Tag: movies

Aliens (1986): The Perfect Organisms

On By James CastroIn Movies, Projects, Reviews2 Comments

Sequels are worse than original films. That is a near decree that has been handed down from the high mountains of Hollywood, carved into the living stone of film history. Very rarely does a sequel live up to the standard set by the original and almost never does a sequel surpass the original. I can only think of two that have definitely done so, both were Jim Cameron movies and both had a strong action presence. One is the imitable Terminator 2: Judgment Day the film that set the standard for summer action blow out movies when I was a kid. The other, and in my opinion, superior film, is Aliens, Cameron’s action-horror-sci-fi follow up to Ridley Scott’s taught, tense original.

What makes Aliens so successful where so many other sequels, and hell, sci-fi/space movies have failed? Allow me to heap praise:

  • Story Continuation: Alien ended with Ripley’s quick thinking and courage helping her survive and enter stasis. This is precisely where the sequel picks up. Found by a salvage team Ripley awakes 57 years later than expected, faces a new world she doesn’t know, a company that doesn’t believe her (and even blames her for the occurrences aboard Nostromo), the loss of her daughter, and constant nightmares of the events that brought her here. We see Ripley try to restart her life, but she is forever haunted by the alien and is driven to face her fears for closure.
  • Story Advancement: How often does a sequel not just continue a narrative but add wonderful concepts to the universe and lore AND develop previous characters while introducing excellent new characters? Almost never. Here the story isn’t about a small expendable crew sacrificed for some corporate suit’s private agenda. It’s a military mission that takes us back to the source of the alien in the original film. We see more of the world in which these characters live. We learn more about the aliens as species. This film is the first appearance of the canon source of the facehugger eggs (barring deleted scenes from Alien largely ignored by later narratives). The first appearance of Colonial Marines and their bevy of weapons and equipment. The first appearance of Aliens as organized, strategizing hive minds. These concepts not only influenced the rest of the franchise, but science fiction as a whole as other franchises took these concepts and borrowed liberally from them.

  • Characters: I won’t even add “great” or “memorable” to this bullet point as they go far beyond that. Characters make this movie. Ripley is still one of the best characters in all of sci-fi and here she grows from a survivor to a true action heroine on par with anything Schwarzenegger has achieved. Tough, resourceful and smart without becoming the kind of “bad-ass” cliché a 13 year old boy or Quentin Tarantino finds interesting, Ripley personifies how to make a good action character without removing his or her humanity. Then there are the marines, the quiet cool of Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn), the loudmouth braggart over-compensation of Hudson (Bill Paxton), the inexperience of Gorman (William Hope), and the absolutely kick-assness of Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein; and who, again, Jim Sterling rightly called “one of the toughest bastards in all of sci-fi”). There isn’t a marine wasted. Even characters you only see for a moment on screen or just in text, Drake, Vasquez’s incinerator partner; Wierzbowski and Crowe, marines whose camera feeds go fuzzy as their squad mates call for them; Dietrich the medic who is the first to get grabbed; Frost whose unfortunate job it was to carry the ammo. This is all off the top of my head, that’s how memorable these characters are. My personal favorite is Sergeant Apone (Al Matthews). Dripping personality, every word he speaks is a poetic verse of glorious career military jargon married with drill sergeant cadence. I personally would have gone back into the Hive for him just to have him chew me out for taking so long. Other than the marines we have Lance Henrickson in his signature performance as Bishop the “synthetic person,” corporate shill Burke played to slimy perfection by Paul Resier, and Carrie Henn as the lone colonial survivor Newt. Newt is an unusual character. This could easily have been one of those little kid characters so precocious and useless that audiences hate her. Instead she shows us how she survived on her own for so long and even helps with ideas and planning. I’m pretty sure I’d be more useless in that situation than Newt is…

  • Quotability: When people think of quotable movies the same names come up; The Godfather, Scarface, Goodfellas… Usually crime movies or movies with carefully designed catch phrases like Jerry McGuire. I’d posit that Aliens has some of the most memorable quotes of all time. From Apone’s ringing “Absolute BAD-asses” to Newt’s quiet “They mostly come at night….mostly…” And from Vasquez’s, “I only need to know one thing: Where. They. Are” to Ripley’s marvelous “Get away from her you BITCH.” There is more that is used and reused in pop culture, especially in the sci-fi pop-culture sub-genre than in almost any sci-fi movie ever. Maybe even surpassing Star Wars in some circles… Even phrases like “5 x 5” are now owned by Aliens. And of course…the most epic give up cry in the history of entertainment “Game over man…Game over!” Hell…Hudson could have his own quotes section…

Aliens succeeded by not trying to remake the original, while sticking to its formula, adding new effective elements that made sense in the world, introducing characters who feel real, and telling an absolutely terrific story. I love every second of it, and actually recommend by a wide margin the longer director’s cut, which includes memorable character-building scenes and an amazingly suspenseful sentry gun sequence. The only flaw is you actually like all the characters (well except Burke…) so much you don’t want any of them to die…

Perfectly written. Perfectly cast. Perfectly designed. Perfectly acted. Perfectly executed in every way.

A perfect organism receives a perfect five panicking Hudsons out of five.

Hudson

See my original thoughts on Aliens from last year’s “Best Horror Sequel” post here.

Alien (1979) – The Perfect Organism

On By James CastroIn Movies, ReviewsLeave a comment

I admittedly came late to the appreciation for this film. I saw the more action-packed sequel (previously covered in a “best sequel” post and covered in more detail next week) first as a kid and saw the original Ridley Scott film a couple years later. As a kid I expected to find the same high-energy sci-fi action of the second film in the franchise and instead found a slow-paced, tension-building, character-based horror movie.  I should warn these reviews WILL have spoilers, so if you’ve been drifting right between all the security grids for the past 57 years you should turn back now…

Seeing this movie as an adult I came to find new appreciation for it.

Alien is the earliest film in this review series and it establishes a number of broad traits the more successful movies of both franchises would also possess: characters you care about are established effortlessly through natural dialogue, the plot starts with misdirection, even though it’s science fiction the atmosphere and world are deep and believable, and it spans multiple genres.

The first trait is perhaps the most important for Alien. When the crew of the Nostromo awaken, out of position and given directives from the company to perform the unwelcome task of exploring a distress beacon, their interactions let you know everything about them.   Parker and Brett played perfectly by Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton are the tag-team tradesmen of the bunch, low-men on the ladder more concerned with getting better rates than anything. Lambert played by Veronica Cartwright is a bit nervous and put-upon. Kane portrayed by the terrific John Hurt seems tired but eager. The dry and serious Ash, the Science Officer played ominously by Ian Holm. And Captain Dallas as portrayed by Tom Skerritt is calm and smooth but definitely in charge. So diverse and effective is the cast that a first-time viewer may not be aware that Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, a warrant officer and third in chain of command, is the star of the film. Oh and there’s also Jonesy the cat.

John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto, Sigourney Weaver, Harry Dean Stanton, and Ian Holm.

The final character introduced is the vessel itself, the Nostromo. Even though it is a starship for deep space travel it’s treated as mundane as an oil rig, and indeed it is simply a towing vessel for cargo or refineries. With a crew of less than 10 parts of the cavernous ship are bright white, well maintained, and unique.  Other parts are rugged, rusty, worn out, and solitary. Many of the spaces appear to be abandoned but loaded with materials giving much of the ship a junk-room feel. Those parts are the bridge of the USS Storage Room.

The turning point of Alien shouldn’t be a surprise, after all the movie is 36 years old, but DEFINITELY back out now if you’ve never seen it. The film opens in a very mundane manner, characters talking work, complaining, you see cliques and relationships before being sent to examine the unknown signal the computer has picked up. While exploring the beacon the away team finds rows of eggs and Kane ends up with a fingery-spider creature (later called a “facehugger”) attached to his head. They are unable to remove it and the creature eventually falls off and dies. Kane appears to be recovering, but later over dinner he begins to seize and a little toothy beast (later known as a “chestburster”) crashes through his ribs and skitters across the table.

Hello my baby…

This scene, in 1979, was shocking, especially to those used to the fun space opera romps or heavy dramatic sci-fi that copied the 2001 formula, as Alien pretends to for the first 30 minutes.

From that point on Alien becomes half slasher film half And Then There Were None as the crew searches the ship for the little beast, which they soon find has grown into a big beast, and are picked off one or two at a time. The difference between Alien and most slasher movies is you actually care about the characters and hope they aren’t the next one to have their brains gouged from their skull by HR Geiger’s double-mouthed Xenomorph.

It even commits a number of slasher movie clichés, such as a literal, but effective, unexpected, and sensible “cat-jumping” scene where Jonesy leaps out and runs. The scene serves as excellent misdirection, a quick jump scare, and breaks the team up for a moment (people never “split up” and go off on their own out of contact from the others, they stay in teams or always in communication), setting up the real scare that followed.  It also contains, what I think, is the best final girl trope in history.  You can read my thoughts on that here.

The cramped pipe-filled confines and dark, drippy atmosphere make it a natural place for the alien to hide and randomly appear to grab an unfortunate crew-member and scare the audience.

Scott made the best of the technology of the time. The alien creature was a performer in a suit so he kept the xenomorph hidden in shadows, obscured by scenery, and eventually they keep track of it using motion sensors, effectively creating tension with blips on a screen much like the barrels attached to the shark in Jaws. The practical effects give the alien an eerie feel, with tension provided by music and the intensity of the cast performances.

One excellent scene has Captain Dallas creeping through the ducts looking for the alien with a flamethrower. As the intensity ramps up the Dallas declares “Get me the hell out of here” while music, blips on the screen, and supporting performances build up to an awesome climax.

The second big misdirection is Ash, whose secret agenda comes as a shock when it’s revealed. Even after the initial shock of an eyeless snake with legs tearing its way through John Hurt the Ash subplot proves the film still has enough left to surprise you again.

“I can’t lie to you about your chances, but… you have my sympathies…”

Even amongst an excellent ensemble cast, Sigourney Weaver comes into her own as the break out star of the movie. At first she’s simply the only character with any sense; refusing to let Kane back into the ship while he has a creepy face-monster gripping his skull. She also shows she won’t take shit from some of the dissatisfied crew and even takes full command when the situation demands it. We admire and relate to her emotions, when she screams at the ship’s computer we feel her anger, and when she discovers Ash’s secrets we share her tears of rage. Then she saves the cat. Full scores all around.

Ridley Scott’s Alien in a number of ways marks the end of the space dramas of the 60s and 70s. For me it had the same effect on space films as Appetite for Destruction had on the glitzy hair metal of the 80s, once it arrived changed the landscape and there was no going back. The plodding pace, inactivity, and shallow/obscure plots of other space films would no longer suffice. Audiences now expected shocks, plot twists, and visceral climaxes in their movies.

It truly helped found the modern sci-fi space genre, spawned numerous clones, and continues to inspire other franchises today.

Every film in this review series across both franchises owes their existence to Alien and we, as sci-fi fans owe many of our other fandoms to it.

A solid and grown-up four and a half hugged faces out of 5.

AlienRating

Complete Review: Aliens and Predators Intro

On By James CastroIn Books, Games, Movies, ReviewsLeave a comment

Throughout my pre-adolescent and teenage years there were two film franchises that dominated my creative sensibilities: the Alien films and the Predator films.
These two IPs fueled a my art work, story-telling, and designing for years and even sparked my interest in warrior culture, comic books, and the sci-fi genre as a whole.
They were some of the first novels I bought for myself, and I wore the VHS taped-off-of-HBO versions of some of the movies out with repeated plays on summer vacations.


The years have not always been kind to these two venerable series as the films got reboots, sequels, spinoffs, and tie-ins that are of varying quality.  What hasn’t changed is my interest and love for the lore of both and some of the iterations of the franchises represent my favorites of their perspective media; from movies, to books, to comics, to video games.


The idea of a full retrospective has been floating around with me for a while but it seemed too big to do.  I’ve recently gone back to watch nearly every film in the movie franchise of both and the time felt right.  A long, complete review of all the movies in both the Alien and Predator franchise, including their various crossovers and tie-ins.  It’ll get years of opinions on two of my favorite series on paper for the first time and will be both gratifying and cathartic!


For the next ten weeks or so it’ll be all Aliens and all Predators all the time, covering the series from their most divine moments to their most ridiculous.

To start off here’s a nice taste of things to come:

Jurassic World: Bringing Life Back to the Movies (and also some Dinosaurs)

On By James CastroIn Movies, ReviewsLeave a comment

I lived on Nellis Airforce Base in the mid-Eighties and because I was a young kid at the time, my family only visited the strip once. On that single trip the only thing I cared about was visiting a museum made from a converted casino (complete with red velvet carpet and brass foyer railing) that had an amazing display of animatronic dinosaurs. For most of my life I’ve been dino-obsessed and I never saw anything as amazing at that point in my life as full-sized, moving, roaring dinosaurs. That feeling of amazed and that feeling of being completely engaged in the entertainment experience is what I felt for the first time in a long time while watching Jurassic World.

Admittedly I had high hopes. 1993’s Jurassic Park is the movie I’ve seen the most in theaters and being, self-admittedly “dino-obsessed,” seeing all-new dinosaurs in an all-new Jurassic Park story was more than exciting. There was a slight worry of disappointment that was blown away by what appeared on screen.

I’ve seen loads of cynical hipsters commenting that “it was just ok” or “wasn’t very deep” or “was just a popcorn movie.” I think, rather than do a straight review I’ll explain why it was more than “just ok.”

  • Progression: This movie took what the first (and some of the second and third) did and moved the story forward in a logical and effective way. The dilemma of cloning is still an intense one, but it is one that has been covered already and one that, at its simplest root, doesn’t illicit the same conversation it did in the early Nineties. Genetic manipulation and gen-hanced organisms is something that is topical now. Furthermore the uses of this science beyond the exploratory and into the military applications is more than topical. It wasn’t just a “oh look more dinos” movie. It was a “look at what genetics misused run amok can cause.”
  • Pacing: Jurassic World introduces the world and its characters relatively quickly but effectively without a lot of explicit backstory. Yes there is a bit of expositionary dialogue, but no flashbacks (thank f*ck…) and no original Star Trek style over-simplification. The world is bright and controlled, until control is lost. The Jurassic World park is deep and realistic and we are lulled into the comfort of the world despite knowing what is coming. Because of this the scene (this is NOT a spoiler) where the Indominus Rex escapes is one of the most tense scenes I’ve seen in a film in YEARS. From there on it is a race to stop the super-saurus rex as plans are tried and it gets closer and closer to the safe zone. Plot devices are introduced and recur seamlessly without being obvious of shoehorned in. Take note film makers on how some of that can work.
  • The Horror: I don’t get scared in movies, but there are scenes in this film that are more effective at horror than most horror movies have been in recent years. Particularly dinos hunting soldiers in the jungle. It was reminiscent of the Alien franchise in its execution. The Indominus herself is like the villain in a slasher movie. Killing characters (in this case dinos we all love ‘caus their dinos) for fun and stalking our leads through an enclosed environment. She’s vicious and relentless with the “it will not die” special rule and has a bit of Godzilla thrown in. The raptors (Misty, my local princess, is an even bigger JP fanatic than I and she was afraid they’d be like domestic dogs) are more intimidating and frightening than ever. Even while being trained! The released dino rampages, as they off characters we know and tear through unsuspecting extras, make a more effectively scary bodycount than anything I’ve seen in a so-called “straight up” horror movie in probably a couple of decades.
  • The Joy: This is a movie that loves its history, its subject matter, and more than anything ADORES its fans and audience. The filmmakers knew what we wanted out of a Jurassic movie. They knew what we liked about the original series, what we were kind of “eh” about, and what we expected out of a continuation. Audiences in modern movies don’t applaud (though I did see an audience inexplicably applaud when “Lucasfilm” showed up on screen during Revenge of the Sith). During my first viewing of Jurassic World the audience applauded twice at the end of the film. Once after the climax (after everyone gasped) then in the final scene before the credits rolled. This movie reminded me WHY I go to the movies. So much so I saw it twice in IMAX 3D in three days.

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In a world dominated by superheroes and teen entertainment it made me supremely happy that Jurassic World broke box office records. A lot of people believe that Star Wars later this year will do it again. That remains to be seen, but for now I’ll rejoice that once again…Dinosaurs rule the earth.

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Top Three Imposing Movie Villains

On By James CastroIn Movies, Opinions, Random FunLeave a comment

Villainy and villains.  Often we find them more compelling than the heroes of the story, even when we crave their defeat.  There are many kinds of villains and many great ones.  They can be tragic heroes or pure chaotic evil, so classifying villainy can be difficult.  James Rolfe did a great list of the “baddest bad guys” using the criteria of who was really the “baddest” not the best villain or most evil, just the one who was through and through…BAD.  He made a great list and it’s hard to disagree with his findings.

Following in his footsteps, and wrapping up the three-year anniversary month of threes, I thought I’d do my own criteria and give what I see as the most intimidating and imposing villains I can think of.  The criteria here are a little more difficult to ascertain, but intimidation is rarely strictly physical.  Once we leave the school yard the threat of “I’m big and gonna beat you up” doesn’t have the same weight as it once did.  This immediately discounts the Jason Vorheeses and Godzillas of the medium.  Similarly intimidation and having an imposing personality is usually just that, personality.  The fact that these villains are human and show their humanity makes their villainy more imposing.  It might seem a bit convoluted but hopefully the selections will help explain.  So starting off with number three:

The Hunger Games – President Snow (Donald Sutherland)

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“I like you…be careful…”

Before hipsters start to protest I ask everyone look the man himself.  He is, in the world of Panam, supremely powerful.  He has a family we see in his periphery and a public persona that is both calming and resolute.  Then you see him interact other characters, Seneca and Katniss were frozen like the prey of a cobra.   Plutarch, despite his confidence, maintained his composure by attempting to play Snow’s game his way to impress him with his own imposing declarations.  In the books we see more of him, hear from him more, and get to know him more.  His limited use in the films makes him even more intimidating.  Sutherland plays him in a manner as cold as the character’s namesake.  He speaks with a quiet voice, like thunder in the distance, so when he merely suggests it would be easier if parties agreed not to lie, explains it is not favorable to root for the underdog, or instructs you on the value of hope versus fear you listen.  Wide-eyed and terrified at nothing more than the power of his…words.  His intimidation is based entirely on his ability to tell you the truth in ice-cold realism with the absolute knowledge of what he can do.  He can make you vanish in silence, make you obsolete in front of a roaring crowd, and send you into hysterics with a flower delivery.  He’s that imposing.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – Professor James Moriarty (Jared Harris)

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“Rest assured, if you attempt to bring destruction down upon me, I shall do the same to you. My respect for you, Mr. Holmes, is the only reason you are still alive.”

How can you gone wrong with the Napoleon of crime?  I’ve seen several versions of Dr. Moriarty and Jared Harris captured something that I found truly captivating.  His Moriarty has an extreme patience and remarkable Zen-like nature that makes him even more frightening than Hannibal Lector.  Moriarty’s intimidation is that, portrayed in the manner Harris played him, you feel he’s smarter than you.  It’s not a physical intimidation, because as I said above what does that mean to grown people?  It’s a feeling of helplessness that even Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock feels during parts of the movie.  You feel at his mercy, as though he holds every card and you hold nothing…even if you’re holding everything.  Anyone who has ever been in the presence of a real master knows this form of intimidation.  And we’ve seen the result of someone far below their league when they attempt to compete.  Moriarty is so wily he forces Holmes to chase a red herring at the opera just so he can watch him fail from a box seat.  He attempts to start World War I and simply shrugs when he doesn’t pull it off.  He can torture you singing opera in German…and just might be able to take you in a fist fight too.  I’m not sure I’ve seen a more impressive supervillain…certainly not one who was this cold, this brilliant, and this realistic.  Harris’ performance is wildly underrated and for me he’s the Moriarty to beat.

Apocalypto – Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo)

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“When I catch him I will peel his skin and have him watch me wear it”

I don’t believe I’ve seen a character on film in recent years quite as intimidating as Zero Wolf.  Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto received general indifference after its release.  It was in Mayan.  Directed by a man who had just gone through some serious personal issues.  It had questionable historical veracity.  But forgotten amidst all of that is what an incredible film it is.  The film revolves around fear (The Nolan Batman films could have learned something about real fear in this movie…), specifically fear instilled into a small village by warlike, desperate neighbors who seek human sacrifices.  The leader of these hunters: Zero Wolf.  Decked out in jaguar jaws, wolf skulls, and human bones he is a massive, brutal, cunning leader.  Since we spend most of the film in the captivity of these hunters or fleeing them, they had to represent a truly incredible threat and, though there are numerous hunters, they all fade into the jungle when in the presence of Wolf.  He gives commands silently (watch his directive to his men to spread out and attack), can intimidate with few words (“Are we doing what you say now?  Shall we try that?”), exudes power and menacing intent through extreme calm and stoicism, and is powerful enough to force that stone knife right through your sternum.  More than just a vicious hunter you see he is a person.  He has a son he cares about dearly and it’s both tragic and frightening when he is provided the motivation to relentlessly hunt Rudy Youngblood’s Jaguar Paw throughout the latter half of the film.  It’s this humanity that makes him such a cold customer.  He cares about his legacy and his offspring, but is simultaneously ruthless in the prosecution of his tasks.  He is a man hunter, and he treats it like a passionless day job, until it’s made personal.  Both his indifference and his cruel obsession cause tension in their own ways.  Zero Wolf is possibly one of the most effective villains in years and he is used with remarkable skill to drive the plot, dramatically increase tension, and intimidate the audience.  He’s intimidation personified and the most imposing villain I think I’ve ever seen. 

Top 3 Favorite Movie Moms

On By R. PettyIn MoviesLeave a comment

Mother’s Day is here! It’s the one day a year kids take time to appreciate the woman known as Mom. She’s the cook, baker, laundry queen, toilet scrubber, chauffeur, gives a hug or smack, makes you laugh after a long day, and never stops working.

So, what better way to celebrate than to post my top three movie moms? After some research, I realized two of my picks were very underrate. Can you guess which two?

3. Helen Parr (ElastiGirl), The Incredibles

Every good mom is a superhero. We somehow make everything ok, even when we’re freaking out on the inside. We human moms may not be able to stretch our arms a mile long, but when wrapping our arms around our kid, it can certainly feel like we can.

ElastiGirl shows that even real superheros can make great moms. She transforms into a parachute to save her kids falling from a plane. She helps rescue her husband from the evil Syndrome. ElastiGirl is even kind of hot for an animated character. However, my favorite thing about her is she’s real. For example, after falling into the ocean, she threatens to ground her kids for a month if they don’t calm down. She’s sarcastic, cutthroat, and funny, but can cuddle with her kids. She’s a tough woman.

2. Frigga, Thor

Beautiful, smart, and fierce best describe Thor’s mom. I was very surprised she wasn’t on any big lists I saw. She’s a queen! Fridda’s (The Asgardian Frigga, goddess of marriage) role is small but mighty in these movies. She’s the voice of reason and tries to make men think before acting. In Thor, she never leaves her husband’s side when he’s ill and vows to protect. She trusts her kids to do the right thing and handle everything else, so she can be where she’s needed. In Thor 2, she sacrifices herself to protect Thor’s girlfriend and the rest of her family. She wields her sword as well as, if not better than others, and she pays the ultimate price. But we don’t expect anything else. When they send her body off to sea, I still cry. Her devotion to family and show-no-fear attitude reminds us nothing will stand in our way.

1. Mrs. Molly Weasley, Harry Potter series

Hands down No. 1 in my book and also not on any major lists I read. This woman has seven children. Seven. She cooks, cleans, dresses, advises, lectures, screams, cries, hugs, and laughs. She expresses what every good mother feels. Unconditional love.

Fiercely protective and unbelievably supportive, Mrs. Weasley always comes to the rescue. She welcomes Harry with open arms, becoming his surrogate mother while taking care of her own children. She fights alongside them, provides for them, and never complains. You never hear Mrs. Weasley say, “I’m so tired…I’m so under appreciated.” Instead, she’s most known for this scene:

“You – will – never – touch – our – children – again!’ screamed Mrs. Weasley.
Bellatrix laughed, the same exhilarated laugh her cousin Sirius had given as he toppled backwards through the veil, and suddenly Harry knew what was going to happen before it did.
Molly’s curse soared beneath Bellatrix’s outstretched arm and hit her squarely in the chest, directly over her heart.
Bellatrix’s gloating smile froze, her eyes seemed to bulge: for the tiniest space of time she knew what had happened, and then she toppled, and the watching crowd roared, and Voldemort screamed.”

Mrs. Weasley kills Bellatrix. Applause.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms – those who have kids, dogs, cats, mice, plants, etc. – and get some rest. We only get one day a year!