Day: July 21, 2013

Sons Of Anarchy – Season 1

- Roshan

Sons Of Anarchy is an American television drama series created by Kurt Sutter about a close-knit outlaw motorcycle club operating in Charming, a fictional California town. The show centers on Jackson “Jax” Teller (Charlie Hunnam), the son of the late founder of the club who is currently the VP and stepson to the current club president Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman). Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original (SAMCRO), is an outlaw motorcycle club with deep roots in the town & surround area of Charming. Although they front a legitimate club & garage/repair shop, they make their real money in illegal ventures such as guns & smuggling them. They have many charters in the rest of the country but the show focuses on the founding chapter. The Redwood chapter is headquartered in a clubhouse adjacent to the Teller-Morrow auto mechanic shop. The townsfolk and some of the law officers adjust to the bikers due to them providing protection, support & avoiding hard drugs within the county.

Vietnam war vets John Teller and Piermont “Piney” Winston (William Lucking) co-founded SAMCRO in 1967 and settled in Charming the birthtown of John’s wife, Gemma (Katey Sagal). In 1993 John died and Gemma remarried Clay Morrow, the youngest founding member of the club. In season 1 Jax becomes a father when his druggie wife Wendy delivers a baby boy Abel. Due to her drug problems Abel was born 10 weeks premature with a hereditary heart malfunction and a hole in his stomach. Jax is divorcing Wendy and gets sole custody of the baby. In the mix comes returning former Charming native Dr. Tara Knowles, Jax’s ex-girlfriend who left as things got complicated between her & Jax and was practising in Chicago until a relationship with an ATF agent becomes too dangerous for her due to his obsession. When a rival club cleans out and then destroys their illegal arms warehouse, SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club Redwood Original) executes their own sense of justice in retrieving their guns. Meanwhile, family issues take center stage with a medical emergency involving Jax Teller’s newborn son. As the club deals with the aftermath of their illegal arms warehouse attack, the Deputy Chief of Police poses a new threat to SAMCRO’s reign over Charming. Jax continues to worry about the fate of his newborn son and begins to question the club’s rough way of doing business. Opie’s financial struggles leave him with a difficult choice. When the young daughter of a prominent Charming family is assaulted during a visiting carnival, SAMCRO races the authorities to capture the assailant. Meanwhile, a new shipment of guns arrives from their IRA connection with an additional price.

The club travels to Nevada to store arms with a brother club, The Devil’s Tribe. When the Mayans pose a threat, Clay decides to “patch over” the Tribe, making them an official SOA charter. AnATF agent begins investigating SAMCRO. Gemma hosts a town fundraiser, which brings the ex-club member responsible for Opie’s arrest back to town and into direct conflict with Jax and Opie (Ryan Hurst). Clay deals with protecting a perverse parolee who can lead to a big payoff. ATF agent Kohn continues to investigate SOA. A small favor for Piney’s old war buddy turns into a big problem for SAMCRO. With Clay detained, Jax must step up to handle the situation. When old bones are discovered on the outskirts of Charming, Clay is forced to deal with secrets he buried long ago. Meanwhile, the club sets its sights on prize money, backing Half-Sack in a bare-knuckle brawl. ATF Agent Kohn’s investigation turns personal when his true intentions are revealed. With the IRA gun payment looming, SAMCRO scrambles to come up with the cash. The Mayans and Nords take a drastic step in strengthening their alliance. And Jax finds himself in a dangerous position with Tara. SAMCRO plans retaliation on a rival MC while dealing with a wounded ally in the clubhouse. Meanwhile, Jax, Bobby, and Opie aim to put an end to the gun debt for good. With ATF Agent Stahl pressing the women of SAMCRO, Jax sees Chief Unser as the key to the club’s salvation. Tara still reels from the Kohn situation. And Cherry reveals some interesting information about her past to Gemma. When one SOA member is arrested for murder and another goes missing, Jax must choose between friendship and the club. Meanwhile, Abel grows stronger and is soon to be released from the NICU, but he is not the only one coming home.

When Agent Kohn attacks Tara at her house, she pretends to seduce him before reaching for a gun. In the struggle he gets shot so she calls Jax. Kohn antagonizes the two and so Jax kills him and burns his body in the woods. In need of cash to fund Bobby’s defense, Clay’s solution leaves SAMCRO in a vulnerable position. What is supposed to be a happy homecoming for Abel ends in more turmoil for the club. As the ATF agent leads Clay to believe that Opie had betrayed the club, Tig (Kim Coates) & Clay decide to kill Opie in secret. However a hooded Tig shoots Opie’s wife Donna by mistake and at the same time the Chief tells Clay that Opie hasn’t turned but was being setup. The death of his wife devastate Opie while Clay & Tig must deal with having killed a loyal brother’s wife.

Escape From Planet Earth

- Roshan

Only in an animation movie can Rob Corddy be the lead! Escape From Planet Earth is a 2013 Canadian animation movie produced by Rainmaker Entertainment, and directed by Cal Brunker. This is the debut film for Rainmaker Entertainment. The movie stars the voices of Rob Corddy, Brendan Fraser, William Shatner, Jessica Alba, Sarah Jessica Parker, Craig Robinson, Jane Lynch, George Lopez, Ricky Gervais & Sofia Vergara.

The movie is about two brothers Scorch Supernova – a flamboyant, swashbuckling, hero famed for his space adventures where he goes on missions – and Gary Supernova who works at the controls back on planet Baab at BASA (much like our own NASA). Although they actually work as a team Scorch gets all the accolades for being the brawn, while super cautious and by the book nerd Gary sits and mans the controls and effectively is the brains behind the missions. After a daring mission rescuing a bunch of babies from a rival species and once again paraded as a hero, the head of BASA informs Scorch that he is respond to an SOS call from the Dark Planet (Earth) where no alien has ever returned from. Gary pleads to abort the mission and then asks for 3 weeks to prep but he is denied. After further arguing finally Gary says that he won’t be helping Scorch and quits BASA before Scorch can fire him. Gary then goes home to his wife Kira and son Kip only to find out that Scorch has already gone on the mission to the Dark planet, while Kip, who idolizes his uncle Scorch, is watching it on live TV in excitement.

Scorch lands on earth in the desert and finds a 711 store & mistakes an inflatable figure for a dying being. He is then tranquilized and captured by a secret part of the US military, headed by general Shanker Saunderson, and taken to Area 51. On seeing this young Kip wants to go rescue his uncle but Gary scolds him and makes him go to his room. Late at night, Gary finds Kip missing and rushes to BASA headquarters with Kira. They find Kip launching a ship to rescue Scorch on his own but after Kira takes her son aside, Gary decides to go on his own and save his brother. He soon arrives on the Dark Planet. As soon as he arrives his ship immediately activates a self-destruct sequence, but Gary manages to get out. He then arrives at the same store that Scorch arrived at earlier. Gary goes inside the store, but is spotted by two men inside named Hawk and Hammer. Both Gary and the two men get freaked out by each other and try to hide from each other. After the two men realize that Gary is not a hostile alien, they offer him a slushie. Gary takes the slushie but drinks it too fast and gets brain freeze. Afterwards, Shanker’s men break into the store and capture Gary, taking him to Area 51.

At Area 51, it is revealed that Shanker, disguised with a hair piece and looking a lot younger is in league with Lena, who has fallen in love with him. They had planed to smuggle a powerful source known as blubonium in Scorch’s suit and faked the SOS call. Lena, meanwhile, has captured Kira, who stayed at BASA to try to contact Gary in concern for his safety. Lena then reveals her plan to give a lifetime supply of blutonium to Shanker to power his ‘peace shield’ which he says is to protect earth against hostile aliens. Gary is placed in a cell hall with other alien geniuses named Doc, Io, and Thurman, who tell Gary that various human technology has been invented by them for Shanker to rip off and sell to the world so he will release them. Gary reunites with his brother, but is again annoyed by his conceited behavior. After Shanker reveals the blutonium, Gary unintentionally provokes Scorch into stealing it after stating it’s dangerous power and when being chased, Scorch destroys the blutonium, causing Shanker to freeze him. He orders Gary, a techo-whiz, to fix the peace shield & reveals that he’s going to destroy all of the alien planets with a laser ray the captured aliens have built due to 3 imprisoned aliens accidentally killing his dad when he was 6. Gary fixes it with help from his new friends, but Shanker goes back on his promise to release him and instead freezes him like his brother.

The other aliens realize Shanker’s true intentions when the general tries to destroy Baab with the laser ray, it is revealed that Gary rigged the blutonium to malfunction and destroy the laser ray, thereby releasing the captured aliens. With Gary and Scorch released from their icy prisons, the brothers, Doc, Thurman, and Io escape Area 51 and eventually find Scorch’s ship. Meanwhile back on Baab, Kip rescues his mother who stops and subdues Lena after the latter took off with the blutonium shipment and Kira learns that Shanker was using her. Kip guides his father to safety via mission control, but Shanker (wearing Scorch’s robotic suit that he wears on his adventures) uses a tractor beam to stop the ship, but Gary and Scorch jump on him and manage to get the suit off the villain, causing the latter and the brothers to plummet to their dooms. After reconciling, the aliens that killed Shanker’s dad rescue them and take Shanker away. After returning to Baab, Scorch marries a reporter named Gabby Babblebrook.

It was fun to watch, especially if you like good animation & scifi stuff. I thought it was ok even though the movie was panned by critics and it made $70 million against it’s budget of $40 million. It was good enough for me to give it a 7 outta 10.