Reaction & Review | Transformers: The Movie

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to be covering an animated movie from 1986. That movie is "Transformers: The Movie".

Yes, guys, believe it or not, I have never seen this movie. I know that people who have seen this thing, often praise it as a fantastic movie and, quite possibly, the best Transformers movie ever made.

Now, my history with Transformers is a little bit odd. You see, I know that this movie is set around the Transformers cartoon from the 80's, which I never saw. Mainly because, I wasn't born in the 80's. My first experience with Transformers was when I watched "Transformers: Cybertron", which I watched way back when Kids' WB was a thing. And I also watched most of "Transformers Prime" both on the Hub Network and on the CW Vortexx.

In terms of movies, I have seen all 5 of the live action Michael Bay "Transformers" movies, and, for the most part, I really enjoyed those movies. Even though the second and the fifth movie are really flawed, I still enjoyed watching them. And as for video games, out of the three Transformers games I have played, the only one I enjoyed was "Transformers: War for Cybertron" on the Xbox 360. That, to me, was the only good Transformers game I have liked.

Now, I really want to like this movie as much as everyone else who saw this movie did. But I also know that this movie could be a massive letdown, because I know what happens when something such as a movie, a TV show, or a video game, is met with very high expectations. It usually means that it's never going to meet those standards that people have set it so high for. But I still have hope that this movie will be really good. And the only way I'm going to find that out, is I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Transformers: The Movie".

11 minutes later

Guys, I'm absolutely loving the music in this movie. Every single piece of music that has played so far has been fucking amazing. It's that 80's rock music that I adore, and it's making this movie all the more awesome to watch, and I'm loving every minute of it.

16 minutes later

OK...so I didn't know that when a Transfomer dies, they're entire body just turns to black. That was...pretty morbid, guys.

7 minutes later

Well guys, I just witnessed Starscream's coronation ceremony. And his reign lasted all off, what, a minute? Maybe less than that? And you know what? I can't say that Starscream didn't deserve what he got in the end. So, good on Megatron for getting revenge there.

13 minutes later

Guys, I know I've already said this point earlier, but the music in this thing has still been amazing. I'm definitely going to have to download the soundtrack for this movie. It is just that awesome.

5 minutes later

So, when you are given an "innocent" verdict, you get fed to the Sharktocons. That is something I would have never known.

14 minutes later

OK, guys, do you remember me praising the music throughout this entire movie so far? Well, this song here...kinda sucks. Granted, it sounds cool. But the lyrics are kinda bringing it down a little. Still though...at least it sounds cool. It's just the lyrics that are sorta lacking.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Transformers: The Movie". And as much as I'd like to continue rocking out to this music, I got a movie to review. So let me shut that off...wow. You know, when I went into this movie, I wasn't sure what to expect. Because, while I have seen a ton of Transformers media, I wouldn't really call myself a Transformers fan. I had heard about this movie for a long time, but I never got around to seeing it. And before watching this movie, the one thing that I was concerned about was how fans of this movie have hyped it up. And the one thing I hate about hype is that, when you have something built up to be this amazing thing, it almost never lives up to it. Guys...this movie lives up to ALL of that hype. And it wound up being amazing. Now, let's talk about this movie, shall we?

Writing in this movie is very strong. At least, in terms of Transformers. Because I know that this is based off of the 80's cartoon show, there are certain characters here who don't get a ton of depth. And I'm mostly referring to the only two human characters in this movie. Spike, and his son, Daniel. Because we see them interacting and working with the Autobots throughout the entire movie. And, at no time, do we even get any kind of background on them. Now, that may have been intentional, because, they are not the main focus in this movie. This was probably because the people who have seen this movie, would also have seen the cartoon that these two were in. Thus, the development for these two characters was more of a focus in the cartoon. Now normally, I would kinda bitch, because I would've liked to have seen more of who these characters were. However, I'm going to give that a pass, because we have a story that is really good and stands out on it's own.

So, the story starts out with what you would expect from a Transformers story. We have the Autobots and Decepticons fighting each other. Which ultimately leads up to Megatron fighting Optimus Prime in a one on one battle. And during this fight, Megatron ends up getting the upper-hand after holding Hot Rod, another Autobot, hostage, and ends up shooting Optimus multiple times. But, of course, Optimus doesn't die from it and ends up beating the shit out of Megatron, ultimately injuring him to near death. Afterwards, it ends up with Optimus Prime dying after he gives the Autobot Matrix to Ultra Magnus, and that it will be opened in their hour of need. And on the flip-side, we have Megatron being disposed of by Starscream, thinking Megatron was just about to die, and thus, is floating in the depths of space until he comes across Unicron, who basically eats planets. And he wants the Autobot Matrix destroyed because he says that it's the only thing that would stand in his way. So he ends up giving Megatron a new look and ends up calling him Galvatron, who he, and a ton of other fallen Decepticons who fell during the battle previously, are after the Autobots again for the Matrix.

Now, before anyone tells me that I spoiled the movie, because I said that Optimus Prime dies, I didn't. For two reasons. One, the back of the case ends up saying that Optimus Prime is lost in battle, thus admitting that Prime dies in this movie. And two, this movie is almost 35 years old. And, at that point, I feel as though the limitations should be lifted for those spoilers, because the movie is that old. Also, as a slight spoiler, at the very end of the movie, we get a narration saying that Optimus Prime will return. So there is that.

Which leads me to, not necessarily a flaw, but more so of a gripe, and it would vary from person to person. If you have never seen anything Transformers related, meaning that if you have never seen a TV show, watched any of the live action movies, or even read a comic book, and you were going into this movie as your first Transformers experience, then you could be totally lost. I could totally see that happening because, if you didn't have any kind of Transformers knowledge, then you would have no idea as to why the Autobots and Decepticons are fighting each other. You would have no idea as to who these two human characters are and where they come from. You could be lost on a lot of this and not understand any of it. However, because I have seen enough Transformers media to understand what's going on, it was easier on me, so I didn't really have that kind of baggage. But I will say that if you really wanted to know more about these characters, and you didn't have any kind of knowledge on Transformers, then, maybe, I would say go watch the 80's cartoon before you jump into this movie. But if you just want to watch this as a fun sci-fi action movie, then this will definitely deliver.

So yeah, guys, writing here is fantastic. At least, in the world of Transformers. What about voice acting? Guys, I'm gonna tell you this now. We have an all-star cast in this movie. We have Eric Idle, Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, and Orson Welles just to name a few big names. And they all turn in fantastic showings. We also have voice acting regulars such as Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, Frank Welker, Casey Kasem, Corey Burton, and they also turn in awesome showings. When you have all of these names under one movie, it would be a crime if any of these people turned in a bad showing. But since we have a strong script, everybody brings in their absolute best and it makes a great movie even better.

The animation is really good. Because the studio that made this movie is a very well known Japanese animation studio known as Toei Animation. And in case you don't know what shows they made, the few best examples I can give are Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, and Digimon. And I've known that Toei Animation, regardless of the quality of their shows, mostly makes them look amazing. And this movie is no different. While there are a couple of hiccups in animation, such as a shot here or a shot there, where some characters are running at an angle and the animation looks a little bit janky. But it goes by for a couple of seconds, which nobody is going to notice or care about, because the rest of animation is that good, from character designs on the Transformers themselves, the backgrounds on certain planets, and my personal favorite design has to go Unicron, before he transforms. When he's eating planets, you get a lot of close-ups of Unicron, and the detail on him looks amazing because of these close-ups. So animation, overall, is amazing.

Now moving onto the soundtrack. If you couldn't tell by my reactions, the soundtrack in this movie is fucking phenomenal. Because just about every song in this movie is that classic 80's rock music that I love. And that's partially because of my bias for 80's rock music. We have here songs from Stan Bush and Spectre General, just to name a couple of the artists for this movie, and they're all amazing songs. And while most people who have seen this movie prefer "The Touch", my personal favorite has to go "Dare", because it is upbeat and very memorable. In fact, the soundtrack is this good, that I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves 80's rock music. And even that one song I said that I didn't care for, I may have to give it a few more listens to see if it's any good on it's own. Because I know that the song, which I believe was called "Dare to be Stupid" was from Weird Al. And Weird Al usually makes great songs, so I may give it another chance and see if I'll like it. Beyond that, though, the soundtrack is amazing and I absolutely love it.

Sound-mix, on the other hand, is the one lone issue that I do have with this movie. And it has to do whenever a Transformer has to talk. Now, I totally understand that because most of our character are giant talking robots, you would expect to have some sort of a pitch to their voice. But some of these characters have this really odd ball pitch to their voice, that it kinda makes hard for me to understand what they're trying to say. One big example I can think of is the character of Blur. Blur's gimmick, as far as I could tell, is that he talks really fast. And because he talks so fast, some of his dialogue ends up being skippable. Now, I don't know if he talked like that in the 80's cartoon, assuming he's even in it, but it really stood out for me. Which means that if I end up watching the 80's cartoon at some point, I may have to get use to it. Or maybe it was done better in the show than in the movie. Who knows?

Another character that has this problem, and I don't remember his name, but he comes from the planet Junk. And for whatever reason, his dialogue is even harder to make out, because there's this really weird sound that he makes which I don't know how to describe it. The sound kinda reminds of how R2-D2 from Star Wars communicates. And that's what I kinda hear every time that this character speaks. Not only that, but I can't tell what kind of an accent he's trying to give out. It ranges from either a British accent or an Australian accent. And when you mix it in with that weird R2-D2 sound effect, it makes his dialogue difficult to make out. There was, maybe, like two times where I could understand what he was saying, and other times, it's just complete gibberish. Everyone else, though, who is a Transformer, is perfectly fine. It's just, for those two characters, their dialogue could've been mixed better.

So, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Transformers: The Movie"? You bet your ass I can recommend it. This movie is amazing. I can recommend it to fans of Transformers. I can recommend it to children. And if you, yourself, have children, or knows somebody that has children, then they are going love this thing. Even if you haven't seen anything with the Transformers name in your life, but you're a fan of sci-fi movies, then this is also going to be amazing for you. In fact, if I had grown up in 80's and I had watched this as a child, I would've been watching this thing hundreds of times, because it is just that good. And after finally getting a chance to see this movie after all these years, it was definitely well worth the wait.

And, with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Coogan's Bluff

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm going to be covering a movie from 1968. That movie is "Coogan's Bluff".

Now, I saw a trailer for this movie earlier this year, and the only thing I got out of it was the narration repeating the title of the movie "Coogan's Bluff." And while the trailer didn't give me a whole lot to work with, the trailer was interesting enough for me to check this movie out.

So, what do I know about this movie? Well, I know that it stars Clint Eastwood, and that he plays a cop by the name of Walt Coogan, who is sent to New York to extradite a dangerous murderer back to Arizona. Now, from that description, I'm already getting a ton of vibes from another film in which Clint Eastwood also plays cop by the name of "Dirty Harry". However, I can't entirely use that comparison for two reasons. One, just because he plays a cop in a different movie doesn't necessarily equal a ripoff. That would be like if I tried to compare every Western in which John Wayne plays a cowboy that he stars in. And two, this movie came out in 1968. And the first "Dirty Harry" movie didn't even exist until 1971. So that's why I'm not going to do that.

I am certainly hoping for this movie to stand out on it's own. Plus, I'm also a fan of Clint Eastwood, and he normally makes almost any movie worth watching. Granted, I haven't seen a lot of the movies he directed, with the one lone exception being "Sudden Impact", which was the fourth film in the "Dirty Harry" franchise. But I have seen most of his westerns and I have greatly enjoyed most of those.

But I'm not here to gush about his movies, I'm here to see if this movie will be any good. And the only way I will find out if it is any good, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm going to do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Coogan's Bluff".

12 minutes later

You know, guys, I'd just like to say right now. I'm already digging Coogan's style here. Even though he has a fugitive handcuffed to a wooden pole and he only has an hour to report to the office, he still has enough time to make out with his girlfriend in the tub. At least, I'm going to assume that it's his girlfriend. So far, guys, the movie's been pretty good.

10 minutes later

Hold on a second here. So, this guy just groped this parole officer's breast. And Coogan, rightfully, slaps the shit out of him after he was told to stop it. And now the parole officer is telling Coogan to apologize to the douchebag that just groped her? Lady, the dude just committed sexual harassment on you. You should be, at least, a little grateful he didn't go any further. I'm sorry, guys, that just bothered me a little bit, you know?

10 minutes later

OK, I have a bit of a stupid question. Was it common practice in 1968 to charge somebody extra in New York for carrying around luggage? Because this is the second time that Coogan has been charged extra for staying at a hotel that is $5, and he was charged an extra $2 for his luggage. The first time is when he took a cab and it costed him $2.50 to pack his luggage in the cab. I understand that it has nothing to do with the movie, but I want to know. Was it just a thing to charge someone extra in 1968 for carrying around luggage? I'm really curious, guys,  and I don't think this movie's going to attempt to explain that.

2 minutes later

...OK. Out of all the things I expected in this movie, calling Coogan a Texas faggot wasn't exactly what I had in mind. That was rather unexpected.

18 minutes later

You know, guys, you can almost feel the corruption reeking from the NYPD in this movie. It just feels...rather unpleasant, you know?

19 minutes later

Well, guys, it is now official. Coogan is the biggest man-whore in this movie. This is the third woman in this movie who he has had sex with. Now, mind you, all of the women he's made out with has been drop dead gorgeous, but it still doesn't stop the fact that he is a complete man-whore in this movie. Just thought I'd share that with you, guys.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Coogan's Bluff". Let me shut that off...OK. The first thing I need to mention is that at the start of this, I said that the plot of this movie reminded me a lot of a "Dirty Harry" movie. And after watching it, it certainly does feel like a "Dirty Harry" movie. The only difference between Harry and Coogan is that Harry Callahan is a cop from San Francisco, while Coogan is a deputy sheriff from Arizona. What part of Arizona, I couldn't tell you, but that doesn't really matter. Now most people who've probably seen this movie, but have never seen any of the "Dirty Harry" movies, are probably not going to notice the differences, and it's most likely not going to bother any of them.

But now I probably should talk about the movie itself. Let's start with the writing. Writing in this movie is...a little bit weak. So, as I mentioned earlier, the plot is basically Coogan trying to extradite a dangerous killer back to Arizona. I want to touch upon our villain for this movie, Ringerman. Ringerman has almost no personality to speak of, because he's barely in the movie to begin with. We first see him being taken out of the prison hospital, because Coogan lied about getting permission from Detective McElroy to get him out of there. And as he's leaving, handcuffed with Ringerman, he gets a phone call from the hospital that he has to answer. And as soon as he picks up the phone, he gets ambushed by Ringerman's henchman and his girlfriend, as they free Ringerman from Coogan's custody. And after that, he disappears for the rest of the movie up until the last 15-20 minutes. The best that we get from our villain is that we see Coogan investigating his mother's apartment. And we see photos of him with his girlfriend, Linny, and a motorcycle that, according to his mother, he bought and paid for all by himself. But, you see, he doesn't really have any kind of character to speak of, because the movie didn't give him any time to flesh out his character. And when you leave him out for a majority of the movie, it makes him ultimately pointless, because the movie doesn't focus on himself at all. A majority of it goes to Coogan, who we spend most of the time on in the movie.

Now as for Coogan, he spends a majority of the time trying to get information on where Ringerman might've escaped to. But not at first. Because when he first gets denied by Detective McElroy about handing over Ringerman, he spends about half of the time getting settled into New York. Which leads me to ask; Is everyone in New York a douchebag? I ask this, because, we see him either getting asked if he's from Texas, because he wears a cowboy hat. Or he's getting charged extra because he's carrying a suitcase that is considered luggage. Hell, even Julie, the parole officer, who he shares a love interest with, comes off as a bit of a douche as well. Because when she was getting groped by this guy earlier in the movie, Coogan, who once again, is rightfully slapping him away after he was told twice to stop it, she tells him that there was no need for violence and tells Coogan to apologize to him. I don't know what kind of logic that is, but I guess in New York, whether it's in 1968 or today, people are just flat out dicks.

Speaking of Julie, that's where another portion of the story focuses on is the relationship between her and Coogan, and most of that is fine. It's just that the main conflict seems sort of an afterthought, especially when you consider that a dangerous criminal is somewhere in New York, and you don't know where he's going to be. And the same could be said about his girlfriend, Linny. She really doesn't have a personality to speak of other than she's a little weird and that she is on parole. By the way, I should mention that once Julie finds out she's broken parole and has to serve her full sentence, she gets angry at Coogan because of what happens in a bar fight with Ringerman's henchman. And their relationship kinda just ends, up until the very end of the movie where Julie, apparently, gets Stockholm syndrome and is in love with Coogan again. That part seemed to come out of nowhere, especially after the development they shared earlier.

Now I will say that the writing, barring some questionable moments, is still halfway decent. It's just that the main story seems, almost, sort of an afterthought. It is there, but it doesn't really seem to be the main focus as it either focuses on Coogan himself, or his relationship with Julie. Which leads me into the acting. Even though the script was a little bit shallow, the acting is fantastic. Everybody in this movie is able to turn in awesome showings. Clint Eastwood is able to shine as Coogan, but then again, Clint Eastwood is almost able to make anything work. And even though Ringerman was a shitty villain, Dan Shroud was still able to make his character work, for the really short time he's in the movie. And even the minor characters who were acting like douchebags towards Coogan, they were able to make that douchiness work so well. I'm trying to think of anybody who might've turned in a bad showing, but I can't. Because everyone was given a little bit of something to work with.

There really is almost nothing I can talk about in terms of special effects, except for blood. And the blood here is OK, though it really looks a lot like dried paint. Which, for today's standards, would be considered somewhat laughable. However, that's how most movie blood looked like back in the late 60's and early 70's. And if you don't have knowledge about how movies were made back then, then you might consider it to be rather fake.

One other thing I want to mention, and this isn't really a negative, but it's something I feel like was a little odd. There isn't really enough action in this movie. You see, one of the genres this movie falls under is "Action". And there isn't really much of that here. The most we get is a fight scene inside a pool hall and a motorcycle chase. And all of that happens in the last, say, half hour in the movie. It just feels really weird even mentioning because, if this movie was suppose to be advertised under "Action", then you would expect a little more of it in your movie. That may just be me, but I still feel like mentioning it.

Other than that, the camerawork is really good, the lighting is well lit, our sound-mix is competent. Our score and soundtrack is fairly decent as well, but it's not something that you're ultimately going to remember in the end.

So, with all that being said, can I recommend "Coogan's Bluff?" Yes. Even with the small amount of problems I had with the writing, I still would say check it out. Especially if you are a fan of the "Dirty Harry" franchise. I would even go so far as to call this a pre-"Dirty Harry" movie. Because it sets up the ground works for it and builds upon it with that awesome series. I would even recommend it to anyone who's into cop movies or action movies. Well, with what little action is here. But anyway, this is a decent movie, and it's fairly cheap, too. If you can find this movie for say $5 or below, then go ahead and pick it up. It's certainly worth the one hour and 34 minute runtime. And as for me, I think I'm going to go and rewatch the first "Dirty Harry" movie because I'm kinda in the mood for another Clint Eastwood movie.

And with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 2013. That movie is "Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies".

And the story behind this movie is that the movie was being worked on for about a year, but the people who worked on it, didn't have enough money to completely finish it. So it was then turned over to Kickstarter, where they needed about $30,000 to finish production. And thankfully, fans were gracious enough, as the movie was barely able to reach it's campaign goal by about $26. Which is probably one of the closest campaign goals I've seen in a long time.

Now, I know that this movie was put out by an indie film studio known as Troma. And Troma is well known for putting out films such as "The Toxic Avenger" series, "Troma's War", "Cannibal: The Musical", and a bunch of other films that are too many to count. I'll admit I haven't seen any of those movies. But tonight's movie is going to be my first exposure to them.

And I've always wanted to see this movie for quite a long time. Partially because, I am a wrestling fan. And I do know a few of the wrestlers that appear in this movie. I'm talking about wrestlers such as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Matt Hardy, Kurt Angle, Jim Duggan, and a couple of other wrestlers that were from WWE and TNA. So I know what they can do.

I'm not totally sure about everyone else, but I am certainly hoping for this movie to be good. And the only way I will find out, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm going to do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Pro Wrestlers vs. Zombies".

12 minutes later

So, guys...I just got a look at our first kill. And...that was pretty cool. Especially coming from a movie with a low budget. I'm really impressed, guys.

10 minutes later

OK, so I can say that Cody Knotts is probably one of the creepiest wrestling owners I have ever seen. And that's saying a lot when you, almost, outdo Vince McMahon in creepy shit, considering all the things that he has done in WWE for so many years. That's just...wow, that is just almost mind-blowing.

10 minutes later

So even after getting off the bus, Matt Hardy and his girlfriend are still making out. If this is the only thing that Hardy's going to do in this entire movie, then I hope he and his girlfriend end up getting killed by the zombies first.

6 minutes later

OK, that was a pretty cool way to make an exit. This guy just did a springboard 450 splash onto a pile of zombies before escaping. That was awesome.

9 minutes later

OK, that's new. I've never seen a zombie climbing along side the bars of a prison before. It's certainly different...oh, and Hardy just punched it off. Well, that zombie's momentum just ended. Wait.........OK. Hardy just killed it with a chain punch. That was certainly nasty.

2 minutes later

Well, I called it. Matt Hardy's now dead, and so is his girlfriend; Reby Sky. And you know what? I couldn't be fucking happier.

18 minutes later

You know, guys, I may have found a slight problem with this movie. And that is Shane Douglas's over-usage of the word 'fuck'. I swear, he can't go five minutes without saying 'fuck'. Mind you, this is coming from someone who swears a lot. But this shit is becoming too much, even for me.

The Review

All right, well, that was "Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies". That was interesting. Let me shut the movie off...OK. Well, I will start by saying this. Earlier, I mentioned that this movie is my first time viewing anything from Troma. And I, kinda, had a feeling I was going to like this because, as I said, I am a wrestling fan. And after watching this, I really feel like looking into more Troma films, because this movie was pretty good.

Where to start, though? Well, I guess I should start with the writing. I may as well start with the only real problem I have with this movie. And that is Shane Douglas cursing frequently in this entire movie. I already mentioned before the review that Shane Douglas, or "The Franchise", if you want to call him, has a really bad habit of either saying 'fuck', 'god-damn', or 'shit'. I totally understand that it's a horror movie, and that language is going to come into play into these sorts of movies, but Shane Douglas' dialogue, for about 85% of the movie, is nothing but him cursing up a storm. And every single curse word from him is so forced that, it makes his character come across as an immature child who grew up with a family that curses every single day.
Mind you, now. A number of the wrestlers in this movie mostly say either 'fuck' or 'shit', but nowhere near as much as Shane Douglas does. And most of that dialogue coming from him happens in the latter half of the movie, and it comes off as really lazy and, sorta, shit in the end.

Beyond that though, the writing is pretty good. Our story isn't the most complex, in terms of writing. Because it's mostly about the wrestlers in this movie being booked for a wrestling event held in a penitentiary. And the reason being is because, during the beginning of the movie, Shane Douglas ends up killing the brother of our villain for this movie, Angus, after botching a tombstone piledriver during a match, thus he is out for revenge. Now that's partially the reason why. And as for the zombies, well, Angus ends up killing this one chick after putting a knife to her chest. He pulls her heart out and ends up eating it, thus that's how these zombies are born. Though if I had to nitpick, it's that if your heart is eaten, how are you a zombie after that? I would assume you're just dead, after that. You know, it's details like those that can throw you off a bit.

As for our characters, they aren't really the most developed, thus most of them will end up being a bit shallow. However, with the exception of a few characters, most of them at least have some sort of a personality and end up being kinda likable. In fact, that's something that I wish "Zombies vs. Strippers" would've benefit from is that if any of them had some kind of character or interesting personality, but they all ended up being shallow and lifeless. At least here, we have a few that end up being sorta likable. And, even though I didn't care for Shane Douglas' excessive use of language, at least he has some sort of character to work with, albeit kinda shallow. And I'm giving most of the lack of depth a pass, mainly because of my bias as a wrestling fan, and I've seen most of their work throughout their career, so I kinda knew what to expect.

Which, I guess leads me to talking about acting. Because our cast is mostly filled with wrestlers, most of them end up playing as themselves, with the two exceptions being Sarah and Angus. As for the wrestlers, most of them turn in a halfway decent showing. And if I had to pick any one wrestler that absolutely shined in this movie, it's "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. And that's partially because Piper is doing what he does best, and that is become as much of a badass as he can. And it's not really surprising that he does, because I remember one other film that he starred in, where he also shined brightly. That film being "They Live" from John Carpenter. Which, by the way, if you have never seen "They Live", I would highly recommend checking it out. That's just me, though. But anyway, most of the wrestler's turn in halfway decent showings. Including Kurt Angle, for about the 3 or 4 minutes he's in the movie. He also turns in a pretty good showing. Now if I had to pick a wrestler who sorta phoned in their lines, it would have to be Shane Douglas. And I'm not just talking about him saying 'fuck' or 'shit', I mean there are moments in the latter half of the movie where he comes across his family, who are turned into zombies. And when he has to end up killing them, he cannot express an emotion other than forced anger. When he attempts to express any other kind of emotion, it comes off as really forced and lazy. Which, I don't know if that's how he did his promo's back then, but he cannot express an emotion to save his own soul. Besides him, though, the acting is pretty good. None of it is great, but certainly decent, when you're working with a cast that consists of, mostly, professional wrestlers.

Now let's talk about the fight choreography. Because we have a cast of wrestlers, you would expect the fight choreography to be pretty good. And it is. Granted, we don't see a ton of wrestling moves being used, however the select few who do end up performing them are actually really good. One of them I mentioned earlier during the reaction portion of the movie where we see one of the wrestlers doing a springboard 450 splash. Or with Kurt Angle's short appearance in this movie, he's also able to turn in a few of his moves in. Including his signature moves, both being the Ankle Lock and the Angle Slam. And yes, I am that much of a nerd to remember what these moves are called. Granted, there might be those who don't watch wrestling, will end up reading this review, and will probably have no idea what the fuck I'm talking about. But...trust me, these are what the moves are called. And if you want to see them for yourself, just look up any Kurt Angle match on YouTube.

Special effects in this movie are actually really good. Both in terms of practical blood and the make-up effects on our zombies. There was one noticeable effect, in terms of blood, that I saw which looked rather fake. And the scene I'm talking about is when Matt Hardy does a jumping fist drop onto one of the zombies and you can see that the blood is just really noticeable tomato sauce. But honestly, most people are not going to notice that or even care. However, I did, so take it for what you will.

Camerawork is pretty good. Though, there is one oddity when it comes to editing. And that is during one scene when the wrestlers are running away from the ring where the zombies have all gathered. As the wrestlers are running through the hoard of zombies, they push away this one zombie in a referee shirt, and, for whatever reason, they show this shot of this referee being shoved about 3 times from slightly different angles. I haven't seen this done before, since I watched any fight scene from an episode "Walker, Texas Ranger". Seriously, the editing during those fight scenes in that show are just god awful. Aside from that minor hiccup, the camerawork is pretty good.

The lighting is well lit. Granted, a good portion of this movie is filmed in the dark, however, they were still able to make lighting work enough to where you can see most things really well. Our soundtrack is just mostly rock music. And the rock music in this movie is a rather mixed bag. There are some songs that are pretty good, while other songs are just there and are completely forgettable. Our score is decent. Sound-mix, on other hand, is a little bit shit. Because, we'll have some scenes in complete silence while some of the wrestlers are talking. It's especially noticeable during the latter portion of the movie, where whenever we see the movie being filmed outside in the dark. Because we see Piper and Sarah exchanging words, but the lack of crickets chirping in the background is completely gone for whatever reason. Now I don't know if that was a technical issue on my end, or if it was the version of the movie I watched on YouTube, but it was really noticeable, and it did take me out of the film slightly. However, once they got past all of that, the sound-mix was better afterwards. As was most of the movie.

So, with all that said and done, can I recommend "Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies"? Um...yeah, I can recommend it. Especially if you are a wrestling fan, and you are a fan of zombies, then you're probably going to adore this movie. However, if you're not a fan of either one of those things, then you may want to avoid this movie. However, I would still recommend it to everyone else who likes cheesy B movies. And even though I'm sick and tired of zombies being overused, this was a pleasant surprise. And I'm happy to say that, especially after wanting to watch this movie for so long.

Anyway, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Memories

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm covering an animated anthology film from 1995. That movie is "Memories".

Now, I do know a couple of things about this movie. I know that it's an animated anthology film from Japanese film director, Katsuhiro Otomo. For those who don't know, Otomo is the man responsible for creating the manga of "AKIRA", and it's film adaptation. Not only that, but he has made a couple of other animated anthology films that are similar to "Memories". Those movies being "Robot Carnival" and "Neo Tokyo". I've seen "Robot Carnival", and I thought it was a really fascinating film. In fact, I do own the very rare VHS copy that quickly went out of print. I haven't seen "Neo Tokyo", though, but I've always wanted to.

The other thing I know about this movie is that one of the people who had a hand in writing one of the short stories in this movie, which I believe is called "Magnetic Rose", is the late-great Satoshi Kon. If you have no idea who he is, he was the man who created fantastic films such as "Perfect Blue", "Tokyo Godfathers", "Millennium Actress", and "Paprika". I've seen all four of his animated films, and I loved every one of them. I have seen a little bit of a series he created known as "Paranoia Agent", and I do need to get around to finishing that. And I also have his book called "Opus", which I haven't gotten around to reading yet because I am that lazy.

Now the reason why I brought up Satoshi Kon's name is because this is one of the last things that he had a hand in that I've never seen. Which is one of the big reasons why I wanted to review this movie. But also because I've seen "Robot Carnival", I'm curious to see if this movie will be as good, if not better than that movie. But the only way I'll know how good this movie could possibly be, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm going to do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Memories".

15 minutes later

So wait, the entire outdoor space was just a hologram? I totally understand that they are inside some kind of ship, but still, it would've totally fooled me if I had seen just an outdoor area with a grassy field, a blue sky, and a woman all out there. I will say that it looked really cool. I'm really loving this first story, guys, and I hope it continues at this pace.

16 minutes later

I'm gonna tell you, guys, this first story has been really fascinating so far, but I just found a problem with one of the subtitles. So apparently, Heintz has just been contacted. And they've been trying to contact him for 30 minutes. The issue is that they mispronounced a subtitle for "reach" as "raise". It just doesn't really make much sense to say if you were trying to "raise" through radio contact as in "reach". I understand that it's a completely trivial nothing that doesn't affect the story in any way, but seeing as how I had just noticed a mispronounced subtitle, I kinda had to comment on it, you know?

14 minutes later

O...K. Well, that first story had a...strange ending. That certainly was...something. Certainly hoping for the other two stories to be really good.

4 minutes later

Hold a second here. So this guy has just swallowed a red pill. Mind you, the pills were in a blue bottle, and we don't know what the contents are beyond that, and neither does he. Don't you think the smart thing to do would be to ask someone who works there about what the contents of the pills are? I understand this guy's having a bit of a cold, but it just seems irresponsible to me to just swallow a capsule that you know nothing about. Just thought I'd share that with you, guys.

9 minutes later

You guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but the score in this second story has been really catchy. In fact, the music in this entire movie has been really good so far. Hell yeah.

8 minutes later

So, let me see if I understand this. So the Japanese military, and I'm going to assume it is the Japanese military. They notice Nobuo in this gas that's killing everyone. Instead of noticing right from the word go that Nobuo is the only one unfazed by this gas, a few of them decide to go rescue him and they wind up dead because of their idiocy. I'm sorry, guys, but if I were the head of this military and I notice someone not being affected by this mysterious gas, I would order them to retreat NOW instead of risking a few soldiers lives to save someone not affected by this gas. But hey, maybe that's just common sense talking, you know?

8 minutes later

So you had damn near all of the Japanese military shooting at Nobuo. And not a single one of these missiles, bullets, and tons of other fire power can't successfully hit this guy, who's only mode of transportation, is a motorbike? I think it's safe to say that the Japanese militia really fucking suck, guys.

11 minutes later

OK, so the second episode is done. I will say that the ending of it was actually kind of funny. I wasn't really expecting that.

19 minutes later

You know, guys, I really like the look of this third story,  but I can't really feel myself getting into it much. I'm not totally sure why that is, but I think I'll explain later when the movie is done.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Memories". Let me shut the movie off...OK. Well, I think the first thing I need to say is that this movie was actually pretty good. Now I need to explain myself by talking about the writing.

I have to approach the writing in this movie a little differently. Because I'm talking about an anthology film, I need to start with, at least in my opinion, the weakest of the three stories, which would be "Cannon Fodder". Sure, I mentioned a number of logic issues during the reaction portion when watching "Stink Bomb", and believe me, I will talk about them later. But I need to start with "Cannon Fodder", because there really isn't much of a story here. We have this family, more so the parents, who are contributing to a war by firing cannons. And, unfortunately, the story doesn't really go beyond that with them. OK yes, I will say that we do get sort of an idea of this world that they live in where a bunch of cannons exist, and we do get a little bit of background through propaganda, and that's perfectly fine. However, our characters are really shallow and we don't get a whole lot of story about them. The best that we get is that we have their son, who wants to be a soldier who fires a cannon. And that's kinda it. You see, I think the biggest problem with this story is that, beyond not having much of a story, is that it feels unfinished. I really think that there was a lot here for a story that would benefit of getting it's own feature film. But because "Cannon Fodder" only gets about less than 30 minutes of film time, that sorta kills a lot of what we could've had here. If this didn't get saddled in with an incredibly short runtime, we could've potentially had an amazing story. I get the feeling that there was more here, but they had to condense it down to less than 30 minutes. And unfortunately, for a story like this, it isn't really enough. Now I will say that, even though the story itself is sorta lacking, the look and the animation style is amazing. But I'll save that for when I cover animation.

Now let's get to what I thought would end up being the weakest story for me, but surprisingly wasn't, is "Stink Bomb". Now, I already mentioned the logic issues that this story had and I'm going to address a couple of them here.

The first one is more minor than anything, but still worth mentioning. So in this story, we have our main character, Nobuo, who works at a science lab. One day, he gets the flu while going to work, and because I guess he never took any kind of medicine before leaving home, he stumbles across a random jar of capsules or pills, you can take your pick there. So instead of asking someone what the pills contain or what have you, he decides to swallow one because, according to his own words, it wouldn't hurt. Oh yes, it's perfectly fine to swallow a tablet with unknown side effects that may or may not cause the people around you to collapse and die. Well, "die" isn't really used here. They're just unconscious, at least according Nobuo. But that honestly is just a minor issue. Now we get to somewhat of a bigger logic issue.

Now earlier, I mentioned the scene involving the Japanese militia where they see Nobuo, and they think he's a survivor of this gas that's knocking everyone out. So rather than realize that something may be wrong the moment that you see someone standing perfectly fine within the gas and retreat from him then, they decide to rescue him, but because of it, they wound up getting knocked out. THEN they get the idea that they should retreat from Nobuo. Which leads me to ask, how come the head of this militia notices the gas, but early on, we saw a news copter flying down to try and rescue Nobuo, but they don't see it? It doesn't really make a ton of sense, because if the gas is suppose to be all around Nobuo, then how come nobody from the helicopter noticed it, yet the military is able to see it?

Another issue that just came to me is when the Japanese militia goes guns blazing at Nobuo, trying to kill him. How do they know that killing him will get rid of the gas? If Nobuo dies, then what happens to the gas? Does it just disappear on it's own or does it spread even further? Also, I like how, even though you have the entire militia firing all these missiles at Nobuo, not a single one is able to hit him. Either the gas is somehow causing them to intentionally miss Nobuo, or the Japanese militia just have really awful aim.

You see, guys, it's these logic issues that, if you think about it too hard, then it might ruin the story for you. If you are willing to turn your brain off, and see it for what it is, then you still have a really fun story. And trust me, the second story is still rather fascinating, again, provided you are able to turn your brain off and just view it as a mindless popcorn story. In fact, all three stories have their own strengths to go on. We have "Magnetic Rose" for it's amazing writing, "Stink Bomb" for it's mindless fun, and even though I didn't care for "Cannon Fodder", I will say that the visuals and the animation are some of the biggest highlights for that story. And who knows? You might something more out of that third story than I did.

Now, moving on to the acting. First of all, I need to mention that this movie does not include an English dub. All of it is subtitled. So if you're someone who prefers to watch their anime dubbed, then you might want to wait until this movie gets an English dub of it's own. I will say that the acting here is really good. Mind you, since I watched this movie with the Japanese voice acting, I have to go by what I got from this movie. And I've seen enough movies to sorta compare good Japanese acting to bad Japanese acting. And the voice acting here is really good. Now there is one thing I need to mention when it comes to the acting. Even though I was watching this movie with the Japanese audio, there were maybe about two lines that were spoken in English. Now I don't know if they got someone who was an English speaking voice actor or not, because one of the characters who is a part of this U.S. military is black, and the person they got to voice him sounds a little bit sketchy because it didn't sound like someone who natively spoke English. But honestly, that's just me trying to stretch it to find a negative in the acting, because even though the acting was a little bit suspect, it was only one line, so the voice acting is still really solid.

The animation in this movie is fantastic. And I have to give a special mention to "Cannon Fodder". Because with it's animation, a lot of the character designs in that segment have a ton of lines on their faces and clothing. And normally, whenever I see that kind of thing in hand drawn animation, I normally would have an issue with it. But "Cannon Fodder" uses it to it's advantage and, my god, does it ever use it well. Because, regardless of the quality of the story, the animation is what really makes it stand out along with the other two stories. And it fits the tone of the story really well. So I can definitely praise the animation on that end. As for the rest of the animation, it's really good. The characters are designed really well, the color palettes are done perfectly, and there is very little CG used in this movie. And that's mainly for things such as the outer designs of the Magnetic Rose station from the first story, or in a very small shot in "Cannon Fodder", when they are turning the cannon. That stuff is used really well. Mind you, it's done really well by 1995 standards. I would be foolish if I tried to compare it with the CG we see today.

Sound-mix is done really well. The music is also really solid. Because the first story, "Magnetic Rose", uses it to it's advantage, as the story involves a female character, who use to be an opera singer. And while I wouldn't call myself an opera fan, mainly because I don't listen to a lot of opera, the opera music here is fantastic. And the second story, "Stink Bomb" also uses a ton of different musical instruments. I think one of them I heard was an Australian horn, which is definitely something different, but still used really well. Guys, the score and the soundtrack for this movie are both great and they also make this entire anthology worth watching.

So yes, guys, I'm totally able to recommend "Memories". If you are a fan of anime and are a fan of anthology films, then you are going to have a blast with this. The only things I kinda have to caution you on is that there is no English dub for this movie, and the second story might hurt your brain, if you try and put logic into it. However, if you are able to look past all of that, then this movie is still definitely worth your time. As I made mentioned at the start of this, I've been wanting to watch this movie for a couple of years, especially hearing that this was one of the only films left that Satoshi Kon had a hand in. And after watching this, I feel damn proud of myself. And you know what? I think I'm gonna go back and finish "Paranoia Agent". Because I know it's on YouTube, I'm just gonna marathon the entire series, because it is that short.

Anyway, with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.