"A hard-boiled, intergalactic policeman lands on Earth where he is only 12 inches tall."
Tim Thomerson plays a Clint Eastwood-esque cop with a tiny but powerful gun out to stop a criminal who's just a head who has an interdimensional bomb. Also, he has to stop a Bronx gang. And he's helped by a kid and his mom, who think he's a toy.
It's great schlocky fun! This and it's sequel, Dollman vs. The Demonic Toys (1993) you can watch on Tubi for free! Check it out.
"A trooper (Tim Thomerson) leaves 2247 Angel City for 1985 Los Angeles to stop a zombie mystic (Michael Stefani) out to change history."
A good cheesy sci-fi series that's something like Blade Runner meets Quantum Leap. Pure B-Movie fun as Jack Deth tries to adapt to the 80s, and solve his case. Won't stop using weird slang. Part of the comedy is the modern people being oblivious to zombies a.k.a. "squids". Each movie has diminishing returns however.
Trancers 1-3 are good. The rest just feel like standard sword-and-shield fantasy, like someone mixed up two scripts. Pretty weird sci-fi concepts executed as action-comedy. These are all available on Tubi. Take a look!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSMHmtaoXtI The Book of Eli (2010): "A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind." I always love a good post-apocalyptic story. This one is certainly strange, with a couple twists. Good humor and action too.
More Than One-Third of LGBTQ+ Adults Have a Disability: Netflix’s Special Paves the Way for a More Inclusive Future By Lauren Appelbaum, RespectAbility VP of Communications
Los Angeles, California, April 12 – Today’s release of Netflix’s new series Special is earning widespread praise for its authentic depiction of gay disabled life. People who are LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities has been severely underrepresented in the media and the fact that the show’s creator, Ryan O’Connell, is a gay man with cerebral palsy is a reason to celebrate.
“Shows like Special are, pardon the pun, special. But they shouldn’t be. It shouldn’t be so unusual to see someone with a disability who is also gay on screen, because there are plenty of people with disabilities in the LGBTQ+ community,” said Eric Ascher, RespectAbility’s Communications Associate who is both openly gay and on the autism spectrum.
More Than One-Third of LGBTQ+ Adults Have a Disability Among lesbian, gay and bisexual adults, 30 percent of men and 36 percent of women also identify as having a disability. Ryan O’Connell joins the ranks of other celebrities and business leaders who are using their voice to share their stories, educating people about both visible and invisible disabilities. Notable examples include CNN anchor Anderson Cooper who is dyslexic, actor Josh Feldman who is deaf, comedian Stephen Fry who has bipolar disorder, artist Frida Kahlo who had polio and spinal and pelvis damage, Eddie Ndopu who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy, YouTuber Tyler Oakley who has depression, model Aaron Philip who is a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, writer Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha who is chronically ill and journalist Melissa Yingst who is deaf.
Both people who identify as LGBTQ+ and people who have invisible disabilities such as learning disabilities like dyslexia, mental health or ADHD have to decide whether or not to “come out of the closet.” This is not an easy decision for most people because of the uncertainty of whether or not acceptance will follow.
While coming out as gay as a teenager was easy for O’Connell, he hid his disability in his early twenties, pretending his limp was caused by a car accident. In 2015 he wrote the truth in his memoir “I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves,” which led to the creation of this Netflix series.
“I wasn’t recognizing the psychic harm of being closeted,” he said during an interview with TIME. “Internalized ableism is a gnarly drug.”
Lack of Representation of LGBTQ+ Characters with Disabilities on TV
GLAAD’s 2018-2019 Where We Are on TV Report includes the only analysis of primetime scripted series regulars on broadcast networks of characters with disabilities. Largely known for tracking the number of LGBTQ+ characters on broadcast and cable networks, as well as streaming services, the Where We Are on TV Report also tracks racial, gender and disability inclusion on television.
The amount of regular primetime broadcast characters counted who have a disability has slightly increased to 2.1 percent, but that number still vastly underrepresents the actualities of Americans with disabilities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1-in-4 American adults has a disability.
While the 2018-19 season includes 18 characters with disabilities, versus 16 in 2017-18, that number still vastly underrepresents the actual number of people with disabilities, representing less than one-sixth. Furthermore, while more than one-third of LGBTQ+ adults have a disability, GLAAD’s report found only four LGBTQ+ characters with disabilities.
“When you don’t see yourself being reflected back at you, you’re implicitly told that you don’t matter,” O’Connell said in an interview with Vulture. “That your life does not matter, it’s not worth being told, it’s not worth being discussed.”
In addition to writing, O’Connell stars in the show, even though he had not intended to. He had no money to hire an actor. O’Connell’s acting role is significant as actors without disabilities play more than 95 percent of all characters with disabilities on television.
Exploring New Topics, Creating Content People Want to See
One episode features a sex scene with Ryan and a sex worker he hired so he can lose his virginity. This scene in particular is making headlines, being covered in USA Today and The Daily Beast, among other publications.
“I am so frustrated by the lack of representation of gay sex in TV and film, like in Call Me by Your Name when they panned away to the moon,” O’Connell said in an interview with Vulture. “I want to bring gay sex to the forefront in a very accurate, human way… I wanted it to feel real. In season two, ideally, I wanna show a lot more gay sex. It will all have to serve the story, but I wanna normalize gay sex, and I wanna show different flavors of gay sex other than Queer As Folk porny whatever.”
Daily Beast entertainment reporter Kevin Fallon wrote, “It shows the mechanics, the discomfort, and mutual respect involved in two men having sex—something that is never shown on screen and certainly not in a TV show that’s meant to be heartwarming and, like we said before, important. Special proves you can do all of that.”
Changing Attitudes, Reducing Stigmas for People with Disabilities
“I feel like there’s such ignorance around disability, so people infantilize you,” O’Connell told the New York Post. “Hopefully with Special, people will start to see disabled people as strong, multifaceted human beings. We all are.”
Representation on screen can have a major effect on attitudes toward people with disabilities and LGBTQ+ people in society and shows like Special are paving the way for a better, more inclusive future.
Happy Turkey Day! It's also Bruce Lee's birthday! So, in honor of this, I have a guest blogger today! Asian Film Fan, blogger, and ESL teacher Beth Kelly is going to tell us all about Bruce Lee's impact...outside of his fists! Beth Kelly deserves all credit. I didn't write this!
A Look Back at Bruce Lee, Wise Man of Kung Fu
The only thing faster
than Bruce Lee’s
fist was his influence. He was a slight man at 5-foot-7-inches and 135 pounds
with a childlike bowl haircut. Yet he would marry Chinese nationalism with
Hollywood effects with grand effect, looming large in films such as Fists of
Fury and Enter the Dragon. The latter of which will be airing on
November 27th in honor of what would have been Lee’s 74th birthday on the El
Rey Network as part of their Thanksgiving “Way of the Turkey” marathon that will also celebrate Lee’s legacy (the
channel is available through some providers like DirecTV).
Lee Jun-Fan was born
November 27, 1940 at the Jackson Street Hospital in Chinatown, San Francisco,
not more than an hour’s walk from Fisherman’s Wharf. The supervising physician,
Dr. Mary Glover, asked to christen the boy with an English name. Bruce, she
suggested. Agreed, said Mrs. Grace Lee.
Three months later, the
family returned to Hong Kong. Little did they know that 18 years later, fearing
repercussion from a Triad gang member whose son Bruce had bloodied in a
fistfight, they would mail him back to America in a third-class ship bunk.
Young Bruce had the
nickname “Mo Si Tung,” meaning never sits still. He was a hot headed youth. His
status as a child film star and member of the privileged Ho-Tung clan
guaranteed him some social immunity. He was privately taught by Wing Chen
grandmaster Yip Man. He became a Hong Kong cha-cha dance champion. In short, he
was on the fast track.
That ended when Bruce
arrived in America with $100, a pair of glasses, and the plan to become a
dentist. After flitting between jobs, siblings and cities, he landed as a drama
student at the University of Washington in Seattle. There, Lee opened his first
martial arts school, the Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. A few years later in
1963, Lee would publish, Chinese Gung Fu: The Philosophical Art of
Self-Defense, explaining the Taoist
philosophy upon which he would later base his martial discipline, Jeet Kune Do,
meaning Way of the Intercepting Fist.
In 1964, Bruce married
Linda Emery, dropped out of college, moved to Oakland, California, and was
invited to the 1964 Long Beach International Karate Championships. He
demonstrated the two-finger push-up and the one-inch punch, landing a solid hit
on volunteer Bob Baker, who later said, “I had to stay home from work because
the pain in my chest was unbearable.”
First exposed to
Hollywood via the Karate Championships, Lee snagged his first role as Kato,
sidekick of The Green Hornet. After a few years as a support actor, Lee
returned to Hong Kong and obtained his first leading role in The Big Boss. All of Asia fell in love with Cheng, the furious factory worker
fighting against Hsiao Mi, boss of a narcotics smuggling operation. The release
became the highest-grossing film in the history of Hong Kong.
That is, until Bruce
Lee’s next film: Fists of Fury (also released as The Iron Hand and The
Chinese Connection) which showcased Lee as a martial artist retaliating
against Japanese racism in Shanghai. Ever since Asians first came to America as
exploited laborers on the transcontinental railroad, male Asian-Americans were
often pigeonholed as stolid, nerdish and watered-down. All that changed with
Lee’s bared teeth and flying sidekicks.
For Way of the Dragon, Lee’s third major film, he was writer, director, actor and
choreographer of all fight scenes. The story pitted Chinese restaurant owners
in Rome against the local mafia, starring Lee as the underdog martial artist,
Tang Lung. It was also the big break for Chuck Norris.
Lee’s fourth film, Game of Death, was never finished. He halted production to star in Warner Bros.
Enter the Dragon as a shaolin martial artist working undercover
on behalf of British Intelligence to expose a narcotics trafficking operation.
The movie smashed records. It launched a Kung Fu craze in the 1970s, spawned
the film career of Jackie Chan, and cemented Bruce Lee as an all-time great.
Bruce never witnessed
the film’s release. On July 20, 1973, he took the painkiller Equagesic for a
headache. After dinner, he napped and never woke up. He would have turned 75 in
2014.
Beth Kelly is a blogger and film fanatic based in Chicago, IL. Working previously as an English teacher in South Korea and Poland, she's now back in the Midwest and feeling better than ever. Follow her woefully neglected Twitter account at @bkelly_88.
Iron Man and Captain America: Heroes United (2014):
Captain America: “That’s your problem, Stark. You never strategize.”
Iron Man: “It’s called thinking on your feet. Or in my case…boot jets!”
You were expecting Guardians of the Galaxy? No, not so soon. This is another CGI adventure in the vein of last year’s Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes United. I have two major problems with this movie. 1. There’s some slight mind control, and 2. The “Waking Life” -like CGI makes the characters’ mouths move funny. That said, it’s at least a good intro for Taskmaster. But, I still feel a little deceived by the title. A little.
You see, the movie sort of tricked me into thinking it would be mostly Cap and Iron Man. But, Taskmaster and Red Skull also feature in it. And that’s fine. Dr. Kruler was also in last year’s Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United. As was Abomination. But, then, even in this movie…I mean, not to ruin it, but you’ve got some Hulk in here, too. There’s just way too 1-on-1 action for job that could’ve been handled easily by the two heroes. Taskmaster is there to fight Cap and Iron Man…while Hulk has an army to take care of!
There is some brief fighting between Cap and Iron Man, but it’s a spar. Plus, the capture and Hawkeying of Cap seems a little too familiar at this point. Give me something other than brainwashing. Although they pull it off nicely. The lesson lays itself on a little thick. Throwing in Hulk doesn’t exactly help the balance of the lesson either. If each hero is to learn something from another…then brainwashing one hero and completely throwing in another seems to defeat that purpose.
I know there’s a twist, but it didn’t need to be made. Iron Man still rubs off a little bit on Cap and vice versa. But, essentially this is no different from Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United, maybe even with worse CGI. And it’s all kind of wrapped safely within the plot devices of 2012’s The Avengers. Still, it was an ambitious-looking movie, introducing Taskmaster and showing off Cap’s combat skills. But, if you want that, watch The Winter Soldier.
In my opinion, the more I think about this movie, the more I don’t like it. But, at least it’s only 70 minutes. Maybe it’s just a little too ambitious. I liked the voice acting, but most of the movie is just a retread, with stiff mouth movements and unnecessary Hulking out. If they’re going to call it anything, it should be called Iron Man, Hulk, & Captain America: Heroes United. I want to say it could’ve been good…but it’s too much and too sloppy for a 70-minute 3D feature. I’d give it 2/5 stars. And one Hulk for some reason.
CADILLACS AND DINOSAURS (1993 ARCADE) ACCESSIBILITY REVIEW:
MESS O.: “HEY CREEP! GET AWAY FROM THAT DINO!”
VICE T.: “GET LOST OR LOSE TEETH! YOUR CARCASS WILL FATTEN UP THIS
ROCK HOPPER BEFORE I SKIN IT!”
- Stage 1 Boss “Vice T.” Dialogue
Today, I played the most 90s thing I have ever seen. Why haven’t I ever seen this before!? Listen to this: It’s a Final Fight ripoff based on a comic that became a Saturday morning cartoon. That is gnarly, dude! It’s about guys from an apocalyptic 2153 fighting dinosaur hunters the best way possible. By beating them up! And sometimes even their dinosaurs, because those are obviously bad dinos. The ones you are saving are good. Since 90s nostalgia is cool, and it’s the most recent thing I’ve played, I thought I’d share some of my experiences with this radical game.
Apparently, the game supports up to four players: Jack, (Your Cody Clone!) Hannah, (Obligatory female in orange suit.) Mustapha,( Tough Black Guy!) and Mess O., (Your Haggar Clone!) Now, it’s pretty much your standard beat-‘em-up sidescroller with scifi tough guys, fat guys, and people with whips (And dinos, of course!) to beat up as you find food and power-ups in conveniently-placed oil drums and containers. But, it’s main gimmick seems to be that this game has more guns than The Punisher arcade game. There are a lot. All over the place.
Unlike most beat-em-ups, you see, it uses an ammo system. Most beat-em-ups have you throw away your gun after a few uses, like a ranged weapon with 3 uses. (The Punisher, Final Fight, Streets of Rage, etc.) Not in this game! You can pick up ammo, and blast punks with your shotguns, or triceratopses with your uzis, ‘til you can’t reload. This is the first beat-em-up I’ve seen with such a reload system, and it is awesome.
By the way, on the flipside of awesome cheese, all 90s arcade beat-em-ups had frighteningly cheesy and potentially traumatic game over screens to get you to fork over another quarter. In this one, Vice T. shoots you in the face when the counter reaches 0, and says “ EAT LEAD -- BABY!” Terrifying cheesiness. But, in this emulation, simply pressing a button inserts a coin, thank goodness. So we can be spared the potential trauma of hearing: “EAT LEAD -- BABY!” in our nightmares!
I love the cheesiness. I love that the mission doesn’t make sense. Save good dinos, kill bad ones. Sure! And I love that everything is solved with a one-liner and a punch. I even love the bad dialogue. (Jack’s victory phrase is “You can’t touch this!”) Anyway, I did have a couple accessibility issues. Since this was an emulation, I couldn’t figure out how to do special attacks. I pressed all the buttons. But, since there was no instructions on how the emulation translates arcade buttons, I still haven’t figured it all out, but have done most the guesswork myself. Thankfully, beat-em-ups are pretty straightforward and accessible. Just punch and move forward.
Before anyone asks…I haven’t read the comics, or seen the cartoon (Yet!) But, I thought the game was mind-blowingly RADICAL. If you want to revisit the 90s, or just have fun beating up bad guys with the power of one-liners and 90s catchphrases, this game is for you. Guns and dinosaurs! What more do you want? Check it out!
FINAL GRADE: A
ACCESSIBILITY GRADE: A- (Straight-forward beat-em-up with minimal tricky controls. Punch and move forward if all else fails.)
FORGIVENESS FACTOR: A+ (Unlimited continues if you‘re playing an emulation!)
CONTROLS: A (Pretty straightforward for a beat-em-up. But, some guesswork. Figure out how to punch, and you‘re good to beat up punks and evil dinos! Rock on!)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
