My Favorite Christmas Movies

'Tis the season! One thing I love to do at Christmas is watch movies. I'm a bit of a film buff, and I get Christmas Day off from work, so I like to take the day to enjoy my presents and watch movies. And these are my favorite films to watch during the season:

 

Gremlins (1984)



Gremlins at first is a strange choice for a Christmas film. It's a film that combines elements of horror and comedy, released at a time when such a thing was popular in film (keep in mind, Ghostbusters was released the same year).

The film is about an inventor's son named Billy Peltzer who gets a creature known as a mogwai, which he names Gizmo. However, mogwai come with three rules of care: Do not expose to light (because light can kill mogwai), do not feed after midnight (because mogwai turn into monsterous gremlins), and do not get a mogwai wet (because it makes them reproduce and create more mogwai). You can guess what happens next. Yup, gremlins wreak havoc all over a small town at Christmas time.

Why do I consider this a Christmas film? Well, mainly because it's set on Christmas. As for why I like to watch it on Christmas, because it's one of the only "horror" films I can stand to watch, and I have to admit, I sometimes do get a chuckle out of the gremlins' destructive antics. I like to laugh on Christmas, and Gremlins gets a chuckle out of me. Also, check out the sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch. It's a great sequel. It's much lighter in tone, more humor than horror, but the new variations of gremlins that appear are awesome.

 

A Christmas Story (1983)

 

 

Based on Jean Shepherd's book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash, the film is actually narrated by Shepherd himself. It tells the story of a young boy named Ralphie Parker, who only wants one thing for Christmas: A Red Ryder BB gun, and the misadventures of his family during the Christmas season.

 

The film, to me, is required Christmas viewing. Heck, on Christmas day, TNT plays the film for 24 hours straight. It's a sweet funny film with many memorable scenes and moments, from the father's feuding with the neighborhood dogs and his lusting over his 'special award' (a lamp in the shape of a lady's leg), to Ralphie's fantasies regarding his one desired gift, and of course, his getting the bunny suit.

 

Funny thing about this film, I always thought it was set in the 1950s, but according to director Bob Clark's commentary on the DVD, the film is set in a nebulous time period in the 1930s-1940s. Huh.

 

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)

 

 

 

Much like A Christmas Story, this film focuses on a family's misadventures during the holiday season. In this film's case, it focuses on the Griswolds, especially their mishap-prone patriarch Clark Griswold, played by Chevy Chase.

 

The film was written by John Hughes, who based it on a short story he wrote for the National Lampoon magazine called "Christmas '59". In the years since its release, it has become a Christmas classic.

 

Clark Griswold desires to have a "good old fashioned family Christmas", but as typical for the Griswolds, disaster erupts. Everything goes wrong, from bickering family members to Christmas lights refusing to cooperate, even a rampaging squirrel. Through all of this, Clark learns what Christmas means to him.

 

This was my favorite Christmas movie as a kid, mainly for an epic tirade Clark spits out near the end. There are many scenes like this that I still remember perfectly, and have for years.

 



Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)

 

 

 

You know how many superheroes have origin tales? Superman, rocketed to earth from the doomed planet Krypton. Batman, death of parents leads him to take of the life of a crime fighter. Spider-Man, bitten by radioactive spider and learns a lesson about power and responsibility from a tragedy. This film was an attempt to tell the origins of Santa Claus, produced by the team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind, who also produced the 1977 Superman film.

 

The film tells how a peasant named Claus ends up becoming the Santa Claus we know of today, and also tries to explain other aspects of the Santa Claus mythos, like how his reindeer fly, and how he manages to ascend chimneys. The film also focuses on an elf named Patch, played by the late, great Dudley Moore. An inventive elf, and feeling unappreciated, Patch goes out on his own, and falls under the wing of an evil toymaker named B.Z., the step-uncle of a rich girl Santa befriends. B.Z., played by John Lithgow, seeks to displace Santa as the provider of children's toys on Christmas, and with Patch as his pawn, he just may do it.

 

Critics blasted the film, but I personally consider it a cheesy guilty pleasure movie. And personally, I liked the ides of exploring the origins of one of pop culture's most well-known icons.

 

Die Hard (1988)

 

 

 

This is admittedly, the most unusual choice for Christmas viewing, but I consider it a Christmas film because it's set on Christmas.

 

Starring Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman, the film is based on Roderick Thorp's 1979 film Nothing Lasts Forever. NYPD cop John McClane comes to Los Angeles to visit his wife Holly, only to find himself being the only man that can stop a team of terrorists who attack the building they are on. However, the terrorists' true motives are actually not about politics...

 

This film showed that Bruce Willis, who was mainly known for comedic performances on TV (One word: Moonlighting), could not only be an action star, but be a bankable one. Die Hard was a critical and box office smash, creating a franchise that has encompassed five films, with a sixth in preproduction. Yeah, it's about ready to start competing with Star Trek for amount of sequels.

 

This is one of my favorite films. Willis's McClane is hilarious and awesome, and the film is very cleverly-done, playing with a lot of action film tropes. If you're looking for an action-packed film to watch on Christmas, Die Hard is for you.

 

And that's the list of my favorite Christmas films. Turns out they're all from the 80s, ha ha. I guess that decade was a good one for that kind of film. Anyway, I wish you all a Happy Holidays, and happy viewing!



Adventures in Pokemon Y Part 5: Route 4 and Lumiose City

With the Santalune Gym conquered, there really isn't a whole lot to do left in Santalune City. As such, my journey must go on...after picking up some supplies, of course.

When attempting to leave the city to go to Route 4, a girl remarked to me that I was one of the trainers to get a badge from the Professor. Turns out her name is Alexa, and she is the older sister of Viola, the gym leader I beat. She's a journalist. She was very impressed with my victory over her sister, so she gives me this item called the Exp. Share. This could be a useful item in training Pokémon. She also told me that she works at a publishing house in Lumiose City, and if I have a big story for her, I can stop by. That was...interesting. At least I managed to get a useful item out of the exchange.

After getting some supplies, I went to Route 4, aka Parterre Way. The Route is one of the more beautiful routes I have seen. It essentially is a giant garden, with a huge fountain halfway through the route, and several hedge mazes in the corners of the route. It's quite a beautiful sight. The Route also has its fair share of Trainers to battle and wild Pokémon to catch.

During my exploration of the Route, I encountered a Flabebe (I knowit's missing the accents, but have no idea how to type them), and captured it. What was interesting about this little Pokémon was she was of a new type: Fairy. Yup, much like Generation II, which introduced the Dark and Steel types, X and Y have introduced Fairy. I'll have to look up its strengths and weaknesses before I do anything with it. Maybe in the next new games, they will have a Fairy-type-based Gym.

I had also found a Poison Barb. Neat. I'll maybe give to my Butterfree after it gets Poison Powder.

At the end of the Route, I encountered these two people, a man and a woman. They explained to me that Flabebe, one of the Pokémon I got, was a Fairy-type. The woman is acting bonkers, screaming the new Type turns the entire match-up system on its head. She introduces herself as Sina, who might need to cut down on the caffeine. The man reveals his name is Dexio...yeah. Dexio. That's his name.

...Where do these names come from?

Anyway, they want to show me the way to Professor Sycamore's lab. On the way there, Dexio gives me a TM, Return. He explains that it's a move that works better the more I walk around a Pokémon. That makes sense, actually. You keep a Pokémon in your team for long periods of time, they start to bond with the trainer, and over time, that bond grows. I have heard that friendship has benefits for Pokémon's stats. I'll have to look into that.

I go through a tunnel, and I find myself in Lumiose City. And this place is HUGE. I think it might be even bigger than Castelia City in Black/White. I have heard that this city is modeled on Paris, which makes sense considering the BIG HONKING TOWER in the center of the city, and the fact that Kalos is modeled on France.

I don't know what to make of this place. There's just so much to see and do, and I have no idea what to do next. So for now, I'm just going to follow Sina to the Pokémon Lab. On the way there, I spotted this poodle-like Pokémon walking around. Heh heh, I caught one of those in Pokémon X. I had also overheard this couple talking about the many cafes in town. I did check one out on the way to the Lab, called the Café Introversion, so I'll have to look around to find the rest.

However, exploring the town isn't quite as easy as one thinks. Turns out quite a bit of the city is suffering a blackout. As a result, most of the city is off-limits. I wonder how they lost power. According to Bulbapedia, the Gym Leader here, Clemont, specializes in Electric-type Pokémon, so I'm guessing that he's got something to do with it. Maybe he's the cause. Would be interesting to see a villainous Gym Leader in a Pokémon game.

Anyway, I'd better get to the lab. I wonder what the Professor wants there for me...

Pokémon Obtained:
Garfield (Skitty)
Bebe (Flabebe, Yellow Flower variant)
Rosie (Budew)
Buzz-Off (Combee)
Mothra (Vivillion) - Evolved from Spewpa

Lack of Posts

My apologies for the lack of posting lately. Something funny is going on here. The site says that the web browser I use is not detected, and I can't fix it.


As a result, I can't seem to post videos and pictures on here without lots of problems, and I want to use those to spice up my posts, so they are not boring walls of text. My apologies to anyone this inconveniences.

My Thoughts on the Jurassic World Trailer

Today, I stumbled across this trailer for the newest Jurassic Park film: Jurassic World.

Honestly, the first thing I thought after discovering this trailer on YouTube was "They're making another Jurassic Park movie"? I was genuinely surprised to see that there was another movie in the works, much less it is going to be released. Keep in mind, it has been MANY years since the last film.

As I watched the trailer, I couldn't help but wonder one thing, after the disaster that occurred with the original Jurassic Park, why in the name of everything holy would anyone try to create a theme park with living dinosaurs AGAIN?! If they're really going to try this again, they'd better have some better freakin' security. I mean, can you imagine some family going to this park, thinking that it'll be fun and totally unlike twenty years earlier.

After learning about this film from a friend, we had discussed this film's possible plot. What we both agreed on is that the film's story does keep in mind what went wrong in the first film, and have the characters keep those events in mind and something new makes the dinosaurs rampage. Like maybe sabotage by an environmentalist/animal rights group who operate under the misguided ideal that the dinosaurs should be allowed to run free.

Another plot point is that the scientists there are developing a super-hybrid dinosaur to increase park attendance. You can guess how well that'll go.

In all seriousness, this hopefully will become a big fun monster movie. Some of the plot seemingly makes no sense to me, but when it comes to these kind of movies, the plot doesn't really matter, people come to see the dinosaurs. So, I hope we get lots of dinosaur action.

The cast looks cool, too. You got Bryce Dallas Howard of Spider-Man 3, Vincent D'Onofrio from Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and Chris Pratt from Guardians of the Galaxy. Most of the cast are unknown to me, though, so I'll have to watch the film to see how they fare in this film.

All in all, I want to see this movie, if only for the dinosaur rampaging action.

Big Hero 6 Review

Today, I got to do something that was a lot of fun. I got to go to my local theatre, and I watched a fantastic film: Big Hero 6.

Greetings. I am Baymax, and you will be quoting me quite a bit.

Big Hero 6 was the first film done by Disney using characters from Marvel Comics, which they acquired in 2009. The team in the comics themselves are pretty obscure, so they had a lot of freedom to tell a story, and perhaps give some spotlight to some lesser-known characters.

I have to be honest, I was very excited about this film. Had been since I saw the first trailer. So, when I finally had the chance to go the theatre and see it, I had high hopes.

I was not disappointed. The film was preceded by a short called Feast. Feast focused on a dog named Winston who was fond of food. It was a sweet little short, and very adorable. Big Hero 6 focuses on Hiro Hamada (He was actually named Hiro Takachiho in the comics, I guess his name was changed because "Hamada" was easier to pronounce), a teenage genius and his sidekick, a robot named Baymax. He and his friends, a group of science whizzes with their own talents, become superheroes to stop a menace armed with nanotechnology.

The film's setting, a merging of San Francisco and Tokyo called San Fransokyo (Yup), was amazing to see, a futuristic world that was bright and colorful, a great setting for a colorful group of heroes like Big Hero 6. The group never calls themselves that by name, but I can imagine it would be hard to come up with a reason why the group would call themselves "Big Hero 6".

This film had something for everyone: action, humor, and touching moments. Disney was wise to focus on Baymax for their advertising, as he definitely was a breakout character. Scott Adsit's delivery was robotic, but also allowed Baymax to show a surprising amount of emotion and humanity.

The rest of the voice cast did fine work, too. Ryan Potter made Hiro Hamada a likable kid. T.J. Miller's Fred was goofy, laid back, and fit his design very well. Jamie Chung made GoGo Tomago tough and awesome. Genesis Rodriguez's Honey Lemon was incredibly sweet. Damian Wayans Jr.'s Wasabi was a voice of reason who was funny in his own right.

The one thing I really loved about this film's story was that the main villain and Hiro became parallels of each other in motivation. I'll leave you to watch the movie to see exactly what I mean.

The only real critique I have with this film was that it was a bit short, about an hour and fifteen minutes. However, it's a minor critique. The story went along at a good pace, and accomplished all it set out to do. And to be honest, I'd rather sit through a short film than a long film that drags on and on. Animated films are rarely longer than two full hours anyway, so again, the short time is not something that really bothers me.

Go see this film. It's a lot of fun.

Adventures in Pokemon Y Part 4: Santalune Gym

Okay, I've done some further training of my Pokémon, especially my three Fire-types (Vulcan the Fennekin, Bunsen the Pansear, and Firemane the Litleo), so now...it's time to hit the Gym, and try out for the first badge in Kalos: The Bug Badge. Bug Badge. Pretty obvious what kind of Pokémon the Gym Leader hands out, huh? Well, time to take on the Gym.

As I said earlier, when I first entered the Gym, it looked like an art gallery. It's appropriate. Evidently, when Viola isn't working as a video game boss, she's an avid photographer, and uses her Gym as a gallery to show off her work. I can't help but wonder if the Pokémon League in Kalos is cool with this. Wouldn't this be technically moonlighting? I'm guessing they're fine with it, because nobody in the Gym charged me for looking at the photos.

When I enter the Gym, the guy inside greets me and welcomes me to the Gym. How nice. He asks me if I'm thrilled with my first Gym challenge. You bet! I got three Fire Pokémon that wants to meet Viola's bugs. He shows me a pole in the center of the gallery, and tells me to challenge Viola, I have to go down it. Evidently, Viola was also once a firefighter, or she is a big Ghostbusters fan. Or of the 1966 Batman series. He also reminds me that Viola and the trainers inside specialize in Bug Pokémon. Yeah, thanks for telling me. I didn't go to the trouble to catch and train Bunsen and Firemane just for the fun of it...okay, maybe a little bit for the fun of training Pokémon.

I go down the pole, and find myself in the middle of a spider web. A big freakin' spider web. What is this thing made of? I know spider silk is supposed to be really strong, but geez! A spider web in a Bug-themed Gym. Yes, spiders are not insects, they are arachnids. Arachnids are a different class of creature. However, quite a few Bug-type Pokémon have been modeled on spiders, so I'm not surprised to see this.

The Trainers in the Gym weren't any real challenge, I was able to plow through them easily. Viola herself was surprisingly tough, though. She had a Surskit, which is partially Water. It was frustrating, but I also actually liked that. It showed that the Gym Leaders are smart enough to know that overspecialization is NOT good. And since it appears that Viola's liking of Bug Pokémon is well-known to the public, she's smart enough to realize Trainers will bring Fire-types against her (and considering the Santalune Forest and Route 22 are where a Trainer can find wild Pansears and Litleos), she knows she's going to need something to counter the Fire-types Trainers will be bringing against her. It does bring a bit of frustration, but it's nice to see a little savvy on the Gym Leader's part.

Anyway, I managed to beat her and get my Bug Badge.

This badge will stare into your soul...

The Bug Badge allows Trainers to command Pokémon up to level 30, even ones obtained in trades. This is handy, as I can now add my Chespin and Froakie to my team. I wanted them in my main team, now I can keep them on the team for a while. I never thought about it much in previous games I played, but now I can't help but wonder, how exactly does that work in-universe? Game mechanics-wise, I understand the reason for this, it prevents the game from being beaten too easily, but how does it work in the actual world within in the games? The anime has hinted that Badges are a sign that a Trainer is powerful and is to be regarded with respect by a Pokémon.

I also got a load of money and a TM, which is typical for a Gym. This TM is for a move called Infestation, a move that prevents Pokémon from fleeing for four to five turns. This'll be helpful in catching wild Pokémon, especially Abra. Abra is in this game, and I have caught one in previous games. They are a pain to catch and train, but having an Alakazam on your team is worth it.

Upon leaving Viola, the guy hanging out in the gallery area congratulates me on winning the first Kalos badge. They also engraved my name on the statues there. That's pretty cool. It's nice to know that there are still some traditions that don't change in the Pokémon world.

I've done pretty much everything there is to do here in Santalune City, so time for me to grab some supplies in the Poké Mart, make some adjustments to my Pokémon team, and then head out to the next Route and Town to collect some more Pokémon, train my team, and find more adventure!

Pokémon Obtained: None

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS, First Impressions

I have recently managed to obtain a game I had been eagerly anticipating for some time: Super Smash Bros. for 3DS. I didn't get the Wii U version because I do not own a Wii U.


I've been a fan of the Smash Bros. series, playing it since the first game on the N64 all those years ago. The concept was so simple, beautiful, and awesome: The stars of Nintendo's various games all facing off against each other a la Street Fighter or Tekken. This simple idea has evolved into a series that has become one of Nintendo's best and most fun series, the games paying homage to Nintendo history.


As such, I had to get the latest one. In short, I love it. The first thing I love is the roster. It's got a great roster of characters from a variety of series. One addition I liked was Little Mac from the Punch-Out series. When I thought about it, I thought it was strange he wasn't an actual fighter in the game series from the beginning. Little Mac is a boxer, he would've been a perfect fighter for Smash Bros. Ah well, I guess it was since his series didn't get any games for the N64 as far as I know. But then again, as far as I know, the Metroid series also skipped over the N64 as well, and Samus Aran got to be a playable fighter. Ah, well.


It was also really neat seeing Pac-Man as a fighter. It wasn't surprising, really, as Namco helped develop the game. What is also nice was his attacks also pay homage to other Namco games, like Mappy and Galaga.


Anyway, the game was huge! There's so much to do besides straight-up fights. There's the Home Run contest, the All-Star and Classic modes make their return. The game has no Story mode like in Brawl. I wish it did, but I didn't find myself missing it when playing. One of the neatest features was that you could take your little Mii character and put it in the game and have it Brawl alongside and against the gaming legends.


So far, the only issue I had with the game is the control. It does take some getting used to. However, you can change which buttons do what, so it's not a big deal. I also tend to lose track of what is going on slightly because of my 2DS's screen, but it's not a game-breaker to me.


I'm going to keep playing this game and see what else I can unlock. I've already unlocked Wario, so I can't wait to see what other hidden characters are there!