Lazda: Family-Friendly

Dragon Age: Redemption (TV Series 2011)

The protagonist, initially referred to as "Athlok", is tasked by her Qunari superiors to apprehend a rogue Saarebas, who was captured and imprisoned in Kirkwall by the templars, but managed to break out of captivity and embarks on a rampage to perform a dark ritual and wreak havoc throughout the world. If she succeeds, she will regain her name and title of "Tallis" (meaning "to solve" in the Qunari language), and be reinstated as a member of the Ben-Hassrath, after being demoted as punishment for previous transgressions. In her quest to find this dangerous mage, Tallis is joined by other companions: a templar named Cairn, who is tracking the Saarebas with his phylactery and later crossed paths with Tallis when trying to hunt down a criminal who helped free the fugitive; Josmael, the First of a Dalish Keeper who was taken away and imprisoned by templars (and later killed by the Saarebas during the prison breakout); and Nyree, a reaver mercenary from Nevarra who was hired by the Saarebas and later double-crossed by the renegade mage.

Dragon Age: Redemption was a web series based on the video game by Bioware. The series was created by and stars Felicia Day, who in geek circles is quite the popular little lady. I bought the DVD from my local video store, but you can get the whole thing online. The most unfortunate thing is that there are only 6 episodes. I can only wish Felicia continues this somehow as I thought it was quite entertaining.

So Hopefully that worked.

As I stated above, I quite enjoyed this web-series and so wish it would continue. Yes, it's very cliched. And yes, it was done on the cheap. But I think it looks great and feels like a fantasy flick.

I love Felicia Day, and she is awesome here and looks fantastic. I'm definitely going to have to watch this again because I couldn't stop looking at her when she's onscreen. The rest of the cast is quite good as well, I have no complaints about any of the acting here.

The action is very well done, and the minimal use of effects are also nicely done. I'm really looking for something to complain about here, but can't find anything.

The story is simple, but fun and the pacing is quick and doesn't get bogged down. Yes, it's a little campy, but I quite enjoyed it. Here's hoping we get more Dragon Age: Redemption.

Verdict: Recommended

The Cast

Felicia Day ... Tallis

Adam Rayner ... Cairn

Doug Jones ... Saarebas

Masam Holden ... Josmael

Marcia Battise ... Nyree

Marissa Cuevas ... Fina

Alex Huynh ... Ludd

Anna Campbell ... Innkeeper

David Ury ... Tinker

Dave Mattey ... Torturer

Greg Collins ... Brom

Tara Macken ... Lune

Iris Klein ... Maerwynn

Timothy Lee DePriest ... Dalish Man?

Dragon Age: Redemption (TV Series 2011) Link Free Download

The Scorpion King (2002)

Director: Chuck Russell
Writers: Stephen Sommers (story), Jonathan Hales (story)

In an ancient time, predating the pyramids, the evil king Memnon is using the psychic powers of his sorceress Cassandra to fortell his great victories. In a last ditch effort to stop Memnon from taking over the world, the leaders of the remaining free tribes hire the assassin Mathayus to kill the sorceress. But Mathayus ends up getting much more than he bargained for. Now with the help of the trickster Arpid, tribal leader Balthazar and an unexpected ally, it's up to Mathayus to fufill his destiny and become the great Scorpion King.

The Scorpion King was notable for two main reasons. First, this is a spinoff of The Mummy franchise, which was initially a big success for Universal. The second is this being Dwayne Johnson's (The Rock) first leading role.

Dwayne Johnson does a pretty good job here in his first big role. He has definitely improved over the years. But I'm a pretty big fan of most of the stuff he does. I think Dwayne Johnson just reaks of charisma and he uses it well here.

Of course, I can't do one of these mini-reviews with talking about the ladies in the film. Kelly Hu is stunning and I fell in love with her from the first time I saw this in the theater. She's a decent actor as well. There are other pretty faces here, but none of them hold a torch to Kelly.

The rest of the actors are pretty good. I always enjoy Michael Clarke Duncan when he's on screen. Grant Heslov is quite entertaining as well.

The Scorpion King doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, and I think that was a good choice. This is just good clean fun. The action is well done, and the humor is well placed. There's no nudity or blood and gore here, so I think this would be fine for some older kids.

So far, there have been three Scorpion King movies. I think I saw the second, but don't remember it too well. The third just came out and I haven't seen it yet. I'm sure I'll be reporting on those soon.

Overall I think The Scorpion King is alot of fun and kind of gets a bad rap. This is not meant to be anything more than what it is and I think it does a good job at entertaining.