Retro Revelations 🐉

I will forever maintain that the perfect "decade" for entertainment, was 1985-1995. The early 80s and late 90s had some great shit too. But for movies, shows, music, comics, video games, arcades, cartoons, you name it, late 80s through early 90s is untouchable.

In this man's humble opinion, the #GameBoyAdvance was the last truly great console that Nintendo put out. It was still sprite based, mostly 2D, seeming very much like a souped up SNES. Here are some of my fav. games for it. retrorevelations.blogspot.com/2025/06/my-top…

@stonegasman @thejoekucharski @Freelineorlando @ihateclaims @vanasbj @JanuaryMovie @LateAndConfused @QuintsVessel @juliacmarchese @horrormuseum @ILoveToTalkFilm Never read the books. Thought DaVinci was ok. Saw it in theaters. Later rented the second one, I'm pretty sure I fell asleep during it lol

#MarchRankingChallenge2026 #RonHoward (MARCH 20, 22 & 26: THE DA VINCI CODE TRILOGY) Back in 2006, I avoided The Da Vinci Code--based on Dan Brown's best-seller--like the goddamn plague. I also never read any of Brown's books as I was too busy watching other movies and reading other books. That being said, in order to execute a Ron Howard ranking in full, I had to watch them. And I struggled to stay awake during all 3, particularly Angels & Demons despite the action being "sped up" even though it was still slow as molasses. As a matter of fact, I refer to The Da Vinci Code as the The Boring Identity and the second movie as Ambien & Demerol. So why do I hate these movies so much to place them all at the bottom of the ranking with The Boring Identity in spot #30? It's not just because they are slow, uninteresting even the fact they are heavily religious in nature. Jesus Christ, the world's first superhero (honestly, I think he never existed although there's probably someone he's based on) and Mary Magdalene were married, had sex and a child. "So the hell?" what is my reaction and I find it hilarious many entities, particularly The Catholic Church, found it an outrage in revisionist "history." First and foremost, The Catholic Church has molested children for centuries and covered it all up in the name of God. After watching The Magdalene Sisters and the well-deserved Best Picture winner Spotlight, I have zero respect for them, think they should be outright destroyed and anybody who still considers them Catholic should be ashamed of themselves. To go even further, however, I think the Bible is nothing more than a literary tool used for mind control & spiritual manipulation and God only knows how many people have been been drinking the Flavor Aid. The fact that we have so many churches who never pay a dime in taxes I find absolutely appalling. So, what The Da Vinci Code preaches is nothing but utter nonsense and much of it just people standing around spouting a bunch of crap. My theory is that Dan Brown is trolling religious movements and wrote this as religious fan fiction so he can simply make sacks full of money. The sad thing is The Da Vinci Code is actually Ron Howard's highest grossing at the box office, making over 800 million even with a 125 million dollar budget. What's really horrible is it's mind-numbingly long (at 149 minutes, almost 3 hours in the extended cut) that it becomes a real test of endurance to sit through to those who could care less. Also, it's one of Tom Hanks' worst performances and makes me want to re-watch his starring debut in Mazes & Monsters. As for the 2 sequels, Inferno is the least painful and most exciting relatively speaking and it manages to have a bit of brevity by limiting its story to only 2 hours. Ambien & Demerol, however, is so dull and stupid and incomprehensible that it's just as bad if not worse than The Da Vinci Code and the only reason why I'm putting the latter at the very bottom is because it's even longer and spawned this ridiculous trilogy. I adore Ron Howard as a director and think he made few bad movies, but these 3 are beyond terrible and I'm just happy I will never return to them ever again. Just a few more random thoughts: I can't even enjoy these movies on a laughably bad level as there's only ONE line in this entire trilogy that made me chuckle, spoken by Ian McKellen: "Did that cannabis charge finally catch up with me?" All the talk about the Holy Grail just made me want to watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade again. Plus, while I don't think Ron deserved a Razzie award for directing the first movie (yes, he was nominated), I think Hanks deserved a Worst Actor nomination as he appeared constipated much of the time and in the sequels he just looks like he just doesn't want to do them except for the paychecks. Give me Splash or Apollo 13 again.

@castle_zotz Nah, there's plenty of U2 fans out there whom I'm sure would agree. He's not my pick, even though I do like several U2 songs.

Pretty sure only Bono would agree with this statement

RIP Chuck. Everyone go watch Forrest Warrior, it's pretty amazing.

@moviesinfocus It's heartbreaking that he can't even remember his life and career now. One of the greatest ever, and he can't even remember it. At least his family is with him and takes care of him, so he has that.

Bruce Willis is 71 years old today. I've been a huge fan since Moonlighting. I was once lucky enough to tell him how much I loved the much maligned (but rather brilliant) Hudson Hawk - one of my favourite films. He was incredibly bashful & polite. A true movie star.

@VHSRevival It's a decent movie. The best scene however, by far, is when he shows up to that biker/gang bar, and just beats the shit out of everyone. Literally nothing to do with the plot of the film, but a classic Chuck scene.

I never thought I'd find a #slasher starring action #movie legend #ChuckNorris until I stumbled on 1982's #SilentRage Add some marital arts action, some dubious #scifi & a tad of racy softcore romance & you have quite the oddity @VHSRevival takes a look vhsrevival.com/2025/02/10/sil…

@moviesinfocus I honestly don't get people who legitimately think we live in a "golden age" of entertainment. Literally all of the very best movies, shows and animation, to ever be made, came out before the year 2010. Most before 2000. Today's material doesn't even compare.

Some say we live in a golden age of television. But has there been a show in recent times half as good as The Rockford Files? Has there been a character anywhere as cool as James Garner's Jim Rockford? And that's even before I even get to that sweet, sweet theme tune!

The Oscars have never meant much to begin with. They've meant even less the last twenty years or more. The last several years in a row of "Best Picture" have been a running joke. But honestly? After this year? The Oscars are totally irrelevant, and "Best Picture" means nothing.

@stonegasman @ihateclaims @vampirebuff @Deckard97 @Multiplat_Mike @DVD_Daddy @HmmphThis @ILoveToTalkFilm @FCSNVA2nd @vanasbj @JerryattheMovie I dunno. It's not one of Gibson's best, but I honestly like this Ransom. But yes, EDtv was meh, especially compared to the similar but amazing The Truman Show.

#MarchRankingChallenge2026 #RonHoward (MARCH 14 & 15: RANSOM & EDtv) If you don't count Cotton Candy, I don't think Ron had any kind of misfire until 1996 with the release of Ransom, a needlessly violent and insultingly illogical remake of a far superior 1956 movie starring Glenn Ford, Donna Reed & Leslie Nielsen in his debut. Returning to Touchstone/Disney for the first time since churning out the distribution arm's first hit Splash, Ron struggles to maintain any kind of suspense or purpose after an initially solid hour. Despite making over $300 million, Ransom was really Ron's first Bomb. Mel Gibson stars as a wealthy airline magnate whose son is kidnapped and is ordered to cough up a $2 million ransom. After the drop goes awry thanks to massive miscommunication leading to one of the abductors being killed, Gibson decides to turn the tables by converting the ransom into reward. Rene Russo plays his wife with almost zero emoting & empathy (she has absolutely nothing on Reed in the original) whereas Gary Sinise is a cartoonish joke as the lead kidnapper. Gibson & Delroy Lindo as FBI special agent are only marginally better but they are let down by an increasingly aggravating script with a truly inane climax & ending. For some reason, Ron decided to do ANOTHER remake in 1999 with EDtv, an obvious & moronic satire on reality television which may have been quasi-prophetic but it's never funny and this is shocking considering it's from screenwriters Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel who also wrote Night Shift, Gung Ho and Parenthood for Ron. With a ballooned budget of $80M, EDtv was Ron's very first financial loser, barely scraping $35 million at the box office. Conversely, the French-language original Louis 19, King of the Airwaves was the top-grossing Canadian film of 1994. The usually-ingratiating Matthew McConaughey makes for an exceptionally bland protagonist who somehow finds his life the subject of a 24-hour reality program. The supporting cast is impressive with the late Rob Reiner, Woody Harrelson (who's believable and amusing as Matthew's brother), Martin Landau, Dennis Hopper & Jenna Elfman but as an ensemble they just don't manage to create the kind of satiric amusement the project needs/wants. The absolute nadir of the lot is Ellen Degenerate as the show's producer and she's as unfunny & despicable as she's ever been, practically murdering the movie's potential. Needless to say, Ransom & EDtv are 2 of Ron's weakest films and it's a shame he wasn't able to close out the 1990s with the kind of cinematic success, both critically & financially, that he proudly held for nearly 20 years. These are both quintessential examples of pointless remakes where the audience would be much better off checking out the originals and, honestly, it's difficult to judge which one is worse even though they are not as awful as some of Ron's later movies. One of the director's few down periods where bloated budgets seemed like almost impossible to pass up, particularly after the artistically amazing Apollo 13.

@VanIsleInvestor @Pirat_Nation Not really true. Millions of Nintendo gamers will continue to just buy Nintendo systems. A LOT of Playstation gamers also buy the newest PS just because its PS, not even because of exclusives so much anymore. So I don't think either Sony or Nintendo are "in trouble".

It's not really a war anymore. Steam will launch it's PC Steam Machine, Microsoft will launch the PC XBOX and Sony will need to make an equivalent or slowly be forgotten... Everyone will want a PC / Gaming machine not a limited unit. Start your engines... Looks like Gabe is a visionary again and has a head start...

Ex-Bluepoint tech lead Peter: Sony is pulling back on PC ports because Valve’s Steam Deck and the upcoming Steam Machines could offer console-like simplicity plus the full PC library. If PlayStation games launched day one on Steam, Valve could effectively win the “console war.”

@stonegasman @HmmphThis @FCSNVA2nd @RealHoward4real @vanasbj @krazykeithrules @thejoekucharski @JerryattheMovie @QuintsVessel @mylemonysoul It also must be said, while their accents might not be spot on, they're also not awful, and I think most non-Irish wouldn't notice all that much. They aren't distractingly bad, like the "British" accents of Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder in 92 Dracula.

@stonegasman @HmmphThis @FCSNVA2nd @RealHoward4real @vanasbj @krazykeithrules @thejoekucharski @JerryattheMovie @QuintsVessel @mylemonysoul A very good period drama. One of Cruise's best performances, and that's saying something.

#MarchRankingChallenge2026 #RonHoward (MARCH 11: FAR AND AWAY) After Parenthood & Backdraft were box office hits for Universal, the studio essentially gave Ron carte blanche to do whatever he wanted, a labor of love if you will. Thus, Ron recruited his Willow screenwriter Bob Dolman to craft fan fiction involving his ancestors who immigrated from Ireland in the 1890s. Power couple Tom Cruise & Nicole Kidman took on the project having married a year after Days of Thunder. The result is an old-fashioned, sweeping epic in the spirit of John Ford; many people disliked, even mocked the result. Cruise plays an Irish farmer whose father dies and property is reclaimed by mustache-twirling villain Thomas Gibson, making his film debut before Dharma & Greg and Criminal Minds who works for rich landowner Robert Prosky. Through chance and circumstance, Cruise hooks up with Prosky's feisty daughter (the luminous Kidman) as they travel to Boston and eventually Oklahoma to garner land in the famous Land Rushes of the 1890s (after much of the land was stolen from Native Americans). Let's get the elephant out of the room: yes, the accents delivered by Cruise & Kidman are far from top notch despite fact they clearly are giving them their all and they worked with one of the best dialogue coaches in the business, Tim Monich. Aside from that rather embarrassing aspect, however, I adore everything else about this production: Mikael Saloman's breathtaking 70MM cinematography (dude should have won an Oscar) and John Williams' powerhouse score, with tremendous support by Irish folk band The Chieftans and exquisite song "Book of Days" by Enya, who was offensively nominated for a Razzie (in response, Cinematic Excrement told the parody show to "go fuck a weedwacker and whole assortment of garden tools." Making up for the leads' less-than-stellar accents are a strong supporting cast with real Irish actors including Colm Meaney (aka Chief O'Brien from Star Trek) as slimy Boston fight organizer Kelly, Eileen Pollack who runs the Boston whorehouse our protagonists find lodging at, and Cyril Cusack (in final performance) as Danty Duff who warns Cruise of "Captain Moonlight" in seeking revenge against his landlord. In addition, Ron's dad Rance & bro Clint have delicious roles as a horse wrangler and chicken factory supervisor, respectively. The climactic Land Rush of 1893 is both a vivid & eye-popping spectacle as Howard had hundreds of extras to employ and I regret not seeing Far and Away in theaters because of it. Film historians will note that while the Land Rush had been previously showcased in Tumbleweeds (1925) and Best Picture winner Cimarron (1931) they weren't nearly as spectacular as it was executed here. Many have retroactively made comparisons to Cameron's Titanic and understandably so as the parallels are impossible to ignore. I'm more than comfortable than saying I think Far and Away eclipses Titanic on every level and even the accents have grown on me in repeat viewings. I love this movie! Universal has been less-than-respectful when it comes to Far and Away on physical media as they initially provided only a bare-bones, barely adequate Blu-ray. Shout! Factory came along to rectify that with a 2-disc Collector's Edition 4K/Blu-ray combo approved by the cinematographer and an outstanding feature-length documentary "Enterprise or Love: The Story of Far and Away" with interviews with practically every cast member except Tom & Nicole. A truly must buy for fans, with the only caveat being none of the deleted scenes from the 3-hour TV version is present.

@MrSteJ @80sHorrorDoc I wish they were available in episodes. I have access to them (in fact I'm connected online to the guy who makes them, swell dude). But they are (mostly) LONG.

Can’t think of anything more fun than watching 10+ hours of these horror docs. Loved the 80s editions but these 90s docs bring even more nostalgia (with lots for my watch list!)

#MarchRankingChallenge2026 #RonHoward (MARCH 8: WILLOW) Renting Willow on VHS in 1989 was my very first Ron Howard experience: I was only 11 years old, the perfect age for this exciting sword-and-sorcery fantasy adventure in Lord of the Rings mold as a Nelwyn (little person in medieval times) finds himself shepherding a baby with special powers which can be used to bring a powerful evil queen. Along the way, he meets thief-ish rogue named Madmartigan and military commander named Airk who both eventually help. After the devastating box office bomb known as Howard the Duck, executive producer George Lucas decided to go back to familiar territory (admittedly Willow does have a Star Wars flavor sprinkled into its mixture) while employing his American Graffiti star to helm. The result is Ron's most ambitious and elaborate production to date and while the domestic box office wasn't exactly stellar, its international take and cable viewings were enough to give it worldwide cult appeal. I could be wrong but this production brought onboard the largest ensemble of little people since the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz...and Warwick Davis, who had played Wicket in Return of the Jedi, was given the title role and makes a most unusual but awesome protagonist. As for Kilmer, considering I've never been a huge fan of him and his work, this is still my favorite role of his career and he shares a spicy chemistry with Joanne Whalley as the Queen's daughter (they both got married for a number of years). As for the villains, Jean Marsh (who Lucas no doubt discovered when visiting the set of Return to Oz) and Pat Roach (better known as the giant muscles faced by Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Temple of Doom) are both terrifying and deliciously evil. That's Patricia Hayes as the sorceress Fin Raziel who was also Urgl in The NeverEnding Story and the dog lady in A Fish Called Wanda who Michael Palin tries in vain to murder. Finally, comic relief is provided by Kevin Pollak & Rick Overton as the miniature Brownies. Willow has always held a mixed critical reputation but it's another top 5 entry in Ron's filmography for me, w/James Horner's soaring music score, Adrian Biddle's cinematography (shot in Wales & New Zealand) and some still-impressive Industrial Light & Magic visual effects making the entire journey worth taking multiple times. While I wouldn't normally promote Disney product, fans should consider picking up the studio's 4K/Blu-ray Steelbook which has all previous extras and the finest visual/audio quality in terms of previous physical media releases.

@stonegasman @thejoekucharski @krazykeithrules @HmmphThis @ihateclaims @LateAndConfused @80sMovieNetwork @vanasbj @FCSNVA2nd @JerryattheMovie Willow is another one of those movies that I for whatever reason didn't get to see as a kid. Although, like (all of) Ghostbusters, Goonies, Monster Squad, etc., I wish I had, because I would have loved it. I agree it's a Top 5 Howard flick. And another great story by Lucas.

@stonegasman @krazykeithrules @80sMovieNetwork @fabflicks @Freelineorlando @PedroPerico75 @thejoekucharski @VaderJaws @vanasbj @HmmphThis @JanuaryMovie Gung Ho is a solid, charming comedy, about culture clashes and community. People need to remember there was a very real scare of Japan "taking over American business" in the 80s, and this was a reaction to that. It handles the material well, and has a good ending.

#MarchRankingChallenge2026 #RonHoward (MARCH 7: GUNG HO) Howard's only directorial effort for Paramount Pictures, the 1986 culture clash comedy Gung Ho is also written by Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandell, who had penned Night Shift, whose breakout star Michael Keaton is back working with Ron again. The result is a low-key, lightly funny look at how American workers at a shut down Pennsylvania auto plant react to a Japanese auto conglomerate re-opening the plant and trying to get the Americans to adhere to a super stringent working style. To me, the heart of Gung Ho lies in the growing working relationship with whip-smart wheeler dealer Keaton and the plant's Japanese manager Takahara "Kaz" Kazihiro (played by the jovial Gedde Watanabe in the biggest role of his career) amidst a number of fitfully funny moments where the Japanese executives attempt to assimilate themselves in the American way of life such as playing on the local baseball team, arriving in professional Yankee-style uniforms. Also giving the film juice is a nice score by Thomas Newman and rich 1980s soundtrack including "Working Class Man" by Jimmy Barnes. Gung Ho is good-natured fun which unfortunately has been viewed by many in recent years as being "problematic" to stereotypes and ethic insults which may not play in the 21st century as they did back in the 1980s. However, with Ron Howard also executive producing, I seriously don't think you should take it too seriously and just give in to the film's laid-back charm as it essentially pokes fun at Americans as much as the Japanese, with Keaton & Watanabe making a great onscreen team who learn plenty from each other. In 2025, Gung Ho was finally upgraded to Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber as Paramount has only given us one bare-bones DVD from 2002 with mediocre picture & audio quality. Not only is the Kino Blu-ray a substantial technical upgrade, but it's also blessed with some solid extras including an audio commentary by author/film historian Dwayne Epstein who keeps talking and staying on-topic throughout; there are also 2 onscreen interviews, with Watanabe and the other with actor George Wendt which was recorded very shortly before his death.

@YachtClubGames Will Mina the Hollower still be coming out for PS4 as well as PS5? Because I only own a PS4, and have been waiting for buy this game for it for quite some time.