Games

[icycalm]

Downloading a Need for Speed cam now. Don't expect much, but I like the actors and the trailer looks fun-ish, so who knows.

One game movie I can fully recommend is the Hitman one. I don't think I've ever seen another movie of that quality based on a game. Something was off about it, can't seem to remember now what it was, but for the most part it was gripping. Great lead actor too. Can't wait for the next one they are saying they will make.

Haven't seen Doom or Silent Hill yet, but I don't expect much, which is why I haven't bothered with them so far.

[Amor fati]

The Need for Speed film is quite weak. Silent Hill was surprisingly good and the Doom film was decent. From what I've seen:

Silent Hill ****

Street Fighter ***
Mortal Kombat ***
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation ***
Resident Evil ***
Resident Evil: Extinction ***
Doom ***
DOA: Dead or Alive ***

Super Mario Bros. **
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider **
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life **
Need for Speed **

Most of these I watched many years ago so the ratings might be off by one star particularly those from the 1990s.

[Amor fati]

Updated list (some ratings have changed as a result of rewatching):

***** Postal (2007)

**** Silent Hill (2006)
**** Hitman (2007)
**** Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) (2012)

*** Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001)
*** Resident Evil (2002)
*** Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
*** Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
*** Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
*** Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
*** Biohazard (Resident Evil): Degeneration (2008)
*** Biohazard (Resident Evil): Damnation (2012)
*** Doom (2005)
*** Max Payne (2008)
*** Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
*** Silent Hill: Revelation (2012)

** Super Mario Bros. (1993)
** Double Dragon (1994)
** Street Fighter (1994)
** Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009)
** Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist (2014)
** Mortal Kombat (1995)
** Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997)
** Wing Commander (1999)
** Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
** Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)
** House of the Dead (2003)
** House of the Dead 2 (2005)
** Alone in the Dark (2005)
** Alone in the Dark II (2008)
** Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005)
** BloodRayne (2006)
** BloodRayne: Deliverance (2007)
** BloodRayne: The Third Reich (2011)
** Forbidden Siren (2006)
** DOA: Dead or Alive (2006)
** Ryū ga Gotoku Gekijōban (Yakuza: Like a Dragon) (2007)
** In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)
** Far Cry (2008)
** Tekken (2010)
** Tekken: Blood Vengeance (2011)
** Tekken: Kazuya's Revenge (2014)
** The King of Fighters (2010)
** Red Faction: Origins (2011)
** Dragon Age: Blood Mage no Seisen (Dawn of the Seeker) (2012)
** Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn (2012)
** Halo: Nightfall (2014)
** Company of Heroes (2013)
** Need for Speed (2014)
** Heavenly Sword (2014)
** Gekijōban Rei ~Zero~ (Fatal Frame) (2014)
** Dead Rising: Watchtower (2015)

* Tokimeki Memorial (1997)
* OneeChanbara (Chanbara Beauty): The Movie (2008)
* OneeChanbara (Chanbara Beauty): The Movie – vorteX (2009)
* Shibyô Osen: Dead Rising (Zombrex: Dead Rising Sun) (2010)
* Zombie Massacre (2013)
* Ao Oni (2014)

Postal is undoubtedly the best to date and is a fantastic comedy by the infamous German filmmaker Uwe Boll that is far better than his other video game film adaptations. Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney outside of Japan) is in Japanese but still comes across as an excellent adaptation with subtitles.

[El Chaos]

** Bayonetta: Bloody Fate (2013)

It has none of the game's humor or charm, makes some dumb mistakes like Enzo showing up in Purgatorio, and the Japanese voice actors are terrible in comparison to the game's original English cast, but it has a decent presentation (although the animation can be choppy in some scenes) and some nice music.

[icycalm]

Max Payne is a 4/5 for me. The atmosphere, style, snowy noir New York with leather jackets: it's just heaven for me, and it's brought to life so well, that I find myself rewatching the movie almost in the same way I rewatch Lost in Translation (though a lot less, since that movie is a masterpiece): simply to be immersed for a while it its environment, even if I know the plot by heart by now and hardly even pay attention to it.

With a bit longer and more complicated plot and more action it could have been a 5/5 movie.

But it's a 5/5 game, so it's too much to expect a 5/5 movie to be made out of it. It's a triumph enough that we got a 4/5 movie out of it.

Downloaded Postal and will be watching shortly. Boll's Dungeon Siege was pleasantly decent (3/5 for me). The large-scale battles were shockingly amateurish and fake-looking, but everything else was up to contemporary standards, and I was shocked to see Boll's name at the credits in the end (somehow missed it in the opening credits). Actually, now that I think of it again, maybe it is a 2/5 movie even for me...

I had no idea there was a Far Cry movie lol.

[icycalm]

I watched Postal. It's a 3/5 for me. It has a surprising amount of funny gags, but most of them are near the beginning of the movie; half-way through I almost quit watching because it had all gone flat and boring. Then there are one or two more cool gags (the child slaughter lol), and then the movie ends. A 5/5 comedy is something like Whatever Works, A Fish Called Wanda or Meet the Parents for me -- Postal is a far cry from these movies. If the entire thing had been on the level of the first 20 or so minutes, maybe I could have given it a 4/5, but as it stands there's really no pressing reason to see this apart from the virgins gag at the beginning, which you can probably YouTube.

Best Boll movie I've seen of course. And Dungeon Siege would be the second best. But I've only seen a few of them.

[Amor fati]

Some more I have seen recently:

*** Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)

** Otogirisō (St. John's Wort) (2001)


Short films:

*** Assassin's Creed: Lineage (2009)
*** Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Alpha (2012)

** Biohazard 4D-Executer (2000)
** Uncharted: Eye of Indra (2009)
** Assassin's Creed: Ascendance (2010)
** Assassin's Creed: Embers (2011)

The second Hitman wasn't as good as the first similar to the second Silent Hill film. Assassin's Creed: Lineage gives hope that the upcoming Assassin's Creed feature film has potential to be good.

[Helios]

OVAs
-Megami Tensei ****
-Salamander ***
-Wizardry **
-Ys **
-Ninja Gaiden *

[icycalm]

Street Fighter | Official Trailer (2026 Movie)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt4X4FvXk2A



This will make a fortune and deservedly so: it's what we imagined the game's world to be back in the '90s. I do have issues with a couple of the casting choices, but overall they are great, though admittedly nowhere near as great as the (White) Marvel choices. It makes sense though because Marvel can spend a lot more money plus SF has the added requirement that the actors can convincingly throw a roundhouse kick. So really they've done the best that can be done within current constraints.

The next one will be fully AI and look like the game. Until then I'll have fun watching this one.

So many great callouts in this one, the car-smashing above all. No DEI issues either since the game is already super-diverse.

Plus it looks like they made Ken the hero lol. Ken is the most popular character, especially among White players. There's even a meme about it lol. I was a Ken player from day 1 with Guile a close second.

Man now I want to play SF6. One day soon.

I wonder if we could arrange a movie viewing on Discord? Would love to see the movie for the first time with CULT people. Let me know if anyone knows how to handle this well.

October 16.