Category Archives: Live Action Movies

Project Hail Mary Review

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It’s time to check out a sci-fi film that came out a while back and got a ton of buzz. Sci-Fi is one of those genres that can be really good when used right. You get to see characters running around with giant energy guns, using advanced suits of armor, etc. It all blends together to make for a really good experience but then you have other titles which forego all of the cool elements and try to go for some deep storytelling and lore. Unfortunately this one unsuccessfully tries for that angle a whole lot and ends up being a bit of a drawn out mess.

The movie begins by explaining that the Sun is slowly being taken down by an army of powerful organisms. They are smaller than the normal eye can see but they are shutting down every star in the system. Ryland is contacted by the world’s unified agency which is trying to save the planet. After all if the Sun goes out, then Earth has no more hope left. Ryland is super skeptical about going to space but when he wakes up after stasis, he is the final survivor. It is all up to him now but can he really claim victory here?

You can tell that the government was desperate since it’s not like Ryland really had too many answers here. He just has one breakthrough but sometimes that is where science can start. So a lot of the film is really split between a bunch of flashbacks where we see what happened and how Ryland got into space. He has amnesia in the present which is always a convenient way to avoid spoiling the flashbacks. Then in the present he takes a while to get used to the gameplan after some initial panicking.

I feel like the story was mostly concealed for the trailers so I’ll avoid too many of the specifics but the film’s story takes a pretty big change when he is no longer struggling by himself in space. Unfortunately I would say it wasn’t a great development to turn things around. This is actually a film where I dare say it could have been improved by a bit of romance or at least some banter with another humanoid running around. The romance would have probably been rushed so the latter would be preferable.

This film falls into the issues that most films have when there is only one main character. It can be rather boring. This is a long film that feels like a very long film and that’s always a problem. You will have very long scenes of the film trying to show off is special effects or panning around the spaceship to show you how accurate it is. That will probably appeal to some space fans but I’m really just here for a lot of excitement and quick pacing. It never goes to the absurd lengths of 2001: A Space Odyssey at least.

That will always go down as being the worst sci-fi film. That said, this one could have easily shaved off 30-40 minutes and been in a better space. Any Ryland scene from when he first wakes up is annoying as he just acts drunk the whole time. Again this is the film trying to show how realistic it is since you would be out of sorts with amnesia waking up after a super long coma but these are the kinds of details that you don’t need.

The pacing is at a glacial pace and again that is because we didn’t have other characters to bounce off of. This is one of those few examples where I can say that the flashbacks were far more interesting than the present day stuff. We got to see the governments working together, some shady stuff, and most importantly just a lot of dialogue back and forth. I would have liked it if every scene was on Earth and we just direct the people in space on how to save the Sun. You could still have a lot of tension with communications going out or the countries starting to fight each other which causes a lot of issues.

In space the best chance for you to enjoy the film is if you enjoy a friendship that occurs up there. Unfortunately the character they chose just isn’t all that interesting. This is one of those cases where I would say the design is partially at fault here because there is just nothing you can really do with that. You’ll just be shaking your head at the big reveal. It’s not like this is the first time a story has gone in this direction. There are a decent amount of similar designs out there but they never really tend to be all that cool.

At least I didn’t really have any issues with the main character. He did pretty well in his experiments and I also thought he made the right call in running for it during one of the flashbacks. I do think he could have fought a whole lot harder but it’s not like this guy is a trained fighter. So I didn’t want to be too harsh on him or anything like that.

Ultimately the film is going for a bit of an upbeat vibe. There is a body count to be sure and you could say it’s implied that things are much worse than what we see but the characters never lose hope. Ryland keeps his head down and works hard throughout. He may have personally lost hope at some points but would still get back up there. Personally being in a space ship so far away from home would be absolutely terrifying so just being able to get past that is a good look for him.

The advice I’d give for this film is just similar to what I put for After-Earth. In any sci-fi film you should try to keep at least some of the basic concepts around or you are wasting the whole point of being a sci-fi. There should be cool aliens, great looking backgrounds of sci-fi locations that don’t exist in real life, cool weapons, etc.

This film doesn’t have much of that. In many ways you could do this film without the sci-fi part The whole Sun part could still be around with normal radiation hitting it or something and then the rocket ride. So if you are going to go the sci-fi route, then I’d say go all the way and just make it a blast. Also we don’t need the lingering shots in space and all that. Space all tends to look the same after a while and we need the pacing to stay fast.

Overall, I would definitely give this one a pass. The plot has an interesting premise with the Sun going out but then the rest of the execution just falls apart. The film is way too long and loses sight of the number one objective, which is to remain entertaining at all times. It just doesn’t prioritize being fun and doesn’t make for a satisfying watch. I did appreciate the Football terminology though. I would always go for the Hail Mary in Madden and it’s honestly a great play to run on 1st and 10 because nobody ever expects it.

Overall 4/10

After Earth Review

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It’s time for a sci-fi film that has aliens and everything. In theory you’d think that would be a winning formula but this film does not capitalize on that at all. Will Smith is also written out for most of the adventure which was not a good idea. No matter how you slice it, this was not the way to go about things. It ended up lower than my expectations in the end.

The movie takes place in the future where humanity was chased off of their home world. Cypher is known as humanity’s greatest fighter because he has eliminated his emotion of fear. This allows him to slay the powerful human hunting beasts. These beasts cannot use their eyes to see and so humans become completely invisible to them except for when they have fear in their hearts. His son Kitai wants to be a powerful warrior as well some day but doesn’t end up doing so well in the exams. He ends up missing the mark to become a full fledged ranger once again.

Cypher’s wife asks him to take Kitai on an adventure anyway. Cypher agrees and hopes that perhaps the two of them can get closer but an accident occurs which destroys the whole crew. Cypher is gravely injured and cannot move so Kitai will have to get a distress signal. It is 100KM away and this is dangerous territory. Of all the planets they could have landed on, it happened to be Earth which is still overrun by those terrible beasts. A single misstep could prove to be fatal here. Unfortunately Kitai is really not ready for this either so it is going to be a difficult journey.

Right off the gate I feel like the movie made a mistake with how Kitai is portrayed. You’re supposed to feel bad for the guy since he has great stats in the training simulation but always freezes up during the field tests. It’s why he was rejected from promotion again when the film starts. You figure that this is the perfect kind of situation to get over his fears and yet right away he starts to panic.

I understand a little panic when things get crazy but when the ship is hit, Kitai starts panicking. An animal shows up on Earth? Kitai panics again. He just panics way too quickly and the worst part is that Cypher is able to talk to him through the headset. So Cypher tells him what to do and what not to do but Kitai just doesn’t listen to him. That has to be the worst part here because if Kitai was completely isolated then that would make more sense. For example Cypher tells him not to throw a rock at the money creature. Kitai throws one anyway and yells out to leave him alone but that makes no real sense.

You could make a stronger argument for it if Kitai was some random kid but he’s been training for years to be a Ranger. He should be able to handle this much. The panicking just never stops and even near the end he is still yelling at Cypher and not realizing what kind of situation he is in. It’s not a good look for him at all and so the character was not particularly likable. I really wish we had Cypher be the main character instead.

Cypher looks good for the most part. He is really harsh towards Kitai for an event that happened when he was even younger but is otherwise the voice of reason here. He has been at this for a long time and is ready to adapt to any situation. Since Cypher has conquered fear, he is also able to handle these unforeseen situations better than most others could. Being stuck in this chair is probably super frustrating for that reason since he knows that this situation could be handled a lot smoother.

I also have to say that 100KM doesn’t sound all that crazy. I understand that the terrain is a lot rougher but I don’t see why it would be such a big journey. Part of the tension here is that the atmosphere is not breathable by humans. So Kitai has to bring these oxygen discs with him and each one lets you breath for 24 hours. He has around 10 discs at first but after an accident he goes down to 4. After a while we see that it won’t be enough and he will be stuck, but why? For reference I have walked 40KM in a single day and that wasn’t even anywhere close to a 24 hour period.

It was around 11-12 hours max. So you have to do double that and you’ve got days to spare. It just felt like the math wasn’t adding up and they should have said it was 300KM or something like that. It’s a bit of a nitpick though so that’s not something I would blame the film big time on. The film’s biggest mistake is adding in a bunch of animal violence. It’s been a little while since I’ve seen it be this blatant. You have baby birds being murdered and then a bunch of monkeys are slaughtered as well.

It’s all to try and hype the beast up as being a huge threat but it definitely as needless as it gets. The various humans being hung up on trees was already enough for all of that. It’s always going to be the risk/downside of having a film take place in the jungle or uninhabited areas like this. Films just can’t resist the urge to throw in a bunch of dead animals which is absolutely crazy.

The monster has a pretty decent design, albeit a bit generic. It would be nice if the creature was a bit smarter though. Surely it can at least keep on throwing blows when a human just vanishes due to there being no fear. I guess these things can’t smell either since it seems like they are completely at a loss by this point. All in all, not the most intimidating monster out there by a longshot.

What the film was also lacking was more interactions. This was a big problem with keeping Kitai by himself the whole time. That just doesn’t make for a very interesting premise. You need some other characters to be around at least for banter. There’s not a whole lot going on here. I would say to the film’s credit, it doesn’t drag on a ton or anything like that. The pacing is reasonable, Kitai just isn’t a likable main character so he doesn’t really amp up his scenes.

Overall, The most justified character in the film was definitely the instructor. He was absolutely right that Kitai was not ready to be a ranger. The guy panicked constantly throughout the film at every little thing. You are definitely going to be a lot more interested in the lore around the world involving the aliens rather than on this survival story though. It is certainly not bad by any means but it is far from being really engaging. I would recommend skipping this one and checking out a different sci-fi film. Stranding someone on a planet with no access to energy guns and other high tech goodies sorta takes the fun out of the genre.

Overall 3/10

Time Limit Review

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It’s time for a film that really pushes is characters to the limit. How far can a soldier be pushed before succumbing to the enemy? Ultimately this will depend entirely on who the soldier is of course but the film raises up some good questions around that. This is a solid movie all around and definitely one that I could recommend. There isn’t really any action so you need to really be watching this film for the strong writing.

The movie starts by introducing us to William who is in charge of investigating a soldier who is said to have betrayed America. The evidence against him is really strong. This man (Harry) has his signature on different documents and his voice plays over the airways with propaganda for the enemy. Finally, he doesn’t even resist any of the charges and just says that he is guilty. Everyone says William should just end the case as guilty and recommend Harry for a court martial but it all feels too easy. William feels like something shady is going on and is determined to look into this more.

Now it is definitely good for William to check all the bases and not immediately just say guilty if he thinks that this isn’t conclusive. That said, not everything is a conspiracy. Now there would be no movie if this was the case but usually the other characters would probably be right here. It’s not like it is only circumstantial evidence, having the guy’s actual voice and signature be around paints a very definitive picture. As for why he is declaring guilt, well you could say that his conscience caught up to him.

Throughout the film, William’s right hand man is particularly upset about this. By taking such a stand, William is putting his whole career in jeopardy and if you are black listed from the army then getting another job can be very difficult. As a result the friend has to play the heel and apply a lot of pressure to Harry. Whether you like the character or not will probably depend on if you think he went too far in the movie or if you think he was just being a good friend. You probably want to have a friend who will have your back like this but of course there are pros and cons to this.

Sometimes the only way to help your friend out is to go against their wishes but that’s not always going to go over well. William’s secretary takes a much more measured approach but also tends to think William is making the wrong move here. Even William is unsure of himself at times but at least he does manage to get the full story by the end. He will have no regrets now about leaving any knowledge on the table. The film also ends early so you don’t know if his efforts were successful or not. It is ultimately up to you to wonder about that.

Without going into details, the explanation is essentially what you might have figured here. The enemy put a lot of pressure on Harry and threatened lives until Harry ended up working for their side. This is a classic tactic to break an enemy soldier from any country. You either torture them directly or bring in some others and see how much pain you can inflict until the guy cracks. For this reason, some are not sympathetic to Harry’s plight. As they would say, this is just part of what you signed up for.

If you can save 10 people by making a compromise with the enemy while potentially hurting 100 others, did you make the right call? You will never see the other 100 but you can directly see the 10 that you saved. It’s the tough kind of moral call that you can never predict until you are actually in the situation. It’s easy to backseat drive it but that will always be one of the toughest kinds of decisions out there.

For the records, I was on the boss’s side here. Ultimately you can’t crack because you will be hurting untold masses by working with the enemy. It doesn’t mean that I would have the strength to resist but I do think it would be the wrong move to work with the enemy. Their general was clearly not bluffing so he would have murdered the whole squad but they would know that they stuck true to their ideals the whole way through.

I don’t think William will ultimately be able to sway a jury on this one. As for Harry, I don’t fault him for his decision. Even if I don’t agree with it, I couldn’t bring myself to slam him for having to make such a tough call. It’s just too high stakes for all of that. I do think he could have been a lot more co-operative during the movie though. I understand that he wanted to keep the events secret after several promises were made but by being so tight lipped he instead caused more scrutiny to go into the case. If he wanted to take the fall without fighting back, then he could have explained in more general terms what happened.

He also ended up carrying the guilt to such a degree that it hurt his wife and anyone around him as well. There had to be a better way of handling this. It’s a burden that is hard to really understand from afar but staying quiet is never the right answer here. The film’s cast is pretty small overall so you really have a lot of time to think about the story and what was going on here. This is a film that is definitely timeless since war is eternal and this kind of situation will always appear. Like the general says, rules are ultimately there for a reason though. If you start to doubt them then you’re going to be in a weaker space right away.

Overall, I’m not always for following the rules in these kinds of films but this time the army creed actually held up. The rules were set up for good reason and have withstood the test of time. I’d definitely recommend checking this one out if you’re up for a film with debates and conversations about ethics. It’s not exactly a feel good movie though so you should be prepared for drama and an ending that is only potentially going to wind up being a happy one.

Overall 7/10

I Can Only Imagine 2

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It’s time for the big sequel to the original hit that came out a while back. Sequels are always going to have a tough time because in theory you covered everything in the first film. This one does run into some of those issues as a result like with throwing in a ton of drama. I thought it was a bit overplayed here but ultimately it still leads you down the road to a good moral. Additionally since this film is based on something that did happen, it probably limits what you can do to a degree.

The film kicks off with showing how Bart’s time at the top didn’t stop more troubles from piling on. He had a kid with Shannon but he grows up with a strong case of diabetes which can only be controlled through daily shots. Sam doesn’t particularly like taking the shots though and tends to put it off as he works on the music. Unfortunately this got him into dangerous situations more than once which makes Bart feel like he has to watch over him 24/7. This has caused some rather serious rifts between the two of them and it feels like Bart is at risk of losing this connection forever. Can he find a better way to handle this?

The film does make Bart look pretty bad throughout as a result of this though. Particularly with what he went through as a kid, you’d think that he would be a whole lot more careful here. It is a dangerous situation but he just blows up at Sam way too much and basically has 0 tact. It’s always going to be easier to backseat drive and of course in real life it may not have played out like that but in the movie Bart does look rather unreasonable the whole time. Even when things are going well he finds it hard to give Sam any complements.

Meanwhile Sam is going through his rebellious phase as he pushes himself to his limits to try and prove himself. This causes him to misjudge his limits and faint at one point so that was also a pretty bad look for him. You can’t plan for every contingency of course but since there’s a whole plot about convincing his father that no extra surveillance is needed….it really blew the point up in Sam’s face.

Then Tim has it the roughest as he’s dealing with some health issues throughout the film but doesn’t let these issues define him. He is determined to plunge ahead and keep on making music. This easily helps him be one of the best characters in the film. He also helps to solve a lot of the issues going on with Bart and Sam. Without Tim the group would have absolutely fell apart.

In the end there are always times where you need someone else’s help and so the film really shows that group teamwork in action. The songs are also pretty good as you’d expect. They are really well known and it shows that Mercy Me had more than one all star song. It’s certainly not easy to pull something like that off but this band was up to the task. Since this is more of a bio pic than a musical there aren’t a lot of songs but the ones that we do get are solid.

The writing and pacing are pretty good here as well. We even get a few flashbacks to flesh out the final days for one character before he got written out. There is a lot going on here and so by the end you should find each character to be at least tolerable. I still think that some of the drama ends up being forced with characters making the wrong moves but at least at the end of the day it’s not like any of the characters had bad intentions.

While the film has a pretty serious tone throughout, there is still some time for humor here. The pranks tend to be really intense though so I do not recommend trying any of them out in real life. While some would be okay with it, I dare say the majority would take it pretty personal and really try to take you out. The golden rule here is absolutely to know your audience at all times. One misstep and it’s all over. Same with trolling or making adjustments on the fly during a live performance. Those things can definitely backfire.

There’s a saying about how you shouldn’t let your dreams be memes and it’s always an inspiring one. Many would say that Sam may not have had much of a chance to live the music life on the road because he could have a diabetic episode at any point. Others might have said that Tim was being too ambitious when he didn’t know how much time he had left. At the end of the day there isn’t much point to worrying about stuff like that. The characters just put their faith in God and kept it moving. If they were not able to finish the journey, then so be it but in the meantime there is no room for giving up. Bart almost threw in the towel but by sticking around he was able to churn out one more big song that would go on to change a lot of lives.

Overall, I Can Only Imagine 2 is a worthy follow up to the original film. It may not feel like the most necessary sequel out there but if you think that you have enough content for another story then you really ought to go for it. If they made a third film in this series then I would check that out as well. Hopefully it can just have a bit of a happier tone though. This one could just be so dreary at times and granted, the topics are very serious. You’re just hoping for more of an upbeat kind of film to relax with. If you are not familiar with the band Mercy Me, then you should really get a lot out of this one.

The Crowded Sky Review

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It’s time for another big airplane thriller. This one deals with the extra stress of knowing just how crowded the sky is with other vehicles. One wrong move and you could be in for a deadly crash. This film is definitely going for a very dramatic feel with a solid amount of humor so in theory this should have been a winner but doesn’t end up winning the day. I’d put it around the middle, it gets some stuff right but never really turns the corner. It’s a decent adventure but never manages to keep any momentum for very long.

There are two plots going on here. The first is with Dale who is a pilot but some blame him for an event earlier where he turned up and another plane ended up crashing with its passengers. Along the way his wife has been openly cheating on him but Dale is trying to keep the marriage together for his daughter. It’s not easy though and he essentially needs to bribe his wife into not doing anything drastic. It’s just a miserable life for him right now but t lest he has his plane.

Dale’s a realist, he knows that things can go wrong during the flight and is just hoping that this won’t be the case here. Unfortunately his radio stops working early on and he experiences a lot of technical errors. This can’t be a good sign. I respect Dale trying to keep things together for his daughter but sticking with an open cheater like that is absolutely a recipe for disaster. If he wants to keep any self respect, Dale just needs to get out of there.

I couldn’t tell if the film was trying to make his wife even slightly sympathetic or not but I can definitely say that it didn’t work for me. For starters, her excuses about being lonely and everything are just as weak as can be. That’s a terrible reason to be cheating and definitely not one that I would ever accept. Spoiler alert, I wouldn’t accept virtually any reason for cheating.

Then we have the other plot where Barnett is piloting a plane with a bunch of passengers. he has to ride with co-pilot Mike and there are a lot of tensions here. Barnett is the reason that Mike never got promoted after all and there is a lot of bitterness between them. Barnett’s also been having trouble connecting with his son. Barnett basically pushed him away by being far too stern and never being positive. Barnett looks pretty bad in all of the flashbacks and basically took it all out on Mike.

Ultimately this causes him to intentionally break rules while flying the plane as he tries to goad Mike into fighting with him. The whole film is not a good look for Barnett even if he gradually starts to learn his lesson by the end. It’s just far too late by that point and he has caused far too much pain and suffering by this point. This is a film that is not afraid to have a body count or have some characters completely lose out after all.

In fact the deaths really hit hard in the film because there is no slow-mo or introspection. It stands out because otherwise the film loves to pause for dramatic effect. This made for a pretty good contrast and is something that the film did right. The whole film is building up the tension of how even a single mistake can be fatal in the air and the movie doesn’t back down from this theme.

As for Mike, well he’s not the most likable guy either. Naturally there is nothing wrong with wanting to be a pilot and a painter. So I had no issues with the guy there. Where I was more annoyed was with how he would treat his stewardess girlfriend. Mike would just turn off at times and brush her off while thinking about his own troubles. I never like that kind of character because it just makes him come off as a total jerk. He could have still been talking to her the whole time and giving actual reasons for why they couldn’t be married. Their romance just didn’t seem to be great in this one.

I think if we stuck to these plots then the film probably could have done some effective things here. You can balance those 3 main plots well enough even if a lot of the characters come off as being super unlikable. The problem is that the film also adds a drama plot for every pair of characters on the plane. You have one critical lady who is sitting next to an actor for example. She makes fun of how he stresses on everything and there isn’t much to this plot. The dialogue is super repetitive the whole time and just feels pointless.

Then you have a guy who is determined not to look at the girl next to him because he thinks that she’s ugly. She is also having a crisis of confidence at the moment and believes the same thing. As the film goes on and they are all in danger of crashing, he decides to settle because he’s getting older and maybe she’s not so bad looking. That’s hardly romantic at all and just comes off as a pity pairing. Both characters needed to be a whole lot more confident.

After that is the worst subplot where one girl wants to really stick it to this guy she is sitting next to. Apparently she has history with him from the past and so she has completely redesigned herself. The plan is to make his trip absolutely miserable…somehow. Her plan never really makes any sense and then by the halfway point she begins to fall for him for some reason. I don’t see how that’s possible when she was already burned once. By the very end of the film she gets her head back on straight but it was a terrible look and the writing was just confusing here. She was on the back foot for the entire duration of the film.

I like the idea of the zoom ins as every character has an internal monologue but you have to save that for really interesting moments. The film overdoes it and often times there just isn’t much for the characters to say. This film was just trying way too hard by adding all of these plots in and ends up faltering. You can pull this off with great writing but the film wasn’t quite at that level. The writing is generally good but the characters don’t end up being likable and I feel like some of these subplots must have left scenes on the cutting floor because they just don’t flow very well.

Overall, A Crowded Sky works in the sense that the film is very crowded. The movie has a whole lot of characters and there isn’t much breathing room. Not a bad idea at all but then you have to really be able to execute on a high level and this movie couldn’t pull it off. There is a solid sense of danger throughout but the characters could not capitalize on this. It’s not a bad film but I would much sooner recommend the average airplane film over this one. Only check this one out if you’ve already seen all of the popular ones and just want to see another plane title.

Overall 5/10

Summer Rental Review

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It’s time for a short beach adventure film. This one isn’t even 90 minutes so you can imagine how quickly the whole adventure goes through. For the most part it’s a harmless film but there’s no real hook to go along with it. Throw in the usual fanservice shenanigans of a beach film and this one doesn’t quite get up to par. You’re actually rooting for the main villain during the final battle because the heroes aren’t given enough reasons for you to root for them. Sometimes that’s just how things go I suppose but yeah that’s just how these things go sometimes.

Jack’s had a hard life where everything always seems to go badly for him. Well, he aims to change that and takes his family on a big trip for the Summer. They can all just hang out as a family and get some much needed R&R. Sounds like a pretty good idea right? Well, unfortunately they run into a lot of issues like Jack entering the wrong house and then getting a huge heat rash during the vacation. He initially meant this to be a fun vacation for everyone and instead it is all blowing up in his face. Is it too late to turn this around?

I think you’ll be able to tell what kind of film this is after 5 minutes and from there you can just decide if it’s your kind of film or not. Jack really just bumbles his way through every situation possible. It has the feel of your average Adam Sandler film but a lot more family friendly in general. Some of the gags can definitely get iffy but on the whole this is very tame. You just have to see how funny Jack’s antics are for you.

I would say the film has a decent sense of humor but none of the gags are laugh out loud funny. They just tend to be all over the place and very hit or miss by nature. At least Jack does have a loving family who want to help but by the middle of the film he has decided to ditch them for an old guy who is helping to teach him about boats. See, Jack wants to really impress his son by becoming a master driver who can win the big boat competition.

That’s all well and good but making this a surprise is where he went wrong. He should be enjoying the vacation with his family. You know…the whole point of this vacation. Instead he just keeps on making excuses for why he can’t join them and just acts as more of a downer to the vacation itself. This all felt very counter intuitive to the vacation and makes this another example where Jack is really creating his own hole. They all forgive him of course and have fun with the boat race but I’d be mad if I was the rest of the family.

The film ultimately can’t help itself and adds in one crazy character who likes to flash men to get their opinions. Naturally this happens to Jack too and the biggest problem is that Jack put himself in this situation. The lady appeared with obvious ulterior motives to get him to follow her back to her place. He should have obviously said no because there was one reason for that. So no matter how much he protested later on, it was just a bad look.

In general it’s also why I never think it’s a good idea for the married couple to be flirting with other people for kicks. It’s treated as a joke where the wife and daughter are hanging out with the lifeguards and there are plenty of times where the reverse happens but it just seems like a terrible idea. Some people buy into a concept where if your marriage/relationship is strong enough then you should be able to joke around about crushing on other people and things like that but it’s always going to be in bad taste. It’s important not to overestimate your own defenses.

There is a bit of a possible romance going on with the daughter and it’s definitely another reason for Jack to want to bring everyone home. Clearly the beach is not the right environment for these guys. I think the best gag was when the characters realized that they were in the wrong summer house. If anything I would have made that part a little longer. A lot of fun jokes you can do about that. So the film had some good gags here and there but there were just not enough of them to keep this in the green.

Maybe the main villain could have used more screentime. All of his scenes were the best ones like when he would threaten Jack or talk about his own top tier boat experience. He won the big race many years in a row after all so it’s not like he’s just spitting out hot air or anything like that. His confidence is well founded and for good reason. It would feel undeserved for him to lose to Jack…..

A beach film is usually not going to rank all that high for me though. There are plenty of things that can always go wrong here without a whole lot of upside. I’ll take a winter vacation anytime. Jack is also just not likable enough as a main character. He’s just way too dumb the whole time so he is really getting himself into these messes and then aside from that going to the neighbor’s house shows a lack of resolve as well. No matter how you slice it, this is all very bad for the main character. To succeed in a film like this, you absolutely need to be giving us a main character to root for.

Overall, This is one of those films that makes for a very peaceful watch. You can really check it out at any point without issue. It’s not like there is a big plot to have to remember either. That said, there’s nothing particularly strong about it either. The film has some decent jokes. You can’t help but laugh at Jack sometimes but there’s not a ton of variety and it’s not super funny or anything. A film like this is banking the entire experience on being able to make you laugh after all. There is no other hook to grab you with. I feel like the film had a decent amount of potential that just didn’t work out for it. it’s one of those films where you can probably find dozens of similar titles and I would just say to try and find one like this title that seems to have had more effort put behind it. This is a film that you can safely skip.

Overall 4/10

Zero Hour Review

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It’s time for an old airplane thriller and I can safely say that this one has withstood the test of time really well. The drama is solid and the characters are pretty good throughout. The movie itself is fairly short but still manages to cram a lot in. As long as you are a fan of the old time films and the retro style of writing then you should have a good time here.

The main character here is a man named Stryker who is haunted my memories of the past. One of his missions did not go well and his decisions directly caused several people to lose their lives. Stryker never forgave himself for this and unfortunately this has taken a toll on his personal life as well. His wife has decided to leave with their son and Stryker just barely manages to follow them onto the plane. He has to find a way to save this relationship but how can he pull himself together? He won’t have much time to worry about this as a poisoned seafood dinner knocks out over half the crew as well as both of the pilots. Stryker will need to land this plane down along with his wife’s help but nobody has any confidence in him. Especially not his old Captain who will be walking them through this from the ground level.

Now it is naturally going to be hard to get past trauma and we see this first hand with Stryker. The flashbacks just come in fast and hard. Even when he is working on landing, he still sees other planes trying to shoot him down. This leads to multiple encounters where he nearly ends up destroying them all. I admit that by the end this definitely gets pretty annoying because the stakes are much too high for this. It’s not like you can just stick the trauma in a pocket and ignore it but hopefully you can at least suppress it long enough to get everyone to safety.

Meanwhile his wife really isn’t helping with how she keeps talking about how he has no chance. The doctor has to spell it out for her that everyone is going to die otherwise so it’s not like things can get worse. I don’t think you should need to be reminded of the stakes in a situation like this. By the end she begins to respect her husband again and stops being a debbie downer but it sure took a while.

The best character here has to be the doctor. He quickly gets to business when he finds out what is going on. He never panics and manages to convince everyone to do their parts in getting through this situation. Without him then everybody would have absolutely been dead. They’re really lucky that a doctor was on board. Meanwhile the Captain may be an almost antagonistic force at times with how much he doesn’t like Stryker but you can totally understand.

Stryker doesn’t seem to do well with authority and the whole past events that started the trauma in the first place would naturally be something that makes the Captain have some negative feelings towards him as well. The captain is still professional all the way through though and knows that his mission is to try and save lives. For that reason there is just one part that makes him look bad.

Near the end of the film there is a ton of smog so the captain tells Stryker to keep the plane in the air despite hearing that most of the crew only has minutes left to live. Obviously staying in the air isn’t a good idea at that point and so you just have to risk your life and try for the choppy landing. The captain should have been getting on board with that plan a lot sooner even if he does get some credit for recognizing that Stryker is in control right now. So he doesn’t drag the issue once he sees that the plane is coming down anyway.

The film is pretty short like I mentioned before but the pacing is definitely on point. The events happen really quickly and there is never any dead air. The airplane also makes for a good plot location because with everyone restricted, that just makes all of the tension even greater. There is no escape for anybody, they are all just having to hope for the best here.

The writing is also pretty good which is no real surprise for a film from this era. The writing always had a certain level of class to it and I like how sophisticated everyone is. These guys were clear professionals the whole way through. If I had any issues with the film it would just be that I thought Stryker’s PTSD was a little too strong. I feel like it should have gone away by the end of the film because the current disaster should be way too stressful to be thinking about anything else.

It’s easy to fall into mental traps when you’re by yourself and have no distractions. When you’re piloting a plane that is about to crash into the Earth? I just don’t think there is enough peace and quiet to get into your own head like that. It seems like it would be a stretch to me at least and the film didn’t exactly need any extra drama. It did make for a pretty cool visual where we see the controls turning into an enemy fighter jet. That was pretty good, definitely impressive for the 50s in terms of special effects.

Overall, I would recommend checking this film out. It’s a strong film all around with good characters and no big issues. There is a lot of replay value here and in a way you should watch it before checking out the original Airplane film to really understand all of the gags. Airplane is naturally the much better film but I can see why it took so much inspiration from this one. The better a film is, the more effectively you can make a parody out of it since you need a good foundation for the gags to be thrown on top of it.

Overall 7/10

Heat Review

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

There’s an old saying that a good movie will become a great movie with enough length but a bad movie will become a terrible one if you extend it. I tend to agree with that in theory and this film’s a pretty good example. It has a nice set up but coms with several problems and those problems just start to get worse and worse as the film goes on. It really needed a checks and balance system in order to prevent things from getting out of control like this. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and so this one really sabotages itself. There’s a good film somewhere in here but it is buried deep.

The movie focuses on a master cop and an ultimate thief. Both of them have really put everything into the job to the point where their lives away from the job have really become a mess. It is the lot they have chosen in life though and neither one has any regrets. They will have to face each other though as only one of them will be able to walk away from this in one piece. Will the victor be the cop or the crook? You’ll find out by the end of the film.

Right away the biggest hurdle for the film is just how unlikable the characters are. For the main two the film is trying to show us how they are just trying their best but can’t find a happy middle between the job and their lives. The problem is that it sure doesn’t look that way from the outside. They’re just jerks who make each situation worse so I’m not seeing any great effort there.

Lets take the main character Vincent. This guy is already on his third wife and things are not going well because he refuses to tell her about his work at all. So he goes out there for incredibly long hours and when he gets home then he doesn’t want to talk. In fact he goes out of his way to push her out because that’s just the way that he likes things. When she calls him out on it, he has no real good response to this. She decides to end up cheating which is obviously a terrible thing to do and then Vincent keeps on going with his routine.

It’s a toxic relationship all the way around with both parties looking super bad. I just don’t get why he was completely unwilling to compromise and talk to her before that point. I understand really enjoying your job but there’s no reason to be like that socially. Being with him just seems like it would be an incredibly hollow experience. Vincent is at least good at his job so I’ll give him that but that’s about all that I can give him.

As the film goes on he gets to interact with Neil who is the big gangster on the other side. The conversation is decently interesting but I don’t really get why they would even slightly respect each other. The hero/villain dynamic can work with respect but you usually still have to earn it in some way. I didn’t think that Neil did anything to earn that respect here. From Vincent’s point of view he should just be another villain to overcome. He wasn’t super impressive. Vincent’s group had him dead to rights early on if one officer hadn’t dropped his water bottle.

As for Neil, well he’s worse than Vincent. The big problem with Neil is that he makes a whole lot of mistakes throughout the film. The whole thing wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t lose track of the mass murderer outside the deli. I don’t know how that guy escaped in the first place, clearly Neil has no peripheral vision. At least he was ready to get revenge for the rest of the movie but I would have written it a bit differently so the escape wasn’t completely Neil’s fault like this.

Additionally Neil is always willing to compromise and is a villain through and through. You could have had a villain with a really strict honor code which explains why Vincent doesn’t mind him but that’s not the case here. Neil’s too busy covering up for his allies who are just not good people. At one point he threatens the cheating wife of one of his subordinates about how she needs to stay with the toxic guy for a while longer. Neil just wants to complete his mission and he can’t even stick to his own internal rules in the end.

So yeah he’s just another random villain. At least that’s how it should seem to Vincent. As per usual the romance throughout the film is more on the weaker side. This one is really going by the classic rules of how someone is eventually going to cheat out of loneliness or boredom which always means that you picked the wrong person. The film also has a mass murderer named Waingro running around. I thought he was rather unnecessary to the film but is mainly here so Neil isn’t as bad in comparison.

That part is true as this guy is obviously the most evil character. We see him murder quite a few people and he basically has no reason to do this. He just enjoys the violence and that’s really all that you need to know about the guy. That’s why any victory by the end is going to be rather hollow because of the body count. The climax is nice and action packed but it does feel like the villains have a lot of plot armor. They are outnumbered at least 20 to 2 and are mostly taking all of the heroes down. I don’t get how you can miss so many shots in close quarters like that.

What I can give this film as a positive is that the writing is generally solid. The plot is engaging and you are interested in seeing how things will wrap up. There are a lot of traps and counter traps going on. Each side is really able to fight well and even if the supporting characters don’t have huge roles there, they get enough scenes to be more than nobodies. I would have just used some of the film’s exceptionally long screentime to give them some more memorable scenes and fights.

Overall, Heat is one of those films that is very ambitious but messes up on the fundamentals. In theory it’s interesting to have two main characters who are set up to eventually have to fight each other. That’s always going to be a fun idea but you need to actually have both characters be likable first. Until you actually do that then the film is really going to be doomed. It’s also a little too drawn out. Perhaps if this was more of an ensemble cast with 4 factions then it could work but the film is very clearly centered around the main two. I’d recommend checking out a different title instead for your dose of action.

Overall 3/10

The Social Network

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It’s time for a film about the creation of Facebook. This movie really got well known as everyone seemed to be having a good time with it. It’s easy to see why as it has a very fast paced writing style so this doesn’t feel like a stuffy bio film. That said, if the film was trying to make any of the characters likable then it definitely did fail. The characters feel realistic as you could picture all of this going down and the film doesn’t try and hide their personalities either You’ll be entertained throughout though.

The movie starts off with Mark Zuckerberg going on an insane rant to his friend as he shifts topics a lot and gets defensive about everything. Unfortunately he thought he was talking to his girlfriend but she reminds him that she already broke up with him. He decides to write a blog about how awful she is and then turns on all women so he breaks into various websites and leaks their contact photos to a site where you can rank girls against each other. The site becomes a big thing and he realizes that it may be time to launch Facebook. There are just two hurdles; Money and another group already having a similar idea. Mark will have to beat out both groups.

Now I’m going to assume that all of the events in the film are heavily dramatized but that in broad strokes this is fairly accurate. The film’s strongest point is the dialogue like I mentioned before. While Mark isn’t likable at all, I do like his smug way of talking and just how much he is able to cram into every sentence. That’s not an easy feat and it just makes for good banter. Even when he’s wrong, the guy just has to talk really fast so it can sound like he’s right. At first he seems to be overly emotional but tries to look out for his friends while by the end it is clear that he has become super corrupted and will turn on anybody. Power corrups after all and so this would be no exception.

Owning one of the largest companies on the planet before becoming a full adult is a lot of pressure to deal with after all. That also brings with it temptations and those can be hard to fight on your own. He had a best friend in Eduardo but we see how there was a lot of tension early on. Mark seemed to resent Eduardo’s success throughout the movie and so it was only a matter of time before he turned on the guy. The friction between them would only grow worse and worse as the movie went on.

To an extent the newcomer Sean helped to fan these flames but I think it would have happened regardless. They just had very different views on the company and those were never going to be squared away peacefully. The film ultimately still ends on a happy note for most of the characters as they each got a healthy slice of the pie. There was plenty of money to go around after all but that certainly doesn’t help to recover the lost trust. That is something that you can’t simply buy back. It has to be earned and I don’t think any of the characters would risk trying a second time.

Eduardo’s girlfriend is probably the only one of the girls to stay on as a supporting character for a while but I wouldn’t say that she looked very good here either. She was a bit too friendly with Sean which rubbed Eduardo the wrong way the whole time and then she seemed to go completely crazy like when she set a fire in Eduardo’s room. Now she is gone for just long enough where we don’t see what led her to this level but it was definitely not a good look either way.

I may have actually preferred the villain group to the main characters in this case. The two Winklevoss brothers for example were fun antagonists. At least in the film’s portrayal they seemed to be the victims here with how they were manipulated by Mark’s emails until he had Facebook up and running. They also lose in the big Olympics that they were training for which just made things even more tragic. While Eduardo was naive in signing a contract that would come back to bite him, the brothers didn’t really have a chance since they were caught by surprise. You can’t really predict everything.

The film has a habit of jumping back and forth with the court cases and that’s one tactic I wasn’t a big fan of. I would have much preferred to see the early days and then build up to the two court cases at once. Especially because the characters don’t even look any older so with the events being that close you may as well do everything chronologically. The film had a lot to cover which means there is a ton of jumping around as it is. Throwing in flashbacks and flashforwards is just a distraction at that point.

Then the film has the usual kinds of issues that go on with trying to make all of the characters “realistic” and everything. We’ve got a lot of fanservice, super weak romances/one night stands, etc. The characters all seem incredibly shallow and not the type of people you would want to hang out with. I was really glad that the ex girlfriend from the very first scene of the film didn’t walk back to Mark after all of that. A lot of people may have succumbed due to the overwhelming amount of money at play but she stuck to her principles.

Overall, This movie certainly gives you some good insight into the origins of Facebook but does tend to get distracted a little too much by the social drama. That’s what ends up dragging this film down into the red. I suppose that is always going to be easy to translate into movie-mode which is why you include those scenes but I’d have liked to focus on the court stuff more instead. Facebook has no end to the amount of lawsuits that are around and so focusing on those would be much more interesting to me. The other stuff really just tends to be there for shock value or to remind yourself that all of these rich people are totally corrupted. In either event if you are trying to find out about Facebook then this might be a fun way to do that. You just need to get past all of the drama stuff so in that way you may be better off reading the Wikipedia pages.

Father of the Bride Part II Review

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It’s time for Part II of this saga. Unfortunately, it falls into what I call the Airplane II trap. This film decides to just reuse all of the jokes and gags from the first film before calling it a day. You ever know someone who told a great joke once but then they got too much praise for it so after that they began to keep on using the same joke over and over and over again? That’s usually not a good idea because eventually the joke’s not going to work and that’s this film in a nutshell. In general it’ll probably be a bit better if you haven’t seen the first film but I would make the case that the premise is weaker in general.

The film starts off with George explaining that he finally has some free time as Annie has left the roost with Bryan so now he can do all the fun retiree stuff. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last long as his wife gets pregnant and will be having her baby around the same time as their daughter Annie. George must now deal with both of them essentially being out of commission but he’s rather old at this point. Can he look after them and basically go without sleep until the babies arrive? George may have to work with Franck on this.

So right away we have all of the recycled jokes. Annie and Bryan have another 2 minute fight about some nonsense that doesn’t make any sense. George is all upset again even though having a baby is pretty normal by this point in the relationship. Then Franck show up for a baby shower event where he spends all of George’s money again. What did George do to deserve all of this? George is absolutely more out of line in this film but still does step up to take care of his family when it counts. He even got a fun new hairdo and everything but doesn’t really get any support. That’s gotta be rough. He just wanted to prove that he wasn’t so old yet.

The whole expensive baby shower part also doesn’t make any sense. That’s really not a super popular thing compared to weddings. Everyone does a baby shower, but an expensive one with a 5 course meal and all the same trimmings as a Wedding? Cmon that’s just not a thing and doesn’t make any sense here. You’ll just be shaking your head the whole time and for good reason. Franck did not need to return and his scenes tend to be rather painful.

I can’t really fault Nina or Annie much this time. Ultimately they are pregnant for a good chunk of the adventure and that does mess with the mind a whole lot. They’re naturally going to be sleepy and having random cravings for most of the adventure. Maybe Nina could have been a little more considerate when George was unable to get a proper place to sleep because of the two guard dogs but that’s about it.

Mainly the film’s problem is that it just isn’t all that funny. I thought the gags were a step down and of course the reused ones won’t hit as hard this way either. It’s the kind of film that’s not really going to have an antagonist so in that case you need a different kind of hook. This time the film was unable to come up with one and that became the problem here. Just a little hook would have gone a long way here like maybe Annie wanted to have a special doll for her baby’s birth. So George has to go on a journey and find it or something like that.

A little goal would have gone a long way. Or perhaps having more arguments with the In Laws about the baby’s name. That doesn’t end up being a big part of the film as George doesn’t care a whole lot. For once Nina would have been on his side otherwise though and it could have made for some fun tension. Maybe both families keep trying to outdo the other one and it becomes a crazy competition? I could see a lot of potential there.

In this film Bryan and the In Laws don’t actually get to do much anyway. The cast is pretty small and we also get a whole subplot where George sell the house and things go crazy from there. The joke being that George loses even more money when he has to reverse the charge and you realize that he can never possibly win. At least that was a different angle though so I’ll give the film that. It made for an interesting, albeit somber plot. I wouldn’t have minded the characters moving to a new house in the end to really show that a new chapter was beginning.

George had a point that the house is rather big for just him and Nina. Of course now that they have a baby that will be a little different but I do think that the overall point stands. They could downsize a bit and still be really comfortable. That may have been a better final goal to really go with. The emotional beats of the film also ring a bit more hollow as George already had his final goodbyes to Annie’s kid self. He had moved on so the extra flashbacks here don’t really do anything. I suppose I can use this film as an example of an empty sequel. It’s not bad by any means but just feels a bit pointless.

Overall, Father of the Bride is the kind of film that didn’t really need a sequel but I can see why you would want to explore what happened after having a kid. So nothing wrong there but the film didn’t really think it through much beyond that. The double baby angle may help to up the drama but there aren’t a whole lot of funny jokes to associate with it. This is a movie that you will watch and be fairly ambivalent about by the end. It happened and it’s not a bad film but nothing really stood out. There are many alternative plots you could think of like the kid being a few years older so George and Nina have to babysit him which means missing out on a fun retiree vacation or something. Well, if you missed the old characters then you should check this one out.

Overall 5/10