Category Archives: 4 Star Movies

Bus Stop Review

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Bus Stop is one of those films where the romance has realllllly not aged well. At its core this should be an uplifting movie about a quality character arc but instead you’re just being reminded of how much progress has been made over the years. There are fun moments here to be sure but the ending isn’t particularly satisfying and the path towards getting there can be very rough.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Bo who is a Cowboy that is finally seeing the real world for the first time. He is eager to show the world just how good he is and his mentor Virgil is hoping that Bo will even end up meeting a girl that he will fancy. Well, that turns out to be the case as they bump into a lady named Cherie who is a good singer and dancer. She aspires to go to Hollywood some day but for now is stopped at a small little club of sorts. Bo announces that they will get married and won’t be taking no for an answer. Part of Cherie is flattered but she also realizes that he isn’t quite mature enough for this. How can she get out of this whole marriage thing?

So the funny part here is supposed to be that Bo is completely oblivious to what the word no means. He treats Cherie like the bulls that he wrangles for the show and any answer she gives is ignored until it’s yes. He pressures her into everything like watching his show and saying yes to marriage. This isn’t a great look for Cherie either but Bo is really a big problem here. It goes a step too far with how he’s literally kidnapping her by the end of the film.

Bo straight up became an antagonist and there were few characters that were doing anything about it. Fortunately that’s where Carl steps in, the best character in the film. Carl is quick to challenge Bo to a fight and absolutely crushes him. It was a great moment and showed that at least one guy was going to step in when the going got tough. It’s definitely good that Carl had some experience in physical sports because otherwise Bo was a tough guy himself. Carl just knew what it meant to have a quality romance and that’s why it’s almost a shame for the guy that the owner of the bus stop seemed to like Virgil instead. Perhaps the fight changed her mind though, it seems like you could take things either way.

Still, Carl did the right thing there. For Bo it still seems like an odd plot point because not knowing city customs is one thing but being completely insensitive to the ladies is another. He really didn’t seem to have any regard for Cherie’s feelings and the film wrote him to be way too exaggerated. It’s why you can’t see any possible path to a relationship here after all the things that he did. The film could have ended with a friendship and a heartfelt apology but that’s really about it.

As for Cherie, I would have liked to have seen her show a bit more agency here. While Bo did pour on the pressure the whole time, she still could have said no more decisively and really made a scene about it. I know to an extent she is still limited about the situation because you can’t really know how the guy will react. It’s why I won’t be quite as hard on her but she still didn’t end up being super likable.

I then blame Virgil a bit here because he takes some responsibility for not setting Bo straight sooner. The guy was his mentor so any character flaws Bo has can be taken to him to an extent. Virgil also helped stand up by the end and call Bo out but it took him a long time to do so. He should have been front and center from the start in showing Bo that he was wrong about everything.

If not for the drama, Bo was actually even doing pretty well at all the events. It was clear that he wasn’t all talk but at the same time that doesn’t excuse his off the field issues. It’s a classic example of a character getting distracted and then wasting everything away when it counted. Not a good look at all. I’m also not into the whole bull chasing and such. It feels like it would still hurt the animal to be tripped no matter how carefully it is done. Those sports can be cancelled and I’d definitely be fine.

The meat of the story is really about the romance though and since that part isn’t very good then the rest of the film suffers as a result. The scenes aren’t particularly funny and the ending is a miss so it ends up losing out on both accounts. The pacing isn’t bad as the film isn’t too long and things are always happening but that’s about all I can give for the film. It needed a much better cast to really take things to the next level and this movie wasn’t quite ready for that.

Overall, This is an example of a film where they take the “Unfamiliar in the big city” trope and take it way too far. It could have been a good dynamic if Bo likes Cherie but she was constantly using new lingo and was too fast paced for him while Bo kept getting himself into trouble by using the wrong sayings. Then you have some misunderstandings and such. Or have Bo be super oblivious to the fact that she’s not into him but not in a way where he is dragging her around. Just have him be loud and overconfident as usual without actively trying to kidnap her or forcing in a wedding. In short, if you fix Bo then you fix the movie. Until then I would say to definitely give this film a skip for now.

Overall 4/10

All Mine to Give Review

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It’s time for another emotional film that takes place around Christmas. The film doesn’t hold back with the body count and everything going on here. At the end of the day it takes a little too long to get going and the kids aren’t the most interesting characters out there. This one won’t be reaching the top of your bucket list to be sure but it is a fairly unique film.

The film starts off with Robert and Mamie arriving in America where they aim to start their new lives together. They are really on their own right now but aim to have a big family. Everything starts out pretty well as they have a lot of kids but they also start to get sick. Back then there were less medicines and antidotes so things are not looking good. Will they be able to recover from this or is their big America trip about to turn tragic? Time is not on their side so they really need to watch out here!

One thing you’ll notice right away is that the intro takes a really long time here. The film is mainly supposed to be centered around the kids but I dare say you get around halfway into the film before that actually ends up being the case. A lot of time is spent on Robert and Mamie getting used to the area which isn’t necessarily bad but since you know it won’t last, the film feels like it misplaced where the focus should be. If you ask me, they should have bumped off the parents a lot easier to really get into the heart of the story. At the same time, the first half is definitely better than the second so maybe it would have hurt things anyway.

Aside from how they get upset at each other a little too easily, Robert and Mamie were solid main characters. They did their best in a tough situation and kept on working. It’s definitely not easy to take care of a family and build a house from scratch but with the help of some nice neighbors, they did all right for themselves. The old setting may not really be my thing but it’s all written fairly well. The characters are good as well so I don’t have any big issues there.

That said, the reason the second half doesn’t work is the film gets a little too dreary. So now you’ve got a bunch of kids who are going to be taken to an orphanage where they will all be split up unless the oldest son Robbie can find a place for them. It’s definitely not an easy mission as he is also pretty young but he does his best to find a bunch of homes. It’s really fortunate that he knew a lot of the neighbors and friends over the years. It’s not something that would really be possible nowadays since people don’t know each other nearly as well except in a few areas that may still be close knit like this.

With the exception of one old lady who was constantly mean to Mamie, everyone else basically ended up being suitable candidates for the kids. Robbie may have overlooked the doctor for his age when that would have been a good pick, but otherwise he handled the situation well. The fact that the town was tempted to split them all up right before Christmas definitely made them seem very unreasonable though. How would that even be considered as a possibility? The adults would surely be able to supervise and help make sure they don’t freeze to death in the cabin without taking such a drastic step.

They made the right decision in the end which is what counts though. Just would have been nice if they were more supportive and could have helped Robbie, even discreetly. The ones who each took up a kid to stay in their residences were there when it counted though so they get some credit. Meanwhile from all of the kids, Robbie was easily the most mature and the others would have been in trouble without him. He did a really good job and if anything you wish the ending had been happier for him.

The film ends really suddenly so it’s hard to say exactly how happy or sad the ending is but I took it in more of a sad way. He basically took the martyr approach of helping everyone else out and making sure they were okay while not really doing anything for himself. So that last climb through the snow just feels like more of a defeated moment instead of a triumphant ending. That would have been a good time to show someone from the town arriving to help him out. A little more cheer in general would have been good to make this more of a fun watch. There’s no getting around all of the tragedies here based on the story but you absolutely could still try to deliver the story in a more optimistic point of view.

Overall, All Mine to Give is a film about staying strong no matter how tough the circumstances get. It makes for a good message but not a really fun film. At the end of the day you have to try and accomplish both goals and this one was unable to do so. The kids mean well but they’re just not all that interesting and so you aren’t as invested in the film as you would be if the adults were the main characters the whole time. More scenes like Robert beating up his boss would help make the film more compelling because it shows just how much effort he had to put in for the family to be accepted. Robert was a strong man who wasn’t about to be pushed around and he gave every task his best right up until the end.

Overall 4/10

A California Christmas Review

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It’s time for one of those romance films that is so filled with twists, betrayals, and general drama that you know the romance could never work. There would just be no chance of building trust or anything like that…right? Well that is what holds the film back at least because every romance scene just doesn’t work here. California was not ready for Christmas.

The movie starts off with introducing us to the mega wealthy Joseph who is incredibly immature and irresponsible because everything has been handed to him on a silver platter. Well, his mother says that it’s time for him to use his select talents in their next global operation. The company wants to take over a piece of property that belongs to a lady named Callie. She refuses to give up the land so Joseph is told to go over there and seduce her. He realizes that this won’t be so easy if he shows up as a rich guy so he impersonates the ranch-hand named Manny and shows up to work for his first day. He quickly gets close to Callie but can he accomplish his mission of getting her to sell before he is exposed?

Now this is all one huge deception so naturally we can’t root for Joseph here. The whole time he is manipulating her after all so the romance is under false pretenses. He also has numerous opportunities to come clean about this and chooses not to. So at the end of the day he only has himself to blame here for what comes next. There’s no way he should be rewarded with a proper romance by the end of it. Too many bridges were burned here.

Meanwhile Manny ends up being a super annoying character as he is quick to blackmail Joseph and Leo. The guy gets spoiled right away and is basically another antagonist by the end of the film. They probably should have just kidnapped him early on or something instead of having him order them around. It’s the kind of subplot that makes everyone look bad. Leo at least seemed rather decent the whole time but since he is going along with the plan I can’t really give him any kudos either.

Then we have Callie who may not be the most practical character in keeping a land that is generating a loss every day but at least she is staying true to her convictions. Never thinking to sell her wine wasn’t a great look either. I’d say her main flaw is just being too forgiving. Even if you put the whole Joseph thing aside, we have the childhood friend who makes several rather aggressive advances on her. He tries to force them into being a thing and has to be physically separated by Joseph. Callie doesn’t take this nearly as hard as she should have and continues to treat him normally. If someone pulls that kind of stunt, drunk or not then you have to cut ties completely. That should have been it for that guy.

So when you’ve got a romance film where the main romance is this doomed, it is going to affect the whole film. It means all of their scenes together will make you cringe because you see just how underhanded and deceptive they are. Additionally it’s all moving way too fast. Joseph just moved there and he works for Callie so there are a ton of conflicts of interest here. Perhaps he’s trying to get close to her in order to get easier shifts or not work as hard. That is something that should come up right away and Callie should be putting a lot of distance for a long while before letting him in.

I could go on, but you get the idea here. This is a textbook example of howe to write a bad romance. I was actually rooting for the mother here because she showed up and within minutes had way better results than Joseph. She showed why selling the land would be a good idea and even made a very generous offer. This wasn’t a case of corporate being evil except for the initial plan but trying to make money without being unfair about it. I’d have taken the deal in a heartbeat because again, the whole land was working on a net loss.

Before Joseph came over, Callie had to work on the whole farm by herself in addition to taking care of her sick mother. It was not practical and then Callie had to work a night job? There’s absolutely no way there are enough hours in the day for her to pull this off even if her mother was healthy. Things would only get worse and worse over time so yeah sometimes you do have to forget the sentimental value and just be prepared to move out of a place. It’s not fun or anything but it’s just the reality of the situation.

Overall, This film was really held back by the main pairing. A romance film needs to at least try and make a case for why it works. You could maybe have a solid rebound romance that I still take shots at but doesn’t tank the film. This isn’t one of those cases because the whole thing feels fake. We already know that Joseph is constantly moving on so it’s hard to see this one lasting even after they get married. The movie has its share of fun but the banter disappears early on as they get together and so then all that’s left is the weak romance which isn’t a good idea. The film absolutely needed to keep the dynamic aggressive between the characters for a while longer and instead of him trying to seduce her, it could be about sabotaging the farm or constantly giving reasons to sell it. That would have absolutely made for a more engaging film. Definitely skip this one in favor of another Christmas title that is a little more wholesome.

Overall 4/10

Christmas in Conway Review

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It’s time for one of those really emotional kind of Christmas titles. Naturally, there’s nothing wrong with being more on the emotional side but it can be hard to compete with the more upbeat adventures. This one has its moments but on the whole I would say it’s definitely going too far on the tragic side and ends up potentially being Hallmark’s weakest title. It definitely needed more pop!

The movie starts off by introducing us to Suzy who is terminally ill and will be dead soon. Her husband Duncan has been taking it pretty hard of course and is hoping to at least spend their final days together. Unfortunately for him she now has a live in nurse named Natalie who Duncan seems to consider to be an intruder the whole time. He makes it very clear that she is not wanted here and then he gets the idea to make a Ferris wheel for Suzy. This will be a way to recreate their first date but he will have to work really quickly and in the meantime one of his neighbors wants to shut him down. Will he have to rely on the ex-convict Tommy?

Now you have to give the film credit for having a fairly large cast here. One of the big supporting characters is Tommy who made some huge mistakes in his past and the film slowly goes over this. For those reasons Duncan doesn’t trust him at all, the guy never even forgave him in the first place. So there is a lot of tension there the whole time and then the film seems to potentially be setting up a romance with him and Natalie. After we learn the truth of what happened, I can definitely see why Duncan is upset. It would be really hard to trust Tommy again after that.

In the present he seems nice enough although I do think it is irresponsible of him to try and get Natalie on dates when she needs to be available for Suzy. Being gone for 20 minutes can be the difference between life or death here. As for Natalie, I would say she takes her job very seriously. She is good at it and continues to work even as Duncan doesn’t make things easy for her. That’s certainly commendable on her part and in the end Natalie really does help free up time for the others to get things ready. She was also a good friend to Suzy.

Suzy is a solid heroine here who tries to get Duncan under control the whole time. Considering that she is facing her own demise, Suzy stays strong for the most part. Duncan tends to look bad for most of the film as he takes everything out on the others. He’s upset about Suzy dying and of course that can make it tempting to vent but he really needed to control himself more. It takes pretty much the whole film for him to finally turn the corner and handle his feelings properly. I would have liked that to have happened a bit sooner.

Meanwhile, the neighbor is about as petty as you can be. She wants to win the front yard contest and so that’s the main reason why she tries to sabotage the Ferris wheel. It’s all for a contest and she doesn’t even seem to care that someone is dying. The film lets her off rather easy without even getting a proper talking to. I would have liked her to have seen the neighborhood turn against her or something.

At least everyone supported Duncan when it counted at the end. Even the guy with a gun who was rather stand-offish the whole time finally came through. That was definitely a good moment and made for a fun climax. If the whole film had that energy then I think it would have been a lot better. At the end of the day the main problem here is just that most of the film is rather dreary.

For example Suzy needs to drink some tough medicine in order to stay strong and it apparently tastes horrible and is hard to get down. So we get some moments there and just general reminders that she’s not going to make it. So even the ending can only be so happy because it doesn’t actually extend her ending. The film isn’t allowed many moments to be happy so it has 0 replay value. This isn’t the kind of film you will be watching a second time so automatically that means it wouldn’t be considered as a good film.

Then even on the initial watch, it just isn’t as good as any of its rivals. You want the fun Christmas celebrations, food, and all kinds of cheer. Sad films can work but they are extremely rare and ultimately I wouldn’t say this is one of them. At the end of the day it’s just not an enjoyable watch and that is ultimately the #1 purpose of any film. Maybe if the whole film was about Duncan trying to get the Ferris wheel working then it could have been different. I appreciated him having to stand up to someone with a gun in order to get the ball rolling and the verbal fight with the main police officer was intense. They ended up being good distractions at least but in this case it never took away from the main plot which was the problem. You needed to flip it so that was the main plot and focus.

Overall, Christmas in Conway is definitely a very different kind of title and that just didn’t work. I can always appreciate the attempt to shake things up even if it didn’t work out though. If you are looking for a very gloomy movie where things won’t work out then this could be for you though. As long as you like that kind of atmosphere then it’s safe to say that this one pulls that off. It’s just not what I’m really looking for and so the premise already doomed the film right out of the gate. There’s not much you can do at that point.

Overall 4/10

Lonely Are the Brave Review

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Lonely are the Brave is definitely a film that took a much different direction than what I was expecting. Initially it plays out as a very low key drama and then all of a sudden it becomes more of a thriller as the second half is a big chase scene. It’s an interesting story but does start to really fumble in the second half and unfortunately ends on a whimper. The final scene is stretched for quite a long time only to make the wrong decision in the end.

The movie starts off with Burns coming back into town to visit his old friend. Unfortunately his friend is doing two years in jail for helping get some people who jumped across the border illegally. His wife is quite upset at this and so Burns decides to break his friend out. After all, for a Cowboy such as himself getting thrown into jail should be real easy. Burns has never agreed with modern life and still lives life on the wild side. Unfortunately that works against him as the cops don’t want to deal with the paperwork of arresting him. So Burns is forced to seriously upgrade the felony by striking a policeman. Now when he escapes prison he is really going to have to hustle!

I think the film could have focused more on Burns’ lifestyle instead of turning into a big chase film. The chase itself is solid enough but at that point the premise doesn’t really matter anymore. The chase would have been the same regardless so it seemed like a really odd decision. We could have also gone a bit more into Burns’ psyche on why exactly he doesn’t want to modernize. We got a brief speech about not liking restrictions and fences but you could go deeper.

Where the film faced its first big pitfall was when Burns was leaving for the big police chief. He convinces his best friend’s wife to cheat with him “just once” as a parting gift. Now this is terrible for a bunch of reasons but the most obvious one is that cheating is never justified. You see this kind of thing all the time. The guy was coming off a bad break up, he seemed depressed, lost his job, etc. All of these sob stories to try and somehow convince people that cheating is justified now. I’m here to report that the context doesn’t matter. It’s still cheating and a complete betrayal to his friend who is in jail. It was just an awful move to make.

The wife looks terrible as well since it’s like she has no agency there. She should have just told him to get lost. Respectfully or Disrespectfully, I wouldn’t have minded either way she put it to Burns. That scene was just terrible and a really poor way to start off the chase scene. Yeah her husband made a big mistake and will be in Jail for a while as a result, but you still don’t just decide to throw him in the ditch like that.

Then my other issue is the super unnecessary animal violence. You could see this one a mile away to be honest. They built up from the start that Burns was really close with his horse Whiskey. So immediately if you’ve seen any movies before you know that Burns will be punished by having his horse taken away from him. It’s easily the way that you can hurt him the deepest so the film is going to take it. That’s just the way that it goes. The whole build up to that is just fluff and only delays the inevitable.

It all comes to a head for the ending which is why the ending is absolutely brutal. That final scene just stretches over and over. The actual chase itself is also rather drawn out. Perhaps it is because the movie is going for a super realistic vibe but Burns can’t move very quickly through the mountain so it’s one of the slowest chase scenes you will get. Really the only interesting part was the meanwhile with the cops.

I rather enjoyed the main chief with his sarcastic barbs the whole time. He seemed like a guy who would be fun to work with. Perhaps not the most efficient out there, but considering that all of his colleagues were complete scrubs, he seemed like an expert next to them. He was certainly the most effective and I can see how working with these guys would make him so sarcastic eventually. It’s like he was all alone out there.

There is another subplot with a truck driver but it takes forever to go anywhere so I wouldn’t worry about it. In general the film’s writing was pretty solid so I’ll give it a thumbs up there. The pacing was good as well until the chase scene. I don’t have any real issue with the film’s technicals. The backgrounds and such were fine. The movie just needed more likable characters and to remove the two weaknesses that I talked about earlier. It’s not like they were just small weaknesses either. We’re talking absolute film busters here which is the real problem.

We even have the corrupt cop who goes around beating up inmates with complete immunity. I can’t say that I was expecting that to happen in this film since it just didn’t feel like the tone they were going for. The absolute moral here is that if you don’t change with the times, you will be beaten and overpowered over and over again until you eventually submit. That is your only real option and the film isn’t shy about reminding you of this point.

Overall, This is a film that had some potential but ultimately squandered it. The ending just couldn’t be salvaged in the end and so this one won’t be a film for the record books. You’re better off choosing a different western to watch or just taking the chance to check out a big sci-fi film like some of the Terminator titles for that complete contrast. At the end of the day, change is always coming in and you have to adapt or fall behind.

Overall 4/10

The Cobweb Review

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The Cobweb is one of those films that definitely gets real dramatic. The characters all tend to be pretty bad and so the movie spends more time spinning its wheels than necessary. You could have made a pretty good flick out of this with quality writing and a solid ensemble of characters but in the end it was not to be. By the end of the film I dare say you will be thinking that the ending should be a cliffhanger or something just for the extra drama.

The film takes place at a psychiatric institution where everyone is always at odds with each other. The main character is Dr. Stewart who uses some pretty controversial methods in how he runs the place. He has let the inmates make their own government council so they can talk directly with the heads of the facility. In that form they are able to mount complaints against things they don’t like and also participate in the decision making. The idea is that this will help them also reach a point of more stability by having this control and also learning how to deal with some stress. Everything goes wrong when the topic of window drapes comes up.

The inmates are hoping to have their local painter take care of the job. The head wants to buy professional ones to put up instead. Stewart is with the inmates, the other head of the school doesn’t particularly care, but Stewart’s wife has her own idea for professional ones. Unfortunately Stewart is basically never home so she ends up talking to someone else about this and now we have a bunch of characters who only know chunks of the story. This starts to result in all of the characters cheating on each other and using any trick necessary in order to claim victory. Will the characters manage to stay sane by the end of this?

So lets talk about each of the characters’ mistakes here. First up we have Devanal who is definitely one of the most depraved characters here. He has long since forsaken his mission to help patients get better. He basically skips all of the meetings so he can have a bunch of affairs and be drunk all the time. He makes a big push to get with Stewart’s wife as well and by the end of the movie you feel like he got off way too easily. For one thing, he is married so that makes all of this 100X worse.

It’s already pretty bad to get into a lot of flings, but once it is cheating then that is rock bottom. There’s no such thing as it being a “mistake” either as I see that around a lot. Cheating is a completely conscious decision to do the wrong thing and there’s never any way to justify that. So I had no sympathy for this guy whatsoever and he should have definitely been outed at the meeting.

Then you have the main character Stewart and unfortunately he’s just as bad. He takes his job seriously which is good but he’s always got a short fuse and started off on the wrong foot by blowing up at his wife in the early scene. He basically does nothing to stay close with her and quickly ends up cheating with a colleague. Again, no excuses are good enough for that, you’re basically throwing the whole relationship into the dirt at that point. What really hurts him at the end is that he’s eager to keep on cheating and the girl has to be the one to call it off. So you don’t take anything he takes seriously in the final scene because it wasn’t his choice to stop. That’s such a bad scenario.

Obviously I also take points away from Meg for cheating with him. It’s not just the cheater that you blame in affair but the one who agrees to participate in the act. She knows full well that he is married after all. It’s really not to hard to be loyal and if you have such extraordinarily weak willpower then the next thing is to make sure not to put yourself in bad situations. This means no drinking or hanging out with someone one on one at night. In general that’s good advice for anyone.

Then we have Stewart’s wife Karen and things don’t look good for her either. For starters she seems oblivious to basic facts of the job. She should know better than to be sneaking around the institution and opening doors when there is such a big level of privacy there. I don’t know how she would have forgotten this. Then hanging out with Devanal to spite Steven was a really bad idea. I do think she was fully aware of where that was going and so again she put herself in a bad spot. If Stewart hadn’t said anything about how he has a lot of affairs, it may have gotten even worse.

Putting up the curtains really just made the situation worse. Everyone was quick to get even and continue escalating the circumstances which was not mature in the slightest. I’m not going to knock her any points for the opening drive with Steven though because I’d say that was fully on the kid. It’s definitely a dumb risk to be picking any hitchhikers up when you’re on your own but the kid catching feelings wasn’t really on her.

Then you’ve got Victoria who is fighting in the power struggle for the curtains as well. She has been around for a long time and wants respect but ultimately is quick to fall into the misunderstandings and just make things worse for everyone. She’s a character who should have stuck to her instincts a bit more like in showing the report. As for the patients, most of them don’t have huge roles but the biggest is definitely Steven. I would say he also shows the biggest weakness in Stewart’s idealogy.

Yes, it could help give him more confidence to see his artwork hung up by the windows but any kind of setback or unexpected incident instead ends up setting Steven’s own development back. So it’s extremely high risk with what I would say is low reward. Often times you will remember a bad thing that happened way more than a good thing so this just wasn’t worth it. I would argue the film also makes this clear with how he nearly died. Hopefully Stewart does take this into account. I know he’s continuing the program but maybe they can scale back some of the projects.

Overall, The main problem with the Cobweb is that it ends up making all of the characters supremely unlikable. The idea of a bunch of misunderstandings all combining into a super mess is pretty fun. I think you could even throw in all of the characters trying to get their petty revenges if this was also part comedy. When played completely serious though, I feel like the movie just goes too far. You need someone to root for after all and that’s not going to work with any of the main characters. In the end I would say to just give this one a skip. It doesn’t have a satisfying ending or enough positives to keep it afloat.

Overall 4/10

Corridors of Blood Review

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This is one of those films that will make you shake your head. The characters make a lot of dicey decisions but in particular the main character really doesn’t look very smart at all. You’ll have a hard time believing that he is a scientist of any sort. He just keeps on making so many wrong turns that you definitely have to put a lot of active blame on him. Without him, the villains would not have gotten nearly as far as they did.

The movie starts by introducing us to Thomas who is known as the greatest surgeon in the business. This guy can handle operations very quickly which minimizes the pain to the patient. Still, he is not satisfied. There has to be a way to knock the patient out before conducting a large scale operation and he is determined to find this path. He experiments with a bunch of drugs and formulas to try and get the timing down but doesn’t use any assistants. So he drugs himself and the side effects are rather strong. He bungles his way into Black Ben’s hideout where the guy steals his notebook and forces a partnership. Thomas will now need to team up with these crooks in order to continue. Is this really worth it?

Naturally the goal of inventing anesthesia is a very good one. I can’t imagine going through most operations without something to knock me out. Pain on that level is just scary to even think about. It’s pretty rough seeing the people yelling on the tables as they’re chopped up. So you sympathize with Thomas but he doesn’t act much like a professional with how he runs tests on himself without anybody around to document the effects. That’s why you have more than one person in general. You need someone who can witness what is going on and give you an unbiased account of the events. Additionally, you can’t trust your own recollection or memory since at times you will be completely under. Trying to do this on his own was a fool’s errand from the jump.

Then even that might not have been so bad if he could lock the doors or something until he was completely sober. Instead he wanders around outside and gets into trouble. The whole scene of him getting pickpocketed is super embarrassing. Then even once he’s in his right mind, it was rather easy to convince him to help out. Thomas figures that trading the lives of a few people and some dead bodies is worth it for science but it’s a slippery slope. Naturally these villains continue to get worse and worse.

So I didn’t like Thomas in the end. He ended up just giving the villains too much leeway. His son wasn’t much better with how he didn’t even try to think of any ideas. His wife probably could have warned Thomas more as well on the risks involved with the science, but she isn’t a scientist so I put the least amount of blame on her. In the end, the best hero by far was Inspector Donovan. Finally we had someone with a little sense around here. I was glad when he pointed out that the time to act was now. He busted through with his men and really made short work of the villains.

The inspector didn’t appear much in the film but was definitely a scene stealer if I’ve ever seen one! As for the villains, they’re all rather annoying and super smug the whole time. Resurrection Joe is randomly one of those guys trying to attack women out of the blue and it was the kind of scene we definitely did not need in this film. It certainly set the stage for how morally bankrupt the villains are but we already knew that. I don’t get why the girl kept on working there after that. Throughout the film she half heartedly asks what’s going on and the others just give her the runaround, victim blame her, or just tell her to get lost.

Meanwhile Black Ben’s girl is just smirking and laughing the whole time. She really doesn’t do much beyond that and unfortunately the main character just takes it the whole time. Black Ben is also one of those smirking type figures who always knows that he’s in the lead. Once the chips are down though, he folds like the rest. Definitely not much to these villains, I’d almost have preferred if the surgeon had a Jekyll and Hyde situation with the drug although I suppose that would be a tad generic so maybe this is for the best.

In the end, most of the troubles in this film felt really forced. Take Thomas’ failure near the beginning where he tries to drug someone but the guy wakes up early. It sounds to me like Thomas never experimented on anyone other than himself which is a dangerously low sample size. Surely he could have tried with his son and everything. Also, why not strap the guy down just in case? Even if to prevent him from moving in his sleep. Like I said, the guy made bad decision after bad decision over and over again.

It felt like the writers sort of had the outcome planned but weren’t sure on the steps to get there. So it’s like this was written backwards to allow for this to happen when it should have been done in order. So the writing’s not very good and I can’t say many positive things about the pacing either. It was a team effort that led this film to fail so everyone played their part.

Overall, Corridors of Blood is a film that I would not recommend. I was certainly not expecting a movie about inventing anesthesia so that was interesting but it could and should have been done so much better. This feels like a B grade crime thriller at best and it forgot all of the thrills at home. You should definitely skip out on this movie, it doesn’t really have anything to offer you. It will quickly be forgotten within the pages of time, never to be seen again.

Overall 4/10

Night Swim Review

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It’s time for a film about the horrors of swimming pools. I’ve got to admit that the premise does make you smirk a bit. Hey, with the right directing you can probably make anything scary, but why pick a swimming pool? That doesn’t seem like a great idea and in the end it didn’t really work out. It does beat some other horror films to be sure but it’s not going to be an all star hit or anything like that. No sirrrrrrrrr.

So the movie starts with a little kid swimming in the pool when a monster drags her under and she dies. We fast forward to the present where a family is moving in. Ray was a big baseball player but an injury forced him to leave the game for a while. His doctor recommended water therapy and so having a pool is a big help. It’s begun to heal his injuries really rapidly, abnormally so. Unfortunately weird stuff continue to happen with the pool and Ray is also acting erratically…almost as if he is possessed. Is the pool to blame or is something else going on here?

The pool demon is fortunately not all that tough though. Basically it can control water, using it to choke you or teleport within it and try to physically overpower you. It’s not all that tough and has low stamina so you can usually overpower it. The things that are tougher to get around is when it launches a sneak attack by making you trip using the water or by spilling glass everywhere. If you drink the water or let any of it go inside an open wound, then you’re basically dead at that point. So it has weaknesses at least but it’s still hard to get around since the pool water connects to the foundations beneath and so it can spread to a lot of water sources from there. You definitely want to watch out.

It appears to be a demon that revels in turning people against each other. For example, making a deal to save one of your kids if you sacrifice another one kind of thing. Aside from the fact that making a deal with a demon is always a bad idea, naturally this also only works if you actually trust the demon and why would you right? Also, sacrificing anyone is crazy right out of the gate. One character makes a deal in a flashback and that definitely didn’t go well. It shows just how evil some characters really are.

For a horror film, this one actually isn’t super violent at least. Some characters get sharp wounds and there is blood but it’s not all that excessive. So I would say it is fairly tame all things considered. If you are afraid of drowning then of course those scenes will be a lot more tense. It is definitely one of the worst ways to go so you can feel their fear there. The thing is, the film still had a hard time really keeping up the tension here. The movie just feels really slow paced with how long it takes for things to happen.

The shapeshifting water monster is also just not that impressive. A better core design would have been a good idea there. Also, the main characters are okay at best. The two kids Izzy and Elliot don’t really have anything going for them here. Eve at least has a fairly big role here as she keeps noticing weird things going on with the pool. Ultimately it’s one of those things where she isn’t really able to prove anything about it for quite a while but she’s sort of playing the detective here. Gathering the clues and learning about the shady history from the neighbors so that we have the answers for the ending. She is proactive about trying to stop the monster though and gets points there.

Ray loses the points for the most part here since he is constantly losing to his dark impulses. The monster takes him over rather easily and has him mind controlled for large parts of the film. I will always take shots at a character who is manipulated this easily, particularly when it is against his own family. You just can’t let that happen, at the end of the day your biggest duty is to protect your family and so if you can’t do that then it’s over. He should have found some way to keep on going or at least get away from the pool. The fact that he couldn’t is a big knock against him.

The rest of the town was pretty reasonable at least. The one family didn’t press charges despite Ray acting pretty crazy and the Baseball team seemed fun. I could have had fun seeing more practices and sports happening. There is a mild romance plot with Izzy that feels completely pointless though. The whole marco polo scare sequence was really stretched out and it’s a huge suspension of disbelief. When someone’s not playing the game properly then you just end it. You don’t keep your eyes closed and just wait forever. Also, how could she not tell that his voice dropped so hard into a deep, mysterious voice? The monster sounded nothing like him and yet she could not tell the difference at all. If it was meant to sound like him and that was just for the movie audience then that’s not particularly good writing on the film’s part.

The characters definitely don’t make the smartest moves here at all. Also, the scene where Ray nearly drowns the one kid by not moving is also super weird because he was just playing a game with another family. The pool is also absolutely packed with a ton of people in it. It’s a big pool, but it’s not huge. How did nobody notice until it was so late? A guy who wasn’t even in the pool was the first to jump in and help out which is crazy. At most you would have needed to show the monster was using reality warping to move everyone away or something. Some weird time displacement but that isn’t implied so it just seems like a weird issue. This film definitely wasn’t always focused on the writing that’s for sure.

Overall, I think this film probably would have been more interesting without the horror stuff. Remove the monster and just make it a movie about Ray rehabilitating his injury and coming to terms with the fact that he isn’t a top player anymore. Along the way Izzy would learn not to be having shady relationships in secret and Ray’s son would learn how to gain some confidence in playing Baseball because none of those mild subplots really went anywhere in this film. It feels like there would have been enough content for a slice of life movie like that instead of all the generic monster stuff.

Overall 4/10

A Quiet Place Part II Review

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You know that feeling when a movie has a really huge climax, bumps all the best characters off and has an ending that is just open/closed enough where you don’t need a sequel because you can fill in the blanks? But then they announce a sequel anyway? That’s basically this film and it sets it at a disadvantage right from the gate. How can they possibly hope to match the first film when the main guy was already bumped off. The short answer is that at least on the characters front they are completely unable to recover.

The sequel starts off with a flashback that shows how the main characters first met the aliens. They showed up out of nowhere and began terrorizing everybody. They were fast and just overwhelmed this small town. They may have a lot of weaknesses like sound and not being fully bullet proof but for a little spot they are still strong enough to dominate. I have major doubts about them being able to take over the world or anything like that but that’s for another time. It’s a pretty good flashback and I would actually say it is more interesting than the rest of the film. It reminds you of why the main character was solid and knew what to do. He didn’t hesitate at all and leapt right into action. That’s the true sign of a hero.

So in the present Evelyn, Regan, and Marcus are still trying to survive. They locate another survivor named Emmett and ask for shelter but he refuses since they will take up far too much resources and humanity is already on its last legs. They also have a baby around which makes things even worse since it needs oxygen and cries a lot. Unfortunately Regan overhears a signal and realizes she can find more survivors so she heads out without much of a plan or defenses. This forces Emmett to go after her. Meanwhile Marcus doesn’t really watch where he is going and gets wrecked quickly by a trap. He’ll be out of commission for most of the film and Evelyn has to watch out for him while worrying about Regan. What can they do?

With such a rag tag group of survivors I dare say they should have been taken out ages ago. They’re just an extremely loud bunch even if some of the events are stuff they could not have predicted like Marcus falling into a trap and Regan running off on her own. Yeah they’ve got the sound machine and a gun but these creatures move incredibly fast. You just get the feeling that they would have the edge in combat. We actually see the heroes beat a few of them and I was skeptical each time. The alien would generally slow down or miss when it shouldn’t have.

Now we know that the aliens do have a lot of weaknesses, sound, water, and generally any good weapon but even so, a bunch of kids aren’t going to do much here. I feel like the aliens were heavily nerfed in order to make the main characters look good and that’s a rather huge expense if you ask me. They just don’t have the same impact that they did in the first film and in the end that is something that often happens in sequels. I suppose it is unavoidable to an extent but can still be annoying.

As for the characters, I didn’t like Regan. I know that she meant well but her whole plan was completely irresponsible. Leaving without telling the others is super selfish because naturally they are going to have to go after her and put themselves in danger. Evelyn may be ready for action but she has a baby to worry about and Marcus who is still injured. They’re lucky that Emmett decided to help because he could have very well just left. Regan would have then been dead early on. The fact that things end up working out pretty well doesn’t retroactively make her plan good or anything like that. No, we still know that it was a bad plan and that is the big problem here.

Then I didn’t care much for Marcus either. He really just got in the way the whole time with all the yelling. Yeah it really hurts but this is a matter of life and death, you gotta stay strong. Also the first thing about being in a post apocalyptic world is that there is danger around every corner so you should be watching where you’re going. Locking himself in an air tight prison by mistake was also a really bad move. I won’t blame the baby too much for being annoying since there’s not much a baby can do though.

Evelyn was one of the only reasonable characters here. She’s at least trying her best to get through a tough situation. She has so many people to watch out for that she isn’t really able to stand out a whole lot but she doesn’t give up and that’s the important thing. Then we have Emmett who is also fairly reasonable. He’s one of those guys who talks really tough but ends up helping out in the end. There’s not a whole lot to say about him, I’d say the guy is very standard but hey that’s not a bad thing. Better to be generic than bad.

The film can be violent at times although not quite as violent as the last film. I would say it tends to move at a slower pace though and you do got for long portions of time without any real action. The movie’s biggest crime tends to be that it can just be a little boring here and there. Better characters would have done a world of good here but that’s just how the cookie crumbles in the end. I feel like the first film was a whole was a lot more engaging and did more with the premise but this one took a bit of a safer approach. Think of it as a stable ride while the other one was a roller coaster.

Overall, A Quiet Place Part II feels rather aimless for most of its journey. It’s just not as interesting as the first and we don’t really see the aliens as much as you’d think. It feels like the writers aren’t really sure where to go from here because the whole film feels like filler for the most part. Yeah we learn some things like the government’s island plan (RIP to everyone who was just minding their business there) but you could probably skip this film and not really miss much. For a film like this you should be learning more about how we are going to make a counter attack against the aliens or something. This is just a little too low level in terms of what the heroes are planning. I want to go back to the big picture but in the meantime the prequel should be fun to hopefully address my questions on how the aliens could have possibly defeated the military.

Overall 4/10

Electric Dreams Review

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Electric Dreams is one of those films that is trying really hard to balance out the comedy and romance perfectly. The problem though is it usually can’t get this just right and leans more on the comedy angle. That’s not necessarily a problem but the romance ends up being very poorly written and even some of the jokes don’t make too much sense. The film is trying very hard but I don’t think the humor has aged particularly well and at times you’re almost wondering what the main conflict of the movie even is. It feels like there wasn’t as much tension/drama as you would expect and it’s not like there is an end of the world threat going on. It just feels a bit aimless.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Miles who is an architect and he helps by planning out different ideas. He is not very tech savvy though and is super behind the times so it’s time to finally buy a computer. He gets one and almost immediately blasts it with some champagne. This causes the computer to turn into a sentient A.I. named Edgar. Edgar can do just about anything and has some really nice musical skills. This attracts a musician named Madeline who falls for Miles and he is rather enjoying the attention so he decides to lie to her about this. Edgar is upset because he likes Madeline and it’s his music so he decides to start causing some havoc. Meanwhile there is already a guy in the band known as Bill who is with Madeline. Which of the 3 guys will be able to claim her?

The first thing you have to realize here is that none of the characters are even remotely likable. Miles is the kind of guy who is mild mannered among the cast except with Madeline where he will yell at her at the drop of a hat. He’s definitely rather rude at times and lying to her about the music the whole time is pretty rough. Yes, he tries to come clean once or twice initially and Madeline doesn’t believe him but what you have to remember is that she’s not very smart at all. Miles continues to lie more and more about basically everything and that’s not a good look for him either. Miles is just not the guy you would really want to hang around. He feels way too sorry for himself and is the kind of guy who would get corrupted by a super computer immediately. The fact that Edgar is dominating him the whole time is crazy.

Miles is also too desperate for Madeline the whole time. Even after going backstage and seeing Bill having his fun with her, Miles is excited for the date coming up? Shouldn’t he talk to Madeline or confront Bill? Bill’s the most random inclusion in the film to be honest because there is really no point for this guy to be here. He’s only here to complicate matters and probably has less than 5 minutes of screentime. His appearance also makes Madeline look bad as a result.

Madeline should have set boundaries and cleared everything up right in that first scene instead of letting Miles be obviously awkward about the whole thing. Madeline is also one of the least intelligent heroines I’ve seen in a while as she misinterprets everything and has no clue what is going on. Yeah you could say that’s part of the comedy to which I would say it’s not very well written comedy. Madeline doesn’t seem particularly loyal or trustworthy with how quickly she gets into relationships. Also, her reaction of grinning when Miles wrecked her big concert (Thanks to Edgar) was completely bizarre.

Imagine someone making a lot of noise during your big performance and you’re just grinning. The alternate answer is that she didn’t hear what was happening, but everyone in the audience could and the conductor could, so is her hearing bad? The issues continue to mount over and over again. So as you can probably guess I wasn’t exactly rooting for the relationship to work out here. Seems like it’ll be really toxic and not be a good long term plan.

Finally you have Edgar who is super whiny the whole time. He wants to know about love and he wants Madeline to be with him but the guy is a program. Why is he so desperate here? He practically starts crying after a while. He has a good time messing with Miles but at the end of the day is unable to finish him off. So much for computer power. At least by the end of the film he figures out a way to expand his reach so instead of just annoying a few characters, now he can annoy the entire planet. That’s definitely one way to make your mark on the world.

It feels like you could have come up with a much more compelling storyline here if you really wanted to. It doesn’t even have to be the usual thriller kind of story where the machines take over. Just have it be a more intense rival that doesn’t whine so much. Give Madeline more agency, cut out Bill, and also make Miles more likable. Basically you just need to switch a whole lot of elements about the film and then this could be a good one. At its core you could say it’s a writing issue. The writing in the movie just isn’t good.

Overall, Electric Dreams is not a particularly good film. It’s a comedic film that is trying too hard and doesn’t end up being very funny. It felt like the movie didn’t exactly know what its end game was for a while there. I’m not saying you had to have some kind of a big and ambitious plot the whole time but the movie absolutely could have done something to stand out more here. The best thing I can say for it is that it does make using the computer really fun the whole time. I liked the graphics and how everything was voice activated. When Edgar turned on a Pac Man simulation to beat up Miles that was also pretty fun. We should have had more of this, direct man vs machine. You may be thinking that it should be easy to just smash the CPU but Miles makes that look like an absolutely impossible challenge the whole time.

Overall 4/10