Tag: Reviews

The Matrix (1999)

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Today I realized  this movie is almost 20 years old,and that upsets me. This movie also changed a lot in movies, namely everyone and their brother using that bullet dodge move Neo does, you know the one. We aren’t getting into it right now. We all now the story, computer hacker meet beautiful woman, computer hacker wants a lil something something if you know what I mean, computer hacker gets a choice between 2 pills, computer hacker discovers his entire life is not what it seemed.

The entire purpose of this movie is to make people thing, to question what is going on around them and to ask, what is reality and how would you know what is real and what isn’t? I think,there are plenty of theories out there. Regardless this movie that brought us memes and long black coats is still to this day discussed for a reason. It looked beautiful, sounded beautiful, had a rich and engrossing story and all these years later is still meme worthy. If you haven’t seen it by now you need to, and lucky for you the trilogy is on Hulu. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Avengers Infinity War (2nd Opinion)

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Well it finally happened. The new Avengers released so me and @torstenvblog planned a trip to the not quite local movie theater to see it. So with the help of a stolen ( borrowed from momma savior) car we journeyed off to see the movie. Now @torstenvblog didn’t have high hopes and truth be told while I was a bit more open-minded I expected a more solid movie I didn’t expect greatness. But how was it?

Well from the get go this doesn’t waste time getting into to. You won’t be waiting around to see Thanos or getting into the story. You will be thrown right into things, and not in a bad way. The only real draw back is that while you don’t have to see the last Thor movie or Black Panther movie for example to enjoy this one ( I did not) it truly will help and I highly recommend it. This is by no means a good spot to try to enter the MCU, but it can be done I think.

Thanos as a villain is great,I have my own theories on this one but that will be in a future post. Suffice it to say I enjoyed hating this bastard. It was also nice having a bad guy that not only wasn’t an idiot but also did things that were actually bad. He is by far my favorite villain not named Loki.

The movie isn’t perfect of course, but it was still great and Thor by far stole the show. I loved seeing Dr. Strange and and Tony Start bicker back and forth and Spidey making Alien reference this week of quite nice. Some of he CGI looked a bit off at times especially when it came to the Hulk Buster suit. @torstenvblog felt the pacing was a bet off as well but personally I enjoyed the roller coaster like ride. You can read his thoughts however for yourself . Avengers: Infinity War.

The ending is also not anything I wasn’t expecting, but they managed to do it in such a way that I didn’t care, and for me that was all that mattered. This movie should not be missed. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mom and Dad (2018)

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As a parent myself I can honestly say every parent has thought ” damn it I hate my kids some times” but I can’t say I have ever wanted to kill them. You know, for legal reasons. Don’t want that in writing. Mom and Dad however is about a typical suburban family, you know mom dad two-story house two cars daughter and son.

I have to stress this, the movie is pretty much the epitome of a dark horror movie. The general idea is that one day things are normal when all of a sudden parents attempt to kill their children. While this sounds like a straight out horror movie, and it easily could be they did make it a comedy and I am glad they did.

The movie is far from perfect. The children for example play pretty boring characters, and Nickolas Cage will either be an insane over acted character you love or hate.

The good however is really good, the concept is rather fun, the comedy aspect is really fun and the horror part is pretty well done as well. The very beginning sets up a few things for later that either  you forget about until they pop up or that hint at some social commentary that doesn’t really go where you expect.

There is however one scene that may be a bit much for some people who I feel the need to warn people about. It does set up a key part of the story, but some people may be a bit touchy on the subject. One scene has a woman having a baby. After being allowed to hold it she starts to squeeze the baby which results in the nursing staff and her sister freaking out and attempting to get the baby off her. The sister then reaches for a scalpel to stab the kid with. They do save the baby, and the scene sets the fact up that the parents will only attack their own kids specifically, but it can be a bit graphic for some. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Field of Dreams (1989)

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If you build it, he will come. These are the words Ray Kinsella hears before inevitably plowing down a corn field for build a baseball field where it once stood. He also may have the most understanding while is movie and novel history.

Ray didn’t have the best relationship with his dad, and after he explains the 1919 Black Sox scandal that saw 7 players banned from baseball. It isn’t long before his skeptical wife Annie (yea shes ok) sees a man in a baseball uniform just standing around in their baseball field. Ray soon recognizes him as Shoeless Joe Jackson, one of the 7 men from the Black Sox scandal. It isn’t long before more historical players begin to show up to play on this field, tho not everyone can see them. The story however is more about family than baseball.

I won’t go into more detail just that the movie is based on  a book which many people don’t actually seem to realize for some reason. Such a classic really just needs to watched to truly be enjoyed. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The movie is an instant classic even when it released with baseball fans all over the world, so much so that in 2017 the film was added to the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress.

Of Mice and Sand Revised (PS4)

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The other day I am rummaging thru games just looking to send some of my girlfriends hard-earned cash, with her permission of course. She is cool like that. That is when I see this game, that some how I had no clue existed. Now I had no choice but to buy this weird has hell looking game. Its mice, traveling the desert looking for El Dorado. Yea that is what is going on here.

The graphics are as basic as basic get, and honestly that is a good thing. This actually helps the game,these simplistic yet cute graphics actually add a certain charm to the game that many titles today are missing.

The sound is also quite honestly well below what most titles today offer, but again it is good enough especially at the price point the game is offered and again it really does just add to the charm.

The game however can get a bit repetitive, just like any other city builder. Make no mistake by the way, that is exactly what this game is when you boil it down. As you travel from out post to out post running into various situations that I won’t spoil for you, there will be rooms and items to build.

All in all tho for $10 the game is a blast, looks and sounds charming and is simply addictive to play, I had a lot of fun and will for a the foreseeable future. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled

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Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled is the 4th and final Wishmaster movie, thankfully. Once again John Novak returns as the Djinn, and this one is a bit different. Still bad, still the same plot, but this time the Djinn tries to be nice to our chosen one with the 3 wishes. He still does the usual with everyone else, you know kills people while twisting their wishes or taking things way to literal with their wish.

The nudity is still here for I assume the same reason as the last one when it suddenly showed up, covering up a bad story. This time a woman (Lisa) is trying to help her boyfriend win a lawsuit after a motorcycle accident. Her lawyer that loves her gives her a gift that turns out to contain a stone that once again releases the Djinn. Lisa uses her first 2 wishes to unknowingly help her boyfriend and the third, weirdly creates a paradox. She doesn’t know the Djinn isn’t her actually her lawyer and wishes she could love her for who he is, which messes things up a bit since love must be given freely and only she could grant that wish.

The whole thing is convoluted and makes no real damn sense. Honestly I would watch the first 2 Wishmaster movies and pretend the other 2 don’t exist. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Wishmaster 3:Beyond the Gates of Hell (2001)

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Wishmaster 3 brings the Djinn back again, tho  played by John Novak this time and honestly the change just isn’t good to me. In fact almost everything about this movie represents a huge fall about the movie for me, minus the fact that I am a dude and the nudity content shot up for the next 2 movies for some unexplained reason. I can only guess this was to cover up for the fact that the story takes a wide turn into ridiculous and nonsensical.

This time a teachers assistant awakens the Djinn and the Djinn now terrorizes a college to find the one that freed him, once again to free his kind to rule the world. Diana however has a plan, and that plan is St. Michael the Archangel. Yup, good old St. Mike shows up with his sword to defeat the Djinn, but he can’t. For some inexplicable reason this angel shows up with no powers other than a magical sword and he can’t even win, he needs this college student to finish him off. The movie just makes no real sense, the death scenes aren’t even all that fun and the movie is a huge step down from the last two. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Wishmaster 2:Evil Never Dies (1999)

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Our favorite Djinn is (Andrew Divoff) is back, this time accidentally released by a thief in this made for T.V horror movie. Honestly, it looks like a made for T.V. movie. Released in 1999 it looks like it was made in 1989, tho honestly that is part of its charm. I do however use the word charm vaguely because it will take a special horror movie fan to enjoy this. Rotton tomatoes trashed this movie with a 10%, but it did fair better on IMBd with a 5.1/10.

The story itself isn’t bad, tho again pretty cliche and straight out of the 80’s and quite simpler Djinn gets released, collects souls, attempts to grant the one that released him 3 wishes to release the rest of his kind and take over the world and in true Djinn form all of his wishes are granted very literally and take a quick turn for the gross and deadly as he collects 1000 souls.

The movie however is fun in that gross and weird way, but it isn’t for everyone and doesn’t offer anything your average horror fan hasn’t seen a million times. All in all, however I enjoyed it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Wishmaster (1997)

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Wishmaster is Produced by Wes Craven, and is the only one of the movies with his name attached to it and is the movie about Djinn, more commonly known as genies. Tho not the traditional versions we are used to hearing about. The much older and darker versions that give you exactly what you ask for and are far more vile and evil.

When an opal finds its way to Alex, who finds something odd about it while attempting to appraise it for her boss, she leaves it with a friend, but not before accidentally releasing the before mentioned djinn.

This evil djinn now is now free to grant wishes to collect souls to trap in the opal for his own purposes prior to granting Alex any 3 wishes she desires. This also serves a purpose I don’t want to spoil, just know the movie does contain a pretty respectable body count and is quite gory and graphic,as you would expect from any Wes Craven movie.

The acting, visuals and sound all have a nice 80’s throw back feel to them while maintaining a true 90’s look. Clearly in today’s world you won’t be impressed by any of this but you won’t exactly be sad to see it. This one is worth checking out if you haven’t seen it, it and the sequels are currently on Hulu. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Flashback: A Retrospective Review — RetroboyJon’s Game Stuff

With the upcoming release of Flashback on the Switch, I think it’s time we revisited the original, it’s one of my favourite games of all time and one of the most original games released. Honestly. It really is. I first played this when I was about 12, I borrowed it from a friend for the […]

via Flashback: A Retrospective Review — RetroboyJon’s Game Stuff