Cheesy Reviews

Media Name: Half-Life 2: Lost Coast Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2005 Developer:  Valve Publisher: Valve Played on: PC Completion Status: 100% Finished Playing: 2nd December 2022 My Rating: 8/10 Despite this essentially being a tech demo for HDR made out of a scrapped section of Half-Life 2 , I still decided to play this anyway in between Half-Life 2 and Episode 1. I would have to say that I enjoyed this. The graphics have aged really well and still look beautiful. It was also fun as another level in Half-Life 2 which makes sense given that it was originally meant to be for the game. It was also fun to listen to the developer commentaries and hear insights on the game's development. Basically the only problems were that it was really easy (mostly because enemies can't attack you while listening to the commentaries) and really short. Other than that, this was a great tech demo and I'm glad that I decided to play it.

Media Name: Half-Life 2 Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2004 Developer:  Valve Publisher: Valve Played on: PC Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 2nd December 2022 My Rating: 9/10 Given how much I liked the first Half-Life game , I was excited to play the second mainline entry in the series . I would have to say that it certainly lived up to my expectations. The controls were great and even better than in the first game. The story was a great continuation as well. I also really liked the music but I wish that it didn't cut out every time you entered a new area. I liked the weapon selection as well. I had a lot of fun playing this game and though there were very few bad things about it, the game wasn't perfect. The friendly AI got in the way quite a lot throughout the game. I also found that grenades sometimes bounced too much meaning that it was sometimes difficult to blow up my target. I was also confused by which ammo drops are for which weapons sometimes. Other th...

Media Name: Drag Me To Hell Media Type: Movie Release Year: 2009 Director:  Sam Raimi Production Companies:  Ghost House Pictures Distributor:  Universal Pictures Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes Finished Watching: 18th November 2022 My Rating: 6.5/10 Since I got into horror movies, I wanted to give The Evil Dead series a try but my parents suggested this movie saying that I'd like it more. It was okay. I think that Raimi's directing was really great and you could tell that he made it. I think that the horror was done quite well. I found some of the goofier scenes to be quite entertaining. The acting was good and I think that it worked well along with the practical effects which I wasn't expecting to see that much of given this movie's release year. I thought that the digital effects however, were absolutely terrible. There were also quite a lot of gross-out scenes which I didn't really like either. Overall, I enjoyed this movie but it's far from perfect.

Media Name: Half-Life: Blue Shift Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 2001 Developer: Gearbox Software Publisher:  Sierra Studios, Valve Played on: PC Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 15th November 2022 My Rating: 6/10 This was the second Half-Life spin-off game that I played and since I enjoyed Opposing Force , I expected this one to also be really fun. It was just ok. Since it had the same engine as the previous two games, I encountered a lot of the same issues. I also found this one to be way too easy. It was also way too short as it took me just over 2 hours to complete. The world design was confusing sometimes as well as there were times where I got lost since I didn't know where to go. Other than that though, I did like the story and sometimes it was fun. Overall, while far from bad, this is definitely the weakest of the Half-Life Goldsource era games. At least the next one is Half-Life 2.

Media Name: Half-Life: Opposing Force Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 1999 Developer: Gearbox Software Publisher:  Sierra Studios, Valve Played on: PC Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 14th November 2022 My Rating: 8/10 I knew going into the spin-off games that they weren't that relevant to the plot but I still wanted to try them out anyway. I didn't actually know the order of the spin-offs release and it's just a coincidence that I ended up playing this one that released first before Blue Shift that released after. I'd have to say that I really enjoyed this one. I found it to be quite fun to play similarly to the original Half-Life . The weapons and graphics just like the original have aged really well. I did find though that it crashed more often than the original (chances are Valve aren't as focused on updating these games). The friendly AI could sometimes be a bit dumb as well and either not shoot anything or walk in front of enemy gunfire. One of m...

Media Name: Bokurano Media Type: TV Series Season: 1 Episode Count 24 Release Year: 2007 Series Directors:  Hiroyuki Morita,  Kazuyoshi Yaginuma Production Company:  Gonzo English Network: N/A (Direct-To-DVD) Finished Watching: 13th November 2022 My Rating: 8/10 Going into this, I didn't really know what to expect as I found out about it through the opening being included in  Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga . Plus the fact that the show is relatively obscure didn't help that much either. Nonetheless, I decided to give it a try. I thought it was really good. I liked the psychological element. I felt like the fight scenes were really fun to watch. I also liked the writing in the show and most of the characters. The animation was pretty decent as well. I found some of the characters to be somewhat annoying or just unlikeable however and the pacing was really slow though I understand that it needed that to establish each character. I also think that it sucks that the ending is...

Media Name: Half-Life Media Type: Video Game Release Year: 1998 Developer:  Valve Publisher:  Sierra Studios Played on: PC Completion Status: Any% Finished Playing: 12th November 2022 My Rating: 8.5/10 I've had the Half-Life games sat in my Steam library for a while now and despite hearing nothing but great things about them, I only just got around to playing them. I really enjoyed this first one and found it to have aged extremely well. The controls were really good and nice to use. The graphics, to say that they are from 1998, still look really good. I enjoyed using the different weapons and the resource management aspect of the game. The story was also really good. Pretty much the only problem was that sometimes it was difficult to figure out what I was supposed to do. Overall, this was a great game and I'd have to say that it is one of the best games I have ever played and I will definitely play it again.

Media Name: Smile Media Type: Movie Release Year: 2022 Director:  Parker Finn Production Companies:  Paramount Players,  Temple Hill Entertainment Distributor:  Paramount Pictures Runtime: 1 hour 55 minutes Finished Watching: 5th November 2022 My Rating: 0/10 When I saw the trailer for this movie before Bullet Train in the cinema, I thought it looked really good and was looking forward to watching it. Oh boy did this movie severely disappoint me. Keep in mind that this movie came out the same year as Morbius (which, in my opinion, is the second worst movie of this year, only behind this). Not only is this my least favourite film of the year, but it's also my least favourite film of all time. The writing in this movie was terrible, at times it felt like it was trying to be a cross between Sinister and Creepypastas. The acting was terrible. I felt the characters were really poorly written and didn't add much to the film. The police guy's scene felt like the "I implore...

Media Name: Housing Complex C Media Type: TV Series Season: 1 Episode Count 4 Release Year: 2022 Series Director:  Yūji Nara Production Company:  Akatsuki English Network: Toonami Finished Watching: 31st October 2022 My Rating: 2/10 Going into this anime, i was a bit sceptical since I wasn't sure as to whether it would be good or not. I decided to give it a go anyway since it was only 4 episodes long. It was terrible. There was times when I felt that it was really unintentionally funny such as when there was a lot of fish just dumped outside of the complex. The final episode got really confusing to me and didn't really make much sense. A lot of the characters were really unlikeable with some of them just being plain racist for no reason. The twists were extremely poorly executed and felt forced in. The only good parts were the animation and the English dub acting. Overall, this anime was terrible though I'm glad that it was only 4 episodes long so I didn't spend that lo...

Media Name: Treehouse of Horror XXXIII Media Type: Episode Series: The Simpsons Release Year: 2022 Season Number: 34 Episode: 6  Episode Director:  Rob Oliver Production Company:  Gracie Films, 20th Television Animation, Dr. Movie English Network:  FOX Finished Watching: 31st October 2022 My Rating: 9.5/10 This has to be probably the most hyped that I have ever been for a Simpsons episode I've ever been and I would have to say, it delivered. I found it to be really funny with basically all of the jokes landing. The animation was great with the animation by DR. Movie in the Death Tome segment being absolutely fantastic. The Pookadook segment was probably one of the scariest Treehouse of Horror segments of all time. I loved all of the classic references in the Simpsons World segment. I also thought that the Bob's Burgers crossover was nice to see even if it was short. I loved the Death Tome segment the most though that may be because I love the Death Note anime. The ch...

Media Name: Sinister Media Type: Movie Release Year: 2012 Director:  Scott Derrickson Production Companies:  Alliance Films,  Automatik,  Blumhouse Productions,  IM Global Distributor:  Summit Entertainment, Lionsgate Runtime: 1 hour 49 minutes Finished Watching: 22nd October 2022 My Rating: 6/10 I've never really watched many supernatural horror movies if I am honest so I didn't know what to expect when going into this. I found it to be an ok movie. I didn't really find it to be scary at all up until the final scene of the movie. I found the villain to both look really goofy and have a really stupid name that made me not be able to take them seriously. At times it even looked like Morbius. I didn't really find the CGI to be that good either. I found some scenes to be funnier than they were supposed to be. In terms of the positives, I found the plot to be well-written though the ending was predictable. The acting was also really good. Overall, it was decent...

Media Name: Wonder Egg Priority Media Type: TV Series Season: 1 Episode Count 12 + Special Release Year: 2021 Series Director:  Shin Wakabayashi Production Company:  CloverWorks English Networks:  Crunchyroll Finished Watching: 30th October 2022 My Rating: 8/10 I've heard a lot of mixed things about Wonder Egg Priority so going into it I was unsure as to whether I'd like it or not but I really enjoyed it. I thought the characters were all great and worked well with each other. Some of the darker themes of the show were touched upon really well. The animation was also really good and reminded me of Studio Trigger at times. I also really liked the music, especially the OP. The Trans representation was also really well done. It sucked that the show had two recaps (both of which I skipped). I also felt that the finale special was terrible at wrapping everything up. If it was a cliff-hanger leading into a second season, I would consider it to be a decent episode but it does no...

Media Name: Perfect Blue Media Type: Movie Release Year: 1997 Director:  Satoshi Kon Production Company: Madhouse English Distributor: GKIDS Runtime: 1 hour 21 minutes Finished Watching: 28th October 2022 My Rating: 9/10 Before watching this movie, I had only seen one other movie by Satoshi Kon and that was Tokyo Godfathers which I thought was decent but not the best. So I was unsure as to how much I would have liked this film but I thought that it was great. This is one of the few horror movies that I found to be actually terrifying with the psychological aspect lending itself to it well. The animation looked great most of the time however there were some scenes where the characters looked goofy. The mystery element also helped to keep me engaged in the movie. Basically the only problems were that some of the scenes were quite gross and made me want to throw up. It could also get slightly confusing at times but not that much. Other than those problems, I'd have to say that I ...

Media Name: Werewolf By Night Media Type: TV Special Series: MCU Release Year: 2022 Special Director:  Michael Giacchino Production Company:  Marvel Studios English Network:  Disney+ Runtime: 53 Minutes Finished Watching: 26th October 2022 My Rating: 5/10 I'll be honest and say that this year in terms of the MCU has been disappointing to me but I was looking forward to this one. When I watched it, it was just ok. Maybe it's because I haven't seen any old monster movies that inspired it but I thought it was boring most of the time and not really that scary at all. Some of the scenes in the movie also reminded me a bit of Morbius (which I'd say is the second worst movie of this year). I thought that the fight scenes were good though and the CGI was better than most of the other things from the MCU that released this year. The black and white filter also added to the movie in my opinion. Overall, I was disappointed by this though I wouldn't say its one of the worst thi...

Media Name: Final Destination Media Type: Movie Release Year: 2000 Director:  James Wong Production Companies:  Zide/Perry Productions,  Hard Eight Pictures Distributor:  New Line Cinema Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes Finished Watching: 22nd October 2022 My Rating: 7/10 This was the first horror movie that I watched to celebrate Halloween and I'd have to say that I enjoyed it. The acting was great. I really liked the idea of the premise of not being able to escape death. The writing was also quite good most of the time. The scene where the bus is in the window looked really cool. Some of the problems were that it didn't age perfectly as some of the deaths were extremely goofy. The toilet water returning to the toilet also looked really dumb. I ended up finding the movie to be way funnier than I probably should have. Overall, while I thought it was a good movie, it aged too poorly for me to be able to take it seriously.