Movie Review – Page 101

Merry Friggin’ Christmas (2015)

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This movie holds a special place for me actually, not because its great or horrible or anything like that. It is actually the first new movie of his I saw after he died. But was the movie any good? Well let me answer that.

The movie starts out with a man explaining that he sometimes over does things with his kids, namely Christmas. The reason for that, well his father wasn’t exactly great at that sort of thing. He didn’t like that his son wanted to paint instead of doing more manly things for example.

With this in mind Boyd never goes home for Christmas until his brother asked him to be god father of his child, but decides to hold the baptism on Christmas eve. While this in itself would be enough to ruin a holiday they also forget the Christmas presents at home.

In a last ditch effort to save Christmas Boyd attempts to rush home, grab the gifts and return in 8 hours. A trip that takes pretty much as much time as he has until the kids wake up, the perfect coincidence. Poof, car trouble. Dad (Robin Williams) for the save.

Honestly the movie isn’t that good, it is pretty much the stereotypical father and son don’t get along fight a lot and bind over helping the grand kids story. Williams himself is the best part of the movie tho even there it isn’t his best performance. It is far from the worst Christmas movie I have seen this month, but most people won’t be fond of it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ready Player One trailer

ready player one

I’m sorry it took me a while to talk about what we’ve seen for Spielberg’s highly anticipated Sci fi epic based of the highly acclaimed book. I can’t say I have any experience with it, never having read the book. From the trailer I gather it’s about a young man in a broken down world where virtual reality is the only real escape, The Oasis. The creator of which is dying and fortune and control of the Oasis lies in the one who can find the Easter Egg inside of the Oasis.

My first impression is this going to be a beautiful looking movie. The special effects look like the greatest of video game cut scenes and the sets look impressive. I’m really intrigued by the world itself and I think it’s going to be a huge lure for many. I can’t get a feel for the characters yet but the opening monologue was solid. I’ll be keeping an eye on it and I’m sure Savior and I will go see it in theaters when the time comes. Until then were just some thoughts and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Hated (2017)

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The Hatred is one of those movies I am really not sure what to do with. The start of the movie is a bit odd and I wasn’t a fan. A dad seems to be possessed by something kills his daughter and is subsequently killed by his wife. We then fast forward to the modern day when some college students stay at the house years later.

The movie should have been great tho. There was cursed cult artifacts, a scary creature in the basement, a Nazi officer in hiding. The movie just never really took off and felt rather mundane. The movie wasn’t bad by any means and I wouldn’t go so far as to say don’t watch the movie. By all means grab a soda and some popcorn sit back and give it a go. Casual movie fans will most likely enjoy this flick, hardcore horror fans however will want to stay clear. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

A Christmas Story

This movie is such a timeless classic there is a 24 hour marathon of it every year. I don’t even need to review this honestly, I could have posted the picture of the kid and a BB gun and just stopped there and you guys would have gotten it. But hey let us get on with what is basically a formality here.

The movie takes place in the 1940’s and young Ralphie has one dream. He wants a Red Ryder BB gun. He needs to convince his parents, teacher, Santa, anyone that will listen he needs one. The problem is, he will shoot his eye out. Along the way there are bullies, dares to stick a tongue to a light post and even dropping lug nuts down a drain and saying fudge.except he doesn’t say fudge. He says the F— word. By the way he throws his friend under the bus an I know they only had phones with cords back then, you hear mom run over and smack the holy hell out of this poor innocent kid. You know how hard you have to hit someone to hear it across a house over a 1940’s phone that clearly? That poor bastards grand kids had bruises when they were born in the 1980’s.

Anyways back on track, I don’t mind spoiling this movie a little bit. At the end of the movie, in true 1940’s fashion, hell even in 1980’s or the 1990’s fashion dad comes through and buys this kid a Red Ryder BB gun. Because you know, back then it was socially acceptable to buy kids actual weapons. The kid also almost immediately manages to shoot himself in the face when it bounces of some metal and his glasses prevent him from shooting his own eye out. Let this be a lesson kids, when shooting a BB gun you actually can shoot your eye out. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Miracle on 34th Street (1994)

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Miracle on 34th street. A movie that has been done a few times and always tells the same story about a man that claims to be Santa, works at a department store and a rival tries to ruin him and the store by discrediting him. Lets be 100% honest here tho, how the hell do you hear and old guy running around claiming he is Santa and not think this dude is bat shit crazy?

The movie honestly is amazing, if I had to choose between this and the original I am not sure I could choose. Both are well done, the characters are played amazingly the stories are damn near perfect and the people playing Santa look like someone ripped them from a Christmas book and stuck them in the movie. These movies are considered classic for a reason, and I dare you to see the court room scene with post office dragging in bags of letters to Santa and NOT cheer for the crazy old man. There are movies out there that just epitomize Christmas and this is one of them. But don’t worry, on December 25th I will be posting the best Christmas movie of all time. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ted 2

ted 2

I will never think of Trix cereal or John William’s iconic Jurassic Park theme the same ever again. And because of this movie, Savior and I will get kicked out of a Improv house someday.

So we begin on Ted’s wedding day to Tammi Lyn as we see John saddened by his divorce from now ex wife Lori. Ted urges him to get back in the dating game while soon Ted’s marriage is in jeopardy. But they find a solution: just have a baby. This however isn’t a easy task since Ted is a toy and not capable of reproducing, leading to adoption and the core dilemma of the film: the government cracks down on Ted for being essentially a stuffed animal, not alive, and soon his rights are being systematically taken away. So it’s up to John and Ted to team up with a fresh young, cute lawyer named Sam L. Jackson and prove to the world Ted is alive. Oh and that creepy ass weirdo from the first movie is back too.

I’m going to call this movie subjective: you’ll either love it or hate it. In fact I think it’s funnier than the first. There’s a lot more outrageous humor and crazier cameos in this movie. The performances are great all around and the story is actually pretty deep. I know comedy sequels especially have a reputation for sucking but I recommend checking it out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ted

ted

Ya ever just need a feel good movie when life sucks ass? Two of my favorites are the Ted movies. For my thunder buddy Savior, I figured why not…

Ted is the story of a kid named John Bennett whose teddy bear comes to life after making a wish on a star. The world freaks out and overnight Ted becomes famous for a time, but through fame and fall, twenty years later him and John are still best friends, mainly cracking jokes and getting high together, but there is a problem. John’s girlfriend Lori wants John to grow up and make Ted move out. Now Ted has to get a job and a place and avoid the creepy son of a bitch following him in the background of this strange, outrageous tale narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart because…reasons.

It’s quite rare a movie makes me almost piss myself laughing but also bring on the feels. Ted achieves this extremely well. Speaking of which, the effects on Ted himself are really damn good and Seth McFarlene brings this A game here as writer, directer, and as a voice actor.Him and Mark Wahlberg have a great chemistry together. I will say, if you aren’t a fan of Family Guy or that type of humor, this movie isn’t for you but I had a awesome time with it. May the gaming gods bring you glory and a thunder buddy.

The Last Jedi (second opinion)

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For Savior’s birthday, he had a dream: he wanted to see a debut of a Star Wars movie and well, dreams come true. I have thing if anyone hasn’t noticed that I don’t include the episodes in the title, frankly I save that for the ugh films in the series, and by the title of this blog, this is one of the greats.

Directly after Awakens, the Resistance is in some pretty deep shit as the First Order barrels down on them. The bulk of both sides find themselves at all out war in space and the Resistance forces are dying off quickly and with Leia out of commission, against the will of her replacement and time ticking down before all will be lost, its up to Finn, Poe, BB-8, and a technician named Rose to carry out a secret mission to save the Resistance. We also join Rey as she finds a very gruff and broken Luke Skywalker in his self imposed isolation. Through time and persistence he agrees to teach her the ways of the force, but also why the Jedi deserve to be gone. In this journey as Rey’s power grows she begins forming a connection with the last person she would have ever expected…Kylo Ren, who is still dealing with the conflict of light and dark burning inside him, and with that comes the horrible truth of why Ben Solo turned to the dark side.

The Last Jedi was a movie that took chances and I have a lot of respect for that. It makes us ask a lot of questions about what we knew before as well as answers many of what we were left with in Awakens. There is a lot of bold choices and may I say this maybe the darkest Star Wars movie to date, but it was balanced with some funny moments. Luke and Leia were amazing, R.I.P Carrie Fischer, and Rey and Kylo stepped up there game a lot but overall the performances were great. It is a beautiful movie visually as well and holy shit there is a lot of really epic scenes. One scene in particular near the end maybe in my top 3 favorite Star Wars fights. There are pacing issues with the Finn and Rose side plot and sometimes the movie did feel longer than it should have but overall since I rated the others, I’ll give it a solid A. Here are links for the rest of my reviews for the series I’ve covered and may the force be with you.

Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back Return of the Jedi The Force Awakens

Star wars: Rogue One

Star Wars The Last Jedi Review (Savior)

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Tonight for my birthday me and @torstenvblog went to see The Last Jedi. Honestly it was a combination birthday gift, Savior Gaming outing and Dream of seeing a numbered Star Wars movie thing. Honestly we made a trip out of it. Hit the mall for some good old fashioned loitering got some pizza then hit the movie. So without further delay here is my spoiler free review.

First the movie starts off strong, the opening scene gets right to the action to suck you in. From there the movie shifts perspectives quite a bit. There are multiple stories going on that include one between Rey and Luke, Finn and a new character and one with Leia and Poe. While there is a lot going on it all comes together nicely and I never really felt that it was to much or hard to follow. I would have liked more back story on what Luke was doing all these years but there is enough to paint a pretty good picture and Kylo has mostly lost that whiny emo attitude from the last movie and has really come into his own quite a bit.

The movie is far from perfect, and I am still not sure how I feel about the sudden influx of comedy into Star Wars tho it was pretty funny. I also didn’t care for the fact that much of the movie felt like it was longer than it needed to be simply for the sake of being there. Certain scenes felt like they were there just to add some time and didn’t really do much. This was more of a personal preference and didn’t take away from the film, but it just may bother some people. All in all the movie was fun and well done and for me was the best Star Wars since the original trilogy. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Force Awakens

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Thank the force we got a course correction for Star Wars after an ass load of (shiver) at the prequels. Yes, in many ways Awakens is a soft remake of the original classic but in no way a shot for shot remake.

After the fall of the Empire, a much more cruel force has started overtaking the galaxy in there wake. They call themselves the First Order and immediately we notice there dedication to the former Empire with the reinstatement of Stormtroopers equipped heavier and trained to exterminate Jedi, led by a figure in black named Kylo Ren tasked with killing off the Resistance led by a much older Leia. During an attack on Jakku, one stormtrooper sees the evil of Ren and the order first hand and decides to escape with a pilot named Poe they captured, crashing back on Jakku alone, finding a young woman named Rey who found Poe’s droid BB-8, who’s carrying plans for a new devastating weapon. Now named Finn, him and Rey journey to find the Resistance to return BB-8, coming across Han Solo who takes them to Leia as we see it was not truly a happy ever after in the years after Jedi. Luke had tried rebuilding the Jedi but there own son Ben Solo, Kylo Ren, had turned to the dark side much like his grandfather had, breaking Luke as well Han and Leia’s marriage. Finn and Rey are scared as hell, especially Rey who keeps having feelings she can’t explain, doing things she can’t explain, and having visions when she gets to touch the lightsaber that once belonged to both Anakin and Luke. But the question remains, where did Luke Skywalker go?

I have to say the only real flaw I have with this movie is that it does feel very much like the classic film but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I hated what Star Wars had become after the prequels, remasters, and overabundance of cartoons, comics, games, and shit that never captured the feeling right. Awakens does for me. I love where the old characters stand as well as got invested in the new characters. I love the darker feeling, but that Finn, Poe, and Han added some levity. The movie is a good blend of practical and CGI unlike the prequels and thank god we didn’t get a over embellished, super fast, over choreographed lightsaber duel at the end. Kylo Ren feels similar to Darth Vader but I like his lack of composure and his depth, plus I love his lightsaber. Overall, I thought it was a great movie that put the series back on track and in regards to the originals I give it a A-. May the force be with you all.