May 26, 2013 | Awake & Dreaming

I remember very little about Green Arrow a costumed crime-fighter who appears in comic books published by DC Comics other than a couple of comics that I read way back in the mid 80s. The CW has a new series Arrow based on the fictional superhero and the Arrow universe. The series draws comparisons with both Smallville & the Christopher Nolan era Batman movies and I can see that in them. While also focusing on the romantic & family lives of the leads in the series, it also features a vigilante not afraid to kill for the good of the city and it’s residents.

Shot in Vancouver Arrow is developed by Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, and Andrew Kreisberg and stars Stephen Amell as billionaire playboy, & son of Robert Queen who helms Queen Industries, who spends five years stranded on an island following a shipwreck that claims the life of everyone else on board, including his father and Sara Lance, the sister of Oliver’s girlfriend Laurel (Katie Cassidy), a defence lawyer working in the Glades, and with whom he was having an affair. Other main characters include Colin Donnell who plays Oliver’s best friend Tommy Merlyn, Willa Holland who plays Oliver’s younger sister Thea, Susanna Thompson who plays their mother Moira Queen. David Ramsey plays John Diggle, Oliver’s partner who started out as his bodyguard but who is later told the truth and joins Oliver and becomes his conscious. Paul Blackthorne plays det. Quentin Lance, Laurel’s father and Starling City police detective who holds a grudge against Oliver and blames him for Sara’s death. Other than the main cast the major supporting roles are businessman Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman); Walter Steele (Colin Salmon), the former CFO of his father’s company who is now the CEO & Moira husband & Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards) a tech whiz who later joins Oliver in his quest.

Initially we are led to believe that Oliver was alone on the island for 5 years after the yatch in which he, his father, Sara and some of his father’s people were traveling in, subsides in the ocean but as the series progresses we come to know about the true nature of the island – it is a prison camp set up by the Chinese for dangerous criminals and Oliver finds himself the target of a special military mercenary unit tasked to exterminate the prisoners. He joins Yao Fei, a special operative from Hong Kong, Slade Wilson, an Australian Intelligence operative who came to the island to free Yao Fei and Fei’s daughter Shado and fights against the unit. The trio are also responsible in training Oliver, improving his fitness & survival skills and teaching him how to use many weapons, including the bow & arrow which he masters. What he also doesn’t tell his family & the authorities is that Robert survived the yacht sinking but killed both himself & one of his men to give Oliver all the supplies needed and a better chance at surviving. Robert entrusted his son with a small book that contains a list of people responsible for taking advantage of the city. Oliver promises his father to right the wrongs of his family, fight the ills of society, and restore Starling City to its former glory and bring the list of businessmen to justice.

Oliver will find out that his mother was also part of that group of influential men & women and that Tommy’s father Malcolm was the chief instigator. Malcolm has an alterego, a black hooded archer, and is set on destroying the Glades – a neighborhood filled with poverty and crime but where also some good people live – as it was where his beloved wife, a charitable woman, was mugged and killed while running a hospital. Malcolm is blinded by rage and craves vengance and is equal to Oliver in strength and skill and in some ways is his superior. As the series progresses Oliver must find a way to bring these men to justice, find out who set his father out to die by sabotaging the yacht (it turns out to be Malcolm) and stop Malcolm from killing a lot of innocent people. Along the way he, with the help of Diggle and later Felicity, must also protect the city from other criminals who feed drugs and violence to the citizens. Oliver also struggles with his feelings for Laurel, initially pushing her away to protect her and she & Tommy start a relationship. Oliver dates an old friend of his, a vice cop named McKenna Hall for a while but after she leaves he realizes that he cannot lie about where his heart lies. Tommy is shocked to learn of Oliver’s alter ego and is angry. As the season ends, Oliver is able to kill Malcolm but not the bomb that is set in the Glades – Tommy is killed when looking for Laurel.

Very exciting show with enough balance between the fights, intriguing drama, crime, some comedy and romance. It’s a good mix of everything that we love about a show including cool gadgets. Cannot wait for the second season.

Ok, here is something I blame nostalgia for – this is a movie I last watched 31 years ago! Yes, back in 1982 when I was still a 5 year old, innocent boy. When I was young my parents would watch a lot more English language films (mostly due to less availability of Malayalam movies on VHS) as did most Indian parents when Hindi movies weren’t available. We also watched some horror movies as a family like Evil Dead, Omen & this one Basket Case– both of which I remember watching around that time, scared shitless and peeping out from behind the sofa. Now all 3 form part of their own trilogy or had sequels but I only remember watching the first of all three franchises. Basket Case is one that my sister and I remember vividly as being scary for a 5 year old and a 11 year old back in 1982. I never found a copy of it in my search till now but I downloaded the movie and watched it yesterday afternoon.

What a shit poor movie! The horror is laughable because the effects are at best amateurish and the acting is horrendous. The budget is at $33,000 and most of it was spent on the puppet and the stop animation required to show the creature move. The cast look like they were pulled out from the streets and asked to be in the film on the spot and given 5 minutes to prepare. Not that they had much to work with in the first place but anyways. And the place – especially the hotel and the doctor’s office – laughable. Is this really New York City? I would have thought that even hotels in the poorest cities in India in 1982 would be ashamed to have such classless look about them!

Anyways Duane Bradley is a young man from upstate New York. When he was born, he was one half of a pair of Siamese twins but what was attached to his side was a lump of just a deformed head & face with two swollen claw like hands on either side. At birth their mother died and their father was enraged at the sight of the monster attached to his son. From day one the father hated & verbally abused Belial, as the creature was called and only the boys maternal aunt loved Belial as much as Duane. At the age of 10, the father paid 3 doctors from NYC to surgically separated against their will. Belial was tossed aside along with the garbage but he still possess a telepathic link to Duane. The latter releases his brother who then kills their father – cut clean in half by an electrical saw – and the two brother go to love with their aunt, who doted on her nephews. After her death, Belial telepathically tells his brother to take him to the city so they can track and kills the doctors responsible for the surgery. So putting Belial in a basket (hence the title) and find a seedy motel filled with crooks, low lives & prostitutes to stay in. Duane feeds his brother copious amounts of burgers & hotdogs while he tracks the doctors.

Belial the beautiful

He finds doctor one, strikes up a conversation with the blonde, busty reception and meets the doctor. The “acting” of the actress is so fake, almost as fake as her hair, which I almost swear is a wig! As it is morning and there are others in the office, Duane leaves but not after getting the receptionist to offer herself as a guide for sightseeing the next day. That evening the doctor is killed by Belial (in an unintentionally hilarious scene) and returns to Duane, who is waiting with the basket. The next day Duane goes alone to see the receptionist, Sharon, and they tour the city. As they click romance sparks and they kiss but Belial can sense this and goes berserk in his room, messing things up and alerting the other tenants. He slips into the toilet to avoid the cops who investigate and Duane promises that he is never leaving him. They then go to next doctor and kill her too – in another hilarious and amateurish acting scene of epic proportions! Later an older man who tries to steal money from Duane is also killed by Belial. Duane goes to drink with the disgusting prostitute that befriends him and in his drunkenness, tells her everything but she doesn’t believe a word he says. He then tries to get rid of Sharon, fearing that Belial may kill her too and although she sees him and is scared she still wants to be with Duane, but he throws her out of the room.

That night Duane has a nightmare that he is running stark naked across a deserted NYC streets (yes you his bush & schlong) and finds a naked Sharon in bed and plays with her boobies (which are big and nice, thanks for asking). In reality it is Belial who has dragged himself to her place (impressive for a blob with no legs) and finds her naked in bed. He kills her and then proceeds to have sex with her corpse (eewww gross) and Duane finds him doing this. He grabs Belial and puts in the basket and brings him to the hotel. In the room Duane bickers and screams at Belial, who proceed to grab his brother by the gonads and struggling the two fall from the window and hang onto the neon sign of the hotel. As the other tenants watch the two brothers struggle and finally fall to their deaths.

I had enough by the 20th minute but still wanted to see the movie completely. 2 outta 10!