Hardcore Henry

This movie is the best damn FMV video game I've ever watched someone play.  For those of you who somehow haven't had the internet, TV, or haven't seen a movie in the theater for the past six months, Hardcore Henry is a first person movie about a guy named Henry who has no memory. Now, Henry was in some kind of accident and has a bunch of cyborg parts in him.  He is a super strong cyborg person and has no real memory when some blonde guy comes in out of nowhere and attacks the science lab where Henry has recently awoken.  Fighting and running ensues, and Henry's wife, or the woman who put him together is kidnapped.  So Henry must save her.

There is a problem however.  He doesn't really know what to do and is running out of batteries. Luckily this guy Jimmy comes by and helps him out.  Jimmy apparently knows a lot about Henry so that is good for him.  Lots of fighting, running, and violence ensues.

A lot of people were apprehensive when it came to the idea of this movie in first person with a lot of action.  I can see why as well.  People are worried about getting motion sickness.  I can assure you it is not as bad as it sounds however.  I only ever felt weird during one parkour scene.  I sat through the whole scene and was fine after that.  My wife is a little sensitive to that sort of thing and she sat through it fine.  So it is not that bad.

The movie is very violent by the way.  Lots of swearing, gunshots, dismemberment, and even a few naked ladies.  So really it has everything you could want out of a movie like this.  Make no mistake, this film is ridiculous exploitation with an over the top concept and a bad gimmick tacked on to boot. In other words, it really is a decent exploitation flick so it fits right in on this blog unlike Dirty Dancing.  I rather enjoyed this movie.  It isn't the best movie of the year so far but it is better than Batman v Superman.  In the future I might even watch this movie again if I'm bored.  The movie has a decent amount of cyberpunk themes in it too.  Oh and that FMV comment earlier.  There are plenty of lines that belong in an FMV game and that made me pretty happy as well.  So I guess I recommend this movie.

Knight Chills

Since the age of 12 I have been a fan of roleplaying games.  This naturally makes me curious when it comes to media related to the topic.  I have seen Mazes and Monsters, The Wild Hunt, a number of documentaries, the special news reports of the evils of D&D, and the Jack Chick comic Dark Dungeons just to name a few.  So of course any time I find something on the subject, I am eager to give it a go.  Knight Chills came about on this list one day and I finally watched the damn thing.  Too bad it wasn't a good movie, but I think in a way it is forgivable this time.

From the very start of this movie it is clear that this is a no budget film, more so than the worst that Troma's releases have to offer.  Normally this is not enough to get me to stop watching any movie, but for some reason I had to stop for a second.  Was I prepared for this?  The truth is I wasn't, so  naturally I continued watching.  The credits are enough of a warning, but the moment the movie starts you are ready for some lowest of low budget.

The story revolves around a guy named John, whose crazy mother is kind of anti-rpg but for some reason allows him to work at a hobby store.  John sneaks out on Saturdays and plays a game with his ex-teacher Jack Nixon, as well as a slew of other people.  So the group is pretty into their game and has a wide variety of people playing it.  There are a couple of asshole guys that play with them, that hit John with a very hard snowball.  This sets John off and at some point during the game his character tries to kill one of them.  If this is his way of lashing out, then he needs to find a new way of doing so.  Anyway, John is into one of the girls that plays with them named Brooke who is clearly the girlfriend of one of the other guys named Zac.  All I can say is not cool bro.  Here is what she looks like.

Charming right?  So they play in Jack's basement, which I think is just part of a gaming store.  If it isn't though, I would love to play there.  It has fake dungeon walls and tons of books all over.  Tell me where this is.  I want to just hang out here.  Brooke gets left behind by her boyfriend and John takes his chance to strike.  In the past few games it is clear that John has lost his mind and is way too into his character.  He is really creepy so the woman turns him down.  This upsets poor John and he speeds off into the chilly night to crash and die.  Or did he?

The rest of the movie is a slasher film where a Knight of the Rose goes around killing the Roleplayers and it is pretty clear that the Knight is John somehow.  Whether he never died and is walking around getting revenge, or he is some vengeful ghost is never explain, but who cares really.  It seems in the town they are in, everyone is bad at delivering the news that someone is dead.  It is ridiculous and offensive.  Jack gets the news of John's passing by a detective who says, "Apparently he had a very close encounter with a large tree."  What a dick.  The guy is also worried about the fact that these people are Roleplaying.

After the funeral, murders happen.  It seems that the people in the game group aren't too affected by their deaths as they discover them.  That is pretty weird, if the people I played games with suddenly died I would be pretty upset, but they are actual friends of mine.  Maybe these people aren't friends.
Much of the deaths are off screen as well, so no real violence to speak of.  Anyway it plays out pretty normal until the last minute which is mostly confusing.  Then it just ends abruptly.

It is clear that the people who wrote it, and likely a good chunk of the cast, played RPGs in general. This helps the gaming scenes quite a bit.  Much of the movie is just boring though.  I can't say I am a fan of the movie, but I could totally believe it if someone said that this was their first film project and a learning experience.  Most of these people went on to do something else, which is actually somewhat comforting.  The odd thing is that this movie has a DVD release, a Special Edition DVD release, and is on Amazon Prime.  I can't say it is worth it, but it also isn't the most offensive movie on the subject of RPGs.  So go watch the other D&D movies first, and when you run out of them, see this I guess.  At least from the DVD cover and the first couple minutes of the film you will immediately know what to expect.