BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF is just as good as I heard it was. I'm amazed by this French movie which is one part action movie/one part historical picture/one part martial arts flick. It takes place a few years before the French Revolution. A taxidermist and his Indian friend travel to a French province to help find and kill a beast killing people for the last two years. The taxidermist falls in love with a young woman while bedding an Italian whore at other times. Everyone thinks wolves are doing it while religious people think it is the work of the supernatural, but our taxidermist thinks its neither. It is soon found out that the beast is being controlled by a man, and the master of the beast must be found and stopped. It is never as simple because there is no simple job. There are politics and betrayals that get in the way at every turn as some other twists get thrown in. It is a great French movie you need to go out to rent or buy.

REIGN OF FIRE reminds me of a good 1980s science fiction movie because it is a really good and entertaining movie that was made recently and released in theaters this last summer. Next month, it hits video on the 19th. REIGN OF FIRE starts in the modern times as a boy goes down to the underground railway work his mom is supervising. The workers stumble across a void and one worker stupidly sends the boy in to investigate. The boy stumbles across a dragon and is the only one to survive the carnage the awakened dragon will ignite on that day. Things get worse over the years as the nations of the world try every way to get rid of the growing dragon population (even using nuclear weapons), but it only helps the dragons. We fast forward to 2025 where the boy is grown into a man named Quinn. Quinn is the leader of a remote community that is trying to survive and keep out of the way of the dragons. Of course, things start to go wrong and some members of that community don't listen to the over-cautious Quinn. A dragon happens and destroys some of the crop they have been growing, and before you know it our community is next visited by an American military group out to slay the male dragon because there is only one and the rest of the dragons are female. The military group is lead by Van Zan. Van Zan, with the help of Quinn as bait, slays one dragon and it leads to some people of the community joining Van Zans’ group to go to London and kill the male dragon. Naturally, things go wrong and Quinn has to face his fears in a quest to kill the male dragon.

REIGN OF FIRE is well directed by Rob Bowman (veteran who directed several TV shows including the X-Files and The X-Files movie). The movie is filled with tension, and when you think its calm, it gets tense again. REIGN OF FIRE pictures a civilization in shambles as one community tries to struggle to survive while the US military group try to find a way to stop the dragons once and for all. The actors do a good job in portraying the characters in the movie. Van Zan is seen as a military man who sees it as a mission with no need for celebration. Quinn is a man trying to protect his people and stay out of the way of the dragons while avoiding the one things he needs- to face his fear. He has doubts when things go wrong, but he rises to save people because it is in his nature.


On the other hand, I have seen a very mind blowing movie on DVD. It is NEON GENESIS: THE END OF EVANGELION which is an alternate (and preferred by the creators) conclusion to the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime. An alternate conclusion in place of episodes 25 and 26 of the TV show. The Angels have been defeated by NERV, and now the worlds military organizations want to take over NERV and destroy the EVAs (and the pilots to these big EVAs which destroyed the Angels that were threatening human civilization. There are plans afoot by a group of old guys who want to create the Third Impact and end human life as we know it so everything can go back to the beginning with the help of some big human mass called Adam and use EVA 01 (because the EVAs have been bio-engineering from the Angels). The first half of THE END OF EVANGELION is pretty straight forward, then the second half is as mind bending as Kubrick's 2001 and Tarkovsky's SOLARIS. I was impressed and in awe of this animated film. I have seen a few episodes of the TV series and have read most of the magna. Be aware this one isn't for kids due to violence and nudity in the movie.

Finally, I saw the video for Die Another Day sung by Madonna. In some ways, the song is a James Bond song, but in other ways it just is the worst title song for a James Bond movie. I wish the producers would lose this song and get a better one for DIE ANOTHER DAY. Even the Sheryl Crow tune for TOMORROW NEVER DIES is more of a James Bond song (even though the end tune Surrender by k.d. lang and written by David Arnold should have been the title song for that movie). Portishead would have been a much better choice to do a James Bond song. Even Robbie Williams would do a better James Bond song. The Madonna song is good, but it isn't a good song for a James Bond movie.

P.S. I watched the series finale for PUSH, NEVADA and it felt like I was watching a hatchet job. Everything was rushed and resolved too quickly. And to make things worse, you have to watch Monday Night football to get the final clue to solve the puzzle to win the $1.025 million (with the clue to be repeated during the Toyota Half Time show. Grrrrrrrrrr. Have a better one.

this article and reviews are (c)10-25-2002 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission