Poptic Nerve

When the trailer for Sega's upcoming titles premiered during the 2023 Videogame Awards, the crowd went nuts! Whether you're a Gen Xer who was around the glory days of the Sega Genesis Ora retro gamer, you had to be aware of the Japanese developer's iconic intellectual properties from Golden Axe, Shinobi and Streets of Rage which the latter was rebooted on modern consoles not too long ago. So now that there is plenty of enthusiasm with Sega's properties getting the reboot treatment, a few questions come to mind, and the main one is "when?" There was no mention of when these titles will drop, it's development cycle, or how soon but after a lengthy hiatus, I'm glad to see Sega back in the game sorta speak. From what I have seen from the trailer, I can't wait to get my hands on the new Shinobi that looks like some Metroidvania game but I'm sure Sega will throw in "Roguelike" mechanics since it's all the rage, whatever. Golden Axe in 3

While your traditional Christmas themed movies come to mind, its the Non-traditional Films that are gaining more recognition in today's world. In this Video Essay, we'll explore the correlation between unconventional Christmas films and the holiday itself.

With Christmas approaching and news that 1988's action movie Die Hard is now being reshowed in theaters, it's time for a revisit, after 7 years since I last watched this debated " Christmas" classic . The plot isn't as straightforward as most would perceive, sure you have terrorists holding office partygoer’s hostage in a high rise building during Christmas eve, but it somewhat stops there. When our protagonist and unlikely hero NYPD Detective John McClaine played by a younger Bruce Willis, arrives in Los Angeles to reconcile with his estranged wife Holly since she's been "moving on up" the corporate ladder, the Holiday Party at the Nakatomi Plaza gets crashed by uninvited guests and it's all up to McClaine to "save the day." What made Die Hard such an instant success was that it avoided the tough macho archetype as witnessed in Stallone's Rambo films, instead we have McClaine as your everyman with no special forces background, usin

Minor Spoilers It seems after visionary filmmaker George Lucas created his Magnum Space Opera Opus Star Wars, nearly every director wanted to make their very own sci fi epic be it James Cameron's Avatar, or the Wachowski's Matrix franchise. So now it's Director Zack Snyder's turn with his very own franchise builder Rebel Moon.But instead of coming up with something more original, Snyder takes it upon himself to borrow directly from the source, as in the “force” as in Star Wars? In this somewhat anticipated Space Epic series, set in an alternate galaxy, our story begins when the Motherworld, a "Galactic Empire" ran by oligarchs sends their conquering army the imperium to plunder the crops on the planet Veldt, Admiral Atticus Noble arrives to "negotiate" with the harvesting villagers in a "you know where this is going" buildup reminiscent to the Inglorious Basterds' opening. But instead of Hans Lander we have the head Space Nazi in charge

It's Christmas time and you know what that means right? Say, little Mikey wanted a Gaming console or a particular action figure, he's keeping his promise by getting good grades, helping out with the chores and being respectful to his parents and in out of return, you try to  award him that Christmas gift he so anticipated,  only to find out that it has been sold out due to some grinch of a motherfucker purchasing mass quantities of the item in question. Out of desperation, you look on eBay or even Wal-Mart for restock availability only to find that the item is there BUT, marked twice or even thrice the regular price it was going for. Well, you're left with only two options, and none are good. Suck it up and pay the seller's asking price or, if you can't afford it due to limited funds, deliver the heartbreaking news to your child who has been good for the longest. On the surface, some would say that scalping isn't that big of a deal, but when it comes down to tho

It is my honor to reintroduce our special reviewer, good friend and fellow left-hander Kim J. For this segment. For those of you who may be unaware, Kim is a talented artist, writer, a man of conviction. (Kinda like me) He was a frequent collaborator and editor of the Supernaughts ,Talkbacker and even appeared on  a few of the Overground Podcasts.  He is a fan of obscure (i.e. Underrated) films from the 80’s and up and is an avid collector of physical media. With that out of the way, give it up for Captain Finland himself, Kim! Hi, it's me, the Finnish man who is rarely seen anymore and lives buried under a workload soooo thick I wonder if I'll ever see the sun again. But enough about me and my 99 problems. Let's get to 11 things that are definitely not my problems. Our gracious webhost Stalkeye, was kind enough to ask for my input so here goes. As always these are not in any particular order, as I don't believe in picking any one before the other - and there are 11 bec

So, after Zac Snyder's upcoming Rebel Moon has been lambasted with negative reception based on Rotten Tomatoes' scorecard, it's puzzling how Netflix's May December had a 91 percent approval rating on the review aggregation website composed of various critics where a simple "yes" or "no" can make or break a movie. As for the movie in question, it’s a supposed to be a dark comedy loosely inspired by the infamous Mary Kay Letourneau, who had sex with an underage male which sparked controversy regarding sexual assault and gender. While you have major actors such as Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman in a rather attention-grabbing premise of an actress who is set to play the role as a woman who is married to a man she's been with since the age of 13, the story and overall execution leaves this Todd Haynes directed movie flat on its ass. Aside from the purposely overdramatic soundtrack, I did not get a chuckle out of this dumpster fire. This brings Rot

After four hours of deliberation spread across three days. The jury reached a verdict, which finds actor Jonathan Majors was found guilty on reckless assault in the third degree and guilty of harassment. Right after the verdict came to light, Disney was quick to drop Majors from future Marvel projects. I'm sure they already had those plans in check, but I digress. What's funny is judging by the video, I don't see Majors "assaulting " his companion in question, if anything, he's running from her as in "that bitch is cray!" Now I'm not saying that Majors is perfect by any means, but I don't think he's the "brute" portrayed in the mainstream media. If anything, he made bad choices in dating, as it seems like Grace Jabbari, who reacted violently to Majors, after seeing texts from another woman is unstable. This is where the alleged assault occurred. Jabbari claimed, "she tried to snatch the phone from Majors, who then pried her

A few days prior to its official premiere, the Zac Snyder sci fi slash Star Wars inspired epic Rebel Moon is currently sitting at an average of 24% percent according to Rotten Tomatoes. Critics from Daily Beast, Slash Film, Hollywood Reporter and Variety to name a few, were very brutal when reviewing the Netflix produced film gave it less than stellar praise. Here are but a few examples: “Rebel Moon began life, a decade ago, as a pitch for a new Star Wars franchise installment. Still, that doesn’t excuse its inability to fashion a single sight or idea that isn’t a dull sci-fi cliché.” “When not indulging in empty flowery language, Snyder, Kurt Johnstad, and Shay Hatten’s script has everyone bluntly explain who they are, what they feel, and why they’re doing what they’re doing.” – Nick Schager, The Daily Beast “As with most of Snyder’s films, the script slightly lets A Child Of Fire down. A lot of seeds are planted for future installments, including next year’s Part Two: The Scargiver,

Previously while working on an Obituary piece honoring the work and legacy of Television pioneer Norman Lear, I mentioned Mike Evans as the creator of Good Times, and now after doing further research, it is of due diligence that I post this retraction. I gotta call a ball a ball, and a strike, a strike. Writer Eric Monte aspired to become a Hollywood writer whose goals were for more black representation in television.  He met up with Mike Evans who wanted Monte to write scripts that would expand his role as Lionel Jefferson. Norman Lear was impressed by Monte's script. Eric with the assist of Evans, co-created George Jefferson as a successful businessman "who moved on up to the Eastside. " And his other contributions were Sanford and Son along with Good Times which led to a falling out between him and Norman Lear who the latter didn't think a strong black patriarch like James Evans would be a good fit for a sitcom. Eric Monte out of disgust from Lear's racist rema

It's no "Ho, ho, ho" for yo, Joe! Recently, toy manufacturer Hasbro made news after a surprising announcement of layoffs, eliminating 1,100 jobs, or 20% of its workforce citing slowdown in sales. According to The Wall Street Journal who was the first to report the unfortunate news, The Rhode Island-based company behind iconic toys and franchises Play-Doh, My Little Pony, G.I. Joe and Transformers announced the layoffs in a memo to employees via regulatory filing. “The market headwinds we anticipated have proven to be stronger and more persistent than planned,” Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks wrote in the memo. “While we have made some important progress across our organization, the headwinds we saw through the first nine months of the year have continued into holiday and are likely to persist into 2024.”  This was on top of the 800 layoffs that occurred in January. Cocks elaborated on Hasbro's planned strategies in the near future: "..focus on fewer, bigger brands; gaming