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Bye Bye Baby (1988)
Horrible plot and acting, but good eye candy
Two very attractive and sexy women as well as a great soundtrack are the only things that make this god awful piece of crap watchable.
The plot is really stupid and boring as it involves Sandra (Alt) and Paolo (Barbareschi) who get divorced. Sandra begins a romance with a fellow doctor (Connery), while Paolo hooks up with a professional pool player (Nielsen). Sandra and Paolo find they are still attracted to one another and try to hook their lovers up with each other while simultaneously seeing them themselves and it just goes back and forth as they spend the entire movie going back and forth between lovers and in the end, nothing is really settled.
Basically it's an hour and a half of lover swapping between two Italian guys and two really hot women. The acting is terrible, half the time you can't make out what's being said, and there's just very little good to say about it other than a couple of really great 80's songs are in there and of course the two very attractive female leads. But if your're looking for a reason to watch this movie, I really can't give you one.
Summerslam (1991)
Great Undercard, Horrible Main Event
Summerslam 1991 was built as the match made in heaven, the match made in hell. The match made in heaven being the wedding of Randy "Macho Man" Savage and former manager now girlfriend Elizabeth. The match made in hell featured Hulk Hogan teaming up with former foe the Ultimate Warrior to go against the anti-American trio of Sgt. Slaughter, the Iron Shiek (Known here as Col. Mustafa), and Gen. Adnan. had ended but the WWF was trying to milk the American pride for all it was worth.
This event was held in Madison Square Garden. The commentators for this event were Gorilla Monsoon, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, and Bobby "the Brain" Heenan. This event really showcase the absolute genius and pure talent that Heenan had as a color commentator. At times he had me cracking up. Heenan will always be my favorite "pro-heel". Jesse Ventura was always trying to make things too personal, Jerry Lawler's "puppy talk" gets old after a while, and Tazz is just a pure waste of time. But Heenan totally stole the night on commentary and at times had me cracking up.
Now onto the event itself. It was totally great until the main event happened. Both the IC and Tag Team title matches were classic. The Big Bossman/Mountie "go to jail match" was very entertaining especially the post-match. Looking back there is a bit of sadness to this event as it marked the final WWF appearance for the late great Andre the Giant as he accompanied the Buschwackers to the ring for their match against the Natural Disasters. A great night to be a babyface and a bad night to be a heel as their were only two heel wins on the whole card. But that kept the crowd happy. So here's my view on the card itself: Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, the British Bulldog, and the Texas Tornado vs. The Warlord and Power and Glory w/Slick: A great opener that really offered everything. You had the martial arts technical skills of Steamboat, the brawling ability of Kerry Von Erich, and the other four wrestlers were flat out power wrestlers. Lots of fast action, and they really didn't over do anything. And it really got the crowd into it.
IC Title Match - Mr. Perfect w/the Coach (Champion) vs. Bret "Hitman" Hart (Challenger): This one was an absolute classic. Two of the all time great technical wrestlers. Given the pain that Perfect's back was in at that time, he really put on an excellent show and this was kind of the passing of the torch, so to speak. This was the beginning of Bret Hart's huge push as a single's wrestler. Perfect would not return to active wrestling until Survior Series of 1992.
The Buschwackers w/Andre the Giant vs. The Natural Disasters w/Jimmy Hart- A good solid match, even for a Buschwacker match. The Natural Disasters were being pushed as the top heel tag team at the time so they got the win. As mentioned, this was the final WWF appearance for the legendary Andre the Giant. After the match, the Disasters tried to go after Andre but the Legion of Doom came to his rescue setting up a big feud between those two teams.
Virgil vs. "The Million Dollar Man" Ted Dibase w/Sensation Sherri: Piper was way too over dramatic on commentary for my liking. But it got the crowd going though. Few workers were better at carrying wrestlers with less talent than Dibiase. I feel he's the greatest WWF superstar that never held the world title. I wish Dibiase would have just won this thing with a million dollar dream and ended this feud here while Piper cried. But not to be.
Big Bossman vs. The Mountie w/Jimmy Hart: Supprisingly this was a really great match. The stipulation here was that the loser of this match would spend the night in jail. Basically this was a squash match for the Bossman. The post-match was just as entertaining as the Mountie gets taken away in the patiwagon. Throughout the rest of the night, they would show segments of the Mountie in jail.
Tag Team title match - The Nasty Boyz w/Jimmy Hart (Champions) vs. The Legion of Doom (challengers): A no DQ match here. A decent tag match. Not top notch, but definitely entertaining. Road Warrior fans will enjoy this one.
Greg Valentine vs. Irwin R. Schyster: Greg Valentine was nearing the end of his WWF career and had not been involved in any meaningful story lines for well over a year and by now he had been demoted to jobber to the stars. Irwin R. Schyster was a brand new undefeated heel with a great gimmick that fans hated. Any guesses as to how this one turns out? Next please.
Hulk Hogan & The Ultimate Warrior vs. Sgt. Slaughter, Col. Mustafa, and Gen. Adnan. Sid Justice is the special guest referee: It was the match made in hell alright, but not for the reason the WWF gave. Who booked this crappy main event? Let's see at this time the WWF had just signed Ric Flair and Sid Justice. You also had the Undertaker and the newly turned heel Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Yet they book two over the hill crappy wrestlers like the Iron Shiek and General Adnan to team up with Sgt. Slaughter who never had any business being elevated above mid-card status in the first place. The match sucked from beginning and the only real heat it got was when Hogan and the Warrior accidentally ran into Sid Justice and had a stare down. I guess a fatal 4-way title match between Hogan, Warrior, Undertaker, and Sid Justice would have been too much to ask for.
The Wedding: The only reason to watch the wedding is for Heenan's funny commentary and to see Jake the Snake and the Undertaker crash the reception. Other than that, you can skip it.
WrestleMania (1985)
Always a classic. Better than most of today's PPVs.
Depending on what kind of wrestling fan you are, you are either going to love this event or you are going to find it pretty crappy. If you are a typical "mark" from the attitude era of Austin/Rock/HHH who's quality of a wrestling event is based on special effects, fireworks, major stunts, profanity, catchy phrases and heavy story lines than I advise you not to watch this event. However, if you are like me and grew up watching wrestling as a kid back in the 1980's during the Hulkamania Rock N' Wrestle era, or if you are a major wrestling historian, than this event is an absolute must have.
First of all, this is 1985 at Madison Square Garden. There is no gigantic Titantron at the top of a stage. There is no firework display to start the show. It's just a simple wrestling ring with the lights turned down. The arena is dark. But this was the WWF back in the mid 80's. And to be honest, I miss the simplistic dark arenas which the WWF stopped using about 1987. To me, that's wrestling, the way it should be. The Raw & Smackdown set up of today makes every arena look exactly the same. This was the Madison Square Garden look for a very long time. I would really love to see the WWE do an event at MSG today with the dark arena look that it had back in 1985. No fancy set up or fireworks. Just a wrestling ring is all you need.
Now onto the show itself. The interview segments are actually pretty funny. Before every match Gene Okerlund would interview one of the competitors, then he would turn and immediately interview his opponent. The WWF was concerned about breaking keyfabe back then, but didn't seem to mind having bitter enemies in the same room at the same time conducting interviews. And the interviews were very simple. Unlike today where a wrestler may spend 10 minutes putting down another wrestler and doing everything to insulting his whole life story, they would simply say I'm going to beat him because I'm the better man.
As for the card itself, many of the opening matches were not that good, at least by today's standards. You had King Kong Bundy squashing S.D. Jones in 9 seconds (actually more like 25 seconds in real time.) A lot of grappling holds. The majority of the lower card matches were your typical pre-Hogan WWF style matches with just a bunch of holds and one guy wins, no real story behind it. But as you got later into the card, the entertainment part really started to come out. And the crowd really started to get into it starting with the JYD/Valentine match. The tag title match with the U.S. Express (Barry Windham & Mike Rutondo) going up against the anti-Americans (Iron Shiek vs. Mike Rutundo) drew a lot of heat. This was really the start of the ever popular storyline of a proud patriotic American babyface going against an anti-American heel. That storyline would be re-used for many years to come. The Women's match was very good for a woman's match. Okay so Wendi Richter and Leilani Kai aren't nearly as hot as Trish Stratus and Lita. But still, the crowd was way into it. And the addition of popular 80's singer Cindi Lauper made it really good. And the main event was the biggest anything had ever been up to that point in the wrestling industry. Hulk Hogan & Mr. T were both enjoying tremendous popularity from the recent Rocky III movie. And were going up against the two most hated heels at the time Roddy Piper & Paul Orndorff. With the celebrity editions of Billy Martin, Muhhamad Ali, and Liberace added to the mix, it made it all that more special. Again, keep in mind that nothing like this had been done in wrestling before.
Say what you want about the lack of wrestling, the interviews, or the dark arena. This was wrestling in the 1980's. This is what I grew up on. I was 8 years old when this event took place. And at the time, nothing like this had ever taken place in the wrestling industry. The importance of this event and it's place in history can't be denied. This event did the same thing to wrestling that Babe Ruth did to baseball. It gave it national recognition. This event was what put wrestling on the map. And if it wasn't for this first Wrestlemania, there might not be the WWE as you know it today. It was the first of it's kind.
Call me old fashion. But if given the choice of watching this show or watching the average PPV that is put out by the WWE today, I'd choose this show.
WrestleMania IX (1993)
Worst Wrestlemania ever
I liked the whole set up with Ceasar's Palace, the Roman guards, and announcers in togas. This event also marked "the passing of the torch" as far as the voice of the WWF goes. Gorilla Monsoon who had done the play by play for every WWF PPV up to this point opens up and gives the typical introduction making it look like he's there to announce another PPV. But then introduces Jim Ross who is making his WWF debut and JR continues to do the WWF commentary to this day. But outside of that, this event is pure garbage. Good ol scientific wrestling has been thrown out the window and enter the birth of gimmicks. This to me was the event that the WWF started to go down the toilet, and didn't recover until the attitude era of the late 90's. Here's a review of the event.
IC title match: Tatanka (Challenger) vs. Shawn Michaels (champ): An okay opener, but given what Shawn is capable of, it was very disappointing. I have no idea why the WWF was hell bent on putting Tatanka over. They should of realized that Shawn was the future and Tatanka was just some hyper wrestler in an Indian Gimick. The ending of the match itself was very lame. Shawn grabs the ref and pulls him out, then gets called for a count out. While it was fun watching Sherri get beat up afterwords, this match just was forgettable. Shawn had to carry this match and had trouble doing it.
The Stenier Brothers vs. The Headshrinkers: Steiners get the win via a Franknsteiner. This match had it's moments, but the crowd just didn't seem into it. There was no heat behind it, I think it was a match just to throw two tag teams in.
Crush vs. Doink the Clown: TERRIBLE! TERRIBLE! TERRIBLE! This match completely sucked. Two very lame gimmicks. A clown and a Hawaiian dressed in bizarre colors. The ending caught everybody by surprise. In the upcoming months, Crush turned heel and Doink turned face, but none of the fans seem to care. Sadly, this was not the worst match on the card.
Razor Ramon vs. Bob Backland: You got a brand new heel that is very over going against a wrestler who was forgotten about 10 years ago. The fans snicker and laugh when Backlund comes out. And like Hogan/Rock in WM18 and HHH/Owen in WM14, the heel wrestler gets louder cheers in the face. Thankfully this match was short. The right guy won, but I wish they had Razor totally beat the crap out of and squash Backlund rather than winning by a small package out of nowhere.
Tag Team Champion Match: Ted Dibiase and IRS (Champs) vs. Hulk Hogan & Brutus Beefcake w/Jimmy Hart I still would like to know the full story on what happened to Hogan's eye. Oh well. The crowd was really into this match, but it had no flow to it what so ever. Hogan and Beefcake were clearly suffering ring rust given that both wrestlers had been on the shelf for at least a year. Dibiase, being the great technical wrestler that he was, did help to carry the match from being a complete waste. The ending was a surprise with Dibiase and IRS getting the win via DQ. But to please the crowd, Hogan and Beefcake did their usual playing to the crowd at the end like they had won the match.
Lex Luger vs. Mr. Perfect: The best part of this match was the four hot chicks that accompanied Lex Luger to the ring. Other than that, this was completely forgettable. The Mr. Perfect gimmick was born for a heel role and he just lacked the heat as a face. And Luger is just a waste of time no matter what gimmick he's in. Luger wins via a backslide despite that Perfect's feet were in the ropes. Then Perfect spends the post match getting his butt kicked. First Luger knocks him out with the running elbow. Then when Perfect regains consciousness he goes back to the dressing room to find Luger only to get the crap beaten out of him by Shawn Michaels, setting up an HBK/Perfect feud that had the potential to be a classic but the WWF misused.
The Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzales: ABSOLUTE CRAP!! What was the WWF thinking bringing in such a horrible wrestler as Giant Gonzales. Sure he had size, but I'd rather watch the Brooklyn Brawler in a match than him. This isn't even worth commenting on.
WWF CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Bret Hart (champ) vs. Yokozuna (challenger) You have one of the greatest technical wrestlers of all time going against a guy who's only advantage is that he's a gigantic lard ass. Bret was able to carry the match, but a rather predictable ending with Mr. Fuji throwing salt in Bret's face.
POST MATCH: Yokozuna vs. Hulk Hogan Pure crap right here. Hogan comes down to the ring for no apparent reason and Mr. Fuji challenges him to a match after Yoko just won the title. Even the die-hard Hulkamaniacs find this to be total BS.
Royal Rumble (1992)
One of the better Rumbles
This was one of the better Royal Rumbles that the WWF put on. The internet was not yet a household item at this time, so it wasn't as easy to know who was going to win the match. In so many other Rumbles everyone knew or had a pretty good idea who the winner was going to be. In 1993, it was pretty evident Yokozuna was going to win. In 96, HBK making his dramatic return and main event push was pretty obvious, same with Triple H in 2002. In 98, the WWF's roster was pretty thin and anybody with half a brain knew that Stone Cold Steve Austin was going to win. But in this particular Rumble the winner was not obvious from the start. And this wasn't like other Rumbles where one third of the participants were either glorified jobbers or people brought in from outside the WWF just to fill a slot. Here you had Hogan, Sid Justice, Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Undertaker, Macho Man, Sgt. Slaughter. All of whom were viable candidates to win the Rumble. Future talent like Shawn Michaels and Davey Boy Smith also had major roles in the Rumble. I was very disappointed that Ted Dibiase got eliminated in the opening minutes of the match as he was one of my favorites growing up. This rumble also marked the final PPV appearance for longtime 80's WWF mainstays like Nikolai Volkoff, Greg Valentine, Haku, Jimmy Snuka, and the Iron Shiek (goes by Col. Mustafa at this event). All in all, just some great action as the WWF was in a transition period from the Rock N' Wrestling era of the 80's to the Bret Hart/HBK generation of the 90's. Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan are still my all time favorite commentator duo. Heenan's cheer leading for Flair was classic. I love it when Flair comes out at #3 and Heenan goes on and on about it not being "Fair to Flair." Truly Flair stole this rumble by winning it from the #3 position. At that time, it seemed like an impossible task. Before then, the rumble winners were all guys who had late draws. But this was one of Ric Flair's greatest wrestling performances ever.
The under card was decent. Roddy Piper winning the IC title is a must see. The crowd absolutely ate it up. And the tag title match between LOD and the Nautrual Disasters was also pretty good, but nothing special. Now the other tag matches were really not all that good. Teams like the New Foundation, the Orient Express, and the Beverly Brothers never got over with the fans. And while the Buschwackers were loved by a lot of fans, they were never taken seriously as legitimate tag team contenders. And were really used as comic relief for their WWF career.
All in all, a pretty good PPV for the WWF. Not the best, but certainly worth a look. If you are a Ric Flair or Roddy Piper fan this event is a must have. Fans of Hulk Hogan should skip this PPV as what went down at this event was the beginning of the end of the Hulkamania era in the WWF.
Poseidon (2006)
Don't waste your money or your time on this upside down film about an upside down boat
I just got home from the theatre. My girlfriend was out of town and I had nothing else to do tonight. I wanted to go out and do something, so I figgured I'd go see Poseidon. I might as well have used nine dollars as toilet paper, because I can't recall seeing a more crappy movie in my life. First of all, there is absolutely no character development what so ever. You don't get to know the characters or what they are like. And with no character development, I could basically have cared less about what happened to them. Secondly, no explanation what so ever about how a tidal wave suddenly appeared in the middle of the ocean. Thirdly, Completely unrealistic scenarios. A little boy being able to unscrew a bolt on the other side of an air vent with a cross of a necklace, Kurt Russel after he had drowned was some how magically able to press the button to reverse the engines. And the biggest crock of all, an inflated life raft just happens to be floating right by the few remaining survivors with a flare gun. Sorry, I don't buy it. And for those who say "It's just a movie." Sorry, it's not a movie. It's garbage. Too bad Lucky Larry was killed off so early. He was the only entertaining one in the whole cast. For those who haven't seen it, let me give you a piece of advice, save your money for something else.
Titanic: Adventure Out of Time (1996)
One of the greatest CPU games of all time
This game is truly fantastic. I don't really buy or play computer games anymore. But every once in a while, I'll pull this game out of the closet and play it all over again for kicks. The graphics are incredible and the story was very well written. I love being able to walk around the Titanic and talk to all the different characters. You also really get a feel to how things were in 1912. After playing this game, if you watch James Cameron's movie, you'll pretty much always be able to tell where they are on the ship. The variety of characters that were made for this game are amazing. You got the stuck up, stingy Charles Lambreth and his wife Georgia (of which the character you play has a history with). There's the down to earth guy you'd probably find at a bar in Max Zidelman (looks like a young John Goodman). I have to admit that Vlad gives me the creeps. The plot of the game involves some thinking, but not too crazy.
There is only one thing about this game that I found a disappointment to me, and it's a very minor one. While I like the different endings, they deal entirely on the aftermath as the result of your mission and finding all the different objects. But nothing is mentioned of what happened on the personal side. For instance, as the ship is sinking, one decision your character encounters is whether or not to save the life of Lady Georgia by trading a painting to the evil German Zitel for the antidote of which she's been poisoned. But whether or not you save Georgia's life, absolutely nothing about it is mentioned in the ending. Other than that, this game is perfect.