Rated PG Newsletter - Issue 03

Good news, everyone! The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales is over! I don’t ever have to think about it again. My review should have gone live much earlier, but there was a dispute over the score I attached to it. I’m not going to throw anyone under the bus over this, but I suppose I came to a point where I inadvertently took advantage of my position at Nintendo Wire while not realizing I’m writing for a team effort. After a lot of back and forth, of which I seriously considered walking away from the site, we’ve come to an agreement. The review should be live in the next few days.

Maybe that sounds as if I compromised a part of myself, but I really just want the writing out in the wild. I was tossing around the idea of self-publishing the review, but the code was given to Nintendo Wire by Square Enix, so that would seem scummy. Just know, I didn’t like the game, but maybe it has more to do with my own grudge against nostalgia baiting as of late.

Anyway, this week didn’t see any major changes as the New York Asian Film Festival is still prepping for its official start. I’ve been watching screeners while checking out other things, so I’ve been more productive than the last few months. It feels good to write more film reviews, though I wonder if I could turn some into longer features. Anyway, we’ll start this week’s issue with gaming again because there is less to talk there.

Games This Week

Elliot is done and dusted, thank God. I otherwise spent my time finishing Star Fox about seven times through, along with plugging through Max Payne to grab footage for my retrospective. Both games hold up incredibly well, especially Star Fox. I don’t know if I’d consider the Switch remake the definitive version of the game, but it does include some quality-of-life tweaks that I think help. 60 FPS is also a major plus over the N64 original, but that recent PC decompilation port puts it to shame.

I was more surprised how well the story bits integrate into the existing framework. While the visual overhaul is an acquired taste, story was the one element from the original that realistically could have been expanded. Games were really about intricate plots in 1997, and Star Fox doesn’t really alter that, but it’s great to see the crew interacting more. Slippy’s new characterization turns him from a sniveling shit into a naïve, but ultimately integral part of the team. Falco is more of a jackass, too, which I appreciate.

Then, finally, I got back to Devil May Cry 3. I replayed the chapters I had already beaten on Easy to catch myself back up, but I highly recommend the DMC3 Crimson mod. It brings in some of the additions Capcom made for the Switch port while also allowing the frame rate to reach beyond 60 FPS. There are broader tweaks, as well, but I’ve left it mostly vanilla to reexperience the original vision. I might blast through the game a few more times after finishing it just for fun, though.

Movies This Week

As you would expect, there were a handful of films I watched for NYAFF 2026 that I can’t discuss just yet. The rest of my week was filled with a few rewatches and some first-time viewings of classic films. I’ll start with God of Gamblers II, which is the sequel to Wong Jing’s hit original that is also a spin-off to Stephen Chow’s star making All for the Winner. While it still is light on actual gambling, it manages to weave comedy into the plot better than the first. The addition of Chow and Ng Man-tat is glorious, especially since the two always have such great chemistry with one another.

I rewatched Rumble in the Bronx thanks to Arrow’s amazing new Jackie Chan box set. The 4K restoration is a thing of beauty, and I’m still astonished that we can now watch the Hong Kong cut without having to resort to fan recreations with lousy quality. The audio is a bit iffy, but that’s a price I’m willing to pay for what is sure to be the definitive release of this classic. My friend also finally got to watch Bullet in the Head with me, of which I still believe it is John Woo’s best film. Truly a masterpiece of 90s HK cinema that hasn’t been topped in terms of sheer spectacle.

New watches for me come in the form of Jackie Chan’s Thunderbolt, also in Arrow’s recent box set. I found it was okay, though I can maybe see the vision Chan had. He wanted to create something more contemporary and that catered to the Japanese market, so he kind of did a Days of Thunder riff. The action is decent, though Gordan Chan’s wonky editing sometimes robs hits of their impact. There are some ridiculous ass stunts, though, especially with the cars. Chan being set on fire was shocking.

Lastly, I watched Enola Holmes 3 on Netflix since my mom was checking it out earlier in the day. I enjoyed the previous two, especially 2, but this trilogy closer was rather phoned in. Millie Bobby Brown is certainly an accomplished actress, but rehashing the plot of the sequel and dumbing it down a bit doesn’t make sense. I liked all the racial tension Enola Holmes 2 had, but 3 is mostly, “Eh! I’m Moriarty! I’m Evil! Wah!” Saying England is a colonizing nation doesn’t really add tension when your plan doesn’t revolve around destabilizing the government.

Upcoming Week

Hopefully this next week, I will finish the screeners I want for NYAFF 2026 and get to writing out all my reviews. I plan to review 10 movies this year after doing 12 last year. I am still looking at getting an interview with Angela Yuen, which could be a fantastic piece. Gaming wise, I’m likely to stick with Devil May Cry 3, though I might replay Max Payne 2 for the hell of it. I think I’m done with traditional game reviews, however, as games media and the internet, at large, don’t seem to enjoy actual criticism much.