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The Howling: The Wolves Grow Hungrier

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 Recently, I decided to watch the first seven Howling movies. And the only reason I didn't watch the eighth was due to convenience. I didn't think it was very necessary when I started the series, and after going through seven of them. I was right. The Howling movies peak at the first film, and nosedive into a stream of bad or mediocre films. This surprised me because most film franchises don't even make it past two or three. So, to constantly ride on the coattails of the success of a single hit feels a bit odd. Until you realize that the series had a handful of people who still wanted to make Howling films. And that's how you get so many low budget sequels. Because someone with money wanted to make it happen.  But this isn't some grandiose takedown of a dormant franchise. This is about the positives and negatives that came out of the the Howlings. A series about Werewolves, sometimes. And that's the biggest issue that I have with the sequels. They mostly try to ...
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Watching Movies: Spin That Wheel

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 For this post, I was bouncing a few ideas around before I decided on watching movies. This isn't some comprehensive guide on the proper decorum or whatever. This is just about watching movies and how that act has broadened my palette. And it doesn't matter whether the film is "good" or "bad". It's about trying something different or unknown and seeing what happens, because sometimes your favorite movie happens to be a French Film about cannibalism, and the pressures to conform to society or whatever. Like, you just never know sometimes, and that's the fun of it. I love flipping through the catalogues, making lists, and just seeing what happens. So, I'm going to go through that process and give some anecdotes. Without further ado, let's begin. Before talking about the movie gambling, I want to explain the reasoning behind wanting to write this piece. And that mostly lies with Tatsuki Fujimoto's work, Chainsaw Man. Specifically Chapter 39:...
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One Piece: The End of An Era and A New Beginning

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 The year of 2025 is coming to a close, and typically I write about my Game of the Year. But this time around, I did not finish my favorite game to its fullest. So, the next one may be about that, who knows. In favor of scrapping that idea, I have decided to write about the end of One Piece's original TV Adaptation. Something that I never really thought could happen, especially after 25 years of it. While I welcome the change for the series, I'm really gonna miss the behemoth. Now, One Piece may actually last forever. Regardless, I am going to talk about my history with the anime and go over some of my favorite parts.  My first experience with the One Piece Anime was through the 4Kids Rap. I remember seeing it on Saturday mornings and immediately peacing out. I had no tolerance for the goofy pirate rap when I could be watching Sonic X, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or TMNT. So, for years that was my impression of One Piece. A TV show with a really bad rap song for an intro. This impression would...
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Mortal Kombat (1995): My Soul Is Theirs

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 Recently, I rewatched the Mortal Kombat Live-Action Movies from the 1990s. While Mortal Kombat: Annihilation has a few bright spots, it never escaped the failures and missteps that I remember. But to no surprise, Mortal Kombat (1995) was still just as fun. This film marked an interesting time in Mortal Kombat's history as a series. The games had some snippets of lore and some comics floating around, yet there wasn't that much to work with for a whole movie's worth. Not like with the recent games from NetherRealm Studios, or even the 3D Era of the series. So, to come away with a movie that worked and felt true to the source material seemed impossible. But against all odds, Paul W.S. Anderson and his team managed to pull it off.  The big reason for this piece was because I wanted to write about Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa's role as Shang Tsung, but also because I wanted to talk about the missteps of the other Live-Action MKs and the new Street Fighter Live-Action. These things ...
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Conker's Bad Fur Day: It Was Also Live & Reloaded

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 This time around I had a couple of ideas floating in my head. And what I landed on was a journey. A journey to finally hunker down and complete not just one game, but two. Those games are Conker's Bad Fur Day, and its remake, Conker: Live & Reloaded. Two titles where I never made it past the first couple of hours in my previous attempts. Yet now I am stronger. A human with a better tolerance for general gaming bullshit. Because that's what Conker was for me. Games in the Rare catalogue that weren't necessarily bad, but they also weren't good.  This may sound harsh at the outset because, what's wrong with Conker? Each one functions as they should right? For the most part, yes. There wasn't really anything egregious that breaks the Conkers. BFD has some friction due to some old school jank, and Live & Reloaded fixes much of that. But that's just it. The games just do their jobs. Conker, and his world may be colorful, but playing the game was just too ...
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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: A Family Film

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 Recently, I got the itch to rewatch The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). It had been a while and I was hankering for something a bit older. But, what I really wanted to do was reevaluate the film. I watched it when I really didn't understand what the movie was saying, and I felt like I hadn't given it a fair shake. So, to correct the course, I popped it on. And what I came away with was mostly the same, yet I noticed some details stood out more. And it made me appreciate Sally (Played by Marilyn Burns) more as a character. With this appreciation, I was also reminded of how bad the character had been utilized in Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022). A movie that I had watched on release at like 2 in the morning. Like, I wasn't a fan of the character then, yet even I could tell that something was wrong. Sally was this mix of Jamie Lee Curtis's Laurie Strode from Halloween (2018) and Dennis Hopper's Lieutenant Lefty from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2. Two characters th...
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