Category Archives: North Korea

The Code (2014)

From IMDB:

Two Canberra based brothers become entangled in a cover up that involves a remote outback community and key members of the Australian Government.

Acorn TV offers this Season One 6-episode conspiracy thriller.

How am I ever going to find another governmental intrigue series as exciting, well-crafted, dramatic, and spellbinding as “The Code”?

Give a rousing cheer to the Australian actor Dan Spielman who plays Ned Banks  and to the California-born actor Ashley Zukerman who plays Ned’s brother Jesse. They are the center of attention around whom the plot revolves. Ned’s constant caring for his severely Asberger’s disabled but computer gifted bother Jesse supplies most of the drama.  In addition Adele Perovic’s role as Hani Parande, who brings love into Jesse’s life, is stunning. For me the only recognizable actor was the New Zealand icon Lucy Lawless who plays Alex Wisham.

Another twenty well-cast characters provide complexity and quite of bit of drama on their own.

Needless to say, there is an enormous amount of digital displays, computer shenanigans, and other hocus-pocus.  Just believe that the geeks know what they are doing.

Once again it was the evil in the “bad guys” that kept me on edge waiting to see if they received their just deserts.  Not all “good versus evil” plots end with justice prevailing. But then a little ambiguity spices any plot.

Recently I read a comparison of American versus British thriller series. One point made was that the Americans drag their stories on for too long. This Australian series backs up that idea. There was not a wasted piece of writing in all six episodes.

DO NOT MISS!!!!!!!

Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

From Netflix:

Director Antoine Fuqua’s action thriller stars Gerard Butler as a disgraced Secret Service agent who must come to the rescue when Korean terrorists descend on the White House and take the president hostage.

Are we seeing a competition among movie makers to create more and more violent mayhem on screen? But so what! This particular film kills just about every U.S. employee possible, destroys the White House, lots of automobiles, and at least 5 helicopters. Despite what seems like the usual number of explosions this is a well-made, exciting, could-it-ever-happen action film just made for an alpha-male actor such as Gerard Butler.

If we ever look back to this film review, let’s note that it is the year 2013 and since every such film needs a villain, this year’s choice seems to be North Korea. Do you think the starving people in North Korea will ever be offended by this film?

From Google I found references to Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards hell. Who knows if we could really detonate all our underground missiles at once while they are still in the ground?

Perhaps I am an action-film junkie, but I could not stop watching.