5 Controversial “Star Wars” Developments We Don’t Hate

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Felix Vasquez

For years I wrote off “Star Wars” as another typical classic film I had zero interest in watching until 1998 when sheer boredom gave way to curiosity. Managing to borrow the original trilogy on VHS from my aunt, I watched it in one entire sitting and loved every minute of it. Since then it’s been a very hectic relationship with the series packed with a lot of love, and a lot of bile. In 2015 “Star Wars Rebels” made me realize I still love the series after a self inflicted hiatus, and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” finally confirmed I wasn’t quite ready to abandon this series just yet. Like any other “Star Wars” geek I have controversial ideas about the series I love and hate, and these are five of the controversial aspects from the whole shebang I don’t hate.

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Our 10 Worst Movies of 2015

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

With the good comes the bad, and 2015 had its fair share of awful films that left audiences and critics running for the doors. There were some films we outright refused to see this year, so you won’t see “The Human Centipede 3” on this list, nor will you be seeing “Joe Dirt 2,” either. We just will not go out of our way to watch a David Spade vehicle. We also didn’t bother with “The Cobbler.” There’s only so much Happy Madison junk we can stomach.

Bad Movies in 2015 that almost made the list includes the pure havoc Happy Madison wrought with the terrible Pixels, the brutally unfunny Paul Blart Mall Cop 2, and the absolutely unwatchable The Ridiculous 6. We almost included Johnny Depp’s terrible Mortdecai, the piss poor lazy prequel Pan, and also considered the Adam Green self love fest Digging Up the Marrow. We also considered adding the lame and dull We Are Your Friends, and seem to be one of the only five people on Earth who hated Bone Tomahawk. There were just more deserving candidates. On to the Worst of 2015…

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Our Top 10 Films of 2015

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

I have to admit, 2015 was a great year for movies. We saw a huge glut in horror films, the welcome ongoing resurgence of the anthology film, Tarantino smashed in to theaters with his new film, and audiences told Hollywood which type of nostalgia is genuine, and which is just exploitative crap trying to take our cash. Some nostalgia like “Creed” and “Goosebumps” were a success, while other efforts like “Jem and the Holograms,” and “Tomorrowland” bombed big time inspiring groans and eye rolls. Most of all we saw the return of “Star Wars,” the “Jurassic Park” series, and the Western. To add some pleasing news to the latter, Kurt Russell was a part of two of the most talked about Western entries of the year. Long live Snake Plissken.

As always our commitment to covering the indie film world has prevented us from watching every movie in 2015. Especially now with many films available on various formats in digital and physical form. It’s tough to keep up. But out of the large array of films we saw in 2015, these were the best.

GREAT MOVIES that almost made the cut includes the horrific We Are Still Here, the darkly funny and creepy The Visit, the underdog superhero flick Ant-Man, another Marvel Cinematic Universe installment The Avengers: Age of Ultron, the shocking and haunting dramatic thriller The Gift, the meta horror comedy adventure Goosebumps, the wonderful feature film adaptation of Charles Shulz’s comic strip The Peanuts Movie, the beautiful Pixar animated drama Inside Out, the gory Tarantino mystery The Hateful Eight, the sequels Fast and Furious 7 and Mission Impossible Rogue Nation, the entertaining horror anthology Tales of Halloween, the gripping documentary Call Me Lucky, and Ridley Scott’s exciting survival drama The Martian. Now on to the Top 10…

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The Brain that Wouldn’t Die (1962) [Blu-Ray]

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

Ah blatant proud misogyny, you truly are something to watch. Never has there been such a misogynistic and anti-woman film as “The Brain that Wouldn’t Die,” the movie that ponder how hard it is to find the right body for your dismembered wife’s head. How does a severed head talk without lungs? Uh—science! I’d definitely call “The Brain that Wouldn’t Die” a bad movie, but only because it’s so painfully up front about its attitude toward women, I had a tough time through most of it.

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Posted on December 21, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

After many years of the “Star Wars” franchise remaining stagnant and relatively convoluted, “The Force Awakens” has come to simplify and completely re-think the movie series. JJ Abrams introduction to his bold new vision for “Star Wars” is a one hundred percent faithful visit to a galaxy far, far away that functions as a platform for a new series, a sequel, and a love letter to the simpler, episodic days of “Star Wars” where every film was an ode to the classic movie serials of the golden age of cinema. This time around “The Force Awakens” actively works in fixing many of the mistakes made in the original six films, by actively casting a wide array of heroes and villains to present a more humanistic environment we can dive in to. And I’m not speaking about a wider array of aliens, but racially diverse characters, all of whom have something to contribute.

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Ghost Warrior (1984)

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

It’s mostly known as “Ghost Warrior,” but I think I prefer the alternate title “Swordkill.” While “Ghost Warrior” is given an insightful and meaningful definition during the narrative, “Swordkill” just makes the movie sound cheap and silly. I’d love to know who thought the title “Swordkill” was a proper summary of what is a dramatic fish out of water film. J. Larry Carroll’s “Ghost Warrior” is a surprisingly straight faced tale of a warrior placed out of his time, who finds that living in mid eighties Los Angeles kind of sucks. The movie is admittedly thin on narrative, but works for the most part as a series of unfortunate events Yoshimitsu experiences. Life sure does suck for the master samurai.

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Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015)

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Felix Vasquez

It’s not often a zombie movie can pay tribute to a ton of classic horror and still come out as one of the genuinely funny and novel horror comedies of the year. “Scout’s Guide” is a fan boy movie from the word go, with big winks like the opening that echo’s “Night of the Creeps,” to small touches like the sign indicating the direction to the town of Haddonfield. And come on, the hilarious trampoline scene is so “Zombies Ate My Neighbors,” I was admittedly giddy. “Scout’s Guide” has a damn good time as a tribute to horror comedy while also painting a pretty good one and done tale about nerds rising to the occasion to save some lives.

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