The Colts ran out of Luck

By Paul Anthony

Can you imagine being 29 years old and saying you know what I should retire? Heck here I am at that age working two jobs. Here we are just under a week when the Colts star Quarterback decided it was time to hang up his helmet up for good and walk away from playing football in the NFL. He played only 6 seasons and walking away from I don’t know hundreds of millions of dollars. Now don’t get it twisted he still made a lot of money, even hit the area of 126 plus million dollars in his brief career, clearly its enough money to sit back and take an early retirement.

Andrew Luck was a super star before he was even a pro and many teams wanted him and it was clear that he was going to be drafted number 1. Many of the fans of the NFL teams wanted their teams to lose as many games to get that number 1 slot to get Luck, it was dubbed Suck for Luck. The Colts became the winners after they finished a 2-14 record and the rest was history. Early in his career he showed why he went number 1 and he racked up the stat and help the Colts back into the playoffs. Not only did he do that but he did that for the first 3 years of his career and then again in 2018. Basically out of the 6 years he played, he took the Colts to the playoffs 4 out 6 seasons.

Here we are he has the wins, the Pro bowls which he is a 4x Pro Bowler, Comeback player of the year for 2018. Led the League in touchdowns in 2014. Yet no Super Bowl for all of this. No doubt he would have become a champion sooner or later, so why retire? Well that is easy enough to answer.

Truth is Andrew Luck because of his style and his offensive line suffered a lot of injuries, including a shoulder injury that had kept him out for the entire 2017 season but that wasn’t the only injury, he had many more a sprained shoulder, lacerated kidney, partially torn abdominal muscle, torn cartilage in his ribs, a concussion. All in his first six playing years. It made sense for him to retire from the game, he has the money and the stats, maybe not the championships but he gets to walk away from the game before it is too late because in the end he is a human who will be a father soon enough.

When the news leaked the fans at the game started to boo which I assumed was at him and if it was then they are truly sick. The Man owned the fans nothing since this just a game in which he shined for them. Still I wonder if they were booing at the idea of him retiring rather then at him, It’s still very hard to tell at this point. In the aftermath fans pretty much were begging for a refund for their season tickets, which to me if you pay to see one player with their being no guarantees that they will play regardless then that is your own fault. Luck now can  walk off into the sunset with his family, something that we all deserve to do in the end of careers. Good luck to you Andrew Luck.

Advertisement

Top five things I took away from the D23 Expo

By: Justin Hopkins

Going into last week’s expo, Disney really needed to deliver big, after the loss of Spider-man. A character that has quickly grown in to a fan favorite, and boy did they deliver in a big way. It seemed every time I picked up my phone there was a new batch of news that had me simply elated. Heard that Mulan tore it up, which I was glad to hear. The Disney Princess movies are not my cup of tea, but a lot of people find them enjoyable, and glad they are keeping up the live action train. Announced that Lizzy McGuire would return, which was really out of the blue, but can think of a few who would love this, and sure they are not alone, and then there was five. There were five specific announcements that got me psyched for Disney Plus. From things that I have been waiting for, for a long, long time and some that just look like they’ll be fun. With that said, lets take a look at what they are and go over why.5 – Ms. MarvelKamala Khan is a character that I am not the most read up on, but from what I have read of Ms. Marvel has usually always been unique and have enjoyed her books quite a bit, and I am glad to see her getting a show of her own. She brings a slew of powers to put on display, and brings quite a few interesting routes they can explore with the time a show can give. She is a young Super hero who struggles to find her place in the world and doing her family and religion proud, and I look forward to see how it plays out. As well, as being announced that she’ll be going to the Big Screen as well. Am curious to see if those on the big screen or how interwoven these shows are going to be. Most importantly, really believe this has the potential to be really fun show. With Moon Knight probably going for a darker tone. Ms. Marvel can bring a fun and hopeful atmosphere to it.4 – The World According to Jeff GoldblumThis just look like it’s going to be a blast. A part of the National Geographic run, this is going to be a running travel series featuring the man himself, Jeff Goldblum. Pretty much has him traveling the world, and just going off on whatever catches his eye, and the trailer shows a wide collection of random things, that feels like the most important thing in the whole world at that moment. Which is pretty much his greatest super power as a human being. This show is just going to be something that will be fun to watch. Get to learn things we may not have known and be entertained by the crazy, genius that is known as Jeff Goldblum. Can’t see where one can go wrong.3 – Marvel What If ?This is just exciting. We got a few examples shown, What if Peggy Carter was the Super Soldier? The animated images of her dressed as what appears to be Captain Britain. What if Star Lord was black? Marvel Zombies!!!! Those are just really scratching the surface. Marvel What ifs are a vast library and if they want, doesn’t take much to think up another scenario, and with it being an animated run, can get away with a lot more. Also, majority of the actor we have grown to love in the MCU, are going to be behind the voices as well. This show is just beaming of possibilities and can get real weird and that can make for compelling TV.2 – Clone Wars.I am not a fan of Star Wars. Seriously, Find all of the movies to be rather dull and never really see what people see in them. A few years back and kind of scoffed when an animated show popped up on my Netflix recommendation list. For laughs though, I tuned in, and was blown away by how good it was. Cad Bane was a great villain. Using his cunning wit and abilities to take down Jedi on multiple occasions. Kit Fisto and Plo Koon were given character development and some great fights. Darth Maul is the epic level antagonist that he should have been and Ahsoka Tano is just a badass Padawan with a heart of gold. Watching her grow up and when the Jedi turned their back on her was devastating and seeing her walk away…. This was not suppose to be an emotional show for me damn it haha. Was stoked to hear it was coming back, and that trailer was everything I wanted. Especially the end, when you hear Darth Maul say, Was looking for Obi-Wan. You’ll do.. and it cuts to him having a Light Saber Duel with Ahsoka had me jumping out of my seat demanding it to be February.1. She HulkIt had to be She Hulk. This might sound a bit blasphemous, but I think she is more enjoyable then her Big Green cousin. She has more emotional depth and drive to her character, since she not only regains her personality and intelligence in her hulk form, but at times prefers to stay there. Jennifer has a fair amount of psychological issues pertaining to confidence and belief in herself. Along with some bad habits, that would make her a bit of a sympathetic character. A lot of people seem to want Savage She-Hulk, and while I would gladly take it. Want them to delve more into her stint with Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg, and Holliway. You get a lot of zanier characters coming through the office, while it would create a good balance of She-Hulk and Jennifer Walters. Along with Villain Titania and many others, but would be happy which ever way they choose to go. However, while I would understand having Bruce around for the first episode. I want him to make a quick exit and kept to random cameos and keep the show, on Shulkie.While the Spider-Man situation is a rather big let down. The D23 was far from that. These are just a handful of awesome and spectacular things we have to look forward to and the future is bright going from here.Thank you for reading.

Battledogs Movie Review

By Justin Hopkins:

 

I have been on a recent Werewolf kick as of late. They don’t get as move love as some of the rest of the monsters, despite having a great movie line-up, with the likes of Ginger Snaps, The Howling, and Cursed, and so much more. So, I trekked across a few platforms in search of more I haven’t seen, and stumbled across 2013’s Battledogs. Coming with a surprisingly strong cast of actors Dennis Haysbert, Ariana Richards, Ernie Hudson, and Bill Duke as The President. What more can one ask for; as it turns out, a better movie, cause this one missed the mark by a mile. Let me explain why.

This movie started out somewhat promising. With a woman, Donna Voorhees having an anxiety attack at JFK Airport, causing herself to turn into a werewolf and began to infect or flat out murder everyone in her path. Becoming pretty clear early on that they really didn’t care to much about the lore here. When they turned back to humans though, kind of had me curious on where this was going, but after a few minutes in the quarantine zone, you pretty much figure out where they are going and how this is going to end. Lt. General Christopher Monning and his men want to weaponize the wolves. Major Brian Hoffman and Doctor Gordon want to find cure, and Voorhees has the key to said cure. Mooning makes Hoffman untrustworthy in the eyes of superior and president. Send wolf and men to kill Hoffman. Wolves escape quarantine, and take Manhattan. President orders bombing of Manhattan. They find cure but not fast enough and barely survive the blast. Donna however did not survive, being the only surprise in this movie.

It really seemed like wanted to make a zombie movie, or had a script laying around and just decided to slap werewolves in here to try and be different, but couldn’t be bothered to even try and adapt for what werewolves are. You have a movie that takes place mostly in the day with werewolves that are dropped by numerous tranq darts, single bullet, or even a regular knife. Soldiers who constantly stresses out those infected knowing that will cause a transformation let acts shocked when they transform. They are in Manhattan let the streets are almost entirely empty at nearly every moment. Meanwhile this all could have been avoided had the Doctor, who is honestly there to help, listened to Donna instead of constantly cutting her off. No good reason to ignore her. Dr. Gordon was on the side of the cure and aiding the hero. Just did it because they needed it to happen.  This had some potential to be good, but it just lazily written from start to end. Literally have centuries of Werewolf Lore to utilize. Had they taken a little bit of time to take the idea of a werewolf virus spreading across New York and applied some of the lore and used night time to hide the terrible CGI and bite wounds. This would have been drastically better.

I don’t go into a B-Movie expecting top notch special effect. Hammy effects can actually aide a B-Movie, but not in this case. There are times where you will see a group of White Wolves that are all the same wolf, just copy and pasted. They do this constantly. If you are not going to build wolves, at least get creative on the CG at least. They did have a good scene a sparse few times, but not nearly enough to make up for the bad.

This movie wasn’t even a so bad it’s fun. It’s just bad, and that is quite a shame. Dennis Haybert put in a great performance as a villain, and Ariana Richard’s played her role as sympathetic female lead pretty well. Ernie Hudson was fun in his role. Small part but he was fun. In the end, I wouldn’t suggest seeing Battledogs any time soon. I wasn’t expecting to see some awesome Werewolf movie, but I did expect a fun one, and they failed at even that. So, save your time and keep away from this one.

Thanks for reading.

Why Cancel The Hunt?

By Paul Anthony

When did we grow into a society that will blame stories for other people’s action? We recently found out the movie which is called The Hunt was not going to be released at least at the moment because of the recent mass shootings we had. Now I get it people can be sick and get ideas from movies. Now Some may never had heard of the movie before so the best description of the movie is this. Following a group of Elites who hunt the deplorable. Now I get we can have people so called hunting people without guns.

We are also stuck in the great gun debate and I am not here to get into that type of stuff. But why should a movie be canceled because of the shootings? There have been shootings before and there will be shootings after as well. There has also been debates about video games as well. Stop pointing the finger at fictional work because the people who commit these horrible acts are just that horrible people who just want to cause problems in the word. Seriously what is canceling the movie going to do? Okay you want to say it causes the victims trauma and what not, okay that is fine but guess what those people don’t have to go see it and it’s that simple.

If we cancel one movie then I guess we have to cancel every movie out there. Oh no here comes a romantic movie so now all the depress women out there who don’t get that fairly tale love story and will throw a fit? Or how about this a comedy comes out and the jokes offend someone let’s cancel the comedies as well. Look I am not making a joke about this situation but movies are apart of our normal lives and canceling them is just a sign of weakness. I could be going on and on about canceling a movie that may not be even good  but that’s not the point.

Now if this movie truly stays canceled then so be it because to make this movie the budget was very small which was only around 15 million. Universal won’t take a big lost.

In the end what do we do from this point? I may not have an answer to that question well it’s an answer that I am sure people won’t like it. The mass shootings are and will always be horrible and it’s something we never forget but canceling stuff that has nothing to do with the shootings are just not the answer in my eyes, I am sure people will disagree and that’s their right to do so. There are rumors this film could still be released but in a limited factor rather then a wide one, so maybe one day we can see what all the commotion was.

Batman Hush Movie Review

By: Justin Hopkins

**Spoiler Alert**

I was a little late to the party, when it came to reading Batman’s Hush. Only reading it a few years ago, but quickly became a favorite of mine. Full line-up of Batman’s best foes, all of which, under the puppet strings, of a much more deadlier foe, Hush.Taking you on a dark ride of a personal vendetta not one against Batman, but Bruce Wayne himself. There was a lot of buzz when it came of that Ben Affleck was working on a script to adapt it to the theaters. So, when things fell apart on that end. Was not surprised to see it be picked up on the animation side. Which was even more exciting. D.C and Warner have been the gold standard of animated movies as far as Superhero movies go. Having real high hopes, but maybe I should have tempered them just a smidgen. Let me explain.

Starting with what I liked. The animation was of course spot on, but normally always is. A dressed up version of the animated series, with modernized takes of the characters. Looked beautiful and fight sequences were great. Always love seeing Poison Ivy being used. Being my favorite Comic Book Character, always glad to see her being utilized. It’s not the best take, but good enough. Jason O’Mara is his usual great performance as Batman, but the star of this one, in my opinion, has to go to Jennifer Morrison’s rendition of Selina Kyle’s Catwoman. She did excellent at bringing her to life. Showing this established criminal try her best to change, and the inevitable realization that Batman was not going to change in the end. Almost all of the scenes she was in, she was holding the scenes together or stealing them all together. Would love to see her come back for future Batman Animated Movies, or spin-off of her own. She can lead an animated version of the Gotham City Sirens, or even a movie of her own. Plenty of Catwoman stories more then capable of seeing a movie.

With that all said and done, I was really not a fan of this one. While I liked the fact they made some changes, like dropping Krypto the super dog. I don’t understand why they made some of the changes they did. Thomas Elliot no longer playing Hush was a big one. Not only does it take away the personal story of the battle between Bruce and his long time friend, Thomas. Making it just another ploy by a super charged Riddler. Robbing us of a great back and forth between them Riddler and Batman, where Batman points out that he may know who he is, but it doesn’t matter because if he tells anyone. He loses his greatest riddle and no one would care. The quote they did keep, of deep down, Superman was good and Batman was not was said to quickly to matter, and I am pretty sure that Batman actually did order Catwoman to throw Lois off the roof. Some of the jokes were painfully flat. The pacing was slow and the movie dragged at times, and the montage was more laughable then anything else. While Jason O’Mara and Jennifer Morrison were standouts. Peyton List as Poison Ivy and Batgirl and Sean Maher were just alright. While the Joker was awful. Didn’t fit him at all. If it was just the one scene would have been fine, since it was a quick little scene, but his commentary during the Clayface fight was bad. Like almost turned it off to make it stop level bad. So many voice actors have played the Joker well. Could have gotten any one of them to play the role, but Jason Spisak was the wrong way to go.

Going to give it a generous C Plus. On the grounds, that I liked the Catwoman story arc, Poison Ivy, and animation. Along with the fighting sequences. The story direction and the voice acting choices weigh this down heavily. It may not be right, but when their greatest hits contain the likes of Mask of the Phantasm, Under the Red Hood, and Bad Blood. They set the bar high, and this just failed to come close. If you are a fan of Hush or Batman Animated Movies, would suggest checking it on DC Universe Streaming. You may have a better take on it, otherwise, would skip it, and wait for the Harley Quinn Animated Series.

Thanks for reading

Zombie Tidal Wave Movie Review

By: Justin Hopkins

What better way to kick-off B-Movie Sunday then with a brand new movie, SYFY’s Zombie Tidal Wave. Brought to us by director Anthony C. Ferrante and led by actor Ian Ziering. Fresh from the surprise hit series, Sharknado. As much as I think they played that series out, long before the official ending. Was looking forward to seeing them come back and take a stab at a new idea. The trailers looked like another fun romp, with zombies thrown into the mix. Only question to ask today, did they deliver? Lets review and find out shall we.

After a quick start, of two love birds, being killed after a little proposal. We jump to Hunter Shaw, his friend Ray, and Ray’s niece Jada. Surveying if there was any damage from an Earthquake, while Ray sneaks in a bit of fishing. Kind of celebrating, before Hunter leaves town. Setting him up as a man who doesn’t like to stay in one place for to long. A brief encounter later, Ray fishes up a body, that comes back to life and bites his niece. During the investigation, where the boat is swarmed by zombies, a tsunami happens. Bringing them all on to land. Kick starting a fight through the town, containing over the top gore, and creative kills, on Hunter and Sheriff Kameo trek try to save everyone they can and get to their loved ones.

Zombie Tidal Wave did quite a few things right. Going to start with the zombies themselves, cause they were one of my favorite parts, and they changed a good bit about them. While the origin was a bit cliche, loved the design of the blue zombies. We have seen hundred of variations of zombies at this point, but the blue skin, veiny, barnacle covered zombies was a great tough. Making even their death scenes better with blue splatters instead of the red. Just gave everything a really nice touch. Making it so head shots did nothing was genius. Forcing the characters to get creative in order to take them down, and they got real creative. From graphic propeller shots to the face, to dual bladed knives, and wood chippers. To when they discover electricity keeps them down. All the ways found to utilize it to the best of their abilities. Plenty of gore and money shots to go around. A little bit of CG parts bothered me. Mainly the explosions, but complaining about CG in a B-Movie is dumb, and a minor little nitpick.

Most of the actors did a very good job. Knowing what this movie was, but kept from hamming it up to much. Knowing when to have fun with it vs when to play it serious. Ian Ziering was his usual awesome self. You can tell he has a blast with playing Hunter and is down with just about anything as long as it gets a reaction out of it. Fair bit of one-liners, that are not usually my thing, but didn’t wear on my nerves to much. Erich Chikashi Linzbichler did a great job, as caring sheriff, with a shady secret that comes out later on, as he knows about the pharmaceutical company’s involvement all along. Tatum Chinquy, Angie Teodora, and Cheree Cassidy all did fantastic in their characters roles. Making you care about each of them, and really wanting them to survive to the end, or see what creative kill they perform next. The characters you are suppose to hate, you really despise. Including one, that we not only get treated to one death, but gets what is coming twice.  Was so close as to make Randy Charach’s Driscoll the stand out character, but I can’t. They set him up as this crazy guy with all these tricks up his sleeve, but when his time comes. He just dies, in such a disappointing way. Expected so much more.

They do a really nice job at keeping you guessing. You expect the pharmaceutical company to have a bigger role, but keep it to a slight blip. Driscoll looks like he may have had a hand in everything, but turns out to be extremely helpful. Just a creepy, anti-social kind of guy. Once the plan to go lead them back toward the water. You figure out that someone will blow up with the boat, but they keep you guessing as to who it will be, and your first guess will probably be wrong. The problem lies with the character that did the noble sacrifice, was Ray. I get why, to avenge his niece and all, but I didn’t really get all that invested in his character all to much. He was to extreme. Going from goofy to to serious and nerve really finding a balance. He did have one great line, where he called out Hunter and Kenzie for stopping to have a tender moment. Something that happens in horror movies all the time, and loved the fact they called it out here, but was not enough to care about his sacrifice in the end.

All things considered, Zombie Tidal Wave was a brilliant, fun movie. Which is exactly, what you want out of a movie like this. Didn’t take itself too serious, but had the actors to pull it off like they were in a serious situation, with a bit of emotional moments sewn in as well. Plus, more blood and creative kills to make this a perfect movie to kick back and enjoy with good food and friends. If these are your kind of movies, would strongly suggest you check it out, if you haven’t already.

Thanks for reading.

Brown Drama again

By Paul Anthony

Okay okay you want to talk about being a broken record, looks like we are going to talk about Antonio Brown yet again. It is sad we have cover this jerk again because I’ll be honest when the Steelers traded Brown away I thought that would help everyone and we could all move on but moving on is just too hard for some people and Brown happens to be one of them. Usually when people get traded, they realize it would be a fresh start and will correct the past by doing right, something they couldn’t do with their previous team but once again we are talking about Brown here who is now the biggest Diva in all of football.

Let’s start when him showing up to camp in a hot air balloon, which was pretty cool I have to give him that, it was different. Here in Pittsburgh it is a tradition to arrive in training camp in besides something like a boring car, so this was alright in my eyes, but the next few things is just a total joke to me. Let’s start with the first thing and that was Brown sitting out of camp with a foot injury. Now a football player’s feet are no doubt important but then we learn he gotten a bad frost bite because of how stupid he is and yes it was his own mistake. Don’t get me wrong when he posted pictures, I have to admit it was pretty nasty. Okay moving on to the season right? No Brown can’t fade from the drama just yet. The NFL gotten new helmets for their players and Brown doesn’t like his and felt that he can’t play football in the new helmets.

So in Brown fashion he has to boo woo and make a scene regarding the situation. He went as far as saying he won’t play another game in the NFL and will retire from football. Mind You the Oakland Raiders just spent a lot of money on him to play for them. For a moment the NFL stood up to Brown and said he has to wear the helmet but then that quickly changed and said he could wear an old helmet but it has to be made after 2010. Once again I lost respect for the NFL for catering to Brown but then Jon Gruden had to speak up and lie about how the team is supporting Brown and making up some crap on how Brown is passionate about this. Now I get it Jon is just a puppet but he truly looks like a big baby with supporting Brown. In the end I believe we will have more blogs on Brown, the Raiders aren’t a good team and Brown only wants his stats to look good so this will be fun to see, well it will also being annoying though because sooner or later he needs to be stopped but I fear it won’t stop until this guy retires oh the joy!

Remake Vs Original – The Omen

By: Justin Hopkins

Hello and welcome back to the next installment of a little series that I have totally slacked off on keeping up with. The premise is pretty simple, I take an original and its remake. Run through the pros and cons of each and pick the one I feel is better and why. All without the pesky nostalgia getting in my way. This time around, is one of my favorites, The Omen. In my opinion, The Omen is the best demonic themed movies of all time. Above even The Exorcist. The story, acting, and the building tension throughout was just masterful. With all that, how could the remake stand a chance. Lets take a look and see which one walks away the victor.

THE OMEN 1978

Starting things off with the original, from 1978. Movie starting with a Father, Robert Thorn, rushing to the hospital to be with his wife, who is in labor with their first baby. Only to find out, the baby did not survive, but there was another birth, one in which the mother did not survive, and he agrees to play it off to his wife, as if the boy is there. We get a nice little montage of how loving the family is and the fortunes Robert receives in the form of a promotion to Ambassador. Then, strange things begin to happen. The nanny committing suicide, calling out that it was all for Damien. The animals going crazed at the sight of him. Along with threatening visits from a priest warning him that his pregnant wife was going to die, if he does not kill his son. He ignores it, until she is hospitalized following Damien knocking her from a ladder. A fall that puts her in the hospital, and the unborn baby dies. Along with the aide of a reporter who fells he is next to die, Roberts starts to chase down leads as to where Damien came from, and whether or not, he is in fact The Anti Christ.

The pros of this are numerous. Gregory Peck was the leader of an all-star cast. He took you on an emotional roller coaster throughout. His struggle to keep his family whole reverberated throughout. Denying everything he was seeing. Wanting so much to chalk it up to coincidence, and the last bit of hope disappearing when he found the 6’s on Damien’s head was soul crushing. Knowing what he had to do.  Lee Remick, David Warner all magnificent. Harvey Stephens though, was a terrifying blend of chilling and the sweetest little kid. Even though we see everything and know he is. He gets you to question yourself. Especially, when it was done to the finale, and he is begging his Dad to not stab him. All good stuff. The music and sounds were excellent, and the prosthetic were amazing. The deaths scenes were on a whole other level. The Father getting pierced seamlessly with the lightning rod, and then the reporter getting his head lobbed off, and the camera staying on his head for that extra long moment was brilliant.

The negatives, at times this movie can be really slow. To many zoom in shots that take so long to get anything else to happen. They are being swarmed by dogs and wait way to long to have the dogs attack. Then during the climax, stopped to zoom in on Robert’s face. They are small things but break up the pacing on the movie, and stop the momentum in times where they need to keep it going. Final Grade= S

   The Omen 2006

This synopsis for this will be a lot easier. Since large chunks of this was ripped straight from the original. Entire conversations even. So, take everything from the top and drop it her, with some big additions. They focused more on the mother, played by the talented Julia Stiles. Once she starts have questions over Damien, he begins to psychologically torture her. Having haunting dreams of her death. To the point she is disgusted by him completely. Made her death feel that much more powerful because we invested more time with her. The line, his mother was a Jackal was actually said, so it made more sense to see the canine corpse in the grave. The climax followed at a steady pace, especially when he found the sixes. Blowing through the nanny like a man on a mission. Which was the better way to go. David Thewlis blew it away as the reporter. Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick was terrifying as Damien. While the original wanted to leave it up in the air on whether he was the Anti-Christ or not. They leaned into it here. Him staring down the guard. Keeping him in place was tremendous. Taking over the Robert Thorn role though, was Liev Schreiber, who may have been filling in for the great Gregory Peck, but pulled it off. Able to take you on the same roller coaster of a ride, and in some cases, did it better. Due to Liev having more intensity in his eyes.

My negatives, only one, but it was a damning one. This was the same movie. They added some stuff and what they added was good, but you gave us the same thing. The acting was solid and death scenes were made a little more brutal, was a solid remake, but can only give so much credit when they didn’t do nearly enough to make it their own. Remakes need to keep the spirit of the original and give us a new spin to make it their own. This one did not do that. Final Grade B Plus

Winner – The Original

This was a lot closer then one may think. The remake did a lot of things better then the original did. The montage of life growing up with Damien through baby videos, the dog scene at the grave yard. Katherine having screen time gave her death at the hospital more weight and was done better. With Mrs. Baylock shooting an air bubble into the tube, and Damien flexing a bit of power to keep the guard at bay. The pacing was fluid and Julia Stiles and Liev Schreiber were easily on par with their counterparts and better at times. Their inability to make this their own though is why I had to give it to the 78 one. It is worth watching though, if you haven’t seen it. Would strongly suggest it to anyone who passed on it.

Thank you for reading.

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark Review

By: Justin Hopkins

** SPOILER WARNING**

  Growing up as a 90s child. Me and my friends look back fondly on shows like Goosebumps and Are you afraid of the dark fondly. For good reason of course. Each were terrific in their own ways, but when someone brings up the Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark, I can’t help but smile. It was my first real taste of the Horror Genre. More scary then the latter two, being about true terror and consequences to ones actions. Such as The Big Toe, Black Dog, and the one with the mean child who learned what happens when he misbehaved one too many times. Even the comedy stories, like the friends who loved Baseball and made a deal to find out if Baseball was played in heaven. They were all so good and the pictures were chilling. The excitement for this was off the charts. Needing to know how they were going to pull this off. Bringing a collection of short stories to life. Each passing trailer and TV Spot building it that much more. With Guillermo Del Toro And Andre Ovredal as some of the people behind this. Allowed myself to have more faith in this. Only question is, did it live up to expectations?

  The movie opened with a little commentary and we start off. The year is 1968 and in small town Pennsylvania. Where everyone knows your business and Vietnam is underway. Introduced to our little gang of friends, Auggie, Chuck, and horror fanatic, Stella. They set up early that she is a little off and something is bothering her, due to her friends having to talk her into going into trick or treating. They do so, and after a revenge trick goes wrong. Find their way to Ramon, or 4th member of the gang, and set up Tommy as the ruthless school bully all very well. We learn a lot at this point. That Stella’s Mom abandoned her family and that the gossip mill really did a number on Stella. Blaming her for the runaway and it weighs on her shoulders still. To get over this, she takes them to the Bellow residence and the legend of Sarah Bellows is revealed, and Stella finds her book and utters the faithful line, ” Tell me a story, Sarah Bellows.” Which incurs the wraith of her spirit, and begins to write everyone who is present into her book, and they have to find a away to stop her, before their story is written.

Story wise, I really love the approach that they take here. By placing it in the sixties, they kind of give the book a whole new spin. Almost like they are “real” in a way and the stories we loved are Urban Legends in their own way. Adding the Spirit of Sarah Bellows to the lore was a genius way to string them all together. The ring leader behind it all and able to control their entire surroundings at her whim. The small farming town felt real and isolated. It allowed the characters to get to where they needed quickly, but had a sense that when a character was alone; that help was not going to get there fast enough. Their was even one scene where Stella kept telling him that a voice would say, who took my big toe, without realizing that she was the one saying it. So well written and had me on the edge of my seat, waiting for how this was going to end.

Most of the human characters were really enjoyable. Tommy was brutal school bully that we got so excited to see get his comeuppance at the hands of Harold (More on this later) Any time Roy and his daughter Stella interacted was an emotionally charged one. Felt the pain that this family has been through and he wants his Daughter to be happy and the telephone call they have is so moving and you really get behind Stella at this point so Roy doesn’t lose another Family member. Natalie Ganzhorn may not have much screen time as Ruth, but she sold her heart out bringing us the Red Spot Scene. Loved the trio of Auggie, Chuck and Stella. Gabriel Rush was truly memorable throughout. He brought enough lovable humor and the rising terror in him build my dread of what lay ahead for him, and while he had one of the best scenes where he is trapped by the elderly woman closing in on all sides, was a gut punch and great demise to a enjoyable character, but the true star of this was Zoe Margret Colletti, Stella. She owned every scene she was in. For a young actress she nailed every emotional range she had to hit, and she had to go from one to the next and did it with talent well above her age range. Had chemistry with almost everyone… Almost everyone.

While there was a couple little dumb things here and there, my main gripe with this movie is Ramon. He continuously came across as so creepy, especially with Stella. They were trying to push a love angle between the two and it never really worked. I wanted him to die so that they’d stop it. I felt for his character. Scared for his life over being drafted and after his brother came back in a box. Didn’t want the same fate. I may have missed something, and please tell me if I did, but she came across as like a junior in High school, maybe, and he was an adult on the run. Just seemed super wrong and if they would have been friends. Wouldn’t have this gripe, but this did hamper the film a lot for me. If I am wrong, I will gladly take it all back after a re-watch, until then, it sits as a negative.

Back to happy things, lets rundown the monsters, and they hit a home run with the monsters. Had a great blend of CG and Practical Effects. Harold was terrifying, chasing Tommy down with the stiff brittle motions. May be Pg-13 but the effects of Tommy turning into a scarecrow was glorious. Worked better without blood in my opinion. The Bellow Family was great addition and The Big Toe Monster was creepy. The winner was the Elderly Woman. They way they worked her, just descending on poor Chuck from all directions. Looked like they ripped her out of the book and slapped her on the screen. That creepy Grandma smile she had the entire time was haunting. Poor Chuck. Why couldn’t it have been Ramon.

To round off. Everyone involved did a great job bringing one of the best book series to life. They didn’t have much to work with, but pulled it all together nicely. Going to give it a B Plus. They ended it in a way that a sequel is entirely possible and hope they get it. Think they really have something special here. Want to see Stella through herself into trying to rescue Chuck and Auggie. How is Ruth holding up after the Red Spot? There is so many stories for them to tell and by the way they introduced Sarah Bellows and The Jangly Man. Have no problem seeing what else they can add the the collection. Go out and check it out for yourself.

Thank you for reading.

The Rock and DeadPool?

By Paul Anthony

The Rock has become a staple in the action world and comedy world of acting, and let’s be honest he has become very good at it. That is even more clear in the last few years but we have to ask ourselves when will the Rock join the MCU and who could he play? This topic hit the fan when Ryan Reynolds made a cameo in the Hobbs and Shaw movie. Which to be honest will spawned another film which Reynolds could have an extended role and that got the co creator of Deadpool wanting the Rock as a hero in the next Deadpool film.

Now we know there will be a Deadpool three, what we don’t know is when that film is coming but having the Rock in it would no doubt send the possible series final into new heights with showing the bad ass in THE Rock, we would no doubt laugh our ass off with this film. But who would the Rock play? What about Garrison Kane. Now Kane was suppose to be in the first but due to budget concerns with the CGI that is required, they cut him from the script. We know now that Deadpool has grew in budget and if Disney see’s the value in adding The Rock plus the money for the CGI, they will make it happen.

I for one would love to see the Rock in an MCU movie, I know he is suppose to be playing Black Adam in the DCEU but we don’t know when that will happen. Not to mention he can handle the work load of doing two movies if the filming schedule were at the same time. Will this actually happen though? I don’t know to be honest adding the Rock would no doubt be one of the biggest moves to the MCU since well adding Robert Downey Jr though that came in time.

Still this could be years away with the fact that an X-Force movie is being planned first at least that was before Disney bought fox century. Fox’s planned was to do a X-Force movie then Ryan would take a break from being Deadpool before he jumped back into the role for the third solo film. So in theory Kane could show up in the X-force movie since he was apart of the group at one point.

I know this could never happen but it is something to get excited for well we wait. Because as I stated there is nothing actually planned right now for DeadPool. I have ask you would you be excited for the Rock to show up In Deadpool?