Sunday, June 26, 2016

Video Game Review: Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park
Sega Genesis

Jurassic Park was a big deal when I was a kid. I saw it over summer break when I was 10 or 11 years old. The movie completely blew me away as no other movie had ever done before. After seeing it I constantly had Jurassic Park on the brain. I got the toys, the clothes. I even managed to convince my parents to get me the book. When school resumed, this was the first question everyone would ask each other: "Did you see Jurassic Park?"

It was a no-brainer that there would be a video game adaptation of the movie, and is it turns out, there have been several. Some good, some not so good. But as a proud Genesis owner back in the early 90's, there was no question in my mind. I was getting the game. Even if I had heard it was terrible, I was going to get it. I loved Jurassic Park that much.

I had been following the game's production very closely. I subscribed to several video game magazines back then, and I basically wore out the pages reading the articles on this game over and over again. I was so excited. Not only did it look amazing, but you got to play the game in two separate ways. As Dr Grant, and as a velociraptor. I was totally sold.




When I finally did get the game, I played it religiously. I explored every nook and cranny of the game with both Dr Grant and as the raptor. No stone was left unturned. I could probably beat the game in my sleep. I was an unquestioned Jurassic Park expert. Even though the game is pretty short and relatively easy - I still managed to find a way to maximize my time with the game and to stretch out the experience for as long as humanly possible.

Eventually, of course, I ended up getting new games. Jurassic Park was pushed to the background. I think I either traded my copy in or gave it away. It didn't matter to me back then - I'd played the game so much I didn't think I would ever have the desire to play it again.

Twenty some years later, the desire returned. But I had traded away my copy and had no way to play it. I always looked for it when I would go to used game stores, but could never find a copy. Enter my cousin Ryan. He is an avid reader of this blog, and offered to loan me his old Genesis games to play and review. Jurassic Park was one of those games. I was ecstatic. All my years of searching, and I finally had my hands on the game.

Would the game withstand the test of time, however?




Of course, the game looks primitive when compared with games released in today's day and age. But that is to be expected. I think the game still looks pretty good, especially when you consider it is well over twenty years old. The environments all look good. The dinosaurs look like... dinosaurs. Dr Grant is recognizable as Dr Grant. Some of the animations are a bit choppy, and there is a significant amount of lag/slowdown from time to time, but it never really bothered me that much.

Music and sound effects are top notch. The raptors sound like they do in the movie, all the little sound effects sound as they should. My only complaint is the T-Rex didn't sound like it did in the film, but that is a minor complaint. The musical score works with each level. It's not an outstanding score by any means, but it does the job.

Gameplay is typical side scrolling shooter fair.

If you play as Dr Grant, you must traverse the island, making your way from the crash site of your Jeep to the Visitor's Center. You face off against a wide variety of dinosaurs along the way, most of which want to eat your face. Weapons are mainly of the non-lethal variety. Tranquilizer guns, stun grenades, knock out gas. I guess it is good that you aren't just running around slaughtering every animal on the island. If you linger, though, the dinosaurs will wake up and start coming after you again. Some of the weapons are lethal, however. Rocket launchers, hand grenades. Those dinosaurs aren't surviving an encounter with one of these. Occasionally you will tangle with the Tyrannosaurus Rex, but take not that he can't be killed. You can only stun him and run by before he recaptures his wits.




The levels are nice, and give a pretty wide representation of environments in the park. You've got your typical jungle levels, a power station, a rafting level, a pumping station, mountainous terrain, volcanic tunnels, and the Visitor Center itself. Each level looks and feels different, so there is no sense of repetition or deja vu as you play the game. My personal favorite level is the rafting one. As Grant, you must ride the rapids as you make your way back to the Visitor Center. You don't just ride the raft however, you must jump out of it from time to time on to dry land, collecting gasoline for the raft's motor and picking up other essential supplies. There are a lot of paths you can take on this level, and also a ton of hidden secrets to find. It's just a really fun level to explore for me.

The only part of the game I really struggled with was the controls. Grant moves in a really herky-jerky fashion. For the most part, it didn't bother me in the game. But there were times (the pump station, cough cough) when this became a very glaring flaw. I died many times due to the shoddy controls. I'm not gonna lie, I did become pretty frustrated with the game at this point.

Make it to the Visitor Center, and complete one final level to escape the island and complete the game.

Escape is not the number one thing on your mind when you play as the velociraptor. After escaping from your pen, you pick up the scent of Dr Grant. Your whole quest involves stalking him through the game in an attempt to eat his flesh. Unfortunately you must contend with a horde of dinosaurs trying to block you from your prize, in addition to to enemy soldiers looking to keep the dinosaurs at bay. Where are all these soldiers during Grant's campaign? Hmmmm....




The velociraptor mode feels more like a side quest than anything. It can be beaten in a fraction of the time it takes to complete Grant's campaign. Mainly you just run from left to right, leaping over or killing anything in your path. There is one level (once again, the pump station) where precision jumping is needed to advance. And again, it is very frustrating. The raptor moves in a very jerky fashion, and it can be hard to get her to do exactly what you want her to do. I died many, many times on this level. It turned out okay in the end, though. It added a little longevity to the raptor portion of the game. Without the having to play the pump station over and over again I would have likely beaten the game in fifteen minutes, if that.

Even though killing Grant is your main objective, you still escape the island when you beat the game. I remember being so excited for the sequel when I was a kid. Hoping that in the second game you'd wreak havoc on the mainland as a velociraptor. But alas, that was not to be.

While I did have fun with the game, and it brought back a lot of great memories, I do have to admit that it is very short. And there is not much replay value here. I beat the game twice - once with Grant and once with the raptor. And I'm good. I have no desire to play any further.




I enjoyed myself, I had a nice stroll down memory lane. There is no denying that for its time, this was a really, really good game. Playing it now, I still like it. But not as much. There's just not a whole lot of substance here, no real reason to keep playing after you've beaten the game. And the game itself was over and done with, both modes of play, in under two hours. I can't imagine paying top dollar for a game such as this in this day and age - and then being done with it in under two hours. And the controls, man. The controls really could have used a little fine tuning before this game's release.

This is a good game, no doubt. And it pulls enough sentimental value with me to get a solid grade. But I question whether it is a true classic. It's no Mario Bros, it is no Contra. Heck it isn't even Judge Dredd or Taz-Mania. It's a solid game, but without the Jurassic Park license, no doubt it would have been forgotten by me a long time ago.


Overall:
B

Monday, June 6, 2016

Video Game Review: Flower

Flower 
PlayStation 3


Flower is a lovely game.

It feels weird using that word to describe a video game. Lovely. But it is appropriate. I can't think of a better word to describe the game, actually.

When I first gave Flower a try, I didn't know what to expect. It had been out for several years and I was familiar with hearing the name, but as far as what the game was about or how it played, I had no clue. I was told it was a "relaxing" game, but that seemed odd to me. How could a game be relaxing?

It is true, though. The game is very relaxing. There is no combat, no death, no conflict. As far as story line goes, I don't think this game even really has one. You may ask: a game with no combat and no story line - how does this work?




The concept of the game is hard to explain. I tried to look at it while playing it as a unique kind of flight simulator. There are 6 stages in the game, and at the beginning of each stage you start out as a lone flower petal hovering in the air.

The game only uses one button. Basically, any button on the controller that you want to use (for the record, I used the R1 shoulder button). This button moves your flower petal forward. How you control the flower petal - whether it be moving it up, down, left, or right - depends on how you tilt the controller.

There really is no better way to describe it than as a flight simulator. Tilt the controller left, the petal goes left. Point it down, it goes down. Pull up, and you lift into the sky. There is a little bit of a learning curve with how to control your flower petal, especially since so many PS3 games don't utilize the motion sensors in the controller too often, but it really isn't that difficult.

The purpose of the game is to collect stuff. As I mentioned, you start out each stage controlling a lone flower petal. You must fly around and touch other plants and flowers, and they add petals to your uh... character? Can you call it that? Think of it as a snowball effect. The more stuff you touch and the more stuff you collect, the bigger your whirling collection of petals becomes.




Each stage has certain goals you must collect to complete said stage. A very simple example - say you enter a stage with an open field. In this field are 3 glowing yellow plants located at opposite ends of the field. Touch one yellow plant, and a dozen red flowers bloom up out of the grass nearby. You must collect these. Then go to the next yellow plant, touch it, and another collection of red flowers blooms nearby. You must touch all the yellow plants and collect all the red flowers to move on to the next area. This is a very generic example, but an effective one. Basically all you do in this game is fly around and collect stuff.

It sounds boring, but it really isn't. As the game progresses, the levels get bigger and you have to start searching harder to find what you are supposed to do in order to advance. Again, there are no enemies or no fight scenes in this game. Anyone could pick up and play this game and excel at it, depending on if they can handle the controls while flying or not.

While the game is fun, where it really shines is in its audio and visual effects. They are clearly the stars of the game. This game is simply gorgeous to look at, and I don't throw around that term lightly. Each stage is bright and vibrant, with colors popping all over the place. Even if a stage at first seems dark and gloomy, it is your goal to bring light and color to the area




For example, in one stage that takes place at night, there is a flower you collect that makes the whirligig of assorted flower petals you control shine like a beacon. You can use this light to brighten the area, touching light posts to turn them on and bringing illumination to the area. Another area in the game turns your petal collection a bright color, and you become a paintbrush of sort. If you swoop down and fly through the grass, you paint the grass with whatever color you decided to become.

If an area seems dead or colorless, the more you collect, the brighter you make it. If there is a large area of dead grass, chances are that you can make it green by collecting everything in the area. If there is a story line to this game, I guess it is that your character flies around bringing light and life to everything it touches. It's on a mission to make the world a more lively and beautiful place.

The colors in the game are amazing. It really feels like you are picked up and transported to another world at times. You know the movie Avatar - how the world of the Na'vi is so brightly colored and glowing and beautiful and amazing looking? This game manages to replicate that feeling of awe and beauty, but on a much bigger and more immersive scale.

You haven't really played Flower unless you've truly immersed yourself in the game. When you play this - turn off the lights, put on some headphones, and dive in. The feeling of flying through the air, light as a feather, is amazing. Up in the air, riding the breeze, ducking down to the ground and skimming through the grass. It is truly awesome. The worlds you explore are well designed, the goals you must complete are simple but clever. It is one of the most immersive games I have ever played.




The game is short, however, and easy to boot. Expect to easily finish this in one night. If I had shelled out 50 or 60 bucks for this, I probably would have been very upset and it would have affected my final score greatly. But hey, I got it for free so I can't complain.

As a game, Flower isn't the best thing known to mankind. It's short, there is almost no challenge to it. No story line to speak of. As an experience, however, it is epic. Great graphics, fun controls, a giant, beautiful world to explore. You definitely feel like you are a part of something bigger when you play this game. Whether or not you like the game depends on if you think a game with no action or story line is worth playing. I don't see how you couldn't like this game, but I am sure there are some who don't.

It has my stamp of approval, however. If some day a game manages to combine the graphics, atmosphere, and immersion effect of Flower with a powerful story line and cutting edge combat and controls, it would be the perfect game. Instead, we just half to settle for a glimpse of what the future of gaming has in store for us.


Overall:
B+

Friday, June 3, 2016

Video Game Review: Sword of the Berserk: Gut's Rage

Sword of the Berserk: Guts Rage
Sega Saturn


This is a game that I bought over 15 years ago, despite not knowing anything of what it was about. I just so happened to see this game in a bargain bin at a used video game store. It was dirt cheap, like in the 3 or 4 dollar range. My Dreamcast collection was looking sad at the time, so I bought the game for shits and giggles.

I played it and had a decent time with the game. But it was short and I was through with it in one night. It didn't leave a big impression on me. Looking back, all I can remember about it is that there were lengthy cutscenes and a lot of sword slashing battles. The game got shelved, and little did I know it would be 15 years before I ever picked the game up to play it again.

A lot has changed in my life since I last played this game. Back in 2000 or 2001 I was living with my parents. Now in 2016 I am married and on my own. Older and wiser.




My standards apparently have raised because while I recall liking this title back in the day, I didn't enjoy it playing it again 15 years later. The game really hasn't aged well. Graphically, it looks fine. Yeah this is an early Dreamcast title, but things don't look too awful. There are nice environments, detailed characters.

The voice acting is decent. I recognized several famous voices from other video games. For example - both Colonel Campbell and Liquid Snake are voices in the game. The music is fine. The sound effects are fine. Everything is fine yet unspectacular. Where the game stumbles in my estimation is in its gameplay.

This is a hack n slash title like God of War or Heavenly Sword. Normally I like these types of games, but Sword of the Berserk feels broken. There are no lock on attacks, so unless you are facing in the exact direction of your enemy, you will miss with your attack. This happens a LOT over the course of the game, and it is very annoying because it takes your character a second or two to recover from swinging his sword, and this leaves you vulnerable to attack.

Combat isn't terrible deep either. It is mainly just dodging enemy attacks and mashing the attack button over and over again. The game does give you items to use in combat. There are potions that restore your health, guns that do massive damage, and smoke bombs that cause moderate damage and help you break away from enemy attacks. One of the few bright spots in the game for me is the fact that you have a meter that fills up as you dole out damage. When the meter hits the top, you go into a rage where your attacks are extra powerful, and nothing the enemies can do will hurt you. When you think about games like God of War and Dante's Inferno that have this feature, it doesn't seem like anything too original. But when you realize that this game came out long before any of those titles, you realize that Sword of the Berserk is a little bit of a trend setter.




I mentioned that swordplay feels broken at times, and one area where it feels especially broken is in close quarters combat. Your character uses a big ass sword as his main weapon, however this sword hits the wall when you are fighting in close quarters. While your character recovers from the brief after shock of hitting the wall, again the game leaves you vulnerable to attack from your enemies. There are areas in the game where you must fight hordes of enemies in tight quarters, so this can be very, very annoying.

There isn't much variety in the gameplay. Most levels consist of big fights where you must destroy giant respawning swarms of enemies to move on. As I played the game, I learned that in some places you don't even have to kill all your enemies. You can just run to the end of the stage and move on to the next area without swinging your sword even once. Seeing as how there is no incentive to staying around and fighting the enemies (no experience points, weapon upgrades, etc) I ended up doing this quite often to save time.

At least boss battles are interesting. Each boss requires you to use different strategies and techniques to beat them. Some of these require a little trial and error, which I didn't mind. There is one boss in particular - this giant black dragon cat thing that is really, really difficult to beat. I wanted to chuck my controller at the wall several times while fighting this son of a bitch. Eventually I found the winning combination needed to beat him and move on, but it took quite some time.

Those are your three basic stages. Running from enemies, fighting swarms of them, and battling bosses. There are some quick time events thrown in to keep things interesting, but these are few and far between, and none of them are difficult. Towards the end of the game, there is a stage where you must run through a corridor while it collapses behind you, avoiding obstacles along the way. This is very frustrating to pass and feels poorly designed. If you run out of lives, you must fight the game's previous boss over again. This happened quite often to me. Once again, this game made me want to chuck my controller at the wall.




Speaking of poor design, the save system here is abysmal. The game saves automatically, but you really have to pay attention or you won't even notice it happening. And if you happen to turn off your game when it hasn't saved in a long time, you will find yourself having to play through old stages to make it back to where you left off. The game is about three hours long give or take, and it only saves about 3 or 4 times throughout the entire duration of the game. The worst thing in the world is dying during a boss battle and then having to replay long chunks of game to get you back to the boss fight.

The game is very story driven, and I find that I enjoyed the story more than I did the actual game. It's about a swordsman named Guts who is traveling with a magical fairy and a seemingly autistic woman. On their travels, they encounter a kingdom infested with a sickness that turns people into violent zombie like creatures. Guts is enlisted by a seriously evil dude who is in charge of the area to go retrieve an item which supposedly will eradicate the Mandragoran scourge. But in a twist surprising to no one, the evil dude wants the item for himself to turn himself into some kind of all powerful super being. At least, that's the basics I got out of the story. Some of the cutscenes are quite lengthy, and I found my attention drifting on more than one occasion.

As I said, the best part of the game is the story - and even the story isn't that great. I read after the fact that the game is based on a Japanese manga series, so it looks like this is just a small chapter out of the adventures of Guts and his traveling companions. Even though I wasn't that crazy about the story, I am sort of interested in checking out this manga now. Just out of curiosity.




I think it is a fair assessment to say that I got what I paid for with this game. It was a bargain bin title. I only paid 3 or 4 bucks for it. I don't think I expected it to be great when I bought it. And its not. Was it worth the money? Sure. I played through it twice. Put about 6 or 7 total hours into it.

I don't think I'll ever play this title again. In fact, I feel as if I am probably going to trade this game in now that I am done with it. Usually I like to hang on to my games when I finish them because I never know if I am going to feel the urge to play them again. But I just can't see myself ever wanting to play this again. I'm good with letting it go.

This is an occasionally fun, mostly sloppy and annoying game. I was able to derive a little bit of entertainment from the title, so it is not a complete failure. And I think back in 2000 or 2001 when I played this I enjoyed it and had a good time. So there's always that. But yeah, this game is not for me. At least not anymore.


Overall:
D

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

2016 Movie Ranking Countdown: May

The month of May has come to an end, and it is time to pick the top 5 favorite movies that I watched during this 5th month of the year. These top 5 will move on to my end of the year ranking list where, after a brutal 10 movie cut, I shall rank in order my 50 favorite movies watched in 2016.

There is not much to choose from in May, as I've only watched 7 films this month. 2 will be eliminated, and 5 will move on.



I've seen this miniseries (which I shall from here on out refer to as a movie) a handful of times over the years, and I generally find that I've always enjoyed it. I had just finished reading the book version of It when I decided to give the movie another watch. It had been about 5 years or so since I'd last seen It, and I wanted to know if my reading of the book would change my thoughts on if I liked it or not.

Understandably, they had to change a lot of things to fit the 1000 page book into a 3 hour made for TV movie, so a lot of content was dropped from the novel. I didn't mind this though, and accepted the changes and alterations to the plot that they made. It is a well cast movie, especially in the area of Pennywise and the kid versions of the Losers Club. The adult versions of the kids I was meh about, with the exception of a few.

The way they adapted the story of the book was decent - with the first part of the miniseries mainly focusing on Mike Hanlon's phone calls, and each person's flashbacks to their initial memories of It. Then the second part was about everyone coming to Derry and tracking down It and killing it once and for all.

There are some scary moments, some moments that have not aged well at all. But I enjoyed myself a lot here. As far as book to TV adaptations go there have been a lot worse than this. A LOT worse. I thought this was pretty good.



I visited California earlier in the month, and during my vacation I happened to pass through the Big Sur area on a trip down the coast. Fascinated by what I had seen, I searched for Big Sur on Netflix after I returned home to see if there were any documentaries or travel shows about the area. The only thing to come up was this movie.

I decided to give it a go, despite its one star rating. I should have known better. The movie was terrible. Like, excruciatingly bad. It's about a beatnik author named Jack Kerouac (apparently he is very famous, although I had never heard of him) who spends time at Big Sur to unwind and get away from the "real world". The movie cuts back and forth between his time at Big Sur and his life in the city, where he is a big drinker and womanizer. Often there are voice overs of Jack reading from his novel while collage scenes play out on the screen.

The movie, I am sorry to say, is garbage. Its a confusing mess with unlikable characters and obnoxious ramblings by some dickwad who thinks he is a lot smarter and insightful than he actually is. I liked the scenery in the movie, but that was it. I'd have to say this ranks as one of, if not THE worst, movies I have seen all year. Suffice it to say, it will not be making my top 5 for this month.



Last year I had decided to watch the first two Star Wars prequels, then the TV show the Clone Wars, then Revenge of the Sith in order. Well, the cartoon is taking longer than I had expected to watch, so I decided to go ahead and watch Revenge of the Sith even though I am only on season 4 of the Clone Wars. I just had a really odd urge to watch this movie which I can't explain.

I've always considered this the best of the prequels, the only one I have ever legitimately enjoyed while watching. And this definitely still holds up. Sure there are silly moments with the special effects and the CGI. The acting still isn't wonderful. But on the whole I find this to be much, much better than its predecessors.

The action is better and less corny, the plot moves along at a faster and at a more cohesive clip (get that taxation of trade routes shit out of here), and I just find that I had a really good time watching it. Yeah, the prequels still as a whole suck, but at least they managed to make one decent movie out of the bunch.



I actually had watched this movie a month or two ago, but had forgotten to add it to my list. My only choices were either to not include it on the list at all (which I never really considered) or throw it into the month of May, although I didn't actually watch it in May. So I have decided to go ahead and add it as a May movie. It's my list, I can make up the rules if I want!

I found this movie to be pretty good. It is a fast paced thriller that keeps you guessing with strong twists and turns and a fast moving plot line. It mainly focuses on an escaped convict who returns home to hook up with his ex, who he is devastated to find has been seeing another man in his absence. He confronts her and things go terribly wrong.

Events lead him to the house of a seemingly random stranger. He tells the woman that his car has broken down, and she invites him in. Then, a deadly game of cat and mouse begins. I won't spoil the twists, but the movie definitely takes a few unexpected turns along the way.

The only thing I didn't enjoy about the movie was the fact that the female lead made a lot of questionable choices throughout the film, mainly in how she handles the man who comes to her door in the middle of the night. It is like everything that a woman on her own should NOT do, she does the opposite. But still on the whole it was a solid movie.



It is a little surprising that I never watched this as a kid, seeing as how obsessed I was with the first two TMNT movies. But I was a big fan of Shredder and some of the story lines from the cartoon. When I saw that this movie was moving away from all that (No Shredder, no Krang, no mutant opponents like Baxter Stockman or Rocksteady and Bebop) and had instead decided to focus on time traveling back to feudal Japan, my 12 year old self became supremely annoyed. Plus I had read reviews that the movie was bad.

I never went to see this in the theater, never even got it when it came out on home video. Somehow I completely managed to avoid watching this until I reached the ripe old age of 33 - 21 years after the release of the film.

Unfortunately, the reviews I had read about the movie being bad were true. This was pretty terrible. I was willing to give it a chance, but I just couldn't get into it. The jokes are bad, the story line is uninspired, and the characters and fight scenes are all just as meh as you can be. They had a good thing going with the first two TMNT movies, I don't know why they strayed from the formula here. Shortly after this movie came out, TMNT's popularity faded immensely. I can't help but think that this movie had something to do with that. Thanks a lot, TMNT 3.

You ruined the Turtles for me.



I wasn't sure what to expect of this coming in. I am not a huge Dicaprio fan, nor am I a big fan of "man vs nature" type movies. There are some that I like, such as Life of Pi and Castaway for example. But on the whole I tend to get bored with this genre of film.

It turns out that there is much, much more than man vs nature to this title. The movie is extremely immersive, great location, great atmosphere, great set pieces. You feel like you have actually transported back in time when watching this movie. The acting is great, in particular Tom Hardy's character, who I thought outshined Dicaprio.

I'm a fan of blood, gore, and violence and this movie definitely delivers the goods. The Indian attack, the assault by the bear, the big fight at the end of the film: all awesome. One scene where Leo has to cut open a dead horse Luke Skywalker style and shove himself into its steaming corpse to survive a cold night was particularly awesome to me.

I expected to be bored by the movie. Didn't expect a lot of dialogue, didn't expect much action. I just thought it would be Leonardo Dicaprio trudging around in the snow for 2 plus hours. But this movie had it all. Great location, great acting, great violence and gore. The revenge plot isn't overly innovative or original, but I enjoyed that as well. This is the first time all year I watched a movie where I thought "hey this could actually win my end of the year ranking."

Will it? Maybe. There's still a lot of 2016 left, though.



I'm a big Rocky fan, plus I have heard that this movie was excellent, so it was a no brainer I'd be watching this movie as soon as I could get my grubby mitts on a copy of it.

The film follows Adonis Creed, the bastard son of famed Rocky rival Apollo Creed. Despite having a troubled youth, he grows up to be an exceptionally bright young man who discovers he has a talent for boxing. He leaves behind a promising business career to follow in his father's footsteps in the boxing ring.

He starts at the bottom of the heap and works his way up with the help of his reluctant mentor Rocky Balboa. Stallone is at the top of his game as an old, broken down Rocky who is going through health problems. Michael P Jordan is amazing as Adonis as well. It is a superbly acted movie with a fun root for the underdog plot line. The final scene of the movie is very intense and keeps you on the edge of your seat. You can't help but root for Adonis the whole way through this film as he is one of the most likable characters you ever meet in a movie.

The film is an up and down emotional roller coaster, and definitely left its impression on me. I'd recommend this to anyone, regardless of whether they are familiar with the Rocky series or not. Just as I thought the Revenant was the only film I watched so far that could possibly win my end of year ranking, along comes Creed. Great movie that I plan to watch again before the year is out.



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What is moving on this month? Well, the pickings are slim with only 7 movies watched in May - and 5 moving on. If you read my write ups at all, you should know this is a no brainer. I hated Big Sur and TMNT 3, and there is no way in hell those movies are moving on.

We shall see Creed, The Revenant, All Good Things, Revenge of the Sith, and It and the end of the year when I rank my top 50 films watched in 2016.



Here's all my combined top fives from each month so far for the year:

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Cake
American Sniper
Predator
Friday the 13th Part 2
Locke
Evil Dead
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter
Elysium
Snowpiercer
Room
Manson Family Vacation
Deadpool
Goodnight, Mommy
Unforgiven
Big Driver
The Martian
Pixels
JFK: The Smoking Gun
Crimson Peak
It
Creed
The Revenant
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
No Good Deed


Here's to a great June of movie watching! I really want to see Captain America Civil War, and I have had a weird craving to watch Zombieland and the Perfect Getaway lately. But who knows what will randomly catch my interest on Netflix?