The Host

Alien body snatchers called Souls invade Earth possessing nearly all humans. A few humans are able to resist and even fight back. One Soul possesses a young woman named Melanie Stryder and meets strong resistance. Over time the relationship between Melanie and the Soul, that calls itself Wanderer, possessing her becomes cooperative and even friendly. As Wanderer learns more about humanity it’s attitude changes.

This movie is based on a book by Stephanie Meyer who also wrote the Twilight series. The movie is done really well. I have not yet read the book so I cannot say how well the movie follows it. I suspect not everyone will be happy with the alien body snatchers being referred to as Souls. The vehicles with chrome-like exteriors were kinda cool. There are some great sports cars in the movie especially the Lotus. I also like the Unimogs. I enjoyed this movie.

Cast includes: Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel, Frances Fisher, Chandler Canterbury, Diane Kruger. William Hurt, Boyd Holbrook, Scott Lawrence, Shawn Carter Peterson, Lee Hardee, Phil Austin, Raeden Greer, J.D. Evermore, Emily Browning, Mustafa Harris, Bokeem Woodbine, Alex Russell, David Lichtenstein

Available on: Google Play, Amazon, YouTube

Z Nation (Series 1)

A zombie virus has ravaged the world. One test subject has survived being infected and it is suspected his blood might hold the antibodies necessary to create a vaccine. A small heroic group must try to get the test subject from New York to the last lab operating that may be able to create the vaccine. The problem is the lab they need to get him to is in California and there is a lot of hostel territory between New York and California.

If you want zombies and the violence, blood and gore that are part of the proper zombie package Z Nation will be fun for you there is very little one can complain about in the effects department. I found the show fun but the acting is OK but not great (DJ Qualls is the exception, he did a great job!), and the story and lore are extremely predictable. It is more fantasy than The Walking Dead with some really silly Chucky-like and Sharknado-like scenes. There is even a little Cheech and Chong type moment. All in all despite a few groaners the show is reasonable fun.

Cast includes: Kellita Smith, DJ Qualls, Michael Welch, Keith Allan, Anastasia Baranova, Russell Hodgkinson, Pisay Pao, Nat Zang, Tom Everett Scott, Harold Perrineau

Available on: Netflix, Hulu

Destination Truth

Destination Truth is a series about Josh Gates and his team heading out all over the world to try to document a paranormal or cyrptozoological report. They used night vision, thermal imaging, EMF Meters, audio amplification devices etc. Usually each episode contains two targets. Once done with an investigation they return to their base and review the evidence collected sometimes with the help of experts from outside the team. The team members changed several times over the 5 seasons but the people were always did a really good job in the show.

Destination Truth ran from June 6. 2007 and the last season began July 10, 2012 and it was great fun. Not so much for finding their latest cryptid, monster, or paranormal target but for the cultures and locations they visited. Josh Gates and crew always interacted with the people and participated in their culture and listened to and appreciated their beliefs. I enjoy Destination Truth and watch the episodes over and over. Wonderful entertainment!

Team Members Included: Josh Gates, Erin Ryder, Kyle Wheeler, David D’Angelo, Katy Murakami, Adam Butler, Tristant Icaza, Richie Fung, Drew Adams, Allie Boettger, Hank Braxtan, Casey Brumels, Ron Carlson, Gabriel “Gabe” Copeland, Jael de Pardo, Rey Delgado, Vlad Garcia, Bicha Gholam, Lindsay Gillette, Tony Gonzales, Shawn A. Goodwin, Naomi Grossman, Araceli Haldeman, Sharra Jenkins, Chris Lore, Mike Morrell, Bobby Pura, Dan Ramirez, Nick Scown, Star Seifert, Ian Shorr, Erica “Shush” Shusha, Vanessa Joy Smith, Michael “Ponch” St. Hilaire, Evan B. Stone, Jarrod Tomassi, Jed Udall, Rich Velazquez, Rex Williams, Eric Wing, Ali Zubik

Guests who appeared on the show: Jason Hawes – TAPS investigator,Grant Wilson – TAPS investigator, Steve Gonsalves – TAPS investigator. Dave Tango – TAPS investigator, Jael de Pardo – investigator, Robb Demarest – GHI investigator, Dustin Pari – TAPS/GHI investigator, Barry Fitzgerald – GHI investigator, Kris Williams – TAPS/GHI investigator, Allison Scagliotti – actress Warehouse 13

Available on: Amazon, Google Play, VUDU, Netflix

The X-Files

The X-Files is the section of the FBI that deals with unexplained phenomena. The unexplained include creature reports, conspiracies, time anomalies, UFO reports and many other situations. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigate the X-Files and over time and many episodes uncover many incredible situations and do their best to deal with them.

 

Red Dwarf

Craig Charles plays David Lister who gets lost in space and time with a computer generated holographic companion, Arnold Rimmer played by Chris Barrie and a cat that has evolved into a biped played by Danny John-Jules and later in the series a robot named Kryten played by Robert Llewellyn. In their efforts to get back to Earth they have all manner of hilarious obstacles.

Laughing as I watch Red Dwarf is the one of the easiest abdominal workouts I ever do and I have been laughing for over 20 years(absolutely incredible abs!). The characters personalities clash with outrageously funny results. Truly, our heroes are not the most intellectual of crews but they seem to flounder through challenges in their own way…blundering and panicking seem to be their first actions followed by applying truly remarkable problem solving skills(though I’m not sure what the remark would be!).

Importantly though, they don’t swear, there is no nudity, and no overtly adult subject matter. This is good clean fun family safe, kid safe, clean fun…well cleanish as Lister is a slob and they use the swear word ‘smeg’ a lot!

Cast includes: Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules, Robert Llewellyn, Chloë Annett, Norman Lovett, Hattie Hayridge

Available on: Amazon, Google Play, ShareTV, Netflix

World War Z

A disease causing people to turn into zombies breaks out in several cities around the world.  Gerry Lane(Brad Pit) plays a former U. N. investigator who is trying to stop the global zombie pandemic. He then travels around the world looking for patient zero, the first case, since it is believed the first case is the key to stopping the infection. (spoilers limited)

I, Frankenstein

Frankenstein’s monster has been on the run fending off attacks by demons for 200 years. A policeman is killed trying to intervene in an attack in an American city and this causes the guardians of the human race, gargoyles, to intervene. They discover that the demons want Dr. Frankenstein’s ability to reanimate corpses to create hosts for more demons. Since the gargoyles and the demons are adversaries keeping the reanimation technology away from the demons is vital to them too because of what a demon army would do to the human race.

This movie is well done. This movie has some negative reviews out there and for the most part I can’t get through their jargon to figure out why. Don’t listen to the negative people out there. Judge for yourself but I enjoyed it. If you did not, why not? The effects were good, the lore was well thought out, There certainly was nothing wrong with the acting.

Happy New Year! Best of luck to everyone!

Cast includes: Aaron Eckhart, Bill Nighy, Yvonne Strahovski, Miranda Otto, Socratis Otto, Jai Courtney, Kevin Grevioux

Available on: Google Play, Amazon, VUDU, Netflix

Terra Nova TV Series

Terra Nova is about one families’ choice to join other colonists and go 85 million years back in time and begin the human race over again. The world they left was dying and the scientists hope is that doing so will create a parallel time stream where the human race does a better job taking care of the Earth. The Shannon family have to try secretly joining the colonists due to the fact they have a third child and the legal limit is two.

I like good science fiction and this is good science fiction. Excellent sets, acting, camara work, effects, and stories. This show has it all. Fox dropped it after the first season but Netflix may pick up their fumble and get a touchdown with a second season!

Cast includes: Jason O’Mara, Shelley Conn, Christine Adams, Allison Miller, Landon Liboiron, Naomi Scott, Rod Hallett, Alana Mansour, Stephen Lang

Available on: Netflix, Amazon

Primeval TV Series

Holes in time begin opening and the wildlife and atmosphere from those times are being released into the present. Few people know about the situation and protect our world from the dangers from the past and the future. When the holes open the heroic group races to evaluate the situation and eliminate any danger and to try to keep people from finding out and panicking or going through. The group also searches for a reason for the problem and a way of controlling or eliminating the threat.

Primeval is a BBC science fiction series. This show has a lot of special effects that do a great job of telling the story. The effects are as good as those on the Jurassic Park movies in my opinion. I appreciate the level of character development that allows the viewer to know the characters. This show is on my list of all time favorites! Check it out!

Cast includes: Douglas Henshall, James Murray, Andrew-Lee Potts, Lucy Brown, Hannah Spearritt, Juliet Aubrey, Ben Miller, Laila Rouass, Jason Flemyng, Ben Mansfield, Ciarán McMenamin, Ruth Kearney, Alexander Siddig

Available on: Netflix, VUDU, Amazon, Google Play

36 Saints

New York City police detectives have to investigate murders that turn out to be the work of a serial killer. The killer is picking people who together recently survived a plane crash. Then there is something about a demon and some Lilith person and saints that don’t do anything saintly. It is really hard to put it all together.