(I can’t be bothered with a banner, so here’s a Lord Zedd facepalm that sums up my feelings more than adequately.)
In 2017, someone gathered a bunch of his closest buddies and did a Power Rangers fanfilm called MMPR: The Last Ranger Parody VII… I would have to ask where I can watch Parodies I through VI, but I don’t think they exist.
Continue reading “MMPR TLR Parody VII Point 1 Alpha Dex Mega… Eh.”
Right, so here’s the deal. Today, we do the Green review while Thursday sees follow-ups on the Unlimited and MMPR comic runs. With that in mind, we now have the first issue of Boom’s third ongoing Power Rangers comic, which is the closest thing to an Old Man Logan scenario for Tommy Oliver as you could possibly get. And for what it’s worth, nothing about this issue explains whether this is its own thing or related to the other books… but honestly, for whatever it’s worth… it’s alright.
I’m going to keep my thoughts fairly brief here and will not bother with a break because there isn’t much to spoil. Besides our hero in green, there are a couple other familiar faces that we’ve seen perhaps one time too many permeate these Boom! comic efforts. The initial plot is also familiar fare to anyone who has read these sort of tales; the remaining hero in seclusion, dragged out by an old foe for one final mission to save what’s left of the world, hoisted back into action despite his better judgment and conscience. As before, the details of how we got here and what our heroes will be dealing with are kept vague, adding to the mystery. Is the mystery compelling enough? I don’t know… depends on the individual reader. I will admit that I am somewhat curious as to the questions that still need answer… which is more than what I can say for the other two series.
Of the three series to come out of Boom’s output right now, the one that I had the least interest in from the getgo turns out to be the more interesting of the bunch. Whether that holds for the next couple issues (I figure three is enough) is another story.
In 1997, WWF released a compilation VHS tape focused on their fastest rising star at the time, Stone Cold Steve Austin. And the first thing you notice about the thing is the cover.
Now granted, there’s the re-release that came out in a white cover and had the Stone Cold skull graphic that you’d see on the back of those Austin 3:16 shirts. And there was a European release that had a stock photo of Austin that’s like… eh, whatever.
But no, I’m talking about the original VHS cover from which the banner above is constructed from. Slick black case with nothing but that iconic shot of Stone Cold from Wrestlemania 13 in grayscale and only the crimson mask shown in color. It was a stark contrast to the usually loud and colorful WWF home video releases that looked absolutely dreadful. And then you had this come along and it looked totally different… and that also translated into the main program itself.
Hosted by Stone Cold Steve Austin himself and done completely in character, ‘Cause Stone Cold Says So covers everything from Austin’s run at the 1996 King Of The Ring tournament that he would win and give birth to Austin 3:16, include a variety of humorous clips – including some rare footage from his ECW days during a time when WWF rarely (if ever) acknowledged the existence of other wrestling promotions, much less show footage from said foreign bodies – covering his two matches with Bret Hart at Survivor Series 96 and the aforementioned Wrestlemania, showing his performance at the 1997 Royal Rumble, covering Austin’s first challenge for the WWF title against Undertaker at the Cold Day In Hell In Your House PPV event, and wrapping things up with his match against Shawn Michaels at the 97 King Of The Ring. And there’s bits of narration from Austin himself that show off that wit. His commentary over his Royal Rumble clip show is a particular highlight of the tape.
People tend to remember the beer-swiggin’, ass-kicking, What?-spewing Texas Rattlesnake that he is today, but Stone Cold circa late-96 to early-1997 is probably my favorite version of the character. Not yet the crowd pleaser that he’d evolve into, this Austin was much colder and more stinging in his promos, showing off an edge to the character that was eventually softened once he fully embraced his more fan favorite alignment. Honestly, some of my favorite Stone Cold bits are featured in this era and thankfully featured on this tape, such as Stone Cold bickering with two cops – going so far as to direct them to the nearest Dunkin Donuts, his Livewire appearance, his beating of Brian Pillman that coined the phrase “Pillmanizing,” and yes, we even got Stone Cold killing the clown at the Slammy Awards.
When this saw a re-release in 1998 (presumably for those who missed out on the original tape, which was a limited time mail order deal), they changed the cover to the white Stone Cold skull thing, but apparently, the content remained the same… though not having seen that version myself, I can’t really comment. They did release a couple other VHS tapes over the years, but those were just clips with some narration from Michael Cole or Jim Ross… and maybe a couple talking heads here and there. Nothing you can’t find on a DVD release down the road.
This tape is hard to come across these days and although it has seen a number of re-releases on DVD over the years, that version is heavily censored compared to the original release, which scored a rare TV-M rating. You could probably find an upload of this on the Internet Archives if you look hard enough and I would suggest for anyone who is a fan of Stone Cold to give this tape a watch. Sure, a lot of this footage can be found elsewhere and in higher quality, but you will never find a more perfect representation of early Stone Cold than this tape. The whole production comes across as top notch and is one of the rare wins for the WWF during a time when they really needed it.
Oh, and stay for the end credits, which are all wonderful. I particularly like the credit for Hair Stylist. If you know, you know. And if not, go watch this tape.
And that’s the bottom line.
Last week, I discussed the abnormality that is Supergirl’s latest cinematic escapade and decided that I would rather watch the old Supergirl movie over this one. I say that as kind of a fib, but at the same time, this was one of those movies that did nothing for me. Of course, I’ve shared such thoughts here for those who want it.
True to my word, I popped in my DVD copy of Supergirl… the one from 1984 starring Helen Slater, who would eventually play other parts in other Super-related material in recent years. It goes without saying that she is probably the only real redeemable part of this entire endeavor and for all the faults this movie possesses, she is not one of them.
With that out of the way… Supergirl is awful.
Suicide Squad is a strange film to pin down. You look at all the advertising for this thing – the tagline of “Worst Heroes Ever” chief among them – and some of the choice clips that they used to sell people on the movie.
It’s no secret that Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was rather… divisive in its reception. I made no bones about my disdain at the time for the film… mostly because I didn’t think it was a good movie. Because of that divisive reception, DC shifted gears for its upcoming line up. One of the films affected would be Suicide Squad, a film that had gone through a few phases before eventually coming out in August 2016.
I shared some thoughts on the film, which you can check out here. In short, I thought the film was fine, largely enjoyable, and probably the best DC movie up to that point because of it. I haven’t seen that movie since then and things have obviously changed quite a bit. We had another Suicide Squad film a few years ago from James Gunn, which spun off the John Cena starring vehicle Peacemaker… and of course, James Gunn is currently overseeing the entire slate of DC film and television production. Clearly, he must have done something right in making something involving John Cena that didn’t suck.
And then I come back to this Suicide Squad film, which had an extended cut released some time after the theatrical run. It largely retained some of the issues I had with the movie the first time. That is to say, I could have done without the wacky editing and musical inserts, which felt deliberately tacked on and not at all a natural part of the film. The attempts at adding a more lighthearted tone to a film that was clearly intended to be much grimmer in tone… doesn’t quite sit well with me. Levity is something that should be natural in regards to certain characters – Superman, for example.
But with Suicide Squad, you kind of want that darker tone. These reprehensible people who are on a leash and under threat of literal termination via remote bomb… yeah, you want the audience to feel for these characters and their plights. They almost managed that to a point with little character moments and motivations here and there. But then we break in a music video montage that just feels out of place. People had accused DC of giving this a vibe similar to Guardians Of The Galaxy – oh, look. Another James Gunn project namedropped here… but it fits because that film was a giant success for Marvel. DC, naturally, wanted their own and shoehorned this movie to be that… which they failed because Suicide Squad isn’t designed to be that. So those attempts at lighthearted rapport and quippiness (is that a word? Who cares?) sort of stick out.
In a sense, this sort of mentality was what plagued Justice League once Zack Snyder dropped out after the death of his daughter. And full disclosure; I actually liked that movie when it came out and appreciated it for giving Henry Cavill the opportunity to actually play Superman as opposed to whatever the fuck Snyder wanted him to be. That said, I’m not sure I want to watch it nowadays given my current malaise with that style of storytelling permeating all the Disney properties.
Once again, the action scenes were on point. Yeah, a lot of it is shrouded in perpetual darkness – another complaint I have with this film, but to be fair, the movie needed that – but at the very least, they looked well choreographed and executed. The writing and the acting is pretty solid; obviously, the standout being Margot Robbie’s take on Harley Quinn, which some folks at Mattel watched and went “She’s our Barbie.” Will Smith’s Deadshot is also quite good and further testament to Smith’s acting chops – in terms of on-screen performances, not in terms of clocking Chris Rock. Hell, even some of the minor players get some moment to shine.
Again, my misgivings towards not enough being done with Katana since that was one of my favorite Outsiders… but I guess that small nugget was enough for Karen Fukuhara to get a gig with the boys. Never a bad thing in my book.
So, yeah, ten years later, Suicide Squad still holds up as a fairly entertaining movie… though its crown as the best DC movie of the bunch would eventually be claimed by the likes of Wonder Woman and Aquaman, but that was going to happen regardless. With that in mind, I do hope that David Ayer gets the chance to do the cut of the film that he always intended, much like Zack Snyder got with Justice League. If anything, I’d be more inclined to support any movement involving the realization of the Ayer cut.
But more than likely, the only Ayer cut I’ll be seeing is anything involving the similarly-named David Ayers… that zamboni driver who served as an emergency goalie in that one game in Toronto and gave that Dangle person a conniption fit.
Oh well… maybe some day…
Yes, it took me over a month to gather some thoughts on James Gunn’s latest contribution to the DC Universe in the form of the Craig Gillespie-helmed Supergirl. And the reason for that was because it took me a while to get around to seeing this thing in theaters.
What happened was that a friend had some tickets that they got on special and invited me along with a couple others in exchange for food and drink (elsewhere; movie goods are too bloody expensive for what little you get these days.) I figured why not and then we went and saw the film… and then we promptly forgot about it.
And that is not a good sign when this is supposed to be one of your tentpole features in your whole Gods And Monsters story arc that may or may not get a Chapter Two.
When last we saw our heroes, they were being overwhelmed by a new villain that’s a rehash of an old villain in Rita Rabiosa and one of their own has seemingly decided to set their communicator on Do Not Disturb, hence why they’re not answering the call. Also, I had a lot more questions than I had answers and was hoping that this issue would at least fill in some holes that desperately needed filling.
Well, about that…
Continue reading “COMIC REVIEW – Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (2026) #2”
Came across this Check Point film a couple weeks ago and figured I’d give it a shot. Released nine years ago and starring Kenny Johnson and someone named *checks notes* Bill Goldberg, Check Point is your low-budget direct-to-video action schlock where a drifter who happens to be a former marine discovers a terrorist plot to overthrow a quaint American town and must convince some buddies to help him win back their country or something. Well, I know at least one group of people that might be interested in a film like this.
I am speaking of very patriotic Americans, of course.
I don’t know what you were thinking.
Check Point is one of those movies that would merit a short, quick review posting on IMDB and you’d move on to something else. To its credit, you’ve got some notable names on here including Kane Hodder (Jason in multiple movies), Tyler Mane (Sabretooth in X-Men), and William Forsythe (lots of bad guy roles). There’s also quite the playlist of licensed music from bands that I may or may not be familiar with that plays every so often because the filmmakers couldn’t be bothered to make their own.
The issue isn’t that Check Point isn’t a bad movie, but rather it’s a bad movie that’s also boring. The plot is non-existent, the acting is rather atrocious, the special effects and action bits are so bad that even Asylum films would come across as Marvel spectacles in comparison, and by the end of the movie, you wonder why anyone even wasted their time with this film. There is a nice tribute to the Marine Corps, but given the movie around it, you may as well as pop in a copy of The Marine starring John Cena if you wanted a good marine tribute.
All in all… not a good movie. Why did I even watch this?
The story goes that when Roger Moore decided to step down from the role of famed British agent James Bond, the search was on for the next 007. Most people presumed the role would go to Remington Steel star Pierce Brosnan, who seemed like the surefire choice. Instead, the role would go to Timothy Dalton, whose tenure as Bond would last two films until he dropped out… at which point, Brosnan would get the gig.
In the meantime, however, Brosnan would do other films in the interim. One of these films is Taffin, an action-thriller based in Ireland, where Brosnan plays the eponymous debt collector Mark Taffin, who finds himself at odds with not only ruthless business people who want to develop a new plant at a small Irish town, but also the very citizens that once stood by his side. In fairness, the story isn’t all straightforward and could have been cleared up in a couple places. Perhaps ending the movie on a better note – not necessarily happy, but a more satisfying end that feels earned and not just thrown out there.
Taffin is largely low-budget fare; it’s not shot in the most sophisticated manner with a slow start that takes a while to get going. Once things start to pick up, there’s some decent action bits being played out. The cast put on decent showings; Brosnan has a couple moments of cheese with a couple line readings, but that trademark charm shines through Taffin’s rough shell.
It is not what I would call a “lost gem” or anything like that. Taffin will not be to everyone’s liking, but I found it entertaining enough for a slow afternoon. Perfectly acceptable low-budget fare.
Lo and behold, another Power Rangers comic review and so soon after the last one since this is the most recent release. Some mild spoilers on this one, kids, but much of my criticisms of the previous comic can also apply to this one. Too much of a tease and leaving me with more questions than I would care for.
Continue reading “COMIC REVIEW – Power Rangers Unlimited (2026) #1”
