Category author

Challengers follows a tennis couple as they push to return to greatness and explore their relationship from the past.

The folks at Warner Brothers were kind enough to send us Challengers, staring Zendaya, for the purpose of our review. The film follows three tennis players that become part of a love triangle while also keeping their focus on their game. Tennis is one of those sports that I only can enjoy watching when I can watch one of my favorite players, Venus or Serena for their skill or John McEnroe with his energy and attitude. Even when watching them, it still isn’t a sport I really enjoy watching. I would rather play and I’m terrible at it.

I knew watching this film would center most of it around the game and I intentionally went into this with the plan to focus my review on the story, relationship and production itself but not on the sport. The production quality of the film was absolutely great, transitioning between decades back and forth, the characters looked perfect in their ages, so good in fact that you’d believe that there really was that much time between parts of the filming. The acting of the cast was fantastic, I expect there to be awards for this film, seriously.

Most of the story it was hard for me to engage with due to the heavy focus on the game but by the end it tied itself up cleanly and didn’t take the “logical” ending I expected, which is rare. Holy crap though, that ending was utterly fantastic, well written and brilliantly acted. Their tennis skills, as far as I could tell, were just as brilliant too. I wouldn’t be surprised if we learned that they all truly play with the level of skill and passion as they were able to display. That or the director and effects team out did themselves.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the third installment in the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise and the first we’ve seen.

The folks at 20th Century Studios were kind enough to send us a copy of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes for the purpose of this review. Humans are nearly extinct from a virus of their creation leading to the start of the film. The film truly starts with three apes searching nests for eggs to collect, ensuring to leave at least one behind in each nest. this is for a bonding ceremony. After losing his egg, one of the apes ventures out that night to try for another, accidentally leading a group to his village, condemning them to death and giving our protagonist a reason to venture beyond his village.

The imagery of the world and the film is a more organic version of a dystopian landscape where everything that had fallen to disrepair has now been covered over or removed removed entirely by green. Reminds us that nature is just waiting for the chance to replace us and return what we’ve built to the land it could have been and it is beautiful. The dialogue is a bit disjointed through most of the film but I suspect that is intentional due to the still evolving nature of the apes and the de-evolving nature of the humans or echoes as they are referred to in the film. The story itself was well told but the voice acting and dialogue seemed to detract from the film as a whole. It felt incomplete like there were scenes cut that would have made the story much better. Now this could be because I hadn’t seen the previous films since the reboot and barely remember the classic versions but it just felt like it was missing some big pieces that would have helped made the story much stronger if they had been there.

Between King Kong teaming up with Godzilla and the latest Planet of the Apes film, 2024 may just be the year of the ape but let’s hope it would be more of the former than latter.

Check out the trailer for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes:

Twister is the story of a group of scientists that chase tornados in the hopes of finding ways of predicting them in this classic from Warner Brothers!

The folks at Warner Brothers were kind enough to send us the 4k edition of Twister for the purpose of this review. To be clear, this edition of the film is the exact same story told in the exact same way as previously released. The only difference here is the quality of the visuals. For those that have yet to see the film, it follows a group of scientists that are attempting to send a device into the center of a tornado. This device is meant to map out the tornado itself and better study how they work, how they move and to help create a way to more effectively anticipate their arrival.

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest I was lucky enough to never see a real tornado and only ever saw the aftermath on the nightly news. Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton and Cary Elwes lead the film and are joined by a talented supporting cast full of names that went on to be big names of their own. The cast in it’s entirety are fantastic and even after 20+ years the film itself holds up. Overall the film remains a classic but just looks a hell of a lot better than the old DVD copy we had previously and will continue to get regular play in our house.

American Fiction is about a writer who decides to change his style of writing when his latest title fails to find a home with a publisher in this film from Warner Brothers.

The folks at Warner Brothers were kind enough to send us a copy of American Fiction, a tale about a writer named Monk. Monk is a published author and professor at a university in Los Angeles. After seeing the success of another writer for pandering to the market by changing the language of her book to make it more “real”, he decides to do the same in an attempt at showing the industry how idiotic they can be. His agent even argues against submitting the book only to be shocked at how quickly it has sold.

The film was written and directed by Cord Jefferson, who was one of the writers on The Good Place. Had I known about this connection I might have expected a very different film. After watching some of the trailers I had believed this film to be a comedy of sorts and on IMDB is listed as one as well. There are some minor comedic moments but I don’t feel like this was a comedy in the slightest even when it’s being a little silly. That being said, calling it a drama doesn’t feel right either.

As someone that has written and published a book, dealing with the market and trying to build my own success, I felt like this film was written for people like me in mind. It reminds us that as a writer, the market can chase things that make absolutely no sense. I was glued to the film every step of the way. This film was spellbinding and wasn’t just good, it was utterly fucking brilliant. I sincerely hope we see more films from Jefferson.

Following the events of Godzilla vs. Kong, two of the world’s favorite monster heroes are back for a new fight in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire from Warner Brothers.

Godzilla vs Kong introduced many of us to the theory of Hollow Earth which has been around since, I believe, the 1950s. It was an absolutely fascinating subject to deep dive on and that film explained it in a way that made it actually make sense. Warner Brothers has taken us back to Hollow Earth with Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Kong is believed to be the last of his kind and being a social creature is very lonely. While he remains there, Godzilla protects the surface world from threats and if Kong were to return would become very territorial and unleash hell on the ape.

A spike in interference signals a request for help and some of our returning heroes from the previous film decide to travel back to Hollow Earth and look for who or what is putting out the signal that they believe is an SOS. The transition between the outer Earth and the Hollow is an interesting effect that can tear the psyche and done with some fantastic visuals.

The film is listed as an Action-Adventure story but has some heartfelt moments between some of the characters. The visual effects are absolutely stunning and if you’re watching just for the destruction, I’m happy to report there is a TON of it. Even a little monster-dental work thrown in early on. The story is well written, leaning on the lore of the previous films and tying them all together quite nicely. The characters were fun with some quality portrayals even though the dialogue is a little campy at times, as I expected with this type of film. Overall I thought it was the best of the four films in the series (including Kong Island) and had a great time watching it.

Inspired by horror classics like, The Shining or The Exorcist, Skeler Boy is a tale of the lengths a teen will go to rescue his love in the latest title from Ratalaika Games!

Originally released on pc/steam by Maniac Studio and as of today, the team at Ratalaika Games have brought it over to consoles for our enjoyment. Skeler Boy is a tale of young love and the lengths our hero Skeler will go in order to save his girlfriend Megan. Currently the developers are working on editions that will be playable on both Gameboy and NES, but also currently working on the sequel. Oddly according to the Kickstarter that ended in 2021, both the Gameboy and NES versions have already been made. Perhaps they mean official release versions that are for others that didn’t participate in the Kickstarter? Time will tell on that one. What is surprising is that from this original release I couldn’t find any reviews. Literally the only mentions from that time simply refer to the status of the crowdfunding. This means I’ll be doing this one old school without knowledge of the things to watch out for and diving right in. The game starts you in a forest looking for Megan with your first real clue being a mysterious audio message.

Visually the game looks like it would fit as a classic SNES title, similar to many of the ports we’ve seen from Ratalaika. The game makes superb use of lighting which is essential for a great horror game. The game is filled with puzzles, many of which require a bit of thought before figuring them out and I expect to find many more along the way. There’s even a lockpicking section that seems like it is a bit on the realistic side and makes me wonder if it can really be this easy with the right tools? Maybe the designer has some real life experience there? The controls are easy to pickup, at least they are on Xbox, I haven’t tried on other systems so I can’t speak to them. Overall gameplay transitions between different views and how you interact with the puzzles making for a more engaging experience. Over the course of the hour I played it felt like I got quite far in the game and I expect that most player will wrap this one up within 5 hours or less. Overall it was a solid experience that uses a great deal of variety and ambiance to it’s advantage. Definitely has me curious about the pending sequel, hopefully this one will release simultaneously on the consoles at the same time.

The First Omen is the latest installment in the Omen franchise from 20th Century Studios and takes a stap at the origins of the tale.

The First Omen is a prequel to the Omen franchise from 20th Century Studios focusing on a branch of the church completing unspeakable acts to maintain control. The story centers on Margaret, a young woman with a history of hallucinations, on her path to taking her vows and assisting with work at an orphanage. There she meets a young girl named Carlita who seems to be troubled. Noticing similarities in their experiences she feels a bond with her and works to guide her to help her work through her troubles in a more productive way. Soon after a man by the name of Father Brennan approaches her to voice concerns about who Carlita really is and sets her on a path where she begins to question everything.

Having never seen The Omen or it’s many spinoffs I was still away of the general concept, the church raising the Antichrist and the evil surrounding him. Going into the film mostly blind I was unaware of the intentions the church may or may not have had and as it is explained in the first few minutes it became apparent that we were in for one hell of a ride. More often than not when a prequel is made of a horror film from the 70s or 80s it comes out a bit on the cheesy side and that’s exactly what I was expecting. I was quite impressed with the quality of the acting and more importantly the storytelling. It was surprisingly good and makes me curious to see the other films in the series.

Late Night With the Devil is a found footage horror film from the team at IFC.

Sometimes there is a film that the trailers just resonate with you and make you really want to see it. In these instances you can’t help but have high expectations despite knowing nothing about the team behind it. Late Night With the Devil was one of those films for me. The film starts with some of the history of the late show that is the backdrop for nearly the entire story. It’s a difficult road when you want to beat the masters at their own game and that was exactly what Jack Delroy aims to do with his show with Johnny Carson as the standard to beat.

Playing the ratings game he fights for his place on the televisions of viewers every night. Due to personal tragedy he sees some spikes, presumably due to sympathy but it’s not enough. David Dastmalchian plays Jack Delroy and his performance is downright brilliant. I’ve seen many of his roles and he’s usually great but this performance is in a league of it’s own. Written and Directed by Colin and Cameron Cairnes, this film is downright fantastic. Not just as a horror film but a film in general. I was glued to the screen from start to finish, drawn in instantly and even though I expected the twists when they came it did not detract from the experience in any way. As I mentioned, my expectations were high for this film and for lack of a better phrase, this film is simply fan-fucking-tastic and not only worth the watch but worth a second and third just to look for the hidden clues throughout the production. I wanted to thank the folks at IFC for sharing this film with us and look forward to seeing what else this team comes up with.

The witch with the pink hair is back in ININ’s rails shooter Rainbow Cotton and is cuter than ever!

The young witch named Cotton has returned in Rainbow Cotton from ININ Games. Monsters are coming to eat the candy made by adorable faeries and they have called on Cotton for assistance. The game is a rails shooter, that was originally released in Japan in 2001, with Cotton riding a broom and blasting foes away with star filled spells and hexes.

Controls are extremely simple, relying on very little. One stick controls her placement on the screen where the other controls your targeting reticle for you to endlessly fire on your enemies. Where it seems a majority of games follow more of an 8 or 16 bit art pallet, this game holds to its roots on the Sega Dreamcast and even though it hasn’t really changed graphically it stands out as having far superior graphics in the nostalgia age of gaming. Rail shooters are also something I rarely see these days and even without the nostalgia factor it is nice to experience the playstyle. There are so few of these that it feels like a refreshing change of pace.

Overall, the game is adorable, has a touch of nostalgia, is simple to play and a refreshing joy in a world of unimaginative platformers that seek to cash in on our desire of playing something that reminds us of the good days.

Cyber Citizen Shockman is back for the final installment in the trilogy from Ratalaika Games with The Princess from Another World!

Cyber Citizen Shockman 3 was originally released in 1992 and has been resurrected by Ratalaika Games for current gen consoles. After winning the lottery and taking a much needed vacation, our two heroes, Arnold and Sonya, are forced to turn back into Shockman and defeat an alien threat that has ruined their vacation. This starts players on a side-scrolling adventure that looks and feels like they are still in the 90’s.

The game looks and feels like you are playing some of the run and gun classics from 90’s and looks like the continuation of the Cyber Citizen Shockman franchise that it is. For those that are new to the franchise it feels like a classic Mega-Man side scroller but without the thematic bosses who share a name with their power. The bosses in this game border on the extreme in difficulty compared to the stages themselves. This time around the gameplay is less sticky, meaning much smoother controls and animations. Which is great because in the first two installments I felt like I died more to incomplete jumps than anything else.

The game does lean towards feeling tedious as you press on between the difficult bosses and the repetitive gameplay. Visuals hit that nostalgic itch as does the gameplay itself and the story is humorous at times but not enough to keep me engaged long term.