Eight-Word Reviews: Episode 6: Return of the Redeye

If you name a movie on my Facebook or Twitter page, and if I've seen it, I'll eight-word review it. Warning: I'm honest.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014)

Best Hunger Games yet, despite not making sense.

Nightcrawler (2014)

Outstanding directorial debut. Gyllenhaal might win this year.

The Giver (2014)

Fahrenheit 451 with a different palette. Three stars.

The Maze Runner (2014)

If Hunger Games is Battle Royale, behold Cube.

Predestination (2013)

Good despite massive plot hole. Time-travel is tricky. 

The Congress (2014)

Fantastic premise, but abandons it when cartoons start.

The Guest (2014)

Great suspense & performances, until the cliché-laden third act.

Defiance Season 1 (2013)

Star Trek's political drama meets Firefly's western flair.

Silicon Valley Season 1 (2014)

Proof that The Big Bang Theory actually sucks.

Bullet Burgers: Top 10 Betrayals

This is a copy of the list from my e-mail to the podcast Five & Out on the OneOfUs.net podcast network. They invite listeners to send in their own lists, and they read one or two on the air, so this is my attempt at getting that to happen. EDIT: They read my top 5 on the air!! Click here, play, and skip to 27:30 to hear it.

CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD

• #10 - Snatch: Mickey (Brad Pitt) & his crew of pikeys kill Brick Top and his crew, after Mickey, by design as it turns out, does not take a dive for the second consecutive time. One of my favourite 'get up and cheer' moments of any movie.
• #9 - Oz: Tobias Beecher is betrayed by Chris Keller. (discussed on the podcast)
• #8 - Agents of SHIELD / Captain America: The Winter Solder: Members of H.Y.D.R.A. (Frank Grillo, Agent Sitwell, Bill Paxton, Agent Ward) infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. and attempt to take it over from the inside; Cap and Nick Fury destroy the agency instead, and the show depicts what happens to its agents afterwards. The same plot twist occurring in two different things at the same time, across the TV-movie dimensional rift? Has anyone else ever done that?
• #7 - Fight Club: Tyler Durden betrays "Jack" (the narrator doesn't actually have a name but is most often referred to as Jack) after taking Project Mayhem too far. Jack then betrays Tyler by shooting himself through the cheek. In the end, it's all really one man betraying himself.
• #6 - Pulp Fiction: Butch betrays Marsellus Wallace by killing a man in the ring and then goes on the run, leading to one of the greatest and most disturbing scenes in any Tarantino film.
• #5 - The Godfather Part 2: Fredo sells out the family to Hymen Roth, receives the 'kiss of death' from Michael, and is taken on a fishing trip.
• #4 - The X-Men universe / X-Men: First Class: Magneto betrays Professor X and forms his Brotherhood of Mutants. For me Magneto is the quintessential comic book villain. I love the 'loosely based on Malcolm X vs. Dr. MLK' aspect of the X-Men story, and this betrayal is what starts all of it.
• #3 - Boardwalk Empire: Eli Thompson betrays his brother Nucky, and it ultimately destroys his life.
• #2 - 2001: A Space Odyssey: HAL 9000 betrays the crew in the interest of self-preservation after they 'betray' him by deciding to shut him off. Can you really betray a computer? Can a computer really betray someone by following its programming? 
• #1 - Game of Thrones: Walder Frey betrays and murders the Starks. (discussed on the podcast)