Based on an imported Japanese comic book, Priest takes place in a distopian future in which humans live in walled away cities built and run by “the church”(a Christian entity with a Catholic vibe) to be protected from the vampires out in the wilderness. The Priests are men and women trained and empowered supernaturally to hunt and kill vampires, although their order has been disbanded for years because the vampires were supposedly wiped out. But when word arrives to one Priest that his niece has been captured by vampires, he acts against direct orders from the church in order to rescue her, making himself a target of both vampires and Priests who remain loyal to the church. The story is brought to life mainly by Paul Bettany, who plays the title role, Karl Urban, an ex-priest turned vampire, Cam Gigandet, the niece’s boyfriend, Hicks, who initiates the rescue mission, and Maggie Q, another priest who also serves as love interest to Bettany’s character. Despite having some fami...

You probably haven't heard of this movie, but there are a few good reasons to check it out. "Black Death" takes place in England in the 1300's during the Black Plague. Sean Bean plays a knight of the church who has taken up the cause of hunting down the supernatural evil that he believes is the source of the plague. He leads a group of mercenaries and a young monk who plans to secretly rendezvous with the woman he loves. They all reach the suspected source of the evil, a small remote village that has mysteriously remained untouched by the plague. From this point what unfolds is a complex examination of religious fanaticism that for once, in films of this period, is not limited to pointing fingers at the Christians. The cast is composed of mostly unknowns, though all match the onscreen strength of Sean Bean extremely well. I was pulled in by each of the characters, rarely thinking of them as actors. The sets and costumes have a wonderfully rugged realism to ...

I’m a huge comic book fan, though I mostly stick to DC characters. Thor is one of the most well-known Marvel Comics characters, and also one of the most powerful. So I was curious from the beginning how they planned to bring him to the big screen. My exposure to Thor has been intermittent, with the exception of Marvel’s “Ultimate” line of comics, in which I followed Thor along with The Avengers. Unlike other superheroes, who only take inspiration from the gods of ancient myth, Thor is an actual adaptation of Norse mythology into the comic book world. Although never before has that adaptation been cooler or more approachable visually and conceptually. The premise is that a human-like alien race called The Asgardians live on a distant planet where they wage war with other humanoid races, empowered by amazing technology that by our standards appears to be magic. The Asgardians age very slowly and gave ancient earthlings the impression (intentionally or not) that they were gods. ...