Barefoot in the Park Review

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Uh oh, it’s time for a romance film. Usually that means you are about to be seeing a really weak romance but of course the film could surprise us? Nah that doesn’t really happen here. There is a good amount of humor within the film but it also gets hurt by some of the characters being really unlikable. It’s the classic example of a film that is pretty fun for most of the adventure but does end up running out of steam before the ending.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Corie and Paul who have just gotten married. Things are going really well for them and right away we see the contrast in personalities here. Corie loves trolling Paul and putting him in embarrassing situations while Paul pretends not to enjoy it too much and so they’ve had a great bond. Well, their bond gets put to the test when they move into Corie’s apartment on the 6th floor which has no heating, almost no room, and no elevator service. Paul isn’t in particularly good shape and so walking up the 5 flights is a real struggle. They also have to deal with an upstairs neighbor named Victor who is not particularly subtle with his flirting towards Corie. How will things turn out?

First off, I will say that the comedy in the film is pretty impressive. I enjoy the banter between the characters and also think that Corie has a good sense of humor. Yes, most of her jokes do have the potential to get Paul punched out or in serious trouble but the high stakes nature of the jokes are what makes them work. I also think those jokes are not really a bad idea at all in strengthening their relationship.

The film also gets a lot of leverage out of the 6th floor part. It’s hard to see why it’s such a big deal to walk up all those flights but I can overlook that because the various jokes are just funny. Then we have Paul trying to keep up with Corie’s energy even if it means trying strange foods. You definitely feel bad for him there because that is a real struggle all the way around.

Now for the romance, it starts out good but does take a tumble by the end. Their relationship should not have been so easy to crush. Surprisingly the film doesn’t really go for the jealousy card with Victor here but instead plays up that Paul feels like a stiff compared to Corie. When she basically admits to that, then they go through a lot of troubles which only resolve with Paul having to play the fool for a bit. Jestermaxing as the kids would say nowadays.

I didn’t think that was a good resolution. For starters, it does play into Corie actually feeling that way to an extent. I would have preferred her to come to the realization that she wants a guy who is very steady and not going to get drunk and such. Have her tone down her own behavior a bit. My biggest issue with the film was how she would act around Victor. It’s one thing to be friendly but I thought she was a bit overboard with him. Victor would really get away with flirting and the way he helped her get down from the AC was absolutely fresh.

The film is mainly content to never make Victor out to be the villain but I would have liked Paul to put him in his place. Boundaries are always important to consider. I say this as someone who does hold the unpopular opinion that you can have really close friends of the opposite sex at all times. Whether married or not, there are wholesome friendships to be had but that is precisely why you need boundaries. If your friend is genuine, then they will respect them and everyone will have a great time.

Then we have a whole subplot where Corie tries to set up her mother Ethel with Victor. Setting someone up on a blind date is always a bad thing to do here and then to see it work can be rather annoying. Victor is introduced as a character with quite the reputation of getting around so why would this possibly be a good idea?

You have to assume that it all works out but it is a strong assumption all the way through. Ethel was a good character though. Romance aside, she did her best to be supportive of Corie and Paul the whole way through. There were plenty of opportunities for her to complain about things like the way the apartment looked but she tried to find the positive side of things.

As for Paul, he mainly did good but unfortunately looks bad at the end when he gets super drunk. Essentially he was trying to prove that he could be fun but in that instant he lost the high ground. I would have preferred that he stuck to his guns and eventually Corie would realize why he was a good man. Some mistake the ability to get drunk and go to clubs as being a fun person when you don’t need any of that. The ability to have fun without being intoxicated is a much more honorable trait.

So the film was pretty solid but really just fumbled when the plot had to get serious. The film probably felt like it needed to have some drama to end things off but this was the wrong way to do it. It just came at the expense of both characters and that’s never a good thing. Additionally, pretty much every scene with Victor just came across as annoying. I would have much preferred that the film be built around the apartment and that’s where the fun comes from. You could have both characters arguing over how the apartment should look and that would easily have enough material for a whole film.

Overall, This is a film that’s pretty fun but does get hurt quite a bit by the end. The end is ultimately what will leave the biggest impact on you so that was a really rough way to go. If you do like a classic comedy-romance then you should probably still check this one out. Just be prepared to see a whole lot of wasted potential here as the film focuses far too much on Ethel and Victor who try to take over the film. You just want to get back to the main duo but they don’t get much of a chance by the middle portion since it leads right to the big fight for the climax. It was a fresh change of pace to have the characters married from the start though rather than waiting until the very end.

Overall 4/10

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Review

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It’s been many years but I am finally getting to rewatch the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film. I can tell you right now, this is not a film that has aged any better than the first time around. There’s barely a plot going on here and the film just never manages to capture your attention. I have to admit that it was probably better before the film went into dream world and even then the intro wasn’t all that great. It’s a rare mix of a lot of old time story telling devices that just failed at the same time.

The film starts off by introducing us to Mr. Potts who is a really crazy inventor who also happens to be extremely defensive at all times. Quite the impressive combo of traits eh? Well, one day he ends up meeting a lady named Truly who considers him to be a real bore. He doesn’t take proper care of his kids and is far too aloof. Potts rejects all of that and may be right because he immediately wins her over to the point where she’s grinning and laughing less than 10 minutes from their meetup. Potts even works on selling some whistle candies to her father although that doesn’t end up going so well.

Potts tries a bunch of other crazy inventions like an automatic hair cutter and even rebuilds a car. It’s still rather bumpy so he calls it Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Quite the name eh? Well, this is a perfect time to tell a story about some corruption among the rich and a fantastical kingdom where pirates are trying to steal the car. CCBB is a very unique car after all that can even turn into a boat. It’s all really crazy but can Potts impress Truly enough for them to get married?

Now this film is in an interesting position with the humor. For example, it does have a lot of slapstick and goofy humor with all the characters running around. It’s pretty direct and in your face which is usually a humor style that I rather enjoy quite a lot. That being said, it felt like the film was missing the punchline half the time. You have all the setup for a bunch of jokes but then they all just go through the motions.

The film is also a musical which doesn’t really work out well. As with most musicals, the songs just aren’t all that great. The songs aren’t super bad or anything but none of them are the kind that you will be humming along to. The funniest part of them is really just to enjoy the scenes ironically. This is a pretty good film to watch ironically like if you view it as a super serious product and then go from there. That has its limits though and doesn’t make it a super strong film.

The romance is also not going to be one of the better ones and this is pretty much self evident. It’s hard to see how Truly goes from finding Potts to be super annoying and unlikable to being in love with him shortly afterwards. In context it’s not even like they knew each other a super long time. He was telling a story for a good chunk of the time after all and there weren’t any big time skips to where they were hanging out for a few months or something. She was won over way too quickly.

Yes, this is a comedy film but I don’t think that works as an actual defense here. You still could have had slower pacing and allowed for things to work out gradually. Or just have Potts be likable from the start. Instead of being super defensive about the amount of freedom he gives his kids, have him apologize and admit that she was right. Then Truly understands how mature he is and things go well from there. That would be the easiest fix.

Okay lets talk about the story now. So the Baron wants the legendary Chitty Chitty Bang Bang car and so he has two bumbling agents constantly trying to get it. They try kidnapping Potts, then going after his father, etc. They don’t really know how to do anything so the heroes aren’t often in a lot of danger. Unfortunately the two biggest liabilities are Pott’s two kids. They don’t have much of a concept of stranger danger and so they run into a van for some candy. They pretty much write the book on why I tend to find kids annoying in this kind of adventure.

The whole story also feels like it takes place in the really olden days because of how the town and castle look. In fairness though, the film itself is fairly old so that was just how things went. There just isn’t really anything interesting to look at during the adventure. I also think this might be where I can better explain what holds the story back. It’s just too serious.

Now hear me out. This is a really silly comedy film so that may sound like I’m missing something. Where the story takes itself too seriously is in how the whole kingdom plot is still taking itself seriously even when the actual characters aren’t. We’re introduced to a whole new town with its own lore and the kingdom has a lot of backstory. You could maybe pull this off in a fully serious film but it’s much harder to do that when the characters don’t really care. You either needed to make this a fully serious film, or cut out the story aspect and just keep the film about everyone messing around and getting into trouble.

While the opening wasn’t ultra interesting, I do think the premise was better than the adventure we got. We could have stuck to seeing Potts and all of his crazy neighbors running around and causing trouble while Truly tries to expose them all as being crazy. I think you could do some crazy shenanigans with that or….make the car fully sentient. I think that would have been funny. Ultimately the film is fairly innocent and harmless but it’s just not doing anything. This one should probably not get a remake, I don’t think you can really save it.

Overall, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a film that just doesn’t work. Even after waiting over 10 years and watching it again…it’s just not entertaining. The fantastical approach didn’t work here and the characters were not strong enough to make up for this. I would highly recommend sticking away from this film. It’s not as if it does anything seriously wrong but at the same time you’re just not entertained which is a big blow against any film.

Overall 3/10

Rings Review

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It’s time for another Ring movie and this one is the weakest yet. It’s time for a whole lot of exposition to things that we already know about. There aren’t any real great characters here and the film falls into the usual issue of the whole thing being futile. The main characters have absolutely no chance of claiming victory here and will only continue to be absolutely crushed. The film desperately needs to introduce a villain to fight the demon or something because the humans are not cutting it.

The movie starts with Samara crashing an airplane filled with people because at least two of them had seen the video. Everyone is now doomed and upon their death we cut to the real main characters. Julia is the heroine here and her boyfriend heads off to College but they swear to stay together. They will make the long distance relationship work. Unfortunately he stops returning her calls early on and the last time they spoke he was surrounded by other student who didn’t seem like good influences. Another girl shows up on his computer and starts acting crazy so Julia drives over to find out what’s going on. Unfortunately she is not entering the middle of an ongoing death experiment.

There’s already a lot wrong with this. Holt just comes across as a terrible character. So he willingly joined an experiment about death, knowing full well about the risks. He bought into the explanation that this can help humanity learn some knowledge or something but with the risk it’s not worth it. Basically Professor Gabriel has a lot of students watch the Ring video. Then before the week is up, they get other students to watch it. You can keep on passing the curse along so that nobody dies but the professor waits for a long time to get a tail on this and so people still keep on dying anyway.

Holt’s excuse here is that he left Julia in the dark so that she wouldn’t get involved. It’s a terribly thought out plan. For starters this would make her nervous and want to come over anyway. If she didn’t, then she probably would have just straight up dumped him. In either case, there is no real winning on this one if you use that strategy. Instead he could have just acted like all was normal and at least texted her back once a day. Even letting her know about the experiments and just hiding parts of it would have worked better. So he’s just not very smart.

He’s also not likable for even getting involved with this in the first place. I’d also throw in that if he had roommates with him, he should have warned Julia in the call before she started stripping. Obviously that’s putting her in a really embarrassing situation otherwise. I can’t say that I was a big fan of Skye either because she was quick to watch the video and then was ready to pass it on to someone else. Not a very nice thing to do and it makes her as guilty as the other characters.

How come nobody suggested just making this into a Daisy Chain? Person A gives it to Person B who gives it to Person C who gives it to Person A, etc. You could do that every 3 days and in theory nobody would ever die. It would certainly be a lot safer than their current plan. Perhaps I missed one of the very sketchy rules about copies here but as far as I know this would work. Now admittedly, I still have to stretch some disbelief to understand how Gabriel found out so much about these rules. I guess you could say through a lot of trial and error but it’s always weird to have someone figure out so much about this.

Unfortunately that doesn’t save us from the exposition as we still have Julia and Holt travelling the world to learn more about Samara and her past. This is basically retreading a ton of old ground that we have already went through so I can tell you that this was incredibly dull. We already know that Samara is evil so it’s not like finding out more is going to help. The film introduces another big villain in her father but Samara is not some random victim.

She has been murdering dozens of people for years and has already said that she would never stop. While the father was crazy and evil himself, you knew that he didn’t stand a chance. He was blind so perhaps he figured that would be a natural defense against her curse but what he didn’t realize was that Samara has the ability to restore someone’s eyesight. Checkmate! I know that sounds pretty ridiculous but as long as you keep in mind that she is all powerful then it works out.

So you don’t really have any likable characters here. Gabriel should be treated as another big villain here as well since he was a mass murderer by showing the video to so many people. He may claim it was for science and stuff but that doesn’t give him a free pass. When Samara messes them all over by stopping the video from being copied, you can’t even feel too bad because people were already dying anyway. At least this will stop all of the experiments.

There just comes a point where you wonder what the point of this all is. Samara cannot be defeated or even slowed down at this point. She can take anyone down and even possess others whenever she wants to. You can try to burn the tapes but she will return right away and ignore every attempt to stop her. She seems rather slow so you could in theory run away from her but then she’ll just have you choke from bugs or be in some Final Destination type explosion. There is no escape and there is no way to beat her so everything is absolutely brutal.

I guess I can say that the film is at least not ultra violent. It certainly has its moments but isn’t on the same level as something like Final Destination or Halloween. The film makes up for this with a lot of disturbing imagery and just dark themes in general. This is definitely not what you would call a feel good movie nor does it have much in the way of replay value. There aren’t even a ton of scares to be had. Yeah we get some jump scares and all but the exposition part of the film is reallllly long. Honestly there is no easy way to save this franchise. Giving her a weak point would be a good start but it doesn’t seem like that is in the cards. Maybe at least give us a likable character.

Overall, Rings has more pertinent things to say about long distance relationships than actual lore about Samara. It’s all recycled at this point so you just don’t care. Her father has a good voice for exposition but the character himself is just randomly evil without a whole lot of development. I would definitely recommend staying far away from this film. It doesn’t meaningfully upgrade the Ring series and just takes a few steps back instead. Maybe the next film will be better…one can hope.

Overall 2/10

.hack//Liminality Review

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This is a quick OVA series that I started a long time ago. With the final part of the PS2 .Hack series completed, it was time to finally watch all of the episodes. It’s fun to see what was going on in the real world while all of the fighters were in The World trying to stop The Wave. As a result this one is a bit more of a low key adventure but you still have some danger going on here. The most important part is really being able to connect the dots and see the pieces that you were only aware of in the background before now.

The special starts with Mai’s boyfriend being put into a coma after playing “The World”. It is a super popular game and everyone is playing it so people figure that it must have been a coincidence. Mai was playing as well but managed to wake up for some reason. Well, she isn’t satisfied with the situation as it is and wants to find a way to bring him back. She is approached by a man named Tokuoka who used to work for CC Corporation who are the ones behind the World. He tells Mai that the game is responsible but proving it and finding a cure will be difficult. Also, can she really trust him? The longer that the World is able to survive, the more damage the planet takes in the real world.

There is also a tough moral dilemma to deal with here. The mysterious monster within The World will keep on destroying more characters and sending their real life players into a coma for as long as he is active. If the game is deleted, then that will prevent any more victims from popping up but at the same time it will completely doom the ones that are present. Naturally that means the company is going after the first option in order to limit the liability and bury the proof of the glitch but the main characters want to save everyone that they can. It is with the knowledge that they could be creating new victims though which is why I wouldn’t say that this is easy by any means.

For what it’s worth, I would have to say that they made the right decision here. As long as there is a chance, you should not give up on the people who need help. So Mai and the others continue to push on. Each episode mainly focuses on different characters here. The first is about Mai and Tokuoka, the second is about Yuki and Kaoru, the third one is about Kyoko, Bith, and Tokuoka, then the final episode has everyone in. It’s a pretty good way to slowly build things up each time.

From the 4 episodes, I would say the second one definitely has the highest level of danger. The two heroines are trapped in a building that has entered lockdown mode with a lot of fires breaking out. If they don’t escape quickly then it’ll all be over. Naturally most of humanity immediately starts panicking and makes a run for it so you want to avoid those. Yuki and Kaoru do their best to escape the crowd and get away but it’s not easy. They have to use the vents at the ceiling of the floor and I always thought that looked really tough. I don’t consider myself to be super claustrophobic and yet I would have to do a double take there.

My favorite character in this series was Kaoru. She really only appears in the second episode but does a good job of staying calm and getting Yuki out of the building. Perhaps she would have survived on her own or perhaps not, but Kaoru made sure this was a guarantee. She put herself at risk and even got a sprained ankle out of this but did her best throughout. It’s why you always want to have an adult around in a high pressure situation. This is one of the rare titles where the adults actually hold their own with the kids.

As for Yuki, she panics a bit too much for my liking. She doesn’t really think things through and gets herself into trouble as a result. It’s just how these things go but since all of the other characters were really focused the whole time, it made her look a little worse in comparison. She did contribute in the final episode so I’ll give her that but it’s more of a consolation than anything else.

Then we have Bith who really came in handy by the end. He shows up rather mysteriously but has good connections like with the super hacker Helba. Without him, the characters wouldn’t have made it in time to save their cyber companions. He is also good at bluffing and has just enough credentials to hold up against the CC Corporation. I imagine that he probably spent all of his goodwill within this mission but it was worth it.

Kyoko also shows up a bit later into the series than the other characters but is able to help out right away. She is ready for the fighting to take place although you do have to keep your expectations within reason since for the most part everyone here is just a normal civilian. They’re not going to be putting in crazy combos and taking down tons of opponents or anything like that. This isn’t that kind of series.

Mai is still the central focus here and her character is interesting. She seems rather emotionless for a while and I thought that was going to be a full plot point but it mainly went away. I suppose that’s just how she is. For example she didn’t seem to care a whole lot that her boy friend went into a coma but maybe that was meant to just show that she was trying to cope with things. The guy was moving a bit fast in the flashback but it seemed like the event still ended positively with them. So I’ll assume all is well.

It does make her a good lead because it’s hard to know what is really going through her mind. She’s a bit of a wild card in that respect. I also think she had good reason not to trust someone like Tokuoka for a while there. If anything I would have been more wary of him like her friend Masaya. He did not trust Tokuoka at all and did his best to warn Mai about him. Ultimately she just wasn’t really interested in heeding those words. Masaya is a bit helpless but I appreciate him at least trying to protect her.

As for Tokuoka, well he is a good guy. He’s just as shady as it gets and I suppose that is bound to happen when you are fighting a multi billion dollar company. The series starts and ends with him getting beaten up. The poor guy definitely takes a whole lot of punishment but in the end is a critical piece to stopping The World so he can hang his hat on that.

This is a side piece to the games so the terms might get a little tricky for you. If you’re just watching this title you may miss some of the context but you can still enjoy it as a good conspiracy story. It is obvious that big business is hiding something and the heroes have to stop them. It’s a compelling piece either way. In order to get to the next level I think we would have just needed to have had some more suspense.

Ultimately there is only so much you can do with 4 episodes after all but I thought it was still a good adventure. The animation is also solid although there aren’t a ton of action scenes to really test it. It did help back up the eerie atmosphere of the series. It just feels like everyone is always very isolated and with glitches affecting the real world, you aren’t safe anywhere. This is not a horror by any means but I thought the atmosphere was crafted pretty well.

The soundtrack is really good as you will hear a lot of the classic .Hack songs. I liked each of the intros and it was cool to see the video game scenes from the accompanying volume at the same time. It helps to really tie the adventures together. Even with that you may lose track of some of the characters but you’re only meant to really focus on the ones in the real world here. One character even surpasses the speed of light with her reaction times.

Overall, .Hack/Liminality is a good example of an anime that may get a little confusing if you were to start with this as your first experience with the franchise. I think you’ll still have a good time but it might be worth playing the games first. Either way I would recommend this series. It’s so rare to see what people are doing in the real world while the superheroes are fighting so it’s just a fun angle. The CC Corporation is also shown to be as evil as they can be so this isn’t one of those situations where you will be on the fence. It’s clear that The World really needs to be stopped even if 99% of the player base doesn’t even know what is going on. One more episode to focus on the fall out and what the government does would be fun but you can probably imagine that for yourself.

Overall 6/10

.Hack//Quarantine Part 4 Review

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After 8 years since part 3, it was time to dive into the final part. This one is incredibly difficult to get a hold of because it is completely out of print. Usually it goes for hundreds and hundreds of dollars so you’re really expecting a grand climax here. It was definitely fun to see the ending and everything about the game was nostalgic. That said, it is fairly short next to the other games and you’ll breeze through it. The longest part here was definitely just grinding normal enemies for the virus cores.

The story begins with the heroes preparing for their final battle. The Wave is approaching and intends to end everyone once and for all. The World is in danger and if this attempt to stop the Wave fail, then it will be too late to save anyone who is already in a coma. To prepare for this, the heroes have to defeat phases 7 and 8 of the virus. Get ready for some long dungeons.

So the game makes up for a lack of new dungeons by having absolutely massive ones in the area that remain. One of them is close to 20 floors and that dungeon took me around 2 hours to complete. Imagine losing at the end of that right? The boss had 6 phases and he wasn’t even the final boss. Granted, the final boss technically had less phases with 5 but was still really difficult to defeat. These are styled as raid bosses so they are meant to take a long while. Of course that means it would be rough to die when you’re deep into a boss. Fortunately I never lost in a phase after the first one. The first phase of one boss did manage to take me for a spin several times but then I got used to him.

I recommend having 100 revives, restoratives, and potions with you at all time. A single boss can have you using close to 80% of that. Also make sure to stock your allies with these as well for when the boss hits you with an unblockable/undodgeable one hit KO move. That may sound cheesy but every boss in the final game has this ability. It’s probably one of the only games I can think of where you can be taken down in one hit at level 99. That is super crazy but does reinforce how big teamwork is here.

You will need to set up your teammates with their orders and then dynamically continue to issue new ones the whole time. You really have to stay sharp because if you stop for even an instant then you might lose. Make sure you keep several different equipment’s ready for every part so that you can shift elements as needed. The bosses are constantly switching after all and so you have to do that as well. You can only hold around 30 types of items at a time though so you will always be running on full.

Another thing to keep in mind here is that the final dungeon has a ton of data enemies. These cannot be defeated until you have hit them with Data Drain. The problem? That increases your corruption levels. The more you do it, the more “glitches” affect your character. The effects are drastic like casting negative spells on your teammates or even losing entire level ups. I lost 2-3 levels during the final dungeon. There is even a chance that you can jump right into a game over screen. Fortunately that didn’t happen to me but I can tell you that I was definitely feeling the pressure here. My corruption level was deep in the red at the time so I knew that I was right on the border here. One wrong hit and that would be it.

The most annoying part of the game is definitely about obtaining virus cores though. Basically you have to hit enemies with your data drain ability and sometimes they will drop a core or an item. You then have to run back to an older world and best enemies to lower your corruption level and then try again. There is a lot of repetition here. Also you won’t get more than 1 EXP per enemy when you data drain them so this slows down your progress. You need a ton of cores for the final dungeons. I spent over half of my time in this game getting cores. There may be a faster way to do it but this was the best way that I knew.

I will say that the game does have a lot of replay value in terms of other dungeons. There are almost an unlimited amount of dungeons you could play through for fun. Additionally there are a lot of side quest dungeons to play through and even little games like tag against a demon. Those all help to add up to the play through if you want to have fun there. The game even has a post game with some more crazy dungeons. Getting trough that will definitely not be easy.

The graphics have aged pretty well. It definitely feels a whole lot like you are inside of an MMORPG. You get full on cutscenes and of course the text ones. The full voice acting also feels ahead of its time here. Finally the soundtrack is also pretty good. A lot of great tunes all the way around and at this point they feel pretty iconic. The 4 .Hack games really lasted a long while and it feels great to have made it to the end.

Overall, This was a fun way to end the saga. It was fun to be able to keep my levels from the first 3 games. Starting this one around the 70s after all was pretty impressive. I also like the way the level up system has a consistent 1000XP for each level and how much you get is just based on your level. I could do without the virus core mechanics though. It really feels like that doesn’t add a whole lot to anything. It’s more of a needless grind than anything. I suppose a lot of games ill have something like this to extend the play time but I’d prefer to have more main dungeons or something instead. Now I can finally go ahead and play the .Hack GU games and I can safely say that I have really high hopes for those. They always looked like a ton of fun. This next installment of 4 games shouldn’t take me as long as the first 4.

Overall 7/10

The Founder

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I’m one of those guys who loves a good meal at McDonalds. It just feels amazing to order a classic McDouble and take a bite into those perfect flavors. Over the years there have been those who doubted the power of McD’s but not me. I’ve been going there for years and see myself staying a regular as long as they have the best burgers in town. So a film about their origins was bound to be pretty fun even if it’s not going to be a very happy story if you know how things end out.

The film starts by showing us a salesman named Ray. Ray had been travelling from town to town trying to sell various products. He has done fairly well for himself to the point where he has delivered a nice house for him and his wife. He is never satisfied though and that’s when he runs into a small burger shop run by the McDonald brothers. They have mastered the art of fast food selling and Ray sees this becoming a huge opportunity. So naturally he jumps right into it. It won’t be easy but Ray has never been a quitter.

Now it is often shown how having unwavering determination is a good quality in a person. You can accomplish a lot if you never end up throwing in the towel. Well, the thing is that this is also true of a villain. A shady person who never gives up is going to be quite dangerous. The film does a good job of laying out a good amount of hints towards Ray’s character early on. He seems like a decent guy at first who really wants to succeed but this drive eventually turns into absolute greed and arrogance.

He sort of ended up becoming the embodiment of corporate. Ray was ready to embrace corruption and cutting corners everywhere in order to increase his own profits. He wanted more and more money and in a large way that was due to how he had a big lifestyle as well. He didn’t need to be going to all those restaurants, having fancy suits, etc. The fame just really got to him and so he fell to all the vices right away like going with a married woman and then backstabbing the original founders. One of the brothers talked about how they let a wolf in the hen house and that’s exactly what happened here.

They just don’t have the business know-how to stop someone like Ray. By the time they saw the threat that he represented, it was too late. Honestly the deck was stacked against them from the very start. Ray likely could have ended up stealing their ideas and been a big success if they hadn’t agreed to help at the start. He mentions how the name makes a big difference but he could have just made up a similar one or stole that as well. With the way he operates, it probably would have happened at some point.

So you feel bad for the McDonalds because they really told him everything about their story. Betrayal is never easy to swallow after all and the film definitely ends on a rather dark note as a result. Technically they could have fared worse as they at least got a ton of money out of the deal. It’s just the principle of the thing. They are set for life but were really ready to work their whole lives for the business. That was ultimately their dream.

Now even if that’s how the film ended, I would say that for the most part it was still an upbeat title though. The first half is pretty happy and of course it’s nice to see all of the food and how fresh it was back then. It was extremely impressive to see how quickly they were able to serve people. I could use a burger and some fries now. Even just the environment around McDonalds.

Generally McDonalds is just seen as another fast food place in the present. In this film, we see it back when McDonalds was really king of its herd. The number 1 game in town and families would flock to it as a big event. Yes, you still have families going for McDonalds now but it’s definitely not quite the pure venue that it appears to be in the film. It’s also not nearly as fast as you definitely end up needing to wait several minutes in order to actually get your order. Part of that is due to the menu being a lot larger but also the sheer demand.

Personally I tend to factor in luck/being in the right place at the right time very strongly in success stories like this. I don’t mean to take away from the skill involved because there is naturally a lot of that in here. The brothers set everything up custom made and needed a lot of know-how for that. At the same time, sometimes you have a great idea and it just doesn’t work out for reasons beyond your control. You should always try to pursue your dreams for this reason though as you may have a real chance and just don’t know it.

Overall, This was a pretty fun film. It is based on a true story so there isn’t a lot I can say on avenues I would have preferred in terms of the plot. Naturally Ray being such a villain by the end is definitely a downer, particularly with the cheating since that’s always going to sour the mood. It is definitely a cautionary tale on just how dangerous any entanglement with corporate can be. McDonalds itself though? Top tier as always. I’m eating a classic double cheeseburger as I write up this last paragraph. That’s how top tier the business is. It’s the food that keeps on giving at all times. They may not come with mustard anymore and may be many times the price, but the instant you bite into the burger, you can tell that it truly is McDonalds.

Balloon Kid Review

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Balloon Kid is one of those games that is perfectly serviceable. There’s nothing really wrong with it but it also doesn’t have enough actual good elements to really get it going. So what you end up with is a rather forgettable experience. A modern remake of the game could really end up being a whole lot of fun as it would at least be a bit longer. This game is under an hour long with no real replay value in terms of a post game or anything like that. So that puts it behind the action right from the jump.

The game starts with a little boy being carried off into the winds on his balloons. His sister must now rescue him by using her own mastery of balloons in order to follow him. Alas, this will not be very easy. There are a lot of monsters running around and different natural obstacles. The world itself appears as an enemy and balloons are rather unpredictable. Can she destroy all of the monsters and save her brother in time? She will have to really push her own abilities to their very limit.

The game doesn’t really have many cutscenes or anything like that so for the most part you’re just going through the levels until you clear the game. The controls themselves are rather simple. You want to hold onto the balloons and use them to go above and under objects. At times you will need to discard the balloons entirely so that you can pass a tight space. Then you will put them on once again. You do this by digging into the ground. Or at least that’s what it looks like, technically you are probably pressing air into the balloons.

I didn’t actually realize this at first so I died a few times until I realized what was going on. The game has some reasonable difficulty as a result of this because you have to be reacting quickly. If you are slow to react then you will really be in danger here. So keep your guard up at all times because if you don’t, then you’re gonna be in a jam.

I did appreciate that we had real boss fights here. For a little while there I was not expecting any so that was a welcome treat. The boss battles feel a bit like a Mario or Sonic fight as you have to jump on the enemy and then use your momentum to dodge their counter attacks. That’s why if the game had just been longer then this could have probably reached the next level as a 7.

The graphics are okay at best but not really my style. It’s all due to the color though as you don’t get to see all of the fun colors the way that a GBC title would have been able to unleash. The soundtrack is also more on the forgettable side. So you’re really here for the gameplay 100%. The rest of the areas will just have to suffice in the end.

If you have the Nintendo Switch Online then you should check the game out since it’s free with the service anyway. That said, if you are looking to pick this game up, then I wouldn’t really recommend that. You are just not going to have enough content to really justify it in the end. You’d have to be a really incredible game to be worth it even at lasting less than an hour. In a way it just goes to show how high the expectations are. Most people wouldn’t bat an eye to spend $10 on a quick lunch that will only last 15 minutes as opposed to a 60 minute game that you can replay as much as you want in the future. It’s just different expectations there.

Overall, I had a good time with Balloon Kid but it was definitely a brief time. I can see the vision of how this kind of gameplay would be fun for a whole title though. Just look at Flappy Bird. In a lot of ways this game is super similar because you are trying to go above and below the obstacles. If you bump into something or go too low then you lose. It’s a really creative style and you can’t 100% cheese it the way that you can for some Kirby games. I’ll definitely be ready if we get any more Balloon titles.

Overall 6/10

Future Boy Conan Review

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This is one of those legendary anime titles that everyone has heard of, but has everyone watched it? I think it’s just old enough where people tend to miss out on it and even for me I feel like I may know the name by association but didn’t really know the show. Well, now I finally got to check it out and it’s a fun title. Conan makes for a good lead and the show looks really good for its age. Some of that is due to the high quality of the release but it also shows that the animation techniques were really timeless here.

The show starts by introducing us to Conan and his grandpa. They are some of the last humans alive after a terrible war shook up the whole planet. The humans had gotten too violent with their massive means of destruction and so this launched the world back into the stone age. One day a girl named Lana washes ashore and it turns out that she is the grand daughter of the world’s greatest scientist, Lao. Unfortunately this means that the army led by Lepka want to kidnap her. This faction believes that the world needs the weapons of mass destruction once more and of course Lepka will be the one to lead the world. Conan must now protect Lana from the forces of evil and is really on his own after his grandpa dies during the attack. Can Conan adapt to the rest of the world?

Now even with something like 95-99% of humanity wiped out, you’ve still got enough people for about 2 cities and 2 villages. That makes sense as humanity will gradually grow again as long as they aren’t 100% eliminated. If anything it underscores how brutal the war was because this happened during the lifetime of guys like Lao, so to see humanity immediately reduced like this was crazy. It actually wasn’t nukes, but a kind of magnetic weapon that caused the problem within the planet.

One of the things that I appreciated about the show is how Conan quickly adapts to things. He naturally knows nothing about the outside world, technology, or any of that. Yet instead of acting clueless or confused he just works on understanding it. This is why I never like the fish out of water trope because often times it feels like the characters don’t even bother using context clues. If there’s something that you don’t know, then you just work to understand it by using tools that you are familiar with. That’s all there is to this in the end.

So Conan does well there and is quite mature for his age. I’m not always sold on the kids being main characters kind of dynamic but Conan isn’t your average kid. The show also gives him a good amount of super strength to the point where he can lift boulders, hold his breath for a long time, run across a moving plane, etc. It’s not to the point where he can become Superman and just save everyone but enough to where he is always really helpful in a bunch of different situations. Conan has a good moral compass about him so he’s always trying to help out his friends.

He’s not some crazy pacifist though and knows when the villains have to be taken down. As the series goes on, he gets a best friend in the form of Jimsy. Jimsy never really grew on me though. He’s another kid who grew up in the wilderness so he has to adapt to society as well. I’d say he just doesn’t do as good a job in that and while he is strong, I would definitely take Conan in a fight. Jimsy is always going to be held to second place in that regard. Jimsy just had more weak moments like ditching Conan at one point.

He eventually becomes a reliable friend but it sure takes him a while. Any adventure is easier with a friend so his presence itself helped Conan but the character could have gotten off to a quicker start. Then we have the main heroine Lana who gets a massive role here. Of course she gets along with Conan really well so you can expect a real romance once they are older. She has the ability to use telepathy to a small extent like communicating with animals or with her grandfather. She is being hunted throughout the whole series and does a good job of keeping her wits about her. That can’t be easy at such a young age.

Lana doesn’t have the physical abilities that Conan has so she often has to stay back during dangerous situations. It’s definitely something that annoys her and she always tries to get in on the adventures. At times she does get used as a hostage so that does put Conan in a tough position. It’s hard to blame her too much since she is a kid but I would have liked an episode with Conan teaching her how to throw a spear or something like that. I think that would have worked out really well.

The other big character for the heroes here has to be Captain Dyce. Now, calling him a hero may be a bit of a stretch. He starts out as a villain and even after that he starts to waver back and forth at times so you’re never really sure if you can trust him. He has a big betrayal at one point as well. Despite that, he is definitely the most entertaining character though. He may meddle in the heroes’ affairs a lot and get into trouble but there is a certain confidence about him. It also may help that he’s an adult so he is able to fight in a different way than the others.

It’s always nice seeing an adult who can actually do something in this kind of adventure. He is tasked with the role of being comic relief a lot of the time but also has his serious moments. This balance works extremely well and he adds a lot to the show. It definitely would not be the same without him and his leadership. I also liked his robot suit. It may not appear as much later on but that gizmo was super handy.

Another one of the villains is Orlo. This guy is a lot pettier than Dyce but also makes for an entertaining villain. You may think that he looks bad since he spends a lot of time trying to intimidate a kid but that’s just how he rolls. I would have liked him to have ended out his screentime still being the leader of his group though. He ends up bowing to Monsley and her crew almost immediately. It’s true that he would have lost any kind of fight there but you at least have some respect for a villain who doesn’t bow the knee in the end. From the way he ended up succumbing to the others, it showed that he was not the main guy in any capacity.

His little sister Tera had even less moments to look threatening here. She is good at talking tough to people who can’t fight back but immediately falters afterwards. She is only a little kid of course but that made her look even worse. You shouldn’t be a villain at such a young age and have to be able to know that you’re on the wrong side of things. Orlo at least had some convictions, she was just following the path that was laid out for her.

Then we have Monsley who is essentially the second in command among the villains. She commands a ton of respect from everyone and has earned her spot at the top. Anytime she shows up, the village where Conan is at tends to take a lot of damage. She captures him a ton of times so we also see how capable she is. In some ways Monsley has to be the most impressive character here. Ultimately by the end of the story she has to ask herself some tough questions about what she is even doing here anymore. She gets a whole lot of character development and it is all handled really well.

Finally there is the main villain Lepka. This guy does one of my favorite villain tropes which is where he will feel a laugh coming and tries to stop it. The attempts are futile though so he ends up laughing as loud as possible and just going along with it. It’s just great when that happens. Beyond that, he just works really well within the role. You always want at least one villain who is just evil and the heroes have to stop him. He has no delusions of being a good guy or anything like that. He just wants to crush everyone and rule the world.

Right up through the end he is still fighting for this. He will shoot random people and murders as many as he can. He tries to punch Conan into the exploding ship at the end which would have murdered him. This guy is absolutely shameless but he did raise up an empire and nearly took over the world. Lepka was a very serious villain and definitely not someone to mess around with. It’ll be hard to top him as a main villain.

We also had Dr. Lao of course but he spends most of his time either captured, knocked out, or missing. He’s not a bad character or anything but I do feel like he could have made things a whole lot better on Lana. I’m unclear on the extent of his powers so maybe he was really just out of range for a large chunk of the adventure of something. I just think he should have helped more. In the end his presence is felt throughout the series but it almost felt like he had given up until Conan and Lana showed up. His disguise was great for staying out of trouble but not for helping the world stop the encroaching threat. I suppose he figured that without him, Lepka would ultimately not get very far. It’s not like this is a terrible plan but it’s far too passive for me.

The animation is pretty clear like I mentioned before. I also think that all of the environments really stand out here, whether it be the highly technological city or the small villages. There is a lot of movement in the fights which balance the visual humor well with the actual blows being felt. There are a few times where Conan is beaten quite thoroughly and the show doesn’t shy away from it. It doesn’t end up being super violent or anything but it’s clear that he’s taken a lot of damage.

The cartoony style ends up being beneficial for characters like Dyce as otherwise it would be harder to forgive him. Conan is super forgiving of everyone but the viewers won’t be as kind. The soundtrack is decent but it can be repetitive. It doesn’t seem like the show had a ton of budget allocated to it so the selection is small. The opening is decent, but I would say it looks better than it sounds.

If there was ever a show where I would say that it’s all about vibes, it would be this one. I think the show’s greatest strength is just that it has a fun atmosphere. It’s nice to see Conan just travelling the world to save Lana. The whole show feels very calming. Yes there are the big climaxes and danger moments but most of the time you’re just seeing what it would be like to live in a world without a lot of people. As far as post-apocalyptic worlds go, this one just seems rather nice. It’s good to have a more optimistic look at one for a change.

Overall, Future Boy Conan is a pretty good series. It has a very low key feel to it even with the end of the world stakes. Treat this as a slice of life adventure type story and you should be satisfied. The story wraps up nicely here so it’s definitely going to be interesting to see how the sequel fares. Could be a while before I check that one out though. There isn’t anything to really dislike about this show. It’s a pretty safe option that you can really recommend to anybody. As long as they enjoy a good adventure then this one will be a winner.

Overall 6/10

All Dogs Go To Heaven 2 Review

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It’s time for Charlie and the crew to return to the front line one more time. You’d have expected that Charlie’s journey was over after dying but nothing can keep him down for long. The story works pretty well as a sequel with letting all the familiar faces show up. You’ve got some good action and adventure going on here. I’m not going to say that it’s a great film or anything like that but it will keep you entertained and is a fun film all the way around. I had no serious issues with it.

The movie starts off with showing us that Charlie isn’t very happy over in Heaven. He feels like things are just too peaceful and everyone acts too happy. What he wants is the hustle and bustle of Earth that he is used to. He gets his chance when Carface manages to steal Gabriel’s Horn and escapes back to Earth. There is no way to process the recently deceased now and this is only going to get worse. So reluctantly, Heaven sends Charlie back to the real world along with his friend Itchy to reclaim the horn and save everyone. This should be an easy task….except Charlie may not be eager to complete his mission. Oh yes he bumps into a girl dog named Sasha and her owner David. This may complicate things as well.

Charlie wasn’t exactly subtle about his intentions so it’s hard to blame him too much for not taking the mission all that seriously. I suppose the risk may have been low initially since he went as a ghost and couldn’t interact with anyone. Nobody had guessed that the villain Red would come up with collars that could allow Charlie to act as if he was still alive. Charlie still does the right thing when it counts but does need some prodding. In a sense you can say that he needs to personally care about the situation in order to really help. If Sasha wasn’t around then things could have gotten really rocky here.

Still, Charlie’s an entertaining character. His sheer experience and confidence is always fun to watch. He isn’t afraid of the big bouncers at the beginning of the film at all. (Granted, we find out later that he was invisible and intangible but it’s not like Charlie knew that)

His pal Itchy is stuck playing the straight man in all the jokes. He’s not really able to keep up with Charlie’s crazy antics. Itchy was really happy to stay in Heaven and just have a good time but was ultimately dragged into this whole situation thanks to Charlie. By the end Itchy is able to stick up for himself long enough to finally break away from Charlie and live his own life. The two will always be great friends but sometimes you still gotta go on different paths.

Carface isn’t one of the more interesting villains so fortunately he really plays second fiddle here. Obtaining the horn at the beginning was his biggest moment. After that it is really Red’s show all the way. Red makes for a more entertaining villain. He certainly should have been able to claim victory with the big lead he had but in the end you could say that he got a bit cocky. He does have an actual sinister design though so that was impressive. The character himself may not be super memorable but the design certainly helps quite a bit.

As for the heroine Sasha, I’d say she is a pretty decent character. I wish she could have looked tougher though. The film portrays her as the really tough type of heroine and she talks a good game to Charlie but doesn’t really show up as much when the chips are down. Just a few good scenes of her really taking down opponents would have been really good. Instead she’s mainly here to set up the romance which is not handled particularly well at all. Honestly the first impression with Charlie should have been enough to keep them from being an item at all.

She also has to look after David which limits her since he tends to be an annoying character. He ran away from home to be a magician so he seems rather delusional from the start. He’s young but you would still expect him to be a lot wiser with his choices. He definitely caused the parents a whole lot of worry throughout the movie and doesn’t really recognize that he made a mistake for a very long time. It’s not like his skills are all that bad. I liked the classic hiding the ball trick but he wasn’t even able to realize that Charlie’s trick was a whole lot more impressive. This kid has a long way to go.

The animation was reasonably good. I always like the hand drawn style since it is nice and colorful and tends to age well. The film is definitely very expressive the whole time and it is always moving at a really high speed. The soundtrack is more on the hit or miss side but I did like the villain theme. Those tend to always be a whole lot more impressive than the hero tracks here for some reason. The other songs just come across as a bit more generic or otherwise uninspired.

Now the film definitely has a lot of humor and isn’t taking itself super seriously so you should keep that in mind. That said, the film is pretty direct about this from the start. It still does have a body count just due to the nature of the film and there are some intense visuals. It may not be as intense as the first film but you don’t have to worry about this being a boring movie or anything like that. It still has a good script and Charlie is enough of a renegade to keep the film from being all goody goody or anything like that.

Overall, This sequel does a good job of continuing the story with the characters. It’s fun enough even if the film is not the kind of title that will stand out 10 years from now. It’s hard to imagine actually wanting to go back to Earth once you’re in Heaven but the film does portray Charlie as being really unique in that regard. I suppose there’s gotta be one guy who really wants to go the other way. If you really liked the way that the first film ended then you may not be a huge fan of this one on principle but beyond that it is a good standalone story.

Overall 6/10

Sniper 2 Review

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This review is of the TV-14 edited version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

It’s still pretty crazy to think that the Sniper series has gotten so many movies. It just never seemed like the kind of franchise to break out in that way but hey that means more action scenes for me. This may seem surprising but the second film actually beats the first one. This one just jumps right into the action and doesn’t try to be as gritty as the first one. The heroes have a job to do and they just get right on it.

The movie starts out with Thomas being recruited by the army for one last mission as a sniper. He points out that he was let go because he lost some fingers in the first film but the army explains that they have nobody better. (Translation: They found someone expendable to put in a crazy dangerous mission!) So Thomas is sent abroad for the latest assassination and this time his partner is Jake. Jake was also a really good sniper but he ended up murdering one of his teammates and so he was taken to jail. If he clears this mission, he can get a pardon so that’s the incentive but Thomas has to be careful. This still might not be someone that he can really trust. That’s a tough doubt to have when you’re in a life or death situation.

Now what some may not like here is that a good chunk of the film actually has absolutely nothing to do with Thomas doing any sniping itself. They take down the main target really quickly. A lot of this ends up being running away from an enemy sniper. So you’re sort of flipping the script here. Thomas finds out that the government has been using him once again so now he has to help Jake get someone out of enemy territory but it won’t be easy. The enemies have a powerful sniper of their own who is really good at making high pressure shots.

There may be some issues where you have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit but that is normal for a thriller. The biggest instance of this absolutely has to be when the characters hijack a bus and then run through a bunch of cars. They break away to run from the enemy soldiers but you don’t see how they could have possibly escaped. Jake is captured quickly so we see that every soldier stops searching even though they knew that they were chasing two guys. Thomas just hides around the corner and nobody goes on to check. Seems a bit farfetched right?

In general you were always going to have a hard time trying to find a way for the two soldiers to go into a super urban environment, bump someone off and then escape. That’s hard to do and so the film doesn’t always make a convincing case for it. Still, the pacing is always good and this is a very explosive film. Someone is basically always shooting at the main characters here. Ultimately Thomas makes for a pretty good character here as well.

I thought the subplot about him not being able to see well would be a bigger deal but surprisingly that plot doesn’t matter after the opening shot. He is basically able to shoot and fight normally. He isn’t the kind of guy who talks too much and just gets the job done. That works pretty well for the main character and his experience really came in handy here.

As for Jake, well I can’t say that I liked his plan. It’s the kind of plan that usually has a 99% chance of failure. Somehow he was able to pull it off here thanks to plot armor and all but that doesn’t make it a good one. He was still a good ally to have and was much better than the spotter from the fist film. Jake is an actual professional who could hold his own in comparison. During the climax he takes down a ton of enemy combatants on his own.

The most annoying character has to be the guy that they are trying to rescue. He’s one of those classic pacifists who talks about how war is bad and everyone who participates in it is terrible. Yeah war is a bad thing of course but not every combatant is in on it. Thomas is here to try and make the world a better place and Jake is actively trying to save this guy. There are times when violence is necessary for the greater good and the absolute stance on how it’s bad is always a bad thing. Sure enough, this guy comes around by the end but it’s a bit late for that. It’s just such an obvious thing to realize that it shouldn’t be an actual twist or anything.

The main heroine here is Sophia and for most of the film I figured she would be the traitor. She is quite helpful and knows the best places to snipe from and where the villains will be at their weakest. Without her the main sniper duo would have had a much tougher time of it. Sophia ends up being a pretty solid character. Definitely someone who is taking an active role in this conflict as opposed to just sitting around watch. This whole adventure is happening in her country after all.

There isn’t much to Sniper 2 beyond being an action title so how much you enjoy it will depend on how much you like that premise. I don’t think it’s inherently a bad thing to be hyper focused like this. For the most part the film isn’t throwing a ton of twists at you and the formula follows a lot of what happened in the first film. When you see the plot description of the film you can guess a lot of what will happen from there. Not every individual twist but the general flow. The character cast is very small as well. If you’re watching for some good gunfights then you’ve come to the right place.

Overall, Sniper 2 is the definition of a classic action film. I thought the execution was pretty good to that end and had a good time watching the film. You won’t be bored or anything. The film can get violent at times but not nearly as much as the first one. This is more nonchalant about the battles so it doesn’t dwell for too long on any one scene. Naturally if you don’t enjoy films about war time situations and fights then you should skip this one but then there wouldn’t have been much to save it in general. I’m not sure I really see any future Sniper films improving further on the formula here but I’ll still be curious to see how they turn out.

Overall 6/10