Brandon "The Hardcore Kid" Nichols is an Internet reviewer who reviews...well, a lot of things, actually. His persona is that of a kid who grew up with 80's rockers like The Ramones and a lot of BBC shows including Father Ted, and while his slogan may say he's "hardcore enough to review kids' movies," he occasionally divulges into Internet videos, Robot Wars, and A Nightmare on Elm Street series. Imagine if 90's Kid had his own review show, if he was from the eighties. In the end, he usually gives a movie a score of "Hardcore Hit" for good movies or "Hardcore Headache" for bad ones.
His videos used to be on Reviewers Unknown, until the site closed down October 2014. However some of his videos can be seen on his Youtube account. He also has his old reviews stored on his Geek Juice Media page.
This review series contains examples of:
- Author Appeal: The Ramones, Father Ted, Robot Wars, A Nightmare on Elm Street movies... Brandon even builds his own robots!
- Also "Weird Al" Yankovic, whose music he uses repeatedly as bumpers.
- Anger Montage: He goes through one in the beginning of his review of Fred The Movie.
- Back from the Dead: After the British Guy killed the Hardcore Kid after his review of Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail, he was revived by a ritual done by Media Hunter in order to do a crossover review of the third film in the Jungledyret Hugo series.
- Berserk Button: He fumes up whenever pedophilia enters the topic.
- Broke the Rating Scale: Aside from the below mentioned "Hardcore Tumor" that he gave Marvin Marvin, Boku No Pico and Maid-Boy Kuro-Kun, he gave Bagi, the Monster of Mighty Nature a "Hardcore Catflap" and Where the Dead Go to Die a "Hardcore Screamerclauz" (Type 5: he really couldn't decide what to rate it).
- Catchphrase: Has a couple.Hey, dudes, Hardcore Kid here. Hardcore enough to review kid's stuff.
Freddy shall rule the world! (punch!) - Cool Shades
- Crossover: His review of Felidae with Hewy Toonmore.
- He also did one with Rowdy on the American version of Red Dwarf.
- He reviewed the Nickelodeon game show Think Fast together with Game Show Garbage; he's since shown up again for the GSG induction of The Moment of Truth.
- Defied Trope: In his "Top 10 Smegged Up YouTube Failures", he refuses to use his "Freddie shall rule the world!" punch in reference to Fred.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Some of his early reviews were not kids' movies.
- Everyone Has Standards: Has quite a few.
- Even though he has fans who are furries, the idea of being sexually attracted to animals appalls him.
- He loathes child pornography, as shown during his reviews of shotacon anime series Boku No Pico and Maid Boy Kuro.
- F--: He gave some films and shows, like Marvin Marvin a "Hardcore Tumor."
- Forced Meme: He suggests that other reviewers use the "wheelchair falls into the lake" scene from Mac and Me as a Bait-and-Switch.
- Fun with Acronyms: In the Secret of NIMH 2 review, he declares that, because Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made so many bad sequels to Don Bluth films, their name must be short for "Money Grubbing Morons".
- I Always Wanted to Say That: In his The Magic Voyage review, he says that he has been wanting to do a Legends of the Hidden Temple reference for the longest time, and the movie finally gives him an opportunity to do so. Cue him narrating the movie's run through a temple in the style of Kirk Fogg.
- Improbable Weapon User: The "Guitar Gun" which is used from time to time.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover
- Lolicon and Shotacon: Expresses a great hatred of it, as shown in his reviews of Boku no Pico and Maid Boy Kuro-Kun.
- Mondegreen Gag: In the Secret of NIMH 2 review, he mishears a line in one of Martin's songs as "rubber titties" and declares that the movie has officially given up.
- Non-Indicative Name: He was already an adult when he started his channel.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In earlier appearances, Mr. British Guy's accent tended to come and go.
- Re-Cut: He reshot the Secret of NIMH 2 episode (one of his earliest episodes), not only to give higher quality footage, but also to fix some errata and rewrite some jokes that he (unintentionally) cribbed from others.
- The Rival: Most likely the Hardcore Kid and Mr. British Guy as well as they are roommates.
- Rule 34: In his review of Jungledyret Hugo, he points out that the third result on Google Image Search was a Rule 34 of Hugo and Rita.
- Running Gag: His "Freddy shall rule the world!" punch.
- Also a case of Awesomeness Is Volatile in his review of "Fred 3: Camp Fred" when his "Freddy shall rule the world!" punch collided with Linkara's "I am a man!" punch.
- Playing the song "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" by The Ramones when someone gets electrocuted.
- Using a clip from his review of "Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure" of someone saying "I am going to molest you" whenever a character in a cartoon has a very creepy smile.
- Playing a Montage Time! clip whenever showing infamous YouTubers acting like lunatics via comments and videos. Typically found in his lists of "Smegged Up" YouTubers or gamers.
- Shared Universe: Because of his crossovers and cameos, he's part of the Reviewaverse.
- Shout-Out: He ends the Fievel's American Tails review with a Whose Line Is It Anyway? hoedown song, featuring Media Hunter and The Cartoon Hero.
- Slow "NO!": In the Extremely Goofy Movie review, upon realizing that Bobby is voiced by Pauly Shore. Followed instantly by a We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties title card set to "Top of the World" by The Carpenters.
- Stuffy Brit: Mr. British Guy, a side character played by Brandon with a fake accent.
- Take That!: To Game Dude in his The Magic Voyage review.
- Tempting Fate: In his The Wild review, he asks if the film will get better after repeatedly ripping off The Lion King (1994) in its first two minutes. It doesn't.
- The Unpronounceable: In his review of The Secret of NIMH, his inability to pronounce "NIMH".
- Unusual Euphemism: "Smegged up".
- What the Hell, Hero?: Despite his criticisms of Where the Dead Go to Die, he actually liked it. Everyone who camoed in the review was horrified and left in a huff.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Frequently, but most notably in his review of Allen Gregory, upon learning of Jeremy's past."So let me get this straight: Jeremy was living a happy life, with a great family, and a great job, and then Richard stepped into his life, started stalking the hell out of him, until he finally gave in to LEAVING HIS OWN FAMILY AND START A RELATIONSHIP WITH RICHARD?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!"