Reviews

Don't get me wrong, it's an enjoyable flick, but it typecasts humans *perfectly*, for the asshats they usually are.

This is the King Kong epic, only with a reptilian "ape" kidnapped from Venus, not some obscure tropical isle. And of course, "humanity" wins by murdering the creature when it proves to be inconvenient.

I'm hoping the purpose of the flick was to be a sort of expose', rather than rooting for the "good guys" to kill the "bad" creature, and if so, this hits the mark dead-on.

The unfortunate creature, Ymir, is taken from his native Venus as an egg, where he later hatches into a cute little lizard-critter. But of course, the "scientists" react by grabbing, capturing, and caging the little critter, to be experimented on, without even wondering what it needs as far as food, water, etc. And the nerve to call it "so ugly"... like it'd think the pink squishy things imprisoning it were paragons of beauty?? Okay, Joan Taylor is seriously hot, but still...

So, when Ymir can *finally* escape, all he does is grunt at his captors and wanders off, never so much as touches them. Only when provoked does he react in anger; they even *say so*! He wants to eat, gets attacked by a dog, and only then gives the dog a beat-down. He gets repeatedly attacked, and only when pitchforked in the back does he attack his attacker. He's electrocuted and recaptured, experimented on some more, and only through human incompetence is able to escape again. But from there, he's met with guns, flamethrowers(!), tanks, all sorts of weaponry. Finally, in his last-ditch effort to escape by just blindly climbing to nowhere in particular, he's howitzered and finally murdered. Yes, murdered.

Yay, "humanity".

So then, finally, can the gorgeous almost-doctor and square-jawed military-dood go have a nice quiet meal in a dark cafe. Gives ya the warm-fuzzies just allllll over.

Again, I'm really hoping that was the intent of the movie, to show humans in the light they've earned throughout history. Maybe it'd be a wake-up call to some. We can only hope.

I guess what prompted me to review this ep was the whole idea of "a paedophile's dream" and the user discussion of this ep, which seems to paint it as rather exploitive (reading between the {deleted} lines, presumably the kissing scene towards the end, of the young girl and older guy). Seems to me that everyone just kinda missed the point.

Dunno, but I see it more as a pretty good exposition of a painful dilemma that Janey, a girl with Turner's Syndrome, had. Here's someone in her mid- to upper-teens who has the body of a preteen. Everyone's concentrating on the guy's perspective, having Janey be "the paedophile's dream", and being able to bed down a "preteen" who's perfectly "legal" and of the age of consent.

But what about the girl's dilemma? She has a limited time to conceive if she's ever to get pregnant, presumably has a shorter lifespan than "normal" people (at least that seemed to be implied in the ep), so needs to cram more Life into her life, as her clock's ticking.

And whom can she actually date? Someone her own chronological age? There's that "paedophile's dream" again, and everyone would trash the guy as being a paedophile, even if he's genuinely in love with her for who she is, not for what she looks like.

Someone her *apparent* age as a preteen? Now *she's* the "paedophile", "robbing the cradle" if she's 18 and dates a 12yo-14yo, just so they as a couple would *look* normal.

Wow, she's damned if she does, and damned if she doesn't. She's in her own special limbo, her own never-never land. She just... can't... win.

I'm not really a fan of SVU (I'm a LO:CI guy...), but this episode seemed to me to be pretty well-written, and did a good job exposing the pain and angst someone with Turner's can have, the desperation that goes along with it, and the lengths to which someone so afflicted would go, just trying, perhaps in vain, to have something "normal" that everyone else takes for granted, and quite often doesn't even appreciate.

I guess the world just expects someone with Turner's to just be forever celibate and never date, let alone marry, *anyone*. And B'harni forbid a guy her age would go out with her, or try to marry her! He'd probably get physically attacked just like Dani (Stabler's new partner) did to the guy at the end.

I guess the world which likes things nice and neat would rather that people with Turner's just disappear into the woodwork and not make them uncomfortable by, well, *existing*.

I think SVU hit this one right on the head.

(Mild spoilers for this and other movies.).

I just caught this flick on teevee, so it was needlessly censored and butchered for broadcast, but nevertheless it grabbed me by the collar to get my attention, and didn't let go until the end, to the point where my coffeemaker was about 10sec from overflowing because I neglected to put the pot under the basket!.

That said, as soon as I saw Jim Caveziel, I knew I had to watch it, and it didn't disappoint. It was great to also see Kevin Chapman (JC's future castmate in "Person of Interest", too! Add Bridget Moynahan ("Blue Bloods"), Joe Pantoliano ("The Matrix"), Peter Stormare ("Fargo"), Jeremy Sisto ("Suicide Kings"), a genuine who's-who from tres kewl movies and teevee shows, and you have a visual treat from start to end.

Acting was as good as it gets, as no one seemed out of place or out of his element. I also liked the bit of a John Quade / "Total Recall" philosophy that you are who you are *now*, not who you *were* in the past, when your memories are (albeit temporarily) wiped clean.

In general, "Unknown" is one of those "figure it out as you go along" movies, where you begin with a puzzling situation, and gradually pieces of the puzzles are slowly spoon-fed to you to complete the picture. It's not as cryptic as "The Captive", where you have to figure out that different scenes take place in different timelines, and is much more linear, so you're still craving that next piece of the puzzle without being left totally bewildered until halfway through the movie. Bits and pieces of the characters' memories slowly tell the story in a rashomon-esque way.

Although, I do think I need to rewatch this movie in its entirety to make sure creative editing-for-teevee didn't leave out anything critical, and to pay special attention near the end to try to "digest" the twist ending. Reading some of the comments/reviews here, it's clear that the ending was a bit *un*clear, so I need to fully take it in and mull it over. Genius, or slapped together in a rush at the end, I don't know yet. Hopefully it won't be as odd as "Revolver", though (haha).

Anyway, while some people loved the ending and others were left befuddled and even let down, I'd definitely give it a go, and judge for yourself. I found myself completely drawn in immediately, and I wasn't set free until the end-credits rolled.

*** VERY spoiled *** read only after watching the ep! .

Two yutes think they can make that One Big Score and then live their dreams. They refuse to believe they were getting in way over their heads.

Eventually, they get caught, decide to deal (albeit reluctantly), and end up crossing the Big Bads who were going to kill them anyway. Still, the remaining Big Bads want revenge.

One just wants it to all be over, just wants to rewind and edit out everything that happened, and get on with his life. The other, ever-defiant, thinks it's a joke.

Of course, the repentant one ends up getting killed by the Big Bad, while everyone else can only watch. Crockett realises the promise he made, that the kid will be able to go home once it's over, is broken. Anger, sorrow, the heartbreak of what happened, are very evident on Crockett's face. The defiant kid now has to live with the realisation that his friend is dead because he dragged him into that deal in the first place.

A powerful episode, chock full of tragedy and irony, is not one to be forgotten. The brazen if not reckless one survives, while the cautious and repentant one dies. The diametrically opposite tone from beginning (levity, long legs and miniskirt) and end (tragedy, death), shows sharp contrast, yet still comes full circle at the same airport.

Masterfully done...