Reviews

It's quite the tale about how I got to know about this show. My girlfriend heard about it through a guy on Tiktok who warned people NOT to watch it because it was offensive to Christianity.

So naturally, I found Hazbin Hotel to be utterly hilarious with as much love for anyone who had to grow up in a devout Christian household but also the same kind of love for that girl who grew up in the 90's and who can still angelically sing every main love theme from the Disney Renaissance at karaoke.

Based upon Christian Mythology, Hazbin Hotel stars heroine Charlie Morningstar, the princess of Hell, hoping to do some good for the souls in Hell, by allowing them a second chance at redemption, in the hopes that they can avoid the annual slaying of the damned to make room for the newer souls coming into Hell. However, Charlie Morningstar isn't going to have an easy job. She's got to deal with many wacky characters and the powers that be in Heaven aren't nearly as optimistic as Charlie is.

If you know Christian Mythology, you know how serious some parents take it. This is the kind of show that would easily offend the Christian community. Anyone who still goes forward to watch this show will be treated to an absolute treat, but it should be only for the mature audience due to the very, very adult themes which include drug abuse, sex abuse, violence, all wrapped up in a bundle of 4-letter words.

The show is still very young, but there's a 2nd season coming. I expect this show to grow in popularity as time goes by.

About 7 years before the Disney renaissance put them in front of the pack for animation studios, there was Hanna-Barbera, Don Bluth, and Rankin-Bass who were all making classics for decades to come, and one that eluded me for 22 years after hearing about it was The Last Unicorn. The Uncle John's bathroom reader book I heard about the movie in, described it as "a gem" in a sea of movies that garnered far more attention, and I finally got to look over this gem to find out that it truly is a gem of an animated movie.

At first glance, The Last Unicorn looks like an animated film from long, long ago, but when you look at the unicorn herself, she definitely looks like a gateway to animations and characters that were to come 20 years later. Her big bright eyes reminiscent of anime characters are no surprise when you learn the people who drew her eventually went on to form Studio Ghibli which is still creating animated masterpieces. Amidst the unicorn lies beautiful animations and paintings of scenery, colorful displays, and with the soundtrack provided by America, The Last Unicorn seems like the end of the 70's animated movies and the beginnings of what we would see in the 80's.

This movie is definitely an animated gem, A visual spectacle of classic hand drawn animation and future visual styles that still exist today. It's definitely worth a watch, not just for it's story but how beautiful of an adaption it is.

If you were around back in the days of the school library, you might have fond memories of the librarian, most of whom are sweet people. However, if you were Al Bundy, you had Miss De Groot, who might have had it in for you. In this episode, Al must face his fears and return a library book to that library, expecting his old nemesis to be dead. However, she is alive and waiting for him with a fine worth over $2,000.

This one is one of my favorites for a few reasons. The first one is because the kid who plays "Book Boy" is Joseph Dammann. If you were a church kid growing up, you'd remember him from the McGee & Me video series, which was a decent little christian production in good taste. In other words, not preachy, yet it was fun.

Second, Al Bundy's terrific speech to Miss De Groot. He talks about us working class heroes who believed that one day we'd be the millionaires, the rock stars, the movie gods, but we turned out to be the guy living paycheque to paycheque. We are winners because we haven't given up on life despite the fact we know it's not going to get any better until we go back to sleep again.

One of my favorites. Al Bundy also gets the last laugh on Miss De Groot too.

The whole Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy is a fun adventure from start to finish. We've come to know and love our growing list of guardians in the strange worlds they've visited throughout the last 9 years. Some regard this one as the best. I disagree. In my opinion, the original from 2014 was the best, but that doesn't discount the sequels. All 3 are terrific motion pictures with plenty of emotion & humor, nostalgia and comradery.

This one begins with the adorable yet feisty Rocket Raccoon being greviously wounded and while he remains in respite, his past is slowly revealed in a series of flashbacks. At the same time, the perverse mind behind his surgeries and mechanical augmentations is looking to create a new world, a perfect utopia which he has no reservations about violently and heartlessly ruining the lives of innocent animals to obtain. At the same time, Gamora returns but cannot remember her past with the guardians, and Star-Lord is questioning whether he should return to Earth after many years in space.

Being a stone hearted person, movies rarely make me shed tears. This one did. Volume 1 was fun all the way through, Volume 2 darn near cracked me in the end, but volume 3 of this series finally drew tears when Rocket Raccoon's dark, abhorrent rage in the first two movies is finally explained, stemming from when he was nothing more than a science experiment along with a small group of other animals.

Because of this, When the movie came out, Some people on the internet demanded a trigger warning be included in the beginning of the film, warning of the subject matter of animal abuse. So far no such disclaimer exists and I doubt it will. Animal abuse exists in real life and real life never comes with a trigger warning.

For the final piece of the trilogy, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 is a fair end to what has been a fun series of films. We may never get to hang out with the team again for a long while, but if you stayed put in the theatre to watch to the end credits, Star-Lord isn't through yet.

30 years ago, a character who was beloved by children and teenagers was given a movie that would be the first of many based upon the growing medium of video games. That movie was based upon the popular video game series, Super Mario Bros.

Then the fans came to see it...and either left the theatre disappointed, or simply scratching their heads. The people who made it had no idea who Mario was or the tone the games were trying to set. Now, in 2023, we finally have a movie about the now legendary plumbers that we can be proud of.

Mario and Luigi are plumbers in a cartoonish version of Brooklyn. One night, the city has a plumbing problem that springs the brothers into action, hoping to save the day and be heroes. However, upon exploring the depths of Brooklyn's sewer system, the brothers are transported to a different world through a green pipe, and so begins their adventure into the Mushroom Kingdom.

This movie was great, because the creators, unlike their predecessors, knew their source material and knew it well. There are many, many references to the world of Nintendo within the movie, in objects, musical pieces, and lines the characters say. Each character is well cast. Mario & Luigi behave exactly how they would in the games. Princess Peach is as independent as she is a playable character in many of the games, dating back to 1988's Super Mario Bros 2 on the original NES. Toad is as eccentric as he should be. Bowser is the thirsty simp for the princess that we have gotten to know over the years. The list goes on and anyone who's spent the better part of their childhood playing the games will have a good time noticing all the references to the games.

Two things that disappointed me was the fight between Mario & DK lacking a reference to the Super Smash Bros series. The movie makes a reference to the original game multiple times, as well as the Mario Kart series, but the fight scene had no reference to the Super Smash Bros games. That's a missed opportunity. There were times during the fight the weapons from the games could've appeared (The home run bat, the laser sword, the hammer, the party ball) and there could've been a reference to being knocked off the stage, but there wasn't.

The other disappointment was the eel that was used in place of Big Bertha, the giant cheep cheep. The eel was definitely a terrifying character in Super Mario 64 but Big Bertha was just as terrifying but dangerous in Super Mario Bros 3 and would've been more recognizable in this one.

Regardless, this movie is exactly what the fans wanted 30 years ago and never got. The fact is, movies based upon video games don't have to be bad, as long as you know your source material and don't take a world of liberties you're going to make a great movie. And this movie does it right. Kids, and kids of the 90's and 2000's will have a ball and enjoy this one.

There's likely to be a sequel, hopefully we'll meet the characters this film missed, like Princess Daisy, Wario & Waluigi, Thwomps, Chain Chomp...

In this episode of The Little Mermaid's TV series, an evil manta ray wants to conquer Atlantica and uses the most sinister tactic - Divide and conquer. He goes around Atlantica lying to all of it's residents, telling them that just because they are different that some think they are better than others and getting all of the sea animals to hate each other.

Now if I were a teacher, I would make this episode mandatory viewing. Especially in the wake of what we face with social media and news broadcasting. The news has done everything in it's power in the past few years to amplify the fear and anger that we feel towards our fellow man & woman. Social media has given the uneducated and the ignorant a voice to agitate and lie and conjure up hate.

The evil manta represents the media. His whole purpose is to divide and conquer the people so they spend so much time arguing over trivial things amongst themselves that the manta himself can take over Atlantica.

Like how the media will report what it wants the people to hear, creating hate groups and drumming up fear and anger, and while the people argue amongst themselves, certain 3 letter groups are taking steps to take over the world.

And this episode is from 1992. 3 decades ago. The writers for this show were geniuses.

Maybe a little sweet mermaid singing a song about living in harmony is what this world needs.

In a war, guns are about as common as beer in a bar. And one beer is all it takes to put lightweight Radar over the hill. His drunken escapade in this episode is one of the funniest M*A*S*H moments.

A wounded colonel is brought to the 4077th, and his specially designed 6-shooter gun is placed in a gun safe under Radar's responsibility. However, the gun goes missing, and the colonel believes poor Radar is the thief. When Radar learns what could happen to him if the gun doesn't come up, he turns to alcohol for comfort, and Hawkeye & BJ investigate, so Radar doesn't end up in the stockade.

Any episode that focuses on Radar is always bound to be a fun one. This episode is no exception. Radar gets to experience intoxication and goes on a drunken rant to the colonel who's gun he's accused of stealing from.

Is this episode an anti-gun one? Maybe. It's a real shot in the dark, so to speak.

Aesop wrote a fable once where the moral of the story was "The wise learn from the misfortunes of others."

One could argue that Al Bundy was a prophet, warning future generations, living as the hopeless, apathetic shell of a man who's rantings are often sprinkled with great wisdom that younger men could pay attention to about marriage.

Married with Children is a sitcom with reality thrown out the window and in it's place, looney toons plots, filled with cartoonish violence and unlikely sexual fantasies. In the middle of this world, lies a couch where Al and his family spend most of their time. Al himself is the father figure who was once a high school football star who scored 4 touchdowns in a single game, and has since gotten married and had 2 kids, and supports them by being a shoe salesman, which he argues is the worst job ever. His wife, Peggy, lives at the home and does absolutely nothing other than eat and watch TV. Their son & daughter, Bud & Kelly are always picking on each other, where the sister picks on her brother for his lack of sex and dates, the brother takes advantage of his sister's lack of intelligence, and teases her for her promiscuity. Their next door neighbors are always getting cross with them, and it usually has to do with al's feminist, misandrist, and horny adversary, Marcy Darcy.

A family show this is, but a children's show it is not. This show is chalk full of risque humor meant for a mature audience. Al Bundy is nowhere near politically correct, he is as honest as he is vulgar. The show itself has so many burns that the envelope it pushed in it's day turned to ash. There's no shortage of scantily clad, provocative and sexualised women. There's no shortage of chauvanism and male dominance. In it's 3rd season, the show offended the sensitive people of it's time, prompting one lady to write in complaining about the episode "Her cups runneth over" also in that very season, Kelly appears in "life's a beach" in a bikini, which would've been filmed when she was still a minor, and "I'll see you in court" was filmed in 1989, but audiences did not get a chance to see it until 2002 because it was pulled.

Throughout these unlikely adventures lies working class hero plots to over the top ones. Al has to renew his driver's license, trap a mouse that invades his home, stages a riot over a beer tax, testifies in front of the senate to keep his favorite show on TV, forms a group called No Ma'am, starts his own church, competes in a joust competition in England, makes a deal with the devil to play football but is sent to hell, and gets put on trial by a group of morbidly obese women he offended. With 262 different episodes, Al goes through a lot, spanning from the end of the flashy and colorful 80's into the edgy 90's.

Almost 3 decades after this show ended, the message is becoming clear. Al Bundy was warning future generations of men what they were in for as they grew older. Al didn't sugarcoat anything, but he always found ways to make the audience laugh with brutal honesty. And for the few men & women who have discovered this show long since it went off the air, or for those who watched it when it was on TV, We know it's an offensive show, but we like it that way and as society itself slowly becomes more easily offended by what's in their media, a show like Married with children will age incredibly well for it's intended audience.

I picked up a copy of this film on DVD after seeing clips on YouTube, with comments praising this movie & bragging of its relevance. Its amazing to think that today, this movie still holds up as well as it did in 1993.

Bill Foster is an ex-employee of a defense missile company, struggling to survive in urban Los Angeles. One day while on the highway, he gets gridlocked and simply abandons his vehicle to 'go home' so to speak. Along the way home he encounters first-hand the urban reality of the big city, and with no patience remaining, snaps on everyone & everything in his path. His actions garner the attention of a retiring police officer who wants one last big bust to cap off his career.

This movie came out at a different time, when no one really paid attention to the urban decay of society. Watching this movie now, it's amazing how much of what is in it, has been ignored long enough, from the apathy people hold towards others (the construction workers) to the lack of ambition in some (The homeless guy in the park) and the close-minded mentality of some (The nazi whom D-fens argues about free speech & disagreement with) today, this has all grown all the more common. And sadly, reasonable men, have become unreasonable because of the growing problems this movie puts on display.

This movie was a warning, and sadly it hasn't been heeded by all. Maybe as the audience ages, one day they will understand D-fens.

To me, Fortnite is a cash grab for epic games, designed to be colorful, bright and fun. As I get into my 30's, I find myself less & less interested in playing newer video games. They're getting way too complicated to follow along with anymore. A vast majority of games being made now are what I like to call "Interactive movies" where players can follow a storyline and not actually play a game. Back in the 1970s & 1980s, those were games, there were no storylines or if there were, they didn't really matter. I have grown tired of playing interactive movies at this point.

And this leads me to admit that I have been playing Fortnite since 2019 now and I still like it. The game is simple enough for me to play, and anyone can pick it up and play it. The storylines don't really matter, they're there in case you feel like going along with them. The original characters are colorful and cute, and the well-known heroes & heroines are there to draw in the older crowd. While a Gen Z might be content with the colorful characters introduced every season, older players like myself often choose to run around the island gunning down bots as Kratos from God of War, Master Chief from Halo, Ripley from the Alien films or the Predator from the 1987 film.

However, I'm a grown man so I don't get to practice this game much compared to some of the other players, many of whom are in another stratusphere of talented at this game. Fire one shot at them, and they're building a fort that looks like those old lego commercials where the smiling kid is putting together the set, but the footage is sped up ridiculously fast. Compare that to the numerous bots included to fill out the island to make 100 players. Picking off a bot feels rewarding when you first play but after a few weeks of playing, the bots are a joke. Picking off a human opponent, it's either a challenge or ridiculous, but picking off a player with a username that advertises a Gaming channel on youtube? Satisfying.

However, I see how Fortnite is part of the modern era of gaming - it's free to play, but it's full of content that you need to pay about 10$ every 3 months to enjoy. That's how we've gone from paying $50-$60 once for a game, and it was ours, forever if we wanted to keep it. The game's creators made a big chunk of money once from the game, and that was that. Now, They make the game "free to play" but nickel & dime the player. In some ways, that's fair, because piracy has often eaten into a gaming company's profits. In other ways, some players have paid hundred for battle passes every 3 months and V-bucks for the endless special content that is advertised. Yeah, it's cool to play as your favorite superheroes and TV & movie characters, Some you can unlock for free, but others can cost well over $10.

I get the hate for this game too. Everyone has a right to hate Fortnite for what it is, and how some "sweaty" players can ruin the game for someone just trying to have fun. If you don't take it too seriously, and you're content with the battle passes, which are loaded with added content, you can still have fun. I'm not a "hotel with WiFi builder" like some players are, but if I can make it to the last 10 players on the map and score a few eliminations before getting picked off by a sweaty player, i'm not mad. Once in a while, I can win matches, sometimes against sweaty players.

Fortnite is not for everyone. If you hate it, maybe colorful online shooters are just not your thing. Let the people who enjoy them, enjoy them.

Ever since I watched the first movie when was 12, it has always made me laugh. Johnny Knoxville is always cooking up some scheme to prank his buddies, any way to get a laugh. Jackass forever is no exception.

However, it might have been far better to do this movie sooner, like 4-5 years after 3D. At this point the guys are looking older and the fact guys like Bam Margera barely appear in the film due to his wanton disregard of his well-being & Ryan Dunn dying in a drunk driving incident a decade sooner, It's like being at a party too long and lots of party-goers have gone home and it's not as packed as it once was like the first 3 movies.

But despite the guys aging, 4 of them go as hard as they did in day one - Knoxville, Steve-O, Wee-man, and Ehren. Knoxville gets seriously hurt going one on one with a bull, Steve-O's genitals take a beating from a swarm of angry bees, Wee-man gets pecked by a condor, and Poor Ehren takes a vicious slapshot to the groin from NHL superstar P. K. Subban...and it's still downright hilarious, with the exception of Knoxville's hit from the bull. He gets carted off on a stretcher. Thankfully Steve-O walks away from the bees, Wee-man survives being pecked, and Ehren is absolutely thankful he's wearing a metal cup when PK Subban shoots the puck at him.

A lot of the new additions to the cast aren't really that funny. They're there to be included. There's even a bit where Pontius lightheartedly mentions the word "Consent" and someone else says "21st century, folks."

For fans of the original series, This one isn't as good as the 3 other installments, it feels like this was put together to squeeze a few dollars more out of the fans. But regardless, it still has many laugh out loud bits and Johnny has many great lines out of the blue. For an hour & a half, it'll make you laugh.

7/10.

The United States of America is the largest superpower in the world and also the most violent. Since 1776, the United States has only seen 17 years of actual peace in it's 244 years of history (2020) and has been at war with many other countries. The fact is when war is on, people are needed to build weapons and when a country is at peace, the men & women who build those weapons lose their jobs, which is where Canadian Bacon begins.

Sheriff Bud Boomer (John Candy) and his deputies Honey (Rhea Pearlman) and Kabral (Bill Nunn) and friend Roy Boy (Kevin O'Connor) are Patriotic Americans who have lost their jobs building weapons of war for RJ hacker (GD Spradlin) get caught up in a storm of propaganda, generated by the president of the United States (Alan Alda) after his staff encourage him to try and start a cold war to scare the public and raise his popularity. However, the Americans choose to pick on the least likely enemy - Canada. After a slew of negative propaganda against Canadians, Bud Boomer and his buddies, scared by the constant propaganda, start their own hilarious crusade against the Canadians.

This was John Candy's last film, before he died prematurely at the age of 43 of a heart attack, presumably because of his obesity. He's an absolute riot as Bud Boomer. What makes it even funnier is the fact Candy was Canadian. Alan Alda, best known as Hawkeye from M*A*S*H brings a little of Hawkeye to his president character. Kabral, played by the late Bill Nunn, brings up race throughout the film but does it in way that it's really funny, and sometimes thought provoking.

The real hero of this movie is Michael Moore, who is known for his documentaries such as "Bowling for Columbine" and "Farenheit 9/11" This is his sole contribution to comedy and it is an absolute gem. The movie is full of facts about the history of America and they're well placed throughout the movie. So it's not only funny, it's somewhat educational.

If you need a good laugh and are interested in politics, Canadian Bacon is mandatory viewing.

No matter how old i get, i'll always appreciate poorly made movies. These exist as tributes to the big blockbuster films of hollywood. It's more fun to sit down and laugh at how poorly made they are and how seriously they take themselves. But sometimes, the movies are so bad, that they really just exist to be laughed at.

Jurassic Prey is one of those movies with acting I expect in a church play. It's like a bunch of friends got together and hired a few struggling actresses to play their girlfriends because they don't have any real ones or their real ones wouldn't look good running around in a bra and jeans. Also, the special effects are something I could easily outdo with the very little filmmaking experience I have. There are so many errors in special effects & editing that i'd be embarrassed if my name was slapped on this. The dinosaur they use looks more cute than scary. Actually they could've used Barney as their dinosaur and that would've been scarier.

A woman named Jackie is ripping off her mobster boyfriend & gets tangled up with 3 dimwitted criminals who take her hostage and steal her car, while being chased by 2 police who don't even have sirens in their car. They all hide out at a rural cabin, unaware of the danger that lurks in the forest, in the form of a monster dinosaur.

Honestly, with a little more effort and care, this could've been a fun little Jurassic park fan film knock-off. But the special effects are unacceptable, the acting sucks, and the script could've been fixed to sound a little less cheesy.

But the biggest letdown is the finale. Here's the thing. Throughout the movie, they tease you with that water. There's scuba gear in the cabin. Jackie hints about going skinny dipping in the lake. But it doesn't happen. It's not like they couldn't shoot an ending like that either, they had underwater footage in the movie too. That would've been a far more entertaining end to this atrocious joke of a movie.

If you're a fan of homemade movies like the ones you used to make in middle school, this might be worth a view, but for serious movie goers, stick to Jurassic Park.

In the previous episode we get to see Ricky but we really don't get to know his character all that well. This episode introduces us to Ricky's strengths and why Julian continues to associate with him despite the fact Julian could easily take care for himself as a mature adult.

Julian allows Ricky to stay in his derelict 1975 Chrysler New Yorker that's been sitting on his lawn since he went to jail. Ricky, who isn't all that bright, irritates Julian to the point where Julian tells him he's got to leave. After a series of conflicts, including Lahey harrassing him over unpaid lot fees and the derelict car, Julian calls upon Ricky for help to get the car off the lawn, and to give Ricky a chance to get his life restarted.

This one also explores the relationship between Lahey & the boys. While Lahey absolutely hates Ricky and Ricky hates Lahey, Lahey has a bit of respect for Julian and the two can come to a solution within reason.

My older brother is a police officer, and I've heard him tell stories similar to this episode's story (Some are even more disgusting) and it's sad to think that child neglect isn't anything new.

A call directing Malloy & Reed to an apartment complex unearths a sad discovery - a 6 year old girl stealing milk from a cat dish to feed her 10-month old sister. Over the next few days, the officers untangle a web of lies & revelations that would drive a parent to anger.

The episode also reveals the callous nature of Malloy and why it's safer for him to be the way he is. While Reed is exceptionally angry with the suspects for child neglect (Going as far to using the word "damn" while writing his report) Malloy remains calm while Reed voices how it makes him upset that 3 grown adults don't care about 2 little children, to which Malloy calmly says "We'd better get started on those reports" which is Malloy's way of saying "Get used to this."

This one's a bit tough to watch.

What makes Malloy such a good character is how seriously he takes his job as a police officer. He's seen his partner (Before Reed) get shot and die on the job and therefore knows the danger associated with it. Unfortunately, not every other policeman in his department knows that pain. In this episode he clashes with one such officer who is more reckless than conservative.

This is also the episode that introduces us to Ed Wells, A recurring character who is the closest thing to "Robo-cop" as the common man says. In this episode, Wells is called in as back-up for Malloy and hijacks the call and makes a clean bust but unnecessarily risks his life in the process, agitating Malloy and getting him in trouble with Sergeant MacDonald. But it's only a matter of time before Wells' luck runs out and Malloy's maturity saves the day.

Our story begins when officers Malloy & Reed receive a call from the hospital concerning a 15 year old's near death from an overdose, and when they follow it up they are thrust into a race against time to stop a 17 year old drug dealer from killing himself because he knows his game is up. As Malloy puts it "it's a nice clean cut situation. We can't use gas because we're 10 stories up and there's no other way in there." so the officers have their work cut out for them.

This one was made to keep the impressionable viewers a message to stay away from drugs, with the exchange between Reed & Malloy being the simplest way to put it. Reed says "You'd think a 15 year old would have more sense." to which Malloy replies "Not think, Partner. You hope they have more sense." it also sends a bit of a warning to parents who are hard on their kids. The character of Larry Harris has everything a young man could want but a father who seems to be fond of physical punishment. Even Malloy calls out Mr. Harris for his behavior.

This is a good episode, I would recommend it.

"Video games don't translate well to movies" has been the case since Nintendo put Mario & Luigi in an apocalyptic, futuristic dystopian world which was far from the colorful, innocent, and fun mushroom kingdom most gamers were familiar with. Of course back then most film directors were from past generations that never had a passion for video games. Even the late Bob Hoskins, who played Mario in that 1993 catastrophe of a movie, didn't even know the source material until his son showed him the video game his movie was based upon. In the years that have followed, lots of movies based upon video games have bombed or had no resemblance to their source material.

Thankfully, the people who made this movie, listened to their fans. Sonic is not some weird looking being in a strange world. He's exactly who fans like me would envision him, in a world where we feel he belongs. Part of Sonic's image is that he's a cute, fun blue hedgehog in worlds where the color is largely green, but sometimes he travels to strange, dystopian worlds but for a character like sonic, it's still going to be fun for the viewer.

What makes it good is the attention to detail. Any veteran fans of the series will recognize little Easter eggs and references here and there. It was difficult for me to keep quiet in that theatre when I noticed all the references to Sonic the hedgehog (Right down to the piano cover of the original Green Hill Zone theme) But if there's any character who got the greatest transition to the big screen, it's Dr. Robotnik, played by legendary funnyman, Jim Carrey. Carrey knew EXACTLY who he was portraying and did it well. His spontaneity and wacky, offbeat style made him fun to watch for a bad guy.

And if you think this movie left out certain, even cuter lovable characters with the ability to fly with their 'tails' just wait. If you stick around after the credits you'll smell a sequel with a character that appeared in the 1992 video game sequel to the original 1991 game.

But there's still a few characters missing, in particular a red echidna & a love interest for our beloved Sonic, but hey, like the video games, Sonic's bound to get a sequel.

Imagine yourself at 14, maybe 15. You're with your 9th grade class on a field trip. Everyone's having fun, but then in a split second you faint and wake up in a room surrounded by armed gunmen, and you learn that you and your classmates have been chosen to partake in a game of life & multiple deaths. Guess what? you just entered Battle Royale. Set in an alternate version of the year 2000, Japan's government is facing a crisis of unemployment and recession. To motivate future students to behave, the government sets up a yearly event, known as the Battle Royale, where a class of students are chosen at random to participate in a battle to the death, pitting friends against friends, lovers against lovers, and forcing timid students to either submit to death or fight to it first. To be honest, i spent the first 20-25 minutes of this film thinking it was going to be cheesy and i would laugh at the ridiculously exaggerated effects. Soon as Kitano pulled that knife from the girl's head (BTW this is a very messy film, but the mess is nothing compared to the story, which in itself, is absolutely terrifying.) it was like that scene from Jaws where Hooper laughs at Quint's tattoo and suddenly his laughter fades when he realizes what it's from. Everyone in that room either started screaming or crying. As soon as the kids were being called by the cute, bubbly lady from the videotape, that's when i really began to feel uncomfortable watching, and it did not let up until the end. The acting in this film is superb, Director Kinji fukasaku knew exactly what he wanted. The students express feelings of fear, anger, sadness and insanity almost to a fault. Takeshi Kitano, who westerners know best as Takeshi from Takeshi's Castle AKA MXC from the former spike network, is superb. You can feel his apathy as he speaks to the students before sending them into the game, as a reflection of their apathy towards him. What is strange however, is his relationship with Noriko, the only student to attend his class on a daily basis. The 2 seem to be closer than friends but not exactly lovers. It might be something a Gaijin (a foreigner) wouldn't understand because i'm not Japanese. You will either enjoy this film by not enjoying it. It's a terrifying situation that no one would want to be in. It makes you question yourself as a person in modern, civilized times. If you were suddenly thrown into a game of life & death, how would it end for you? 10/10

Everyone who sees a Rambo movie should know what they're getting themselves into. It's going to be a messy, messy trip with blood 'n guts everywhere. And this film doesn't provide that on a discount. You want to watch bad guys die in the most gruesome, messed up ways possible? Here ya go.

John Rambo has been living with an adoptive family for 10 years, and spends his time trying to keep his demons from his past at bay. One day, his adoptive daughter decides to go look for her father in Mexico and doesn't return, leading Rambo to go find the only family he's got left, and to bring out the killing machine that lives within him.

The initial reviews of this film are more ridiculous than a runway outfit. They say this film promotes a republican's agenda of border security. Well I'm gonna say it out loud, libs - The cartel and a lot of Mexican gangs are exactly as they are portrayed in the films. They have done worse things than what Rambo does to them in the films, because Rambo is about killing his enemies quickly, whereas the cartel wants their victims to suffer and they want to scare anyone from stopping them.

This movie isn't meant to push a political agenda. it's meant to send our favorite mentally unstable Vietnam veteran on his way. Sly rocks the role even as an old man and i'm glad he's doing so. As sad as it is to see one of my favorite film series end with the original actor still in the role, It's great to see it end on such a good note.

In order to make me spend 12 bucks a month (Canadian) on something, it had better be something special. In that case, Cobra Kai was that something special. 2 free episodes in, I was hooked.

34 years after Daniel LaRusso kicked Johnny in the face to win a trophy, His rival, Johnny Lawrence has gone the way of a drunk bachelor, while Daniel seems to be doing financially well. However, Daniel's life is deceiving. While Daniel may have money, he has a wild teen daughter, and a spoiled, disrespectful 10 year old son. Meanwhile, Johnny Lawrence lives his life pathetically, until one night he is goaded into rescuing a weak teen from 5 neighborhood bullies. The boy he rescues asks him to train him. Johnny does so, but does it in the Cobra Kai way, at the same time, Reopening his sensei's dojo.

However, old wounds are reopened after Daniel LaRusso is told that his former enemy "attacked" 5 teens outside of a mini mall. After a confrontation at the Cobra Kai Dojo, a classic rivalry heats up, spanning over 10 episodes in which old rivals switch roles, where one becomes the underdog, and the other becomes the bully.

One thing I love about Cobra Kai is watching a bunch of misfit teens become one as the Cobra Kai. To watch these characters grow in confidence and strength is a real pleasure. My favorite character to watch is Eli, or as he comes to call himself "Hawk" and what makes him special to me is the moment he says "he's on the spectrum" which is also myself, with Asperger's Syndrome. in that sense, it sends a message to kids who have been told they are "special" or "different" and can still be strong enough to walk in the world.

So far this show is a fun ride. I almost never binge watch anything, but binged on this in one day. it is that good.

A lot of us movie-goers are either working class heroes or middle-class warriors. Barely any of us will truly understand what it is like to be a superhero or a millionaire. Most of us just live in a rat race full of others just like us; Blue collared laborers trying to make it to tommorow.

Rocky is just like a lot of us - he's a 30 year old high school dropout who lives on simple things, but his perk is that he likes fighting as a hobby. However, despite the fact he is good at it, He never pursues it into a profession, much to the disdain of his trainer, Mickey. However, one day, the World Heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed realizes all the contenders for his title are either injured, out of shape, or scared of him. However, he has put so much energy into promoting a fight for the american bicentennial birthday, he becomes desperate for a challenger, and hoping for a safe bet, reads Rocky's moniker, the Italian Stallion and wants him to fight, insuring himself an easy victory. However, Rocky sees this as his chance to prove that he's "Not just another bum from the neighborhood."

Rocky has actually held up very well in the 40+ years since it's release. It's tough for a movie to age well but Rocky does just fine. The gritty, mean, dirty feel of downtown philadelphia still holds up today, as many of us have seen those types of gritty, broken down neighborhoods in our time.

As for the acting, Sylvester Stallone knew exactly what he wanted in the Rocky character and he was right to argue for the right to play the role. His co-stars Burt Young, who plays Paulie, Rocky's drunk, lazy, lethargic but loyal friend, is also very spot on in attitude and in looks. Talia Shire, who stars as Rocky's love interest Adrian, plays the fragile, shy virgin girl who over the next few movies, grows stronger, almost as if Rocky's positive attitude rubs off on her over time. Burgess Meredith plays Mickey, a bitter old trainer who feels that Rocky is a waste of time, but thinks he might change his attitude after being given a world title shot. And the World Champion Apollo Creed, played by Carl Weathers, is an almost exact duplicate of the legendary fighter, Muhammad Ali. To put it bluntly, EVERYONE in this film knows exactly who they're trying to be, and they do it flawlessly.

Bill Conti's score will forever be timeless in this film. Everyone at some point has to have heard the Rocky theme song, which will forever stand out as a masterpiece. Every song and musical piece conveys emotions extremely well, from the somber & unsure "Philadelphia morning" to the powerful, emotional, and motivational "Going the Distance."

If you haven't seen this film before, you are truly missing out. There's a reason this movie is in the top 250 on the IMDb and odds are it's going to stay there for a very, very long time.

First of all, I can tell you what this movie is in one sentence - The Karate Kid, with no swearing, no karate, and no one who really cared...with a little dash of Rocky.

Knockout is a low-budget, TV movie for the family channel knockoff of the karate kid, just with Boxing replacing Karate. And if you haven't seen The Karate Kid, i strongly suggest you watch it (The '84 edition and it's '86 sequel are great coming-of-age films.) before watching this. Trust me, you don't want to watch this first, then karate kid and call Karate kid "A good rip-off" of Knockout.

Matt Miller (Daniel Magder) is a 15-year old who is thrust out of his comfortable life to go to Aldergrove, a small, nowhere special type of town. (Actually, Aldergrove is a neighborhood in Langley, British Columbia, less than an hour's drive away from my hometown.) His mother has started a new life after her husband has left the family, and it's not clear whether he is dead or it was a divorce, but if it's a rip-off of TKK, most likely he has died. Upon entering school, Matt makes 2 friends and thanks to a dare from one of them, he makes an enemy of school jock, Hector, who also happens to be a boxing prodigy. As Hector repeatedly harrasses and bullies Matt, the school Janitor, Dan Barnes (Stone Cold Steve Austin) becomes aware of it, and winds up training Matt to fight to protect himself.

Yep, it's karate kid through and through. Matt Miller is Daniel LaRusso, Dan Barnes is Mr. Miyagi, Hector is Johnny, Ruby is Alie, and Coach Harward is Kreese.

First of all, the acting is really bad. While you may think since Stone Cold Steve Austin is a good actor, he might have carried the film? Sure. He's the best actor in the movie, and he was phoning it in pretty much the whole time. It's almost as if the director was scared to ask him to re-shoot his scenes in fear of Austin walking off the set thinking it was a waste of his time.

Or maybe he was scared of SCSA giving him a stone cold stunner and drinking a steveweiser over his fallen carcass.

The main star, Daniel Magder, has about as much skill in acting as a pornstar does. He's either overacting, or not acting well enough. He can't get that balanced throughout the movie. his banter with SCSA feels like he's reading it off the script and it doesn't come off natural. His arguements with his mother and father are hardly believable. I can see why this guy got roles with shows on the family channel.

But by far, the worst part is the script. It's one of the most skeletal, vanilla flavored, boring scripts I can think of. And when i say vanilla, i mean the supermarket-branded vanilla flavored ice cream. It's not as good as the breyer's or the chapman's brand. Every word, phrase is either cliche or laughable. (Seriously, How many high school kids call someone a birdbrain?) And remember how i said "family channel" film? How can you give a role to SCSA without him saying any H-E Double hockey sticks or those things beavers build?

So why did I buy this movie for 3 dollars at a Dollarama? Because Stone Cold Steve Austin was on the cover.

2/10

I think at one or another, everyone one of us has wanted to just have a 10-minute conversation with God. This mysterious being we've heard about first in sunday school, were taught to fear in our puberty, questioned in our youth, and for some of us, disbelieved in our adulthood. This movie is just that. except the lucky one is Jerry Landers. John Denver plays Jerry landers, your average human being. A man who has a wife, 2 kids, and a supermarket job to support the family. One day, he is given the chance to do something most of us have fantasised at least once; the chance to talk with God, played by golden-age comedian, George Burns. God's request to Jerry, is to tell the world "That he exists, and that we have everything to make it work." however, Jerry's family, co-workers, and other associates don't believe him, and they start to believe he's lost his mind, and for Grocery Store supervisors, it's not an uncommon fate. To start, let me say that I really hope God is exactly like George Burns. He's spot on. he's funny, witty, and not only that, caring and loving. The image of God in the eyes of many is that of a long-bearded, balding angry old man. It's a repulsive vision. George Burns was really a true comedian and as the VHS sleeve says "at 82, He makes the role his own." John Denver plays the role of Jerry Landers very well. Anyone in his position would feel the same exact way in real life. Teri Garr plays Jerry Lander's wife, and Miss Garr was great in every role she did (Not to mention a good looking woman.) Paul Sorvino and David Ogden Stiers also have roles in this film, 2 of my favorite actors. If you're of christian faith, I'd recommend this one.