Beavis and Butt-head Do America (1996) - One of the weirdest, and yet strangely entertaining movies I've ever seen

Well, it is the summer, the time of great adventures, wonderful stories and just taking time to appreciate freedom for most of us... I assume, I'm writing this review in early April thanks to the current pandemic happening, so hindsight is not exactly 20/20 right now. Hopefully, by June all of this will die down, and hopefully things will return to some state that we can call normal, hopefully one better than right now. Well, since it is the summer I think it would be a good idea to look at a wacky road trip movie... full honesty, I just wanted a road trip movie but uh... this movie is weird.

After their TV gets stolen, Beavis and Butt-head end up going on a trip across the United States on a quest, to them it's to score with a hot girl, but to everyone else involved it's to smuggle a man-made virus across the country. Once a government agency gets wind of this, they start trying to chase the two boys down, but just keep missing them at every turn. Okay, plot wise it doesn't sound too weird, in fact it might be one of the more tame plots for any movie I have ever seen. However, what makes it weird is how it just keeps escalating to the point of absurdity. The movie ends with Beavis, possibly really high, doing his cornholio bit at the White House before getting in a stand-off with the FBI, ATF and SWAT. A movie that starts with the two boys trying to find their stolen TV set ends up with them getting involved in a weapons smuggling plot, wrecking the Hoover Dam and going on a cactus induced trip with Rob Zombie visuals. The way this movie escalates is really bizarre, and kinda funny since the two are painfully unaware of everything going on. I wouldn't say the escalation is as good as the South Park movie, but that movie was all about making commentary and satire, so it's kinda like comparing an apple to a computer mouse.

Being honest, the idiocy of the two does get a little painful to watch at times. I really hate dramatic irony, the trope where the audience knows something the characters don't, think romeo and Juliet where we know that Juliet isn't dead, but Romeo doesn't. Honestly, it's mostly just a personal thing, I hate watching people be dumb when I know the reality, it's kinda like watching Trump be president, like you really just want to reach into the TV and start yelling at the characters. I think it works here because, well Beavis and Butt-head probably wouldn't understand even if they were told. They kinda just go along their way, so it is less painful to watch. In fact, the whole movie is a bit of a dramatic irony since all the characters expect Beavis and Butt-head to be, well competent at anything, and we all know that the two are complete boobs. While their idiocy does get painful, it's kind of a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas painful where it never becomes too much to watch.

Now, I am not someone who ever watched an episode of Beavis and Butt-head, so I'm coming into this movie mostly blind. That being said, the idiocy of our two leads was never aggravating. They're motivated by two things really, TV and sex. That being said, they are more like observers to the plot in this movie. They're unaware of literally anything that goes on around them, including when their names are on a sign. The side characters are more of the protagonists of this movie, they have more agency in getting the plot going, and you have a decent cast. The agent chasing them is kinda funny with how uh... intimate he can be, the smugglers are just that right amount of awful where, you don't like them, but you don't want them to get off screen to quickly, and of course, you have a whole host of colourful characters that have one or two appearances as well. I think character-wise, this movie isn't bad, they do their job decently, just not too memorable.

When it comes to the humour, it's pretty funny. I just had to laugh at how insane the end climax became, and there were some moments that made me chuckle as well. I think this would be a good movie to watch under the influence so to say. It really has that style of humour where you just sit back, mellow out and chuckle at the fact that your finger feels weird when you wiggle it in the air. Not to say this movie isn't funny for sober people, while there isn't a lot of clever wordplay and lots of awkward humour, you can be amused by some of the childish antics that go on in this movie.

While the main art style may not be appealing to some people, I do think the animation as a whole isn't bad. I am so used to shows and movies having bad art styles to get away with having bad animation, but the animation here is smooth, the lips are always in sync and I didn't see any obviously reused loops. The colour pallet is nice, not one of the best I've seen, but it always matches the mood and setting pretty well. Plus, the hallucination with Rob Zombie's artwork really is one of those segments that steals the show, it was just such an awesome scene that the movie is worth watching just for that.

That being said, this wasn't that bad of a movie. I found the escalation of the plot to be amusing, I found the two leads to be charming with their immaturity and simple mindedness, and as a whole I found the movie to be mildly funny. If you just want to sit back and check your brain at the door, maybe light up a little green if you're into that, this really is the movie for you. Even if you aren't into "Lucifer's Cabbage" there is still a mild amusement to this movie that I think you will enjoy. I give it a good recommendation... heh, heh, I said boobs in the review, heh.

First Impressions: Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge (2020)

About time I did another First Impressions blog right? Yeah, I have been way behind on these and I do apologize, so to kick things off (Heh heh), let's look at the latest in the long line of Mortal Kombat pieces that are not main series fighting games. Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge.

Okay so, first things first I am, kind of a fan of Mortal Kombat. I haven't really played very many of the games rather than Deception, I'm not really good at fighting games to start with, but I do love the lore and characters of the series, and of course the fatalities, but that's a given. I've been on a bit of a Mortal Kombat kick recently, so I figure, why not satisfy my blood lust with the new movie? Bonus for me is that this movie is animated so it won't look as bad as Annihilation did.

So, let's get that out of the way then, the animation is spectacular in this movie. It is very anime inspired, but it's hard to find an animated product that isn't anime inspired in some way now, it's either anime or comics that are trying to be emulated, but I digress. The animation was really good in showing off the pure carnage of the action. You can almost feel the weight and force of each punch, each kick and each body part being ripped off. They also included the X-Rays from the recent games which, in the games I'm kind of on the fence about, but in this movie, it was perfect. I think a part of it is that, the X-Rays in the recent games just look like they slow down the fighting, but I could be wrong since, again, only really played Deception, but since this is a movie, and not an interactive media like a video game, it can actually serves its purpose of emphasizing each blow much better.

So what about the plot? Well, it's kind of a retelling / retcon / complete overhaul of the first video game. A bunch of champions are brought to an island to fight in a tournament that will determine the fate of the Earthrealm, but their are a few things different. First, they changed who killed Scorpion, in the video games it was clear that Sub-Zero, Bi-Han in the first game, killed Scorpion, and that was confirmed in the spin-off Mythologies. I guess it was changed to better fit the narrative, but it isn't too big a deal. Jax also looses his arms in this movie, even though in the games he didn't have his robotic arms until Mortal Kombat III, but I don't think anyone is really going to care.

I don't think the changes are too major, I mean, the games themselves are diving into alternate timelines and the main boss is named Kronika, you know, Chronos, so this is really not that much.

I will say, as someone who knows a lot about the games, I did fanboy a little at the minor cameos they slipped in. My favourite was Nitara, she was only playable in two games, I really wish they'd do more with her, but I digress. Seeing characters that could have been Baraka and Motaro (Though probably weren't) was also really cool, and Kitana, she was just great, I hope they do another movie and really flesh out her character, they obviously set up a relationship between her and Liu Kang... yes obviously it was from the games, but still.

Actually, one random side note, but the minute I saw Shao Kahn I knew I wanted a sequel, I didn't care if this movie sucked, but I wanted a sequel to see more Shao Kahn.

On that note, this movie kicked ass, it isn't going to really wow anyone who is going in expecting something deep and philosophical, not that there aren't elements of that here, but it's more of a bloody action flick. If you're a fan of Mortal Kombat, you're going to get a kick out of this movie. If you want a satisfying action flick, you're going to get it, and if you want a good movie, I think you'll find it. This movie was entertaining and highly satisfactory, a solid recommendation from me.

Isle of Dogs (2018) - One of the best films you may not have seen

2018 was the year I began to take animation more seriously, and tried to watch all the animated movies that were released in theatres, even if I knew they would suck. From this, I ended up with a lot of surprises, such as Early Man and of course Into the Spider-Verse, but even with all of the great animated features, Hell movies in general, released in 2018, one remains my favourite of the year, Isle of Dogs, which had one of the emptiest theatres of any showing, not THE emptiest, that award goes to UglyDolls, which was dreadful, but this one was still pretty barren, and it's a shame too because it really is one of the greatest animated features I've ever seen.

In a, honestly pretty dystopic Japanese future, dogs have been banished from the island due to an outbreak, and sent to a place called "Trash Island", which is exactly as it sounds. One young boy named Atatri braves through the island of garbage to find his dog, who was the first to be sent to the island. However, there is a conspiracy going on that the mayor of the precinct had the dogs intentionally infected and desires to destroy any and all opposition, including poisoning a scientist who has found a cure for the dog disease and staging it to look like a suicide. No, this movie's plot has no ties to any current events happening currently, no government that is oppressive to any group of living beings, no pandemic sweeping the nation, none of that at all, heh heh...

Well, there's no going back now.

That aside, the movie's plot moves really well. A lot of the information of the movie is given as flashback, and I think that was a brilliant move. It means that very little is left to be exposition dumped, only what has to be. I think this movie offers a good example of something that has to be exposition dumped on the audience, the scene where Atari's dog, Spots, is explaining that he has to give up his duties. On top of brilliant moves like that, there is also a good amount of foreshadowing, and a good use of montage to cut down on the large amount of travel the characters do.

Now, I am terrible when it comes to identifying character, and it's a bit tougher here because, with the exception of the dogs and two humans, the entire cast speaks Japanese, untranslated and unsubbed. I don't think it's any surprise that I failed my highschool Japanese class.

I don't have any issue with the film being predominately Japanese, most of the important sutff is translated in some way so audiences won't be lost, and you can still get some idea of what the characters are saying. Obviously, Atari is ranting about something, or the servant is scolding him. It is also very clear that Chief is kind of the defacto leader, even though he says they're all the leader, and it's kind of amusing that the other dogs are pretty tired of him.

I must also comment that the acting is incredible in this movie. I could barely tell Jeff Goldblum, Edward Norton and Bill Murray were in this movie, and they have pretty distinct voices. I do kind of forget that these characters are dog puppets, but in the end that really is high praise to the actors.

Let's also not forget the animators, as someone who has done stop-motion animation, it takes a long time. My animations are a couple minutes long at most, so I can't imagine how long it would take to shoot a 101 minute long film. Plus there are so many little details, like paper flapping in the breeze, rats running around, and things they really did not need to animated, but did anyway to give the movie that feeling of being believable. One scene that really has to be complimented is the sushi making scene, I think fellow animated movie reviewer Animated Antic shared some behind the scenes video on how that scene was made, and it is just so smoothly done that you can only tell it's stop motion by the textures and lighting. If I had to nitpick, I will say I am not really fond of how they show any Television images in the film, they're obviously two-dimensional images, but the heads are still animated like they're three-dimensional puppets and it's really uncanny. It's kinda like watching Robot Chicken puppets interact with two-dimensional flash characters, there's a disconnect that makes it weird to look at.

Of course, there is a bit of controversy surrounding the film. Of course, since it heavily focuses on Japanese humans, there has to be some focus on their culture. Personally, I don't get it, maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see the film as too bad in that regard. I think a lot of it is that we don't focus too much time on the human characters, we focus a lot on the canines, and it is clear that not all of the humans agree with the anti-dog propaganda. I feel like people are putting too much emphasis on this aspect because, it's obviously a heavily fictionalized story and it's not looking at a major aspect of Japanese culture, as far as I'm aware. I also don't think the view of "The white character saves the day is valid", she obviously didn't win at all, she was almost kicked out of the country until Atari showed up. Again, maybe I'm missing something, but I don't think this is, too bad of representation, it's better than The Aristocats... Why Paul Winchell.. why?

Honestly, it was nice to talk about a movie I love this time, especially after such a... flaming mess that was the Felix the Cat movie. This movie really is wonderful, with an engaging plot and characters, stunning animation and some of the best cinematography and background score of any movie I've ever seen. If I can steal some lines from Animated Antic's review of this movie; This is something that people who love movies should see.

It really is an incredible movie, and I really hate to think of it as a movie very few people have seen, or even as a flop. Apparently nobody is exactly sure what the budget of this movie was, but it made about 64 million at the box office, so it's clear a lot of people did see it, which is good, but I really think more people need to see it. It's a marvelous movie that is most certainly on my list of must see animated films.