Soldier of God takes place in the Holy Land during the time of the crusades. It takes off in the aftermath of the Battle of Hattin, probably the single, most disastrous defeat for the crusaders. René, a member of the Knights Templar was wounded during the battle, captured, and taken for ransom.

For those unfamiliar with history, the Knights Templar is a Christian military order that gained fame (and notoriety) during the Crusades. All members of the order take take vows of poverty, chastity, piety, and obedience. The knights of the order are practically warriors priests. In fact, they’re the elite troops among the crusaders.

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If I look back the past few years, I’d be hard-pressed to name an action actress more badass than Kate Beckinsale. Yes, the lead of romance movies like Serendepity and Pearl Harbor. Now, after a short absence, she’s back in the franchise that launched her action career.  She reprises her role as Selene, a vampire “death dealer” (that means exactly what it says). The story  is frankly ho-hum: The humans found out about vampires and lycans and, with the help of UV flashlights and silver bullets, set out exterminating them. Fast-forward 12 years later and Selene awakens from cryo-stasis, freed by a mysterious benefactor and soon after escapes from captivity. She later finds her liberator, not her mate as she expected, but her progeny. She also finds a world where humans are still vigorously hunting the remnants of the vampires but strangely less so the lycans. Digging through the mystery, she finds a powerful pack of lycans planning on harvesting her daughter as a source for biological fixer-uppers. That’s a big no-no and she proceeded to shoot and slice through the lycans in the coolest, most impossible, matter-of-fact way possible. Did I say Kate Beckinsale is badass? Hell, yeah!

Watched Contagion last night. This movie is the polar opposite of Outbreak. Much like what The Thin Red Line (yay!) is to Saving Private Ryan (nay!). It may be boring to many but I actually found it quite interesting. In particular, the movie’s focus on the life cycle of a pandemic, the lives of those affected, and– to an extent– the role of the Internet. With the spread of the disease as the backdrop, the movie takes you through how it affects the lives of ordinary people who lost (or are about to lose) loved ones, the doctors desperately helping the sick, the doctors running against the clock looking for a cure, the government striving to contain the chaos as society disintegrates. It’s a doomsday scenario but it’s a very plausible doomsday scenario. And that makes the movie feel very real.