smackblay

Pootie Tang is one of those movies that has only two possible reactions: you will either think it's the worst piece of garbage you've ever seen, or one of the funniest movies you've ever seen. In my case, I thought it was the second-funniest movie I'd ever seen, after Airplane!

About a month ago, Pootie Tang was reviewed by my school newspaper, for a reason that's beyond me. On its reccomendation, most of the senior class got together and watched Pootie Tang. Although some of us hated it, I loved it - probably more than anyone else. I had a stomach-ache for the majority of this movie due to laughing too hard - it was much like doing sit-ups for the duration of the movie.

Now, I know this movie's detractors will say, "How could this fool laugh at one joke for 80 minutes?" Simply put, I found more than 1 joke to it. The idea of a gorilla attack at a steel mill: funny. The punchline, "Yeah, and you know what else? Pootie can kick some butt" following a description of how "Pootie will mail you a letter 10 days in advance of how he's going kick your butt, and when you get the letter, you say, 'What the heck is this?' Then Pootie shows up and kicks your butt and you still don't know what hit you": funny. Chris Rock dressed as a cob of corn: funny. Lance Crouther obsessively tending one single corn stalk: funny. And, one of the most amusing takes on Western fast-draw camera angles that's ever been done (it sure puts "The Quick and the Dead" to shame...)

Basically, although Pootie Tang's a weird movie, it's got a great subtle humor to it, a humor that is underappreciated.

Mortal Kombat II is, without a doubt, the best fighting game ever made. As graphics and sound quality are irrelevant factors in game quality, the 16-bit sound and video on its Super Nintendo version are more than sufficient (as a side note, despite its obsolete technology, the SNES is still the best console ever because the games made for it were more fun than any game on any other system with the possible exceptions of Red Faction for the PS-2 and Perfect Dark for the N64). What makes MKII so wonderful is in the personality its characters have and the well-developed game mechanics.

A problem with too many games in the fighting genre is that the developers decided to subdivide attacks by strength or speed (Killer Instinct is the worst offender). I always enjoyed the fact that the Mortal Kombat series divided by height (Low Punch/High Punch, Low Kick/High Kick) instead. Also, the Mortal Kombat series is alone in having a meaningful block function (absent from the Street Fighter series, as well as Killer Instinct, Primal Rage, and Virtua Fighter). Beyond that, special moves are meaningful and distinct, and although some have the same basic principle (for instance, Scorpion's harpoon, Sub-Zero's freeze, and Reptile's force ball are all projectile attacks to disable an opponent), they all look and act differently (in the previous example, the freeze does no damage, the force ball is the slowest attack in the game and easily jumped over, and the harpoon can be stopped if Scorpion's hit while it's in the air).

Anyway, the point is, Mortal Kombat II, particularly with a human opponent, is incredible fun. I play between 2 and 3 hours a week against other people, still. This is the finest fighting game ever made, and it's worth the 40 bucks or so to buy a used Super Nintendo just to play it.

After spending four months trying to find Iron Monkey on VHS and wondering why it was only available as a DVD (and sporadically at that), I learned last week Iron Monkey would be in theaters starting yesterday. So, I went and watched it last night.

It was very good, although Yuen Woo Ping did go over the top with the wires - towards the end, several women were flying through the airs more like thrown dolls than actual humans.

Nonetheless, it was a great movie. And, more important, the perfect prequel to Once Upon a Time in China. I was particularly impressed with Sze-Man Tsang's portrayal of Wong Fei-hung. It meshed perfectly with Jet Li's Wong Fei-hung in OUTIC, even down to details like back posture. As well, the writers gave lovely tidbits for people who had seen OUTIC. For instance (although it figured too heavily), I doubt I would have enjoyed the numerous scenes with the Wong family umbrella had I not previously seen OUTIC.

As I said, it was an excellent prequel. George Lucas should take a lesson from it.