Iron Sky Review

Written by Stuart Cooper

Iron Sky (2012)

Starring Julia Dietze, Peta Sergeant, and Udo Kier

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if the Nazis somehow escaped their destruction in World War II and setup a base on the moon? Well probably not…but “Iron Sky” brings that idea to life in a way I could have never imagined. When I first saw the trailer for this film I was partially shocked, and partially fascinated. I was not prepared for the final product. “Iron Sky” depicts a near future where American astronauts discover a hidden Nazi moon base on the side of the moon. The idea itself sounds absolutely absurd but the film really made it work. The style is similar to “Sky Captain in the World of Tomorrow” with some Dick Tracy mixed in. The style is really unlike anything I’ve seen before, especially in a film involving The Nazis. The film even has an underlying sense of humor that is constant throughout the movie and really makes the idea easier to swallow because you find yourself laughing along with the absurdity of what is going on. The only thing this film was missing was a cameo by Indiana Jones.

The story really begins when two American astronauts venture to the moon as part of a re-election campaign by a Sarah Palin-esque president and discover the Nazis. From there one of the astronauts is kidnapped and given a crash course in the world of Moon Nazis. The Nazi base is incredibly elaborate and features a school, a military training facility, roads that actual German cars can be driven on, and a facility that houses saucers and space zeppelins! One of the main characters is a sexy Nazi school teacher named Renate Richter and she teaches revisionist history to a new breed of German children. The history lessons she teaches pretty much retell history as if The Nazis were heroes, driven away from earth because of its problems. This brings a rather creepy element to the film. To think about these ideas taking place is partially disturbing, but also humorous because it is so outlandish. The citizens of the moon base believe whole heartedly that the Nazis are good people and never did anything wrong. The teacher actually looks at her Nazi cohorts as saviors who will one day return to earth and actually help people. The other main Nazi characters are played by horror star Udo Kier, who plays a moon version of Hitler, and Gotz Otto as Klaus Adler, a power hungry soldier who wants to lead the campaign to take back Earth. These characters are quite intense but also have humorous sides to them and often make fun of Nazi culture without realizing it. The American astronaut is played by Christopher Kirby and his character is definitely comic relief. The character is African American and when he encounters the Nazis it makes for a perplexing situation since some of these soldiers and people have not seen a black man before. Upon realizing he is black, a mad scientist employed by the Nazis actually turns the black man’s skin white, and attempts to assimilate him into Nazi culture. This opens a huge can of politically incorrect worms, and makes for a very awkward yet funny character. As the film progresses you see the conflict between the moon Nazis and the earth move forward, and you are even treated to some pretty cool space battle scenes. The Nazis attempt to infiltrate earth culture and eat away at the Americans from the inside, so there is certainly an element of seriousness mixed in with the odd humor.

I was pleasantly surprised with the film’s soundtrack and visual effects. When you think of a Nazi moon movie you think of a Syfy channel original with a very limited budget and cheesy effects, but this film was the total opposite. Some of the effects rival stuff you see in Zack Snyder films. The space scenes are quite impressive and bring a nice futuristic battle tone to the latter part of the film. The soundtrack is made up of German rock sounding music, 40’s style rhythms, and modern rock. It makes for a nice mixture and really flows with the tone of the film. So I definitely give them props for the audio and visual side of the film.

Overall this film really nailed everything it was going for. You expect an overly cheesy low budget action film, but instead you get an interesting concept mixed with nice effects, good unknown actors, and hilariously awkward scenarios. The film does not really take itself seriously and I hope the people who take the time to watch the film don’t either. I’ve seen on some message boards that some people are offended by the film and call it anti-American, but if you stop and smells the roses and realize it’s a film about freakin space Nazis, then you might actually enjoy it. I would definitely recommend this film for people who liked odd comic style films like Sucker Punch, Watchmen, Sky Captain, and Dick Tracy. It is definitely like reading a really absurd graphic novel that has come to life. Like I said previously in the review, the only thing that was missing was a chase scene with Indiana Jones and some “celery breaking” punching sound effects. This film is definitely worth checking out, though I’m not sure when the Blu-ray/dvd will be hitting the shelves. I suggest following the film on Facebook and IMDB if you are interested in viewing it.

The Dictator Review

Written by Bobby Ramos

The Dictator (2012)

Starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Anna Faris

It has been about 3 years since we last saw Sacha Baron Cohen in the 2009 comedy “BRUNO”, plenty of time to cool and collect from the many what most sensitive people would label as “Controversial Moments”. I don't recall him doing anything else other than a guest voice spot on The Simpsons (Which sounded more like John Tuturro doing an accent). It must be said when seeing the trailers for this one I groaned a bit mainly cause it seemed like the whole style of Cohen's comedy has died off especially with the whole speaking in English then doing the overflow of gibberish that is supposed to be the native tongue of his character, but I decided to give it a watch cause well I would want people to do the same for any of my scripts.

The start of the film begins with a warm hearted dedication to the memory of Kim Jong Il, which I must say caught me off guard and had me laughing loud for a second. As the movie progressed it was an up and down ride of laughs and groans at how bad the jokes were either from cliché' or just there for shock value (EX: Cohen's character playing Nintendo Wii). But all together the movie was not bad, I love the way Cohen could be a total asshole and learn a lesson in life but still be a total asshole about it. I have been hearing a lot of people down talk this movie, I think mainly because they were expecting some of the “Is this real” style film making Cohen has become known for. I say since his first big character Ali G's film “Ali G In Da House” was forgotten by the masses, He felt the need to try his hand at an actual movie once again, sadly I don't think it was what he expected, I would say a lot of the comedy personalities that appear in this movie help out but most of them are just there and unless you get happy by the sight of them, You won't think any different of this movie.

So in closing I liked “The Dictator”, Call it my love for the outcast but I would say this movie is worth a redbox or netflix rental.

Retro Game Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in "The Fall of the Foot Clan" for Gameboy

Written by Stuart Cooper

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan (Gameboy,1990)

One thing I wanted to start doing on this blog was revisit older video games. One system I've always been quite fond of is the Nintendo Gameboy. When I was younger I had a pretty massive gameboy collection but unfortunately sold most of my games. Since then I've gone back and recollected multiple games from my childhood. One of those games was "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan". There were 3 TMNT games for the original gameboy and I plan on reviewing all three of them eventually. This game was released in 1990 by Konami in the midst of the TMNT craze that was sweeping the globe. I grew up during the Turtles era and I collected pretty much everything Ninja Turtles. The video games were no exception.

This turtles adventure is a very basic side scrolling adventure game. It is not really similar to any of the arcade or home console games, but is a side scrolling game none the less. The game opens up with a story informing you that April has been kidnapped (go figure) and it is up to the four Ninja Turtles to find and save her. Upon starting up the game you can actually do quite a bit. You can change the controls to fit your comfort, you can choose any of the four turtles, and you can even choose which level to start on! The only catch is that if you don't start from Level 1 you will not receive the full ending of the game, so that is certainly a good reason to just suck it up and start from the beginning. I was able to make it through the entire game and beat it in one sitting, so you shouldn't have too many issues with the difficulty. The game still has a fair amount of challenge, but is relatively short and easy compared to some of the other turtles games. The turtles can do three things, attack, jump, and if you hold down and the attack button you can throw shurikens at your enemy! This makes your turtles pretty fierce and really the only challenging parts will come with some of the jumps. The level design is your basic sewer background, city background, factory, an outdoor level and parts of the technodrome.

The enemies consist of Foot clan members, mousers, flying robots that look like giant flies, and those rolling robots that shoot out wires. You will see lots of familiar characters, so they at least got that much right. The boss battles are my favorite part because they feature pretty much all the iconic villains in the series. The first level boss is Rocksteady, second level is Bebop, third level is Baxter Stockman, fourth level is Shredder, and the final boss is Krang! The villains actually look quite good as well. As a matter of fact the graphics are quite crisp for a early gameboy game, I was very pleased with that aspect of the game. The only issue with the villains is that they are just too easy! Shredder was one of the easiest bosses in the game and you can't help but wish he was more menacing. At first I found it odd that Krang was the boss and not Shredder but I do remember early on in the series Shredder seemed to answer to Krang and do his bidding, so that makes sense. The game also features a great sounding soundtrack considering it's limited gameboy capacity. The tracks are various incarnations of the turtles theme music, with some different music being played during the story scenes and epilogue.

Overall I would consider this game to be a great addition to any classic gaming collection. The game itself can be found pretty cheap on amazon or ebay, I personally got my copy for less than 5 dollars and I would definitely consider it worth the money. If anything it will give you a nice trip down memory lane and remind you of the good old days when cowabunga and pizza were all the rage. Hopefully I can pick up the other two TMNT gameboy games and review those as well.

Remembering "The Macho Man" Randy Savage

Written by Stuart Cooper

It's really hard to believe that yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the death of "The Macho Man" Randy Savage. I still can't believe that he is gone. Savage made a massive mark on pro wrestling history and tho he may have passed on, his legacy will live on for ages. Growing up as a fan of the WWF I was often rooting for The Macho Man. I was never really a big hulkamaniac and often found myself wishing Savage was on top and not Hogan. The first time I saw Savage wrestle was when he won the world title tournament at Wrestlemania 4, and of course since then I've watched almost every Savage match I could get my hands on. Randy never let his fans down and always brought a massive amount of spirit and energy to his job. Every Savage promo and almost every match was memorable. I truly hope that there is a heaven and Randy is looking down at all his fans, happy with the impression he made on this world. One of the greatest, if not THE greatest wrestlers in the history of the planet, you will always be loved and remembered my friend. The tower of power, too sweet to be sour, funky like a monkey, never to be forgotten.

Mother's Day Review

Written by Stuart Cooper

Mother’s Day (2012)

Starring Rebecca De Mornay,Jaime King,Deborah Ann Woll,Shawn Ashmore,Kandyse Mcclure

There is nothing more unique and special than the relationship between a mother and her children. The film “Mother’s Day” takes this idea to the extreme. I’m going to review the 2012 version of the film, but keep in mind it is a remake of a 1980 Troma film written by Charles Kaufman. I have not seen the original, but from most critics and fans I’ve talked to, the new version is considered far superior. I will watch the original at some point and let you guys know! The film is loosely based on a real life incident referred to as the “Wichita Massacre” where a group of home owners and their guest were sexually abused and killed in a home invasion. Now this real life incident took place in 2000, 20 years after the original film, but from what I understand the new version of the film borrowed a few details from this case. After reading the details of the case I did notice quite a few similarities but it is a rather depressing news story to read, so I would not advise researching the topic unless you want to be depressed. The actual film was completed in 2009 but due to various distribution problems the film just now saw a complete release. “Mother’s Day” stars Rebecca De Mornay (Risky Business, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle) as the mother, remake scream queen Jaime King, True Blood’s Deborah Ann Woll, Shawn Ashmore (X-men trilogy, Frozen), Battlestar Galactica’s Kandyse Mcclure, and quite a few new faces. The story revolves around a deranged mother who raises stolen babies and turns them into heartless criminals. The family loses touch with each other and had a back-up plan in case anything went wrong, unfortunately that plan is to meet at their old home, which is now owned by a young couple. The couple is throwing a party at their new home when the children arrive and are just as surprised as the guests. The criminals immediately begin holding the guests hostage and that is where the nightmare begins.

The film really pulls no punches when it comes to brutality. As with most home invasion films (Last house on the Left, I Spit on Your Grave) the viewer is subjected to various acts of torture, sexual abuse, and twisted humor. The family consists of 3 brothers, 1 sister, and the mother who clearly heads the operation. One of the brothers was critically injured in a robbery earlier in the evening and thankfully for him one of the guests is a doctor who is of course forced to help the dying brother. There is an older brother who is the more reserved and logical one of the group, then there is a younger brother who appears to have undiagnosed A.D.D. and probably a few other mental disorders. The younger brother is really the one the guests have to worry about, he is very eager to fire his weapon and create chaos. The film is definitely one of those “what would you do” situations where the audience will find themselves yelling at the screen giving the guests advice on how to escape and survive. The main plot point comes when the mother of the family finally arrives at the house and informs everyone that there were several packages that had been shipped to that address over the past couple months and these packages contained money, and they simply wanted their money. The couple that moved into the house swears that they had never received any kind of package addressed to the family, let alone any amount of money. The mother does not believe the homeowners and the torture games begin. Rebecca De Mornay absolutely nails the psychotic mother role and brings a whole new level of creepiness to the film. The character she portrays is deceivingly sympathetic towards the house guests, but don’t let it fool you because she proves herself to be a true monster by the end of the film. The mother spouts off lots of motherly advice and even helps prepare a chocolate cake for the guests to snack on, while at the same time subjecting them to horrific physical and psychological torture. I believe the casting for the mother role was perfect and she definitely becomes the strongest character on screen, rightfully so. The True Blood alumnus Deborah Ann Woll plays the daughter in the family and she is actually fairly apprehensive about their actions compared to the rest of the family. She seems to be the only member of the family that feels like what they are doing is actually wrong. This angle is explored quite a bit in the film and makes for interesting tension between her and the members of the house. The final character I’ll comment on is Beth, played by Jaime King. Jaime King is casted in almost every horror remake, so I was not shocked to see her appear in this film as a central character. This character I actually did not care for because of the direction the character ends up going in the film. She of course makes many stupid decisions as with most scream queen characters, but when you get to the end of the film I’m sure you will find yourself disliking her as much as I did. Get used to this actress because she will be appearing in yet another horror remake when “Silent Night Deadly Night” comes out later this year.

The film itself actually looks great. There are several cuts that will cause you to jump. The story also takes place during the middle of a giant storm that is so bad that most of the town is actually evacuated to shelters, thus explaining the lack of police and neighbors interfering in the story. This makes for a rather eerie feeling evening full of killers stalking the characters in the rain, which is almost a staple of horror films at this point. The soundtrack is also rather good. One of my favorite groups “The Heartless Bastards” has a great track on the score that is definitely worth a listen.

Overall “Mother’s Day” is a pretty memorable home invasion flick that will most likely stick with you at least for a few hours. Rebecca De Mornay really shines as the mother and I am actually more inclined to follow her career after watching it, just to see what else she is capable of. The film keeps a solid level of intensity throughout the entire film and really comes to a peak in the climax of the film when several important details are revealed. I definitely recommend checking this one out and it is actually rather cheap at Wal-Mart right now, so I’d even recommend a blind buy. It’s only 10 dollars on DVD and 15 on Blu-ray and I’d say it’s worth every penny. The film is also available at RedBox. If anything you could at least have a movie to watch every year on Mother’s Day, and it will certainly make you appreciate the positives…and negatives of having a family.

The Avengers (2012) Review

Written by Stuart Cooper

The Avengers (2012) Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlet Johannson, Samuel L. Jackson, Mark Ruffalo, Tim Hiddleston

I never thought this day would come. I can remember being a young child and hoping I would see live action versions of my favorite heroes…The X-men, The Silver Surfer, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America…it all seemed like a fantasy. Little did I know that years later all of these hero films would become a reality. While all of their incarnations may not have been classics, they were brought to life none the less. If someone told me that in 2012 we would be seeing the ultimate marvel-team up movie, I would have laughed in their face. Now I am sitting here trying to wrap my brain around what I just witnessed. My entire childhood wrapped into 2 hours and 35 minutes. The film I am referring to is of course “The Avengers”, which is being released nationwide in 2-D, and 3-D IMAX. The film collects all of the major Marvel Film Stars (aside from War Machine’s unexcused absence). Robert Downey Jr. returns as the very charismatic Tony Stark (Iron Man), Chris Hemsworth returns as Thor, Samuel L. Jackson returns as Nick Fury, Chris Evans returns as Captain America (not his human torch alternate personality), Scarlett Johansson returns as The Black Widow, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, and Jeremy Rinner as Hawkeye. That is quite the all-star list if you ask me. One cast member that I believe deserves the most credit is Tim Hiddleston as the unstoppable mega villain LOKI! Now I am going to try my absolute best to avoid any spoilers, I will be giving away some basic storyline elements but to be honest you probably picked up that much from the trailers.

The conflict begins when Loki, who survived at the end of Thor, is shown making a deal with an alien race called The Chitauri. The deal involves him leading an army through a portal connected to Earth and ultimately conquering it. This idea is threatening enough that Nick Fury calls upon The Avenger plan and organizes an elite group of super heroes. The film takes it’s time catching up with each member of the team. We see that Tony Stark has just finished building Stark Tower (which is involved in the comic books quite a bit), Captain America is still adjusting to his new time, Hawkeye is working for S.H.I.E.L.D. as well as Black Widow, and Bruce Banner is off in a third world country helping others with his doctor talents, keeping the beast at bay. After Loki makes his presence known on earth, Nick Fury races to assemble the team. The film really kicks off the action fairly quickly as we see Loki go at it with a few of the Avengers, and there is some cool Hero vs. Hero sequences that I don’t want to spoil. The Hero vs. Hero scenes get quite heated and interesting. As an audience member I almost found myself begging these guys to get their acts together so they could function better as a team. The fact that I felt such emotion so soon into the film is proof that Joss Whedon definitely knew what he was doing with this film.

Most of the film is spent on the conflict between Loki and The group, but we do get a few moments of background story on Black Widow and Hawkeye. One character I was particularly pleased with was Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner. I was not impressed with the casting choice at first because Ruffalo hasn’t really done any films other than “Blindness” that I really cared for. I am happy to admit I was very wrong and he does a fantastic job with The Hulk character. Ruffalo makes the audience feel true sympathy for the Bruce Banner character. Many think it would be wonderful to have the strength and power of The Hulk, but for Bruce it is a true nightmare and he makes that very clear. There is even a slightly tear jerking moment where Bruce discusses his unhappiness with the group. The Hulk character was done perfectly. One worry I had was that there would simply be too many characters and they would suffer as a result, but Whedon does a great job juggling all of these characters at once. The team is constantly at odds and playing off one another and it comes off quite natural. Robert Downey Jr. definitely shines as Tony Stark and is the most charismatic and comfortable character on screen. It’s evident that he is the best actor when he is in the room with the whole team, talking circles around them. There are so many little jokes here and there between the team members; I can’t even start listing them. You really have to see it for yourself. Chris Evans as Captain America is quite fun. He sticks to the choir boy persona and stays true to all the things that Captain America stands for. There is a part in the movie in which Thor and Captain America exchange remarks about God and Captain says something along the lines of “well I only believe in One God and he isn’t like you and your brother”. I’m of course paraphrasing but it was quite the odd thing for him to say. There is also a moment where Stark is poking fun at Banner and asking him what his key to calmness is and he suggests that he may have a big bag of weed on him! So the jokes are definitely in there, and make for great banter between action sequences.

While there is a lot of humor, there are also some tense moments that had underlying themes I felt like. There is some references to the earth being in trouble because we need a renewable energy source (which is true), there is a remark Loki makes about humans spending a lot of time killing each other (which is true), and the one comment I thought was quite chilling; an alien says that “humans cannot be ruled because they are unruly”. These kinds of remarks added a layer of reality to the film and made me reflect a bit on human characteristics. Hawkeye as a character was just kind of there, I felt like he had a cool gimmick but I really didn’t care for the character. Hawkeye’s S.H.I.E.L.D. counterpart however ,The Black Widow (Johannson) really impressed me. Not only does she ooze sex appeal the entire time, but she whoops so much ass, you will have to appreciate her character. Although if you want to get technical, it doesn’t make much sense seeing as she has average fire power and no super powers, but she can move like Spider-man and she proves to be a valuable part of the team. One last cast member I want to talk about is Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, whom you may remember from all of the previous marvel films. This character really becomes quite likeable and has quite a few lines that will give you a chuckle. I enjoyed that character in this film more than I did the other appearances. So if you are looking for quality characters, this film has definitely got it.

Now let’s talk about what everybody came to the party for, the action! The action sequences in this film are absolutely breathtaking. I’m often left unfulfilled with the final fights in Marvel films. Too often is it just a few moves and boom it’s over within a minute. This is not the case with The Avengers. It’s as if all the Marvel films leading up to this were prequels and they were saving the fighting for this installment. If you want destruction, you got it, if you want crazy superpower battles, you got it, if you want beautiful C.G.I. and not Indiana Jones aliens, you got it. The Avengers delivers in every aspect. The fight scenes will leave you on the edge of your seat! I don’t often say things out loud during a film but I found myself yelling “Oh No!” and “Yeah!” quite a few times. It really had me fully immersed in the Marvel Universe.

I really hope all the comic book fans check this film out in theaters. It is really one of those movies you have to see in a theater setting first, so don’t hold off for Redbox, get your ass in the car, shill out the 7 bucks for a matinee showing, and enjoy yourself. If you grew up a fan of any of these characters, or if you are a new comic book fan, or even a casual action film fan, you will enjoy this movie. I said it before and I will say it again, this is the PERFECT super hero film. Without a doubt, The Avengers is a must-see.

May the 4th be with You!

So instead of making the obligatory Star Wars related post, I simply leave you with this: