Reaction & Review | The Garbage Pail Kids Movie

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a family film from 1987. That movie is "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie".

Now, for those of you who know nothing about the "Garbage Pail Kids", they were originally made as a trading card series that was suppose to parody the "Cabbage Patch Kids". Where with the "Cabbage Patch Kids", they were mostly dolls meant for younger children (mostly girls) to enjoy, while the "Garbage Pail Kids" leaned more on being slightly more crude and mostly aimed for gross-out humor. I've never collected any of the "Garbage Pail Kids" cards. I mostly collected Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards as a kid. Sometimes Digimon as well, but not as often as the former two. And that was about it for my trading card experience.

Setting that aside, the "Garbage Pail Kids" trading cards sold very well. So much so that it later got a live action movie, which is what I'm gonna be watching tonight, and an animated series that lasted only 1 season, and was never released outside of the U.S. due to certain themes that supposedly stopped it from coming over here. You can probably find it on YouTube pretty easily and it's only about 13 episodes, too. But I'm not here to talk about that series, I'm here to talk about tonight's movie. And the only thing I really know about it, aside from this being an adaptation of the trading card series, is that it's known to be one of the "worst movies ever made". Personally, I've gotten sick and tired of hearing this phrase so much that it lost almost all of it's meaning. Because I've seen movies that have had horrible reputations of being absolutely awful, and they ended up being nowhere near as bad as everyone made them out to be. I can think of movies such as "A Troll In Central Park", "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder", and even that live-action "Jonah Hex" movie that I reviewed earlier this year. Which, at the time, I didn't even know people hated on that thing. And yet, I ended up quite enjoying it, despite it's flaws.

Now I'm not trying to discredit the possibility of this movie being absolutely terrible. It may very well end up being as bad as everyone who saw this movie says it is. However, I still want to see if there's something redeemable about this movie. Something that I can look at and be very pleased with. And if I can get that much, then this movie's already accomplished that feat. Now I don't know, I really have no idea if there's gonna be anything decent about this movie. I kinda have my doubts about it being any good, but hey, who knows? Stranger things have happened before. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie's interesting at all, is if 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 "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie".

2 minutes later

"Ali Gator"? That has got to be one of the laziest names I have ever heard of for a Garbage Pail Kid. Mind you now, every other Garbage Pail Kid's name I've seen in these opening credits so far has been pretty creative, but "Ali Gator" just doesn't ring any creative bells for me, you know?

14 minutes later

So these bullies big plan for getting revenge against this kid, who also had an interest in one of the bullies' women, was to tie him down near the pipes in the sewer, while also draining sewer water all over him. Well...at least I can say that they certainly know how to use dirty tactics. God, that joke really sucked...

12 minutes later

Wait, so Dodger hid as soon as Juice and his buddies showed up to meet up with Tangerine. And they just left the dance club together...all the while leaving Dodger behind. So...how the hell is Dodger suppose to get home then? Because the car ride he had with Tangerine lasted from the daytime to night. Meaning that it probably took all DAY just to get to this dance club, and now Dodger has no way to get home. I don't know if Tangerine is gonna come back for him or not, but I'm curious now as to how Dodger is suppose to find his way back home to Manzini's shop? I totally understand that it's probably just a trivial matter in the long run, but it's something that's just bugging me a little bit. Just saying.

2 minutes later

So...apparently, the Pepsi truck that Valerie was driving just flattened this dude's car like it was a fucking monster truck! That's...kinda funny, actually. I'm sorta impressed by that. I didn't know trucks were strong enough to crush cars in that kind of fashion. You learn something new everyday, don't ya?

7 minutes later

OK, I didn't even know this movie had a musical number. Especially coming from the Garbage Pail Kids of all people. And their singing REALLY sucks, too. Just thought I'd throw that out there. I know you guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but this singing from these Garbage Pail Kids isn't really that good.

5 minutes later

So now the Garbage Pail Kids are going out into town to see a movie, while wearing matching disguises. And while that sounds like a decent idea, it makes Ali Gator and Nat Nerd stand out, considering that Nat Nerd looks rather sickly with his pimples, and Ali Gator...well, still looks like an alligator. Are you telling me that they couldn't find any disguises that would make them look less standoffish? I'm just saying that, considering that they've made a ton of costumes for Dodger, they probably could've found some other costumes that would make them stand out less.

13 minutes later

You know, I was gonna ask how the hell their basis was on the possibility that the Garbage Pail Kids friends were being locked up by some place called the State Home For The Ugly. Well, it turns that a couple of these, I guess, cops are driving a car that literally has that name on the side of it. And they almost caught a little girl that was wearing an ugly-looking mask, too. So basically, they're the pound for ugly people. That's kinda messed up and rather dark, too! Damn.

18 minutes later

Wait, so Juice and his two buddies were able to catch ALL of the Garbage Pail Kids in one go? Well...I guess maybe they were able to use that sleeping gas that was able to knock Cap'n Manzini out, but I still want to know how they were able to capture all of them, despite the numbers game? I'm really curious about that, and I don't think this movie's going to give out an answer for that. Call it a hunch, if you will.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie". Let me go ahead and the shut the film off here...all right. Well, I called it. I said, earlier, that if this movie, even if it did end up being as bad as everyone says it is, I would find some something redeemable about this movie. And you know what? There were a few things in this movie that I ended up kinda enjoying. Now mind you, the movie isn't good, but it is in no way the worst thing I have ever seen. Not even by a long shot does this movie ever aim for that sort of standard. Again, the movie isn't good, but as I stated earlier, this whole "worst movie ever made" fad has lost pretty much lost all of it's meaning. And the only reason I can think of as to how this movie ever got that sort of term was because a certain critic told them this and they just took that critic's word as gospel while they most likely never saw the film for themselves. Now I could be totally wrong on this, but it is something that I kinda wanted to throw out there, because nobody should ever take a lone critic's word as the gospel-fucking-truth. Now if you agreed with it, that's totally fine. But as I just said, nobody should ever take a lone critic's word as gospel, and that includes myself. I'm just here to give out my opinion on whatever movie I'm covering, and whether or not someone agrees with it is something I'll leave to viewers to think for themselves.

Now...setting aside that little rant, let's finally dig into the movie itself, shall we? And as usual, I'm gonna start with the writing. Now going into this movie, I had no idea what the hell this movie was gonna go for in terms of a plot. And being that this movie was suppose to be an adaptation of a trading card series that was meant to be a parody of the "Cabbage Patch Kids", it literally could've gone for almost anything. Well, what we did end up getting for a plot was...kinda underwhelming. And what I mean by that is that this story is all over the place. There's a LOT going on here that kinda doesn't end up making much sense. For example, we have our main plot, where this kid named Dodger wants to impress a girl that he really likes named Tangerine, who's also dating someone else named Juice. I'll get more into this later. We also have our Garbage Pail Kids, where they mostly end up causing trouble, and also help Dodger make some clothes for a fashion show that he wants to help Tangerine with. We also get hit with another side plot where the Garbage Pail Kids are worried that they can't find their other friends, who I'm going to assume are also members of the Garbage Pail Kids. And they believe that they are being held hostage at some place known as the State Home For The Ugly. Where, literally, there are ugly people being held prisoner there. People such as Santa Claus, who's labelled as "too fat". A random clown, who's labelled as "too silly". Some guy who's "too hairy". And even someone who's labelled as "too crippled". Which I thought was fucking hilarious as shit. Granted, it's kinda fucked up, but being as someone who enjoys dark humor, I couldn't help but laugh at that bit. But anyway, the Garbage Pail Kids believe that their friends are being held there, so it's up to Dodger and Cap'n Manzini to go there and see if they can save them.

Honestly, guys, like I said, the story here is all over the place, and a lot of it here doesn't really make any sense. One thing about this plan about breaking into the State Home For The Ugly that really bugged me was how exactly the Garbage Pail Kids came to the conclusion that their friends were potentially being held there. I say this, because at no point during this movie was this place EVER brought up, nor was it mentioned by anyone else during the movie before that point. And when the Garbage Pail Kids do eventually bring that up, it's about close to the hour point of the movie, in which the film has about 40 minutes left of it's runtime. For most of that first hour, it mostly focuses on them making clothes for Dodger so that he can impress Tangerine with them, or it's just them doing random shit, like when they go to a movie theater because they feel like they're not getting appreciated for all of the hard work that they've been doing in making these clothes for Dodger, or a couple of them are at the "Toughest Bar In the World" where Ali Gator starts munching one some dude's random toes, in which it starts a barroom brawl. It's mostly just stuff like that. So to have that point about their friends possibly being held at this State Home For The Ugly just being brought up out of nowhere kinda makes me wonder why we never heard about this place until now? I think that if this place were brought up earlier, it might've given us a better idea as to what this place the Garbage Pail Kids were talking about was.

While I'm on the subject, let's get into the characters. Now when it comes to the Garbage Pail Kids themselves, I honestly don't mind that they don't really get a lot of depth. Especially when you consider that these characters essentially came from trading cards, character depth is something that I wasn't really expecting from them. And it shows. We have Valerie Vomit, who's gimmick is that she...well, vomits, in case you didn't catch her last name. We have Greaser Greg, who's basically just a greaser. Then there's Nat Nerd, who pisses in his pants a lot. We have Foul Phil, who's basically this baby who likes to cry mommy a lot, and acts rather foul. Then there's Windy Winston, who basically likes to fart a lot. Messy Tessie, who's, well, messy, because she likes to put her slobber on a lot of things. And finally, there's Ali Gator. Which is still probably the laziest name that you could give to a Garbage Pail Kid. But anyway, setting that aside, Ali's suppose to be the leader of the group...somehow. Cap'n Manzini is the one who says that to him, though I don't really know why. Is it because that he's an alligator and because he doesn't look like a human, that makes him the leader of these Garbage Pail Kids? I don't know. It really doesn't really make any sense as to why he's the leader. But regardless, aside from him being the supposed leader, he also has a toe fetish. Don't ask, it kinda makes sense in a really stupid and sorta creepy way.

The only other characters that are even worth mentioning are Dodger and Tangerine. Now, if you think that I'm gonna comment on the age difference between the two characters, and how it makes it looks supposedly creepy, I'm not gonna do that here. Because while it's possible that there may be some sort of age discrepancy between the two characters, I can 'kinda' buy the possibility that Dodger looks to be about 13 or 14 years old, while Tangerine looks to be about 17 or 18 years old. And, at least in my opinion, it looks more believable than something like "Blank Check". Where in that movie, some dumbass kid, who looked to be about 10 or 11 years old, ends up dating a 30 year old something female FBI agent. And no, I'm not kidding about that either. But anyway, I'm getting off track here. When it comes to this movie, I can sorta give the age difference between Dodger and Tangerine a pass. Their relationship, though, is kinda shit. Because Tangerine mostly cares about wanting to get these clothes ready for her fashion show, and Dodger doesn't get the hint that she's mostly using him just to get what she wants. Now there are a couple of scenes where it seems like she feels for him, such as during the beginning of the movie, where we see Dodger is being chased by Juice's buddies, in which Juice takes money from Dodger. Why? I don't know. It's never really explained. Maybe it's because they're just stereotypical bullies, but what I do I know? But for the most part, Tangerine mostly cares about herself. And as for Dodger, he really doesn't have anything that makes him stand out, other than the fact that he makes friends with the Garbage Pail Kids, and he has a crush on Tangerine because she's beautiful, according to him.

So overall, the characters here are mostly bland and somewhat one-dimensional. And the story here, like I said, is mostly unfocused. But you know what? Despite all that...I actually did kinda end up enjoying it a bit. I was still interested in what was going on in the movie, and I didn't feel like I was bored out of my mind. Which is saying a lot, considering that I've seen plenty of movies this year for this series, and a lot of them bored the shit out of me. But not this one. This one kinda surprised me a bit by being rather watchable. Not good, but at least watchable. Which, again, is something that I can say more about than certain movies I've seen in the past. So with that being said, let's talk about the acting. The acting here is fairly decent from almost the entire cast. The only ones that sounded terrible were one of the female bullies that hangs out with Juice, and Dodger's actor, who goes by the name of Mackenzie Astin. He was mostly terrible in this movie, considering that he's a child actor, and as I mentioned before, most of them sound horrible when you give them a script where they have tons of dialogue. And in Mackenzie's case, he definitely sounded pretty bad here. Now admittedly, he's not the worst child actor I've ever heard. I've heard FAR worse child actors in my time, but still, he's not a very good child actor either. So it's something that you have to take for what it's worth. But for the most part, he was definitely the worst actor in this entire movie. Everyone else, though, did a really decent job for what they had to work with. They weren't great, mind you, but they certainly did put in enough effort in order to make their performances stand out a bit.

In terms of special effects, I want to touch upon the Garbage Pail Kids themselves again. When it comes to the costuming and puppeteering, it mostly looks really good. The only thing that kinda brings it down a bit are the mouth movements. The mouth movements on these Garbage Pail Kids are mostly a mixed bag. In some scenes, their mouth movements mostly match up to whatever dialogue that comes out of their mouths. And in other scenes, no one cared enough to match any of the mouth movements that was suppose to match whatever dialogue that they had. The only one that I can think of that mostly stayed consistent with it's mouth movements is Ali Gator. And it mostly makes sense, because with him, it's pretty easy to match the mouth movements, given that the character is an alligator, and he can freely move his bigger mouth up and down without too much trouble. With the other Garbage Pail Kids though, like I said, sometimes the mouth movements look fine. And other times, they look like shit. So, it's really a give or take situation here. Other things involving special effects such as the vomit from Valerie Vomit look pretty decent. Everything else, though, is just average. Nothing else about the special effects really stood out at me. So overall, the special effects here are mostly a mixed bag at best.

Camerawork here is pretty good. The lighting here is lit fine. The sound-mix here is also mixed fine. The music here, at least for it's score, is decent. The soundtrack is also pretty good, minus that one song that the Garbage Pail Kids sing about working together. That song sounded like shit. Now it's very well possible that it was probably intended to sound like shit, but honestly, it doesn't change the fact that it still sounded terrible. So, minus that one song, the soundtrack here is mostly fine.

Overall, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "The Garbage Pail Kids Movie"? If you're able to overlook the noticeable flaws that this movie does have, then yes. I can totally recommend it, as long as you're able to shut your brain off and view this movie as just some cheese-ball bad movie that you could riff on with friends on a bad movie night. If you're looking a good movie, though...no. There is no way I could recommend it on that end, because this movie, like I said, has writing that's all over the place, and the characters are pretty fucking bland for the most part. Now again, I want to stress that this movie is nowhere NEAR as bad as everyone supposedly made it out to be. I have seen far worse movies in my own time and for this series, and this movie definitely doesn't fit into that criteria. It's one of those movies that sorta fall into the category of 'so bad, it's good'. It has just enough charm to where I can overlook the flaws that this movie does have and sorta enjoy it for it's stupidly fun moments. Now admittedly, I don't think it's ever going to match something, like, the "Street Fighter" movie from 1994, in terms of it's cheesiness. However, it still has enough moments to where I can come back and rewatch it again from time to time as just some charmingly bad movie that I'm more than likely going to hold onto for my DVD collection. And speaking of the 1994 "Street Fighter" movie, I really want to go back and watch that thing again. That movie is just so much fun that even just mentioning it almost makes me want to rewatch that movie again and again. So, I'm gonna go and watch that next after I'm done putting this review together.

Anyway, guys, 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 later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Rambo: First Blood Part II

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna be continuing the Rambo series by taking at look at the second movie that came out in 1985. That movie is "Rambo: First Blood Part II".

Now, for those of you who are new here and is reading this for the first time, I'll briefly explain what's going on here. A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed the first Rambo movie, which was simply called "First Blood". It was my first experience with the Rambo series, because I had never seen any of the Rambo movies beforehand, and I decided that I was going to cover all 5 of the Rambo movies for the next couple of months. And in the case of "First Blood", I thought it was really great. The story and everything involving it was very engaging, and I wound up absolutely enjoying it.

We now come to the second entry in this series, and I honestly don't know very much about it. From what little I could remember, I think it's suppose to be a prequel of sorts, where we get to experience Rambo's time in Vietnam. Because if you'll recall my review of the first movie, I mentioned that Rambo had these PTSD flashbacks in which those memories of his helped kick off the plot to the first film. So I believe we're going to go more in depth of those moments and see what exactly Rambo was going through during his time in the war.

Now I'm hoping that this movie is gonna be as good, if not better than the first movie was. Which I know sounds like a bold task, considering how great that first movie was, but it is still certainly possible. I don't know if that will be the case or not, but I'm gonna find out momentarily. And the only way I am gonna find out how good this movie could possibly be, is if 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 "Rambo: First Blood Part II".

9 minutes later

All right, I have a question, and I understand it's probably a stupid one, but I want to ask this. So Rambo's been given specific orders to take photos of any American soldiers that are potentially being held hostage at a POW camp, and he's not to engage against any enemy combatants. So...what happens if anyone of them attacks Rambo first? I mean, knowing Rambo, and what he did in the first movie, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't take that very well if one of them ever got the jump on him. I'm just saying, maybe it would've made a bit more sense to say that unless they provoke first, then Rambo could have clearance to defend himself.

16 minutes later

You know, guys, I'm just noticing that this movie is taking more of a narrative approach with it's story. And I actually think that's a good thing. I'll get more into this later when I eventually review the movie, but, so far, I'm really liking this approach that the movie currently is taking.

16 minutes later

You know, I was wondering how the hell that explosion was gonna occur on collision, considering that the metal boat crashed into a boat that was made entirely out of bamboo! But I guess it doesn't matter anyways, because it was still a really cool explosion.

7 minutes later

I'd like to say right now, guys, that I sincerely hope that Murdock gets what's coming to him at the end, because given what I've already known about him, I hope Rambo, or even Colonel Trautman for that matter, delivers a kind of justice that is perfect for him. And no, I'm not gonna tell you what I just learned about Murdock, you're just gonna have to watch the movie for yourself.

12 minutes later

Well, guys, I will say that was probably one of best responses Rambo gave to Murdock. Whether that actually happens or not is still up in the air, but that was definitely a great response.

10 minutes later

Wow. Out of all the kills that Rambo has delivered to these Russian soldiers, that one was probably the more surprising. And really cool, too. Just seeing him completely camouflaging himself in mud, despite the fact that it's raining. Well, then again, he sorta did that in the first movie, too. But still, Rambo certainly knows how to blend into whatever environment he's currently in.

4 minutes later

I didn't think it was possible, guys, but the explosions in this movie are better here than what was in the first movie! I never thought I'd have to comment on explosions in a movie before, these ones are definitely interesting. I'm a little bit surprised by that.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Rambo: First Blood Part II". Let me go ahead and shut the film off...OK. So...where to begin with? Well, I said earlier that I was hoping for this movie to be as good, if not better than the first movie. And considering how good "First Blood" was, this movie had a bit of a bold task to out perform it's predecessor. And you know what? It totally does just that. This movie was amazing! It seriously is that awesome.

So, let's just dive right into this movie by talking about the writing. Now, I mentioned earlier that I was predicting that this movie was gonna be some sort of a prequel, in which we got to see Rambo's time in Vietnam. Well...as was the case with how well I predicted the first movie, I was TOTALLY off here. And it's not done on purpose, I assure you. I go into a lot of these movies blind, considering that this series, Reaction & Review, is about me watching movies that I've never seen before. And I usually don't do a whole lot of research going into some of the movies that I watch, because I want to be surprised and find out what I'm getting myself into. Now if there's information that's worth noting, then I will totally talk about it before I dive into whatever movie that I'm about to watch. But beyond that, I try to go into these movies as blind as possible. That way, it makes these experiences that much better. At least, to me, it does.

So, with this in mind, I'm rather happy that I was wrong here. Because what we have for a plot is MUCH better than what I had originally predicted. It's pretty much a follow-up from where the first movie left off, in which Rambo is in prison for what he had done in the first movie. And then Colonel Trautman comes along and says to Rambo that they have a special mission for him because he's the only one that could pull this off. And that if Rambo succeeds, then he will be pardoned of all his crimes. The mission? Well, there's a POW camp in Vietnam that the U.S. military base has been keeping tabs on, because they believe that there might be some missing soldiers there that are being held prisoner. Originally, they were presumed to be dead, but they want to be sure for themselves. So then Murdock, who's technically the head of this operation, orders Rambo that he has to get photographic evidence of any U.S. soldiers that are being held there against their will. And he's also been instructed to NOT engage with any of the enemy soldiers there that are guarding the camp. Which Rambo does at first, but Rambo being Rambo, he later starts to take the matter into his own hands, as he ends up freeing one of the soldiers that was being held in a cross-like fashion. And basically, the movie sets itself up as Rambo is taking on both the Vietnamese soldiers and the Russian soldiers at the same time. How exactly they come into play is something that I'm gonna try not to spoil here.

One thing I really liked about the writing here is how it builds itself up. I've talked about this before in past reviews regarding action movies that mostly follow a status quo. That being which they mostly are about the action and less about the story and characters. Now for some people, that's totally fine. I can totally see why some people would prefer that kind of thing for their action films, because they like seeing shit blow up or just guns blazing left and right, and they mostly could care less if there's a story going on or not. And while that's not entirely my thing, I get why some people would prefer that kind of thing for their action movies. This movie, however, was able to do something that not a lot of action movies are able to do correctly or just not do them at all. You see, this movie starts off rather quietly with the stuff I mentioned earlier involving Rambo and his instructions about trying to get photographic evidence of soldiers being held at this POW camp, but he's also joined up with a female soldier named Co. She kinda serves as both a love interest for Rambo, while also being an aide to Rambo if he ever gets into any sort of trouble, such as when he himself gets captured at one point during the movie, and she has to try and save him. But she and Rambo also get some down time as well, because they're just talking, and sharing a little bit of character development together. Which is something you didn't really see much from Rambo in the first movie, outside of a couple of moments he had with Colonel Trautman. Here though, we definitely get to see more of it in this movie. And it is a rather nice touch to see. Now before I get on back to my point about how the movie builds itself up, I should mention that our characters here are mostly really good. And as for Murdock, and whether not I was hoping he would get what's coming to him...well, I won't spoil on whether or not that happens. Again, it's just something you're gonna have to see for yourself if you're someone who still hasn't seen any of the Rambo movies yet.

But anyway, getting back to my point, because I kinda jumped into the characters for a moment, the way that this movie builds itself up is that it does things a bit slowly. Unlike the first movie, where we sorta just got into the action rather quickly, this movie starts off slow, and then it builds up to our action scenes, leading into the final climax of the movie, where we REALLY get to see guns going off and explosions everywhere. This is the kind of action movie that knows how to build itself up and then gets a huge payoff towards the end. Unlike a lot of movies where they just want to rush into their action scenes with little to no depth, this movie is a textbook example on how to do it right. Now sure, the first Rambo movie did sorta get into it's action as well, but you still got a chance to learn a little bit more about the titled character as the movie went on. And this sequel definitely did what most sequels should do. You take whatever problems the predecessor may have had, and improve on them in your sequel. Now that isn't to say that the first movie had very many problems. The only real gripes I could think of that the first one may have had was that the plot was rather paper-thin at best. But then again, this movie's plot is also sorta the same thing. And much like the first movie, it's really easy to follow. Which, for an action movie, is really all I could ask for. So this movie's story is pretty standard, but it's one of those movies that will make you care about what's going on. And, coupled with the fact that we have great characters here, it makes for a really awesome movie.

So yeah, if it's not made any clearer already, the writing here is really solid. What about the acting? Well, we do have our returning cast members such as Sylvester Stallone as Rambo and Richard Crenna as Colonel Trautman. And they turn in really good showings. Most of the rest of our cast here also turned in really good showings, too. I didn't notice any cases of poor acting from anyone, which includes and extras and minor actors, so that's definitely a plus. Now to show you how little research I did going into this movie, there was one actor's name that I wasn't expecting when I started up the movie. That one actor goes by the name of Martin Kove. And somehow, within the span of 3 movies for the last couple of months, he shows up in this movie. And for those of you wondering what movies I'm talking about, I'm referring to both of the "Shadow Warriors" movies that I covered last month. However, unlike those two movies, his role in this thing is a bit more restrained. So it's not like he does anything too crazy in this movie, outside of one particular thing that I won't try to go into detail here for the sake of spoilers. But yeah, he was kind of a surprise to me, because I didn't think I was going to cover anything else that he was going to be in, and yet, he did. So...yeah, that threw me for a bit of a loop there. But anyway, getting over that, the acting from the cast in this thing was really solid, so kudos to all of the cast members for giving it there all in this thing.

Special effects here are really good. And on the subject of the pyrotechnics, I will say this. If you thought the first movie had some pretty cool explosions, then THIS movie will definitely deliver on more of those. And unlike the Michael Bay "Transformers" movies, where it's pretty much a standard for him to have explosions wherever he possibly can, this movie, like I said, builds up to all of that. Granted, you do get a couple of explosions a little bit early on, but most of the rest of them are saved for the latter portion of the film. Including one moment in particular that ended up being incredibly funny. Again, won't say for spoilers sake, but it was definitely the funniest moment of the entire movie. Everything else here in terms of explosions are really cool. And the best part about them is that they get better with each one that goes off. If you think you've seen the coolest explosion in this movie, the next one will top itself, and it just doesn't stop! That's how well handled the explosions are used in this movie. Everything else involving the muzzle flares for the guns and blood effects are all done very well, too. So overall, the special effects in this movie are fantastic.

Camerawork here is great. The lighting here is done really well. The sound-mix here is really good. Our score here, once again, was done by Jerry Goldsmith. And similar to the first movie, it's just as sound here. Now whether it's better than the first movie's score is something that I can't say. I would say that both are almost on par with each other. But if I HAD to give a slight edge to either movie, I would probably have to say this movie edged it out a bit. Again, it's not by much, considering both movies scores were done by Goldsmith, and he always knew how to make great music. So really, it's just personal preference from me. Both scores are great, regardless. But on the topic of this movie, the music here works, and it works really well.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Rambo: First Blood Part II"? Absolutely, yes! This movie was fantastic. I can especially recommend it to those who have seen and liked the first Rambo movie. It does a great job on being an awesome sequel by taking whatever minor gripes the first movie may have had, and tweaking them a bit in order to give us a slightly better story. Again, both movies plots are somewhat bare bones. But again, like I said earlier, you don't really need much in order to make an action movie story stand out. As long as it's interesting, entertaining, and it gives you a reason to care about it, then mission-fucking-accomplished! "Rambo: First Blood Part II" does all of that. And I cannot wait until I get to the next Rambo film, and I'm genuinely curious to see where else Rambo is going to go from here. For now, though, I'm going to say, again, that I can totally recommend Part II, just so as long as you've seen the first movie, and you really enjoyed it. And as for myself...well, seeing as how I mentioned the Michael Bay "Transformers" movies earlier, I think I'm gonna go and watch the animated "Transformers" movie from the 80's. It's been a little while since I last seen it. Plus, it also has an amazing soundtrack, too. So I'm gonna go and do that next right after I'm done putting this review together.

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 later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Sinister Squad

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 2016. That movie is "Sinister Squad".

Now, when I originally bought this movie, I was genuinely interested in checking it out, mostly because of the film's premise. The premise to this movie is basically about a group of storybook villains who get captured and must fight together in order to save the world. Now mind you, this isn't really an original premise, and I'll get to why in a second. But regardless, I was still interested in checking it out. So I bought it, along with a couple of other movies that I had interest in watching, and brought it home. And sometime after that, I was browsing through the movies I had bought at the time that I was trying to fit into the schedule, including this one. And as I was reading the premise for this movie again, I read down further...and then I noticed the company that put this movie out. And my hopes of this movie being decent were drastically brought down. You see, the studio responsible for making this movie...is The Asylum.

Now I know some of you reading this probably have no idea as to what this studio is even responsible for, so I'll try to explain it the best I can. You see, this studio, The Asylum, is mostly known for two things. The first thing is making Sci-Fi Channel Original Movies for, well...the SyFy Channel. Some of them are really god awful-looking shark movies, some of them are zombie flicks, and some other original movies that I really don't know much about. The second thing is that they are notorious for making "mockbuster" movies. For those of you who don't know, "mockbusters" are essentially knock-offs of big blockbuster movies that were released at the time. Now, I am not going to name every single "mockbuster" movie that The Asylum has put out, because it's a ridiculously huge catalog. However, I am going to play a little bit of a game with you guys. I will list off a few certain movie titles below and see if you can guess what movie that The Asylum has done a "mockbuster" of.

"Atlantic Rim"
"Independents' Day"
"Ape vs. Monster"
"Sunday School Musical"
"Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls"
"AVH: Alien vs. Hunter"
"Planet of the Sharks"
"Road Wars"
"Mercenaries"
"Dragon"

So now, while you're busy with that, I'm going to tell you what tonight's movie is a "mockbuster" of. In case the title wasn't a dead giveaway, this movie is a "mockbuster" of 2016's "Suicide Squad" movie. And for the record, I have seen that movie, and it was pretty good for the most part. Now before anyone might ask, no, I haven't seen "The Suicide Squad", because it didn't look very interesting to me. But I don't want to muddy things up here by talking about that movie. Point being, this movie is essentially a knock-off of 2016's "Suicide Squad" film, and the premise is very similar to that movie as well, seeing as how I mentioned that it wasn't really that original. But then again, I'm almost confident that's a standard for any movie put out by The Asylum.

Now I should probably quit stalling here and actually find out if this movie is gonna be halfway decent. I have strong doubts about that, considering the studio that we're talking about here, but who knows? This movie could genuinely surprise me and actually be halfway decent. But the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is decent at all, is if 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 "Sinister Squad".

19 minutes later

Well, guys, I can easily confirm one thing so far. This movie has introduced our primary villain characters that are suppose to be this movie's version of the Sinister Squad, and I have not been given a single reason as to why I should care about these characters. All of them, so far, have been dull and incredibly lifeless. I'm genuinely hoping that this movie will actually give me a reason to care about them sooner rather than later. But right now, I'm not having any real hopes of that happening.

19 minutes later

You know, guys, I would be willing to take Rumpelstiltskin's story more seriously if I didn't have to hear any of these annoying cartoon-like sound effects go off anytime that he says or does something odd. It's really more distracting, if nothing else. So I'm kinda hoping that the movie will tone some of that shit down slightly.

10 minute later

OK, I have a really stupid question here that I know I'm not gonna get an answer to, but I want to ask it anyway. Why does the Hatter have glitter on his face? I'm serious, guys, the Hatter has golden glitter all over his facial hair and some on his cheeks, too. It looks really fucking ugly on him. And if he's in this movie for any longer, then I'm probably gonna have to get use to that shitty-looking glitter on his face for almost the next 40 minutes or so.

19 minutes later

Oh boy, guys, we now have Rumpelstiltskin and Gilda bonding with each other. Oh...well, never mind, he actually killed Gilda. Perhaps maybe I would care more about this if any of these characters had any meaning or depth, but...no, I really don't. At this point, I'm just waiting until this stupid film ends, because it's been incredibly boring so far. And I don't think the next 25 minutes or so are gonna get any better. I could be totally wrong on that, but I have a gut feeling that I'm gonna be right by the time this movie ends.

9 minutes later

OK, I do have a question, and it's a legitimately serious one, too. How the fuck is Piper still alive? Because earlier, he was stabbed in the back by Bluebeard, after his brain-washing wore off. And Piper's lying in a puddle of his own blood, too, so how the hell is he still alive?! Did Death or his witch keep him alive with their powers so that he could stay alive for their ritual? I totally understand that I'm trying to put logic into a movie that really doesn't care about it, but I want to ask it anyway, because it's sorta bugging me a bit.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Sinister Squad". Good lord, um...I'm just gonna shut this crap off...OK. Well...that sucked. I mean, I kinda knew it was going to suck, anyways. But I still wanted to like it, despite the fact that I knew, later, that it was a movie from The Asylum. And obviously, that didn't happen, because this movie totally sucked hard.

Let's just get into this thing by talking about the writing. Now obviously, as I mentioned earlier, this movie is suppose to be a knock-off of 2016's "Suicide Squad" movie. And I hear a lot of people really didn't care for that movie for one reason or another. The most noticeable complaint I've heard is Jared Leto's performance as the Joker. Now admittedly, it has been a few years since I last seen that movie, but I didn't really have a problem with Leto's Joker. The only real issue I had with that movie was the first half hour of it taking a little bit too much time into getting it's characters together to form the actual Suicide Squad. But other than that, I really enjoyed that film. So, why exactly am I bringing up all this? Well, it's simple. For whatever fault's that movie may have had, it's certainly a hell of a lot better than the crap I had to sit through for almost 90 minutes, because this movie has almost NOTHING to go on, other than the fact that it tries to be a storybook version of the same movie that it's trying to mock, and it does a poor job of that. Now I wasn't really expecting anything groundbreaking, especially coming from The Asylum, but I was still interested to see what exactly they could do as a knock-off of "Suicide Squad". And while there are a couple of interesting elements here, it really won't hold your attention for very long, because of it really doesn't get explored enough.

A great example of this is our story itself. Now being that this is suppose to be a knock-off of "Suicide Squad", you would expect this movie to maybe kind of rip off that film's story beat for beat. And it does...kind of. The only real difference is that this movie is relying on the storybook characters that have fallen in the public domain. So we have characters like Rumpelstiltskin, Goldilocks, Piper (AKA the Pied Piper), the Big Bad Wolf, and Alice of "Alice In Wonderland" as a few examples. Funnily enough, Alice plays this movie's version of Amanda Waller from "Suicide Squad", because she runs this prison that is known as the Looking Glass, and, aside from Goldilocks and Piper working for her, she also has Tweedledee and Tweedledum as her prison guards. And their mission is to recruit a bunch of storybook villains in order to stop our villain, Death, from conquering the world once he breaks free from the Underworld. You see, we get dumped with some exposition from Rumpelstiltskin that he was sent by Death to look for the Magic Mirror, so that Death could use it to travel to different dimensions and conquer our world. Well, somehow, Rumpelstiltskin ended up breaking the mirror, so Death can't really leave his dimension, thus he sends his messengers out to our world in order to retrieve the scythe that our heroes have locked away in the armory. So then we have our Witch, who's suppose to be Death's lover, and she's also after the scythe so that she can give it to Death to perform a ritual, which will give Death an opening to come to our world and take over it, I guess.

Believe me when I say, guys, that this story almost makes no sense. It tries to give out some backstory, but it's not enough backstory. Like I said, it's all just exposition that was dumped on us about a third of a way into the movie. And I have a lot of questions here that I know won't get any answers. For instance, why exactly did Death send Rumpelstiltskin to go look for the Magic Mirror? Why didn't he send any of his messengers out to get the Magic Mirror instead? Furthermore, why was Rumpelstiltskin working for Death to begin with? Did he make a deal with him from before he first got captured that I wasn't made aware of? I'm going to assume that Rumpelstiltskin did make some kind of deal with him from before the events of this movie, but I don't know if that's the case or not. I know he does try to do this about halfway into the movie, but I don't know if he did that long beforehand. Another issue I had was the selection of one of our captured villains that's suppose to be working for our heroes. OK, I get that this is suppose to be a storybook version of "Suicide Squad", so it would make sense to work in some of the characters I mentioned earlier, but what the hell is Bluebeard suppose to be from? I admit that I may not be familiar with every character from classic storybooks of the past, but I don't recall ANY instance where a character named Bluebeard appeared in any form from those tales. Now I could be totally wrong on this, so if anybody could name me any kind of actual reference in which Bluebeard appeared in any sort of classic storybook tale, please tell me. Otherwise, I'm just gonna assume he was totally made up for this movie and nothing else.

Speaking of which, let's talk about the characters. Now again, I know some people may have had issues with the "Suicide Squad" movie from 2016, and I'm not going to try and contest anyone's own opinions about that film, but do you want to know what that movie did better over this film? They gave you a reason to care about those characters. They gave you some kind of backstory in which you could find something to care about. While the first half hour of that movie could've been shortened a bit, the movie was still gracious enough to try and flesh out those characters the best way that they could. This thing, on the other hand, doesn't. The characters in this movie are all very shallow and one dimensional in personality. The Big Bad Wolf is basically described as somebody that had eaten 6 animals at a zoo, and was placed in prison because of his actions. Goldilocks is the only one who tries to calm him down, which may hint that he's not really a bad person, just misunderstood. And while that could've been interesting, they don't do anything else with him beyond that. Bluebeard's gimmick is that he has two knives that he refers to as his "wives", and that one of his knives gives him more power each time he kills with that knife. And his personality is that he's kind of a sex-crazed maniac. Beyond that, he has no other defining characters traits that make him stand out. The only other character I can think of that's even worth mentioning is Rumpelstiltskin, who's basically this movie's version of Joker. And he would've been interesting, had there been more backstory to him in regards to what I mentioned earlier. But like everything else, this movie doesn't really explore anything interesting beyond that. The only thing they do with him as that he's suppose to be paired up with Gilda, the Queen of Hearts. And, I guess, she's suppose to be this movie's version of Harley Quinn, although I didn't make that connection until just now. But she's in the same boat as Rumpelstiltskin when it comes to lack of character development.

So overall, the writing here is just terrible. The story doesn't really make much sense, and for a "mockbuster", it does a REALLY poor job of mocking "Suicide Squad". Which, for some people, that may not be saying much considering their own thoughts on "Suicide Squad". But being that I quite enjoyed that movie, it couldn't even meet the low standards that I had set for it. So with that in mind, let's get into the acting. The acting here...is a little bit of a mixed bag. Some of the acting ranges on being passable, to a couple of them hamming it up, to others just sounding very wooden. The most noticeable of hammy acting comes from Rumpelstiltskin's actor, who probably puts up the most hammiest performance in this entire movie. And honestly...I wasn't on board with his performance. I could see that he was trying to stand out, but the thing is, guys, and I've talked about this before, but if you're gonna ham up your acting, you have to try and make it sound natural. And for me, personally, this didn't feel natural. It felt...really off, and it was just a bit too much, even for me. The worst performance would probably have to be a tie between Bluebeard or Piper. I'd probably lean towards the former in this case, because Bluebeard's actor really didn't have much range in his voice, and he just sounded like he was trying to whisper his lines with a raspy voice, as if he was trying to sound like he was menacing. Which didn't work, obviously, because it came off as really shitty. Piper's actor sounded very wooden, and sounded like he really didn't care enough to be there, so he just phoned what was given to him and decided to call it a day. Everyone else...was passable. It wasn't anything good, but it wasn't terrible either, so...I guess that's something to account for.

Special effects in this movie are kinda crap. Most of it is done with CG, meaning that there's very little practical blood that's used here. And the practical blood that is used here looks like cheap-looking BBQ sauce. I want to make it known to any and all filmmakers out there. Please, PLEASE try to implement more practical blood, if you're gonna have that kind of thing in your movie. Because most of the time, CG blood looks awful. There are rare instances where you can make CG blood look good, such as the case with "Stitches". But if you're not able to do decent enough CG blood, then don't use it at all! It looks like shit most of the time, and it's much more preferable just to do practical blood. It would make your movie look slightly better. Anyway, everything else involving CG mostly looks like crap. The costuming here is somewhat passable, but nothing worth remembering for. Makeup effects here are OK at best, but again, it's nothing memorable, either. Overall, the special effects in this movie border on being a mixed bag, but it's a nudge towards being on the negative side of things.

Camerawork here is pretty good. The lighting here is actually fine. The sound-mix here is decent. I do want to comment on sound effects, because this kinda bugged the shit out of me for a while. I mentioned it earlier, but there's usually sound effects playing whenever Rumpelstiltskin is on camera talking. Sometimes, he's either blinking, or whether he's talking about something of relevance, there's usually some kind of sound effects playing, and most of it sounds rather cartoony. And like I mentioned earlier, it's also very distracting. Such as the scene I mentioned earlier, in which he gives an exposition dump about the Magic Mirror, in which there's these oddball sound effects that happens at certain points when he's talking, and it's all very distracting, because it pulls you out of the movie, thus you're not able to take his story very seriously. And whoever thought it was a good idea to give Rumpelstiltskin sound effects should probably have been fired after that, because it was just a terrible idea to begin with. The music here is very bland, both in score and soundtrack, so there's really nothing of noteworthy to take away from the music in this film.

Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Sinister Squad"? No. There is no way in hell I can recommend this, unless if you just want to riff on it with some friends on a bad movie night. Otherwise, you can easily avoid this. This movie is just terrible. As a knock-off, it sucks. And for a movie that came from The Asylum, I was sorta expecting something kinda interesting here. But the movie couldn't even provide THAT much. Now I have no idea if this is gonna be just a one off thing for The Asylum, because I was too stupid to notice that this movie was put out by them, or maybe if there's something else from them that could provide for some decent material for Reaction & Review. I don't know. But for right now, I'm just gonna steer clear from just about anything else that this studio has churned out. At least, until I find something that's even worth covering for this series. For now, though, I'm gonna go and watch something else. I think I'm gonna go pop in my copy of "Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay". That, in my opinion, is the best Suicide Squad movie that I've ever seen. And one that, sadly, doesn't really get enough attention, because it's just that good. So I'm gonna go do that next, after I'm done putting this review together.

Anyway, guys, 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 later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | First Blood

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an action movie from 1982. That movie is "First Blood".

Yeah, guys, shockingly, I have never seen a Rambo movie in it's entirety before. I have seen bits and pieces of one of the movies on TV, but that was years ago. And I've never had a chance to watch these series of movies until now, thanks to me doing this series. So yes, guys, for the next couple of months, I'm gonna be reviewing all 5 of the Rambo movies for this series. And I'm pretty excited to be checking these movies out, because I have heard mostly positive things about this series. So hopefully, they'll be as good as most people claim them to be.

Now, I'm gonna tell you everything I know about the Rambo series right here. I know they all star Sylvester Stallone, and I know that he plays a war veteran by the name of John Rambo. And he's being sent out on dangerous missions by himself to destroy his enemies. Now admittedly, I don't exactly know everything about the plot to most of these movies, outside of a couple of them. However, I will get more into those whenever I eventually get to them.

As for this first movie, I honestly have no idea what to expect here. Like I said, I know about the character Sylvester Stallone plays, but I don't know much else beyond that. I've been trying to avoid as much as I can about spoilers for these movies, because I want to experience them as a new viewer going into them. I'm hoping that this first one is gonna be a great start to this series. But I have no idea if it actually will be. The only way I am gonna find out for sure, is if 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 "First Blood".

10 minutes later

I'd like to say right now, guys, that I'm getting real sick of this fucking cop that's been harassing Rambo. I seriously hope something bad happens to this asshat of a cop, because he's REALLY starting to becoming very irritating right now. And hopefully, some kind of karma will happen to him sooner rather than later.

7 minutes later

Well, guys, I can totally say that those cops fucking deserved it. Yeah sure, Rambo was having PTSD flashbacks. But honestly, even without that, I think that was totally justified with him kicking their asses like it's nothing. I think I'm gonna end up really liking this movie, guys. Call it a hunch.

3 minutes later

Well...I will say that was probably the funniest way to deal with that asshole cop. Just have his car tumble over into a ditch while landing on the hood upside down. Kinda wished he would've gotten a more punishing karma, but still, I'll happily take what I can get out of it. Hopefully, it'll be the last we hear of this fucking cop, but we'll just have to wait and see.

10 minutes later

So, even with a bloodied arm, Rambo was still able to take out his first victim. Granted, the idiot with the sniper rifle kinda fell out since it was own fault and all. And it looks he fell on the worst thing possible, too, which obviously caused his death. I'm curious to see how Rambo is gonna survive all this, knowing now that he's probably heavily injured from that big jump he took a moment ago. This should be interesting.

1 minute later

Oh, jeez...guys, I'm thankful I've never been injured in this kind of fashion. And I can't imagine how badly that would fucking hurt just to see Rambo stitching his bloodied arm like that, knowing that it's STILL bleeding as he's doing this. Just...Jesus Christ, that looks painful as hell.

9 minutes later

O...K. And I just got to see one of these cops getting spiked in the crotch area. That's actually more painful than how the cop from earlier died from that fall. At least with him, it was an instant death. But the fact that this cop got his balls spiked like that is infinitely more painful! And yet, despite all that, I still don't feel sorry for these cops in the slightest.

18 minutes later

So they fired a rocket launcher into the mine that Rambo is currently hiding in. Ignoring the fact that they were told to stand down and don't fire, are they not gonna check for a possibility that Rambo probably did manage to go further into the mine where he would have free reign in the darkness? I'm sorry, guys, but if I were the guy in charge of finding Rambo, I would wait until we get actual confirmation before celebrating that they 'got' Rambo. It makes these soldiers look really stupid in hindsight. Just saying.

15 minutes later

Holy shit! Well, guys, I just found the coolest explosion so far, where Rambo just pushed a police car into another random car ahead, causing a pretty cool explosion. That was really awesome.

2 minutes later

Never mind, I found an even BETTER explosion than the one I just saw a moment ago. That one was seriously awesome! It really was.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "First Blood". And that was certainly an ending, I'll say that much. Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Well, I think it's safe to say that, if this movie is anything to go by, then I'm gonna be in for a really good couple of months here. Because this movie was fucking great. I really enjoyed the hell out of this thing.

So now, I think it's time to get into this review proper by first discussing the writing. Now earlier, I talked about what little I knew about the Rambo series. I knew that he was played by Sylvester Stallone and that he plays a war veteran by the name of John Rambo. I also mentioned that he was being sent out on dangerous solo missions to destroy his enemies. Now admittedly, I don't know how accurate that is for the rest of the movies going forward, but with this first one...I was WAY the fuck off with that statement. Because what we got here was completely different than what I had guessed early on. And I'm kinda happy that I was wrong there. Because my summarization on what I thought it was going to be sounded like a plotless action movie. Now admittedly, this movie's story is rather paper-thin, but I'm gonna tell you, guys, they run with this story so well that you are going to be sucked into this movie the moment that the actual plot kicks off. And at no time does the movie have any pace-breaking moments. The story flows just well enough from it's moments of the cops trying to go after Rambo, to any scenes involving the police chief and Colonel Trautman, and to Rambo just trying to fight off a one man war against the cops that they themselves started. Everything about the pacing of this movie is perfect. And being that this movie is only around 90 minutes long, it had the perfect amount of length to where it was neither too short, nor too long either. So yeah, the pacing of this movie fantastic.

So what is the actual plot? Well, as I already mentioned, Rambo's basically trying survive against these cops that are after him. And how exactly did this all start? Well essentially, Rambo gets picked up by the police chief when he sees Rambo just walking into town by himself. Well, the police chief, whose actual name is Will, basically ends up becoming a dick by telling Rambo that they don't like his kind around here and that the next diner he could eat was about 30 miles away. He drops him off across the other side of the bridge. But Rambo, not being satisfied, decides to walk back across the bridge and into town. Which causes Will to turn his car around and arrest Rambo, because he's that much of an asshole. And later, as they're going through the proceedings of his arrest, they decide to give him a shave. Which, at that moment, causes Rambo to have PTSD flashbacks to his days at Vietnam, which causes him to fight back against the cops, and makes an escape, which then leads him into the woods on the mountain. And from there, it turns into a one man war with John Rambo trying survive against the cops that are going after him. And that's pretty much it for this movie's plot. Now admittedly, it could be seen as a two way street here. You could argue that the reason why this ultimately happens is because, thanks to Rambo's PTSD, he fights off the cops, which is normally a bad thing because he was resisting arrest and was fighting against officials at a local police department. But, I also have to interject here by stating that Will, the police chief, was the one who started all this, simply because of the fact that he didn't give Rambo any directions on where to find someplace to eat. And it's also possible that the police district Will runs is also wildly corrupt, because none of the cops there were giving Rambo any sort of fair treatment, which is why they all treated him like shit. So honestly, I believe that Rambo was justifiably in the right. Because he really did do nothing wrong. Oh sure, what he ends up doing later could be up for debate. But ultimately, before all that, Rambo was innocent. And any sympathy I may have had for these cops was completely gone because of their actions against Rambo.

As for our characters, the only ones that are even worth mentioning are John Rambo, Will, and Colonel Trautman. Trautman was the one Rambo served under at Vietnam. And Trautman doesn't make an appearance until about almost halfway into the movie, where he's there to try and get his soldier back, because he's the only one that might be able to get Rambo to listen to him. And he's the only person left who's close to Rambo because, outside of being his commanding officer, he's the only person that might considered a family to Rambo, since all of his war buddies are dead. So our characters here are very fleshed out, minus Will, who pretty much doesn't change at all in this movie. One other thing that I wanted to mention about this movie's writing is the amount of tension that this movie builds up. Whether it's the scene involving the cops where they were trying to find Rambo during a storm, or Rambo himself just trying to survive by going through the mines that he had set up camp at, or even towards the end of the movie where it really starts build up, everything about the tension works, because you have no idea how exactly it's going to go, or how it will end. Now granted, this movie is over 40 years old, so it's very well possible for anyone that has seen it already, possibly many times by this point, they know what's going to happen. But for any newcomers, like myself, you are going to feel the tension that goes on in this movie. Now admittedly, I don't know how that's going to hold up for you on repeated viewings of this film, but the first viewing will definitely pull you in with it's tension.

So yeah, guys, if it's not made any clearer, the writing in this movie is just that good. The story here is easy to follow and will definitely pull you in real quickly. And our characters here are, mostly, really likable. Again, with the one lone exception being Will. So yes, the writing here definitely works. What about the acting? Well, everyone here turns in a really good showing. And even though I fucking despised Will, the actor playing him, which I believe his name is Brian Dennehy, did a fantastic job of portraying that asshole police chief really well. And as for Stallone, well...this might just be me, but if I were to compare his performances in the "Rocky" movies to this one, I would honestly say that his performance in this movie is quite possibly one of, if not, the best one he has given out. Now mind you, I am not trying to dump his performances in the "Rocky" movies (I've only seen the first 4 in case anyone might ask), but I felt like he had a bit of a habit in hamming up his performances just a tad bit to where it sounded a bit too goofy. Now with this movie, while he kinda does do that towards the end where he starts to break down, it's handled better here because he doesn't really have a whole lot of dialogue to work with. Most of it is kept to a minimum, and it totally works for his character. And unlike the previous two "Shadow Warriors" movies I covered last month that both starred Hulk Hogan, he actually pulls of the stoic character very well, because Stallone was able to give out more of range in his acting, when he needed to. Since again, he has minimal dialogue in this movie. And the most emotion he gave out was during the ending. So yes, the acting here is really stellar from the entire cast.

Special effects are definitely also a highlight here. Most of it either contains the blood effects, which makes sense considering that the movie itself is literally called "First Blood", or the pyrotechnics, which mostly happens towards the latter half of the movie. And they all work really well here. Our costuming here is really good. The makeup effects are also done really well. Honestly, guys, I really don't have anything else notable to say about the special effects, other than the fact that they're really good.

Camerawork here is great. The lighting here is lit really well. Even in the scenes where Rambo is trying to find his way through caves is done really well, too, because the only thing he uses is a hand-made torch that he uses as his only source of light. All of that works really well. The sound-mix is mixed perfectly. The score here is great. And that's mostly because it was done by the late Jerry Goldsmith. Who was a master of bringing out great music. No matter the quality of the movie, whether it's great movies like "Rio Lobo" and Looney Tunes: Back in Action", or garbage movies like "Legend", he always knew how to give them great music. And this movie is no exception. The music here is great, and it definitely fits the tone of the film itself.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "First Blood"? Absolutely. This movie is fucking great, and I'm so glad that I'm finally able to get around to covering these movies. If you, yourself, want to get into the "Rambo" series, and you haven't had a chance to see these movies yet, this first movie is definitely a great start. It has a really good story, mostly good characters, and is definitely one of the finer action movies I've seen in a long time. Now I have no idea if the rest of the Rambo movies are gonna have the same amount of quality that this first movie had, but I'm definitely looking forward to finding out within the next couple of months. So yeah, guys, I'm totally able to recommend "First Blood" as a good starting point, if you're looking to get into the "Rambo" series. I'm hoping the rest of the movies in this series are gonna be as good, if not better than the first movie, but again, I'll have just have to wait and see for myself when I eventually get around to covering them for this series. For now, though, I'm gonna go and watch another action movie. And I'm kinda interested in watching "Judge Dredd" again. Seeing as how I just finished watching an action movie starring Sylvester Stallone, I kinda want to continue the Stallone trend and watch another movie that, while not great, is definitely a fun little action flick. So yeah, that's what I'm gonna go do next, after I'm done typing this review up.

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 later. Peace.