The Video Game/Movie Review Blog

Okay, this is another one of those movies where I understand why people don't like it, but at the same time, it's still a really good movie all the same. Now, I will admit I knew more about the Assassin's Creed story going into all this, and I think that helped me appreciate the concept a lot more. The story is a little confusing at times, but basically, it's about the Assassins keeping the Apple of Eden, an artifact that controls free will, out of the hands of the Templars. I will admit the story does stop at times, but even when it does so, it still somehow stays entertaining throughout all of it. Our lead is Callum Lynch, played by Michael Fassbender, who is put into a machine called the Animus to relive the memories of his ancestor, an Assassin named Aguilar, to, unknown to him, help the Templars find the Apple. The parts where the story tends to stop are the points where he is reliving the memories, since it just seems to be cool action for the sake of cool action....

What is it with these high fantasy films having terrible plots? First In the Name of the King and now this. This movie is based on the Warcraft series by Blizzard, the most popular installment being World of Warcraft. I have to say that the acting was actually really good. I didn't know too much of the actors, but they did well despite the material feeling lacking. The battle scenes were...there, but nowhere near as good as battle scenes from The Lord of the Rings. So, what is the plot? I'm not quite sure but I think it was how the war between humans and orcs started or something like that. It seems like the beginning of something, but that was it. There was no conclusion, just setup for a future movie that will probably never happen. As many people will say, if a movie is there for the sole purpose to set up future movies, the entire endeavor is pointless. This movie exists, and I have no opinion on it other than nothing was gained by its existence. Watch it if you like Warcra...

I am very surprised. No, scratch that. I am extremely surprised. This movie, which I was pretty sure wouldn't be all that great was actually very fun to watch. How is this possible? The plot is more or less that of the game: The pigs took the eggs, the birds need to get the eggs back, simple stuff, even if there is a bunch of setup to get to that point first. It worked for what it had, and the writing felt fun for the most part. The acting was actually really great as well. Jason Sudeikis did a great and sarcastic performance as Red, our lead, who nobody likes due to how ragey he gets. The main supporting actors are Chuck, played by Josh Gad, and Bomb, played by Danny McBride. Chuck feels like your typical Josh Gad character, so nothing to say there, and Bomb was fine, as far as his writing was concerned. Another performance I really quite enjoyed was that of the villain, Leonard Mudbeard, voiced by Bill Hader, one of the greatest character actors SNL has ever seen. I don't kno...

So, I went into this movie having no idea what to expect. This was...yeah. It was a movie, I think. This movie missed the mark by a lot, and that is such a shame because I have heard that the games are extremely fun. I think my biggest issue with this movie is that the titular duo of Ratchet and Clank have little to no screentime together, so I never bought them as friends, more like friendly acquaintances. They also had a lot of big names in here like Paul Giamatti, Bella Thorne, John Goodman, Rosario Dawson, and Sylvester Stallone. Despite the star power, I didn't care at all. The movie just wasn't interesting. I was expecting it to be more of a family film, but it honestly felt a lot more like a movie for kids to turn their brains off and watch, and that is honestly such a shame due to how interesting they could have made this story, world, and characters. The best part of the whole movie was a joke about the Wilhelm Scream, and that actually got me to laugh. I was basically...

For once, I went into the movie basically blind. I honestly have never watched a film like this before, which is to say, I have never seen a racing movie before. For what this film was, I'm honestly pretty impressed, and I had a good time from start to finish. The main plot is about an ex-con named Tobey Marshall, played by Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul, who enters in an illegal street race to avenge the death of his friend Pete, which he was framed for. Pretty standard action movie plot, but with the framing being all about crazy car racing and all the insane stunts you expect from said races. The acting was fine, with Aaron Paul and Imogen Poots doing good as the main leads for the film. Everyone else felt like plot devices, but I was totally fine with that. The movie was, at the end of the day, all about the racing, and if you are an action fan, or a racing fan, there is a lot of heart-pounding craziness to keep you on the edge of your seat the whole way. Overall, a movie less a...

I have never played the Prince of Persia games, but I do remember when this movie was announced. There was a lot of hype surrounding it, and apparently it was supposed to be Disney's next big property, the next Pirates of the Caribbean, if you will, even bringing in the same producer, Jerry Bruckheimer. I initially didn't understand the issue with this film, but, after finishing it, while I actually had fun, there is one glaring issue with the story. The story is actually pretty interesting, with the adopted prince of Persia, Dastan, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, is framed for the death of the king and has to figure out who really was responsible. At the same time, he comes into the possession of a mysterious dagger that has power over time. It's a really cool concept, and for the most part, it is done well, with some really good action and adventure setpieces. The performances were great, with Jake Gyllenhaal as the rough and tumble prince, Gemma Arterton as the sassy yet goo...

This movie has always been compared unfavorably to the original Street Fighter film from 1994. For the longest time, I looked at them as completely separate films, which makes sense, since this film was set to be a different take on the world of Street Fighter, so essentially a reboot of the previous film. Rewatching it this time, though, has opened my eyes. Now while this film was nowhere near as terrible as In the Name of the King, this film did have a similarity with that other film I want to point out: Both of them had super confusing plots. Unlike In the Name of the King, though, I had no idea what the purpose of this film was supposed to be. I get it was to be a darker and more realistic take on the Street Fighter series, but for some reason, none of the characters resemble their game counterparts in the slightest, and really, campy charm makes more sense for a fighting game adaptation than...whatever this was. This film did have good actors like Robin Shou, Neal McDonough, and M...

I have to say, a lot of people discouraged me from watching this movie. To an extent, I can understand why, but at the end of the day, my opinion was not what I expected it to be. This is another PG-13 adaptation of an M rated game, in this case, Max Payne. The story is basically that of the first game from what little I know about the series, where Max goes after the person who killed his wife and child. That's the whole point of the movie. The acting was serviceable, however, it wasn't amazing at the same time. Max was played by Mark Wahlberg, with supporting roles by Mila Kunis, Beau Bridges, and Ludacris. They did fine with what they had, but the story wasn't all that great in execution. For most of the film, nothing really happens and it's honestly kind of a waste of time. At the very end, we get some action, and it is good action, but having to wait nearly an hour was not a good call. At the end of the day, I didn't hate this film. The beginning and the middle...

So, I think that my reaction once the credits for this movie started will prepare you for how this review is going to go. Basically, I was laughing hysterically and was wondering what I just watched. This movie is supposedly based on a game called Dungeon Siege, but since it was directed by Uwe Boll, a man who doesn't care about video games at all, that doesn't really matter. It's a fantasy film wishing it was Lord of the Rings but never quite getting there due to how incoherent it is. So, the main plot, as far as I can tell, is about our lead character, a farmer named Farmer (I wish I was joking), played by Jason Statham, who goes after an army of not-Orcs called the Krug after they kidnap his wife and kill his young son. Ron Perlman is in the movie, I guess, as is Burt Reynolds, who plays the king. Outside of Burt Reynolds, everyone really tries to make this movie work, and are actually taking it pretty seriously. I'd say my favorite performances were the villains, pl...

I definitely had quite an interesting journey going through this one, especially compared to the first one, which was more a straightforward action film. This one was...a lot different, but I had fun. This one has a lot more of a plot, even if it is still basically about protecting an artifact of doom from going into the wrong hands, in this case, Pandora's Box. That's most of the plot, but where I felt the first one had more of an action packed Charlie's Angels vibe, this one has much more of an adventurous Indiana Jones vibe, especially when they get to the titular Cradle of Life. I was impressed once again with Angelina Jolie's performance as Lara Croft, and her partner this time around, played by Gerard Butler, was pretty interesting as well. They played off of each other well and I though they were genuinely fun characters. Even the villain, played by Ciaran Hinds was appropriately psychotic, even getting a messed up death scene al la Indiana Jones. I really enjoye...

How do I even describe the movie I just watched? It's definitely something unique, but is that a good unique or a bad unique? I can't quite be sure. This film was supposedly based on the Final Fantasy series, to the point that even the director of the first five games in the series directed the movie as well. It was intended to usher in a new era of digital actors, eventually replacing flesh and blood actors, with the lead character, Aki Ross, intended to be the first of these 'actors.' It didn't work, and the idea was honestly pretty ridiculous. As for the movie itself, most of it was nothing special, really. The story was bland, the acting was bland. The only thing that was actually kind of interesting was the visuals, which, for an animated film in 2001, were pretty impressive, although they just look like a good PS3 cutscene now. This was indeed a movie. I don't know what else to say about it. It has barely anything to do with Final Fantasy outside of a char...

Going into this movie, I knew that the Tomb Raider series was always an adventure style video game, and so I was expecting an adventure film. That...wasn't quite what happened, but I'm not disappointed with what happened with this film regardless. The main plot, as is standard for any video game movie, is pretty simple. Lara Croft (played fantastically by Angelina Jolie) is going up against the Illuminati to find the Triangle of Light, which is an item that can control time itself. The adventure stuff wasn't really the main focus of the film, unlike similar stories like Indiana Jones or the Brendan Fraser Mummy films. This film focused on the crazy and high-octane action that seems very similar to another film that had come out fairly recently at the time: Charlie's Angels. Of course, I like this film a lot more than that one just because it seemed to focus on the action rather than the appeal of the leads. Obviously, I thought Jolie did a fantastic job at playing Lara ...

Coming back to the world of Mortal Kombat after the crazy cliffhanger ending of the first film, I had heard that this film was not as good as the first one. Going into it, I definitely agree with that sentiment, yet I still had fun. The story is practically non-existent. It basically goes something like this: Raiden good, Shao Khan bad. I will admit that this movie was similar to the last one, with it just being action scene after action scene, except with less story to hold them together. The acting is at times cheesy and at other times terrible. The performance of Raiden in this one was...lacking. I felt Christopher Lambert from the first one gave him an appropriately mysterious and yet powerful personality. James Remar, on the other hand, just seemed bored the whole time. The action scenes varied from forgettable to alright, and they definitely didn't have the same impact as the first one. In fact, none of this movie had as much impact as the first one to me. I felt the film was...

I have to say, I was excited about getting to review this film, because of how popular it has been since its release in 1995. Wow, this movie did not disappoint, and it was way more fun than a PG-13 adaptation of a famously gory fighting game had any right to be. The story is fairly simple. Liu Kang, Johnny Cage, and Sonya Blade were chosen to compete in Mortal Kombat to prevent the world from falling under the control of the evil Shang Tsung. The story isn't what you come for though. This film is all about the crazy action, and Johnny Cage's dumb jokes. There were so many good fight scenes in this movie, but my four favorites were Johnny Cage vs. Scorpion, Johnny Cage vs. Goro, Liu Kang vs. Reptile, and Liu Kang vs. Shang Tsung. They're all cool in their own way, and while the movie starts off slow, it eventually goes from action scene to action scene, and it never lets up for a second once it gets going. I would say that if you are an action movie or martial arts movie fa...

Today's review is on the 1994 film Street Fighter, the first of two films based on the popular fighting game series. I've only played one of the versions of Street Fighter V once or twice and I wasn't very good at it, so I don't have much experience with the games. This is an interesting anomaly of a movie for me. When I first saw it, I wasn't overly fond of it, and I wrote it off as a 'whatever' kind of movie. As I have rewatched it, and especially on this most recent viewing, I have found it to be a surprisingly entertaining action movie with almost no intelligence behind it. Getting into the main plot, it's basically about the Allied Nations (based on the United Nations), who are led by Colonel Guile (played by Jean Claude Van Damme for some reason), try to stop the evil General M. Bison (played by the late Raul Julia in his final film role) from taking over the world. It's honestly a really overstuffed film, which, for some reason, has every Stre...

After way too long of a hiatus, I have returned for my long awaited second review: Double Dragon! Based on the beat em up of the same name, I had no idea what to expect going into this movie, since I have never played Double Dragon before. Oh, boy, this movie was something else. Instead of a simple plot about two brothers teaming up to save a girl from street thugs, this film is about a mystical medallion called the Double Dragon that gives you powers or something, I guess. Our leads were played by Mark Dacascos, who exists, Scott Wolf, who also exists, and Alyssa Milano, who is the namesake of Star Lord's spaceship in Guardians of the Galaxy. They weren't all that interesting and I remember almost nothing of the film despite just having watched it. My favorite character was strangely the villain, Koga Shuko, played by Robert Patrick AKA T2's T-1000, who has a Vanilla Ice hairstyle for some reason. He was over the top hammy, and was clearly having fun despite the film being...