My Happy Marriage Season 3 Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a very mini season. I wasn’t even sure if I should still go with the season 3 title since that’s pretty much been dropped but it still felt like the most direct way to capture this one. With 3 episodes there isn’t a lot of content to go over but Miyo and Kudou do get to go up against one last challenge. It’s a fun enough final saga with the characters mainly looking good. Unfortunately Miyo was really the main exception to this.

The 3 episodes start off with the two getting ready for their big wedding. The whole series has been building up to this after all but neither character is really sure what to do in the interim. Miyo is still so shy that she can’t bear to hug or even hold Kudou’s hand. Meanwhile Kudou is getting roasted by his friends for how formal the two of them always are. Then tragedy strikes when a legendary monster has been reawakened. Kudou will have to try and put this creature down, but can he make it back to the wedding in time?

Now we’ve got a few different trials here but I will say the one about making it back to the wedding on time is more of a non issue. Lets face it, the characters are pretty understanding of the context here. It’s not like one of those rom-com movies where you’re worried that one person is going to leave early. That was never even a consideration here. The biggest issue is really just the fact that the monster is incredibly tough. He murdered Kudou’s predecessor after all.

Additionally, while Kudou is the strongest fighter in history, he is a bit out of practice due to keeping up with the wedding. He’s grown so sloppy that he didn’t even notice when Miyo was cursed. I will admit that was a bad look for him. Still, on the whole he looks good here. He looks particularly impressive in not falling for Kimio’s tactics which would have worked on most leads. Now this is a complicated issue so lets break it down further.

Basically Kimio is being abused by her husband. This has been a really rough situation for her for a very long time and she doesn’t see a way out. Up to this point, she is clearly a victim. Where Kimio goes wrong is that she decides to bring others down with her by unleashing evils, sending out curses, etc. She isn’t helping her case in doing so and that’s where Kudou looks good. Most characters would have decided to help her out anyway and let bygones be bygones. Kudou instead keeps his personal and professional matters separate. He makes it clear that Miyo is the only one he will give special attention to.

I just like that as a matter of principle and it’s extremely rare that you see this. Usually it’s the opposite where the guy treats every girl amazing to show what a perfect character he is. Obviously being nice to everyone is cool but there is something inherently more romantic about only being extremely kind and charming to one person.

Kudou still points her in the direction of others who can help but she doesn’t seemingly even attempt any of those options. So it’s hard to say what’s going on. Has she already tried these paths and it didn’t work? The series takes place in the olden days where domestic issues didn’t have as many solutions as they do in the current days. I would say part of this mystery is intentional though. We don’t know the full context around Kimio’s situation and we likely never will. All we get to see is what’s seen from Miyo and Kudou’s perspective. It makes Kimio a really complicated villain.

The subject matter is also surprisingly dark and intense for the series. It’s not that Happy Marriage hasn’t tackled its share of dark topics before but doing so in the happy marriage batch was a real choice. Still, the instant Kimio went after Miyo, it makes sense that there would be a lot less sympathy there as well. Miyo was completely innocent so that was completely uncalled for.

This is really the main plot of the 3 episodes and dealing with all the fallout. That’s all handled solidly, but the main issue this trilogy runs into is Miyo herself. I know cultural standards are quite different around the world. Typically in Japan you’re expected to show less affection in public. You’ll see couples barely making any contact outside and then they just pop up years later with several kids. Not expressing romance in public is hardly an issue.

The issue here is how absolutely terrified Miyo is the whole time. Not being able to hold Kudou’s hand or even say his first name in public is just absurd. What’s even worse is how she can’t even have a direct conversation with him while in private without sputtering the whole time. It’s so bad that when Miyo is cursed and starts saying mean stuff to Kudou, he doesn’t even get upset. He just thinks it’s funny because even cursed Miyo is just so timid.

Being timid isn’t inherently a bad thing but again it’s just way too extreme. We are 3 seasons into the show, Miyo should be considerably more confident and skilled by now. Instead it feels like she has only made baby steps since the start of the show. That is ultimately what’s disappointing. She should be on a much higher level by now. The final fight Miyo is in just results in her getting stabbed without being able to react at all. It’s a sad, but rather fitting end to her character. So much for all the power ups and training in the last season.

The animation is pretty solid. There aren’t a lot of fight scenes here but the colors are sharp and you can tell that the animators know what they’re doing. The soundtrack is a little more on the forgettable side but it’s decent enough. This isn’t really focusing on the action part so it makes sense that the soundtrack would follow that. The music works well enough in each scene.

Again, there’s not a whole lot you can do in 3 episodes but I’d say the show covered the important things that it needed to. It was nice to see all of the characters again. It does feel like the army is going to be completely doomed without Kudou but it’s not like he’s moving to another country. I’m sure he’ll still be helping out anytime there is a fight to be won and so in that way I suppose it’s not like they’ll be missing out too much.

In a lot of ways the show is a good example of how a wish fulfillment anime can be good. Who wouldn’t want to be loved by the most powerful person in the land? Miyo went from a really hard life to finally being surrounded by plenty of people who love her. The ending is very wholesome and even if we don’t get any more sequels, this feels like a pretty complete ending.

Overall, If you enjoyed the first two seasons then you will like this one as well. These 3 episodes are good even if Miyo will be annoying you the whole time. The production values are good as always and the writers handle a thorny subject pretty well. I’m sure it will be controversial….or would be if the series was more popular but the whole thing made sense. It doesn’t mean that Kudou did the right thing per say or that the society in this series is as heroic as can be, but the series didn’t take any half measures. If you need another romance series to take the place of this one, I recommend checking out Witch Watch.

Overall 6/10

Three Cases of Murder Review

Posted on by
Reply


The anthologies continue with this next title! Three Cases of Murder has fewer stories than the other two titles but they are each able to hold their own. I dare say this may have even been the best of the three even if it is the least frightening. This one is better to look at as more of a suspense collection. Each one definitely keeps a tense atmosphere the whole time the story is going on.

One of the stories is about a guy who has fallen in love with a lady that he met. He’s really excited because before now things haven’t really worked out for him. Unfortunately his work partner will be returning soon and for some reason the ladies all seem to like him at first glance. He can’t lose her…but sure enough the girl leaves him for his partner. Where things go sideways is one day she is found murdered and it looks like the friend did it. What should the lead do now?

Now right away you can see that none of the characters are particularly likable here. The friend has no real class to be stealing girlfriends like this. It doesn’t sound like it is the first time either and he has a habit of constantly getting drunk. The guy just does whatever he wants and unfortunately this seems to be appealing to everyone that he comes into contact with. I would say the friendship would definitely be over by this point.

Meanwhile the girl isn’t worth fighting for because she got with the friend so quickly. She is clearly not the loyal type and so you will be having to fight every guy who comes into contact with her. That’s not the kind of relationship that you want and the lead needed to move on. Also while some may say it is admirable to stick up for your friend in a murder case by lying to the cops, that’s not the right way to play it. You have to let the legal system do its job. If the friend did murder her, then he’s going to have to pay.

It’s not quite so straight forward in the story though as we get a few twists and turns. Characters aside, I thought it made for a really interesting story. You couldn’t really trust anyone here and it was tough to predict how it would end. The story was well crafted and definitely got things off to a pretty good start.

Then we have a story about living paintings. This one’s a bit harder to accept at face value but basically we follow an employee of the museum. He has been working here for many years and in particular likes a painting that is in the main room. The glass around it seems to break every day which is odd. One day a mysterious gentleman tells the employee to come with him inside the painting. It turns out that each painting is alive and people live in them. They can then leave to the human world when needed to get supplies and such.

It’s a really interesting concept to be sure. Unfortunately for the employee, this painting’s creator is rather mad. He is completely obsessed with making the painting be perfect and will stop at nothing for this goal. As the two of them hang out in the painting along with his wife and an old man, the employee realizes that things are getting more and more dire. Unfortunately he does not want to be rude and so he entertains them…until it is too late. The whole time you are just thinking that any half decent main character would have gotten out of this film alive. It’s not like the painter was that tough.

In fact, he was scared of the old man until the employee showed up. This guy can easily be beaten and leaving the painting appears to be very easy. So this was just a collection of errors by the main character for the situation to get this far. It is the most preventable story out of all the anthology ones I’ve seen and that’s saying something. I do really enjoy the concept though, this could make for a full length movie easily. It would take a really skilled writer to anticipate all of the effects of having every painting be alive though.

Finally we have a story that gets a little more intense. There is a man in parliament who is known as the best up and coming politician. He constantly knows what the right thing to say is and he just finished crushing someone’s career. That guy swears vengeance though and activates his dream powers. Now he is able to control the politician in his dreams, forcing him to do embarrassing things like dancing and singing. The worst part is that both of them are aware of these dreams so it feels like emotional blackmail. What can the politician do? One option may be to destroy the nightmare bringer in the dream but is that possible?

Now, this is a tricky situation so I do want to flag that right away. That said, it doesn’t feel unwinnable by any means. Keep in mind that the dream creator doesn’t seem to have any special powers in the real world. So there’s nothing he can do there and additionally he doesn’t have any real blackmail material since it stays in the dreams. At face value, the main character should have just ignored him and things would be fine.

There is the fear that these dreams could escalate further of course. If the dream creator wants to murder him then this would be the way to do it but all of that should be handled in the dreams. The politician just lets it get to him too quickly and essentially tanks his career in the meantime. It made for some interesting back and forth but as soon as the dreams began to break him down, that was it. I don’t think there was any coming back from that. The tragic thing is how close the lead was to winning here. He just needed to hang on a little more and perhaps the voice would have gone away. Perhaps though…no guarantees with powers like this.

Part of what helps the film succeed is that the script is solid for each of the three stories. The old writing style works well here and the pacing is solid. I didn’t think we needed the narrator between stories though. I always think it’s best to let the stories speak for themselves. If you need something to tie them together, then do it within the story like with the last two anthologies. Having someone randomly talking in between the stories just hurts the momentum. Not in such a way that it really hurt the film of course but it still felt pointless.

Overall, Three Cases of Murder was a pretty good movie. I thought that each of the stories were solid and kept me engaged the whole time. They had a good amount of twists and turns but most importantly, the core concepts were solid. There is a lot that you could really do with each of the premises. The main characters just tended to be way too passive in each of the stories. The first story would be the exception to this but the lead of the following two stories could have easily claimed victory. Perhaps that’s where the horror comes from, imagining that you could go down like this. Still, this is a film that I would recommend checking out.

Overall 7/10

Torture Garden Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for another horror anthology. These are usually not so good but the last one was actually solid. Could they pull off such a thing once again? Well I’m glad to say that it was another good one. The stories work pretty well and each have a premise that doesn’t have to rely on shock value. Trust me I was a bit surprised but I’m always glad to see this coming together. Perhaps the writers have finally figured out what is needed to make this kind of story format a true success.

The movie begins with 5 folks heading to a crazy carnival attraction. There’s nothing all that scary so they basically scoff through it all until a mysterious guy says he will show them something truly scary. They follow him to the back where he has a mysterious statue. Looking at it can let you see the dark future that is coming up. Each one decides to take a peak and sees just what horrors are in store.

The first story is about Colin deciding to be a real jerk to his uncle. Colin wants his vast riches and he wants them now! The uncle warns him not to look too much into the origins of the wealth but nothing is about to stop Colin. It turns out that the money comes from a mysterious cat demon, but the problem is that in exchange for these riches, Colin must do its bidding. Colin does his best to resist but is powerless before this creature.

It’s a pretty intense one to start with. The cat is shown to have powerful telepathy and so nobody can resist it for long. Colin sure tries but is unable to stop himself from murdering several folks. This is probably the most intense of the stories with the highest body count so it’s an interesting way to start. You could say that the film is actually peaking early here even if that wasn’t the intent. Colin really dug his own grave here so it’s hard to feel bad for the guy. There’s not much he could have done to escape the situation once it had started but not being an ungrateful jerk would have helped.

The second story is about Carla deciding to mess over her friend. She intentionally sabotages a dress so that she can take the friend’s spot in a date with a powerful member of Hollywood. Carla is fairly confident in her social skills and is quickly able to maneuver her way into meeting all of the inner circle. Unfortunately this puts her right in the middle of a grand conspiracy on just how far the Hollywood elite will go in order to keep their fame.

Like with the first story, Carla is the one who got herself into this mess. Sabotaging her friend was a terrible thing to do and Carla is just shown to be absolutely merciless the whole time. Even by the end she is basically threatening the celebrities to let her in on the secret and that seems like a bad idea. Threatening the super powerful is not a strategy that will often work in your favor. Carla just doesn’t seem to be taking all of that into consideration.

The plot/twist is pretty interesting overall even if this doesn’t feel as much like a true horror. I suppose the situation is scary to be in though. It’s also another one where it would be super hard to get out of the situation once you are stuck in it. Hollywood has a lot of connections and so it would be game over eventually. They must be silencing people by the thousands since nobody has noticed the twist within the film. Definitely an interesting amount of world building here.

Next up we have a story of Leo falling in love with a lady named Dorothy. He is a world class pianist but now his skills are starting to fade a bit because he is spending so much time going on dates. His piano doesn’t like this and decides to murder Dorothy. Dorothy isn’t particularly scared of anybody because she lives life on her own terms. In most cases I’d say she should be correct here. I don’t see how you lose to a piano but I guess that’s how the cookie crumbles.

The idea of an evil object getting feelings of jealousy has certainly happened a few times. It’s an interesting premise but usually you pick something with a bit more of a punch. You can imagine a car being really dangerous after all. For a piano you just need to jump on top of it or outmaneuver it. The thing is fairly easy to break as well. Unfortunately Dorothy doesn’t handle the situation very well at all.

This situation was a bit more difficult to avoid since you’re not expecting a piano to suddenly want to murder you. That being said, you should also know better than to enter a dark room when you hear some ominous piano music. Dorothy had also been warned by this point so the best thing to do would have to just been to get out of there. It’s always one of the more tragic horror tropes to see a character run back into a room one last time, only to be murdered for their trouble.

Finally we have a story about Ronald getting to meet the world’s best Edgar Allan Poe collector. Ronald is super hyped to see all of the collectibles but unfortunately he is also incredibly crazy. The guy can barely control himself and the more antiques he sees, the more out of control he gets. The guy must know everything and will stop at nothing, including murder. It’s definitely hard to feel bad for Ronald at all here because he’s just completely unreasonable.

Throughout the movie he seemed really crazy so it was interesting to see that he was crazy in the future as well. The guy was also the only one to not really be shook by what he saw in the future. It makes for a nice contrast since usually everyone is just panicking in this kind of story. For once you instead have a villain having to go up against another one. It was a pretty solid story for sure with a nice amount of build up and a satisfying ending.

Now you might be wondering, what about the 5th character? Well he was probably the smartest one here as he decides not to peer into the future and just attacks the host instead. That is crazy in its own way to be sure but this guy was not going to go out quietly. I at least have to give him some major credit there. It’s ultimately a little futile in terms of stopping the host from doing this to others but this guy kept his sanity. It also just made for a bit of an explosive ending.

None of the stories are really going to knock your socks off but none of them were particularly weak either. That is really important for anthologies because what you don’t want is for one story to really drag the others down. This one avoided that entirely and the stories also had a whole lot of variety. As long as you enjoy some suspense and a few thrills then you’ll have a good time here. It may be a horror title but it’s not nearly as violent as you may be expecting.

Overall, The title may give you the idea that this is a super grim film but it doesn’t really play out like that. I would definitely recommend checking this one out if you’re looking forward to seeing some retro stories. The movie holds up well in the present day. It was also nice to have all of the main characters be antagonists so you don’t feel quite as bad for them. There are innocent victims in some of the stories but at least the main characters get their just desserts real fast.

Overall 6/10

Revenge of the ‘Gator Review

Posted on by
Reply


This is definitely one of those games that just seems super random. Did anybody really ask for a crocodile pinball game? I guess true fans may point out that this is actually talking about Gators but they’re about the same when you think about it. The game isn’t bad but it is painfully ordinary. There is no real reason to play this one over any other Pinball title. I’d also argue that the angles are set up in such a way where you are guaranteed to lose many times over. They could have toned that down a bit.

If you know how to play pinball then you basically know how to play the game. You want to rack up as high a score as you possibly can before you lose all of your lives. This won’t be easy but generally speaking you should be able to get a few thousand in the blink of an eye. In a way the better you get at the game, the more daunting it will become. You have to last for a very long time in order to have the highest scores and that means your own high score will be more intimidating every time. Definitely something to keep in mind.

One thing that hurts this game is that there aren’t very many areas. One way for Pinball games to really separate themselves from the pack is to have a wide variety of areas to choose from. This lets you enjoy the different backgrounds and find the secrets to each level. Since this one only has one main area, you will be able to explore all of the sub areas very quickly. Before long there just isn’t much for you to really do. That’s where this game is really lacking, general content.

The gameplay itself is fun enough as long as you like Pinball, but then at that point the sport is really doing the heavy lifting. The game itself isn’t bringing much to the table. Mix in the fact that the soundtrack and graphics are only okay and that isn’t helping things either. The game is lacking in any real selling point here. Now when you can play it for free on the Switch Online, you don’t feel like you are losing any value. Imagine if you had purchased this game for full retail price though?

That’s why I am not able to give it full points here. In the end it does enough where I can’t call it a bad game but I wouldn’t really call it a good one either. It’s stuck right in the middle and that’s not always a fun place to be. It’s not the kind of game that is going to go down as being very memorable or anything like that. I have played quite a few Pinball games over the years and I dare say that nearly all of them beat this one.

I’m not expecting something on the level of Pokemon or Metroid Pinball but there should still be some kind of variety and excitement to be found here. Without any of that, you are just left wanting to play Pinball in the real world. If they ever made a big remake of this game, perhaps that one could succeed. The main thing to do would be to keep the gator gimmick because that’s pretty fun but then aside from that we just need a lot of content. Throw in more levels or a story mode. A story mode is like a cheat code because it can make any game better. Slap that in and this game is instantly a lot different.

Overall, there’s just not much more to say about a game like this though. It’s extremely basic and delivers on being a pinball experience. That’s about all that you can say for it. If you really love pinball and already own the Switch Online then you should check it out. Otherwise if you are looking for something a little more interesting then I’d say to just save up and buy a more detailed title. When it comes to the world of Pinball, you can absolutely do better!

Overall 5/10

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gourmet Seekers Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a Sword Art Online cooking manga which is just about as random as it sounds. The franchise has had numerous adaptions and titles over the years but nothing quite like this. It takes place during the original arc which is always fun since that was the best one. The title ends about as quickly as it begins so there isn’t time for a whole lot of content but it was pleasant enough. I enjoyed seeing the various cameos but don’t get why they chose to skip Kirito. It just makes sense to add him in!

The series starts with Yuzu and his sister Hina getting ready to log onto the new Sword Art Online game. They’ve been super psyched for this one and sure enough the game lives up to the hype. The graphics are insane and everything is super life like, but unfortunately the creator of the game reveals that this was all an elaborate death trap. Nobody can leave this world until someone completes the game. Given that it is an MMORPG, that is not a very comforting goal. Additionally we find out that the siblings had been hoping to open up a restaurant in the real world in honor of their parents who died in a tragic car crash. That’s when Hina decides that they will open up a restaurant in the online game. Will this work?

Naturally it would be impossible in almost any other game to pull this off but fortunately Sword Art Online is a game that transcends all usual reason. In this game you can actually cook food and feel like you are full after eating. The creator thought of everything here but not everything is 1-1 with how the real world works. Yuzu and Hina will have to quickly figure out the system and also master it in a way where nobody else can immediately run in and steal their thunder.

The goal is pretty fun and with so many players stuck in the game, it makes sense that not everyone would take a combat role. We get one chapter where the main characters try to do some fighting and quickly figure out that it isn’t their style. They are cooks not fighters and that’s not something that it going to change anytime soon. I definitely don’t blame them on that, sometimes things simply don’t click.

The series also did its homework on how virtual food might work. Naturally the game does some hand holding so you don’t have to wait weeks for different foods to ripen but at the same time as the cook you still need to have a pretty solid amount of ability or you’ll just be churning out some generic food. The characters start out with basic foods but we do see how copycats are able to infiltrate the market.

Hina even discovers an exploit within the game by cooking the most basic dish over and over to increase her cooking XP. This feels like a really realistic exploit because I’ve done that exact thing in some video games. It’s important to know how to cheese any video game as needed. The series only has 10 chapters so it really is a quick adventure like I mentioned in the intro. For that reason you shouldn’t expect a ton of story beyond the initial premise.

The two MCs do meet a few folks who help them out but for the most part this is just about learning how to cook. Then the ending throws you into a big time skip out of nowhere to follow up on their real life goals. It makes for an easy, compact read. That said, it’s not going to be in any position to challenge any of the iconic SAO titles at that rate. You would need more action to accomplish that but at least it avoids any main pitfalls so it does beat some of the manga titles for that reason.

Yuzu is a solid main character who may get discouraged at times but always tries his best. The guy doesn’t have time for a whole lot of character development but does just enough where I would still call him a good character overall. He was really passionate about not wanting to cut any corners when setting up the restaurant so I can respect that.

Hina is really the heart of the series as she keeps Yuzu from giving up and is always trying to come up with some ideas. I would say she also has a better sense for how the game works and discovers the exploits a lot easier. You really needed both main characters in order to pull this restaurant concept off. Either one would not have had what it took otherwise.

The side characters that they ran into also ended up being pretty helpful. Kiriko is a lady who is trying to make the best out of being stuck in this world but it’s definitely a tough situation for her. The main characters are able to get her on board with the whole food plan and she works well as a taste tester throughout. Since she’s older than the other characters she helps to add a little maturity there. Another adult who helps out is Rock.

Rock’s a food critic in the real world so he is the perfect person to come in and make sure that the food is going well. He also tends to know a whole lot about the craft so he helps the leads on the technical elements. He’s also a very enthusiastic guy and helps the dynamic a lot. I dare say he was my favorite character among the main 4 and was always a lot of fun to watch.

The art is really good for the series. It’s fairly detailed and captures the SAO atmosphere pretty well. Again there aren’t really big action scenes here so it’s a bit harder to really judge it but I had an easy time reading through the series. The writing is good and I always like the food manga titles so this was a winning combination. It may not be the kind of title that I ever feel the need to re read but on the initial readthrough it was interesting. I just wish the series wasn’t so short.

It feels like the kind of title that could easily have gone for a long time because there are so many different foods you could make. Maybe at some point the army hears about them so we get to have the heroes bring their food to the front lines. If there was a mandate where the series couldn’t mess with the canon events then I understand why the series would end so quickly. Just feels like there was a lot more meat on the bone here and it would have absolutely made the series more memorable.

Overall, I could easily see this title being turned into a TV special at some point. It would be a nice little side adventure and maybe then you could add Kirito just to add that star value right at the end. That would be a good idea and of course I’d look forward to seeing all of the food dishes. If you enjoy watching a peaceful feel good story then this is definitely one that I would recommend. It really doesn’t make any mistakes and makes for a very safe mini series.

Overall 6/10

The Horror of It All Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a really retro horror comedy. This is one of those films that is pretty fun as long as you enjoy the tone it’s going for. There’s nothing particularly unique about the film as it’s leaning into the gags that you’ve been seeing for over 50 years. Still, the execution is on point the whole time and the film’s also not very long. It ends up going pretty smoothly.

The movie starts with Jack showing up to the haunted mansion of his girlfriend Cynthia. They have only been dating for one month but he knows that she is the one for him. He wants to get her family’s consent to the marriage but he didn’t realize that her cousin had just died so everyone is in mourning. Additionally the whole family seems very eccentric to say the least so this won’t be as straight forward as he had been expecting. Is his life in danger over here?

Right away you can tell that Jack is the kind of guy who is a bit slow on the uptake. He sort of knows that his life is nearly over at several points but doesn’t really let it get to him. The guy is hopelessly in love with Cynthia and I can respect that at least. The guy is moving rather fast since they’ve only known each other for such a short amount of time but he just believes in true love. Jack also does get his witty comebacks in on occasion but make no mistake, he’s usually on the back foot.

The guy just doesn’t have much in the way of survival instincts. At one point a spider is in his bed and the guy takes a very long time to really notice it. Then you have the crazy guy in the basement named Muldoon and Jack gets real close to the door where he is nearly choked to death. At least in round 2 he was good at running away from the guy but he still got knocked out on several occasions. The house traps were too much for him.

I also give Jack some credit for resisting the attempts of Natalia to try and get him to cheat on Cynthia. Jack was not about to mess this up when he was so close to marriage. So the guy may have had his faults but he did good overall. I was less impressed with Cynthia who never really went out of her way to help Jack out until near the end. She really could have given him more of a heads up on what was going on here. At the very least once he showed up, she could have really had his back.

It felt like she would vanish for large chunks of the film and wasn’t as important as you’d expect. If anything I would argue that Muldoon may have had more of a role and he was just the crazy guy in the basement. The rest of the family all served their roles well as the crazy family all acting shady. We know that one of them is a murderer but who can it be? The doctor? The uncle? Natalia? There are quite a few suspects on this one but the film does a good job of never making it obvious. You should still be wondering what’s going on as the film ends.

We get a number of plot twists at the end of the film as well. In some cases you may say there were too many twists at once but the film was definitely trying to keep you on your toes. The writing is pretty solid overall and the pacing is on point, thanks in part to how short the film is. This is really a solid comfort film that you can watch at any point. Treat it like a Scooby Doo adventure where you’re trying to figure out who the main culprit is and that’ll add to the enjoyment. The film also has a really effective transition at the very end of the film that was handled more smoothly than most films could even dream of.

Now, murders aside I would have to say that the eccentric family weren’t al that bad. Often times the crazy family in these films would be downright antagonistic and petty but they really didn’t go down that route. They had some reasonable reservations about the impending marriage and it makes sense. They pointed out that Jack didn’t know anything about them and vice versa. Marriage is a pretty big decision and so usually you do wait at least 6 months minimum, if not a little longer than that. While Jack may have been disappointed, it seems like a W on their end.

Overall, This is one of those movies that you will either connect with or you won’t. It’s not particularly exciting but the humor worked well for me. It’s got a more subdued style in general but the laughs land well when they happen. Even Jack accidentally pushing his car through to the ocean below was pretty funny because it’s just such a massive unforced error. There was no reason he needed to do that, he just completey panicked and that set the stage for the rest of the events after this. The plot is very simple and so you can easily just turn your brain off while watching. This all probably sounds like backhanded complements all the way but there is always going to be room for a film like this. Watch it as a full blown comedy and you’re all set.

Overall 7/10

Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek Review

Posted on by
Reply


This is one of those films that I had never heard of before. It’s not even all that old but I guess it just never fell into my algorithms. The film is essentially a high stakes match of hide and seek and since the movie is less than 30 minutes, a good chunk of it is essentially about the mystery surrounding the game. Why do any of these kids play such a dangerous game? You can essentially make some assumptions about what is going on but you shouldn’t expect the movie to actually spell this out for you.

The movie starts with the hide and seek game beginning. A bunch of kids run through a deserted city in order to play. There is a rumor that kids go missing here but these kids don’t believe in all of that. Except for Hikora who is trying to find his sister who disappeared during the last time this game was played. Now in theory more people should remember this so this is where the questions start to appear. Either way there are a bunch of murder machines trying to take them all out so the kids don’t have much time for thinking.

The kids are all completely doomed though. They can’t hope to fight off a powerful army of monsters like this and this isn’t the kind of action film where the kids have supernatural abilities or anything like that. They’re just doing their best to try and survive here which isn’t easy by any means. Hikora has a mission but the others are completely off guard. They scramble and do their best to buy time but it’s ultimately futile.

The very ending shows a pretty morbid look at what happens to the kids. Sure enough, this is not the kind of film that’s going to have anything even resembling a happy ending. The system is too powerful for the kids to break and while the film never gets violent, I can see the sheer darkness of the ending still being a bit much for some folks. There really isn’t any hope left for these kids.

It makes for an interesting short but honestly you’re just left wondering about the world building in general. Clearly this appears to be a trick created by the adults in order to power up the society. They are also able to have enough kids to keep this system running and yet none of them have any problems with this? I would have assumed it was a sacrifice that only has to be done every 100 years or something which could explain away a lot of the issues. However, the main plot already debunks this since his sister wasn’t much older than he was. So instead this might be once a year in which case it just raises more questions.

I guess one advantage of not delving into the plot for the writers is that they can basically just bluff their way through it. You aren’t given enough information to say that this is impossible so in that case you just have to buy what the writers are selling you. There isn’t a way to really debunk the whole thing and you just have to suspend some disbelief. You could also lean on more supernatural explanations like the kids are created out of thin air or pulled from other timelines. There are many ways to make this work if you absolutely need to.

The animation is pretty decent. I won’t say that it’s anything special but it works well enough. The movements are good and the town itself has a solid creepy vibe about it. There was a lot of attention put to each of the details. The soundtrack is much more on the forgettable side. It does the job but I couldn’t really recall a single track after finishing it up.

There are films where people say a sequel is not needed since the story was already very complete. Well, by that token there are films that need a sequel and this would be one of them. It’s time to be bold and show the world beyond these kids and show us what the government is doing. If this is some kind of endless purgatory then that can be explained as well but I think the premise just begs a ton of questions. Leaving them up to the imagination is fine as well but this could really work as more of a long form adventure. It could backfire of course but that’s a risk for anything.

Overall, The premise is interesting here with a horror themed game of hide and seek. It’s a little too short to do much with this concept though and it also doesn’t leave any real way to win the game. These kids are in enemy territory against foes that outnumber and outpower them. It all feels pretty rigged and I always like it when the heroes have some kind of a chance. If you give them no chance from the start then the adventure’s just not going to be as fun. It works as a weird kind of scary story but doesn’t have a lot of replay value. Check it out if you think this special sounds interesting but it could have really benefited from being less artsy and going for more of a strong plot.

Overall 6/10

The Exorcist: Believer Review

Posted on by
Reply

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

The Exorcist is one of those film series that has never been able to turn out a decent product. It’s not surprising though because there’s just not much that you can even do with the genre. Each film is about a demon showing up and the humans are basically powerless against him. There is no real way to stop this guy without losing a lot of people in the process and this film is more of the same. It’s a rather gritty adventure without much of a happy ending for the characters to hang their hat on.

The film starts off by introducing us to Victor who lost his wife due to an earthquake but the baby was delivered safely. Years have passed and Victor has done his best to raise Angela. One day she heads off with her friend Katherine to dabble in the dark arts and naturally this does not go well. They go missing for 3 days and when they return, the girls appear to be acting strangely. It’s as if a demon has possessed them and now an exorcist will be needed. Can an exorcist handle this powerful demon?

In these films the random demons always tend to overpower the exorcists. At this point it’s almost a surprise that they haven’t all been run out of town. Victor is highly skeptical of all religions now as he has had a tough life. Still, he wants to try and save Angela and so this means accepting all of the help around him. You have people from several faiths coming together to try and help but will they be successful?

Now you need to keep in mind that there are two daughters who need saving here. This is important because the film is naturally paying more attention to Angela but the second family is dealing with the same situation with Katherine. This is where part of the film may lose you because we get this whole victory speech about hope and everything….which basically ignores half of the situation. You’ll be side eyeing the film as it ends because the whole thing just doesn’t make sense.

The movie was already losing steam well before then though. Now this is one title where I don’t blame the main characters being slow on the uptake because you’re not going to immediately jump to the conclusion that your kid has been possessed by a demon. It’s one of the few circumstances where I’m cool with the characters constantly looking puzzled and confused. Victor is doing his best to help Angela through normal means and just isn’t getting through to her. He was able to handle his composure a whole lot better than Katherine’s parents.

That said, there isn’t a lot that the film can do to keep you entertained throughout this saga. It’s not like the characters can fight the kids since they aren’t fully in control of themselves. Once they are strapped to the chairs, it is just a lot of long scenes of the characters all trying their tricks on the demon. For the most part they don’t tend to deal a whole lot of damage. The demon only needs one hit while they have to land hundreds through the chants. It makes for a rather underwhelming climax.

Additionally the film is determined to make the demon possession as grotesque as possible. The girls are always appearing with more wounds as a result of the possession which just continues to escalate. The whole process of removing the demons also involves using holy water and other materials that burns them even further. It’s not that the film is necessarily ultra violent in the way that a slasher would be but they show just enough violence to keep on reminding you that this won’t be an easy film.

The cast is kept fairly small throughout. You have Victor’s gym partner but the guy doesn’t actually do a whole lot. The parents of Katherine are around the whole time but there isn’t a whole lot that they can do. The cops are around for the basic search but basically vanish after that. Victor and the others are somehow able to have the kids transferred from the general hospital to their house for the exorcism so either they have a lot of sway or security was very lax.

This isn’t the kind of film where you’re going to be able to drill in too hard without bringing up some plot questions like that. Even so, more emphasis on the cops would have been good. The movie just doesn’t have much of a hook because there just isn’t much that any of the characters can do. It’s the kind of film where each character is really passive and it’s hard for me to even blame them for it. There is no mystery to uncover, no super exorcism technique to learn, etc. So the first half is really building up to Victor being fully convinced that a demon is involved and then we get the long climax of trying to save the kids.

Of course you do have some plot twists and guest stars showing up as well but this is the Exorcist. It’s not like there are any big guest stars that are actually going to make things super exciting. The film still can’t resist having some gross moments like the demon spitting or just more violence like one old lady getting too close to the demon. Films like this just don’t leave the characters a lot of hope and don’t give the viewer any opportunities to be having a good time either. I’d much prefer having a more cheerful/action based film with the characters fighting against the demons.

If you are going to do a whole film with the demons showing up, then I think you need to give the main character some way to fight back. Victor is essentially sidelined for the entire climax so instead let him go to the demon realm to fight or something. Lean into the supernatural elements a little harder so this can lead into an action angle. That would have been a way more satisfying way to go. I get the feeling that the films want to stay a little more grounded than that but it will lead to the same ending for each of these titles.

Overall, This is another Exorcist film. If you’ve seen one then you’ve basically seen them all. It’s not a film that I would ever be particularly interested in checking out again. These films just have nothing going for them and run into the classic horror problem of the heroes not having any real options. There should at least be some cases where the random demon is quickly defeated when confronted by the Order. Otherwise it just feels like the power levels are way too skewed in favor of the demons. They basically laugh and mock the priests whenever they show up.

Overall 1/10

Quarantine Review

Posted on by
2

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

Quarantine is one of those films that I remember hearing about all the time. It could never escape the shadow of the original Rec film and yet I almost feel like it paradoxically got bigger because of this. The first thing anybody will tell you is that it’s based off of Rec and yet Quarantine is mentioned more often. I dunno it’s an interesting tidbit but either way the film is no good. I could have told you that right from the start but after watching it, I can confirm that it gets a thumbs down all the way.

The movie starts with Angela filming a segment for the news channel that she works at. She will be tailing some firefighters for a day to see what their work is like. There is a lot of banter as they wait for something to happen and finally there is a call. Someone has started acting crazy in a residential building so the firefighters and police go in with the news crew. Unfortunately the situation is worse than expected. They are all locked inside the building with the tenants and they begin to realize that zombies are present. A single bite will spread the virus and with no way out, this will be a difficult situation to survive.

First off I have to say that these are some of the dumbest horror characters I’ve ever seen. Now it is already a tried and true staple that horror protagonists never make the right decisions but these guys take it to a whole new level. The zombie virus isn’t exactly subtle here. Characters will suddenly be bleeding and acting all shaky. They’re frothing at the mouth and the main characters are still wondering what is going on. It’s bad enough near the beginning of the film where the characters are slowly approaching an insane person but by the middle act of the film they should be retaining some survival instincts.

At one point near the end of the film they know with 99% certainty that one character is a zombie but one guy still reaches out telling her to grab his hand. All of the sequences felt extremely forced. They even call in the professionals at one point and these guys presumably have some idea of what’s going on. Yet, they walk real close to one of the zombies and end up paying the price. The kills are all far too violent to find funny but there is definitely something darkly humorous about how some of these characters die. The deaths were 100% completely avoidable which is what will really annoy you there.

Now like I said, the situation is still difficult. I’m not saying that this is a cake walk but there are better ways to handle this. Keep in mind that the zombies are not bullet proof. Additionally it does seem to be possible to put them down for good with enough force. The zombies never get up again once they’ve actually been taken down. They are fast but can’t think so one of the firefighters is able to beat around 6-8 of them by himself. Keep in mind that this is a small building so the amount of zombies will likely max out at around 20.

Taking the offensive would be a good idea or barricading yourself in a room and forcing them to approach one at a time. Ironically the only character to think of this is the local “jerk” that everyone gets mad at. He said from the start that gathering everyone together didn’t make sense and he was right. That just makes it harder to dodge when a zombie is around and no matter what kind of flu they originally thought this was, packing everyone together is not a good idea.

Now you may wonder why they don’t just leave the building and ignore the government. Well, this government is taking a rather strong approach so they are straight up shooting everyone that tries to leave. So yeah leaving is not really an option this time. You can still find ways to survive but there is no guarantee that you are ever leaving this place alive.

Usually in these films they try to find some kind of audio device for exposition or a bunch of notes. The movie does this but in a very half hearted way so I’m not sure why they bothered. Angela and the others find a lab room from the guy who caused this problem and he left an audio but it was basically silent with a bunch of mumbling. Not the most helpful tool around.

Speaking of helpful, it goes without saying but none of the characters were very helpful here at all. First up you have Angela who is completely out of her depth here. She yells a whole lot which keeps giving away their position to the zombies and spends the entire climax panicking. It was pretty obvious at one point that shooting the zombies was the right move but Angela is still acting shocked as if this was excessive force.

I was just not a big fan of hers by the end. She started out okay but all the screaming is just rough when you have lives at stake. Those yells put everyone in danger and there has to be a point where the adrenaline takes over and you stop panicking. Everyone else was able to get with the program and Angela’s a professional in a line of work that sees a lot of violence. I would have expected her to do better. Instead the cameraman has to really take the initiative and do all of the hard work.

Even by the end of the film it felt like the characters had a chance of surviving. There weren’t many zombies left at all but Angela freezes up and decides not to help so that just messes everyone over. I’m not blaming her for the entire mess, other characters made similar mistakes. The cop with the gun should not have been defeated so naturally he puts the gun down and approaches a zombie. The writers had to work extra hard to find ways for the humans to lose here.

What the film does well is to maintain a very tense atmosphere. The film is really intense and the scares work pretty well. It just can’t help but try to be as gritty as possible in the process. You have all of the usual biting and characters being eaten but then you also have a rat being squashed with rather gruesome detail. That did not add anything to the film and could have definitely been removed. The film wanted to show that animals were also running around with the virus but we definitely didn’t need that.

It’s not like the film would have been much better off even without the animal part but still it’s worth noting. Even better characters would not have been enough to get the film into the green. It’s just not a pleasant film and instead focuses on making everyone as miserable as possible. The concept of the plot is more interesting than the execution so other films like this would still have potential.

Overall, This film could have done well to tone down the violence a whole lot and to go with a more traditional camera style. Stuffing everyone inside of a building with a horror threat is a great concept but then you have to let the writing and atmosphere tell the story from there. I’d also be interested in more of a large scale story about what the government are doing but I suppose by then it is basically just Resident Evil. If you want a zombie story I’d actually sooner recommend that one and that’s saying something.

Overall 1/10

Marvel MaXimum Collection Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to look at a big Marvel collection that came out. This one bundles together 6 pretty obscure titles from the old days. It’s always nice to see these games finally getting a modern re-release. Some of the titles can be hit or miss but on the whole you’re getting a pretty decent amount of content here. I spent around 8 hours to take out all 6 games and they each have replay value in the different modes that you can play them through. I’ll go through each of the games below.

First up we have the classic X-Men arcade game. In this one the Professor gets kidnapped and Magneto has some kind of evil plan up his sleeve. Defeating him won’t be easy but the X-Men are on the case. This one’s very much a classic 2D beat em up. You go through several levels as you fight off all of the most iconic X-Men villains. You have a number of different attacks and then your super attack at the end.

The game is also quite difficult. I lost countless times but fortunately on console you get unlimited continues. This would have been an expensive game in the arcades although I guess that is true for all of these titles in the collection. This one started the collection off on a really high note because it ended up being my favorite out of the 6 games. The soundtrack was really good and the graphics really popped out at you. This was really everything that you could hope for in such a classic title since it even had cutscenes and everything.

After that it was time to play the Captain America game. It’s fairly similar in terms of gameplay but is much more retro. The Red Skull has returned and so the Avengers have to stop him. Their roster is fairly unique here as it is Iron-Man, Vision, Hawkeye, and Captain America. I suppose Thor might have been overkill in the power department. The levels are fun and it’s also just fun to be playing as these classic heroes. While the technical elements cannot match up to the X-Men, the game still holds up well. It’s one of those games that is easy to plug and play at any point.

The cutscenes may not be quite as advanced but I was still glad to have a story. I would also say the sheer difficulty wasn’t quite as bad as X-Men but that may also be a side effect of playing it second. I was already warmed up and ready for action when I played this one. You can also tell that the game was early in the Marvel universe with how different some characters would look. The Juggernaut was a huge example as he looks nothing like the comic version of himself. So that was a fun bit of history.

Then we get to the first Spider-Man game. Maximum Carnage is a pretty big deal in the comics and so it was cool to get the video game. This one has a pretty ambitious story with a lot of cutscenes and tons of big boss battles. You can tell that some things are trimmed to keep the game from being too long but it really works out well. The artstyle and the soundtrack are both really good. The gameplay is also super fun even if some of the bosses can be a little on the cheesy side.

Carnage in particular has really long windows of invincibility and so you have to counter at the perfect time. If you miss by even an instant then you will take massive damage. The other bosses have similar techniques and so you really have to master the gameplay. Fortunately the gameplay is really well developed so you don’t have to worry about random glitches. This is another incredibly difficult game, particularly since there are no extra lives so you have to rely on rewinding. Props to anyone who was able to complete this one back in the day.

The second Spider-Man game is less impressive. The gameplay is roughly the same but this time there is much less of a story. You just get text boxes to convey it instead of cool cutscenes. In addition there are far less guest stars. It feels like this game was made to capitalize on the success of the first one. I certainly can’t fault them for that but you can tell that it was much more slapped together.

I did like the gimmick in the final level where you had to keep switching between Venom and Spiderman in order to defeat Carnage. It felt like playing one of those Super Sonic levels where you are switching between hedgehogs. So that was done really well and was also something different from the first game. I imagine that playing as Venom would also change up the feel of the game a bit. So it may have had less going on than the first game but it was still good.

Then we get to the weakest game in the series, Spider-Man and the X-Men. I don’t really know what they were thinking with this one but the game was ambitious. I can at least give credit there. Basically the X-Men are captures by Arcade so Spider-Man heads in to help them out. Each character gets two levels and each level has a different goal.

Spider-Man’s is a full collectathon as you have to find every emblem in the stage in order to win. Storm has to find all of the levers while underwater to cause some flooding. Then Wolverine and Cyclops have more traditional platformer levels where you have to get to the end. Gambit has an endless runner level where you have to dodge everything while staying one step ahead of a giant boulder.

The main problem is that none of these gameplay styles are very well polished at all. I ran into a big glitch in the Gambit level where the enemy wouldn’t spawn and had to restart. There are intentional dead ends in Wolverine and Gambit’s level which will cause you to die and try the level again. It all just felt very cheesy and it is often hard to tell where you have to go next. This is the only game that I would just have to say was bad. It felt like a browser game in all the wrong ways. Naturally for that reason this is the longest game.

Finally we have the Silver Surfer title. This one is one of those endless shooters and it switches the gameplay a bit between levels. Half of the levels are 2D and the other half are overhead. It makes for a pretty good back and forth throughout. You have to defeat several cosmic threats in order to get the parts for an ultimate weapon but ironically the bosses tend to be the easiest parts of each level. I see it as a little gift from the devs for actually making it past the levels. After all make no mistake, the levels are incredibly difficult. This game is infamous for that.

Touching anything means instant death and it can be really difficult to know what is part of the background and what is an actual object. I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed this game much back in the days but on console it works out well enough. It was also nice to have more of a real story after the last one too and this may have been Silver Surfer’s best portrayal that I’ve seen in any game.

Overall, I would definitely recommend checking this one out. As long as you enjoy arcade titles then you’ll definitely have fun here. Each game is a little different and it can be nostalgic to see all of the classic costumes. You just don’t see a lot of retro adventures like this nowadays. I know there are other retro games in other collections to get so I’ll have to do that at some point. In the meantime, you should pick this one up to get a headstart on the old adventures that were hard to play before now.

Overall 7/10