Category Archives: 5 Star Movies

Somewhere in Time Review

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It’s time for a film involving time travel and that’s always an interesting concept. This one even went out of the box and came up with a brand new time travel strategy. Unfortunately the movie does have a pretty weak ending and on the whole isn’t the most exciting film. So I’d say that it’s okay and is entertaining enough to be around the middle point of what a film can be.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Richard who is a fairly successful playwright. He is approached by an old lady who cryptically says to come back to her. Richard has no idea what she meant and runs off to his hotel. He sees a photograph of a lady who looks so beautiful that he falls in love with her. Richard’s obsession grows very strong as surface level beauty is enough for him and he does a bunch of research on time travel. Apparently time travel is possible as long as you focus hard enough. So he goes to his room and focuses until he travels back time to when Elise was around his age. Can he get her to fall in love with him?

So yeah that’s an interesting way to time travel. You basically have to will it and then make sure you don’t think of the current day or the time travel spell will fade. It would be a pretty exciting thing in real life but also risky as the ending of the film shows. A single misstep would really have you down for the count. The sci-fi stuff was interesting but then we turn to the romance which is much weaker.

Naturally I am already skeptical of Richard being this much in love with Elise from a single portrait. To me that is just a shallow crush. A crush is when you fall for someone due to one overwhelming attribute, commonly looks. Then true love is when you have really gotten to know the person and still love them as you always have. Richard had already settled his mind before he even met her. If he can keep that energy up forever then it’s not a problem but it’s all so sudden.

As for Elise, it’s really the same issue. She is quick to fall for Richard when he shows up and the guy wasn’t exactly looking all that rational. From the start he is acting like destiny mandates that they be together and is just fortunate that she was big on supernatural stuff too. Otherwise that would have been really dicey from the start.

Her manager William is actually very defensible at first in trying to keep Richard away. Richard just seems crazy after all and this romance could detail Elise’s career in a moment. As the film goes on William becomes more and more unsteady though and even hires some muscle to beat Richard up. At that point there is really no way to defend him so he falls into the realm of being a full antagonist. I suppose based on the events in the present we can say that he was able to recover from this though.

The film can be a bit of a slow burn but I won’t knock that much as it helps the romance a little bit. In theory you need a lot of scenes of the main two together in order to buy the romance. I still didn’t by the end but the film made a decent case for itself. I did think that the scenes in the present were more interesting than the ones in the past though. Researching how to master time travel was fun as well as visiting the professor who founded the idea.

The film has good writing and decent pacing on the whole. The script is solid and so this is a film that is easy to watch. At the same time, there just isn’t much of a hook here. The time travel isn’t used enough to make the film particularly exciting and like I said the ending is weak. It was absolutely the wrong message to show to the audience and makes Richard look pretty bad. The time itself shouldn’t matter at this point so he should live to an old age before getting to the reunion. I do appreciate that neither character was looking for a rebound though.

Somewhere in Time is a film that doesn’t mind being more of a tragic story. I tend to much prefer happy slice of life adventures though. When it comes to romance the doomed ones can be fun but that’s when both characters carry on and make the best of their lives. Elise certainly did but the same can’t be said for Richard. Honestly it just means that Richard gave up too quickly. When time travel is in play, you always have more chances. He just needed to gather his strength and do it all over again. I dare say that’s what most characters would have done.

Richard also has a pretty weak moment near the end of the film where he is jumped by some guys and doesn’t get to fight back at all. His whole journey is at risk here so I would have liked to have seen some more fight out of him. You just can’t go down so easily like that and he honestly should have expected that something was up. The whole sequence just made him come across as really naive.

Overall, Somewhere in Time is an okay movie but doesn’t have enough replay value to get it into the green. This is a film that would have really been better with a solid ending to cap things off. That would have been enough to make the difference. Still, if you like time travel then you should check this film out. No other title has taken the same approach. Alternately if you are a strong believer in love at first sight then this is a movie that takes the idea seriously all the way.

Overall 5/10

Arrival Review

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It’s time for a sci-fi film that is really trying to be a very different take on the genre. No big explosions, fights, or anything like that. This is a grounded story where the aliens may actually be on the back foot the whole time. I appreciate the unique take and it has some interesting concepts. I just wish it could have delved into those a little sooner. It’s a fairly slow paced film. One that had a good amount of thought into it but won’t exactly keep you at the edge of your seat.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Louise whose daughter recently died after falling ill. Louise teaches classes about languages and that has been her life’s work. Well, it is time for her to use these expert skills as the government comes for her. Aliens have landed on Earth and they a way to understand what is being said. The aliens make some kind of a grunting noise but nobody can figure them out. Louise is ready to solve this puzzle and will be aided by Donnelly, another expert in a slightly different field. Can they really translate what the aliens are saying?

I will say that it seems like a daunting task to try and translate alien languages. At least for other English languages you have some common elements and things that you can use to narrow it down. In this case though? You’re starting from absolute scratch and that’s not going to be a picnic. I did like seeing all of the technology at their fingertips like software that instantly logs and matches all symbols used. It’s the 21st century after all, you should be using all of that stuff. Louise is able to figure out that the aliens use a visual style of language and quickly begins to make some headway by using that as a basis.

You will still have to just roll with some of the progress though. The characters have to make massive assumptions on what the aliens are saying and just make it work within their solution. That was always going to be the case so at least the movie did make it a real trial in order to get to that point. That’s the most you can really ask for. Once we got to full blown conversations, it would have been nice to have talked with the aliens a bit more but the film is basically over by then. Unfortunately the good parts will have to stay in your imagination as the film ends once the real plot is beginning to thicken.

Needless to say, it’s probably ultimately going to be a sad ending but not for the immediate characters. The concepts that are introduced by the end are all very spoilery but interesting all the same. I like the ideas here and that is what sci-fi’s all about. You just don’t have time to explore it much because the film is over by then. The point of this is so that it can work as a twist but I would have preferred to skip the twist stage and just make this part of the main plot. Maybe that can be the case next time.

Now for the main character, I would say that Louise does not look good by the end. Thanks to the twists, she comes across as being very manipulative. You cannot in good conscience make the decisions that she did when you know the full story. It doesn’t absolve other characters from their actions but it’s hard to root for Louise. There are a lot of factors for her to consider but she absolutely needs to mention certain facts ahead of time. Otherwise you really are just falling before fate and using that as an ultimate excuse.

Donnelly also suffers from the ending quite a bit. Now I do have to say that he deserves a lot of leniency here because he was betrayed in a very special way. It’s the kind of thing that you would never really get over but you have to remember that it’s not the kid’s fault by any means. So if he was only distant to someone else then it would be fine but apparently it was obvious to his kid as well. So that’s not a good look for him. These parts will make more sense when you watch the movie but are really all wrapped within the spoilers.

For the aliens themselves, well they start out a bit cooler than how they end. The designs aren’t terrible but definitely low tier as far as aliens go. Unfortunately they look worse as the plot goes on and we see just how doomed they are. There’s just no way around that. They have abilities that transcend time and yet they cannot defeat their own extinction without outside help? This is where using time as a plot device gets dicey. Time is essentially unbeatable. Any film/show where repeated time travel cannot stop a future has to be written amazingly or it will leave you with a lot of slam dunk questions like Flashpoint. I didn’t really buy the alien plight here.

I also think they surely could have made things easier for the humans to understand if they really wanted to. Again, I enjoy anything to do with time travel or just time elements in general but you have to be ready to answer a ton of questions. Also the film could have used a faster tempo. Any scene without the aliens would usually be a bit more on the boring side. I think you are supposed to really feel Louise’s sadness during most of the scenes but they fall a bit flat.

It’s hard to really force a scene to be sad so it either hits you or it doesn’t. I’ve seen some really sad scenes like in Episode Trunks or Madoka Magica but this film can’t quite match those. Obviously losing a kid is really sad so the film’s got a slam dunk premise but just spends a little too much time here. Also the mystery angle keeps you a bit distracted from the sadness which is probably a bit hard to write around. Needless to say, the instant you figure out what is going on, the film will feel like it’s dragging more as you wait for the characters to catch up.

Overall, Arrival is an interesting film. I wish it had just gotten to the interesting stuff a whole lot sooner. If aliens ever showed up, technically the other governments would probably be correct with their more aggressive approach. Wait too long and their space lasers will probably pop you out of the sky. If you’re up for a high concept sci-fi film then you should check this one out. It’s still better than 2001: A Space Odyssey and Interstellar but doesn’t quite hit the highs of your classic alien invasion films….since it’s lacking the invasion.

Overall 5/10

The Duelists Review

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I tend to enjoy a good swordfight but there is one style that has never really appealed to me. That would be fencing. It just never really managed to hit the same highs. It feels like half of what they do is just clang swords against each other and they have to go very slow and methodical the whole time. It’s the slowest form of sword battle there can be and so the duels tend to miss their mark here. Mix in the old setting and there are quite a lot of things going against the film here. Still, in the end I would say this isn’t a bad film. It can just be a little dull at times.

The movie starts off with Feraud winning a duel. He wins rather easily and badly injures his opponent. Thing is, his opponent was the son of a mayor so he complains to the government and they get Armand to step in. Armand doesn’t want to fight but Feraud forces the issue so Armand defeats him. That should have been the end of it but unfortunately that was not the case. Instead Feraud decides to hunt him down for a rematch….the first of many.

The film covers a whole lot of years as their duels continue over and over again. It never really ends as Feraud will win one, then Armand, etc. Armand consistently wants to de-escalate but it isn’t easy to duck the duels. To ignore a challenge would be dishonorable after all and that was a huge thing back then. Everyone is really into honor and all of that. Feraud also seems to be incredibly unstable and not really the kind of guy who would take no for an answer.

The guy proves just how determined he is as he still chases Armand after almost 20 years which is insane! He just never gets bored of all this. Additionally Feraud doesn’t actually think of his skills as inferior in any way. In fairness to him, the matches are pretty even. I would argue that Armand always has the slight edge but it is close enough where I would not say that it is definitive or anything like that. In a battle with blades, anyone can be the victor. All it takes is one solid hit after all and then that’s it.

I don’t really fault Armand at all during the movie either. There are quite a few characters who tell him to stop fighting and all of that but it is always Feraud who is going after him. Armand was not looking for a fight and would have been perfectly happy just doing his own thing the whole time. Within the honor system, Armand did what he could to avoid the battles. You could say that he should have just ignored the honor implications but at the end of the day that’s just not who he is. It’s not the way that Armand does business.

As for Feraud, well that guy’s just crazy. At best he makes for a decent villain but I wasn’t really a fan of his. He basically exists to make everyone’s lives harder. Without him Armand would have had a much easier time of things. The final gun fight was certainly suspenseful and a shift from the usual sword fights but Feraud was still doomed there as well. He got to take the first shot and still lost. At that point there is no way to really make a comeback.

I’d say you can count this as a war film as well since most of the film is taking place during active wartime. If you are a big fan of the Napoloeon era of history then that might enhance the experience as well. Naturally it doesn’t do a lot for me since it’s all just old timer stuff as far as I’m concerned. The film did its best not to feel too old but it will still be hard to really capture your attention the whole time. The movie could have definitely benefitted from a shorter runtime.

The film is also trying to keep a realistic tone for the most part since it’s based on a short story which is loosely related to some actual events. This further limits the film because you could have done some interesting things with a wider supporting cast. Have characters on both sides to further hype up the final match. Make Feraud more of an actual character rather than a crazy antagonist. There is also a point where the two characters have to reluctantly team up. I dare say you could have gotten more out of that.

The two characters wouldn’t bury the hatchet or anything but you get to see their strengths a bit more and why they were excelling so much. Throughout the movie both of them keep on getting power up after power up so it is clear that both of them are top tier fighters/soldiers. Without this grudge, both of them would really just be legends among the army. Letting them show this off by defeating a whole platoon would have been really cool.

Overall, The Duelists is a movie that I can recommend if you are a big history buff but otherwise you can do better. The action is definitely not bad but fencing just isn’t very exciting. It’s clear that a lot of effort was put into this one. it just needed more of a hook to really keep me engaged. So for those reasons the film could only manage to break even at best for me. I’m just not really able to get into the whole honor system so Armand’s plight didn’t resonate with me. The fencing doesn’t do anything for me either but at least we had a solid script. The romance is more of a miss than a hit since it is all rebounds by the end but it’s not like that is a huge part of the story. It’s a big part of Armand’s motivations for ending things once and for all though.

Overall 5/10

The Crowded Sky Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 5/10

Father of the Bride Part II Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Overall 5/10

Explorers Review

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It’s time for a film about a few kids who decide to explore the unknown and have some wacky adventures. Generally this kind of film isn’t really my style. The kids usually aren’t the greatest main characters and you’re just waiting for the grownups to step in. Additionally this time the plot seems a little unfocused with subplots not really going anywhere. The real world plot was also a lot more interesting than space which is something that should really never happen. That’s when you know that the film made some strategic errors.

The film starts with a kid named Ben having some dreams that look like what you would see in a Tron film. All kinds of sci-fi computer chips and such. Fortunately he is good at drawing what he sees and so his super genius friend Wolfgang is able to make an invention out of this. It’s a sort of bubble that can travel across large distances. So naturally they build a spaceship during the night. Now they are ready to space but is this safe? There may even be some aliens out there.

One thing I’ll give the film credit for is not making the main 3 kids jerks or anything like that. For all intents and purposes they are good kids. Perhaps a bit too eager to grow up like with drinking beer and Ben having a huge crush but they aren’t juvenile delinquents or anything like that. They just have a ton of free time so they may as well get to inventing. The film is a good portrayal of how you can have fun doing anything when you’ve got some friends at the ready.

I will also say that the effects are pretty solid. Again, that Tron type world in the dreams looks really good. The flying around may be less impressive but all in all you can tell that some real effort went into this production. The soundtrack is also very lively. Perhaps not something that you will be jamming to but at least you can’t say that the music is invisible. I will always prefer a loud soundtrack to a movie where you don’t remember what any of the tunes were at all.

Now on the weaker parts, well like I said the characters aren’t the greatest. Ben is basically your average kid but he has a huge crush on a girl at school and basically isn’t able to talk to her at all without stuttering. The romance is really not developed well at all and doesn’t make any sense. Lori and Ben have almost no time for any interactions during the movie so the ending just feels really obligatory.

Lori is okay I suppose but of course she doesn’t really have much character either. By all accounts she’s a nice person within the school but that’s about it. Then you have Darren who seems to have grown up in a rather rough environment. He was pretty hesitant about going back home for example. This doesn’t really go anywhere though so we just have to hope that things got better for him later on. At school he was quick to defend Ben from the bullies so that was good.

From the 3 main kids he would definitely be my favorite. After that we have Wolfgang who is the genius who builds everything. He’s certainly very smart and is a good sport about things but also tends to panic a lot. He worries about every possibility and doesn’t live in the moment as much as the other two. You want him on your team to build everything but he needs to lighten up a bit.

Now the film does have a pretty interesting concept that is introduced about a shared dream world that can be accessed through an alien gizmo. While you are dreaming is when you go to this kind of Tron world. This is how the kids have the blue print for the ship and so it served as a map of sorts. Alien tech is always pretty interesting even if there aren’t a lot of explanations going around. Why is this even a thing and what causes other people to be pulled into it? The main kids all share this world after a while and eventually even Lori gets in there.

The space act is just rather boring like I mentioned before. You have a weird alien who flirts with one of the kids and everyone else starts talking using pop culture references and such. It kind of makes sense that aliens would only know humanity through TV if the signals are all that they could grab. Although at the same time I feel like it means their intelligence is pretty low. Every film still has some kind of a plot, even commercials so shouldn’t they be able to talk normally instead of just using memes and big sound bites?

I mean the aliens are clearly intelligent because they were able to invent all of this technology. It reminds me of when in a show some animals will speak perfect English and then raise a kid who speaks broken English. Like why would that even happen? It just doesn’t make sense once you actually think about it. The film thinks the aliens are absolutely hilarious though so their scenes feel like they go on for quite a long while but get repetitive real fast. The aliens also just seem like creeps so it was probably good to ditch them.

As a result of spending so much time on the alien world we had to abruptly end the plot about two rangers finding out about the UFO and one of them being particularly obsessed with it. He basically just pulls a Spiderverse “Not bad kid” as they dash off in the UFO. Pretty convenient outcome for the kids since he won’t be telling anybody about the ship or doing anything about it. That felt really abrupt and it’s a shame because we could have had a fun government angle.

Overall, This film feels like it’s a bit all over the place. I actually think it could have been a fairly decent school story although it’s not like it would have been amazing or anything like that. Instead going to space was a total mistake and this film is a reminder to me on why you want some adult main characters. The kids are not able to hold their own at all here. It’s a pretty harmless film, no big issues but it’s not really going to be holding your interest either. I’d say to watch Back to the Future instead if you want some slice of life shenanigans.

Overall 5/10

World War Z Review

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It’s time for a big zombie film. For a while there I felt like I would see ads of this one everywhere. Even to this day I think of it as the most popular zombie film of all time. That’s probably not accurate on a technical level but when I think of zombies I think of The Walking Dead for TV, the Last of US for games (Kinda counts), and World War Z for movies. Now that I’ve finally seen it, I’d say that I understand. It is certainly better than the average zombie film, I’d say that it’s not even close. Most zombie films are absolutely dreadful while this one is good enough where I could even call it an average film. As with many disaster type flicks, I feel like the build up and suspenseful middle tends to hold up better than the climax. It’s not so much that it overstays its welcome but the ending is a bit quieter than you’d expect.

The film starts off with Gerry and his family driving when all of a sudden cops are running around everywhere. A zombie epidemic has started and they are converting all the other humans into zombies. There seems to be no way to stop them and the whole world is going under. The military saves Gerry and his family but at a high price. They want Gerry to rejoin the army so they can go to ground zero of where the zombie virus started. The idea is that they can find a cure this way but obviously it will be dangerous. They also make it clear that Gerry’s family is forfeit if he refuses so he is forced into this. Gerry was one of the greatest agents of all time back in his day but he retired to get away from that life. Unfortunately it looks like he will be going right back into it.

First off I want to say that the film handled this part really well. I like the fact that the government had to completely blackmail Gerry into joining. Otherwise it would have been incredibly foolish to just leave his family at this time. The government is also facing a total crisis so it makes sense that civility would leave the room. They have a planet to save and so the incentives line up for both parties. The general makes a great point that lots of people would like to be saved so if they are going to be taking a spot from someone else, then everyone has to contribute.

Now this does lead to the most forced part of the film though which is Gerry deciding to take a walkie talkie so that he can keep talking to his wife. I wouldn’t mind this if it had an off switch but it is always on. Meaning that she can call him at any time. You remember that the enemies here are zombies right? Any loud noises will wake them up and sacrifice a lot of lives. I thought it was incredibly irresponsible for him to be carrying this and naturally she does call at the worst possible time. I don’t put any blame on her because she couldn’t have possibly known.

Gerry is a seasoned officer and should have known better. As to the film itself, I’d divide it into 3 parts. The initial invasion with Gery running around trying to keep his family safe. The middle with Gery looking for the cure with the government, and then the final act with meeting the scientists and actually working on something. The final act is the weakest by far with the first being the best one. I always like the point of first impact where the characters have to adapt and constantly run around. Gerry quickly realizes that staying mobile was their best bet and so he made sure to do that.

There are no guarantees in this kind of situation but I thought he handled it as well as possible. It was also nice to see that some people were acting friendly and normal like the family that took them in. This isn’t one of those films that takes the position of everyone immediately becoming a criminal jerk even if a lot of people would do that. The body count is pretty high and it’s easy to see why humanity was losing badly here. The sheer amount of zombies is crazy. Now, I do have some reservations about how quickly humanity fell but I think the film addressed about as much as it could have.

Even showing that some areas like Israel and Russia were doing a far better job of combating them than others. Pride ultimately became the main issue for Israel with everyone making the worst possible decisions there. The middle part with the army was still intense with a lot of gun fights going on. I appreciated that the army squad kept things professional and knew how to fight really well. When one of them would get infected, he’d quickly make sure to die to not infect the others. The group clearly knew what to do.

For the last part, it just feels a lot slower. Running around the lab and trying to stay one step ahead of the zombies is just not as intense in this case. It also may be a bit tainted for me because I’m highly skeptical of the weak point that was discovered for the zombies. It felt like it was just a little too broad. There should have been one specific weakness based on a rare illness. Then I could understand but the film made it so general that a whole lot of people should have been spared from the zombies to the point where their weakness would be obvious to everyone.

This is something that is always hard to contend with but for a film like this you need to answer the question of “Why is the main character the first to notice this?” Most films don’t bother to answer that but this one had the rare opportunity to do it and missed. All the film needed to do was introduce Gerry as having a rare blood condition or illness from which he was dying. It would explain why he retired and would also work as a way to connect the dots by the end. It’s not the kind of thing I would really dock points for but I just think it would logically follow a lot better.

I was more impressed by the people who were taking the zombies out during a fight. In the climax we see people using nukes and barricading the zombies in to be shot. Those scenes were pretty fun even if they go by quickly. I also have no real issues with the main ending. It could have led into a sequel pretty well but also works as its own ending. So there’s a lot more to like about this film than the average zombie one. The writing was good and Gerry made for a good main character. The main cast is rather small but the supporting characters were good.

The film does decide to open up with randomly showing animals getting eaten. Perhaps I shouldn’t say randomly as this is clearly to show the virus being spread but that could have been handled a lot better. We avoided the humans getting eaten so this just felt unnecessary. While the film can get a bit violent, it’s clearly much less violent than most films of its genre. The zombies are getting shot and people die but it’s more in a standard summer blockbuster kind of method. I also took a peak at the alternate ending and it gets crazy edgy for no reason so this version of the film is much better.

Honestly the film could have pulled off a 2 point swing to a 7 if it just removed the opening scenes and also sped up the third act. I know some may not want this but the last act should have been a whole lot more explosive. Give me a big fight instead of the one zombie clanking his teeth together for 5 minutes while watching Gerry. The pacing just slows to a crawl here. It’s to make the scenes more scary but the scariest thing is when the zombies are running around. In the real world these would be the worst zombies to fight because of how fast they are. They can even form giant towers and objects with their sheer mass.

Overall, World War Z does a good job of being both intense and scary. It’s the kind of film that really makes you wonder what you would do if the zombie apocalypse was to happen. Hopefully you’d have some high ground but for the first 24 hours, your fellow humans would be another big hassle to deal with. I would have been interested to see what the sequel would do here. Would the whole thing be about fighting the zombies? Maybe they started mutating or something. Ah well, that’ll just be for your imagination now. I may not go as far as to actually recommend this one but if you like zombie films then it is worth a watch.

Overall 5/10

Gattaca Review

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It’s time for a sci-fi film that really uses the high tech developments to show how it would be difficult to impersonate somebody. The movie has a good premise but the main character takes quite a number of unreasonable risks that makes things a lot closer than it should have been. It’s an interesting movie but one that is really lacking in good characters.

The movie starts with showing how eugenics has become a big thing through dna technology. You can use science to make sure your kid is born perfectly and you can even customize the dna for the traits that you want. If you pay a lot of money you can basically be guaranteed with a perfect kid. Vincent’s parents want to go with a natural birth but when Vincent comes out with a weak body, they decide to do the dna perfection with his younger brother Anton. They are rivals but Vincent finally beats him in a swimming race one day and then heads off to start a life of his own.

The difficult thing is that this dna purity has created a new kind of discrimination. Most jobs will only hire you if your stats are good enough and as a natural birth with a weak heart, Vincent is ineligible for almost all jobs. One day he comes into a rare opportunity when a famous swimmer named Jerome shows up and explains that he needs Vincent to be his double. Jerome was in a terrible accident and can no longer walk. Vincent is unsure at first, but then decides to go along with it to also prove that he can handle the job. Can he stay undetected?

The film goes to great lengths to show how hard it is to be undetected in this world. Vincent needs to constantly carry a lot of Jerome’s dna with him for spontaneous drug checks, blood shots, eye scans, etc. It’s all an incredible amount of defenses that the company has at the ready and yet with perfect timing Vincent is able to handle them all. His one weakness is that he begins to like a girl named Irene but getting into a relationship now is a terrible idea with how dna spreads.

A huge focus of the film is that dna can be obtained from the smallest thing. Vincent has to scrub his fingernails every morning and use a vacuum on is desk just to make sure there are no particles. So rolling around with a girl is naturally not a good part of the plan and it’s Vincent’s biggest problem here. He absolutely has to know better. For the most part he is very careful and doesn’t make big mistakes but this was a huge one.

He also tends to get emotional like when he wants to quit the program at the last second. When you have a mission like this then you gotta see it through. So I didn’t end up becoming the biggest fan of Vincent. He needed to keep his eye more on the mission at all times instead of wavering and not being ready when the task was at hand. It’s really only thanks to plot armor that he gets as far as he does.

Then you have Jerome who also tends to be really annoying. This guy likes to get drunk which is of course a huge liability since it messes with the samples and also means he might say something that will spill the beans. At one point he decides to go catch a show outside and starts yelling at one of the guards. He draws a whole lot of attention to himself considering that a single slip up would mean the end of him. Ultimately the way he goes out is also pretty rough.

He needed a better end goal instead of just trying to fool Vincent into thinking that he had one. He also took advantage of a moment with Irene in order to fool the detectives which was a terrible look since he definitely did not need to go that far. The film does introduce him as a jerk so it’s not like that’s surprising but still disappointing to see.

As the main heroine, Irene isn’t bad. To her this is a normal romance and I would say she handles herself decently during it. She always stays very professional. Now the romance could have stood to have been more of a slowburn but otherwise I didn’t really have any problems with her character. She even gets some character development by the end where she cares less about the dna side of things.

Finally we have Anton and it was fun to get the big confrontation at the end of the film. A true rematch and the guy still has a solid ego. When he’s not around Vincent, I have no doubt that Anton is really good at his job and handles things well. He just loses perspective when things get personal but still made for a good rival. That helped as a final big action scene.

In the end the film’s sci-fi setting was pretty interesting and it was definitely more fleshed out than most. That being said, I would have liked to have focused more on that than the romance drama or even the drama with Jerome constantly making the wrong decisions. Give me more focus on the space mission itself which was really interesting. There was a whole lot you could do with the chief executive there who was consumed with making sure that the mission would work.

Overall, The biggest boost to this film would have been if the main characters were more likable. In a general sense I suppose you’re rooting for Vincent to expose the system and succeed but he doesn’t really seem like the kind of guy you’d be friends with. The same is true twofold for Jerome. You’re basically starting to root for the investigators early on because they have way more charisma. These guys are slowly piecing together the puzzle and the mystery aspect there is fun. I also think the ending could have been a whole lot better. So long story short, we’ve got a really interesting premise here but I didn’t think the execution was nearly as good as it could have been.

Overall 5/10

A Very Brady Christmas Review

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It’s time for the return of the Brady Bunch. I saw the show a lot when I was growing up and it was pretty fun. I wouldn’t say it could compete with the older old time shows like Twilight Zone or the Odd Couple but it was good wholesome fun. The film brings them all back to give you more of the same but I have to say that a lot of the characters really don’t look good. As a result you will have a hard time rooting for some of them in their sub plots.

The film starts with Mr and Mrs Brady enjoying their retired life. At this point the house belongs to just the two of them as their families have fully grown up. It’s peaceful this way and they each plan a big Christmas trip but ultimately decide to invite all the kids over for one last adventure. The kids get ready to arrive but what the parents don’t know is that they are all dealing with some issues. Looks like the parents are going to have to play the role of the guardian one last time here.

Like I said, the problem here is that a lot of the kids don’t look particularly good. Lets look through their problems for a minute here. The first guy is feeling embarrassed because his girlfriend makes more money than him and is actually his boss at the job. This is one of those issues that I will never be able to sympathize with. If your girlfriend makes more money than you, that’s great. You two can put that in a nice 401K and in the meantime can live a much more luxurious life than before. It takes a real sensitive ego to be upset about that. So as a result he decided not to propose to er for a very long time until she was finally forced to consider doing it herself. Definitely the most petty out of all the issues.

The next kid’s problem is that her husband got fired right before the holidays. So he’s still feeling rather sore about that and has a hard time containing this. He grumbles about the situation rather loudly even when he’s already at the Christmas party with his wife and daughter. It’s the most serious problem since losing your job is a big deal but I just wish he would have taken it a little better. Maybe not make such a big scene and all that. Ultimately his ego is a problem like the first kid’s and so Mr. Brady has to effectively trick him into getting a new job. She probably could have chosen a guy with a little more courage.

I’ll say now that Mr and Mrs. Brady were definitely the standout characters here since they were having to clean up all these messes while still having a fun party. It may make them reconsider doing this next year though. Their housekeeper also had some drama of her own as her boyfriend left her for a younger woman. This subplot was handled rather poorly as she quickly accepts him upon his return. He likely got dumped by the younger girl he was after, why would you just let him return so easily? Definitely a bad look.

Back to the kids, the one’s problem was that he dropped out of school a while back to become a race car driver. This was a super reckless move and so he doesn’t want to tell his parents until he is already winning races. Well, I think it’s a bad decision but it’s his life and he’s not grumbling about it so I much preferred him to the other two. This guy understood the consequences of his actions.

The next kid’s problem is that she was in the middle of a failing marriage. They are quickly falling apart because she feels like she does a lot of things without any appreciation and he is rather oblivious. The fact that it got this far was pretty rough. Yes, the party has them squash their differences but I don’t think it can ever be the same after their relationship was strained that hard. The husband in particular looked bad here since he left things get to this point and somehow didn’t notice all the extra work he was causing her. That’s a bit baffling.

Then we have one kid where his wife chose to visit her family instead of his for Christmas so that takes some of the fun out of it. What fun can you really have at a party without your wife? Technically it might be the smallest problem after all but you can still feel a little bad for him. In a way at least they had the healthiest dynamic here which is nice to see.

The final kid’s problem is more that she is still treated as the youngest. She is seated with the kids at the party instead of the grownups and doesn’t know how to say no. She shows up at the party when she already had plans with the other teens at the dorm. Meeting with your family is probably a better idea anyway but it would be nice to have presented this as her actively making a decision as opposed to just not knowing what to do.

You can see the problem here which is that there are so many problems that a lot of the kids just don’t look good by the end of this. There’s quite a lot of drama and not enough laughs to really take it over the edge. It’s a decent gathering and the build up to the reunion is fun but I do think it could have been more explosive. It’s still a good film but one without much replay value. I actually think it might have been better without all the kids. Make it just about Mr. and Mrs. Brady as they prepare their Christmas gifts and crazy shenanigans ensue. That is a winning formula.

Overall, A Very Brady Christmas will deliver an extra punch for folks who grew up watching the original show. It’ll definitely end up being nostalgic but that’s mostly what the film has going for it. Remove the Brady names and it’s a film about a lot of problem solving that doesn’t get quite as emotional as it could have been. I will say that the climax at least did its best to increase the stakes right at the end. We got to see a true hero in action and that is the kind of explosive plot that I’m talking about. If we got that for more of the movie then this would be an even higher one. Still, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a Christmas title to set up the season.

Overall 6/10

Brain Dead 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

Okay this is a weird film right off the bat. There are lot of dream sequences here and the whole time you have to wonder what is real and what isn’t. I definitely haven’t seen many films like this so it will forever be a memorable experience. Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll be a good one. Some of the dreams lean a little too hard into the lead’s worries about what his wife is doing when he’s not around and I wanted to see more of him really going crazy. It’s worth the watch as you try to figure out what is going on but I dare say there isn’t a ton of replay value here.

The movie begins with introducing us to Rex who is a top neurosurgeon. He’s one of the best in the business but unfortunately it isn’t a very profitable one and money has been tight. It’s at this point that he is approached by Jim, an old “pal” of sorts. This guy has been doing really well for himself and he has an offer. See, there’s this guy named John who came up with something absolutely brilliant but then went crazy and ran off. They found him but John has total amnesia of what he even invented. So the company wants Rex to go into his mind and fix it. The operation has a large chance of just leaving John braindead though which Rex feel is completely unethical.

Of course, money does talk though and so Rex decides to go through with this after facing more pressure and a homeless guy showing up to wreck one of the last available brains. The operation seems to work…except now Rex’s life is being turned upside down. One day he wakes up as John, the next scene he’s in a plane that is about to crash, etc. It’s like Rex is trapped in a series of unending nightmares with absolutely no way to escape. He needs to find some way to grab onto reality….but can he do it?

How much you enjoy the film will really come down to how much you enjoy the dreams. After a point it becomes clear that most of this isn’t actually happening and so I could picture some people totally checking out. That’s definitely valid, although for me I kind of enjoyed it because I just liked how crazy it got. The situations would be absolutely wild and I also was glad that Rex didn’t let them get to him for quite a while.

He kept on insisting that he was Rex no matter what anyone else was saying. Even with the evidence against him, he wasn’t going to declare defeat. That is the right way to handle such a crazy circumstance. You have to fight for yourself even when nobody else will. No matter how many times the doctor kept trying to say that Rex was just a patient, Rex wouldn’t buy it. I thought that was pretty commendable.

Of course like I said in the intro, he does let himself get a bit too worried about Jim the whole time. Now, sine he is trapped in these dreams I guess to a certain extent he has it extra tough since he doesn’t really know what is real and what is fake but it keeps turning out that his wife is going with Jim or just being super oblivious and not realizing that he is pulling the moves on her. In either case, Rex needed to handle things better instead of getting super drunk and ruining the meeting with a big investor. Those were times when Rex didn’t do so good.

Othe times he tends to be very proactive like when he was in the ocean and had to swim fast or when the crazy guy hid in his closet and Rex had to act normal for the nurse. I should mention that while the film isn’t overly violent, there are a few jump scares/shock value moments. You will see the brain for example and some people have pretty serious injuries. So definitely keep that in mind, this film is certainly not holding back in that respect.

Corporate worked well as the big villains here. I liked how they were in total control the whole time and were constantly waiting for Rex to make a mistake. They can’t lose either way. Either John goes braindead in which case the secret is taken to the grave, or they get his memory back and coerce it out of him. Corporate is always looking at the big picture here and they are certainly ruthless. In the dreamworld it even seems like they might disappear Jim if he fails them. So yeah the stakes are definitely high there. The film also established pretty well that this is a dangerous area too like with the random homeless guy and speeding cars everywhere. Adds a bit to the chaos and that’s when the film is at its best. Just hitting you with endless chaotic moments with no time to breath. The film should really never slow down to try and talk to you, just keep going full speed ahead.

I would have liked the wife to have had more of a role there. Have her poking around and finding clues about what corporate is doing or something like that. with how the film is set up that may have been a little difficult though. Maybe she could be in the dreams aside from the illusion version of her? Would have been a nice way to have given Rex a bit more of a fighting chance at least although he would be in for a tough time either way.

Overall, Brain Dead is a very interesting film. I give it kudos for the unique approach and it is the kind of film that will keep you guessing. At the same time, I do think they really could have done a bit more with it. Either double down on the dreams and make them even more chaotic without a definitive ending to tell you what actually happened or maybe throw in an objective. Like having Rex find out that he has to survive for 3 hours in the dream to return or something. It would essentially be a different movie though. The ending isn’t the most satisfying so that could have made a difference but if you’re looking for a really weird film to check out, this is definitely right up your alley.

Overall 5/10