My Review Of The Jackbox Party Pack 1

The Jackbox Party Pack 1 poster.

Every year, Jackbox Games releases a party pack with around five different games on it, varying from quiz games to drawing games to general party games. These are massive on websites such as Twitch and I've seen many people on YouTube such as Achievement Hunter play them too. And each time, I find myself enjoying them more and more. I mean, what's not to love about them? They're funny, entertaining and varied, and I always enjoy listening to the hosts of each game talk as well.

By now, they've already released six of them. And they'll be releasing the seventh one this year, with Quiplash 3 already announced earlier this month.

So I thought that to celebrate the upcoming Party Pack 7, despite the fact that we have to wait until October for it to be fully released, I will post some quick reviews of every single game in each previous Party Pack, with each pack being reviewed as soon as a new game announcement for the upcoming one comes out. The majority of these reviews will be very positive - some may be a bit mixed and one review will be somewhat negative. But most of them will be glowing reviews. That's how enjoyable I find the games to be.

Okay! Time to start with Party Pack 1! :D

You Don't Know Jack 2015.

This is definitely my favourite one of the pack. You Don't Know Jack is pretty much the flagship franchise of Jackbox games (it's how they got their current name!) and this is just one of the latest installments. Fan favourite Cookie Masterson (as voiced by Tom Gottlieb, a longtime Jackbox games member) hosts this game, presented as someone who has already given up on the bullshit going on around him, including incompetent interns, a manic ventriloquist dummy who loves to troll him at every opportunity and an elderly stagehand (known by others as Old Man and voiced by Jackbox's music composer Andy Poland) who's always forgetting something and frequently screws things up for Cookie. And yet the show must go on, so he presses on with his job anyway, albeit with a sarcastic and jaded personality that we can't help but love anyway.

Rather than straightforward questions, the YDKJ games tend to ask rather ridiculous ones that require you to think outside the box, usually giving a "what if?" scenario. This game is no exception, and it brings back classic rounds such as "Dis Or Dat?" and the notorious "Jack Attack" final round, as well as new ones such as "Foggy Facts With Old Man" (where the forgetful Old Man describes something and you have to help him remember what it was) and "Kangaroo, Peanut, Einstein Or Uranus?" (where these are the answers provided to different questions).

As a sequel to the YDKJ reboot from 2011, it follows the same "choose an episode" format along with the "wrong answers of the game", which are sponsored by outrageous products such as the Vegan Cannibal Supply Company. Whilst I'm slightly disappointed that they weren't able to bring back "Nocturnal Admissions" (which is dream-themed) to this game, I love the new rounds that they have on offer. Cooke may not enjoy his hosting duties, but we can easily enjoy this game.

Fibbage.

The logo for the extra-large version.

Turns out that Cookie Masterson is so popular with Jackbox fans that they had to have him twice in the pack! He does the same deadpan delivery we know and love, though this quiz game takes a different route. In Fibbage, you have to guess the answers to questions about strange world facts, but everyone has to write down a fake answer as well. If people accidentally choose your fake answer, you gain points, with the score increasing the more people you trick.

This quirky game premise also comes with a quirky art design which matches it well. It's recommended when playing that, like with Jack Pattillo from Achievement Hunter, you try and make your answers both normal and strange, so that more people will be duped. Overall, very fun and entertaining.

Drawful.

Drawful may appear to have a similar format to Fibbage at first, with players also writing fake answers to deceive other players, but it takes it in a more artistic direction. Players are given a prompt which they much draw a representation of (such as "nightmare fuel"), and then other players must guess what said prompt was.

My older brother loves this game, and the same goes for me too. I've always liked drawing so that's already a plus in my opinion, but some of the prompts get really crazy and that adds even more charm to it. The best ones are the ones that are so absurd and literal that everyone gets confused by them, though you'll be wanting other players to guess the correct prompt for your picture if you want to earn points yourself. Add a somewhat sarcastic but still warm and friendly host (voiced by Catherine Rich) and you'll definitely be having fun with this game.

Lie Swatter.

Now this is a curious one. The premise is that you are given statements, each from different categories in the first two rounds and all from the same category in the final round, and you have to guess whether they are true or false. Now audience participation can be fickle on this one. This game offers the most placements for players (100 places), but only a small amount of people can actually join the audience and play along, otherwise the game can crash. Additionally, people watching can't necessarily be sure about whether you got your answers in on time as the only signal for that is a counter at the top left corner of the screen. Compared to the first three games, it doesn't stand out too much.

However, there are some perks about Lie Swatter. The facts and lies are genuinely engaging and crazy, and it will give you more facts on a particular statement if it turns out to be true. The host is voiced by Phil Ridarelli, who has worked with Jackbox many times in the past and does an amazing job with his delivery in this game, very formal and straight-to-the-point. The art design is also good - the flies look genuinely cute and wacky, though I do feel sorry for them when they get swatted (luckily, they will come back to life if the statement was true). Overall, a pretty charming and simple game that has its flaws, but is able to make up for them in several ways.

Just a quick comment on the host though. I know some sources believe that Josh "Schmitty" Schmitstinstein from the past You Don't Know Jack games and Quiplash hosted this one, and I believed so too. Watching the "Phil Ridarelli And #IDARB" livestream that Jackbox held to celebrate the game's release though, I found that this wasn't the case. Ridarelli actually based the host on a newsreader character that he portrayed in some of the parody commercials in You Don't Know Jack. I assume this means that the host of Lie Swatter therefore is the fly in the top hat that appears on the main menu screen and before the final round. Doesn't matter. Ridarelli's just as brilliant at the job as he always is. :)

Word Spud.

Now this is the game I was warning you about when I said that they'd be one negative game review coming up. The one game that Jackbox mocks when it looks back on it. The premise is that a word will come up and you must find a way to expand on it, with other players voting on whether they think you came up with a good response or not. For example, if the word "hit" comes up, you can respond by making it into "hitman" or "hit and run".

I can see where the main problems are. For starters, unlike the other games that Jackbox releases, there is no host for this game. Additionally, the "spud" theme only pops up as one potato image in the corner of the screen. Otherwise, the background is simply grey and the design overall looks kinda of generic. And finally, the gameplay can get a bit repetitive after a while. The flaws of the game have gotten to the point that whenever Jackbox wants to make fun of one of their games in a later one, this is the one that they pick.

That said, it can still be very enjoyable depending on who you play it with, and the music is pretty good too. I'm very much of a word person myself and word games like these do appeal to me.


So overall, a pretty good party pack with three solid games, one decent game and one somewhat below-average game. As soon as the next game for Party Party 7 is announced (or if they decide to make another April Fool's Day video like they did last year), I'll write down reviews for the Party Pack 2 games. Geez, I'm already excited for Party Pack 7, and it's not even close to October! XD

The Winter Blues...And How To Beat Them (Possibly)

Well, it's coming up to the end of Winter and I'm already hyped for Spring. Finally, I'll be able to fully break out of what I know as the winter blues.

A Dump Month Of Emotions

To explain the full context, I suffer from mental health issues such as anxiety from time to time. Not social anxiety (I'm perfectly fine in most social situations), but just anxiety and stress in general. Most of the time, I'm able to keep this under control by getting the support I need and making sure I stick to a particular schedule that makes me feel comfortable.

Not in the winter season apparently. Then it just goes into full-on borderline depression.

January-March is not just a dump month for movies, it's also a dump month for emotions. Similar to how Summer is a time for blockbusters and October-December is a time for holiday films and award bait, Summer also seems to be a time for going on holiday and not having to go to school, university or sometimes work, whilst October-December is a time for looking forward to all of the winter celebrations. However, between January and March, unless it's a Valentine's Day flick, you can mostly expect nothing but box-office garbage from the cinemas. The same goes for my mood. Instead of having something fun to look forward to like in the other months, people in my situation are just left wishing that Spring would come already.

The coronavirus was not an issue for me (or at least it wasn't until they started shutting everything down). That was actually one of the "less" depressing bits of news I found out about, and I feel I'm doing a good job avoiding it so far. But I still ended up feeling sick anyway.  It was one thing to get several colds in a row, but then I started becoming a full-on hypochondriac who kept on freaking out over every little "symptom" that I had. Yep, hypochondria is something I get when I'm really stressed, and it sucks.

Then there was all that political stuff going on in the news, which just left me feeling burned out. For example, whilst everyone else was at least able to make a few dark jokes about the conflict between the USA and Iran, I just kept panicking about the possibility of nuclear war and whether we were all going to die. I know that the whole debate calmed down after a while, but that wasn't the whole point in my opinion. The whole point was that I was getting way more stressed about this than I would have during another season.

So why does January-March seem like a miserable time? Especially when I feel that Summer is worst due to the ridiculously hot weather?

It's after Christmas and all of the other winter holidays.

December is a time for all of the winter celebrations - Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Yule, Kwanzaa, etc. With those, at least you can distract yourself from any worries that you have and just try and have a good time (unless you have holiday depression, that is). Receiving presents, spending time with loved ones, seeing the nice decorations that the stores put up, completely different holiday activities...the list goes on.

Once the 6th January has gone though, it's all over. There's nothing much to celebrate anymore until later on, and even then most of these special days are spread out rather than close together. All that's left to think about now is having to get back to work and how to keep warm. Sure, they have the film award ceremonies, but I only show interest in a few of them.

It's the start of the year, and we want it to be over already.

It seems that all of super fun stuff happens later on. My birthday happens in May, big events such as the conventions are normally expected to take place in the summer (though E3 has been cancelled) and plenty of the games and series that we all look forward to don't start until springtime (fortunately, this was not the case with the seventh series/season of Death Battle!, which started at the end of January this year). As a result, the winter season feels longer than it actually is.

You're more vulnerable to disease during the winter.

It's probably to do with the cold weather when you think about it. The winter season seems to be when you're more likely to catch colds and similar diseases (I mean, that's why they have their name, right?). I mean, I caught a cold earlier this year and as soon as that appeared to be over, the next one came along. As a result, you feel more grotty and that makes you prone to being more miserable.

Beating The Blues

So how is it possible to stop these winter blues from happening? Well, unfortunately, it's not really possible to stop them completely. But I've found quite a few things help me out in order to lessen the impact.

1. Getting creative.

One of the things I really like to do when I'm stressed is to doodle or write up stories. Sometimes I can actually draw or write about what is bothering me and it helps me to get off my chest. Or I can just draw and write in order to distract myself and get my creative juices flowing. My favourite things to draw include the hosts of Death Battle! and my own interpretations of the hosts of Jackbox games (who we never really see but everyone has different ideas of what they look like). I also like to make progress on the story drafts that I've been planning, including a fan comic that I've been planning for some time. Now all I need to do about that is to find at least one illustrator.

2. Talking to someone.

One of the main problems I sometimes have is that I tend to want to avoid certain problems, which just causes them to stew up inside me. In that case, I end up having to talk about them to other people. Whilst it can be awkward at times (and sometimes very strong emotions are felt in the process), at least all of that stress has come out. And most of the time, whoever I've been speaking to is able to tell me that things aren't really as bad as they seem. My family and friends are good to talk to on some of these difficult subjects, as well as my psychologist and university mentors.

3. Getting outside and going somewhere.

Obviously this won't work for agoraphobics, in which case it's perfectly fine to stay indoors. For myself however, I find that getting out of the house not only gives me something to do, but also distracts me from my worries. Going to the shops, going for a walk in the countryside, going to a museum...these are just some of the places that I enjoy visiting.

And before anyone asks "But won't that put you at risk of getting the coronavirus?", I'd just like to point this out. Barely anybody else is outside at the moment due to the panic surrounding it. What does this mean for me? I get to have some peace and quiet either watching the wildlife in nature reserves or sitting down in a cafe drinking a warm hot chocolate.

4. Getting absorbed in favourite works.

This is a pretty obvious one for me. I love watching new Death Battle! episodes when they come out, and whilst there are still more to come throughout the year, there have been a pretty good mix of match-ups so far. It helps that the new schedule for the series means that a new Death Battle! episode comes out every two weeks rather than three like the episodes did originally, meaning that I don't have to wait so long for them. Those Video games are also a good way for me to relax - in my case, I like to play Yoshi's Woolly World for the 3DS, as it's bright, happy and soothing. It also means that I get to create my own Yoshis, something that unfortunately cannot be done on the Wii U version.

I don't just pay attention to digital media. I've been a massive bookworm since I was a kid and so I like to read books in my spare time as well. Graphic novels are one of my favourite mediums due to the pictures, but I also like to read picture books (they're not just for kids; there are some like the ones by Shaun Tan that are aimed for an older audience) and chapter books that also have pictures in them. Basically anything that's either for children or young adults - adult books can get a bit dull at times unless it's something that I'm really interested in. And as well as fiction, I like to read fact books and quiz books. With the latter in particular, this includes puzzle books such as Sudoku and Crosswords and personality test books. I've always enjoyed doing those personality tests, even if sometimes I end up with a result I don't always identify with. What can I say? I'm a real sucker for them. X)

5. Getting fit and healthy.

I really need to exercise more often. Not only will it be healthier for my lifestyle, but it really helps to get rid of all that stress. I recommend that you take up an exercise that you actually enjoy doing, as it will make it all the more worthwhile. For example, I love dancing and I frequently take part in zumba classes (for those who are unaware, it's a mixture between aerobics and Latin dancing). Best of all, I can do this inside my own house, which is handy when I'm unable to go out anywhere. Once you find a fitness regime you like, go for it! Just remember not to push yourself too hard though. That'll just make you feel worst.

6. Getting on with work.

Yes, I know that this doesn't sound very relaxing and some of us would rather avoid it. But here's the thing - it can actually distract you . For example, I recently had to do a "self-archive" project for coursework which involved discussing a set of items the same way that an archivist would. Besides the fact that it was actually a short project (only 1000 words!), I also got to comment on items that were personal to me and rediscover some of the creative projects that I did in the past. Coursework may be stressful at times, but for me it's less stressful than hearing the news of today.


Obviously, Spring will arrive on the 21st March and we're already getting signs of it such as the flowers coming up and the sun appearing more often. But I felt that it was important to write up this blog post as soon as possible so that anyone else who suffers the winter blues and doesn't know what to do about them could have some advice on how to feel better for the next few days, as well as when winter comes along again next year. I hope that you find these tips to be helpful in the same way that I did for myself, and hopefully things will look up once winter ends.

Reviewing The Golden Raspberry Awards 2020

Interesting that I chose this to be my first proper blog post, but this was the main reason why I released this blog at the time that I did. Of course, with the delays and cancellations of events that occurred throughout March, it left me more time to perfect some of the sections.

So I guess film award season has come to a close now. Obviously there were the Golden Globes, and then the BAFTAs. Oh, and then the Academy Awards/Oscars/We're Still Relevant For Christ's Sake, who for some reason are still trying to make themselves out to be the ultimate awards ceremony...for some reason. As usual, I didn't really get caught up the the hype for any of the award shows...

...Except for this one. I actually kept full track on it whilst nominations were being announced.

One of the many logos for the Razzie Awards.

The Golden Raspberry Awards, better known as the Razzies, skips out on celebrating the best movies and instead chooses to mock the worst movies. I frigging LOVE this award show. I always like to guess which films will get nominated and then afterwards which films will win. They're normally announced on the night before the Oscars, but since that moved to earlier this year, this'll probably be the last awards show to wrap out film award season. Unless another awards show also occurs afterwards.

For the first time, due to it being their 40th anniversary, the Razzies were meant to be televised for all to watch, but ultimately the coronavirus outbreak meant that it was just uploaded as a video on the 16th March. In all fairness, I would have be unable to watch it myself whilst it was airing due to only having Freeview and not anything like Sky or Virgin. Oh well, I guess you win some and you lose some.

My Overall Opinion Of The Event

For starters, I would like to say that I was content with the list of nominations this year. I feel that last year had a bit of a weaker lineup, as some of the "actors" who got nominated were political figures in documentaries who most likely got nominated for their controversial statuses. This meant that Fahrenheit 11/9 ended up snagging some nominations for "actors" despite actually getting some good critical press (though keep in mind that many other people may not agree, as director Michael Moore is indeed a controversial figure himself). This time however, the people nominated were indeed "acting" in the films. Well, maybe "acting" is a bit of a strong word considering the quality of said acting, but you get what I mean.

I would like to say that a lot of my predictions about the nominations were correct. Plenty of nominations for Cats obviously, but they also had The Haunting Of Sharon Tate, The Fanatic, Rambo: Last Blood and A Madea Family Funeral up there (they really hate the Madea franchise). To be more specific about Cats, I predicted almost every single nomination that would get, including Worst Picture and Worst Director. Same with the actor categories, though I didn't expect Judi Dench to be one of the nominees that time (though that was probably because of the CGI job they did on her - they said she looked more like the Cowardly Lion).

I will say though, there was one thing that annoyed me. For some reason in the Worst Supporting Actor category, Tyler Perry was nominated twice for two different characters in the same film. They never do this whenever an actor gets nominated for two different films - they classify it under the same nomination. Why couldn't they have done the same here? Then it would have meant that they could have nominated Jason Derulo for his miscasting as the Rum Tum Tugger in Cats and just his general arrogance towards the movie industry as a whole. I mean, he gets all pissy about people not liking the film and assumes that only other filmmakers have the right to comment, despite the fact that he's a singer by trade rather than an actor. On the bright side though, he did get nominated for worst screen combo with his "neutered CGI bulge".

Anyway, onto the actual "winners" of the categories!

Worst Picture - Cats.

It's certainly a "must-see" alright. I mean, how else are you supposed to find out how bad it is?

Of course this film was going to win this category. The whole thing was slammed when only the few few trailers came out, was considered to be a complete trainwreck when it actually came out and was one of the worst box office bombs of 2019. And it's not hard to see why - the CGI is appalling, the story makes no sense and makes bizarre changes to the musical that it was based on and the majority of the characters are completely miscast. When you're not laughing at the abysmal quality, you're getting pissed off about how one of the most beloved musicals of the eighties turned into...whatever this was.

I know that some people would have preferred The Haunting Of Sharon Tate to win because they said that Cats was at least enjoyable at times whilst Haunting was "exploitative". But here's the thing. If you win Worst Picture, you'll probably be remembered for a long time, for better AND for worst (mostly worst though). And we'd rather remember something that was spectacularly bad and chuckle-worthy than something that was just, well, bad. So whilst we'll be talking and laughing about Cats and its spectacular failure for years to come, Haunting will just be warming shelves in the nearby discount DVD store.

Worst Director - Tom Hooper for Cats.

This was Tom Hooper at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival after releasing critical darling The King's Speech. How times have changed.

Universal Studios may be at some fault for rushing Cats for a Christmas release, but the CGI's idea was Hooper's. Even when people complained about it, he still insisted that the idea of humans as weird cat/human hybrids was a good idea. Not only that, but he made some weird cinematic and storytelling choices for the film.

Hooper had his first breakthrough hit The King's Speech in 2010, which scored many award nominations and wins, and then moved on to the polarising yet still successful Les Misérables in 2012 and then afterwards another award nomination favourite The Danish Girl in 2015, which did receive one Oscar. Hopefully he can salvage his directing career at this point and gain back the prestige he once had, but we can't be too optimistic here.

Worst Lead Actor - John Travolta as Moose and Sam Munroe in The Fanatic and Trading Paint respectively.

With a performance like that, you'd next be expecting him to yell "WHERE'S RACHEL?!" (Note: Screenshot taken from The Fanatic.)

Travolta was just one of the two Razzie veterans to be nominated in this category, the other one being Sylvester Stallone for Rambo: Last Blood. Ultimately, the double insult of being nominated for two films rather than just one must have "helped" him win this award. The Fanatic was particularly disastrous, only being released in a few select cinemas (where it made a measly $3,153) before being sent straight to streaming platforms. Maybe they thought that they'd have more people watching it online.

Worst Lead Actress - Hilary Duff as Sharon Tate in The Haunting Of Sharon Tate.

Probably one of the least exploitative screenshots taken from the film.

Well if some people were so desperate for Haunting to win a Razzie, it certainly got one, even if it wasn't Worst Picture. Seriously, a former teen Disney idol as Roman Polanski's murdered wife? She may have the appearance but Duff certainly didn't have the acting skills needed. In a category that brought us Francesca Yates (as the white cat Victoria, who tends to spend a lot of time with her mouth gaping slightly open) and Tyler Perry (yet again nominated for his Madea role), Duff's performance was certainly a turd.

Fun fact about how I found out about Haunting: One of my university friends was super excited for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and I decided to look up some more about to check whether it was worth her time (Answer: Yes, it certainly was). And then I discovered that it wasn't the first film about the Manson murders released in 2019. It was this film. Which bombed. Guess which film people actually liked in the end, and no, your first guess does not count.

Worst Supporting Actor - James Corden as Bustopher Jones in Cats.

There were some cats eating out of rubbish bins during his segment too, but you don't need to learn about that. Ew.

Yes, even in a film that brought us Jason Derulo as a character who was supposed to based on Mick Jagger rather than any R&B star, Corden ultimately took the "award" for this category. In due fairness, this was one of the few segments of the film that people did not enjoy - they made the mistake of trying to place Corden's film personality onto the character and it didn't work out.

The saddest thing about this is that Corden is actually a pretty good actor when he's not trying to put on that particular personality. He's been in many successful British comedy shows, he's doing very well with his talk show and most importantly in my opinion, he starred in The Wrong Mans, a brilliant parody of crime thrillers that my family loves. And yet most people remember him for the obnoxious characters he plays on the big screen. I think he should just stick to television in the future.

Worst Supporting Actress - Rebel Wilson as Jennyanydots in Cats.

And this is before she starts stripping off her fur and eating the human-faced cockroaches.

The Bustopher Jones segment actually comes off as relatively tame when compared to the Jennyanydots segment. Like with Corden, the same mistake was made of trying to incorporate Wilson's stage personality onto a character who was actually the complete opposite of that in the original musical. Except this one is actually worse. Some people may have enjoyed Cats and found it to be underrated, but even they didn't enjoy Wilson's scene.

Worst Screen Combo - Any two half-human, hair-feline hairballs in Cats.

Just a select few of the Cats cast grouped up for the same shot.

The Razzies always have fun with this category. Obviously you'll sometimes get the "normal" combos such as Jaden and Will Smith (albeit on Planet Nepotism according to the Razzies) in After Earth or Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in Fifty Shades of Grey. And then you get the really silly ones such as Kirk Cameron and his ego in Saving Christmas or any actor paired up with a stupid outfit. Consequently, this has to be my favourite category of them all.

The cast of Cats ended up winning the award this time. Whether they mean the cast interacting with each other, the combination of the humans with the CGI or both, I'm not entirely sure, but seems good enough to me. Jason Derulo clearly counts in this field, though "neutered bulge" aside, some people seem to agree that he had one of the better CGI jobs in that film.

Worst Screenplay - Cats (screenplay by Lee Hall and Tom Hooper, based on the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which was based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats).

I mean, how do you actually get a picture of the screenplay? You might as well just watch it in general to learn more about it. But then again, maybe not.

Can I just point out that a musical like Cats doesn't actually work in feature-length film format? Hall and Hooper still went ahead with the attempt anyway, and what we get is a plotline even more confusing than the vague one that we had onstage. They also took the most sexually-confident character Bombalurina (who was one of the heroes in the original show) and turned her into a catty (no pun intended) henchwoman to Macavity, which, to me at least, is essentially a form of slut-shaming. If you ask me, the 1998 DVD version was perfectly fine - we could have just stuck with that if we wanted to see it on a screen.

Hopefully, this doesn't cause a second death in movie musicals like what happened in the late 20th century before Moulin Rouge! and Chicago brought them back into vogue in the early 21st century (though people who weren't into them in the first place will probably think otherwise), but the West Side Story remake comes out this year, so I think we'll see how that one goes before we properly decide.

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off Or Sequel - Rambo: Last Blood.

Now is he getting all dirty on that poster, or is that just down to Stallone's age?

Cats may have been a terrible remake of a famous stage show, but when placed into a category that featured sequels as well, it was ultimately let off. I remember seeing the poster for Rambo: Last Blood and already having a lack of faith in it. X-Men: Dark Phoenix sort of gets off the hook since a lot of the back publicity was due to it being the final X-Men film by 20th Century Fox, even if it did turn out to be awful anyway. I don't exactly know what saving grace this film could possibly have.

The problem with the Rambo franchise is that the original film First Blood was meant to be a criticism of the Vietnam War and a sophisticated character study of Rambo himself, who was simply a war veteran who wanted to get back home. The sequels on the other hand try to portray him as a straight-up action hero and focus more on the fight scenes and explosions. Overall, the first film sticks out like a sore thumb when compared to them - and is the only decent one of the bunch.

Razzie Redeemer Award - Eddie Murphy as Rudy Ray Moore in Dolomite Is My Name.

Eddie Murphy looking extremely dapper in his latest film.

Probably the only award that anyone wants to win, this goes out to anyone who has been nominated for or won Razzies in the past, but has recently done something that was actually good. This time it went out to Eddie Murphy, in what was probably the only category this time that most people didn't correctly predict. I was expecting Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers; everyone else expected Adam Sandler for Uncut Gems (though my mum did joke that maybe the Razzies just hate Sandler that much). Regardless, Murphy does a very good job in this film as Rudy Ray Moore, stand-up comic and blaxploitation actor, in a role that requires him to be funny as always but not to obnoxious extremes like in Norbit and The Nutty Professor 2: The Klumps. Overall, he ends up being the only true winner of any category, being the best rather than the worst.

Worst Reckless Disregard For Human Life And Public Property - Rambo: Last Blood.

JUST LOOK AT ALL THE FLAMES ON THAT POSTER THERE! And that's just one of the instances of property damage.

Now this is a new category that the Razzies introduced, similar to previous categories in the past such as "Worst Excuse For A Movie: All Concept, No Content" and "Most Eye-Gouging Use Of 3D" that didn't stay long but were still entertaining to find out the results for. Two films with a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes actually made it into this category, the first being Joker and the second being Dragged Across Concrete. Keep in mind that this is the only category that they both got nominated for.

Ultimately, that win went to Rambo: Last Blood, so Joker will not gain the honour of winning both an Oscar and a Razzie. Well, at least that film can argue that the violence in it was meant to "prove a point" about how society treats outsiders and why people become psychopaths in the first place. Rambo: Last Blood is just mindless all the way through.


So overall, most people's predictions were correct (with the Razzie Redeemer Award being the only exception), and the awards were well-deserved by their "winners". Certainly an improvement over last year with the "actor" nominations for political documentaries, even if the Razzies weren't able to have a normal ceremony this year.

So Why Do I Care?

Now you may be wandering: why are you getting so obsessed with all of this? Obviously there are other people out there who also get entertainment out of the Razzies, but placing bets on who win get nominated and who will win, as well as nitpicking every single aspect I liked and disliked?

Well, there are two reasons why. The first is essentially what the TV Tropes website defines as "bile fascination", or just taking an interest in the shitty. I know that these films are horrible (though some may disagree) and that I shouldn't be wasting my time watching them, but something makes me want to learn more about them. To find out if they are really as bad as people say they are. And if they're not that bad, well, I won't be unhappy with the results. In contrast, if people say that something is supposed to be really good and I find out that it isn't...well, I'm gonna be very disappointed indeed.

And now for the second and most important reason in my personal opinion. With a lot of major film awards such as the Oscars, the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, there appears to be a select idea of what is a good film and what isn't. Which is fine if you're into serious historical dramas and biopics, but not so fine if you prefer stuff like the Deadpool films and the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (which are all amazing, but not films that the Oscars go for). People have different tastes when it comes to films that they like, and only one taste gets catered to at these film awards.

With the Razzies however? It doesn't matter. If it's shit, it'll get nominated. Mindless blockbusters, failed Oscar-bait, you name it. Whilst some people may think that some of these films are actually good (I mean, why do you think Adam Sandler still had a career?), it's easier to agree on a bad film than a good film.

And I mean, come on! The people at the Razzies clearly have a fun time with what they do. They've dressed up in crazy outfits, they've done parody musical numbers - they always seem like they've having such a good time with what they do, unlike the Oscars who seem to try and stay "relevant" as much as possible.


Anyway, that's it for my review of the Razzies this year. Hopefully they'll be able to televise the awards next year to make up for the coronavirus this year, but for now, we can all point and laugh at the unlucky nominees from this year (as well as debate over whether Cats is an enjoyable trainwreck or just a trainwreck). And who knows? I'll probably do a review again then. I certainly had fun doing this one.

Introducing The Blog

To start off, this isn't the first blog that I have written. I've written a few before on different accounts that were more specialised, mainly for school and university projects. But this is the first time I've set one up for my own interests. I want to get my own opinions on stuff in general out there, things that are sometimes easier to write up than just say out loud.

So a bit about myself. My actual name is Imogen Easton, though I use the username Mamzelle Boomstick. I first set up an account of the same name on the Rooster Teeth website in the summer of 2019, though I probably need to add more comments there. I'm almost finished with my university masters in children's literature and want to go into writing when I'm finished. I'm also quite a bit of a geek and a massive Death Battle! fan girl (which would explain my username).

So what is this blog about?

Well...I guess it's just anything in general. Rooster Teeth shows, books, video games, films, TV shows, theatre, mental health...whatever comes to mind. One of the few things you won't find here is politics. Think of this as simply an outlet for my own views on creative works and just life in general.

Obviously this will result in a mishmash of random stuff popping up or possibly even streams of similar blog posts. I promise I will try and find a way of categorising different blog posts to avoid any confusion. Additionally, as I still have to balance this with university and part-time work, the uploading schedule will probably be just as jumbled, so I aim to publish a blog post at least once a month and use my Rooster Teeth account to alert people when I've posted something that I feel is particularly important. Overtime, I'll try and improve the appearance of this blog as much as possible as I add new posts.

And who knows? Maybe I might show off a few of my doodles in some of the posts every now and then. Just be warned though, they're not the most professional. For some reason, everyone lacks a nose and ears in them.

Yeah, think of it like Meowth from Pokemon. At least the cartoonist gave him ears though.

I hope you enjoy the blog as much as I enjoy writing on it. Some of the earlier posts may be a little bit scruffy but I plan to improve overtime, so please don't be too hard on them!