Mortal Kombat

A couple of weeks ago I stumbled upon an excellent article from The Hollywood Reporter commemorating the 20th anniversary of 1995’s film based on the controversial hit fighting videogame of the same name, Mortal Kombat (trailer. I upgraded to the BluRay release of Mortal Kombat as soon as it hit stores in 2009. I remember this because it came with a code for an exclusive costume download for the PS3 version of Mortal Kombat that just came out a little earlier in 2009. I watched my old DVD copy of the film many times, but unfortunately the BluRay has remained in the backlog box since I picked it up six years ago. Seeing that awesome write up on the 20th anniversary of the movie however inspired me to rewatch what many still consider to be one of the few quality videogame films among a sea of terrible videogame movies.

Before we get going, I just have to disclose how much of an MK nut I was way back when this came out in 1995 when I was 12. At the time Mortal Kombat 3 was tearing up the arcades and about to hit release on the 16-bit systems. Our family could not afford a SNES/Genesis even that late in their lifecycles, but I did put in ample time in the arcades and at my friends who owned the game. While I did not own the 16-bit versions, I did get the first two MK games on GameBoy for Christmas. So while everyone was enjoying their quality console versions of the game complete with gore and a full roster of characters with all their vintage moves and bloody fatalities, I somehow convinced myself that the watered down GameBoy version with no blood, T-rating friendly fatalities and missing characters was almost on par with the arcade/console experience. I also picked up all and devoured all the MK comics put out by Malibu in the mid-90s and got crazy into the lore and cannon of the MK universe. I still love the story for the MK games, and I am a big fan with what Neatherrealm/WB Games have done with the amazing story modes in the last couple of MK games that came out.

I vividly recall being so psyched for the film that was about to come out. I also remember digging the Street Fighter film that hit in late 1994, and while I like me some Street Fighter, I have always preferred MK and convinced myself that the MK film was going to be vastly superior. I knew of no other friends or family that wanted to see this with me at the theaters, but thankfully I managed to get my dad to drop me off at the Columbia 4 it was playing at on its opening weekend. I emerged from the film in high spirits, and with that catchy theme song stuck in my head for what seemed like an eternity afterwards.

The film focuses primarily on the cast of the first game, with a couple of cameos from the sequel. The three primary protagonists are Liu Kang (Robin Shou), Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) and Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson). They all have been chosen to compete in the Mortal Kombat tournament headed up by the treacherous sorcerer, Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). They have the thunder god, Lord Raiden (Christopher Lamber) at their side to guide them into the right direction and prevent Shang Tsung’s forces from emerging victorious in the tournament where what else but the very fate of Earth is at stake.

I thought the film did a tremendous job at remaining loyal to most of the settings, cast and lore from the videogame. I also want to give props to whoever was in charge of the set design, because even all these years later I still love all the different sets of the various temples, arenas and sandy beaches where the tournament bouts transpire. Outworld is the name of the realm where the final act of the film takes place, and the folks at New Line did a bang up job making it look like a dastardly place with countless skulls, corpses and other evil looking artifacts littered about that combine to make a sinister-looking set piece to wage war in.

The setup is very simple and straightforward, and it avoids the pitfalls that hit other films based on fighting videogames like The Legend of Chun-Li, Tekken 2 and The King of Fighters that try to make it into one grand big soap opera that is too ambitious for its own good. Stay faithful to the lore of the franchise, and have a tournament with a ton of fights for me to eat up and I will most likely be along for a good ride as I was here and with other films that got the formula right like the first Tekken film and Dead or Alive. After a few scenes laying the groundwork for the tournament and introducing you to everyone, you are in for a treat as it is nearly nonstop fight after fight for the film’s second act. There is a little bit of breathing room to set up the final Liu Kang/Shang Tsung showdown.

With the MK film coming just only two years after the disastrous Super Mario Bros. film that was very loosely connected to the landmark videogame franchise it was much appreciated to see the filmmakers treat the franchise with respect and with a faithful adaptation of the film’s cast and lore. Props to director Paul W.S. Anderson for helping throw as many little nods to fans of the game as possible whether it be trying to cram in as many vintage moves and powers the characters are famous for in the games to getting in as many fatalities and even sneaking in a friendship finishing move into the film. Yes, that is right, I completely forgot that before he became known as the man responsible for writing all and directing most of the Resident Evil films, that Mr. Anderson got his first videogame film notoriety with this adaptation of Mortal Kombat.

I mentioned earlier the film has a catchy theme song, and as a matter of fact the whole score is well crafted. If you read that article from the Hollywood Reporter, you will discover the filmmakers wanted to go against the grain of a recommended metal soundtrack and instead dominated it with electronica/trance music that comprises most of the score. It turned out to be the perfect fit, and I could not help but enthusiastically bop my head along to it whenever it kicked in for another fight scene. This is only one of several movies I went out and got the soundtrack for, and there has been countless fan remixes made in tribute to it over the years.

One thing that has not aged well for this film is the special effects. In 1995 New Line tried their best to showcase their latest and greatest CG, and I recall being petrified way back when witnessing Scorpion’s wicked looking harpoon he shoots out of his hand and other special power’s like Sub-Zero’s freeze attacks that looked impressive for 1995. Now almost all of the CG featured in MK is laughable at best, with it not holding a candle to what modern network television shows are capable of. Seriously, some of it is ridiculous looking nowadays with Raiden’s teleporting and Shang Tsung’s soul sucking abilities standing out as even more dated-looking in glorious BluRay HD.

I remember the only extra on the original DVD release was just a theatrical trailer. That trailer is still here, along with a trailer for the 2009 reboot videogame, but there is one other bonus feature we get that is exclusive to the BluRay and that is The Journey Begins, a 40 minute animated tie-in to the film. It is a bizarre beast that came out alongside the film when animation was in a transition at the time from the traditional hand drawn cartoons that dominated Saturday mornings to CG animation that is commonplace in animated films and cartoons today. The Journey Begins tries its best to hybrid poorly drawn 2D characters against CG backdrops, and transitions into very rough looking 3D animated fight scenes peppered throughout its duration. It looks quite awful all these years later, and it is maybe worth watching it for a couple of minutes just to witness this abomination of animation. It is too bad there is no commentary or behind-the-scenes feature catching up with the cast and crew all these years later, so instead I will once again point you to that awesome Hollywood Reporter piece that interviews a majority of the cast and crew and is as close to an extensive behind-the-scenes piece we are going to get on the film and it is filled with a ton of facts and insight on what it took to pull off and other crazy antics that happened off camera.

As you can see I am still crazy nostalgic and biased for this film. Laughably outdated CG aside, Mortal Kombat is still one of my favorite videogame films of all time. I know that is faint praise considering its competition, but I am still as much of a MK fan all these years later, and it was a blast reliving all these fight scenes and bopping along to the soundtrack all over again. If you have not seen this before, it most likely will be a little hard to watch for the first time compared to 2015 theatrical standards, but if you have fond memories of it like I did then you cannot go wrong busting this one out again.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs


3
12 Angry Men (1957)
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
Dirty Work
Faster
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Ink
Man of Steel
Marine 3 & 4
Mortal Kombat
The Replacements
Rocky I-VI
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Source Code
Star Trek I-XII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
Veronica Mars
The Wrestler (2008)

The Replacements

Since I marked the beginning of baseball season earlier this year with a review of the hardball classic, For Love of the Game, I am marking the beginning of football season this year with a review of one of my favorite goofball football films, 2000’s The Replacements (trailer). I watched this many times around the turn of the century in the years following its release, but it has probably been a decade since I busted it out, and I was ecstatic that it got a long overdue BluRay release just a few months ago. Needless to say, it did not stay in the backlog box for all that long.

Remember how a few years ago the NFL almost went on strike and the sports world nearly went bonkers after we ended up missing only one preseason game and ESPN went out of their way interviewing arena laborers about how they were going to make a living by missing their NFL gameday paydays? Meanwhile the NHL went on strike for about a third of their season later that year and no one really bothered to blink an eye at them. Anywho, The Replacements throws a what if scenario out there if a strike really happened midseason and the league ended up using replacement players to finish out the season. Since the NFL does not want to envision a strike ruining a season, they or the NFLPA did not endorse this film, so instead we get a fake NFL logo representing this fictitious league and fake teams ala Any Given Sunday, and the starring team of this film is the Washington Sentinels. If the Redskins do wind up getting renamed, I vote they change it to the Sentinels in honor of this legendary sports film, much like if the Chiefs are forced to rename then I want them renamed the Chefs after that legendary Snickers commercial.

The film opens with the Sentinels tracking down former coach Jimmy McGinty (Gene Hackman) out of retirement to finish out the season, and we get a very nice opening montage of the ragtag group of washouts and former pros he assembles to play out the rest of the Sentinels’ season. Notable recruits include the super fast smooth talker Clifford Franklin (Orlando Jones), proud cop and ticking time bomb Daniel Bateman (a post-Swingers, but pre-Iron Man Jon Favreau) , out on work release Earl Wilkinson (Michael Jace) and soccer hooligan Nigel Gruff (Rhys Ifans). Heading up these clowns is former league washout, Shane Falco (Keanu Reeves). This features Keanu who is just a year removed from the breakout success of The Matrix and is about to have a hell of a run in films in front of him. Another nice touch is NFL broadcasting legends John Madden and Pat Summerall play themselves and call the action. I completely forgot they are in the film, and while both are in the twighlight of their careers here, they are still a hoot to listen call the action.

Of course it would not be a sports film without a love interest, and head of Sentinels’ cheerleaders Brooke Langton (Annabelle Farrell) takes that role. She has a unique side story where apparently the cheerleaders went on strike too and she winds up recruiting her own ragtag bunch of replacement cheerleaders who are featured prominently throughout the film showcasing their talents.

If you have seen the classic Major League baseball films, then you will know what to expect out of The Replacements because this follows their formula almost verbatim. New misfit group of players is hastily assembled, new group of players have disastrous practice and opening game to their season, then all of a sudden the team clicks and they start to get along and win some games! A last minute conflict is introduced in this film in the form of some former players on strike crossing the picket lines and replacing Falco and leading the team to a disastrous first half in the precious final game of the film before Falco returns to save the day. It is predictable, but it works and I love it. There are a handful of scenes that do not hold up as well as I initially remembered and catered more towards then-17-year-old Dale at the time than present day 32-year old Dale, but for the most part The Replacements was a joy to relive.

Some quick highlights that I want to point that stand the test of time is a classic bar brawl with the replacement players and striking players that leads to Orlando Jones’ character leading up a legendary prison dance scene set to “I Will Survive.” Whenever I hear that song I still think of that classic dance scene in what will probably be for better or worse, the highlight of Orlando Jones acting career. I want to give props to Mark Ellis who is the sports coordinator and is responsible for all the well shot football scenes of the film. He has a nice small role in this film as the San Diego head coach, and it was nice seeing him go bezerk at some of the questionable tactics the Sentinels use against him.

The film has an interesting arrangement used for the soundtrack. It was actually what director Howard Deutch touches on frequently during his solo commentary for the film. 2000 was a point of transition from the alt-rock era of pop into hip/hop and so we get a mesh of both genres along with classic selections like “I Will Survive” making up the soundtrack. The rest of the extra features are carried over from the initial DVD release with no additional extras for the BluRay which was a little bit of a bummer. There are two short behind-the-scenes pieces, Making the Plays is a nine minute piece where the stars talk about the training they endured to get them football-ready for the film and some interesting stories to hear on how they shot the football scenes during halftime for games for the Ravens. Making the Replacements is a 15 minute quick overview of the film introducing the cast and crew along with a more detailed look at that oh-so-sweet prison dance scene.

The BluRay format debuted in 2006, and it is a shame it took nine years for The Replacements to land there. I do not think it could have been too much work for Warner Bros. to track down several of these stars for a quick 10-minute retrospective piece on The Replacements, or assemble a few of them for a bonus 15-year anniversary commentary, but I guess I should be thankful that Warner eventually decided to release on BluRay at all. Regardless, while predictable this is one of my favorite sports comedies. If this went under your radar back then, then now is the perfect time to experience it in time for the NFL season.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs


3
12 Angry Men (1957)
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
Dirty Work
Faster
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Ink
Man of Steel
Marine 3 & 4
Mortal Kombat
The Replacements
Rocky I-VI
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Source Code
Star Trek I-XII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
Veronica Mars
The Wrestler (2008)

Rocky V

Now it is time to cover what many consider the darkest chapter of the Rocky films, and that is 1990’s Rocky V (trailer). It seems no matter who I talk to they consider this the only bad installment of the six Rocky movies. That is saying something because Stallone passed on directing this one after directing the last three films himself as Rocky V reunites Stallone with the man who won a Best Director Academy Award for the first film, John G. Avildsen. So join me while I try and figure out what made everyone despise this film so much.

Even though it was released five years after the previous film, it picks up immediately after Rocky IV. The film opens like the last three films with a highlight reel of the final fight of the previous film, which was an intense 15 round slugfest between Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and Ivan Drago (Dolph Lungdren). Rocky V then cuts to the locker room right after the fight where Adrian (Talia Shire) is consoling Rocky, who is having complications after all the fierce blows he absorbed from Drago. Doctors tell Balboa he has suffered permanent brain damage from the fight and as a result the athletic commission must force Rocky to retire. To make matters worse, longtime friend/goofball Paulie (Burt Young) was conned by the family accountant into signing away all of the Balboa’s money and now the Balboa’s are broke and must move to a modest home back in the old Philadelphia neighborhood where Rocky started off in the first film.

While trying to get his bearings as a trainer at Mick’s old gym, Rocky is confronted by one Tommy Gunn (Tommy Morrison). Tommy just turned pro and is hell bent on proving himself to Rocky to take him under his wing as his manager. Rocky does just that, and instantly forms a father/son bond with Tommy to the dismay of Rocky Jr., who is played by Sly’s own son, the late Sage Stallone. The antagonist for this film is evil promoter George Washington Duke (Richard Gant), who the film does not make any effort to hide is their version of Don King, a fast talking, wise cracking promoter who will resort to anything to put on a big fight, and who Rocky classifies as the dark side of the boxing business.

While Rocky V gets a lot of flak, I will give some props to Avildsen and Stallone for making it a serious sports drama again, and dialing back the off-the-rails campy nature of Rocky III and IV. It was nice to see MGM shooting for a return to form and try to tell a serious story again. I loved that Rocky and Adrian started wearing their vintage attire from the 70s again, and that the couple embraced their Philadelphia roots and that Rocky stopped wearing the corporate suits and amped up that lovable Italian accent again that he mastered in the first two films.

Now for why this film earns the reputation it has. I have a question, since Rocky V takes place immediately after the last film, how did Rocky Jr. magically double his age into a 13 year old? When we last saw Jr. in IV, he looked around 7. Obvious timeline flaw aside, I did not care too much for Jr.’s side story throughout the film with him standing up to bullies at school. I guess the film needed to give him something to do, but they already had a good plot going for him with losing affection for his dad when Rock Sr. turns all his attention to Tommy.

I do not have a problem with Tommy Morrison’s portrayal of Tommy Gunn, who perfectly nails the role of the hungry up-and-coming prospect. I do not mind that the film gets a little too predictable, and that you see Tommy turning on Rocky coming from a mile away as his early success with Rocky goes to his head as he joins forces with Duke so he can get a world title fight. I do not like how the film has the press absolutely trash Tommy in the press conference right after his world title victory proclaiming him as a paper champion right after he wins the title. This causes Tommy to flip out and Duke convinces Tommy to challenge Rocky to a match to prove himself to all the doubters.

I guess this maniacal villain turn for Tommy seemed too sudden for me, and that maybe he needed more time as a champion in the movie getting a track record defending against unproven contenders and then have the press dump on him instead of immediately after the biggest victory in his career. This leads to the final big fight scene for the film, problem is you cannot have a big time, in-ring fight since Rocky’s health forced him into retirement and he promised a pleading Adrian he would not put on the gloves again. So the film compromises by having Tommy call Rocky out at a local tavern. Tommy’s fight proposal gets turned down and Tommy gets too hot headed and punches out Paulie which leads to Rocky and Tommy instantly having a big ‘ol parking lot brawl to close out the film.

What Stallone and Avildsen did made sense by trying to deliver a big time fight within the proper storyline parameters that Balboa is capable of as I described in the preceding paragraph. They tried to go as all out as they can with a pretty lengthy back and forth brawl in the parking lot to give the feeling of an epic final showdown. It was a fine fight scene, but the problem is that it just does not compensate for the traditional main event, in-ring fight that happened at the end of the previous four films. That was always what the previous films built up to, and that was settling the score in the ring with all the glitz and glamour of a big time TV fight. I will again give MGM credit for them trying to make it work, and I think on paper the plot sounded like a good compromise, but in execution it felt like a cheapened replacement effort that ultimately did not sit well with me. I can only imagine how audiences in the theater must have felt when they realized they were not getting the traditional, final in-ring encounter.

I would have loved to have seen a behind-the-scenes feature or a commentary with Stallone and Avildsen trying to explain what did and did not work for them and how they handled the public reaction to this film. Unfortunately, like the previous three films, the BluRay edition of Rocky V in the Rocky Heavyweight Collection box set does not have any extra features whatsoever. While I would not go so far to say it is unwatchable, Rocky V definitely ranks at the bottom of the six films for me. There are still a lot of good aspects to this film, and I appreciate the core story it told and how it was a return to form as a serious sports drama for the franchise. It is just too bad the film loses itself in the final act.

Past Rocky Blogs

Rocky IV
Rocky III
Rocky II
Rocky

redvsblue Season 6

Season five of redvsblue finally wrapped up The Blood Gulch Chronicles saga that lasted the first five seasons. Season six marks the first part of a new saga spanning three seasons called Reconstruction. This is the new season where Rooster Teeth goes more in depth about freelancer agents and their implanted AIs. This is easily the season with the most exposition in the redvsblue universe than any other before it. It is also worth noting season six of redvsblue is the first to be primarily shot with the Halo 3 engine, so expect a nice bump up in the machinima quality compared to previous seasons.

Season six kicks off with the command base for the freelancers sending agent Washington (Shannon McCormick) to investigate a shipwreck that wound up being the same ship Tex and Andy took off in at the end of season five. Tex’s Omega AI wound up getting loose and infecting/killing everyone who investigated the crash. Wash is sent by his command to interview people who have had experiences with the Omega AI, and he wounds up at Blood Gulch. He does not spend too much time there however as his investigation there has him realizing only a couple of our favorite reds and blues remain there while everyone else got reassigned elsewhere in a funny bit when he comes to realize the nature of the people he is investigating.

I enjoyed how season six changes up the narration compared to prior seasons with a constant change in scenery. Wash goes to several bases in the opening scenes of the film to track down and recruit Caboose (Joel Heyman) and Church (Burnie Burns), and happens to get them both out of dicey predicaments. The trio wind up discovering the Delta AI (Mark Bellman) who is more a logical and helpful AI compared to psychopath that is the Omega AI.

The primary antagonist is Agent Maine along with his Meta AI, who is attempting to track down and assassinate all remaining freelancers in order to capture all their AIs. The reds make a grand entrance as Sarge (Matt Hullum) reunites with Grif (Geoff Ramsey) and Simmons (Gus Sorola) in one of the scenes of the season as they were duped into believing the war with the blues was reignited, only to realize they must team up with the blues to take down the Meta. Only Sarge can master the grand entrance with his mastery of the M12LRV/Warthog/Puma.

In the commentary, Rooster Teeth said they took a little more of an extended hiatus between seasons here to get more acquainted with the ins and outs of the Halo 3 engine before starting season six filming, and you can tell the work paid off. Rooster Teeth’s camera work continues to impress and improve with each season, and there are a lot of standout special effects integrated compared to their low-rent-yet-charming photoshop skills in previous seasons. Expect awesome use of Ghost Recon-esque cross-cam perspectives, and more dynamic displays of Church’s spirit jumping abilities.

As I alluded to before, they really dive deep in the back story of the redvsblue universe and go out of their way to reveal some big revelations of the back story of the reds and blues. A lot of these discoveries happen when Wash and the reds and blues infiltrate the freelancer command center in the season’s final act. I was not anticipating such serious reveals here in the mostly light-hearted nature of the show, and I found myself rewinding and rewatching a few pivotal scenes in this season. Just because there is more exposition than usual does not mean Rooster Teeth held back in the action department. There are plenty of quick little firefights sprinkled throughout the season, and they are filled with the trademark humor that redvsblue is known for. I especially appreciate the running gag this season that Church is a terrible shot.

I will give props to Rooster Teeth for a truly compelling final act. I really dug the planning and the actual course of how the infiltration played out. Church and Wash sneak deep into freelancer command, while the rest of the reds and blues are up to no good holding off freelancer patrols. Eventually the final moments of the season come to a head when Church and Wash encounter the head Chairman (John Marshall Reed) and Director (Asaf Ronen) of freelancer command, and it would not be an awesome close to a season without a dramatic escape before everything blows up around the reds and blues, but not before the reds and blues give you a new understanding of a EMP.

There is the usual amount of hearty extras for season six of redvsblue. There is a four part mini-series lasting 16 minutes called, Recovery One. It takes place immediately after the last mini-series that saw Agent York perish in a firefight, leaving his Delta AI to be recovered by Wash as he as he learns of a conspiracy amidst at freelancer command. The commentary for season six is pretty informative and highlighted by the Rooster Teeth crew talking about getting everything they can with the Halo 3 engine, along with other funny asides like love for the McRib and Bungie.net’s online post game carnage reports unintentionally revealing a little more than they desired to snooping fans. The usual array of outtakes and deleted scenes round off the extra features, and there are also a little over 20 minutes of behind-the-scenes videos highlighted by interviews with new voice talent and the Rooster Teeth crew showcasing how they performed some of their special effects.

I am back on board with where I left off with redvsblue. While this is a bit more of a serious direction for the series, it still retains the vintage light-heartedness and new running gags the show is known for. I was surprised this season pulled back on the cast of the show, as several of the previous mainstays of the series either do not appear at all this season, or only show up for brief roles or small cameos. It probably was for the best, as the old adage goes, less is more and by focusing on a core set of characters this season we got bigger moments for everyone else, and some very big moments this season that I did not see coming. Part one of the Reconstruction saga had a gratifying conclusion, but left just enough open to keep me psyched for covering part two next month!

Past redvsblue Blogs

Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5

It's Good to be the King: The Jerry "The King" Lawler Story

I am writing this the day after the death of “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, and add on the shocking leaked videos of Hulk Hogan and Dusty Rhodes’ death on top of it and well, it has all culminated in a cruddy summer for wrestling. While Piper and Dusty have passed and Hogan essentially committed career suicide, one wrestler who had an extremely close encounter with death a few years ago but thankfully was resuscitated is Jerry “The King” Lawler. Earlier this year, WWE finally released a long overdue home video commemorating his career with a documentary and a plethora of extra interviews and matches. The video is titled, It’s Good to be the King: The Jerry “The King” Lawler Story (trailer).

I remember plowing through his surprisingly detailed and enteraining autobiography WWE put out at the end of 2002, and so much has happened to him since that I eagerly anticipated the documentary feature and all the extras that feature a lot of Lawler’s matches from his old Memphis territory days where he reigned supreme. The downside to the documentary is it is only 80 minutes long, but it does cover a lot of the same ground that his autobiography did, just not as in-depth (seriously, track down that book!). If you are a newer wrestling fan and only recognize Lawler as a RAW and Smackdown announcer who is occasionally referenced as a past wrestling great, then you will no doubt be surprised to learn about Jerry’s intriguing past as you watch this feature.

I remember growing up subscribing to WWE’s old magazine in the mid to late 90s which is filled with a lot of Jerry’s artwork and a good chunk of the early parts of the feature focuses on Jerry’s love for drawing and taking up art school as an early career endeavor. The documentary proceeds to mention that him mailing artwork of wrestlers to the local Memphis wrestling promotion lead to his big break getting into the business. The first half of the feature is all about Jerry growing up and becoming the “King” of the Memphis wrestling territory. A good amount of time of his pre-WWE career is centered on the feud he had with SNL and Taxi star, Andy Kaufman that lead to nationwide coverage, Jerry dominating the Memphis promotion and him winning his first national world title in the AWA in 1988.

They could have went on even longer about his days on top in Memphis, and I really wished they would have, but given the length of the feature I am surprised they dedicated nearly half of it to his Memphis career. The second half is all about his time in the WWE when he arrived at the end of 1992. Given that he has had a near 23 year career (and counting!) in the WWE the feature only highlights his key pivotal on screen and behind-the-scenes moments in WWE during that time. His early years in WWE mostly focus on him transitioning from the weekend B-show announcer to announcing on RAW by the end of 1994 with the only big in ring feud on the feature getting time was his infamous ‘kiss my foot’ match with Bret Hart in 1995. They do cover his sabbatical when he left the WWE for most of 2001 after they fired his then-wife Stacy, better known in those days as “The Kat.” Surprisingly they tracked down Stacy for her thoughts on the matter, and I was surprised they went into more detail on this controversial time for Jerry than I thought they would.

From there it jumps around to Jerry getting inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on Wrestlemania 23 weekend, and to some long overdue firsts with him getting very his first WWE Title match in a TLC match of all things against The Miz in 2010, and him getting his first Wrestlemania match against Michael Cole of all people at Wrestlemania 27. Remember the evil Michael Cole character and how he was a little too effective at being the evil announcer who was flatout awful to listen to and how he ruined RAW for nearly two years? I wish I can forget it too, and the Cole character stayed evil well past his match where he got his just desserts with Lawler until a year and a half later where Lawler suffered a heart attack while announcing on RAW shortly after he had a match. I am surprised they show a little more behind-the-scenes footage of EMTs working on Jerry than I presumed, and there are a couple parts that are a little edgy to watch. The only good thing to come out of Lawler’s near death experiencing was Cole breaking away from his evil announcer persona immediately and he has been calling it straight and has been much better on commentary ever since.

The documentary wraps up shortly after covering the heart attack, and not much was paid attention to his move to the Smackdown announce team at the beginning of 2015, but I will always remember Jerry as one of the primary announcers on RAW for a stunning 20 year run from the end of 1994 until early 2015. I loved Jerry best on announcing when he embraced the evil announcer role, and if you ask me the only people to effectively pull off the evil announcer gimmick and actually added and not took away from the show were Bobby Heenan, Jesse Ventura and Jerry Lawler. Around 2005 Jerry transitioned from an announcer rooting for the villains to essentially just calling it straight and embracing his revered wrestling legend status. I always appreciated seeing Jerry on commentary, even in recent years where he seems to have drifted away from the product and does not seem as involved as both RAW and Smackdown have both transitioned to three-man announce teams.

There are a hearty amount of extra matches and moments in the extra features. Several old classic matches from his Memphis days are on here, including his infamous empty arena match with Terry Funk, the legendary first match he had with Andy Kaufman and a bout with a then up-and-coming “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert. Jerry’s AWA and WCCW world title wins have both been on a few previously released video collections, so we have rematches with both Curt Hennig and Kerry Von Erich that were not released on video before to spice things up a bit. The extra matches and moments from his WWE career cover a lot of ground and fill in some voids the documentary did not cover. There are a few full length segments of his old King’s Court interview show on here that feature some classic moments he has with Tiny Tim of Howard Stern fame and getting schooled by the one and only William Shatner.

I remember loving the classic “Great Debate” during the 1997 ECW/WWE angle where Lawler and Heyman had an intense verbal showdown and surprised it did not make it on the Paul Heyman BluRay I covered several months ago. I guess WWE was saving it for an extra on the Jerry Lawler set as it here in all its glory, along with his match against Tommy Dreamer on the 1997 ECW Hardcore Heaven show. I was surprised that not much time on the feature was given to Jerry’s son, Brian, and how he got into wrestling and had a decent little run in the WWE and he is only seen once or twice throughout the main feature, but in the extras there is a random match where he teams with his dad against the Headbangers in 1997, and a BluRay exclusive story that goes in detail on how he got his break in wrestling. Being timely with Roddy Piper’s death, there is a King’s Court with the Hot Rod and Jerry’s match with Piper that went headlined as the final match for the 1994 King of the Ring.

I remember loving Lawler’s feud with Tazz in 2000 in the midst of the Attitude era and was bummed with it not being touched on in the feature, but their match from Summerslam is on here which features some amusing involvement from Jim Ross. That feud is memorable as it was really the first time the WWE fans started to embrace Lawler as a longtime RAW institution and it marked his gradual transition into a fan favorite. Rounding off the extras are Jerry’s Hall of Fame induction, his TLC WWE Title match against the Miz, and his Wrestlemania “classic” against Michael Cole where Cole gets his justice for mind-numbingly grating heel commentary. If you do not mind shelling out a few extra dollars for the BluRay edition, there are some cool exclusives here with several bonus stories that did not make the cut on the documentary. There are also a few BluRay exclusive matches including a rematch against Andy Kaufman, an old school Memphis match he had against Ric Flair in 1983, and teaming up with Nova against John Cena and Sean ‘O Haire in OVW back when WWE used OVW as their old developmental promotion way back in 2002.

While I wish it could have went more in depth and covered a few more aspects of Lawler’s career, It’s Good to be the King: The Jerry “The King” Lawler Story is a great abridged look at the major moments from Lawler’s storied career. What the feature does not go into detail about or neglect, the great assortment of extra matches and moments does a fine job at mostly filling in those gaps. Newer fans who do not know that much about Jerry’s pre-WWE years should especially should track this down, and even if you are familiar and know about most of his Memphis and WWE days, this is still a great refresher on his legacy is a must for all fans.

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
RoH Supercard of Honor V
RoH Supercard of Honor VI
RoH Supercard of Honor VII
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28
Wrestlemania 29
Wrestlemania 30
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
WWE Network Original Primetime Specials

12 Angry Men (1957)

I finally got around to watching one of the Criterion movies from my backlog box that I will be covering in today’s blog. For those unaware of the Criterion Collection, all you need to know is that the people at Criterion are huge fans of cinema and painstakingly restore and remaster critical classics all the way back from the dawn of modern cinema in the 1930s until standout hits as recent as a year or two ago. They then proceed to pack each release with as many must see extra features as possible, and usually include a well-crafted booklet filled with production notes and other facts about the film’s legacy.

Criterion releases films not just from the United States, but from all over the world, making sure each part of the world is well represented with the very best they have to offer as you can tell from their extensive catalog listing here. A lot of their releases usually go for a bit more than your standard DVD/BluRay release, but a couple times a year they run half off sales on their website to get them down to more reasonable rates, which I took advantage of last year to get a few releases, one of which is the topic of today’s blog with 1957’s 12 Angry Men (trailer).

12 Angry Men is a film that has been remade many times over the years, but the original 1957 theatrical release I am covering here today is the first time I have viewed any version of it (there was an awful spoof of it that Family Guy did a couple years ago, but I am going to erase that dreck from my memory). For the longest time I intentionally held off watching any version because I have fond memories of reading the play version of this that the film was based on in 11th grade. About 15 years have passed since then, and I reasoned to myself that a Criterion release was the way to finally watch it.

If you are unfamiliar with 12 Angry Men, the title itself is a big hint at what to expect as the film opens with a murder trial just wrapping up and a judge sending the jurors off to deliberations to determine if the defendant is guilty or not guilty. The judge proclaims if the defendant is found guilty he will get the electric chair death penalty. Juror #8 (Henry Fonda) is the only holdout with a not guilty vote of the 12, and the next hour and a half is an intense round of deliberations as these 12 jurors weigh all the evidence and have the fate of one man’s life in the palm of their hands.

There are so many things I love about this film that makes it hold up remarkably well, even today 58 years after its initial release. There is something to the pacing of the opening minutes of the men walking into the deliberation room that does a great job at establishing the tone of the film. It is a hot summer day, and air conditioning back then is a new appliance that the courthouse was not equipped with and the fan is not working either to top it off. The jurors are already dripping with sweat, and when they realize they are in for a long round of deliberations they despondently take off their suit coats, but as the day gets longer and the deliberations get more intense the jurors themselves certainly show it as all their shirts are beautiful sweaty messes halfway through the film.

Director Sidney Lumet made great use of constant up close, wide shots of all the jurors’ faces so you can see how exacerbated some of them get towards the end of the film when they have beads of perspiration dripping from their foreheads. I will give props again to Criterion for committing who knows how many hours remastering this film, and considering its age, it looks fantastic! In the booklet included with the film they list all the equipment they used to restore and remove as many faults like screen grain and tearing as they could so there could be as pristine a picture and sound as possible. It is from their hard work that make moments like the up close, in your face shots of the jurors really pop off the screen. All the jurors are not named throughout the film (minus two in the closing moment), and while Fonda is obviously the star of the film, the rest of the jurors each get their individual moments and time to shine in the film. In a weird way it is kind of like trying to split up the screen time for all the heroes in The Avengers, and like that film, 12 Angry Men somehow manages to make each juror a pivotal character by the end of the film.

In recent years I have a special place for films that go outside the norm and have a majority of a movie take place in a small setting such as Phone Booth and Buried. I cannot believe I have neglected 12 Angry Men from this list as one of the pioneers of films like this as 95% of the film takes place in the jurors’ deliberation room. Even though it is just one location, there are so many special breakthrough moments that transpire in there. In one memorable moment, a juror goes on a monologue talking about his son and making a man out of him that really struck a chord with me through its delivery. As each juror starts to change sides, the last few holdouts get desperate, and in another striking moment, one juror goes on a prejudice tirade, and the rest of the jurors shun him with the silent treatment in what I feel is the most powerful scene of the film.

A lot of how these scenes were shot, and the reasoning on how 12 Angry Men came to be is explained in the extra features. The original TV movie of 12 Angry Men from 1954, or teleplays as they were called back then, is included in its 50 minute entirety, along with a 15 minute intro talking about how exclusive made-for-TV dramas at the time like this were the reason why TV sets in households got a rapid boom in the 50s. Unlike the feature film, the teleplay is not remastered and presented in its original standard definition. A bonus second teleplay is included with 1956’s Tragedy in Temporary Town. It is 55 minutes and also directed by Sidney Lumet, and like 12 Angry Men, this deals with standing up against prejudice and bullying. I hate to admit it, but I did not watch either teleplay as both of them have several clips spliced into the other extra features that after viewing gave me a good idea of what the teleplays were all about.

From TV to Big Screen is an in-depth 25 minute feature about the history of turning teleplays like 12 Angry Men into film. It proceeds to go on how the film came upon a cast consisting largely of unknown actors aside from Fonda, and how the film was a critical success, but a box office failure. Next up is a 23 minute compilation of interviews with Lumet at various points talking about his career, going into the military and the original TV broadcast of the film. There are mini-features interviewing subjects about Lumet and screenwriter Reginald Rose praising their work and talking about how they overcame adversities like being blacklisted from Hollywood in the 50s. The final noteworthy extra is a 38 minute interview with cinematographer John Bailey discussing this film’s director of photography Boris Kaufman, who has many kind words for Kaufman’s unique and effective style of camera work in 12 Angry Men. Finally, there is the finely crafted booklet I mentioned above filled with a new essay of production notes and facts. It is a well made and an informative read, but if you already watched all the extra features it mostly touches on a lot of the same ground covered there.

Nearly 60 years after its release, and 12 Angry Men is still a gem. I wholeheartedly applaud the message behind this film about standing your ground and rising up against the odds. Criterion made sure to give this classic the five star home video treatment and pack it with not a dull extra, with every extra feature worth going out of your way to watch to get the full story behind the film. If you love dramas, filled with intense, powerful moments, then do not let this 1957 release date intimidate you as 12 Angry Men is still a must see film now as it was nearly 60 years ago.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs


3
12 Angry Men (1957)
21 Jump Street
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie
Atari: Game Over
The Avengers: Age of Ultron
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Bounty Hunters
Cabin in the Woods
Captain America: The First Avenger
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special
Dirty Work
Faster
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
The Fighter
For Love of the Game
Good Will Hunting
Hercules: Reborn
Hitman
Ink
Man of Steel
Marine 3 & 4
Mortal Kombat
The Replacements
Rocky I-VI
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Source Code
Star Trek I-XII
Take Me Home Tonight
TMNT
The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2
Veronica Mars
The Wrestler (2008)

redvsblue Season 5

It is time to finally wrap up Rooster Teeth’s Blood Gulch Chronicles with today’s blog on redvsblue: season 5 (trailer). When season four wrapped up, the red army found themselves outnumbered and called command for backup. Season four’s closing shot was a drop shuttle making a seemingly prompt response within minutes and landing directly on Donut (Dan Godwin).

Season five picks up with Donut believed to have been perished from the shuttle’s, but do not get worked up because he simply got crushed through the ground into an underground cavern. The seemingly prompt shuttle for the red base is instead a long delayed shuttle for the blue base with a new private to replace the blue member who got promoted to replace the long deceased Captain Flowers (Ed Robertson). Church (Burnie Burns) claims the new blue captain position, which kind of does not make sense since Church is still essentially dead and his ghost has been possessing throwaway background characters since the first season now.

The new blue army private is a lady who goes by Sister (Rebecca Frasier), and surprise, she happens to be Grif’s (Geoff Ramsey) sister. Originally the red army misconstrued Sister’s message coming from red command, and in one of the highlight moments of the season, throws a mock funeral/roast for Sarge (Matt Hullum), where Simmons (Gus Sorola) uses his eulogy as a campaigning effort to be the new captain. Sister won me over right away, and like most of the rest of the blue and reds, is a lovable clueless dweeb, which means she is a perfect addition to the rest of the misfits on Blood Gulch. Sarge lets his peers bury him for added effect for the funeral, but he winds up falling into the same underground labyrinth and meets up with Donut.

Meanwhile on blue base, Tucker (Jason Saldana) is busy being a father to his alien kid, with him and Doc (Matt Hullum) making somewhat of an effort as being the caring parents. When season four ended with Tucker being a parent after getting raped by that alien, I was dreading how the next season would play out, but Rooster Teeth was on top of their game here with some playful parenting moments that have some nice passed down genetics for the kiddo that pay off in some great scenes at the end of the season. All of the red army winds up trying to find each other in the underground cavern, where sure enough, they discover they are not alone and a bigger conspiracy is at play involving aliens, freelancers, and of course that pesky O’Malley AI that loves to go around infecting nearly every cast member this season in one particularly awesome scene. The last half hour to 40 minutes of this two hour season goes really off the rails as it attempts to wrap up The Blood Gulch Chronicles.

Remember how crazy season three got with the time travelling? Well, you are in for a treat this time, but instead of time travelling, we get Tucker stuck in a repeating time loop until he corrects history the way it was meant to play out, kind of luck how Tom Cruise’s character is in Edge of Tomorrow. Tucker’s repeated time loop winds up with many funny “what if” moments resulting in many hilarious inconsequential character death moments that played out in alternate timelines, and you can tell the guys at Rooster Teeth were having a ball with the final act.

I am not going to lie, the action and exposition gets a little hard to follow in the last act with the repeated time loops, and everyone trying to get a piece of the O’Malley infection which was another standout moment of the season. After neglecting the O’Malley AI for about the first two acts of this season, in a way it made the AI more of a bigger deal when O’Malley returned and started another reign of terror and the season came back to stopping the O’Malley AI, who was essentially the antagonist for nearly the entire Blood Gulch Chronicles. I will also give props to Rooster Teeth for making great use of a few minor characters again in small doses like a few other characters were in season four. Lopez (Burnie Burns) and Andy (Nathan Zellner), along with a couple other characters were not featured acts in much of this season, but the few times they did appear made their impact all the more meaningful. Think of Lopez and Andy this season as Lost’s Rose and Bernard, and it is kind of the same effect.

I was satisfied with what I was able to piece together of the ending and how the greater Blood Gulch Chronicles story arc wrapped up. It essentially comes around full circle in an updated way reflecting all the events that have transpired throughout the seasons, and kind of wrapped up everyone’s predicament on where they stood with a nice little bow on it. You can tell by this season, Rooster Teeth is getting much better at producing more intricate shots and pulling off all kinds of crafty production tricks with Halo’s in-game camera. They also amp up the use of photoshop this season, and while some of the photoshopped items look especially hokey and obviously pasted in, that just makes them fit in perfectly in the world of redvsblue.

There are a few more extra features than usual on the season five disc. There is a five part mini-series titled Out of Mind that is a quick watch at 13 minutes. I highly recommend watching it before starting season five as it takes place in between seasons four and five and explains what Tex (Kathleen Zuelch) was up to and why she did not have a prominent role for most of season five. There are several alternate endings, and all of them are well worth going out of your way to watch them all. After listening to the commentary I came to find out Rooster Teeth released all the endings at once and it was not until the DVD release that they decided which one to attach at the end of the season as the ‘true’ ending. After watching them all, I can appreciate and respect the ending they chose as the rightful ending of this series.

There are several quick bonus videos of outtakes and minor behind-the-scenes videos explaining how they were able to pull off some of the shots they were able to. While some of their aforementioned photoshop skills are self aware at how charmingly bush league they are, there are other effects that they explain in these videos where they go above and beyond to create some new scenery that passes for coming right out of in-game footage. Last season Rooster Teeth started to transition out of their holiday themed PSAs to more random bonus videos focusing on the latest pop culture trends, and they continue that trend in season five with bonus videos riffing on keeping up with the latest tech gizmos, PC-friendly holiday greetings and most importantly having a post apocalypse zombie plan.

The commentary this year is far better and more on point in season five compared to the previous season’s where the cast seemed like they wanted to be anywhere but the recording studio. Commentary highlights are discussing which alternate endings to use as the true ending, wrapping up the Blood Gulch Chronicles, returning to shorter length episodes and a lot of shot production talk. They do reference playing the Halo 3 beta during this commentary and I believe they also allude that season five was the first season shot in HD for BluRay. So perhaps season six is the first season that uses Halo 3’s engine for production. My memory is a little foggy as I think season five here was where I originally stopped watching because almost all of this season seemed new to me this time around. Tune in next month to find out!

Season six starts a brand new story arc, so please stop by again next month to keep up with my latest season recaps. Once again, you can stay on pace with all the redvsblue episodes by watching them like I have been doing through the 10-Year anniversary box set or for free off Rooster Teeth’s YouTube channel or the redvsblue website.
Past redvsblue Blogs

Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4