Movie Review: AIR...

Earlier today, I watched the Ben Affleck-directed sports biopic Air at AMC theaters.

Air conveyed the true story of how Nike—which was a struggling underdog trying to compete with fellow shoe makers Adidas and Converse at the time—landed a lucrative 1984 deal with an athlete who would become the greatest ever to play the game of basketball: Michael Jordan.

Air followed the story of Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a strong-minded recruiter who traveled around the country to look for talented basketball players that could potentially be endorsed by Nike. Working with him on these assignments were Howard White (Chris Tucker) and Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman)...two executives who gave Vaccaro beef for his unrelenting quest to sign Jordan while helping him at the same time.

Chris Messina played David Falk, Michael Jordan's agent who constantly butt heads with Vaccaro (at least on the phone), while Viola Davis portrayed Deloris Jordan—the business-savvy and insightful mom of the future NBA champion. Julius Tennon played James Jordan, the level-headed and very supportive dad of MJ who, in real life, tragically died due to gun violence in 1993.

(MJ briefly left the NBA to play minor league baseball following the death of his father, before returning to basketball in 1995 and winning his fourth of six NBA titles with the Chicago Bulls the following year.)

Matthew Maher played Peter Moore...the skateboard-riding designer who was responsible for fabricating the Air Jordan shoes, and even came up with the idea to replace the 'Swoosh' with the 'Jumpman' logo featuring Michael Jordan's flying silhouette on this specific Nike brand. Marlon Wayans portrayed George Raveling...a good friend of Sonny Vaccaro who was once offered $3 million for his copy of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

And continuing his simultaneous directing-and-acting tradition that started with 2007's Gone Baby Gone, 2010's The Town and 2012's Argo, Ben Affleck both helmed Air and portrayed Phil Knight—the purple Porsche-driving, buddhist-minded CEO of Nike. Sonny's deal with Jordan almost fell through after his mother was adamant about her son receiving a percentage of the profits that would be earned with each Air Jordan sold, but it was Knight who went against normal business practices in the footwear industry and agreed to the Jordans' request, achieving this much-needed victory for Nike.

My review doesn't seem to give this indication, but Air is probably one of the most inspirational films I've recently seen on the big screen. The journey to land Michael Jordan at Nike was just as inspirational as Jordan himself...with Vaccaro, Strasser and Co. literally risking everything at their company to have a young NBA rookie sign a shoe deal with them.

According to the final montage before the end credits, MJ is earning $400 million in annual passive income from his Air Jordan brand—while Nike itself earns up to $3 billion a year selling the NBA Hall of Famer's shoes. Sonny Vaccaro was shown at the beginning of the movie to be a basketball savant who could tell which young rookie was star material and who wasn't in the big league, and him being the one to sign the athlete who would be emulated by future NBA All-Stars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James years later only solidified that.

Air is a cinematic triumph in regards to how inspirational it was, and how the underdogs sometime win. Though according to this movie, did the Nike tagline "Just do it" really originate from a convict who was about to be executed?

And the founder of Adidas was a former Nazi? Wow.


John Swart / AP / REX / Shutterstock.com

Remembering THE TOWN...

On this day 10 years ago, the bank heist film The Town was unleashed in theaters nationwide (though it wasn't till a few days later that I watched it at the multiplex for the first time...on September 21). It was my favorite flick of 2010! Click here to read my review of the Ben Affleck-directed movie.

Logan Lucky...

Earlier this week, I caught a matinee screening of Steven Soderbergh's newest film Logan Lucky. Much like his work on Ocean's Eleven and its two sequels a decade ago, Logan Lucky is a feel-good heist flick...where the robbers manage to execute their plan beautifully while giving money back to those who helped them accomplish the caper (both knowingly and unknowingly) along the way. Though I'm wondering: Is Logan Lucky supposed to be a bit of a reboot of the Ocean's movies? You know— Channing Tatum is the ringleader like George Clooney? Daniel Craig is the sidekick like Brad Pitt? Adam Driver is the unwitting but faithful third accomplice like Matt Damon? And Riley Keough (moreso than Katie Holmes in this film) is Logan Lucky's gorgeous and badass equivalent of Julia Roberts' character? And Hilary Swank is playing the newer version of... I forgot who was after Danny Ocean (Clooney) and his crew in that franchise. Andy Garcia? Hm, besides him.



Anyways, Logan Lucky is a very fun film. It's the opposite of 2010's The Town (which is also an excellent heist flick), where everything went wrong during the final caper even though the ringleader in that movie (played by Ben Affleck) managed to get away at the end and live the life he wanted based on his stolen earnings. And another reason to watch Logan Lucky? Seeing Daniel Craig portray a character who isn't a moody protagonist with a European accent (I'm referring to his work on both the James Bond franchise and 2011's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Enjoy his wacky Southern accent in Soderbergh's film before Craig goes back to playing 007 in the next Bond flick...out in theaters in 2019. Carry on.

Transformers: Age of Extinction - Movie Review

I watched the newest installment in Michael Bay's fighting alien robots franchise during a midnight screening last night, and the first thing that comes to mind is: Since when did Optimus Prime have booster rockets on his legs? While Transformers: Age of Extinction had lots of great action sequences like in the previous films (the Dinobots definitely lived up to expectations), the story was inconsistent in regards to a major plot point featured in the first two movies. So if it was mysterious beings known as the Creators that built Transformers, then did the AllSpark build the Creators themselves? Or did the Creators construct the AllSpark—which in turn created Optimus Prime and company? I'd mentioned that this discrepancy will hopefully be explained in Transformers 5, but this is a Bay flick; the only thing constant throughout this franchise are giant ass-kicking extraterrestrial robots, plenty of explosions, hot girls in skimpy clothing and more explosions. But at least the cast is different.



Replacing Shia LaBeouf as the main human protagonist in Transformers is, of course, Mark Wahlberg. While he plays a down-on-his luck inventor named Cade Yeager, Wahlberg is better suited for the action sequences that Cade, his daughter Tessa (played by Nicola Peltz) and her boyfriend Shane Dyson (portrayed by Jack Reynor) go through once they encounter Optimus Prime at a barn in the Yeager's Texas homestead. Lucas, played by Cloverfield's T.J. Miller, was initially part of this group...but the main robot antagonist of Age of Extinction, Lockdown, would change all of that. Titus Welliver, who appeared in 2010's The Town and the hit ABC TV show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., did a nice job portraying a Transformer-hating CIA operative named James Savoy. Doing an even nicer job as the human bad guy of Age of Extinction is Kelsey Grammar—who, as Savoy's CIA boss Harold Attinger, is so sinister in his quest to wipe out Optimus and his kind from the face of the Earth that Grammar tended to sound like Sideshow Bob (his evil but bumbling persona on FOX TV's The Simpsons) when he spoke. But stealing the show, human-wise, in the second and third acts of Age of Extinction is KSI executive Joshua Joyce (played by Stanley Tucci)...who got to have the movie's most interesting character arc by going from being a CEO bent on earning a profit at the expense of the Transformers, to trying to make up for his folly by disposing of a device (known as the Seed) that would've allowed him to make billions of dollars and cause Optimus and his species to become obsolete once and for all.



In terms of the Transformers themselves, they looked absolutely fantastic in Age of Extinction. Bay should get props for having Optimus transform into the classic "G1" truck that fans know and love from the 1980's animated series...even if the truck was riddled with bullet holes and covered in worn-out paint. Bumblebee was his usual child-like but fierce-warrior self from the original trilogy, while John Goodman humorously stood out as the voice of the Autobot who kicked ass while moving around in battle like a "fat ballerina:" Hound. Ken Watanabe was cool as the voice of Drift...the Autobot who looked like a blue Samurai that can transform into a helicopter as well as a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse. Crosshairs looked cool as well...though one wonders why Bay didn't just feature Sideswipe instead. Crosshairs transformed into a Corvette Stingray—Sideswipe's vehicle mode of choice in Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon.



In regards to the Decepticons, there was only one who appeared in this movie. Galvatron makes an appearance, but the evil bot that gets the spotlight in Age of Extinction is Lockdown...a cruelly efficient bounty hunter who was sent to Earth to nab Optimus Prime and bring him back to his Creators. When he's not traveling on a giant spacecraft known as the Knight Ship, Lockdown is hunting down prey by driving around as a Lamborghini Aventador. Like Megatron and Sentinel Prime before him, Lockdown was a respectable antagonist who was responsible for the death of a well-known Autobot (as well as hundreds, if not thousands, of people living in China). But not to be upstaged by Lockdown are the numerous man-made Transformers that were built by Joshua Joyce's company, KSI. Combined with Galvatron's influence and their unique way of transforming, these robots were not to be trifled with in the movie's final act.



For me, what makes the Transformers movies worth watching aren't just the great visual effects and mindless entertainment value (plus Megan Fox before Dark of the Moon came along), but the cool orchestral score by Steve Jablonsky. However, it seems that with each successive movie Jablonsky's music is becoming less and less memorable (which may have to do with him collaborating with popular music bands like Linkin Park for Dark of the Moon and Imagine Dragons with this one). I understand that he's trying to come up with something unique and different for each installment, but my favorite music moment in Age of Extinction was when the original Autobots theme from the 2007 flick was played while Optimus Prime summoned the help of the Dinobots in the movie's final act. Speaking of the Dinobots...



True to the TV commercials and theatrical trailers, the Dinobots' appearance were the highlight of Age of Extinction. It was fitting that they didn't talk at all in the movie (only growled)...seeing as how the Dinobots were portrayed as an ancient band of legendary warriors—knights, to be exact—who had to earn their rightful place in Transformer lore (according to Prime) by helping Optimus confront Galvatron and his army of man-made robots in China. The fact that the Dinobots are of extraterrestrial origin is an amusing twist; since the opening scene of Age of Extinction makes it look like the Dinobots were on Earth since well, the real dinosaurs 65 million years ago. I wonder if the Dinobots will appear in Transformers 5? They can't lurk around in China forever...



All-in-all, Transformers: Age of Extinction was an epic movie. For professional movie critics, it was epic for all the wrong reasons. For me though, it was epic in the way that these giant alien robots are wreaking havoc in an increasing number of places around the world with each film. First, in Qatar for the original Transformers movie. Then, Shanghai, Diego Garcia, Jordan and Egypt for Revenge of Fallen. And then, Russia, the Middle East, Hong Kong (again) and Cambodia for Dark of the Moon (though technically, these last two locales only served as launching points for Pillars that would activate Sentinel Prime's Space Bridge and bring Cybertron to Earth in that flick). One can be sure that other countries will feel the influence of the Autobots and the wrath of Galvatron in the next installment..though one also ponders if we'll get more scenes that take place in outer space. SPOILER AHEAD: Optimus Prime did, after all, use booster rockets that came out of nowhere to depart from Earth and look for the Creators that sent Lockdown after him. We'll see what Michael Bay (if he's directing) and Ehren Kruger (if he's writing) have in store for Transformers 5. Oh, and will Tessa Yeager join a sorority in college for the next movie? If so, her stint there will be short-lived. Long live the Transformers!

Ben Affleck is the New Batman!

Personally speaking, I thought Affleck was cool as Daredevil in the 2003 comic book flick of the same name. Of course, I might be a bit biased towards this movie since the director, Mark Steven Johnson, went to the same film school at my college alma mater. Go Beach! Anyways... I also thought Affleck gave a good performance in 2010's The Town, which he wrote and directed. To all the naysayers of today's decision by Warner Bros: The man wrote, directed and starred in last year's Best Picture-winning film (Argo) as well—so let's all give Affleck a chance in Man of Steel 2, for Pete's sake. Forget Gigli.

Iron Man 3: Movie Review... So I saw the third installment (fourth if you count The Avengers) in the Tony Stark saga today, and needless to say, it was cool. The film had a nice twist (involving the main villain) towards the end of the second act of the story, and seeing as how they worked together on the 2005 flick Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, director Shane Black gave Robert Downey Jr. much more to act with (humor-wise, that is) than Jon Favreau did in Iron Man 2. Gwyneth Paltrow's Pepper Potts definitely saw more action than she did in the first two Iron Man installments, while Don Cheadle's Colonel James Rhodes got to have some awesome fight scenes with and without the Iron Patriot (formerly known as War Machine) armor on. Rebecca Hall (from 2010's The Town) played a neurobiologist who made the unfortunate mistake of being in cahoots with the Mandarin. Speaking of the Mandarin, Ben Kingsley did a great job conveying the true nature of this bad guy...which involved being a buffoon who enjoyed drinking beer and watching a soccer game on TV while two hot scantily-clad chicks were spooning in his bed. If you're a die-hard Marvel Comics fan who think that this description of the Mandarin is extremely blasphemous, then watch the movie right away. Trust me— You'll be pleasantly surprised.



Not to be trifled with in Iron Man 3 is Guy Pearce...who apparently got tired of being in such Oscar-winning dramas as The Hurt Locker and The King's Speech and decided to star in a major Hollywood summer blockbuster this time around. Pearce plays Aldrich Killian, the mastermind behind a gene-altering virus known as Extremis, who along with the Mandarin (cough-cough) decides to use this creation to get revenge on Tony Stark for shunning Killian at a party in Switzerland 13 years earlier. In case you're wondering what Extremis does, it allows folks with missing limbs (specifically injured war veterans) to grow these body parts back...plus increases their physical strength twofold. Oh, and the virus also causes an unstable chemical reaction within the subject's body to make them prone to self-combustion, and even leading them to explode. Injected into the wrong person, and you literally have a walking time-bomb; injected into the right person, and you have an antagonist who can breathe out fire like a dragon and use the heat generated by the chemical reaction to dismantle just about anything...including the armor on a certain billionaire philanthropist's robotic suit.



All-in-all, Iron Man 3 was an exceptional addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film, of course, had some minor issues...namely the fact that all of the Iron Man suits exploded like they were home-made pipe bombs or something (yes, I know— They were made in Tony Stark's house). Plus, Stark must have multiple bank accounts around the globe if he's going to nonchalantly destroy billions of dollars worth of robotic armor (every single one of them...except the suit worn by Colonel Rhodes) just to make things right with Ms. Potts at the end. To think that the Hulkbuster armor won't ever be used against you know, the Hulk, is unfortunate. But then again, if the end credits are any indication, it's that Tony Stark will return...and bring Iron Man back to life even if Stark no longer has that electromagnetic device implanted on his chest to power the suit. Oh, and who else is going to annoy Bruce Banner when The Avengers 2 comes along? Agent Coulson? He's too busy returning from the dead to star in his own TV show this fall (which would be Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). That is all.

The Place Beyond the Pines... Overlooking the obscure nature of this title (you'd have to do research online to know that it is the nickname for Schenectady, New York...where the film's story takes place in), The Place Beyond the Pines is an interesting multi-layered movie. Just when you think the flick will be about Ryan Gosling pulling off several bank heists across eastern New York a la The Town, it switches over to a plot about Bradley Cooper playing a conflicted cop trying to bring fellow corrupt police officers to justice...a la The Departed. And then, the story focuses on the sons of the two aforementioned characters—whose actions while these two kids were just infants would have significant repercussions 15 years later, when they are in high school. Actually, the father-and-son theme of this film makes it feel like a Star Wars movie...minus the science fantasy element and the fact the 6-episode nature of George Lucas' space opera is crammed into a mere 140 minutes here. (As if to illustrate my point, one character even uses the "I am your father... You know it to be true" lines by Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back to tell Gosling's son who his real father is. Oh, and Gosling's character is named Luke, FYI.) Considering that the two kids grow up to be more like Anakin instead of Luke Skywalker, you feel sorry for other people [most specifically Eva Mendes' character...who was knocked up by Luke (Gosling's character, not Mark Hamill's)] who have to deal with these adolescents. However, there is a positive nature to the movie's ending—as the boys nonetheless are either impressed by their dads' achievements and/or want to emulate them in the final scene. Though the overall message of Beyond the Pines is clear: If you decide to become a parent, try not to screw up the lives of your kids too much. Or even the children of other folks. It may literally mean life or death (for you) in the future. That is all.

Argo... For those of you who are huge fans of The Town and other well-made flicks directed and starred by Ben Affleck, check his latest film out. I finally got around to watching Argo late last week, and the biographical thriller did not disappoint. The movie is an intense depiction of the effort made by the Central Intelligence Agency and Canada to rescue six American diplomats who managed to escape the U.S. Embassy and go into hiding during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Although there is not much to say in terms of the story, since it's based on a true event and we all know how the 1980 rescue effort turned out, the excellent cast that Affleck assembled for his latest film is very worthy to discuss here.



Based on a secret mission that was declassified by former president Bill Clinton in 1997, Argo features an exceptional cast that includes Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin and Victor Garber. Cranston—who continues to show what a superb actor he is after his award-winning performance in the hit AMC TV show, Breaking Bad—does an excellent job portraying Jack O'Donnell, the CIA supervisor of Tony Mendez (played by Affleck). Even when the rest of the U.S. government is skeptical about Mendez conjuring up a fake sci-fi movie (called Argo) to get the six diplomats out of Iran, O'Donnell remains supportive of Mendez's plan...especially when Mendez ultimately decides to bring his rescue operation into fruition at the Tehran airport in the movie's climax. Even more integral to the rescue attempt is Hollywood make-up artist John Chambers (played by Goodman) and producer Lester Siegel (portrayed by Arkin)...whose influences in Tinseltown would be pivotal in convincing Iranian government officials that Mendez was indeed in Tehran to scout for a "$20 million Star Wars rip-off" (the words of Siegel) with a Canadian film crew. Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (played by Victor Garber, who made himself known in James Cameron's Titanic and had a brief role in The Town), is the man who allowed the six diplomats to go into hiding inside his embassy during the months-long ordeal—and would be fortuitous enough to initially take all the credit for the diplomats' rescue (nicknamed the Canadian Caper) after they were able to flee from Iran. During the film's end credits, you can see just how awesome a job that Argo's casting director did in selecting actors who looked just like their real-life historic counterparts. And it's great to see that Mendez got to retain the Intelligence Star medal that was secretly awarded to him by the CIA in the wake of Argo's success 32 years ago.



All-in-all, Argo is definitely Best Picture-worthy. I see the film receiving a lot of Academy Award nominations come January, with Affleck continuing to show that he is becoming just as versatile a director/actor as Clint Eastwood and Ron Howard have been for the past two decades or so. Would I say that Argo is my favorite Affleck movie over The Town, you ask? Um, naw. That 2010 bank heist flick was pretty awesome. Oh, and Happy Halloween, everyone! That is all.

Argo... Directed by Ben Affleck and produced by George Clooney, this film is based on the true story in which the United States and Canadian governments partnered to rescue six U.S. foreign service members who were able to evade the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Argo stars Affleck, Bryan Cranston (of TV's Malcolm in the Middle and Breaking Bad), John Goodman, Victor Garber (of TV's Alias as well as Titanic and The Town) and Alan Arkin (of Little Miss Sunshine).

Argo is scheduled to be released in theaters nationwide on October 12.

GREEN LANTERN... I watched the movie yesterday, and on a pure entertainment level, Green Lantern was pretty enjoyable. Ryan Reynolds did an amusing job as Hal Jordan and his green-suited alter-ego, even though I heard that the way the character is portrayed in the comic book (since I never read one issue of it) isn’t as sarcastic as Reynolds made the superhero out to be. Other characters such as Sinestro (played by Mark Strong) and Parallax were your standard comic book figureheads (Yes, I just found out that Sinestro is in fact, THE main villain in the Green Lantern universe. Hence that scene during the end credits of the movie)...obviously in the same category as the Silver Surfer and the giant dusty incarnation of Galactus in The Fantastic Four 2 than Magneto in X-Men: First Class, or the Joker in The Dark Knight. (NO recent comic book villain can compare with the Clown Prince of Crime in The Dark Knight...)



In regards to the other human characters in the movie, Blake Lively was gorgeous as Hal’s main squeeze Carol Ferris...though after watching the bank robbery thriller The Town (which I liked) last year, it was interesting to see Lively without that Boston accent or the trashed-out, sexy but drugged-out appearance she had in the 2010 film. Green Lantern’s make-up team did a good job of making Peter Sarsgaard look like a total loser as Hal’s human foe Hector Hammond, while Tim Robbins (who I last saw in Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds 6 years ago) played Senator Hammond, Hector’s disapproving dad. In terms of special effects, the visual look of Green Lantern was very similar in tone to that of The Fantastic Four. It appeared decent on the big screen, though I’m sure the FX will translate a lot better on the small screen when the DVD comes out. Or was it vice versa?



So all-in-all, Green Lantern was your typical but fun summer fare. Just to bring up some tidbits from the film that aren’t movie-related, I like how the film actually showed the futuristic helmets that F-35 fighter pilots wear. I like how the International Space Station made a quick cameo in Green Lantern...and so did the now-cancelled Ares V rocket that NASA was gonna use to send astronauts back to the Moon. Yes, I was gonna use this as a way to shamelessly plug in my other page, The Human Spaceflight Blog. Visit it when you have time, thanks.

83rd ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS... It was worth watching the Oscar telecast in its entirety this year—obviously for the fact that all the movies and actors/actresses I rooted for won in their respective categories tonight. I rooted for Christian Bale to win Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter (this oughta’ earn The Dark Knight Rises an extra $75 million at the box office next year...for a total domestic gross of $675 million), hoped that Natalie Portman took home the Best Actress trophy for Black Swan (no, I never saw that movie. All hail Queen Amidala though), was expecting Inception to win for Best Visual FX (though it would’ve been a good consolation prize if Iron Man 2 won instead) and wasn’t surprised that The King’s Speech became the Best Picture of 2010. That was a great flick... Very inspirational.



I’m still annoyed that Revenge of the Sith wasn’t nominated for Best Visual FX in 2006, Transformers wasn’t nominated for the same award in 2008 and The Dark Knight wasn’t nominated for Best Picture in 2009, but at least the Academy got it right this time around... (Along with handing the late Heath Ledger the Best Supporting Actor trophy in 2009 for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight, and crowning The Hurt Locker as Best Picture last year.)



By the way, I didn’t know Jeremy Renner got a Best Supporting Actor nomination for last year's bank heist movie, The Town. That movie was awesome. That is all.

TODAY, Tron: Legacy finally comes out in movie theaters everywhere (in the U.S., that is). Of course, I'm probably not gonna watch it till this Sunday. What I will do today, however, is finish buying Christmas gifts and The Town on DVD. That film is awesome. That is all.

THE TOWN... I saw the Ben Affleck-directed film yesterday, and much like other bank heist flicks such as Inside Man, The Bank Job and even Takers, I thought it was pretty entertaining. I always think it’s cool to see on-screen robbers wearing crazy masks and disguises (such as the Joker’s goons wearing clown masks during that bank robbery at the beginning of The Dark Knight, and the late Patrick Swayze and Co. dressed up as the Ex-Presidents in the 1991 movie, Point Break) as they pull off capers against armored trucks and city banks.



I’m trying to decide which disguise was better: The grim reaper masks Ben Affleck and his gang wore in the opening scene of The Town, or those nun outfits they sport later on in the movie. Speaking of the nun scene, the funniest moment in the film was Affleck and his posse ditching one getaway vehicle to escape in another (after their armored truck robbery goes awry)...only to realize they parked right next to the squad car of a lone Boston police officer. Seeing as how he was the only cop in the area, and he was going up against four dudes dressed as old religious women armed with automatic rifles, it was understandable that this officer would literally look away as Affleck and his gang made their final escape.



If there’s one gripe I had about The Town, it’s that for some odd reason it seemed like the ending to the movie felt a little "safe". On one hand, Affleck’s character is obviously portrayed as someone to sympathize with, despite being an anti-hero and all, but there was something about that final scene in Florida that seemed a little too "Hollywood happy ending-ish" (yes I made up this term) to me. Then again, it might have actually been a cliché for Affleck to be gunned down by the FBI just like the rest of his posse did in the finale. It was cool to see Clive Owen leave that bank unscathed in Inside Man, so in hindsight, there’s absolutely nothing wrong to see Affleck leave the crime-ridden streets of Charlestown to start a new life in the middle of a Florida swamp. It’s not like he was able to get the girl at the end, after all...



I also saw the horror film Devil last night. I thought it was okay. My opinion would probably be more favorable if not for the stigma created by the "Story by M. Knight Shyamalan" credit at the beginning of the movie. Oh well. One of my co-workers mentioned a few months ago that the twist in Devil was that it was a creature terrorizing those five folks in that elevator, as opposed to one of those folks being the culprit themselves. He was wrong. I had the sudden urge to watch the TV show Supernatural (its 6th season premieres on the CW Network this Friday!) after the demon finally revealed itself in the movie’s climax. If Sam or Dean Winchester was on that elevator, the devil wouldn’t stand a chance. Then again, considering what happened in Supernatural's Season 5 finale last May, maybe not. That is all.