Category Archives: 4 Star Movies

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

Man on Fire Review

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

It’s time for one of those big thriller movies that definitely gets real intense. Movies involving a kidnapping usually are after all since the stakes are extremely personal right off the bat. The villains are all super evil even if they claim to be professionals and so you’re dragged into the revenge fantasy right away. I would say this one is pretty solid but it definitely doesn’t mind being over the top violent at different points.

The film starts off with The Voice orchestrating another kidnapping and forcing the father to pay a lot of money. Kidnappings have become a huge deal within the country even more than usual and as a reporter notes, this is organized crime. Someone is pulling the strings on this operation and his influence continues to grow. John is hired to protect, Pita, the daughter of an influential man who owns an empire. John used to be a super agent but unfortunately he developed a drinking problem which dramatically reduced his abilities and he has lost his confidence. John only accepts the deal because he needs the money and he is assured that the likelihood of a kidnapping is very minimal. He does his best to not bond with Pita so this will remain as an impersonal job but he is unable to keep this up and she is kidnapped.

Most victims do not actually make it back once kidnapped and as a professional, John knows this. So now he is going to set out on a mission to murder each and every kidnapper around. Can he really pull this off while surrounded by villains and unable to rely on the corrupt police force for help? It’s definitely not going to be easy but he’s definitely been angered enough to stay sober so his skills will be at their peak now.

Like I said, this is a fairly long film so there is a whole lot going on here. The film spends a whole lot of time introducing the characters in the first half even before the kidnapping. Despite you as the viewer knowing that this can’t last, the film decided to try and up the emotional beats here. I think it was a pretty solid decision even if you know what’s going to happen. I can’t think of any scenario where you could hide the fact that Pita will be kidnapped either way since the context clues would be there for the audience right from the start. The first half is also still interesting even if a bit slow at times.

Pita has already been through a lot growing up in such a corrupt place so she doesn’t panic as much as most kids would have in her position. She does make one mistake where she turns back instead of continuing to run, but at that point I have my doubts that she would have escaped either way. Meanwhile John is a solid main character even if he doesn’t look very good at first. Being a jerk to a kid is definitely not the way to win any points. Yeah, you get why he is doing that but it’s not a good look and of course he is suffering from a lot of PTSD at the start. In the second half he locks in. The guy definitely isn’t afraid to go full villain mode on the opponents either.

While I won’t blame him for any of this since it all seems pretty justified from his position, in general I never like to see the heroes torturing villains under any circumstances. The cycle just gets a little too violent for me in the whole everything goes kind of ballgame. It’s one of the things that does hold this film back a bit as well as I feel it relies pretty heavily on shock value on different moments. A top tier film will go with the implied violence route where you don’t actually see anything while this one wants you to see and feel every single injury. I always take that as a sign that the story wasn’t quite strong enough to stand on its own.

My other issue is in how generally corrupt everyone else is. The only characters who are actually being helpful is John’s old contact from the CIA days and a reporter. For the reporter, she has to put up with constant harassment and blackmail when helping out and the fact that the other guy never gets his comeuppance was annoying. I would have trashed this entire subplot because it doesn’t add anything to the story. We already know most of the characters here are awful, we didn’t need this part. Those scenes are definitely annoying the whole time.

Most of the characters are super flawed which is the jaded theme that the film is presenting and it’s the kind of theme that can be exhausting real fast. Also I didn’t care for the ending. While writing the review I quickly looked up the alternate ending and it is 100x better. I don’t know why they didn’t keep that ending, it seems way more satisfying to me. I dare say it would have helped the whole movie because with this ending it just doesn’t feel like there is a ton of hope for the heroes in general. It’s like they won a battle but had no real effect on the world. You can call it a realistic ending, I just call it an annoying one.

My final main complaint with the film is the crazy camera work. It was one of the worst displays I’ve seen since one of the Taken films. There is a lot of constant spinning almost as if this is a found footage film at times. The colors are a mess and the film is just all over the place. It never really lets up which hurts the fight scenes as well. With how obnoxious it is, I’m assuming there is some thematic/narrative reason for it but it definitely didn’t work out very well for me. Give me some classic camera work instead and that would have been better.

Overall, Man on Fire is one of those movies with a decent pitch and execution but shoots itself in the foot before reaching the finish line. It’s just trying to be too dark and shocking the whole time. It would have been a lot better if it showed more restraint. Yes, it’s definitely nice to see John taking it to all of the villains who clearly did deserve to die but doing it in the slowest/most painful ways possible tends to push the envelope a little too far for my tastes. The film could have used some more injections of hope to make the whole thing a bit better. Keeping the happier tone of the first half at least for the ending with less tragedy in the middle would have done wonders. If you are looking for a really intense revenge thriller though, this should be right up your alley.

Overall 4/10

House of Usher Review

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It’s time for a film that is sort of trying to be spooky but in a very low key way. It’s less about jump scares and more about wondering why the characters are all acting rather off. What part of the story are you not seeing in the background? Those are the questions you are meant to be asking yourself as the adventure goes on. Some parts definitely haven’t aged super well though, mainly the characters being super weak willed and just going along with what’s being said even when it makes no real sense.

This movie’s actually fairly short so they have to move fast. It starts with Philip heading over to a spooky mansion to see his fiancé Madeline. He is excited to bring her back home to Boston with him but the butler Bristol says that her brother Roderick is refusing anyone entry. Philip insists on being brought in and confronts the guy. Roderick explains that he and Madeline suffer from a rare ailment where their bodies are historically weak. Any light that is too bright or sound that is too loud will cause them to get weak or sick. They could even die from this affliction and it gets worse the older they get. Even eating is a chore since their sense of taste is too strong. Philip suspects thar Roderick is making this up and intends to take Madeline with him anyway. He will do so as soon as the night has passed but will he survive until then?

The house itself tries to bump Philip off on multiple occasions. Whether it is a hot pot slightly moving in the background or the stairs giving way, the building is not holding back. It’s not super powerful though so Philip is usually able to handle himself well enough. Roderick is really the main threat here but it depends on if he is lying or not. After all if he’s telling the truth, Philip could just punch the guy once and the extreme pain would probably knock him out. If Roderick is lying though, then it’s probably game over for him right out of the gate. Philip doesn’t really seem like the fighting type after all, especially with how docile he is.

I always like the old manner of speaking and how polite everyone is but this definitely shows the weakness to that approach. Philip puts up with too much here as Roderick continues to challenge him and forbid Madeline from spending much time with him. The guy will send her off to bed early and everything. Philip absolutely should have been standing up to Roderick here more and ultimately the final events of the film are his fault from this point on. He shouldn’t have left Madeline in any position for Roderick to be with her. Especially not when the plans were already made to leave.

I also have to give Madeline some big criticism here as well. She should have been speaking up for herself as well instead of constantly hiding behind Roderick and letting him dictate her life. Sure she had some half hearted moments where she would try to voice her feelings but then he would shut her down every time and that was the end of that. It’s not exactly something that is awe inspiring. It just shows that she is not being very independent. Also, if Philip had not shown up, was she just not going to ever go and visit him? It sounds like she borderline just vanished one day and I guess she was letting Roderick trap her the whole time. Not her best look.

The butler Bristol isn’t much better than any of the characters either since he is complicit in everything that was going on. The guy could have stepped in to end things at any time but chose not to do so. That was a big error in judgement and definitely held him back quite a bit. So while he may not seem as villainous as Roderick, I can’t really give him any kind of pass here.

The cast is really small as these are the only 4 characters running around. Roderick is by far the toughest of the 4 as he dominates each of the characters with ease. It’s even more embarrassing for Philip when you consider that Roderick spends a lot of his screentime explaining how weak he is and how every element can destroy him. Philip is really letting this guy call the shots the whole time? It’s definitely a real bad look without a doubt.

Once we get to the climax, we finally get to the intense moments as we get a quick fight and lots of destruction. It all just happens way too late for one character so you understand the rage but feel like it should have happened a whole lot sooner. The building gets its last moments in there as well and it makes for an intense, but odd kind of ending. I don’t really know by the end exactly what the building really wanted. Roderick’s character is a bit confusing as well on the exact point of what he was doing. Was he really just a doomer waiting for it to all end? It felt like he could and should have had some kind of grander ambitions at some point.

Overall, House of Usher is a passable film without a doubt. The short length likely helps in this case to help mask the fact that there isn’t a ton of story to be found here. It’s a good movie even if the characters are super annoying. You wish Philip had more of a backbone so things would have gone way differently though. The film avoids most of the usual horror pitfalls and stays interesting so I could recommend it to the average moviegoer. Just don’t go in expecting a really big/epic horror title. This is absolutely more of a subdued adventure with a big payoff at the end but plays more like a drama than a horror most of the time. The house’s feeble attempts at getting Philip like moving the pot around isn’t exactly going to terrify you after all.

Overall 4/10

The Possession Review

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It’s time for another one of those films where a malicious entity works to break a family apart. These spirits definitely like to go for the slow corruption angle to speed up the drama but sometimes you wonder what the end game is. Is it just to mess with everyone and the spirit enjoys the chaos or is it something deeper? Because the former would come off as rather petty if you think about it. Nothing wrong with petty for a villain but it’s something you think about when the main plot isn’t super gripping.

The film starts with the evil box claiming its first victim. An older lady was unfortunately the first fighter to go up against the box and she was unable to withstand its supernatural barrage. She is thrown around for a bit and gets murdered. So the family decides to sell the box off, where it is taken by Emily. This leads to our main characters. Clyde and Stephanie divorced about a year ago and while things are tense, at least they don’t fully hate each other. They have the two daughters Hannah and Emily on rotating shifts and things seem to be fine. Emily hopes they will get back together but that doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Emily starts to act rather off after getting the box though. Is it…haunted????

I mean we watched the opening scene so we already know the truth. It takes most of the film for the main characters to know what is going on as well so it’s a bit of a slow burn. I have a few issues with this movie to be sure but I will say that it beats the average horror film. Not a hard thing to do of course but it’s still a win so we’ll take it. Basically, one issue I had here is it’s one of those films where the heroes don’t really have much of a chance. The spirit can directly control people, amps up their physical abilities, can push people around with telekinesis, etc. It doesn’t really have any limitations and can operate over a large area. So the average person has no hope without a significant amount of plot armor. Not very fair now is it?

So one of the big problems with a film like this is it feels rather pointless at times. Even when the heroes do take the threat seriously and try dealing with it, at best they start to delay things. It is a horror film so make sure you stay all the way through to the ending. It’s not as annoying as something like the Grudge but yeah they really need to give these things some more weaknesses. Like some kind of a physical form or some defenses that the humans can use to fight back a little bit.

There are a solid amount of fake jump scares to buy time for the real ones. As a result though, almost every jump in the first half is fake. You have raccoons breaking and entering along with insects also pulling stuff off. It definitely makes for a tough combination for the poor father who is already trying to navigate a difficult situation and doesn’t have time for all of this supernatural mumbo jumbo.

On the human side, the film does a good job of not vilifying either of the parents too much at least. Stephanie maybe seems a little more antagonistic since the film is from Clyde’s point of view but at least it’s nothing too crazy. She is moving on with her life and is tired of Clyde always holding her back. The fact that he was even late to pick up the kids has to be annoying. He also seems a little too jealous of her new boyfriend considering that they’re broken up. At that point it’s not really any of his business. They’re not together anymore so he’s gotta just move on.

The new boyfriend doesn’t seem all that bad either. He’s a bit obnoxious but not to a crazy extent. I don’t think you’re meant to care about the guy all that much so his screentime tends to be minimal. As for Clyde, I wouldn’t say he does a great job of connecting to the kids. He’s busy and has calls that have to be picked up and stuff like that but for the most part I wouldn’t say that he is making any critical mistakes or anything. Clyde does put a lot of work into saving Emilly so he tried his best.

Emily is super annoying but you do have to consider that most of this is the box’s fault. She’s not usually as crazy as she appears. Emily is maybe a bit too naive and all but she is younger. Hannah seems like a good older sister who is always trying to look at things rationally. Kids just aren’t ready to fight a supernatural monster, even the adults were really at the end of their rope there.

I guess the main issue here is that this film isn’t doing anything new, different, or exciting. It’s you run of the mill film about possession which isn’t a super interesting topic anyway. It’s not going to do anything to change your mind on the subject. I like the fact that it is a bit tamer than other films in the genre. It’s not super violent although it does have some moments like the principal getting blinded. It goes more for shock value and gross imagery like spitting out a bunch of flies and things like that. It was interesting how some of the stuff was actually happening as opposed to illusions. It made for an interesting scene where the fumigators had to be called in to get rid of them. It’s a small note but that was nice.

Still, the film just isn’t going to hold your interest for very long unless you’re really into the genre. Maybe if the spirit had more personality or there were some interesting dialogues about how to take it down. This would work better in a setting where the supernatural was common place. Then at least this could be a solid back and forth with both sides using their full arsenal. Because it is more of a first encounters kind of film though, it’s just the humans getting wrecked for a while.

Overall, You know a film isn’t holding your attention when you’re more interested in the basketball team’s fate than the actual main plot. The film actually avoids most of the big horror traps so I appreciate that but at the same time it’s nowhere near being at the level it would need to be for me to call it a good movie. Being boring is a really bad offense for any kind of film. So in the end I would give this one a thumbs down without a doubt. You’re better off finding some other supernatural title to watch like Ghostbusters.

Overall 4/10

Never Say Goodbye Review

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Uh oh, it’s time for a film about the ole rebound so you know this is probably not gonna end well. In some ways you could make the argument that it’s good the main two characters try to get back together but based in large part to the execution I would disagree. Splitting up isn’t great but going back together isn’t either when you know it can’t possibly last. There are a lot of red flags to the relationship in this film.

So the film starts by introducing us to Phil and Ellen who are currently divorced. They each have their appointed time frames with their daughter Flip but she isn’t thrilled with this arrangement. She loves hanging out with both of them and wishes they could all just get along. Life just isn’t that simple sometimes but they don’t really have the heart to tell her that. Flip basically begs them to try and get back together so they give it a shot by going to a date. The problem is that Phil has a girlfriend right now and forgot he was going on a date with her at the same time. He has to try and balance both dates now but it won’t be easy. Can he bring back the marriage?

I mean the obvious answer here is no right? If you already have a new girlfriend then it sounds like you’ve completely moved on. I would feel like the whole thing is completely insincere at this point. Moving on like that is a massive red flag to the point where I would say it pretty much disqualifies you entirely. It’s just such a bad look and it makes them both look bad. Ellen shouldn’t put up with this and should have immediately given up on Phil when she found out. Meanwhile it makes Phil look super greedy like he wants his wife back but still wants to be having fun on the side? I’s clear that he’s not responsible at all so why would you want to re marry him? It would jus be running into the same issues again and again. The reasons why they broke up in the first place would just return for them to break up a second time.

There is really no hope there. Now I know they want to band together for their kid but that’s actually not a great reason to do it. Ultimately all that’s gonna do it lead to more resentment and create more problems. If things were so bad that they had to fully divorce, then it’s not something that can be so easily repaired. They should have just sat Flip down and really given her a detailed reason on why this was not going to be able to happen.

Flip’s a kid so I won’t be super harsh on her but she definitely stirs up a lot of trouble here. No kid wants to be living in a broken home to be sure but it’s something that is really out of her control at this point. Then her final scene is rather rough as she is getting greedy already. It’s supposed to be a very wholesome moment of course but instead you’re just rolling your eyes here. She needs to just calm down a bit.

Since this entire film is really revolving around the main romance, the fact that it isn’t very good definitely ends up hurting the movie as a whole. You can absolutely pull off this kind of premise but only if both characters had not moved on. Like lets say we are introduced to them both and they’re super sad sacks who stay home all day and have nobody to hang out with. Now we actually have something here because that would make sense. You can see how they realized splitting up was a mistake. Since that’s not how the film went though, then you know this was not a good idea.

Phil’s girlfriend Nancy is rather rude the whole time but it’s hard to blame her. On a narrative level you know she is absolutely doomed and from her point of view this is all happening so fast. Why is the ex back in the picture? It’s a risk you always take when you date someone who has a past but it goes without saying that Nancy isn’t going to like Ellen. She has no reason to.

Meanwhile on Ellen’s side you have Rex who likes her but the feeling definitely appears to be more one sided. I dunno it seemed like she didn’t take him seriously and the guy got absolutely crushed by Phil so it’s definitely not like he is anyone special. I can’t say I liked him though, either way as the divorce lawyer it seems like bad practice to fall for your clients in any way right?

Now as I was saying earlier, Flip is always causing a bunch of trouble? Well she strikes again by writing to a marine while pretending to be Ellen so the guy shows up all ready to start a relationship and of course he gets thrown into this whole mess. He ends up taking it extremely well after having his feelings manipulated and everything. You do have to keep in mind that this is primarily a comedic film so all of this is treated rather lightly but from his perspective it definitely sucks.

Also while Luigi is treated well as a loyal friend to Phil for trying to hide his two timing, that’s actually pretty bad. Even if the person is your friend, trying to hide their bad sides is not a good idea. You can hide the ones that don’t affect other people and are mild but when they do affect others, you are making a grave mistake there. The other friend Jack wasn’t really any better and would just show up to create more drama.

Now it’s not like the film is never funny or anything like that. It has its moments and in general I do think the film had good writing. It just is based around a premise that I don’t think worked much at all. The romance should have taken more of a backseat to the comedy and had the film show us why this was such a bad idea. Make the whole thing go absolutely bonkers the whole time and that would have had way more potential. There’s quite a few ways you could have really positioned this in a favorable way. At least that’s the way I see it and you could still have a fairly happy ending.

Just have the main two admit they are not compatible but they will still talk to each other more so they’re not buying Flip the same presents and things like that. I dare say that if you do this, it really fixes all of the issues at once. Then you can enjoy all of the shenanigans more. Flip will probably still be annoying the whole time but what can ya do.

Overall, Never Say Goodbye is a film that tries to make this case but sometimes you do actually have to state your farewells. I get that the film is trying to have a positive message and I appreciate that but in this instance it just didn’t work. The film has its light tone and can be funny but in the end I wouldn’t really be able to recommend this one. There are many other comedies that have a lot more fun with their premises and ultimately they would get the nod over this one.

Overall 4/10