Terror of Mechagodzilla

I was very into Godzilla movies as a kid.  I tried my best to see them whenever they were on TV no matter what time they were on.  I also rented them when available at rental stores.  For whatever reason, one of the Godzilla films that sticks out the most for me is Terror of Mechagodzilla.  This is indeed a sequel to the previous Mechagodzilla film, but like most of these movies, you can catch on pretty quick.

The film stars off with a montage of Godzilla history, some a little inaccurate, but awesome regardless because right away you get to see monsters fighting.  Most importantly you get to see the most awesome part of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla where Mechagodzilla shoots Godzilla a bunch and Godzilla sprays blood all over the place.  Then Godzilla uses some kind of magnetic radiation power to shoot the rockets out of his body and keep Mechagodzilla grounded so he can behead him.  It is important to know that Mecha was created by Aliens that want to take over the world.

Anyway in this movie some scientists are looking for the remains of Mechagodzilla in the ocean when they are attacked by some Aquatic Godzilla-like Dinosaur known as Titanosaurus, who doesn't look like a Titanosaurus.  They are attacked and killed which leads a team of biologists to investigate this incident with Interpol.  I forgot to mention the Sub is body slammed into the ocean and explodes.

The biologist main character in this movie is called Ichinose.  Meanwhile, aliens disguised as Japanese people who look that way without any real disguising want to destroy Tokyo and make a Neo-Tokyo with the help of a shunned scientists named Mafune, who believed he could control a dinosaur he was looking for known as Titanosaurus with some device he made.  Got all that?  Well it gets weirder from there.  You see, Mafune has a daughter named Katsura who helped him with his research.  Sadly due to some faulty wiring, Katsura was shocked to death during an experiment and the Aliens revived her by making her a cyborg.  This makes Mafune in debt to the Aliens.  Combine that with his hatred for mankind for not believing in his life's work and it leads him to help the Aliens with a new Mechagodzilla as well as controlling Titanosaurus.

Interpol and the scientists now believe Mafune and want his help to find this creature, but they are too late.  This does introduce Ichinose to Katsura however and the two fall in love basically over a couple meetings and one date.  So Katsura warns Ichinose about going after Titanosaurus but he doesn't listen.  They build a better Sub and narrowly escape dying.  This meeting in the water does help them to discover that Titanosaurus is weak against super sonic waves, so they build a sonic oscillator.

Ichinose tells Katsura this and they are overheard by the Aliens.  Then when Titanosaurus and Godzilla are about to fight in Tokyo the Aliens capture Katsura and put Mechagodzilla's controls in her stomach.  Then they also capture Ichinose and tie him up in the control room where Katsura now controlled by the Alien's lackey Tsuda, is controlling Mechagodzilla and Titanosaurus with her eye beams and a computer, all while Mafune looks on in the same room.

So anyway, with less than a half hour left Mechagodzilla finally comes out to play.  What follows is a damn fine Godzilla battle where the King of Monsters is clearly outmatched.

Ichinose gets free and goes after Tsuda while this one Interpol dude who is in the movie a lot comes in and shoots Mafune and Katsura.  Once Mafune and Tsuda are taken care of, Katsura can think again.  Interpol and the scientists finally use their oscillator to stop Titanosaurus for a bit so Godzilla can focus on Mecha.  Ichinose holds the hurt Katsura and says, "Even if you are a cyborg, I still love you."  Katsura however reveals that the controls are in her stomach and shoots herself with a ray gun.  This allows Godzilla to take down the monsters, blow up the escaping Alien ships, and return to the sea once again.

This movie is awesome, at least by Godzilla standards.  There is so much monsters and models destroyed, as well as monsters fighting.  Just as importantly, the human story is equally ridiculous which makes it so much more watchable than some of the other movies.  The main problem with these films is that for the most part the humans follow the same formula, even in this one sort of, so that story always seems like it gets in the way of the crazy big monster fights that everyone wants to see.  Luckily the story is so entertain and strange in this one that the whole movie really feels worth the watch.  I like scientists walking around in rooms and discussing things by the way.  Pacing isn't always an issue for me as long as something is going on.  Sameness is the problem with most Godzilla films, but not so with Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, and Terror of Mechagodzilla.  Really I love to watch all of them, but if I were to introduce someone to Godzilla and I didn't start with the original, this is probably a great place to start.

Django... The Real One.

Around the age of 11 or so, I became aware of what spaghetti western was referring too.  Before this I had seen a handful of them, and even heard them referenced as that.  I had no idea what it meant.  When I was 6 and my dad mentioned it while I was watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly for the hundredth time and I assumed people used to eat spaghetti while watching them, though I couldn't imagine where.  Maybe at the Drive-In, because at the time I knew that's where people watched westerns, but I thought that was way too messy.  Give me a break, I was 6.  I could barely understand what was happening in the movie to begin with.  Shortly after I forgot about it completely and continued on with my life.  Then five years later I saw Django.

By this time I was aware that The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly was directed by an Italian person and that much of the extras were Italian as well.  I saw this name on the list of what was playing next on a movie channel and I couldn't figure out what it was about so I decided to watch it.  Boy was I happy that I did.  Finally I figured out what people meant by spaghetti western.  Not that I gave it much thought or anything.

Django is the story of a stranger travelling with a coffin in tow.  He comes across a woman named Maria being tortured by some guys who are whipping her on a bridge because she tried to escape them.  These bad hombres are then shot down by some guys in red bandannas.  The bandanna guys are going to burn her to death because she left with the Mexicans.  This woman cannot catch a break.  Then Django comes by and shoots them all down.  He helps the woman get back to town where he hangs out with his muddy boots and coffin inside a hotel/bar/brothel, when a guy named Jackson comes in.  Jackson is a leader of some kind of gang who is racist against Mexicans and kills them for fun.  Well Django for whatever reason hangs out to meet this guy, pisses him off, and shoots all his men down.  Then he tells Jackson that he should bring all his men next time so it would be fair. The amount of men Jackson has is 48 by the way.

How bad ass do you have to be to challenge 49 guys to a gunfight in the streets?  What we don't know is that Django has a personal vendetta against Jackson which should be obvious if you listened to the theme song, and that Django has a trick up his... coffin.  Yeah it is pretty easy to guess but hey the guy is still the most bad ass man ever.

Django is the kind of movie you don't really question the story during.  Django's motives change multiple times, and you wonder why he has any interest in helping people outside of being a random vigilante.  This doesn't matter though because this movie is straight up awesome.  Violence, drinking, hookers, its all there.  It's the kind of movie that's made just for it's audience.  But at least it is made well.  It looks great, and the music is fantastic as well.  I highly recommend this movie.

Joysticks

Joysticks is a weird film.  Sometime after the popularity of films like Porky's and Animal House, low budget film makers from all over decided they too could make classic adult comedies with less money.  The problem with this is that most of them have less charm.  For every Screwballs, you have at least ten Joysticks, and sadly they are not worth playing with.

This movie happens to have two actors I like, Joe Don Baker, and John Gries.  Joe Don Baker plays the main bad guy, Joseph Rutter, a man who hates the arcade and thinks his daughter spends too much time there.  Jon Gries plays a guy named King Vidiot, the other sort of bad guy.  This is the reason (if any) you should see it.  King Vidiot is a punk guy with weird hair who has a small gang of punk girls, and it's pretty much the best.  You may have seen Jon Gries in Napoleon Dynamite, but I know him best as O.D. the infamous rocker dude from TerrorVision.  Luckily he is just as awesome in this.  I'll get back to him, but let's talk about what the movie is actually about.

So there is this kid named Eugene that is going to his first day of work at a video arcade run by a guy named Jefferson Bailey.  The arcade is frequented by somewhat attractive ladies who all don't seem to mind getting naked or being touched by random people, as well as "colorful" characters such as Jonathan Andrew McDorfus.  Now Dorfus is supposed to be the lovable gross overweight scamp in the film, and only three of those words could be used to describe him.  He is absolutely annoying in this film.  Anything that is gross or is supposed to be "funny" that characters like this do, he does.  The legend goes that Dorfus was class president or something, but shortly after graduating he started to frequent this arcade where he became friends with Bailey.  Sadly, he also became insanely overweight due to the Arcade food, and a complete waste of space, but as far as video games go he can't be beat.

There is this girl named Patsy Rutter who hangs out there and has a pretty terrible valley girl accent.  It brings the arcade to the attention of Joseph Rutter, her father, who thinks that everyone there is terrible.  This is further helped by some college girls who, when convinced the arcade is on fire, are forced to run through the arcade wearing nothing but panties and end up running into the man.  The arcade is obviously a den of filth and scum, so he forces his daughter to leave.  The problem is that this place really is a den of filth and scum, but we are supposed to love it.

So Joseph's cronies try to steal the arcade machines and put the place out of business.  Eugene overhears this and a bunch of guys go there to stop the dudes.  Meanwhile Eugene and Dorfus sneak into the Rutter house for... reasons and Eugene ends up in the arms of a sex starved, drugged up Mrs. Rutter.  Anyway, after the pointless interlude they leave and Rutter's daughter goes with.  Bailey is having some sort of after hours party to celebrate and many of the guys bring their ladies over in the PJ's.  King Vidiot and his crew want to hang out so there is a showdown between Vidiot and Dorfus where the stakes are if Vidiot wins he stays, if not he goes.  They play Satan's Hollow, a pretty awesome game.  The weird thing is they have these big screens that come down near the bar and play it with these huge joystick that you must stand to use.

So Dorfus wins but Bailey lets the punk gang stay, so none of this was relevant.  Then Joseph Rutter comes by and gets angry that his daughter is there.  This launches a battle for Joseph to try and get the arcade closed down.  King Vidiot joins the dark side and attempts to help Joseph with the promise that he will be awarded his own arcade machine.  At some point this comes to a town meeting where Rutter claims the place is tainting the youth, and you know what?  He's right.  It has ruined McDorfus' life and turned Vidiot into a crazed violent punk dude.  Not that I have anything against punks, but this guy is just stupid and mean for no reason.  More importantly it has turned into a place where kids can go to drink, and have sex or sexually assault each other with reckless abandon.  The case is brought to it's knees when Bailey shows a picture they shot earlier with Rutter and the two girls that ran into him in the fake fire incident.  This proves somehow that Rutter is morally bankrupt.  Then the Mayor says that there is no evidence that anything illegal is going on so the arcade will stay open.  The problem with this is that they just saw physical proof that there has been, by way of the slide with Rutter.  There are two naked girls next to him in public, more specifically in the arcade which proves that the patrons are at least guilty of indecent exposure.

For whatever reason Bailey agrees to a match against Rutter's champ King Vidiot, and the arcades chosen valiant warrior Dorfus in a game of Super Pac-man, Vidiot's favorite game.  Then Dorfus is nowhere to be seen and Bailey must face his fears.  Earlier in life Bailey lost his virginity to this girl in an arcade, but right after her dad came in.  Bailey sees the father in the reflection of an arcade screen and the girls father starts hitting her.  Then he takes the girl away and they move somewhere.  This scars Bailey and he can no longer play games or he becomes physically ill.  So Bailey is forced to play against King Vidiot and starts failing bad.

It turns out the cronies kidnapped Dorfus, but when they are not looking, Rutter's wife smells Dorfus' essence and remembers that night of drugged up passion so she goes down to bang him.  He convinces her to let him free with the promise of a gang bang later and goes off to save the day.  When he gets there, King Vidiot has already stopped playing because he was so far ahead of Bailey.  Eugene convinces Dorfus not to take over for Bailey and let him face his fears.  Then he gets good and wins the game, so the arcade is saved.  Bailey and Dorfus rent a motel room so Eugene can go lose his virginity with Mrs. Rutter.  The End.

Wow, this movie is bad.  There are positive things however.  If you want it, there is a lot of ladies wearing virtually nothing.  The music is pretty fun overall.  There is a decent amount of arcade machines to look at and people play them in head to head competition.  Most importantly however, is King Vidiot himself.  He is so awesome that he makes every scene he is in worth it.  He is way too good for this movie.  John Gries is great, and if you want to see him be great in a movie that doesn't suck, watch TerrorVision.  If you already love O.D. from that and simply must have more, I guess you could fast forward through this.  Otherwise just skip it.  Nothing here worth while.

Ghost in the Shell

A this blog is mainly a hobby for me, sometimes it takes a back seat to real life.  It is no secret that I suffer a great deal from depression, but that's not relevant to this really.  I just wanted to note that I have been away for a while.

I grew up watching anime in the early 90's.  When I was young, it all seemed so cool to me.  Often times I would go to a comic shop, and get denied the ability to buy The Invisibles or some other more mature themed comic, but for whatever reason I could rent anime at rental stores.  Perhaps the people at the rental stores didn't know (or care) about the content in these cartoons.  So when I looked at the cool covers, I imagined all the things I was missing from picking up Bloodshot, or Spawn, would be in there somewhere, but also animated.  It was exciting and bad ass looking.  Plus there were adaptations of Fatal Fury or Street Fighter to be seen.  Sadly, my predictions were usually correct when it came the bad end of the spectrum.  For every Ghost in the Shell there were like 50 M.D. Geist's, just like for every Invisibles, there were 50 Heroes Reborn's, but being filled with teenage lust and angst, this was just fine.  I was willing to overlook the problems of these movies for the 5 minutes of awesome that was usually within.

You may have noticed that I mentioned the title I am about to review.  Yes, Ghost in the Shell is one of those pretty good anime titles.  Practically everyone who was into anime at the time had seen it, or owned it.  This was the gold standard for anime at the time and for good reason.

This movie is about a cyborg woman named Motoko Kusanagi, who works for Public Security Section 9.  This is of course a sort of government agency that employs a bunch of specialists to do insane things and protect the public from stuff like robots or whatever.  Anyway, she is a Major of some kind and loves to hang out on top of buildings at night, mostly naked in order to use her super camo thing to become invisible-ish and shoot up bad guys.  With her are other employees like Batou, and Togusa.  Batou is a white haired dude with cyber eyes that do... something, and Togusa is a mostly human guy who is seemingly employed for that reason.

A large portion of this movie is people musing over what it means to be human, and if it's any different or more special than being an AI.  There are a bunch of action scenes though and that it sweet.  I like the themes explored in the movie, but honestly there isn't enough time to really go through it all.

So a Robo-Chick body escapes a facility and gets run over.  Section 9 recovers it and discovers that it got up and left on it's own without any AI or Ghost inside.  It turns out that... Something is inside.  It awakens and goes on a bit of a rampage.  What is this something?  Well is it an AI, a soul?  These are the questions that attempt to get answered along the way as Kusanagi gets naked and blows stuff up.

Though the movie is not too long, it leaves a lot of weird questions, and usually one wants more.  I felt that way.  The only real option for a while however was a not so well translated, blown up, and flipped comic version of the manga.  This was pretty undesirable as it would cost way too much to really get much out of it.  Luckily Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex would come out later, and this is where people really became obsessed with the franchise.

The movie was meant to be sort of "Stand Alone" in it's own right and has an ending of sorts.  It can be viewed as a bit of an oddity of fandom and 90's nerd culture, but it is also a very good looking movie, and totally worth watching.  I recommend it very much.  It isn't all that fantastic in retrospect however.  Most of it's special nature is based around the time it was released so i could see how people could just watch it and not care too much.  It is a part of anime history, and is very important to America as a release that helped popularize anime as a media format to view though.  For this reason, fans of the whole anime thing should just watch it anyway, but it's better than most of the others of it's era.  Take that for what it's worth I guess.

20 Great Games for Halloween Part 2

Here we go.

11. House of the Dead 2

Honestly it's one of my favorite games of the rail shooter genre.  It is gruesomely gory, hilariously acted, and just too perfect for its own good.  I have gotten pretty good at this game too.  One credit can last me a long time.  Go out and try this right away.

12. Luigi's Mansion

Obvious choice, but there is nothing more Halloween than this game.  It reminds me of that Lonesome Ghost cartoon with Mickey.  So great to play as Luigi and bust some ghosts with a vacuum.  As we all know, busting makes you feel good.

13.Monster in My Pocket

Based on a board game/trading card series/cartoon, this is a perfect Halloween treat.  Fun as hell to play and you get to be mini Count Orlok or mini Frankenstein's Monster.  You run around killing other monsters and they are all recognizable from their trading card counterparts.  Plus it is pretty fun.

14. Monster Bash

Nothing short of the most Halloweeny platform game ever.  Lots of fun and full of great looks.  You go around as a kid collecting candy on Halloween night and saving household pets from the likes of zombies and what not.  Just go play it.

15. Resident Evil

I love this franchise.  Sure the story is stupid and the games have become about superheroes fighting monsters (Soon to be rectified.) but it is a classic.  Most people complain about the early game's controls and the inability to see.  I say it looks like a horror movie and gives you just enough scares.  The original has that Haunted Mansion feel, but with zombies instead.  This game is the perfect game version of an Italian horror movie, complete with bad acting and a ridiculous story.  I love it.

16. Vampire Master of Darkness

Yeah I know, I am obsessed with Sega things.  Nonetheless, this game rises from it's Castlevania wannabe design to become a great game.  Nice controls, decent difficulty, hell even the item pickups make more sense than Castlevania.  This game is just too good to be missed.

17. Victor Vran

I recently got this game and fell deeply in love with it.  All the simplicity you would want from an action rpg dungeon crawl.  I like this game more than Diablo 3 honestly.  Not that it is a better game mind you.  Just that it really gets that Halloween style and is fun in a way that some action rpgs somehow miss.

18.Wanpaku Graffiti: Splatterhouse NES

It's too bad this game never made it to the US, because it is so fun and really translates the gameplay of Splatterhouse to the NES well while also being it's own game.  In the picture, the Dracula guy is making the monsters do a Thriller dance before sending them to attack you.  If that doesn't make you want to play it then you have no heart and do not respect Halloween.  So get outta here and give me all your Candy Corn

19.War of the Monsters

One of my absolute favorite PS2 games.  You run around as a big monster, killing other big monsters.  So much fun and really nails that Godzilla fighting idea.  Not only that but it gets the giant bug thing in there with a Mantis character.

20. Zombie Revenge

Technically a spin off of the House of the Dead franchise, this is one of my most beloved Dreamcast games.  It plays like Die Hard Arcade but you kill zombies by punching them to death or grabbing guns or drills and massacring them.  Violent, fun and perfect for Halloween.  Go bust your Dreamcast out and enjoy an arcade classic.  You Dreamcast is thinking... about how it collects dust and you never play it.  The system may plot a revenge of it's own if you don't use it.  So go play it before it kills you.

20 Great Games for Halloween Part 1

One of the best things about Halloween, next to candy corn and horror movies, is video games.  Games are all over the place so someone could easily do a list of 100 themed games for your Halloween frenzy.  Obviously this means there will be some games missing from this list.  However, I have chosen games that I think of every year I and think it is a great list.

1. Ghouls and Ghosts (Genesis)

Right here is the best of the best.  Ghouls and Ghosts for the Sega Genesis is not only the most playable and appealing game in the franchise, it is pure Halloween greatness.  I watched a friend beat this on Halloween once and I think about how great it is all the time.  It is for me, better than the snes version.

2. Bloodrayne

Bloodrayne is probably an obvious choice.  Insert jokes of its ridiculous sexuality or the bad Uwe Boll movie all you like, but there is a lot to love.  You run around as a blade wielding, gun toting vampire  and killed tons of nazis.  One of the best things is that sucking blood is pretty important as a game mechanic and bad guys serve as health.  Too cool, but this games is in no way perfect.  It is for a specific kind of crowd as well.

3. Eternal Darkness

It seems like forever ago when I was a lone dude, talking about just how great this game is.  Now everyone seems to know about it.  The hallucinations, the action, the puzzle solving, and the scares.  This game is nothing short of a masterpiece, and quite honestly one of the best Cthulhu Mythos games ever made.

4. Halloween Forever

I supported this game even before it came to Steam.  Back then it was just a short, entertaining little distraction.  Now with all the recent updates, it feels like a decently polished NES throwback with plenty to find, a nice difficulty, and a good amount of replay value.  This game is worthy of sitting among other titles like Ghosts and Goblins as a Halloween classic.

5. Blood

If Doom is too obvious a choice, try out Blood.  The game is full of violent and crazy imagery.  You go around killing undead things, cultists, etc.  Really awesome.  It reminds me of Duke Nukem 3D in graphic style, but with enough of its own flare to be great in itself.  This is sadly an overlooked classic.

6. Diablo 1

I put the first game on the list over the other ones for one simple reason, atmosphere.  In many ways, Diablo's simplicity is it's best feature.  The slowness of the game that some people complain about only adds to the atmosphere when you really give it a chance.  I played this one first and I still play it to this day.

7. Doom

Let's talk about the obvious here.  Doom is absolutely one of the best games ever made.  Even if you don't like the style of game, there is no denying the effect it has had on gaming over the years.  The thing I find fascinating is how few FPS games get the formula right.  Doom does it the best.  Don't believe me?  Spend time on the internet.  The game has endless replay value as well due to it's large and dedicated community of modders.  For an added bonus, try Doom 64.

8. Castlevania Bloodlines

For Halloween, nothing beats Castlevania.  My favorite may be Super Castlevania IV, but Bloodlines is nothing short of a masterpiece.  Easier than 3, Longer than 1, better than Dracula X, and gory as hell for a Castlevania game.  This is a perfect Genesis game and really shows off the awesomness.

9. Ghost Master

This game has had a rough life.  No matter how much people talk about it, no one pays attention.  It is a great game.  Kind of Sims like, but full of strategy and hilarious happenings.  Really this game is just too fun and it is cheap as well so go get it on Steam or GOG right now.

10. Fatal Frame

This is one of my favorite horror games of all time.  Truly scary and a lot of fun to play.  It's problems seem to help the mood and keep you in a box of controls that makes it hard to really get a ghost.  This adds to the scary factor, but some people find this game boring and problematic.  There are a lot of fans out there for this one and for good reason too.

Rodney Recommends for Halloween: House (1986)

Recently, I've been working on a project of sorts that has taken up my time.  So naturally this means very little posting.  That being said, it is related to this blog.  Also, one of my reviews had a huge spike in views and I was rather surprised to discover this.  Anyway I should be doing something for Halloween since it is my favorite holiday and I celebrate it throughout the month.  It's not as though I only watch horror during October either.  Honestly it is my favorite genre.

So naturally I would like to review a movie that was very important in shaping my taste in movies.  When I was little I saw part of Child's Play and it made me very scared of my favorite toy at the time, a My Buddy doll.  The damn thing even looked like me, but nonetheless I buried it as far as I could in the toy box and didn't dare take all the toys out for fear that the face would stare up at me.  I did continue to watch horror and monster movies though.  Most of them until around 7 were classic monster movies, or Godzilla films.

Then this happened, my father decided it was time for me to man up and he showed me some horror movies.  The first one on the list was a movie called House, starring William Katt (The Greatest American Hero).  The movie itself wasn't all that scary, but it did have jump scares and quite a bit of comedy, helped along by George Wendt.  I immediately fell in love with it.  Constantly I tried to show it to people, and still do to this day.  But let's review the damn thing already.

The movie is about a guy named Roger Cobb, a sort of two hit wonder in the horror novel world, who has had problems with writing as of late due to his son having disappeared, his wife leaving him, and his new book being about his traumatic experiences in the Vietnam war with a guy named Ben.  Anyway, fans are clamoring for his new book, and so are his publishers.  It's at this time his Aunt who raised him, commits suicide.  His Aunt always thought her house was haunted and painted morbid pictures as well as talked constantly about it in her old age.  She even blamed Roger's son's disappearance on the haunted house where the child went missing.

Roger decides to stay there and get some writing done after entering it again and quickly experiences paranormal activity.  He meets a neighbor who is pretty damn hilarious, and a fan of Roger Cobb's as well.  When Roger tells his neighbor about the ghost that attacks him in the middle of the night, he doesn't believe Roger.  Of course now Roger is convinced that his Aunt was not only killed by the house, but perhaps the house itself is behind his son's disappearance.  All this while flashing back to his time in Vietnam.

This movie works so well on so many levels.  First of all, it's a comedy horror film, and secondly it's sometimes in Vietnam.  Here and there you will spend time there for a few minutes before cutting back to the real world.  It all makes for some great pacing that keeps you interested.  The film is directed by Steven Miner who also did Friday the 13th 2 and 3.  Also the story (but not script) is by Fred Dekker of Monster Squad fame, and I think it shows.  It is honestly quite brilliant with both horror and comedy working well together as opposed to playing tug of war like some other horror comedies do.  The story itself is engaging enough for the average person, even those new comers with a short attention span, to see it through to the end.  Most importantly, when you do see it through, you are rewarded with a damn fine time as well.

I won't say much more as, despite it being popular I think there are plenty who haven't seen it and would love it not to be spoiled.  Here's what I can say for quality though.  I have been watching this movie around every year or two for more than 20 years now.  Clearly it must be good.