Starring
Alex D. Linz (The Amateurs)
Aleksander Krupa (Fast & Furious 8)
Rya Kihlstedt (Heroes Reborn)
Lenny Von Dohlen (Teeth)
David Thornton (The Other Woman)
Haviland Morris (Cherry Rush)
Kevin Kilner (Earth: Final Conflict)
Marian Seldes (Duets)
Scarlett Johansson (The Avengers)
Christopher Curry (Starship Troopers)
Neil Flynn (Scrub)
James Saito (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Peter Beaupre, Alice Ribbons, Burton Jernigan, and Earl Unger are four internationally wanted hitmen working for a North Korean terrorist organization. Having stolen a US$10 million missile-cloaking computer chip, the thieves put it inside a remote control car to sneak it past security at San Francisco International Airport. However, a luggage mix-up occurs, causing a woman named Mrs. Hess to inadvertently take the thieves’ bag containing the remote control car, while returning home to Chicago. The four thieves arrive in Chicago and systematically search every house in Hess’s suburban neighborhood to find the chip.
Meanwhile, Alex Pruitt is given the remote control car by Hess for shoveling snow, but she lectures him for scratching numerous itches. He returns home and removes his shirt to discover that he has chickenpox, and therefore must stay out of school. While recovering at home, Alex uses his telescope and discovers the thieves on look out for the chip. Wondering what the thieves want with a remote control car, Alex opens it and discovers the stolen chip. He informs the local Air Force Recruitment Center about the chip while asking if they can forward the information about the chip to the right authorities.
The thieves conclude that Alex has been watching them and decide to pursue him. As a snowstorm hits Chicago, the thieves block off the road to the house and Alice duct tapes Hess to a chair in her garage and leaves the door open. By this point, Alex has rigged his house with booby traps and prepares to set them off with his pet rat, Doris, and the loud-mouthed pet parrot of his brother. After their numerous break-in attempts are foiled by Alex’s traps, the thieves infiltrate the house and search for Alex. Alex flees to the attic and takes the dumbwaiter down to the basement, then runs outside and calls to Alice, Jernigan and Unger. The thieves see Alex and notice a trampoline below them. Jernigan and Unger jump to pursue Alex, but the trampoline gives way and they fall into a frozen pool. Alice wriggles her way into the dumbwaiter chute, but falls down to the basement because Alex removed the bottom.
Alex rescues Hess and is cornered by Beaupre, but scares him off with a bubble gun resembling a Glock. Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrives to Alex’s siblings’ school, after being tipped off by the recruitment center. Alex’s family brings the agents to their house, where the police arrive and arrest Alice, Jernigan, and Unger. However, Beaupre flees to the snow fort in the backyard. The parrot drives the remote control car into the snow fort and threatens to light fireworks, which are lined around the inside. Beaupre offers a cracker, but the parrot demands two. Since he only has one, the parrot then lights the fireworks, and flees. Beaupre is discovered and arrested. Later, Alex and his family celebrate with his father returning home from a business trip. Hess, who befriends Alex after he successfully rescues her, is there, along with the FBI and the police, while Alex’s house is being repaired. Then the thieves are shown having their mugshot photos taken and they appear to have caught Alex’s chickenpox.
I actually enjoyed Home Alone 3 as a kid and as an adult now. No, it isn’t as good as the original films and no Alex Linz is not Macaulay Culkin. But this movie gets points for breaking off from the McCallister storyline. I mean how many times can that family forget the same kid? Young actor Alex Linz who plays Alex in Home Alone 3 does a great job taking on this big role, he manages to not put in an annoying performance like so many child actors can be do these kind of movies. The crooks include three men and one female, and I like that they added a woman into that villain role. They all are good actors and add plenty to this movie. Home Alone 3 isn’t great, but it takes some risks by moving from the original plot and adds some smarts it with the computer chip story. These aren’t your simple criminals like the wet bandits were, they are after far more than some jewellery and expensive silverware. I recommend Home Alone 3 for sure!
The story of the film is presented in documentary format, with footage of the events punctuated by interviews with people related to them. In the early 1970s, Dr. Henry West (William Mapother) founds the Atticus Institute in rural Pennsylvania, hoping to find evidence that proves supernatural abilities such as ESP are real. Despite the best work of West and his aides, however, every subject that comes to the institute seeming to display such abilities are ultimately proven to be frauds. The team is demoralized in their work by the time Judith Winstead (Rya Kihlstedt) is brought to the institute by her sister Margaret, who is troubled by her disturbing behavior. Judith immediately proves to be a different case than the previous subjects, passing all the tests with incredible proficiency and leaving no doubt that her abilities are genuine. Her behavior remains erratic, however, and many of West’s staff become uncomfortable with her, even while their boss’s fascination with her increases. With the usual tests proving to be no challenge for Judith’s incredible power, the team gradually introduces new tests that show her to possess even greater abilities than first imagined.
Judith’s behavior grows more unstable as her abilities evolve, disturbing West’s staff. Bizarre events begin to happen to the aides and their families outside of the institute, which they suspect Judith is somehow influencing, and many of them resign from their positions to escape from her. As the situation escalates, the team seeks help from the United States military; under the influence of military advisors, they conduct new tests that lead to Judith manifesting new abilities such as telekinesis and pyrokinesis. One day, Judith experiences a violent reaction to a spectral photography experiment, and when the images are checked, a cloud-like entity is observed temporarily leaving Judith’s body during her convulsions. This leads the team to realize that Judith’s powers are the result of demonic possession.
With this discovery, the military seizes full control of the institute under a pretext of national security, and the situation spirals completely out of control. Soon, the military decides that Judith’s abilities can be utilized as a weapon against the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and they begin conducting increasingly inhumane experiments on Judith against West’s objections. Using methods such as electroshock therapy, the military try to tame the demon and force it to cooperate in exercises such as identifying the location of enemy bases, ignoring the effects these tests have on Judith. As these experiments ultimately prove fruitless, the military decides to try removing the demon from Judith by having a priest perform an exorcism while a soldier is connected to Judith via machinery. The process shows promise at first, but Judith suddenly lashes out and gravely injures the priest, disconnecting the electrodes attached to her before passing out. As the staff try to reattach the electrodes, Judith experiences a violent seizure while the demon attacks West through the body of the soldier connected to her. An unseen force blasts through the facility, killing all present. As the cameras come back online, Judith – now free of the demon’s control and restored to her true self – breaks down when she sees the carnage around her. The demon enters the room in West’s body, having fully consumed his soul, and stands before Judith’s cell as she pleads for help. West kills Judith by telekinetically bursting her heart, then calmly exits the room and disappears.
The film concludes with a note revealing that Judith’s body was buried in an undisclosed location following an autopsy, and her case remains the only instance of possession officially certified by the United States government. Dr. Henry West, after disappearing on October 23, 1976, was declared legally dead in 1982 and his whereabouts have been unknown for over forty years.
Overall The Atticus Institute is one of those mediocre horror films that you can coast your way through if you are just determined to watch it. There isn’t any real connection given between the character development and the audience. The horror and chilling elements aren’t really scary or affective unless you are 12 and really creeped out by demons and paranormal stuff. The framing device and story arc is so done to death, that it becomes a bit boring and you find yourself asking “why am I watching this?”.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has done the impossible. It went from one of the most throwaway action dramas in recent history with season one to one of the most memorable. Over the course of five long years, the series has re-invented itself, and slowly forged a capable band of misfits that are worth watching week after week.
It was somewhere around season three that I started truly enjoying the show, and by the time the artificial intelligence-driven LMD arc hit in 2017, I was hooked. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has the power to do what basically no Marvel film (with few exceptions) has done to date: make us laugh and cry in the same short span. Clark Gregg, S.H.I.E.L.D. star Agent Coulson always said that people should give the show time to grow, and while I’d argue four years is far too long of a wait, it’s worth investing in at this point. Season five mostly carries that legacy upon its back with a few missteps.
While I’ve grown fond of S.H.I.E.L.D. it’s very easy to poke Swiss cheese-sized holes into it. The writers still don’t seem to know how to handle Yo-Yo, the Inhuman that can run so fast that it seemingly stops time, only to return to her original location. They created a figurative monster, one that could basically end every conflict before it starts, and they’ve had to come up with weird ways to curb her power, some of which are incredibly hokey. They’re also constantly wandering aimlessly with her character arc, putting much of the burden of her budding personality onto her partner, Mack — one of the brightest parts of the show.
The lack of John Hannah and Mallory Jansen, two of the strongest parts of last season, is felt, but others, whether it’s newcomers or old friends like Adrian Pasdar, have stepped up. Really though, the trophies should go to the principal cast, who are stuck together like a family for this long despite being on the bubble every year. Ming-Na Wen is one of the most underrated action performers on TV right now, and Chloe Bennet managed to transform Skye into the formidable Daisy mostly on her own, evolving and learning alongside of the show with charisma and relatable flaws to boot.
I miss the smaller focused arcs of the past few seasons, but this year S.H.I.E.L.D. has mostly settled on two acts: the future, and a lead into Infinity War. The former was a very bold and tricky maneuver, and I think they pulled it off. For a while, there S.H.I.E.L.D. pivoted into a bleak sci-fi operation, more so than it ever has been in the past, with some of its darkest sections to date.
The thing about the future portion of this season is that you never really know what’s going to happen. Coupled with an ominous theme bad things were always piling onto the crew, to the point where you really felt that they had no chance of making it out alive. By the end of it, when most of them do, it feels like their actions still have weight to them, something that was wonderfully communicated in the previous season. It’s not so much cheesy callbacks as it is genuine character development, as the team works to make this pseudo-MCU world one worth exploring. It’s also nice to see Marvel throw S.H.I.E.L.D. a bone, giving them at least one worthy villain and the entire Kree race to work with.
Its second act isn’t nearly as strong, sometimes focusing far too much on Hydra (a concept that’s been touched on nearly every season now to mixed success), it eventually culminates in a worthwhile showdown with one of the most formidable foes yet with actual consequences. Is S.H.I.E.L.D., or the Marvel universe completely done with Hydra? Probably not, but for now it seems like new problems are on the horizon.
Ultimately, season five of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ends with at least one twist and several turns. It’s beautifully filmed as a series finale just in case they didn’t get that one last renewal (which they recently did), and despite the truncated action scenes that still show how little of a priority S.H.I.E.L.D. is for ABC, it more than gets the job done for a network TV show.
