daleisgreat

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It's my 10 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

Can't believe it has been term years on Tumblr! Thank you all who have kept up with all my movie, TV, and wrestling ramblings this past decade! I have been meaning to do more reviews lately so if anyone is still checking in on here, stay tuned later this year!

I should also plug how I am currently fundraising for our state's Special Olympics! On March 2nd, I'll be jumping into a tub of freezing snow water. The event is called 'The Polar Plunge' and all funds raised goes to support the North Dakota Special Olympics! I appreciate any support no matter how big or small the donation, to donate please go to this link

#10 year tumblrversary #tumblr milestone

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Nothing but respect for Othello/Go

Blow your mind ‘Othello’ NES

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I am legit thrilled SlamBall is back! Ironically loved it in its original SpikeTV runs, and it is just as much good, chaotic fun as it was back then, but now with ESPN budget/presentation!

There is slamball bring played as I send you this. I am so happy

I can’t believe the Steal isn’t a team anymore.

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Basketbrawl on the Evercade photography by Crimson Cross

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Dale Is Great! turned 9 today!

#tumblr birthday #tumblr milestone

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God, what is happening in AEW? The viewership is tanking without Punk, you have one of the best tag teams on the planet sitting at home, and between the talent who want to leave and the contracts expiring, it's such a shitstorm. It's insane we are actually discussing another EVP jumping to WWE. These last several months have been pretty damn rough to watch.

Dunno, they've been putting on some great television shows and I've enjoyed a lot of what they're doing recently, though I don't think they're great at storytelling or building characters. I think maybe they brought on way too many people and they don't have enough TV time to make use of everyone.

You'd think that Dark would have some A-list talent on it more often, since these guys are getting paid either way, but it just doesn't happen. Meanwhile Parker Boudreaux is on every week? It's nuts, yeah. I'm sure it's a weird mix of people being difficult to work with so fuck it, leave 'em home, people who just don't fit in creatively at the moment, and something of a lack of imagination, creatively. Maybe when ROH is up and running these people will have more shows to (not) appear on, I don't know.

I get your meaning about leaving a great tag team sitting at home, but FTR isn't going to fix what ails the company.

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taking it outside -

Super Fire Pro Wrestling X Premium

(Human - Super Famicom - 1996)  

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Still one of my all-time favorite games, faults and all!

Shenmue (DC / Sega AM2 / 1999)

Massive scope and ambition meet some of the quietest, most mundane, moments ever in a video game. Shenmue doesn’t land with everyone, but to me, it’s a masterpiece.

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Street Fighter

When the first Street Fighter film hit in 1994 (trailer) my hype level for it was through the roof! Fighting games were on fire in the arcade and 16-bit systems at the time, and Street Fighter II was still a hot commodity. The trailer had then 11-year-old Dale craving to be there opening weekend because the costumes for most of the characters looked spot on. That preview included a montage of the “World Warriors” showcasing their vintage special attacks and poses. Guile’s Flash Kick and M. Bison enthusiastically proclaiming “GAME OVER!!!” in that trailer guaranteed I would be in the cinema for it. I was such a dork for this movie in my old journal at the time that I would keep a tally of the number of times I would see the trailer during commercial breaks on television leading up to the film……seriously. There were only a couple of video game movies out by this point. The genre did not have the disastrous reputation that it does today, so suffice it to say, I was amped up going into the film…..and pretty peeved coming out of it because of how it treated a few characters compared to the game and because there was not an actual fighting tournament in it. In 2009, I revisited it when an “Extreme Edition” hit home video with extra features, and my opinion on it softened a bit seeing it with a fresh set of eyes. I re-watched it last week with the new “Steel Book” Ultimate Edition released on BluRay last year. All these years later, and now I seriously love the film!

Well known Belgian, Jean-Claude Van Damme is leading this film as the American fighter, Guile, fresh off Van Damme’s slate of action hits like Hard Target and Double Team. Director Steven de Souza stated in interviews that they had a throwaway line of dialog explaining how Guile covered up his Belgian accent by saying it was actually a southern accent and he is actually from the United States, but it wound up on the cutting room floor. His adversary is the dastardly lead Street Fighter II boss, M. Bison, played by Raul Julia in what would be his final performance. As I alluded above, 11-year-old Dale was furious there was no fighting tournament. Instead, the film is all about M. Bison holding numerous “Allied Nations” employees as hostages in the fictitious world of Shadaloo, with various other Street Fighter combatants serving under him like Dee Jay (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.), Zangief (Andrew Bryniarski), Sagat (Wes Studi), and captured scientist Dhalsim (Roshan Seth). An awkward scientist’s attire is Dhalsim’s costume here, and Bison is forcing him to perform mutation experiments on Guile’s captured comrade, Charlie, and transform him mid-movie into the green-beast we know from the games as Blanka. I can go into the nerd gaming lore on how all kinds of wrong this is relating to Blanka, and Dhalsim’s character’s in the game, but I will actually give the filmmakers credit all these years later because it kind of actually plays well with an adult set of eyes because it would be pretty damn odd diving into Blanka’s actual video game origin story on the silver screen while trying to give equal time for the huge cast.

Speaking of this stacked cast, for the protagonists, aside from Guile, serving under him in the Allied Nations is Thunder Hawk (Gregg Rainwater), Cammy (Kylie Minogue), and Captain Sawada (Kenya Sawada)-who is a character created just for this movie. Sawada was later inserted as a playable character in the video game based on the film…that is based on the game and deliberately titled, Street Fighter: The Movie--just watch this video, it can explain it much better than I can. Two fighters more popular among fans of the video game, Ken (Damian Chapa) and Ryu (Byron Mann), have lesser supporting roles here as they are con-artist weapon dealers who later get teamed up against their will with Sagat and Vega (Jay Tavare). The last squadron of good guys is the trio of Chun-Li (Ming-Na Wen), Balrog (Grand L. Bush – who gave a random viral speech about his memories on the film in 2015), and E. Honda (Peter Tiasosopo). This motley trio is an innocuous TV news crew, but all three coincidentally have their own martial arts background that lines up with the game canon, and Chun-Li wants to avenge her father’s death when M. Bison steamrolled through her village. When Chun-Li confronts Bison with this, Julia absolutely nails it with his delivery of the meme-worthy “It Was Tuesday” line….if you have no recollection of this, well then click or press here to see this iconic moment in cinema history!

Speaking of, Raul Julia is sublime in his performance as M. Bison. He cheeses up his performance just right in his delivery as the master crime lord. Bonus feature interviews detail how he went method for studying for the role going so far as to research Mussolini speeches to mimic body language cadence. Other actors interviewed stated how Julia was visibly sick and downtrodden off-camera with cancer but wanted to do this film for his kids who loved the game. When the cameras were on, his colleagues stated how he was a total pro and how he went out with an aces performance that still lives on to this day! I love the costume he adorns that is incredibly faithful to the game, outrageous cape and all!!! Most other fighters either have game-appropriate costumes or receive their appropriate gear at some point in the movie. Honda is the perfect case where after an amusing Kong/Godzilla duel homage with Zangief, Honda’s gear is battered so much that he dons it like his traditional sumo gear in the game! Some cast members like Dee Jay and Dhalsim don’t don their proper gear, but the filmmakers and costume department get it right for the most part! For better or worse, the fight choreographers work in plenty of the roster’s iconic moves like Guile’s aforementioned Flash Kick, Bison & Honda’s torpedo dive, and regrettably meek renditions of Ryu’s Hadoken and Ken’s Shoryuken.

The film has a rather convoluted plot, but it essentially stumbles its way into a cohesive mess by the end. The Allied Nations crew teams up with Chun-Li’s TV squad and eventually Ryu & Ken to invade M. Bison’s fortress. Van Damme does an admirable “so-bad-it’s-good” portrayal of Guile, and he has a main event-worthy clash with Bison in the final act to close the film. All the fights inside Bison’s fortress with all the cast members are an admitted dumpster fire to keep up with, but an enjoyable one nonetheless! I tip my hat to the crew for the monumental task of trying to grant adequate screen time for this ensemble cast. At the time of the film’s release, Super Street Fighter II was a fairly new entry in the series at home release, so I was surprised to see Dee Jay, Cammy, and Thunder Hawk all featured, but Fei Long is mysteriously absent. However, it may make sense in recent years after finding out how litigious the estate of the Bruce Lee family is. This Ultimate Edition Steel Book has a ton of bonus materials. I would be remiss not to mention how awesome the steel book case is, and the gorgeous art that adorns it. Another cheeky bonus is an actual, physical “Bison Dollar” that plays a small-yet-vital part in the film!!! The folks behind this steel book BluRay went all-out with new bonus materials. There are roughly 75 minutes of new video interviews and features. A couple of the highlights are a 20-minute interview with writer/director Steven. E. de Souza, titled, Making Street Fighter. There is roughly an E. Honda’s 100-hand Slap’s worth of new production anecdotes from Souza. Some quick highlights are how $10 million of the $32 million budget went to Jean Claude Van Damme & Raul Julia alone. Additionally, here we find out JCVD was his backup option after Sylvester Stallone and how he originally wanted Stephen Wang as Bison, but was surprised Julia jumped at the role and could not turn him down.

Also amusing was how Souza stated how they kept toning down the violence and blood in the fights to get to a PG-13 rating but eventually overdid it and the MPAA rated the movie G. Hence, they went back and had JCVD whisper in a curse word to get a PG-13 rating. Lastly, it was fascinating to see in this interview how Souza was pretty introspective all these years later, being appreciative of fans coming around and telling him how much they love the movie in recent years after all the initial negative press. Other notable new extras are interviews with the composer, Graene Revell, and how he was competing to get his soundtrack done and released before the Mortal Kombat movie soundtrack, which went on to much bigger success and still resonates today. They tracked down Ken Masters actor, Damian Chapa for a new interview with fond reflections of his kids loving that he did this movie all these years later. The actress who played Chun-Li, Ming-Na Wen, also had a new interview, with the standout moment being how she was in the scene with Raul Julia for the iconic “It was Tuesday” line. While they could not track JCVD for a new interview, they did have a historian interviewed detailing his humble Hollywood beginnings to his breakout success, and eventually how Street Fighter was the beginning of a downward spiral for him.

There is also roughly a half hour of archived extra features from the aforementioned “Extreme Edition” DVD, but the archived commentary track with de Souza also is carried over and worth your time and has a lot of takeaways from how the production shifted from Thailand into Australia due to filming conditions. This “Ultimate Edition” is a stacked BluRay, and well worth tracking down If you have any nostalgia for the 1994 classic!!! The intricately detailed steel book and physical “Bison Dollar” are just the icing on this delicious cake of camp theater fan service!! I think it is a safe bet the reboot follow-up Street Fighter: Legend of Chun-Li will not receive this treatment as it is as awful today as it was in 2009. By the way, the pic above this paragraph is the ultimate fan service to end the movie with each fighter’s appropriate victory pose!!!! Many, many thanks, Steven E. de Souza, for this iconic closing shot!!!

Here I am reflecting back on Street Fighter in a clip on the podcast “Big Screens & TV Streams.” Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street 1917 The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Endgame The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve The Clapper Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed I & II Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dirty Work Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Grunt: The Wrestling Movie Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hell Comes to Frogtown Hercules: Reborn Hitman I Like to Hurt People Indiana Jones 1-4 Inglourious Basterds Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Justice League (2017 Whedon Cut) Last Action Hero Major League Mallrats Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Nintendo Quest Not for Resale Old Joy Payback (Director’s Cut) Pulp Fiction The Punisher (1989) The Ref The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VIII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Serenity (2005) Scott Pilgrim vs the World The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Speed Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT Trauma Center The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild The Wizard Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past Youngblood

#random movie #street fighter #capcom #street fighter II #raul julia #jean claude van damme #guile #m. bison #steven e. de souza #gregg rainwater #kylie minogue #kenya sawada #ming-na wen #grand l bush #Peter Tiasosopo #wes studi #miguel a. núñez jr. #roshan seth #byron mann #damian chapa

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Love the soundtrack for this!!!!

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Youngblood

At a local college hockey game earlier this year I was discussing all-time favorite hockey films with a colleague, and he mentioned 1986’s Youngblood (trailer). Somehow, this puck-favorite escaped me all these years as I had never heard of it. I tried to track it down via online streaming, but it was on no streaming services, not even as a rental! I eventually settled on purchasing a DVD off Amazon and can finally cross-check this one off the to-see list! Rob Lowe is the center of attention here as rural up-and-coming hockey ace Dean Youngblood. He lives on a small Canadian farm and against his dad’s advice, chooses to pursue Junior league hockey in his quest to make the pros. However, Dean is in for a whole new level of competition as the opening scenes at tryouts successfully establish a rival when Dean outperforms tenured player Racki (George Finn) and costs Racki his spot on the team! From there, Dean has to achieve the ultimate test of winning over the respect of his teammates, especially team captain Derek Sutton (Patrick Swayze). Another teammate worth noting in a small part with just several lines in the film is the player named Heaver, played by a very early-in-his-career, Keanu Reeves!

Dean has to endure a lot of right-of-passage rituals in the juniors, such as a shaving prank that I hear is commonplace amongst rookies in real-life locker rooms, the team intentionally getting Dean wasted and having to suffer the after-effects in practice the next day and acquiring a specific taste for tea at the player’s local lodging. It was quite the feat of seeing Dean go through the hazing gauntlet, and I feel some of the scenes would have been shot differently if it were released today. Jessie (Cynthia Gibb) is the rink’s Zamboni driver, coach’s daughter, and love interest for Dean. Seeing their relationship play out while attempting to keep the coach out of sight added a fun side dynamic to the film worth investing into. The actual hockey scenes here have an unorthodox feeling to them. The players are moving at a slow speed for the big plays as if trying to imitate slow-motion replays, but without the special effects filter that enables the slow-motion zoom/blur in sports telecasts. This results in a handful of plays where players are slowly skating awkwardly before scoring a pivotal goal. There are some nasty fight scenes/dirty plays where Racki comes into play, constantly messing with Sutton and Youngblood. There is a massive payoff in the final game, where Youngblood has a do-or-die penalty shot, which directly leads into a game-ending fight scene with Youngblood and Racki, which Youngblood has adequately prepared for via Rocky-esque fight training montages back at the family farm!

This is a barebones DVD release, with only a trailer being the only extra feature. Seeing how this is a real early movie in the career of Lowe, Swayze, and Keanu Reeves, I would have loved a quick interview retrospective piece or even a commentary track. Click or press here to check out this thorough oral history from The Hockey News as a worthy online alternative. This was a fun hockey film that told an interesting story about trying to break into junior league hockey, with the added paradigm of being from a Canadian perspective. Aside from the aforementioned awkward moments, the hockey action is still plenty passable. A fantastic hero/villain is established on the ice with Dean and Racki’s rivalry that rewards viewers with a tremendous end fight scene! Thank you Brad for recommending Youngblood! I think I will put this in the upper echelon of hockey films for me with Mystery, Alaska, Goon, and Sudden Death.

For more discussion on Youngblood and some of my other favorite hockey films, check out this clip where I cover it on the podcast “Big Screens & TV Streams.” Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street 1917 The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Endgame The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve The Clapper Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed I & II Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dirty Work Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Grunt: The Wrestling Movie Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hell Comes to Frogtown Hercules: Reborn Hitman I Like to Hurt People Indiana Jones 1-4 Inglourious Basterds Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Justice League (2017 Whedon Cut) Last Action Hero Major League Mallrats Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Nintendo Quest Not for Resale Old Joy Payback (Director’s Cut) Pulp Fiction The Punisher (1989) The Ref The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VIII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Serenity (2005) Scott Pilgrim vs the World The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Speed Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT Trauma Center The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild The Wizard Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

#random movie #youngblood #rob lowe #patrick swayze #Keanu Reeves #cynthia gibb #george finn

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Hey Tumblr-verse, I do a weekly video game broadcast called the Midwest Super Pixel Pros. Live every Friday at 2pm on gfbestsource.com! We play 2-3 games an episode and have other discussion segments too. Here is our latest show where we bust out Horizon Chase Turbo, Samurai Shodown II and R-Type Final 2!

Midwest Super Pixel Pros 4-1-22 “Chasing R-Type of Samurais“

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