Matthew Jacoby

Brilliant movie! Seen this umpteen years ago when it first came out in theaters. I revisited it just now as it’s on Tubi. So Astrid is the center focus throughout the whole movie along with her mother. Mom is single as dad left when Astrid was only a couple of years old. Anyway it begins with her (Astrid) looking back a bit on her life and some very unique, personalized suitcases each made to reflect a certain point in her youth, specifically her teen years as the movie begins when she’s roughly 16 years old (so I’m guessing, I don’t believe it says for certain her age at any time). Parts of the movie are occasionally & sporadically played back in brief flashes to fill in certain blanks, but for the most part it begins with her and her mom going to see her moms boyfriend. An interesting encounter has taken place, it doesn’t seem too negative at the time but soon thereafter the police show up at their house and Astrid’s mom is arrested and dragged off to jail/prison for the murder of her boyfriend. Child services shows up in almost no time after her mom is dragged off and things really begin. I’ll skip the details as that’d be too much of a spoiler, but simply put Astrid begins going through a number of foster and group homes. Some very well meaning, some very real world, some almost too good to be true and so forth. All the while she has regular communication with her mom now in prison doing a life sentence. One thing becomes very clear very quickly. Her mom has always had an emotional stronghold on Astrid and even though separated by prison she still has no less of an emotional stronghold over Astrid. Telling her how to live and questioning many of her decisions and judging many of her foster parents it’s perfectly clear that she still has a very deep and very powerful emotional stronghold over Astrid. A retrial is about to take place for her mom near the end, if Astrid cooperates she has a very good chance of getting off or at least paroled, but only if Astrid cooperates. She is literally the only one who can properly defend her mom. Astrid is perfectly aware of the position she’s in and the sudden shift of power between the two of them. Astrid could ask for anything she wants, money, a fancy car, anything. Her and her mom are both artists and not the starving kind either (LOL) so there’s definitely money if desired behind her mom. What does Astrid want? How deep can it possibly get? Will she get what she’s after from her mom? And is that even the end? No, it’s not the end, but then, how does it end? I think by now that if you’ve read my review that I’ve wound you up nicely. Check out the movie for both the answers and a rock solid drama.

Ever find one of those actors you really like, but somehow a few of their best movies slip by you? That's the case here for both fan's of Gene and Will. No it's not one of those films by some small time movie company no-one has ever heard of. It's just for the most part it currently doesn't get nearly as much or even enough recognition to be instantly familiar to most people. There's bound to be some who remember this as well as I do, but speaking on the majority odds are this one has a better than 50-50 chance of having passed you by and you probably never even realized it. The story is entangled and woven enough to be a little too complicated to wanna detail. Just look at the catch line for this movie on the boxes cover as that sums it up well enough. "It's not paranoia, if they're really after you." Conspiracy theory rapidly turns into conspiracy fact and it quickly becomes a matter of getting out alive. Which is a hell of a lot easier said than done as Will soon finds out and Gene already knows. It's a classic thrill ride that'll keep you pumped and on the edge of your seat. It also doesn't take long to kick into high gear and once it gets going it doesn't let up. Basically, just watch it, you'll thank me afterwards.

This is yet another game for pretty much all Nintendo fan fanboys. Any other gamer who isn't kissing up to Nintendo all day will find this to be nothing more than a polished version of the Gameboy version of which it's a remake of. Ok, pause. That's not necessarily a bad thing, right? I mean if say FF7 got a straight remake with simply updated graphics everyone would go crazy for it. The problem is that games like that only really offer nostalgic value, their so much of a copy that there's no reason to replay them unless you've never played them the first time around. This isn't really a review in regards to this actual game, it's actually not a bad game, it's a review in regards to it as a remake. And since graphics are the only real new element here it just comes across as an incredibly bland and dull remake. Sure some remakes do too much in reworking the remake and goof up too, but a bit of insight to what most Nintendo gamers and Zelda fans want can give a few appropriate cues as to what to do. I guess this isn't the worst game because 8t retains pretty much everything of the original, but as a remake it brings nothing new besides polished graphics. Get it if you've never played it before, otherwise pass it by.

The concept here is simple enough, take a puzzle game not too unlike Tetris, but add in viruses to kill off with pills instead of forming rows of blocks. It implements a speed control at which the game can be started and toy with the startup menu a bit and you can also increase the amount of viruses you start with. If memory serves right I believe you need 3 of the same colored pills in a row stacked on top of a virus to kill it. Wipe the screen of all viruses to advance to the next level. Simple, huh? Only thing is that while much like Tetris this formula found to be popular and somewhat addictive it's also so very basic that it does get repetitive and a wearisome after a while. It's not to say it doesn't have replay value, but once you get sick of it it'll be a very long time before you're likely to pull it off the shelf again. IDK, there's something Tetris had to keep the replay value super high and kept it from dying off that's just missing in Dr Mario. Still a solid game and if you've never played it before it'll be a good while before it gets old I'm sure.