Parks and Recreation

Last year the hit NBC television series Parks and Recreation ended. In my opinion, it was a good show. What made it good you may ask. That comes from a number if factors. So let's take a look at it and see what it had to offer.





Protagonist: The main character of the entire series is Leslie Knope. In all honesty, she's kind of boring. This isn't a bad thing. She still has some really good moments. Usually, the main character of any TV show or movies is the least interesting. The supporting cast is usually the best part. Leslie's main love interest is Ben Wyatt. He's the straight man to play off all the craziness around him. He's a pretty funny character and love interest. There's Leslie's boss Ron Swanson. His character is just an over the top "Manly Man" character type. He's one of the funniest characters in the show in my opinion. There's Leslie's other boss Chris Traeger. He's an overly positive health fanatic and a foil for Ron and they both work off each other really well. There's Leslie's best friend Ann Perkins. She has a similar role to Ben and works off the insanity around her. There's Leslie's friend Tom Haverford. He's an over the top egotistical business character and I think he's pretty funny. There's also Leslie's other friend April Ludgate. She's a sarcastic jerk. Occasionally she can become a bit too jerkish but that can be overlooked most of the time. And last but not least there's musician/shoe shiner/TV show host/FBI agent Andy Dwyer. He's the goofy idiot type of character and I think he's very funny and makes a good foil to April. So overall a good main cast. But let's see how the villains stand up.

Antagonists: For a comedy show this has a lot of villains. But I'm only counting the villains that make more than one appearance. One of the weaker points in the show is the villains. But let's get to the ones I like. First off is the main villain of season five and six Jeremy Jamm. He's an obnoxious jerk who exists to make Leslie's life miserable. Despite being a terrible person his actor really plays it up and I honestly really like him. There is also Bobby Newport. He wasn't much of an antagonist despite opposing Leslie in season four. He didn't really know what he was doing and that made everything he did funny. There's the two radio show hosts (Whose names currently escape me). Like Jeremy, they're written to be intentionally annoying. Honestly, I have heard radio hosts like them in real life. And one of the two hosts is actually shown to be quite intelligent. With them, their annoyance annoys the characters and not the viewers. In the middle of the spectrum is Joan Callamezzo. She's the host of a morning talk show. She's less interested in news and more interesting in mocking people. Unlike with Jeremy and the radio hosts, their annoyance annoys both the characters and viewers. But they aren't the most annoying. On the end of the spectrum is Nick Newport and Jessica Wicks. They basically serve as the evil corporation that controls the town. They're a pretty overused character type and overall not very interesting. And last but not least my least favourite villains in the show: Macia and Marshal Langman. They are what the website TVTropes.org defines these types of characters as Strawmen. They only serve to be the opposite of the writer's beliefs and have the main characters deliver the moral of the episode. All they want everything they disagree with to be censored. They are like Ned Flanders from the Simpsons minus any likeability. I get that it's a comedy show and can't have villains as interesting as say a crime show but other shows have had antagonists that had something to them other than "The writers oppose this issue and I am here to represent it badly". So overall the villains are just "Meh".





Other Characters: Here are some more characters that can't be considered major but are worth mentioning. There's Jerry Gergich. He's the guy that works as the goofy character that nobody likes him. I like him and think he's a good example of an unfortunate character done well. There's Tom's best friend Donna Meagle. She's very fun-loving and one of my favourite side characters on the show. There's Tom's friend Jean Ralphio Saperstein. He's like an even more over the top version of Tom and I like him. In the first two seasons, there was a character named Mark Brandanowitz. He was like a prototype version of Ben. In that, he was the straight man only with anything that made Ben interesting. He was just kind of boring. Not much else to them other than boring. Craig was a character introduced in season six. He was constantly shouting no matter the situation and always in an over the top manner. And of course, there's the best character in the entire show.... Li'l Sebastian the Mini Horse! Actually.... He's just adorable. Not much else to them. So overall it has a strong supporting cast..... And Mark.





Plot: Each season has their different story arch. For the first two seasons it focuses on the Parks Department filling in a giant pit outside of Ann's house. The first season is boring and I skipped to season two after three episodes. Season two got better but was still finding out what the show was about. Season three is the main characters getting used to the new management of the government by Chris and Ben. It got a lot better in that season. Season four is Leslie running for city council against Bobby Newport. This is my favourite season in my opinion. Season five and six is Leslie working on the city council. I like it but I personally think the show should have ended after season six. Season seven is set in the distant year of ... 2017! It mostly shows what the characters are doing in the: DISTANT FUTURE OF 2017! I like the season but I think it should have ended after season six.





Conclusion: Parks and Recreation is a great show. One of the best parts of the show is the main cast. I remember a lot about the characters like Ron, Andy, Tom, April, Chris, and many more. Some of the characters are like real people that exist. Of course there are some characters that aren't so great like Marcia and Mark. But the good outweighs the bad in this situation. It also teaches some good morals which are also a bonus. And of course, the show has a great sense of humour. So I do recommend that you watch it if you haven't.

A New Hope vs The Force Awakens

So there's a new Star Wars movie out. Well instead of reviewing it like I would normally I've decided to compare it to the original. Because it actually has some similarities. Sort of like when I compared Jurassic Park and Jurassic World. So without further ado here is A New Hope vs The Force Awakens. Also before I start I would to announce that this review has a lot spoilers in it. So if you've seen the movie or just don't care take a look. If you haven't seen the movie.... Sorry.


Protagonists: The main character in A New Hope is Luke Skywalker. He's a lot more whiny in the first movie than he is than he is in the sequels.  And that's really kind of distracting. The other main characters are Han Solo, Obi Wan Kenobi, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, R2D2, and C3PO. Han is my favourite character in the first movie. Probably due to how cool he plays it. Chebacca doesn't have any actual lines but he's somehow still pretty interesting. Obi Wan is basically every other old mentor character ever. Princess Leia is also a pretty strong character. R2D2 really doesn't have much personality do to only being able to talk through beeping noises. But they're harmless. C3PO is kind of annoying but it's not too noticeable. A lot of the characters from the first movie are in the Force Awakens. They mostly remain unchanged. Han is still overly confident, C3PO worries a lot and so on. The main characters introduced in this movie are Finn, Rey, BB8, and Poe. Finn and Rey are actually pretty likeable and have interesting characters with Finn being and ex-Stormtrooper and Rey being a down on her luck scavenger. BB8 is a droid and he doesn't talk. They're not interesting but harmless. Poe is kind of boring. He's just the generic good looking, talented, nice guy. But he's barely in the movie. There's actually a fake out in the beginning that I thought was pretty funny where they made you think he'd be the main character. Both the movies have a pretty solid cast. But due to Luke whining in the first half of the movie in the original I'll give the point to the Force Awakens.




Antagonists: The main antagonist in A New Hope is Darth Vader. He's a classic antagonist. He's threatening and an interesting character..... He's also Luke's father. It's not a spoiler everyone knows it! Anyway that about does it for the antagonists in the first movie. Emperor Palpatine wasn't introduced until the Empre Strikes back. Don't worry there are many more antagonists in the Force Awakens. First off is Kylo Ren, he's Han Solo's son (Spoiler) and actually a pretty good antagonist. Probably the only complaint I have is that without his helmet on he isn't very intimidating. The other antagonists are General Hux, Captain Phasma, and Supreme Leader Snoke. The only thing I remember about General Hux is that he speaks with a British accent. Not just any British accent an evil British accent.... Trust me there's a difference. The only things I remember about Captain Phasma is that she's a girl and wears a really shiny outfit. Snoke is sort of like..... Um.... He's not very interesting. But he may get more interesting in the next movie. But a New Hope has the  more interesting villain and the Force Awakens has the uninteresting villains weighing it down.





Special Effects: The original was made in the 70's. But surprisingly the effects hold up. A lot of the puppets and models are pretty good. Sometimes you get a really dated effect but for the most part it's pretty good. The second movie came out recently so the effects are of course improved. It integrates the CGI and practical effects like puppets really well. So yeah, I'm going to give the point to the Force Awakens.








Plot: Both these movies have similarities. It starts with a character hiding something inside a droid, a poor character on a desert planet finds the droid, and it ends with a giant evil base blowing up. The main difference is the pacing of the plots. The original movie has a much slower pace than the new one. On one hand a New Hope was better at explaining things but too much explaining started to get tedious at times. On the other hand if the plot moves too fast you might not be able to explain things. But personally I prefer the Force Awakens.





Conclusion: I think the Force Awakens is better. Being made now gives it better effects, and less dated acting. But a New Hope is of course still a classic and is the movie that started it all. But in the end I think the Force Awakens did a better job. I'm glad to have compared these movies and let me know what you think.

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Well the new Star Wars movie came out. But I'm not reviewing it yet. That review needs some more time. But for now I'm going to review a show I liked when I was a kid and see if it still holds up. That show is Yu-Gi-Oh. The show was based around a line of merchandise sort of like G.I. Joe or Pokemon. Just a side note I'm reviewing the version of the show that was dubbed into English instead of the Japanese version because I hate reading subtitles and it's the one I grew up with. Let's get started.

Protagonists: The main character of the series is Yugi Muto. He's your basic nice guy protagonist character. He isn't the most interesting but there isn't anything bad about him. One of the other important characters is his alter ego Yami who possess him to play card games (It'll makes sense later). Yami is some sort of all powerful entity and he's a bit less bland than Yugi but not all that interesting. There is also his best friends Joey, Tristan, and Tèa. Joey is the most interesting, Tristan doesn't have much of a reason to be there (Seriously you could cut him out after season one and almost nothing would change) and Tèa is the generic love interest character for Yugi. As you could have guessed by the way I described them they aren't all that interesting.


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Antagonists: Each season has their own separate antagonist. I'll go over each of them. Season one's antagonist is Maximilian Pegasus. He was actually pretty threatening what with his ability to steal people's souls. But the more I watch him the more comically over the top he becomes and the harder it is to take him seriously. Season two's main antagonists is Marik Ishtar and Bakura. They were less silly than Pegasus and actually managed to do some evil things. On a side note Bakura comes back in season five. They were the most interesting antagonists. The main antagonist of the season is Noah and his henchmen Gansley, Crump, Johnson, Nesbitt, and Leichter. He's actually pretty creepy and not as silly as Pegasus. His henchmen are kind of just forgettable and gimmicky. The one downside to them is that their entire story arc is just filler. Seriously they are never brought up again. You could cut them out and almost nothing would change. Season four's main villains are Dartz and his minions Alistair, Raphael, and Valon. Dartz is kind of bland; he sort of comes out of nowhere. On the bright side he's a lot more threatening than some of the other villains. The main antagonist for the first half of season five is Zigfried von Schrouder. He was basically a more campy German version of Pegasus. And like Noah and Dartz he is never mentioned again after he is defeated. So overall the show has a good rogues gallery. Too bad most of them are inconsequential.






Minor Characters: Here are some of the characters that aren't as prominent as the rest but still pretty important. First off is Kaiba; he is Yugi's main rival. He's actually quite enjoyable. There's also Kaiba's younger brother Mokuba who is kind of just there to get kidnapped by whatever the season's main antagonist is. There's Not-Evil- Bakura. He isn't very interesting in his non evil form. Another minor character is Mai Valentine...... Get it.... It's a pun. She's kind of just a generic love interest for Joey. Marik also has a brother and sister named Odion and Ishizu. They are both pretty bland. There's also Joey's sister Serenity; she's only in the first season to give Joey a reason to be there and in the second and third seasons to wrap up her plot. There's also Yugi's grandpa Solomon Muto. He's only in the first season as a damsel (Or duke?) in distress before becoming a background character. There's also Rebecca Hawkins who at first is a one off character before becoming a main character in season four. There's Duke Devlin who invented some sort of dice based game. He could have been cut out and not much would have change. And last but not least there's Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood.... They kind of just show up from time to time and follow the protagonists. They're annoying end of story. The supporting cast is mostly okay with the best part being Kaiba.







Story: Okay so the story is as follows: Many years ago ancient Egyptians played a game involving monsters. The Egyptian Pharaohs sealed their spirits inside mystical items which have recently been found. The main story involves Yugi and Yami trying to find out the secrets of the items known as the Millennium Items. Before I start talking about each season I should address that every time there's a conflict it's always resolved in a duel. Not a duel with weapons but with playing cards. This is where the commercial tie in comes in. The game they play is Duel Monsters. Don't ask me to explain the rules I'm not exactly sure myself. And yes it is pretty silly that a children's card game is what resolves everything. Each season has a different story arc. I'll talk about each of them.
Season one features Pegasus trying to steal Yugi's Millennium Item by stealing his grandpa's soul to get him to sign up for his card game tournament..... It's kind of a stupid plan.
Season two has Kaiba starting his own tournament and Marik trying to win it and steal Yugi's Millennium Item. It's basically the first season's plot re-hashed.
Season three has Noah and his henchmen trapping the main cast in a virtual world and trying to possess their bodies. It's actually a pretty creative plot.... Too bad it's mostly filler and ends up sidelining the main plot of Marik.
Season four has Dartz and his weird motorcycle riding cult trying to summon the Leviathan. It's actually pretty dramatic..... But just like with Noah's plot it's mostly filler and is never brought up again. Not to mention Dartz himself is never foreshadowed.
The first half of season five is Kaiba hosting another tournament and Zigfried trying to win and expose Kaiba as a fraud (Long story). However, like the last two plots it's all filler.
The the second half of season five has the cast travelling back to ancient Egypt and trying to stop Bakura from destroying everything with a beast named Zorc. It's the most action packed season due to it probably having the least card games in it. Overall it has some pretty decent stories but way too much filler.




Conclusion: Yu-Gi-Oh is not a good show by any means. The leads aren't really very interesting and it has literally entire seasons of filler plot. But the strange thing is despite it not being great I still remember it years later. It's sort of like my generation's version of Transformers or the Adam West Batman. A show that's silly and not all that well written but very memorable with it's silliness. Let's be honest, if you watch the 60's Batman these days it's probably not for the story or characters it's for the campiness. In addition to the silliness some characters like Kaiba, Marik, and Noah are pretty entertaining. So whether you're in it for the silliness or just like card games I recommend this show. Keep in mind this review is for the English dub. I haven't seen the Japanese version and I'm not sure if that version is better or worse.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Everybody loves Indiana Jones. With a mix of quick action, memorable characters, and practical effects that will haunt your nightmares you can bet it was popular. After the success of The Last Crusade it was only logical to make a fourth movie..... A rough 19 years later. As you may have guessed I am talking about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's one tranwreck of a movie and I have to review it. Small note there will be some spoilers..... But let's be fair this movie is ruined either way. So without further ado let's get started.










Characters: The main character of this movie is Indiana Jones. He's mostly the same as in the previous movies.... Just older. But don't worry he has an obvious stunt double for the action sequences. The other characters in this movie are Indiana Jones' son he really doesn't do much. Marian from the first movie. She's kind of there for the throwback to the first movie. There's Mac.... He's pointless end of story. There's this crazy guy.... He's only there as a convenient plot device. Finally there's the main villain: a Russian lady with a really over the top accent. She's probably the best part of the movie just with how over the top she is.







Special Effects: The effects in this movie are pretty fake looking. I never once believe that there were gophers, monkeys, or man eating ants in this movie. Some of the stunts are impressive but like said above it's pretty obvious when they're using a stunt double. It's sad that the special effects of a movie in the 90's like Jurassic Park are better than this one.











Plot: Okay so Indiana Jones is returning the skull of an alien to it's resting place...... What? That's the story? When where aliens part of the Indiana Jones series. It's about as silly as it sounds. They spend a lot of time explaining stuff. Seriously, during one exposition scene I got a glass of water and when I got back they were still explaining the plot. It's a very silly premise and doesn't really fit into the universe of Indiana Jones.









Overall Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a laughably bad movie. So if you want a movie with bad effects a silly plot and russians

Goosebumps: The Movie

Happy Halloween...... Make that November. As some of you may remember I reviewed a few episodes of the Goosebumps TV show from the 90's. But apparently they made a movie out it. So is it as average as the show or will it actually be better? Let's find out.













Characters: Let's take a look at our main characters. There's Zach. He's bland end of story. There Hannah. She's the generic love interest end of story. There's Zach's Mother. She's barely in the movie.There's Zach's Aunt. She's also barely in the movie. There are these two cops who are barely in the movie but are actually pretty funny. And there's R.L. Stine as portrayed by Jack Black. Honestly he's my favourite characters because of how over the top he is. There are also the various villains from the books. But the only one to get a decent amount of screen time is Slappy the living dummy. Overall there are some pretty forgettable characters but the memorable ones make up for it.

Special Effects: It's a mixed bag. Some of the practical effects like the zombies are pretty convincing. But when they use CGI for monsters like the Yeti, werewolf, and the evil Gnomes I never believed that they were actually there. Overall the special effects are just okay.










Plot: The plot to this movie is a strange hybrid of Jumanji and Gremlins. I like both those movies so this one is pretty good. However I couldn't keep drawing comparisons like the monsters cutting the power and so on. There's also a romance plot with bland and blander..... I mean Zach and Hannah. As you may have guessed from my sarcasm this is my least favourite parts of the movie. But the memorable parts of the movie make up for it.







Conclusion: Overall this wasn't  bad. But with the uninteresting leads and unconvincing effects it's only okay. But some of the practical effects are nice and Jack Black as R. L. Stine sort of steals the show for me. So I do recommend this movie as a Halloween movie.... Even though Halloween is now over.

Top Ten Creepy Characters

In honour of the fact that Halloween is coming soon I thought I would do a top ten list. I will be listing characters from TV and movies that I find the most creepy. This is all opinion based so your favourite character may not be here. Let's get started.






10 Marik from Yu-Gi-Oh
I haven't watched this show in a while but from what I can remember it's about as much fun as watching someone play a card game. The reason Marik is so low is because I can't remember much about him. I put him up here mostly based on his appearance. Seriously what is wrong with his face?







9 Manbat from Batman the Animated Series
Batman the Animated Series is a great version of the Batman character. But seriously look at this guy. He is terrifying. I will not be able to sleep for weeks now. And his transformation scene where he becomes Manbat isn't very fun to watch.









8 The Pottsfielders from Over the Garden Wall
Over the Garden Wall is a great TV miniseries. In the second episode the main characters find a town called Pottsfield. It seems pretty normal except for the fact that all the people there are skeletons wearing pumpkins. They all look so uncanny and the leader pumpkin has a really creepy voice. However the reason their so low is that they don't do anything that evil.







7 Puppet King from Teen Titans
I love puppets. Okay, that's a lie. Puppets are freaky. I mostly have the Twilight Zone  to thank for that. And a Puppet that turns people into puppets is supper creepy. We never find out what Puppet King is and they never appear again after that making them all the more creepy.









6 The Summerween Trickster from Gravity Falls
I  hope your in the Halloween spirit. Because if your not your gonna get eaten by a freaky ghost thing. Everything from his character design to his voice is just plain creepy. Also throughout the episode his design becomes more deformed and creepy. Yay fun for the whole family.







5 Sabrina from Pokémon
Ah Pokémon, a world a wonder and adventure.... and crazy ladies with psychic powers who turn people into dolls. Sabrina would be creepy enough on her own but she also has miniature doll of herself. Also, fun fact. The episode she is featured in is the first episode of the show I saw.... Great way to start off.









4 This Guy from the Adventures of Mark Twain
You know that scene from Dumbo with the pink elephants? Imagine that only a million times more freaky. And like the elephants this guy never shows up again. Fun fact the scene he is featured in is actually cut from some TV broadcastings of the movie. It's that terrifying.






3 Giffanny from Gravity Falls
Gravity Falls makes a second appearance on the list. This time for a character that everything they do is just disturbing. Even before they do anything evil their just unnerving. Also towards the end of the episode they posses some animatronics at a Chuck E Cheese knock off. So congrats Gravity Falls you have made me afraid of Anime and Chuck E Cheese.





2 The Beast from Over the Garden Wall
Speaking of shows making a return Over the Garden Wall is on this list again. Who is the beast? What is the beast? What do they look like? You never know and that is what makes them scary for me. It's the mystery aspect.







1 The Other Mother from Coraline
I know I've mention them before but seriously they are scary. Even before she transforms into a spider monster there is just something unsettling about them. You really have to watch the movie to see for yourself. But I think they are one of the creepiest characters in fiction. Happy Halloween.

Hotel Transylvania

It's time for another review. And this time it's in a new format. The movie I am reviewing is Hotel Transylvania. Seems like good timing since the sequel is coming out soon. Small side note there will be some spoilers in the "Plot" section of the review. Let's get started.

Characters: The main characters are Dracula, his daughter Mavis, and Jonathan the human. Dracula is basically every over protective dad character ever. But he is kind of funny. Mavis is sort of boring but they aren't terrible. And Jonathan is actually really annoying and totally X-Treme..... With an X for some reason. The side characters like the the Wolfman, Frankenstein, the hotel workers and the hotel guests are actually pretty funny. Jonathan sort of kills the movie for me. But the other characters are pretty good.

Animation: The animation is the best part of the movie for me. Every character stands out and some of the backgrounds have cool details in it. I also like some of the chase scenes in the movie. Of course the animation might me a bit too cartoonish for some people but personally I really like it. So in my opinion this is one of the aspects of the movie.









Music: There are several songs in this movie and I didn't like any of them. The first one felt like it was written ten minuets before recording. The second one had some very painful product placement for Doritos. The one after that was just mindless shouting that I couldn't even understand. And the last one was the worst pop song I have ever heard in a movie. So if your watching this on DVD you might want to skip the songs.

Plot: The first half of the movie is pretty good. We see how the hotel works and that is actually pretty cool. The plot actually starts when Jonathan enters and he and Mavis fall in love. I get annoyed by Jonathan but it's okay so far. But in final act of the movie is where things get really cliché. We have Jonathan leaving but then he comes back....Gee, didn't see that coming. And towards the end they say the word "Zing" a million times and now I never want to hear that word again. So overall the first two halves of the movie are better than the last





Final thoughts: For me Hotel Transylvania is a very mixed bag. Some jokes work but some are just forced. Some characters I like but others are really bad. The animation great.. Would I watch it again? Probably. Will I go see the sequel? Yes. In the end Hotel Transylvania isn't a bad movie.... But it isn't great either. So I half recommended. This has been another instalment of Keaton on Films.