Mission: Impossible - Fallout Review

OK, so its time for another post, which will be a review of a new film (for a change!) which is the latest film in the Mission Impossible franchise starring Tom Cruise, MI: Fallout.

So, six films into the franchise, how does Fallout fair???  Well, let's take a look and find out...

And while I won't go into any great detail in this review as it is quite a new movie, I will give out the usual warning all the same...

SOME PLOT SPOILERS MIGHT BE AHEAD BUT NOT TOO MANY!!!

STORY

So, the story begins with IMF agent, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) being assigned a mission to purchase three stolen plutonium cores in Berlin from a rogue terrorist group called the Apostles. Ethan is joined by his two trusted agents, Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) however their mission goes awry when the Apostles take Luther hostage and as Ethan saves Luther, it allows the terrorists to escape with the plutonium.

As a result of the failure of Ethan's team, CIA director, Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett) orders that Special Activities Division agent, August Walker (Henry Cavill) shadow Ethan as he attempts to retrieve the plutonium. Ethan and Walker then infiltrate a nightclub party in Paris where they are looking for an extremist named John Lark and together they subdue a suspect they believe to be Lark. However as the man attacks them both and is about to shoot Ethan and Walker, the man is suddenly killed by MI6 agent, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson).

Ethan decides to go ahead with his cover to pose as Lark without a disguise as he meets with arms dealer, Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby) who Lark was supposed to be buying the cores from. However during their meeting, hitmen appear who were sent to kill Lark and Alanna and Ethan succesfully manages to evade them and escape the scene.

Alanna later tells Ethan that she will deal with him only if he extracts the notorious terrorist, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) from an armoured convoy moving through Paris, which Ethan agrees to however Alanna insists on leaving no survivors at the scene. On the day, Ethan diverts from Alanna's plan to use excessive force but manages to create a chase between the cops and Alanna's men and Lane is soon captured by Benji and Luther.  However, things become complicated as Ilsa reappears and attempts to Lane but Ethan manages to evade her and takes Lane to a hiding place. Ethan was also forced to kill some of Alanna's men who were about to kill a female Parisian police officer and Alanna later pins the blame on Ilsa and demands that Ethan deliver Ilsa to her although Ethan is determined to protect her.

And its from here things get more complicated as Ethan must find a way to keep Ilsa safe from Alanna and also a way to find the stolen plutonium....

THOUGHTS

Its good to see that the MI series continues its high quality run here with Fallout as it is a very entertaining movie and yet another very worthy entry to the franchise as there is plenty of fun, thrills and excitment to be found here.  Fallout has it share of twists and turns and I will of course not go into anymore of what I have already mentioned in the story sections but the film certainly is quite convoluted at times and there are plenty of details to follow. The film also has its share of colourful and interesting characters with the usual regulars of Benji, Luther but also some interesting supporting characters such as August Walker and Alanna Mitsopolis aswell as a menacing main villain in Solomon Lane.

PERFORMANCES (No notable scenes this time or quoted dialogue!)

As for the performances the cast are all on good form here once more.

Starting with Tom Cruise who effortlessly reprises his role as Ethan Hunt, the IMF agent who is just impossible to kill or keep down and is assigned the mission to hunt down missing plutonium. And Tom relies on his solid onscreen presence to carry his performance but there are also times in the film where you get the notion that the film is happening around Tom rather than him really being the star of it. Regardless of this though, Tom does his part very well once again and yet again he performs his own stunts in the film, however this time round, Tom injured himself during filming a sequence in London, as he broke his ankle, which forced the production to shut down for 7 weeks to allow Tom to heal.

Henry Cavill next up is very good in his role as August Walker, who is a CIA assassin and member of the Special Activities Divison. And Cavill really plays the part well and its good to see get his teeth into a role with a bit of colour and dimension to it after playing in the dreary one-note Superman films. Cavill himself grew a moustache for the role and was caught in the middle of the production of Fallout and also his role of Superman in Justice League at the time in which the makers of Justice League had to CGI out Cavill's moustache (well it was either that or just accept that Superman grew a tash!). 

Ving Rhames is great once again as Luther Stickell, a loyal member of Ethan's IMF team and he reprises his role effortlessly here aswell. Rhames is of course now starting to show his age in the film (he is now 59) so we are getting a rather tubby looking Rhamester in this once but his performances are always very solid and he is no less than that here.

Simon Pegg is also pretty good as he reprises his role as Benji Dunn, another member of Ethan's IMF team, who is a technical field agent. Pegg plays Benji as being somewhere between a little cowardly but he is also courageous when he really has to be.

Rebecca Ferguson does very well once again too in her role as Ilsa Faust as she makes her second appearance in the franchise here after her debut in the previous film, Rogue Nation.  The film actually hints at bit of romantic attraction between Ethan and Ilsa however I will not mention any more than that for now if you don't want their scenes spoiled!

Sean Harris also reprises his role very well as the primary villain, Solomon Lane, an anarchist who was the leader of the Syndicate during the events of Rogue Nation. Harris plays the part with a good degree of chilling menace and his soft spoken tones make his delivery all the more threatening for the audience.

Angela Bassett does pretty well in her role as Erika Sloane, the head of the CIA, who assigns August Walker to Ethan's team to keep an eye on him. Angela is somewhat underused in the film here but she does carry her role very well with just the right of amount of authoratitve power aswell as a bit of sass thrown in! ;-)

Michelle Monaghan also makes a reappearance as Ethan's ex-wife, Julia, who does appear later on but I won't say anymore than that for now as I think I've said enough already! Anyway, Michelle does very well in her role as Julia once again.

And last of all is Alec Baldwin who is excellent in his role as Alan Hunley a former CIA director and is now the new secretary for the IMF division. Again Baldwin's appearance here is rather short but his presence sure makes up for his role's shortfall in terms of screen time.

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

As for the director, Christopher McQuarrie does another excellent job here with the film after his debut with Rogue Nation, he backs it up with another solid directorial effort. McQuarrie confidently handles the film's action scenes and for the most part he paces the film well enough even if it is does still feel a bit long at 2 hours and 30 minutes. McQuarrie also wrote the screenplay for the film here and the quality of his writing has always been very high (given that he wrote The Usual Suspects and won an oscar for it) and it sure is here too.

As for the music score it is by Lorne Balfe and it is a very good one overall and has some excellent tracks, particularly the one that is used during Lane's extraction sequence, which has a feel of the Hans Zimmer, Dark Knight film scores to it. In fact you could almost say that even though the Zimmer-esque nature of the score is impressive, it also in those moments makes it lack a bit of originality aswell. However, despite all that, this is still a very fine score by Balfe and a good inclusion to the series.

FLAWS (Warning: this section may or may not refer to the odd spoiler!)

As for flaws...yeah OK Fallout still does have the odd one or two.

For starters, I would have to say that the plot is at times just a bit too convoluted to follow as there are plenty of twists and turns put in here, which I guess is pretty typical of the MI franchise of course but this time round it does feel a bit heavy-handed. And of course you just know that there will be the inclusion of some fake masks at some point in the film too and this time round its Benji's turn to wear them!

I also felt that at two and a half hours long that the film is just a bit too long and there are still moments where the pacing of the film lags and it easily could have been trimmed a little to the 2 hour/2 hour 10 minute mark. I get the impression that actions films like this HAVE to be this long so they can be given an "epic" status but in doing so, most of these films just feel padded out longer than they need to be.

There of course other flaws but I will save them for another revisitation of this film, which I might do in the future but that's it for now! But I will add some more if I think of any.
SUM UP

So to sum up, Mission: Impossible - Fallout is a very solid and entertaining addition to the MI franchise and it sees the regular cast reprise their roles very well. The direction and writing from Christopher McQuarrie is again excellent and the film's action scenes are very impressive, particularly the scenes that were shot in the IMAX format which look pretty spectacular.

So overall, MI: Fallout is definitely well worth checking out and if you haven't seen it yet then I'd certainly recommend giving it a go.

OK, so that's it for now but I will be back with a couple more posts before the year is out and hopefully one just before Christmas.

So, till the next one its bye for now!
 

Training Day (Revisited) "King Kong ain't got shit on me!!!"

OK, its post revisitation time yet again! So, the post I have chosen to take another look, which I did 5 years ago on this blog (its been that long?!) is the crime thriller, Training Day starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke.

So, after 17 years how does Training Day still fair???  Well, let's take another look...

And yes the usual warning is coming up...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

So the film begins with rookie cop, Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawke) who is to be evaluated by a narcotics officer, Detective Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington).  Alonzo is a highly decorated cop and he has a rather unorthodox way of doing things as Jake soon finds out after they carry out a drugs bust, they confiscate the drugs sold to some young kids, and Alonzo tells Jake to be an effective narcotics agent that he should smoke the marijuana.  When Jake initially refuses, Alonzo points a gun at his head and tells him if he turned down a drug dealer he would be dead, which forces Jake to smoke it, only to later find out from Alonzo that it was laced with PCP. Along the way Alonzo pays a visit to a local drug dealer, Roger (Scott Glenn) who was a former police officer.

After they drive on, Jake soon after notices a young girl being sexually assaulted by two crackheads as they drive by an alley way, Jake runs out and stops the attackers.  However Alonzo is not interested in reporting the crime as he believes justice is better served on the streets and to let the lowlifes just wipe each other out. 

Later on Alonzo tries to follow the lead of another drug dealer called the Sandman, which eventually leads to the Sandman's house, but the dealer isn't there and Alonzo has to deal with the dealer's wife (Macy Gray) where he uses the excuse that he has a search warrant in order to search her apartment for drug money.  Alonzo in the process steals money during the search and on leaving, the Sandman's wife realises she has been robbed and sets the local gangbangers on Alonzo and Jake, who barely make it out of there in one piece.

Alonzo later pays a visit to his Salvadoran mistress, Sara (Eva Mendes) and their young son.  Afterwards Alonzo meets with a group of high ranking police officials, dubbed the "three wise men" (Tom Berenger, Harris Yulin and Raymond J.Barry) who agree to give him an arrest warrant in exchange for the drug money he stole from the Sandman's wife.  This is because Alonzo owes a debt of 1 million dollars to the Russian mafia and he uses the arrest warrant to arrest Roger and seize the dealer's millions stashed underneath the floor of Roger's kitchen.

Alonzo along with Jake and a few other corrupt police officers take their share of the money, but Jake on moral grounds, refuses to take his.  Alonzo tells Jake to shoot Roger, but Jake again refuses and Alonzo kills Roger himself, leaving Jake shocked and angry at being used by him, and he angrily takes the gun off Alonzo as the other officers get involved in a stand off, which is soon diffused by Alonzo.

After this Alonzo convinces Jake to go along with their story that as they entered Roger's house, Roger shot first and Jake killed Roger in defence, to which Jake reluctantly agrees to go along with.  Later on Alonzo takes Jake out to another gang neighbourhood where he runs a personal errand for a gangster named Smiley (Cliff Curtis).  However as Jake awkwardly plays cards with Smiley and his gang members, Jake soon realises that Alonzo has abandoned him and that he has payed off Smiley to kill Jake.  And this is where Jake's problems really begin.....

THOUGHTS

Training day to this day is still a very effective crime drama and its funny how in the underworld of drugs that the cops are just as dirty as the dealers, something which is mirrored in Alonzo.  And while the premise of police corruption is nothing new, the set up of the story being told over the space of one day helps keep Training Day fresh as a film.  The film also works well mainly because of Alonzo's character as he is a charismatic cop who uses his pizzaz and smart talk to manipulate the naive and clean cut Jake into doing his dirty work.  And its Alonzo's ability to use what Jake wants most and his ambition as a weapon against him when he needs to in order to see just how far Jake is willing to go.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers and will have strong language!)

Which brings me onto the performances which are great all round.

So to start there is of course the film's star, Denzel Washington who is simply superb in his role as the charismatic and manipulative narcotics officer, Alonzo Harris, who toys with Jake and get's him to do what he wants (well to an extent).  Washington himself won the Academy award for best actor and its easy to see why as it is easily one of his best performances and Washington has so many highlights in the film.

As for some of his best scene there is for starters his first scene where he meets with Jake while he tries to read his paper without interruption until Jake get's his attention and he tells Jake to tell him a story.

And Jake proceeds to tell Alonzo about an incident involving him and and a female assessment officer as they carried out a random drunk stop, and Alonzo listens and says "You mean to tell me that you were with a fine ass bitch for a year and the most entertaining story you can come up with is a drunk stop?!" and this leads to an awkward pause. Alonzo then breaks the pause and grins and says to Jake "But I think you tapped that ass, didn't you?!" but Jake insists "Hey man, I have a wife" and Alonzo bluntly says "Yeah and you have a dick! You have a dick, don't you?!" and Jake somewhat embarrassed says "Yeah". So, Alonzo then says to him "Right either side of the dick are pockets, like in either one of them and pay the bill!". And later on when they get in Alonzo's car, Jake asks him "Where is the office? Back at division?" and Alonzo smiles and says "You in the office baby!".

Another good scene is when after Alonzo and Jake do a drug bust and take some drugs from some young kids in a car, Alonzo insists that Jake smoke them. So, in the scene Alonzo says to Jake "To be truly effective, a good narcotics agent must know and love narcotics. In fact, a good narcotics agent should have narcotics in his blood!". Jake then asks "What are you gonna smoke that?" and Alonzo says "No, you are!" and Jake laughs nervously and says "Like hell I am!" and Alonzo asks him "What are you a mormon?! Are you a Jesus freak?".

However as Alonzo continues to push Jake to take a hit of the drugs, Jake refuses and Alonzo suddenly halts his car and points a gun to Jake's head. And Alonzo angrily tells Jake "Yeah, right. If I was a drug dealer, you'd be dead by now, motherfucker! You turn shit down on the streets, and the chief brings your wife a crisply folded flag! What the fuck's wrong with you?! You know what?! I don't want you in my unit. I don't even want you in my division. Get the fuck out the car. Go back to the Valley, rookie!". Jake after a beat however tells Alonzo to give him the drugs and he smokes it but coughs and splutters as he does and Alonzo laugh and says "Oh, virgin lungs! Man up, nigga! Man up! Take all that shit!" which Jake does and Alonzo laughs and says "Let's go, nigga, let's go!".  

Then there is the scene where Alonzo parts his wisdom to Jake and he says "To protect the sheep, you need to become a wolf" and he makes some wolf noises and insists that Jake do the same, except he does his more like a rooster and Alonzo laughs saying "I said a wolf not a rooster!".

Another scene that stands out is where Alonzo along with Jake and some corrupt cops raid Roger's home and steal his drug money, which is 4 million dollars worth. So, in the scene Alonzo at first jokes with Jake to shoot Roger but get's serious as the scene goes on. So, in the scene Alonzo tells Jake "Shoot him" and Jake says "You want me too shoot him? OK, I'll shoot him" and he holds up his shotgun and pretends to and says "Pow!". However it soon becomes apparent that Jake won't shoot Roger, so Alonzo takes the shotgun instead and says "Hell, if you want something done you need to do it yourself!" and he shoots Roger in the chest much to Jake's horror and as Roger gasps his last breaths, Alonzo with a little sense of guilt says to him "Breath...breath dawg!" and after Roger dies, he says coldly "Yeah, he's finished!".

After this, Jake is shocked at Alonzo's drastic change in personality as Alonzo plans with the others what happened before the cops arrive and they insist that Jake shot Roger instead as they came in. However as Jake refuses to play ball, Alonzo turns on him with the shotgun aimed he says "A Los Angeles Police Department Narcotics officer was killed today serving a high-risk warrant in Echo Park. LAPD spokesperson says the officer is survived... by his wife and infant child. Shit gets deeper. You get the picture?!". 

WARNING: BIG SPOILER IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!

Then there is the scene where Jake having been spared by Smiley after the gangster learns that Jake rescued his young cousin, who was attacked earlier, returns to Alonzo's mistress's apartment where he finds him counting his money. So, as Jake demands that Alonzo puts his money and guns into a pillow case, Alonzo tries to bluff Jake.

So, in the scene Alonzo applauds Jake and says "Congratulations son, you passed the test you're a narc put the gun down before you give my girl a heart attack!". Jake however isn't buying it and repeats his order for Alonzo to give up his money and weapons. So, Alonzo relents and says "Alright. So you're going to hook me and book me? You're the one that was smoking the dust, you're the one who ran out like a maniac and you're the one who shot Roger!". Alonzo then continues and says to Jake "You got one problem though, you got no witnesses, who are your fucking witnesses? Roger? Smiley? You think my troops are going to help you? What can you prove? Where's your evidence?!" and as Jake points to the pillow case and says "Its right there" Alonzo flicks his cigarette at Jake's face and the two of them get into a gunfight.  

And last of all is the scene where the local gangbangers in the neighbourhood all gather round as Jake confronts Alonzo and stops him from his getaway and one of the gang, Bone, leaves a gun for Alonzo to pick up as he refuses to intervene.  So, as Alonzo goads Jake to shoot him, Jake refuses to but as Alonzo goes for the gun, Jake shoots him in the ass and Alonzo groans in pain and says "You motherfucker! You shot me in the ass!".  And as Jake leaves with Alonzo's money, Alonzo shouts after him "JAKE! I need my money! JAKE!". Alonzo then looks at the neighbourhood gang members with disgust and says to them "You disloyal bitch-ass fool made punk! OK! I'm putting cases on all you bitches!  Shoe program, nigga!  23 hour lockdown!  You don't own shit, I run this place, you just live here!  King Kong ain't got shit on me!". However the gang members simply walk away from Alonzo in disgust as he is left on his own and he emotionally says to himself "What a day! What fuckin day!".

Ethan Hawke also provides a fine performance here as well as the clean cut rookie cop, who is pretty much Alonzo's opposite in every way and throughout the film he is pushed and manipulated by him until Jake can no longer tolerate it.

And Ethan his own share of good scenes in the film that include the one where Jake first meets Alonzo, who insists he tell him a story since Jake keeps interrupting Alonzo while he was reading his newspaper. So, Jake tells Alonzo a story involving a DUI (driving under the influence) and he says "It was a quiet night we were rolling on Van Nuys I'm driving this Acura comes out a side street all over the median in excess I light it up hit the whaler guy drives on like I'm invisible for ten blocks before he pulls over plates were unclean so I'm watching from our unit and she's tossing the Acura she calls me over to the vehicle a snub 38 two shotguns fully loaded so she calls our supervisor and I keep searching and I find five hundred grams of meth turns out this DUI is on bail for distribution and is on his way to smoke his ex-partner before trial so we prevented a murder". However Alonzo after pretending to be impressed then says who after being with his female officer for a year that the most entertaining story he can tell is a "drunk stop!".

Then there is the scene where Alonzo manipulates Jake into smoking the confiscated drugs they took earlier from some youngsters. So, as Jake begins to feel the effects of the drugs, Alonzo tells Jake what he took "Sherms. Dust. PCP. Primos. P-Dog. That's what you had. That's what you were smoking". So, Jake suddenly panics and says "Oh, shit! Oh, shit! I'm gonna get piss tested and I'm gonna get fired!". Jake then asks "Why did you do this to me?!" and Alonzo grins and says "Nobody told you to smoke that thing. You made the decision. Live with your decision. Ain't like I put a gun to your head".

Another good scene from Ethan is when Alonzo and Jake pay a visit to Roger with Jake still feeling the effects of the PCP. So, as Roger tells Jake a joke, Jake laughs at it and says "That's not funny! That's not funny at all!" and Alonzo laughs and "Then why are you laughing?!". So, Roger says to Jake "You figure that joke out, you'll figure out the streets". However, Jake then says "You know, I already figured them out. Its all about smiles and cries" and Alonzo mocks Jake and says "Put the drink down, man! Motherfucker's out his mind!". Roger however is intrigued and wants to hear Jake's theory, so Jake says "Yeah. You gotta control your smiles and cries, because that's all you have and nobody can take that away from you".

Then there is the scene where Alonzo and Jake along with four corrupt officers raid Roger's house and steal his drug money. So, in the scene Alonzo taunts Jake to shoot Roger but he refuses and at first Alonzo is jokey and Jake plays along and says "You want me to shoot him? I'll shoot him". So, he holds up the shotgun and aims it at Roger and pretends to fire and says "Pow!" and Roger says "Boom!". Alonzo, however then says more seriously "Shoot him" and Jake says "Naw, man" and Alonzo laughs and says "He ain't gonna shoot him!" and he then proceeds to shoot Roger himself, which causes Jake to jump and shout "OH, SHIT!!".

So, as Alonzo plans out what supposedly happened during the warrant search, which involves Jake supposedly shooting Roger on entry as Roger went for his gun, Alonzo says to Jake "Congratulations, son. You'll get a medal for this". Jake however looks at Alonzo and says "But I didn't shoot him, you did" so Alonzo turns on Jake and threatens him by saying how he could end up being a victim himself of the warrant as he suggests he could kill Jake and make look like he died in the line of duty. So, as Alonzo says to him "This shit get's deeper. You get the picture?" Jake says to him "Yeah, I get it!" and he grabs the shotgun off Alonzo and points it at him and he shouts "That's the second time you pointed a gun at me, there will NOT be a third!" which creates a stand-off between Jake and the other officers. However, Alonzo diffuses it and Jake relents but then turns to one of the cops, Paul (Dr Dre) who threatened to kill him and says "Hey, Paul" and he punches him and walks out.

WARNING: SPOILER COMING UP IN THE NEXT FEW PARAGRAPHS

Another good scene is when Alonzo and Jake go to Smiley's house and as Alonzo appears to have went to the bathroom, Smiley tells Jake to sit down and play some cards with him and his two gangbanger friends. So, one of Smiley's friends, Moreno (Noel Gugliemi) asks Jake "So, how long have you been a pig?" and he laughs and says "I'm sorry my bad! I mean long have you been a police officer?". So, Jake as he plays cards says "I've been a pig for 19 months!" and Moreno asks "You like it?" and Jake says "I should have been a fireman!".

However as Jake realises that Alonzo has abandoned him and left him for dead, he attacks Simley and he is beaten and dragged into a tub where Smiley points a double barrelled shotgun at him but before he does Jake, Moreno searches Jake's pockets and finds the diary belonging to the girl Jake rescued earlier.

So, Smiley looking at the diary looks confused and angrily asks Jake "Where did you get this?!" and Jake panicking lying down in the bathtub shouts "I found it! I found it!" and Smiley asks "Where?!" and Jake shouts "McArthur park! McArthur park!". So, Jake gasps as he explains to Smiley "Now, listen to me, that girl was being raped. I saw these two fuckin' drug addicts attacking her, and I stopped 'em...!". Smiley then jabs the shotgun against Jake's cheek and shouts "You lie to me!" and Jake shouts back "I'M NOT LYING!!! I swear to God. She was being raped, and I stopped 'em, man. And please man, I HAVE A LITTLE GIRL!!". However after Smiley calls his cousin, she verifies what happened and that Jake did rescue her, so Smiley relents and let's Jake go and says thanks for getting his cousin's back. Smiley then also says to Jake "You know this shit was just business, right?" and Jake looks at him and says "Right".

Then there is the scene where Jake fights with Alonzo on a rooftop and after Alonzo tries to escape in his car, Jake dives ontop of it and he causes Alonzo to crash his car. So with Alonzo reeling from the crash, Jake punches Alonzo and grabs his money bag and Alonzo begins to taunt Jake. So, in the scene Jake points his gun at Alonzo and says "Its no fun when the rabbit has the gun is it?!" and Alonzo wearily says "My nigga!".

So, as Alonzo tries to persuade the local gangbangers (who have gathered round at this point) to kill Jake for him for money, they don't react and Jake looks disgusted with him and says "They're not like you! You know what else I learned today? I'M not like you!". So, as Alonzo taunts Jake to shoot him, he puts on his police badge and as Alonzo says "Do it!" Jake does nothing, so Alonzo says "You can't do it!". However, after one of the gang, Bone puts down a gun for Alonzo to pick up, Alonzo goes for it but Jake shoots him in the ass and Jake warns him "The next one WILL kill you!". Jake then disgraces Alonzo further as he removes his badge from him and looks at Alonzo in disgust and says "You don't deserve this!" before he walks out of the neighbourhood with Alonzo's money.

In other performances, Scott Glenn is excellent as the drug dealer and ex-cop, Roger, and his scenes are pretty good, especially in his first scene where he tells a stupid joke to Jake, who laughs at it in a drug induced stupour and later on where Alonzo raids his house to seize his money.

And I will mention just one of Glenn's scenes where Alonzo and Jake pay Roger a visit and they have a drink. So, Roger tells Jake a joke "Here's a joke, boy. One day this man walks out of his house to go to work. He sees this snail on his porch. So he picks it up and chucks it over his roof, into the back yard. Snail bounces off a rock, cracks its shell all to shit, and lands in the grass. Snail lies there dying. But it doesn't die. It eats some grass. Slowly heals. Grows a new shell. And after a while it can crawl again. One day the snail up and heads back to the front of the house. Finally, after a year, the little guy crawls back on the porch. Right then, the man walks out to go to work and sees this snail again. So he says to it, "What the fuck's your problem?!". Jake then suddenly burst out laughing (still stoned from the PCP Alonzo gave him) and says "That's messed up. That's not funny!" and Alonzo asks him "Why are you laughin then?!" and Roger tells Jake "Figure that joke out and you'll figure out the streets".

Cliff Curtis is also excellent in his role as the gangster Smiley who is paid off to kill Jake, but unlike Alonzo, Smiley does have honour and he decides to spare Jake when he realises that he saved his young cousin.  Curtis is also such a chaemeleonic character actor that there are times when you see him in a film you can scarcely believe it is him (although he is recognisible here!).

Curtis also get's some good lines of dialogue as Smiley, especially where he tells Jake about how Alonzo owes money to the Russian mafia and he says "Alonzo pulled off a miracle. Times are tight, he jacked up a lot of cash from Roger, he blasted the fool, that's why I never shake his hand he don't respect nada. You know what the money's for? Alonzo's a hot head, last week in Vegas some Russian starts talking shit, Alonzo just snaps beat that guy to death, turns out that Russian is a somebody, now his into the Russians for a million they gave him until tonight to pay up. his name is still on the list. Nobody thought he could get cash that quick, good thing he did because there's a crew on standby, if he doesn't turn up downtown with the money by midnight and not a minute after...your vato...he's dead!". 

This is then followed by the scene where Smiley is about to execute Jake and he slaps him first and tells him "You're under arrest! For being a cop, dogging me in the mouth in my own pad. You got the right to be bitch-slapped!". So, as Jake is put into the bathtub, Moreno searches Jake's pockets and finds the diary belonging to Smiley's cousin, Letty. Smiley demands Jake to let him know where he got it and Jake explains he rescued a young girl from being raped by two crackheads.

So, Smiley angrily says to Jake "I'm gonna get to the bottom of your bullshit. She's my cousin, homes. Ain't right involving her. You fucked up. If you're lying to me...I'm gonna blow your fucking balls off!". However as Smiley calls up Letty he get's the truth from her and that Jake did rescue her, so Smiley hangs up and with surprise says to his two friends, Moreno and Sniper "Vato was telling the truth! Life's a trip, que no?!". So, Smiley lifts Jake out of the tub and places a towel around his bloodied head and says "That's for getting my cousin's back. Cover your head. You'll mess up my floor. You know this shit was just business, right?". And as Jake hesitates to answer, Smiley gives him a look as to say again "Right??" and Jake relents and says "Right".  

As for the other cast members, there is the lovely Eva Mendes, who plays Alonzo's mistress, Sara, who is essentially a decent woman who tries to raise her young son in a rough neighbourhood. I won't really mention any of her dialogue as such as her role is quite a small one but she does well with the little material she is given to work with here.

However I will quickly mention the moment where Alonzo turns up at Sara's place with Jake and naturally she and Alonzo will be getting reacquainted. However before they do, Sara says to Jake "This is your home. You can watch any TV channel you like. I'll be right back" and a little later, Sara brings a tray of food to Jake. So, Sara tells Jake "Now, this is all El Salvadorian food" and Jake thanks her and Sara smiles and indicates to Alonzo who is out the room and she says "I have to go" and she leaves.   

Harris Yulin is also really good in his small role as one of the three wise men, Detective Doug Roselli who tells a funny story how a criminal once went up in court and placed some peanut butter in a rathe sensitive place!

So, in the scene Doug tells the story to Alonzo "There's a serial burglar we're chasing him for twelve months, a real slickster and he gave up nothing. His sentencing was today so before the hearing he gets a hold of some peanut butter and he packs his ass crack with it, he's standing tall before the judge and he's ready to give a statement, he shoves his hand down his pants and it comes out with a glob of extra chunky Jiff, bailiffs won't come near him. Now he's looking at the judge in the eyes and licks his fingers clean!". 
 
Tom Berenger also does well with his very brief role as another one of the three wise men, Stan Gursky, who warns Alonzo that he does not want to see him wind up dead as a result of his altercation with the Russia mafia.  So, Stan says to Alonzo "Well, its your call. But I do not want to see you end up dead on TV like those other assholes!" (i.e. cops that have died in the line of duty).

Noel Gugliani next up is also very good in his role as Moreno, one of Smiley's gangster friends, who is there when Jake is abandoned by Alonzo and Moreno teases Jake throughout the scene while they play cards. And Noel has some good lines in the scene such as the one where he asks Jake "So, how long have you been a pig?" and he laughs and says "I'm sorry, my bad! I meant how long have you been a police officer?" and Jake answers "I've been a pig for 19 months!". And then Moreno teases Jake more as he wants to see his gun as Smiley shows Jake his own gun and Moreno says "See, I've already seen than one but I want to see yours. Come on, ese, I ain't gonna shoot nobody!".

So, Jake relents and takes out his gun and removes the clip and pings out a bullet from the chamber and hands it to Moreno, who holds the gun and says "Nice, you could fuck up a vato with this!". Moreno then jokingly holds the gun to Jake and says "You see what you do is hold it like that!" and after a beat, Moreno laughs and says "I'm just kidding with you!" and hands the gun back to Jake.

Raymond Cruz (best known for his role as Tuco in the TV series, Breaking Bad) is also good in his role as Sniper, another of Smiley's gangbanger friends, who is at the card game with Smiley, Moreno and Jake.

And Cruz's most notable lines are when he plays a hand and he boasts "Boo-ya, baby! Two pair! I got two pair!" but Smiley corrects Sniper and tells him that Jake won "Three of a kind beats two pair, you dumb fuckin truck!". And later there is of course the moment where Moreno asks Jake if he ever has had "his shit pushed in?" and he asks Sniper, who crazily says through clenched teeth "Yeah, I've had my shit pushed in! BIG TIME!!" and he laughs madly.    

And finally there are also some smaller performances from the trio of hip-hop stars, starting with Macy Gray who does OK in her role as the wife of the dealer nicknamed the Sandman. And she has some noteworthy lines such as when Alonzo is searching the Sandman's apartment for money, she asks "I wanna see that warrant" and Jake tells her that Alonzo has it. However, she can see right through Jake and that he is a rookie cop, so she tells him "You're a crooked-ass, bitch-ass cop! You're a rookie!".

And after Alonzo reappears and apologises for his intrusion and that he found nothing and as Mrs Sandman asks "I wanna see that warrarnt" Alonzo gives her a paper and leaves quickly as the paper turns out to be a Chinese takeaway menu. So, Mrs Sandman runs out and shouts to nearby gangbangers "Motherfuckers! Hey, jackers! Give me my money back. You ain't no police! Give me my money back! Jackers, why you all standing over there?! Blast them fools! You ain't no police!".

Snoop Dogg also does OK as another dealer, Blue, who is wheelchair bound and in his scene he approaches Alonzo's car and asks "What do you want, man?" and Jake with his hoodie up asks rather feebly "Erm crack?". Blue then sees Alonzo and sees right through Jake and says "Crack? Smell like bacon! Do I look like a sucker to you, nigga? Fuck you, rookie!" and he wheels away but Alonzo then tells Jake to go after him, which he reluctantly does and eventually catches up with him.

And last of all is Dr Dre, with Dre giving arguably the best performance out of the three as one of the corrupt cops, Paul that aids Alonzo in his robbery of Roger's drug money.  

And Dre gets some great lines such as in the scene when he first meets with Jake for the first time as Alonzo plans to rob Roger and asks "Who the fuck is this?" and Jake tells him "Jake Hoyt. Its my first day". So, Paul teases Jakes and says to him "You are a long way from Starbucks, homie!" and the others laugh.

And lastly there is the scene where Jake initiates a stand-off between him, Alonzo and the other corrupt cops just after Alonzo kills Roger. So as Paul holds his gun to Jake's head, he says to Alonzo "We need to kill him now and say Roger got him!" however Alonzo manages to diffuse the situation and Jake puts his shotgun down. So, just before Jake leaves he punches Paul and storms out and Paul shouts after him "You're dead, motherfucker! You hear me?! You're fuckin dead!!".

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC 

The director Antoine Fuqua does an excellent job here with Training Day as he keeps the pace of the film going at a good speed and he also cranks up the tension in the film as it moves along toward its dramatic climax.  Fuqua (who sounds exactly like Denzel Washington!) also insisted on making the film in some of the most notorious neighbourhoods in Los Angeles where he even obtained permission to enter some of the LA street gangs housing projects, which marked the first time this had ever been allowed.  And for more background info on the film it is well worth checking out Fuqua's director commentary on the DVD or Blu-ray as it is really good and informative.

The film's soundtrack is also worthy of note as the original score which was written by Mark Macina is excellent and it has plenty of dark and dramatic passages that set the tone of the film perfectly.  The film's soundtrack also includes some well known hip-hop tracks from artists such as Cyprus Hill, Dr Dre, Gang Starr and P. Diddy.

FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

So flaws.... does Training Day have any or many? Yeah it does have some. 

To start with while Fuqua set out to make a dramatic cop film about corruption and the LA gang neighbourhoods, it does feel at times with the inclusion of such hip-hop artists as Macy Gray and Snoop Dogg in the cast, that you have wandered into an MTV video rather than an actual crime drama.  And this is reflected in certain scenes in the gang neighbourhoods and the extras stand around like they belong in a music video and you can almost expect to see Snoop Doggy Dogg come at you bustin some ryhmes!

Another flaw for me is in Jake's character that if he is so goody goody then why would he even consider going to work in narcotics when in the end he sees he is clearly not cut out for it.  If being an undercover narc means having to dabble with drugs and get down and dirty among the dealers in order to expose them, then surely Jake is just too clean cut to get involved in it anyway.  Its if Jake decides he must undergo a baptism of fire for something in the end he realises that he's not meant for, which means while it was one hellish day, it was in a way also a waste of his time! 

And this brings up another issue with Jake's training day: if Alonzo had a big problem with the Russian mafia and had to make a big pay-off to spare his life, wouldn't have been better rescheduling Jake's training day to ANOTHER one when he didn't have all this crap hanging over his head??! But instead having Jake with him on this day is totally his own undoing and of course it would have negated this whole film's existance I guess! 

Also on a plot note, I found it a little strange how Jake didn't recognise that they were returning to Roger's house to do the robbery (or warrant search as Jake knows it!) as he had already been there. However, I guess just maybe because Jake was stoned when he first went there, Alonzo would be betting that Jake didn't realise he had been there before and they do go in the back door this time (I think!). However, I still find it a bit bizarre that Jake didn't really twig and go "Hang on! Isn't this Roger's place?!".

And futher to the robbery scene at Roger's house, in the aftermath of the robbery, its funny how the police never question just why there is a big hole in the middle of Roger's kitchen?! Or perhaps they did and it just happened off screen! However I guess they could just call it a seizure of Roger's assets but its not like Alonzo could just claim it for himself wily nily but then again that's where the three wise men come in I guess. 

And last of all is the film's climax, which I have to say is pretty over the top and it does somewhat marr the credibility of what went before with Jake getting into a big fight scene with Alonzo by chasing him over rooftops and diving onto his car.  It almost feels like at this point they had a copout (no pun intended!) and that for the sake of things they just had to have a chase sequence before Alonzo finally get's his comeuppance.

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So in summing up, Training Day is still an excellent action thriller, which features one of Denzel Washington's very best performances for which he won a well deserved Oscar and its good to see him play with his onscreen dark side for a change. Ethan Hawke also puts in a very solid performance as the young rookie cop, Jake and the supporting cast are just as good particularly Cliff Curtis and Scott Glenn. Antoine Fuqua's direction is also excellent and he keeps the film's suspense up very well and his pacing of the film is also very taut throughout.

There are of course some minor issues with the plot and it does appear like we are on an MTV set at times with all the rap/hip-hop stars that appear in the film with Macy Gray, Dr Dre and Snoop, in those moments it get's away from the reality of it all. However despite this it still doesn't detract from what is a very solid crim thriller and one that is still well worth checking out.

Right, so that's it for now and I will be back soon with a post of some sort or other soon.

Till then, its bye fer now! 

Top 10 Hardest Dark Souls III Bosses Part 2 - No's 5-1

OK, so its now time for part two of my look at the top 10 hardest bosses from the action role play game, Dark Souls III, which for me (and probably alot of people!) had some of the hardest bosses in the entire series! And again in this list I will be looking at bosses from both the original game and the DLC content too.

So, let's grab those swords and armour and take a look at the bosses that made it into the top 5....

5. Sister Friede

So at No.5 is this boss from the Ashes of Ariandel DLC, which is the finale for that DLC that features a feisty, prim and above all, deadly Sister Friede. Sister Friede in the game's lore is said to be one of three sisters that set up the Sable church of Londor and she doesn't take too kindly to the Ashen One (your character) being in the Painted world of Ariandel. So, naturally you will be in for a tough fight when you take her on along with the ghoulish looking Father Ariandel who fights at her side.

Sister Friede is definitely one of the most challenging bosses in the game for sure as her fight is split into three stages you have quite a bit of adversity to overcome here and below is a breakdown of the stages.

In the first phase you take on Friede herself as she attacks you with a scythe and can inflict frostbite damage on you aswell and she has a rather annoying knack of being able to vanish and reappear at will and if she does she will perform a scythe attack where she grabs you and throws you into the air. In the second phase, Father Ariandel will join in as he resurrects the fallen Sister and he tries to hammer you with a large flaming bowl, which he can also use to pour a large pool of lava onto the ground, which can inflict alot of damage if you get hit. In the 3rd phase, you take on Blackflame Friede, who inflicts serious dark flame damage and has even more aggressive attacks than before making this the hardest of the three phases.

So, it has to be said that I did struggle quite badly with this fight when I first tried it and I've so far only managed to beat Sister Friede once and for this fight, I would actually recommend you take the summon for it, which is Slave Knight Gael as Gael will act as good distraction for Friede (if he survives that is!). The best ways to take her down depend on your character build of course but I beat her as a pyromancer, so I would suggest using the spell, Chaos Bed Vestiges, which does excellent damage. If you aren't a pyromancer, a strength build might be a good way to go aswell as Friede can easily be staggered and her health pool isn't too big in each phase and she can also be parried.

However it really has to be said that fighting Sister Friede is no picnic whatsoever and while her first two phases can be achieved with relative ease, its that brutal third phase is where the real difficulty lies with her aggressive flame attacks and her ability to insta-kill you with a scythe decapitating grab, which got more on several occassions!

So, overall Sister Friede is undoubtedly one of the toughest bosses in the game and she really makes the Dancer of the Boreal Valley look like a real joke by comparison and as a three stage battle it can be quite an ordeal. So, the Sister definitely deserver her spot here at No.5.

4. The Twin Princes: Lorian, the Elder Pirnce & Lothric, the Younger Prince

So, at No.4 are these two guys, who were the runners up in my previous list for the top 9 hardest bosses that featured in the main game, the Twin Princes, Lorian and Lothric. However given the difficulty of some of the DLC bosses, I figured the princes could be placed a bit lower than before but this does not mean they aren't that much easier!

So, what makes these two bosses SO difficult?  Well, its a fight that really involves anticipation and given the nature of the battle, anticipating the princes next move can be very difficult due to the teleportation attacks they use.  As for the two princes themselves they are both crippled and can't walk, so to compensate Lothric will use his miracle powers to teleport Lorian around the room (who crawls on his knees throughout) so he can whack you with his mighty greatsword, which inflicts serious fire damage. Lorian can also perform a couple of other brutal attacks such as a teleporting plunge attack and his most deadly one being a holy beam of light, which he brings down from his sword, which WILL one-shot if you get hit by it! 

However, after the first phase and killing off Lorian, Lothric will then join in the fight and use his magic powers to ressurect his fallen brother and piggyback on Lorian, who will revive and continue to try and hammer you with his greatsword as the two of them teleport around the room. And to make matters worse, Lothric will join in by using his magic attacks on you, which include homing projectiles and soul spheres and if you kill off Lorian, Lothric will just keep reviving him and the fight will continue.

So...as you can imagine I had a horrendous time trying to deal with these two as they use the ultimate cheap shot tactics of teleportation, hammering you with firey great sword swings and miracle magic spells to try and finish you off! And yep I must have spent almost five days trying to take these guys down (yep five whole days of attempts!) and tearing my hair out in the process!

As for how to defeat them??? Well, in the first phase you basically need to just kill Lorian using either melee attacks or pyromancy, miracles or sorcery (which can be trickier) and I found playing as a pyromancer that it was quite easy to kill off Lorian using Great Chaos Fire Orb or Chaos Bed Vestiges spells.

In the second phase however you can switch over to melee attacks or even still keep up your pyromancy but in order to end the fight you need to kill Lothric and as Lothric sits on Lorian's back you NEED to get behind Lorian to attack him. So, you can either keep attacking Lorian until he dies after which Lothric will fall off and then try and revive his brother and then strike Lothric as many times as you can, or you can keep trying to get behind Lorian and attack Lothric as much as you can. This of course is all easier said than done and is complicated by Lothric using a miracle, which causes a blast that will deal damage to you if he suceeds in reviving Lorian.

So, I would for this fight recommend using a fast straight sword weapon such as the longsword to get in fast strikes or even katana of some kind that dish out fast strikes and good damage. You can also buff you weapons with magic or lightning to inflict damage on Lorian however Lothric only appears to be vulnerable to physical strikes and nothing else and seems to have a larger health pool than his brother, which is funny when you see how skinny he is! I would also strongly suggest using pyromancy too, especially Great Chaos Fire Orb, which has no faith or intelligence requirements to use as it can prove very effective and I've used it on all my playthroughs so far to defeat them. 

So in summing up, the Twin Princes is a brutal fight and unquestionably one of the toughest in the game mainly due to the difficulty involved in anticipating the Princes teleporting attacks. This is a fight that had me near tearing my hair out and hurling the controller across the room on my first playthrough but since then I have been able to get better at it even though they still can kill me quite a bit!

Anyway, the Twin Princes definitely earn their spot on the list for sure and even if they are No.4 instead of No.2, you still cannot underestimate their difficulty and remain one of the most challenging bosses in the entire Souls series.

3. Nameless King

So, at No.3 is the Nameless King.  Now hang on! This guy topped my previous list! Yep, well that is before I played all of the DLC bosses, so believe it or not there are infact two bosses that are tougher than Nameless, which is a scary thought!

Now even though Nameless no longer has the top spot, his difficulty is still pretty uncompromising although it has to be said that the fight can be a bit gimmicky with its use of wild camera angles that are sent to annoy and disorientate you in the fight, which they sure do in that first phase! And in the first phase we get Nameless riding in on his dragon (King of the Storm) and Nameless himself will try and repeatedly thwack you with his large hybrid sword-spear weapon, which can also inflict brutal lightning damage. And to make matters even worse, Nameless's dragon will also inflict serious fire damage with his fire breath, which can pretty insta-kill you if you are caught right in it! 

As for the second phase...yep this is where things get REALLY brutal! This is where the fight becomes even more difficult as after you kill off the Nameless King's dragon, you will take him on in combat and he is no joke whatsoever here. And the Nameless King's attacks include a mixture of spear slash combos, lightning spear slam attacks (that cause Area of Effect damage) aswell as aerial swoop attacks all of which can deal MAJOR damage. He also deploys an lightning attack from the sky in his second phase, which can roll to avoid or block with your shield but this will also cause alot of damage if you get caught in it.

So, with all that said you can imagine the difficulty I faced in trying to beat this guy and it took me 193 attempts on my first playthrough before he finally went down (yep I counted them as I just had to given his reputation!). So alot of the deaths were the result of Nameless clobbering me to death with his spear in the first phase not being used to the annoying crappy camera angles and in the second phase I found it very difficult to time my rolls to evade his attacks as he often would knock me into the ground with his spear thrust/combo attacks or his spear impale move, which also can take a generous amount off your health!

As for how to beat him???? Good question! Well, I found in the first phase the best strategy was to get as close to the side of the dragon's neck as possible, so you can evade the majority of NK's spear attacks but you can still take damage from his lightning spear attacks though as they have an AoE impact. I would also suggest that you roll either side of the King when he swipes his spear at you left and right to avoid take big damage either that or stay down if you get hit once. You also need to kill the dragon in the first phase of course, so for that I'd recommend using a weapon buffed with lightning as the dragon is highly vulnerable to this and I opted for the Lothric Knight Crossbow and lightning bolts to finish it off. If you are a cleric however you can massacre the dragon even using the lightning spear miracle, which does MASSIVE damage up close and I was even getting about 700 points per hit on another playthrough!

Also if the dragon does hit you with his flame attack and you have enough health, just stay down and DO NOT try to get up because if you do you will take even more damage and most likely die. Again to mitigate the fire damage here I would highly recommend boosting your fire defense by using red bug pellets, flash sweat (a pyromancy fire defense spell) or some other fire resistance item. 

In the second phase, its simply a case of getting good at timing your rolls to avoid Nameless's attacks and get your hits in just after NK has finished them. I also found that ranged attacks work quite well against Nameless and in the end I used the pyromancy spell, Chaos Bed Vestiges to kill him off, which is a powerful projectile fireball that hits its mark pretty effectively but melee is a different matter altogether! However on my most recent playthrough I was able to defat Nameless using the Fume Ultra Greatsword (or FUGS for short!) so I was quite proud of myself when I finally beat him using it! :-)

So, for me the Namless King is without a doubt one of the hardest most challenging bosses in the game and for me he is still the toughest boss in the main game and as a fight can prove to be quite brutal and deeply frustrating to learn. However there is no denying it is a really intense battle with awesome cutscenes and an awesome music track (which is way lighter in tone to the rest of the Souls 3 soundtrack!). And its the mixture of annoying camera angles, cheap shot spear attacks and the King's brutal second phase that add up to make this an extremely difficult fight and one that deserves to take the 3rd spot.

2. Slave Knight Gael 

And just when you thought Nameless King was bad enough then along comes this guy...yep Slave Knight Gael...oh my God! 

Slave Knight Gael appears in the Ringed City DLC and is the final boss who you encounter there and indeed is the final boss for the entire series. Gael actually appears several times throughout the game as he is first found at the Cathedral of the Deep where he is praying and if you talk to him, he will transport you to the Painted World of Ariandel. Later on you can even summon Gael to help you with two fights, Sister Friede and also the Demon Prince. However at the very end of the Ringed City DLC, you will find Gael thousands of years in the future where he is last surviving being and has become corrupted by the Dark Soul and when you face him down you are in for one brutal fight.

Now there are tough bosses and there are tough bosses in Dark Souls but Slave Knight Gael takes the biscuit on just about all of them (with the exception of the top boss on this list!) as he is an exceptionally difficult boss to take on and it must have taken me well over 200 goes to finally beat him on my first playthrough of the DLC! However I have since managed to beat him a second time and it took me just three goes! ;-)

So, why is Gael so difficult??? Well, it actually largely comes down to the obscenely large health pool he has as this guy has almost 15000 points in health alone! In fact his health pool is so big that the fight is split into three stages and in stage one Gael will fight you in a barren open area (called Filianore's Rest) and will take on a very hunched stance as he moves around and attacks you with a large greatsword which involves combo attacks aswell as a charged attack that can pierce right through shields.

In the second phase however, Gael will adapt a more upright stance and has a number of new attacks that include a series of two hit combos with his greatsword, which can also involve dark damage from his cloak. Gael in the second phase will also use a repeating crossbow, which is arguably the most dangerous attack in this phase as it can really eat through your stamina and health very quickly if you aren't careful and he also can throw magic discs that can deal damage aswell.

However...in the third phase, things get serious and the shit starts to REALLY hit the fan as Gael's attacks become even more aggressive as he can inflict heavy damage with spinning combo attacks and additional thrust attack aswell as fire an arrow volley in the air. Not only that but in this phase, Gael's cloak will release a large amount of exploding souls that when land will create some fairly severe lightning damage, leaving you very vulnerable for Gael to attack you if you are struck. And its in this phase that I struggled the most for sure!

So, how to beat Gael???  Hmmm, that is a very good question! Well, I found the best way to take on Gael is in melee combat because unless you're intelligence or faith are pretty high, your spells may have mixed success against him. So, I used the Millwood Battle Axe (infused with a heavy game at +10) and infused it with lightning and magic resins to add that extra bit of damage which inflicted fairly decent damage against him per hit (about 250 depending on my strength). And another key item in this battle is to use a greatshield, which will really help alot in the fight as it will be able to withstand alot of Gael's heavy attacks although he will still be able to break your guard as his attacks are quite aggressive.

I'd also strongly suggest to get good at dodging his attacks by rolling into him and to his left side and wait for an opening before you hit him and fast weapons are definitely better against him than slower ones although I had some decent attempts against him using FUGS! However its better to play this one safer by using a strong shield and a lighter, fast weapon as that will with some patience, see you through the fight.

So, for me Slave Knight Gael is without question one of the most punishingly difficult bosses in the game and indeed in the whole series and his varied attacks and massive health pool alone make him a very tough boss to beat and he more than deserves to take the runner-up spot.

So, the No.1 hardest Dark Souls III boss is....

1. Darkeater Midir 

Yep at No.1 is this big guy...Darkeater Midir.

Now, I heard alot about this boss and wondered if he was as bad as people made him out to be and on playing against him, I really would have to agree that Darkeater Midir is every inch as bad as they say he is!    

So, why is Midir so tough??? Well again similar to Slave Knight Gael, this boss has a MASSIVE health pool (nearly 16000 points!) so it takes AGES to bring his health bar down and not only that Midir has his own mix of devastating attacks, which can totally wipe you out if you are not prepared for them.

As for more detail on Midir's attacks, well...for starters Midir will come at you with some brutal claw swipes, which can deal out alot of damage as well as a nasty tail lash. Midir can also follow up this with some fire breath attacks, which can be either breathed from in front of his body or underneath it if he manages to catch you running beneath him. Midir also in his first phase can deal out one of his most devastating attacks, which is a dark beam and if that hits you, its curtains! Midir can also dish out a critical attack, which can be particularly brutal as he grabs you and puts you in his jaws and chews you up! As for his second phase he uses primarily dark magic damage attacks such as mass infinity which fires a large number of projectiles towards you and a focused dark beam attack, which is just as brutal as his first phase one.

So, how do you beat Midir???  Good question and its one I am STILL trying to answer because at the time of typing this, I have not been successful so far at taking him on and keep getting killed again and again! So, if anyone does know how to really take him on and beat him properly, please send me answers on a postcard! ;-)

Well...what advice I can offer is basically in order to get good enough, you need to lock off Midir for the majority of the fight because locking on all the time can prove to be more dangerous and leave you very vulnerable to alot of his attacks. In fact the most common advice when it comes to melee is to keep attacking Midir's head as that is the area which takes the most damage but I've never really been successful in getting that far on a melee basis as of yet.

However another method is to use sorcery as there is a spell called Pestilent Mist, which is very effective against Midir as it will eat away at his health continually if you can cast it around Midir's body but the difficulty in this method is trying to avoid getting hit! In fact my best attempts at Midir so far have involved using this spell but I can only get about 80% of his health down before he wipes me out once I've used up all my Estus flasks! :-(

So, with Darkeater Midir, FromSoftware really did their homework with this one and gave us one of the most hellishly difficult bosses in gaming history to beat as his brutal melee and dark magic attacks can inflict some monstrous damage. And so far, Midir is the only boss in the Souls series to date I've failed to beat (well apart from Demon Souls as I've not played it yet) but I hope one day I will be able to take that big mother down!

And because of all of the above reasons, Darkeater Midir is undoubtedly the toughest boss in Dark
Souls III and just maybe also the entire Souls series!

UPDATE (on 05.12.18) - I FINALLY BEAT MIDIR!! :-)

Yep, I finally managed to beat the biggest and baddest boss using the Pestilent Mist sorcery spell but since I was unable to beat him alone, I got the NPC summon, Shira along for the fight and she managed to distract him and survived long enough for me to cast PM all over his ass and it worked! So there you go that's all 25 Dark Souls III bosses been beaten! :-) 

Right, so that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post.

So, till the next one its bye fer now!

Top 10 Hardest Dark Souls III Bosses Part 1 - No's 10-6

OK, so a little while back on this blog I did a list of the top 9 toughest bosses in Dark Souls III, which was a list that limited strictly to the original game and not the DLC content.

However since then I have had a go at all of the DLC bosses now, so I figured this was as good a time as any to update my original list to incorporate the bosses that featured in both DLCs for the game. So, this means there will be quite a few changes from the original list but some of the originals will of course still show up here. 

So, with that said let's take another look at the most hellish of hellish bosses in the final game of the Dark Souls series...

10. Pontiff Sulyvhan 

So, at No.10 is a boss is Pontiff Sulyvahn, who appeared in my original list but he is worth relisting here again due to his difficulty.  The Pontiff himself is a large imposing figure, who was formerly a sorcerer but became corrupted by the Profaned Flame.

However when I originally did my first list I had left Pontiff off it because I was always able to summon two NPCs for his fight, making him significantly easier to take down. However on another playthrough I did (as a cleric in which I mucked up several questlines so I deleted it!) I was only able to summon one NPC and by God it was a completely different fight and one which I seriously struggled with!

As for what makes Pontiff so tricky???  Well, the guy has his share of aggressive attacks and they are hard to get a read on as he tends to mix them up and they are also quite long and sweeping in style and yep they deal out ALOT of damage! Pontiff also at around half way through his health bar will enter a second phase (yep that dreaded second phase!) and produce his own clone, which carries a series of pre-emptive attacks, which the real Pontiff will then also perform on you.  So, this all adds up to a pretty tricky fight!


As how to deal with Pontiff Sully? Well, in my cleric playthrough (I mucked up!) I actually wasn't able to beat Pontiff with just the one NPC summon but I came very close though but with the two summons he is MUCH easier to take down. So, what I would suggest for the fight is to get those two summons to make your life easier (and don't mess up Anri's questline like I did as she is the other summon I failed to get last time!).

However NPCs aside, you need to time your rolls to evade Pontiff's attacks and keep rolling to his left to avoid them and when he produces his clone in the second phase, try and kill his clone as fast as you can and your are best using a buffed weapon for this (either use magic or lightning) as this clone is largely immune to physical damage. You should also take note that if Pontiff has enough health left and you have killed one of his clones then he will try and summon another, so you need to keep killing his clones over and over until you can get Pontiff's health bar diminished completely.

So, overall Pontiff Sulyvahn is a boss I really underestimated here initially as he can prove to be a serious handful and definitely one of the tougher bosses in the game. Thankfully there are summons there to help make this fight way easier but if you go in alone or just with the one summon you are bound to be in for a tough fight, so here it sits at No.10.

9.  Dancer of the Boreal Valley

Next up is the only one of two female bosses in the game, Dancer of the Boreal Valley, who can be found in the Hall wall of Lothric area of the game but you fight her just inside the entrance of Lothric castle.

Now, I had originally placed the Dancer much higher on my list due to the difficulty I had with her on a melee basis however in light of the DLC bosses, there are so many tougher ones than her to be found in the game, so the Dancer has put back up the list a bit more due to this. However, that doesn't mean you should underestimate the Dancer's difficulty. 

So, why is the Dancer of the Boreal Valley a tricky boss??? Well, it simply comes down to just how hard this boss hits as she can dish out some MAJOR damage to your character if you aren't wary (or even if you are wary!). And the Dancer's most devastating attack comes in her first phase where she performs a grab move, where she literally grabs you and you get impaled onto her sword, which is basically a one-shot kill if your health bar isn't high enough!  Her second phase is no joke either as the Dancer will pull out a second sword and start swirling them around the room, which can inflict large amounts of damage again if her hits connect with you.

As for how I got on with this boss, I have to say in my first playthrough as a pyromancer I managed to kill her off quite easily with dark pyromancies, using Black Fire Orb, which wiped her out fairly quickly as she is weak to dark. However, I did another playthrough as a melee character where I struggled against her big time as I failed to get the timing on my rolls right to evade her attacks, which as I said hit pretty hard!

So as for strategies, well its another case of getting good at timing your rolls to avoid her attacks and roll through them and when she attempt to grab you back way off! In fact there is a ring in the game, which could prove a good help in this fight, which is the milkus bloodring that gives you room for what is called invcibility rolling, which is where you can roll more efficiently to avoid enemy attacks. So, basically get your rollls down, back off when she does the grab attack and get your hits whenever you can after she has finished her own attacks. However, I would still suggest using pyromancy to kill her or ranged attacks as a melee approach definitely provides a greater challenge against this boss. In fact in my latest playthrough as a sorcerer, I was able to defeat her with just one attempt, so being caster for me personally is the best way to go with this boss.

So, the Dancer still can remain a tricky test for melee characters to take on due to her large damage potential and her powerful swings can be tough to time and dodge (which is were I suck at in these fights!). However if you are a caster, then you will surely find her to be an easier boss to overcome and I personally think there are much tougher bosses in the game than her. Still the Dancer can be tricky and as such still deserves a place on the list.

8. Demon Prince (Demon in Pain & Demon from Below)

OK, so at No.8 is this boss from the Ringed City DLC which is two demons combined into one fight and its overall a very tricky one and it sets the tone for the difficulty of the Ringed City DLC itself.

As for the boss itself, there are two demons, the Demon in Pain & Demon from Below, who both have two different modes of attack at each time, as one will be flaming in which they will glow and they will attack you with melee lashes. The other mode is burnout where the demon will stop glowing and exhaust its flames and instead unleash a toxic attack.

However after you have killed both demons, the last one to die will be resurrected and transform into the Demon Prince itself. And the Demon Prince has his own ferocious fire attacks and one special attack that will differ depending on which demon you killed first. If you killed the Demon in Pain first, then the Demon Prince will fire out a firey laser attack whereas if you kill the Demon from Below first, the DP will launch a series of aerial fireballs instead.

Yeah so this boss can definitely be quite challenging and the main reason alone for that is mainly to do with the Demon Prince's large health pool, which grows bigger with the more summons you have and not to mention the Prince's attacks are also quite ferocious and deal out heavy fire damage. And for me the best way to deal with this boss is to summon the two NPCs you have for it which are Amnesiac Lapp (who turns out later to be someone familiar!) and Slave Knight Gael (who later appears in the DLC as a boss). However as I said with the summons, this boss can be very tanky health wise, which can make it quite challenging and I even found my summonses kept dying on me before I could get the Demon Prince's health bar depleted!

So overall, the Demon Prince remains quite a challenging battle but also a pretty good one too as it really does have an epic feel to it and the summons compliment it very well and it is more than deserving its place here on the list.

7. Aldrich, Devourer of Gods

So next up is Aldrich (or Albitch as some fans mockingly call him!) who I initially placed as in the top 3 of my first list but given some time and reflection and played all the DLC bosses too, I would say there are tougher bosses out there than Aldrich. However this does not make Aldrich any the easier of course because for me he will always be the first genuinely brutal and challenging boss you will encounter in the game.  

As for what makes Aldrich so tricky is that he has the most potent magic attacks of any mage boss as they are pretty devastating and when you go into this fight if you are not prepared, then you in for a very tough time.  Aldrich himself is a cannibal by nature and his physical presence is a mixture of different enemy bosses from (one of them being Gwyndolin, another mage boss, who appeared in Dark Souls 1).

So, what makes Aldrich so difficult??? Well, put simply Aldrich's attacks hurt...alot! In fact when you go into Aldrich's arena he most likely can insta-kill you right off the bat with his most deadly attack, which is a volley of magic arrows, which will annihilate you if you get the full brunt of them and that is what happened to me in my first attempt at this guy! Aldrich also has other attacks that do brutal damage, especially his soul spheres, which he can fire off up to six times and two of them alone will wipe you out! Aldrich also can deal enormous melee damage to your character with his scythe staff, which if you get too near him to the front, he will clobber you with it and it will take a big chunk off your health in the process!

And the question has to be asked??? How do you beat this guy??? Well, this is something I struggled with really badly as it must have taken me near 100 goes before I finally took him down and I even began to wonder if I could ever beat him! To beat Aldrich however what I would suggest is wearing armour with the best magic defense aswell as using blue bug pellets to increase your magic damage absorption.

And the key to beating Aldrich is that you need to get behind him and attack his tail, which can be difficult as he moves around alot and he also burrows himself underground after you attack him for a bit and he reappears on the other side of the room!  Also when he does his magic arrow attack you need to run right behind him in the first phase and in the second run away from him as the arrows fly down in different directions. So, I would recommend using either pyromancy to finish him off (great chaos fire orb works well here) or even buffing your weapon with fire or lightning resins as he is weak to both of these elements.

So for me, Aldrich is an incredibly difficult boss, who gave me no end of trouble and after about three days of trying, I finally managed to take him down and his brutal magic attacks alone make him a very challenging enemy to beat. I have of course since then beaten Aldrich a few times in my playthroughs and with each time he does get a little easier but he's still no pushover and he will always be for me one of the toughest bosses in the main game.

6. Soul of Cinder 

So, at No.6 is the final boss of the main game, Soul of Cinder, who after the first two underwhelming final bosses of Souls 1 and 2, more than makes up for this, as this guy is a pretty tough customer to face in any game never mind the final boss.


As for what makes Soul of Cinder so tough??? Well, it comes down to his highly versatile moveset as SOC is a combination of all the Lords of Cinder and anyone who has linked the first flame, so he takes on all their abilities. So, here you will see Soul of Cinder attack you with a mixture of melee, sorcery, pyromancy and miracles. Not only that but he is very agile and his attacks are pretty aggressive and relentless as he barely gives you any time to heal up before he attacks you again, which can be very frustrating to say the least!

So there are two phases in this fight and in his first phase, Soul of Cinder will mix up his attacks using all of the above, so if you get close he will hammer you with melee and if you back up he will assault you with sorcery, pyromancy and miracles. In the second phase however, Soul of Cinder will adopt the moveset of the final boss from the first Dark Souls game, Gwyn, Lord of Cinder, which includes a brutal six-hit combo and his explosive grab attack (literally!). 

So, I really have to admit that I struggled quite a bit against this guy and as a final boss he is fitting challenge and I often found myself burning through my estus too quickly to be able to get his health bar down enough to get near victory. I also found this boss incredibly difficult to take on as a melee option given his varied moveset and the ferocity of his attacks, so you have to get good at your rolls and evading his attacks. In the end I was able to finish off this boss using pyromancy (Chaos Bed Vestiges spell) but it took quite a bit of time before he finally went down as I must have had at least 30-40 attempts!

I have also struggled with this guy too on other playthroughs also and using summons tends not to work out too great as they tend to make him super tanky! However on my most recent playthrough I was able to summon both Yuria and Londor Pale Shade for the fight and after a good few goes I was eventually able to beat Cinder down.

So in summary, Soul of Cinder really is definitely a pretty tough boss and he is a worthy challenge to end main the game and for that alone he more than deserves his place on this list.

Right, so that's it for Part 1 of my list and I will be back soon with Part 2.

Till then bye for now!

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country "I can't believe I kissed you!"

Right, so this is another revisitation post of sorts as I will be re-doing my post for one of the even numbered (i.e. good) Star Trek films, Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country. But does it really follow the even numbered path like the other Trekkie films??? (well except Insurrection that was God awful!).  Well, let's beam up and take another look...

And yes, the usual warning is coming up...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

So, the story begins with the news that the Klingon empire coming under serious threat of dying out as they lose a key energy production facility and their home planet's ozone layer is destroyed.  The Klingons now realising the danger of their existance decide to try and forge a peace treaty with the Federation of planets.  Spock (Nimoy) puts himself up as a peace ambassador and the Enterprise is given the mission to escort the Klingon chancellor, Gorkon (David Warner) to the negotations on Earth.  Kirk is naturally opposed to this arrangement as he has never forgiven the Klingons for the death of his son, and the Klingons and the Enterprise crew have an uncomfortable dinner onboard the ship.

However after the Klingons return to their ship, they are attacked seemingly by the Enterprise and two men board the Klingon vessel in spacesuits, as they have disengaged the vessel's gravity, they kill several crew members, and they shoot Chancellor Gorkon.  Kirk back on the Enteprise is surprised by the attack and clearly has no idea what is going on and as a sign of good faith he decides to beam aboard their ship and help, along with McCoy who tries to save Gorkon who soon dies from his wounds, after this Kirk and McCoy are placed under arrest.  Kirk and McCoy are soon put on trial for alleged actions in the attack and they are prosecuted by stern and devious Klingon, General Chang (Christopher Plummer) who was onboard the Klingon ship when it was attacked. Kirk and McCoy are soon found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment on a penal planet, Rura Penthe.

Back on the Enterprise Spock assumes command of the Enterprise and then sets about trying to find out what happened onboard the Enterprise during the attack, with the help of his student Vulcan, Valeris (Kim Cattrall) and the rest of the crew.  Meanwhile on the prison asteroid, Kirk and McCoy soon meet a chaemeleon like alien creature Martia (Iman) who tells them that she can help them escape from the prison, which she eventually does but she soon betrays to the Klingons, but Kirk and McCoy are soon rescued by Spock and beamed back onboard the Enterprise.  And from here Kirk begins unravel who is behind the assassination of Gorkon and who is set to sabotage the peace conference on Earth....

THOUGHTS 

It has to be said that Star Trek VI is a big improvement on the below par Star Trek V and it also saw the welcome return of Nicholas Meyer to the directorial helm which also features a fine screenplay which he co-wrote and is rich with quotes from Shakespeare's Hamlet.  The main characters are really well represented again and the idea of the Klingons seeking a peace treaty with the Federation is also really good, especially as their very existence is under threat due to the environmental hazards on their own world, which leaves in a weak position where they can no longer afford to fight.

And the film also develops a whodunnit theme and Spock even acts as Sherlock Holmes in the film once he starts to investigate who was behind the attack, and he even quotes Holmes by saying "when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth".  The Klingon characters are also very well catered for with Chancellor Gorkon trying to make peace with the humans, and his mistrusting daughter, as well as the devious General Chang.

PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)

Which brings me onto the performances of the film which are overall pretty good with the regular cast all giving their last hurrah together here and solid performances from the supporting cast.

Starting with William Shatner, who is great again as James T Kirk, and his character makes an important arc, especially as he starts off the film with hatred for the Klingons, but after the attack on the Klingon chancellor's ship he immediately surrenders to avoid confrontation, and he later understand the Klingons predicament.

Bill as you would expect get's plenty of good scenes in the film such as the one where Kirk confronts Spock over his decision to act as the ambassador for the Klingon peace talks. So, in the scene Kirk after the meeting says to Spock of the Klingons "They're animals!" but Spock tries to persuade him of the talks "Jim, there is a historic opportunity here" however Kirk warns Spock "Don't believe them! Don't trust them!". Spock however is more sympathetic to the Klingons and tells Kirk "They are dying" but Kirk then callously says "Let them die!". Spock looks a little surprised by Kirk's harsh reaction, who suddenly sighs and says "Has it occurred to you that this crew is due to stand down in three months? We've done our bit for king and country!".

SPOILER SCENE COMING UP!

Another good scene is when Kirk realises that Martia, the shape shifting alien, who helps them escape from the Rura Penthe mines, has set them up so he hits her. So, Kirk angrily says to her "She didn't need our help getting anywhere! Where'd you get these convenient clothes?! Don't tell me that flare is standard prison issue! It's to let them know where we are. Ask her what she's getting in return". Martia tells Kirk that she is getting a full pardon and as Kirk waits for Spock to beam him and McCoy up (as Spock placed a transponder patch on Kirk's back earlier) and Kirk says to her "An accident wasn't good enough". Martia then tells Kirk "Good enough for one. Two would have looked suspicious" and then she morphs into Kirk and says "Killed while trying to escape. Now that's convincing enough for both!". Then as Kirk and Martia (now in Kirk's form) fight each other, Kirk says to Martia "I can't believe I kissed you!" and the Kirk Martia tells him "It must have been your life-long ambition!".

And after Spock manages to beam up Kirk and McCoy it happens just as the prison commander is about to tell them who was behind setting them up. So after Kirk is beamed up, he starts swearing and ranting as he materialises onboard the Enterprise and complains to Spock "Couldn't you have waited just two more seconds! He was about to explain the whole thing!" Spock then looks surprised and asks "You want to go back?" and McCoy firmly says "Absolutely not!" and Kirk quietly says "Its cold!".

And lastly there is the scene where (SPOILER!!) Kirk saves the life of the Klingon president, Khitomer when an assassination attempt is made on him. So, as General Gorkon's daughter, Azetbur asks what is going on, Kirk says to her "It's about the future, Madame Chancellor. Some people think the future means the end of history. Well, we haven't run out of history quite yet. Your father called the future - "the undiscovered country". People can be very frightened of change". Azetbur seems touched by Kirk's words and says to him "You've restored my father's faith" and Kirk says to her "And you've restored my son's" as the crowd applaud them both.    

Leonard Nimoy as Spock delivers a fine performance and we see his personality from Star Trek II pretty much fully restored, where has a fine balance of logic and understanding of human behaviour.

And Leonard has his on share of good scenes such as the one where Kirk confronts Spock over his decision to act as ambassador for the Klingon peace talks. So, in the scene after Kirk learns from Spock that they are expected to lead the Klingdon ambassador as an envoy out to the peace meetings and he is somewhat taken aback.  So, Kirk angrily asks Spock "We volunteered?!" and Spock says to him "There is an old Vulcan proverb. "Only Nixon could have gone into China". However Spock insists this could work for them and says "Jim, there is a historic opportunity here" and Kirk angrily tells him "Spock, you know how I feel about this. They're animals!" and Spock says to him "They are dying" and Kirk angrily says to him "Let them die!" and Kirk then insists they have done their bit for "king and country" and that Spock should have trusted him, which leaves Spock looking a bit confused.

Another good scene is where just after Kirk and McCoy have been sentenced to life imprisonment, the Enterprise crew watch the trial from the bridge and Spock requests to playback the footage of Enterprise firing its torpedos on the Klingdon ambassadors ship. So, Spock says "An ancestor of mine maintained that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth". And when asked what Spock means, he says "It means that if we cannot have fired those torpedoes, someone else did". Spock then suggests another ship nearby could have fired the torpedos and his protege, Valeris suggests "A bird or prey" but Scotty insists "But a bird of prey cannae fire when she's cloaked" and Spock tells him "All things being equal, Mr Scott, I'd agree but things are not equal".

Chekov then suggests if there was a ship nearby then surely the assassins would have beamed aboard from there but Spock refutes it and says "You're forgetting something, Mr Chekov. According to our databanks, this ship fired those torpedoes. If we did, the killers are here. If we did not, whoever altered the databanks is here. In either case, what we are looking for is here".

Then there is the scene where Spock is having his crew search the ship for the gravity boots the killers used to board the Klingon ship. So, in the scene Spock calls Scotty over and asks him "Mr Scott. I understand you're having difficulty with the warp drive. How much time do you require for repair?". Scotty however seems puzzled and says "There's nothing wrong with the bloody thing!" so Spock is forced to explain himself "Mr Scott, if we return to spacedock, the assassins will surely find a way to dispose of their incriminating footwear, and we will never see the Captain or Dr McCoy alive again". Scotty then smiles and says "It could take weeks, sir!" and Spock, satisifed says "Thank you, Mr Scott".

WARNING: SPOILER IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!

Another good scene is where Spock confronts Valeris as she is involved in the conspiracy to kill Chancellor Gorkon, so Spock forcefully uses his mind-meld on her to find out who colluded with her to have the chancellor killed.

So, as Spock performs his mind-meld on Valeris he speaks out the names of the conspirators and afterward the strain of the mind-meld appears too much for Valeris, so Spock let's her go after Kirk demands where the next peace conference location is. So, Spock emotionally tells Kirk "She does not know" and Scotty grimly says "Then we're dead!" and Spock says "I've been dead before. Contact Excelsior. She'll have the co-ordinates".

Then we have the scene where Kirk visits Spock in his quarters and the two of them discuss what happened and Spock admits "You were right. It was arrogant presumption on my part that got us into this situation. You and the doctor might have been killed" and Kirk smugly says "The night is young!". So, as the two of them discuss what happened, Spock says to Kirk "Is it possible that we two, you and I, have grown so old and so inflexible that we have outlived our usefulness? Would that constitute a joke???". Kirk then says "Don't crucify yourself. It wasn't your fault" and Spock says "I was responsible" and Kirk tells him "For no actions but your own" and Spock tells him "That is not what you said at your trial". So, Kirk says to Spock "Spock, all human beings..." and Spock interrupts him and says "But Captain we both know that I am not human" and Kirk tells him "Spock, you want to know something? Everbody's human" and Spock a little taken aback says "I find that remark...insulting!" and Kirk grins and says "Come on. I need you!".

And last of all is the final scene where (SPOILER!!!!) the Enterprise has been ordered to be decomissioned and the crew are to stand down. So, as the crew look surprised by this news, Spock suggests to the crew "If I were human, I believe my response would be, "Go to hell." If I were human!".

DeForrest Kelley next up is very good once again as McCoy, who usually get's some of the best dialogue in the series and he has his share of good scenes here.

As for a few examples there is the scene where just after Klingon ambassador ship has been attacked and Gorkon shot, Kirk and McCoy beam aboard as an act of good faith. So, as they both see Gorkon dying on the floor, McCoy asks Cheng "Aren't you carrying a surgeon?" and Cheng says to him "We were until this disgrace!" so McCoy pleads "Then for God's sakes let me help!".

Another good scene from Kelley is where Kirk and McCoy are on trial and Chang questions him and asks "Doctor, would you be so good as to tell me, what is your current medical status?" and McCoy with a smile says "Well apart from a touch of arthritis, I'd say pretty good!" and we hear some laughter from the audience. Chang then looks a little annoyed and says "You have a singular wit, Doctor!".

Chang then grills McCoy on the amount he had to drink that night where Gorkon and Chang attended dinner onboard the Enterprise. So, Chang asks "You know, I believe that you consumed a rather generous amount of Romulan ale in the officers' mess on the night in question. Am I right, Doctor?" and McCoy rather annoyed says "We all did! All of us!". Chang then confronts McCoy over his failure to save Gorkon that night, so he asks him "May, I ask do your hands shake?" and McCoy anxiously says "I was nervous!" and Chang says "No, you were incompetent! You WERE INCOMPETENT! Whether deliberately or as a result of age combined with drink, the court will have to determine!". McCoy however desparately tells the court "My God, man! I tried to save him! I tried to save him. I was desperate to save him. He was the last best hope in the universe for peace!".

Then there is the scene where McCoy and Kirk are imprisoned on Rura Penthe as they are trying to get to sleep and McCoy complains to Kirk "Three months to retirement. What a way to finish!" and Kirk says "We're not finished" and McCoy says "Speak for yourself!". Kirk however is seriously pondering what is going on as a result of their framing and asks McCoy "Bones, are you afraid of your future?" and McCoy says "That was the message I believe I was trying to convey!". Kirk however says "I don't mean this future" as in their sentence on the penal planet and Bones then asks a little annoyed "What is this?! Multiple choice!". However as Martia pays them a surprise visit she quietly tells them that she can help them escape and she kisses him before she goes. So, McCoy after looks to Kirk and asks irritably "What IS IT with YOU anyway?!" and Kirk grins and says "Still think we're finished?" and McCoy groans and says "More than ever!".

SPOILER!!! BIG GIVEAWAY IN NEXT PARAGRAPH!!!

And last of all is the scene where the Enteprise falls under attack from the film's main conspirator, Chang attacks the Enterprise and Spock suggests that they perform a dissection on one of their torpedos so they can return fire on the enemy ship. So, Spock asks McCoy "Doctor, would you care to assist me in performing surgery on a torpedo?" and McCoy smiles and says "Fascinating!". And as the two of them work on the torpedo, Chang's arrogant voice is heard over the speaker system and McCoy says "I'd give real money if he'd shut up!".  

As for the supporting cast members, David Warner is excellent as Chancellor Gorkon as a seemingly decent and honourable man who is desparate to try and make a peace work with the Federation.   Warner also get's some fine lines of dialogue, and he does get an amusing one where Gorkon dines with the Enterprise crew and he tells them "You haven't experienced Shakespeare until you have heard it in the original Klingon!" and Chang demonstrates as he says the line "To be or not to be" in his native tongue.

Then there is the scene where Gorkon is about to leave Kirk's ship after dinner and he addresses Kirk candidly. So, Gorkon says to Kirk "You don't trust me do you? I don't blame you, if we are to build a "brave new world", then our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it".

And in the scene where Kirk and McCoy board Gorkon's ship and find that he has been shot, McCoy desparately does what he can to try and save him but to no avail. So, with his dying breath, Gorkon brings his hand up to Kirk's head, who leans over him and Gorkon weakly says to him with his last words "Don't let it end this way, Captain" and he goes limp and his hand drops.  

Christopher Plummer is also excellent as the devious and manipulative General Chang and he also get's some fine lines, especially as he is quite fond of quoting Shakespeare (for some reason or other!).

And Plummer has his share of good scenes that include the one where Chang dines on the Enterprise with Kirk and his crew and they have an incredibly awkward and tense evening. So, Chang tells the othes ""To be, or not to be." That is the question which preoccupies our people, Captain Kirk. We need breathing room!" and as he has been hearing quotations all night, Kirk suddenly says "Earth, Hilter. 1938!" and Chang a little taken aback asks "I beg your pardon?". 

Then there is the scene where Kirk and McCoy are put on trial and Chang acts as the prosecutor and he questions both men. So, Chang starts with McCoy and he asks him of that night when McCoy tried to save Gorkon but failed to "Tell me, Doctor, do your hands shake?" and McCoy says "I was nervous!" and Chang says to him "No, you were incompetent! YOU WERE INCOMPETENT! Either by age or combined with drink! The court will have to decide!".

And then later in the scene he questions Kirk and he says "There we have it, citizens. We have finally established the particulars of the crime, and now we come to the architect of this tragic affair, James Tiberius Kirk. What would your favourite author say, Captain? "Let us sit upon the ground "and tell sad stories of the death of kings." Tell us your sad story, Kirk!".

So, as Chang questions Kirk, he plays an excerpt of Kirk's audio log where he reveals that he has never trusted Klingons and never will as he could never forgive them for the murder of his son (David). So, when Chang asks Kirk did he says those words, Kirk says "Those words were spoken by me" however Kirk's defence says that his political views are not on trial which Chang angrily refutes "On the contrary! Captain Kirk's views and motives are indeed at the very heart of the matter!".
Chang then continues to press Kirk and shouts at him " Indeed, the record shows that Captain Kirk once held the rank ofAdmiral, and that Admiral Kirk was broken for taking matters into his own hands in defiance of regulations of the law. Do you deny being demoted for these charges?! Don't wait for the translation! Answer me now!!".

WARNING: NEXT PARAGRAPH HAS SPOILERS!!

And last of all is the scene where Chang is revealed to be the bad guy after all as he later on attacks the Enterprise and he rants at Kirk and the crew over the speaker. So, Chang says over the speaker to Kirk "I can see you, Kirk! Can you see me?!" and we see that his ship has been cloaked and decloaks and Chang says to Kirk "Now, be honest, Captain. Warrior to warrior, you do prefer it this way, don't you? As it was meant to be. No peace in our time. "Once more unto the breach, dear friends."  Chang then continues during the space battle to taunt Kirk and spout quotations of which the most notable is "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!!".  However, Kirk in the scene gains the upper hand as the Enterprise launches a torpedo at his ship and Chang looks on fearfully as it approaches his ship and he says "To be or not to be!".
  
Kim Cattrall is also very good in her role as the Vulcan starfleet officer, Valeris, who while she is a  student of Spock's at the same time isn't what she appears to be.

And Kim has some good scenes of her own here such as the one where Valeris lectures the crew of the origins of the term saboteur "Four hundred years ago on the planet Earth, workers who felt their livelihood threatened by automation flung their wooden shoes called "sabot" into the machines to stop them. Hence the word "sabotage.".

Then there is the scene where Spock, Valeris and the Enterprise crew all make their investigation into what happened and to find the killers, who may still be onboard the ship. So, in the scene Chekov suggests why didn't the killers just vapourise their gravity boots when they arrived back on ship. So, Valeris says to Chekov "Like this?" and she takes her phaser and vapourises a cooking pot, which sets off the ship's alarm systems, which Valeris turns off. So, Valeris reminds Chekov "At ease. As you know, Commander Chekov, no one can fire an unauthorised phaser aboard a starship".


WARNING: SPOILER IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!

And last of all is the scene where Valeris is revealed to be a traitor and taken to the bridge where tells them her true feelings about the peace talks. So, Valeris says to them "You have betrayed the Federation! All of you!" and when asked what she thinks she has been doing she says "Saving starfleet". Valeris then tries to appeal to Kirk and says "Sir. You said so yourself. They killed your son. Did you not wish Gorkon dead? "Let them die," you said. Did I misinterpret you? And you were right. They conspired with us to assassinate their own chancellor. How trustworthy can they be?!". Kirk then demands that she tell him the names of her co-conspirators and she says "I do not remember" and Spock for once appears angry says to her "A lie!" and she says to him with an almost smug air "A choice". 

Iman (supermodel and widow of David Bowie) also puts in an appealing performance as the seductive shape shifting alien Martia, who helps Kirk and McCoy try and escape from the prison asteroid. 

Iman herself has some good scenes and has an amusing intro scene when she initially meets Kirk who knocks out an alien he is fighting with by kicking it in the shins.  So Kirk says to Martia "I'm glad that thing has knees!" and Iman tells him "That wasn't his knee, not all lifeforms keep their genitals in the same place, Captain!". 

Another good scene is when Martia pays a visit to Kirk and McCoy late at night and she tells him that she can help them escape. So, Martia quietly says to Kirk "Kirk, it's me, Martia. Listen, no one has ever escaped from Rura Penthe" and Kirk suggests "Except us" and Martia says "It is possible. I know how to get out of the shield".  Martia then says to Kirk "I can't make it alone, and you're likeliest candidate to come in this hellhole for months" and Kirk asks "Candidate for what?" and she then kisses him and then says "Go to lift seven in the morning for mining duty. I'll see you there. Don't disappoint me!" and she leaves.

And last of all are the other Star Trek crew regulars.


Starting with James Doohan who is great once again as Scotty here and he too get's some of the film's most amusing scenes

And as a couple of examples of his scenes for starters there is the one where Scotty rants to Spock about Kirk and McCoy's trial after their sentence when Spock suggests that an enemy ship nearby fired on the Klingon ambassador's ship and not Enterprise. So, Spock suggests they must inform Starfleet command and Scotty angrily shouts "Inform them of what, a new weapon that is invisible? Raving lunatics, that's what they'll call us. They'll say that we're so desperate to exonerate the Captain that we'll say anything!".

And lastly there is the scene where Valeris fires her phaser onboard the Enterprise as Chekov suggests why didn't the killers simply vapourise (or wapourise!) their incriminating gravity boots, however the staser sets off the ship's alarms.

So, after Valeris tells Chekov firing a phaser onboard a starship is illegal and unauthorised, Scotty appears and asks "Who fired that...?!". So, Spock then asks Scotty " "Mr Scott. I understand you're having difficulty with the warp drive. How much time do you require for repair?". Scotty however seems puzzled and says "There's nothing wrong with the bloody thing!" so Spock is forced to explain himself "Mr Scott, if we return to spacedock, the assassins will surely find a way to dispose of their incriminating footwear, and we will never see the Captain or Dr McCoy alive again". Scotty then smiles and says "It could take weeks, sir!" and Spock, satisifed says "Thank you, Mr Scott".

Walter Koenig next up is good once again as Chekov also has a few amusing moments, especially the one where they hear word of the Klingon ambassador ship about to board with them. So, Chekov gives an onimous look and says "Guess who's coming to dinner...".   Another is when Chekov is suffering from a hangover after having Romulan ale at the dinner with the Klingons, and Kirk says "Chekov are you aware of any radiation surge?" and Chekov wearily replies "Only the size of my head!".

Another is when just after Valeris explains the origin of saboteur to Uhura and Chekov, Uhura tells them "We are experiencing technical malfunction. All backup systems inoperative" and Chekov sarcastically says "Excellent...I mean too bad! Too bad!". 

And lastly there is the scene where after Chekov suggests to Valeris why didn't the killers just vapourise their gravity boots and she demonstrates that no officer can fire an unauthorised phaser onboard the ship. So, later when McCoy asks the very same question, Chekov has the pleasure of informing him "It would have set off the alarm!".

And Nichelle Nichols gets some amusing moments here and there with the first one being where just after the Enterprise crew have their awkward dinner with the Klingon ambassador, Uhura remarks on the Klingon's very different dining methods and she asks "Did you see the way they eat?!" and Chekov says "Terrible table manners!". 

And last of all is the moment where the Enterprise crew try and cross Klingon airspace, and they have to communicate in Klingon, and they have loads of books of Klingon translation, and Uhura hastily and poorly speaks a few lines of Klingon to the Klingon's at the outpost. So, Uhura hastily manages to translate a few lines of Klingon when the Klingon border staff ask what they are doing. So, Uhura says in Klingon "We is condemning food, things and supplies!" and they reply "Don't catch any bugs!" and they laugh, and the Enterprise crew laugh with them, and Uhura prompty shuts off the comm!

Last of all of course is George Takei as Sulu who actually has the briefest role of all the regular crew in this film and is limited to just a few small scenes and Sulu in this film is now a Starfleet captain of the starship Excelsior. 

So, I will mention a couple with the first being the one where a young officer onboard Sulu's ship wakes him up with some news. So, the officer (played by Christian Slater) asks Sulu "Starfleet urgently requests any data we have on the whereabouts of Enterprise" and Sulu asks "What?" and the officer tells him "Well, apparently, they're refusing to acknowledge signal to return to spacedock, sir". So, Sulu takes a moment and says "Signal Starfleet that we have no idea of the location of Enterprise" and the officer asks "Sir?" and Sulu looks at him sternly and asks "Are you having hearing problems, mister?!" and the officer says "No, sir".

And lastly there is the scene where Kirk contacts Sulu on the Excelsior and Kirk addresses Sulu and says "You realise that by even talking to us, you're violating regulations" and Sulu says "I'm sorry, Captain your message is breaking up" and Kirk smiles and says "Bless you, Sulu!". Kirk then asks Sulu "Where is the peace conference? They are going to attempt another assassination" and Sulu says "The conference is at Camp Khitomer, near the Romulan border. I'm sending the exact coordinates on a coded frequency". Sulu then tells Kirk "I'm getting underway now, but we're now in Alpha Quadrant. The chances of our reaching the conference in time are slim!" And when Kirk asks when the conference begins, Sulu tells him "From my information, it starts today" and Kirk grateful, says "Thank you, Captain Sulu" and Sulu smiles and says "Don't mention it, Captain Kirk!".

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

As for Nicholas Meyer he does an excellent job here with the film and keeps the drama moving along very well, and maintains a fine line of suspense, action and humour all at the same time. Meyer himself also co-wrote the screenplay for the film alongside Denny Martin Flinn and his script and direction are both great here.

The film also features a fine score from composer Cliff Eidelman which is quite grand and operatic at times and is more dark in tone than the previous film scores and his opening theme is definitely the best piece of the score itself. Eidelman himself at the time was only 26 years old and was yet to have broken his way into the Hollywood scene, so this score certainly elevated his stance as a composer.  

FLAWS (Warning: this section may ALSO contain spoilers!)

As for flaws...yeah ok Star Trek VI does have some. 

For starters, its funny how Kirk even at what must be the age of 60 is still attracting young ladies (or in this case aliens!) although perhaps this why in the new Star Trek reboot Kirk is seen fooling around with sexy alien females! But yeah it has to be said that it seems strange that Martia would have the hots for Kirk as a rather grey haired, bloated looking Starfleet officer!

I also felt the film made some weird choices such as the one to make Klingon blood pink (or fuchsia more accurately) as in previous films the Klingon blood was actually red, so did they have some sort of blood tranfusion through the years??? It certainly shows a lack of consistency in the series when they decided to go ahead and change the alien race's blood colour! Ah well.
 
I also found it funny how Chekov is so unfamiliar with some of the Starfleet regulations, such as firing a phaser onboard a starship is not permitted as it would set off the alarm, as Valeris informs him, but you would assume as a starfleet commander, he already should know that! Perhaps though this backs up the idea that the Enterprise crew at this point are becoming somewhat more aged and forgetting things! ;-)

Another issue I had was to do with the whole thing of Spock placing that patch on Kirk's back, which turned out to be some sort of transponder beam-up device that will allow Spock to keep tabs on Kirk's location and beam him up. Its fine that Spock places it there as a plot device to save Kirk later but its funny how they left so long before Kirk makes mention of it again! Also in the freezing cold winter and being beaten by aliens and doing alot of hard labour, its surprising that the thing never fell off his back! 

And last of all is the scene where Kirk and Spock confront Valeris near the end as she is revealed to be the traitor onboard the ship. So, when Kirk and Spock rumble her, McCoy out of the blue appears also but I'd have to ask would McCoy really need to be there at this point?! I mean he's the chief surgeon onboard the ship so you'd imagine he would have more pressing duties to attend to than act as a morale back-up for Kirk and Spock. But of course the film franchise always insisted on making it a real staple to have this trio together at key times (even if it wasn't always necessary!).  

So, that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So in summing up, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is still a very good entry in the franchise and it was a fine swansong for the original cast of the show, as this film also marked the 25th anniversary of the show, and it was a pity that its creator Gene Roddenberry passed away shortly before the film's premiere.

The film also features the regular cast all in good form for the last time together and excellent performances from the supporting cast particularly Christopher Plummer and Kim Cattrall in their roles as Chang and Valeris respectively. The music score is also very good and Nicholas Meyer also makes a wewlcome return to the series here after his success with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.   

So, overall I'd say that Star Trek VI remains one of the strongest entries in the series and to this day is still well worth checking out.

OK, so that's it for now and I'll see you soon with another post.

Till then beam me up! (Terrible joke!).