Reviews of Wrestling, Movies, TV and much more! Strong language has been censored by me for blog content
Thursday, November 27, 2008
My Weekly TNA Catch-up, Impact 27th Nov 08
Monday, November 24, 2008
Hulk Hogans Celebrity championship Wrestling mini review show 6
At the junkyard Bischoff tells them this weeks match will be a hardcore no rules match. The celebs are then sent to find weapons and then let off steam by using them on a car. Back at the complex in the rec room after a short chat about how they felt about beating up a car Danny Bonneduche walks into the room. Bonneduche doesn't believe he's been eliminated because it hasn't been said to his face. Danny meets with Hogan who tells him what happened last week. Dustin Diamond goes over to speak to Hogan as well and interrupts him & Bonneduche who then goes off at Diamond after he said he'd worked injured (Calling him a liar? Speak to your lawyer about how sensible that was Danny).
Hogan says to settle it they should have a Falls Count Anywhere match and then later in the ring tells the other celebs they will be in the hardcore match. This weeks 3 new moves are demonstrated on Brian Knobbs, how to Hit In The Back (Hogan does a chairshot across the back), Hit In The Head (Hogan gives Knobbs a trashcan shot to the noggin) and Hit In The Gut (again using a foreign object, I think it was a baking tray?).
The celebs start practising taking the various moves from Knobbs & Brutus, Trishelle goes off to the medic after taking her chair to the back. Dustin & Danny are then taken off to the other ring by Brutus to practice working their Falls Count Anywhere match. After blocking out a whole ton of ideas Danny suddenly goes crackers after Diamond hits him in the head with a trashcan in the ring.
Hogan comes in to give everyone a quick peptalk then brings in this weeks expert - Bill Goldberg and they then show Bill the 3 moves they learnt this week. Goldberg then asks Danny to show him a trashcan shot. Goldberg says the 1st is weak as is the 2nd but Butterbean slaps Danny around the face then Goldberg says the 3rd hit is ok. Goldberg asks if he can take a powerslam, hits Danny with a hard one then promptly leaves.
The Matches. Hardcore match - Mr Not-So Perfect & One Mean Bean vs The Redhot Redneck & Rodzilla.
There had been no mention that this was going to be a tag match as well so that was quite an interesting surprise, Redneck was sent to the floor early leaving Bean & Perfect to doubleteam Rodzilla who ducked a chairshot so Perfect ending up clocking Bean and allowing The Redneck to re-enter later hitting Perfect with a nice chair to the back which Perfect sold pretty well. This wasn't pretty and it didn't look very practiced either. Lots of weapons used on everyone, mark for the various ladder hits taken by Rodzilla. I assume when he got smashed in the head by Perfect's tea-tray as he was still tied up in the ring that one genuinely hurt him as you could clearly see the swearword he said. Butterbean got put through a table (well he did eventually) and Rodzilla took the pin for his team. Not a brilliant match but it had its moments.
Falls Count Anywhere Hardcore match - The Winner vs Dangerous Danny Bonneduche. Winner started stomping on Danny just as he rolled into the ring, Winner then hit a nice bulldog that Hogan liked. Danny got his wind and worked Winner from corner to corner, Winner was sent to the floor and Danny followed with a nice cross bodyblock. Danny took a nice hit to the ringsteps then they both fought their way down the tunnel and into the locker room and Perfect got involved. Danny gave a weak trashcan shot and sent Winner through a door then Danny was sent through the set wall. Winner eventually dragged Danny back up the tunnel into the ring beaning Danny in the head with a cookie sheet before missing an elbowdrop. Danny missed either a frogsplash or missile dropkick attempt (I couldn't tell what he was going to attempt) then Winner DDT'd Danny into a steel chair taking the win. Very good match indeed.
Trishelle is eliminated after admitting she didn't give 100% this week.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Movie Review - Futurama - Bender's Game
Once again we're following the exploits of the employees of Planet Express based in New New York and this is yet another movie where Bender gets to be the lead character or not so much in this case. You'd think that'd be true from the title but Fry & Leela probably manage to get just as much screen time as our favourite wisecracking Mexican alcoholic robot.
In a pretty convoluted story featuring games of Dungeons & Dragons (a game thats pretty much only really popular in America so most of the planet aren't going to get any of those jokes), Dark Matter as a fuel source, A love triangle involving Professor Farnsworth & Mom, A secret child revealed and some more of the background of Nibbler's people you get the bare bones for this movie.
Most of the movie is recycled ideas that have been used before including Bender going mad (which spawned an entire episode called "Insane In The Mainframe" and almost all of those ideas are re-used here), Nibbler's poop being a useful fuel source and Farnsworth working for & having romantic feelings for Mom. So not much has been done in the way of new material for the script.
The journey into Benders Game is due to Bender going insane by playing Dungeons & Dragons after being encouraged to use his imagination by Cubert Farnsworth, the entire of reality collapses and Fry & friends all fall into the Domain as imagined by Bender.
Leela becomes a Centaur (explaining the image on the cover) as does Hermes who also manages to grow breasts for some unexplained reason. The Professor is a Gandalf like wizard character and Zoidberg goes from being a friendy monster (who is decapitated by an extremely angry Leela) to just a pink head on tentacles in an idea they totally stole from The Mighty Boosh.
Fry becomes Gollum or the next worst thing and Mom is the evil in the land so no real change in her character there. There's a really annoying Star Wars reference and everyone comes back to reality and the plot (what little there is of it) is resolved in an ending with several twists that I won't reveal.
Diehard Futurama fans MIGHT like it with a good reason for the very big emphasis on might. It's mostly awful, very unoriginal like it's forebears and has already gone straight to dvd bypassing the cinema altogether. Expect to see it in it's episodical format on Sky One in 2009.
My Weekly TNA Catch-up, Impact 20th Nov 08
Booker T, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner & Sting vs Samoa Joe, AJ Styles and 2 as yet un-named wrestlers.
Kurt Angle vs Rhino. Kurt Angle comes out looking miffed because he can't fight Jeff Jarrett and if he can't have him he wants Mick Foley instead. Jarrett comes out after Angle hit Foley and cites "My company, my rules". Jarrett says if he beats Rhino at the PPV he gets his match with Jarrett but if Angle loses his TNA contract becomes null & Void. Angle slaps Jarrett and gets gored by Rhino.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Movie Review - The Mutant Chronicles
I personally haven't heard of the Role Playing Game this is based on (because I'm not that much of a nerd) but fans of Silent Hill and Quake 4 will all be crying that this has mercilessly ripped off their ideas. Which is completely wrong as the original RPG was written way back in 1993 predating Quake 4 by 12 years and Silent Hill by 6 years so it appears the plot of this game has proved to be very influential indeed.
Thomas Jane is your heroic lead as Mitch Hunter (it's not worth talking about his military rank because it's constantly referred to as different ranks by different characters as they speak to or about him and thats this films first, worst and biggest goof). Exactly why Thomas Jane got this job is hard to know as this is only really his 3rd big movie having previously starred in The Mist (and we had no clue why he was the star in that either), The Punisher (the incredibly weak remake that made Dolph Lungren's version look good) and Deep Blue Sea so he's hardly what you call star material. I assume they cast him because he looked good in the costume and gave off a suitably pretty vibe to the women in the room.
If we're honest John Malkovich is the biggest star in the movie but he's not in it for long (a lot like Sean Pertwee who only appears at the start and end of the film, I felt his character was a complete waste of time) which really makes Ron Perlman (playing religious cleric Brother Samuel) the biggest star in the film but he plays his role like he's only turning up for the wage packet which should really make the producers of Hellboy pretty nervous about getting a 3rd film out of their franchise.
The lesser known members of the cast are the real stars here, people like Devon Aoki as Valerie Duval (probably better known for her role in Sin City and I'm really pleased to see her get a decent well rounded role like this) are the ones who truly shine in roles that don't get much dialogue but the performers really make the most of their characters.
Set in some far flung future after an Ice Age a spaceship lands on Earth and starts turning humans into Mutants using a machine that utilizes dead and dying human bodies as source material. A group of soldiers from all the largest surviving groups manage to seal the spaceship underground effectively ending the mutant threat.
That is until there is global civil war between the various human factions (Fans of Ion Storms Daikatana will think they stole the name Mishima for Asia but the RPG predates the game by 4 years) breaks the seal on the door containing the mutant making spaceship and the nasty
mutants are released once more onto an unsuspecting Earth.
The civil war scenes look like a cross between World War 1 (right down to the Allied and German looking costumes and some equipment) and some sort of Steampunk inspired nightmare although the mutants themselves do look as though they were lifted right off the set of Silent Hill or from the Strogg sections of Quake 4.
The clerics lead by Brother Samuel decide their only hope for survival is a suicide mission to plant a long forgotten bomb back into the machine in hopes of stopping production of any further mutants and the chosen group of disgruntled killers is sent off to find a way down to
the machine to plant the bomb.
Obviously various members of the group get killed along the way, I won't say who or when as it's more fun to try and guess who is going to get killed next and how. The ending is fairly ambiguous, it does have a resolution of sorts but it left me feeling like they'd cut at least 30
minutes of material to get to the end titles quickly.
I did enjoy the film but it felt like it hadn't been resolved completely at the end, if this was due to the fact they say the film is unfinished then that's understandable. If it was because they were hoping to get a sequel its also a fairly justified reason.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Hulk Hogans Celebrity championship Wrestling mini review show 5
The Killer cold continues
Getting soaked on Nov 8th didn't help and neither did having to sit round in wet clothes for several hours. The fact that I was already sneezing before that probably helped bring this on.
Anyway, roll on getting well.
I hate being ill.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Now in widescreen!
My Weekly TNA Catch-up, Impact 13th Nov 08
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
My TNA Catch-up, Turning Point PPV Nov 08
Doug & Petey Williams were in next (just to make things confusing for the commentary I guess), the highlight of their equally short run was Petey's Hurricanrana on Doug from the ring to the floor. Volador & Eric Young were in next but Young was out just as quickly as he entered. When Lethal came in next things got much better and they were seriously working each other well, lots of fluid moves, they were looking really good together. Dutt came in after a cheapshot on Lethal and also had a good run against Volador doing another of his spinning headscissors on him.
Petey Williams dived in then mayhem ensued eventually leading to Homicide hitting Doug with the Gringo Cutter, he dived into Young & Creed but missed it badly and bounced off the guardrail hitting his back but was also grabbing his head (obviously a very real and serious enough injury for 2 referees to go into the crowd to check on him). Ref Andrew Thomas deemed him too injured to continue so Homicide was eliminated (earning himself 7th position) as Hernandez came out to check on his tag partner.
Eric Young elminated Doug Williams (I don't even want to guess what that move was but it looked good!) earning Doug a highly respectable 3rd in the X Division rankings. It came down to Eric Young & Jay Lethal as the final 2. Both guys are quick and fast, both guys can counter and reverse. Young may have the edge on power but Lethal probably has the edge on speed. Young eventually turned a suplex into a bridging pin to get the win and earn the #1 contender spot and the future match for the X Division title, Lethal eanred himself the #2 ranking. This was a really good match, everyone worked hard and it was a shame Homicide was eliminated due to injury. Was Young shooting on WWE with that entertainers comment during his promo?
After some interference from Rhaka Khan, Kong soon managed to take the upper hand with Roxxi. Roxxi sold a seriously long beatdown from Kong & Saeed with Saeed seriously f**king up an assisted launch moonsault so Kong had to cover for her as the colour guys tried to make like it didnt happen and was accidental. Wilde did get tagged in and took control but it took Roxxi putting Kong over the top rope and hitting her with a cross body block from the top turnbuckle to the floor to allow Wilde to hit Saeed with the roll-up into the bridging suplex (that we're seeing used so much recently by lots of TNA wrestlers) to get the win for her team.
Clearly the directors & producers were telling West & Tenay to not name check ICP or Hall when they made the comment of "familiar faces" as if they'd been free to mention them they surely would have. Rhino took the eventual win off the gore, AWFUL match and stupid of TNA to not take advantage of having ICP & Hall in plain view.
Move of the match for me had to be Shelleys double DDT on Beer Money (with Roode selling it like crazy) although Sabins springboard DDT on Roode was equally impresive. The 4 man tower suplex looked impressive but Shelley was grabbing at his knee like he'd seriously twisted it up whilst he was upside down. Beer Money took the eventual win after Jaqueline distracted the ref, Storm spat beer into Sabin's face to allow Roode to make the pin and retain the titles. The Guns were a much better team here though and made for an excellent match.
Angle's forward somersault onto Abyss off the stage is something he's done before (in his match with AJ Styles at Hard Justice this year), Angle spearing Abyss through the wall of the stage looked pretty good too though. It was pretty unforgivable to cut to several repeats of that move to allow them time to get off camera only for Angle to be smashed out of a different segment of the stage from the inside by Abyss. Angle managed to kick out of a chokeslam after being smashed head first into a chair in the ropes only to miss a splash off the top rope onto Angle. Angle made a great moonsault onto Abyss with the chair across him.
It was a bit silly of Abyss to not Black Hole Slam Angle ino the chair that was only inches away so it was pretty obvious by this point Angle was going to get the eventual win. I did enjoy the scaffold segment behind the Spanish Announce table although Abyss's bump onto the table wasn't as bad as most people made it out to be. Angle pinned Abyss by the Spanish Announce position to take the win, very good match by both guys but you have to mark for Abyss taking the bumps off Angle to get him over.
Joe went for a suicide dive only to run into a face full of chair from Nash but managed to kick out of the resulting pin. Nash hit the big boot and signalled for the finish only for Joe to kick out of the Jack Knife Powerbomb. Joe got another facefull of exposed turnbuckle but this time Nash and the ref had the sense to move the cameras to allow Joe time to do the blade job this time. Joe sold a few more shots into the steel & kicked out of a 2nd Jack Knife Powerbomb. Joe had Nash in a submission armbar but the ref took a c**ppy bump and Nash hit Joe with the low blow. Nash rolled Joe up and used the ropes for leverage to take the win in a match where Joe was the much better worker and Nash should think himself lucky how much Joe put him over here.
Styles was getting the heck beaten out of him until he just kicked Sting in the side of the head right out of nowhere, Sting managed to sell the back suplex pretty well (you have to be REALLY bad if you can't sell an AJ Styles move) but the Styles comeback continued with a nice springboard flying forearm on Sting. Styles kicked out of the Scorpion Death Drop (well they did have at least another 3 minutes of air time to fill) and nailed AJ with 3 consecutive Stinger Splashes. Styles fought out of the Superplex with a powerbomb of his own then nailed Sting with The Spiral Tap.
Ref Hebner really should have DQ'ed Sting the second Booker T & Kurt Angle ran down the ramp to stop AJ's 2nd Spiral Tap all of which allowed Sting the time to recover. AJ missed the Pele and Sting made a side roll to take the pin and retain the title. Really he should have been DQ'ed for outside interference and would have still retained the title. Styles was the much better worker here and that was clearly a desperation move from Russo to send Booker & Angle out to interfer so close to the end.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Hulk Hogans Celebrity championship Wrestling mini review show 4
The Redhot Redneck & The Mean Bean cut their promo. Dangerous Danny & Mr Not So Perfect cut their promo. Bean & Danny kick this off. Danny hits Bean with a couple of kicks to the midsection, an armbar then another armbar with Perfect helping him. They then doubleteam Bean working towards a fairly nice double clothesline, Bean kicks out of Danny's cover. Redneck has to bring Bean back to the ring and tags in with Danny and ends up getting seriously smooched. Danny hits her with a nice schoolboy but she kicks out after 2. Danny totally flubs the hiptoss and looks awful in his execution and landing.
For Team Nasty its a 2 on 1 handicap match. Candy Girl & The Winner vs Rodzilla.
Candy Girl & The Winner cut their promo. Rodzilla cuts his promo. The Winner & Rodzilla start this one off, Rodzilla making a well sold armbar but Winner rakes the eyes to break it. Candy & Winner doubleteam Rodzilla with the armbars and kicks to his midsection but he powers out of it. Winner flubs a very low kick on Rodzilla almost in the family jewels. Rodzilla gets back on top taking Winner around the turnbuckles and Winners sell of the hiptoss isn't very good at all. Candy sells being kicked in her midsection ok and takes a better looking hiptoss off Rodzilla. Her kick to his midsection is way more accurate and on target than Winners was and Winner hits Rodzilla with an elbow smash from the apron as Candy works Rodzilla on the ropes.