Green Phoenix - Let's Talk...The West Wing

Hey everybody!

I hope that you have managed to keep yourselves in high spirits and good health given all the anxiety and stress that this last week has likely given quite a few of you. I know that I personally had some serious anxiety attacks as thoughts of the election have continued to pervade the back of my mind. Thankfully, some R&R and loved ones has ensured that I am in decent mental form for you all and enabled me to focus on providing you all with a different kind of article this time around.

Up until now, my style of articles have been of four general varieties: Reviews, Countdowns, Editorials, and Literary Recommendations. Today's article is going to be a variation of Editorials that I'm calling "Let's Talks". Whereas my editorial articles are usually me trying to discuss a specific point or debate a topic that I'm focusing on in that article, Let's Talks will be much lighter in tone and more free-form. Let's Talks have no objective or point beyond me talking about some topic on my mind, be it a review or a rant, etc.

And for my very first Let's Talk, the recent election drama has brought my mind to one of television's greatest Presidents. So we are going to talk about just how great of a show The West Wing was and what I liked and missed about it.

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Win the White House - Flash Game Review

In "celebration" of the 2020 election, I have decided to play a presidential election flash game. Free to play HERE. This game has nothing to do with Biden or Trump, which is fitting because I am in no position to write a proper political article. Anyway, let's click "read more" and see what this quick little game has to offer.

Kamen Rider SD: Shutsugeki!! Rider Machine! (Super Famicom) Review.

When it comes to getting Kamen Rider game released in English back in the day, we got the short end of the stick.  Out of the many Kamen Rider games released in Japan, we only saw so few.  We got a pretty decent arcade game (which you can read my review of that right here) and a very lousy Sega Mega CD game.  Oddly enough, the Sega Mega CD game got rated T in America.  Sure, most of the Kamen Rider games are lousy and I've reviewed a few of those stinkers here.  Some of them are surprisingly decent and should've been released outside of Japan.  This is one of those Kamen Rider games.  This is your captain speaking!  Today's gaming cruise ship voyage takes us to Kamen Rider SD: Shutugeki!! Rider Machine! A game released for the Nintendo Super Famicom.  (Click on "Read More" to read the full review.)

Green Phoenix - The Nightmare Before Christmas Review

Happy Halloween everybody!

I was struggling to figure out what would be the best film to review for the season. While I absolutely could have done your standard horror film, those films have never really been my thing. I can certainly appreciate the nuances and subtext and many classic horror films but for this particular Halloween, I think I will go for a more light-hearted fare.

First developed as a poem by Tim Burton in 1982, The Nightmare Before Christmas would stew at the back of Burton's mind throughout the 1980s; the director slowly developing a name for himself with films like Batman (1989) and Beetlejuice (1988). In 1990, Burton approached Disney, slowly coming into its own with its animation department, with the idea to adapt his poem into a stop-motion animated movie, inspired by animated shorts like the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials. Disney accepted the idea under their Touchstone Pictures production company, which catered to those films which were considered more "grown-up" than was appropriate for the Disney brand.

As Burton was busy with the production of his sequel to Batman, Batman Returns, he got his friend Henry Selick to direct The Nightmare Before Christmas, which released in 1993 as an enormous financial and critical success. And in the decades have followed, the popularity of this movie has only gotten stronger, with The Nightmare Before Christmas now being considered a cult classic. the film helped to not only solidify Burton's unique visual aesthetic but paved the way for future high-budget stop-motion animated feature films. Films like Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Paranorman owe so very much to their spiritual ancestor.

But how good is this movie? Does its influence on the modern zeitgeist far out shadow its standalone presence?

Let's take a look and find out.

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Green Phoenix - Halloween Article Released Tomorrow

 Hey everybody,

With Halloween tomorrow, I felt that it was better for me to release my Halloween-oriented film review on the actual holiday. As such, my usual Friday review will be rescheduled for this Saturday at noon.

Be sure to check back this Saturday for my review of The Nightmare Before Christmas and the following Friday will hopefully be a return to form.

I hope all of you stay safe out there while you spend some time with family and friends. Take care of yourselves as this holiday season approaches, as it is likely to be a tremendously difficult and stressful time for many.

Chouriki Sentai Ohranger: Ep2 - Assemble!! Chouriki Sentai - Summary/Review

 

Back again with the second episode of Ohranger. It can be expected that the other 4 core rangers will appear in this episode as previously, only red appeared. Click "read more" and let's see how they handle this.

Green Phoenix - Patriot Games Review

I am so excited to finally get a chance to review Patriot Games. When I decided to do a review of the Tom Clancy trilogy of films, this was the reason I ultimately decided to do it. I make no secret of my love for this film in particular and honestly just want to give it the most amount of love and affection that I can honestly give it. So much so, that I've actually given myself two weeks to work on this review rather than the usual one week and decided to leave this as something of a birthday present to myself.

Released in 1992 as the sequel to the 1990 film  The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games was itself an adaptation of Tom Clancy's 1987 bestselling novel. Though disavowed by Clancy for being too different from his original story, the film was critically and commercially well-received upon its release, considered a much more emotional and engaging viewing experience when compared to the much slower The Hunt For Red October.

While the general consensus of the film post-release has leaned towards its many differences to the source material, the quality of its set pieces and strength of performances, especially by Harrison Ford, has endeared this film in the hearts of many, myself included. With the opportunity to sing the praises of this film and share it with a wider audience now available to me, I cannot wait to go into a deeper dive with the film that I believe to be the best of the Clancy adaptations.

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