Superhero Movie Showdown Round 2

    So, here are the results from the second round of the superhero movie challenge from my instagram account.  There were definitely some surprises but that is what makes this poll so fun!

Opinion: Why WWE Needs to Push Zack Ryder

    Zack Ryder hasn't been a relevant WWE talent for years now.  Though Ryder still has plenty of loyal fans like any WWE superstar, it's fair to say his star his diminished since he got himself over with his own YouTube show.  For whatever reason, the WWE writers don't seem to like the idea of fans getting behind the talents they don't shove down their throats.  Perhaps some fault actually lays with Vince McMahon and his odd personality quirks.  I guess in the end it doesn't matter because when Zack Ryder was on his hot streak and actually won the United States Championship, everything went downhill afterwards.  Although Zack Ryder has had some moments here and there including winning the Intercontinental Championship at Wrestlemania a few years back, he remains a talent WWE rarely utilizes.  In fact, since being drafted to Raw, he has only wrestled on the red brand once.  The thing is, Zack Ryder remains a charismatic personality and Ryder isn’t being given much reason to stay with WWE.
    WWE’s strangle hold over the industry is coming to an end.  Now, that doesn’t mean WWE doesn’t remain the premier place to wrestle, it does, but talent has other options.  As Cody (formly Cody Rhodes) has proven with his move to the independent circuit and helping form AEW, WWE isn’t the only game in town.  This should potentially concern WWE since Cody is close to Zack Ryder (Cody even convinced Ryder to ask out his current girlfriend).  Cody realizes Zack Ryder’s potential and has even recently reminded him via Twitter that people were chanting his name at Madison Square Garden even while The Rock was there.  The point is, Zack Ryder has options now.
    If WWE were wise, they would realize the potential star power Zack Ryder could provide before it’s too late (much like what happened when Cody Rhodes left).  With several toy related videos on YouTube, he remains valuable to the brand.  A push with him regaining the United States or Intercontinental Championship should be in order.  Give Zack Ryder a chance to shine again before he does so in AEW or Impact Wrestling.

“Outlaw King” Movie Review

    I don’t generally get very excited for most original Netflix streaming movies.  For the most part, the films turn out alright but don’t wow me.  I was, however, curious about “Outlaw King” when it was released.  I figured that the film would at least be somewhatly educational.

    The film feels like a diet version of “Braveheart” and could be viewed as a semi-sequel to the Mel Gibson classic.  The film picks up after the death of Sir William Wallace as Robert the Bruce is forced to lead the Scottish forces against England in an attempt to gain their independence.

    Chris Pine delivers a surprisingly strong performance as Robert the Bruce, the legendary warrior and King of the Scots.  Pine delivers an authentic performance and has a commanding and sympathetic presence.  The film relies primarily on the strength of Pine’s performance since most of the other roles are rather small in comparison.

    The problem with the film is that it’s scope seems limited quite a bit by it’s budget.  It’s a shame because their are some beautifully shot scenes.  With a slightly larger budget, I feel like this movie could have been on par with the scoop of a movie like “Braveheart” or “Gladiator”.

    The battle scenes are brutal and well done which is vital since the movie relies heavily on the brutality of war.  The movie ends abruptly which seems to be a rather common thread in Netflix original films.

    “Outlaw King” feels like a step in the right direction for Netflix but doesn’t quiet hit the mark.  If Netflix worked on their original films endings a little more, I would enjoy them more.  “Outlaw King” isn’t bad but it also doesn’t sell itself like it should.

Grade: C+

Outside Perspective: A Look At “Secret Stories of Hitler” by William S.

    I very much enjoy watching documentaries on subjects I find interesting.  One of my favorite subjects is (and remains) history.  So, when I found out Mills Creek Entertainment released a collection of documentaries entitled “Secret Stories of Hitler”, I was intrigued.  Now, hopefully this goes without saying, Adolf Hitler was a monster.  That being said, World War 2 is one of the wars I find most compelling.  I was interested to see what this set had to offer.

    So, I decided to focus my attention on the documentary “Swastika” because I had heard that it was controversial so I guess I figured that would be a good place to start.  The movie isn’t like most documentaries I have seen before and I definitely understood why it was considered controversial.  The movie shows home footage of Hitler shot by Eva Braun and is intermixed with propaganda footage depicting Hitler in an almost heroic light.  It’s hard to stomach at times and I think that was the point of the documentary.  It wanted to show even a monster can hide successfully among us if we turn a blind eye to anything that doesn’t directly effect us.

    Unlike most other documentaries from acclaimed filmmakers like Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock, this documentary is unique in the fact that the director doesn’t inject his feelings or emotions into the project.  Instead, he shows footage of Germany and Adolf Hitler as they were.  There is no injecting humor or insight into a subject so tragic.  For the this reason however, I can definitely see the controversial nature of the film.

    The film wants us to learn from the past so we don’t continue making the same mistakes.  I do feel like a slightly more direct message might have connected with audiences better, including myself, but I understand what director Philippe Mora was trying to do as well.

    Out of respect to individuals who might not see the intent of the documentary, I will not grade it.  Instead I will say that I did find it interesting and history buffs who can divorce their feelings from the footage will find it an interesting watch.

*Article written by William S. and edited by Jeffrey S.

Buy “Secret Stories of Hitler” on DVD Here!!!

“Escape Room” Movie Review

    We enter the new year in a rather unusual place.  While January is typically a slow month for movies, 2019 looks to start the new year off a little more promisingly.  While theaters are still filled with some incredible 2018 holdovers such as “Aquaman” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”, we can seemingly also look forward to movies such as “Glass”, “A Dog’s Way Home”, and “Escape Room”.  We decided to go see “Escape Room” over some of the 2018 holdovers this week based primarily on the strength of the trailers.  The film looked interesting and had a very unique looking style.
    I knew there was a decent chance it might not turn out well, but sometimes you have to give a movie a chance as well.  I was hoping for something more in the vain of “The Cabin in the Woods”.  Something intelligent and self aware with it’s humor.  What I got wasn’t exactly in that vain, although it was entertaining in it’s own respect.

    The film focuses on six strangers who all are invited to a mysterious escape room.  The strangers all have a secret in common and must survive an escape room with life or death steaks.  START OF SPOILER: One complaint about the characters in the film is that by only showing three of the six characters backstories in the beginning, I immediately knew which characters were going to be killed first.  END OF SPOILER

    The film succeeds in building suspense throughout from the beginning until the end.  The ending however, is very frustrating.  I don’t want to spoil the ending, but there isn’t much to spoil either...which is part of the problem.  I also don’t tend to like sequel baiting which this movie is very guilty of.

    “Escape Room” is a movie that focused more on style than substance.  To quote a fellow movie goer as she left our theater, “the movie would have been a lot better if they had paid for a script”.  The movie pulls a J.J. Abrams, it creates this elaborate mystery box approach with no plans to answer all the many questions it creates.  If you want questions answered, you better hope the next screenwriter is creative because the buck has been passed to him.

    “Escape Room” is ultimately a fun but pointless film.  Just don’t bother trying to figure out what is going on, it is just a waste of time and energy.

Grade: C+

“Smosh: The Movie” Movie Review

    I have to admit that despite my love of movies, I spend a great deal of time browsing YouTube.  Anyone who has spent anytime on YouTube has probably stumbled upon a Smosh video in some form or another.  Smosh was and still remains one of the largest channels on the platform and has helped the two creators of the channels branch out.

    It is impossible to address “Smosh: The Movie” without discussing their YouTube channel.  I have to admit that I very much enjoyed their videos from time to time.  Yes, their videos were filled with potty humor but creators Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla’s chemistry made for some organic humor.  I also liked watching their ‘Game Bang’ videos.  I stopped watching their channel after co-founder Anthony Padilla left the channel.  It just didn’t feel the same.

    So, it was nice to revisit their previous work in the form of “Smosh: The Movie”.  There isn’t much of a premise to the movie.  Padilla is embarrassed by a video uploaded to YouTube on the eve of his and Hecox’s High School reunion and the two go on a quest to have the video taken down from YouTube.  To do so, they have to travel inside of YouTube.  So, yeah, it is silly and slightly meta.  It is also low budget and an excuse to include cameos from other popular YouTubers such as Jenna Marbles and Markiplier.

    Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t really work.  The humor never quite lands and the performances from the cast have room for improvement.  Still, Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox have a natural charisma that is hard to deny.  The film was directed by the very talented Alex Winter who does the best with the script and budget he had to work with.  I met Winter at the Motor City Comic Con and he was one of the nicest celebrities I have met so I try to see as much of his work as possible.

    While I think “Smosh: The Movie” missed it’s mark for the most part, it was nice to see Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox together.  With any luck, those two will work together again sometime on another project that pans out a little better than this movie.

Grade: D

"The Next Karate Kid" Movie Review

    As a big fan of the Karate Kid films as a kid, I always loved the dynamic of Mr. Miyagi and Daniel.  By the time I got a little older, “The Next Karate Kid” came out with a new lead and I had very little interest in seeing it.  I don’t even recall why, but I just didn’t want to see this movie.  As I grew older, I grew curious about this movie.  I had read a lot of negative reviews about this film but as any of my readers know, I don’t always agree with the critics but I usually make my case for why I like or don’t like a film.

    “The Next Karate Kid” sees Mr. Miyagi agree to watch over Julie, the granddaughter of his former commander and friend during the war.  After seeing Julie do a martial arts style jump, Mr. Miyagi inquires where she learned it to do that.  Upon learning that her grandfather taught her some moves, Mr. Miyagi reveals that he taught her grandfather martial arts and that he would like to train her.  After Julie gets suspended from school, Mr. Miyagi takes her to train with monks.  Upon her return, she goes to a school dance and her date is confronted and beat up by a group of bullies.  Along with Mr. Miyagi, the pair take on the bullies during the climax of the film.

    So, what are my thoughts on this movie?  Well...I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie.  Now, this isn’t the best movie ever, nor is it the best Karate Kid movie, but it was better than I thought it would be.  The film is not without it’s faults but I actually think having Mr. Miyagi train a new student was the best route for a sequel.  This film reminds me a bit of “The Greatest American Heroine”, the failed spin-off of “The Greatest American Hero” which saw a female take over as the lead.  I wish more time had been spent showing Julie training.  Though some may consider training montages to be a bit of cinematic cheating, they are effective and move the plot along while giving you a sense time has went into a character’s training.

    John G. Avildsen, director of the first three Karate Kid movies, sat this entry out.  Christopher Cain (adopted father of former Superman Dean Cain) takes over the director’s chair.  Cain doesn’t have the visual mastery Avildsen had but is passable.

    Hilary Swank makes her big screen debut in this film.  Swank gives a very solid performance especially for her age at the time.  Noriyuki “Pat” Morita gives his final performance as Mr. Miyagi.  Morita’s character is given more of a backstory in this movie which he deserved.  Michael Ironside delivers yet another solid performance as the villain of this movie.  Walton Goggins from “Justified” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp” also has a small role in the film which was fun to see.

    Much like “The Karate Kid Part III”, this movie doesn’t feel super necessary, but overall this film is more enjoyable than the third part.  “The Next Karate Kid” isn’t perfect but is about on par with most 90s action films.

Grade: C+

Now...I would like to note that the kind folks at Mill Creek Entertainment provided me a review copy of this film (which is now available in stores).  The picture quality and audio are both very good.  The release has a simple to navigate menu in which you just pick which movie you want to watch (the film was released with “The Karate Kid Part III” as well) and it starts right up.  Thank you again Mills Creek Entertainment!

Buy The Karate Kid Part III and The Next Karate Kid Double Feature Blu-ray Here!!!