Category: Opinion

Evil Bong

evil bong

Yep, this is a real movie. An old film partner told me about this movie back in the old days and I just laughed it off, thinking it was a joke- nope. 6 movies and a fucking versus movie against the Gingerdead Man. So, let’s get this outta the way, please don’t expect a chill-your-bones horror movie out of this. You will laugh.

So a nerd named Alistair moves into a cheap apartment with a group of stoners because he needs a place to study to get his masters and they need a roommate. As you’d expect, it ain’t the most helpful environment for Alistair to study in when everyone’s loud and high most of the time. Well the stoner’s have a great time when paranoid Larnell orders a rare bong. This bong ain’t no ordinary bong; once you toke is takes your soul and transports it to the Bong World, usually filled with murderous strippers. If you die, the Bong Eebee takes your soul. Suddenly, it looks to be up to Alistair to vanquish Eebee and save his friends.

Evil Bong…this movie is so fucking stupid I couldn’t help but love it. It’s absurd stupidity at it’s best. I saw a stripper’s boobs come alive and murder a dude; enough said. The acting is crap, the effects are crap, the music is stereotypical pot-head themes, but I love this movie. Check it out if you want a stupid laugh. Thanks as always and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Friday the 13th, Part 3

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Well, Friday the 13th part 3 is your typical Jason film but known for three things: the whacky 3-D, the debut of Jason in a hockey mask, and the “Jason rape theory”.

For a plot, it’s kind of the same as they tend to be- intro telling us everything up to that point, disco credits…ok, that isn’t normal but dude it was the 80’s, it was ok to have a disco remix here and there. So Jason stumbles onto a married couple in the woods; the wife looks like she’s in her twenties but is acting fifty, and her husband kinda looks like skinny live action Mario. After our first fill of 3-D and jump scares we join another group of teens and a couple of hippies as they go to Crystal Lake for summer fun and death. Jason kills these scamps off one by one. Ok, so I mentioned the “Jason rape theory”; the main girl’s backstory with her last encounter with Jason- it’s kinda gross. So at the end Jason seems dead and a pretty girl that may or may not have been raped by Jason lives…

As far as slasher films go, this is pretty good. The victims are just likable enough that you don’t cheer when Jason kills them. Jason has some decent kills but doesn’t look too intimidating yet  but it’s a fair start. The winner of this movie is the shitty 3-D; I can’t describe the joy I get from shitty 3-D spectacles. In the end, it’s a fine movie in the series, just typical. As always thank you and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Trick r Treat

trick r treat

It’s the season friends, and we got a request to talk about the second best Halloween based horror film out there, so thanks for the request. A decade ago, I remember seeing trailers for it randomly popping up on random horror movies I’d rent from BlockBuster and not knowing what to think. It looked like a strange, modern day throwback to Creepshow and I was sorta right but totally wrong.

Trick r Treat is a anthology film about the weird shit going on in a neighborhood during Halloween night as Samhein or Sam walks among them. The first story revolves around a murderous middle school principle, the second story is about a group of kids who visit a haunted rock quarry where a bunch of disturbed kids were killed, the third story is a different version of Little Red Riding Hood where a young virgin is being stalked by a madman, and the fourth and last story is about a old grouch who gets a special visit from Sam, the spirit of Halloween himself. All of these stories are connected really well and the characters brilliantly intertwine between stories at time. I really, really, really don’t want to drop spoilers on this one because this movie is awesome and it’s a joy to watch. There’s an interesting blend of horror sub-genres at play and dark comedy. Sam is adorable but also has a menacing presence; he quickly joined my favorites list. I really liked how the movie has a comic book feel to it, kinda like a modern day Tales from the Crypt or Creepshow. I absolutely love Trick r Treat and definitely I recommend it to people who want something different this Halloween. Thank you all and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Saw 3-D: The Final Chapter

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Ok, elephant out of the room, the title is a bullshit lie because this Halloween we get Saw 8. I know I said I gave up on Saw and for all intents and purposes I did. So why did I go see Saw 7 in theaters with no one in there but me? Because I had to know how full of shit the “Final Chapter” promise was this time.

So Jill is trying to hide and cover her ass from a scarred and pissed off Hoffman. Hoffman goes on a killing spree, killing the feds trying to catch him. Meanwhile, we finally get a answer to the series biggest question- what the hell happened to Dr. Gordon? Well, we learn there’s a support group for the survivors of Jigsaw and Gordon emerges among them.  Bobby Dagen is the spokesman for this group, a motivational speaker who claims to have survived Jigsaw. Well, he’s full of shit. And here we get the final gauntlet of gore and bullshit…in 3D. Ok I’m going to spoil this: Gordon made a cult out of the survivors who leave Hoffman chained up and alone to die like Gordon was supposed to.

This movie is the epitome of a stereotypical Saw movie: it’s gory, pretends to clever and complex but just is convoluted and pointless but somehow enjoyable. A part of it comes from the whacky 3-D moments. Overall, if you sat through the rest, sit through this because for me and the Saw series, Game Over.

 

It comes at night

it comes at night

It comes at night was a strange instance where the trailer was misleading as hell but the poster kinda tells you more than any trailer did. The trailers made me think I was going to get something like a zombie movie or maybe a tripped out torture flick, but if I had to categorize it, I’d say it’s kinda like the Shining on Meth.

The story centers around a interracial family of father Paul, wife Sarah, and 17 year old son Travis living in their house in the woods after some kind of viral outbreak occurred. We never learn what the virus does, where it comes from, how it spreads, or even the magnitude of the outbreak. All we really know it’s highly contagious and you get purplish-gray welts and get really pale. Paul and Travis take Sarah’s father outside after he contracts the disease and execute him, burning his body after. Later that night, there’s an intruder. Paul wounds him, and takes him into the woods to interrogate him. After a tense discussion and questioning, we discover the man’s name is Will and he wanted food and supplies for his starving family, wife Kim and young son Andrew. These families join together and for a while live in harmony, but tensions begin to build as they cling to themselves and there fears beyond the red door…

I’ve seen the reviews, more scatter-fucked than shotgun pellets flying off of a tilt-a-whirl. Some love this movie, some hate it. I loved it but I really wouldn’t debate anyone who said it sucked. Joel Edgerton gave a great performance as Paul, and the chemistry between everyone is fluid and genuine. I love how quiet, and isolated it is; I absolutely love the ambiguity and the tense fear that escalates from isolation and paranoia. Seriously, don’t watch the trailers. Overall, I loved this movie but I only recommend it if you enjoy slow, suspense driven films; stay away if you’re looking for a action packed gorefest. As always thank you and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Cube (1997)

So I’m on twitter the other day and this guy I occasionally talk to informed me this 1997 classic..yea I say classic its 20 years old,is now on Netflix. (I will get to the other movie when I have time to read a movie)

Cube is essentially the movie that started the whole Saw movie thing. Don’t believe me? Go watch it. Or just read the general plot.

The movie starts off with people waking up not knowing where they are, with people they don’t know. Quickly they discover they are free to roam their general area but must find a way out of the building they are in. The building is square rooms, that all look basically the same of various colors with numbers near all the hatch doors.

I am sure you are wondering where the Saw part comes in. Well certain rooms have various traps set up to kill you, for example one of the escape experts gets his face burned off with a sort of acid spray.

Yes I did say escape expert. There is also an ex cop, a doctor what can only be described as an idiot savant and an office worker that designed the shell of the cube itself.

Added to all this is their struggle to decipher the connection between the traps and the numbers between rooms and how to get out of this death trap. It isn’t hard to see how this could be the father of the Saw movies, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Soma

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I tried man. I really did. The story is fascinating; the graphics are really good. But this wasn’t for me. The story revolves around a dude named Simon Jarret who was in a car crash that killed his girlfriend and left him with brain damage. He signs up for the new kind of experimental treatment that way save his life…he wakes up miles under the ocean in a broken down aquatic lab with machines haunted by the delusion they are really human. Many of the machines we come in contact with react just like people, but there are other things entirely. We discover from a mysterious Catherine that Simon was part of a group who had had there total consciousnesses fused to robot forms and the line between what it means to be man and machine becomes blurred…

As I said. the story is definitely there. Graphically it looks pretty and I could appreciate the nods to Bioshock and Alien in the environmental design. Gameplay wise is the killer. There is a heavy stealth base- no weapons, just hide or run. Everything I faced up to that point, I simply just had to outrun them. Most of my experience with the game was me trying to figure out where the hell to go. Overall, if you enjoyed Outlast or Amnesia (Frictional Games’s previous horror hit) give this a shot but if you want a horror game with stealth and bite, this ain’t your stick. As always thank you and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

R.I.P Visceral Games

visceral games

This will be short and sweet, R.I.P Visceral Games. EA officially announced the crew behind the amazing Dead Space trilogy is shutting down. This brought me down pretty hard. Dead Space was a game that, as a horror fan and sci-fi nerd, delivered everything I could really ever want and did it with love. Another Visceral game I find really underrated is Dante’s Inferno. The dark but alarming adaptation made me rush out and find my own copy of epic poem. To me, Visceral games were a huge part of my PS3 experience and some of the last games to really inspire me.

deadspace

R.I.P Visceral Games, you will be missed.

Saw 6

saw 6

So I already covered 5 a long time ago, but those of you that forget, here’s a brief recap: I hated that piece of armadillo shit. So why did you watch Saw 6, Torsten, you may be wondering? Well, why the hell do we climb mountains? Because they’re freaking there that’s why.

So Hoffman is Jigsaw now and the feds are starting to barrel down on his ass, the only accomplice left is Jill, John’s ex wife. Little does he know, Jill is there to discreetly take Hoffman down, because like Amanda, Hoffman is simply murdering people. Our main protagonist is a health insurance executive that must go through yet another Jigsaw gauntlet in order to learn a lesson. At the end, Jill subdues Hoffman, priming him for the kill by locking him in a rickety chair with the famed bear trap on his head; but the chair breaks and Hoffman escapes, scarred and pissed off.

Saw 6 isn’t bad but it’s goofy. The acting and gore is pretty laughably over the top at times; the story of how the series comes together becomes more and more convoluted each entry to where you stop caring by either 5 or 6. It’s got some fair social commentary on the healthcare system but in the end, the movie is just meh. As always, thank you and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Loot Boxes Good Or Bad?

There are two main questions when it comes to loot boxes. Are they bad for gaming, and are they gambling? Honestly both a matter of opinion. Companies will say no to the first one because it makes them money and gamers seem to be pretty split.

The gambling question weirdly has seen different answers, Americas ESRB has sad no since you get something for your money and the European equivalent has said only a gambling commission could possibly answer it.

However my answers are simple, loot boxes are becoming a cancer. What started as just a quick way for game makers to make some extra cash and gamers to get some cool stuff is becoming damn near pay to win and a pay wall to hide stuff behind.

As for the gambling question that one is rough. Yes you do get something so I get the ESRB’s point. You pay money and you get something, where is the gamble? Here is where it gets dicey. What you get isn’t always of equivalent value. If I said send me $20 and you I will send you random money back between $1 and $100 would you feel that was a gamble? I certainly would. Either way it seems loot boxes are here to stay, so we may as well get used to them. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.