My Cousin Vinny (1992)

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Another movie that most people consider a classic, and I am inclined to agree.  The story of two young men on a road trip in the wrong place at the wrong time down in Alabama. Not the normal Alabama by the way, backwoods corrupt everyone knows each other Alabama.

Enter  Joe Pesci, a New York lawyer looking to win his first case. The problem is he isn’t a very good lawyer. What will follow is a story of lies, mistakes, jail time and one hell of s wild ride where Marissa Tomei will do most of the work anyway all in name of finally getting married.

Admittedly this movie with anyone other than Joe Pesci and Marissa Tomei would not work. They just have an odd chemistry that made it work. The story while solid and a script that was fun was simply an average movie that was made memorable by two people that went above and beyond to make it amazing. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Mockingjay

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Happy Thanksgiving again, one and all from me and Savior. We come to the conclusion of the Hunger Games trilogy. Arguably Mockingjay ties with the first for my favorite of the series and it is one of my favorite conclusions in all of fiction. I tip my hat to you Suzanne Collins.

So Katniss is in a fucked up place after being decisively rescued at the end of Catching Fire. District 12 was burned to the ground; Peeta and a few of the surviving tributes were taken captive by the Capitol; she discovers District 13, which we are told was destroyed by the Capital during the last rebellion since book 1 still exists under the ruins and is trying to unite the other districts in full out war. Katniss is on the brink of sanity after 2 rounds of murder and mayhem, her and fellow survivor Finnick are trying to cope. Snow still finds to psychologically torment her. President Coin, head of 13, starts pushing Katniss to become the Mockingjay as others have started calling her, to be the poster child of rebellion. Katniss agrees if only to make things a lil less shitty for her and her family and to make rescuing Peeta and the others higher priority. Katniss is suited up in a fancy combat suit with a new high tech bow and is sent out to make connections with real people after failing hard at making TV promos. These trips, while damaging her further inside, are helpful. In a daring move, the other tributes are rescued, but all is not well. Peeta violently attacks Katniss and damn near kills her.  He’d been tortured and brainwashed. Everything comes together in a last ditch effort to finally capture Snow, but it turns out to be one last game…

Writing this review was hard for me because I want to get into spoilers but I want anyone who never saw the movies or read the books to pick them up and experience them as I did. I will say the ending is ballsy, especially for a YA book and I respect that much darker, realistic ending than some bullshit Hollywood happy ending. As for the movies, both were really done well but I prefer 1 over 2. Somehow the ending feels watered down to me on film than the book. Overall, it was a great end to a pretty great trilogy. I have a special friend who seemed interested in the series, so I’ll list them order below. Happy Thanksgiving and may the odds be ever in your favor

Hunger Games- Catching Fire- Mockingjay

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Battlefront 2 Loot Boxes Gambling?

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There is no quick answer to this question, but maybe. But that is a question many people have been asking lately it seems. Belgium Justice Minister seems to believe it is, tho Translations seem to be a bit off and there has been an update to the story that can be found here.

Hawaii Rep. Chris Lee also wants to fight what he calls “predatory behavior” more on that can be found here.

Now i’m not sure gambling is the right word, but I can understand the argument. You are spending money and may or may not receive something of equal value. On the flip side of things you will get something for your money so is it really a true gamble? This is definitely an interesting thing to watch. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Thanksgiving Grindhouse trailer

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Happy Turkey Day one and all! So this is a weird ass thing, even for Saviorgaming, but I’m going to talk about a trailer for a movie that even real, but hot damn brought me so much enjoyment.

Some explanation is due first. So we had two amazing directors, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, come together in 2007 to bring us a double feature showing off there love for the old Grindhouse films. I had the privilege of seeing the whole thing in theaters and it was GLORIOUS! Well between films, we were treated to mock trailers directed by actual directors inspired by the sub-genre like Rodriguez, Rob Zombie, and in this particular case, Eli Roth (Cabin Fever and Hostel 1 and 2). Some like Machete and Hobo with a Shotgun did become actual movies in time.

So Thanksgiving is meant to be a slasher film in the spirit of Halloween or Black Christmas, and holy shit I wish this was a really movie. The film is grainy and raw like an old school 70’s horror movie. There is a creepy ass narrator. And I shit you not, the killer dresses up in a pilgrim suit and beheads  a turkey mascot with hedge clippers during the damn town parade. the final tag line is “This Thanksgiving everyone’s coming to dinner…in a bodybag!” I love this trailer as much as I love the Grindhouse. The trailer made me laugh and was just gross and insane and awesome, so I implore all you horror fans to check it out on Youtube if you never seen it. Best wishes, and I will return later to cover Mockingjay.

The Patriot (2000)

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The Patriot is a movie about a family during the Revolutionary war. No stranger to war the father and head of the family Benjamin Martin really wants nothing to do with the war. Like many soldiers he has seen what it brings, the death and suffering and the many other hardships. This however causes some strife with his sons and many of the locals as his history is known and many view the British unfavorably.

During a very powerful scene this is actually shown as Ben votes against war with the British and then refuses to serve, as you will learn so do many of the people that favor the war itself.

So let us move on shall we? As we all know if he isn’t forced into this fight we don’t have a movie, and these bloody redcoats want his farm. Turns out Ben may set the standard for not to be messed with, but in case you haven’t seen the movie I will let you see for yourself. What follows is a tale of love and loss, strategy and betrayal and so much more.

This is however a period piece, and for people with no interest in history or just a general disinterest in that period much of the joy in this movie will be lost on you. This is a classic example of some will love this movie and others will quickly lose interest. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Due Date (2010)

Oh Due Date. This movie should in theory not be good. Its the odd couple on a road trip. And yet here we are. A great comedy that never fails to entertain. Honesty I think if this were any two other actors it would not have worked.

Essentially two men, one a complete idiot with no life experience that wants to be an actor and is obsessed with the show 2 and a half men and a business man obsessed with finding the perfect name for his soon to be born kid get kicked off an air plane and due to circumstances beyond their control are forced to carpool together back to the city of angels.

What follows is a story of masturbating dogs, car accidents, a prison break from border patrol and a plethora of other messed up situations that lead to comedy gold. There are plenty of twist and turns along the way and after 7 years I still hope to see these two in another movie together. They just seemed to go together. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Final Fantasy Tactics (PlayStation One)

I have a history with this game. And that history is not good. See I got into a trap with the first battle that lets you save in between fights. I didn’t create a different save. Then i got stuck and couldn’t win..restart the whole damn game..then my memory card broke…then my PlayStation broke..then disk broke. Then my new disk didn’t work. This took about a year to straighten out.

After that year I was treated to one of the most glorious games ever created. The job system was put together to damn near perfection, with each one leading to a bigger and better one and each choice leading to a new tactical advantage or weakness.

The battle system itself requires strategy and thought and can be punishing to mistakes, but it is also fair and rewarding to good decisions.

The graphics for the time looked great and even now for a retro game are passable and fun to look at with sound that was amazing. But all that fails in comparison to one thing.

The story. This was easily the most mature story in the Final Fantasy world and to this day in my opinion still is. Two war torn countries killing each other for power, while the poor starve and the high born nobles struggle to win favor with the ruling class and consider the poor as nothing more than animals.

This game should not be missed by anyone, even people that don’t normally play this type of game should give it a chance. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Catching Fire

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Catching Fire is the second story of the Hunger Games trilogy, for which I’m covering Mockingjay on Thanksgiving. So to get us in the mood, let’s get into the book and movie.

Picking up almost a year after Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the 74th Hunger Games, the pair is about to set off on there victory tour, still pretending for the cameras they are madly in love. Unfortunately, President Snow is not convinced. He shows up to Katniss’s house, telling her that there stunt at the end of the games triggered problems in the other Districts, unrest was beginning and the people were rebelling. If she wants to bring peace, he tells her they’d better act more in love so the public would think they were just lovesick teens and weren’t trying to spit in the Capitol’s face. As hard as they try though, the other Districts are already riled up. The fire is catching. As the 75th Hunger Games approaches, the third quarter quarrel, snow delivers the special rule of this special game: the tributes would be limited to the past champions of games past. Being the only female winner from District 12, Katniss is selected by default. This time it’s Katniss and Peeta against the old champions, being forced into uneasy alliances to survive a game Snow will make damn sure they can’t win…

Both book and movie are really good sequel; the movie was a major improvement over the first. The book is a bit slow at first but racks up tension really well, leading to a epic oh shit ending. My favorite part of the book are the backstories of the other tributes. As for the movie, the acting and action improved a lot as well as the special effects. This time they add some humor to it but it surprisingly works well and well placed. In the end I think the book and movie are definitely worth checking out. Best wishes and may the odds be ever in your favor

Happy Gilmore (1996)

Adam Sandler day continues..Well i do two a day so I guess ends with Happy Gilmore. First off I just realised both Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore are over 20 years old. I also saw both of these movies when they first came out..I saw them on VHS…Yea that one hurts.

Anyway Happy Gilmore is the story of, you guessed it, Happy Gilmore. Wannabe hockey player that loves his grand mother. When she loses her home he weirdly discovers an undiscovered talent for whacking gold balls. And knocking people off roofs.

One day while hustling people for money at the local driving range he is convinced there is some big money to be made in professional golf, and he does want to get his grandmothers house back

Happy Gilmore is actually quite a bit better than Billy Madison. Plus it had a fight with Bob Barker and that was amazing.

Turns out while hockey players are great at smacking the ball great distances they don’t do well at putting. They also don’t do well at playing quietly games that don’t involve beating people up and throwing things.

His feud with “Shooter” McGavin may be one of my favorites in movie history, and if you somehow are an Adam Sandler fan and haven’t seen this one, you need to. Beat wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory