AshenGrey Reviews

The Quantum Activist (2009)

Science, Magic, and Faith -- are they the same thing?

[8/10 · 18 April 2012]

I really found this documentary interesting. It seemed a lot less about quantum mechanics and seemed more about causing change to your surroundings through the imposition of will. The documentary asks some interesting concepts, such as "does reality cause thought, or does thought cause reality?" and "where does choice actually come from?" and "what is the real nature of God?" This documentary is more about philosophy than science, but it is ultimately quite interesting.

Apparently there is a fascinating concept in quantum mechanics that essentially states that all objects are essentially manifested possibilities of objects. The author then puts forth the idea that force of will and intent can shape the possibilities and turn them into manifestations.

Being a Wiccan, I can totally relate to the idea of visualization and imposition of will as tools of making change to one's environment.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel (2008 Video Game)

Flawed but pretty fun

[8/10 · 20 November 2011]

I was a huge fan of the original Sacred Gold and the wonderfully right world of Ancaria. So I thrilled when I was finally able to pick up a copy of Sacred 2 Fallen Angel. It took me three years to get tired of the game, so it definitely has replay value. The game is not perfect, but for those who can put up with a few flaws, the game is worth the price of admission.

THE GOOD -------- The game has a huge open world. I am pretty sure that, in 2008, Sacred 2 sported the largest world of any game on the market. The environs are stunningly detailed and varied. The world has deserts, forests, beaches, mountains, wastelands, swamps, and prairies. Shadows are realistic, as is the day/night cycle. The architecture of various towns are unique to the culture and yet look like structures that would be logical to build.

The combat mechanics are pretty tight. The user can map four attack and four spell combinations to keys on the keyboard for quick access (the user can click screen icons as well.) Spell effects are pretty innovative. Ascaron Entertainment went out of its way to avoid the tired old "air, earth, water, fire" metaphors. For example, the Shadow Warrior can summon a totem pole adorned with skulls that shoot bone arrows at foes, while the Temple Guardian can electrify the ground and thus shock opponents to death.

The game offers dozens of side quests (it might have over a hundred side quests). Likewise, there are certain side quests that are specific to the character class. For example, the Seraphim gets tasked with tracking down a kidnapper. The High Elf has to settle an college debt.

Another plus is that the music for the game was performed by the German heavy metal band "Blind Guardian".

THE BAD ------- Some of the characters' powers are useless. Each character can choose from an impressive array of 15 spell (or spell-like) abilities. Unfortunately, only 11 or 12 are particularly useful in each class.

The game requires exceedingly robust specs to fun at full speed. In 2008, when the game was first released, only a handful available computers could run this game on maximum resolution and maximum detail. Even in 2011, most computers that cost less than $1,000 would run this game on "medium" detail.

The game takes an agonizingly long time to load. While the game doesn't crash very often, when it does it crashes when loading.

THE UGLY -------- I won't give away the ending, since that wouldn't be fair. Suffice it to say that the plot is the weakest element of the game.

The other Ugly is that the game requires online activation and can only be activated twice without having to call technical support for manual activation (and considering that Ascaron Entertainment went belly-up in 2010, I wouldn't count on any tech support).

Finally, there is an online multi-player option. But I haven't ever encountered another living soul online.

The Encounter (I) (2010)

Started off pretty cool, got preachy fast

[3/10 · 28 September 2011]

I have to say in full disclosure that I'm a Wiccan and not a Christian, so my review won't be colored by the subject matter.

The acting in this film was mediocre at best. The "Jesus" in this movie was much more heavy-handed than the Jesus I remember reading about in the Bible. Also, I have a hard time imagining Jesus making someone's car not start just so he is part of a "captive audience".

My other beef was how easily "Jesus" became an apologist for the Old Testament genocides. (Hint: when Bronze Age warlords burned villages to the ground, they usually gave God the credit afterward). The Jesus of the Bible, being a quasi-socialist pacifist, is unlikely to have approved of the rampant murder of whole populations whose only crime was worshiping God in a different way.

This was a pretty unspectacular Christ story.

Battlefield Earth (2000)

Plot holes like Swiss Cheese!

[1/10 · 1 January 2011]

Lemme get this straight: This is a post-apocalyptic film that takes place a thousand years after an alien race conquers Earth. Well, I noticed a few plot holes in this film.

-- After 1,000 years, there is apparently no linguistic drift whatsoever. Johnny Tyler can pick up a book published in the year 2001 and read it just fine. Let's see, the King James Bible was written only a few hundred years ago and is nearly unintelligible due to linguistic drift.

-- Books don't have thousand-year shelf lives. If you go to the Smithsonian, you'll find the curators go to extreme measures to protect documents that are only 200 years old.

-- Are we really supposed to believe that stone-age barbarians can learn to fly fighter jets in just one week? It takes professional pilots years of training.

-- Jet fuel does not remain stable for a thousand years. Most of the plastic components in the jest would have become brittle. The battery packs in the jets would have become unusable. The tires would have gone flat and the rubber would have disintegrated.

-- I seriously doubt that our planet actually has enough elemental Gold that a high-tech invading civilization would still be mining it after 1,000 years. They probably would have packed up long ago.

Satan's Playground (2006)

A worse movie I have not seen!

[1/10 · 28 April 2007]

I can honestly say that I have never seen such anon-entertaining film. Its pretty bad when a slasher flick manages to be boring. But this movie is both boring and repetitive.

Basically, here goes: Family of fools breaks down on the side of the road. One by one, they ask a family of murderous psychopaths for help. One by one, they get murdered. There is no acting in this film. Everyone says their lines as if they're made out of wood. The set is just some abandoned house. The AV quality is mediocre. The plot is close to non-existent (knock on door, DIE). The Villains are one-dimensional and utterly unbelievable. This movie is an utterly cheap piece of trash.

Doom (2005)

Just plain terrible

[2/10 · 2 September 2006]

This movie was gloomy, dark, and generally unpleasant. Now, I realize that it's a horror movie, but can we have some actual horror please? Although the movie was allegedly based on the video game, the only thing the move and the game had in common was that the setting was a research station on Mars.

This movie is basically a badly-done zombie flick. The acting is wooden (it stars The Rock, so what can one expect?) The hero was instantly forgettable.

"Doom" had potential, but it failed on almost every front. The costumes were bland, the guns were unremarkable, the "futuristic" technology didn't look all that futuristic, the lighting was bad, and the acting was terrible. Oh, and The Rock isn't even the main character!

Visions (1998)

Bad, bad, bad!

[2/10 · 3 July 2006]

I tried really hard to find something to like about this film. I REALLY did. There's not much, however.

Okay. the *concept* is viable: main character loses his eyesight and gains paranormal perception in its place.

But it's just ruined by Erik Estrada as the hero-cop. He just chews the scenery to the point that he makes William Shattner's technique seem subtle. Also, he just doesn't pull off the "blind" look very well. They should have just given him dark shades.

Now, the "special" effects are pretty darned cheesy. When computers and such "overload", it's like watching an episode of "Superhuman Samuri Syber Squad".

EE's partner and the computer guru were much better actors. But they couldn't salvage this wretched spool of celluloid.

Hobgoblins (1988)

A D-Rate "Gremlins"

[1/10 · 14 April 2006]

this movie is funny when watched in the context of MSt3K. But to watch it unfiltered must be an act of masochism. I just love how the "old film studio" is just two blank hallways and one room with a bank vault in the middle. The hobgoblins are a "lethal" threat, but the safe they are kept in seems to remain unlocked at all times.

Now, these hobgoblins look like the 3rd rate knockoffs from the mutant-gremlins from the movie "Gremlins". They don't really even move! this is a movie where ugly stuffed animals Kill ugly stupid losers.

There's a ghastly bar scene in "Club Scum" where the must phony-looking "military" commander just happens to show up with a bag of grenades. Sure.

Only watch the mst3K version.

The Wild World of Batwoman (1966)

incomprehensible

[1/10 · 14 April 2006]

Even the "MST 3k" treatment could not make this movie enjoyable. The movie truly had no plot. It has various filmed sequences strung together, but not a plot.The "Boatwoman" inductees have got to be the most clueless, talentless bimbos that I have ever seen. when not failing miserable at vague crime fighting, they do odd, jerky dancing.

The acting and costumes are equally horrible. I also couldn't figure out how a mood-altering beverage, an unusual hearing aid, and a radioactive element was going to give some masked villain control of the world. Then the masked terrorist somehow made a bunch of copies of himself that got chased around a chemistry lab for several minutes. During this time, Batwonar simply pointed some kind of ray gun at him and put all the copies back into one body - with ZERO special effects whatsoever.

Oh, and did I mention how BAD the audio quality was? The mst3K bots joked about the microphone being in the phony ray gun, but that may have actually been true. The film quality was of very low quality as well.

the ending didn't make anymore sense than the beginning or middle. There CAN'T be a spoiler on this film, Since I have no clue what actually happened.

Airwolf (1984 TV Movie)

Very Unique Hero

[8/10 · 1 March 2006]

The great thing about the Airwolf series is the super-cool hero, Stringfellow Hawk. He's an ace helicopter pilot who is a cello player, art collector, and an environmentalist. He doesn't eat red meat. He's genuinely cool without any fake macho bull-crap.

I also like the way he blows away villains who really need killing, but generally spares the lives of low-end flunkies. The fact that Stringfellow does not own a television is a big bonus.

Stringfellow is proud without being arrogant. He is a thinking man's hero. Airwolf is a must-see.

It is a shame that the actor (Jan Michael Vincent) fell short of the heroic ideal of the character he played. I recall that they re-launched the show without him after he cracked up. I saw one episode, but it wasn't the same.

Flightplan (2005)

Just not credible

[5/10 · 28 January 2006]

It was *almost* an enjoyable film. Jody Foster delivered a very believable performance as a highly intelligent engineer that has recently undergone a terrible tragedy. The big problems I had with this film is this: We're to believe that a Federal Marshal turned rogue, and conspired with a stewardess to murder a propulsion engineer's husband so that they could put a bomb in the coffin. But wait! They also have to somehow kidnap the engineer's kid without *anyone* noticing or the kid screaming. And while I can see the passengers being oblivious, it's a flight crew's job to notice children. Let's see, we're also supposed to believe that the rogue stewardess was able to not only modify the ship's manifest, but *also* the one from the airport? Oh, and we're to believe that the propulsion engineer knew that the explosive wouldn't blow up the *whole* plane, but only the part occupied by the Marshal? Gimmie a break!

Colonial House (2004)

A massive failure

[4/10 · 10 October 2005]

This series is *much* weaker than either "Frontier House" or "Manor House". None of the volunteers ever really tried to act colonial. The participants had no clue about teamwork, unity, or community. Mostly, they spent valuable time whining and bickering.

The women griped about the lack of women's lib. The atheists griped about church. The "colonists" slept until 10.00am every day, drank, and cursed. A gay guy came out of the closet (a death sentence in the 1600's).

These fools would have either starved or murdered each other if they were *really* in the 17th century. The concept was good, but the volunteers ruined the experiment.

Satan's School for Girls (1973 TV Movie)

High on the cheese factor

[4/10 · 25 March 2005]

If you miss Charley's Angels, then this is the movie for you. It's got two out of three angels in this campy witchcraft flick.

Poor SALEM! The town just can't live down that unfortunate witchcraft hysteria from 400 years ago. So here's another Devil film for Salem. This movie was pretty goofy, but I liked how the students called the administror "Dragon Lady" and never referred to her as anything else.

I only ever saw two teachers in this film. The animal psych teacher was a mad sadistwhile the art teacher was a lecherous hippy. The headmistress (aka Dragon Lady) was a useless old drunk. The Salem School seems to have been a pretty big place and yet they seemed to have about 30 students (evidenced by the use of only two transport vans when they evacuated the school). I've also never heard of a college that uses alarm bells to signal the end of various classes.

It's a shame that no effort was made to restore this film. My biggest beef with this film is just how bad the DVD transfer was. It had vertical lines all over the place, very muddy color, and more pops and hiss than a winter hearth full of wet wood.

Frogs (1972)

tasty republicans!

[1/10 · 15 March 2005]

This movie was so bad that it was almost painful to watch. I have no idea why Sam Elliott would star in this bubbling half'gallon of foul swamp water. This film makes one actually wish for a snake bite; at least the Fade To Black would come mercifully sooner! The film involves a stupid family of rich, white, republican racists who do nothing but drink huge quantities of hard liquor while complaining about all the 'swamp noise'. Of course, if the refugees from the '700 Club' didn't like the sound of frogs and birds, they should have stayed in Houston or some other Red State conclave.

The rich idiots in this film earn nature's wrath by dumping poison into the swamp in order to 'quiet things down'. Nature fights back by sending snakes, crocodiles, and strangling vines to kill the GOP interlopers. My only regret is that Nature doesn't behave like this in real life. we could do well with fewer stupid, rich white people who somehow get their money for free.

The acting in this movie is terrible, as is the direction and the sound. The only redeeming factor is Sam Elliott as the Environmentalist. besides this, you'd get more enjoyment out of watching 'Swamp Thing'.

As a footnote: Maybe the acting was actually dead'on. After all, they did portray rich republicans as oily, amoral, wastrels who would cheerfully destroy th'e environment in order to suit their immediate wants. that's par for the course.

Invasion U.S.A. (1985)

very mediocre, good for laughs

[4/10 · 12 March 2005]

favorite line: 'If you come back in here, I'm gonna hit you with so many rights that you'll beg me for a left!'

favorite scene: Matt Hunter driving SLOWLY down the street in a trashy neighborhood while whores and thugs scream at him and slap his truck with chains and tire irons.

most colorful bit player: the cocaine whore if gets a straw shoved up her nose and then pitched out a second'story window.

summary: this movie has some REALLY funny lines uttered by Chuck Norris. It's too bad the film is so fundamentally flawed in so many other ways. for starters, this movie has next to nothing in background music. The villains are completely one'dimensional. The three cops are useless. No one ever seems to run out of ammo. And why did the director report to the tired cliché of having scared children sing 'row row row your boat'? :SIGH:

This movie had a lot of potential, but in the end it just sort of fizzled out. The movie 'Commando' is a much better film in the 'Cold War Reagan Heroes' genre.

Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin (1970)

A fine, hypnotic Western

[7/10 · 6 March 2005]

I picked up this film for $5 I and I've played it at least 5,000 times since! I think it's shot in an alternate reality. why do I say this? Read on:

Apalousa is a strange land where sticks of dynamite NEVER explode.

In Apalousa Sartanna can only shoot people in groups of three. _Also, in this mysterious town, a mine owner can hire a band of crooks to rob the stage coach EVERY week, but the Mines don't think to hire their own transport?

Of course, there is always the utter coolness of Sartanna's friend Sabbath. He's an obviously gay gunslinger who is also a force to be reckoned with. I love it when he blows out the knees off the low-rent psycho Flint Fawcett, then tells him he doesn't know how to bow to a lady.

Probably the coolest scene is the "Talismanic Poker Scene" where Sarthnh, Sabbath, Trixiei and Samuel start with a $5 ante, yet end up with about ten grand on the table - after playing just one hand!

Oh, and to add to the coolness, all the main characters have their own theme music! Neat-0!

They Came from Beyond Space (1967)

Nice film, except for the fight music

[6/10 · 6 March 2005]

Considering that this film was obviously shot on a tight budget, it worked out to be an enjoyable film nonetheless. I haven't seen many Hutton films, but I like his Style of thinking, cerebral hero who reasons first, shoots later.

This film must have been very inspirational to Stephen King, as the plot of his book "The Tommyknockers" was nearly identical to the plot of this movie - right down to the hero with a metal plate in his head.

Of course, the only real down side to this film is the fight music. All it consists of is Someone pounding on a snare drum. they could have done better here.

All in all, it's an enjoyable film of it's era, and one I Will probably watch again.