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Showing posts from April, 2024

Review - Dark Cloud (2001)

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Let me ask something: what do you get when you take the medieval fantasy and dungeon crawling elements of The Legend of Zelda and combine them with the world construction elements of The Sims ? You'd probably get the underrated PlayStation 2 launch title Dark Cloud , produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and Level 5 Games.         So, Dark Cloud is set on a world called Blue Terra, where people are pretty much in tune with the spirits of nature. However, men from East Terra being led by Col. Flag Gilgister have acquired an ancient urn, and unleashed from within it an evil and malevolent being called the Dark Genie. Although, what they perceive as the Dark Genie isn't quite what they expected. More on that later. Anyway, the Dark Genie is then taken to West Terra, where it unleashes a powerful attack that wipes out most of the world...or so it believes.         You see, in truth, the various people and buildings across the land were sealed in large

Review - Planet of the Apes (2011-2017)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, with the newest Planet of the Apes movie, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes , soon arriving in theaters, I feel it's now time to talk about the previous three Planet of the Apes movie, which were as follows: Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,  and War for the Planet of the Apes , released respectively in 2011, 2014, and 2017.         So, 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes , directed by Rupert Wyatt, opens with a chimp being taken from her jungle home, ending up as a test subject at a San Francisco based laboratory called GenSys. It's here where we meet Dr. Will Rodman, who is working on a serum called ALZ-112, which is a viral-based serum meant to heal all neurological ailments, such as Alzheimer's and autism. Unfortunately, the one successful subject is the chim we saw earlier, known as Bright Eyes. However, she begins showcasing aggressive behaviors, and is put down. Will's boss, a man named Jaco

Review - Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, it's 4/20 today, and after talking about Rebel Moon - Part Two yesterday, I really need a bit of a pallette cleanser. So, here's my review of the 2019 comedy Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, released in 2019, written and directed by Kevin Smith, and starring Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith, Harley Quinn Smith, Aparna Brielle, Shannon Elizabeth, Fred Armisen, Rosario Dawson, Jason Lee, Craig Robinson, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Jericho, and so many others.          So, the movie opens with Jay and Silent Bob getting arrested for running an illegal pot shop disguised as a fried chicken eatery called, I shit you not, "The Cock Smoker." In court, a lawyer has them sign some papers, and gets them off the hook, saying that they were hired by a movie studio to run a promotional pop-up for an upcoming movie. And, shortly after, said lawyer reveals a cease and desist against Jay and Silent Bob, as he ACTUALLY represents Saban Films, who acquired ownership o

Review - Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver (2024)

        Alright, let's get this over with. Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver , currently streaming on Netflix, was directed by Zack Snyder and is the continuation of last December's Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire . This movie sees the returns of Sofia Boutella, Djimon Honsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Donna Bae, Ray Fisher, Staz Nair, Fra Fee, Cary Elwes, and Anthony Hopkins.         So, for a quick recap of Part One: A Child of Fire , the movie focuses on Kora, who, in an effort to save her farming community on the moon of Veldt, traverses the galaxy looking for warriors to help make a stand against the Motherworld, and we learn that Kora is the adopted daughter of Motherworld leader Regent Balisarius, and was once an Imperium soldier known as the Scargiver. And, now, let's get into Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver.        Okay, so this movie opens with Admiral Noble being restored after his fight against Kora, and he orders one of his crew, Commander Cass

Review - Mad Max (1979-2015)

        Hey guys, Chuck here. With the new movie Furiosa coming to theaters this summer, I decided to take a look at the Mad Max franchise, which was created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy.          The original Mad Max , released in 1979, was an independent action thriller which starred Mel Gibson, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Joanne Samuel, Steve Bisley, and Roger Ward. The movie is set in a future Australia in the midst of a total societal collapse, where the Main Force Patrol is the only noted form of law enforcement in a world going batshit crazy.          We start off with officers of the Main Force Patrol in pursuit of a crazed driver calling himself the Nightrider. Unfortunately, the MFP officers in pursuit end up losing him, and an officer named Max Rockatansky is able to end the pursuit...with Nightrider's death. Unfortunately, it seems that Nightrider was an associate of a man called the Toe Cutter, and he wants to get back at the man who killed Nightrider. And, the chase is on

Review - Fallout (2024)

       Hey guys, Chuck here, and I'm back talking about a new series. Fallout, which is currently streaming on Amazon, is based on the video game franchise of the same name by Bethesda Software, and stars Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, and Walton Goggins, along with the likes of Kyle MacLachlan, Moises Arias, Mike Doyle, and several others. The series was created by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, who also worked on the HBO series Westworld .         So, Fallout is set in alternate Earth, where the rise of nuclear technology in World War II led to a rise in retrofuturistic technology. However, one day, the entire world falls in a massive wave of nuclear devastation , with its survivors taking refuge in underground vaults. 219 years later is where our story begins, and is where we meet Lucy MacLean, whose lives in Vault 33 with her father and brother. Now, she initially finds herself getting married to a young man from Vault 32, but her new husband and those that arrived with him turned ou

My Thoughts on WrestleMania XL

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Well, this past weekend, WWE held the fortieth annual WrestleMania event in Philadelphia. Over the course of Saturday and Sunday evening, their was a lot of incredible wrestling, and there's definitely a lot to break down.      Starting with Night One, we had the WWE Women's World Championship match between Becky Lynch and Rhea Ripley, who would ultimately retain the title. I will say, though, that both ladies put up one hell of a match, and I gotta give Becky props for wrestling in spite of a massive fever and strep throat. That's a trooper, yo. Next was a Six-Pack Ladder match for the WWE Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Belts. The Raw titles would be won by The Miz and R-Truth (The Awesome Truth, while the SmackDown titles went to Austin Theory and Grayson Waller (A-Town From Down Under). This took both sets of belts from The Judgement Day, and split the belts apart as they should be. And, honestly, after that the matchers were kind of just meh.   

Review - The Great Gatsby (2013)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. And I have to admit this: I'm not a fan of the films of Baz Luhrmann. I mean, I saw his take on Romeo + Juliet in high school and thought it was okay, but I also thought Moulin Rouge  was just plain bad. However, there is one of his films that I thoroughly enjoy, and it's probably the only one I saw in a theater. And that's his 2013 adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher, Jason Clarke, and Elizabeth Debicki.          Now, the movie presents a framing device in which Nick Carraway, a former bond salesman and World War I veteran, is currently in a sanatorium, where he speaks with a therapist regarding his lavish neighbor Jay Gatsby. Nick's therapist, who is aware that Nick once had aspirations of being a writer, suggests that Nick write his account of the time he knew Gatsby, and Nick sits down at the typewriter the therapist

Review - Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

         Hey guys, Chuck here. A bit late to the party, I know, but I finally got a chance to see Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.  Directed by Gil Kenan, this movie is the sequel to 2021's Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and sees the returns several actors from earlier films in the  Ghostbusters franchise, such as Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, McKenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Logan Kim, Celeste O'Connor, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and William Atherton, and such newcomers Kumail Nanjiani, Emily Alyn Lynd, James Acaster, and Patton Oswalt.          So, it's been a few years since the incident in Summerville, and Callie, Trevor, and Phoebe Spengler, along with Gary Grooberson, have moved out of Oklahoma and into the New York firehouse, where the four of them carry out the daily operations as the Ghostbusters. However, during their effort to catch a ghost, the Sewer Dragon of Hell's Kitchen, Phoebe causes some property damage, and the Ghostbusters are reprimanded by

Review - Ocean's Eleven (2001)

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Back in the 1960's, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and the rest of the Rat Pack teamed up and made a movie called Ocean's 11 , which told the story of a military veteran named Danny Ocean, who teams up with his fellow squad members to rob a number of casinos in Las Vegas. It was definitely a product of the time, and is actually a really fun movie. Seeing Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and the Rat Pack on screen together is just genuinely fun.        In 2001, producer Jerry Weintraub and director Steven Soderbergh would bring together a fantastic cast to tell a more modern version of the Rat Pack classic, and that's the movie we're talking about today. This is my review of the 2001 Steven Soderbergh film Ocean's Eleven starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, and Julia Roberts, along with the likes of Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Eddie Jemison, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Elliot Gould, Carl Reiner, and