I actually liked Ong Bak 3.  Compared to the first two there’s a whole lot less action, and a lot more dance and philosophy.  It is a lot slower as a result, though it did a good job of tackling some of the Buddhist teachings about life in the process.  It can be a bit awkward when warrior/movie types try to instill life lessons in their craft, though it seems to me that Tony Jaa, the star of the show, thought about his approach well.

The original Ong Bak gave a modern twist on Muay Thai, involving a lot of mind-bending acrobatics and huge amount of flying elbows and knees.  Ong Bak 2 went back in time, and to an awful lot of weapons: knives, daggers, poles, spears, you name it.  Ong Bak 3 tied the story of Ong Bak 2 to the original, and was much more about meditation, life, and what seems to me a blend of Tai Chi and Muay Thai.

All in all I would recommend the movie, as long as you aren’t seeking blood lust.  It certainly made me think fondly on my time with martial arts, and dance.  Jaa puts that the two are related, and both are a way of respecting and training the body.  I can dig that, and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.

Watched Predators tonight; the 2010 version which was only produced, not directed by Robert Rodriguez.  The long and the short is that it wasn’t that great of a movie.  It was a formula type deal, mirroring rather closely a large number of other monster survival type movies.  The effects were alright, but in the end there wasn’t that much to hold my attention all that well.

It wasn’t a horrible movie, and I was at least entertained.  I would say, though, that it’s not worth going out of your way to see it.  Just think up what you think would happen, and know it’s all pretty close to that.

I’m still two episodes from the end of the third season, but True Blood has been a great wild ride so far.  Alan Ball is a really witty dude, and this show hits the mark on a number of levels.

If I have any complaint, it may be that Season 3 has too many plot lines running across each episode: Lafayette, Tara, Sookie, Bill, Eric, Russel, Sam, each have their own stories, which are edged forward at a snail’s pace.  With that said, there’s an awful lot of suspense and anticipation, and a lot does happen over the course of the season.

As is generally the case I’m going to try and keep my comments short so as to not give anything away, though if you haven’t seen any of the show I highly recommend it.  Netflix has the previous seasons on DVD, which due to their release cycles does mean I’m perpetually a year behind.  It’s worth it even so.  If you have the time go check it out!

While I enjoyed the crap out of the original Night of the Living Dead, I do have to admit that horror is probably not my #1 film genre.  Even so, I just finished the first season of Walking Dead from AMC, and I am pretty blown away.

Gore, story, acting, quality; all parts of the show are so well done.  Yes, it is a bit spooky, though it is much more about the story and the characters.  It has been adapted from a comic book series, and is created by Frank Darabont, who was behind the Green Mile and the Shawshank Redemption.  As mentioned in the extras, the point of the show was basically to do a short movie for each episode; and it shows.

At only six episodes for the first season, it goes by rather quickly.  I’m looking forward to future seasons, and to see where it all is headed.  It hasn’t given me the motivation to dive into the comic, yet I can imagine it would do so for some.

I had this movie sitting in my queue for a while, mostly avoiding it because of the image on the box art.  It’s too bad, too, because now that I bit into it, I really can’t tell where that still came from, and why they decided that it was their best choice.  Indeed, the movie was about a rather intense and dirty political situation, though there were hardly any moments of the candidates screaming as I had initially imagined.

At the end of it, I’m really impressed by Booker, the main character in the film who is in the process of taking on the incumbent Mayor of Newark, New Jersey.  Clearly the movie was made from his perspective, though it’s easy to figure out why after so short a period of time.  There’s a lot of lying, corruption, and dirty fighting that comes into view.

As a side note, it’s also impressive to see how much money goes into these political machines.  Millions of dollars went into each campaign, and while that’s the cost of getting into the game, it’s interesting to think what all that money could have been used to do instead.