Random Movie Thoughts

I decided to pick this up for $5 of amazon and give it a re-watch. I haven't watched it some time but this has to be the most underrated Batman,DC,Super hero movie ever! My mother took me to this on my birthday, the day it came out since I loved the show so much. I was one of the few who went. WB really botched this thing. At first it was suppose to be direct to VHS but then changed direction and went to the big screen and gave the team 8 months!! to get it out and boy did they. That is where the good decisions in the marketing come to an end. They pushed out a awful trailer, no good TV ads, very little toys. They just screwed it up. The movie cost 6 million to make and only made 5 million in the theaters. After home release it made money. The talent did its job but WB didn't do theirs.

I might move it up my top 10: Batman list. It has very little issues and has everything you could want in a Batman movie. Its better than BvS... Easily. I won't get into that right now.

-Love the BTAS style. Glad that team did this movie.

-The new Phantom character is great. It has a super natural moments and you never know how the tricks are pulled off.

-This movie has three hair raising moments. The first, The Phantom has a great line. "Your Angel of Death Awaits". Creepy.
-The way they wrap a origin story, love and the plot of the Phantom murdering old mob guys is pure genius and amazing editing and writing. It flows so well and well paced. If Snyder was given this it would have been a pure mess. Ok no more BvsS hating.

-Its a really dark kids movie. I mean brutal deaths of these mob bosses. Not to mention blood, cuts, guns and aggressive fighting. Not sure if its PG by today's standards.

-The voice acting of course is some of the best you'll see. Hamill's Joker is bare none one of the best Jokers ever. Conroy blows any other animated Batman out of the water and should be in the convo as best Bats in any movie. Stacy Keach is a creepy Phantom and we get Abe freaking Vigoda.

-With a bigger budget they got use a choir in some of the music. Just beautiful stuff that makes the scenes
-Hair raising scene number two. When Batman puts on the cowl for the first time and Alfred is scared of Bruce. The music along with the moment is one that sticks with you.

-The movie does have a great mix of serious tones,action and funny stuff(Joker's rocket pack) .

- The old mob guys death... Jesus.. PG my ass.

-Batman gets pretty beat up in the final act. Suit is ripped up, Joker loses a tooth, bloody nose... Again PG..OK.
-The twist of who the Phantom is again just great writing and they tie all the lose ends up. Motivation of the characters are clear and executed. Looking at you Snyder... OK I'll stop.

-Hair raising scene number 1, when Hamill gets to unleash his best Joker laugh and maybe the best in the history of cinema. All Hell as broke loose and fire is raining down. Joker is ready to take Batman with him and die. He lets out the Joker Laugh of all time.
If WB ever gives this thing a Blu-Ray release you have my money. Its sad its so discarded(like TMNT one). Yet Batman and Robin get Bluray releases... Makes no sense. Give me a BR in 1080p and cleaned up(it will never happen). Its amazing and if you haven't seen it than shame on you. If you love Batman and haven't watched it in a long time than watch it. I think it gets better with age. Cartoon or not this is Batman. If WB ever made this into a live action movie and just went scene by scene.. Mother of God.  

batman, movies, movie, comics, joker, RMT,

These are movies I had high hopes for or just can't even make it through. The theater has let us down at one time or another and its these movies where we are screaming for our money back. Please comment any of your worst movies!

10.Dune (RT 56%)

I just finished the book and wow what mind blowing piece of literature. I can't wait to read the next book. As for the movie?? Ehhh its a mess. Its impossible to cram this book into 2 hours. It has to be 3 hours or two parts. The acting is not great and the Baron is totally weird. Like disgusting. Hes a evil asshole in the book but not gross. And whats with the rain at the end? There was a 3 hour version that just hit the net with all the parts they cut from the movie which helps a lot! But it has since be removed..... If HBO ever gave this thing a Game of Thrones treatment..MY GOD.

9.Mission to Mars(RT 25%)
As a pre teen the trailer had me pumped. I have always been into Mars and I thought it looked awesome. I knew I was in trouble when it came back with a PG rating. The terrible Alien at the end.....ehhhhhhhhh.

8.Any Spiderman Movie (RT 89%  93%  63%)
I don't get it. I never got it at the time. People went banana's for the first Spiderman and I didn't understand why. 2nd one came out and again people loved it. I hated it. People called me nuts. I like me some Sam Rami too but its garbage. Then the 3rd..... a Dance scene? What the hell is going on? It grossed WHAAAAT? It pretty much assured me that people will like anything no matter how terrible it is. I will admit that I don't really like Marvel or SpiderMan but it can be done better then the last two tries. I hear they are going for a 3rd reboot. Good luck.

7.The Happening(RT 17%)
I didn't even want to see this since I hadn't liked M night since Signs but the wife pushed me into the theater. We laughed the whole way through. The over acting and Mark Wahlberg staring at the camera asking "IT CAN'T BE THE WIND CAN IT?" RUN FROM THE WIND! Is that even possible? We wanted to leave but we were laughing so we stayed.

6.Ghost Rider (RT 26%)
It was February, we wanted to go out. We chose this for reasons unknown to me. We left a hour in and I haven't seen it since. Was their a sequel? Not worthy enough for my google search bar.

5.Mortal Kombat Annihilation(RT 3%)
I was a huge MK fan and after the first movie which at the time as "ok"(not now) I was hoping to see more of my favorite characters. Well that is what we got and what a mess. MK characters would just randomly drop out of the sky(literately) and FIGHT! The acting was terrible, special effects were laughable and the script was pure shit. I'm surprised it this saw the light of day. FINISH..H...TURN IT OFF!

4.Indiana Jones...4 (RT 78%)
Such a huge disappointment. It was fun seeing Ford back on the screen as Indie but Lucas can't get out of his own way. I enjoyed the first 30 mins ans then it just goes south with insane situations. Ok you can blow up and survied in a fridge... But when you swing with monkeys and catch back up to the car...THAT WHERE I DRAW THE LINE. Also the plot as a whole just was boring. UFO crap? Ugh.. I'll watch any of the 3 anytime but I refuse to watch this junk.

3.Star Wars Episode II (RT 67%)
Episode I was boring but the last 15 mins saved it from being on this list. This one is just a snoozer all the way. The last light Saber fight with Yoda,Skywalker and the Count had the crowd laughing(at least in my theater). There was nothing cool about this Star Wars, cheese acting and zero on screen chemistry from the Skywalker and Padme. Lucas again just botched this thing. I again will watch all of them besides this thing. Unless I am trying to fall a sleep.

2.Batman and Robin (RT 11%)
This movie turned me off from Batman anything for 8 years! I was totally done with it. I even blew off Begins until word started to fly that it was really good. This thing is just bloated bright and ugly.. With terrible casting and lines. It goes full cheese and fails. Batman 1966 has its place and its fits there. This thing was so bad the people involved have apologized for making it. I remember leaving the theater with my cousin and was both said "were done with Batman". That is hard to do to a 15 year old who loves Batman. This movie pulled it off.

1.Super Mario Bros(RT 16%)
Ok when the posters started showing up at the theater and word spread via news papers and magazines that there was going to be a SMB movie I flipped my lid. I day dreamed about seeing a real life Bowser. The castle, maybe his kids from SMB3? The possibilities seemed endless. What did we get? A human Bowser, parallel universes, Jurassic Park Yoshi, The Dinosaur song, a king who is a elastic goo.... Yes that sounds just like SMB.

Looks like a Goomba right?

I remember leaving the theater and even mom was like "what did we just watch?" I couldn't answer her. It was just awful and to this day I can't sit through it. You had the licence and you blew 40 mil. It grossed 20 mil... It sorta reminds me of what they did with He-man as in they had to some how have it based on on earth and why? Why? You had 40 million! Don't watch it!
80s movie, movies, top 10,

Wow one year! Its been fun remembering and sharing things I enjoy and love with my 93 twitter followers and the 10 people who have visited the blog. I know I don't write in a ton of depth and it isn't a clear or well done but thanks to those who enjoy it and read it. A special thanks to the Sewer Den for leaving a few comments. I want to thank the two blog sponsors 8bitfetish and modifimyshop.com for providing great posters and products for me to review. Here is to another great year!

My favorite posts from the year
Top 10:SNES Cover Art - Top 10:Childhood Movies - Kenner Real Ghostbusters Firehouse Restore
Top 10:Real Ghostbusters Episodes - Top 10:Movies my Parents shouldn't have let me watch as a kid. - RMT:Masters of the Universe

A while back I drew the sword of Omens at work. While it isn't perfect(or striaght, hey I'm not a artist) it did come out better than I expected. I let it sit in my closet for about a year not knowing what to do with it or if I should do anything with it.

Brings us to today, I was hanging this old crappy Euro Thundercats or CosmoCats! I thought, this isn't worth Jaga's dick. I should just use it as a back drop for my sword. I then started to clip away! I came away with this!
 I'm pretty excited about this. Came out great. It did take some patience but it paid off. My free handed Sword of Omens pops right off the comics. I like this so much I think I am going to pull this off with my four 1st print issues of the Dark Knight Returns. I have a pretty beat up trade book I can cut up. Just finding the right frame will be the tricky part. I'll post if it comes out well.


thundercats, 80s, comics, art, cartoons, me room

After the first few reviews hit(RT 27%) my hopes were lowered so I just went to see Arnold. I felt he was pretty decent and I don't know if its better than 3 or salvation since I haven't watched them in a long time. I just stick to the fact that Cameron's T2(the best action movie ever IMO) tied up everything really tight and the last 3 are just for good old feelings or fun or farce. You can never top the pure awesomeness and greatness of T1 and T2. On to the random thoughts!

Might be spoilers 

-As soon as the machine grabbed Conner as Reese was time traveling, that is when Biff stole the time machine.

-Some people say this movie shits on Cameron's since the alternate time stuff but when time travel is a thing.. It gives you a licence to fuck with things.

-I thought Clarke made a good Sarah but not as intense as Hamilton/

-Courtney was terrible. He had zero on screen presence and no chemistry with Clarke as Reese.

-Jason Clarke was ok as John Conner, thought letting the cat out of the bag that he was a Terminator in the trailer was a mistake. No surprises.
-They keep killing any potential of the franchise with this PG-13 crap. Its meant to be R. Arnold's face should have been ripped up big time after some crashes but was clean most the movie. Not much carnage at all. A few T1000 stabs was about it. I would say Jurassic Park was closer to a R rating.

-The action isnt much to talk about. Can't hold a candle to T2. A movie from 1991...

-I will always say special effects cheapen a movie and gives less to its weight. Its the case here.

-John Conner gets stuck to a MRI machine and we have no clue how he gets off it. Arnold turns into a t1000 in the end and have no idea how he came back on or anything.

-A few funny moments with Arnold. Nothing feels organic. Just forced but some what funny.
-Nice machine fights scenes, lots of walls took damage, Even a pop machine was a victim.

-They built a time machine in 1984....So..there is that.

-The Dragon Princess is pretty hot.

-They could have expended more on this Skynet AI who always has been in charge. Didn't give us a lot.

-Seeing young Arnold was great, made me just want to watch T1 instead.

These movies prove that James Cameron is a genius. Without his direction you have no shot. People give the performances of a life time in T1 and T2. Edward Furlong of all people is amazing in T2. Cameron just brings the best out of his talent. I just feel the acting and even Arnold struggle to be even ok. Its like they are doing impressions of these characters now and not being them. It doesn't help that Courtney kills about any scene he is in. I just never felt connected to any of the characters or cared like I did in T2 when the T-800 is lowered into the lava. I was moved than cause the acting,directing, music and everything was at such a high level. The chemistry was there. It just isn't here in this one or the past two. The first two are the real Terminator movies and the last three are just pretenders doing their best impression.

I give it 4 Edward Furlongs out of 10
RMT, movies, terminator, Arnold

I've always hated my cable provider. I just feel like I have little options and little power and have to pay out the butt for anything I really would want. I've been with Direct TV(which hasn't been as bad as Charter) for the last 2 years and I'm happy to say I'm ready to cancel.

I started hearing some rumblings at work about the Amazon fire stick and how this media program could give you live tv,movie channels,PPV.. Basically everything. Now I was pretty skeptical and stubborn since I a huge sucker for my HD sports. How good was the quality? Can I really watch good looking live TV with little to no hiccups? As for getting the Fire Stick to do this I would need to side load the Kodi program and all its "add-ons". After reading and watching some videos about it I was pretty sure I could do but I just didn't have the time with two kids ect ect. So I went to Ebay where Sellers are in fierce competition to sell these TV wonder sticks.

I found a great seller Derek, or modifi.myshopifycom on ebay. I sent some questions out to many sellers looking for the best seller who knew what they were selling and talking about. Derek came back with the quickest and most info about my questions. I highly recommend him when buying a fire stick since I know he will take care of you and does have 100% feedback. He also puts the Kodi launch app right on the home screen so you can jump right into it, not all sellers do this. It can be hard to know which one to buy since there are so many sellers. Go to Derek, he even sends easy to follow paper instructions. Check out his auction here! and his website here!
I got my stick in about 2 days and plugged it up. Everything was going great until I tried to stream live tv which would go for a few seconds then buffers FOREVER! I couldn't get any of the movie to load either. Whats the deal? So I tested my internet speeds and found them to be terrible. I was getting anywhere from 14 mbps to 28 mbps. I pay for 60 mbps! So I called up Charter and they recommend that I try a direct line to my computer than test the speed. Sure enough 60 mbps came blasting through. So my router was pretty old... and was choking my internet. I went out and bought the Netgear R6100 This router got me up to speed and it broadcast at 5hz which the stick can pick up and is easily faster then the standard 2.4hz. Once my stick was connected to its new network(footLAN......) everything was as smooth as butter. Live TV had no problems, movie loaded up at decent speeds. No buffering at all to date!

The Stick
It plugs and plays pretty much from the get go. You don't even have to have a Amazon account since Derek does all that before he ships it out. You can add your account if you want. There is some processing and waiting at times when you select things. You get the dreaded "waiting" spinner which if it goes on for a while it means the content isn't going to load. It got hung up on me a few times and has crashed once but you have to remember it is  a stick and ram can only do so much. Its amazing it holds and does what it does with such limited ram. In no way a deal killer. Not even close. Now I can't comment on how the Amazon box works which has more processing power but it will cost you a bit more. I can deal with a few moments of waiting. If the content is there to load(which is most the time) it boots right up in great speeds.

LIVE TV
Espn, NLF network, NBA TV, Comedy Central ,E and a bunch of crazy channels I have never even heard of work most the time on IPTV Stalker(its a live tv add-on). There will be times when they just flat out won't load. Not sure the reason behind it but this isn't the case most the time and there are so many other add-ons with live tv like Navi-x or Sports dog that even if they are down in one add-on you can jump over to another and try those which will work. For the price of the stick this doesn't bother me but it might bothers some.

Most the time the quality is pretty close to HD if not HD but at times it can drop a bit. I watched the NBA finals and it was dropping a bit and that could be do to high volume traffic but I did jump around and find a pretty good stream. Once and while you might go to a stream that might be in Spanish or something like that.  Did this when I was looking for CN for my son but again, you just go to the next CN stream until you find what you want.
You can also watch HBO,Showtime and all those channels but I really don't see the point if you can just watch things on demand or search for any movie you want.

With Live TV you just have to be willing to look around if the first option doesn't work. You'll get what you want but like I said that isn't the case most the time. It works pretty well. There is also a add-on for local stations but I haven't had a chance to try it yet.

Movies
This where the KODI program really shines. Derek has it settings so the "movies" tab will take you right to the "Genesis add-on" which I think so far is the best movie add-on. Navi-X is good too just not as user friendly. Genesis will have all the newest movies or the most popular movies that you can watch right as soon as you hit the movies tab. You can also search for whatever. I wanted to watch "Castaway" for some odd reason and and it came right up and watched it with no issues. Newer movies are always in HD and older movies can be DVD quality. When you chose a movie a list of links load with the movie you chose. More than not the first one will work, if not just go to the next and one will work. Or you can hit "auto play" which will play the first working link. I never use it since the first one works 99% of the time.
There is a kids zone tab where its just kids movies which my son loves. They even have kid tv shows. They have all the DUCK TALES FERGODSAKE! Lots of great kids content. Again most work, most the time but there is so much stuff the kids has option ABCDEFGHI...ect ect.

TV on demand
Again, just a amazing thing. I can watch Game of Thrones, True Detective... Orange is the new Black... Anything on TV really, you can watch on demand. It won't take more then a day or so after the latest episode for it to show up to view.

I even found out I can watch TMNT 2K3, Thundercats, Real Ghostbusters, Knight Rider, Batman ......M.A.S.K... Its all there! Tracking down 2k3 turtles is very pricey. Now they are all at my finger tips. Same with Thundercats. Its all here for me to watch whenever. My 8 year old self would have crapped its pants.

So buy it??
Oh.My.God.Yes... If you are looking to be a cord cutter but the other options never seemed good enough to do it? This is the stick that will have you pulling the trigger. Once you learn the ins and out and play with it a bit you will feel right at home and you can't believe you paid a thousand dollars a year for cable. Is it going to match the live HD you get with cable? No, but it isn't far off. Some times the stream is so good it does look like I'm watching my Direct TV.

Even as a pure movie watcher and say you just need it for that its worth it. It has more than Netflix. For the one time fee its more then worth it. Buy it and hope to god Amazon never patches it which I hear might not matter anyway. Kodi has been running on the stick for over a year so things are pretty promising going forward. If you have more question contact Derek at his Ebay store.



Pros
-Live TV in near HD or HD
-Movies play in 1080p
-86248924729847 on demand movie choices
-76484684294848 on demand TV choices
-76383628374999 on demand kids TV and Movie choices
-Even has old movies and shows.
-cheap price
-Genesis add-on is amazing
-Good support(Derek will update the device to v.15, just have to pay shipping)
-Stick picks up 5hz wifi for even faster speeds to reduce any buffering
-Kids add-ons with everything.

Cons
-Live TV can be hit or miss.
-Learning Curve
-Some non working things but usually work later or even a re-click
-"Working" hate when it goes on forever leaving you stuck

Tips
-Make sure your router and internet speed is up to snuff. I had to buy a new router since my old one was only pushing 15-22 mbps and the stick could not stream anything without a decent router. Check your speed at speedtest.net to make sure you getting proper speeds.
-Go for 5hz signal router if you do buy a new one.
-Use Genesis and save your favs to the save folder.
-Things will go down from time to time for maintenance.

I want to thank Derek again for the great deal on the stick and and all the help when I had questions. Make sure to swing by his Ebay store.

cool crap, amazon tv, tv, movies,

Jurassic World(RT 71%)

Well I'll say this right off the bat. It's the 2nd best JP easily. The first one will just always have a special place in my heart. I really liked the pace of the movie as it started out slow and then started to thump along to end at a fast and furious finish. If you liked the first you will for sure enjoy this one as it gives you the same sense of hopelessness and having no power over these animals.

Might be some Spoilers 

-Of course there are kids in this, its like a JP movie rule I guess.

-Loved the nods all over the movie to the original JP. They are everywhere! Some in you're face and some in the background.

-It looks like a real park. If this was a real thing, that is what it would look like.

-The comedy relief guy in the control room was pretty funny. Loved the t-shirt joke.

-I hated the Claire character. I know we are suppose to not like her but she was so annoying, I just wished she wasn't there. Her haircut drove me nuts and shes on her cell phone 90% of the movie.

-Pratt was decent, I didn't feel like we really got to know his character. He was just there to solve the problems and was the only one that had any sense most the time.
-Lots of death in this one. The highest body count of any JP. I enjoyed that part as they wiped one person out after another. The only downside is I can't take my son to it.

-They made great use of  giant fish dinosaur.. thing.

-Some things were just ridiculous. Pratt riding along with Raptors. The Raptors pulling a Hollywood Hogan Heel turn and then going baby face back to the Yellow and Red Hulk Hogan. The Hoskins character in general was ridiculous, "This is happening with or without you!" Hey do you know any other man on planet Earth that can whisper to Raptors? I think you need him.

-Getting to see lots of cool park attractions.

-The kids wondering into the old park which was overgrown was great. That stuff excites me for whatever reason. Wish they could have been there longer.
-The last battle with the T-Rex and D-Rex was pretty awesome. The way D-Rex went was great too. Pure summer glee.

-Wished they would use a real Dino instead of this genetic freak D-Rex. Hell, use Spinosaurus again for all I care.

Jurassic World turned out a lot better then I thought it would be. It does have ridiculous parts but then again Dinos are alive in this world too. Go take a visit to the park, its the best one since the first.

I give it 7 long necks out of 10.









Jurassic Park,movies, RMT,summer popcorn