Monthly Archives: December 2025

The Angel of Pennsylvania Avenue

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It’s time for a wholesome story about a few kids deciding to see the President. It reminds you that this isn’t an easy task and yet it can be accomplished if you have a lot of resilience and are resourceful. This makes for an uplifting film even if it is all handled rather seriously. There aren’t a lot of overt laughs to be had here but the film doesn’t falter and the pacing is pretty good. I wasn’t aware of the events that the film was based off of either.

The movie takes place during the Great Depression and jobs are scarce. Everyone was looking forward to a good Christmas but the father announces that he will have to travel across states for a job opportunity. His wife is pregnant and they already have 3 kids so money is absolutely becoming an issue now. He tells them to stay strong and it’ll all work out but unfortunately that is easier said than done. He is framed for assaulting someone while trying to get the job and is taken to jail. Unfortunately this may end up being a death sentence if the victim dies and so the oldest kid decides that she will visit the president to put a stop to this. Her younger siblings want to come as well and naturally once the three of them vanish, the Mom has to go after them as well.

Now this is one of those things that probably couldn’t happen in the current day. There are way more safeguards in place and travelling across states is incredibly tricky. They would really need more money and I also don’t think the bluffs they used in this film would actually work. People are going to have their guards up if they see kids running around all by themselves and for good reason. So the kids would likely be stopped pretty early on in their journey.

As it is, they got quite a lot of help in this one like with another kid helping them hide while in the train and the conductors trusting their word when the kids say that their mom is already on the train. The kids get big props for making it this far although it would have probably been a bit easier for the oldest kid if she was on her own. The younger ones were a lot quicker to give up and also generally be disheartened at times. It makes sense since they are so young but it’s why they should have really stayed home. Their stubbornness could have really back fired.

Meanwhile the Mom did her best considering that she was still pregnant. She had to essentially go on an adventure of her own and in the days before cell phone and technology, this was a real shot in the dark. She had to hope that the kids were still on track for their destination and there are plenty of ways that they could have missed each other. That whole trip would have been super stressful.

The movie does show that there were quite a lot of helpful people every step of the way. Whether it was nice people helping through hitchhiking or just providing direction, everyone helped out a bit. There were one or two bad apples in there like the drunk driver so the world wouldn’t feel overly perfect but it was definitely filled with many more positives than negatives which is always reassuring. So on the whole the movie is sounding pretty promising so why do I not have it super high?

Well at times the movie just feels like it’s not making a whole lot of traction. I don’t think the pacing was great at it could take a while for plot progression at times. I also think that since the main characters were the kids, that limited the film’s potential at times. The kids did their best but it’s not like they’re going to have a lot of witty banter. The younger kids would be giving up like I mentioned before but even the eldest wasn’t always good at staying in control. She was baited into a fight rather easily which isn’t bad. There are good times to get into a fight for sure and this could even be one of them but then she needs to own it. She acted confused on why her mother was upset when it should have been pretty clear even from her perspective.

I also think this is an example of a film that’s a bit dry. Without any big humor scenes or explosive climaxes, there isn’t a whole lot to keep you at the edge of your seat. I think it would have been nice to have had more meanwhile scenes with the father in jail. Maybe showing him try to plead his case or coming up with a plan. I imagine it might have been difficult to do too much here considering the movie was based on a true chain of events but it would have been interesting because I think his plot would have been fun. He was a good guy just trying to look out for his family and then things went sideways. He’d be really desperate at that point so there is a lot you could do there.

Overall, This was a good movie. Even though it is light hearted, the serious nature of the film does prevent it from having too much replay value. The pacing isn’t very fast and like I mentioned before there aren’t a lot of laughs. You will enjoy the good quality of the movie but I feel like there won’t be a whole lot of reason to watch it again beyond that. So this is one of those titles where you are in it for the initial enjoyment and that will have to be enough. If this sounds like it is up your alley then you should check it out.

The Little Troll Prince Review

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Now this is a special that I haven’t seen in a very long time. The Little Troll Prince is one of those wholesome stories that is fairly quick but covers a lot of ground. Bu may not be the most intense main character out there but he does serve his role well in learning about the true meaning of Christmas. This is a special I could really recommend to anybody.

The story starts by spoiling the ending though as we see how Bu is living a happy life. He lets the audience know that he used to be sad though as he grew up as a troll. The rest of the special is a flashback as we go back to the troll world and learn that they are taught from early on to be as mean as possible. The Trolls are a very cruel people and Prince Bu is the only one who wants to be nice. The school is desperate to knock that out of him though and Bu’s father is certainly upset about this. The other trolls decide to take Bu out of the picture permanently by sending him off to be eaten by the humans.

Fortunately for Bu the humans aren’t so bad. Otherwise he was completely tricked and dominated in this encounter though. Unfortunately while being nice is a good trait, Bu also ended up being naïve which did make it easy to put him in a bad position here. In a way I was surprised that the film didn’t end with him going back to the troll world in order to rehabilitate them. Instead he sort of rolls with the idea that goodness turned him into a Gnome and he’s just happy that it all worked out.

I would say the side characters end up standing out a little more than Bu here. Bu has a good singing voice here and he does his best to be a good prince while not succumbing to the way of the trolls. At the same time, he’s a bit too timid and there isn’t a whole lot to him. I enjoyed the King because he was actually concerned for his son but was stuck within the negative trolls framework.

So his only idea for helping Bu out was to be mean because that’s the only way that he knew. The King even went to the school personally to try and figure out what was going wrong. He was in Bu’s corner the whole time so I appreciate that. The Queen was a whole lot less sympathetic as she just considered Bu to be a failure and wasn’t going to defend him at all. It shows the completely different approaches that both of them had to this situation.

Then you have the two kids in the human world who got to explain things to Bu. They did a good job of rejecting all his arguments about how the trolls were beyond saving. They basically told him to stop being silly and listen to their points. They also explained the true meaning of Christmas being about the birth of Jesus Christ and instilled within Bu some true life lessons. Without them, Bu would still have been in a rather rough place.

The special does a good job of balancing the adventure with also being a more educational special where it talks quite a bit about the Bible and Jesus. It’s the kind of thing you don’t see a whole lot of nowadays so that was a really nice touch. It’s the small things like this which help to take the special to the next level. Surprisingly we don’t have a huge bombastic climax but I guess this special didn’t really need that. No need to promote violence here when the whole point is about Bu finally learning a better way.

The animation is pretty solid. It has a very traditional style that works well and reminds you how good the hand crafted style is. It holds up better than some modern titles which is absolutely a huge inditement on them. This style isn’t going for anything fancy but has strong fundamentals across the board.

As for the soundtrack, the songs could be a bit catchy at times. I actually liked the song Bu had about how cruel the trolls were. He sings it really fast to the point where it is almost hard to keep up but I liked the lyrics and he showed just why trolls could not be underestimated. It was all handled rather impressively if you ask me since I don’t always enjoy these old songs.

Overall, This is a pretty good special. It may be under an hour but they still cram in quite a few characters and the world building is solid. The special doesn’t try to show how the trolls are just misunderstood, but instead their society is just built completely different than the humans. It’s really interesting and also when you consider how close it is to the humans base. Perhaps one day the two sides will meet and things will get really intense but if not, you still have the lore here and can imagine how it all plays out. If you haven’t seen the special before, I would definitely recommend checking it out. I think you’ll be surprised at how fun it can be.

Overall 7/10

Batman: Arkham Origins Review

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The Batman Arkham games have definitely been a blast and so now it’s time to get back in there with another one! Arkham Origins is a great addition to the series and easily has some of the longest cinematic battles within the series. The fights with Deathstroke and Joker were good examples of QTEs mixed in with live combat. It’s all aged incredibly well so this is a game that is very strong on all sides.

The general plot involves Black Mask putting a bounty on Batman’s head. It’s a rather large sum and so now Gotham’s most dangerous villains are all after him. Batman is fairly early in his career and yet he will have to deal with a wide assortment of crazy villains. Finding Black Mask will not be easy, particularly since GCPD is also after him at full speeds. Commissioner Gordan is not exactly impressed with Batman’s approach after all.

Right away the gameplay will feel familiar to Arkham fans. The action is heavily centered around parrying. You want to be dishing out damage but also keeping an eye out for nearby attacks. If you time your parry right, you will block the hit and land a counter. You can also finish off an opponent but it will leave you vulnerable to attack. The benefit is that they will stay down and otherwise they will get up several times during the fight. So there is a lot of strategy here right out of the gate.

You also have an array of gadgets to help you out like smoke bombs and such but honestly they are sometimes more work than they’re worth. I preferred to just jump in each time and start the combos. I did die quite a few times though so perhaps this wasn’t always the right move. The game has a kind of old school level of difficulty. It’s tough enough where you will be dying quite a few times but the checkpoints are fairly close by so you never feel like you have lost a ton of progress. I would say it is really balanced. When you die, it’s always to a very avoidable mistake on your part.

What will really test your creativity are the stealth sections of the game. You often have to find ways to isolate a bunch of the villains and take them down one at a time. At the same time, the game does allow you to go and fight them if you want but the bullets deal massive damage. So this way you have some freedom to challenge the villains in whatever your preferred option is. I like that it’s not the kind of game where you instantly die as soon as the villains see you.

The graphics are really great and have definitely aged well. The art style nails a realistic look without making the mistake of trying to simulate a live action movie. As a result it is still stylistic enough to get the job done. The soundtrack is a bit more on the forgettable side though. I would have liked some kind of fast paced battle theme for some of the battles but that wasn’t really going to be the case in this one.

If I have any slight issue with the game, it’s that the loading times can be a bit long. When you boot up the game, there is no way to skip all of the company announcements. Then when you die, you have to watch a fairly extensive cinematic of the villain making fun of you. It’s not ultra long or anything but when you die a lot, it certainly begins to feel that way. It’s a nice touch that the villain mocking you will change based on the level but I’d prefer a quicker restart.

There is a lot of replay value here in getting the PS3 trophies to aim for a Platinum. It seems like a rather difficult set of trophies to get, or at least a very time intensive endeavor. One day I may go for it but this doesn’t seem like the highest one on my list for that reason. You are definitely getting a lot of bang for your buck here though. You can also unlock different costumes for after you beat the game, although low key I would have liked to have had those sooner.

There is also a progression system where you can use your level ups to unlock moves and such. The EXP system is maybe a little too generous though because you will have all of your moves maxed out before the end of the game. There are gadget upgrades you can do next but not without doing some kind of side mission so I never actually got around to that part.

Each of the boss fights have their own unique mechanics so you will be glad to hear that there are no recycled fights. Each one also incorporates some level of QTE into it. It’s not exactly surprising, the games have always been really good at that. Like I said before, this is a very high quality title that clearly had a lot of effort put into it. The main campaign may be fairly short but that is true for most of the games in this series. The replay value helps to counter balance that with how much more content is available.

Overall, Arkham Origins is a great title that really avoided making any big mistakes. You could tell that some of the platforming could be a bit clunky next to Arkham City but just on a relative level. If you look at the game on its own then it is as smooth as it needs to be. If you don’t own this game yet then you definitely ought to change that. This would also make for a pretty good movie one day. Now there is only one Arkham game left in my marathon adventures so we’ll see how that one ends up playing out.

Overall 8/10

Red One Review

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It’s time for one of those Christmas titles that just gets you hyped right out of the gate. The stakes have never been higher with Christmas itself being on the line here. If you’re looking for a modern action blockbuster with tons of humor running around, then you have come to the right place. This is a very light hearted film with quick pacing so right away you will be able to tell if you are going to be a big fan of it or not. This film isn’t trying to hide what it’s all about. What you see is what you get.

The movie starts by introducing us to Callum who is the right hand man of Santa. He leads the guard detail at every event and makes sure that nobody gets to Santa. He has been doing this successfully for hundreds of years without any hiccups. Well, one day Santa is kidnapped and he will have to rely on the help of Jack, the world’s best underground hacker. This guy knows how to stay off the grid in most cases but gets picked up by the heroes and is essentially blackmailed into helping. It was Jack’s info that allowed the villains to breach the North Pole and so he has to make amends. He has no real training in the field though so he and Callum will have to put their differences aside in order to claim victory here.

Right off the gate you have the dynamic that this film will be going with. It’s the classic Buddy cop duo where both characters will be taking shots and digs at each other continuously while gradually learning how to respect each other. It may not exactly be a new dynamic but I have to say that it still works. Both characters are a lot of fun and it’s nice to see what they can do against the big villains.

Gryla is one of the big villains here and she is able to possess people as well as hear any conversation involving her name from anywhere across the planet. These may not be the most powerful abilities to have in an offensive way but at the same time she is widely feared. You can kind of understand why she wants to take all of the naughty people down because it becomes apparent that society has fallen under tough times. That said, she wants to also get anybody who has ever been naughty which is where she goes into full on psycho mode.

Her whole plan also revolved around the North Pole being ridiculously easy to infiltrate. If Callum had been there, then she likely would have failed right at the onset so I can’t say that she planned things out well at all. Once the characters get to where she is, things go south pretty quickly for her. There are some things she couldn’t have counted on like a certain other character getting involved but either way she needed a way to execute her plan quicker.

One subplot that didn’t add much to the equation was Jack’s family drama. We already know that he was a jerk, the deadbeat father part is meant to lead up to his big character revival but I could have done without that. Maybe save that for a sequel but in this one just lean into him being a jerk the whole time. Give him an ambiguous scene near the end where he does something good but doesn’t admit it and that’s how the viewer sees that he has changed. Adding in his kid for the bonding moments was a lot more in your face.

Callum of course has his crisis where he just has a hard time seeing the good in everyone anymore. As the film goes on, he is able to get back into a more positive mindset. A basic but more effective character arc if you ask me. He had only been faltering recently so it was easy to do a 180 compared to Jack who has been a mega jerk for ages. Jack even stole candy from a baby which was really crazy. Even at his lowest, Callum would have never done that.

The movie has a pretty good amount of world building so they could definitely build a franchise off of this. While Christmas is the main attraction here, the organization deals with any supernatural menaces so you could spread that into a lot of spinoffs. Even if this film never gets any sequels or spinoffs, it still helps to make the world feel pretty good for this one. The film doesn’t try to chomp all of the lore down for you so you can fill in some of the blanks.

Meanwhile the action is pretty solid. The hand to hand is on point and I always enjoy see Callum just threaten everyone to their faces. Now that takes a lot of guts and outside of one slap fight, he always has the upper hand at the ready. The soundtrack is also pretty good with some classic Christmas songs in there. The movie definitely feels nice and festive as a result. Like I mentioned before, the pacing is also pretty fast so the whole thing goes by really quickly. There’s a ton of replay value here and as long as you enjoy a good amount of humor during the adventure, you’ll be having a good time.

Callum definitely needs some better assistants though. Throughout the film it feels as though he doesn’t have anyone he can really rely on. Sure, Jack becomes that guy but for the most part, the other characters don’t even keep up the appearances of trying to help. Whether it’s letting villains get away or being taken out off screen, it’s just not a good look for them. If Callum did decide to retire, well I bet Santa would be captured real quick.

Overall, Red One is a pretty good film. It’s what I would call a very basic action blockbuster. There are a lot of laughs and fun action scenes. it never takes any real risks so you can bet that all of the jokes and fights are as safe as possible. That’s not a problem though because the execution is still on point the whole time and that’s what counts. You’ll be grinning along with the characters as things get real and they absolutely handle the situation. I could easily watch a sequel with the same cast because the dynamics work well. If you haven’t seen it yet, then you should definitely change that.

Overall 7/10

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters Review

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Kid Icarus may have had an amazing 3DS game but before that he had rather humble beginnings with the earlier titles. This one is a pretty interesting game to play after the big 3DS adventure. It ends up being a fun title even if parts of it are certainly dated. That’s just going to be the reality for any Game Boy game but I had a good time with it. I can’t imagine how kids would have beaten the bosses back in the day though.

The story starts off with Pit needing to go find the 3 Legendary Treasures. With them he will be able to protect Palutena but standing in his way are an army of powerful monsters. It certainly won’t be easy to defeat them all but Pit is prepared to do what he has to in order to win. As the player you better have some good stamina as well because let me tell you, these boss battles are really long! You can expect each one to take close to 20 minutes.

The game is longer than you’d expect as a result although you’ll still clear it in under 3 hours. The levels themselves are easy, it’s just those boss fights which really take things to the next level. Part of why they take so long is each of the bosses like to fly around the levels like crazy with super speed. As soon as you think you’ve caught up, they dash away again. So you have to try and get in a few blows each time as quickly as you can and then rinse/repeat.

It’s a rather brutal cycle all things considered. The boss fights are creative but they definitely could have been improved with a little less movement. The actual levels tend to be more straight forward on the platforming side. You have your arrows to blast away at enemies with and you can jump around. You can use power ups to fly as well and then in the final level you unlock the ability to fly for real. I can see why they wouldn’t have added that power from the beginning though as it would have been pretty overpowered.

There was one level where I actually got lost for a few moments. To counter your ability to flight, they added a bunch of blocks in the air and you have to go through a specific path in order to avoid them all. So it’s kind of like one of those hedge mazes. I eventually got out, but let me tell you it was definitely not easy. I also died tons of times during the game with how fast the minions run around. The difficulty level is quite high here, more than what I would have initially expected from Nintendo. Clearly the Nintendo of old was a force to be reckoned with.

Usually my advice would be to go very slow and navigate your way around the obstacles but that’s probably not going to work very well for you here. You will get punished for not moving since several of the enemies infinitely respawn and move with a whole lot of speed. Instead you are going to really want to stay one step ahead of the competition and actively look for hiding spots. Find a place that is easy to defend while you think of where to go next. Alternately, pausing is actually a good strategy here to give yourself time to think.

The graphics are all green because of the Gameboy but overall I would say it looked good. The character sprites are all solid and have a lot of expressions going for them. The soundtrack is also decent even if it doesn’t have a lot of the energy that the 3DS Kid Icarus game had. This one still gets the job done when the chips are down. The length isn’t all that extensive for the game but considering the era I would say it did well enough for itself.

Overall, Kid Icarus is a reasonably fun game. The boss fights are a bit more exaggerated than they should be but you can still feel the solid fundamentals of the game. The gameplay itself is handled well and this is a title that had a lot of care put into every aspect. I suppose if you played the levels enough times then you would eventually be able to push through but yeah it’s not a relaxing experience. With this I am one step closer to playing all of the Nintendo origin games. So if you have the Switch Online then you should check this game out. There isn’t a whole lot to it, but the game did help to set the stage for future Nintendo titles and it’s not every day that you get to fly in a platformer. Even if it is only for a brief portion of the game.

Overall 6/10

Tekken 8 Update

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I’ve finally got the Platinum trophy in Tekken 8! It was quite the long journey so it feels good to have made it all the way. Those online trophies in particular can be really rough since you have to rely on factors other than yourself. Still, it all worked out in the end so that’s the important part. Will see which Platinum makes it next!

Battletoads Review

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It’s time for another Battletoads title. This time it’s the original although it’s so similar to others that I’ve played where they may as well be the same game. Right up to the detail that the one crazy level in the game involves a chase. It took me a ton of tries to get through this and that is with the rewind. Without it, this would feel like an impossible challenge if you ask me.

The basic plot is that the Battletoads have to fight off an evil villainess. She wants to destroy them all and so they make their way to her homebase. Along the way they will have to fight various mechs and other creatures that stand in their way. Not an easy task by any means but they aren’t called the “Battle” Toads for nothing. They know how to throw a mean punch and are quite resilient.

The gameplay is essentially a 2D brawler as you punch your way through a number of obstacles. The gameplay can vary though as you will also have a level where you are in a car running away from the enemies as well as a level where you have to race to the bottom. I can give the game credit here, a good amount of development went into it. That was no easy stretch. That said, I absolutely preferred the traditional levels to the other ones.

It was nice being able to punch the various enemies around and the racing levels took away from that. The platforming was also not half bad. The difficulty in these levels was solid without being completely over the top. Meanwhile the soundtrack wasn’t bad either. It was solid even if it wasn’t the most memorable thing that I’ve ever heard. The tunes suited the game well and the graphics were also better than you may have expected. Unfortunately the game boy did mean that the colors were all green so the whole thing gets more washed out than it should have been otherwise.

The music did more of the carrying here. Like I mentioned, the difficulty wasn’t always good though. The race is really impractical with how tight the turns are. Being even a fraction of a second off is too much and that’s particularly unfortunate. There should have also been checkpoints here. Now a lot of older games do have these issues as well but they were particularly pronounced in Battletoads. You really just can’t catch a break in this one. There are other tough levels too but I dare say that this single level is what kept it from being a 6.

I would still like to see a 3D Battletoads someday though. I feel like there is a whole lot of potential thee and it would really be fitting for how combat heavy they can be. It would be a way to keep in the punching and combos for a modern audience. This would also scale the difficulty back a little bit which would be a good idea. Ideally we will also get more of a plot in a newer game. The older ones get some slack for being on a much older console but that’s not really something you can say for a new title.

The game isn’t particularly long with only around 12 levels in it but the difficulty does mean that this will take some time. I’d estimate it may take you around 2-3 hours to complete this one. So that’s not terribly short for its time. There isn’t any true replay value as beating the game causes it to loop. I suppose you could try to beat the game quicker each time but that’s stretching things a bit. There are plenty of games without much replay value and it’s not necessarily a bad thing although I do think it will immediately put you at a disadvantage.

Overall, This is not a game I would really be tempted to replay. It’s not bad, there was clear effort here and the game lives up to its reputation of being crazy difficult. I would just say in the end that it was not enough to make this game one that really jumps out at you. The difficulty manifests in really annoying ways as opposed to making you want to keep playing the game over and over. That’s what keeps it from being one of the heavy hitters here. If you have the Switch Online then you should check it out but otherwise I would say to pass on this one.

Overall 5/10