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DVD The Grid
Broadcast on TNT in July 2004, The Grid is an ambitious, often-gripping miniseries depicting the battle against terrorism in a post-9/11 world. When a terrorist cell's sarin attack in London backfires, an unusual and sometimes-uneasy partnership is formed to anticipate and prevent the next strike. The team consists of counterterrorism analysts and agents from the National Security Council (Julianna Margulies), the FBI (Dylan McDermott), the CIA (Peter Marek), and Britain's MI-5 (Bernard Hill) and MI-6 (Jemma Redgrave). Gradually unfolding over six parts and four and a half hours, the BBC-Fox TV coproduction travels across North America, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa following not only the professional and personal lives of the "good guys," but also the terrorists' stories. Comparisons will inevitably be drawn between The Grid and 24 (especially considering the latter's terrorism story lines in seasons 2 and 3). The Grid can't compete in terms of sheer thrills, but it's a well-shot, well-cast ensemble drama with an exciting conclusion that takes place simultaneously on three continents.
The two-DVD set is supplemented by a commentary track by director Mikael Solomon and executive producer Tracey Alexander on two episodes, commentary by Margulies on specific scenes from two episodes, commentary by McDermott on specific scenes from two episodes, 13 deleted scenes, and three featurettes. --David Horiuchi
First, what's good, and there's a lot to like. The bad guys are Muslims, but the Muslims aren't the bad guys. Even fundamentalists aren't necessarily radicals. If preachy at times, the scriptwriters take pains to distinguish the terrorist nutjobs from labels they co-opt for their own purposes. More than just about any action movie I can think of, this makes for lots of shades of gray. I like that.
I also like the realistic action, on a more human scale than the "Mission Impossisble" sort. There are lots of different characters, each with their won story and motivations. The movie also features different agencies and different nations, all with motivations of their own. By about 20 minutes in, it seems that each loyalty pulls in its own direction, and no two people have quite the same loyalties. This makes for lots of interesting sub-plots, some of which paint even high-powered characters as people with lives and loves of their own.
Maybe that's where this movie starts to unravel. There's just too much going on, and not enough time to tie up all the loose ends. The plots and feints are good, but the last scene is a very odd choice. It makes the movie feel like a recycled TV pilot, for a show that never aired. This demands sequels. It sets up a fair bit of soap-opera potential, engaging the viewer with the characters, then leaving the viewer hoping for more. It allows future room for characters to come and go. That makes sense for a beginning TV series.
It just doesn't make for a feature movie worth seeing again.
//wiredweird
Incredible modern real life saga
This movie was incredible. I was so sucked in from the beginning and enjoyed it thouroughly. I was amazed at how it seemd so up to date with todays current global news. It shows both sides of terrorism - the ideas and reasoning behind much of it, and the wrongs and evils of it. Some people are afraid of this film and list it as a anti-Arab propaganda, but this couldn't be further from the truth. This movie portrays many Muslims as very good people who are against terrorism, and try to help fight it. I ordered this movie right away from Amazon as soon as I could because I liked it so much. One of the best and interesting movies I've ever seen. I wish every one could see this. My highest ratings. ******
Entertaining techno thriller mini-series
Fans of techno-thrillers will eat up this six hour mini-series that not only marks the first major collaboration between the BBC and Turner Broadcasting, but also the first time that I have sat up and taken notice of Julianna Margulies.
Fox sent this DVD set along for a review and it wasn't until closer to its release date that I sat down with a good stack of popcorn with my roomies to sit down for the mammoth undertaking.
Over five hours later as we all retired for the evening we concluded that the show had been a good one and even the harshest of reviewers (a rommie of mine who delights in pointing out plotholes) had to admit to being totally engrossed in the drama.
Starting with a dramatic gas attack in a London hotel the action follows the reaction of both the British and American intelligence agencies, acting both separately and (in an uneasy alliance) jointly to combat terrorism in a post-9/11 world.
As covered in the documentary that accompanies this DVD, this shows's writers had to imagine how Al-Queida would evolve in the years following the beginning of production and its eventual 2004 broadcast. Top marks to them for weaving together a topical and involving drama.
With action that covers most of the globe and well drawn characters it is not hard to recommend this show. Fans of Tom Clancy will be pleased and the stunningly gorgeous Julianna Margulies has one more fan in the world in me.
The 4400, which began as a five-week miniseries on the USA Network, is built around a deceptively simple, dramatically rich premise. What if all the people, who had ever been abducted by aliens, were suddenly returned to Earth? What would happen? Although they look exactly as they did when they left, they have no knowledge of where they were or why they were taken. Now some even have special powers, like clairvoyance. As with ABC's Lost, which centers on the survivors of a plane crash, The 4400 features a large cast of characters and a host of mysteries to be solved. If the special effects, which are kept to a minimum, can be a little cheesy at times, the concept--and the skillful execution of the concept--easily makes up for it.
Dramatically speaking, the third season of The Shield is dysfunctional in the "best" sense of the word. Relationships fester in a quagmire of personal and professional conflict, and clashing agendas inspire some of finest episodes of this volatile series. Det. Mackey (Michael Chiklis) struggles to save his crumbling family (including two autistic children) while his strike team endures internal tensions over their secret stash of stolen drug money. Shane (Walton Goggins) clashes with teammate Tavon (Brian J. White) with near-fatal consequences, and his demanding fiancée tests his loyalty to Mackey. Capt. Aceveda (Benito Martinez) suffers unspeakable humiliation en route to city council promotion, engaging Wyms (CCH Pounder) in a battle of wills over proper command of "The... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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When it comes to delivering exciting and dramatic espionage stories, few do it as well as the British, as evidenced by the BBC's high-tech spy series MI-5 (known to U.K. audiences as Spooks). And the hit show's second season, which is compiled and well-annotated in this five-disc set, serves up more international intrigue while ratcheting up the drama in the lives of its main characters, most notably team leader Tom Quinn (Matthew MacFayden). Season 2 opens quite literally with a bang, with Tom's girlfriend and young daughter are trapped inside their house with a booby-trapped laptop set to explode ("Legitimate Targets"). From there, the tension escalates in each episode, with the MI-5 team facing extremists ("Nest of Angels"), computer espionage ("Hackers"), and... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Matthew Mac Fadyen DVD Release Date: Released the 11 January 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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There's not one cougar to be found in 24's dynamic third season, and that's good news for everyone. After Jack Bauer's daughter Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) survived hokey hazards in season 2, she's now a full-time staffer at CTU, the L.A.-based intelligence beehive that's abuzz once again--three years after the events of "Day Two"--when a vengeful terrorist threatens to release a lethal virus that could wipe out much of the country's population. Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) attempts to broker a deal for the virus involving drug kingpin Ramon Salazar (Joaquim de Almeida), whose operation Jack successfully infiltrated at high personal cost: to maintain his cover, he got hooked on heroin. That potentially deadly triangle--drug lords, addiction, and bioterrorism on a massive scale--sets the... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 07 December 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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True to form, at the beginning of its fourth season J.J. Abrams' Alias proceeded to reinvent itself yet again--and the results looked quite a bit like the first season, but with a decided twist. Super agent Sydney Bristow (Emmy nominee Jennifer Garner) found herself once more working for a covert secret-ops group that was "off the books" and headed up by Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin) as she was partnered with... Hey, wait, wasn't Sloane a bad guy before? Well, yes, he was, but having been "rehabilitated" from his evil ways, he's now Sydney's new boss--nevermind the fact that he's trampled all over her life in more ways than one--and head of the CIA's new super-secret division, APO (for Authorized Personnel Only), which also includes all of Sydney's old friends, as well as her... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 25 October 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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