The Zachtastic Movie Blog

(Poster Source: IMDB ) This isn't the first time that a live-action adaptation of an anime/manga franchise has spurred controversy. The American remake of Ghost in the Shell starring Scarlett Johansson was heavily accused of whitewashing, on top of other criticisms with regards to its departures from the corresponding source material and other filmmaking hiccups. As for me, I felt that that movie had significant problems, but I couldn't otherwise comment on those other subjects since it was my first exposure to that franchise altogether. I mention all of that in relation to Death Note , which is another American live-action adaptation of an anime property. This film has received criticism for many of the same things for which Ghost in the Shell was accused of. But again, this is a franchise that I was unfamiliar with going into my experience of director Adam Wingard’s interpretation of Death Note . As such, I hope my fresh outlook on this material is enough to provi...

Staying firm in my commitment to provide a new Movie Battle per month, I had a few ideas running through my head before actually making a decision. At first, I thought about comparing Short Term 12 with The Glass Castle . That first film was the breakout critical success for filmmaker Destin Cretton, who would go on to direct The Glass Castle , but I honestly just lost interest in watching either film. And then I also considered the idea of watching An Inconvenient Truth to prepare for the release of its sequel. Unfortunately for Al Gore, I tossed that one out as well. Eventually, it hit me: I had promised my wife Amber that I would watch the Ocean’s trilogy with her at some point. Having been directed by Steven Soderbergh, a filmmaker I respect but need to familiarize myself with more, I definitely wanted to follow through on that promise. (Photo Source: IMDB ) This was motivated even more by the fact that Soderbergh’s first film since coming out of an extremely sho...

Around this same time last year, I reviewed Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection for my PlayStation 4. While I somehow never chose to review Uncharted 4 , I still took great pleasure in playing through that original trilogy and sharing my thoughts on it. And to be fair, I thought the fourth game was the best of them all. It’s a great series to be sure of something. However, I would hope that I speak for all of us when I say that Naughty Dog’s announcement of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was quite unexpected. (Photo Source: YouTube ) The fourth game was highly publicized not only as the last game featuring main protagonist Nathan Drake, but also the final game Naughty Dog would make for the series. Alas, such seems to not be the case with the female-driven spin-off coming out today. With all of this being said, though, I wanted to share my favorite moments from this excellent series of video games with you. This does not necessarily mean that I will talk about literal mom...