Mary (Brittany Murphy) is taking the morning off from work to take her boyfriend, Kevin (Dean Cain), to the hospital for surgery.  After a few hours of waiting in the lobby for him she realises that something has to be wrong.  She soon confronts some medical staff only to be told that her boyfriend is not in their system, the doctor he was coming to meet is on leave and there’s no one coming in for the kind of operation that she claims he was scheduled to do.  She’s left being accused of being insane and wondering who’s playing the sad joke on her.

Why are you reviewing this movie Andrew?  I guess the only reason is because I sat through it so that I could write my weekly DVD column over at The Film Stage, and it was so bad that if I don’t write about it I’m going to find even more reasons as to how much a waste of time the ninety-minutes I spent in front of the television yesterday was.

Brittany Murphy was never one of my favourite actresses, and I know it’s not good to speak ill of the dead but it’s true.  She never seemed to be anymore than a not so attractive version of every other blonde actress that shows up in romantic comedies every other weekend at the cinema.  She had that one part in Sin City which made me think that she could be okay, but she never at any point following that gave me much hope.  Cast alongside Dean Cain makes the movie even worse.  When one of my least favourite actresses, of my lifetime, turns in one of her less likeable performances and remains to be the best actress (or actor) in the film then you know you have a stinker on your hands.

The question that remains is if the movie is bad enough that it can be made entertaining thanks to the help of a few friends and some alcohol?  I think it might just be.  It has all the makings of a bad movie that’s so bad it becomes good.  It has: horrible acting, ridiculously cliché plot twists and some of the most stereotyped characters (I’m looking at you divorced police detective who ends up believing the girl in the end).  Sprinkle in a handful of lines so stupid that you believe you said it in a drunk message you left on your ex-girlfriend’s voice mail last night.

So in the end I’ll repeat myself.  Do not watch this movie without a minimum of two friend (preferably those who are good at making fun of movies) and five bottles of tequila.

IMDB says N/A

Rotten Tomatoes says N/A

I say 0/10 (I’ll allow it)

The last thirty minutes of my life has proven that it’s impossible to try and summarize this film.  There are so many un-understandable points in this film that I have no idea as to what happened or what it meant.  I could easily write a two-hundred word paragraph giving away every plot point of this film, but I’m sure I would only confuse those who haven’t seen this movie even more.  Let’s just say a lot of weird things happen, and somehow Fred (Bill Pullman) goes to jail and transforms into Pete (Balthazar Getty) and they both encounter this mystery man, played by Robert Blake.

When the film finished I realised that there was so many questions left unanswered but I really didn’t feel like asking them.  Just like Wild at Heart I felt that there was so much of it that just went over my head.  However, in this instance I found myself actually drawn into this not so logical world where people who don’t want to die by electric chair can magically change into different people after having a really bad headache.  There’s even this Mystery Man (Robert Blake) that I think represented the Devil, but I have no idea whether I’m right or not, that I found myself constantly curious about and pissed that we never get to spend enough time with.

This is a film that constantly wafts the idea of an interesting mind bending story, but you never feel like you get there.  Or better yet, you never understand how you got there but at the same time you really never care.  The character of Fred is married to Renee (Patricia Arquette).  In prison he changes to Pete who falls for Alice (Patricia Arquette).   We’re given these obvious links between Fred and Pete but there is never a real understanding of why these links are made.  If you think of it that Pete is really Fred, but while he’s Pete he doesn’t know he’s Fred you can follow Pete’s storyline as a completely separate plot.  However, I get the feeling that there’s more to it than that and irks me that I’m struggling to find the deeper meaning of these characters.

I know to this point all I’ve spoken about is how difficult it was for me grasp the concept of this film but the truth is that at the end of it all I kind of liked it.  It’s not a film that I’d add to my collection and watch every year to remind myself of its brilliance, but it’s definitely a film worth seeing if it’s missing among your ‘watched’ David Lynch films.  I particularly loved the character of Mr. Eddy (Robert Loggia), especially in the scene where he deals with the annoying tail gate driver – I hate tail gaters.

IMDB says 7.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 59%

I say 7.0/10

Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are called to Shutter Island to solve to case of the escaped patient.  The Marshalls realize the more and more they look into the disappearance of Rachel Solando is the more it seems that something else is going on.  We follow the investigation and at the same time follow our Marshalls run around this maze of a mental facility trying to make sense of it all.

People who watch a lot of movies always say that after a while they can see a pattern emerging.  People always seem to ask if there’s such a predictable nature to film why do I love to watch so many?  The truth is that I love film not just for the plot (even though that’s a part of it) but more for the elements that are distinctly film related.  Like imagery, performances and the overall grandness that cinema can be.  Shutter Island is one of those films which forget to worry about the predictability of the plot and focus so well on all the other elements of what a film can be and therefore gives a cinephile a dream experience.

The movie is packed with stellar performances.  Leonardo DiCaprio seems to always be getting better with each film he does and that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.  I also seem to be noticing more and more how underappreciated an actor Mark Ruffalo is.  He did one hell of a job last year in The Brothers Bloom and Blindness.  The film is also filled with memorable supporting performances from Sir Ben Kingsley as Dr. Cawley to Elias Kotaes and Jackie Earle Haley as Laeddis and George Noyce.  From scene to scene if you don’t know the actor you will be leaving the theatre with a wanting feeling to find out who that was just making the movie a more than the average movie.

What definitely pushed this movie from the regular theatre going experience to a true masterpiece for me were two elements.  Throughout the film there we were treated, intermittently, to some truly gorgeous (and at times disturbing) dream sequences.  Going back to when Teddy was in the war and images of his dead wife.  The touch of brilliance from Scorsese just shined through as you could see how beautifully he paints the elements of the dream that are true and the parts that are over exaggerated just to show what bothers Teddy most about those memories.

The other part of the movie that just gave me a thrill was how well they handled the psycho-thriller that is this film.  Whenever you see a film like this it’s almost guaranteed that eventually we are going to have to question our protagonist’s sanity.  What makes this movie far better than the rest of the other films out there is the way it handled the character once we finally got to that point.  Most films like to stay in a space of ambiguity and leave it up to the viewer to decide which he/she prefers to believe is true.  Not that I don’t like some ambiguity from time to time but I find it quite refreshing the sincere honesty that the writer had with the audience about this aspect of our protagonist.  This is the one part of the film that makes sitting through two hours of dramatic suspense from the scene to scene really rewarding.

This movie is without a doubt the first masterpiece of 2010 that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing on screen.  It’s a must see for anyone who loves a good thriller and great performances.  It doesn’t feel like many other Scorsese films but more like he left his cinematic hang-ups at home and came to work on a new project in the best way that would serve the story.

IMDB says 8.1/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 67%

I say 9.0/10

note: this is a repost of one my Reviews from Aug 9th, 2008.

Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt) is a youngster that has just transferred into the New York City’s homicide division. Detective Lt. William Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is the experienced homicide detective that has been partnered with Mills for his final week before he retires. As Mills enters the city and starts work at the same time a new serial killer starts his work using the seven deadly sins as the overall theme for his murders.

Here is one of those movies that I am semi-embarrassed to say that I am yet to see. It is so amazing, and it features so many great themes, visuals, dialogue, and a great plot twist that not many people will see till a couple moments before Fincher shows us. I’ve been a David Fincher fan ever since a friend of mine who forced me to sit through “Fight Club” a few years ago. And when I told him “I don’t get it” he made me watch it again the following day and I loved it.

Personally I think this movie is Fincher playing target practice for his more subtle direction style, which we saw a much better version of with “Zodiac”. I wasn’t too amazed with the movie at first. It made me feel like a much better filmed police movie, which had a lot cooler idea for a serial killer. And when I use the word “cooler” I really mean flashy, it sticks out and makes you feel like you need to keep watching.

One thing I must say though is that this movie did not hit that high note for me until Kevin Spacey comes on screen. Kevin Spacey has recently become one of my favourite actors to watch, since he always does such a great job of delivering lines, and making the character’s more subtle pieces work in the movie. And this performance is no different from all his others that I love.

Another reason why I think I loved this movie so much is the villain in this movie is just so interesting. It takes me back a fortnight to when I was going crazy over The Joker in The Dark Knight. I guess I have an affinity to get drawn into these psychotic and somewhat unexplained and villains that are we are not able to understand. The only way I think you could understand this guy [without of course having a PhD in Psychology] is to let him walk you through every thought he has every moment of the day for maybe a couple of years.

This movie did touch on some social issues that are very interesting [and somewhat obvious]. The biggest one is should we really be tolerant of people who are falling to these deadly sins [even when they don’t directly affect us]? For example, one of the deadly sins is gluttony. So should we be okay with all these men [and women] who weigh so much that they become shut-ins? When you look at them you laugh and make jokes saying that they need a crane to move them from their couch to the toilet and back. Why do we believe in being quiet about these things? Just because people deserve their space, should they be able to do what they want with their own personal space without any restrictions? Even when they affect someone else, as long as it isn’t me [or anyone directly/indirectly connected to me] we just let it pass, and label them as crazy/sick/sad.

A great thing that was made clear is the similarities between the three characters [the killer, Pitt’s character, and Freeman’s character]. The killer is just a version of Pitt who does what Pitt keeps thinking should be done, Pitt is the younger and non-numbed version of Freeman’s character. Morgan Freeman’s character has worked for the police in the city for so long that he isn’t affected emotionally by these people anymore. He is numbed from it all, suppresses all of his feelings about all of the degenerates that live in the sick dark city. While Pitt’s character is coming from the cleaner and much smaller town where all these depraved people and level of crime is new to him and he can’t do much more than keep going “WTF!!!” and shouting how he wants to shoot the guy. While the killer has skipped the “WTF!!!” moment and the consideration, and just kills the people in such a dramatic way so as to gain peoples’ attention.

Overall this movie lives up to its left over hype, and is a must watch for me. I’m glad that people kept suggesting it to me, so that I finally got around to it. I worry how many more of these gems I’ve missed out on I need to see right now while I wait for something amazing to see in the theatres.

IMDB says 8.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 84%

I say 9.0/10

Emma Craven [Bojana Novakovic] decides to come home and spend some time with her father, Thomas Craven [Mel Gibson], when she is suddenly murdered in her father’s arms.  As Thomas, being a Boston Detective, works his way to the truth as to who killed his daughter and why he finds out about multiple conspiracies occurring with his daughter’s employers and the US Government.

Here is Mel Gibson’s return to the big screen for the first time since The Singing Detective (2003) and it is quite a return.  It’s not the greatest revenge film I’ve seen but to call this movie bad is even a greater stretch of the imagination.  I found myself ready to be blown away due to all of the tempered praise that the film was getting in early reviews and also since Martin Campbell was directing (also did Casino Royale and GoldenEye).  The film offered more of a detective story than any sort of over the top revenge film like last year’s Taken where you saw a father going crazy on any and every lead he could find and hit hard enough until he got the answers he wanted.  I was actually very surprised at how professionally Thomas Craven took on the job of finding out who killed his daughter, it was still obvious that he had his hatred deep down inside and was waiting for the right time to go crazy, but it was interesting for once to see a character in this position carry out his revenge so matter of factly.

Now this movie, as I’ve been saying, wasn’t filled to the brim with action sequences, but at the same time it wasn’t devoid of them and when they came around oh boy were they amazing to watch.  I particularly enjoyed how Craven handled himself in these situations.  You could definitely see some Daniel Craig style James Bond nuances to the way that Craven responded to these attacks, especially in the case of the first lead that Craven gets as to his daughter’s other life that he didn’t know about.  At first it’s a bit jarring to see this older police detective being able to handle himself so well, and especially walking in with the knowledge that the director also the two best Bond films of the last ten years but eventually you notice how it wears on him and sloppier he is than Daniel Craig.

I think my favourite final touch to this movie that I really enjoyed is the character Jedburgh [Ray Winstone].  Jedburgh is the guy who is always in a position to help or hurt you and make sure that you find out what you’re allowed to find out and no more.  He’s like a spook who is trouble for everyone and anyone.  They made it very clear how his feelings are about his life and especially how he felt about the fact that he has no children.  Which is why he ends up sympathizing with Craven.  I don’t want to spoil it, but the final moments of the film with Winstone’s character was just a glorified cherry on top for my enjoyment of this movie.  It’s such a poetic moment when you realize why he did what he did and how kind of beautiful it is.

Overall this is a solid film but suffers from just there being so many better of this kind of story out there for you to enjoy even more.  It’s definitely worth it if you’re like he who loves movies and needs something to watch that isn’t complete crap in this time of the year when there isn’t much good at the cinema for you see.

IMDB says 7.2/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 55%

I say 7.0/10

Ty Hackett [Columbus Short] has just been made a guard at his new job.  He and his brother are living together after their parents have recently passed and are under a lot of financial pressure by the banks.  Ty’s godfather, Mike [Matt Dillon], approaches him with a plan for them and a few other guards to rob the money they are planning to transport the following day.  Eventually Ty agrees and they begin what seems will be the easiest heist in the world, until it all goes wrong of course.

The truth of the matter is that I don’t even know why I watched this movie this week.  I told myself not to go to this movie, but something deep down inside said that I should give the movie a fair shot.  In all honesty this movie isn’t bad, it is just so run of the mill that it is sad.  You sit there for what I can assume is ninety minutes only to be shown something that is so predictable it is hilarious.

My first surprise while watching this movie is actually how much of the movie was left out of the trailer.  The trailer seemed to have its own perfectly structured three-act story that I doubted there was anything left to show on screen, but there was actually some details and depth left for you to experience first-hand in the theatre.

When watching this movie I applaud the actors, and only the actors.  Even though at certain points I did find the delivery of certain dialogue laughable (I’m looking at you Columbus Short and Andre Kinney) it definitely was the best part of the movie.  Some of the characters were definitely put infront of us to show us how people would really react to this situation and when it all goes wrong it all gets really real really quickly.  One character however which totally annoyed me throughout the movie is Baines [Laurence Fishburne].  His character’s entire motivation throughout the movie was not to get paid or to stay out of jail but just to shoot as many people as possible with that shotgun.  I honestly think that if someone earlier on in the movie were to have taken the shotgun away and handed him a pistol he probably would’ve sat back a lot more and then maybe everyone would’ve gotten rich.

I guess the biggest disappointment, story-wise, in the movie was that they never gave us that one scene where Ty would lay it all out for us.  Where he would tell his friends, and us, exactly what happened that day in Baghdad.  It is totally unnecessary, but in a movie like this where my enjoyment was totally dependent on certain highlighted moments I think that would’ve made another moment that I would’ve enjoyed to see and hear that story.

In the end the movie is what it is.  A completely just about average movie that you won’t hate yourself for spending time with but definitely hate yourself for spending money on.  I can’t recommend seeing before it hits cable TV.  Matt Dillon and Columbus Short were the acting highlights (and that in itself should tell you something).

IMDB says 6.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 57%

I say 4.0/10

In the year 2009 a scientist, Adrian Helmsley [Chiwetel Ejiofor], discovers that something odd is happening with the earth and figures out that the world as we know it is going to end in the year 2012.  As the day of reckoning comes a regular everyday guy, Jackson Curtis [John Cusack], takes it upon himself to save him and his family from this end of days event.

Roland Emmerich has decided to finally utilize every kind of natural disaster that you can think of to bombard your brain with so much destruction that you have to ask yourself if you even care anymore.  I must admit that I had very low expectations going in and left happily surprised with the movie.  It suffers from really only one real problem, which is that it is too long.  In the second act when the world is actually ending Mr. Emmerich definitely overdid it.  I felt after the first twenty minutes of the act that the world would actually never end and move on into the third and final act that is the post apocalypse and survival period for Jackson and his family.  Emmerich really didn’t need to personally show me every city in the world being destroyed by tsunami, earthquakes, volcanoes, and other disasters that I don’t want to think of.

What Emmerich did do well was he decided to create a slew of believable characters, with the exception of Charlie Frost [Woody Harrelson], and some nice chase sequences for me to enjoy.  Well I guess Charlie isn’t that far out there as a believable character because he really is just a space nut crazy conspiracy theorist with his own radio station attempting to get his own truth (that the government is hiding something and the world is going to end) which ends up being true.  The only thing that made Charlie feel so unrealistic is that it was very obvious that he was placed in the story just for some comedic relief, but in a good way.  The most annoying character of the movie award has to go to President Thomas Wilson [Danny Glover].  President Thomas Wilson is one of the most inemotive US presidents that I’ve seen in a film since the George W. cameo in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

Some of the initial action sequences with Jackson driving through LA in his limo while the entire of the city is falling apart is totally unbelievable in that they would be one second ahead of the destruction like that but once you realise how gorgeous what you are seeing is you forget about that and begin to just enjoy the moment and bite your fingernails wondering if they’re going to make it out in time.

I guess the thing that made me know that this movie wasn’t that bad was that once the action stopped and Emmerich decided to move onto the bureaucratic side of things that occur in the third act with Carl Anheuser [Oliver Platt] and Adrian Helmsley I wasn’t bored out of my mind, I was still invested in what was about to happen in the movie.

In the end I think the film suffers from too long a second act and a couple one note characters that can be forgiven once you go see this on a big screen so you can soak in some of the great visuals displayed in the film.

IMDB says 6.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 38%

I say 7.0/10

After Clyde Shelton’s [Gerard Butler] wife and child are both murdered the prosecuting lawyer, Nick Rice [Jamie Foxx], decides to cut a deal with one of the two murderers so as to get a reduced sentence and send the other on death row.  Clyde is not satisfied with this course of action and decides to take revenge on not only the pair of criminals who murdered his family but also the entire justice system that failed him.

Here comes a huge surprise as I found myself loving this movie.  We all know revenge films are really easily plotted and always seem to turn out well and here is no different.  The movie is filled with crazy plots points that if you think about too much may make your brain explode but if you decide to run with it you will find yourself having a ton of fun with it.  The film plays itself as a big budget movie that is really a B movie where Clyde takes the moral high ground and does the equivalent of a lot of very poignant letters to the editor would, except with guns and bombs and crap.

As you can expect from a B movie the acting and story take a passenger seat to some awesome looking kill scenes that not only blow your mind because of how out there they are but because you have to wonder how he does this from a maximum security prison cell.  I couldn’t help but be reminded of David Fincher’s The Game which did a lot of the same things, very well thought out plans that may have hinged on a lot of ifs but of course due to a lot of inside knowledge on the targets were well executed and covered all bases.  After the first couple crazy kills I had nothing to do but imagine that everything that happened did so exactly as Clyde imagined it would and Nick and all the other characters were playing into his plan by trying their darndest not to, or whatever they were doing anyways.

I think my biggest complaint walking out of the theatre was that a lot of the kills were given away in the trailer.  I know, it’s becoming really easy to complain about trailers spoiling movies, but I found it a really huge thing in the movie.  I had the trailer fresh in my mind, since it was playing in front of movies the previous week that I had seen at the cinema, and most of the kills were so easy to see because as soon as a setting was shown to me I remembered seeing that a car explodes and so I knew it was coming and that disappointed me.  I know people are all saying that trailers need to be cut better so to keep the viewer surprised when they see the movie and I tend to agree but still enjoy enjoyable movies with or without giveaway trailers.  So my advice is to skip the trailer and just watch the movie and enjoy the shit out of it.

So in the end here is a great B movie that you can definitely sink your teeth into and hopefully enjoy how it decides to blow your mind like how any great film of this type can satisfy.  Go for the fun actiony moments and leave knowing that you saw something awesome.

IMDB says 7.6/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 22%

I say 8.0/10

This week I plan on completing a Steven Soderbergh Marathon, which I will call The Soderbergh Series, of watching and reviewing six of his films that I’ve always wanted to see but never have.  This is an effort for me to increase my already lacking knowledge of film and also to possibly introduce others to some films that Soderbergh may have done that does start with the word Ocean in the title.  Today’s Soderbergh Series has me watch me watching The Limey.

After nine years in prison Wilson [Terence Stamp] is released only to find out that his daughter is dead and he suspects foul play.  Eduardo Roel [Luis Guzman], a friend of Wilson’s daughter, helps of Wilson by pointing him in the right direction and that direction happens to be facing Terry Valentine [Peter Fonda] and a lot of dead bodies are to follow.

Here is Soderbergh trying his hand at a noir crime thriller with great cinematography and editing that would serve as a great example to the film community that I think should be showed in all film classes across the world.  I’ve seen a few films which try to utilize editing techniques similar to this film where you will hear dialogue throughout the scene but for most of the scene you’re not watching the actor speak the dialogue however performing some other action.  I find this technique very useful in speeding up the pace of a generally slow film.  Most directors would give us both parts of the scene – the talking and the doing – separately and not only waste your time but only be treating you, the viewer, like a moron.  What that director is basically saying is that you don’t have the brain power to understand that this dialogue that you’re hearing is him still on the phone and him walking out to the car happened after the phone call and anything that may or may not have happened in-between is pretty inconsequential to the story that we are watching unveil in front of us.

The one question I had while watching this movie was if it was an unofficial sequel to a movie from the 70s that I’ve never heard of because of all the back-story that we were getting from the movie felt pretty odd whenever we saw scenes of Terence Stamp at age 25.  After doing a little research after the fact Soderbergh decided to use some footage from a previous film that Stamp had done, which has no story relation to this one, called Poor Cow.  However what this has done is not only added a sense of realism to the film but also added another movie to my ever so long to watch list.  We’ve seen numerous movies over the years where flashbacks are employed and we have to see our lead as a younger version of themselves and most directors would just cast a young actor who may or may not look like the main actor at his current age and sometimes it will pull me out of the experience by sitting there and asking myself which person thought that he ever looked like this – my most recent example is 17 Again with Matthew Perry looking like Zach Ephron at age 17, I don’t buy that one.  The use of this previous film just added a special touch to the look and feel of the movie that makes it so special for me to watch and enjoy.

In this film they are dreamlike moments which I think are to be applauded.  This is not new at all, there are been surreal moments in films forever, however I felt like these moments were displayed wonderfully in the screen for us all to enjoy.  It was clear that these were re-imaginings of moments and what they made me feel was that it wasn’t so much as a flashback but rather us going into Wilson’s head as he tries to imagine what it looked like to have been in the moment.  This was used not only for when Wilson spoke of his own past but when others told him about their past and that is what made is special.  Many may call them flashbacks but I would prefer to see them as these surreal re-imaginations of the moments being described to us.

If you love thrillers and noir, then definitely take a look at this film without a doubt you’re going to have a blast.

IMDB says 7.0/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 91%

I say 9.0/10

Addicted to the Tube has returned. I know it has been a long while since I blogged but since the people in charge of gmanReviews are having problems sending my paycheck I had to find myself a job, which kept me very busy. It is the time of year when we get ready for season returns. I plan to do as many reviews as possible. The first on my list is the Showtime hit, Dexter. Season 4 of Dexter is scheduled to air September 27^th.

Dexter is a television drama series based around the life of Serial Killer/ forensic blood splatter analyst Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall). The series airs on Showtime and was developed by James Manos Jr., an Emmy Award winning screenwriter and former writer for The Sopranos.

Dexter Morgan is a serial killer that developed a craving for killing from a very young age. His adopted father Harry Morgan (James Remar) recognizes this when he caught Dexter killing animals. Harry then decides to control this craving and then teach Dexter to channel this urge unto the right people. This influences Dexter to have a set of ‘Rules’ that he follows when he is urged to kill.

Dexter is able to get away with these murders for one main reason, he works for the police. He is knowledgeable of their movements and what they look for and this allows him to hide, kill and dispose of his victims safely.

This is not as easy as it seems. While he is killing he has to attempt to live a normal life as he and his girlfriend, Rita Bennett (Julie Benz), progressively get more attached. Dexter has lived most his life without being emotionally/romantically attached to another woman. It is during the beginning of his ‘relationship’ with Rita that we notice how awkward Dexter can be, and how horrible he is at communicating with others. This is a result of only being close to two people in his life, his adopted father Harry and his sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter). Although he is very close to his sister Debra he has kept this secret from her. Debra is also a police officer.

The real obstacle in season one is not ensuring that he is not caught, yet it is the appearance of the Ice Truck Killer. Each murder by the Ice truck killer is a message to Dexter. These messages he cannot reveal because if he does so, his secret will become public. Even though he only kills bad people, it is still against the law.

Throughout this dilemma Dexter battles with the moral ethics of his acts while being put on an emotional roller coaster with the Ice Truck Killer, whose message become more personal each time. This makes each episode hit an emotional climax because Dexter has no one to talk to about this, because Harry taught him that he must never reveal his secret.

Personally I think Dexter is a great show, but it has its flaws. The show tends to become a bit monotonous at times. In every episode he is looking for a kill to satisfy his thirst. This I love, because I love Dexter’s techniques and just how awkward he gets at times. Even though I like this, later in the season I became more interested in the Ice Truck Killer and less about the random kills. In this case I presume the writers decided to ‘stick to the script’ and allow Dexter to attempt at keeping his routine, but in a few episodes it was a bit much.

Another issue that I had were the flashbacks. The flashbacks jump through so many different timelines that you have two or three young versions of Dexter and I don’t get a chance to get to know this young Dexter well enough. There are also some flashbacks in which they give Michael C. Hall a wig and old clothing expecting that this will automatically make him look younger but it doesn’t.

What works are things like narrations and camera angles. Just as how Dexter has his routines the show has some routines that are captivating. Like looking through the Air Conditioner vent, the aerial view before a kill and the close up to the victims faces when they wake up.

One of my favourite characters for this season is Rudy Cooper (Christian Camargo) telling you why would be a humungous spoiler, though what I loved about his character was his sly and witty way with words. He never says too much, and never says too little.

BEGIN SPOILERS

I will allow one SPOILER as I comment on my favorite episode of the season. This was a very easy pick. My choice was Episode 8 Shrink Wrap. In this episode we have become attached to Dexter and the emotional strain he goes through. In Shrink Wrap he is planning the murder of Dr. Emmett Meridian (Tom Goldwyn) a psychistrist who pushes his clients towards suicide. In all his murders Dexter ensures that the clients are guilty. Does all the research, stalking and gathers all the facts before his kill. The most amazing in this episode happens right before he is about to kill Dr Meridian. While he is doing his background check on Dr. Meridian, he decides to seek therapy from him. In his final session with Dr. Meridian he admits to being a serial killer.

The writing for this episode is superb, from the title (Shrink being lingo for a psychiatrist and the wrap representing Dexter’s technique of wrapping his victims in plastic wrap) to the dialogue between two killers. Dexter is able to gain some emotionally stability by confessing his deeds, a secret he had only shared with his now deceased father. It is also in this episode that Rudy and Debra get closer and Dexter takes another step with Rita, which I was dying for.

Dexter is a show that takes you on an exciting, nerve-racking and occasionally awkward journey through the mind of someone addicted to killing. They challenge the notion of the ‘bad guy’ serial killer and put forth a character that is sinister, yet methodological, unforgiving yet moral. All which is done while trying to live a normal life.

END SPOILERS

It is definitely a must watch, captivating, original and yes it has action. It is on my “to buy” list, I definitely recommend it for rental.

8/10

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