Sunday, April 15, 2018

George Rampages on the Screen with Heart.


Afternoon, Guys…


So, after the heaviness of yesterday’s posts, let’s change it up, shall we?

Joey and I check out The Rock’s retro arcade adaption of the game Rampage.

OK, let’s step back 30 years or so.  The Atari 2600’s king.  We had several games, but Rampage wasn’t one of them; however, our friends did, and we’d play then.  It was also at the Gold Mine at the mall and Putt Putt Golf back in the day.  Of course, playing the old school arcaded games took some adapting for us crips with the height and the fact there, more often than not, wasn’t space for our footrests, so we had to play sideways or take off our footrests and let our feet hang.  Still, we made it work.  It was monster virtual mayhem, destruction, and death…life was good.

Fast forward to, I guess, last year when I got wind of a movie adaption being made.  Hmmm, OK, interesting, but how’d it translate without Velveeta suing?  Dwayne Johnson was attached, so it had muscle…literally, but, could he pull it off?  I already knew George and crew were gonna be CG’d out the ass.  That was a given.  The teaser and trailers started rolling out, which made me think bromance King Kong.  Hmmm.

Friday, actress, Marlee Matlin, mentioned the movie on her Twitter as one of two movies out featuring ASL (American Sign Language).  The other being A Quiet Place.  We’ve got deaf friends, so ASL fascinates us.  Her endorsement gave us more incentive to give it a go.

The set up of the film’s kind of clunky starting in space, but quickly rights itself as we’re introduced to Davis Okoye (Johnson) and his friend, George, an albino gorilla.  Then we’re introduced to Claire Wyden (Malin Åkerman), the mastermind behind the infection George, Ralph, and Lizzie has called Project: Rampage, and Harvey Russell (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Negan from The Walking Dead), the government agent, who works for the agency OGA.  He’s also the frenemy of Okoye in that if Okoye can’t get George under control, he won’t think twice of having him taken out…no questions asked.  We’re off and running.

The chemistry between Okoye and George is definitely light-hearted, like best friends with sign language banter flying until shit hits the fan and life and death seriousness sets in.  Johnson plays to the CG like George, Ralph, and Lizzie are looming over him.

Of course, the action’s top notch, over the top like only Johnson can pull these days.  Buildings crumble, things explode, people get stomped and eaten…all within the movie’s PG-13 confines.  I actually thought they’d pulled an R with some sequences, but no.

In hindsight, I feel sorry for Ralph and Lizzie, because there never was anyone to care for them, so they’re soul purpose was to kill.  Cheesy, I know, but I’m just saying.  LOL.

Anyhoo, Rampage is a fun ride worth checkin’ out in an updated, nostalgic way.  Now, I wanna find an emulator to play it in 4K 8-bit fun.

Be good to each other.

-J-

No comments:

Post a Comment