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The Sadness (2021)
The Sadness (2021)
2021 | Horror
5
5.5 (2 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Let's get the obvious out of the way, The Sadness is pretty damn gory. This aspect is both a positive and negative. Most of (if not all) the gore is achieved in a practical manner, and as such is undeniably impressive. It goes for the jugular, with the intention of shocking. There are multiple moments where everything is just caked in blood and viscera, but to be honest, it does come across as gore for the sake of gore. There's little else on offer, which is a great shame. There are some solid enough performances from Berant Zhu, Regina Lei, and Tzu-Chiang Wang, and the general look of the infected people is genuinely quite unsettling, but everything else feels a bit empty. It's hard to care about any of the characters trying to survive, and the attempt at an emotional ending falls flat as a result.
Gore hounds and horror fans will no doubt find things to love about The Sadness. It's bleak, nihilistic, and doesn't shy away from its depravity. I certainly didn't dislike it, but the overall experience left me very unmoved. It's ultimately a movie that is just an extreme splatter flick, and it could have been so much more.
  
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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated ICECOOL in Tabletop Games

Jun 25, 2019 (Updated Aug 13, 2020)  
ICECOOL
ICECOOL
2016 | Action, Animals, Kids Game
Moving components around the board/play area is a staple of most board games. As board games have evolved, that mechanic has maintained an integral role in many games. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Well just because it’s not broken, doesn’t mean it can’t use a little innovation….and that’s where ICECOOL comes into play.

You and your Penguin buddies are so hungry that you decide to skip out on class early to go grab some snacks. But you’ve forgotten about the Hall Monitor! Their mission is to catch any unauthorized hall wanderers and send them back to class. Can you outmaneuver the Hall Monitor, or will you be caught and forced to go hungry until the end of class?

Disclaimer: I do not intend to rehash the rulebook in its entirety in this review, but rather provide a general overview of the rules and gameplay. To read the rules more in-depth, grab a copy of the game from your FLGS! -L

ICECOOL is a dexterity game in which players are trying to amass the most points over a number of rounds. Here’s how a round plays out. Select one player to be the Hall Monitor (called the Catcher) for the first round, and place their Penguin pawn in the kitchen box. All other players, aka the Runners, take their 3 colored fish tokens and attach them to the three corresponding doorways, and begin with their Penguin pawns in the classroom box. As a Runner, your goal is to collect your 3 fish tokens from their doorways. How do you do that? Flick your Penguin through a fish doorway to collect your snack. Yes, you read that right – flick. In this game, all movement is achieved by literally flicking your pieces throughout the boxes. To collect a fish, you must pass through the corresponding doorway completely in one single flick. Each time you collect a fish, draw the top card from the fish deck and keep it hidden from your opponents. Your other goal? Avoid the Catcher. If at any point, your Penguin comes into contact with the Catcher, you must forfeit your Hall Pass to the Catcher.

As the Catcher, your goal is to collect the Hall Pass of every other player. You achieve this goal by flicking your Penguin into any of the Runners. Turn order is as follows: Runners-Catcher, Runners-Catcher, etc., until the end of the round is triggered. The round is over when the Catcher has collected Hall Passes from every other player, or any Runner has collected all 3 of their fish. At the end of the round, each player collects 1 fish card per Hall Pass in their possession. So if you were caught by the Catcher, you’re outta luck! For the next round a new player is selected to be the Catcher, and play continues as above. The game ends once every player has taken a turn as the Catcher. Count up the points from your collected fish cards, and the player with the most points wins!

So a game of flicking Penguins around some boxes – sounds pretty simple, right? Yes and no. ICECOOL admittedly does not really require any serious strategy. Yes, you are trying to collect all 3 of your fish, but you’re mainly playing keep-away from the Catcher. And as the Catcher, you’re “It” in this quasi-game of Tag. So strategic, this is not. On the other hand, mastering the art of flicking your Penguin is a long and arduous process. Ok, it’s not arduous, but it is tricky to master! ICECOOL really puts your dexterity to the test to see if you have the proper form and control to move your Penguin to exactly where you want it to go. Half of the fun of this game is all the whiffed flicks and the comically accidental misdirections. The rulebook offers some flicking techniques to try out before your first game, and they are actually pretty helpful. I’ve not yet been able to achieve the jumping flick, but maybe one day I will rise to that level.

One other super neat thing about ICECOOL is the game setup. You’re playing with boxes of varying sizes. But here’s the kicker: they all nest into each other!!! So for storing, it looks like you just have one box. But in reality, there are 4 other boxes hidden inside. This concept is not one I’ve seen before in any other game, so that just makes ICECOOL a little bit more unique and interesting for me. Since I’m talking about the boxes, let me touch on components. The boxes are all of great quality, and are sturdy enough to hold up to clashing penguins. The Penguins themselves are good solid plastic, and I know they will last forever. Be careful though, flicking too hard might hurt your fingers! The deck of fish cards are a standard card quality. The artwork of the game is cute and thematic, and overall it’s a fun, immersive experience.

ICECOOL is not a game that I pull off the shelf at every game night. But it is one that is light enough, and entertaining enough, that it certainly gets a good amount of gameplay from my collection. Whether you are using it as a nice, short filler game, or you’re playing with some young’uns, it makes for a happy atmosphere full of energy and happiness. And that’s why Purple Phoenix Games gives ICECOOL a brrrrrrrrrilliant 18 / 24.
  
Bad Frank (2017)
Bad Frank (2017)
2017 |
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
I love it when a movie can come completely out of nowhere and surprise this humble reviewer. Bad Frank is exactly that, A movie that on paper looks and sounds like most other Kidnap Revenge thrillers you may have seen over the years. But let me tell you that Bad Frank is far from some of the copy and paste garbage out there.

I was instantly drawn to this Flick after stumbling upon its Twitter page and hey full disclosure I saw Tom Sizemore and Brian O’Halloran and thought ‘Okay, Im in’. Little did I know that after contacting the movies director I was about to watch a somewhat by the numbers movie that takes all of the numbers and turns them on there head with a great tightly written script and one hell of a powerhouse performance (not by either of the two men I named above by the way).

Bad Frank is about a man named ummmm Frank. Frank (played by Kevin Interdonato) is a seemingly normal guy living a seemingly normal existence. He seems to have it all, but you can tell right from the outset that the man has got some demons. We learn that he is on some serious medication to deal with his head aches from a life of regrets, He is estranged from both his mum and dad and struggling to keep his marriage together. Frank is pulled into an easy money job by his buddy Travis (Brandon Heitkamp) who is in deep to Donny Shakes (O’Halloran). What is promised to be a quick job brings Frank face to face with an old acquaintance he would rather forget. Things really go sideways on the job and in turn his life, when Franks wife Gina (Amanda Clayton) is kidnapped by face from the past Mickey Duro (Sizemore). I am gonna stop plot wise now because anymore and I am giving too much away.

Tony Germinario has pulled an absolute stormer out of the bag for his debut feature length movie, a fact that was completely lost on me upon viewing. For a budget of roughly 80k he has used all tricks at his disposal to make it look like a multi million dollar flick and Bad Frank looks all the more impressive for it. A lot of the time a the script to a movie like this can get lost in its own simplicity but Tony wrote a script that really didnt conform to what I was expecting and gave the lead a chance to deliver. So lets just talk about the lead, Kevin Interdonato brings an absolute realism and intensity to this role that sucks you right in and leaves you kinda second guessing yourself, anything could happen with this guy at any moment and that to me is scary. I went from feeling sorry for this guy to thinking well he deserved everything and ending up thinking ‘SHIT’.

Tom Sizemore is in fine form as Sizemore always is. An actor that I personally love and wish got more of the beefier roles but it was great to see him on screen and like I say, seeing his name splashed on the poster was one of the reasons I sought this one out. Then there is Brian O’Halloran doing his thing as he does (always liked this dude since his Clerks days nice to see him spreading his wings).



It is easy to see how Tony and his crew took Bad Frank to Film Fest International in London last week and was not only nominated for 5 awards but Tony himself won Best Director.

I am gonna recommend the shit out of this Flick, Bad Frank is not what you expect going in, there are some pretty cool curve-balls, it moves along at a quick enough pace and no spoilers but the final 10 minutes are a Tour-De-Force. Performances wise you are getting more bang for you buck in what the Director himself considers to be an “as Indie as it gets” movie (not that you can tell mind you).
  
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
2021 | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Could have used more Kong versus Godzilla
If you are going to sit down and watch a movie that is entitled GODZILLA vs. KONG, you pretty much know what you are going to get, the highest your expectation should be is a “pretty fun B picture” with a giant Gorilla and a giant Lizard punching it out.

And…that is pretty much what you get…though the “laws of diminishing returns” is catching up to this franchise.

It all started with the reboot of GODZILLA in 2014 - a better than B “B Movie” that introduced audiences to Monarch and the Monsters they were following. This was followed up by the “very much a B Movie” KONG: SKULL ISLAND where Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman and a host of others run around, getting picked off one-by-one in an enjoyable romp and hopes remained high for the ongoing Kong/Godzilla “Universe”.

Unfortunately, 2019’s GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS was a step down and the franchise showed signs of weakness with weaker plot lines…even weaker human characters…and overblown special effects.

Next came this film, GODZILLA vs. KONG - it was supposed to be released in theaters last summer, but because of the pandemic made it’s theatrical release at the same time it was shown on HBO Max (where I viewed it) - and I’m glad they did that, for if I would have shelled out money in a movie theater to check out this mess, I would have been angry, indeed.

GODZILLA vs. KONG follows, unfortunately, the trend started by GODZILLA: KING OF THE THE MONSTERS in that it has overblown CGI action with very little in the way of coherent plot and characters that you couldn’t care less about. It’s a mess of a movie that strings together a slim plot to get from one CGI battle to another.

But…if it has CGI Giant Gorilla on CGI Radioactive Lizard fighting in it…it should be fine, right? Well…that’s where Director Adam Wingard (YOU’RE NEXT) really fails, for a movie called GODZILLA vs. KONG has very little Kong fighting Godzilla in it…so one cannot even get too excited by that.

To be fair to this film, it doesn’t try to be anything more than it is intended to be - a “B” flick with giant monsters fighting each other, but…it only manages to be a B- flick at best. So, feel free to kick back and watch the CGI action, you’ll enjoy most of it - just don’t spend too much time looking for plot or characters that you care about.

And…unfortunately…it’s making me care less and less about future sequels - or the future of the Kong/Godzilla Universe.

Letter Grade: B-

6 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank (ofMarquis)
  
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Rodney Barnes (472 KP) Apr 5, 2021 (Updated Apr 5, 2021)

Take your review to the bank?..Wow...a lot of word vomit there...Watch all of the Japanese Godzilla movies and get back to me.

Sisu (2023)
Sisu (2023)
2023 | Action, War
8
7.5 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Pretty Darned Entertaining
The BankofMarquis stumbled across a Finnish action flick that makes Quentin Tarantino Movies - and the John Wick films - look like Disney movies.

SISU tells the story of the waning days of WWII in Finland where a lone man has left the death and destruction of war behind to live a life of solitude. Into his world come some retreating NAZI’s who (to their detriment, they will soon find out) decide to NOT leave this lone man alone.

Chaos (and violence) ensues.

A variation of the “Man with No Name” type of action film that pits this lone person who just wants to be left alone against a group of thugs, SISU (a Finnish word that has no direct translation but roughly translates to “persevering against tremendous odds”) generates a fun action/revenge flick that is extremely violent…and extremely implausible (but that’s part of the fun).

While this is a Finnish film, all of the actors/characters speak English (except when the Nazi’s speak German), so there is no translating needed.

Jorma Tommila (a veteran Finnish actor that has no U.S. credits that I could find) is stoic, rugged and damned determined as the nameless loner (he gets named about half-way through the film) that perseveres and this is the best part of his performance. His sparkling blue eyes constantly seem active and alive even though the rest of his face is stoic and his body is bruised, bloodied, beaten and mud-covered. His internal resolve shines through in his eyes and really holds the film together well.

Aksel Hennie (who you might know as Alex Vogel one of the Astronauts that is in the ship that turns back to get Matt Damon aka THE MARTIAN) as the Head Nazi is quite good and just as determined to use his men as fodder in his vendetta against the nameless man while Jack Doolan (Horse Tommy in THE BOYS) is ruthless as his main henchman and Mimosa Willamo (the Finnish TV series DEADWIND) is strong and determined as a prisoner held by the Nazis.

Director Jalmari Helander (again, no U.S. credits that I can find) does a wonderful job of keeping the action moving and the choreography of the piece simple (you know where everyone is at all times, so when something comes out of nowhere, you have a pretty good idea as to who/what it is). He does ratchet the violence up to a Tarantino-John Wick- The Equalizer level, so if you are squeamish, this film is not for you.

But, if you are into action films, then…hoo-boy….is SISU a film for you!

Letter Grade: A-

8 stars (out of 10) and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
  
Arrival (2016)
Arrival (2016)
2016 | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Great Direction (1 more)
Brilliant cast
Lack of Deakins' cinematography (0 more)
Not your typical alien invasion flick.
Arrival is the most recent movie from one of my favourite directors working today, Denis Villeneuve. This guy’s track record has been incredible so far, with my personal favourite of his being 2013’s Prisoners. Since then I have been following this guy’s career and although in my opinion he hasn’t since replicated the masterpiece that was Prisoners, he has came very close several times with Enemy, with Sicario and now with Arrival as well. The cast are also solid here; Jeremy Renner does what he does best, plays a supporting role and shines in a backseat position. Whittaker is, as always great in the film and is engaging throughout the runtime. This is also probably Amy Adams best role, I don’t hate Adams as an actress, but I do feel that she is extremely overrated and is never anything more than functional in a role. Here though, she actually has a character arc and gives a decent performance. Rodger Deakins’ cinematography is missed though, Bradford Young does sell the tone of the movie consistently through his shots, but for me no one comes close to Deakins behing the camera. Overall my hype for this movie was met and it is a solid addition to Villeneuve’s filmography and doesn’t let down his consistently great track record.
  
Yoga Hosers (2016)
Yoga Hosers (2016)
2016 | Action, Comedy
Not too much to laugh aboot
When I sit down to watch a comedy/horror film, i usually laugh a little at some of the jokes. But being Canadian... I found this movie offensive as hell......
Not really. I found it subpar and slightly stupid.
Kevin Smith is and always will be one of my favorite writer/directors. His earlier films, Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy are right up there with some of my favorite flicks. Amd his attempt at horror, Red State, was a really good try at entering a genre that he doesn't have much business being in.
Don't even get me started on Tusk... What the fuck?!?!
This is kind of a sequel to the aforementioned walrus horror flick. A few characters from Tusk are in it. Including the Colleens, the pair of Zed Convenience store employees, who are now thrust into the main character roles.
The only light in this dark tunnel is Justin Long who plays Yoga Guru, Yogi Bayer... His portrayalof him is pretty awesome... right down to arguing on the phone with a lawyer from Warner Brothers about violating copyright infringement for his name... it's pretty sweet.
Johnny Depp returns to the sequel as Guy Lapointe French Canadian manhunter... and he is horrid...
Didn't think it was possible for that to happen.
So watch at your own risk.
  
Like many others, I'm sure, I first only heard of Valerian as a result of the absolutely-bonkers 2017 movie 'Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets'.

Reading the interviews with the stars that came out at around about that time, I learnt that Valerian was actually a French comic, and that it had influenced elements of the really-rather-fun Bruce Willis flick 'The Fifth Element'. I caught Valerian when it showed up on Netflix and, while it was OK, it wasn't really anything special.

When I saw this comic given away as a freebie on Comixology, I thought I would give it a try: I don't know what I was expecting (something closer to the movie?), but this most definitely wasn't it!

This is set largely in the (then) future of the mid-80s, where the world is in ruins and New York is about to be swallowed by the ocean. Valerian and Laureline are both time-travelers, who must travel back to this period of their history: a period in which little is known about, a sort-of second Dark Ages.

This comic does show it's age, particularly in it's treatment of Laureline (who doesn't seem to really do all that much) and in Sun Rae: truth be told, it just never really gripped me at all.
  
The Gentlemen (2020)
The Gentlemen (2020)
2020 | Action, Crime
Loved It!!
395. The Gentlemen. Well alright, alright!! The first 5 or so minutes were kind of jumbled, my universal translator wasn't recognizing the cockney language right away. The McConaissance continues, he's usually the stoner but now, he's the big guy in charge of "Bush" game over in the UK. And now he's getting ready to retire and sell his herb empire, and he seems to be good to go, until some other interested buyers, or takers come into play, but when the cool calm and collected Mickey Pearson is pushed into a corner, well, first of all, you only think you pushed him into a corner and two he's gonna push back! Great movie from Guy Ritchie, more along the lines of Snatch than his recent gems like the Aladdin, King Arthur, Man from Uncle, or remember that time Madonna and him were together so he was forced by God to put her in a movie called Swept Away? Ugh... This is the kind of movie he shines, each character explodes on the screen. My favorite had to be Colin Farrell as Coach, and yes he is a basketball coach, and he does jobs for the organization and for fun beats up unruly teens. Hugh Grant was also great as a sleazeball, bribing journalist/wanna be screen writer.. Great flick, go check it out! Filmbufftim on FB