A Justice System that Only Protects Cops

Here’s a little piece of advice for anyone reading this who has the weird delusion that the policeman (oh, I’m sorry, police officer) is your friend – they aren’t.  If the murder of George Floyd has shown anything, it’s that the police will murder a man in cold blood, while he begs for his life, and not care.  After all, there are cops all over saying the man who did this did nothing wrong.  But Lucien, he got fired!  Yeah, I’ll give, that’s more punishment than most pigs get after murdering a guy.  Typically, you have them get put on paid leave if they have Judge Dredd in their administrative review.  The reality is that cops are given the most lenient treatment ever when it comes to murdering citizens, and it frankly pisses me off.

It happens all the time, doesn’t it?  The story is now so wrote that you can see the parts of it before it happens.  Cop uses excess force to an absurd degree, or outright murders a guy.  Next up, there is the justified public outrage.  I don’t feel bad watching the footage of the riots in Minneapolis.  I hope they burn the precinct they trashed to the ground.  Granted, the looting is dumb.  Fight for a cause, but don’t fuck up the life of the working man.  After all, trashing Target doesn’t do anything to hurt the executive who exploits the system to get richer.  At this point, I can’t think of anything else that can be done.

The next part of the story is one we all know – there is an investigation.  You have a DA or somebody like that making a big press statement saying that there will be a full investigation of what happened.  It happens, and there’s a proceeding.  Then what happens?  Nothing.  Not one fucking thing.  The dirty cop who murdered or brutally assaulted a person gets either a slap on the wrist or at the very least doesn’t spend a single day in a jail cell.  At worst, it’s like this guy, where he loses his job.  Kills a guy begging for his life, and I can fucking guarantee that he won’t see one minute in a jail cell.

My favorite thing is that you have the Minnesota prosecutor saying that there is “evidence that doesn’t support a criminal charge.”  Oh yeah?!  Like what?!  Dude fucking murdered a guy!  He pinned his neck down with his knee and suffocated him to death while he begged for his life!  What the fuck evidence is the mitigating factor in this?!  Please, enlighten us, prosecutor.  I’m all fucking ears about what evidence you have showing that this killer cop is innocent of the crime of murder.  Right, we’ll never see it.  Because it doesn’t exist.  This is just another instance of the thing that pisses me off the most – the legal system looking out for dirty cops.

It is literally impossible to argue that the justice system doesn’t cover for dirty cops.  At every step, you have every cop who works with the dude saying he isn’t a bad guy.  You have their commanding officer saying that “steps are being taken.”  You have the person in charge of the police force saying that there was no breach of protocol.  Then you have the state’s attorney who will do absolutely nothing to pursue justice.  EVERY FUCKING TIME!  I hope the people rioting smash that fucking prosecutor’s car.  Over and over and over, until it hits home.  Maybe get him to give some of this evidence he says exists.

What’s more, when cops try and do the right thing, coming forward and blowing the whistle on their buddies who abuse their power, what happens?  They get fired.  They get suspended.  They get vilified as a rat.  Because you don’t betray your fellow officers.  A cop rapes a female cop?  You keep your mouth shut.  A cop murders someone?  You say that it was provoked.  That they were trying to take their gun.  Hell, do what that one cop did after blowing a guy away while he was running and try and plant your taser on them.  If he hadn’t have been filmed, would he have gotten away with it?  Probably.  That time where 11 cops surrounded a guy’s vehicle and then opened fire, until their guns were clicking on empty, and the guy who was filming it had his phone taken and then smashed by the cops.  If he hadn’t have had balls of steel and put the SIM card in his mouth, would that have gotten out?  No.  Naturally, all the cops in that instance are still on the force.

You learn something about cops, if the instance with the school shooting in Florida was any indication – they’re cowards.  They flex their power when they have someone who can’t fight back.  But put them up against someone who has firepower and watch how quickly they cower from the fight.  They are cowards who attack the powerless.  Remember those stories about cops stealing from people who didn’t have the money to sue to get their stuff back?  Or that one story about the police going up to people and telling them give them their money?  Police, in uniform, were robbing people.  What was the backlash?  Did those cops get in trouble?  No.  They had a justice system and a police union to protect them.  Force a man to blow you in your police cruiser at gunpoint?  Did nothing wrong.  He willingly participated.

Don’t even get me started on the cops who murder people’s pets casually.  Like that story a lot of years back, where the cops murder the family dog, and then proceed to pepper-spray its puppies, and would even have murdered the puppies if a neighbor hadn’t begged them not to.  The average pizza delivery guy has more balls than the average cop.

I hate cops.  I despise them.  I know enough dirty ones who are on one take or another to realize that these people CANNOT be trusted.  Ever.  So, the now former cop who murdered George Floyd gets off scot-free, only losing his job.  The poor dear.  I’m sure that his life will be ruined forever.  I wonder what the severance package they gave him was.  The justice system is supposed to protect the people, but that never happens.  And it never will.  Fuck the police!

Until next time, a quote,

“Well, you Irish cops are perking up.  That’s two sound theories, neither of which involve abnormally sizes men.  Kinda makes me feel like river dancing.” – Agent Smecker, The Boondock Saints

Peace out,

Maverick

The New Era of Political Double-Standards

Perhaps you have heard, but there is a woman who has alleged that Joe Biden committed sexual harassment of her.  Word is that she is actually trying to take this to court.  I myself have no opinion one way or the other.  I’ve contended in the past that we shouldn’t just automatically believe or disbelieve anyone without a thorough investigation, but there is a group of people who one would expect would see things a little differently, i.e. the Democratic establishment and Twitter checkmarks.  However, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that not only do they not believe her, they are actively going out of their way not to.

I’ve already talk about this in the past, so I won’t retread old ground.  Though I did see an article about how #BelieveAllWomen is now a conservative smear that was used against liberal women.  That was some of the most adorable mental gymnastics ever.  I wonder how long that article will be up before it’s pulled, if it hasn’t been already.  Still, the lengths that the media has gone to in order to smear Tara Reade is frankly kind of pathetic, when these are the same people who were cheering from the hills that the UVA Rape Hoax was legit, even as the case reported in Rolling Stone was falling apart.  They are also the same ones who tore Brett Kavanaugh to pieces in their smearing of him.  The Democrats REALLY overplayed their hand there.

However, it seems that the Democratic establishment and Twitter checkmarks have decided to take another mainstay of liberal discourse and throw it out the window – fat shaming.  Today, Nancy Pelosi decided to rail on Trump taking Hydroxychloroquine, pointing out that he is “morbidly obese.”  Like most times that that dinosaur harpy opens her mouth, the Twitter checkmarks had to pile on and make themselves heard being in absolutely solidarity with that moderate conservative bitch.  A fact that just tickles me pink.  All of the wonder about Nancy Pelosi does.  The woman passes every bill conservatives send to her, then crushes everything that would help progressives.  Her latest COVID-19 relief bill (that will NEVER pass the Senate) is basically a giant birthday-present to major corporations, with a little money to help the regular people.  How ANYONE thinks this cunt is a liberal is beyond me.  But Fox News says it, so I guess it must be true.

The endless stream of double-standards continues.  I can’t wait to see what “liberal” media publishes to bolster insulting the weight of someone they don’t like.  These people are at least self-aware enough to know when they are being mocked for sounding two-faced.  It will be the usual mental gymnastics unlike anything one has seen in a very long time, but that’s business as usual in America.  Don’t think that conservative America gets off the hook on this.  Some of their stuff is just the best.

Perhaps you haven’t heard about the fact that America has been quarantining for some time now.  Well, it seems that conservative America is getting tired of that and has decided to make the activity of doing what’s best for the health and safety of this country into a political battle.  The most notable of these has been the armed Semper Pie protestors in Michigan getting their guns and marching on the state capitol, screaming for the Governor to be locked up.  If it honestly becomes a civil war in this country over something like the quarantine because of this plague that is ravaging this country, that would genuinely make me laugh.

Among the many genuinely hilarious posters at these events is my favorite – where a conservative actually says, “my body, my choice.”  I swear, the day is going to come that conservative America will be self-aware.  It will happen.  The complete lack of introspection to that is the best.  So all the women who are forced to raise a child they don’t want because of lack of abortion options?  Fuck those whores.  She should have kept her legs closed.  Being kept in your home to keep people safe from the plague?  Tyranny!  We must rise up and stop the tyranny of not being a dick!  This is like what the Nazis did!  Ah yes, the old line that is now ubiquitous to both sides of the political aisle – compare everything that they don’t like to Nazis.

Don’t even get me starting about the people bitching about having to wear a mask in certain stores, most notably Costco.  The same fucking people who bitched ad nauseum about businesses being able to deny gay people their business if they don’t want to serve them are now bitching about not being able to go into a store.  Seems that their precious “freedom” only matters when it is being them inconvenienced.  Funny how that works.

It has long been my contention that if America didn’t have double-standards, it would have no standards at all.  It shouldn’t be shocking that people in this country are so quick to abandon the values they claim to hold so dear, in the name of their political pet project.  Claim that believing all women is essential, and that making fun of someone for their weight is the most hurtful thing one can do?  The orange man bad!  So those values can go.  Say that women have no right to their body when it comes to raising a child they don’t want?  I was told to stay inside!  That’s so much worse!  Rise up, with guns!

Lest anyone say that I am some kind of centrist, I am liberal as fuck.  I believe that we need a regulated economy, a strong social safety net, to tax the wealthiest and close the tax loopholes that the corporations who have been given OBSCENE amounts of money with COVID-19 relief use to pay nothing back, and to have universal healthcare (something the ENTIRE 1^st world has, but for some reason America just can’t handle).  There are some libertarian arguments that conservative America floats that I don’t oppose offhand.  I am part of the libertarian-left.  Still, when people like myself think that both sides look REALLY stupid with this shit, it’s not uncommon to have one side accuse you of being the political belief they don’t like.  Funny how that works, right?

It is exhausting watching political discourse anymore.  On the one hand, I have Democrats who are suffering horribly from Trump Derangement Syndrome who don’t care that Biden OBVIOUSLY has dementia and should be getting care for his affliction.  They don’t care that he has no political positions.  I saw this great Twitter post asking people to list three policy positions Biden has that they agree with.  Without a doubt, here was one of the first replies –

1. Not Trump
   2. Not Trump
   3. Not Trump

On the other side, you have these crazy/stupid conservative Cult of Trump types who had to be told by Lysol not to drink bleach when Trump said that injecting bleach into your body should clean it from COVID-19.  Oh I’m sorry, that was a joke.  Trump said so, so it must be true.  Watch the video clip where he says that.  Does it sound like he was joking to you?  The guy is an idiot, talking about his “super duper missile.”  I can’t even write that without breaking out into giggles.  The dude speaks like he’s five, and people can do nothing but talk about what a manly man he is.  Who runs away from an Asian reporter woman and her question.  The dude is such a little bitch, but he’s the manliest man who has ever lived.

Where does it end?  Where does any of this end?  I don’t know, and the longer it goes on, the less I care.  It’s all exhausting, and I’m content to play my vidya and talk to my girlfriend on Facetime.

Until next time, a quote,

“So to everybody listening – isn’t it fun?  Knowing we’re stuck in a loop of infinite dumb nonsense, so sweet like a cinnamon bun.” – Chris Ray Gun, “Algorhythm” – YouTube: The Musical

Peace out,

Maverick

The Uninteresting Graphics Demo

A lot of gaming news I follow on YouTube was talking about the latest tech demo meant to show off the PS5 graphics capability and be all awe-striking and full of wonder.  What did I think?  Yeah, it’s pretty.  And?  We’ve reached a point in gaming where I can’t honestly think of where else graphics can go except beyond the Uncanny Valley, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t really care about it.  Part of me is thinking, based on what I am seeing on Twitter, that I’m not alone in this thought.  I was watching that episode of the Deep Fat Fried podcast where they destroyed Roger Ebert, and there was this line from one of Ebert’s reviews – how quickly do we grow accustomed to wonder?  I think that line ties in perfectly with what I want to talk about next.

My hatred of the unending CG in films notwithstanding, I honestly have reached a point with gaming where the graphical fidelity means absolutely nothing to me.  Do people just not know that there is an end-point to this?  At some point, there really isn’t much further they can go.  Part of why the seventh generation of consoles went on for over a decade is because there wasn’t that huge a push to go beyond the edge in terms of graphical fidelity.  More and more gaming companies were pretty cozy just where things were at.  To be honest, so was I.  The facial animations were good at the environments were pretty.  Now they could focus on bringing out the most out of each game.

Here’s the thing – graphical fidelity is just window dressing.  It really is.  There comes a point where the visuals take a back-seat to the gameplay and getting into the experience.  Sure, every now and again you might be wowed.  I still remember going to the top of a tallneck in Horizon: Zero Dawn and when I got to take in the beautiful tropical vistas in Uncharted 4.  But then you get back into the game and that stuff is just as impactful as it was before.  Cool, but that’s it.  So when I see a big tech demo that’s showing off this game that is hitting the Uncanny Valley territory, I think to myself – that’s cool.  And?  Part of me thinks that gaming has just been so set on this increasing journey that they forgot the lessons they learned last generation.  Instead of trying to push the visual bounds, let’s push the technical ones.

A new brand of consoles with updated graphics cards could easily push games with current visuals up on framerate, making things smoother.  Or it could give Sony a chance to get some basic fucking emulation software and upgrading their consoles so they can play old games.  I have seen SO MANY videos on YouTube where people got a PC that is a potato to emulate games from PS1 and PS2 days.  Why can a major gaming company not do that?  Especially in a time where games are getting full-ride remakes.  Why not give gamers the options to buy the remake, but still be able to play the original for the nostalgia value.  Where’s the problem with that?

It’s not that I suddenly grew accustomed to wonderment.  I can still be wowed by a game.  But these days, I find myself being wowed by good writing and engaging plots.  When a game takes a turn I wasn’t expecting and then I get to experience something new.  I game for story, after all.  A good narrative does more for me than visuals ever will.  Not sure how many gamers are with me on this, these days.  More and more I find myself on the outs with mainstream gaming culture.

Seems like it’s all the same, these days.  All the PC master race stuff.  Just let people play what they want to play on the platform they want.  If you like PC more, good.  I hope you have fun.  I like the convenience of a console, along with a physical disc, so I’ll stick with what I like.  Then there’s the usual SJW, anti-SJW nonsense.  I swear, every anti-SJW voice these days is just some big conservative looking to bitch about how bad liberalism is these days.  I miss when the anti-SJW voices ran the gamut.  Oh well.  Days long gone.  Man that was a big digression.

The point is, visuals are great.  I just saw the State of Play video on Ghost of Tsushima, and I will admit that it looks absolutely breath-taking.  That photo mode looks sick!  Trust and believe, I go crazy with that shit.  But there is more to a game than just how it looks.  There are also different ways to give a game personality.  What I really love are the games who choose to forgo visual fidelity for a unique art style.  One where they can play around with depth while maintaining a vision all their own.  Or making a game look more like an indie film, like the Life is Strange games.  A game series which takes inspiration from Twin Peaks will always strike a chord with me.

At some point, the graphics will not be able to push the boundaries any further.  I say, instead of everyone aching for that, let’s make games that look good, but play better with smoother framerate and mechanics that bring the most out of the visuals they have.  Thoughts.

Until next time, a quote,

“I will start by painting. After that, I will paint, beyond which I shall paint even more. That is the only way I will learn to capture the essence of emotion. After all, you can only accomplish so much in using logic to analyze the contents of the heart.” – Yusuke Kitagawa, Persona 5: Royal

Peace out,

Maverick

America’s Politically Homeless

Bernie Sanders just announced that he won’t run again in 2024.  This doesn’t surprise me one bit.  At his age, the reality is that the end of his life is facing him, and he would be 83 when 2024 rolls around.  The man has led an exemplary life as a politician, consistently not giving in to big money and fighting for the people.  It’s a genuine pity he wasn’t willing to fight a little dirtier, but that just is what it is now.  Seeing Tim Black’s Twitter post about it, there was a term that I got introduced to that just stuck with me.  A person commenting that she is “politically homeless.”  I really like that term.  It seems so fitting for the world in which we live right now.

It’s become abundantly clear that the Democratic Party is liberal in name only.  Fox News and their ilk can say whatever they like, but the mainstream element of the party is liberal in the same way that Diet Pepsi is healthy.  Sure, it isn’t as unhealthy as regular soda, but that isn’t saying much.  The cold reality is that 30 years ago, establishment Democrats would have been moderate Republicans.  These people pay lip service to the bare minimum of what the actual left in this country wants, and then does fuck-all to actually realize it.  The Justice Democrats just sold out and decided to start a Super PAC.  I wonder if Kyle Kulinski feels good about this movement he took such pride in giving up their values for political capital.

I feel myself as one of the politically homeless in this country.  There is no party that represents me.  The Green Party is a bad joke, and the Libertarian Party is just another part of the Libertarian Right in this country.  Politically, I am firmly in the Libertarian Left side of America, but their party just panders to right wing libertarianism.  So yeah.  Where does one such as me go?  I got a chum who keeps telling me to vote Democrat, to just take the hit and hope that maybe something can happen.  Like what?  Biden’s campaign (not Biden himself.  The man cannot speak.  Even now, his TV interviews are just his brain melting on television.  I feel so bad for this man who should be getting treatment for dementia, but instead is being forced to be in a Presidential campaign) has outright said that they oppose Medicare For All.  Now more than EVER, the need to have universal healthcare in this country is center stage.  Why would I vote for a candidate who opposes the central thing I want to happen?  Because Trump is bad?  Yeah, Trump also opposes it, so I won’t vote for him either.

The politically homeless in America are growing.  With the Democrats doing nothing to try and court us, consistently content to just move to the center and court the center voters who just sway with the breeze, what compels me to actually be with them?  They want nothing to do with me, so where do I go?  From where I’m sitting, nowhere.  If there’s a ballot initiative in November that I support, maybe I’ll vote for that, but I will leave the part about the President blank.  And it will be this way in 2024.  In 2028.  In 2032.  On and on, ad infinitum.  What does one such as myself do?  TJ recently said the best idea was to just vote for Biden and try and pressure the Democrats to enact left-wing policies.  Yeah, we all know where that’s going to go.  No-fucking-where.  The moneyed interests own these people, so that’s just a pie in the sky dream.

The blue checkmarks on Twitter say that a vote for a third party is a vote for Trump.  And that not voting is also a vote for Trump.  Well, 50% of this country doesn’t vote at all.  Period.  Ever.  Do their non-votes suddenly mean more for Trump?  Of course not.  This argument is as vacuous as it is tired.  There is no party that tries to court my vote.  I’ll see if the Green Party candidate supports what I value, or at least Medicare For All.  If so, maybe I’ll vote for them.

From where I sit, there are only two actual solutions for disaffected liberals like myself who are tired of being lied to by a party who we are told over and over by mainstream media and our conservative family members is the “liberal party.”  The first solution is to rise up and take the fight to the rich.  Make the rich fear for their lives and watch how fast thing change in this country for the better.  But that’s not going to happen.  Americans are too gutless and cowardly to actually fight for things.  No, they can just stand at a capital and yell about stuff with their guns.  Actually putting that weapon to use to rid this country of the real source of the corruption would be hard.  So that won’t happen.

The other solution is to start a new political party.  One that will have actual organization.  One that will work to get millennials and gen-zed to actually support them.  Who can organize at a grassroots level, start small.  Get lots of people elected on mayoral, state house and state senate races.  Show the country that they can get it done and that they are committed to fighting for what people like me believe in.  Then, from there, work their way up to Congress.  It will be a slow battle, but it must start there.  You have to prove that you aren’t the Green or Libertarian Party who will just put a candidate that will go nowhere out there.  We need to build a coalition that shows the establishment that we have teeth and that we won’t support them if they will just turn their back on us.

Granted, starting small has its own difficulties.  How many people even know who the mayor of their city is?  But that’s why this new party would have to have a broad social media effort.  An active Twitter who will talk to people, get them invested.  Tell them why this movement deserves their support and what they are going to do for the people.  Part of the benefit of starting small is that by showing they are able to build grassroots support, they can get the help and support of grassroots organizations, unions, and non-profits.

The Democrats are not the liberal party.  They just aren’t.  Hell, at this point they don’t even pay us anything but the most cursory of lip service.  And the thing that just blows my mind is that the politicians in this party have this conceit that they are owed the liberal vote, by virtue them not being Republicans.  That’s not how it works.  Not for me.  I vote for issues.  I vote for the people who actually fight for the things I value.  If a Republican were to come out tomorrow and support Medicare For All, and showed that they were willing to back up their values with real action, I would support them.

But we all know that won’t happen, so we’re left to fend for ourselves.  The solutions to America’s corruption problem aren’t easy, so there may be no hope for them ever being solved.  I just happen to have two options that I think are doable.  Take that for whatever you will.

Until next time, a quote,

“When life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade.  Make life take the lemons back!  Get mad!  I don’t want your damn lemons!  What the hell am I supposed to do with these?  Demand to see life’s manager!  Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons!  Do you know who I am?!  I’m the man who’s gonna burn your house down!  With the lemons!  I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!” – Cave Johnson, Portal 2

Peace out,

Maverick

Top 20 Favorite Films (2020 Edition)

Almost ten years ago, I did a list on here of my top 20 favorite films.  It’s been a long time since those days.  So much of my life has changed.  I’m not in college anymore.  I’m not the shit-kicker I used to be.  Well, at least I’m not picking fights with idiots the way I used to.  Now I am so much more of a shit-kicker in other ways.  A full decade later, having grown as a person I thought I would come back to this topic.  Here’s the criteria for my favorite films – if you were to put this on in front of me, my super tall self would sit my ass down and watch it and enjoy it, no matter what I was doing.  These are not the films that I think are the best made, though I do think they are all of quality.  No, these are the films that are my absolute favorite to watch on any day when I am feeling the need for a good movie that I can sit and enjoy.  Enjoy.

20. The Martian
This film has come into my life recently, but man has it left its mark.  I love this movie.  Some of you might know from being continuous readers of this site that I LOVE me some smart science fiction.  With all the crap like anything JJ Abrams puts out and all the big budget films that treat smart science like a dog to take out back, having a film like this be as good as it is just makes me feel so good.  Telling the story of an astronaut who ends up trapped on Mars, and the effort to bring him home.  I love Matt Damon’s role as Mark Watney.  It was so brilliant to have him recording logs into the camera.  That way they could have him acting and showing off his personality without talking to himself.  There isn’t a single bad role in this film.  If you haven’t seen this yet, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

19. The Boondock Saints
Some of you who have been readers more recently may not be surprised at this pick.  After all, I’ve made no secret that I think there is a problem with the broken nature of this country, and a film about two antiheroes looking to do some vigilante justice is just up my alley.  After being put in a situation where they have to kill two Russian mobsters, the MacManus brothers get a vision from God that they need to take their justice further, thus starting their crime spree across Boston.  This film is just a joy to watch.  It’s got some hilarious dark comedy.  The action scenes are fantastic.  Willem Dafoe is a joy to watch in his role as the effeminate FBI investigator who is trying to track down the ones responsible.  The three vigilante heroes, though, are just the best.  Norman Reedus really showed off his chops here.  So did Sean Patrick Flannery.  This film is a cult classic, and for damn good reason.

18. Ratatouille
Far and away my favorite of Pixar’s creations, this is a film that is just some good soul food for me.  I’ve talked about it before, but I love to cook.  There was a running joke back when my girl and I were first living together that I was the one who made us sandwiches after sex.  It’s true.  Cooking has been a passion of mine since I was young.  So the story of Remy, a rat with a passion that is being restrained by his life as a rat is just so touching.  It helps that the main character is voiced by Patton Oswald.  Anything that guy touches is gold.  He’s naturally funny, and brings so much of his sarcastic charm to the role.  One of the reasons I love this film so much is that Brad Bird made it.  He came up in animated films, and it’s clear that they drew this film before they animated it with CG.  That level of care and the knowledge of how that sort of filmmaking works goes so far in making the world of Paris come alive.  Not a lot more to say.  It’s a feel-good movie, and that’s all it needs to be.

17. Dredd
What a criminally-underappreciated movie.  Kills me inside to think that there isn’t going to be a sequel.  This movie opened to absolutely abysmal numbers, but thankfully it has gone on to have a fantastic legacy.  One of the things holding it back was the unfortunate comparison to the Stallone film Judge Dredd.  But this film is an improvement on that hackneyed piece of shit in every way.  For starters, this movie is violent as fuck!  Add to that Karl Urban as the titular character, who never shows his face, and you have not just a fantastically violent action movie, but a fantastically violent superhero film as well.  The story goes that Dredd is taking a rookie out for her assessment.  After responding to a call, they end up in a game of cat and mouse, desperately trying to survive from a criminal warlord called Ma-Ma.  If you haven’t seen this movie and miss the days of genuinely violent action films, you have to check this out.  All the roles are pretty great as well.  I gotta give it to Karl Urban.  The level of dedication he put into his frown, and the decision to never show his face, makes the character true to the source material.

16. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
When Disney released this back in 1954, audiences weren’t sure how to feel about it.  The people who liked Disney films for being light-hearted and fun wouldn’t warm up to the haunting role of Captain Nemo, brilliantly played by James Mason.  The fans of serious stuff wouldn’t get into Kirk Douglas’ role of Ned Land, playing a song on the ship with a guitar.  However, when I first saw it, this film touched me deep inside almost immediately.  Mason’s role as Captain Nemo is just incredible.  The level of depth he brings the character, going from a man clinging to virtue, to a tortured survivor, to a brilliant scientist, and lastly to a deranged man on a question for revenge, it’s amazing he makes all those roles work.  The story is of Professor Aronnax and his companions ending up on the “submarine boat,” the Nautilus.  The journey they make and the emotional depths they are taken to is gripping.  It makes how tragic the ending is that much harder.

15. The Secret of NIMH
Some of you will know my love for 2D animation, and the absolute level of heat-break it takes me to in thinking that it’s gone from film.  Nobody understood how amazing and visually captivating this medium could be like Don Bluth.  The level of detail and the worlds that he would create was captivating.  I love each and every one of his films, but none more than the tale of Mrs. Brisby and the Rats of NIMH.  The story goes that Mrs. Brisby has to move from her home before the plow comes for the field that they live in.  However, her child is sick, and she’s out of options.  A visit to an unforeseen source gives her the information she needs.  She must go to the rose bush and seek out the wisdom of a group of rats living there.  This is a fantastic film, about science, nature, and the unknown.  It is a surprisingly smart film, especially since its targeted at children.  The animation is breath-taking, and the story is engaging.  Don’t need much more than that.

14. Spirited Away
It’s really hard to mention the great anime movies without talking about Hayao Miyazaki  This guy’s legacy of creating some of the most memorable films in the medium speaks for itself.  And make no mistake, you haven’t seen the last of Studio Ghibli’s works on this list.  You literally can’t ask for a more feel-good and warm fuzzy film than this.  Telling the story of Chihiro, who is moving to a new town, her family ends up lost in the woods and finds their way to a strange shrine and an abandoned town beyond it.  After her parents get turned to pigs, she winds up at Ubaba’s bathhouse.  She has to work there, while finding a way to save her family.  This film is cute, has a sweet story, and all the voice actors they got were on point.  I’ve said before that I only watch anime dubbed.  This film got all the right people.  If you’re ever feeling down and need a movie to watch, you can’t go wrong with this one.

13. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
My absolute favorite of the old Star Trek films.  Ah, for the days when this franchise wasn’t a giant pile of shit.  Before the days of Star Trek: Picard, which tried to make this franchise super dark and gritty.  Never mind that the original shows in the good times of the franchise had already done that.  It’s hard to watch the episode of DS9, “In the Pale Moonlight”, without feeling chills.  Some people have made the comparison with the shitty Picard sequel and this film.  After all, doesn’t this film get super political?  The whole premise is modeled after the end of the Cold War.  That’s got to be a political screed, right?  Here’s the thing – unlike Star Trek: Picard, this film takes an actually hard look at the characters with its political allegory.  Capt. Kirk is framed as a man out of time, being left behind by a changing world.  Spock is ruminating on aging and the concept of his world being an illusion.  Bones just laments that they are too old to be in the situation they are, and that they were supposed to be retired by now.  While the franchise as a whole has lost its damn mind, the best aspects of it survive in films like this.  The perfect send-off to the original crew.  At least until that other movie came around…

12. WIII: Patlabor
An anime film about two detectives trying to solve a mystery surrounding mecha, with an edge of creature horror.  It sounds like a giant clusterfuck, yet it is one of the most zen movies I’ve ever seen.  What clinches it for me is the music.  Kenji Kawai scored this film, and when I need to decompress, this is what gets me.  It’s also a neat narrative too.  The mystery is that a mysterious force is destroying giant robots called Labors.  Two detectives are investigating, and quickly realize that all is not as it seems.  After coming face to face with the creature responsible, it becomes a race against time to contain the situation before the city goes into a panic.  The science is smart, the dub work is great, and the plot is nice and zen.  It doesn’t need to be anything more.

11. Hanna
I remember when I first found this movie, a long time ago.  It was a very strange sort of film.  A young girl, raised in the middle of nowhere, trained to kill.  Her father was cold to her, and she grew up with no social graces.  Now, she takes on the next part of her mission – to find the woman responsible for killing her mother, and give her the same treatment.  This is probably the strangest spy film I’ve seen in a long time.  Saoirse Ronan plays the role of the titular Hanna with a strange kind of dark innocence.  Cate Blanchett as the villain is perfect casting.  The action scenes are brief and direct.  It feels like battles between trained combatants.  The scenes where Hanna is desperately trying to fit in with the normal family she finds is just touching, marred by how it all ends up.  The ending is definitely very tragic, but fits.  If you like a good spy film, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.

10. Contact
Again, loves me some smart science fiction.  Based on a book by Carl Sagan, this film tells the story of a young astronomer, played fantastically by Jodie Foster.  She is on a mission – to get a radio that can hear out into the stars.  She wants to find the truth, and maybe, just maybe, find closure to her own pain.  This is a very mellow film.  What I love about it is just how down to earth some parts feel.  The battle against the forces of bureaucracy and personal bias, underpinning a story of faith vs. science and dogma vs exploration.  Sure, the romantic subplot could have been excised, and the bit where she meets with her father on the beach was kinda sappy, it was still a narrative that kept me going.  Now much more to say, really.  It’s a feel good smart science fiction film.  I’m okay with that.

9. Howl’s Moving Castle
I told you that Studio Ghibli would be coming back to this list.  And we’re still not done.  What baffles me is why so many people don’t like this movie.  I think it’s fantastic!  The story of a young woman who falls for a wizard named Howl and all the trouble that brings to her life is really fantastic!  The thing that really sells this movie is the voice acting.  The dub for this couldn’t have possibly been more perfect.  For starters, both the women they got for old and young Sophie.  Then you have Billy Crystal as the voice of Kalcifer, the fire demon who is quite affable.  Finally, you have Christian Bale as Howl.  It’s nice to see him be able to be the carefree wizard and also a very serious and deep character.  For whatever reason, this film is a black spot on Studio Ghibli, and for the life of me I cannot think of why.

8. Constantine
Oh boy.  I know so many comic book nerds who despise this movie.  It’s kind of funny and kind of frustrating at the same time.  These people need to get a life.  For my part, I just love this film.  Keanu Reeves brings the character and his brooding dark humor to life in a way that I honestly can’t think of anyone else being able to.  Tilda Swinton is a fun villain, and even Shia Lebouf isn’t bad.  Telling the story of a man trying to buy his way into Heaven after he committed suicide as a young man, this is a very grim look at the war between the two sides, and all those caught in the middle.  I can never get enough of how Keanu Reeves does brooding.  The dude really sets the standard, as far as I’m concerned.

7. The Sky Crawlers
On my initial list of best films, this one was at the top, and to be clear, I do still love it.  However, it isn’t the same love I had for it initially.  Far and away Mamoru Oshii’s best work, this film is tragic, somber, telling a narrative of a war that never ends, by design.  The film follows a squadron of fighters at a small base.  The pilots are cloned children who never age.  Their whole life is a war that is being fought between two corporations.  This war is allowing the world to have peace, believing that their peace is being fought for.  What’s more, these cloned children never really die.  If their body is killed, their mental data is taken and then reconstituted into a new clone of them.  None of the memories, but all of the skills they gained in battle.  I love what a dark and slow burn this film is.  For anime, it’s weird.  Every character has a ton of personality, and by the end it has you hoping for that way out that the main character mentions.

6. Reservoir Dogs
Far and away, Quentin Tarantino’s best work.  At least in my eyes.  Maybe not from a filmmaking standpoint.  To me, this film is the one that best exemplifies everything I love about Quentin Tarantino and the films he makes.  It’s a story about the telling of stories.  All of which is done, brilliantly, through dialogue.  The conversations in this film are just the best.  When you can have a scene with tons of dramatic tension play out entirely in dialogue, that’s brilliant!  My favorite is Mr. White and Mr. Pink, when they first get to the safe house.  Steve Buschemi owns that scenes so hard, but Harvey Keitel is pretty great too.  Telling the story of a jewelry store heist gone horribly wrong, all without ever showing a single second of what happens there and having the whole story ignore the “show don’t tell” rule in the most brilliant way imaginable.  Tarantino is a world-class writer, and it’s truly tragic that his next film will be his last.  The man wants his life’s work to be ten films long, and the next one will be it.  People have their preferences with his work, and this is mine.

5. Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
It should be no surprise that a film based on my favorite anime series of all time makes this list.  This film was absolutely fantastic.  The animation is some of the best I’ve EVER seen.  You have the voice-cast from the original reprising their role.  I could listen to Steve Blum as Spike for forever.  The dude has so much cool.  The action is slick, and the plot is engrossing.  Really, this film is like a really long and really good episode of the series.  What’s more, it doesn’t take place after the series.  A lot of people thoughts it did, for a while.  It takes place towards the end, but not after it.  Just another day in the life of the chronically-broke crew of the Bebop, trying to track down a terrorist on Mars.  There’s not a whole lot to say, really.  It’s slick, it’s fun, and has some of my favorite characters.  I love this film.

4 Summer Wars
This film is such a fascinating anomaly.  The director of the Digimon movie wanted to remake the second film in the anthology (and the only one people remember), but without it being tied to the Digimon franchise.  So, studio Madhouse gave him the budget and told him to go nuts.  And I love this film so much.  Not only does it have fantastic plot about battling a program in a massive social network, but you have a touching family drama as well.  The animation on this film is impeccable.  The action has that slick Madhouse formula that only they can do.  I love every single one of the human characters who all have so much charm as this enormous family going through this crazy situation together with their own drama.  This is a fantastic movie.  As anime action movies to, it’s hard not to think this is in a class of its own.  Everyone only remembers the Digimon movie for the second major plotline, so no wonder it worked so well made into an original film away from the license.

3. Blade Runner
The original cyberpunk film that is single-handedly responsible for making the entire genre.  A movie directed by Ridley Scott at the height of his talent.  An engrossing neo-noir detective story in a futuristic world that’s grimy, run-down, and filled with uneven power relationships.  This film is a marvel.  I recently got in blue-ray with the Final Cut, and holy shit!  I cannot begin to tell you how absolutely well the visuals in this film aged, and how amazingly they convert to high definition.  The effects in all their blu-ray glory are absolutely breath-taking.  I cannot begin to imagine how much effort went into making this film look good.  It’s ironic that Harrison Ford actually hates this film because he feels like he never got to be a detective in it.  Well, his opinions of it aside, he’s great in the role of Deckard.  A blade runner who is on the trail of some rogue Replicants who have come back to Earth on a mission to stop themselves from dying.  This movie has it all.  Atmosphere, great acting, an incredible soundtrack, and that slow-burn pacing I love SO much.  The sequel was pretty good, but nothing can match up to the original.

2. Princess Mononoke
The greatest film that Studio Ghibli ever created, bar none.  When Hayao Miyazaki originally began production, this was meant to be his life’s work.  And given how this movie nearly bankrupted the whole damn studio, it’s not surprising.  Every scene of this film is a masterpiece.  It’s a 10 out of 10 movie, make no mistake.  The animation is in a class of its own.  The action is smooth and beautiful.  What’s more, here’s where all the anime dub purists will get to be super angry at me, but the dub for this is incredible.  Every role is just the best.  My two favorite roles are Billy Bob Thorton and Minnie Driver doing the roles of Jigo and Lady Eboshi, respectively.  Thorton brings a kind of dark cynicism to the role of Jigo, making him simultaneously scummy, but you can’t hate him because you see early on where his philosophy comes from.  The dude is only in it for himself, but not actively hateful.  Driver, on the other hand, makes Lady Eboshi a very enigmatic character.  She is a violent woman and has no problem killing her enemies, yet you see her softer side when you meet the lepers and have her asking Ashitaka for his help to look after the people of Iron Town.  Neil Gaiman (yes, THAT Neil Gaiman) did the ADR directing, and no dub is more faithful to the source material while making the language not stilted for an American audience.  This is a true masterpiece, and if you haven’t seen it, you owe it to yourself to do so.

And my favorite movie of all times is…

1. Fantasia
Those who have read this site for long enough probably saw this coming from a mile away.  This is, without any question, the greatest film that Disney has ever produced.  It will never be topped.  Sales numbers be damned, no film has as much creativity and artistic poetry like Fantasia does.  The music is beautiful.  The animation is sublime.  The visuals they have to go with each piece are perfect.  Not a single frame is wasted.  This film also nearly bankrupted Disney to make, but holy shit!  No film can make color, sound, and motion come together like this.  It makes how terrible Disney has become that much more heart-breaking, but it is what it is.  This film got me into 2D animation and classical music.  I love it from the bottom of my little black heart.

What are your favorite films?  Let me know down below.

Until next time, a quote,

“Look everyone!  This is what hatred looks like!  It’s eating me alive, and very soon it will kill me.” – Ashitaka, Princess Mononoke

Peace out,

Maverick

The Last of Us, Part II Leaked Info is Frustrating…

I’m sure you all know by now – a disgruntled Naughty Dog employee leaked pretty much the whole game that they are using as their big title, The Last of Us, Part II.  I need to make a few things clear right up front.  First, I don’t care how mad they are about crunch culture, this isn’t cool.  I think that crunch is disgusting and I think these employees shouldn’t have to deal with it, but if it becomes normal to just leak entire games as retribution, then how many other games are going to be ruined because of one asshole.  Second, I LOVE The Last of Us.  I love it so much.  The original game was such a fantastic story.  The narrative of Joel and Ellie and the question of what is the cost to be human is told in such a gripping way, and I love every second of it.

When I saw that a sequel was being made, initially I was like, “wait, what?”  I mean, why make a sequel?  The original game wasn’t asking for one.  Hell, I didn’t even like the DLC for the game all that much.  It took the fantastic ending that Ellie talked about her and her friend Riley and made it seem all hopeful and uplifting.  That wasn’t what it was.  The ending with those two was meant to be tragic.  It was the beginning of Ellie’s descent into blaming herself for all the people around her who have died.  So why did the DLC make this some big uplifting moment?  It made no sense.

Still, as the footage of gameplay came out, I’ll admit, I was hooked.  It still looked like the game I knew and love.  I still got the warm feelings of catharsis watching Ellie sneak around and hunt her foes.  The infected still looked freaky as fuck.  I even didn’t care about Ellie and Diversity Lesbian (now we know why the character had a passing resemblance to Anita Sarkeesian). The gameplay looked sick, and I had seen that Neil Druckmann still can craft a good narrative.  After all, Uncharted 4 dealt with some social justice stuff, and it still had a story that worked.  So maybe this would too.

However, the leaked information has come out, and some of what I’ve seen has me really, really unhopeful for this game.  I’m about to go into specifics, so if spoilers is something you want to avoid, turn back now.  You won’t get a second warning.  If you are still reading, then you’re in it.

Here’s what we’ve learned.  First, there’s a new character that we are going to be playing as for the majority of the game.  She’s a super talented, super capable archer, fighter, gunfighter, and all around best at everything.  This character is believed to be transgender, though I’m not sure if it’s a male to female or female to male thing.  The character is the child of the doctor that Joel killed in the original game at the hospital.  They are hunting Joel and presumably kill him with a golf club with Ellie being forced to watch.  This person or someone connected to them is believed to be the one who murders Ellie’s girlfriend, who is supposedly pregnant with child that the two mean to raise.  Next, you have a segment like the restaurant scene in the original game, except this time, it’s Ellie you’re hunting.  And, if the information leaked is true, you most likely will end up killing her.

So, after spending a whole game getting me to really care about two characters, you introduce some new person in the sequel and have me, the player, assist them in murdering the characters that I care for?!  I’m supposed to help this cunt kill Ellie?  Are you fucking kidding me?!  Um, no!  I refuse!  Now look, if this chick kills Joel as part of the cycle of revenge, fine.  Okay.  I get that.  Thematically it makes sense.  He killed people to save Ellie.  Now those people come back to kill him.  Now Ellie is on the warpath for someone who killed her girlfriend.  All of these things make sense, with the narrative of this game being the cost of revenge.  But I refuse to help this bitch, who is just super duper awesome at everything, hunt down and kill one of my favorite characters in all of gaming!  Hell, I don’t wanna help her in the killing of Joel.  I like both of them.  The idea that this game is going to put me in the shoes of this character murdering two of my favorite characters in gaming and not have me wishing for their immediate and painful death is laughable.  I will be cheering every time this cunt get stabbed, shot, bitten, and ripped to pieces by dogs.

I don’t get how Neil Druckmann can be this blind.  What did he miss about the original game that makes him think that he can have some rando bitch kill the protagonists of the original game and everyone isn’t going to be mad at him?  Where did the idea come from?  Also, this is how they want to put a transgender character in their game?  By having them kill off everyone’s favorite character.  What great representation!  I’m sure that this in NO WAY won’t blow right the fuck up in their faces.  Joel dying as part of the narrative, okay.  I don’t like it, but okay.  But having me hunt down and kill Ellie?  I refuse on general principal!

My girlfriend is playing through the first season of Life is Strange.  She privately streams it and we are going through this together.  Seeing the relationship between Chloe and Max grow organically, with them being characters first who are established as characters and the potential for gay romance being brought into the story is inspiring.  That’s good writing!  You don’t make the LGBT stuff front and center, instead weaving it into a clever narrative and bringing that up at a pace.  By that token, what does Neil think that is going to be accomplished by having super-transgender woman in his game who is super awesome and murders everyone’s favorite protagonists from the last game is going to accomplish?  Not to mention, I’m assuming the transgender stuff is by identity only, since the character can’t actually transition.  A huge amount of hormonal treatment is needed for transition, so I’m just guessing they identify as whatever and are just really butch.

I’ve talked about this in the past.  Gaming is going through a rough patch right now in terms of LGBT representation.  The social justice types are demanding that it be front and center, like how people were in the 90’s.  And we saw how SUBTLE some of the gay characters from that era were.  Subtle like a wrecking ball.  Shit like this doesn’t help the movement.  Far from it.  It hurts it.  Rather than having a character who has a different identity or who is gay being integrated into a good story first, and then having that part of them become a part of who they are once we care about them, their being LGBT is so front and center that you lost track of who they are.

Upper Echelon Gamer made a fantastic video about this, and I’m going to see what his review of this game is before I see it, because he seems to be on the same page as me, and I want to know if this game fucks everything as badly as the leaks indicate.  If it is as bad as everyone seems to hope it will be (the people who seem vindicated by this annoy me.  This isn’t a good thing, assholes.  It’s a bummer), I’m not giving my money to it.  I know this game will make a ton of money because of the original, but I’m going into this with both eyes open.

Until next time, a quote,

“Boneface is right.” – Jose, Persona 5: Royal

Peace out,

Maverick