Movie Review Baby Driver: Bananas

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

 I honestly should have gotten into more of Edgar Wright's work before this. Actually that's not quite true I meant to say I should have payed more attention then before, I mean I've seen Shawn of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim but I never really revisited those movies more then I should have and after seeing Baby Driver I'll definitely give them a rewatch as well as see Worlds End rounding out the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy. As for what I saw here's our premise. Our focus is on the titular Baby played by Ansel Elgort who's a getaway driver for Kevin Spacey's gang of pro bank robbers so he can pay off a debt he owes him for trying to jack his car. Now that the debt is squared away Doc's not done with Baby and has one last job for him; though that requires forcing him to work with the unstable Bats played by Jamie Foxx, Darling played by Eiza Gonzales and her boyfriend and fellow cokehead Buddy played by John Hamm. And in between this and caring for his deaf foster father Joseph played by CJ Jones Baby meets a waitress named Debora played by Lily James who may be his last real shot of living a normal life away from the one he's stuck in.

 Though the reason why Doc wants to keep Baby no matter what is due to his masterful driving skills which are accented thanks to Baby's condition. See Baby has tinnitus due him surviving a car crash when he was younger which killed his parents. So to drown out the ringing Baby is constantly listening to music on his various iPods which he times to his driving. As the music goes on Baby's movements are near perfectly coordinated with the music which makes him a demon behind the wheels and thus invaluable to Doc. 

Ok so for every other jack off they get a constant annoying ass ringing in their ears while this guy gets super badass driving powers? Only in freaking Hollywood people!

 Ok so who's supposed to be the one called Baby here? However this leads to one of the biggest strengths of the movie the music, stunt coordination and timing around the music is downright awesome. I honestly haven't seen such a brilliant execution of this combination since the original Blues Brothers. The music and the music synchronization is nearly pitch perfect, pun most certainly intended. The drums beat, the guns fire and the crescendo goes when everything is roaring in flames you get the deal, also for those who are more musically inclined then I each of the songs chosen for the soundtrack and heist scenes could give more hindsight into Baby's views and personality if you were so inclined. I'm not however so if somebody could tell me the messages and themes of the songs on Baby's ears that could be really helpful.

 Though speaking of Baby let's discuss him since let's face it most of the other characters aside from him and Doc are best left alone. Baby seems to be one of those guys who knows more then what others see of him and thus only seems to talk to them either when he wants to or has to, otherwise he mostly just observes and analyzes. He's not a space cadet like most of the dumber characters tend to write him off as rather he prefers to remain detached and aloof from the job and crews and only opens up to his foster father and girlfriend since they seem to be the only people in Baby's life that he feels deserve it since they care for him and he in turn cares for them. Now I may be reading too much into this and seeing things that aren't there but I'm just saying what I feel is why Baby prefers to keep to himself, just a theory and nothing more.

 Other then that the movies characters tend to be more of "what you see is what you get" and that's ok for what the film is, though who the final opponent for Baby may not be exactly who you think it is. But don't worry, who you think are the primary bad guys do go out in a pretty satisfying way so don't feel cheated when those moments do happen. But aside from Baby, the music and excellently choreographed action there's not really a whole lot going on, the characters relations tend to be pretty straight forward like I said before what you see is what you get and some of the action scenes while awesome do tend to stretch the limits of believability just a tad, not too crazy but seem to rely quite a bit of luck and convenience. The best example is early in the movie Baby manages to hide between two other red cars while eluding a police chopper and swap spots when they go under a bridge so they can make a clean getaway. 

 But to sum up Baby Driver is one of the best movies you can see in 2017. Sure this movie may have borrowed a bit too many notes from Guardians of the Galaxy, The Blues Brothers and obviously The Driver which Edgar stated was a major source of inspiration for the movie but hey the movie does show its own unique quirks and strengths to make it stand on its own and does more then pass. So when you get the chance to see this movie do so and bring your own crew and gal. Now on to my next major feature of summer 2017 where every body's favorite wall crawler gets a rather well deserved Homecoming and wow that joke was obvious as hell.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Baby Driver is owned by Edgar Wright, Sony Pictures Releasing, Tristar Pictures, Working Title Films. Big Talk Productions and Media Rights Capital.

Archer is owned by Adam Reed, Floyd County Productions, Radical Axis and FX Productions.

Movie Review: War for the Planet of the Apes: Apes, strong, together.

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

 Wow-we is it time for another Planet of the Apes Movie? It seems like forever since the last movie and also seems forever since my text review of it. Wait how long was it again? Oh right three years, three whole years since my review of the second movie. Such memories, why don't we take a look at my review of the last one shall we?  

http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2014/07/dawn-of-planet-of-apes-hail-caesar.html

 Yeah I was pretty crap wasn't I? Judging by my view count between then and now I might still be crap but at least I'm better smelling crap. Though speaking of crap this movie definitely didn't have me flinging mine at the screen mostly due to it being pretty good. Now for those who never saw the first two movies the third does give a very short and sweet text recap of what happened previously. Which is a good way to solve the "haven't seen the first two movies so I'm not sure if I should see the third one" problem. I perfectly understand that not everyone has a whole wealth of time to movies and not wanting to feel left out when the third and a beloved trilogy comes out. 

 Moving on it's been a few years since the events of the last movie and Ceaser and his tribe are continuing their search for a permanent settlement away from the remaining humans who understandably are a little peeved that most of their species were killed by the Simian Virus and are a little trigger happy toward the new dominant species of the earth. Ceaser learns from his oldest Son that there is a place that could serve their needs beyond the boarder of California. But before Ceaser can act his wife and oldest son are killed by a Colonel played by Woody Harrelson so he and a small group of his most loyal apes decide to launch an attack on the Colonel and his unit as revenge. Along the way Ceaser is plagued by doubts set in from the last movie, primarily centered around the actions of Koba. I won't say how exactly but for those who played Arkham Knight (and not Blacklisted Warner Brothers games after playing the PC Version) they should have a pretty good idea how.

 The advertising for this one may be a little disingenuous about what the actual "war" in this movie is. No it's not the obvious Ape vs Human war but a more personal one for Ceaser, now I won't say what it is but those who've seen the last two movies and read what the driving motivation for him and the Arkham Knight reference can probably guess what the "war" is. Once again the special effects in this movie have gone up, still convincing me that I am indeed watching a group of super intelligent apes and not CGI puppets being moved by the brilliant motion capture work of Andy Serkis. What helps with this is in the characterization, you can truly see some great and captivating performances and emotions in the facial movements of Ceaser and the other apes. Though the human characters aren't slouches in this case either, especially Woody Harrelson's Colonel but I won't give away why since this is truly something you need to see for yourself.

 Now as of writing this I still haven't seen the original Planet of the Apes movies but I know enough to know what are the seeds for those movies that are planted in this movie. Now we can all just definitively agree that the Tim Burton remake never happened, right? Right good, moving on because seriously screw Tim Burtons remakes, we may like the guy or at least not have gotten sick of him but everyone can admit his adaptations and remakes are just; as the brits describe complete and utter pants. Again since I do want you all to see this I won't give them away but be on the lookout. But for now all I can say is get your tribe, get some popcorn and definitely be sure to swing on by and catch this when you legally can. Speaking of swinging when I come back to looking at movies either I'll be swinging to music or swinging around NYC, depends on which I get to first, either way I'll definitely be in for a good time so keep an eye out for that.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is owned by 20^th Century Fox Based on Characters Created by Pierre Boulle

Tokusatsu Review: Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Part 1: This is better then Pixels by default.

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

 What is this folks? It looks like a Kamen Rider Crossover movie, but it's actually good, and in cannon with the currently running rider series? That can't be right who created this, who wrote this? Let me check this out, ah now it makes sense. This movie was actually directed by Koichi Sakamoto (who everyone who grew up watching Zordon and Saban Era Power Rangers should know by now) and written by Yuya Takahashi the writer of Ex-Aid. Oh my god they actually put people who knew what the hell they were doing in charge of this production it's about time!

 Well with that glowing sign of quality let's jump right in and see what enjoyment we can have making fun of this movie. Though for those who are watching Ex-Aid be warned this movie contains spoilers and takes place between episodes 10 and 11 so keep that in mind for those who need to catch up. We open on another bright sunny day at Genm Corperation. The birds are singing, the office workers are greeting the front desk staff, the really, really, really ridiculously good looking Evil GQ models in lab-coats are killing the guards, wait what? Oh trust me their boss makes this even weirder as he's, a guy with an evil Pac-Man helmet.

 Kuroto knows a bullshit storm when he hears it so he tries to flee with the Proto Gashats but Zoolander, Valentina and Mongo get to him and threaten to blow his head off if they don't get the Proto Gashats and Bug Visor. Apparently all this is about was them collecting on their backpay since they, you know were apparently killed 6 years ago and came back for the sake of finishing Dr Pac-Man's research. Outside the cops swarm the building ready to gun them down until Mongo breaks out the Gekitotsu Robots Proto Gashat.

And that's when the cops realized that their guns were as useful

as boobs on a bull.

 The Mongo Bugster then proceeds to wreck the cops' shit in record time. We then cut to some High School students playing this universes counterpart of Bejeweled called Hatesate Puzzle when one of the girls of the group tells the game's creator Tougo that his game just hit 20 Million downloads. But he's not really concerned with that, no he's got far bigger ambitions then that.

 But before his fangirls can register the Sploosh their academy is attacked by thousands of tiny Pac-Men, some of who start chowing down on Tougo. We then cut to the Seto University hospital where Emu is helping a patient with his recovery when Asuna tells him there's an epidemic on the rise. Elsewhere Takeru Aka Kamen Rider Ghost is catching up on his schoolwork when Onari and Akari burst into the classroom to tell him about the crisis.

 Both groups connive on a massive swarm of Pac-Men and Emu and Takeru recognize each other's drivers. OH MY GOD CONTINUITY HOW I LOVE THEEE!!! After the two get their "hi how've you been" stuff out of the way the Pac-Men swarm on Takeru after munching on Power Pellets/Power Cookies and eat his Ghost powers so he can't transform into Ghost. Leaving Emu the only one able to take a swing to them so he transforms into Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and fights off the Pac-Men.

 After the title card Mongo's back at Dr Pac-Man's base who informs Zoolander and Valentina that they've found their target Tougo who luckily has been found by Takeru. Zoolander wastes no time and uses the Photo Drago Knight Hunter Z Gashat to become a Bugster and attacks. Ex-Aid changes into his Level 2 form to give the others time to get Tougo to safety. Valentina isn't having it though and chases the group to a garage where she pulls out her own Jian sword and fights Takeru. Needless to say both heroes get their asses kicked and hard.

 Dr Pac-Man shows up to show that he's the one giving everyone a literal case of Pac-Man fever (no really I thought he was spreading the Dig-Dug virus.) He then gloats and walks off, yep some other villain who got their advice from Mr Freeze. Back at CR they confirm that Tougo is infected but with an unknown strain of the Bugster virus. Afterwords the two groups get brought up to speed on the situation and come up with a solution to stop the Pac-Man virus, Ghost. Since as we all know Pac-Man's enemies are the four Ghosts the powers of Kamen Rider Ghost are needed to stop it. However Ghost is out of commission thanks to the Pac-Men having a Power lunch on him earlier. Kuroto comes in with Taiga and tells the group about the Proto Gahsats that Dr Pac-Man and his crew stole and to get them back no matter what. When Emu asks who they are Kuroto says that he has no idea.

 Tougo wakes up and surprise, surprise he's an asshole and wants out even though he's infected and the GQ demons are after him. Kagami, being the detached asshole that he is says if the patient wants out then let him. Up on the helipad Emu and Takeru talk about how awesome the other is, Takeru even revealing he still has the Ex-Aid Eyecon from the end of his series. Kuroto interjects asking for Takeru's Ghost Eyecon so he can come up with a countermeasure for Pac-Man.

 As for why Kagami let Tougo off? To use him as bait for Dr Pac-Man, though he at least does bring up the good point that there's thousands of lives at stake unless they get the cure for the Pac-Man virus so they can't exactly take the moral high ground in this situation. We then cut to Takeru, Akira and Onari going to see Shinosuke AKA Kamen Rider Drive to see if the three GQ goons have a record and if so a possible identity for Dr Pac-Man. Shinnosuke reveals that they all worked for the Next Genome research institute and that place was known for some really shady shit going down. He also gives them a name for Dr Pac-Man, Zaizen Michihiko. However there's a problem, all four of them died 6 years ago and all of their data was erased, all the police could recover was one video showing the four dying.

 Back with Emu Dr Pac-Man catches up to them and calls Takeru for back up. Shinnouske offers to help but since he doesn't have Krim he can't become Drive anymore so he just tells Takeru to be careful. Dr Pac-Man and his two goons corner Tougo and Emu saying that the entire point of the Pac-Man virus was to find Tougo specifically since he installed a Virus detection program into Pac-Man. Which virus, the Bugster Virus what else? But since Emu and Asuna couldn't detect it in CR that can only mean one thing, Tougo has a brand new strain!

Which culminated into the Hatena Bugster.

 Takeru and the others arrive and reveal Dr Pac-Man's identity so Zaizen finally takes off that weird helmet and begins going on about his evil plans. Long story short he and his cohorts were trying to create a new life form from the Bugster Virus, something went wrong, they went to the game world, they escaped to complete their plans and they need the Hatena Bugster for their plans to come to fruition. Hatena attacks causing blocks to fall and create several explosions in very close proximity to our heroes.

 Yet most if not all of Toei's heroes survive explosions like this so go figure. The good news is that Makoto and Alan drive to back the group up, bad news Akari and Takeru get caught in the blast of some of Hatena's block bombs yet surprisingly only Akari's on deaths door after that instead of both, I guess given how many times Takeru died and just came back during his show I thought the writer would have that excuse to kill him again for shits and giggles. Though I might not be that far off as both Takeru and Akari are infected with Hatena's Virus strain and will both die unless Hatena is killed in 24 hours, because of course it's 24 hours and not instantly since we need to feed the Drama Llama somehow!

 Speaking of drama Makoto and Alan get their asses kicked by Valentina and Emu gets beaten like a drum by Zoolander who literally did it single handedly, ok now that's funny. Zaizen uses the Bugvisor to capture Tougo while his two goons to finish off the riders. Thankfully they get more back up from Kiriya, Taiga and Kagami who also gives Emu the new Gashat from Kuroto, the Kaigan Ghost Legendary Rider Gashat, so now they have a counter measure against Pac-Man without Takeru. Good thing too since Zaizen summons a Giant Pac-Man to cover his and Hatena's escape.

"Pac-Man's a bad guy?" There, that's as far as I will ever get to actually referencing that god awful piece of crap movie.

 Pac-Man then turns into a more monstrous form to chase down Takeru and Emu. Takeru has yet another inspirational courage boost which restores his Rider powers, because Pac-Man's yellow, the Heart of the Cards I don't know how folks either way this somehow helps Emu get over his own blue screen and uses the Kaigan Ghost Gashat to become Ghost Gamer Level 1. Back at Zaizen's base Mongo's finished creating the gene diagram needed for their goal, Zaizen has Hatena reconfigure his DNA to match the sequence. Both groups of secondary Riders force the goons to retreat but not without Makoto and Alan taking heavy damage. Back with the main riders Ghost uses the Ex-Aid Eyecon to gain the Ex-Aid Damashi and Ex-Aid levels up so the riders can double team Pac-Man and purify the virus, they succeeded and by defeating Pac-Man the Pac-Man fever epidemic is cured. So that's where we'll leave things for now check in next time for the defeat of Zaizen, the salvation of Akari and Takeru and some back up from some old friends.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Archer is owned by Adam Reed, Floyd County Productions, Radical Axis and FX Productions.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is owned by Joel Hodgson,  Best Brains, Syfy, Comedy Central and Shout Factory.
The Other guys is owned by Paramount Pictures and Adam McKay.

Manga Review: Kazumi Magica The innocent malice Vol 4 pt 2: Witches Brew

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

Here's the link to the last review. 

http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2017/06/manga-review-kazumi-magica-innocent.html

 From where we last left off the remaining Pleiades heed Kazumi's threat and head to the freezer where she erects (phrasing) a barrier to make sure they can't run off which doubles as a motion sensor so that if she senses magic other then her own she'll thaw out the girls they have on ice.

Yeah folks this is the look of a person who is in precisely zero mood to listen to anyone's hogshit.

 She tells them she's read the diary and it's clear to her how much Michiru meant to all of them and how she cared for them in turn. So then comes the million dollar question. Why didn't they give her Michiru's memories? Saki says that every time they tried giving the clones some of the memories they went berserk. They took it as a sign of Michirus will and then decided to create one with a different personality, thus Kazumi. But this leads to the biggest problem with this plan, she's not Michiru! 

 Kazumi hearing this declares that she refuses to accept the idea of Magical Girls being born from hope to end in despair and tells the others to never stop until Michiru and Satomi are brought back to life, they committed the ultimate Taboo so they have to take responsibility and finish what they've started. She also says they have one other job to do, kill her. Kazumi starts turning into her Amazon form and asks one last question. 

Thank you Kaoru, Keelah se'lai.

 She finishes transforming, swallows the two evil nuts to go completely berserk and screams at them to kill her. She then slams Kaoru with her tail knocking her into a wall. Niko asks Saki what her call is, Saki then swears that she'll kill Kazumi as many times as it takes until they truly revive Michiru and she'll bear the guilt each and every time. She and Mirai transform to take on Kazumi; who incapacitates Niko with an energy blast. During the fight Umika sees that Kaoru was paralyzed by a spell, she breaks it and Kaoru blocks one of Saki's attacks to tell her that Kazumi is still herself. She wants them to kill her thinking she went berserk and the reason why Kaoru was taken out first was because she swore to protect Kazumi. When Kazumi stumbles with Kaoru's accusation Saki collapses, her resolve to kill Kazumi shattered.

 But that's because she's sane, Mirai however cuts Kazumi in half with her buster sword without a second thought. But the Kazumi that was cut turned out to be a decoy as well as the Niko that was shot. The real Niko emerges from the shadows with Kazumi shrunken into her tube. As Mirai prepares to attack Niko for interfering she points out that she has a bigger problem on her hands and points to Saki, whose Soul Gem is turning into a Grief Seed. Chapter 17 ends with Niko then teleporting to Saki, creates an Evil Nut and inserts into her, wait what the HELL?! 

 Chapter 18 continues with Niko reveling to everyone that; like Kazumi she's also an artificial magical girl. Saki keeps bringing down the thunder which according to Niko is her trying to not become a witch. 

 Mirai dives into the electric column and refuses to leave Saki's side even when Juubey says that it's too late to purify her gem. The reason why Mirai is so obsessed with Saki is that when the two were starting to become friends Saki says that Mirai reminds her of how she used to be, this combined with Mirai's ostracization and how she selflessly protected Saki from the jellyfish witch lead to her developing feelings for Saki. So she won't leave Saki no matter what happens. Saki finally becomes a witch with Mirai's last words of her declaring her love for Saki, as her head gets bitten off by Saki's witch like a gram cracker! 

Time for a game of disappearing lives?

 That barely fixes her stoner munchies so the freshly backed witch goes after Kaoru and Umika but the fake Niko uses a spell to restrain the witch and tame it like a beast master. With Kaoru and Umika left to deal with Niko's revenge is almost complete, when Umika asks what revenge she's talking about she tosses her phone to her which is opened to a California newspaper article. Niko explains that after that tragedy; her original self Kanna Hijiri was consumed by guilt, day after day she blamed herself for killing her two friends and always wondered what her life would have been if not for that one bad day. She even created an imaginary her to live out that fantasy; there was her then the imaginary her, mixing the two created "Niko". 

Oh so she took on the responsibility of fighting witches to atone for her horribly consuming guilt while you lived the life she always wanted, boo fuckidy hoo here's the worlds smallest violin just for you you little Rule 63 Kratos.

 Though her anger is less from that but from the day she found Niko and the saints fighting a witch and of course is shocked to find someone who looked exactly like her. Normally she would've thought nothing of it but Juubey approaches her and spilled the beans about Niko creating her with her wish. After she discovered the article about the shooting she was understandably livid about her life being a lie. Though she asks Juubey why Niko didn't just wish those memories away he says that she didn't want to run from her guilt. 

 Kanna is understandably disgusted with Niko's decision and wants revenge on her and her friends. So she makes her wish, for the power to sneak on people without being noticed so she can get a front row seat for the moment of Niko's death. From her observations she learned about Niko's suffering and the Saints' plans. When she found out that another artificial magical girl was created she was understandably over the moon, but at the same time the way the Saints were running rough shod over everyone pissed her off but good. Kaoru assumes that Kanna was the one manipulating everyone, however she admitted that all she did was create the evil nuts using Niko's reformation magic and Umika's Ex File. 

 In truth all she had to do then was point Yuuri and the Souju's in the right direction and everything else was all them. All she needed was to get the girls to use up their magic thus corrupting their Soul Gems, her plan was going perfectly until Yuuri accidentally switched the suitcases with Tachibana. The volume then ends with Umika then asking what her end goal in all of this is now that she has Kazumi. 

New humanity with Kung-Fu grip!!

"Screw humans I'll make my own species, with blackjack and hookers, in fact forget the new species!"

 Needless to say humanity and our three remaining protagonists are up shit creek without a boat much less a paddle, tune in to the coverage of the last Volume of Kazumi Magica to see the outcome of this story and afterwords my analysis of this entry in the Madoka franchise. 

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Kazumi Magica The Innocent Malice is owned by Masaki Hiramatsu, Takashi Tensugi, Magica Quartet and Yen Press.
Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation is owned by LBS Communications, Nelvana Communications and Colombia Pictures.
Attack on Titan is owned by Hajime Isayama and Kodansha.
Attack on Titan abridged is owned by Team Four Star.
The Spoony Experiment is owned by Noah Antwilder.