Neon Genesis Evangelion on Netflix

Looking for something interesting to watch this summer? Well you could check out Neon Genesis Evangelion on Netflix. This is one of my favorite anime series, and has been cleaned up a bit for the release over to Netflix. Sure you've probably seen people complaining about the new dub, but you can watch the subtitled version just as easily.

Now, it has been nearly a decade since I revisited the series. But I pulled out my old Platinum edition DVDs and started watching the show again. Some things have held up pretty well, other times I'm seeing some of the seams where the limited budget was peaking through. The show was unique for its time, and these days so many shows have been inspired by it, that many of the fresh elements are tropes.

Still, the characters are handled well, the robot and monster design is unique as hell, and all the philosophical, psychological and religious explorations are still worth delving into. The show doesn't really dive into those elements until we reach the second half, but man does it get nuts. Netflix has also gotten the rights to the End of Evangelion which was the feature film that provided an alternate ending (or the correct ending if you listen to some folks) to the series.

All told, this show is worth watching, and after I finish my revisit I'll delve into a bit more on this blog.

Nostalgia Nugget: Joining the Rebellion

80's Mickey Mouse dressed as Captain
EO back in 1987!

1987 was the tenth anniversary of Star Wars: A New Hope. I don’t remember there being all that much hype surrounding this. For most folks Star Wars was looking long in the tooth and a bit uncool. Most kids I knew were more into Transformers and G.I. Joe at the time. But the big topic of discussion was the Nintendo Entertainment System. I had many lengthy conversations about secrets in The Legend of Zelda during those days.

All that changed for me when my family went to Disneyland that year and rode the newly opened Star Tours. It reminded me of why I loved that film series and started my obsession with the series for the next couple of years. After the ride ended, you walked directly into a gift shop and distinctly remember my dad commenting on the overt commercialism of it all. But I didn’t care. I was in a Star Wars induced dream world. Of all the things that caught my attention, there was a pair of large books all about Star Wars. I flipped through one and was surprised at all the new information about the creatures, droids, spaceships and everything else was contained within. I asked for both, and my parents let me pick one.

The book that sparked dozens of
adventures.

When I got home and started reading the book I was even more excited. Not only was it a wealth of new information, but the book described how to create your own adventures in the Star Wars world, and play these adventures with your friends. That’s right I had picked up West End Games Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (or just SWRPG from now on). Both it and the Sourcebook were published that year in time for the anniversary.

I had played a tiny bit of the basic ruleset of Dungeons and Dragons at that point. I understood how the game was played, but the few times I tried to get a few friends to play it just didn’t go well. The great thing about SWRPG is that is seemed a lot less complex.

Eventually I got my hands on The Sourcebook, which included even more information about all kinds of Star Wars related things. The writers not only provided game stats and rules, but provided full-blown descriptions and histories for each entry as well. This was well before we had regularly published books in the Star Wars universe. So for the fan in the 80s this was a treasure trove of information. The book covered Starship systems, nearly every starship featured in the films and a few from the 80s novels. It had info on droids, alien species, and creatures. It also provided in depth explorations of weapons, standard bases layouts for rebels and imperials and then a full exploration of key heroes and villains from the series. Most of these are fun to read now, because things have changed so much with the prequels and expanded universe material. But back in 1987, West End Games let their imaginations go (I’m sure with Lucasfilm’s blessing) and crafted some really interesting stories.

So many secrets packed into this book!

Both books are packed with stills from the films of course. But they also used concept art that I had never seen before. The Sourcebook especially was imagination fuel. I actually started working on my first bit of fan fiction because of the material in these books and all the information and images they provided.

The RPG book had 12 color plates that were awesome. Most were color stills from the film. But the others were creative and very amusing ads directly from the Star Wars universe. One was a recruitment poster for the Imperial Army. One was an ad for the new X-Wing starfighter, touting all its advanced weapons and speed. There was another ad for the R2 series of droids extolling their versatility. The last was my favorite, a travel ad for a Star Cruise to all your favorite planets from the Star Wars universe. Visiting Bespin on a cruise starship sounds like a blast.

Time went by and I enjoyed reading and rereading the books, but I never got to actually play a full-fledged roleplaying campaign. Then in college I somehow managed to sucker my girlfriend, my sister and a friend from down the street to play a session or two. I had created a couple adventures over the years. So I dusted those off, revamped them a bit and helped them create characters.

Micro Machines released a bunch of small Star Wars
figurines and vehicles. We used these during the
game to figure out battle tactics.

My girlfriend created a specialized character (because I gave her preferential treatment and let her be the most powerful character of the three… yeah I broke all the tabletop gaming rules. I was young and in love… and I had convinced her to play an RPG based on STAR WARS with me. I was going to do anything I could to keep her playing). She was a rebel special agent, kind of like a galactic James Bond character. She used to be part of a smuggling organization, so they had a bounty out on her, but now she was one of the rebellions top field agents. My sister played an outlaw whose family had been massacred by the Empire, and now she was on a vendetta to kill the Colonel in charge of the massacre. She was a sharpshooter and bad ass. My pal from down the street wanted to be a Jedi. The only problem was that this game takes place after the events of A New Hope, so the Jedi order was destroyed. You could pick from a couple of force adept characters. He selected the best Minor Jedi. Essentially the character was trained by an old Jedi Knight who died before the training go too far along. So the Minor Jedi has some powers, but they are on the weak side. He does have a lightsaber so that is always fun.

Just look at these guys... our crew never
got this motley. 

So these three characters started their journey. Along the way they created a couple of other characters they would play instead or along with the ones they normally played. There was a little kid named Beatrice who tagged along sometimes. I remember a scout that helped them out on a few of the far-flung missions. He died in a dramatic moment and that fueled the other players to avenge him – especially my sister’s outlaw character who had a crush on him.

If this all sounds elaborate, that is because it was. We played nearly every week for two years. What started out as something to try, exploded into a full blown campaign that stretched from the end of the Battle of Yavin to the final shots fired on Hoth. By that point my sister and my girlfriend were still playing, and their characters were presumed dead by the rebels and left behind during the evacuation. The next adventure was going to be them attempting to steal an Imperial transport of some kind and escaping the frozen wasteland. But my sister was starting college and my girlfriend and I were getting more battered by our own workload at university. I just didn’t have time to craft the adventures. We stopped playing and those two characters were left on Hoth. We’ll never forget you Zendra and Sara. I’m sure they made it to the rebel alliance and were there celebrating on Endor.

The blank character sheet just
waiting to craft a new hero.

So yeah, two years worth of adventures, and I have to say it was some of the most fun I ever had writing and creating stories. Once we had a set group of characters I started to tailor the missions to their strengths and weaknesses. We actually played two campaigns. The first revolved around the search for an ancient storehouse of Jedi knowledge. I combined Raiders of the Lost Ark with Star Wars for that one, and it was a blast. The players didn’t want Darth Vader to find this before they did, so they were racing against the Empire trying to put the clues together. They had to interact with all kinds of characters who had pieces of the puzzle. They even went to Ben Kenobi’s old hovel on Tatooine to find out if he had anything hidden away about this lost storehouse. It was a ton of fun, and the finale sessions were intense and difficult as the Empire arrived right after our heroes and they had to decide if they would destroy the storehouse or try to fight off the enemies. They got what they could and destroyed the place, killing a Imperial General that had been dogging them the whole campaign and escaping before Vader arrived on the scene.

The second campaign was a bit looser in structure. My buddy wanted to seek out a Jedi mentor, so that was part of it. I also had them discover that the Empire was working on a new Star Destroyer for Lord Vader. They traced the location of that and committed some sabotage to slow the construction process on the Executor. They ran into a couple of Jedi who offered to train them, and turned out to be Vader’s protégés. That was a lot of fun. Then I had the past come back for all the characters in some form or the other. My girlfriend’s character ran into some of her old smuggling buddies and then bounty hunters just started appearing in nearly every session gunning for her. Word on the street was that Boba Fett himself was considering hunting her down. She decided to end this and take on her old boss herself. By this time she was starting on the Jedi path because of the information they extracted from the storehouse. My friend down the street moved, so his Minor Jedi character was killed, and so the agent picked up his lightsaber and went from there.

Hunting down the right pack for the ships we needed
in an upcoming adventure was always fun.

Together we made some great stories, and by this time I was able to pull characters and situations from the expanded universe books as well. So while this was all still happening before The Empire Strikes Back in the timeline, I kept it feeling new and exciting as this small group of rebels accomplished impossible missions. And boy did they keep me guessing. They came up with some amazing solutions to problems, talked their way out of trouble more than once and would often take the story in directions I never considered. One time in particular always stands out.

At one point they landed on a planet and made some real trouble for the Empire. But they had difficulties getting out of the entanglement and Imperial forces were able to mobilize and lock down the spaceport. At this point it was just the two player characters, Sara the jedi/agent and Zendra the sharpshooting outlaw. Against them was a whole battalion of stormtroopers just waiting for them to show up. They had set up heavy gun emplacements, they had a couple AT-STs on patrol. It was going to be a hard fight. As they snuck forward Zendra managed to kill a stormtrooper on patrol with a single well-placed shot and do it quietly. Then my girlfriend got an idea, she took off the trooper’s helmet, put it on and then sent out a emergency notification that the rebels were attacking at the opposite end of the port. She had to roll pretty high to con the commander who was already on alert. She rolled very high indeed. Not only did he believe her, but he sent most of his forces in that direction. They two pretty much waltzed right into the port hopped on the ship before the Empire even knew what was going on. I had planned out this huge battle for this finale to the session, and was ready for it to really test them. But when they attempted that trick, I had to let them have it, because it was so clever and my girlfriend rolled so high.

What do you mean someone made a movie of
the Star Wars RPG?!?

So I created a whole bunch of fan fiction with my friends, creating this set of interesting characters, filling it with all kinds of adventures and not really involving the main characters form the series all that often. It was a lot of fun and something that created a lot of memories that my sister and my wife (who pulled that stunt with the stormtrooper helmet all those years ago) will still bring up from time to time.

These days Star Wars has a completely different roleplaying system that is enjoyed by lots of folks. The old West End Games is remembered fondly by a lot of people because of how easy it was t explain and play and how entertaining the rulebooks were. Seriously the writing had a great sense of humor and plenty of good advice for new players. It was one of the most enjoyable bits of fiction writing and tabletop gaming I’ve experienced. There is really something neat about crafting a story with other people, building and exploring characters and diving into a fantasy world where the only limit is your imagination.

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Nostalgia Nugget: Star Wars CCG

The last major expansion I collected, the fearsome Death
Star II set, with the Rebel deck.

So for most folks thoughts of the original trilogy of Star Wars evoke memories of the 1970s or 1980s. And yeah I get all nostalgic and fuzzy about those decades and the Star Wars related joys they create. But for me the biggest peak of Star Wars joy was in the late 90s. It was suddenly cool to like Star Wars again, and with the build up to the Special Editions and finally the prequels it was a fun ride. I wrote a whole blog about it (probably need to revisit that one).

But one of the best combinations of 1990s and Star Wars that I remember from that era was the Star Wars Collectable Card Game. It was created by Decipher during the explosion of CCGs inspired by the success of Magic: The Gathering. Decipher already had success with their Star Trek CCG, and managed to score this space adventure franchise as well. They would continue well into the 2000's with a very fun Lord of the Rings CCG, but I'll save that for another blog.

The Star Wars Collectable Card Game (or just SWCCG to keep things short) had a fairly simple premise. Each player has 60 cards. One player plays the Rebels, the other players plays as the Galactic Empire. The goal is to drain your opponents deck of cards. First person who ends up without any cards in hand or in the reserve deck loses. This was ingenious, because you didn't need to keep score, your Lost Pile told you how well you were doing.

A selection of Galactic Empire cards featuring images
from all three films in the original trilogy.

The cards themselves were all based on images taken from the original trilogy. There were a few that were created digitally (mostly the planetary system cards), and a few that were visually enhanced (increase the contrast so you could see the shadowy alien in the cantina a little clearer). Later in the run they took some of the behind the scenes photos of props and sets and tinkered with those to make them part of the game. So there were plenty of cards from the SWCCG that offered images of the original trilogy that you had never seen before. All the cantina and Jabba the Hutt's palace cards were great. All the obscure aliens were a treat to see up close. So for a full fledged Star Wars nerd, these cards were just cool to have in general.

The cards also had flavor text, and much of it pulled from the films and the expanded universe of the time including Timothy's Zahn's novels, the video games and other supporting material. These days most of that stuff is considered non-canon, but who cares. A lot of it was creative and they way they worked it into the game structure was a blast.

I collected and played the game for a few years, as they went from the Premier set all the way to the final final one from the ending of Return of the Jedi called Death Star II. There were a few supplemental expansions after that that I picked up. But I never got around to collecting the cards for The Phantom Menace. Decipher released another CCG in between featuring images from Episode One. It wasn't a very good game and as I became more and more disenchanted with the latest film I ignored the official CCG releases. I guess I wasn't the only one because SWCCG eventually stopped after a few expansions based on The Phantom Menace.

A selection of Rebellion cards featuring images from all
three films and one all new image.

Two things appealed to me about the SWCCG. The first was the myriad of settings, characters, situations and styles of play turned each game into its own mini-Star Wars adventure. Sure you could recreate the Battle of Hoth if you wanted to. But as the expansions were released you could come up all kinds of stories that didn't even involve the main characters. Sometimes the game would go as you expected, but there were plenty of cards that would throw a wrench into situations.

One of the most memorable is when I had a whole group of Stormtroopers hunting down Princess Leia on Tatooine. My deck was based around superior firepower and overwhelming numbers of Stormtroopers. It was working pretty well too. One of my troopers had a nasty repeating rifle and I had plenty of ammo, so I figured Leia was toast. Well my wife was playing Rebels and had the card Weapon Levitation. Leia was Force sensitive, so she could use that ability. My wife gets a great number on her draw and my repeating blaster flies over to Leia, with the Power Droid attached! Leia turns around and guns down my entire squad with their own gun. She then high tails it to the Falcon and takes off into space with Lando. And believe me, in the SWCCG, once someone is aboard the Falcon, you never can get them. Besides I had to figure out how to rebuild my squadron, or risk losing Tatooine.

This is the Reserve deck showing how much life you have
left. The cards face up are the Lost Pile. Looks like
the Galactic Empire is losing this game!

That was the other element I loved about the game, the various strategies that you could play. For the Premier set it was a very basic battle game. And you could always play that way if you like. But each new expansion started to introduce new tactics. Since I played Imperials, I know most of their successful ones. For the Dagobah expansion you had the Bounty Hunter tactic, which allowed you to capture rebels and exchange them for lost cards. The bigger the target the more cards you got to retrieve. Of course captured cards could be freed by the rebels, so you had to protect your prisons, but even capturing lowly soldiers or aliens got you a card or two from the Lost pile. For the Cloud City expansion you got the Cloud drain tactic, which was a wicked one. You essentially gain control of Cloud City and hold it. Each turn your opponent loses cards steadily for each site you control, plus wicked bonus losses for each cloud sector you control. In the clouds, starships are weak, and capital ships can't enter. So Cloud Cars and Air Speeders are the best bet. Suddenly those common cards you never used became very powerful.

I could go on and on about tactics and the way you could start a deck to look like you are playing one style but have a sneaky twist part way through (the Rebel decks were really good at doing that). Suffice to say it was a very fun, but complicated game. I remember talking to the gent who owned the hobby store I used to frequent and he kept asking me and my co-worker to come in and play in store so other people could see how much fun it was. But I think he was trying to get us to mentor new players too. We never did that. We usually played after work with a couple beers and 90s alternative rock blasting in the background. Fun times, fun times.

My wife eventually got into playing it, and much of the later expansions I played were against her. She made a very deadly Ewok deck that pretty much handed my ass to me, just like in the film. And the Jabba's Palace deck gave her a ton of great aliens to use in her decks. So I have a lot of fun memories from those days. I still have all my cards (eight binders worth of them!) And I'll pull them out once in a while and look through the images and read some of the text.

Small sample of what the "game board"
of the SWCCG could look like.

Making a deck could take a couple hours with all the cards at your disposal. We would usually decide ahead of time what kind of game we wanted to play so it would narrow down the card selection.  Feeling like a grand space battle, then you can drop most of your ground based cards. Or maybe this time we want to base the whole thing around breaking into or defending the Death Star. But they even came up with sites that could be used with any planet and gave various bonuses to different cards. So it really expanded the playing field. But constructing a deck for the first time was really a task in itself. And usually your first iteration of a deck had issues, so you would want to refine it as you played more and more games.

And playing a SWCCG game could take a couple hours too. It could go longer if you used a larger deck (as we sometimes did, 80 cards opened up a lot of opportunities for tactics). But it was a good time, even if the game would force you into some situations where you might start cursing your luck or the luck of your opponent. Some days you keep drawing jawas and gaffi sticks, but Vader won't show up. Meanwhile Luke, Obi-Wan and Chewbacca are running around Tatooine taking control of each site and draining you for six cards a turn. Maybe the Jawa/Tuskan Raider deck wasn't a good idea after all.

The explosion of Star Wars popularity combined with the explosion of CCGs is certainly a time capsule to the 1990s, and one that always makes me smile.

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

Introduction:

I didn’t ever make the connection, but after watching this documentary I came to realize that Cannon Films was a part of my life, whether I liked it or not. Growing up in the 1980s, how could I avoid some of their classics like Masters of the Universe or Breakin’ or Revenge of the Ninja and of course Hercules. But it turns out that the story behind this studio is just as entertaining as some of their cheesiest movies.

Summary:

This documentary explores the rise and fall of Cannon Films. Menaham Golan and Yoram Globus came to Hollywood with a dream to create films – lots and lots of films. They started out small with quicky skin flicks and silly action films. But every once in a while one of their films would become a hit and they would have enough money to make 20 more B flicks.

They rushed production, cut costs, wheeled and dealed. They started the ninja craze of the 80s, rode the breakdancing fad, employed Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson and even managed to make a couple of Shakespeare films (seriously)! But in the end they went too fast, reached too high and everything came crashing down. Filled with interviews with cast, crew and business acquaintances, you’ll hear from Franco Zeffirelli, Marina Sirtis, Molly Ringwald, Dolph Lundgren, Tobe Hooper, Elliot Gould, Michael Dudikoff, Bo Derek, Sybil Danning, Richard Chamberlain and a whole host of others. The stories will have you laughing, shaking your head and wondering if Electric Boogaloo was really as goofy as you remembered.

Good Points:

• Filled to bursting with great stories about making some of these infamous movies
• Manages to hit all the key high and low points of the studio and its creators
• Sure to cause flashbacks to anyone who was a movie fan in the 80s and 90s 

Bad Points:

• Sorely missing is any input from Golan, Globus, Stallone and Norris
• Feels like there were even more great stories cut for time
• Sure to cause unpleasant flashbacks for anyone who was a movie fan in the 80s and 90s (didn’t want to remember The Apple and God help me if I see any more footage from Going Bananas)

Overall:

Oh yeah this movie was right up my alley. I love cheesy movies of the 1980s and Cannon made some of the cheesiest. So many great stories in this, and some of them had my jaw dropping. It both praises and questions the men who made this studio. They did some really innovative things and some really questionable things. While I wish Golan and Globus had participated in this (they quickly got their own documentary produced and released before this one!) what you do get is a hell of an entertaining look at a dark horse studio and the very unique world of 1980s Hollywood.

Scores (out of 5)

Visuals: 3

Sound: 3

Acting: 3

Script: 4

Music: 3

Direction: 4

Entertainment: 4

Total:  4

Curious about a full review, sent me an email and I’ll make additional thoughts to this review.

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Nostalgia Nugget: Boba Fett - Bad Ass or Ass Hat

Fett. The man, the mystery, the wookie scalper.

It is human nature to always want to know more about something or someone mysterious. And when you find out more – you’re usually disappointed. What you can imagine is almost always more impressive than what the actual story turns out to be. In a lot of ways that analogy is perfect for the Star Wars prequels. We all wanted to know what happened to our favorite characters and worlds before A New Hope started and the result was something that didn’t resonate with a lot of fans.

This is also the case for Boba Fett, one of the most feared bounty hunters in the galaxy, at least according to the folks at Lucasfilm before The Empire Strikes Back came out. He was going to be a major part of the new film and cause some real problems for Luke, Leia, Han and Chewbacca. When we got a look at him, he was unlike any character we had seen before.

No you don't get to play as Fett in this game!

Boba Fett’s mystique is all in his costume. He’s wearing armor and a helmet, much like a stormtrooper, but using grey and green instead of black and white. Visually this puts him in the middle of the conflict, neither good nor bad, but willing to work for whoever provides the most cash. Then you had his weapons, unlike any we’d seen in the series yet. His blaster rifle looked powerful. His arms were bristling with weapons of all kinds, and then you had that jet pack with the rocket on the top. Holy crap was this guy armed to the teeth!

In The Empire Strikes Back Boba Fett has three lines. They don’t tell us much about him. Vader makes a point to say, “I want them alive. No disintegrations.” Vader points at Fett when he says that last line, implying some kind of past between the two. Fett replies with “As you wish”. Later Fett is concerned about his prey being killed by the carbon freezing, “What if he doesn’t survive. He’s worth a lot to me.” This guy is in it for the hefty reward from Jabba the Hutt, and doesn’t give a crap about the Empire or Rebellion. His last line is to order some stormtroopers around.

So there you have it: three lines, some pot shots at Luke and flying in his odd looking space ship. Yet Boba Fett was one of the most popular characters in the entire Star Wars universe. I’m telling you, it is all in the mystery.

You see that image and all kinds of stories
kick into your mind!

I first encountered Fett when my parents bought me the 12-inch action figure that came out in 1979, before Empire Strikes Back was released. Obviously this was a new Star Wars character and on the box he’s blasting fire out of his arm and flying in SPACE! He also had Wookie scalps as an accessory. WOOKIE SCALPS! What a bad ass! I was suddenly obsessed with this character. This tall version and the smaller standard sized figures became some of my favorites to play with. Fett would always end up switching sides, capturing Han Solo and getting into battles with Darth Vader. It is also safe to say that my first Star Wars fan fiction (written in the late 80s when I got back into the series) was about Boba Fett escaping from the Sarlacc and discovering Jedi powers to fight a resurgent Empire. So yeah, I had drawings of Fett wielding a grey lightsaber (to match is grey outfit naturally).

Now lets talk a little bit about that “death” in Return of the Jedi. For a character that was so mysterious and dangerous in Empire, Fett goes out like a punk in Jedi. He gets hit by a blind Han Solo and then ricochets off the side of the sail barge and plummets into the Sarlacc, only to end up a burp joke – A BURP JOKE! (The third in a series of burping that Lucas was sure the kids would enjoy). Kiddies might have been tickled by burping aliens, but I was actually disturbed by Fett’s pathetic demise. I envisioned some kind of deadly battle against Chewbacca or Han. Hell even that short skirmish he has with Luke on the skiff seemed to promise something great. But no, flailing, falling and burping was all that was in store for us.

Fans of Fett knew he could get out of that, had to get out of it. Even the novels that occur after Return of the Jedi had Fett getting his jet pack working and escaping from the Pit of Carkoon and coming back to blast the crap out of the Sarlacc. Then the vengeance game was on with Fett pursuing Solo into infinity. We didn’t have to settle for the ending that George Lucas gave us, so we made our own and it was fitting to the mysterious character.

Nintendo's bounty hunter and one
woman army.

The fact is, we didn’t know much about Fett at all. Lots of rumors were floating around, especially before the comics and short stories of the late 90s and 00s really kicked in. I remember one great theory that had Boba Fett being a spurned lover of Han Solo and was more than happy to bring him to Jabba the Hutt. Cool concept, but I think someone was thinking of the bounty hunter Samus Aran from the Metroid games on Nintendo.

The 1990s was the boom of Fett fandom. The mystery of the bounty hunter seemed to intrigue everyone, and Lucasfilm and Hasbro took notice. Soon we had tons of Boba Fett merchandise to pick from. He went from being the character that the cool fans talked about, to the character that all the fans talked about. So the cool fans decided to talk about Pondo Baba instead. When the Special Editions came out, Lucas and his team made sure that Boba Fett was inserted into A New Hope during the Jabba the Hutt scene, and had additional footage in Jabba’s palace in Return of the Jedi. Fett fans were thrilled, even if they also felt a bit dirty from being pandered to. It also didn’t stop the Shadows of the Empire video game from featuring Boba Fett on nearly all the advertising and posters promoting the game. Fett was everywhere and there was no getting around it.

Spike from Cowboy Bebop doesn't quite
seem as good at his job as Fett does.

One other little thing I noticed in the 1990s, when Fett-mania was going strong, was that space bounty hunters became a thing. I already mentioned Samus from Metroid, but she was always labeled a bounty hunter even back in the first game from 1987. But the place I saw it was anime. Series like Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star and even Trigun all featured bounty hunters as the main characters or as key characters in the story line. You also had shows like Firefly and X-files that featured bounty hunting humans and aliens running around. I think we can all thank Boba Fett for that.

But too much of a good thing can lead to the diminishment of that thing. With each new novel, comic book and video game, Boba Fett became less of a mystery. The oversaturation of his character type and his character in general started to get old. This was all building to the prequels.

Cool looking character, but Aurra
didn't even get a line of dialogue!

The Phantom Menace attempted to scratch the bounty hunter itch with Aurra Sing, a female bounty hunter that appears in one scene, but still managed to appear on merchandise and magazine covers. Folks were even calling her Babe Fett. I don’t think the Fett fans went for her too much, although she appeared quite a few times in the animated Clone Wars television series.

So we got the origin story for Boba Fett, and met his father Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones. This revealed to us that Boba and Jango were from New Zealand and that Boba was a clone of Jango, who was in fact the source for all the clone troopers. Which means that Boba Fett was basically a glorified Stormtrooper. Um, yeah, that really sapped the mystery out of our favorite bounty hunter. Aurra Sing isn’t looking so bad now. But seeing Boba Fett as a little kid (and sadly portrayed by an actor who wasn’t so good) really seemed to diminish the mythic status of this character. After that a lot of folks seemed to lose interest in the bounty hunter.

Disney and Lucasfilm have never forgotten the heyday of Fett-mania. So in time for The Force Awakens along with all the Darth Vader merchandise that hit the shelves (even though Vader isn’t even in the film) we got a ton of Fett merchandise. Yeah I have to admit I might have recently picked up the odd Fett here or there. But I figure if I want to indulge in my Fett fetish, I still have a bunch of my 80s and 90s Star Wars stuff around. Yes folks, I’m that kind of fan.

So there you have it, how Boba Fett went from intergalactic badass to just another ass hat thanks to the prequels. But you know what, I can still watch the original version of Empire Strikes Back, where Fett doesn’t have a New Zealand accent and he is a greedy son of a bitch. Besides it looks like this new trilogy already has its own Fett-a-like. Captain Phasma only had about three lines too, right?

The woman, the mystery, the smell of armor polish.

Movie Musing: Joel vs. Mike

It would take a mad scientist to invent
the meme.

The Japanese have a term they use, otaku, which means obsessive fanatic. You mostly see it applied to fans of anime and manga, but it can pretty much apply to any group in fandom. When I use the term otaku it usually applies to the most extreme ends of fandom. You know the type, the groups that come to blows over Kirk vs. Picard, Tenchi vs Ranma, Marvel vs. DC, Williams vs Zimmer, Connery vs EVERYONE ELSE and Joel vs Mike.

Yes even the hilarious Mystery Science Theater 3000 is not immune to the ranting and raving of otaku. Fans love to debate their favorite episodes, favorite seasons, favorite host segments, even favorite opening credits (because there have been six of them, or seven if you count Mystery Science Theater 3000: the Movie). But the most heated debate used to be Joel vs. Mike.

It was especially bad back when the show was still airing. The internet was still in its childhood stages in the mid and late 90s, but I remember flame wars between the two passionate groups. It got nasty. Fans hurling abuse at each other and at the two hosts. I always found the whole thing kind of silly, but I can't say it wasn't entertaining.

So how can there even be a debate? I mean what did these guys do other than deliver lines and interact with puppets. Did they do it so differently that you can compare them?

Tom Servo is expanding his conciousness.

Well you actually do have a bit of a shift in approach to handling the writing and riffing on the show. Joel always approached the movie as part of a larger entertainment and comedy machine. It would provide them with the material to make fun of, yes. But it would also provide them with entertainment. Joel always seemed to have a bit of respect for the films and the way they fit into the series.

When Joel left MST3K a couple things happened. First was the simple fact that the main creative force behind the show was leaving. Second were all the rumors as to why Joel left. At that time no one really knew for sure what happened, but there were plenty of theories. A lot of people picked the first visible target - Mike must have pushed Joel away from the series.

Their evidence was that the tone of show shifted when Mike took over hosting duties. While Mike was the host the movie was more of a target instead of a part of the show. Mike and bots had more riffs revolving around how much the movie hurt and in later seasons of the show (after it moved to the Sci-fi channel) the aggressive tone intensified, with out and out attacking everything in sight. Many Joel fans say Mikes aggressive style was the direction the rest of the crew wanted to go and that is why he left.

Mike and the bots ready for a night on the town...
errr satalite.

But around 2010 we found out that Joel left the show because of Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie and how that was being handled. Making that movie was a rough experience for all involved and Joel sounded happy that he got away from the show when he did.

That said, Mike had been a head writer for the series for years. In fact, if you watch enough of the show and know a bit about Mike's joke style you can hear very Mike jokes being given by Joel. This series was very much a collaborative process when it came to the writing. Yes a tone shift occurred, but it was one that actually helped gain new fans. I know plenty of folks who first saw the show on Sci-fi with Mike as the host.

These days the Joel vs Mike debates aren't really a thing any more. Most fans accept that people have their preferences and let it go at that. Where do I stand on the whole thing? Well it kind of depends on my mood. Sometimes I like Joel's more amiable take on the movies. And his approach really works great for a lot of different types of movies. The riff for something like I Accuse My Parents or Fugitive Alien wouldn't be the same without Joel at the helm. At the same time Mike's brisk riffing style is perfect for Starfighters and Hamlet. My favorite seasons actually fall at the end of the Comedy Central era. To me both Joel and Mike were at their best and had some of the best films selected.

With a new version of Mystery Science Theater 3000 in the works we will getting a new host in Jonah Ray. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of new style he and the new team bring to this concept.

Doesn't matter to me, all four of these guys are masters of the riffing
art!

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Anime Juke Box - Field of Love - Brain Power'd

It has been a little while since I've posted a piece of music from the excellent Japanese composer Yoko Kanno (she is on my list of favorite film composers). Kanno not only wrote some excellent scores, but always comes up with memorable theme songs for the series she works on. Kanno can write music for nearly any genre, and it is a testament to her talent that these theme songs work so well in the shows and even get incorporated into the fabric of the scores.

Kanno has worked on a lot of very famous projects including Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, but I wanted to highlight her work from a lesser known series. After the massive popularity of Neon Genesis Evangelion many anime studios rushed to create their own angsty-teen-controlling-giant-robot series. One of these was Brain Power'd, a show with some interesting concepts, but a really messy script that never seemed to gel. That didn't stop Kanno from creating one hell of a score (one of my favorites). Here is the end credits song called Field of Love and performed by KOKIA. It is a dreamy piece, a nice contrast to some of the more hyper end credits songs you usually hear in anime.

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Nostalgia Nugget: My First MST3K

A title that screams quality and respect!

When you grow up with a family that runs video stores, movies are all around. Not only that, but all kinds of movies are all around. I had access to the highest heights of cinema like Citizen Kane and Seven Samurai and the dregs of the dregs like Planet of the Dinosaurs and Space Mutiny. Having such a wide swath of movies to pick from I had this idea in my head that all movies needed to be respected, or at least given a fair shake. How many times had a stupid looking VHS cover held something really great within? Ok, maybe not "really great" but at least entertaining.

I eventually ran into a movie that did deserve all the mocking I could hurl at it, but that is a post for another time. But as a hint, it involves Roger Corman.

In any case, mocking a movie openly was not something I really thought about doing. First of all, you just didn't talk during a movie. That rule was hardwired into my mind. It was rude to anyone else who may actually be enjoying the experience. One thing I learned over the years is that every movie, no matter how poorly conceived or just plain abysmal it is, has at least one die hard fan. But I also had that "respect the art" idea in my mind.

So when my girlfriend told me about his great show where this guy and two puppets watched a bad movie and mocked it, I thought it was the worst idea for a television show ever. I mean it doesn't matter how bad the movie was, it didn't deserve to be mocked. And talking during a movie - you just didn't do that. Of course I thought I knew bad movies. I was young and ignorant. I hadn't seen The Killer Shrews, Monster a Go-Go, Manos: The Hands of Fate or the complete works of Coleman Francis.

Would you trust this guy to make you laugh?

But she insisted Mystery Science Theater 3000 was hilarious and that I had to give it a chance. I still doubted her, and did my best to avoid actually watching any of the show. I did see a few moments here and there at her house. But they were the host segments featuring some guy talking with puppets... PUPPETS! And what the hell did that name even mean? Was there a 2000 or a 1000? I was actually thankful I didn't get Comedy Central.

Now, let me also add that in my girlfriend's home, everyone talked over the television all the time. So I didn't get to actually hear any of the jokes. But all this told me was that the reason she liked the show as because she grew up in an environment where talking over a movie was OK. Poor girl. It is a miracle she married me.

One night, I stopped by her house after my shift at the video store ended and we headed back to her room to hang out and watch some television. Little did I know that this stupid puppet show was about to start, and that she set up a clever trap!

"Jack" talks Fugitive Alien!

Her bedroom was small and the only place to actually sit and watch the television was to kick back on her bed. So there I am cuddling with my girl and this show starts up and I roll my eyes. But she says "Just give it a chance, please." And when your girlfriend says, "please" well you have to listen, right?

At this point Comedy Central was doing this odd thing where they were splitting the hour and a half show into two 45 minute segments and creating two one hour episodes split over two nights. Surrounding the show was an odd host segment with Mike Nelson dressed and acting like Jack Perkins who used to host the series Biography. He would introduce the move and provide some silly comedy, the typical opening and end credits for the series were replaced by these new host segments.

Anyway, "Jack" starts the show and says the movie is going to be Hercules Against the Moonmen. It was the perfect movie for me to be introduced to this concept. First of all, I love watching those old goofy Greek myth movies. The fact that moon men were somehow involved in the plot piqued my interest even more.

Big beefy buttery Hercules is on the case!

The movie is a mess. There is an evil queen who makes a pact with the moon men who demand human sacrifice. They will smash the moon into the earth and take over, something silly like that. Hercules runs around, beats people up, falls into traps and pretends to be seduced by the evil queen. There are battles, a guy who gets stabbed by a spike wall trap, a killer gorilla, and huge rock monsters. It is silly fun and Joel and bots unleash some hilarious jokes at the movie.

Before I know it, I'm chuckling at some of the comments. The timing is perfect and I'm impressed at how varied the jokes are. They range from commenting on Hercules gait as he strides about the screen, and a guy who looks like he is wearing candy bar armor, to the fact that the guards look like they stepped off a Little Caesar's package (Pizza Pizza!).

No seriously... where did it go?

At some point everything just clicked. The riffs were on a roll, the movie was ridiculous and my girlfriend and I were feeding off each other's laughter. Some of the jokes would strike her as really funny and some would click better with me, and some we would crack us both up. Then came the moment when Joel pointed out that the wounded prince (who is over acting big time) was missing a nipple. I'm not sure if it was a bad camera angle, some kind of odd censoring or just the way poor quality of the print but sure enough the guy was missing something. I literally fell off the bed laughing. I couldn't breathe and my girlfriend actually asked if I was OK.

I was. Hell I was a better. I realized I had a new favorite television series.

I have a lot of nostalgia associated with Mystery Science Theater 3000. It reminds me of time I spent getting to know my wife, enjoying my final year of high school and the adventures of college, the times we'd play episodes in the video store and marvel at how quickly they would rent out (almost guaranteed to to happen when you put one on). I'll always have a place in my heart for the nipple-less prince in Hercules Against the Moonmen and the time a television show actually made me fall on my ass with laughter.

No, I've got everything under control. Happens all
the time. Know exactly what to do.

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Nostalgia Nugget - Do It Now!

Divi-chan, the mascot for animeondvd.com

If there is one thing I've learned from the internet, it is that you can be nostalgic about anything. No, it is true, I looked it up. I figured if the Nostalgia Critic could be nostalgic about commercials, I can be nostalgic about trailers, and specifically anime trailers.

I've mentioned before that I became a bit of a hard core fan of Japanese animation in the mid and late 1990s. I was writing for one of the first websites to cover reviews of anime on DVD... hence the name Animeondvd.com. It was a lot of fun, and I learned quite a bit about review writing, fandom and even a bit of Japanese culture. This side job even landed me a ghost writing gig for an actual book about Animation on DVD.

This era has a lot of great anime related memories for me. Especially the excitement of seeing a trailer for new anime coming to a DVD (or VHS, which was still a viable alternative at the time). Companies approached trailers in a myriad of ways. But the one that always stuck out in my mind was the "Do it Now" trailers from ADV (or A.D. Vision).

The logo on more than half of my anime DVDs
from back in the day.

At the time ADV was kind of the scrappy new kid in the anime releasing biz. Companies like Animeigo, Manga, Pioneer and Central Park Media had been around since the 80s. But ADV arrived in the early 90s with a few solid shows (including one of my personal favorites Gunsmith Cats). But when they got the rights to the ultra popular Neon Genesis Evangelion they shot up to the top of the business.

They also had some great trailers cut together by a gent who posted on the anime forums under the name Dan the Man. Most of these used oh so 90s techno tracks, quick music video editing and showed you just enough to get you excited about an upcoming release. It worked so well that most of us picked up a movie or series based on the trailer alone, only to realize that Dan the Man made the show look much better than it really was.

On VHS nearly all the trailers on an ADV tape ended with the "Do It Now" trailer montage. Dan would use a particular techno piece, the eponymous Do It Now, and cut a whole bunch of different series and movies together, flashing the name on screen before a series of images exploded into view. These trailers got all us anime fans pumped up for more anime and the feature presentation. Most of the "Do It Now" trailers ended with Neon Genesis Evangelion, because ADV was proud of their flagship title. Talk to most anime fans who were around in the era and all you have to do is mention "Do It Now" and you'll get a "Hoo-uh" followed right after it. Check out the trailer below at around the 40 second mark to see what I mean.

And yes I had to pick the one that featured Gunsmith Cats. Any time you get to see Rally blowing away bad guys, it is a good thing. Do you have any favorite movie trailers? Do you find yourself nostalgic about commercials?

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Nostalgia Nugget: First Rumble with the Supercop!

A violent argument erupted
over who was tough and who
was deadly.

In the 1990s we had plenty of over the top action movies. The 1980s had really cemented the genre of mainstream action spectaculars with crazy plots, sinister villains and a hero willing to do anything to save the day. Rambo: First Blood Part 2, and Commando gave birth to stuff like Speed and Die Hard 2: Die Harder. But there was also a bit of martial arts boom, with Steven Segal unleashing hell in Above the Law or Jean Claude Van-Damme in Bloodsport. I was working in the video store during this era and let me tell you, people loved their action movies. Hollywood or direct to video antics like Tough and Deadly it didn’t’ really matter. If it had exploding cars and people hitting each other it was all good.

In all honesty there were some really good action flicks from that era. We hadn’t really hit the time of computer generated stunt work yet, so we were seeing all kinds of real folks doing real crazy stuff. Then we started to hear about the Hong Kong action films, with John Woo leading the way. Movies like The Killer and Hard Boiled introduced the concept of bullet ballet. Right around that time, we heard about Jackie Chan.

The surprisingly rare DVD from
Criterion Collection.

I’ve mentioned this before but I was never as into action films as I was into genre movies. Sure I enjoyed action movies, but I didn’t seek them out unless someone recommended a good one to me. Well one of my coworkers was the guy who knew his action movies. He loved all the old 70s Kung-fu classics and knew quite a bit about Hong Kong action flicks. He was the one that pointed me to The Killer and Hard Boiled. One day he comes in and is all excited because Jackie Chan is going to make a Hollywood action movie. Well the rest of us had no idea who Jackie Chan was, but we just smiled and nodded and started singing along to The Lion King again, because I think that played on the TV at the video store for about 11 years straight in the mid-90s.

Anyway, Rumble in the Bronx comes out and we all end up watching it in the space of about a week. Well my action loving friend was actually disappointed. His expectations were really pumped for this one. But the rest of us got a huge kick out of the movie. We were quoting the outrageous dialog for years afterward (I'm serious here). I can’t tell you how many times one of us goofed up at something and the other would turn and say in his best Little Danny voice, “Hooray! You’re number one!”

At least he's snuggly, right?

There was this strange trilogy of Jackie Chan movies that I vividly remember watching from that time. Rumble in the Bronx was the first one I saw and was my favorite one. The combo of ridiculous fantasy New York mixed with insane stunts and lots of hand to hand fighting made it the best mix. And did I mention it was super quotable? I did? That’s because I’m Number ONE! Then Supercop arrived. My action loving coworker thought this one was the best. As much as I liked Michelle Yeoh and Jackie Chan in one awesome movie, I have to say that it felt less colorful and crazy than Rumble. The final Tong/Chan film was First Strike, which turned out to be Police Story 4 in China. So yeah a sequel to Supercop, kinda sorta. Anyway, this one was even more like a James Bond movie but with more silliness and locations in Australia. I mostly remember the goofy bear hat, insanity involving a snowboard and helicopter, and the scene where Chan uses a ladder to beat the tar out of a bunch of guys. Certainly the least of the three movies, but still fun.

Oh it is on, like Donkey Kong!

Eventually this action craze died down, especially once CG really came into its own in the late 90s. Big time stunts were on the decline and even Jackie Chan was focusing more on comedy than crazy life endangering stunts (can’t say I blame him). But because of Supercop we got Michelle Yeoh in a James Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies, and then we saw her real acting chops in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (where she also showed off her sword swinging skills).

Don't try this at home.

So when Rumble in the Bronx shows up in my Netflix cue and I immediately flash back to the 90s and the video store and that huge Tough and Deadly poster that was behind the counter. I wanted to watch the movie again and catch a bit of that fun. And for the most part these movies hold up as solid entertainment. But I’m also willing to admit that they are probably not quite as good as they were the first time we watched in awe at this crazy new (for us) actor Jackie Chan.

Because in the Bronx fast is the only way to live.

"Bad touch! Bad Touch!"

Ladies and gentleman you will never look at a ladder
the same way again.

Rumble in the Bronx ends with a freeze frame.
A FREEZE FRAME! I can't say how much
joy that gives me.

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