"Warcraft" - Review

For the Initiated Fans Only

Oh, the never ending turmoil that is video game movie adaptations. There have only been a few that have even been close to being good. The first Mortal Kombat and Disney's Prince of Persia (even with the blatantly white-washed Gods of Egypt style cast) come to mind as movies that were almost good. In certain states of mind, if you catch my drift, Mortal Kombat is probably the greatest 90's film ever made right next to Space Jam. Every other video game movie though? Pure trash. Uwe Boll's legendarily dismal filmography is a testament to that. Remember Super Mario Bros.? Wow, that is a train-wreck. Suffice it to say, video game movies have a lot of room for improvement. So, here we are now in 2016 and for some reason Hollywood really really wants to finally get a good video game movie out there. We had Ratchet & Clank which landed with a dull thud. Angry Birds: The Movie was a little bit better, but still incredibly underwhelming despite its decent animation and its stellar voice cast. Next up is what may be the biggest, most expensive adaptation to date based on quite possibly the video game with the most beloved lore: Warcraft. Surely a franchise with lore so vast and detailed can translate to the screen successfully... right? Well... my answer is a mixed one. As a relative stranger to the source material, I cannot speak for how accurately the games have been translated to the screen. What I can voice in on is if it works as a straight up film. Sadly, it does not quite work. Warcraft is an ambitious effort with impressive aesthetics to spare, but because of an incredibly lazy and unfocused script, extremely poor characterization, and some miscasting, it falls into the camp of Mortal Kombat and Prince of Persia as an almost good movie.

"Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" - Review

It Takes a Lonely Island To Make a Dope Movie

It is almost comical how similar the rise of The Lonely Island mirrors the rise of a certain individual named Justin Bieber. They both came from humble beginnings with a love for creation and performance. They started making content for YouTube and were eventually discovered by other famous people. That gave them the opportunities to build a fanbase and then suddenly explode into fame. The difference that I would note between the two though is that Bieber lost himself in that fame. Perhaps he became popular at too early of an age. The Lonely Island, consisting of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone, came into their popularity a little later on in their lives and it shows in their careers. Over the 15 years they have been a group, they have never lost their particular and unique flavor of comedy music. The same inspired wit is there. The fame only brought them more resources and collaboration opportunities with other "famous people". Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is the culmination of everything The Lonely Island is. Released simultaneously with an album of the same name, the film is stuffed with original music from the group and their trademark sketch comedy and it seems like every person they have ever met in the industry joined in for the fun. Unlike this years unfortunate Zoolander 2, Popstar never gets lost in its numerous cameos and pop culture references. Rather than the references and cameos themselves being the punchlines, they exist to supplement the biting satire that The Lonely Island have already crafted. That satire, born from The Lonely Island coming into fame and fortune as outsiders, is subversive and vicious. Because of this, Popstar is one of the best comedies of the year so far.

'Game of Thrones' - Review: "The Broken Man" (Spoilers)

This week on Game of Thrones, Bronn makes his season 6 return (yayyyyy!) and Ian McShane guest stars. My thoughts on the episode are after the jump.