One Last Shot (1998)

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One shot is a short film by Mike Clattenberg which most of you know from Trailer Park boys. It featured the characters Rickey, Julian and Mr. Lahey and told the story of Rickey and Julians last day together before Rickey moved to Vancouver.

At first I thought the movie wasn’t very good but I realized it wasn’t really fair to judge a 20-year-old short film shot by friends and 3 guys to harshly. Sure Clerks is basically a cult classic but that is equal parts genius and fluke to be honest.

One last shot was actually fairly well put together, the scenes make sense and for a black and white film the lighting is actually well done. At no point did I feel like the dark parts were overly dark or the light taking away from anything and the acting while a bit bland at times didn’t exactly feel stiff. It just felt like what it was, people who loved movies that wanted to make one and get some experience and honestly that showed. I have seen much higher production value movies feel less heartfelt and honest than this did. Its only 30 minutes and it very much worth checking out if you are a fan of his or the Trailer Park Boys (which I am not) best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Young Guns 2 (1990)

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Young Guns like the first one is a movie I haven’t seen in so long I forgot the story. If you read my review of the first one yesterday you will know I did enjoy both movies and suggest you watch them both. The story of this one takes place not long after the first.

With most of the gang dead or in hiding Billy is still in New Mexico traveling around doing his thing. The story is actually however one big flash back told by a man named “Brushy” Bill Roberts. He is talking to a lawyer in the 1950’s telling the story of how he was promised a pardon years ago and never received it. He would not like to meet the governor to talk about getting it now. The flash back details how him and his crew attempted to run and escape to “old Mexico” to avoid the new sheriff Pat Garrett that used to be part of Billys posse.

Interestingly enough the movie is actually based off an actual man who claimed to be Billy the Kid and was discredited but there is some evidence to support that Pat Garrett killed the wrong man or that him and Billy intentionally mislead people to help Garrett collect the reward money and Billy could finally be free. Bill Roberts died in 1950 but was verified to be billy the kid by some people who did know Billy tho most people don’t believe him. Honestly we will never know, but it is a nice story none the less. Best wishes  and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Young Guns (1988)

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Young guns is a movie I haven’t seen in years, to the point I forgot what both movies were even about. Seriously I forgot it was about Billy the Kid and Doc.  The story starts out with a man named John Tunstall taking in a bunch of deviant basically criminals and giving them a second chance. The problem is him and another local cattle merchant are both going for a government contract for beef and with some powerful enemies John is murdered.

Billy, Doc and the rest of Johns boys are deputized to arrest the murderers and go off to do their thing. Billy however gets a little trigger happy and kills the first guy they go to arrest. This results in a gun fight that kills many and a legend is born.

What follows is an interesting take on the Billy the Kid story. Emilio Estevez and Charlie sheen do an amazing job at their roles as does Kiefer Sutherland as Doc Scurlock. In an era when westerns died off it managed to be a great movie that even warranted a sequel, a movie that I will be covering as well and I promise will be getting my recommendation just as well as this one. If by some chance you haven’t seen the Young Guns movies, Hulu has them both and Netflix has the first and now is a great time to check them out. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Supernatural Seasons 1 through 5

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I wouldn’t say I joined the Supernatural trip late, its more accurate to say I fell off the bus around season 3 and jumped back on when it was a few seasons later. And by that I mean Netflix has 13 seasons and 14 will start airing way before I finish catching up. Seriously, one day Jared is on Gilmore Girls (Yea I liked the show, you can mock me if you want)then boom it’s over 13 years later and he is still on Supernatural. I won’t lie I know Jenson was on Smallville for a bit and Dawson”s Creek but I honestly can’t say I remember seeing any of it.

The shows first couple seasons really set up the brothers dynamic and how they came to be hunters in the first place. From the death of their mother and Sam (Jared) leaving Dean (Jenson) and their father John Winchester  (Jeffery Dean Morgan) to do things on their own. When dad goes missing on a hunting trip Dean bothers Sam at college to help find him. While this doesn’t go well Sams girlfriend shuffles the mortal coil the same way their mom did. The search for dad and revenge will move on.

As the seasons progress more and more things are dealt with, ghost, shapeshifters, demons you name it. We will see them go through god knows how many bags of salt, silver bullets and they will set more than a few things on fire.Should also probably mention by the end of season 5 we will find out that angels, Lucifer and even God are all real and are all honestly pricks.  Tho most of the gods we read about are real the in the world of Supernatural and apparently very killable.

Honestly I think that may be why the show has the staying power it does, beyond the fact that women like men enjoy watching good-looking people doing stuff. It takes a very simple and popular topic, put a different spin on it people aren’t used to, and away you go. The characters are mostly likable except for a few that you would rather have dead but to be fair,they are mostly the bad guys anyway. There is also significant character growth over the seasons which is quite rare on most shows that go on this long. I don’t want to spoil too much since like myself some people may be a bit late to the party and trying to catch up, but for any fans of monsters and ghost and the like the show is very much worth watching. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Chasing Amy (1997)

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Chasing Amy is one of the earlier Kevin Smith movies, tho not one of the Jay and Silent Bob movies. Starring Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams and Jason Lee the story is about two comic book writers, Ben and Jason just doing their thing when they meet another, less popular writer, Adams.

Holden (Ben) and Adams (Alyssa) of course eventually fall in love after much chasing by Holden. Tho Alyssa is, or was a lesbian her entire life. Jason (Banky) doesn’t really approve of it, and he makes this quite well-known. He actually is quite homophobic to the point he claims lesbians that don’t hate men aren’t even real, kind of like the Easter Bunny or Santa. ( His Claim not mine)

Eventually however we find out that Alyssa is not as innocent as she pretended to be. Not that this is either bad or good, it simply is what it is. She has however been with men in the past, something she did in fact lie about. This doesn’t sit well with Holden. It is also later revealed that part of why Banky disliked Alyssa so much is he himself has some pretty homosexual tendencies.

The movie itself is pretty well done and is good for plenty of laughs and thought-provoking at times and is worth a watch, the movie however should not be taken overly seriously. Like many Kevin Smith movies there is plenty of social commentary to be had but over all it is simply fun and childish at times. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Stephen King’s Thinner (1996)

Stephen King’s Thinner is based on the novel by the same name and is the last novel released under King’s the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Released in 1996 by Paramount Pictures.

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Stephen King’s Thinner is based on the novel by the same name and is the last novel released under King’s the pseudonym Richard Bachman. The story is about an over weight lawyer named Billy Halleck. Billy is what you would call less than honest.

After winning his most recent case and discovering his diet still isn’t really working he goes out to celebrate with his wife. On the ride home he is enjoying some extra driving activities with his wife and runs over an elderly gypsy lady and kills her. There of course is an investigation to determine if there is any wrong doing and the investigation is a complete sham. The investigator lies about having even done a breathalyzer test. Billy wasn’t drunk, but he still lied in court. The judge also pressures people into lying about the old woman running out of a store instead of walking.

After Billy is found to have done nothing wrong in the disgrace of a trial the husband and daughter decide to take justice into their own hands by setting a gypsy curse on Billy. This curse will make him lose weight. This doesn’t sound bad, except for the fact that he will lose weight until he dies.

At first Billy and his wife doesn’t seem to realize that anything is even wrong. Then they think maybe it is a sign of cancer. Billy is the first however to think maybe something is wrong when he notices the judge also has a skin issue and coincidentally right where the old gypsy man touched him as well. Of course he will see multiple doctors and end up at the mayo clinic, because who would believe gypsy curses are real? I mean would you think this dude could curse you?

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Seriously nobody would think this guy is going to be serious. It isn’t more than a few weeks tho before our 300 pound friend however is down to about 150 despite eating thousands of calories a day of whatever the hell he wants.

The movie itself is interesting but suffers from the same issue pretty much every King book adaptation does, you will see most reviews come down to “The book was better.” Honestly this may be true, I personally haven’t read the book. The movie itself was fun and had an interesting concept. It also played pretty much every stereotype on every person in the movie. The lawyer had no morals, the cop and judge were dirty, the gypsies were basically magical nomads that lived a long time and seemed to have no morals and are hated by everyone. Pretty standard stuff. I did enjoy the movie and the ending tho, and would happily watch the movie again. It was never scary or really all that funny, it was just interesting. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

It (1990)

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The 1990 version of It has been a classic since, well since 1990. When the remake was announced people kind of lost their minds. Who could possibly play Pennywise better than Tim Curry? Well this isn’t about all that, but if you are interested we did cover that you can read more here.

Watching this movie made me remember that this wasn’t truly a movie, but a made for t.v. series. This does show by the lack of swearing and blood, something the 80’s and 90’s usually didn’t shy away from. This being made for t.v. tho, they did have to find a way to tone down what is actually a pretty violent and disturbing book. This is where they succeeded quite well.

In fact this may actually be the most successful part of the whole thing. When I was younger this movie actually was pretty freaky, but as an adult there were things that actually annoyed me more than anything. For example the constant jumping back and forth between childhood and being an adult as they introduced characters seemed completely unnecessary. It was also a 3 hour series that easily could have been two hours with much of it being feeling stretched out for no reason I can think of.

That isn’t to say the whole thing is bad, each character is played magnificently and Tim Curry still plays an amazing Pennywise the clown. I also feel comparing the two may be a bit unfair seeing as how one is made for t.v. and the other is a full-fledged movie.

At the end of the day however I have to admit, the 1990 version of It just doesn’t hold up very well for me. It’s still solid enough but it just doesn’t compare to the remake for me which I would much rather watch. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

 

Twisted Metal:Black (PS4)

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I have been a fan of Twisted Metal for a long time, ever since the original. My favorite like most people has actually always been Twisted Metal 2, but I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to pick this one up when it was on sale.

The game itself is exactly what it has always been. You pick one of the characters, each with their own story and vehicle. You then drive around picking up weapons on different levels killing the other people. The controls are nice and the graphics aren’t bad for an old PS2 game remastered for the PS4. The game also now has trophies which is nice, tho none of them are really all that hard to get. The game is worth picking up for fans of the series, and it’s really not a bad spot to jump in. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Real Genius (1985)

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Real Genius is one of those 80’s movies that for some reason most people I know haven’t seen, and that greatly upsets me. The story is simple. Mitch is recruited to a school for super smart people, he works with Chris the smartest person in the school turned slacker. They are tasked with a school project to build a laser. They aren’t the only two doing this but hey they are the main two.

As the story goes on we see all sorts of shenanigans, from the turning an entire section of the school into ice for a winter carnival.

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To throwing a massive party with the local beauty school.

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The movie is first and foremost, a comedy. This starts out pretty early with the scene where Mitch meets Chris, and he asks about him being prepared for gravity reversing itself and even trying to convince him the antenna on an odd remote control is in fact a penis stretcher, and offers to let him try it.

The movie does eventually take a more serious turn however, as early on you the viewer will discover the laser is actually being developed by the school for the government as a weapon to be used from space to assassinate targets. Mitch and friends eventually find this out as well, but not until the laser is finished and in the hands of the government.

They will of course go on a quest to put an end to the weapon and take revenge on the dean of the school for lying to them in the fist place, which will involve filling a house with popcorn. He hates popcorn. Regardless the movie is currently on Netflix, go check this out. The movie is amazing and has a great soundtrack. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Space Harrier 2 (Sega Genesis Classics)

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Space Harrier 2 is the story of a guy with a huge cannon somehow flying around shooting even weirder stuff. By the way not in a plane or anything. He is just holding a cannon just shooting stuff. Also the usual is true here, either looks like the original, or an insanely well polished newer version.

Seriously this game is weird as hell check out my original review for Sega Forever Space Harrier 2 Sega Forever and that opinion hasn’t changed one bit. The game is pretty fun for the early style shooter it is, but it is still a weird concept. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.