Tag: Reviews

Mr. Woodcock (2007)

download (7)

Oh Billy Bob Thornton you sick sick bastard how I love you movies. This time around Billy Bob (Mr. Woodcock) plays what can only be described as a jack ass pretty much abusive gym teacher that torments his students to the point of ruining their lives. Seann William Scott plays Farley, one of those students. Many years later Farley rights a book and is honored by the town and comes home, only to discover Mr. Woodcock (Billy Bob) is dating his mom.

The movie itself honestly isn’t exactly good, much of it is pretty much run of the mill stuff that is easy to see coming. For me it is just one of those guilty pleasure movies. I understand the story is simplistic and unoriginal. That being said Billy Bob plays the role of Mr. Woodcock amazingly. I love watching him play his usual role, he does it so well. Scott counters his role to perfection as well. The fact that he was pretty much always seen as Stiffler always saddened me.

If you like Scott and Thornton you will probably enjoy this movie, on the other hand however if not, you will probably not be into this movie. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Streets of Rage (Xbox 360)

images (2)

Streets of rage is one of those classics and for Xbox One owners this month you can get all 3 for free with the Sega Vintage Collection. The first one is a pretty faithful version of the game. The sound and graphics look and sound like crisper versions of the game people grew up loving and the controls haven’t changed a bit tho it is debatable as to whether or not that is good or bad.

For fans of the original this game is a must have and the fact that it is free makes downloading this a no brainer, and you can do it with full confidence that it is a worthy copy of the game and even comes with multiple options on how it fits the screen. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Super Mega Baseball 2 Xbox One

super mega baseball 2

One of the free games this month on Xbox One is Super Mega Baseball 2. The game isn’t actually what I was expecting, which isn’t a bad thing. The game is clearly not an officially licensed game so all the players and team are fictitious. The game also has a very old-fashioned Sega/SNES arcade style feel to it.

The batting is all done with the A and X buttons with one being for a contact swing and the other being for a power swing. The batting controls function great and at no time did I feel like missing the ball was due to anything other than my own incompetence. The pitching works a bit weird but is easy to get used to. You used the right stick to choose a pitch the use A to throw, as you are winding up you use the left stick to move the pitch to the proper place in to make the ball go where you want. It doesn’t take much getting used to, but it is a bit odd.

All in all the game isn’t bad, but I largely think that could be because I didn’t have to pay for it. The game is fun but it leaves much to be desired. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

A Kingdom for Keflings

download (4)

Every so often my daughter will ask for a game on my Xbox and I will buy it for her because I am a gamer and I understand seeing a game and just wanting to play it. Sometimes I will then play that game myself. Enter A Kingdom for Keflings.

So after seeing her play I start messing around with it, kicking villagers building some stuff because why not. Slowly I start to notice, the game is actually an odd amount of fun. As i start to expand and chop down trees, build houses, see more of these little people show up and build more stuff for them that leads to more things to build I slowly notice that I have in fact built a small kingdom for my Keflings. Now I must admit this game doesn’t have much to it. There isn’t an invading horde coming after you, or really even a reason to build the kingdom except they basically want you to build them one. You are essentially a giant in a world of little people. Their god if you will. And you are just nice enough to help them out. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

images (1)

This movie is one of those movies where you can look up reviews and see anything from it was great to people cursing up a storm. Check YouTube and you can find discussion videos and videos explaining the ending. The final of the Matrix Trilogy is the most divisive in the bunch. If you have seen it you know why, the ending isn’t exactly your typically happy ending but it also doesn’t have some weird twist ending. It just has an ending. As you would think its visuals and acting are all top-tier like you expect just like its sound so you won’t be complaining there either.

The story is also for the most part more straight forward than the others. While people like to debate the ending and some philosophical parts, the plot isn’t confusing or full of twist and turns. This is just a dash to the finish. Personally I didn’t care for the trilogy as a whole, but it is still enjoyable to watch as a fan of cinema. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

download (3)

Ok so while The Matrix Reloaded was good, nobody thinks it was as good as the first for the most part. Taking place 6 months after the first movie we now find ourselves  watching a romantic relationship between Trinity and Neo, the attack from the machines on Zion, Agent Smith going rogue and a whole host of other things to numerous to mention without confusing the hell out of people that have not seen the movie. Seriously there is a lot going on in these movies, I won’t even try to explain it. You even find out Neo isn’t the one because there were 5 before him. That technically makes him the Sixth realistically. The movie is still good, but its less about making you think and more about making this new world seem more real than it was. It succeeds quite nice by the way, it is just a lot to take in and I still would recommend watching it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Matrix (1999)

download (2)

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)

avengers 3

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)

download

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)

field of dreams

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.