Pokemon The Movie 3

Yes, the acclaimed sequel adored by fans. How is it in my mind?

Pretty spectacular. My heart will always belong to Pokemon 2000 but this movie is truly a work of amazement. The story centers around a young girl Molly, who one day loses her father who is researching a rare species of Pokemon known only as the Unown. Through a very lucky and somewhat bizzare situation, the Unown manifest a crystalized fortress around Molly's house, bring to life another legendary pokemon by the name of Entei, and generally psychically amplifies a young girl's post traumatic stress disorder from losing her father!! You do know what this is right? This is pretty much Silent Hill for kids!!! SILENT HILL! Dear sweet mother of Christmas, what the hell movie?! Granted Pokemon has always sort of rode the line on creepy and downright terrifying ideas, but this was theatrically released! Thousands if not millions of kids were exposed to this, including myself! Now I have to admit this is the solitary movie that got me out of Pokemon, but only due to one factor: There are new pokemon. And I don't mean one or two new ones I mean, a whole new brand spanking new 2nd generation of  pokemon that I had no knowledge of. This movie came out in 2001 which is when I saw it on DVD at a friends house, and I had no clue what I was looking at. What's a Totodile? What's a Cyndaquil? What the flying saucers is a Teddiursa? It was like I was a parent taking my kid to a Pokemon movie! I knew I was too far out of the loop, cause remember it wasn't so easy as it was today to catch up on a show, you either had to by divine intervention, watch the series on TV up to that point, or save up lord knows how much money to buy the damn series. And...I never watched Pokemon after that. Ever. Granted I thought the film was okay, but as I grew older I began to appreciate the.....disturbing ideas and expertly animated fight scenes which are a true sight to behold and screw it, absolutely stellar animation in general, good use of music, and Ash's story actually feels organic for once. See, Molly is living in a pure fantasy world and tells Entei to kidnap Ash's mom so she can have her mother back, so bam! Right there! Powerful and hits home for the hero, forces him to save his only family left! No contrived prophecies, or some nonsense about fighting is bad, just a good solid story! I can fully see why people claim this is the best cause well it is. That's the common misconception with people, they don't understand the difference between their favorite movie and the best movie. Star Wars is my favorite movie of all time, but Lost In Translation is a perfect movie in my mind, I can't say that about Star Wars but it's still my favorite. Same situation here, Pokemon 3 is the superior film above them all but Pokemon 2000 is my personal favorite. I highly enjoyed and was slightly disturbed in places, but loved it. Well that's all for today folks, enjoy the rest of your day, and I'll be back when the day is through, and I will have more ideas for you, and you'll have things you'll want to talk about, I will too.

Pokemon The Movie 2000

Now we reach my favorite of the Pokemon movies. Yeah, this one is my all time favorite just due to the massive scope of it all, it just seemed so much bigger. It was my first and only Pokemon movie I owned until literally a few days ago, I still have it and watch it on VHS and even still have my Lugia coin that came with the movie.

So the plot of this chapter is this collector...guy, whoes name is a mystery to those who did not buy the merchandise or see the Japanese version, tries to capture the three legendary Pokemon birds, Moltres, Articuno, and Zapdos before finally claiming the beast of the sea, Lugia. Meanwhile, Ash, Misty, and Tracy, the first change in the party in terms of companions, travel to the Orange Island, where they hear tell of a prophecy of a hero that helps restore balance and peace between the warring birds, thus forcing Ash and his friends to try to quell the fighting or lest the earth shall turn to ash (That's not a joke, that's what the prophecy says.). I don't know, to a little kid this seemed like the most epic storytelling ever in the history of mankind, even though I still like it now the whole prophecy thing just seems sort of silly. But the nostalgia has never been higher for me, with great action sequences, still a very good voice acting job from all participants, terrific music to the point where Lugia's Song is still the only piece of music to illicit tears to my eyes, good and quite frankly bad comedy bits but nothing that would insult your intelligence, and the stakes do seem so exponentially higher than ever before, the whole world is at stake this time. So yeah, to my eyes it doesn't get better than this in terms of Pokemon, but many many people would disagree with me because of the next movie...

Pokemon The Movie

It's Pokemon Day! So allow me the opportunity to go over the first 3 films that I watched.

Now I have to admit I never saw the first Pokemon movie for a number of years. I was a fan, liked the show, had a few of the cards, but I was like...3 when I knew about the show. So how is the first movie? Well, it depends. If you were say a parent watching it with your kid, you may not fancy it very much but if you are a kid or just a kid at heart like me, it's a good nostalgic trip down memory lane, it's a harmless movie. Not a masterpiece of children's movies but not bottom of the barrel either. The plot is not half bad, Ash and company have been invited to an island for a tournament only to find a clone of the most powerful pokemon to hold the tournament, Mewtwo. He has sort of an existential dilemma, forcing him to hate the entire world forcing our heroes to battle against this terrible foe to save all humans and pokemon alike. Basic story but done (sort of) well, with very good voice acting, one of the coolest and yet kinda creepy art design styles in Mewtwo's fortress, almost a living organic H.R. Giger style look to it all, with decent battles, not so well done morals that kinda go against the entire premise of the show but I digress, and a surprising emotional climax that does tug at the heartstrings a bit. I like it, but don't love it. I know this is a brief overview of the movie, but oh boy we got two more movies to do today! Yeah, been awhile since I did three movies in a single day, not since the Halloween movies if memory serves. So stick around for more!

Sherlock: Series 4

Late? Yes. Busy? Very. Any good? More than you would expect.

God, how do I talk about it? So many secrets and twists. Well...it didn't surpass series 3. Still very good, was very surprised and entertained but didn't wow me. But then again it took a second viewing of the last series to call it my favorite, so who knows? Has quite possibly, the best acting in the entire run of the show but in places. It gets very weird, even reality questioning at times, but the humor, intrigue, and cases still hold hard and true. It's quite interesting when you get down to it. I almost dare not reveal more. In a way, it delves into the very psychology of Sherlock, what made him who he is today. The only last thing I can truly say is, the final episode has reached new heights of danger for Sherlock and John than ever before, The Great Game, The Reichenbach Fall, His Last Vow, nothing compared to this. Nothing. It is bad.

Sherlock: Series 3

Okay, really surprising. It's my favorite series.

I thought it was impossible to surpass series 2. I was wrong. Which is odd, because the first time I watched it I thought it was just okay, nothing special or greater than the last series. But now that I have watched it for a second time, I can safely say it is my favorite, every episode is terrific, it focuses so much more on the relationship Sherlock and John have together, how Sherlock handles John being married to Mary, and it works so brilliantly well. The first episode really was all about Sherlock coming back, there wasn't even a case until well after the halfway point. The Sign Of Three is in my opinion, the absolute best episode of the entire show hands down, again really not much of a case but it is the most humorous, most emotional, and most perfectly well done episode, if there was an episode I could watch whenever I wanted this would be it. And finally, His Last Vow which gets really trippy and metaphysical but the twists, and the overall menace of our antagonist makes it damn good and it ended the way I wanted it to so very difficult to argue with the quality of this whole series. It has the best sum of episodes, it has my absolute favorite episode, touches on everything that I know and love about the show, introduces new characters, and by the by, Mary is....extraodinary. I simply adore her, if I ever knew her in real life the question "What am I going to do with you?" would spring up, and to be perfectly honest that is the highest compliment and viewing standard I could ever have for another person. Truly John is a lucky man. So anyway, the best series in my opinion. Not unless series 4 floors me beyond any form of comprehension....

Sherlock: The Abominable Bride

Well that was certainly a trip. Quite brilliant fun but good lord do I feel bizzare now.

The Abominable Bride is the Sherlock Christmas special set in 1895, a true Sherlock in it's most basic form but not quite. It's Christmas in London and Holmes and Dr. Watson acquire a case of a suicidal bride returning from the dead and murdering her husband, the pair take up the case and I have to say it is a rather fun and very intelligent mystery, with the usual stamp of quality you would see in any other episode. I have to absolutely say to view this after watching series 3 as it contains MASSIVE spoilers of series 2 and 3, as it sets up the beginning of series 4 as well. So needless to say, there's a bit more to it than just a special one off episode set in the time period Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his stories. I am assured you can figure it out on your own, I take nothing but the best. But I had a blast with the whole experience of it all. Actually that sums this episode up perfectly, an experience. I'm very excited to go over series 3 tomorrow, I do hope you will join me. Come at once if convenient, if inconvenient come anyway.

Sherlock: Series 2

In some circumstances, this series surpasses the first and others...well, don't.

Now I love this series of Sherlock, quite possibly more than the first even though it has one of the most uneventful and dull episodes I have ever witnessed in my life AND is so far the worst episode of the whole show that I have seen so far, but even then it's not horrible. It has one of the best written, edited, and acted scenes in the entire show's run, and this episode is The Hound Of The Baskerville. You know what's really weird? Almost every example of Sherlock Holmes that I have seen in over 15 years has strangely been "The Hound Of The Baskerville", not any other story written by Doyle has ever been brought to my attention. Not "A Study In Pink", not "The Reichenbach Fall", not even "The Final Problem". Always "The Hound". How peculiar is that? But whatever disappointment that story gives me, is immediately rectified with The Reichenbach Fall. It surpasses tenfold whatever stakes were in previous episodes, it's still the best in my opinion. Also really strange how my favorite, and in my humble opinion, best episodes have Andrew Scott in them, he just entertains me so. Now every aspect of the previous series has improved, and it does the correct thing with building upon previous stories and still giving us plenty of fresh and new things we have not seen before. The acting, stories, editing, mysteries, and action have really stood high for me. True the first series was great, but just because of the final episode this is my favorite series of the show so far. Will series 3 surpass it, or will it just be another really good string of episodes? Well, I might be cheating a bit but since my school schedule is so jam packed tomorrow and there is no ample time to review a whole nother series, I will be looking at the Christmas special that premiered last year for the review of that day which air date wise came out after the end of series 3. So stay on the look out for that, and tell me if you figured out the solution to the final problem before Thursday. See you then.

Sherlock: Series 1

The game is on.

For those of you who have not watched the BBC series Sherlock, I....it's pure pity I feel for you. This show is amazing! You know the basic iconography of Sherlock Holmes, absurdly brilliant detective solves crimes the police cannot with his friend and colleague Dr. John Watson. Now take that concept out of Victorian England and put it into 21st century London. It works better than one might expect. Although I'm pretty sure every single episode, which is an hour and a half long by the way, goes exactly like the short stories Arthur Conan Doyle wrote. I watched all the series up to one point and then picked up one of the compilation Sherlock Holmes books which is the only way you can read them nowadays, and scene for scene, sometimes even line for line, follows the stories. And the casting could not ever, ever, ever be done any other way besides Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock, and Martin Freeman as John Watson. They play it beyond perfection. I mean if you think about these characters, in modern day, they act perfectly how they would really behave in this day and age. I love it! The whole show harbors on these two actors, although supporting cast can never be excluded, they are quite lovely too especially Mrs. Hudson and Molly, they never cease to make me smile. But...I would almost argue Andrew Scott as Jim Moriarty steals the whole first series and do you know how long he is on screen for? Maybe 5 minutes. In four and a half hours of total run time for the entire first series, it takes him 5 minutes to pull the rug out from under your feet and utterly wow you. He terrifies me and yet makes me giggle like a girl at the same time. Somehow. But anyway! I never once heard of this show until maybe either my second or third year of high school, it was recommended to me by a friend who said I reminded him too much of Sherlock, I eventually watched the series (At that point series 1 and 2 were on Netflix) and was really took by it. And I do hate it takes over a year for every new series to come out. I am so not even kidding you now. It really does take a year and a half for one series to come out. But fear not, just recently they released the fourth series on home video and I will cover each series this week. So stay tuned, enjoy, and I will see you tomorrow.

Black Mass

Well for a film about a public criminal I never heard of once, it certainly grabbed my attention.

Black Mass is more or less of a bio film about Jimmy "Whitey" Bulger, infamous Boston crime boss spanning several years of his criminal career as an informant for the FBI and the subsequent events in the years to follow. Now in terms of a crime movie, it is exceptionally well done with a good and accurate script, pretty great camera work, and an unapologetic approach to his crimes. As a biography in a sense, I think it worked very well, like I said I did not ever hear of this man so I was in the movie totally blind and yet could get a good feel of who this guy was, what he did, and why he did it so it's not like you need prior knowledge to view this movie. The real, true, without a shadow of a doubt star of the movie is Johnny Depp and I'll be damned if I said he didn't do a great job. He is truly terrifying in this role, to the point where you kinda forget it's Johnny Depp, and it just proves he can still act in very dark, very serious roles, and I can't wait to see the next movie he will star in. I would definitely say to go rent this movie, if you enjoy crime movies or biographies of criminals seriously check this out and also check out Public Enemies, it's a terrific movie about John Dillinger also starring Johnny Depp and directed by Michael Mann who you may know directed Heat, one of the best crime movies you ever would see in your life. Well that's pretty much it today, interesting side note though, Benedict Cumberbatch is in this movie which blew my mind because I didn't hear precisely anything about him being in the movie, it was always Johnny so it was a great surprise. Which just makes me want to revisit some particular work that made him world famous, wink wink nudge nudge, next week of reviews. So stay tuned for that.

The Accountant

Wow, I find it criminal that I put off seeing this movie for that long.

The Accountant is a great movie! So the story follows several threads, one following the FBI tracking down a criminal accountant, one following this whole company blackmail thing, and Ben Afflec as Christian Wolff as he tries to figure out this whole company conspiracy and meets Anna Kendrick along the way (Yay!!!) as they try to solve it. And Ben Afflec's character in this was really the best part, he plays an autistic character think like Rain Man meets Flashpoint Batman. Actually speaking of which, this feels strangely Batman to me. Not just because of Ben Afflec and J.K. Simmons who will play Jim Gordon later on but just the feel of it. We have an incredibly intelligent guy, who has training in several forms of combat, including lethal force (Hence the Flashpoint version of Batman), has a super tech friend who feeds him vital intel and you can tell is a close friend of his a.k.a. Oracle, actually has physical copies of multiple DC comics including Action Comics #1, and I am dead sucking ferious right now, he repeats the "Solomon Grundy born on a Monday" nursery rhyme. Several times! Plus the backdrop of Chicago, especially at night evokes The Dark Knight in terms of imagery and setting. Do you see what I mean? This is like an Elseworlds Batman story. And I friggin' love it! The action is quick and tense, the cinematography is slick, the mystery element holds up throughout the entire movie, I was constantly wondering is Christian Wolff a good guy or a bad guy, the cast is terrific and for once I didn't feel rob of an Anna Kendric performance and she is so...Anna in this, so goshdarn adorkable she just steals my heart. I highly, highly recommend you see this movie, it certainly has an interesting premise to it and I want to hear more people's thoughts on it now. But that's all for now, until next time!

Medical Diagnosis....

I'm dying.

Nah, just kidding. On a side note, huzzah for perscribed drugs!! Yeah, I actually had to go to a doctor today since my current condition has not improved, like...at all. I got my first dose of radiation ever and there was no way of describing the terror I felt, kinda disappointed I did not become super strong and turn green but hey I got strong perscribed medication. Still reeling from it though, I feel a bit lightheaded, maybe you should drive. And I got this inhaler thing as well, so not only am I the dorky kid with glasses but also the inhaler. Hooray. Got The Accountant though and will review it early in the morning so after I take my meds it won't matter if I'm bedridden and raving about some bizzare science fiction, double feature I saw recently. Until then, I'm The Dude and reminding you that only you can prevent forest fires.

Finding Dory

I'll admit, I screwed up. You know how I generally try and fit themes to the movies, like October we do horror, November we do award winning movies, April we do personal favorites of my own. You think the week of Valentine's Day I might...pick a romance movie? Granted I reviewed most of the ones I care about with the exception of maybe Annie Hall but man did I goof hard this year. Still though.....better than reviewing Fifty Shades Of Grey or some garbage.

Uh, so yeah Finding Dory. I liked the first movie, and I liked this one too! Granted it is similar to Finding Nemo but I don't get why people really didn't like this movie. It's like with friggin' Star Wars! Everybody got an attitude problem with The Force Awakens, "Oh but it was too much like A New Hope! It was exactly like A New Hope! Nothing was new! Wah! Wah! Wah!". Really? Exact? Scene for scene? Such poor ignorant fools...wow I am off on tangent lane today aren't I? But anyway, the movie was fine. The story was similar but new, we got new characters and old, delve into the backstory of everyone's favorite character in the first movie which is handled incredibly well and can hit you with laughter and great bouts of depression. It was sad watching this movie, but still made me laugh a bit and I enjoyed it. The animation is glorious, the ocean has never looked so drop dead beautiful and all the examples of sea life create great variety. My personal favorite has to be the Australian sea lions, they just made me crack up. But really this is how sequels should work, it tells a new story while still elaborating on the previous film in terms of the world they live in. This succeeds. I was entertained, intrigued, happy, sad, and just excited to see this movie. I just can't wait until The Incredibles 2. You know how long I have been wanting to see that?? Too long! But anyway, have a great Valentine's Day! See you soon, love and peace, all that good stuff, I'm out!

Kubo And The Two Strings

Not only is this one of the best animated movies I've ever seen in my life, but the story itself is one of the best I have seen.

Kubo And The Two Strings is brought to us by our friends over at Laika Studios, the same folks who brought us Coraline and the ghoulish brilliant Paranorman to the big screen, this particular movie follows a story, a tale, a legend of a young boy with a single eye on a quest to reclaim three pieces of armor in an attempt to defeat the Moon God. Not only is this beyond perfection in terms of animation, using the same style of stopmotion and models like The Nightmare Before Christmas and all their other films, not only is the story rich in potential and delivers, not only is the voice acting outstanding with Charlize Theron and Matthew McConaughey, not only is it rooted in a world of magic with a profound basis in Japanese culture and art direction, but this was a film where I had such slight, miniscule expectations and by the time the title popped up I knew I was going to watch a marvellous movie. I love the characters, I love the mythos, I love the magic element, the art is breathtaking considering how they achieved it, the comedy is fun but maybe a bit off in places, the movie just shapes it's own identity and there are no compromises to it. I have no idea if most of the story is original or based in Japanese myth and legends, I don't even care because it is so good. It's been awhile since I had a fun time watching a movie, and been awhile since a movie blew my expectations out of the water. I saw the trailer for it and was fascinated, but never saw it in theater's, and you better believe I am kicking myself in the ass because I missed it. What a wonderful movie, with enough to capture the imagination of a child and intrigue the parents. A grade A+ family film, 4 stars check it out!

Well that's all from the old Duder tonight, and tomorrow we have another venture into the Pixar realm with Finding Dory, so just keep swimming folks. Goodnight everybody!

Late But Not For Long

Sorry about the reviews, had to leave town to see family. Nothing bad, in fact it was one of the few times I had to go back home for a happy reason but I digress. So next week I'm doing 4 reviews, two animated family films on Monday and Tuesday and then two adult orientated movies on Thursday and Friday. Now some of you may ask when is the next tv show review? Well television shows take loads of time, several days if you're not great at the binge watching so I very much have to pick and choose my battles when it comes to that especially with school in full swing. So see you guys next week!

The Lego Batman Movie

Best...movie...of the year.

What a treat this was, now you may be saying Dude how did you see this movie so early? Because I'm Batman! Nah, I just got tickets to an early screening. So The Lego Batman Movie is the epitome of a love letter to The Batman, with references galore, a great story, wonderful voice actors, and gorgeous animation. Now the plot is a little thick but still engages you so I will sum it up for you. Batman is being Batman fighting crime, saving the day, and all his usual buisness when a series of events happen both fortunate and unfortunate. Jim Gordon retires (Awww....), and his daughter Barbara takes over as the Comissioner, Bruce adopts young Dick Grayson, and the Joker has the grand schemes of grand schemes to take over Gotham. Oh my God, the sheer nautical tons of easter eggs were so vast and plentiful, my eyes were darting all over the screen, I friggin' loved it with it's sheer brilliant art direction and animation style! The characters were a blast as well, Will Arnett is hilarious as Batman and yet can still give some good serious performances, Michael Cera who I don't fully like played Robin awesomely, Rosario Dawson was fun as Batgirl, and Ralph Fiennes was a darn good Alfred. In fact I was surprised the emotion Will Arnett gave in this film, with almost Mask Of The Phantasm style scenes concerning his crimefighting and his parents. The movie was almost too good, I don't have anything to gripe about but for a hardcore Batman fan such as myself, this movie could not be more perfect. Check it out next week, and enjoy your stay in Gotham City.