Burn Notice made it’s mid-season return this past week and introduced a new recurring villain in Anson Fullerton (played by Jere Burns), who it turns out *spoilers* is the mastermind behind the entire organization that burned Michael.  In honor of this, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the other recurring villains who have been a thorn in the side of Michael, Sam, Fiona and, to a lesser extent, Jesse over these past five seasons.

5. Tom Strickler (Ben Shankman)

Tom Strickler appeared in season 3 as a slimy “Agent to the Spies” who claimed that he had numerous contacts that could help Michael make his way back into the CIA.  Strickler gets Michael to do a number of jobs for him and is constantly trying to woo Michael into becoming a full blown mercenary, giving him expensive gifts and dangling the promise of money and power in front of him.  Michael, of course, refuses all of Strickler’s other offers, demanding just to get back into the Agency.  Strickler eventually ups his recruitment of Michael toward the end of Season 3 by arranging for Fiona to be kidnapped by one of her enemies from Ireland, claiming that she was holding Michael back from his true potential and angrily declares that Michael is nothing without him.  Michael quick draws a gun from his back and shoots Strickler dead, eventually using the body to get Fiona’s kidnappers arrested for murder.

4. Mason Gilroy (Chris Vance)

Transitioning nicely from Strickler is psychotic, former MI6 agent Mason Gilroy, now full time assassin and mercenary.  After Michael kills Tom Strickler, Gilroy is hired to eliminate Michael’s CIA contact in Miami and then anonymously taunts Michael over the phone.  Michael is able to piece together who Gilroy is through Gilroy’s bragging about the various crimes he’s committed all over the world.   Michael also learns that Gilroy’s mission in Miami is to help break out a high value prisoner from a transport plane that will be flying into Miami.  Michael convinces Gilroy to let him help with the operation, in an effort to stop it, but both Michael and Gilroy learn that they were being played by the mysterious organization that burned Michael after Gilroy is betrayed by the prisoner (who is eventually revealed to be another burned spy named Simon whose horrible record was falsely turned into Michael’s record and got him burned) and is killed by an explosive device around his neck.

3. Carla (Tricia Helfer)

Carla is a high ranking member of the organization that burned Michael and throughout the entirety of Season Two is Michael’s “handler”, forcing him to perform various jobs that Michael eventually learns is for an assassination that goes pear shaped when the assassin is killed and Michael is almost killed in an explosion.  Carla then tasks Michael with finding out who is responsible for blowing the operation and Michael tracks it to Carla’s right hand man, Victor, who was burned just like Michael was.  Instead of turning Victor in, Michael proposes they team up to take down Carla and, hopefully, the entire organization.  Victor has evidence stored on his houseboat but his gunned down by Carla’s men.  Carla offer Michael the choice of either taking credit for Victor’s murder and earning points with “Management” or getting blown up.  Michael refuses to cooperate but fortunately Fiona manages to kill Carla with a sniper rifle before she can detonate the bombs.

2. Tyler Brennan (Jay Karnes)

Tyler Brennan is an arrogant, highly intelligent arms dealer who first comes into contact with the Burn Notice team when Michael’s ex-fiance, Samantha (a thief), blows a job for him where she was supposed to steal some military hardware but kept it when she realized what it was and what Brennan could do with it.  Brennan then kidnaps her son and plants an explosive hidden in a cast on him but Michael and the gang are able to rescue him but Brennan acquires the military hardware.  Michael, Fiona and Sam come up with a plan to frame Brennan for the robbery, where Michael and Fiona approach Brennan as themselves and offer their services doing security for his upcoming sale.  They eventually fake an ambush and force Brennan to go on the run from his buyers, who think he was trying to steal from them.

Brennan returns in Season Three, looking for revenge against Michael and uses his brother Nate as leverage to get Michael to steal another military macguffin while Nate is unknowingly with one of Brennan’s hired killers.  Nate believes Brennan is a would be investor in his limousine service.  Michael gets Brennan to back off by having his money launder Barry fake Brennan’s accounts being drained and claiming that he has an assassin outside his daughter’s private school in Europe.

Brennan’s last appearance is in Season Four when he steals the list of all the people in the organization that burned Michael that the gang had acquired and hires Larry (who we’ll get to in a second) and forces Michael to go and start killing said people and framing a terrorist organization for a group of investors.  Brennan underestimates Larry’s craziness however and is killed when Larry stabs in him in the stomach after he and Michael do the first job.

1. Larry Sizemore (Tim Matheson)

If Michael Westen were Batman, Larry would be the Joker as he’s the insane, blood thirsty mirror of Michael.  He and Michael were actually parnters in the CIA and Larry was sort of a mentor to Michael.  Larry became disillusioned with the government and became increasingly irrational until he eventually decided to “retire” by walking into an oil refinery in Serbia before it exploded and he was assumed to be KIA.  Larry then became a contract killer and surfaced in Miami, first in season two, after hearing about the supposed terrorist acts Michael committed to get burned.  He asked Michael for help with a hit he had on a wealthy Miami woman but Michael and Co. managed to prevent it, although Larry killed the stepson who originally requested the hit and escaped.

Larry came back in Season Three after killing a member of a Mexican drug cartel in Michael’s warehouse flat and using Michael’s name as an alias, forcing Michael to help him with his scheme to steal some of the cartel’s money.  He also sabotaged Michael’s cell phone and diverted calls from Sam and Fiona in an effort to get Michael to feel alienated from his friends and come work with Larry.  The gang figured it out and left Larry forced to help the police uncover his own money laundering scheme to maintain his new identity as “Larry Garber”.

As mentioned above, Larry came back in Season Four, under hire by Tyler Brennan to systematically kill the members of the organization that burned Michael.  Larry betrayed Brennan and killed him because Michael had tried to bluff Larry by suggesting Brennan had black mail evidence on him. At the site where the next target was, Michael and the gang managed to force him to remain at the crime scene and go down for murder.

Larry most recent, and last appearance, was in the summer finale of Season Five.  Larry claims he managed to bribe and murder his way out of the prison he was sent to and angrily forces Michael to help him break into the British consulate in Miami (using passcodes from presumed kidnap victim Anson) and swap some diplomatic documents for a client.  Larry seemingly has the entire gang on lock down until Fiona manages to sneak a load of explosives onto the window near where Larry was keeping tabs on Michael in the consulate’s vault and managed to blow him up, but her explosion also seemingly caused a second explosion that leveled the lobby of the building and killed two security guards.  Michael and Fiona later learn that Anson was behind it all, including hiring Larry and now has black mail evidence against Fiona that he’s using to force Michael to do his dirty work.

Sean Bean

Born: April 17, 1959

Number of Roles: 94

Best Known for Playing: Villains

First Appearance: Hooker in Winter Flight (1984)

Most Recent Appearance: Ulric in Black Death (2010)

Notable Roles:

• Zeus in Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
• John Ryder in The Hitcher
• Christopher Da Silva in Silent Hill
• Ian Howe in National Treasure
• Dr. Merrick in The Island
• Patridge in Equilibrium
• Boromir in The Lord of the Rings
• Spence in Ronin
• Alec Trevelyn in Goldeneye
• Sean Miller in Patriot Games

Fun Facts:

• One of four LOTR actors to work with Harrison Ford, who hit him with a boat hook for real during the filming of the final fight in Patriot Games, giving him a scar.
• Appeared in the “We Are All Made of Stars” music video.
• Auditioned for James Bond for The Living Daylights.
• Very similar career to fellow Sheffield native Gary Oldman.

Green Zone

Entourage Season Six

Avatar the Last Airbender Complete Book 1 Collector’s Edition

She’s Out of My League

Hung Season One

Death Race 2000 (Roger Corman’s Cult Classics)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (3D Bluray)

Green Zone

Starring: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan, Brendan Gleason

Directed by: Paul Greengrass

Plot: Army Inspector Roy Miller and his team are searching for WMDs during the early days of the US occupation in Iraq and they uncover a conspiracy that could throw the region into chaos.

Rotten Tomatoes Freshness: 48%

Critic Consensus: “Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass return to the propulsive action and visceral editing of the Bourne films — but a cliched script and stock characters keep those methods from being as effective this time around.”

Remember Me

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Emilie De Ravin, Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper

Directed by: Allen Coulter

Plot: A troubled young man in New York City falls for a girl and begins to heal from a family tragedy.

RT Freshness: 31%

Critic Consensus: “Its leads are likeable, but Remember Me suffers from an overly maudlin script and a borderline offensive final twist.”

She’s Out of My League

Starring: Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, TJ Miller, Mike Vogel

Directed by: Jim Field Smith

Plot: A nerdy airport worker stumbles into a relationship with a gorgeous girl, much to his friends’ confusion.

RT Freshness: 45%

Critic Consensus: “She’s Out of My League has moments of humor and insight, but it’s bogged down by excessive vulgarity and cartoonishness.”

Our Family Wedding

Starring: America Ferrara, Lance Gross, Forest Whitaker, Carlos Mencia

Directed by: Rick Famuyiwa

Plot: A young couple tries to get ready for their wedding but their competitive fathers threaten to throw the whole thing off the rails.

RT Freshness: 17%

Critic Consensus: “Our Family Wedding is a mirthless, contrived affair that does little with its promising premise and talented cast.”

Jack is back to his old self whether he’s yelling at medics to keep a suspect stable or getting one step ahead of the terrorists.

We didn’t open on Jack however but everyone’s least favorite murdering couple, Dana and Cole.  The pair set about getting rid of any evidence concerning what happened to Nick and Kevin and dumped their bodies in the nearby lake.  Cole was fuming and the wedding might be delayed a bit.

Back to Jack, he led a CTU tactical team to the area where Farhad was hiding.  While on the phone with Hastings, Farhad decided he couldn’t stay in one place any longer and tried to run but was gunned down by one of Samir’s men.   Jack and Co. arrived seconds later and the gunman fled with Farhad bled out, despite Jack’s yelling and the medic’s best efforts to keep him alive.  Jack had planned to show Farhad classified profiles of covert Karmistan operatives who are operating in the US in an attempt to track the terrorists down.  With Farhad dead, Jack thought up a plan B which involved luring the terrorists to a nearby hospital with news that Farhad was still alive, broadcast thanks to the local Fox affiiliate.  CTU rolled out and got ready to spring their trap.

At the UN, President Taylor and Rob were brought up to speed about the situation.  President Taylor agreed to try and convince Hassan to give up the classified files (which he did when Taylor threatened US retaliation if the attack occured) and Hastings finally grew a pair and basically told Rob to fuck off.  Former head of security Tarin was about to be transferred but recieved a visit from Kayla Hassan and he revealed that he had a man still loyal who was going to slip him handcuff keys and a gun.  Tarin was hauled off but put the keys and gun to good use in transit, hijacking the SUV and locking the agents in the trunk.  He then headed off to a nearby hotel to meet Kayla where the two did the vertical rumba for the rest of the episode while they waited for a lawyer to arrive and help them get asylum in the US.  Hassan got the news of Tarin’s escape from his agents and was furious, but more concerned that Kayla was somewhere in NYC with a potential dirty bomb going off.  He called his estranged wife and she agreed to try and find Kayla. Meanwhile, President Taylor, after conferencing with Homeland Security Tim and other experts, decided to evacuate the UN because of the dirty bomb threat but Hassan refused to leave until Kayla was found.  Taylor relented but said they would talk soon.

At the hospital turned terrorist trap, Jack and his team spread out and waited for the terrorists to make their move.  Their move was sending half Karmistani half American Marcos, strapped with a bomb vest but with a potential weakness in his mother.  Chloe spotted him on the security feed thanks to facial recognition and also figured she could stop the vest from detonating by identifying the detonator and then jamming it’s signal.  Marcos was lead to Farhad’s fake recovery room by nervous Cole replacement Owen, who Jack told to stay calm and that he was completely covered.  Chloe nailed down the detonator type but needed to see the vest to disarm it.  Owen managed to call Marcos’ bluff and got him to show the vest and Chloe and Arlo sent about jamming it.  Arriving in Farhad’s room, Marcos tried to detonate the vest but, seeing it not work, used a gun stolen from Owen to make Farhad deader.  Jack and company arrived shortly afterwards and Marcos threw himself out the window and, despite probably breaking most of his bones, managed to evade Jack and locked himself in some sort of pressure chamber.  Jack tried to talk him out but Marcos wasn’t having it and instead called Samir to find out how to detonate the vest manually.  It looks like Jack is going to have to really turn the screws on Marcos next week and what does Stephen Root want with Kevin (maybe he stole his stapler?)

The Crazies

Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Danielle Panabaker, Joe Anderson

Directed by: Breck Eisner

Plot: An experimental bio-weapon leaks into the small town of Ogden Marsh’s water supply and turns the citizens into murdering psychotics.

Rotten Tomatoes Freshness: 73%

Critic Consensus: “Tense, nicely shot, and uncommonly intelligent, The Crazies is the rare horror remake that works.”

Cop Out

Starring: Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, Sean William Scott

Directed by: Kevin Smith

Plot: A pair of cops are on the trail of a rare and valuable stolen baseball card and get sidetracked by other crimes, including a murder.

RT Freshness: 17%

Critic Consensus: “Cop Out is a cliched buddy action/comedy that suffers from stale gags and slack pacing.”

A new trailer debuted this week (and most likely in front of The Crazies this weekend) for the upcoming remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street.  It’s longer and gives you more of an idea about who Freddy’s victims are, what sort of twisted forms he’s going to take and the places he’s going to stalk them in.  I think it’s looking really good; Jackie Earle Haley is the perfect choice for Freddy and although it’s going back to the darkness of the first Elm Street, there’s still a glimmer of the one line dropping psycho we love from the later films.  At the very least it has to be better than the Friday the 13th and Halloween remakes, right?  Check out the trailer and decide for yourself.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

The Informant!

Everybody’s Fine

The Box

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

Flash Forward Part One

Superjail Season One

Sorority Row

Dead Snow

The Crazies (Blu Ray)

The latest from director Neil Marshall, who directed the fan favorite The Descent and the insane but awesome mash up that was Doomsday, is Centurion.  After a Roman legion is ambushed by the barbarian Picts, seven survivors must escape from deep behind enemy lines with the entire Pict force on their heels.  The movie stars Michael Fassbender, Dominc West and Olga Kurylenko and is going to be out sometime this year.  It looks pretty good and it’s interesting to see Roman legionaries as the underdogs.  Let’s just hope it’s more Gladiator than, say, Pathfinder.

Note to movie studios, release your holiday named movies around the time of the actual holiday (I’m looking at you Halloween). It certainly worked for Valentine’s Day, which dominated the box office with $52.4 million. Following in second and third were the other two new releases, Percy Jackson and The Wolfman. Percy took in a little over $31 million while the Wolfman just over $30 million. It’s underwhelming for those two as Percy’s budget was $95 million and The Wolfman had a whopping $150 million budget. Avatar lost about 300 screens over the weekend but only dropped about 4% from last weekend, pulling in another $22 million and bringing it’s domestic total to over $660 million. Last week’s big winner, Dear John, buckled under the pressure from Valentine’s Day and dropped 50% to just over $15 million. Will audiences still be feeling romantic next weekend or will they be ready to be freaked out by Shutter Island?

From Paris with Love

Starring: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Myers

Directed by: Pierre Morel

Plot: An aide to the US Ambassador to France is also a low level CIA operative and gets his first big assignment when he is teamed up with a crazy loose cannon special agent to stop a terrorist plot in Paris.

Rotten Tomatoes Freshness: 33%

Critic Consensus: “Though not without its charms — chief among them John Travolta’s endearingly over-the-top performance — From Paris with Love is too muddled and disjointed to satisfy.”

Dear John

Starring: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Richard Jenkins, Henry Thomas

Directed by: Lasse Hallstrom

Plot: A special forces soldier and a college student fall for each other over spring break and exchange letters when the soldier has to return to active duty.

RT Freshness: 30%

Critic Consensus: “Built from many of the same ingredients as other Nicholas Sparks tearjerkers, Dear John suffers from its cliched framework, as well as Lasse Hallstrom’s curiously detached directing.”

The duo of DJ Mayhem and Mouthmaster Murf are back for another action movie inspired rap.  We’ve already heard them recap The Terminator and Robocop and now they drop some mad beats and recap James Cameron’s Aliens.  Coming in at 10 minutes the duo runs through the whole plot and expertly mixes actual dialogue into their flow.  Check it out below.

Jack and Renee continued their quest to find the nuclear rods as Renee went back to Vladimir’s garage while Jack called CTU and again voiced his concerns about Renee, since she’s clearly unstable.  Hastings didn’t want to jeopardize the mission but Jack made a deal with him to figure out a way to pull Renee out without blowing their covers.  Cole was then sent out to meet up with Jack to set up his disguise and their back up.  Renee and Vladimir, meanwhile, ironed out the details of the deal.  Vladimir would send a few of his men to meet “Ernst Meir” who would transfer $5 million to their account as a good faith payment.  Vladimir would then make some calls and put in a counter bid for the nuclear material.  Vladimir also wanted something extra from Renee and, despite Jack’s urgings not too, she went dark and slept with him. If that wasn’t enough, Vladimir ordered his men to kill Jack as soon as they had the $5 million.

Meanwhile at the UN, President Taylor recieved news that the BBC had gotten footage of the brutal arrests Hassan’s men were conducting and also that a number of the countries supporting the peace treaty were thinking of pulling out.  President Taylor decided to address the delegates from the supporting countries to urge them to remain in the talks.  President Hassan got an update on the situation from his head of security and learned that the cousin of one of his top advisors was working with Farhad.  Hassan ordered the arrest of this man and demanded he be taken to their embassy for questioning.  His head of security was not to pleased with this and arranged to meet with Hassan’s daughter into possibly talking some sense into him.

Dana’s problems continued to distract her from the mission at hand.  She found a suitable target for Kevin and his loser friend, a police warehouse with a recent delivery of $120,000 in drug money.  She made up a fake ID card and told Kevin she would manipulate the security so they could get in and out with detection.  Wise ass Arlo was becoming suspicious and saw her meet with Kevin on the security camera.  He also provided a fantastic Chloe moment by asking if she noticed anything funny with Dana and Chloe responding that maybe she’s just tired of him coming onto her all the time and he’s lucky she didn’t call human resources on him.  Arlo then said maybe Chloe was just jealous and she came back with a sarcastic “oh yeah, I wish you would constantly stare at my ass all the time.”  and then walked away.  Arlo, of course, checked out her ass.

Jack met up with Cole and changed into his disguise, kind of looking like he was going to go hold Colin Farrell hostage, and went to meet with Vladimir’s men.  They tested his German and then Jack started the transfer.  After it was done, Vladimir’s men went for their guns but were stopped by Cole and his sniper rifle.  Jack then called Vladimir and threatened to kill his last man if they didn’t meet.  Vladimir agreed and Jack and his hostage headed off.

Wrapping things up was the saga of Josef and his radiation soaked brother.  Their hostage doctor ran some tests and prescribed a regiment of drugs that could potentially flush the radiation from his system but it wasn’t a guarantee. Josef agreed to treat his brother at their country home but before he could finish getting the instructions, two of his father’s men barged in and killed the doctor, taking Josef and his brother back to their father.  Sergei was not pleased and after beating up Josef decided to teach him a lesson.  He pulled out a gun and threatened Josef with it before killing his other son.  He then warned Josef to never disobey him again.  What will happen when Jack and Vladimir meet face to face?  Can Dana keep covering up Kevin’s plot?  Will the peace talks go down the tubes?  We’ll have to find out next week.

Legion

Starring: Paul Bettany, Dennis Quaid, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson

Directed by: Scott Stewart

Plot: Fallen Archangel Michael must lead a small band of human survivors against God’s wrath of murderous angels and protect a waitress who might be pregnant with the second coming of Christ.

Rotten Tomatoes Freshness: 13%

Critic Consensus: N/A

The Tooth Fairy

Starring: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Ashley Johnson, Stephen Merchant, Julie Andrews

Directed by: Michael Lembeck

Plot: An aggressive hockey player is forced to perform a unique brand of community service by becoming the new Tooth Fairy.

RT Freshness: 17%

Critic Consensus: “Dwayne Johnson brings the full force of his charm (and his appropriately pale chompers) to the title role, but flat direction and a committee-written script render The Tooth Fairy unacceptably dull.”

Extraordinary Measures

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford, Keri Russell

Directed by: Tom Vaughan

Plot: Based on a true story, a businessman and a doctor team up to form a bio-tech company to research and find a cure for the businessman’s son’s life threatening disease.

RT Freshness: 30%

Critic Consensus: “Despite a timely topic and a pair of heavyweight leads, Extraordinary Measures never feels like much more than a made-for-TV tearjerker.”

• Name: Beck
• Occupation: Bounty Hunter
• Family: None
• Allies: Travis Walker, Declan, Mariana, Jungle rebels
• Enemies: Cornelius Bernard Hatcher and his goons
• Weapon(s) of Choice: Bare hands, Remington 870 shotguns
• Body Count: 15
• Memorable Quote: “Option A or Option B?”

See Beck in Action:

Award show season is upon us once again with last night’s Golden Globes being handed out for TV and Movies.  Check out the winners below and let the “____ should have won” discussions commence!

• Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture- Mo’Nique for Precious
• Best Actress in a TV series, Comedy- Toni Collette for The United States of Tara
• Best Supporting Actor in TV series- John Lithgow for Dexter
• Best Animated Film- Up
• Best Actor, Drama- Michael C. Hall for Dexter
• Best Actress, Drama- Julianna Marguiles for The Good Wife
• Best Original Song- The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart
• Best Original Score- Up
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical- Meryl Streep for Julie and Julia
• Best Screenplay- Up in the Air
• Best Foreign Film- The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke
• Best TV Series, Drama- Mad Men
• Best Actor in a TV Series, Comedy- Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock
• Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series- Chloe Sevigny for Big Love
• Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture- Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds
• Best Director- James Cameron for Avatar
• Best TV Series, Comedy- Glee
• Best Picture, Comedy or Musical- The Hangover
• Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama- Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side
• Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical- Robert Downey Jr for Sherlock Holmes
• Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama- Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart
• Best Picture, Drama- Avatar

Avatar continues to dominate the box office, pulling in another $41 million this past weekend. It has almost as half a billion in just domestic gross and well over a billion internationally. The Book of Eli put up a good fight at number two, pulling in $31.6 million. With it’s new wider release, The Lovely Bones came in at third with just over $17 million. Sherklock Holmes and Alvin and the Chipmunks rounded out the top five, both losing around 400 theaters. Jackie Chan’s latest, The Spy Next Door, came in at a lackluster sixth place. Reviews were terrible so it’s not a surprise. What is kind of surprising is that all the movies the came out last week are already in their death throes, Leap Year is the only one that managed to stay in the top 10 while Daybreakers and Youth in Revolt both fell off.

The Book of Eli

Starring: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis

Directed by: The Hughes Brothers

Plot: After an apocalyptic war, a man named Eli wanders the land protecting a mysterious object that he believes will save humanity.

Rotten Tomatoes Freshness: 47%

Critic Consensus: “It’s certainly uneven, and many viewers will find that its reach exceeds its grasp, but The Book of Eli finds the Hughes brothers injecting some fresh stylish fun into the kind of post-apocalyptic wasteland filmgoers have seen more than enough of lately.”

The Spy Next Door

Starring: Jackie Chan, George Lopez, Billy Ray Cyrus, Amber Valletta

Directed by: Brian Levant

Plot: One of the world’s greatest spies must defend a group of kids after they accidentally come into possession of a top secret code.

RT Freshness: 6%

Critic Consensus: “Lacking a script funny enough to cover up for Jackie Chan’s fading physical gifts, The Spy Next Door fails on every conceivable level.”

The Lovely Bones

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Saoirse Ronan

Directed by: Peter Jackson

Plot: After she is murdered, a young girl journeys through the afterlife and tries to help her family catch her murderer.

RT Freshness: 34%

Critic Consensus: “It’s stuffed full of Peter Jackson’s typically dazzling imagery, but The Lovely Bones suffers from abrupt shifts between horrific violence and cloying sentimentality.”

Highlander (1986)- Immortal Connor Macleod has lived for centuries and engages in his final battle against the deadly Kurgan in New York City.  Flashbacks reveal the Connor was born in Scotland and was “killed” in battle.  He miraculously recovered and was cast out of his village for being a witch.  He then met a man named Ramirez, who trained him for “The Gathering” of other Immortals, who will all battle for “The Prize”.  In NYC Connor meets and falls in love with police examiner Brenda Wyatt.  The Kurgan kidnaps Brenda and he and Connor have a final showdown on a rooftop.  Connor wins and gains unlimited knowledge and gets the ability to have children, which Immortals normally don’t have.

Highlander II: The Quickening (1991)- Connor MacLeod and Brenda are living Africa in 1994 when the ozone layer of the Earth starts fading.  Millions start dying, including Brenda.  Connor promises to help solve the problem and in 1999 he helps create an electromagnetic field that surrounds the earth and blocks the radiation.  However, it also causes a state of constant night to envelop the Earth.  By 2024, humanity has fallen into despair and Connor is an old man waiting to die.  A flashback reveals that Connor and Ramirez are both aliens from the planet Zeist who led a rebellion against the evil General Katana.  The rebellion is crushed and Connor and Ramirez are sentenced to be exiled to Earth and be reborn as Immortals.  If they can win “The Prize” they can either grow old and die on Earth or return to Zeist.  General Katana decides that Connor cannot be allowed back on Zeist and sends henchmen to kill him.  Connor manages to kill them both and grows young again due to the quickenings, or release of energy when an immortal is killed.  Connor revives Ramirez and the two join Connor’s current love interest, Louise Marcus, in trying to take down the Shield, since Louise recently found out that the ozone layer restored itself.  Katana arrives in NYC and Connor and Ramirez go to fight him.  Everyone but Connor and Louise are killed and Connor uses the Quickening he got from Katana to destroy the shield.  Connor then decides to stay on Earth with Louise instead of returning to Zeist.

Highlander: The Final Dimension or Highlander III: The Sorcerer (1994)-  Basically erasing the events of Highlander II, Highlander III finds Connor living with his adopted son John in Marakesh in 1994.  Brenda died in a car accident a few year earlier.  A flashback reveals that in the 16th century, Connor journeyed to Asia to train with an Immortal master named Nakano, who is a master of illusion and magic.  While Connor is there, another Immortal named Kane arrives with two henchmen to learn the art of illusion as well.  Nakano refuses and Kane decapitates them despite Connor’s attempts to stop it.  The quickening that results causes a landslide that seals Kane and his henchmen in the cave and Connor manages to escapes.  Back in 1994, archaeologist Alexandra Johnson is investigating Nakano’s cave and inadvertently releases Kane.  Connor learns of this and heads to NYC for the final battle for The Prize.  Kane challenges him on holy ground and in the battle, Connor’s sword is broken.  He flees to Scotland to try and make a new sword but fails until Alex arrives with a piece of steel she found in Nakano’s cave.  Connor builds a new sword and learns that his son is heading to NYC.  Kane gets to him before Connor and holds him hostage to lure Connor into a final battle.  The two battle and Connor wins, gaining the Prize.  Connor, John and Alex return to Scotland to live a normal life.

Highlander: Endgame (2000)-  In 1555, Connor returned to his home village to rescue his mother from the village priest Jacob Kell.  Kell executes her as a witch and Connor kills him and Kell’s adopted father, Father Rainey.  Kell is reborn as an immortal and proceeds on a centuries long revenge quest against Connor, killing his friends and gaining a number of followers.  Kell kills the most Immortals of any other Immortal and is the most powerful Immortal in the world.  After Kell kills Connor’s adopted daughter Rachel, Connor goes into hiding at a sanctuary run by The Watchers, a group who have made it their mission to record and observe the battles of the Immortals.  Kell attacks the sanctuary about 10 years later and kill everyone but Connor, leaving him alive so that he can suffer more.  Meanwhile, Connor’s fellow clansman, Duncan Macleod, arrives upon hearing about Connor’s supposed death and is almost killed by Kell and his minions.  Kell then decides to kill Duncan to further hurt Connor.  Kell kills all of his immortal henchmen to gain even more power and Connor decides that the only way Duncan can defeat Kell is to allow himself to be beheaded by Duncan.  Duncan reluctantly agrees and gains all of Connor’s power.  Duncan and Kell engage in a final battle, which at first Kell seems to be winning until Duncan executes a flip over Kell’s head and decapitates him in mid air.  Duncan then bring’s Connor’s body to his home in Scotland and buries him next to his first wife, Heather.

Highlander: The Source (2007)- Duncan Mcleod and a group of immortals set out to find the source of immortality.  The source is guarded by a supernatural Guardian.  Duncan, his wife Anna and others meet in a monastery and are told about the Source from a mysterious Elder.  He reveals that in the past, another group of immortals tried to find the source.  All but two of the them were killed and those two killed the Guardian.  However, this caused one of them to be the new Guardian and the other to become the Elder.  Duncan and his group set out but are attacked by the Guardian.  Two of the party are killed and Duncan’s sword is destroyed in the fight.  After burying their friends, they set out for an island in Eastern Europe that is supposed to be the source.  On the boat ride to the island, the captain warns the group that cannibals control the island and kill anyone who sets foot on it.  The group fights off a group of locals who were torturing a man and get a van and a pair of swords for Duncan.  They drive to an abandoned house close to the location of the source but as a consequence they start losing their immortal powers.  The Guardian arrives during the night and kills another member of their group.  The next day, they find the road blocked and are captured by the cannibals.  When the cannibals get drunk, The Guardian arrives and takes Anna.  Duncan manages to free himself and defeats the cannibals, and then gives chase after the Guardian.  Duncan finds Anna in a clearing and they look up to see a cosmic alignment taking place directly overhead.  The Guardian arrives and challenges Duncan to combat.  The two battle and Duncan finds himself with powers equal to the Guardian.  The Guardian eventually gets itself buried and trapped in the ground and demands that Duncan decapitate him.  Duncan refuses and the Guardian vanishes.  Duncan and Anna then enter the Source and Anna reveals that she is pregnant.