Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

The 1950s should have been a time filled with peace and prosperity, a time where humanity would finally realise their inhumanity to each other and live in brotherly harmony together at last after such a destructive and horrific war. Unfortunately, it was an era of paranoia and fear, especially in America, of the newest "evil": Communism. The paranoia was fuelled by four factors; The Soviet Union’s conquest of Eastern Europe; the spread of Communism in Asia; the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, two American Communists who were convicted as committing espionage and giving information on atomic bombs to the Soviet Union; and the most important element in exploiting the fear of Communism and creating a nation of paranoia was Joseph Raymond “Joe” McCarthy, a US Senator who made the claim that Communists were infiltrating the country and were working in the highest levels of government. Many would not dare criticise McCarthy due to fear of being labelled a Communist by McCarthy, however, one man did stand up against the McCarthy witch hunts, a journalist and broadcaster more famous for his wartime broadcasts from London during the Blitz, Edward R. Murrow. Through the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), he would criticise and fight against McCarthy’s wild accusations and is believed to be instrumental in both the downfall of McCarthy and the rise of television’s responsibility to inform and illuminate the thoughts and minds of people and not hide the uncomfortable and ugly truths. And so, his struggle to do both is presented in the excellent Good Night, and Good Luck.

Black Dynamite (2009)

Spoof films haven‘t exactly been anticipated with admirable gusto from audiences recently, but who can blame them when most Spoof films are made by the sultans of shit, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. That’s right, the fuck-tards who made the Scary Movie series, Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, Meet the Spartans and Vampires Sucks, all of which are about as entertaining as being stabbed with a knife made of salt and hepatitis. Each of their films are just terrible and unfunny; what they think is a clever comedic spoof of something is just a pop culture reference with a dick and/or fart and/or sex and/or MILF joke, also known as ‘unfunny Family Guy sketch’. And because each film made ridiculous amounts of money (some make triple their budget), those two assassins of comedy have a poisonous grip on the Spoof genre, so it is no surprise that most Spoof films just fly under the radar of audiences for fear of being the same as the cinematic abortions of Friedberg and Seltzer. A fact that is a shame for Black Dynamite, because it is a brilliant and funny Spoof film that completely trumps Friedberg and Seltzer’s entire filmography.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Joel and Ethan Coen, better known as the Coen Brothers, are possibly the masters of the cult film. Every film they have made has never reach a large mainstream success; I could ask anyone in the UK if they ever saw James Cameron’s Avatar and every single one would say “yes“, but only a few would answer in the affirmative to seeing Fargo, Miller’s Crossing or, this review’s subject, The Big Lebowski or to even knowing who the Coen Brothers are. This is a shame because, not to sound disparaging to Avatar or James Cameron, they are brilliant films and filmmakers that trump many over-hyped mainstream films. Especially with The Big Lebowski, a surreal, eccentric and humorous film that has become one of my all time favourite Comedy or Film Noir or Mystery Thriller and one of my all time favourite films.

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)

I absolutely love 1950’s Science Fiction B-movies. I love the corny, cheesy and usually swearword and blasphemy free dialogue, the simplistic plot that’s either about the dangers of nuclear radiation (Them, Tarantula) or how Communist/aliens are invading our wholesome American way of life (Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Some can be intelligent or thought provoking like The Day the Earth Stood Still, but the majority are fun and entertaining popcorn films. Just like Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, a Sci-Fi B-movie I absolutely fucking love.

DEFCON (PC) (2006)

Ever since Osama bin Laden showed he was serious business in 2001, nuclear war has become less a threat to human existence and more a quaint concept from the old days of Commies and big city dividing walls. Although America will continually make us fear every North Korean nuclear weapons test or Iran’s evil scheme of becoming a developed nation through a nuclear power plant program, possibly in the hopes to distract us from the fact that America is the only nation ever to use nuclear weapons against a civilian populace. But Introversion Software, the self proclaimed “last of the bedroom developers”, wanted to return to the fun side of nuclear holocaust with DEFCON, a game where you don’t really win but lose the least and keep score on your perfect genocide.

Superbad (2007)

The early years of the first decade of the 21st century were greatly defined by the films of Judd Apatow. Everyone who lived in those years, almost definitely saw Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Knocked Up and loved them and made Apatow’s name one known in every Hollywood studio. After the hit Knocked Up, he produced a comedy teen film directed by Greg Mottola (Who would later direct and write hit comedy Adventureland), a film that would forever resonate through history with one word; McLovin. Let’s talk about Superbad.

Evil Genius (PC) (2004)

Why is it when we have fantasies of taking over the world, we imagine doing it in the style of a James Bond villain? Sitting in an evil comfy chair in front of an evil world map in an evil secret underground lair surrounded by evil henchmen and honest working minions. The plans concocted are usually too complex and overtly complicated and easily defeatable because it has been explained to a super spy while being strapped to an easily escapable and needless torture device. And the plan is usually hold the world to ransom with an impossible weapon. The only game that allowed you to take over the world, but in a non-Bond villain way, was Sid Meier’s Civilization series. But in 2004, Elixir Studios released Evil Genius, a game similar to the Dungeon Keeper series, in order to gratify your inner Blofeld, but does it succeed? Let’s see:

Postal (2007)

What to say about German director Uwe Boll? Only that he is possibly the worst director of all time and that’s including Ed Wood and Bruno Mattei. Most of his films are based on video games and that should spell it all out since every single FUCKING video game film adaptation has failed…miserably. He also intentionally makes sure his films suck so that he can exercise a German tax law that allows investors to have a tax write-off if a German-owned film lost money. In 2005, that law was changed and that meant that Boll would have to put real effort in his films to get more funding and money, and guess what, his films are still crap. Well, except for one; a film based on a video game directed by Uwe Boll that has become one of my favourite films. I know it sounds crazy, but hear me out.

The King's Speech (2010)

When making a film based on a person in a position of power, like a state head or a leader of a political party, one has to be careful about how they are written or portrayed; if they are seen as flawless or too sympathetic, then you can be accused of idolatry; however, portray them overtly evil or just twisted like a Saturday morning cartoon villain, then you can be accused of bias or just lazy writing. Take, for example Bruno Ganz’s and Robert Carlyle’s portrayal of Hitler in Downfall (Der Untergang) and Hitler: The Rise of Evil respectively; Ganz’s portrayal is of an downtrodden Hitler who has built up a proud nation but due to his arrogance and hatred it is all falling down around him, it’s not a sympathetic performance (which is impossible when the character is Hitler) but it is more realistic, Hitler is a genocidal madman but he is human; however, Carlyle’s portrayal was more cartoonish and was so unsubtle it would be more sublime to have Hitler wearing a top hat and tying Europa to the train tracks of tyranny. Now, I’m not saying you can justify Hitler’s actions, but he wasn’t a demon sent from the very depths of Hell. And now after that long and unrelated diatribe, let’s look at The King’s Speech

Zombie Apocalypse (Playstation Network) (2009)

Gamers have a love for zombies that is so strong, I’m sure there is a secret lab of gamers trying to create a zombie apocalypse to justify their purchase of zombie games to their parents and imaginary girlfriends, and I myself love zombies. I don’t know why, they’re just awesome; if you make a World War II game but replace the Nazis with Nazi zombies, then that’s just awesome; If you take the American wild west and fill it with zombies, then that’s just awesome; even data processing might be awesome if you are fighting zombies at the same time. Consequentially, Nihilistic Software and Konami released Zombie Apocalypse, a top-down shoot ’em up for the PSN and the XBLA.