My Sonic the Hedgehog Review Will Be Delayed

Hey guys. So I just wanted to give I quick update on what's going on around like I usually do. Yes, my review for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog movie will have a slight delay to it. The reason being my buddy Brian wants to see it with me but because of his job he won't be able to see it with me on Friday, February 14th. So we both decided to see on Saturday, February 15th, in doing so that means my review for the movie will be released on Sunday.

So that's all I wanted to tell you guys. I know I didn't NEED to tell you this but like I've said many times before I prefer to keep you updated about what I'm doing around here.

Anyways, that's gonna do it for me. Come back on Saturday, Feb 8th for my review of Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). Until then enjoy the rest of your day.

Cinematic Disasters - Ready to Rumble

Ready to Rumble is 2000 buddy comedy film based on the pro wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling (or simply WCW). The movie was produced by Outlaw Productions, Bel Air Entertainment, and Tollin/Robbins Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Ready to Rumble was written by Steven Brill and directed by Brian Robbins.




The story is friends/pro wrestling fans Gordie and Sean have sadly seen their favorite wrestler Jimmy King be defeated. One day they meet their hero and want to help him get back not only the WCW: World Heavyweight Championship but show that he's still the greatest wrestler that ever lived.

My Thoughts on Pro Wrestling



Now I'm going to come right out and say it, I'm not a fan of pro wrestling. In matter of fact before I even watched the movie I did weeks of research just so I can fully understand what this movie is based on. Now does that mean I hate pro wrestling...no. While doing research for this movie I came to the conclusion that pro wrestling is no different from say a staged play. The only true differences being one is more action oriented than the other.







My Thoughts



Our movie starts off horrifying by showing us pictures of bloody wrestlers while classical music plays. Now I know in pro wrestling there is a usage of blood but that's still a scary image. I mean imagine it your movie starts and this is the first thing you see.

Also let me remind you that classical music is playing over pictures like these.

Then Sean gives us a list of name of pro wrestlers which is hilarious because apparently the editor of the movie couldn't be bother to look up what the guys actually look. I mean Sean is listing these guys but as that's going on none of the pictures they show match what Sean is saying.

So after Sean is done with rambling....this happens

Yeah...Gordie (the guy who wants the slushy) just imagines being in a tag team match with his wrestling idol....for no good reason. It just happens. Then after....THAT, Gordie goes to get his friend a refill...by sticking his finger up his butt to trick the clerk into getting a free slushy. These are the types of jokes were gonna get folks.

We later see both Gordie & Sean go to a Monday Nitro event (Nitro being WCW's flagship show) and they see their hero Jimmy King played by Oliver Platt. And I'm not buying Platt as a wrestler for one moment throughout this movie, I mean nothing says if you were to look at this guy you would go "Yup, that's a professional wrestler". Although knowing this movie maybe that was the "joke." Also Platt's character's gimmick is that he is a king. He is absolute royalty and he's also a rapper....yeah during the time he's talking to the crowd he starts rapping. Makes no sense for his gimmick but okay.

We're also introduced to Titus Sinclair. I swear the writers have no idea what they wanted, when we first see him he comes off as Diamond Dallas Page's manager which makes sense but out of nowhere he's calling the shots backstage as if he runs the company. Soooo.... which is he? The movie certainly doesn't know.

So since Sinclair is tired of Jimmy's crap he orders Diamond to actually assault Jimmy thus making the match a real fight. Or at least that's what it's supposed to be but some of the moves Diamond is doing on Jimmy King would require him to also help Diamond make the moves come off as real. This is one of the movie's biggest problems one I'll come back to later so for now let's move on.

Now Gordie and Sean are saddened that their favorite wrestler is gone, however they both decided they to find him and help him get back the world heavyweight title. So they later hitch a ride with some Nuns. During their time together with the Nuns they all start signing "Running with the Devil" by Van Halen. And I'm not gonna lie this actually got a laugh out of me, it might be the one and only funny joke in the entire movie.

After that moment our heroes find Jimmy King, and during their time with him the two of them only NOW discover that pro wrestling isn't real. Note these two are avid wrestling fans! You mean to tell me that during their time as fans they didn't know it wasn't real! This film came out in 2000, the internet was a thing back then so it's not like they couldn't find that information.

Which actually brings me to yet another huge problem with Ready to Rumble, it makes wrestling fans seem like complete morons. Now yes we could make the argument that are idiots in that fanbase but that's for every fandom not just wrestling. Hell I follow a guy on Twitter who's a wrestling fan (I'm not going to give his name incase he wants to be anonymous) and he's not stupid. One of my favorite internet film critcs Cinematic Excrement while I don't agree with everything he says, he's a wrestling fan and he's not an idiot. So way to insult your fans there WCW.

After the guys finally convince Jimmy to return they later sneak into a Monday Nitro show where we see the current world champion DDP trash talk Jimmy King. This would later result in Jimmy attacking Diamond Dallas Page. Because of this attack this would result in Sean, Gordie, and Jimmy challenging Diamond for the heavyweight championship at the next pay-per-view to which Diamond and Sinclair accept. And there is so much wrong with this scene.

1) Why isn't security stopping this? Jimmy was ACTUALLY fired from the company this isn't part of the show.

2) Why would Sinclair accept this challenge? Again Jimmy was legitimately fired, and since Sinclair has some sort of power in WCW he should be telling them to piss off and have security do their job and have them thrown out of the building.

3) This scene showcases the film's biggest flaw, it can't decide if pro wrestling is real or fake. One scene will tell us it's real but the very next scene will tell us it's fake. The writers really should have decided either to keep it grounded in reality or set it in the fantasy world of pro wrestling, cause doing this both at the same time isn't working.

Then we see romance between Gordie and a Nitro girl named Sasha. Which is by far the most unrealistic part of the movie because no hot babe like Sasha would ever fall for someone completely and utterly stupid like Gordie (seriously within the first ten minutes of the movie the character of Gordie gets on your nerves really quick).

Later on we see the guys find a trainer named Sal. Somehow. I say that because these guys have grown up in small town Wyoming, they don't know the New York area and we didn't see them look him up. So how did they find this guy?

Then afterwards it's revealed that Sasha was working with Sinclair the whole time. I bring this up because according to him Sasha "did great". When she really didn't. Other than tricking Gordie and revealing it's Sal who's training them she really didn't get any more information out of him. They whole got Sal's name not where he's locations at. She no Sasha didn't do great she did the bear minimum.

So it's the big night of the pay-per-view and Jimmy and Sean go to Gordie (who's currently studying to be a sheriff because that's what he's father wants him to be), they tell him how "they need him." And when that line was said it left me stretching my head because from the moment they convince Jimmy to return, Gordie hasn't done anything it's been Sean who's been doing all of the work. So yeah they kinda don't need him.

Then we have our big cage match and it's pretty bad finale for a movie. Because first the bad guys break the lock but when team good guys come in to help the lock is now magically back together, when Sean and Gordie are talking Sasha just materializes into the cage. I mean it she comes right out of nowhere and proof she's also in the cage, and of course the movie can't decide if wrestling is real or scripted. So we have not one but two huge movie mistakes and a fight that doesn't know if it's an actual real-life fight or if it's just part of the show.

So that was Ready to Rumble and wow, whether you're a wrestling fan or not this movie is horrible. It's story doesn't know if it wants to tell a fictional wrestling story or a real one, characters are either stupid, bland, or both, the jokes really don't work, and the film just insults your intelligence. Hell like I said prior to the review I'm not a pro wrestling fan and yet I still felt like the movie was insulting me, I don't know if that takes talent or not either but it was pulled off and doesn't make Ready to Rumble look good.

My final rating is Destroy It!

So that's all for me. Come back on Thursday, Jan 30th for a special update regarding my upcoming review for Sonic the Hedgehog. Until then enjoy the rest of your day and please don't watch Ready to Rumble.

Dolittle Review

Dolittle is a fantasy adventure film based on the Hugh Lofting's 1922 book The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle as well as a reboot to the Dr. Dolittle films. The movie is produced by Media Rights Capital, Team Downey, and Roth Films and distributed by Universal Pictures. Dolittle is written by Stephen Gaghan, Dan Gregor, and Doug Mand and directed by Stephen Gaghan.

The story is it's been seven years after the death of his wife and the famous Doctor Dolittle has become a hermit and hides himself within the walls of Dolittle manor with only his animals to keep him company. Everything changes when Queen Victoria becomes gravely ill and now Dolittle must go an adventure to a mythical island to find the cure.

Initial Reaction

Now at first I had no intention of seeing this movie. Mainly because I'm a fan of the 1998 film starring Eddie Murphy, so I had a mind set of why mess with a good thing (although I guess you can say that film was already messed with after the studios decided to make three direct-to-video spin-offs but that's neither here nor there). But then I saw a commercial for the movie and I was interested. Mostly because yes it's very different from the 98' film but I was also curious to what Robert Downey Jr. would be up to since he's no longer playing Iron Man.

Cons



There are many problems with this movie, one of them unfortunately is Robert Downey Jr's performance. The main problem with his acting being he sounds like he's trying to do a British accent but yet it sounds like when he's doing this accent he also had something stuck in his mouth. I really hate talking about Downey being a bad actor because he has shown to be a great performer and NO, I'm not talking about Iron Man. I'm talking Chaplin, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Good Night, and Good Luck, Zodiac, Tropic Thunder (👍), The Soloist, and Sherlock Holmes. Stuff like that. Now to discuss the other part of Dolittle that people are talking about, and that's the humor. Yeah....it's pretty bad. There were maybe two times that I laughed but a majority of the time I was just shaking my head. Especially that dragon scene....oh my god, that scene really made me think why did Downey sign on for this. So the humor is just a complete failure. Another thing that makes the movie bad is our generic/cartoony villain named Dr. Blair Müdfly. This guy was such a cartoon character from the older Looney Tunes shorts that I was just waiting for the moments when he fiddles with the mustache part of his goatee, cackle evilly, rub his hands together, or shout "CURSES!" whenever he fails. The final thing I'll criticize Dolittle for is the adventure part of the story. Throughout the whole movie I just didn't care, because the writing for the film was so poorly done that it didn't matter what was going to happen next. If anything you're just waiting for the movie to get to the end as fast as possible.








Middle Ground



The only thing that didn't really upset me about Dolittle was the CGI. It's nothing really special but I found serviceable. Sure it could have been polished up a little bit but I didn't mind it most of the time.








Pros



I've got nothing to say. Let's move on.








So yes, sadly Dolittle is not what were hoping for when it comes to Downey's post-MCU career. Downey's acting isn't all that good, it has bad jokes, an even worse villain, and a really boring swashbuckling adventure. The grey area is the CGI.








My final rating is Awful









So that's all for me. Come back on Monday, Jan 27th for my Cinematic Disaster review of 2000's Ready to Rumble. Yes, I'm reviewing another bad comedy flick...because apparently I want to torture myself for the remainder of January. Until then enjoy the rest of your day and stick to the Eddie Murphy Dr. Dolittle movie.

Differences Between Ready Player One (Movie) & Ready Player Player One (Book)

Hey guys. Welcome back and today I have a brand new Differences Between, yes I still do this segment. I know it's been awhile since I did one of these (more specifically I haven't done since the Roger Rabbit post which was a year ago) but none the less let's begin with today's differences between that one being Ready Player One both the movie and the book.








One of the big key differences in the movie is the location. In the movie we spent most of our time in Columbus, Ohio in the book we go outside Oklahoma City where "The Stacks" are located, then we go to Columbus, Ohio.








Another big differences between the two is the future. In the book the future is prime definition of dystopia. There's an ongoing energy crisis, catastrophic climate change, widespread famine, poverty, and of course disease. Oh and major cities have been wiped out by nuclear war. In the movie, Wade only hints that people stopped trying fix things that were happening in the world.









In Ready Player One (movie), The High Five work together pretty early in the movie, this wasn't the case in the book. In the book Ready Player One, after "The Stacks" have been blown up Parzival warns them of what happened and hints that they should work together. This idea was practically shot down the moment it was brought up, which leads to "The Keys" being found in very different ways.









In the Ready Player One movie, Wade pretty much has free reigns in the world of the OASIS. Mainly because the OASIS is indeed a virtual paradise. In the book however he struggles a lot. He's too poor to travel to the other worlds of the OASIS and the only way he can even access the OASIS is by using the school's issued console and visor. Hell he's so poor in the OASIS that he can't even afford upgrades for his avatar.









The brothers (Daito and Sho) are very different from their counterparts. In the movie, their real-life brothers and Sho is only 11 years old. In the book, the never meet in real life and they were bother enrolled in hikikomori. Which is a support group for people who are addicted to the OASIS. Also while Sho is the younger of the two he isn't a kid like he is in the movie.









The quest to get the keys were vastly different from each other so let's break each one down.

The Copper Key

In the movie all you had to do is win a race all while avoiding King Kong and the T-Rex from Jurassic Park. Then Wade uses to unlock the clue for the next key. In the book however it's a lot more challenging. First he has to beat Dungeon & Dragon's Acererak in the Tomb of Horrors in a game of Joust. Then he has to reenact Matthew Broderick's role in WarGames.

The Jade Key

The quest for the Jade key in the book was Art3mis must complete the text-based game Zork to get the Jade key. Then Wade has to pass a Blade Runner replicant test and then complete the arcade game Black Tiger. In the movie the High Five go to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, survive whatever is trying to kill them, and then ask Halliday's crush, Kira to a dance.

The Silver Key

Now for the third and final key things were once again made simple. In the movie all Wade had to do was find the easter egg in Adventure in Halliday's castle. In the book once again things a bit for complicated. Wade still has to find the easter egg in Adventure while in Halliday's castle but before that he needed to return a guitar to its altar by playing the right Rush song. Then the third gate had to be opened by beating Halliday's high score in Tempest, reenact Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and bring along the other two key holders.

Another big difference between the film and the book is Aunt Alice. In the book Alice has a very limited role and she's not given much development. Also her relationship with Wade isn't very loving. The movie however gives them more a familial bond and she's even allowed to talk about her bigger dreams such as getting an actual house.

Our next big difference between the two properties is with Halliday and Morrow. In the movie we shown their years as adults with some backstory. In the book they are way more developed. We're told they were childhood friends since middle school, with that friendship it would soon turn into a professional partnership. In the movie their break up isn't really a big part of the plot, the book however makes it an alluring mystery and pieces of an emotional information.








The final differences I'll tell you about is one part in the final battle. In the movie we only got two giant robots, those being the Iron Giant from the criminally underrated Iron Giant and the the RX-78 Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam. In the book we got a lot of giant robots. Those being Tranzor Z from Mazinger Z, and the Sixers (the main villain's army) would use the five robotic lions from Voltron. The only thing that truly remained the same was Nolan (the main bad guy) using MechaGodzilla.

Now there were a lot of other changes made I thought I would point out the one's I thought were the most interesting. So that's going to do it for me, come back on Saturday, Jan 18th for my review of Dolittle. Until then enjoy the rest of your day.

What You Probably Didn't Know About Spider-Man (2002)

Hey everyone and welcome to a new addition of What You Probably Didn't Know About. And this time I'll be telling you things you might not have known about 2002's Spider-Man. Let's get started.











1. Tobey Maguire has said that he never read a Spider-Man comic prior to the film. He took the role because he liked the script.







2. When Peter is doing sketches for concepts of his Spider-Man costume, one of his designs is based on the Marvel Comics' character Stingray.









3. David Fincher was asked to direct. For his vision of the film, Spider-Man's origin story would have been told during the opening credits and the film's story would have been based on "The Night Gwen Stacy Died."








4. Peter's possible costume designs were all drawn by Phil Jimenez, a comic book artist famous for drawing DC Comics' Wonder Woman.









5. It's the first Marvel movie to have the flipping page logo.








6. The reason why Sam Raimi was the popular choice with Sony is because he is an avid comic book collector when his not making films, his collection is over 25,000.







7. The first scene that was ever filmed for the movie was after the field-trip and Peter is starting to feel sick from his spider bite.








8. Tobey had to have his Spider-Man suit slightly remolded because the original suit wasn't exactly made for bathroom breaks. So the designers added a vent that'll allow him to perform without having to remove the suit completely.








9. By singing on for two more sequels, Tobey got himself a $26 million dollar paycheck.








10. The smoke in the lab during Osborn's transformation was originally white but was later digitally altered to look green. Sam Raimi originally wanted to use green smoke, but he had to go with the CG route because it was hard to create a colored smoke that was non-toxic.








11. Doctor Octopus was in the early drift of the script and was going to appear as the second bad guy. Later on in pre-production it was decided that he'll appear as a villain in Spider-Man 2.








12. During the Thanksgiving dinner scene, we seen that the enemies (Peter Parker/Spider-Man & Norman Osborn/Green Goblin) are wearing each other's colors. Peter is wearing a green shirt & purple tie, Norman a blue shirt & red tie. But did you ever notice that Harry (Norman's son/Peter's best friend) is wearing a mixture of both their colors? What with his blue jacket, green shirt, and red tie.








13. During the final fight between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, at one point during filming Willem Dafoe accidentally clipped Tobey Maguire on the chin.








14. This shot of Spider-Man doing a long back-flip onto a car was only used in the trailer. What I mean is the shot in the trailer was altered to put Peter in his Spider-Man suit as suppose to his wrestling costume.








15. Originally Chris Columbus was offered to direct the movie but he decided to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) instead.








16. Stan Lee's original cameo would have had him ask Peter Parker a question. That question being "Hey kid, would you like a pair of these glasses? They're the kind they wore in X-Men."








17. Speaking of X-Men, Hugh Jackman revealed he was suppose to have a cameo appearance in the movie. Jackman actually showed up in New York to the film the scene, but the entire plan had to be scrapped because the crew couldn't get access to the Wolverine costume from X-Men (2000).








18. The original teaser trailer had Spider-Man stop bank robbers who were making their get away in a helicopter.  The final shot showed the helicopter tangled up in webs all while being suspended by the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, this would later be changed because of the September 11th, 2001 attack (aka 9/11).

So that's going to do it for me. Come back on Thursday, Jan 16th for a brand new Differences Between. This time I'll be telling you the differences between the book Ready Player One and the movie also titled Ready Player One. Until then enjoy the rest of your day.

Classic Film Night - The Goonies

The Goonies is a 1985 adventure comedy film. The movie was produced by Amblin Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros. The Goonies was written by Christ Columbus and directed by Richard Donner.





The story is two brothers named Mikey and Brandon Walsh are preparing to move because the developers want to expand their country club. During their final weekend with their fellow friends they discover an ancient map, with this map they plan to find the hidden treasure and save their house from being foreclosed.

My Thoughts



One thing to love about The Goonies is the humor. I was laughing from beginning to middle to end with this movie. My favorites were obviously the Truffle Shuffle, the Chunk confession scene, and Mouth translating Spanish to the new maid. Those were pretty funny.



Another aspect of the film that makes it such a classic is the sense of adventure. That's what you always get whenever you watch this movie. It doesn't matter how many times you've seen you still get that feeling.



The other detail of The Goonies that makes it great is the likable characters. There was not one character that I hated in this movie, hell even the criminals (the Fratelli family) you'll come to love. You'll even pick out who's your favorite, mine is Mouth.



What also made the film a classic was the soundtrack. It's adventurous, can be a little dark at times, emotional, and overall it's just good. Two thumbs up to Dave Grusin.



Another wonderful thing about the movie is the acting. And I'm not picking a favorite performance likely I usually do because honestly I think everyone did a fantastic job so I think picking which one is best would be pointless.



The final piece of The Goonies I'll give credit to is the special effects, mainly the practical effects. The practical effects are just great there's nothing to complain about. Now there are two moments that aren't very good. The first one was when Mikey held up the doubloon to the landmarks. It's a really off putting shot because the background looks like it was added in later. The other moment was the last shot with One-Eyed Willy's ship (Inferno). It looks like a cartoon was just inserted to an actual shot of the ocean. But other than those two shots the rest of the special effects are great.








The Goonies is definitely one of the many great films that were made during the 80's. It has a great sense of humor, an even greater sense of adventure, wonderful characters, an amazing score, great performances from the cast, and for the most part awesome special effects.








My final rating is A Must Watch








Alright guys that's going to do it for me. Come back on Monday, Jan 13th for a brand new What You Probably Didn't Know About. The movie for that segment will be 2002's Spider-Man. Until then enjoy the rest of your day.