Rudy's Movie Reviews

Saw II
Priscilla wanted to skip this one, so I went on my own on Sunday night. The movie starts off pretty much where the other one left off. We see a dude trapped in another bad situation and he has to accomplish a task in order to live. Does he die? You'll just have to watch it!
The main story is Donnie Wahlberg is trying to save his son from Jigsaw. All he can do is watch his son's adventures inside the house through some cameras. The son is trapped with a bunch of misfits who are all trying to find some antidote for a nerve gas being pumped through the house. There are several tasks to accomplish for each batch of antidote, and hilarity ensues as everyone is trying to get a shot of the antidote.
We even visit the bathroom from the Original Saw for a bit, but I won't tell you why. I will tell you that we do see the victims from Saw 1. Of course they are just crusty bodies now.
Overall, it had shock value and such, with a twist, of course. But I believe the 1st one was better and more psychological.

Good night and Good Luck
This film is about Edward R. Murrows 1950s era reports about Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare. It's hard for us, in this day and age to believe that something like that could actually happen in America. Murrows reports on an Airforce soldier getting discharged because his father. The evidence against the soldier was in a sealed manila folder, and he was tried in court and convicted without anyone even opening the folder! Reporting on this issue set off the fire storm with eventually led to the censure of senator McCarthy by the senate.
I really like how this film was shot in black in white to blend seamlessly with the archive footage. The clothes and the fact that everyone was smoking seemed genuine. It's hard to imagine Anderson Cooper lighting up a Winston while talking about the latest news out of France. But it seems like that was what everyone did, back in the day. If you pay attention, you can seem some parallels to things going on in the news of then and the news of today. The first thing that came to mind was the caskets returning from the middle east. There was word that the DoD did not want these images on TV, but some stations still ran them. Much like going against the Communist hunters made you a target to suspicion and scrutiny.
In the movie, there is advertiser pressure to not report certain things, and this is not the case anymore. At least with independent type news. In this day and age, anyone with a video camera and a computer can set up their own news broadcast ala Rocketboom and many others. Of course, these video podcasts can be heavily biased, since they are independent. Interesting times we live in.
Overall, a great movie. You should check it out!