Fashion For A Post-Apocalyptic World!

War in the Middle East. Global warming. Wildfires. Genetically modified foods. A sequel to Mad Max. Simply because the probability of living in a post-apocalyptic world increases day by day doesn't mean you can't look fashionable.

Here's some amazing imagery found at Wasteland-Warriors on deviantart.com. If you're really into what you see below, you can contact the folks at Wasteland Warriors and work something out to purchase some of their gear. Better do so while money still means something and we aren't bartering with things like gasoline, gun powder and dog meat.

In the meantime, enjoy the awesomeness of their efforts!

Stephen Sumner is the science fiction columnist for Action A Go Go. His favorite sci-fi series include Firefly, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. He can be followed on Twitter at Sumner@vierlights or on the Tumblr machine at NX01Sumner.

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TV Review: Breaking Bad, S5Ep13: "To'hajiilee"

Sweet Lord have Mercy. My nerves simply cannot take this kind of thing.

That, my friends, was television at it's finest. Perfect writing, perfect direction, perfect acting. I may be getting ahead of myself but To'hajiilee may just be the finest episode of Breaking Bad ever produced, and considering how many powerful and heart-stopping episodes this series has produced, that is saying a whole hell of a lot.

Breaking Bad is something of an enigma on the television landscape in how much creative freedom it gives it's directors. Showrunner Vince Gillian not only gives them free reign, he encourages them to imbue each episode with their own unique sensibilities. The result is a show far more cinematic in nature than any other on television (yes, even Game of Thrones), and a show infused with the passions of the person behind the camera. The greatest episodes of Breaking Bad are driven by a level of conviction that no other show can hold a candle to, and that is why Breaking Bad is the most talked about show on television. For this set of elite directors, this is more than just their day job, this show is a platform from which they can express themselves through a story that they're passionate about. Episodes such as George Mastras' Dead Freight, Michelle MacLaren's Gliding Over All and Rian Johnson's Fly simply could not have happened on any other show. It's episode's such as these where the passion of the directors can be felt by even the most casual television viewer, it's magnetic really. You can have all the action you want in your show, but meticulous, no-holds-barred filmmaking artistry will always win the hearts of the audience. 

With To'hajiilee, executive producer Michelle MacLaren returns to bat for her final directing credit on the series, and boy, does she make it count. From the moment Walt receives a taunting phone call from Jesse, the episode becomes an intense roller coaster of a thriller. Walt screaming "justifications" for his actions to Jesse through the phone, while Jesse audibly relishes feigning the destruction of Walt's ill-gotten gains. As a card-carrying despiser of Walter White, I admit to experiencing a perverse amount of joy observing Walt's panic while he believed spoils of his empire were being burned out of existence. For the first time in quite a while, Walt had completely lost control of the situation. He had lost the upper hand and he was desperately trying to grasp at his power as it forever slipped away from him, and boy was it glorious. For a while at least. After the realization that he had been duped finally dawned on him, Walt made one final, misguided attempt to turn the tables back in his favor: he called the Nazi's. Upon the appearance of Hank he attempted to call them off, not knowing that there was no stopping the wildfire he had just lit.

Breaking Bad's western ascetic resurges like never before in this final stretch of episode. Walt's slow, seemingly eternal walk of shame towards Hank, Jesse and Gomez evokes imagery of old Sergio Leone westerns, and Michelle Maclaren milks this scene for all it's dramatic potential. The tension in this sequence alone would have made this a Breaking Bad all-timer, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time wondering to myself exactly how, or if, Walt was going to weasel his way out yet again. But it never happened. Hank, for however brief a time, reigns victorious over Heisenberg. He finally has his Moby Dick, Walt appropriately dressed in white for the occasion, and he revels in his victory, gloating over Walt with as much self-righteous venom he can muster. And then, in what may be the series' most heartbreaking moment thus far, he calls his wife and excitedly tells her the news. The look of relief on Marie's face made my stomach just drop, dread lingers over this deceptively happy scene like an ominous dark cloud. By the time Hank has locked the handcuffed Heisenberg in his car, it was too late. It had been too late. Since the very first episode, it had been too late.

What had been a source of joy not ten minutes prior swiftly became the most gut-wrenching, stomach-churning sequence I can ever recall watching. Walter White lost control of the situation permanently, and I should have known better than to think for one second that karma, being the b***h that it is, would only punish Walt for his misdeeds. Vince Gilligan goes Old Testament on this one, and it's about as horrifying as I could ever imagine it. Walt screams helplessly from inside the car while Uncle Jack, Todd and the rest of the neo-Nazi gang arrive at the party. He has no cards left to play, he has nothing left up his sleeves to slink out of this situation with. Walter White, the mighty Heisenberg, is helpless to stop the hellfire from raining down upon the heads of those he, in his own twisted way, cares about the most. The sight of Walt helpless would've put a victorious grin on my face not a half hour ago, yet hear we are, and the reality of the situation is sickening. MacLaren's masterful directing is at it's most potent right in these few crucial seconds. What is merely a minute or two feels like hours as Gomez and Hank are at at a stand-off against Uncle Jack and Co. As the camera frantically zooms in on Jesse, Walt, Hank and Gomez's faces, an unwavering sense of fear possesses the screen. And then, after a moment of silence that feels like eternity itself, the firing begins. It all happens too fast to process but too slow to escape from. The Nazi's firing, Gomez and Hank running for cover, Walt ducking down below the window of the car. There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. The most repulsive, amoral scum this show has seen are about to gun down some of the most loved characters and there is nothing you or Walter White can do about it. It's not glorious, it's not poetic, it's not the ceremonious offing that I had envisioned for Hank or Gomez or Jesse's ends. It's just awful, no matter how you slice it. More gunfire.

Cut to black.

There is basically no chance of Gomez and Hank surviving this. The scene is made all the more painful due to it's lack of conclusion. We, the viewers, must wait until next week to be subjected to the inevitable.

Who knew entertainment could be so stressful?

Three to go.

Episode Grade: A+

Other Thoughts:

I am officially a member of the Huell fan club.

The neo-Nazi's are perhaps more perceptive than I give them credit for; Declan DID look like Wolverine.

I am thoroughly unprepared for the soul crushing world of pain that's about to fall on Walt Jr. I simply can't adequately prepare myself for that.

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First Look: Tom Hardy is Mad Max

An image for George Miller's long in-development Mad Max sequel, Mad Max: Fury Road, trickled onto the Internet last week. As you can see below, Hardy definitely looks the part.

I'm equally curious and skeptical about this one. On one hand, director-writer George Miller is returning to the franchise that inspired too many filmmakers to count. On the other hand, the film has had plenty of difficulty making it to the big screen and I can't remember the last time Miller had a film helmed by him in theaters that I wanted to see (although, I've heard Happy Feet is entertaining).

Will Hardy be suitable in the role? Probably. Is Miller out of practice? For me, the answer is both yes and no. Is this a continuation of the existing storyline or a reboot? A quick Google search provides few answers.

Hopefully a trailer can shine some light on this mystery soon.

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Yes Ma'am Monday! - Milla Jovovich

Ma’am

/mam/ noun

1.       a term of respectful or polite address used for a woman.

2.       a term of address for a ranking female officer in the police or armed forces.

3.     a term utilized for a person of female gender that just saved your sorry butt from a horde of genetically mutated Nazi undead super soldiers.

It’s the 21^st century. The world wide web exists. There are a gazillion sites out there where one can find bikini clad co-eds and models decked out in lingerie. And there’s nothing wrong with that. We like sexiness just as much as anyone. We like the female form. Quite a bit. Ok… very, very, very much. But this is Action A Go Go, the internet’s biggest supplier of explosions. We like women that not only look beautiful, but that can take out a squad of terrorists in the time it takes most to reload. Women that you want watching your back when a graveyard’s worth of zombies have detected your position. Women that are not afraid to go eye-to-eye with twelve foot tall insectoid aliens. The kind of women to which you don’t say “Sure babe.” You say “Yes ma’am!”

Every Monday morning AAGG will be presenting prime examples of women that you want around when it seems that a global apocalypse is about to occur. And don’t worry. Even though they’ll have the strength, speed and endurance to decimate an entire army of the walking dead, they’ll still be easy on the eyes. 

This week? The incomparable Milla Jovovich. From The Fifth Element (1997) to Ultraviolet (2006), and through all five flicks in the Resident Evil series, she's given us year after year of sexy, shotgun wielding, sword slinging, zombie killing awesomeness. And for that, we say,"Thank you ma'am. Don't know what we would've done without you!"

And to close things out, here's an amazing fan-made tribute video filled with all the awesome goon terminating, monster slashing, zombie nullification for which we've come to love Ms. Jovovich so dearly.

Stephen Sumner is the science fiction columnist for Action A Go Go. He's proficient in Klingon swearing and has attempted the Vulcan process of Kolinar (with only mild success.) His favorite sci-fi series include Firefly, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. He can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/VierLights or on the Tumblr machine at http://vierlights.tumblr.com/  

   

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Riddick Review (Spoiler Free)

Looking for a solid, well-written, action packed, sci-fi movie of awesomeness this weekend? 

May we recommend...

Riddick (2013)
Director: David Twohy (A Perfect Getaway, Below)
Starring: Vin Diesel (Fast & Furious, xXx), Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica, Longmire)

Story

Being left for dead by the Necromongers on a deserted planet, Riddick finds himself being hunted by three separate parties: a band of bounty hunters, a group of mercs looking for answers from the past, and very hungry creatures that look like this...

Yes. I know. AWESOME!!!

Analysis

This is the third film in the Riddick series. The first, Pitch Black (2000), was visually intense and packed with action. However, Riddick was a morally ambiguous S.O.B. for whom I found it difficult to cheer. The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) was epic in scale and a masterful sci-fi creation in many ways, but still had some gaping plot holes.

Forget all that.

Riddick, overall, is the best of the three and an excellent way to close out the summer movie season.

Alphas

 - In this film, the character Riddick is more of the lone anti-hero that you want to root for and not so much the heartless bastard he was in Pitch Black.  (He's still a bad ass here. He just doesn't break Wheaton's Law so much.)

 - Unlike the previous two films, there’s quite a bit of humor in this one.

 - The supporting cast, from the actors that you’ll recognize to the ones that only have very minor roles, are all outstanding.

 - As with the previous two, the CGI/visuals are exquisitely done. Pure and complete eye candy.

 - Solid script. At no point did I wince and think,”Really? REALLY?”

 - For fans that have been in love/lust with the character Starbuck from the Battlestar Galactica television series, Katee Sackhoff really solidifies her action cred. And on a completely prurient note, one gets to see her bosom, unhindered by those things called “clothes."

Sackhoff rocks in this film.

Deltas

 - A major rule of script writing is that if the audience is not hooked within the first 20 minutes, they probably won’t be hooked at all. During that initial time frame, I did think to myself that it was actually a bit slow. But hang in there. Turns out, the writers were doing this thing called “establishing character and setting” that many other films may not take the time to do.

Fans of Fallout 3 will probably dig this flick quite a bit.

Action A Go Go or Action A No No?

You’ll notice that there’s only one Delta listed above. Let’s face it. You’re on a site called Action A Go Go. We’re not talking in the context of Sundance or Cannes here. For what it is (an end-of-summer, action/sci-fi flick), I left the theater feeling impressed.

Vin Diesel and director David Twohy deliver a most excellent action movie. Funny, well edited and containing lots of CGI awesomeness that supports the story (instead of trying to make up for lack of story.)

Initially was planning on going with three Arnolds, but it quickly got bumped up after one particular scene. This is a spoiler free review, so let me just put forth, if you’re a fan of Action A Go Go, you’ll have no regrets shelling out ten of your hard earned dollars this weekend after you hear the line:

"Yup. That was under five seconds." 

And for what it's worth, I just might go see it again myself.

Riddick (2013) gets...

4 out of 5 AAGG Arnolds!

Stephen Sumner is the science fiction columnist for Action A Go Go. He's proficient in Klingon swearing and has attempted the Vulcan process of Kolinar (with only mild success.) His favorite sci-fi series include Firefly, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. He can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/VierLights or on the Tumblr machine at http://vierlights.tumblr.com/ 

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RIDDICK: BLINDSIDED Motion Comic

I'm not quite sure how I feel about the motion comic phenomenon. It's kind of neat, but still makes one wonder why these project weren't animated instead (I'm sure cost has something to do with it).

Anyway, Vin Diesel has somehow managed to resuscitate the Riddick franchise. While I enjoyed Pitch Black, I never quite got why people loved Diesel's character so much that it turned into its own spin-off series. Still, you've got to admire the grass roots-ness of it all, not to mention Diesel's certainty in the longevity of the character.

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ROBOCOP 2014 TRAILER HAS DROPPED!!!! #ROBOCOP

It's here! Our first glimpse of the new Robocop has dropped. It's directed by Jose Padilha and Starring Joel Kinnaman and a roster of other heavy hitters including Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Oldman, and Michael Keaton.

What can we tell from this first trailer? It looks like the main character is going to be fleshed out a lot more than the first time around and Robocop's wife, played by Abbie Cornish,  is going to play a much bigger role as well.

Not sure how I feel about that. Definitely disappointed in the PG-13 rating, however. Usually I don't find it a limiting factor overall...but this is Robocop.

Anyway, trailer is below. Enjoy!

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