Movie Review – Page 88 – Savior Gaming

Men in Black (1997)

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Every so often I see a movie and I notice the year it came out and my brain goes damn it I am old. Tho a friend of mine just recently pointed out I have known her for almost 30 years so that wrecked my life a little bit to know I have known her almost my entire life. Men in Black is one of those movies. 1997 doesn’t seem that long ago, but 20 years went by pretty quick apparently.

Men in Black as you know spawned two sequels, a cartoon, video games and rumor has it soon a Men in Black 4. More on that tho in a future post. For now the original. The first one sees Will Smith as a regular old cop doing his job, and suddenly chasing a guy down on foot. This dude is quick and can jump damn near like an Olympic athlete. This catches the eye of the character played by Tommy Lee Jones, Agent K.

Agent K eventually test a group of people, and chooses Will Smith to be an agent, Agent J. Together they are essentially the police that operate independently of even the governments of the world as the police for the numerous aliens that visit and live on Earth. The movie is fun and has actually popularized a few conspiracy theories, one of which basically says the movie was released by the government to judge how people would take the news of aliens and such a groups existence being real. The movie holds up pretty well, and I definitely recommend seeing it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

War of the Worlds (1953)

War of the Worlds has had many iterations, from the many movies, books and even the original radio broadcast that has spread its own host of urban legends, some of which I covered here Brave New Jersey (2016).

The 1953 version however is by far my favorite, Based off the novel by H.G. Wells and the screen play by Barre Lyndon. The story takes place in a small California town on a night like most others. People are at a local dance or out to eat even a few on a little fishing trip camping out. When a meteorite strikes nearby people get curious, after all who wouldn’t?

A few days later when it cools down and people can get close enough to investigate is when things go from fun and interesting, to world-changing bad. As the meteorite opens to reveal itself to be instead to be alien ships invading the earth.

The acting in the movie is great, you can actually believe these people are scared of what is taking place and for its time the effects are stunning. Sure by the standards of today they are primitive but imagine going to see this on the big screen back in 1953 with your girlfriend, having never seen anything like this when the ship starts shooting or when you finally see this alien come on-screen and grab the girl’s shoulder from behind.

Sure we have the benefit of it being remastered in color and have seen things much better, but for its time this thing was creepy as hell. Even when I was a kid having grown up with horror movies I remember thinking how I would have freaked if this ugly little bastard managed to sneak up on me.

The ending is also amazing, and I don’t mind spoiling it because the movie is over 60 years old, but if you plan on seeing it after reading this and don’t want it spoiled now is the time to stop reading. Seriously, last chance.

Now I assume you are ready for the spoiler. The end is with the world mostly in ruins, people rioting cars flipped and burning we find out main characters hiding in a church after even nuclear weapons failed to stop the invaders. When suddenly the ship heading their way simply starts to fall and crashes into a building. A hatch opens, an alien starts to appear and stops. Our brave scientist inches his way over to discover it is mysteriously dead. What is even more is all of these ships seem to be slowly doing the same thing. Not all at once, but slowly over time dying. For all their technology they failed to take into account one thing. The germs of Earth played hell with their immune system. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Boondock Saints 2 (2009)

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The Boondock Saints 2 starts out with the brothers living a quiet life home in Ireland with their father. Years later they learn beloved priest is killed by the mod and they return to Boston to bring justice on them and get revenge and clear their name. This movie however didn’t really hit it off as well as the first and I can see why, it wasn’t as good as the first. Not to say the movie was bad by the way, it just had a lot to live up to. It wasn’t as funny nor was it as original. It very much tried to live off the success as the first and while the movie was passable and I would love a sequel we may not get one sadly. That being said, the ending to this one is far superior to the ending of the first and I won’t spoil that by even hinting at it. If you liked the first by all means see this one, but don’t expect the greatness of the first. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Boondock Saints (1999)

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The Boondock Saints is a rather odd movie in that it probably shouldn’t be as good as it is. Sure the premise is good. Two guys take it upon themselves to kill the undesirable criminals that the law can’t take down themselves. The issue is the addition of the religious twist. This usually makes things come off as weird.

However this time around their religion while very much in the forefront of who these Irish brothers are, it isn’t in your face. It is the reason for what they are doing, but it isn’t quite the catalyst. It does however drive them. Oh, and did I mention its also a damn comedy? Seriously it is a serious movie and a comedy at the same time. The entire movie on paper reads like something a drunk guy wrote down or a couple of 15 year old kids made some weekend. It should not work. Yet it does, it works well. The movie is interesting and has some parts that are hilarious and may be one of the most quotable movies of its time. Admittedly the movie is over hyped at times, it is far from perfect and has its issues. The story has so many plot holes its ridiculous. Don’t try to think about the movie, just enjoy it for what it is. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Dazed and Confused (1993)

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This is another movie I didn’t see until well after it came out. I actually had a friend that kept calling me Matthew McConaughey and when I asked why he wouldn’t tell me, all he kept saying was watch the movie. Finally I did and well, my girlfriend while legal was a bit younger than me. We met freshmen year in college, tho I went through the army before college and she went straight from high school. You do the math.

The movie itself however is amazing. Its a coming of age story about a few of the football players and choosing between giving in to the demands of the coach, or staying true to themselves. It doesn’t stop there tho. There is a love story as well, there is some philosophy talk and even a fun side story about the tradition of of High School seniors essentially chasing the soon to be freshmen down and beating them with paddles.

Now I am not quite old enough to know anything about what the 70’s was like. I was born after that, but the stories I hear makes it seem pretty accurate. The acting is also amazing and they really capture what many think of when they think stereotypical high school experience. It is one of those cult classic movies people love and there is a reason for it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Punisher (2004)

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While I’m ridiculously behind on my Netflix MCU stuff like Daredevil, Defenders, and most recently Punisher, I’m glad the vigilante Frank Castle is back in the spotlight once again. It always bugged me his 2004 film never really took off. As far as character origins, Punisher’s is good old revenge, plain and simple. Left for dead after a mobster kills his entire family, ex military man Frank Castle declares a one man war on criminals. Simple but satisfying. Thomas Jane was underappreciated as Castle, the movie had pretty decent acting all around. The action scenes were appropriately gory and badass but weren’t flashy. One of the biggest gripes I hear is it was too depressing- no shit it was depressing. I’ve never heard anyone use comical, light-hearted, or whimsical to describe a Punisher comic. It’s not a classic in the genre but it’s still a good, solid action movie that I hope gets more love in time. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Hulk

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So what happens if you a visionary director, a all star cast, a huge budget and hell, even a legendary composer for the score come together to make a superhero film? Surely this was a sure thing, right? I’m sure we all heard the story of Hulk before but here it is as Lee told it. Bruce Banner was a scientist with some personnel issues that crapped on his relationship with Betty Ross; he did some experiments with gamma radiation that went great or belly up, however you want to look at it. His repressed rage manifested itself with the energy, turning him into a savage beast when he gets angry.

Ang Lee, if you ever read this, you tried. I respect that. This movie tries to be a deep, dramatic character piece full of symbolism and depth. It comes off as a bored, pretentious mess. None of the actors really seem to give much of a shit and with the exception of rumble crack-head bursts of energy from Nick Nolte as the villain (please don’t ask me to tell you what villain he was supposed to be, 15 years later I still don’t have a fucking clue who or what he was supposed to be.) Hulk himself is cartoon-ish, depicted as like 10 feet tall and bright lime green. For a movie about a pissed off green dude on a rampage, there’s very little action. There’s comic panel transitions between scenes which become annoying quick and random trippy scenes added through to be artistic but just crap on the mess. I won’t call this movie a shitpile because I can tell you effort was put into this but it isn’t good. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

When We First Me (2018)

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What happens when you meet the girl of your dreams, have a great night and she meets the love of her life the next day? Apparently you get hammered at their engagement party, spend a bit tossing your lunch and getting a ride home from a woman that seems to not like you very much.

A bit later Noah finds an old picture machine that sends him back in time where he can attempt to win the woman he loves over and over again. It doesn’t always go well. For example in one attempt his love interest Avery and her best friend mistake him for a stalker and he gets beat with an indoor tree for his troubles.

The movie is pretty solid, not perfect but solid. For example for a comedy it doesn’t exactly have to many laugh out loud funny parts. This is forgivable tho since the humor is still there and it isn’t heavy on the romance either. The movie happy to be average with both in return for being bad with neither. The movie is definitely worth a watch but don’t go in expecting an instant classic, but it is an enjoyable experience. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Tragedy Girls

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If you caught Savior’s review of Night of the Living Dead Resurrection (2012) than you may come to see how sometimes we see some undesirable films for the sake of entertaining you fine folks. That was his turn and well, sad to say Emoji Movie (2017) wasn’t the raging dumpster fire I’d been hoping for, I spun the wheel and this came up. For the record, I usually enjoy smaller, low budget horror-comedy projects. Hell, I saw a bit of potential in this flick.

We join two high school BFFs, Sadie and Mckayla, who are millennial cheerleaders, vloggers, and aspiring serial killers. They have dreams of raising hell and leaving a legacy of infamy in there wake. So they kidnap the town psychopath after he fails to kill Sadie one night because they need a mentor after all. He politely tells them to fuck off so they hold him hostage. Since they can’t learn from him, they decide to go wild in his name, getting famous on the internet in the meantime as gossip vloggers during the fear and panic. But life seems to be dividing the young murderers as Sadie falls for the sheriff’s son who happens to be the girl’s editor and Mckayla doesn’t take this well and suddenly she finds a new friend…

In no way is this the worst movie I’ve seen but damn is it disappointing. Though there are a couple of decently funny moments and a couple alright kills, the amount of stupidity made me groan more than laugh. These girls are no Michael or Jason. Sadie’s boy toy hilariously sticks out like a sore thumb because he’s supposed to be 17 or 18 but instead looks to be pushing his mid thirties. This movie is very millennial which annoyed the shit out of me- phones, twitter, people saying things like “hashtag”, “why so jelly”, and talking in text speak and crappy auto-tuned music horribly dates this movie and reminds me I’m old. Besides that, my biggest issue was I couldn’t get behind any of the characters because they were such cardboard stereotypes or were just stupid. I didn’t like this movie myself but I see points where some may like it. May the gaming gods bring you glory because this is for you all that stuck around and best wishes to you all.

Dead Poets Society (1989)

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I have been told a million times in my life, Savior, watch Dead Poets Society. Always meant to, never got around to it. Finally as I am flipping around Netlflix there it is. So I pop that bad boy on and away I go. At first I was a bit bored and couldn’t really get into the whole all boys boarding school thing. Enter Robin Williams character. At this point the whole movie turns around.

This isn’t the role I am used to seeing him in, but it was wonderful. At this point the students really start coming out of their shells. The students go from little rich brats you want to punch to actual characters thinking for themselves. They are learning poetry, discussing ideas defying their parents and the school itself. It is simply a movie you must experience to truly appreciate. I had always heard it was great, but I never understood why until I saw it.

Of course the entire movie isn’t happy and sunshine. There is love with a local high school girl, and I am pretty sure this was the start of Kurtwood Smith being Red Forman. The characters of Red and Mr. Perry are quite similar but Mr. Perry faces a personal tragedy that will show the true range of skill Kurtwood Smith has as an actor. This is also one of the roles that gave Robert Sean Leonard of house his start.

This movie is still mentioned in many circled as one of those cult classic all time greats, but never seems to pop up as one of the best for any of the actors I’ve mentioned, and I think that is simply a travesty. If you have access to Netflix and haven’t seen this, now is the time. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.