Tag Archives: Action

Solo: A Star Wars Story review

02 Saturday Jun 2018

Posted by in Films

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Han shot first!  Seriously this time!

by Thom Yee

solo-a-star-wars-story-one

Solo: A Star Wars Story images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

If you asked me when I was a kid which movie hero I liked better — Indiana Jones or Han Solo — I probably would’ve answered “… was Han Solo the guy in the vest?”  And if you asked me how smooth or cool a character I thought Lando Calrissian was in Empire, I don’t think there’s any way you would’ve been able to remind me of who Lando is, what he did, or how he acted in that movie (and I probably wouldn’t have been one hundred percent sure which movie you were referring to when you called it “Empire” [_______of the Sun?  _______Records?]).  Such was the importance of Star Wars in my childhood. Which is why I don’t feel at all precious about a Han Solo origin movie.

Continue reading →

Deadpool 2 review

26 Saturday May 2018

Posted by in Weekends

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

FFUUUUU—

by Thom Yee

deadpool-2-one

Deadpool 2 images courtesy of 20th Century Fox

Deadpool’s never really been my kind of comicbook hero.  He’s dangerous, unhinged from reality and doesn’t take life seriously, but not in a frightening, Joker kind of way.  Deadpool’s more of an annoying, won’t-shut-up, Spider-Man type, only, unlike Spider-Man, he’s not masking his own insecurities or expressing himself in a way he can’t in real life.  No, Deadpool’s just annoying, and he constantly f*cks with people because that’s who he is on the inside, and I don’t really like that kind of character (or person).  For a long time that was fine too, the only type of person that liked Deadpool was a certain type of comicbook nerd, a subset of a group of people nobody in reality cared about or wanted to spend any time around anyway, but then, all of a sudden, Deadpool was, like, the biggest deal in the world, the titular lead character of his own titular action-comedy movie, and played by one of the most comically handsome and spastically charming men in the world.  And by the end of all of that, I didn’t really like Deadpool much more. Continue reading →

Avengers: Infinity War review

05 Saturday May 2018

Posted by in Films

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Thanos was right

by Thom Yee

avengers-infinity-war-loki-one

Avengers: Infinity War images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

This world doesn’t make sense any more.  Californians are intentionally drinking untreated, unsterilized water they’re buying “off the grid” while people in Flint, Michigan still have too much lead in their taps.  A ridiculous, Immortan-Joe-esque ignoramous is the President of the United States.  Vaping is a thing.  And Thanos is a major figure in our popular culture.  Those four things might seem unrelated at first, but I’m pretty sure they all have megalomania and super-villainy at the heart of their origins.  But we’re mostly here to talk about that last one, Thanos, today, because, as of April 27, 2018, people — normal people all over the world — suddenly knew who Thanos is.  And the opportunity to talk about Thanos?  As if he was something or someone people might know about?  Someone people might actually care about?  That makes almost no sense!  That’s almost insane!
Continue reading →

Pacific Rim: Uprising review

31 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by in Weekends

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

Today we are SEQUELIZING THE APOCALYPSE!

by Thom Yee

pacific-rim-uprising-one

Pacific Rim:  Uprising images courtesy of Universal Pictures

There are only a handful of movies important enough that I make sure to have them somewhere on my person at all times.  It’s a pretty big handful actually.  Maybe closer to, like, 10 handfuls—I’m a media hoarder that way.  Though I’m not sure if ‘handfuls’ are the best way of quantifying movies in the first place.  But, even amongst all of those important movie handfuls, the first movie I’ll always put on any new phone, tablet, or computer I buy (or otherwise come into possession of) is Guillermo Del Toro’s Pacific Rim.  Or “PacRim” as we’ve started calling it now that its sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising, is here. ~shudder~ Continue reading →

Black Panther review

24 Saturday Feb 2018

Posted by in Films

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Am I woke now?  I think I’m woke now!

by Thom Yee

black-panther-one

Images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Something I hear a lot around this time of year is “Happy New Year!”  And not usually from Chinese people either, from people who, I think, feel a measure of personal progress when they say it to people who look like me.  “Happy New Year!” they say to us.  In the middle of February.  Weeks later than January 1st.  I’m not saying that I really mind when I hear it, I’m not trying to judge people when I hear them say it to me, almost any recognition and celebration of other cultures is a good thing, I’m just saying that when I hear Happy [Chinese] New Year, I can’t help but think to myself, “It’s not my New Year.”  Sometimes with several exclamation points at the end. Continue reading →

Star Wars: The Last Jedi review

20 Saturday Jan 2018

Posted by in Films

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

What if we AREN’T here for a reason?

by Thom Yee

star-wars-last-jedi-one

Star Wars: The Last Jedi images courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

“BOBA Fett?”  “Boba FETT??”  “…What!?!”

I’m pretty sure that’s how it went the first time I’d ever heard the name Boba Fett coming from the mouth of a Star Wars fan.  What the hell is a “Boba Fett”? I thought to myself [probably].  I’d soon learn that he was a warrior, a bounty hunter, and, apparently, a real badass in the Star Wars canon.  He was a fan favourite and certainly seemed interesting, and he even had an unusual out-of-story origin as a character fans first met as a mail-away action figure and in the Star Wars Holiday Special, years before he would make any major impact on the movies themselves.  And then I found out he was just this guy.  And I wondered to myself, “Why the hell would anyone care about that guy?” Continue reading →

The Punisher (Season 1) review

09 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by in Television

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Maybe you should just shoot him!

by Thom Yee

punisher-one

The Punisher images courtesy of Marvel Television, ABC Studios, and Netflix

“Sure, I use a lot of automatic weapons and they have their place in combat.  But I also have gone into my share of combat with a pump shotgun.  The U.S. Marines use a Remington Model 870.  I made great use of several in Vietnam, where I kept a cut-down shotgun close to me at all times.  We’d cut down the barrel to, like 10” and load it up with 00 buckshot.  Because, when ambushed, you might get the piece pointed in the general direction before you pulled the trigger.  But, sometimes that was all that would be needed.  Rapid-fire shot loads have the same effect as machine-gun fire, especially when there’s more than one shotgun.” Continue reading →

Justice League review

25 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by in Films

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , ,

Meanwhile, in the universe formerly known as the DCEU

by Thom Yee

justice-league-one

Justice League images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

If you had told me back in 2007 — just one year after the disastrous X-Men:  The Last Stand stalled that franchise to the point of needing a soft reboot and just one year before Robert Downey Jr.’s debut as Iron Man would kick off Marvel’s own Cinematic Universe — that the next ten years in movies would be dominated by superheroes, I’d have thought you were joking.  And yet, here we are, a full ten years later and a full five years of reviewing them here at GOO Reviews (yesterday in fact marked our fifth anniversary), and superhero movies have gone from rarity to occasional hit to the driving force behind Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters.  It’s superhero movies that make most of the money in Hollywood these days, it’s superhero (and superhero-like) movies that executives want most to produce and fanboys want most to see, and it’s superhero movies that, as of 2017 with the release of Logan, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man:  Homecoming, Thor:  Ragnarok, and the subject of this review, are now coming out at a rate of at least six per year (and that’s not even counting tangential 2017 superhero releases like LEGO Batman or Power Rangers). Continue reading →