While the new Bond films are sadly grounded in reality, Kingsman: The Golden Circle is going the exact opposite direction, and it looks like they are having a lot of fun doing it. The first film was a very good, and it looks like Matthew Vaughn is dialing it up to eleven for the sequel. I am in.
Shmee Tours 1977 LA With The Nice Guys!
Shane Black specializes in a certain type of movie, and that type of movie is Lethal Weapon. You know, two guys against the odds taking down something bigger than themselves. One is guy is funny and the other is the straight man who might just be too old for this. The Nice Guys fits very well in that mold, except it takes place 1977. Though credit were credit is due, no one does Lethal Weapon better than Shane Black.
The movie begins with hired muscle Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) ‘convincing’ PI Holland March (Ryan Gosling) to stop bothering Amelia Kuttner (Margaret Qualley). March quickly complies because he was actually looking for porn star Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio), who he knows is dead, but he is making a quick buck off Misty’s aunt, so he was just tracking down Misty’s friends to make it look like he was working. It turns out a lot of Amelia’s friends are dead. Of course this all leads down a crazy rabbit hole neither Healy or March are prepared for.
The time and the place of the film do help The Nice Guys feel a little different from Black’s other action comedies, but in all honestly, I knew what I was in for as soon as I started the movie. It would be like expecting something new from a Guy Ritchie gangster film. They are all the same, but they are also all very good. If you do something well and people like it, why try and reinvent the wheel.
Crowe and Gosling were perfect for this film. They are both talented actors who nailed their roles. Crowe’s Healy is an old pro who wants to do his job well and get things done the right way. While Gosling’s March is just trying to get paid while getting as many free drinks as he can, but that doesn’t stop him from knowing what he is doing every now and than. Much like other Shane Black films all the women in this film were pretty much props with the exception of Angourie Rice who plays March’s spunky teenage daughter Holly.
The Nice Guys is a funny film with plenty of action, and if that is what you want, you will be very happy. If you are expecting something new and fresh, you will have to look somewhere else. This film is Shane Black doing what Shane Black does and having a good time doing it, and I had a good time watching it. One word of warning though, since the background of this movie is the 1970’s porn industry it does earn its ‘R’ rating. I would hate for you to say I didn’t warn you.
MST3K Is Back!
I was nervous that the new MST3K was not going to be funny. It turns out that I was worried about nothing. I am two movies in and loving it. The new cast is great, though the new robot voices took a little getting used to, and it seems like they have amped the jokes per minute, so there are fewer of those jokeless lulls that sometimes would plague the older MST3K episodes.
If you are unaware of what Mystery Science Theater 3000 is, let me clear that up for you. Pretty much the ‘Bads’, Kinga Forrester (Felicia Day) and Max “TV’s Son of TV’s Frank” (Patton Oswalt), go out and find terrible movies and then Jonah Heston (Jonah Ray) and his robots Crow (Hampton Yount) and Tom Servo (Baron Vaughn) make fun of them. It is a simple setup, but it works well.
If you have been missing Mystery Science Theater 3000 like I have, the new Netflix series is a return to form. I look forward to watching the remaining twelve flicks with Jonah and his robot pals. Now that MST3K is back, I hope it stays back. I don’t want to go through another long period without them.
Shmee Battles Back The Vermintide!
How do you feel about rat-men? If you like them this is not a game for you. You will murder more of their kind in thirty minutes with Warhammer The End Times: Vermintide than you have probably seen in your entire life, but if you enjoy crushing Skaven (what rat-men call themselves) under your boot, or just endless hordes in general, you will probably like Vermintide.
If you were wondering about Warhammer The End Times: Vermintides story, don’t. It is simply that the world is coming to end and the city you are in, Ubersreik, is being overrun by Skaven. You and a band of heroes must work together to save the people that remain. What this means is that you will hack and slash and shoot your way through thousands of rats with up to three other players. For all of you that have played Left 4 Dead this should be very familiar, but with more focus on melee.
That is not a knock on Vermintide. In fact it is a compliment. There has been a big hole in the gaming scene since Left 4 Dead 2 came out, and why Left 4 Dead 3 has never materialized is anyone’s guess. Fatshark Games did change things up enough that it is not a ripoff of Valve’s zombie classic, so it is more like a game in the genre that Left 4 Dead helped define. Not to mention the pull to slay endless waves of rat-type-people while leveling up and getting new loot is strong.
That is not to say everything is perfect. Fatshark to prevent screen tearing has locked in the framerate to 30FPS and turned on V-Sync. The problem is sometimes when there are a few dozen evil rats on screen the frame rate will dip a bit, and with V-Sync turned on, that means you will drop a frame or two. When you are surrounded by rats it is not a great time for the game to “freeze” and then come back to show you that the world has changed around you. AKA you are about to take quite a bit of damage. They should let us turn off V-Sync, a little screen tearing will be worth always keeping the swarm in front of you.
I have only played the first few levels of Warhammer The End Times: Vermintide, but it was a lot of fun (even though we got teamed up with an elite player who did not care a lot about hanging out with the party). I will journey to Ubersreik to slay Skaven again, and since this game seems to always be on sale, you may want to come with me. I mean who doesn’t like to take out their aggressions on a few hundred rats?
Carmen Sandiego Is Hiding At Netflix HQ!
With just about all of my childhood favorite shows making a comeback it was only a matter of time before someone went to the map to find super-thief Carmen Sandiego. If Netflix takes the same care with Carmen Sandiego as they did with Voltron, we are in for a treat! The Gina Rodriguez staring vehicle will hit the small screen in 2019, and I will be there trying to track her down.