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Debaser

Twins

Between this and Red Heat, this is definitely the better Schwarzenegger film of 1988. Silly and goofy, him and Devito do have some great chemistry on-screen, and the ridiculous premise ends up working lovingly. Sure, I wouldn’t describe it as being a great comedy, but it’s a movie you watch with a big ol’ smile on your face.

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Debaser

Red Heat

It’s not one of Schwarzenegger’s better films, but it’s not bad either, and is decently directed by Walter Hill. It does the stereotypical “buddy cop” film things, partners at odd and all that, but Arnie does have some fun reactions as the Russian cop, and the cast is not bad either (hey, it’s got Gina Gershon). I don’t regret re-watching it.

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Debaser

School Daze

I had very little memory of what happens in this movie, and so was quite looking forward to re-visiting it. It’s certainly an odd film, and all over the place, but there’s definitely some interesting sequences to take in, especially the musical numbers (I really like the frat face-offs with no music). And it’s pretty fun seeing a very young Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad‘s Gustavo Fring),

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Debaser

Appointment with Death

I was a big fan of Peter Ustinov’s Poirot, and I’m a bit surprised that I didn’t really remember much about this movie — I’m assuming I saw it though. It’s about what you’d expect from these Agatha Christie adaptations, which is to say that they’re not terrific, but are still quite enjoyable to watch. The setting here is nice (Palestine), and it’s got quite the cast (including Carrie Fisher), but the one thing that marred the film for me is the awful soundtrack — it’s unfortunately very 80s, which is incredibly awkward for a film set in the early 20th century.

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Debaser

Willow

I can always tell that I used to love and re-watch these movies a lot, even though I haven’t watched them since back in the day, if I’m constantly remembering lines and specific sequences from the film. Such is the case for Willow — even though it was a bit of a bomb back then, I always really liked it. At the same time, it’s not like we got a lot of good fantasy films at the time. I still think it’s too bad we didn’t get more movies set in this world, which I’m sure was Lucas’s intention. I’d suggest it would be cool to try and revisit that world now, but at the same time, this movie takes so much from The Lord of the Rings that it probably wouldn’t make much sense — and god knows we’ve had enough Middle-Earth movies.

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Debaser

Child’s Play

First off, I had completely forgotten that Brad Dourif plays Chucky, which was a pleasant surprise. I can’t remember what the last Chucky movie I saw was (probably the second or third), but I had a fun time with this. Sure, there’s lots of cheesy moments, but there’s still something pretty creepy about a doll running around killing people (and cursing). I hear they’re doing a remake film, as well as a new TV series, and re-watching this has made me more interested in checking out these new takes than I normally would have been.

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Debaser

Scrooged

I hadn’t watched this since back in the day, and it ended up being a pleasant re-watching. I can’t say that it’s a really great movie, but it has a lot of great moments, especially the climax at the end that really does get you in the feels.

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Debaser

Die Hard

I couldn’t care less if this should be considered a Christmas movie or not — I watched it because it came out in 1988 — but I found the timing nice since the setting does make it a good movie to watch close to the holidays (along with Scrooged, which I watched the following night). I’ve watched this movie countless times, so I didn’t get the same kind of nostalgia that I do with a lot of the 80s movies I re-watch as part of these marathons. I will say that the best memory I have of this movie is seeing it at the theater in 70mm.

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Debaser

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

This past year saw me re-watching a lot of Halloween movies, including the original (released in 1978) and the third one (and also the new one that came out this year, which I enjoyed immensely). Jumping into the 4th is a bit strange since this follows the events of the second one (the 3rd was a spinoff of sorts), and so it refers to things that we didn’t actually learn in the first one (like the family links with Michael, that have been erased with the new film). It was still a fun ride though, and as much as the third one is sorta neat in how weird it is, it’s good to be back in the world of Michael Myers.

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Games

The Minish Cap

My favorite video games series is The Legend of Zelda, but I do have a few blindspots, and they are mostly made up of portable releases (on home consoles, Skyward Sword is the only mainline Zelda game I’ve never played). Over the years I’ve heard a lot of good things about The Minish Cap — originally released on the Game Boy Advance — and it’s a wonder I never played it, since I did have that system. My friend Rekka was recently talking about playing it (while gushing about the aesthetics) and that inspired me to finally give it a shot — and since I’m currently on holiday break, it’s a perfect time to do so.

So far I’ve had a terrific time with it. I love the pixelized graphics, and the top-down gameplay is on the simple side but engrossing, as is the big-small mechanic. I haven’t played in the last few days because I picked up a few games on Switch that took over my attention (especially Night in the Woods, which I powered through and loved to death), but I definitely plan on continuing to play it to completion, playing short sessions here and there.

My only gripe is that I wish I could be playing this on Switch — in fact, I’d really love for all Zelda games to be available on Switch, so I could continue to address those blindspots I have (like the Oracle games).