The Walking Dead: The Complete Fifth Season [Blu-Ray/Digital]

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One thing I love about “The Walking Dead” is that when they promise their season will open with a bang, they open with a bang that’s deafening and mind blowing. After season four’s more downbeat opening, season five hits the ground running and wastes absolutely no time exploring the effect the Governor’s raid on Rick’s prison sanctuary has had. After the big raid, every one of the group found themselves scattered all over the country, and desperately looking for safety through the promise of the mysterious Terminus. Much to Rick’s suspicion, Terminus is not the safe haven everyone is hoping for, and he, along with Carl, and Michonne find themselves trapped in a train car with the rest of their group. Meanwhile, Carol and Tyrese are with Judith on their way to Terminus before all roads collide and fate plays yet another hand.

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Bite (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

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FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Casey and her two besties go on a bachelorette trip before she is supposed to get hitched to Jared in a short while. This trip is meant to be a last hoorah for Casey before she settles into the married life Jared and his mother have in mind for her. While on her trip, all seems fun but not all is at it seem. During an excursion, Casey gets bitten by an insect but it doesn’t affect her outside of the original bite and its lightly disagreeable side effects. That is until after she returns home and the bit starts to look infected and is painful. As her cold feet toward her marriage grow, so does the infection which eventually brings about changes in her body and her way of life. Soon Casey is cocooning in her apartment filled with translucent eggs and her urges to protect and feed her hive take over.

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The Top Ten Most Shocking Moments of “The Walking Dead” Season FIve

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AMC’s “The Walking Dead” steam rolls on as a pop culture phenomenon and has gained incredible momentum since season four. It’s almost as if the producers have rebooted the series, and it shows as season five has a different energy a new sense of urgency, and adheres much more to the comics than ever before. Sure it is still its own animal from the comics, but there are many recognizable elements and storylines in season five fans of the comics will recognize immediately. Season five is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD, and it’s a bang up season of a show that just gets better and better every year. To celebrate the release of season five, we give you the ten most shocking moments of “The Walking Dead” season five. Warning: There are massive spoilers to every episode discussed, so be cautious.

What were some of your favorite moments of season five?

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Orion (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

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FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Orion starts with a prophecy to which the film comes back a few times, a prophecy about a virgin mother giving birth to a child who will become a tree and about a traveler who will change the course of things. The movie starts with the traveler seemingly going from place to place aimlessly and the virgin mother giving birth only for the magician to plan her baby to her dismay. She wants to leave but has little hope for survival, until the traveler comes upon their door in need of shelter and food and the magician decides to take him in for the night, and then commences the long process of saving her and himself from the magician who, according to rumors, cannot be killed. All of this happens in a desolate wasteland after what looks to have been an apocalypse.

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Blade Squad (1998)

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1998 was a big year for FOX television. Despite handing audiences turkey after turkey (Nick Fury Agents of Shield, anyone?), you have to appreciate their relentless pursuit to deliver genre fare. “Blade Squad” is one of the many failed attempts to build a show out of a TV movie that works as a glorified pilot. As a kid I spent a lot of time in front of the television, and I caught “Blade Squad” one dull Friday night. Suffice it to say despite its interesting concept, “Blade Squad” is a missed opportunity and really dull execution. It’s also a really unique artifact of a decade obsessed with futuristic punk and neon colored dystopias.

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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014)

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It’s a good thing that “The Hunger Games” has so much interesting story and undertones about the power of the media and propaganda behind it. It skirts dangerously close to a movie that’s nothing but set up to the second half of the final film. It’s padded and filled with a lot of discussion that seemingly goes nowhere, but through its flaws, I appreciated where it brought the story of Katniss Everdeen. It doesn’t hurt that Jennifer Lawrence single handedly keeps the movie from diving in to the deep end with her powerful turn as the reluctant heroine. As I mentioned, “The Hunger Games” dealt with various stages of Katniss’s life as a celebrity. She built a revolution in the first movie, had to maintain her celebrity status in the second movie, and here she’s now a pawn for a rebellion.

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Insurgent (2015)

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We were so close to having a nearly good new movie series with the “Divergent” adaptation. While the first movie was admittedly mediocre with some entertaining aspects to it, “Insurgent” takes that big leap in to pure abysmal depths and never quite comes up for air. “Insurgent” begins on a high note and never quite recovers, transforming in to a mind bending journey through the consciousness that is dull, monotonous, and painfully tedious. I was bored senseless through “Insurgent,” which is a feat because almost anything starring Shailene Woodley grabs my attention.

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