Tag: Movie Review

Red Christmas (2016)

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This movie for me was the definition of mixed feelings. Not because it was bad, which it was. It was bad in that B movie sort of way tho. No, I had mixed feelings for a different reason. See the movie starts off with what seems to be a nice wholesome family on Christmas.

We switch to a man in a hood stumbling in the snow towards a man chopping wood. Of course this guy is going to be a dick and end up dead. Jumping back to the family we discover this wholesome family aren’t so wholesome. The granddaughter may be suicidal playing with nuts she is supposedly allergic to. Her uncle is happy to let her and after being scolded dumps a flask full of liquor into the punch bowl after protesting about why can’t she have the nuts. The pregnant woman and her husband both happen to be on drugs, the priest doesn’t even hide the fact that he is gay and of questionable morals and the grandmother is worst of them all. The only decent person in the family is the son that happens to have down syndrome. Or is he? More on that soon enough.

The man in the hood from sooner knocks on the door and is invited inside. He also obviously has some sort of medical problems both mentally and physically. He doesn’t understand what a gift is and needs it explained, but he does want to read the letter he brought for his mother. After realizing the letter is discussing an abortion clinic he is violently grabbed and thrown out of the house, into the cold wearing nothing but a hooded cloak where he very realistically may die. This is when he decides to kill everyone. Now as this goes on we discover our son with down syndrome happens to be quite bloodthirsty and can’t wait to kill this guy. There is not a single decent person in the entire group. It can actually be argued that the killer is the best person in the group, by the end of the movie you will understand why he is there, why he is angry and that he actually has a very good reason for being upset in the first place. I ended up with mixed feelings because honestly, the killer may not even have been the bad guy. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

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I have heard a lot about this movie since its release, but I never had the urge to watch it. My biggest issue with this movie was going in we all knew the ending. Finally however after watching The Last Jedi I sat down and watched Rogue One.

Much of what I heard came down to two main things,one the best part of the movie is the last about 5 minutes when Darth Vader looks like a total bad ass and the CGI for Princess Leia looks like complete garbage. We will get to those two points in a bit.

First, K-2SO is the best character in the movie. Robo dude is just great, he is well written and well acted. He alone made the movie for me. I think many people are far to harsh on this one, don’t get me wrong the movie is far from great but it is solid. The story is fun the characters are pretty interesting and at no point did I really feel like anything was being forced. The movie only suffered from one thing that sadly nothing anyone did could have fixed.

At the end of the day, this was a story fans never asked for because it never needed to be told. We knew how it ended already. There was no way this movie could have been done in such a way where the audience could truly be invested in any of the characters because we knew by the end they were all going to die and the plans for the Death Star would end up with the rebels and that it would later be destroyed by Luke Skywalker. Felicity Jones played Jyn Erso amazingly and Diego Luna was great as Cassian and even how much I loved K-2So and how well Alan Tudyk played him it didn’t matter because going in, I knew this was the end of them.

As for Darth Vaders bad ass moment, it wasn’t all that bad ass. It was cool, but we have seen better from the Franchise and Leia did not look as bad as people made her out to look. Many people seem to have hated this movie because it was a cool thing to do. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Krampus Unleashed (2016)

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Krampus Unleashed is one of those movies that falls between being a horrible B movie that I love and legitimately just a poorly made movie. Usually they have low production value and they realize this, they embrace this. They don’t pretend to be more. Krampus however attempts to blur this line. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, the movie looks pretty good. The acting is solid as well. Where the movie falls a bit flat however is the pacing is off and the story itself is rather odd.

The movie starts off in what seems like post WW2 Germany when some treasure hunters late at night when they discover a small box with a black stone in it. After some fighting they unleash Krampus whom shows up to kill a few people. We then find ourselves in the future.

A family trip to gramps country home we get to know the family, mostly a pretty basic group, expect for one kid that wants to have sex with his cousin. Not a joke by the way. This is where the story gets weird. Turns out that scene at the beginning of the movie was on this country home farm as the family discovers the rock in a river.

I won’t go to much further into the story, feel to watch it for yourself. While the story itself isn’t great it isn’t horrible and the gore factor is rather nice with limbs being torn off and blood by the bucket full. It is a nice throw back to when horror movies were just awkward stories that were an excuse for a body count. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

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.

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

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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.

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.

 

Dreamcatcher (2003)

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Before we get started, I know, the Stephen King book was better. I have not read it, but someone always shows up and says it. I could say this movie was garbage, someone will say it. If I say the movie was amazing someone will still say it. Save us the time, lets assume the book was better and move on. And yes I am talking to one person specifically. My mother. I know you read these mom, I know you think the book was better and yes you will see me at Christmas. Also mom, you can click here  to buy a Savior Gaming coffee cup.

Now, moving on. Dreamcatcher as you may have noticed, is based on a Stephen King book. I am also convinced he was on drugs when he wrote this. Here is the story.

A group of kids help a mentally challenged kid being attacked by bullies. They become friends and it turns out he has special powers that he then gives to his new friends. As time goes on they all grow up, keep in touch and eventually have to save the world from an infection, or aliens. or something, I am trying not to ruin it. Also that sounds a lot like Power Rangers.

That is a pretty bare bones explanation, but we all know my love of avoiding spoilers. The story is pretty damn great tho, as is the acting. You will never be confused by it and what is going on will be pretty clear, but the true weight of it all is just out of reach. King has always been a master at this, and the movie does a good job at translating that. By all means check this one out, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Bedeviled (2016)

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With the reliance on technology today what would happen if there was an app that was also your companion? It talked to you, it knew you, it used the information on your phone to help you with things? You would probably call it Siri or Cortana. Lets take it a step further tho, what if that thing could say, play music for you? How about turn your lights on or record a television show? Actually we have the technology to do that as well.

This movie however isn’t about that. No this movie is about an evil force using our knowledge that technology exist to appear on your cell phone as an app that a friend sent you, gain your trust, then kill you. It then sends an invite for the app to your friends, and the process starts all over again. It is almost like a modern day boogie man or Freddie Kruger in a sense, angry that humans have convinced themselves they are gods and have nothing left to fear it has taken it upon itself to create that fear,

The story is pretty well done as is the acting, it manages to be modern and brings to light many of the things of the modern world, but it doesn’t do it in a belittling or arrogant way. It doesn’t try to convince you the good old days were better. It simply tries to tell you times have changed and some thing is angry. This one is worth a watch people, best wishes and may the gamin gods bring you glory.