Archives May 2023

IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO WARNER BROS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON THOSE I MISSED!

Recently the fine folks at Warner Bros (their home page is here) had sent me copies of some of their movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on them with you. For the first part of this series we talked about Scoob, Birds of Prey, The Way Back, Goonies 4K, Beetlejuice 4K, Full Metal Jacket, Sherlock Holmes 4K and Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows 4K. Part 2 ‘twas massive and discussed V for Vendetta 4K, 300 4K, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy 4K, The Hobbit Trilogy 4K, Blade 4K, Bill and Ted Face the Music, Tenet and The Wolf of Snow Hollow. Part 3 talked about Wonder Woman 1984, The Little Things and Judas and the Black Messiah. Part 4 discussed Tom and Jerry the Movie and Godzilla Vs Kong. Part 5 was all about Wrath of Man, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Space Jam. Part 6 had discussed Mortal Kombat and Those Who Wish Me Dead. Part 7 discussed In the Heights, The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It, Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone 20 Years of Movie Magic edition. Part 8 discussed A Clockwork Orange, Space Jam: A New Legacy and Shawshank Redemption. Part 9 talked about The Suicide Squad and Reminiscence. Part 10 discussed The Outsiders, Cry Macho, Malignant, the Many Saints of Newark and the Mad Max film collection. Part 11 talked about Dune, Matrix: Resurrections, The Batman, Dog and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. Part 12 discussed Elvis, DC League of Super Pets, The Lost Boys and Poltergeist. Part 13 shared some classics with 8-Bit Christmas, Casablanca, A Christmas Story, Three Thousand Years of Longing, The Polar Express, Elf and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Part 14 had Don’t Worry Darling and Part 15 was discussing Black Adam. Part 16 had Bones and All, House Party plus the 4k release of Training Day. Part 17 returned for the 4k release of Rocky the Knockout Collection and Magic Mike’s Last Dance. We are back for Part 18 and the Superman 5 Film Collection, Creed III and Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

Superman 5 Film Collection

Not only is this collection the original Superman films from the late 70s and early 80s in 4k but it includes the director’s cut of Superman II! This is the version Richard Donner had envisioned from the start. It includes a new opening and end to the film along with scenes focusing on expanding on established lore between Clark and his father. This is how the film SHOULD have always been. Of these five films the original was always my favorite but this cut makes my second choice the new number one!

Creed III

Some have said that this is by far the best Creed film in the franchise but the fight with the Russian is still my favorite. Visually the director handled the final fight differently than many others had over the years by having the crowd fading away to images of both fighter’s pasts. This deviation from the formula was a much needed change to keep it from getting as stale. I know we talked about the problems with Majors with his role in the latest Ant-Man but I don’t see that having the same level of impact here. Overall I enjoyed the film which still feels weird considering I am not a fan of boxing or other professional fighting sports. The cast proves to be far superior to the original Rocky films and if they continue like this I won’t mind watching future sequels.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods

It was difficult to get excited about this film knowing that this is likely the end of the franchise and as far as I’m aware the upcoming Flash movie will be the end of this cinematic universe. The film chronologically follows after Black Adam and features some cameos that would have been exciting had it not been for the pending end to the universe. The film is a fitting sequel to the first Shazam film but with one glaring mistake, the transformation of Shazam himself leaving him dumber than his human counterpart Billy. Other than that mistake with what I assume is the writing and directing, the film was still a good amount of fun and without the creepy monsters is also a better film to watch with younger family members.

Which of these Warner Bros films have you had the chance to see? Which was your favorite? Let us know on our Twitter!

Space Gladiators from Thomas Gervraud was first released on Steam in 2021 and has finally been released on consoles!

Space Gladiators is a side scrolling game where you must run through a gauntlet to reach an arena where you fight a boss wave. Each wave gives you options of prizes like extra gold or new abilities to choose to determine what foe or foes you’ll face. The tutorial you start with covers the full range of controls quite thoroughly and does it in a way that is simple to follow without neglecting any of them. The only thing missed is to tell you what the importance of the blue butterflies are- I still haven’t figured that out for myself. My guess is that they feed some of your abilities and help you charge them up faster.

The art style reminds me of the early works from The Behemoth and their later Battle Block Theater but without the chicken they are so fond of. Thomas Gervraud is known for Brotato, Space Gladiators, Lost Potato and Potato Tactics. This game includes a space potato as well. I feel like there is an underlying obsession with potatoes going on here. Thanks to a well made tutorial and smooth controls the game is easy to play but due to my own panic I still died. A lot. Overall I found the game chaotic, but in a fair amount of challenge kind of way, and a great deal of fun. The $14.99 price tag is a little on the steep side but not unreasonable either.

Evil Dead The Game has returned with the Game of the Year Edition from Saber Interactive!

Ash Williams has returned for Evil Dead The Game GOTY Edition, from Saber Interactive, and is bringing the fight to the deadites! Players choose up to a handful of heroes or enemies to try to secure or steal the Necronomicon. As the deadites you take control of the Kandarian Demon to kill the heroes or as the heroes you must survive the deadites and recover lost pages and the Necronomicon itself.

Visually the game is stunning and the gore effects are realistic and exactly what you would expect to see in an Evil Dead or Army of Darkness game. The execution animations are fantastic and I could hear a younger version of myself hooting and hollering at each brutal hit. Atmosphere is off the charts. Seriously. Between the fog, the music and the sounds of monsters in the night, not to mention the fear system, this game does a fantastic job of building the tension, even in the tutorial. You are nearly invincible in the tutorial and yet once it introduce fear to your game it gave me chills.

I had two primary complaints with the game. The first is that the online community is practically dead already but I’m hopeful that this edition will bring others out to play it either again or for the first time. The second complaint, and this is nearly a deal breaker for me, is the controls. You can’t modify them and the melee combat system feels slow due to the buttons being moved to triggers where nearly all games that play the same has the melee mapped to one of the four main buttons. It put a major damper on my overall enjoyment and left me wanting to play something else at the end of my session instead.

Gematombe is an Action-Puzzle-Versus game from Ratalaika Games that is a hybrid of several classic puzzle titles.

What happens when you take a fighter like Street Fighter Puzzle Fighter and blend in controls from Bubble Bobble? You get Gematombe from Ratalaika Games. Controlling one of six Greek entities, referred to as the daemons along with a hidden seventh character. Working alongside Pandora you are sent to help capture all of the evils in the world.

The game plays like Bubble Bobble in terms of controls and stage layout but with a slight twist. In BB you would shoot bubbles of a specific color to pop similarly colored bubbles that were already there or add additional colors to existing ones. With Gematombe, the bubbles you shoot hit and bounce off of different bubbles or blocks and as long as you hit two or more it will pop all connected bubbles of the same color. Each stage is a battle between you and one of the evils. Winning is done by either clearing your board OR banking enough combos to generate extra bubbles for the evil you’re facing to deal with.

Conceptually the game is quite simple as are the controls. Quickly planning combos though is where the real skill lies and I don’t have it. I was fast enough to clear my board on each level but could never bank the high points and deal damage effectively. The game is a fun game that is easy to play in small doses or longer runs. I feel like most games these days strive to increase the time needed to play a single level and draw out that conclusion. This is definitely not one of those games. In a matter of 10-15 minutes, tops, I was able to complete the first two stages. This game is perfect for my wife who is great at recognizing patterns quickly and I am excited to see how well she fares.

Cannon Dancer is a side scrolling action fighter from ININ Games and has taken 30 years to make it to consoles!

The original creator of Strider had a very unique style and applied that to at least one other game- Cannon Dancer. The game has made a resurgence thanks to the efforts of ININ Games. Even better is that they not only ported the game to consoles but also added additional features to it. Those features include customizable controller mapping or vibration settings along with adding double jump.

Strider was one of my favorite games to play when it came out and the game looks and feels exactly like I remember Strider playing was. The game feels insanely difficult, not from a gameplay or controller perspective but in terms of the actual difficulty against enemies. I can’t help but feel that if I was more patient with my actions though it would become much easier.

Visually it feels like returning home to one of my favorite classics but due to an unintuitive menu system it leaves much to be desired. Once you get the game started though the controls are much easier to master, if only my patience was better. Overall if you are looking to replay this classic than jump right in but if you are looking for a proper Strider experience then I would suggest going to the remake they did a few years ago.

Dogfight: A Sausage Bomber Story is a side-scrolling aerial combat game by Houndpicked Games and is a pun filled battle full of food.

Do you like puns? Do you like fast paced action? Do you like food based jokes? Do you enjoy explosions? If you said yes to any of those questions then you should take a look at the latest game we had the pleasure to review from Houndpicked Games– Dogfight: A Sausage Bomber Story. The game is a pun filled side scroller full of over the top bosses and weapons. The enemies range from single shot jets to massive tanks full of turrets and many variations in between.

Visually the game is crisp with each sprite hand drawn and it really shows. Controls are quite simple to learn but as the screen gets closer to being overwhelmed panic may ensure which results in the wrong attack button being hit on occasion. Myself and my family are connoisseurs of puns and loved the abundance contained within the game. Overall we had a great time and look forward to trying some of the levels again to try to score the full five stars on them.

IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO Marvel Entertainment I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON A FEW THAT I MISSED!

Recently the fine folks at Marvel Entertainment (their home page is here) had sent me a code to one of the movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on it with you. This will be a regular series and Part 1 we talked about Black Widow. Part 2 discussed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Part 3 shared our thoughts on Eternals and straight to DVD release Spidey and his Amazing Friends. Part 4 focused on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Part 5 discussed Thor: Love and Thunder. Part 6 shared Black Panther Wakanda Forever and we are back for Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania!

Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania

The Ant-Man movies have quickly become favorites in our family and have been looking forward to this one more than almost any Marvel film in the last year. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame Scott is living life in the public eye while his daughter Cassie has been getting herself into trouble with law enforcement. Scott quickly learns that she’s also invented a device that allows her to map the Quantum Realm but that included a signal that could be traced back, allowing the evils of the realm to pull them down into the world below. Visually this film is absolutely stunning with a great story and even better acting. My only complaints with the film are with two members of the cast- Jonathan Majors and Kathryn Newton. Majors is a fantastic actor but him cast as the role of Kang poses a major issue for the future of the MCU due to his recent legal troubles. Marvel has yet to make a public decision but if he is convicted then keeping him would be quite problematic for the franchise and I expect that even if not convicted we will see him recast before the next film is completed. It’s a shame because his performance was one of the best in the entire MCU. Kathryn Newton on the other hand did fine in the role but not enough time had passed between Endgame and Quantumania to justify ANOTHER recast for Cassie and it just seems odd. What makes it even more odd is that I can’t find any information as to why beyond the speculation that she is a bigger name that the original actress. I would have preferred they keep the original casting from End Game. Overall the movie was fantastic with some of the best acting in the MCU and can’t wait to see where the overall storyline goes next!