonderful places to camp in Ontario, but one of my favourites is Manitoulin Island. It's the world's largest fresh water island, with loads of natural beauty to spare. It is the ultimate outdoor playground for the summer, and the fall! But if you plan on exploring this island, there are some things you must know!
It's important to know the two ways to access the island. One way from central/northern Ontario, and the other, from south-western Ontario. If you're coming from the former, you'll pass through Espanola and the Wawaskina Whitefish River First Nation to arrive at the all too famous Swing Bridge that brings you to Little Current. If you're closer to the latter, you get to take the ferry from Tobermory, and you'll land in South Bay Mouth. There are a few main highways that take you throughout the island; from one point to the other. Feel free to pick one spot, or make your way through them all.
There are a numbers of small towns, lakes and campgrounds available. Know your preference, and decide where you want to stay. There are some campgrounds that are fit for tenting, some for trailers and others with cabins, yurts and four-season tents. Manitoulin Island is a very calm and quiet community so it's easy to pick the perfect spot to fit the kind of vacation (or adventure) that you're looking for and that also fits your budget. Here are just a few of the wonderful campgrounds available a little everywhere on Manitoulin.
3) So Whatcha Wanna Do?
Now that you've made it to the island, and that you've decided on one (or more) wonderful place to camp at, you now have some free time to decide what you want to do with your days. You can go boating, kayaking, fishing, paddle boarding, golfing, sight-seeing, town scoping, festival cruising, but more importantly, there are amazing trails to walk and hike. The most renowned is the Cup and Saucer trail which has a breathtaking view of the Boreal Forest, as well as side trails that allow adventurers to pick their own path.
The last of the basics is where to get your grub. There are a few grocery stores, and small grocer marts in the main towns on the Island; mainly Mindemoya, Little Current, Gore Bay, Providence Bay, Meldrum Bay, Manitowaning, South Bay Mouth, Wiikwemkoong and Silver Water. If you want to watch your budget, shop local and make your own meals. There are some really great restaurants too should you feel like treating yourself; places like the Garden Gate, the School House and Mum's Bakery are either right in town, or just a little outside of them.
Perivale Gallery, in their gardens.
So with the four golden rules to get ready for your trip to the Island, the only thing left is to set the date! The best time to visit is from May to October so don't miss your window. Feel free to spend a week (or more) or even just a weekend, as you can tell, there's lot's to do and there's nothing stopping you from going back. So take the time to explore Manitoulin Island, and wander to wonder!


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Instrument panel clocks & clocks of a similar type for vehicles/aircraft/spacecraft/vessels is a 6 digit HS07 product.
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This visualization shows products that are likely to be exported by countries that export Instrument panel clocks & clocks of a similar type for vehicles/aircraft/spacecraft/vessels.


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Four star RB Trevor Etienne commits to the University of Florida
By Brandon A. Williams
San Antonio, TX - After months of anticipation, Jennings native and four star running back Trevor Etienne announced his commitment to the University of Florida earlier this afternoon during the All American Bowl.
"First I would like to take this time to thank God, friends and family for coming to support. Without them none of this is possible," said Etienne. "Thank the coaches for believing in me and for the next three to four years of my life it will be at the University of Florida.
Many thought he would follow in the footsteps of his brother Travis and go to Clemson, but the Jennings native wanted to walk his own path. He's now headed to the swamp to join forces with former UL-Lafayette head coach Billy Napier.
"I have nothing but love for Clemson you know but I wanted to see something new, do something new for myself and Florida felt like home for me and that's where it's going to be," Etienne said.
Copyright 2022 KPLC. All rights reserved.
Will Wade's Tigers fall one spot in latest AP Top 25 ranking
McNeese baseball has big shoes to fill in 2022
McNeese basketball moves forward to rematch with Texas A&M-CC
McNeese softball aims to continue elevating the program

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Tag Archives: guns
An Amityville Poltergeist
Parris Bates is feeling blue.
(2020) Horror (Breaking Glass) Parris Bates, Rebecca Kimble, Conor Austin, Airisa Durand, Jon Ashley Hall, Natalie Lucia (voice), Calvin Morie McCarthy, Alex Onda, Jason Reynolds, Sydney Winbush. Directed by Calvin Morie McCarthy
Making a movie is no easy task. It is a collaborative effort, requiring many hands of talented technicians, imaginative creative people and of course wonderful actors. Movie sets can be a battleground where egos run rampant, or a carnival where the absurd reigns supreme. Sometimes, a movie set can be incredible fun when everything is clicking. They can also be unbridled chaos when everything is not.
Jim (Bates) is a college student who, like most college students, is in dire need of an infusion of cold, hard cash. His best friend, stoner Collin (Austin) recommends he sell his own blood plasma which neelde-phobic Jim is loathe to do, Instead, he gets a job housesitting for $500 a day, which seems a little excessive for sitting around the house. It sure beats working.
However, the elderly homeowner, Eunice (Kimble) warns Jim that she's not concerned with people breaking in to the old house. She's much more worried about what's already inside. As her son (Hall) takes her away for a brief hospitalization, one wonders if the old lady might better be served with a different kind of hospital. However, as Jim starts to hear inexplicable noises, he realizes the old lady might not be as crazy as she sounds – and as the incidents grow more frightening and more violnt, he also realizes that $500 per night was way not worth it.
I have to be honest; I'm generally a sucker for a good haunted house movie. This isn't one. For one thing, I have to admit that I was not thrilled that the movie has nothing whatsoever to do with the Amityville franchise – it's not even set there – and there isn't a poltergeist in the film (not really). Then again, if truth in advertising laws were applied to movie marketing, there'd be a lot of Hollywood executives with criminal records.
For some reason, the filmmakers filmed the movie as if it were filmed in perpetual twilight. Even the scenes set at night have a bluish tinge to them, like the only lighting came from a TV screen. The film photo above isn't from a brief moment in the film – the entire movie is lit like that. I don't know if it was a conscious decision to do that or sheer incompetence, but either way, I suspect most will get tired of the effect and tune out quickly. If the lighting doesn't get you, though, the writing will. The plot is difficult to follow with way too many flashbacks, and while I'm guessing the screenwriters (Hall, who played the son, and McCarthy, who directed, co-wrote the script) were trying to blur the line between dreams and reality, they blurred it a little too much and after awhile I wouldn't be surprised if some give up on the film long before the final credits run.
That isn't to say that the movie is entirely without merit. The makeup effects by Zach Smith are pretty good, and Parris Bates has some potential, although his character is a bit on the whiny side. But the movie feels awfully amateurish, and while horror fans tend to be a bit more forgiving about such things, they do require some big scares and there just aren't any.
I take no joy out of savaging a film like this. Generally, I wouldn't run a review for a movie I disliked as much as this one because I generally feel that making a movie requires passion and commitment and I don't doubt that the filmmakers have both of those things, and as I said, there are some redeeming features here so it isn't entirely a waste of your time, but if you're looking for a real good haunted house movie, there are just too many excellent ones out there (including The Amityville Horror and Poltergeist as well as literally dozens of fine indie budget films) to make it easy to recommend this at all.
REASONS TO SEE: Bates has a certain amount of appeal.
REASONS TO AVOID: Underlit throughout with a curiously blue tint. Poorly acted and terribly written.
FAMILY VALUES: There is plenty of profanity, some nudity, a fair amount of drug use and violence.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Director McCarthy makes a cameo appearance as a pizza delivery guy early in the film.
BEYOND THE THEATER: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango Now, Google Play, Microsoft, YouTube
CRITICAL MASS: As of 5/31/21: Rotten Tomatoes: No score yet; Metacritic: No score yet.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: The Turning
NEXT: The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Posted in VOD Review | Tagged An Amityville Poltergeist, Breaking Glass Pictures, broke, cinema, Cinema365, college student, Conor Austin, Films, guns, horror, housesitting, little girls, manifestations, mental illness, movies, Parris Bates, unfaithful girlfriend, VOD Reviews, weed | Leave a reply
Killing Jesus (Matar a Jesús)
The gun lobby corrupts yet another innocent youth.
(2017) Crime (Latido/64A Films) Natasha Jaramillo, Giovanny Rodriguez, Camilo Escobar, Carmenza Cossio, Juan Pablo Trujillo, José David Medina, Juan Camilo Cardenas, Jhorvin Ospina. Directed by Laura Mora Ortega
Revenge is one of those things that tend to take on their own lives apart from those who are out to achieve it. They shape lives, become obsessions and often cost more to the one taking revenge than on the one they are getting revenge from.
Paula (Jaramillo) is a college student majoring in photography. She spends most of her time hanging out with her friends, attending meetings of activist groups that are mainly all talk, and smoking way too much dope. Her father Jose Maria (Escobar) is where she gets her social activism from although he is wary; Medellin in Columbia is a rough place to live with violence around every corner. Still, he loves his daughter fiercely and from time to time gives her a lift home from school. That proves to be fatal as when opening the gate to his driveway while Paula is bending down in the front seat to make sure her camera bag has everything in it, a young man on a motorcycle guns down her father. Paula gets a glimpse of the killer's face although he doesn't see her.
The police prove to be unsurprisingly ineffective and corrupt, causing a great deal of frustration for Paula and her brother Santiago (Trujillo). Paula grows withdrawn, sullen while Santiago grows fearful for his sister who continues to go out with friends, although she is basically ignored. One evening, she catches the face of her father's murderer in a nightclub and strikes up a conversation with him. His name is Jesus (Rodriguez) and even though he is drunk, he is clearly attracted to her.
Paula decides to take justice in her own hands, partnering with her dope dealer Gato (Cardenas) to buy herself a gun in order to do unto Jesus what he had done unto her father. However, that proves to be no easy task; stranger yet, she is beginning to see Jesus as a human being who in many ways is as much a victim of the violence and corruption in Medellin as her father was. In a somewhat surreal scene, he even teaches her how to shoot. Will she be able to complete her plan of revenge or will killing Jesus be too much for her?
This had the potential for being a very powerful movie on the nature of violence and how it pervades Colombian culture but Mora chose not to go that route. It also had the potential for being another crappy revenge thriller, but she chose not to go that route either. Rather, she chose to focus in on the relationship between Paula and Jesus and how it changed her…and how she changed Jesus. The thing that Paula expected the least is what happens – she starts to actually sympathize with Jesus but that pain of loss is still deep down and waiting for the opportunity to explode.
Most of the cast is non-professional which sometimes works out and sometimes doesn't. Jaramillo is not adept at handling emotional scenes; when she cries for her father it doesn't feel authentic at all. She's pretty enough and she says her lines with conviction but she has a hard time getting across the emotional side of her character. Rodriguez on the other hand is a sizzling presence who captures your attention whenever he's onscreen. Yes he's a thug with a fatalistic view towards life; he's fully aware that his life expectancy isn't very long and yet he has the arrogance of machismo guiding his actions. He also is loving towards his family and towards the girl whom he is developing deep feelings for and might he persuaded to let in where nobody is allowed. The performance has an undercurrent of vulnerability that makes the charismatic thug on the surface all the more memorable and while his brooding thug is no Brando, there is enough there to believe he could become a big star.
There are a few instances of shaky cam abuse and from time to time Paula does things that defy rationality – the dumb teen syndrome which allows certain types of horror films to exist. This does feel like a very personal film to Mora (see Trivia below) and sometimes it can be a bit raw. Having not been to Medellin I can't say if it accurately captures the reality of street life there but it feels authentic to a non-expert like myself.
The movie has a lot going for it – particularly the social and psychological aspects – although it doesn't always fulfill its own promise. Still, Mora is a young director and she'll only get better and this is good enough to recommend provisionally and certainly good enough to warrant keeping an eye out for future projects from the director as well as Rodriguez. If you want to catch them right now, you can order tickets here.
REASONS TO GO: The progression of Paula's perceptual change is fascinating to watch.
REASONS TO STAY: Jaramillo isn't always convincing from an emotional standpoint.
FAMILY VALUES: There is a lot of drug use (mainly marijuana smoking), plenty of violence (some of which is graphic) and more than a little profanity.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Laura Mora Ortega based some of the events in the film on her own life; her father, also a teacher, was gunned down by a hitman in front of her. She later met the man who murdered her father although not in the way depicted in the film.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 3/12/18: Rotten Tomatoes: No score yet. Metacritic: No score yet.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Sleeping With the Enemy
NEXT: Lucky
Posted in New Releases | Tagged 64A Films, based on a true story, Camilo Escobar, cinema, Cinema365, Colombian cinema, corrupt police, family celebrations, family discord, Films, gang violence, Giovanny Rodriguez, gun battle, guns, hitman, Killing Jesus, Latido Films, marijuana, Matar a Jesus, Medellin, Miami Film Festival, Miami Film Festival 2018, motorcycle, movies, murder, Natasha Jaramillo, revenge, reviews, robberies, social activism, violence | Leave a reply
The last thing lawbreakers in Mega City One will ever see.
(2012) Science Fiction (Lionsgate) Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey, Wood Harris, Warrick Grier, Domhnall Gleeson, Rakie Ayola, Joe Vaz, Scott Sparrow, Nicole Bailey, Langley Kirkwood, Edwin Perry, Karl Thaning, Michele Levin, Luke Tyler, Junior Singo. Directed by Pete Travis
As far as dystopian futures go, few have captured one so bleak as the long-running British comic book Judge Dredd. In its 35 year publishing history it has managed to come up with a rich smorgasbord of characters and a well-developed backstory that acts not only as hardcore action sci-fi comic but also as pointed social commentary as well. It was brought to the screen in 1995 with Sylvester Stallone in the lead role; the movie tanked and alienated not only fans of the source material (which it desecrated to be honest) but general movie audiences as well.
The new film is much closer to the tone and look of the comic, which is good news. In the future of Judge Dredd (Urban), most of the planet is an irradiated wasteland with people living in gigantic cities. Mega City One, population 800 million, is the Northeastern Seaboard of the United States, basically from Boston to Washington DC. Gigantic skyscrapers, called "Blocks" act as multi-use facilities (apartments with shopping, restaurants, movie theaters and other entertainment) on steroids.
With that many people in such an enclosed space, the streets are near-anarchy. Crime is rampant and the Department of Justice can only investigate about 6% of it. Doing that are the Judges – a combination of motorcycle cop, detective, prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner. Judges mete justice on the spot, ranging from imprisonment in iso-cubes to death. In order to do the latter, they have guns coded to their DNA that fire an astonishing array of firepower from normal bullets to stun grenades to incendiary missiles.
Dredd is asked by the Chief Judge (Ayola) to take out rookie Judge Anderson (Thirlby) whose proximity to the radioactive wasteland rendered her psychic – the most powerful one the Department of Justice has ever encountered. Dredd will be responsible for her evaluation, either failing her and washing her out of the program or passing her into the ranks of the Judges. He's not too keen on doing it – her test scores didn't make the cut and in the eyes of Dredd (which see things entirely in black and white) a fail is a fail.
Their first call takes them to a low-income block where unemployment is at 96%. Three bodies have plummeted to the ground-floor atrium with predictably messy results. Dredd notices that one of the corpses has signs that he was on slo-mo – a drug that slows down the perception of time to 1% of normal – which to him means that this was not suicide but homicide. They make a raid on an apartment where the stuff is distributed and capture Kay (Harris), a high-end dealer with the intention of bringing him in for questioning.
The tower is actually run by a gang, the Ma-Ma Clan, so-named for their founder Ma-Ma (Headey), an ex-prostitute with a wicked scar on her face. She is solely responsible for the supply of slo-mo for the entire city and while she would have been fine with the Judges killing Kay in a raid (a price of doing business in Ma-Ma's eyes), she is not fine with Kay giving up details on her operation that will bring the Judges down on her like the apocalypse. So she locks down the building and gives her gang orders to shoot to kill. Now Dredd and Anderson are trapped in a gauntlet where trigger-happy gunmen lurk around every corner and help is not within reach.
Writer Alex Garland has concocted a story that remain true to the action elements of the comic books, it is a little light on the social satire. Dredd in the comic books is a humorless ultra-violent appendage of a fascist society who has no life beyond that of his calling; we rarely see him off-duty and we never see his face (think of it as all Batman and no Bruce Wayne). There is speculation among fans that he sleeps with his helmet on.
Urban captures this perfectly. While we only see the bottom third of his face, his twisted expressions are always grim, his movements deliberate and nearly robotic and his posture arrogant. His belief in the Law is absolute and unyielding; if the sentences are harsh he doesn't argue with it. Whatever Dredd's opinions are of his world he keeps to himself; he is the Arm of the Law and the Hammer of Justice. That's all he really needs.
Anderson has more of a conscience. Having grown up in a low-income block, she feels more empathy for the people who live there. Dredd's concern throughout the film is that she isn't tough or ruthless enough to make the hard choices. Thirlby often looks out of place in a Judge's uniform, being smaller than most of the other Judges in the film, but she pulls off the attitude nicely with a heaping helping of self-doubt.; Anderson herself isn't sure she's in the right job. She's less about the law and more about justice.
The visual of Mega City One is a bit of a mixed bag for me. It looks like a modern 21st century city for the most part with internal combustion engine cars that look not unlike the sedans, coupes and mini-vans of 2012 – while customizing the vehicles a little might have been more expensive, it would have made the visuals more believable. It's hard to believe that the vehicles of a society 100 years from now would have changed so little in the intervening period.
The slo-mo effects are great however. There is a beauty to them which is a nice juxtaposition to the bleak city and block we see throughout. You can almost understand why the junkies would much rather see the world through slo-mo than the reality of it.
It's a brutal world but then again a world that crowded would have to be. Still, locking up Dredd and Anderson in an impregnable fortress reminded me of the hit Indonesian action film from earlier this year The Raid: Redemption. While that film had amazing martial arts battles interspersed with the gun fights, there is little beyond using different kinds of weapons here in an endless series of shoot-em-ups once the blast doors close. In that sense, the filmmakers painted themselves into a corner a little bit. Still, the visuals are good, the action is solid and as mindless entertainment the movie succeeds nicely. The audience hasn't been there for Dredd sadly but hopefully some who gave the movie a miss will reconsider. It's solid, satisfying entertainment.
REASONS TO GO: Closer to the comic book than the Stallone version. Satisfying visually. Urban and Thirlby make a good team.
REASONS TO STAY: Can be somewhat more brutal than American audiences are used to.
FAMILY VALUES: The violence is pretty intense – people fall from great heights and get shot up pretty good. There's also plenty of foul language, drug use and just a bit of sexuality.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Karl Urban's face is always obscured by the helmet; we never see anything other than his mouth, jaw and chin.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 9/30/12: Rotten Tomatoes: 76% positive reviews. Metacritic: 59/100. The movie is getting mixed reviews but leaning towards the positive..
COMPARISON SHOPPING: The Raid: Redemption
CLINT EASTWOOD LOVERS: Urban based his vocal interpretation on Clint Eastwood, which is fitting since the character of Judge Dredd was based on Eastwood's character in the TV show "Rawhide" – in the comic book Dredd even lives on Rowdy Yates block in reference to the character!
NEXT: Robot & Frank
Posted in New Releases | Tagged 2000AD, based on a comic book, car chase, cinema, Department of Justice, Domhnall Gleeson, Dredd, druglords, Eastern seaboard, execution, Films, gang violence, gun fight, guns, irradiated wasteland, Karl Urban, Lena Headey, Lionsgate, Mega City One, motorcycles, movies, Olivia Thirlby, reviews, rookie evaluation, Science Fiction, skyscrapers, slo-mo | Leave a reply
One for the Money
Katherine Heigl poses for another glamour shot while Ana Reeder has a moment.
(2012) Action Comedy (Lionsgate) Katherine Heigl, Jason O'Mara, Debbie Reynolds, Daniel Sunjata, John Leguizamo, Sherri Shepherd, Debra Monk, Nate Mooney, Adam Paul, Ana Reeder, Fisher Stevens, Patrick Fischler, Ryan Michelle Bathe, Leonardo Nam. Directed by Julie Ann Robinson
Desperate times call for desperate measures. When Stephanie Plum (Heigl) loses her job as a lingerie salesperson at Macy's and goes six long months without a paycheck, she is reaching that desperation level of which I referred.
So when her cousin Vinnie (Fischler) has an opening at his bail bonds business for a bounty hunter. The kicker is that the guy she has to arrest is Joe Morelli (O'Mara) who was the one to – how to put this delicately – deflower Stephanie and then dump her unceremoniously, making him a first class schnook and a reason for Stephanie to jump on board with both feet.
Of course she knows next to nothing about bounty hunting, so she enlists the help of veteran hunter Ranger (Sunjata) who shows her the ropes and seems to be a little sweet on her (although this never goes anywhere in the movie). Of course it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.
The trouble is that Joe – a cop – doesn't particularly want to go to prison and there's a really good chance he's innocent. He's involved with a rather vicious boxer who may have murdered his girlfriend and may be involved with organized crime. The people who are after Joe are serious and lethal, and Stephanie finds herself smack dab in the middle. With the aid of her informants Lula (Shepherd) and Jackie (Bathe) – both prostitutes – a friendly boxing promoter (Leguizamo), her boss's brassy secretary (Reeder) and her doting grandmother (Reynolds), she has a fighting chance to get out of this in one piece. That is, if Joe doesn't kill her first.
This is based on the first installment of a series of books by Janet Evanovich that is extremely popular with the mystery-loving set. Heigl is apparently a big fan of the series and is producing the movie as well as starring in it. One suspects that she had a hand in casting herself in the role, which was a bit of a mistake. Heigl excels at breezy romantic comedy roles; her other action pics have been less successful.
In the books, Plum has loads of attitude and plenty of chutzpah, much more than Heigl conveys here. Heigl delivers the wisecracks but without the strength of character that Plum possesses. Heigl portrays her with a bit more vulnerability than I recall from the books. Now I'm not one of those sticklers for movie characters being absolutely identical to their literary counterparts – that's not always possible or reasonable – but there are core traits that make the character unique and those shouldn't be messed with.
Evanovich excels at creating unique characters and Ranger and Lula are two of her best. Shepherd makes something of a poor man's Octavia Spencer but she does the role justice. I'm not real familiar with Sunjata but he is one of the better performers here; I looked forward to all of his scenes in the movie and he seemed to be the most at ease in his role. He didn't make Ranger a superman, but he did give him that air of confidence that is needed to pull the part off.
Reynolds is one of the reasons to see the movie all by herself. She rarely makes screen appearances and while this doesn't exactly rate with some of her finest work, it's always wonderful to see a genuine Hollywood star (in the traditional sense of the word) at work.
The movie has been getting savage reviews and in some ways I can see the point – Robinson, primarily a television director, seems ill-at-ease on the big screen, creating a movie that seems more suitable for an hour-long network show than a big screen franchise. There's a curious lack of energy here (although not for lack of trying) and while it conveys some of the charm of New Jersey, it adds none of the flavor, like a plate of spaghetti with no sauce.
Still, I found it pleasantly entertaining and while it's not a movie that's likely to stick in your memory for very long, it is diverting enough while you're watching it. If I'm going to pay ten bucks a head for a movie, I at least want to be entertained and this movie delivers in that department. What more do you want?
REASONS TO GO: Way more fun than "Jersey Shore." Engaging characters.
REASONS TO STAY: Feels more like a TV movie. Lacks energy.
FAMILY VALUES: There is a certain amount of violence, plenty of language, some sexuality (and partial nudity), a bit of drug use and plenty of Jersey attitude.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: There are 18 volumes currently in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, all of which have a number in the title in some form.
CRITICAL MASS: As of 2/18/12: Rotten Tomatoes: 2% positive reviews. Metacritic: 22/100. The reviews are as bad as they get.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: The Bounty Hunter
GREY'S ANATOMY LOVERS: Heigl, O'Mara, Sunjata and Monk have all appeared on "Grey's Anatomy," with Heigl and Sunjata being past or present regular cast members. Robinson has directed several episodes of the show as well.
TOMORROW: Big Miracle
Posted in New Releases | Tagged action comedy, bail bondsman, based on a novel, boxing, boxing promoter, cinema, Daniel Sunjata, Debbie Reynolds, Films, fish market, Fisher Stevens, guns, hardware store, heroin, Janet Evanovich, Jason O'Mara, John Leguizamo, Katherine Heigl, killer cop, Lionsgate, Macy's lingerie salesgirl, movies, New Jersey, nudist, One for the Money, reviews, Sherri Shepherd, shower rail | Leave a reply
Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
Posted on October 4, 2011 by carlosdev
Katrina Bowen begs Tyler Labin not to snap his own overall strap again.
(2010) Horror Spoof (Magnet) Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowen, Jesse Moss, Philip Granger, Brandon McLaren, Christie Laing, Chelan Simmons, Travis Nelson, Alexander Arsenault, Adam Beauchesne, Joseph Sutherland, Karen Reigh. Directed by Eli Craig
Everything is about perception. Sometimes we look at a person and see a police officer. Someone different will look at that same person and see a thug. It's all how our experiences guide us.
A group of college students, led by the unctuous Chad (Moss) are taking their spring break in the mountains of West Virginia. They need to make a pit stop for beer and stop off at a Last Chance Gas convenience store. There they stumble on Tucker (Tudyk) and Dale (Labine), a pair of redneck types who are on their way to a vacation of their own. Dale is extremely shy and has a very low self-image, but he takes a shine to Alison (Bowen), a comely co-ed. Tucker encourages his shy friend to approach the girl but his tongue-tied charm fails to impress, possibly because he's holding a scythe at the time.
The kids go off to their camp and Tucker and Dale find their "vacation home" which resembles the cabin from The Evil Dead somewhat eerily. While the kids go skinny dipping, Tucker and Dale are out fishing. Alison gets separated from the rest of the group and gets startled by the two hillbillies, falling and injuring her head. When the boys try to return her to her friends, they mistake their intentions and run away screaming for the hills.
When Alison awakens, she discovers that far from being homicidal, the two boys are sweet and caring. She begins to see Dale much differently whereas she might not have seen him that way earlier. However, her friends think that she has been made a captive against her will and that the two men plan on doing hideous, horrifying things to her. They mean to rescue her, at any cost.
That cost turns out to be plenty high as the kids attempts to rescue their friend turn out in disaster and accidental death. Tucker and Dale are mystified; they start thinking that Alison's friends are part of some sort of suicide pact cult. Chad and his friends are growing more and more violent; the boys are growing more and more mystified. What's a redneck to do?
This Canadian film for whatever reason sat on the shelf for nearly two years before getting an American release and even at that, a somewhat excuse-me release at that. It's a shame too; this is the kind of movie that would attract a big cult audience if people just knew about it.
It's funny but not in a broad, outlandish sense; rather it takes situations and makes them the star. Each little set piece is a gag that ends with a stupid college student getting killed in a brutal – and funny – way. One kid stumbles into a wood chipper. Another runs headlong into a branch and gets impaled. Another takes off the safety on a gun and blows his own head off.
But this is more than a horror spoof. There are some interesting subtexts here on prejudging, class distinctions and embracing differences. There is also some pretty tight chemistry between Tudyk and Labine, both of whom have serious comic chops but can also act. Those are both good qualities and exceedingly rare together in the same person. The real hero of this movie may well be the casting director.
There are also an homage or two to such movies as the aforementioned Evil Dead as well as Wrong Turn and Friday the 13th as well as non-genre films like Fargo. The writing is clever in places with some unexpected bits that had me in stitches.
I liked this movie a lot and unfortunately it isn't attracting a lot of attention, either from the mainstream press or from genre blogs. Nonetheless it's worth seeking out if it is playing near you but never fear; it is already available for as Video on Demand and will be on home video just after Thanksgiving. I suggest you take whatever opportunity you can to check it out; it's as much fun at the movies as I've had this year.
REASONS TO GO: Funny and sweet and plenty of gore and violence to please any horror buff. Hip without trying.
REASONS TO STAY: There were a few sections where things seemed a little flat.
FAMILY VALUES: There is some fairly rough violence, a good deal of blood , a fair amount of foul language and a smidgeon of bare breasts.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The two leads are known for supporting roles in cult favorite TV shows; Labine in "Reaper" and Tudyk in "Firefly." In addition, Bowen is also primarily known for her TV work on "One Life to Live" and in "30 Rock" (whose cast she joined after filming this).
HOME OR THEATER: This will make a fine rental or a nice addition to your DVD library.
TOMORROW: Dolphin Tale
Posted in New Releases | Tagged Alan Tudyk, Canadian cinema, cinema, Films, fishing, guns, horror spoof, Katrina Bowen, Magnet Releasing, movies, remote cabin, reviews, safety, sheriff, skinny dipping, teen drinking, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Tyler Labine, vacation home, West Virginia, wood chipper, wood mill | Leave a reply
Harry Brown
My name...is Michael Caine...punk!!!
(2009) Crime Drama (Goldwyn) Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Iain Glen, Jack O'Connell, Liam Cunningham, Amy Steel, Charlie Creed Miles, David Bradley, Sean Harris, Ben Drew, Jamie Downey, Lee Oakes, Joseph Gilgun. Directed by Daniel Barber
As we grow older, we sometimes find that the world is changing around us so rapidly it becomes virtually unrecognizable from what it's been. Those changes can be confusing and even terrifying; sometimes we feel helpless in the onslaught of them. However, when the world grows out of control and violent, can we expect the elderly to stand up for themselves?
Harry Brown (Caine) is a pensioner grieving over his wife. He lives in a housing estate that has deteriorated rapidly, becoming rampant with crime and prostitution. He hangs out in a pub owned by Sid (Cunningham), playing chess with his old pal Leonard (Bradley). Leonard is terrified of the gang that runs their housing complex; they keep putting piles of dog excrement through his mail slot, going so far as to send flaming torches through as well. Fed up, Leonard takes a gun out to deal with the ruffians.
Predictably, Harry's next visit is from Detective Alice Frampton (Mortimer) of the Metropolitan police, and her partner Detective Hicock (Miles) informing Harry that his friend has been murdered. Harry is of course bereaved, and expects the cops to bring those who murdered his friend to justice; however, it quickly becomes evident that the police can't or won't clean up the area or find the culprits.
However, when you're Michael Caine, you don't let details stand in your way. No, Harry Brown as it turns out is a former British soldier who served in Northern Ireland a.k.a. he's seen some stuff. It means Harry Brown is Dirty Harry with a Cockney accent, and some punks are about to feel decidedly unlucky.
While there is a bit of an apt comparison with the iconic Clint Eastwood character, the film comes off more like Death Wish than Magnum Force. With first-time director Barber at the helm, the film moves at a kind of a jerky pace – fast and frenetic at times and a bit slow at others. It gives an overall feel of driving a car with a dying transmission in it.
Caine is utterly magnificent here. In one of his best performances in a decade, he imbues Harry with quiet reserve, inner steel and rage. He is a man with absolutely nothing to lose and is willing to die for his cause. He isn't a super-hero – he doesn't hit everything he shoots, he can't run like a track star and he doesn't knock out behemoths with a single punch. Instead, he relies on his own experience and military smarts. Caine gives the character dignity and a bit of a connection with the past; we can imagine a young Caine sweeping through Belfast, machine gun in hand, rooting out snipers.
Mortimer is a very good actress who tends to play mousy characters. Here she's playing a cop who is frustrated with the system, knows that its corrupt and is completely sympathetic to Harry's plight and those of his neighbors but is helpless to really make much of an impact.
The ending is pure cinematic poppycock and the script tends to plod through clichés that were old when Death Wish was new. Still, with Caine's soaring performance, Harry Brown bears watching, even though the sight isn't exactly a new vista.
WHY RENT THIS: One of Caine's best performances of the last ten years.
WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Predictable revenge thriller plotline. Ludicrous ending.
FAMILY VALUES: The language is very strong as is the violence. There is also some drug use and sexuality here.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The woman singing "Gold" in the pub is actually the unit nurse for the film.
BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $10.3M on a $7.3M production budget; the movie lost money.
TOMORROW: Apollo 18
Posted in DVD Review | Tagged chess, CID, cinema, crime drama, DVD Reviews, Emily Mortimer, English cinema, ex-military, Films, gangs, Goldwyn, gun fight, guns, Harry Brown, Liam Cunningham, London, Metropolitan Police, Michael Caine, Moves, murder, pub, revenge, riot, Scotland Yard, street gangs | 1 Reply
This Narrow Place
Sammy Sheikh and Jonathan Stanley affect Motor City tough guy poses.
(2011) Drama (Self-Released) Sammy Sheikh, Jonathan Stanley, Sayed Badreya, Anthony Azizi, Lonette McKee, Val Howard, Rita Khori, Oscar Brown, Mike Batayeh. Directed by Sooney Kadouh
Anger can only take you so far. When you are wounded as deeply as it's possible to be, your first instinct is to lash out. Sometimes that may take you on a journey you never intended it to.
Hassan (Sheikh) is on a mission. His little brother died in a bombing in Beirut. He has entered the United States illegally to plant a bomb, using parts manufactured at the same plant where the bomb that killed his brother was manufactured. While stuck in an unsavory part of town, he meets Chris (Stanley), a drug addict who lives on his own in Detroit. Chris gives Hassan a ride to the home of Hassan's Uncle Aziz (Badreya).
At the urging of his aunt, Hassan invites Chris over for dinner and weaves a tale about his attending Wayne State, where Hassan's sister Nadia (Khori) is also attending (Nadia has been staying with Aziz for some time). As Hassan spends more time with Chris, he begins to see a side to America and Americans that he hadn't planned on. The drug addict and would-be bomber begin to form an unlikely friendship, to the point where Hassan begs Tina (Howard), Chris' drug connection, to "let him go." Chris also develops affection for Nadia, not a welcome thing to her conservative Muslim family.
However with terrorist Faoud (Azizi) breathing down his neck, Hassan must make a choice between carrying out his plans and avenging his brother, or letting his rage go and perhaps creating an entirely different legacy for his brother and himself.
There are a lot of "fish out of water" buddy movies out there but this is unusual in that both the main characters are fish out of water, as it were. Hassan is from a completely different world; the life of a suburban Detroit family is like an entirely different planet to him. He is conflicted by his need to avenge his brother and by his own decency. He genuinely wants to help Chris kick his habit and uses the fasting of Ramadan to help him find some self-discipline.
Chris lives on the fringes of society, shunned by his own family who have declared him dead in order to deal with his situation. As the family life he never knew begins to give him new strength, he begins to change – becomes less the hustler, less the hedonist and finding more important things to focus his attention on.
There are some grungy neighborhoods on display here, both in Detroit and Beirut – I suspect the filmmaker was trying to draw a line between the two. There are also some nice neighborhoods and families that are welcoming and caring. The two worlds are in the same city but completely alien to one another. It's hard to imagine they exist so close together.
Both Sheikh and Stanley are engaging, charismatic performers. It is their job to carry the film and it is their relationship that drives it. I'm not familiar with either actor, but I would venture to say that not only do they have good chemistry together they also individually do striking jobs to make their characters memorable and realistic.
They have a surprisingly good supporting cast. Often in indie movies, the acting chops begin and end at the leads but here, it's uniformly there from top to bottom. That's simply gold for a young director trying to establish a reputation.
I was a little bit unsure of the kicking of Chris' drug habit; it seemed a little bit too pat and too clean and as we all know kicking that kind of habit is generally horribly painful. I also have to admit the ending was a little bit to the Hollywood side, but that's all right; I liked it anyway. Indie movies often try to go out of their way to make their endings dark and depressing, but this one would probably have made a studio marketing chief sigh blissfully – and there's not necessarily a bad thing. I do think that they could have used a bit of a trim on some of the subplots – was it really necessary to visit Chris' mother and discover that he's literally dead to her? – but all in all this is a pretty well-crafted movie with enough strong moments to make it recommendable to anyone, even those who might not necessarily be indie film fanatics.
REASONS TO GO: Strong performances from the leads and an interesting story. I liked the ending although it might have had some "Hollywood" overtones to it.
REASONS TO STAY: Some of the subplots could have been trimmed or cut altogether.
FAMILY VALUES: Some drug use, some foul language and a bit of violence.
HOME OR THEATER: Worth seeing in either venue.
TOMORROW: Dog Sweat
Posted in New Releases | Tagged Beirut, bombing, cinema, Detroit, Drama, drug addict, family dynamic, Films, Florida Film Festival, guns, immigrant, Islam, Jonathan Stanley, Lonette McKee, movies, Ramadan, revenge, reviews, Sammy Sheikh, suburban family, suburbs, This Narrow Place | Leave a reply
It's never a good idea to cross Paul Bettany.
(2010) Supernatural Horror (Screen Gems) Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Tenney, Charles S. Dutton, Lucas Black, Adrianne Palicki, Doug Jones, Kevin Durand, Kate Walsh, Willa Holland. Directed by Scott Stewart
Sometimes you have to wonder what God thinks of His creations when He considers war, terror, pollution, greed and all the myriad horrible things we do to one another. You have to wonder if at any point He is going to give up on us.
The angel Michael has pleaded the case of the humans, and failed. God has decided that the Flood was a warning not heeded; He wants the human race deleted. The angels will be His weapons of mass destruction.
Michael, however, disagrees with His decision. He believes that God has forgotten about such things as mercy, compassion and forgiveness in His zeal for retribution. It's somehow comforting that God is actually a heartbroken teenager.
Michael decides to renounce his angelic status by amputating his wings and removing the collar which is, apparently, his halo. He makes a stop at the local gun store where he fills a bag full of automatic weapons and enough ammo to stave off Armageddon. Well, almost.
He steals a police car and heads out to an isolated diner in the middle of the desert. There works Charlie (Palicki), a waitress who happens to be pregnant. She works for Bob (Quaid) whose nephew Jeep (Black) is sweet on Charlie but is not the dad. So there works Percy (Dutton), a line cook with a caustic sense of humor.
Enjoying the cuisine is Kyle (Gibson), a badass from L.A.; the Anderson family – dad Howard (Tenney), wife Sandra (Walsh) and daughter Audrey (Holland) and an adorable old lady Like adorable old ladies the world over, she notices Charlie's pregnancy. Unlike most adorable old ladies, she turns into a spider-like demon with homicidal intent.
Into this situation comes Michael, who informs the suitably astonished diner denizens that Charlie's baby isn't just any old baby; it's the savior of mankind whom God now wants to bump off. Why God needs an army of humans who have been changed by angels into demons to kill a single baby is something of a mystery – apparently God doesn't like to get His hands dirty.
This leads to something of a Mexican standoff with the human race at stake. The odds are stacked against us – but that's just the way we like it, right?
This is a plot of epic ineptitude. Very little of it makes organic sense and worse yet, it isn't true to its own internal logic. That's a deal killer most of the time in my book. The strange thing is, I actually liked this movie. Much more than I thought I was going to. There is actually some good stuff going on.
Bettany is an always-interesting actor who is always worth seeing even when he's not at his best – as he is not at his best here. Still, he and Quaid who cuts loose with delicious scenery-chewing abandon make for good twin focuses for the film. While Palicki is a little bit bland for her role, Black does himself proud as the unrequited lover.
Part of the problem here is that Stewart seems undecided as to whether he wants to make a big action flick or a gruesome horror flick and winds up with kind of a mish mash that is neither. Also, much of the exposition is done by Bettany explaining things to his captive audience. Not only does this bring things to a grinding halt, it gets to be annoying.
I wish that Stewart spent more time doing the things that work best here. The horror scenes in particular are well done, such as the aforementioned adorable old lady spider demon, and later on, an elongated jaw ice cream man demon. The action sequences are pretty nice too, although a climactic battle between Michael and the Archangel Gabriel (Durand) is surprisingly unsatisfying.
Legion is the latest in a series of apocalyptic visions that don't really turn out quite right. I like the idea of angels acting as exterminators, as perhaps sacrilegious as that is. Unfortunately, it was done better in The Prophecy – but it is done well enough here to earn a look.
WHY RENT THIS: Some nice action scenes here. Bettany and Quaid pull the wagon nicely. Demon scenes are pretty awesome.
WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Too talky for a horror/action movie. One gets the impression the filmmakers couldn't decide between intellectual horror and visceral horror and wound up with neither.
FAMILY VALUES: Lots of strong, brutal violence, some disturbing supernatural imagery and plenty of choice bad words.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The tattoos on Michael are in Enochian, supposedly the language of angels recorded by John Dee and Edward Kelly in the 16th century.
BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $67.9M on a $26M production budget; the movie made money.
TOMORROW: Season of the Witch
Posted in DVD Review | Tagged Adrianne Palicki, ammunition, angels, Charles S. Dutton, cinema, demons, Dennis Quaid, Doug Jones, DVD Reviews, Films, God, gun battle, guns, Jon Tenney, Kevin Durand, Legion, Lucas Black, movies, Paul Bettany, possession, roadhouse, roadside diner, Screen Gems, supernatural horror, swords, Tyrese Gibson, unborn child | Leave a reply
You can't say that Jason Statham doesn't get a charge out of life.
(Lionsgate) Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Dwight Yoakam, Efren Ramirez, Clifton Collins Jr., Bai Ling, David Carradine, Art Hsu, Corey Haim, Gerri Halliwell, John de Lancie. Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Some action movies are high octane. Others, nuclear meltdowns. The first Crank was one of the latter. Would this one measure up?
You wouldn't think so, given that the hero of the first movie (SPOILER ALERT) falls from a helicopter to his apparent death on the city street below. (CONTINUE READING) But in the universe of Crank: High Voltage, Asian gangsters come along with a snow shovel to scoop up the wide-awake Chev Chelios (Statham) with a snow shovel to bring him to a back room operating room, where his seemingly indestructible heart has been removed for transplant into an aged Chinese mobster (a nearly unrecognizable Carradine).
He has been given a cut-rate artificial heart powered by a car battery to keep his body alive before other organs (including his, ummm, manliest) can be harvested as well. Instead, Chelios awakes to wreak mayhem, havoc and otherwise kick the crap out of things. He goes on yet another rampage around the Los Angeles area to find his heart so that he might get it back, stopping periodically to recharge his dying battery. He rescues his girlfriend Eve (Smart) from a life of exotic dancing, gets together with his incredulous doctor (Yoakam) and picks up Venus (Ramirez), the effeminate twin brother of Kaylo (also played by Ramirez) from the first movie (and Venus has a rather unusual affliction by the way), and Ria (Ling), a goofy prostitute who becomes smitten with Chelios.
Further explanation is unnecessary, redundant and superfluous. If you loved the cinematic video game that was the first movie, this will be right up your alley. Neveldine/Taylor, the directing team responsible for the first one, has amped things up a notch, shooting the improbability factor to 10 and letting loose their guerilla filmmakers onto an unsuspecting city.
This is the kind of movie not meant to be taken seriously, yet most of the reviews I read of it seemed downright huffy. Look guys, this was never meant to be a Merchant/Ivory production. This is going to appeal to the crowd that plays Grand Theft Auto for 36 hours straight, hyped out on Mountain Dew, Hot Pockets and testosterone. The heavy metal soundtrack should tell you that this is meant expressly for young males.
Yes, Virginia, there is some stereotyping, nudity, sexuality and a whole lot of violence, but so what? The stereotyping is done so broadly that it's fairly obvious it's meant as satire. The nudity and violence are so over-the-top that it's impossible to take it too seriously, and the script so ludicrous that it becomes understood that this is meant to be Jackass on steroids high on angel dust.
Statham makes Chelios as fun as it is possible for a hit man to be, poking fun at his own image in the process. He is a masterful action hero, looking convincing in all the fight sequences and running around with a perpetual scowl on his face that invites the good citizens of Los Angeles to stay the frack out of his way if they know what's good for them.
There are constant little homages to B-movies of the past, from The Brain that Would Not Die to El Mariachi as well as to the pop culture of the digital age – videogames and things like Red Versus Blue. Again, this moves at dizzying speed, so much so that you feel like you've sprinted through a marathon by the time the movie comes to an end.
This isn't Shakespeare folks; it's just a good time, and Crank: High Voltage succeeds wildly at that. This is the kind of movie that you put on, turn off your brain and let the energy drinks flow as you pound your chest and shout an occasional "WHOAAAA!" at the screen. You'll need to go through detox after seeing this one.
WHY RENT THIS: If you liked the first movie, you're gonna love this one – all the frenetic oddball action, only amped up another notch.
WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: The nudity, the violence, the ludicrous plot…if those things bother you, you're better off watching the next edition of Masterpiece Theater.
FAMILY VALUES: Oh, c'mon…you're not honestly thinking of letting your kids see this are you? If you are, your kids are going to need therapy, man.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The home video edition is entitled Crank 2: High Voltage although the theatrical release didn't have a number in the title.
NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: The Blu-Ray has a Crank'd Out Bonus View mode featuring the cast and crew, as well as a featurette on the wrap party for the movie, something we rarely get to see.
TOMORROW: Drag Me to Hell
Posted in DVD Review | Tagged action, Amy Smart, artificial heart, Bai Ling, black market organs, car battery, Chinese gangsters, cinema, Clifton Collins Jr., Corey Haim, Crank: High Voltage, David Carradine, DVD Reviews, Dwight Yoakam, Efren Ramirez, Films, Gerri Halliwell, guns, heavy metal, hit man, Jason Statham, John de Lancie, Lionsgate, mayhem, movies, Neveldine/Taylor, prostitutes, public sex, recharge, strippers, transplants, videogame | Leave a reply
Adrien Brody, Alice Braga and cohorts are definitely NOT in Kansas anymore.
(20th Century Fox) Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Topher Grace, Laurence Fishburne, Walton Goggins, Danny Trejo, Oleg Taktarov, Mahershalahashbaz Ali, Louiz Ozawa, Changchien, Carey Jones, Brian Steele, Derek Mears. Directed by Nimrod Antal
A very simplistic world-view of life is that we are either predators or we are prey. It's simply a matter of where we want to be on the food chain, and what we're willing to do to get there.
Royce (Brody) awakens in a very confused state. One moment he was with his unit, the next there was a bright light and now he is in free fall. That's not a good place to be when you're just waking up.
He manages to deploy a parachute and ends up landing safely, if a little bit roughly, in the jungle. One by one, a number of other parachutes deploy and soon there's a group of people, all with roughly the same story, including Isabelle (Braga) an Israeli sharp-shooter, Stans (Goggins) a convicted killer two days from lethal injection, Nikolai (Taktarov), a Russian trooper keeping the peace in Chechnya, Hanzo (Changchien) a Japanese yakuza, Cuchillo (Trejo) a Mexican druglord, Mombassa (Ali) an African militia man and Edwin (Grace), a doctor.
Royce, for his part, is a black ops mercenary with not much in the way of a moral compass beyond getting the job done and surviving it. What they are all doing there is a bit of a mystery, as is where "there" is – Isabelle, who claims she's been in most jungles of the world, doesn't recognize this one. Amazon, maybe?
All that goes out the window when Royce notices that the sun remains stationary in the sky. It further takes a turn for the Twilight Zone when they emerge into a clearing to see a whole arsenal of moons floating serenely in the sky. They are most certainly not in Kansas anymore, or anywhere else on earth for that matter.
The appearance of strange bad-tempered warthog-like creatures with an array of bony spikes protruding from just about everywhere on their bodies doesn't bode well. However, soon enough Royce figures things out – they are on a game preserve and they are being hunted. Sure enough, a Predator soon makes an appearance, with just enough technology for Isabelle – who was apparently privy to a lot of sensitive information – to recognize them from a report about a strange encounter with an American military team in South America in which only one survivor emerged. Will this team, stranded in an alien planet with no food or water, have even that many survivors?
This is billed as a sequel to the original Predator (1987) and there are plenty of references to the original from the obvious (Isabelle's report) to the subtle (the playing of "Long Tall Sally" over the end credits, a song that was also played at the beginning of Predator). Obviously, the filmmakers had a great deal of respect and reverence for the original.
They may have been a bit too reverential, however. The storyline is essentially identical to the first Predator with a group of well-armed military people being picked off in a jungle one by one by predators, although in the original it was just one. While the original Predator saw an established and cohesive American military team being attacked, here it is a bunch of people from a variety of different disciplines and nations all brought together for the first time, and they bicker a good deal, although when the rubber hits the road they are terrifyingly good at what they do.
The cast is surprisingly good, especially Brody who isn't known for action movies. He does a credible job here as the brutal and taciturn mercenary. Brody has obviously bulked up for the role, although he isn't as muscular as, say, Stallone or Schwarzenegger, he has that wiry muscular toughness which is more in line with what you see in the modern military. Fishburne has what amounts to an extended cameo as the only survivor of a previous group brought to the planet to be hunted – he is there essentially to supply a bit of comic relief (only a bit) as well as a sense of perspective about how long this has been going on.
The action sequences hit all the right buttons, from the "predator vision" which is meant to resemble infrared, to things going boom. There are a number of nausea-inducing killings, which are very high on the cool meter, as well as a really nice sequence when Hanzo goes mano a mano with a Predator.
One of the little things I liked was that the Predators have different looks to them – I'm not talking subtle differences, but major ones, the way you would find in different ethnic groups. One of the problems with science fiction movies is that you rarely get a sense that alien races have the diversity of the human race; they have a tendency to be generically the same.
There are a few little quibbles with science in the science fiction here. A planet or moon that keeps one face turned towards the sun with planetoids or moons orbiting nearby would be torn apart by the gravitational forces; at the very least it wouldn't have much of an atmosphere. Since some of the scenes take place at night (which I'm assuming occurs when one of the planetoids or moons gets between the game preserve planet and the sun) the screenwriters could have avoided this merely by giving the planet a rotation. Other than the scenes with the spiny warthogs and the view of the multiple moons, there's no sense that you're on a distant planet; all of the fauna are earth-bound varieties which would be extremely unlikely, unless the Predators terraformed the planet and seeded it with plants from our own world, which would seem to be a very expensive and labor-intensive job just to create a game preserve.
But these are quibbles and most viewers aren't going to care about such things. This is about action and there is plenty of it. The action and character development is good enough to make this an enjoyable two hours. In a summer full of disappointments in terms of quality movies and box office, Predators stands out as one of the better popcorn movies in an off year for them.
REASONS TO GO: Solid summer action film fare. Brody is impressive as the mercenary.
REASONS TO STAY: This is essentially the first Predator relocated, with a team that isn't as cohesive as the first one. You rarely get a sense that you're on an alien planet.
FAMILY VALUES: There's a good deal of gore and violence, as well as some nightmare-inducing Predators running around. Given the pervasive foul language as well, I'd restrict this to older teens for the most part.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Rodriguez conceived the idea for the movie back in 1994 and wrote a script that was submitted to Fox, who rejected it for being too expensive to produce. 15 years later, they changed their mind and Rodriguez wrote a modified version of the script that would be less expensive to produce, and delivered – the movie cost $40 million to make, relatively inexpensive for a high-profile summer sci-fi action movie.
HOME OR THEATER: In all honesty, the jungle location is more claustrophobic than grand in scale; it will easily fit in your home theater system. Those with smaller televisions might want to take this in on the big screen, however.
TOMORROW: Inception
Posted in New Releases | Tagged 20th Century Fox, Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, alien planet, aliens, cinema, convicted killer, Danny Trejo, Films, game preserve, guns, jungle, Laurence Fishburne, mercenary, military, movies, Nimrod Antal, Predators, reviews, sci-fi, sci-fi action, Science Fiction, sharpshooter, sniper, stalking, survivalist, Topher Grace, traps | 2 Replies


where anyone could find it — can anyone not read this poem with such a start? And the rest doesn't disappoint, I can assure you.
Thank you so much Basilike!
Thank you Carol. I am flattered that it spoke to you.
You are a gifted writer and you are most welcome.


text:
Zanetti bows out in front of Inter fans after 857 games
MILAN: Javier Zanetti was hailed by Internazionale fans as the 40-year-old Argentinian made his last home appearance in the Stadio Meazza.
Zanetti appeared as a 52nd-minute substitute in a 4-1 win over Lazio that secured Inter's place in the Europa League next season.
This was his 857th appearance for Inter since signing for the club in 1995 when he became Massimo Moratti's first purchase as Inter president, and he could make one more in their final Serie A match of the season at Chievo next week.
Zanetti's 614 Serie A appearances is bettered only by former AC Milan and Italy defender Paolo Maldini but is by far and away the most of any foreign player to play in Italy.
In that time Zanetti has won five league titles, scored in a 3-0 1998 UEFA Cup final win against Lazio and played a key role in the treble-winning 2010 side that claimed the club's first European Cup in nearly half a century.
Zanetti, who played 145 for Argentina and was given a guard of honour as he came back on to the pitch to address the crowd, said: "I want to think all my team mates, everyone who has lived these years with me.
"I am happy for this wonderful career wearing this jersey, which I truly love. Now I must do something else. I don't know if I will do it well, but I can say that I will defend Inter the way I defended it on the field. Thank you."


Pro Blo introduces the ultimate gift set to team up with your CurlME brushes. Our Triple Threat range is UK made, Cruelty Free and Vegan Friendly.
Resurrection Plant is the secret to this range with its intense power to rehydrate, repair and restore hair to its healthiest form.
PrepME spray for a longer lasting blo dry and healthier hair.
PrepME is UK made and cruelty free.
Bring your hair back to life with BoostME, a root boosting spray infused with the Resurrection Plant (Selaginella Lepidophylla).
Resurrection Plant is the secret to this range with its intense power to rehydrate, repair and restore your hair to its healthiest form.
Give your hair a new lease of life before a blow dry for bouncier results or on its own for an everyday pump of volume, whilst controlling frizz, adding shine and giving the ultimate volume.
BoostME is UK made and cruelty free.
Resurrection Plant (Selaginella Lepidophylla) is the secret to this range with its intense power to rehydrate, repair and restore your hair to its healthiest form.
SmoothME is highly concentrated with key active ingredients, designed to control frizz and split ends whilst helping to repair and restore hair.
Smooth annoying frays, frizz & flyaways for tamed hair that lasts all day without feeling weighed down. Add a natural shine with no sticky residue and protect against humidity.
SmoothME is UK made and cruelty free.
great products, Started using my bag as a make up bag.
got this as a gift for my other half, she Loves it.


text:
in: Dream Logos
The Children's Metro Network Local IDs
Top: The initial IDs, debuted in 1993 Bottom: The new IDs debuted in 1995
ID: Depends on the variant, but here is a basic description: We start out with a birds-eye view of a theme park, then the camera zooms into a theater, then we head inside the theater until only the movie screen is visible. The screen plays the DiC "Kid in Bed" logo, then the Squirrel/Mole "Neon Secret & Morocco" logo, then we see a clip of an episode of a DiC or Squirrel/Mole series with the affiliate's call signs (and either their channel number, city of license or both (some IDs such as the WCDIC IDs and the later WDDIC ID did not have a call sign at all)) plastered over the scene. Then the ID fades out.
Trivia: Originally, between 1993-December 31, 1994, only clips from Super Mario World were used. But starting on January 1, 1995 (some sources say the IDs debuted in 1994 while others think they debuted in 1995), new IDs were introduced that did not use clips from Super Mario World. Also these IDs had the Children's Metro Network logo unlike the original IDs (though not all 1995 IDs had the Children's Metro Network logo, also the 1995 IDs were used in tandem with the 1993 IDs).
Variants: The following is a list of the episode clips used, then the afiliates that used that clip (list is currently under construction):
Original Variants:
Super Mario World (Born to Ride): KMNSM (Minneapolis, MN), KDICD (Dallas, TX), WJDIC (Panama City, FL), WCDIC (Cleveland, OH), WDICF (Indianapolis, IN), KCORN (Nebraska statewide (says Lincoln, NE on the ID though)) and WBDIC (Buffalo, NY (also seen in Toronto, Ontario, Canada))
Super Mario World (Yoshi Shuffle): WCDIC (Cleveland, OH), KDICC (Los Angeles, CA) and KTCMN (San Diego, CA)
Super Mario World (Gopher Bash): KDICD (Dallas, TX), KDOSP (Sacramento, CA) and KTCMN (San Diego, CA)
Super Mario World (King Scoopa Koopa): WRDIC (North Carolina statewide), WATLG (Georgia statewide), WNYSM (New York, NY (says Newark, NJ on the ID though)), WDOSP (Harrisburg, PA), KSDIC (Seattle, WA (also seen in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)), WILSM (Chicago, IL), WDDIC (Detroit, MI ((also seen in Windsor, Ontario, Canada)) up until September 3, 1997)) and WTDIC (Toledo, OH) (a different scene from the episode was used on WDOSP, KSDIC, WILSM, WDDIC and WTDIC)
Finely's 1st Movie(Finely's mother): KCDC(France), WCDIC(Ohio) , (the negative scene was used on WDOSP)
1995 Variants:
The Yoshi Show (Coming to Yoshi Island): KDICD (Dallas, TX), WKDIC (Knoxville, TN), WNYSM (New York, NY (says Newark, NJ on the ident though)) and KTCMN (San Diego, CA) (strangely, the KDICD ID lacks the channel number)
The 2 Stupid Dogs revival of Secret Squirrel (Queen Bee): WDICM (Milwaukee, WI), WFLSM (Miami, FL) and KDICD (Dallas, TX)
The 2 Stupid Dogs revival of Secret Squirrel (episode unknown): WTBAY (Tampa, FL (also says St. Petersburg, FL)), WDOSP (Harrisburg, PA), Wisconsin statewide, KMNSM (Minneapolis, MN), WKDIC (Knoxville, TN), WPENN (Philadelphia, PA (also says Wilmington, DE, Trenton, NJ and Camden, NJ)) and KDICD (Dallas, TX). Also used on WDDIC (Detroit, MI (also seen in Windsor, Ontario, Canada)) starting on September 4, 1997 when WDDIC changed logos (from the circle 57 to a cartoonized Detroit skyline)
The 2 Stupid Dogs revival of Secret Squirrel (Hot Rodney): WNYSM (New York, NY (says Newark, NJ on the ID though)), KDICC (Los Angeles, CA), WILSM (Chicago, IL), KMNSM (Minneapolis, MN), WATLG (Georgia statewide), WMASS (Boston, MA), WDICF (Indianapolis, IN), WCDIC (Cleveland, OH) and WTDIC (Toledo, OH) (a different scene from the episode was used on WATLG, WMASS, WDICF, WCDIC and WTDIC)
Sailor Moon(VR Madness): KCDC(France), WMASS(Boston, MA), WALTG(Unknown).
Super Mario Galaxy(Pilot): Every station of the network!
A short version exists where just the episode scene plays. This was the variant most commonly used. The long version (described in ID above) only played whenever the network signed on at 6 AM Eastern every morning.
Christmas variants existed. I'm not sure what stations or episode clips were used.
On some occasions, the episode clip would freeze at the end, then fade out.
FX: The zooming in, whatever is on the theater screen.
Music/Sounds: We start out with theme park sounds, then theater sounds, then the logo's themes and the sounds on whatever is the episode clip used. Some IDs have voiceovers said by one of the characters in the scene, for example generic ones (for example, "You're watching KDICD, channel 14.") or whatever fits the ID's theme (for example, Luigi says "Score touchdowns by watching KTCMN in San Diego!") There is also a funny voiceover on the Yoshi Shuffle episode clip WCDIC ID "You are watching Cleveland's DiC, next up is a show for the stupid canines!" is said by Yoshi (referencing 2 Stupid Dogs). The Christmas IDs used different music and the ending theme of a show that aired on the network would play when the network signed off. The VR Madness ID has a funny voiceover (Docnewfound) on WMASS and KCDC France:"You are watching[WMASS or KCDC France]! Up next is a show for Magic lovers!(Referencing Sailor Moon)
Availability: Extinct since these IDs are for a network that no longer exists. Check your old tapes! It returned in 2009 and you can see these IDs.
Scare Factor: None to low, depends on whatever or not the episode scene scares you.
More Adam's Dream Logos 2.0 - Adam's Closing Logos - Dream Logos Wiki
1 ConnorWorks Entertainment Inc(Redux)
2 Your Dream Variations - Columbia Pictures
3 Your Dream Variations - Walt Disney Pictures


After thinking about using a Windows Service instead of a console application to send emails on specific Event Log entries I wanted to monitor, I decided to stick with the console application just because it's so easy to implement. It requires no installation, no background process is running, and you can execute it from many batches for each type of message you're wanting to email. I've considered doing the alerts via MSN Messenger, or RSS feed, but feel that email is still the most requested way that people want to receive their alerts.
I did add the capability of looking back as little as one minute using the -NUMBEROFMINUTES: argument. I also added the -EMAILSUBJECT: argument for custom email subjects.
Now you can use any combination of -NUMBEROFMINTUES, -NUMBEROFHOURS, and -NUMBEROFDAYS to look back the time you need to search the event log.
Please send any comments or suggestions on its usefulness.


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BH Photo: Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS50 $199
Thread starter snaimpally
PanasonicLumix DMC-ZS50 Digital Camera (Black)
12.1MP High Sensitivity MOS Sensor
Venus Engine Image Processor
Leica DC Vario-Elmar 30x Zoom Lens
24-720mm (35mm Equivalent)
3.0" 920k-Dot LCD Monitor
0.2" 1,166k-Dot Live View Finder
Full HD 1080p Video Recording at 60 fps
HYBRID O.I.S.+ and Level Shot Function
ISO 6400 and 10 fps Continuous Shooting
Aperture: f/3.3 (W) to f/6.4 (T) to f/8.0 (T)
I have a ZS50. I had another, gave it to a friend, and then later purchased a second example when they were $299. An easily overlooked camera. But it's surprisingly useful and offers output much better than one might expect from its small sensor, thanks to Panasonic's decision to stick with 12mp. It's also small and light enough to take anywhere with enough zoom range to make up for what one's smartphone lacks. At $199, it's a low-risk, no-brainer. And a fantastic stocking stuffer.
Tom Staggs
I had a zs40 and now have a ZS60 and these cameras are a very useful, take anywhere camera. Good quality pictures with a fantastic zoom. If you have a Panasonic camera the menu and function buttons are very similar


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NYSERDA Selects Home Inspections By The Fulmer Group to Provide Home Energy Ratings for Homebuyers in Erie County
Supports Governor Cuomo's Green New Deal and State Mandate for a 40 Percent Reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2030
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) today announced that it has selected Home Inspections By The Fulmer Group (Fulmer Group Inspections) to deliver home energy ratings for homebuyers in Erie County, as part of the second phase of the Home Energy Ratings Pilot. The pilot supports the State mandate for a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's Green New Deal, the most aggressive climate change program in the nation, which puts New York State on a path to economy-wide carbon neutrality.
Alicia Barton, President and CEO, NYSERDA said, "A home energy rating delivered as part of a pre-purchase inspection can provide New York families with a roadmap to energy efficiency opportunities and help reduce emissions in support of Governor Cuomo's aggressive climate and clean energy goals. Congratulations to Fulmer Group Inspections for being chosen to provide homebuyers in Erie County with home energy ratings that will help them improve the energy performance and comfort of their new home while lowering energy costs."
Home Energy Ratings are similar to a "Miles Per Gallon" rating on a car, providing easy-to-understand visual reports that give the homebuyer insight into how a home performs in areas like insulation, air leakage, heating and cooling efficiency, and water heating. Energy costs can make up a large portion of monthly household expenses and when shopping for a new home, it's important to learn about the home's energy performance to avoid unexpected costs after moving in. Keeping efficiency in mind can help new homeowners plan for future home improvements that will reduce energy bills and ensure a more comfortable home with year-round comfort.
NYSERDA launched the second phase of the pilot in August seeking applications from licensed home inspectors to deliver ratings to homebuyers as part of a pre-purchase inspection to support homebuyer remodeling of a newly purchased one- to four-family home. Providing ratings as part of a home buyer's pre-purchase inspection can help guide renovation and upgrade decisions that many new homeowners make within the first year of ownership.
Selected through a competitive process, Fulmer Group Inspections will provide Erie County homebuyers with ratings using the U.S. Department of Energy's Home Energy Score. Each report comes with a list of recommendations that helps the homebuyers plan upgrades to increase the efficiency and comfort of their new homes. For more information on the Home Energy Score, and home buying with energy efficiency in mind, visit NYSERDA's website.
Mark Fulmer, President, Fulmer Home Inspections said, "We are proud to be selected by NYSERDA to assist homeowners in Erie County by providing home energy ratings. With the cold weather each winter, a home energy rating can help save money on utility bills, while offering an opportunity to increase the value of a home and make it more marketable and appealing in the real estate market."
In an effort to make ratings accessible to more residents, NYSERDA expanded the pilot from the Town of Tonawanda to include all of Erie County, which is one of four New York communities along with Tompkins County, Monroe County and the borough of Queens, where homeowners and homebuyers will be eligible to receive a home energy rating at no cost. The next phase of the pilot is expected to launch in the coming months.
This pilot supports Governor Cuomo's New Efficiency: New York energy efficiency target to reduce energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs below forecasted energy use in 2025. Meeting the target will accelerate achievement of energy efficiency in the next seven years by more than 40 percent over the current plan and will set New York State on a path to achieve annual electric efficiency savings of three percent of investor-owned utility sales in 2025.
Funding for this program comes from the state's 10-year, $5.3 billion Clean Energy Fund.
New York State's Green New Deal
Governor Cuomo's Green New Deal is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, putting the state on a path to being entirely carbon-neutral across all sectors of the economy and establishing a goal to achieve a zero-carbon emissions electricity sector by 2040, faster than any other state. It builds on New York's unprecedented ramp-up of clean energy including a $2.9 billion investment in 46 large-scale renewable projects across the state, the creation of more than 150,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector, a commitment to develop nearly 1,700 megawatts of offshore wind by 2024, and 1,700 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2012.
The recently passed Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) mandates the Green New Deal's national leading clean energy targets: nine gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035, six gigawatts of distributed solar by 2025, and three gigawatts of energy storage by 2030, while calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy. The CLCPA also directs New York State agencies and authorities to collaborate with stakeholders to develop a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050 and aim to invest 40 percent of clean energy and energy efficiency program resources to benefit disadvantaged communities.
About NYSERDA
NYSERDA, a public benefit corporation, offers objective information and analysis, innovative programs, technical expertise, and funding to help New Yorkers increase energy efficiency, save money, use renewable energy, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. NYSERDA professionals work to protect the environment and create clean-energy jobs. NYSERDA has been developing partnerships to advance innovative energy solutions in New York State since 1975. To learn more about NYSERDA's programs and funding opportunities, visit nyserda.ny.gov or follow us on Twitter , Facebook , YouTube , or Instagram .
Aron Ashrafioun, Phone: 518-862-1090, Ext. 3496