The Truth

Doctore checks in on the still injured Crixus and asks the Medicus to keep him informed of his feverish condition. Lucretia tells Crixus that she unfortunately won’t be able to visit him privately down in the Ludus but will send Naevia to attend to his needs. Crixus catches Naevia’s eye at the mention of this good news.

Batiatus receives Mercato, a rich patron who comes to procure gladiators for the games he’s putting on. He’d planned to purchase the services of Crixus but seeing how his injuries have taken him out of action, his thought turns to Spartacus. With the addition of a substantial extra sum, Batiatus sees no problem with this.

Varro is shocked at seeing his wife Aurelia and son Janus. She informs him that she is with child; a child that is not Varro’s. He exits, leaving her in tears.

Spartacus informs Batiatus that he will play in the games with one condition: he will fight alone. Spartacus declares that if the gods are with him he will not fall. Batiatus reluctantly agrees to the deal but with his own condition, that if he is victorious the Thracian inside of him has to die and he must then embrace his new identity.

Spartacus waits in the chutes in the arena, dressed in Roman battle dress, clutching two swords, as six prisoners are led into the arena. The prisoners fan out to attack and Spartacus remains motionless, eyes closed, feeling the sun on his face, a man putting his fate in the gods’ hands.

Mercato is pleased with Batiatus for having put on such a good show. Batiatus enjoys the moment, shares a happy look with Lucretia. Spartacus, blood soaked and exhausted, absorbs the cheers that rain down from the stands. He throws his arms up and declares, “I Am Spartacus!” Batiatus grins from above, in triumphant satisfaction.

The Action

The final battle features Spartacus kicking ass, almost as if he has changed to the ‘Dark Side’. This is the only part of the film with any action, this episode is clearly building up to a big finish.

What’s good about it?

The subtle stories which are building up in the background. I suspect Lucretia is falling for Spartacus now, will she ever get pregnant? By who?

What’s bad about it?

Nothing. Although this episode of Spartacus, Blood and Sand lacked the action we were used to in the early episodes, I enjoy the story much more.

What I learned

The Games must have been an incredible event to take in. Women flashing their boobs, sex in the stands and lots of booze.

The Verdict

Spartacus ‘Great And Unfortunate Things’ was yet another great episode in this series.

The Truth

Capitalism: A Love Story brings up some myths, discussions and alternate ideas to the Capitalist system. While you may disagree with Moore’s view on Capitalism, he certainly brings up some fun, valid points that make you rethink the American dream.

Whether it’s the bailing out of the banks, the huge scandals on Wall St or the mistreatment of unionized workers, Michael Moore delivers an entertaining look at our social fabric.

I was very interested in the secret memos Moore brought to light, especially the most damaging by Citigroup. His uncovering of the finance committee scandals, and the people who are pulling the strings, is brilliant.

Moore has a way of delivering a point of view calmly and rationally, like he’s talking to a 10 yr old. Capitalism: A Love Story explores a taboo question: What is the price that America pays for its love of capitalism?

You’ll Like It If

Fans of Michael Moore will love this film, as much as Roger and Me. If you are enticed by scandal, conspiracies and bailouts you’ll really enjoy this film.

What I learned

I’ll never invest a dime in Citigroup, and I had planned to this week.

The Verdict

Moore has a way of delivering a point of view calmly and rationally, like he’s talking to a 10 yr old. Capitalism: A Love Story brings a lot of very interesting, yet disturbing, details about the corrupt system in place, and it makes you think.

Capitalism: A Love Story is a winner, check it out on DVD, I highly recommend it.

He calls forth the Bringer of Rain, the Slayer of the Shadow of Death and the new Champion of Capua: Spartacus. The gladiators cheer wildly.

The cheers carry into the infirmary, where a bloody Crixus lies on a slab, barely conscious. Batiatus strolls through his villa with Spartacus and Lucretia, making grandiose claims of the empire he aims to build. He reveals to Spartacus the stunning news that Sura has been found, recently sold to a merchant.

Batiatus asserts that his promise is kept, that she is on her way to the Ludus. Spartacus is astonished, remarking on what an honorable man Batiatus is.

Even so, he tells his only friend Varro that once he is reunited with Sura, he plans for both of them to escape the Ludus, and he spells out an elaborate scheme to overcome the guards and to take advantage of the distraction at the Ludus caused by the celebration of Spartacus’ victory.

For his part, Barca has his own thoughts of freedom, for himself and for his lover Pietros. As Spartacus, in full armor stands ready to implement his plans for escape and prepares to welcome Sura, his scheme painfully unravels.

Spartacus : Delicate Things

This newest episode of Spartacus really threw things we thought for certain, for a loop. Crixus is alive, although critically wounded, and the dark side of BATIATUS is starting to shine through.

Spartacus is finally reunited with his wife, only to discover she has been fatally stabbed upon delivery. An ‘unfortunate’ attack by a rogue band of criminals. We soon discover Batiatus has arranged her murder, to the disgust and pleasure of his wife.

Speaking of Lucretia, she is fully topless for a few minutes in this episode of Spartacus. Lucy Lawless is going to have a lot of movie roles thrown her way after Spartacus is done.

Oh, and poor Barca… so close to getting freedom with his young lover only to be setup and murdered.

What I learned

Wine + Women = Good times

The Verdict

Although this episode is slower than the previous ones, because of a lack of battle, it makes up for it with an abundance of sex and nudity.

This series reminds of of the HBO original series Oz, with the deception and mind games that flow in the storyline.

Episode 6 : Delicate Things is teasing us with many promising new twists for the remaining episodes in the Spartacus series. Spartacus : Blood And Sand is still a great series, Delicate Things was another solid viewing.

Shadow Games

Episode 5 starts out quite slow compared to the previous Spartacus shows, but finishes with a bang. For the first time, we are presented with a bit of a cliffhanger, as Crixus may be fatally wounded in the epic battle to defeat Theokoles.

Shadow Games was all about the ‘bonding’ between Crixus and Spartacus, and finally a common bond that can bring them together.

The battle between the two gladiators and Theokoles could have been better, but it was suffice. Awesome makeup and presence for this legendary warrior Theokoles. He is shown being carried off the arena on a stretcher, so I guess he is dead?

Batiatus discovers the people behind his assassination, while his ‘loving’ wife Lucretia finally spills her secret about her and Crixus to Ilithya. Something tells me this is going to get ugly soon.

The Action

All the action in this episode was saved for the final 10 minutes, as Theokoles is brought to his knees and beheaded.

What was good about it?

Spartacus proves his worth as a gladiator, and Theokoles was an intimidating foe.

What’s bad about it?

Listen, I’ve had about enough of the writers showing the penis of Crixus, in every episode now.

The Verdict

Shadow Warrior was still a good addition to the series, but it was the slowest of all episodes so far.

The Thing In The Pit

Spartacus is banished from Gladiator school, after performing shamefully in the arena against Crixus. The great thing about this episode is we are starting to see a different side of all the characters. Spartacus deals with his inner emotions as he must not only battle in the pit, but kill his enemies. All seems lost, as he struggles to come to grips with becoming a killing machine, and his hope of finding his wife is all but gone.

Meanwhile, Barca is showing he isn’t a complete prick and even shows an ounce of compassion towards Spartacus at one point. A slight bit of credit is thrown from Barca to Spartacus, when his manhood is questioned by Ashur. Perhaps this is some foreshadowing?

Crixus is also showing more of his soft side, falling harder in love with Naevia, even giving her a first kiss. The young slave is falling for the famous Gladiator as well, and her jealousy is starting to show in Episode 4. Crixus has a limited role in ‘The Thing In The Pit’ , but you can tell he is softening his stance towards Spartacus now.

Spartacus makes a surprise deal with Batiatus, and offers his life in exchange for his wife. Spartacus tells Batiatus to bet the house on him losing, claiming he will lose the fight on purpose in a win-win situation. Batiatus makes a ton of money on the wager, and Sura gets to live in peace when found. All this goes to shit when Spartacus is forced to save Batiatus , when assassins try to kill him during the final battle. Spartacus wins, Batiatus loses his fortune betting on the wrong person, and his life is saved by the man who just cost him his riches.

Episode 4 : The Thing In The Pit ends with a huge surprise! Baitiatus decides to reward Spartacus for saving his life, and forgives him for the loss of his fortune. Spartacus is once again placed back in Gladiator school to further his training.

Gaydar Alert!!!

We get to see Barca giving gay sex to the young lad who helps run gladiator school. Well, apparently this isn’t a big deal in the days of Spartacus, because the gladiators just chuckle about the fact Barca is ploughing the young man’s anus.

The Action

The Thing In The Pit has a ton of action and battles. Spartacus takes control of the underground fighting ring and dominates many a warrior. Apparently Hannibal Lecter’s ancestor is Roman, because one of the fighters slices the faces off of his fallen opponents and wears them as a prize during battle.

The Effects

Episode 4 : The Thing In The Pit has the same great effects. The battles in the ring are awesome, gory and hold nothing back.

Why should I watch it?

Episode 4 : The Thing In The Pit get’s you hooked even further into the series.

What’s bad about it?

Nothing, but hey the gay sex may bother a few of you.

What I learned

You are only gay if you are on the bottom.

Episode 4 : The Verdict

Spartacus -Episode 4 : The Thing In The Pit was fantastic, this Spartacus series keeps getting better as it goes on. My new favorite show on TV.

Legends

In this episode of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Spartacus has proven himself during training, and is now considered a Gladiator. His attitude and relentless quest to see his wife has isolated him from his fellow gladiators and Doctore.

Spartacus is pissed off to find out he is fighting in the lowest match against new friend Varro. He devises a plan to get matched against Crixus, something he will come to regret later.

Ah yes Varro. The poor lad is forced into humping a gorgeous young slave in front of the upper class citizens, which seems to excite many, especially Ilithyia. Varro isn’t impressed by all this, he is in love with his wife and is saddened by his duties forced upon him. Imagine his pain when he is forced to have sex with the young slave twice!

Speaking of Crixus, this prick of a beast shows us his human side for the first time ever and falls for young slave Naevia. (And who wouldn’t?) Naevia, played by Lesley-Ann Brandt, is absolutely stealing everyone’s heart, even us Spartacus fans at home. It is apparent Naevia is going to have a major role in this series, and hopefully this series jump-starts her career.

The Verdict

Spartacus: Blood and Sand just keeps getting better and better, we’ll be there till the end. I love this series.

Why You Care

Picture the movie 300, but with many more nude babes and sex. Lucy Lawless and all the girls get naked whenever possible.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand

This 13 part series resembles the movie 300 in it’s style. It is filmed almost entirely the same way, with mostly computer generated backgrounds and effects. It worked with 300, and it works with Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

The series is a sexy, no-holds-barred look at the rise of ‘Spartacus’. The story starts from the humble beginnings of Spartacus as a man who is dragged into battle with the Romans, along with his countrymen.

After being double crossed, he is captured and sent to Rome to attend Gladiator school, against his will. Shortly after learning his true love, and wife, is enslaved by the evil Roman empire, he must fulfill his Gladiator duties to get her back, and win his freedom in doing so.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand is strictly for adults. The gore and sexual content is extreme, which is why this HBO series is so awesome. There’s nothing to hide in this series. A massive amount of beautiful naked women in every possible scene, blood, gore and battle. How can we not love it so far?

The Women of Spartacus

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of the film is the incredible, yet sexy, leading female cast in Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Lucy Lawless, Viva Bianca, Lesley-Ann Brandt , Jai Courtney, Erin Cummings.. all spectacular women who have no issues showing off their gorgeous bodies and excellent acting skills.

The Men of Spartacus

The leading male actors are all rugged and muscular, fitting for the period. Manu Bennett plays ‘Crixus’ , Peter Mensah, Nick Tarabay, Andy Whitfileld all round out the excellent cast. Whitfiled may have launched himself into stardom with his role of Spartacus, he is spectacular. Peter Mensah was in 300, and fits in perfectly as Gladiator instructor ‘Doctore’

Spartacus: Blood and Sand Pictures

[View with PicLens]

The Action

Spartacus: Blood and Sand is non-stop action.

The Effects

The effects in this film are identical to 300,which I really enjoyed. Spartacus: Blood and Sand delivers excellent battle effects like blood splatter, head chopping and more.

Why should I watch Spartacus: Blood and Sand ?

For the girls, the nudity, the sex, the battles and the story.

You’ll Like It If

If you liked 300, Troy and Rome you will love Spartacus: Blood and Sand .

The Verdict

I am hooked on Spartacus: Blood and Sand and cannot wait for the rest of the season to unfold. I highly recommend to anyone who enjoyed 300, Rome or Troy.

The Truth

Taking Chance is based on a true story, about a man (Kevin Bacon) who elects to escort the body of a fallen soldier back to Wyoming. The body is that of 19yr old Marine Chance Phelps, who Strobl decides to ensure gets the respect he deserves along the way.

This powerful film delivers a ton of emotional moments and the journey is very moving. I really enjoyed how the director Ross Katz pays tribute to the soldier, with his numerous scenes along the way. Small tokens of affection are demonstrated throughout the film that remind the audience of the respect that should be shown to all military, no matter what country they are from.

Bacon really nails the role of hardened, yet saddened, Col Mike Stroble. The supporting cast delivers excellent scenes of compassion for the dead marine, it really moves you.

Taking Chance is an important film because it shows the impact of the military on the small town, the rural town and communities that make up the allied forces. Don’t be fooled though, this isn’t just about an American soldier, it is respect to all the military men and women who serve all nations in the Gulf.

Why should I watch it?

Because Taking Chance if full of moving and powerful situations the demonstrate the compassion of strangers who, when given the chance, always respect a soldier.

The Verdict

Taking Chance was a wonderful, moving and often sad film, that delivered 2 hours of thought provoking film. I very much recommend it to anyone looking for a powerful drama, that will bring a tear to your eye.

Adventureland

Jesse Eisenberg plays James Brennan, a young graduate who needs to raise money to head to college in New York. With a limited amount of skill, he finds himself at the local amusement park, and is hired on the spot.

He soon makes a new group of friends, who are mostly misfits and failures, which would explain why they are also at Adventureland. It’s in this new job James also finds his first true love, Em Lewin, played by Kristen Stewart.

And, here’s where the plot somewhat thickens. Although Em slowly falls for James, she has secretly been involved with theme park maintenance manager/stud (and married man) played by Ryan Reynolds.

Adventureland follows this relationship between the three people, and is for the most part quite slow. Eisenberg just plays the role of the awkward kid so well, you keep giving the film a chance to really turn itself around, but it doesn’t happen. Instead, Adventureland takes you on a pretty slow ride, where the laughs dry up pretty fast and the love angles remain unoriginal.

Kristen Stewart’s character is rather drab, and my suspicions of her being a rather poor actress are coming quite true. Even though her ‘lip biting’ and monotone routine have taken her through the twilight series with great success, she does very little to warrant a lead role in this movie. She fails to bring any life to her character, or the film.

In the end, as you would expect, things do work out in a way for James and Em. Things go a little wrong at the park when jealousy and lies throw a wrench in their love. Again, nothing too original here, the plot doesn’t risk too much ingenuity.

The Laughs

They tried hard for a few laughs, but it just wasn’t there for me.

Why should I watch it?

Kristen Stewart fans will check it out, but will come away disappointed. The rest of you may think it’s another Michael Cera film, because he and Eisenberg are almost identical.

For everything bad I pointed out about Adventureland, the conversations between James and Em are really well written, if you can deal with the pace.

What’s bad about it?

The plot is slow and predictable.

You’ll Like It If

If you didn’t have to pay to watch it.

The Verdict

Adventureland is quite a slow movie that is best watched if there is absolutely nothing left to rent. There was way too much talent in this film, for such a poor movie to be delivered. I’m shocked that Greg Mottola (director of Superbad) also gave us Adventureland.

The Escapist

To be honest, I’ve been searching high and low for this film since it’s release back in 2008. It never made it to North America, even though it had a very positive review at Sundance in 2008. For some reason, it was shelved from North America, but had numerous showings in the middle east, Europe and even Asia.

That being said, even the DVD was impossible to find. I had to order it from an out of market source. Is that crazy? I mean, I usually get movies sent to me for free, but I had to search this one out.

Back to The Escapist, a film I quite enjoyed and can say was worth the work to get. I loved the character Brian Cox played, that aged and respected prison veteran who is beyond the stages of taking shit from anyone. His plan is masterful, his crew loyal and determined to make it out as well.

We never find out why any of the are in prison, maybe that’s for the best. No side story to get us distracted from the main issue at hand. Maybe that’s why The Escapist was fun, because there isn’t too much BS here.

The film runs quickly without much dead time. You get what they are trying to do, why and how almost immediately. Great, it’s about time the writers stopped treating us like idiots, just get to the point and lets move on.

The escape itself was pretty suspenseful, reminded me of Prison Break from time to time. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I mean it in a season 1 Prison Break sort of way.

Brian Cox is stellar , and Joseph Lewis plays the role of ‘new fish’ perfectly. I often wondered why he was in prison, actually I really wondered why he and Frank were doing so much time. It’s odd it didn’t matter though, you wanted them to succeed regardless.

The Action

Plenty of action in this movie. Besides the actual escape, there are a few pretty decent fights and creative moments while they are on the run.

Why should I watch it?

The acting and characters are fantastic, especially Damian Lewis who played Maj. Richard D. Winters in Band Of Brothers. You remember him right? Also, the escape itself is brilliant and well put together.

What’s bad about it?

If you go into the film thinking The Escapist compares to The Shawshank Redemption, you’ll be disappointed.

You’ll Like It If

If you are in the mood for a good prison escape, The Escapist is perfect.

What I learned

The walls around prisons are often soft and corroded.

The Verdict

The Escapist was a real treat, better than I expected and is the Prison Break of straight to DVD films. I’m disappointed it never had a release in North America, I think they are missing a big audience. Find it, watch it, you’ll love it.