MMO Fallout

“Game is unavailable at this time.”

What ever happened to this game? 

“Omali post a real picture of yourself.”

Alright.

This week on MMO Fallout Book Club, we review Abraham Lincoln Vs Zombies.

Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies comes to us from Richard Schenkman, who you may recognize from his previous works on films including The Man From Earth (2007) and And Then Came Love (2007). It stars Bill Oberst Jr. as Abraham Lincoln, who is already President when the film begins. Lincoln leads a group of soldiers to Fort Pulaski after a massacre leaves an entire regiment dead with floating rumors of the dead coming back to life and consuming flesh.

The film is exactly what you would expect out of a film about Abraham Lincoln fighting zombies. Lincoln fights with his trusty scythe while the large cast of characters are slowly eaten alive or killed in mercy before they change. Unlike Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the story makes little attempt to make the events seem “logical” in the Lincoln timeline, where Vampire Hunter placed itself as the secret life that Lincoln lead up until his presidency. 

And yes, Lincoln at one point says “emancipate this” before slicing a zombie’s head off with his scythe. He also gives the grand advice of “a man divided cannot stand.”

Bill Oberst is one of the few actors who show up that actually has talent. Otherwise, the historical characters are rather ham-handedly thrust at you (including Stonewall Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, and John Wilkes Booth), the plot is weak and the dialogue will make you slap your forehead. Then again, there is a whole audience who enjoy b-rated films, and as a member of that group, I don’t think you’ll come away disappointed.

(spoiler) I did enjoy how the film portrays Lincoln’s death, for those of you who have no intention of watching the movie. At the end of the film, Lincoln’s wife is infected and becomes a zombie. Keeping her locked up and with doctors working night and day to try and find a cure, Lincoln is scratched by accident and becomes infected himself. Knowing he is doomed to die, he sends an urgent letter to John Wilkes Booth detailing that he would be at the theater, effectively setting up his own assassination.

I received my first monthly snack of the month pack in the mail today. Will post further about it.

This edition of MMO Fallout Book Club looks at the 1996 movie Mission Impossible. Mission: Impossible stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, a member of the top secret Impossible Mission Force. Ethan is on the run after his mission is foiled by a spy, resulting in the deaths of his entire IMF team.

I haven’t seen Mission Impossible since 1996, making me about seven years old at the time, and proof as to how powerful the movie was to me. Even then, I used to be a huge fan of the 1960’s Mission Impossible television series, catching reruns of it on TV as often as possible. 

I’m sure for most people, Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible series was the first, and likely only, slice of the franchise they have seen, so the film may not have come off as powerful as it did to fans of the television show. The change was so drastic that several members of the original cast absolutely hated it.

(spoilers)

The first major alteration is in the early deaths of Ethan Hunt’s entire team. Over the course of their first mission, the members of Hunt’s team die one by one in what is quickly understood to be an ambush. In the old series, the main characters were safe. People died, but the IMF team was always safe from death. To put it in perspective, imagine if a new Terminator movie released, and within twenty five minutes John and Sarah Connor are both killed and the movie follows new people.

The other point of offense among the early crew was the final reveal of Jim Phelps as the traitor and a terrorist. Jim Phelps was the director of the IMF from season two onward, playing a pretty major role in the organization’s movement. The portrayal of Jim as a traitor was so powerful that several members of the original cast either turned down roles or refused to see the movie.

(/spoilers)

Despite its ridiculous and often impossible (see what I did?) plot points, Mission Impossible is still one of my favorite live action films of the 90’s starring Tom Cruise. I never ended up seeing Mission Impossible II or III, but they are on Netflix so I will have to check them out.

[Warning: Language] Today’s Extra Shots comes from Path of Exile. Someone needs to put Psychoreeper back on his meds.

Your eyes look like meatballs.

Half of me wants to say that the reboot of Earthrise is going to be better than the original. The second half is pretty sure there is no way it could possibly be worse.