THE MAZE RUNNER (2014)

A teenage dude wakes up in a darkened freight elevator that's going up.  He has no memory of his past or where he is.  He can't even remember his name.  Finally, the elevator stops and he finds himself is a large field.  The field is surrounded by massive stone walls hundreds of feet high.  But he's not alone, there are other teenage boys.  Some of them have been there for years and they have developed a small society in order to prevent chaos.  As the boy is given a tour, he learns that the walls are part of a giant maze.  A giant maze that they are inside of and that changes each night.  The main door to the maze opens each morning and closes each night.  Then at night creatures called the Grievers are released and you don't want to be inside when that happens.

Going into THE MAZE RUNNER, I knew absolutely nothing about the story and I ended up liking it quite a bit.  So much so that I started reading the book and even though I'm only halfway through it I like it much more than the movie.  That said, the film is still an entertaining ride and hopefully the start of an awesome series.  Likable main characters, the maze itself was cool, the Grievers were awesome, good pace, nice special effects, interesting story that leaves you longing for more.  All in all THE MAZE RUNNER is a solid movie.  Recommended.

Part 2 - Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)
Part 3 - Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018)

THE OMEGA MAN (1971)

Los Angeles 1977.  Two years ago, biological warfare between China and Russia created a "plague" that killed most of the earth's population.  Now the only thing that's left is a pack of monk robe wearing nocturnal albino-mutant dorks (The Family) and Charlton Heston.  The albino nerds hate modern technology and education, since they see it as the reason for the humans downfall, so they spend their nights rummaging around a deserted Los Angeles burning books and destroying stuff.  Charlton, on the other hand, seems to be about half insane and spends his time searching for The Family's hideout, talking to himself and rubbing his flabby chest.  That is until one day when Charlton sees another human...or did he?

The idea for THE OMEGA MAN is great and full of endless potential and who knows maybe back in 1971 this was seen as an awesome film, but watching it now it's totally weak.  The sets looked like TV show sets, there are multiple instances of human movement in the background during the daytime scenes, the camerawork was amateur to the point of being distracting, it's never explained if there are still animals or not, the Family hates Charlton and know where he lives but yet they can't seem to be able to destroy the building he lives in (hint: burn down the entire block!), heavy-handed messiah theme, Charlton Heston taking his shirt off to give us a full pectical spectacle ( ...which, I guess, is better than him taking his pants off and giving us a testicle spectacle), terrible acting by the Family background actors, Charlton's horrible time-keeping skills, Charlton repeatedly lays his gun down and walks off...that said, I actually ended up liking the film.  It's just sooo cheesy that you can't help but smirk nearly the entire time.

Not really recommended for younger audience since they will probably just sit there confused at the dated stuff and the poor filmmaking, but curious older audiences will probably get a kick out of it.

Reflection of tree never moves the entire time the helicopter is supposedly spinning out of control.