Category: Movie Review

Phantasm 2

phantasm 2

Phantasm is one of my all time favorite horror movies and one of my first reviews I ever did on the blog. The Tall Man is a dark, menacing figure with untold horrors at his disposal. Unlike typical horror series though, Phantasm has a huge story that continues each installment.

The sequel picks up right where the first left off. Mike and Reggie barely escape there house, blowing the Tall Man up inside. Mike tells his story to the cops and is understandably thrown into the funny farm, released when he’s a full grown adult, reuniting with Reggie who go on a cross country hunt for the Tall Man. Setting up another remote funeral home, the Tall Man and his minions come across a gifted young woman named Liz. Can Mike and Reggie vanquish the sinister Tall Man once and for all?

I got to admit, as far as sequels go, Phantasm 2 is pretty damn awesome. The story stays fresh and stays strangely unpredictable as the original was. Angus Scrum is once again awesome as the Tall Man. The score is a cool, more action paced version of the original. There is a awesome amount of kills, including new modifications to the sphere that are simply badass. I definitely recommend checking out this strange, WTF, sequel that doesn’t disappoint if you loved the first. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dragonball Z: Fusion Reborn

dbz fusion reborn

All hell basically breaks loose as a new entity emerges in the afterlife, busting the barrier between HELL and the living world. This means many of the familiar Z rogues have returned to Earth including Frieza, Bojack, The Ginyu Force, and Cell ( and a hilarious caricature of Adolf Hitler) and it’s up to Gohan, Videl, Goten, and Trunks to stop them. Meanwhile, in the afterlife, Goku finds a fat, yellow, baby like dimension warping creature called Janemba is the source of the commotion. Using the full power of Super Saiyan 3 he puts Janemba down, or so he thinks. Janemba returns in a sleek, more malevolent form and quickly overpowers Goku’s SS3 form. The only solution is to fuse with Vegeta through the fusion dance, which they’ve never done before. Can our heroes get there shit together and beat this dimension shattering foe?

Fusion Reborn is probably my favorite movie from the DragonBall Z: The Buu Saga era. The fights are badass and Janemba is a strange but fitting fiend I prefer over Buu if I’m going to be honest. Seeing other DBZ villains return was awesome and the Hitler cameo was easily one of the funniest moments I recall from anime. My only real gripe is that once Gogeta shows up,  Janemba is finished in about 3 seconds, feeling way too abrupt for my taste. Fusion Reborn is a cool, pretty badass movie I recommend to any DBZ fan. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Gretel and Hansel teaser

Seeing IT Chapter Two (Review) with Savior, I was pleasantly surprised to see this trailer. The idea of doing a genuine horror movie in the style of The Witch: a New-England Folktale based on the dark as hell original Grimm Fairy Tales is pretty ingenious. Hopefully the January release day is simply a coincidence and it’ll be awesome. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Birds of Prey full trailer

This caught me through a loop; I seriously thought the other teasers were the actual trailers? Anyway, here’s the first real look at Birds of Prey and all I can think of is that it’s pretty much a Harley Quinn movie. I’m ok with that because Margot Robbie was great as Joker’s other half; my fear is that this is looking to be a all female Suicide Squad in regards to tone and a really misplaced villain. I’m hoping for the best but I ain’t impressed. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

IT Chapter Two (Review)

This one is hard for me to review. Any long-time followers know I loved the first chapter. It was one of my favorite movies of 2017. Which is why it pains me to say Chapter 2 is a huge disappointment to me. There was no reason this thing should have been almost three hours long.

It started out so strong is the worst part. One of the biggest things I disliked about the original was how long it took to introduce everyone as adults. This time around they got it right, it took much less time an got us right to the point. The group regathers and we get down to business.

This is at least what you would think. This is when we spend what feels like hours in flashbacks as they collect tokens for the ritual they will use to defeat this evil entity. It doesn’t stop there, unlike most of the scares in the first one, this is almost all jump scares, and mostly not even good ones. You could see them coming a mile away, even the woman next to me that screamed easily at first was laughing halfway through the movie. Yes, the movie was more funny than scary for many of us in the theater.

There was also like a 5 second musical part that was really out of place. Seriously, a monster spews black stuff into a guys face, pop music kicks in, stops and that is the end of it.

The movie wasn’t all bad by the way, the laughs were good and I enjoyed the special effects. The casting was also possibly the best I have seen in a movie in years. The adults were damn near perfect for each of the children and they even really come across as old friends coming back together.

The biggest issue tho is the pacing is all off, it never should have been so long. A ton of the movie was unnecessary. I won’t mention the ending because I don’t want to spoil that, but I hated that as well. This is one you should wait for Netflix or Redbox, Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Bill Burr Paper Tiger

Bill Burr Paper Tiger is going to piss off a ton of people. Seriously, he makes fun of everything. From a discussion on racism with someone, his experience with being sexually assaulted at a show to first ladies and robots. He does this all in his usual brash and abrasive way. It is also hilarious. I spent the entire time laughing.

He even took a shot at Stephen Hawking for thinking he was too good to stand up and make his point. I know sounds offensive, watch the stand-up tho and you will still be offended but you will be laughing.

Truthfully his style hasn’t changed, Bill is just Bill. He is simply telling the truth about a lot of things, and others he is clearly just going for a cheap laugh. I love comedies like this because he knows someone is going to hate him after, and he isn’t saying anything inherently wrong but like twelve people are going to overreact and be pissed off more than they should be. So go, enjoy the show and laugh at those twelve people. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ready or Not (2019)

Ready or Not is the story of Grace (Samara Weaving) marrying the love of her life. Alex Le Domas. (Mark O’Brien) The Le Domas family, however, is the proud owners of a gaming dynasty. It started with a card game made during the civil war and now spans board games and four major league sports teams.

After a beautiful wedding the estranged from his family Alex drops a small detail he never mentioned before. At midnight the day of the wedding, the person entering the family will have to draw one card, and play the game on that card. For example, the man that married a cousin has to play old maid and someone else had to play chess. The rules are always played the way they were traditionally back in the old days of the civil war. This is important for one small reason.

The card our new friend Alex draws is Hide and Seek. So all the doors will be locked for the night, the security cameras shut off and she will hide. She wins by staying hidden until the sun comes up. Of course, she has no interest in hiding that long. Who would? So after she gets bored with hiding and Alex comes to find her and is when she finds out that the game is played because if you don’t pick a card at all you die, and Grace picked the only bad card possible. Hide and seek is the only game nobody wins and it is to the death of the bride or groom.

The movie, however, was not what I expected. From the previews, I saw I was expecting a more thriller-horror style movie and truthfully it is more of a thriller comedy. This isn’t a bad thing, it was just very unexpected to me. The movie was actually really well done and had some great laughs in it. There was never a time I was bored or wondering what was going on. I also appreciated that the story was straight to the point. We got straight to the story and while they were at it they managed to give you all the back story you needed which I feel never happens enough.

The movie is far from perfect obviously but it is a surprisingly fun movie, possibly the most surprising movie of the summer for me. So check this one out when you get the chance. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015)

The Blackcoat’s Daughter is a 2015 horror movie about two girls stuck over a holiday at an all-girls Catholic school with something dark and sinister. The movie starts with two girls finding out their parents aren’t going to show up. One because they are stuck in a storm, the other because she lied to her parents about what day to be there.

The movie after that jumps between the 2 girls at school and Joan, a girl traveling alone with a husband and wife that are making their way towards Bradford, where the school is, to leave flowers at the grave of their deceased daughter.

The movie is less interesting than it sounds. It takes forever to get going and even when it does it is never all that interesting to me. The ending also felt like it was tacked on and my girlfriend and I saw it coming around halfway through the movie. There wasn’t anything wrong with the acting or the effects or any of that. I personally just didn’t like the story. By all means, give it a watch, I can’t really say there was anything inherently wrong with it, I just didn’t enjoy it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.