Reviews

1.) Chris Benoit vs. Justin "Thunder" Liger

Decent match, but never could get into Liger's style, with his over-the-top submission moves. Plus the interference ending hurt it a bit.

Rated: 3 / 5

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2.) Kojo Kanemoto vs. Alex Wright

Decent.

Rated: 3 / 5

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3.) Masahiro Chono vs. Lex Luger

Typical Luger match.

Rated: 2 / 5

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4.) Johnny B. Badd vs. Masa Saito

BS DQ ending.

Rated: 2 / 5

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5.) Shinjiro Ootani vs. Eddie Guerrero

Finally. A match given enough time to let these guys work. And it results in the match of the night. Eddie Guerrero has proven to be the best wrestler WCW has right now, in terms of technical skill. They just don't realize it yet.

Rated: 3.5 / 5

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6.) Tensan vs. Randy Savage

Savage put in the minimal effort for this ppv. This match, and his later one, were just matches where he was getting dominated for 90% of it, until he does some amount of fighting back during the last couple minutes. His matches this time around are just dull.

Rated: 2 / 5

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There is this highly amusing moment between matches with Bobby "The Brain" Heenan being a major klutz. Whether this was an actual act, or him legit being a klutz, it result in a few people being unable to hold back their laughter.

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7.) Kensuki Sasaki vs. Sting

Sting is one of the hardest workers I've seen so far.

Rated: 3 / 5

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8.) Lex Luger vs. Ric Flair vs. Sting

This is the dumbest stipulation I've ever seen for a triple threat match. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to have to tag in an opponent (only 2 of the 3 could be wrestling at a time), and have the match end once someone is pinned or submitted, with the guy who did the pin/submission being the winner? If this was an elimination match, I could understand it. But this? It's just ridiculous.

The longest match of the night. They managed to make it decent in spite of things, but it's too slow-paced. And it was never going to end well with this stipulation.

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9.) Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage

See comments above for match #6. Add in a screwjob interference ending, and it hurts the match even more.

Rated: 2 / 5

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Overall, there were plenty of dull matches. But a few solid ones too. It's a mixed bag, but it does probably result in the better WCW ppvs of 1995 (during the Nitro runs anyway). The only match really worth watching is Guerrero vs. Ootani.

1.) DDP vs. Johnny B. Badd

Much better than their prior PPV encounter. DDP seems more capable here, probably because he and Badd are more comfortable working together now, and DDP is aware of his limitations.

3.25 / 5

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2.) "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan vs. Big Bubba Rodgers

Both these guys suck as wrestlers. But to be fair, I expected this to be worse than how it turned out. Regardless, it's a typical brawl that requires very little skill to pull off.

Rated: 1 / 5

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3.) Japanese Women's Tag Team Match Cutie Suzuki/Mayumi Ozaki vs. Bull Nakana/Akira Hokuto

Now this is where the Japanese ladies show all American wrestlers how it's done. A couple missteps here and there, but otherwise high impact tag team wrestling with great coordination. I normally don't like tag team matches, but this is a major exception. This is the match of the night right here.

Rated: 3.5 / 5

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4.) Kensuki Sasaki vs. Chris Benoit

Solid wrestling bout between these two, as expected.

Rated: 3.25 / 5

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5.) Lex Luger vs. Randy Savage

I give up. I keep expecting these two to eventually hit a stride to put on a solid match, but it just doesn't happen. At best, their matches together are mediocre.

[Edit: their best outing that resulted in a decent match was in a later episode of Nitro on December 4, 1995]

Rated: 2 / 5

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6.) Ric Flair vs. Sting

This match never picked up enough steam. It stayed one or two gears lower than I was hoping for. A very slow-paced match, which would've been forgivable if the maneuvers weren't getting monotonous. They pull the same schtick of maneuvers and reactions at least 2 times in this bout, maybe even 3.

Rated: 2.5 / 5

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7.) 60 Man, 3-Ring, Battle Royal

It sucked. Too much going on between the 3 screens to be invested in any one encounter going on. The whole 3-ring gimmick was a terrible idea. Nothing all that interesting happened until the last 10 minutes (this match went on for too long), and even then what did happen wasn't all that noteworthy.

Rated: 1 / 5

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Big improvement over the last PPV. I would've preferred seeing a match featuring Eddie Guerrero over one of the lesser matches. Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Johnny B. Badd, Sting, Ric Flair, and Brian Pillman are easily the best talent I've seen so far since Nitro began (Randy Savage seems capable of pulling off a good match when he really wants too, and I keep hoping Lex Luger would put more effort into the matches beyond those loud grunts and moans he makes whenever he takes/receives a hit). They should be the ones headlining each PPV, having matches with each other or some upcoming talent. That would make the PPVs overall better. Really wish Hulk Hogan would stop hogging the spotlight; he's overrated as hell.

Story-wise, the only one I was interested in up to this point was Ric Flair's feud with Arn Anderson. But that's been over and done with ever since the last PPV. The only interesting storylines now are Flair's feud with Sting, and Savage's Feud with Luger. But Savage and Luger don't seem capable of having good matches with each other, and the Flair vs. Sting matches have grown tiresome (I preferred the match they had on Nitro's debut episode over the one they had here).

Heard things get better in 1997. Just need to make it through 1996, and the rest of 1995. Here's hoping Starrcade is good.

Unlike the prior WCW PPV War Games, this didn't have any outstanding matches to redeem it from the schlock. There were only 2 decent (at best) matches to make this watchable, and that was it. There were matches on Nitro that were better than anything this PPV had between War Games and Halloween Havoc (such as anything with Eddie Guerrero in it, who wasn't even in a match here; for shame).

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1.) DDP vs. Johnny B. Badd

DDP is just a mediocre wrestler here. Johnny was the one who managed to make this a decent match, with a nice moment between him and DDP's girl at ringside.

Rated: 3 / 5

2.) Randy Savage vs. Zodiac

Zodiac sucks, which is why I'm partly thankful this match was cut so short (seemed like Zodiac may have possibly been injured after flying off the top of the turnbuckle onto the mat, which caused this match to be cut short). What's hilarious about this is that a fan rushed in to try and cause a ruckus, near the start of the match, with the referee restraining him and security to eventually detain him outside the ring; and the matches ended within a minute after you see security rush the fanatical fan out of the arena. That's how fast this match went.

Rated: 1.5 / 5 (the fan attempt at interference bumped this up a notch)

3.) "Road Warrior" Hawk vs. Kurasawa

This was too short, and the screwjob ending made it even worse.

Rated: 1.5 / 5

4.) J. L. vs. Sabu

It's a typical Sabu match, which means it offers some decent entertainment and nice spots. For as long as the match lasts. It doesn't last very long, and we get yet another short match. J. L. Seems like a solid enough wrestler to keep up with Sabu's hit-or-botch style.

Rated: 2 / 5

5.) Meng vs. Lex Lugor

It seemed like Lugor was carrying Meng a bit. That's usually not a good sign. The match was given plenty of time to breathe. In fact, I'd say too much time. This could've had 5 minutes removed from here, and added to any of the previous 3 matches, and it probably would've been better. Plus the ending was a bit strange.

Rated: 2 / 5

6.) Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman vs. Sting (and Flair?)

Match of the night, though that's not saying much. This was more of a handicap match, which was entertaining enough for the first half. But the whole second half was Sting struggling to make the tag for Flair to come in. Considering the end-payoff of this in-ring storytelling, that ended up working. But this isn't exactly a match anyone will consider to be in the same league as "all-time-greats."

Rated: 3 / 5

7.) Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant; Monster Truck Brawl

I quote one of the commentators: "This has taken WCW to a whole new level." Yeah, and that level is f^&@!*^ boring.

Rated: 0 / 5 DUD

8.) Randy Savage vs. Lex Luger

This was just an ok match. Honestly, I was more into their encounter at Nitro a couple weeks prior to this. But that Nitro match suffered from outside interference causing a no-contest ending. Here, they just weren't given enough time to make anything memorable out of this. But I was enjoying how Luger was overselling every hit he was giving/receiving with his yells and grunts.

Rated: 2.5 / 5

9.) Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant; this time in the actual wrestling ring.

This was shaping up to be a 2 / 5 match, but then the ending happens and makes this one of the most baffling and goofy things I've ever seen. Well... at least it made me laugh. As did Bobby Heenan's post match comment:

"Everyone is looking directly into the ring."

He says this as a very obvious portion of the audience is living the stadium in the background.

Rated: ? / 5 It's not really a good match. Slow and boring and without any wrestling talent beyond acting. But your rating may very depending on how much you laugh at the finale and post-match comments.

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This PPV isn't really worth watching. There aren't any matches that make it redeemable or worth suffering through the poor stuff. No matches here should show up on a wrestler's biography DVD, or on any "history of" DVDs. Because if any do, then they're scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I started getting into retro professional wrestling again, with my initial run back in the day being from around late 2002-2008 (Ruthless Aggression Era). Decided to start around the time when WCW Nitro premiered. Over 20 years late to the party, as I missed the famous wrestling wars from 1997-2001 between WCW and WWF. Figured a good time to start is when Nitro premiered, and go from there. I tried getting into modern wrestling (2021), from WWE, to AEW, to the occasional Japanese show, and I just can't do it. The stars aren't as distinct and memorable, the wrestling style is too fancy for its own good (overly complicated maneuvers and ridiculous spots, plus moves that should lay a guy out being practically shrugged off; it's more mock-fighting than it is wrestling, and I'd rather watch MMA than this), and the art of pacing a match and telling an in-ring story isn't what it used to be.

So I figured I'd be better off going into the past, to September 1995. Sure enough, it was a breath of fresh air seeing matches done better. Granted, it could be that I'm just used to seeing things paced this way. But given that I even find 80s wrestling more investing than modern day wrestling (didn't grow up with any of that, that was past my time), I'd say this was doing something right.

So, how does the first WCW PPV from this Nitro time period hold up for a first-time watcher? Well, given that the majority of the matches disappointed me, I guess my nostalgia for better times isn't blinding me, so...

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1.) "Flying" Brian Pillman vs. Johnny R. Badd

Wow. What a way to open the show. In fact, I'd say this is the match of the night. On the first Nitro episode, Pillman showcased his potential in a match against Justin Liger, which was good once they got over the few botches during the first half of the match. For this one, Brian and Johnny showcased that both are capable of the big time. They put on a wrestling clinic, exchanging holds and high flying moves. The first 10 minutes is deliberately slow-paced, with some feeling each other out, show-boating, and long submission holds somewhat akin to Bret vs. HBK at WMXII. But then the match picks up speed, and continues to do so until someone is finally pinned. Those guys must've been exhausted, because I'm amazed at how long they went at the pace they kept at. Only one may have won the match, but both men were winners in my eyes.

Some say the match went a little too long, and I can sympathize with that position. But not knowing when it was going to end kept a solid tension to the match. Plus, if that famous cage match between Bret Hart and Own Hart isn't considered too long and monotonous, then I say that's more-so the case for this battle. Plus it told a nice story on how desperate both men were to win, that neither wanted to give up, and both throwing the kitchen sink at each other with their repertoire of moves and counters. That "20 minute time limit" I felt only added to the tension, and was so relieved when they were allowed to continue.

Rated: 4 / 5

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2.) Cobra vs. Craig Pittman

One of those < 2 minute squash matches that doesn't even qualify as a wrestling match.

Rated: 1 / 5

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3.) DDP vs. The Renegade

The Renegade is obviously an Ultimate Warrior rip-off. Which I find amusing, given that the Ultimate Warrior would eventually come to WCW. Anyway, it's a decent albeit unremarkable match. The cheap finish knocks it down half a point.

Rated: 2.5 / 5

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4.) Harlem Heat vs. Buck and Slater Tag Team Match

This match would've been decent if there weren't so many botches. Clear amateur hour here, especially on the parts of Buck and Slater who don't look like they are skilled (or fit) enough for a PPV event. But hey, at least there was that moment with the Colonel kissing Sherri.

Rated: 2 / 5

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5.) Ric Flair vs. Arn Anderson

Some will love this match because it's old-school golden age style wrestling. It had a decent (albeit complicated) promo backstory leading into the match, and there was plenty of in-ring psychology showcasing the prime art of in-ring storytelling. The biggest aspect of professional wrestling (that I argue is a bit of a lost art these days). The slow pace is to allow for the range of emotions to flair up (couldn't resist).

However, while I can appreciate it for that, this never picked up enough to be entirely satisfying. Plus the interference at the end (which affected the finish) brings this down a peg. Still, it's the only other good match on this PPV.

Rated: 3.5 / 5

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6.) War Games

This is a prime example of a clusterf^*$ match. Nothing is organized, there isn't any real ebb or flow. It's just throwing the wrestlers in there, letting them do what they want, and hope something good will come out of it. It's completely dull and uninteresting, with nothing really done utilizing the cage. It's only when Hulk Hogan came in last and started throwing powder at their faces that any life was breathed into this thing. Plus that post-match stuff building up The Giant (Big Show) to be menacing.

Rated: 1.5 / 5

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This PPV isn't good. You're better off with some biography or "best of" video that contains the only 2 good matches that were in this event. The Brian Pillman Loose Cannon DVD has that match with him and Badd, and the Four Horsemen DVD has the match between Flair and Anderson. You're better off picking both of those up than watching this.

There are two cuts of this film, the Korean version, and the International version. The biggest difference between the two is the ending, where some of the theme and meaning is interpreted differently with each. The Korean version has an extended ending with more revelations. The International version ends more nihilistically by comparison. The International version left a bad taste in my mouth compared to the Korean version, so the Korean version is the way to go if you had to choose between the two.

Other than the ending, there are a few bits added in to the Korean version that make the film a little more fun and lighthearted. Plus more backstory is given on "the good" character. You see and understand more of his motivation.

Other than all that, this is a much different beast than The Good the Bad and the Ugly. There's considerably more action throughout. Plenty of shootouts to make anyone happy, with the finale being the best of it all when there's this desert chase with several groups chasing after one individual. If you love shootouts with old western guns, you'll have a ball with this film. Shootouts in trains, small towns, deserts... And, of course, the three-way duel that the original film is famous for.

It gives several nods to the film it's inspired by. But this doesn't try to be or replace TGtBtU. It does plenty to be it's own thing. And it's a fun time throughout (especially if you see the Korean version).

The film is solid enough for what it is. A nice adaptation of a Shakespeare classic. But Michael Keaton nearly derails the whole thing, even if he's just in a few scenes briefly. Primarily because he went so over-the-top with his character depiction. He stands out so much from everyone else, and not in a good way. Not exactly the best depiction of Dogberry I've seen.

If you can handle that though, the film is fine.

Overrated is my opinion. Yes, aspects of the film are good, especially after you make it through the first hour. Al Pacino is easily the best thing about it, making the most of his role and the way he delivers his dialogue. But the film wasn't something that kept my interest (in fact, I found it difficult to get into and stay into). I understand the contrast they were going for with going out with a bang vs. going out with a whimper, but that isn't exactly something that entertains me.

That being said, I did find the first hour of this film unintentionally hilarious, and a perfect demonstration proving the argument that the whole de-aging fad that's going on now, even if it was done flawlessly from a special effects perspective to where you really can't tell that it's CG (and I'm not going to say this film succeeded on that, it was very hit and miss), you cannot have an old actor play as a young person (or even middle-aged). How DeNiro was always walking and moving stiffly, and that absolutely hilarious sequence where he beats up the deli worker. I haven't had such an unintentional good laugh at something so sincere in a long while. Hence to say, this film isn't fooling anyone when it comes to be convincing with these 70+ year old actors trying to play guys in their 30s-40s.

If this is to be a send-off film for these actors and the major films of the past they've been in, at least it's sent off and done with.

Talk about biting political satire that's probably the most effective thing since Wag the Dog. There's this made for HBO film that came out in 1997 titled The Second Civil War. Like many of the decent films of that decade, it takes shots at all sides (it might lean a little more to the left than the right, but only a little, which is quite refreshing), takes aim at politicians and the media, and begs the question at how good of an idea the Melting Pot and forced immigration really is (it tackles those issues in more directions than you're used to). And it ends on a somewhat dreary (yet provides a decent last laugh) note that doesn't provide any answers, at least no easy ones, leaving it up to the viewer to ponder. God I miss the days when they wouldn't bash a blunt message over your head.

Behold! The one decent Hallmark-style Christmas film that doesn't absolutely suck!

The only way to watch this film is the Director's Cut version, which only made it onto a VHS release (only the theatrical edition was ported over to DVD). That version improves the film tremendously. It's more of a slow burn and a bit more on the art-house side, but the character arcs and evolution make more sense, some plot holes are filled, the theme is more clear, and it's an overall better film. It focuses more on the theme of fulfilling ones subconscious desires, having a message regarding art and the art of film itself, daring the audience to bring out the kid in them for a film that isn't kid-friendly, among other stuff on similar lines.

That being said, if you absolutely hated the theatrical version and its Stockholm Syndrome tendencies, and aren't one of those who thought, "There's a good movie in there somewhere," then that version probably won't change your mind.

It's stupid, but it is entertaining. Had the potential to be better.

This actually isn't half bad once the car chase scenes start happening. Quite entertaining.

This film is a riot! It's so ridiculous and poorly executed that you can't help but laugh at it, especially when the Battle Royale twist happens about 20-30 minutes in. Once that happens, it's pure so-bad-it's-good entertainment from that point onward.

Look out for that final boat explosion at the end, where the explosion effects eventually diminish, and you still see the boat fully intact right before the scene fade entirely happens.

The first season of this series is top notch with its characters and humor.

The second season maintains this. Not quite as strong as season 1, but season 1 set a very high bar (no pun intended).

The third season is still good, but there's signs of its quality dwindling.

Season 4, a portion of the episodes started to get irritating.

Season 5, this was when the show got more annoying than irritating, and when everyone hated Diane.

Season 6, a very refreshing change of pace, with the introduction of a great new character running the bar.

Season 7+, the show pretty much runs out of steam. Sure there's some episodes here and there, but they did appear on a consistent basis (let alone a regular one). And the new character from season 6 downgrades in quality the longer the show goes on. In fact, everyone degrades in quality. Early in the show, just about everyone was a love-able jerk. Now they're just flat-out jerks.

Thankfully, the very last episode of the series ends on the best high note possible. So at least it had that going for it. Most sitcoms, especially those that run past their prime (which is virtually all of them) usually aren't lucky enough to get that much.

Stop watching after season 4. The show takes a big drop in quality from which it never recovers after that. Plus it's a solid season to end the series on. Not much regarding loose threads, various character arcs resolved in a good way, bittersweet like most seasons, and the series remains engaging.

Interesting how much Anthropoid borrowed from this film, especially some moments from the finale.

Other than that, the film is quite good, with a fantastic finale. The epilogue credits are a delightful cherry on top. One of the better WWII flicks out there.