Terminally Incoherent

I must admit that I’m a huge fan of the Hitman series. I loved all of the games, but you probably know that because I reviewed at least one of them on this very blog. When I heard that the movie was being made, I knew it was going to be bad. But I also knew I will have to watch it out of the love for the series.

As expected, the story from the game was scrapped completely and re-written from scratch. The only elements that remained intact were cosmetic. So the main character is still known only as 47, he is still bold, has a bar code tattoo on the back of his head, and wears his black suit, and a red tie. He also gets his contracts via laptop emblazoned with the trademark lily logo just like in the games. There are also couple of shots that tried to mimic the 3rd person perspective view from the game.That’s about it. Everything else was changed.

Agent 47 is no longer a genetically engineered clone, but an orphan trained from a very early age by the “Organization” which is no longer the ICA we know from the games. No recurring characters such as the unfortunate Agent Smith, or Diana Burnwood. In fact I thought Diana will be the female lead in this movie, but instead we got a bitchy, foul mouthed prostitute who just can’t seem to keep her clothes on and keeps interfering,
and getting in the way.

They also failed to capitalize on some of the very memorable locations and settings from the game. Some of my favorite were the Hell/Heaven Masquerade club, the Opera House, The Casino and the Mardi Grass. This was a perfect movie to show our hero traveling all over the world trying to find clues by performing strategic hits in various exotic locations. Instead, the whole move takes place in Russia and our locales are: gray and dirty Moscow Streets, Moscow train station, rural Russian back roads, and a Russian Orthodox temple. Sort of bland and unimpressive for what it could have been.

I admit, the whole super-human clone bit was always a bit cheesy so I can see how someone could want to remove it. It worked in the games, but perhaps it would not work on the big screen. But then again, if you are making adaptation of a successful franchise why mess around with the plot? It’s not like someone will accuse you of bad writing because you were simply faithful to the original. You can still create dynamic dialog, and memorable characters while working within the framework of the original plot. But this is Hollywood, and the temptation to remake the story to cater to the lowest common denominator seems to be irresistible.

The usual formula is to take a successful property and turn it into a blockbuster action flick with lots of shooting, explosions and mandatory gratuitous nudity without regards for the theme, tone, and mood of the original.

The Hitman movie is precisely that - it is Agent 47 meets Mission Impossible. Over the top action, extensive slow motion shoot-out scenes with high body count, and prolonged martial arts sequences are basically the “meat” of the movie. Very little is left from the original game play experience which awarded stealth, subtlety and blending into the background. In the beginning we can see him perform a couple of stealth kills, but that ends abruptly when the tables are turned and our hero is exposed. From from that moment, till the and his primary modus operandi seems to be full frontal charge. Scene after scene we see him burst into one place or another, whip out his guns and then keep shooting until no one is left alive.

The portrayal of Agent 47 is not true to the original either. In the games the protagonist was cold, detached, cynical unflinching and extremely professional. He seemed world weary, and while capable of good and compassion he never let these things interfere with his job, or compromise his safety. Timothy Olyphant’s take on this character comes close to the mark, but misses by a considerable margin. He sort of got the look, and some of the mannerisms - and sometimes he is able to pull off the classic 47 “no bullshit, just business” demeanor. Unfortunately most of the time his warm and somewhat youthful and energetic personality shines through. In fact, 47 seems to be written to reflect that - as sort of an innocent, misunderstood and socially maladjusted personality. He is actually sort of a nerd incapable of normal social interactions and very uncomfortable around women. In the very first scene we see him, he gets hit on by some ditzy blond who tells him he should not put ice in whiskey, and he just runs away like a school boy.

While the games never really show 47 being intimate with a woman it can be somewhat justified. The only time we see our hero is during or between missions. And unlike James Bond and other action heroes modeled after him, 47 doesn’t mix business with pleasure. When he is on a job, he has no time to fuck around (both in literal, and figurative sense of the word). In the movie however any sexual advances from the opposite sex seem to make him very uncomfortable, and he reacts very awkwardly every time. His overall attitude towards sexuality sort of reminds me of the uneasiness with which Dexter approaches the same topic. I do not agree with this interpretation though. I don’t think the real 47 would ever have to resort to using a sedative to “escape” from under a half naked chick desperately trying to undress him. I have no clue what the point of that scene was but my brother agreed that it made the protagonist look totally gay.

If I was to describe the Hitman movie in one sentence, I would say it is a light hearted action flick about awkward, sexually ambiguous, 40 year old virgin killing machine with a heart of gold. Or in other words, complete departure from the source and a total waste of time. This just supports my theory, that movies based on video games totally suck. I have yet to find a single exception to this rule.

On Monday I wrote about the horrible, brain damaging experience that was the new Indiana Jones movie. In the comments section Teague asked me what was the last good movie that I saw. Well, I decided that I will write about that movie today.

After watching Indy battle Roswell aliens on Saturday, I sort of needed to do something to counteract this experience. Sort of like rinsing my brain from the dreadful mental muck spewed by all recent George Lucas productions. I picked Memento because I had never heard a bad thing about this movie. Everyone kept talking about it in superlatives. When I took Psychology back as an undergrad my professor just couldn’t shut up about it during the lectures on memory and amnesia. Ever since then this movie was on my “to watch” lists.

This Sunday I really needed to watch something intelligent, and intriguing - anything to stop the recurring fantasy of me punching George Lucas in the face for making me waste $10 bucks on one of the worst movies of this year. It worked, Memento did not disappoint me and it was a hell of a ride.

The film is unique in almost every aspect - starting from the idea (a man anterograde amnesia hunts the killer of his wife seeking revenge), to the composition and story telling methods. We experience the movie very similar to the way Leonard (out protagonist) lives his life: few minutes at a time. Due to his condition, he cannot form new memories. He promptly forgets everything he sees and hears after it leaves his short term memory which usually only takes few minutes. We experience the movie in the same way. Each scene starts when Leonard just forgot what was going on, and ends at the point where he is about to forget everything again. Here is a twist though - we watch the events unfold in reverse chronological order and running in two parallel timeliness which merge at some point in the movie.

This may sound confusing, and initially it is. Things happen to our hero, and we don’t know why (and neither does he) but with each scene we get more information. And since most of us can form long term memories, we can always stay one step ahead of Leonard and put together all the pieces of the puzzle until we have a clear picture of what has transpired.

Since Leonard can’t do that, he has developed a system of notes, and reminders for himself. His method is so simple it is almost brilliant. He always caries a small Polaroid camera with him and snaps pictures of things he wants to “remember”. For example, how his new car looks, the motel where he is staying, the people he met recently. On the little white strips he writes relevant info - like “my car”, “my motel” or given person’s name and phone number. On the back he scribbles notes: like “don’t trust this person” or “this person will help you” and etc. Very ingenious.

Some facts are too important to trust to pictures. He tattoos them directly onto his body - some in reversed letters so that he can read them in the mirror. These facts include the fateful line “John G. Raped and Murdered my Wife”.

What initially bothered me was the fact that while Leonard would forget recent events so easily, but he had this intricate system in place. How did he remember to take notes - or how to take them? I did some research in this direction and apparently there are two types of memories we form - episodic and semantic. Episodic memories are snapshots of events, while semantic memories are more procedural and instinctive (like riding a bike for example) or factual (water is wet, sun is bright, etc…). The theory is that most episodic memories get translated to semantic memories over time - so you actually forget the exact details of the event, but you remember the “story” the way you tell it to people as sort of a monologue. But they also develop via repetition and training. People with anterograde amnesia seem to have more problems with forming episodic memories rather than semantic ones. Leonard mentioned at several points in the movie that he is able to learn by repetition and routine - so it is possible that his notes system, and the instincts he used to cope with his condition developed over time.

His amnesia is tragic, but also strangely liberating. Leonard never gets embarrassed, has no regrets and no remorse. He doesn’t have to live with his choices - only with their potential consequences. And he has a very strong drive - his quest for revenge, is what keeps him going, and keeps him motivated. All of these factors make him a very intense and memorable character, and Guy Pierce does an incredible job portraying him on the screen.

Memento raises interesting questions about the very nature of memory. At some point someone questions Leonard’s ability to collect and process facts for his investigation based on his condition:

Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They’re just an interpretation, they’re not a record, and they’re irrelevant if you have the facts.

Are Leonard last memories real? Does his story actually check out, or has he successfully deceived himself and conveniently forgot important details of his life? The ending, or rather the beginning of the story is rather ambiguous and puts a big question mark above Leonard’s whole quest. All the facts about Leonard’s we took for granted throughout the movie are questioned.

What would you do if you were Leonard in these last scenes of the movie? Would you make the same choice he did? And what do you think of Gamme’s version of the story? Do you think what he said about Leonard’s wife it was true?

If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend it. It is highly entertaining, suspenseful and masterfully written, acted out and produced. And it only shows that what we talked about in The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull thread is true: good stories do not need any special effects or big budgets. These things are really just cosmetic stuff. But if you make them the focus of your project, you usually lose sight of what is the most important: the story and the characters.

I propose a new rule: George Lucas is no longer allowed to write or direct any movies, and any creative input he has on any production he is funding needs to be approved by someone who is not senile.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Suck is a new low for the series. If you thought that after the next installment of the series could not possibly be worse than The Temple of Doom, oh boy, you are in for a ride brother. George Lucas outdid himself this time, and managed to make a movie that is not only silly, improbable, over the top, and infantile but also disjointed and incoherent.

At least in the Star Wars prequels he made some small attempts to create some sort of a plot continuity - with little success of course, but he tried. In retrospect perhaps, what little continuity was there in these three horrible movies that raped my childhood, were influenced by the natural constraints of making a prequel. The story had to lead to a logical conclusion that would set up the events we knew from the original trilogy. And the Star Wars universe was already fairly well fleshed out and established so he had only so much wiggle room.

In Indiana Jones all the common sense and continuity concerns don’t seem to exist. I really think that the way Lucas writes movies these days is by jotting down notes for random special effects sequences. Once he has these set pieces, chase scenes, explosions and stunts done, he writes bunch of segways that loosely connect them.

But don’t take my word for it. I will tell you some of the components that create the swirling vortex of suck that is The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and you can tell me whether or not it is stupid and infantile. And no, these are not spoilers. I’m not going to reveal how these elements are worked into the story, or what is their significance. I will just list them here. I don’t think I will reveal any plot twists by doing this because to have a twist, first you need to have a plot and as we established this movie has none.

But if you really paranoid about spoilers, just skip the list and go to the end of the post.

The following elements can be found in this movie:

1. CGI prairie dogs that look as if they are about to break into a song
2. Silly Russian accents
3. Lady Galadriel in a ridiculous wig:

   

4. Experimental Jet engine
5. Nuclear explosion
6. Indiana Jones surviving nuclear explosion by hiding in a refrigerator
7. The Jannitor From Scrubs
8. This guy:

   

9. Roswell UFO crash conspiracy
10. Alien corpse
11. “Luke, I am your father” scene
12. A car chase in a warehouse
13. The Ark of Covenant
14. A motorcycle chase in a library
15. Quicksands:

    

16. Indy is still afraid of snakes
17. A car chase in the jungle
18. Sword fighting while standing on two speeding jeeps parallel to each other
19. CGI Monkeys beat up bad guys
20. CGI killer ants eat the bad guys
21. Indy beats up guys who are like 10 times younger and 10 times bigger than him:

    

22. Driving off a cliff onto a tree which then gently lowers the car to the ground and then snaps back and kills some bad guys
23. Mind reading
24. El Dorado
25. Savages with blow darts
26. Savages with slings
27. Savages with spears:

    

28. A greedy guy stays behind to collect treasure as everything collapses around him
29. Oh no, this shrine is really a flying saucer
30. Actually these are not space aliens, they are extra-planar aliens
31. Hi, I know I was insane, and incoherent for all the movie but I just got better and I’m fine now
32. Galadriel gets “exactly what she was asking for” and it ain’t pretty
33. Incredibly cheesy happy ending

Now tell me, do you think all these things should be put in a single movie? I didn’t even tell you about the atrocious, crippled plot - but just look at the above, and tell me if there is any possible way to write a coherent, engaging and intelligent story that ties all these components together in a meaningful way?

The script of this movie has as much finesse, and subtlety as the script to Scary Movie 4. Bad film making doesn’t even cut it. If I was Steven Spielberg I would request that my name was removed from the credits of this piece of shit, and then deny up and down that I had any involvement with it.

In the end, I kinda feel bad for poor Harrison Ford. This was supposed to be his big comeback into the action movie genre. This was supposed to be a return to one of his most memorable characters (other than Han Solo of course). But instead a great comeback, he gets thrown into this horribly embarrassing mess of contradicting plot elements, paper thin characters and crazy space alien bullshit.

I really wasn’t expecting much from this movie. I know George Lucas is going through some weird stage where he insists on completely destroying all the good movies he made in the past. But I kinda hoped that perhaps Steven Spielberg and the other 4 people on the writing team will inject some sanity and common sense to this project. I was mistaken. This is possibly worst movie George Lucas has written so far.

My former GM used to give us one rule when it came to creating our Ice Space Master characters - no blinkers (teleporting psionics). We all agreed that this was a wise rule. While tempting, this psionic power was bound bound to create incredibly unbalanced game play. Always being able to go around GM imposed barriers, and to get out of a combat situation on turn 2 would mean that each adventure would have to be specially tailored to account for the presence of the jumper on the team. You would either neutralize the impact of teleportation or to make it necessary to the mission success. Which in turn translates into the blinker player having all the fun while the rest of the company is just tagging along acting as a live shield or a distraction.

Auto teleportation at will is a hell of a power, and it is actually very difficult to use both in RPG games, as well as in fiction. They either steal the show, or remain marginalized to avoid logical questions of the type “why didn’t they just ‘port there?”

Jumper is a movie about precisely that annoying character archetype - the teleporting hero. Or heroes actually, because there is more than one in this film. The mechanic is pretty standard - at least as far as this type of power goes. You can only teleport to somewhere you have been before - pictures or videos don’t work. The pesky detail of accidentally ‘porting into solid matter is totally ignored here. Instead we get an interesting concept called a “jump scar”. Apparently each jumper leaves a temporary trace after each teleportation which reveals information about where he went to. This trace can be followed by another jumper leading to many jump-chases throughout the movie. It’s a nice limiting factor that can be used to keep a jumper in check (ie. he can’t get away from certain situations), so I’ll bite.

Oh, and you need to be somewhat conscious and be able to think clearly to actually use the power. So for example, if someone zaps you with electricity you probably won’t be able to jump. I don’t know if it’s due to electromagnetic interference on your brain or just because it’s hard to concentrate. But I imagine that fast acting toxin or odorless gass of some sort would have a similar effect - or even better. It would knock out the jumper right there. Here however they are hell-bent on doing the “jumpers haet being zapped” bit to death.

This peculiar power of teleportation is rare but not uncommon in-born trait. It doesn’t seem to be hereditary, though it might be a product of some recessive gene combination that can skip generations. They do not explain how it works so this is all me guessing. It also is not new. The movie claims people could do this since the dark ages or even before that. At any given time, you will have a dozen of them on the planet - maybe less.

It also seems that their population is kept low by presence of a mysterious group called Paladins. The name is kinda lame, but it actually fits in a way. It is briefly explained to us that these guys are religious zealots who have been exterminating jumpers throughout the ages. But these guys seem neither very religious, nor very effective. They never quote any scripture, use no religious symbols and kill in a very professional, business-like manner completely devoid of ritualism or justification. You’d figure that zealots would make up some religious excuse for breaking “thou shall not kill” commandment. For example inquisition claimed that by burning witches and heretics they were purifying and thus saving their soul from damnation. But the paladins in Jumper kill in cold blood, and in fact seem to enjoy it.

In other words they act exactly like the paladins from your average D&D campaign. The religious aspect of their profession exists only in their class description but never has any significance to the plot or the story. They are really just over the top fighters who think they are better than everyone else. So yes, the shoe fits.

Did I mention that they pick the worst possible way to combat jumpers? How would you kill someone who can teleport away seconds after he spots you? I know how I would do it. With a sniper rifle from a long distance. If he doesn’t know the bullet is coming, he can’t jump away. Case closed.

Alternatively if you want to be low profile, surprise stabbing in a crowded area (preferably with a poisoned blade) would probably be just as effective. You just need to send an operative who cannot be identified by the target. In both cases the key to success is the element of surprise. The moment a jumper knows you are coming after him you are at a disadvantage because he moves much faster than you.

Paladins however prefer full frontal attack using electric rods as their primary weapon of choice. These weapons (I guess reminiscent of a standard issue palladin mace?) double up as heavy duty taser with a thick, sturdy cable and claw like appendage that can be used to pin the victim down to a surface. As you can imagine, these things are very distinctive close range weapons and not very effective at that. You really need to hit a jumper with 3 or 4 of these to really immobilize him. Only after the victim is subdued using these bizarre contraptions the paladins pull out a real weapon (a knife) and actually kill. It’s all overly dramatic but really ineffective.

I guess the whole point of this movie was to as a question: what would you do if you had the power to transport yourself anywhere in a blink of an eye? How would you use it? Would you use it for good, for evil, or for profit? What kind of person would it make you. The answer is kinda disappointing though.

David, the protagonist is shallow, incredibly selfish and spoiled brat. The brief glimpse of his life before he discovered his power lasts maybe 5 minutes. In that time we are told (but not shown) his mother left, and father was never there for him. Only that the father doesn’t seem to be a bad guy at all. He seems genuinely concerned (and rightly pissed off) when David skips dinner and comes home late at night, soaking wet. Also, later on he stands up to the Paladins and refuses to give them any information on his son. We really have no reason to dislike him. He might have a drinking problem (more than once he is shown with a bottle) but it’s really never explained in detail. We just know that David seems to dislike his old man. Maybe it’s some silly, teenage rebellion thing. Or maybe he blames him for the fact his mother left?

Initially our hero is not very popular and tends to get bullied around in the schoolyard. But this is only a momentary shortcoming. 5 minutes into the movie he discovers his power, then immediately runs away from home. He leaves his father without ever saying goodbye, he drops out of school and decides to knock over a bank. Yup, the first thing David does with his power is to steal as much money as he can actually physically fit in his small hotel apartment. Sigh…

Flash forward few years and David grows up to be a total douche bag Anakin Skywalker Hayden Christensen who looks nothing like his younger version played by Max Thieriot. By this time he lives like a king in a gigantic apartment with a walk in closet filled with cash and stolen goods. He is pretty much the epitome of a spoiled, rich playboy completely bored with life. In the morning he goes surfing in Fiji, eats his lunch sitting on top of the Sphinx in Egypt, and in the evening he goes bar hopping in London.

His life is really portrayed as if it was something glamorous - something wonderful. David raves about how awesome his life is in the voice over scenes, and he is shown jumping all over the place and having a blast. He seems very happy and content with where he is right now. But when you step back and think about this just for a second - applying real world logic to his situation you will see his life is absolutely empty and meaningless. He is a sad, lonely little man who lives alone in a huge apartment. He doesn’t seem to have any friends, he broke the contact with his family and his former school mates. He has no girlfriend, and no education and real goals in life. Aside from making a smalltalk with the receptionist/security guy in his building, and having some meaningless one night stand in London he lives a totally solitary life. No relationships, no responsibilities, no commitments. It is really hard to like his guy. He is shallow and uninteresting.

Naturally, as David is splurging around, spending stolen money and jumping in and out of public places his antics catch the eye of the Paladins. It doesn’t take them long to figure out who knocked over that first bank, and they follow the leads straight to his upscale apartment. The head paladin Roland (aka Mace Windu aka. Samuel L. Jackson) pays him a visit and gives him a royal ass-kicking. He also straight out tells David that he cannot hide - that his people will track him down. Also that he ain’t gonna tolerate any more snakes on this motherfucking plane.

I don’t believe Jackson was actually given any acting direction. I think they just bleached his hair white, put him on the set and said “do what you usually do”. Do Mace Windu! Do Snakes on the Plane! Do the tough guy routine!

Roland really has no motivations other than chasing and killing jumpers. No life, family, dreams aspirations. He doesn’t even chit-chat with his fellow paladins. He just walks on the screen, strikes a cool pose and barks orders or kicks ass. We really don’t know what makes him tick - he is just a generic bad-ass supposed to chase the protagonist for no reason.

Keep in mind our hero barely escapes from this encounter. It was a close call, and was nearly killed. He now knows that there is an organized group out there devoted to hunting him down. They have connections, resources and they specialize in dealing with jumpers. He knows he needs to stay low for a while - preferably away from major cities, where they can’t easily track him down. So what does he do? He decides to go back to his home town and look up Millie (Rachel Bilson) he girl he had crush on back in high school. Wow! Can you say bad timing? Some white haired dude with an electric mace just told you he will track you down and do anything necessary to kill you, and you lead him straight to the people you care about? Nice move David! Nice move!

Of course in the process of hooking up with his girl, he runs into the bully who used to kick his ass in school. A fight ensues and David exacts his revenge on the bully by jumping his former tormentor straight into the bank vault from which he stole all the money few years ago. The same bank that led paladins to his doorstep. WTF?

At this point I was ready to bang my head against the wall. Is he really that dumb or just suicidal? He takes a guy who knows his real name, his real address, names of all the people he ever cared about, and tons of other useful info and essentially hands him to the paladins. Hey Roland, here is a guy who knows everything there is to know about me. He also hates my guts. Why don’t you interrogate him! David is an idiot.

But that’s not all. His next move is to impress Millie and make her fall in love with him. But since he has no personality to speak off he does it by spending money. He whisks the girl away from her small town life, and takes her on a lavish, very high profile trip to Rome. Naturally they go by plane, using David’s real passport which naturally is immediately detected by the connected, and well informed paladins.

Hyden Christiansen and Rachel Bilson are actually great match - they both seem to have acting ability equivalent to that of a wooden stool. Their romance has no spark, and no chemistry. None! It doesn’t even seem like they like each other - they seem to be perpetually stuck on the “very awkward bad first date conversation” stage.

But then again, to have that spark on the screen kinda need characters with personalities. These two have none. Millie’s defining character angle is that she always dreamed about traveling, but never got to do it. Other than that, she is just a generic girl next door type, with no flaws, quirks or unique personality traits whatsoever.

The most interesting character in the whole file is probably Griffin (Jamie Bell) - the other more experienced, world weary, head strong and slightly unhinged jumper. He lives in a cave, he hunts paladins and he has a bone to pick with Roland (Samuel L. Jackson). He almost seems out of place in this movie populated by generic and and uninteresting personalities. He seems to have been deeply wounded in the past, and is currently driven by his need for revenge, his paranoia and survival instincts. He is a hunted man who has been on the run for way to long, and is fighting back knowing he can never win. It seems that Roland went after Griffin’s family and friends while trying to capture him and as result Griffin tries not to develop any close ties to anyone or anything. He probably also resents himself for allowing this to happen.

But once again, his characterization lacks subtlety. What could be and interesting, layered and complicated personality ends up being marginalized, and reduced to bare bone basics. As the movie progresses they continue glossing over his past, and hand waving away every juicy detail of his personality. Instead crack up the crazy by few notches every time he comes on the screen. We end up with him turning into a psychotic, uncooperative, borderline homicidal maniac that becomes so unstable that David is forced to fight him. Sigh…

Still, he is the only character in this whole fucking movie who has actual personality and some interesting past experiences that are not generic, small town cookie cutter crap.

As with most Holywood movies, Jumper has a silly, almost forced happy ending. Both Griffin and Roland get taken out of the picture and suffer a fate unknown. David and Millie live happily ever after, enjoying the care free life in a way only an incredibly rich and incredibly reckless jumper could afford. Paladins step off for a little while but still remain a threat (lying groundwork for the sequel naturally). It is a triumph of the generic - and a celebration of a shallow, and incredibly empty existence of an under-educated petty thief with a cool special power.

David, learns absolutely nothing. The overall message of this movie seems to be that if you are gutsy and you try hard enough, you can run away from everything - your responsibility, your stupid mistakes, your problems, your failures. Responsibility is for chumps - true heroes live above and beyond it.

Jumper is throughly a disappointing movie. If you take away the special effects and the plot is so thin it barely holds together. The teleportation idea is used merely as an excuse to do flashy and dynamic chase and combat scenes. It’s a blur of pretty sceneries, explosions and contrived, badly written dialog…

Millie: “So what do you do now?”
David: “I’m in… Um… Banking….”
Millie: “Banking? Didn’t you flunk algebra?”
David: “Uh.. Oh… Um… No! Of course not!”

Groan! This is just embarrassing. But you know what is even worse? If I took the overall plot of this movie (paladins vs. jumpers) and decided to turn it into a GURPS campaign for 2-3 players, we would have a story that would have been like 5 times better and more involved - despite still being a crazy, action driven romp.

If you are planning to see this movie, please check your logical thinking skills at the door. You won’t need them, and they will actually interfere with your enjoyment of the movie. Oh, and if you ever fantasized about being able to jump the way David does, try to suppress these memories. Because in most cases your teleporting superhero persona you made up back when you were 7 years old was already much smarter, more careful and more efficient at using this power than David.

The first time we did this it was kinda fun, so I decided to do it again. Below you will find an image which contains snapshots from 25 different movies and/or TV shows. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to identify all of them.

Some of these should be really, really easy to identify while other might be really obscure. There are one or two images that are actually a little bit tricky. Can you get all of them?