Film

Dead Rising: Watchtower Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Dead Rising Watchtower

You know, all things considered, Dead Rising: Watchtower has to be one of the better game adaptation movies out there. Now this comes mainly because the original games were pretty much based on cheesy zombie B-movies, so making a Dead Rising film as a cheesy zombie B-movie was a pretty simple task! It also oddly takes place within the game’s universe, referring to the events of Dead Rising 1 and 2 and even featuring game protagonist Frank West in the flesh. So it certainly scores well on the game adaptation front, but how does it do on the “fun film to watch” front?

Continue reading →

Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Street Fighter Assassin's Fist

Well, that was a quick break! Yes, we’re back to a fighting game adaptation, and on our third attempt at Street Fighter no less, but for the first time the (admittedly small) crew actually decided to hand wave the idea of trying to appeal to a mass market and just make a straight adaptation for fans like themselves. Originally a mini-series uploaded to YouTube (with the first preview being called “Alpha”, which is why I reviewed Alpha 3 along with this…? It’s not, but whatever), Assassin’s Fist was eventually compiled into a film. All that being said, is such a small fan production any good? Does doing such justice to the source material produce a better film? Let’s find out!

Continue reading →

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Prince of Persia The Sands of Time

I don’t know if it’s because I’ve just watched four average-to-awful fighting game-based movies in a row or what, but I enjoyed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I mean, the script might not win any originality awards, but it was still an entertaining two hours of adventure that actually uses some imagery and ideas from the game it was based on (that I’ve seen a lot about, but never actually played, hence why I reviewed the original game alongside this instead…) Is it good enough to actually recommend though? Let’s find out!

Continue reading →

Tekken 2: Kazuya’s Revenge Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Tekken 2 Kazuyas Revenge

So… What on Earth is this? Tekken 2 is no more a Tekken film than I’m a chicken. Beyond three character names and two returning actors it’s clearly another script they just slapped “Tekken 2” on top of. Hell, Kazuya doesn’t even get his revenge in the film, mostly because it’s a prequel rather than a sequel! Even in the confines of what happens to him in this film his revenge goes unfulfilled. Is there any point in mentioning the game series in this post? I felt stupid reviewing Tekken 7 alongside this… Well, ignoring all that, is this clearly stand-alone non-Tekken film worth watching anyway? Let’s see…

Continue reading →

Tekken Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Tekken film

Tekken is an odd film. On the one hand great effort was made to make the cast look like the characters from the game (with the exception of the Jacks, anyway…) and unlike our previous film the tournament actually takes place on Earth, which is nice, but then on the other hand it’s literally Tekken crossed with Hunger Games, which isn’t exactly in the spirit of the source material! Does it still work? Let’s find out!

Continue reading →

The King of Fighters Review

David Hogan1 Comment

The King of Fighters

Okay… so you know when I talked last time about Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li messed about with the source material a bit too much? Well… THAT, but to a far, far greater degree is how you can describe this. Why did I even bother reviewing KOF ’94, in hindsight? Oh well, I’ll say this much: at least the actual fighting was, for the most part, well done, which is something it has over the previous effort. Let’s take a closer look then…

Continue reading →

The Old Guard Review

David HoganLeave a comment

The Old Guard

I’ll be honest here and say this film came out of nowhere for me. I’d never heard of the comic, and honestly hadn’t heard of the film until about a week and a half ago when I saw the coming soon trailer. All that being said, I stuck it on the TV on Saturday and really enjoyed it! It follows a group of immortals and covers all the entertaining ground you can with the concept, from the horrors of out-living everyone, to the fear of being locked away forever… and more! So let’s take a look then…

Continue reading →

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li Review

David HoganLeave a comment

Street Fighter Legend of Chun Li

I went into Legend of Chun-Li with trepidation. I knew it had a bad reputation (as nearly all these films do!) but at the same time I thought “Well, I’m sure it at least has some decent fight scenes to pass the time…” Somehow I was even wrong on that account. Unlike the games that inspired it, this film is devoid of interesting characters and exciting fighting. In other words… *sigh*. Let’s take a look at the first of four fighting game adaptation films in a row!

Continue reading →

Max Payne Review

David Hogan1 Comment

Max Payne Film

Within the first few minutes of this film you start to think “Oh, hang on, they’ve nailed the look and feel of the game at least!” and then it all goes away. Well, actually, the look is the one good thing that stays consistent, but everything else vanishes into an ether of dullness. …Hooray! Let’s take a look at yet another film that had a really good base to go on, but decided not to use it…

Continue reading →

Hitman (2007) Review

David Hogan1 Comment

Hitman 2007

So a game about a deadly hitman working for a shadowy company should be pretty easy to adapt, right? No need for fantasy elements or big sci-fi set pieces, just a simple thriller, right? Well, that’s right! … Sadly, the emphasis was very much on the simple, and less on the thriller. Yes, for a film titled “Hitman” it very quickly became “generic action movie anti-hero loudly gunning people down in broad daylight”. Still, is it worth a look?

Continue reading →