I saw the trailer to Mirrors when it was first released at the theaters, and thought to myself, "That movie looks horrible." So you're probably wondering why I watched it, and the answer is because I saw a TV commercial that the horror fan in me couldn't pass up (without spoiling too much it involves a girl and a jaw). I'm glad I did watch it because this movie was great.

Now, I don't mean great in the sense that it rivals Lord of the Rings or 2001: A Space Odyssey, I mean great in that it's a mystery/horror/thriller that is not meant to be taken too seriously; it made me jump a few times, but really kept me guessing until the end. I was literally on the edge of my seat for most of the second half. The kills were all very cool (see note), though the plot and the "fight" at the end was...uh...different. The ultimate ending didn't have much explanation, but I think it was pretty neat.

Note: I watched the unrated version, I don't know what's different about it but it's likely a few (violent) scenes were extended.

So everybody's (or at least my) favorite female action star returns in Resident Evil: Extinction. Cool! Sounds great! Sorry to say that it does not necessarily end great. If you are a really big geek, like me, and take the time to read the novelization of this zombie action flick you probably won't be so disappointed. Unfortunately, if you are like most people you will just skip right to the movie, which wasn't as good. Everybody knows that the book is usually better than the movie, but in this case, I was surprised to find the book-which is based on the movie-was still quite a bit better. Keith RA DeCandido, who I had never heard of prior to picking the book off the shelf, is a good writer in his third novelization of this series. He gives multiple characters believable and sometimes comical backgrounds, none of which comes through in the movie.

The main character of Alice is literally above what an average human is capable of. This one thing which comes up multiple times and is well panned out in the book; where in the movie the director just seems to flip a switch and turns from a soft-spoken average woman into a comic book superhero. Boom. Pow! She's not supposed to be Zombie-girl. Latter parts of the movie, especially with Carlos, come across as very cheesy. The one positive thing is that this series was able to include the traditional slow zombies and the new-age remake "fast zombies" as well as the possibility of a cure, which rarely happens when the dead stop walking around. It goes beyond simple survival which is a positive move for the series, I just hope Alice can end it all before the undead start to falter in their performances too.

Chaos In Motion 2007-2008 is probably the best music DVD that I've ever seen. If you are a Dream Theater fan then you should probably have it already, if you don't have it, don't even wait for Christmas, just go buy it. It is a compilation of Dream Theater's Chaos In Motion world tour (hence the title) in support of their 9th studio album, Systematic Chaos. However, with all Dream Theater live releases Portnoy has nicely included many songs from other albums. If you aren't a Dream Theater fan, this would be a good thing to check out: If it blows you away then you'll probably like most of their material, but if you don't like it then it would also be a pretty good indicator as well.

It's an ongoing debate as to which member is really the most talented and the winner of this round is Rudess. He has the most amazing solo yet, combining Continuum, keyboard, and the new Zen Riffer. I didn't have a chance to go through all of the bonus material until today and I'm pleased to say that it is pretty great as well (even Myung talks a good deal); I really hope there is a Making of documentary about album number ten, which is currently being recorded.

NOTE: If you can still find a Special edition (with three CDs of the concert in addition to the 2 DVDs) then go for it. It was limited to 5,000 copies and from what I saw sold out pretty quickly, but if you get lucky enough to find it on the shelf at $50 it's $10 per disc, and who doesn't love driving down the street jamming with live music blaring?