[Movies] Big Trouble in Little China (1986)

What makes a movie a cult classic? When does a B-movie become so bad, that it somehow becomes good? Why do some movies that failed at the box office become the home videos that we watch over and over again? I don't think we'll ever come up with anything remotely resembling a sort of formula for this sort of thing, but it's always fun to note when it does happen.

Big Trouble in Little China was one of those movies that actually scared a lot when I was a kid. To be fair, I was also afraid of The Neverending Story, so obviously a lot of stuff scared me at the time. But because of that, it was a movie that I remembered for along time. Later on I went back to watch the rest of the movie when I was older, and I admittedly enjoyed it.

Years later, it's interesting how this movie is now more of franchise as an odd resurgence of interest and even talks of a remake with Dwayne Johnson. And with a Legendary Encounters game edition based on the movie upcoming, it felt appropriate to revisit this little gem of a movie.

[Videos] LEGO Dimensions Year 2 Trailer

So I realize that as much as I've come to love LEGO Dimensions, I haven't actually written much about the game on this blog for some reason. I guess I've been distracted with my review queue or something. But given my love for the various LEGO games, I think it should have been inevitable that I'd get into this series. I managed to resist the now defunct Disney Infinity but I couldn't stay away from this LEGO game.

For those unfamiliar, LEGO Dimensions is the latest of the physical toy + console game franchises to hit the market after the likes of Skylanders and Disney Infinity. The physical figures are of course LEGO minifigures and vehicles that correspond to what is brought into the game world via the LEGO toy pad. What is rather unique about the game is the sheer number of franchises that have been brought into the game which expands beyond the existing LEGO games released to the market. Thus far the game has involved characters from IP's like The Lord of the Rings, The Simpsons, The Wizard of Oz, and Jurassic Park.


The Year 2 trailer reveals the addition of a good  number of existing franchises like Adventure Time, Gremlins, Mission Impossible, and Goonies. At the same time we're finally getting a few existing LEGO properties to join in the fun such as the Harry Potter movies including a big game planned around the upcoming movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Another notable feature of the Year 2 update are Battle Arenas where players can go head-to-head with other LEGO Dimensions players. I expect a lot of play styles like capture the flag or convoluted mission objectives, which should all be a lot of fun.

I'll try to post reviews/discussions of the Year 1 content that has come out. I still have a lot of kits to open up for some fun times - provided I find time to actually play.

[Movies] Star Trek Beyond (2016)

So I've certainly had my ups and downs with the new Star Trek movies. I was ecstatic after watching the 2009 Star Trek movie but was severely disappointed by the 2013 sequel. So going into this third movie in the series, I didn't know how to feel about things. I wasn't even sure if I was actually excited about it being released.

At the end of the day, I'm still a Trekkie and even basic curiosity is enough to win out thus whether or not I was going to watch the movie was ever a question. I just didn't know how I'd ultimately approach things. I guess you could call my feelings at the time a sort of guarded optimism.

And the end result was, well, rather mixed. For a movie that coincides with the 50th anniversary of the franchise, there were certainly great poignant moments that really dug deep into this jaded Trekkie's heart. And the other times I felt like the proverbial old man trying to get kids off his front yard. And it was interesting how the movie pulled at me in this manner. And I suspect  this may be how I'll feel about any future Star Trek movies to come.

[Videos] Bravest Warriors and Bee and Puppycat Going Exclusive

So it feels like we've been waiting forever and a day for new seasons of web-based cartoons Bravest Warriors and Bee and Puppycat but a recent announcement from Cartoon Hangover reveals that the new seasons of these shows will becoming as premium content on something called VRV. The streaming service is exclusive to the US so this means that global fans have no way of accessing the show. And this also doesn't necessarily mean that US-based fans are all keen on signing up for a paid service to see a cartoon that we've largely supported freely online.


You can view the full announcement below, but I have to state that I'm feeling very frustrated about all this. I know they still need to make money to help produce cartoons like this, but the distribution deal that they've ended up with is just terrible.

[Movies] Ghostbusters (2016)

When news of a Ghostbusters reboot movie first hit the internet, I wasn't particularly affected. I did enjoy the original movie and the animated TV series was definitely a part of my childhood as well. But it was never an integral part of my childhood either given I always veered more towards stories of robots and space-based science fiction. So not even the news about having an all-female cast mattered all that much to me in a positive or negative manner.

But my partner Tobie and I were certainly curious enough to want to see it given all the hype and the back and forth internet sniping regarding its inherently feminist message and all that other politically correct silliness. Sure, I had my concerns as well about how certain characters were being crafted and how they'd link to the original characters, but by the end I was just over all this internet argument nonsense and just went to the movie hoping to be entertained.

The end result was totally surprising to both of us and we ended up enjoying this movie a LOT. And I'm totally surprised at how much we ended up enjoying this movie. But no regrets at all and I'm glad we went out to see it.

[TV] Rick and Morty: Season 2

So I've been sharing a number of Rick and Morty related posts over the past month in line with the growing anticipation for the long-awaited release of the third season of the show. And as is typical of such situations, I realized late that I still hadn't written a review for the second season of the show for one reason or another. Oh well.

My love for Rick and Morty honestly surprised me. It's the sort of show that I thought generally was on the fringes of my interests. But when we finally gave the show, I just got totally sucked in and there was no going back from there.

The show is largely episodic in format and can more or less stand alone. There's some relative degree of overall narrative progression for characters but it's not as strong as what we see in other animated shows like Steven Universe or Adventure Time. And yet the show still has a lot of surprisingly character-focused stories that help push things forward and give you a sense of fulfillment when you see them progress.

[Transformers] The Prime Wars Trilogy Web Series

Okay, we have about two weeks until August and I still haven't found time to write about the Transformers: Combiner Wars animated web series being created by the folks over at Machinima. The new series is targeted at older Transformers fans, which means geeks like me who collect the Transformers Generations and Transformers Masterpiece lines. The creative team behind the series is  Eric S. Calderon, George Krstic, and F.J. DeSanto.

From the looks of things, the story ties to the on-going IDW comic series, particular the former Robots in Disguise comic, which is now simply The Transformers because of the kid-friendly Robots in Disguise cartoon. They've released 4 separate prelude videos to get everyone warmed-up and things are looking pretty interesting, to say the least.

So for your afternoon viewing pleasure, here are the four animated shorts:

[TV] Game of Thrones: Season 5

Okay, I feel like I'm forever playing catch-up with these reviews, but it remains a bit of a hobby that helps me unwind. As long as I have steady topics to write about in my queue, it keeps me focused, in a way. And a little focus is needed since it's easy to just fall into the trap of enjoying stuff without thinking about things. And being forced to look at things with a somewhat more critical eye is part of why I enjoy writing these reviews.

The television adaptation of the A Song of Fire and Ice series, Game of Thrones, has become this odd television juggernaut that has grown a huge fan base well beyond those who read the books when they first game out. Despite some problematic portrayals of sensitive issues for women, for the most part the show is still a modern television masterpiece

This season had some great moments and some rather uncomfortable moments and I think tested a lot of viewers to consider why watched the show. I certainly had my concerns as well but admittedly I decided to continue watching the show regardless. Only time will tell if this was truly best course of action.

[Cartoons] Grand Admiral Thrawn Returns to the Star Wars Universe

The big geek new item from the weekend was the release of the first trailer for Star Wars: Rebels season 3 and the reveal that much beloved EU-now-Legends character Grand Admiral Thrawn was making his return to the Star Wars universe. I say "return" only because he was a solid part of the Star Wars Extended Universe until Disney acquired the Star Wars property and declared all EU material as a new alternate reality known as Legends stories. Given the Rebels cartoon is considered part of the new canon, this make Thrawn once again a canon character.

What is most notable about the Grand Admiral is how Timothy Zahn managed to depict him as a stunningly brilliant tactician the likes of which the known galaxy had never seen. He was a complex individual who would study everything about an enemy's culture in order to gain specific insights into how to defeat them. Thus he would often be depicted as studying artwork from various races in order to get into their heads. And more often than not, he'd be right and thus he would be able to orchestrate fantastic ambushes and attaches that seem almost miraculous.

I was definitely one of the guys screaming like nuts on Saturday when the news broke and I certainly welcome his return. I can't wait to see what beautiful yet terrifying strategies he'll arrange for the rebels. Even better, Timothy Zahn is also writing a new Thrawn book to further cement his position in the new canon.

If you haven't had a chance to watch the Season 3 trailer, you can view the official video below:

[Theater] Virgin LabFest 12 - Set C

I had already posted my review of the Virgin LabFest 12 - Set A shows last week and today's post covers my reviews of the Set C plays. These are the only two sets that we watched this time around primarily because of the connections of friends.

When it comes to experimental theater of this nature, you do expect a wild variety of topics and themes to come up. And while some productions will genuinely surprise you with some very novel and creative ideas, others may fall into the trap of more familiar patterns and ideas and rehashed concepts.

Set C was a weird of the oddly familiar and the strikingly new, although I think it's safe to say that we slanted more towards the former instead of the latter. For a time I was worried that maybe I was unconsciously favoring the play of our friend, but reading other reviews and comments about this set seems to indicate that some of my concerns weren't necessarily unwarranted.

[Books] Time Siege

It was an interesting run reading Wesley Chu's new science fiction venture Time Salvager, which an entirely new story world apart from his Lives of Tao series of books. It was nice to explore new characters and new ideas from his perspective. He had already tackled aliens, so why not time travel right?

Time Siege is the direct sequel to that first novel and is obviously part of a trilogy, as is the way of such things. After the revelations at the end of the first book and the survival of our protagonist (it did get a little dicey), what's next for our heroes? Is there still a chance to save the future by digging into the forgotten knowledge of the past?

This being the middle of a potential trilogy, there will always be a chance that things might feel a little slow or the pace of progress will definitely feel different from the first book. It's a natural time for developing characters, deepening relationships and addressing more internal issues. There are certainly external threats that one must cope with, but that can't be the concern all the time. And so you'll always need books like this to address those character needs.

[Videos] Rick and Morty After Credits Scenes

Rick and Morty is a totally crazy show but one that has some pretty complex plots that somehow manage to resolve themselves within twenty-something minutes. Beyond all the character deaths, there are also a lot of times when things just end on a totally crazy note and one can't  help but wonder how things are to move forward.

Thankfully, each Rick and Morty episode ends with an after credits sequence that might provide a little bit more closure for you. A YouTube user has conveniently put all the after credits scenes together so enjoy these compilations while they last. Going over it, I realize that I seem to have missed one or two for some reason.

[Movies] Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

I can't claim to be the biggest Independence Day movie fan out there, but like many people from my generation I do acknowledge that it was a very fun movie and we all probably watched it more times than we're comfortable to admitting. It was just such  a great summer popcorn movie. You can't deny that fact.

Fast-forward to today and suddenly there's a full sequel to the original movie. The trailers for Independence Day: Resurgence seemed a little weird since they featured at least one character that we had thought to be dead and there was a distinct absence of a certain Will Smith as well. Instead we had these younger actors seemingly at the core of things and big story about the aliens coming back to Earth.

I really had no plans of watching this at the theater since I was already skeptical about how far this sequel could go. The first movie felt like too much of a fluke in terms of how it had all the right elements together to make things work. But to dig up a 90's franchise and find a way to continue the story? Was that even possible?

[Videos] Rick and Morty Death Supercuts

It took a while, but I eventually joined the Rick and Morty camp. And across the first two seasons of the show, we've seen a lot of crazy things including strange aliens, ridiculous alternate realities and of course a lot of death. And we're not just talking about random deaths - we've seen many principle characters (or at least versions thereof) die time and time again.

And for some reason, Adult Swim UK has put together two crazy supercut videos that cover all the deaths in each of the seasons.

Enjoy.

[Theater] Virgin LabFest 12 - Set A

In recent years Tobie and I have made a serious effort to go see plays at the annual Virgin LabFest. Admittedly the initial driver was the participation of friends and other people that we know and that still helps us prioritize which productions to try and get tickets for. VLF of course is one of the more affordable theater events around and thus competition can be pretty fierce.

But we at least got tickets for the sets of plays that we most wanted to see - these being Set A and Set B for Virgin LabFest 12. And during the past weekend we finally got to see Set A despite the adverse weather and terrible Metro Manila traffic on the way to the venue.

We primarily wanted to catch this set of plays since a friend of ours was performing this night. Beyond being friends, we've become fans as he's quite the compelling actor and we only hope that he one day gains the success and recognition that he deserves.

[TV] Mr. Robot: Season 1

Most popular media tends to depict hacking as ridiculous montages of various actors mashing keyboards indiscriminately. And so the hacker life seems somewhat glamorous if you only look at movies since it doesn't seem to take much to become a hacker beyond owning a laptop and a hoodie.

Mr. Robot is an interesting effort to somehow depict hacking in a more realistic manner and also tap into modern hacktivist culture, to some extent. Thus gone are all the green screen computers and close-ups of lightning fast random keyboard tapping and instead we have more well thought out hacks that don't just involve computers.

The series seems to borrow a lot of aesthetics from the Fight Club movie in terms of overall tone. Instead of having an insecure jaded office worker as a narrator, instead we have a brilliant antisocial genius who deals with other people by hacking their information in order to learn more about them.

[TV] Remembering Starcom

Most of my childhood was dedicated to the love of all things Transformers and to some extent robots. But I did happen to have an odd diversion to Starcom toys for one reason or another.These space-themed vehicles were only notable because of mechanized parts opening and of course magnets. And magnets are always worth loving, in my book.

I thought I only had a few vehicles, but looking at this catalog photo I now realize that I had the Tornado Gunship, the H.A.R.V. 7, the Laser Rat, the Six Shooter, and at least the Shadow Vampire. Part of me remembers having the Shadow Parasite as well, but maybe it was wishful thinking.



It's odd that I never actually got to watch the official cartoon that supported the toyline - Starcom: The U.S. Space Force, which in hindsight is a really stupid name. I tried watching a few episodes online, and I see that I didn't really miss anything in its very limited 13 episode run.

I can't fully remember why I had so many of these toys. I guess they were among the unusual US export overruns that ended up at places like the old Uniwide Warehouse Club. They're still toys that I look back somewhat fondly on and I wish I had taken better care of them. Beyond the magnetic gimmick, I loved the effort to make their smaller vehicles modular in the sense that the Six Shooter's cargo hold could contain any of the compatible figures like the Laser Rat or the or the Railgunner. I think I wanted to collect all of the little vehicles just to be able to store them on other vehicles. It was a thing.

[Theater] Green Day's American Idiot (9 Works Theatrical)

The jukebox musical has become the staple of Broadway in recent years. After the success of shows like Mamma Mia! and Jersey Boys, it seems that any artists with a respectable discography now have the potential to have a Broadway show written around their songs. We saw that done locally with Rak of Aegis, and that worked out pretty well.

Green Day's American Idiot is one of the more recent shows to follow in those footsteps, although the source material was a little unexpected. I mean so far we've mostly adapted more wide-appealing pop artists of a sort, but to create a show based around an alternative punk rock group.

Admittedly I used to be quite the Green Day fan back in the day. But I guess I drifted away from this sort of music after college or thereabouts. So it was a little weird to watch this show since it was largely unfamiliar since I didn't follow the original American Idiot album, but also familiar since Green Day has always had such a distinct sound versus other bands. Sure their songs sometimes sound alike, but you still know it sounds like a Green Day song.

[Videos] Artificial Intelligence and Art

We live in a time when Google has developed artificial intelligence programs that seem to be able to create some form of art and or others can even script science fiction short films. This feels particularly interesting since in the past it was argued that one of the defining characteristics of being human (or I suppose sentient) is the ability to create truly original things such as art.


After releasing the above featured episode also written by some sort of an artificial intelligence (AMAZING reading by Mike Rugnetta), PBS Idea Channel decided to tackle this subject in greater details. But instead of focusing on the question of whether or not artificial intelligences can create art, the episode asks if humanity will actually allow them to do so.


What do you think? Is this really art? Is this crazy? Should we just accept the will of our new robot overlords?

[Theater] Godspell (Music Artes)

There are a crazy number of theater companies in Metro Manila - or at least that's how it seems to me. But regardless of the theater company, you're bound to see familiar faces among the cast. And I suppose that just goes to show how small the local theater community is. Regardless of who's producing the show, you're bound to see the same set of actors vying for roles. I'm sure there's a similar phenomenon in other theater hubs like New York.

Godspell took me a little by surprise since I wasn't actively monitoring MusicArtes. They're a bit better known for their concet work and not necessarily musical theater productions such as this one.

At first I was a little reluctant to secure tickets since MusicArtes didn't exactly have a track record to reference plus it's not like I get super excited over religious-themed productions. However looking at the cast got me super excited and so I manged to snag some last-minute tickets despite its very limited 2-week run.

[Movies] Zoolander 2 (2016)

I may not be as big a Zoolander fan as my partner is, I do have a good appreciation for the movie. It's an unusual cultural artifact that could easily be dismissed as just another stupid Ben Stiller movie, but I have to admit a different sort of animal entirely. I can't necessarily say that it's the greatest movie ever, but it does have a unique charm to it and it certainly makes sense.

I don't think any of us could have expected a Zoolander 2 sequel to come along since that sort of mad brilliance isn't necessarily easy to replicate. I think a lot of the first movie's success also had to tie into the time it was released together with the clever writing.

This sequel leans a little heavily on the first movie and it doesn't necessarily stand well on its own, which is a shame for newer viewers who hadn't encountered the original movie. I can understand why the movie didn't quite do so well at the box office. It was really more like an odd extension of the first movie with rather dated humor that really fit better with its original early 2000's vibe.