It’s odd how much polish a film series can undergo over the course of two years. The first installment in the Yakuza Papers series of films came out in 1973. This film, the final installment in the tetralogy came out in 1974. Kinji Fukasaku was already an accomplished director when he made the first film, but over the course of two years he quickly came up with a very definitive style to this series. Read more
This time I’m striking when the iron is hot, and talking about my dealings with YouTube, ContentID, and what can be done to fix things – and what you can do to help. Yes, you. Read more
We finally end that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad boss fight.
This time I’m reviewing the second cookbook I’ve talked about thus far: How To Cook Everything – The Basics, by Mark Bittman. Read more
This time the terrible, terrible boss fight continues.
When I heard that a Deadpool movie was in production, as a fan of the comics I was pretty pumped. That said, a situation like that is almost a recipe for disappointment – Star Wars: The Phantom Menace really shows how much high expectations can lead to equally high disappointment. Fortunately, there was no disappointment to be found for me in this film. Read more
This week we continue with the Best of the Rest of Nintendo Power’s fourth year, with part one of our run-through of SNES titles that didn’t get feature coverage in Nintendo Power.
Due to restrictions on my YouTube channel, this episode has been split into two parts. Read more
The problem with getting into the later installments of the Yakuza Papers series of films is that by the later installments Kenji Fukasaku has gotten into a stylistic groove when it comes to what this series of films are – what they look like, what they sound like, and how their action is presented. Read more
This time we start the worst boss fight in the game thus far.
This time we discover this weird lost facility and try to figure out who built it.
There is one Bond film that, before today, I had not seen: The Spy Who Loved Me. I refer to official Bond films, as opposed to parodies like the ’60s Casino Royale, or knockoffs like Never Say Never Again (which I have seen), and spiritual ripoffs like Operation Double 007 (as seen on MST3K). Read more
Wherein we get around to placing another heat spike.
Due to the Copyright Strike putting a crimp in my Let’s Play, this time I’m doing a video review of Dragon Age II, with my thoughts on the game. Read more
This is a gorgeous, darkly beautiful work of film that’s probably the most surreal work that Oshii has made (helped by the fact that Yoshitaka Amano did much of the art for the film and co-wrote the story). It is the first film I’ve seen that I don’t feel qualified to analyze. Read more
TMNT is a film that has the heart that the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film had (and the other two sequels lacked), but it falls short in a few significant places. Read more
We expand the number of options we have for navigating environments this episode.
This week we continue with the Best of the Rest of Nintendo Power’s fourth year, with the 6 Game Boy titles that made the top 30 (or 20) but weren’t featured in the magazine. Read more
This time we get around to staking out a new heat… vein… thingie.
Another mission, another giant crab monster.
It’s rare when a game gives you an opportunity to make a timely David Bowie reference in the title.
This time I’m taking a look at the documentary, Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone’s Magic Man. I was provided with a copy of this documentary at no cost for purpose of review from the film’s director at OryCon 2014. Read more
It’s been a while since I reviewed a martial arts film from Hong Kong, and even longer since I reviewed a film from Shaw Brothers. With Netflix including more and more of the Shaw Brothers filmography, now is as good a time as any to revisit the studio and their works. Read more
This episode we have the hardest fight I’ve encountered thus far.
Proxy War, along with the second film in the series, Hiroshima Deathmatch, are really where the Yakuza Papers series really kicks into high gear with showing the real nature of the Yakuza life. Where the sophomore film in the series introduced a new character, followed him through his induction into the yakuza, until his ultimate death, Proxy War returns us to following Bunta Sugawara’s character, Shozo Hirono, as factions within the old guard start playing the new generation of yakuza against each other, while Hirono himself tries to reconcile this current chain of events with the yakuza code of honor. Read more
