Below is a list of my top five favorite Season Two episodes from the AMC series "HELL ON WHEELS". Created by Joe and Tony Gayton, the series stars Anson Mount, Colm Meany, Common and Dominique McElligott:
TOP FIVE FAVORITE "HELL ON WHEELS" Season Two (2012) Episodes
1. (2.06) "Purged Away With Blood" - Thor Gundersen (aka "The Swede") and the Reverend Nathaniel Cole aid the Lakota in their war against the railroad with the hijacking of a Chicago-bound train.
2. (2.02) "Durant, Nebraska" - Businessman and investor Thomas "Doc" Durant discover that the Lakota had ransacked a town named after him and declared war on his railroad construction. Meanwhile, Cullen Bohannon is freed from an U.S. Army prison by an unlikely ally, following his brief stint as a robber.
3. (2.09) "Blood Moon" - While being interrogated by an Army officer, Cullen reveals the string of incidents that led to an attack on the Hell on Wheels by the Lakota. Matters come to a head between Elam Ferguson, former prostitute Eva and her new husband, Gregory Toole.
4. "Scabs" (2.04) - Following the torture of a railroad worker by the Lakota, the rail crews go on strike. Meanwhile, Eva announces her pregnancy to both Elam and Toole.
5. "The White Spirit" (2.07) - Gundersen returns to Hell on Wheels to help the widowed Lily Bell with the railroad's accounts - against Cullen's wishes, who wants to arrest him for the attack led by Reverend Cole.
"VANTAGE POINT" (2008) Review"VANTAGE POINT" is a tightly woven thriller about eight strangers with eight different points of view of an assassination attempt on the President of the United States, during an anti-terrorism summit in Salamanca, Spain. Directed by Pete Travis and written by Barry Levy, the movie starred Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, Sigourney Weaver and William Hurt.When I had first saw the trailer for "VANTAGE POINT" four years ago, I had assumed it would be one of those remakes of the Japanese film, "RASHOMON" (1950). I figured there would be an assassination attempt on the President and the film would follow with various points of view on the incident. This is what actually happened in "VANTAGE POINT" . . . but not quite. "VANTAGE POINT" did reveal the assassination attempt from various points of view. In "RASHOMON" and other versions of the film, those views are shown as flashbacks. But in "VANTAGE POINT" each point of view is not a flashback. Instead, each POV merely gives a certain view of the story, while the story moves forward. For example, the movie started out with the point of view of a news producer (Sigourney Weaver), before ending at a particular point in the story. The next point of view belongs to Secret Service agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), which ends a little further in the story than the news producer’s POV. And so on. The movie ends with an exciting action sequence told from the various viewpoints of the major characters – heroes and villains.The more I think about "VANTAGE POINT", the more I realize how much I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the tight setting of Salamanca, Spain (actually the film was shot in Mexico). I must add that one of the things I enjoyed about this movie was that Levy’s script had a way of putting a twist on any assumptions anyone might form about the plot. I loved how Travis handled the film’s action, making it well-paced. I enjoyed the performances of the major cast members. I was especially impressed by the performances of Dennis Quaid as the emotionally uncertain Barnes, who eventually pieced together the real plot. I also enjoyed the performances of Matthew Fox as his fellow Secret Service agent, Forest Whitaker as an American tourist and Edgar Ramirez ("THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM") as a Spanish Special Forces soldier involved in the plot against the President. But more importantly, I loved Barry Levy’s script, which put a twist on any assumptions the moviegoer may have formed about the story’s plotlines and characters. My only quibble with "VANTAGE POINT" was the interaction between Whitaker’s character and a Spanish girl, which I found slightly contrived near the end of the movie."VANTAGE POINT" did pretty well at the box office. Unfortunately, most critics compared it unfavorably to "RASHOMON". Personally, I do care about the critics' opinion. "VANTAGE POINT" was the type of movie that forced the audience to think. And I suspect that many moviegoers and critics would have preferred a film that laid everything out in the open. And since I have a history of liking movies that are not popular with the public or film critics, all I can say is that I am personally glad that I had purchased the DVD for this movie. It ended up becoming one of my favorite 2008 movies.
