Category Archives: 6 Star Movies

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a film about how a group of kids end up terrorizing a whole town. They may be young but the adults weren’t prepared for such an onslaught. At times the film goes a bit too hard on being really cheesy but aside from that it is a good title. Ultimately it’s got a solid message about Christmas and giving everyone a second chance so you can’t really go wrong there.

The main heroine here is Beth and she has grown up in a school that is terrorized by the Herdmans. They are bullies who go around stealing food and hitting the other students. The adults all know about this but make no moves to stop them. So Beth and the other kids are on their own. The only place where they can get a break from the bullies is at school. Unfortunately that doesn’t last as her brother goads them into joining the church for free snacks. Now the Herdmans have announced that they are going to take over the Christmas Pageant. Beth’s mother is going to be the head person this year and she has decided to make the best of it. Will this ruin the show though?

Beth is probably the most sympathetic character here because of the fact that she has no good support network. The fact that the bullies physically attack her and the others can be scary. Apparently they’ve gone quite far with the bullying as they sent one kid to the doctor. It’s why Beth’s friend is forced to step down from her role as Mary since she knows that the threats are real. It’s good that the Herdmans eventually realize the error of their ways but at the same time you don’t really want to reward this kind of behavior. It puts you in an awfully tough spot.

Beth is also the one pressured to try and help them out as her own feelings are basically ignored here. The most entertaining and yet frustrating character would be her father. He makes it clear from the start that he doesn’t take the bullying seriously. He makes quick quips about it in a way where you know that he’s not going to do anything. He even looks nervous when delivering food to the kids. The poor guy was even struggling to open a frozen tv dinner. He’s clearly not the best representative to send out if you need a body guard.

I like how he doesn’t take anything seriously in an ironic way but you would hope that he would be protecting his kids more. Meanwhile Beth’s Mom is too busy putting on the Pageant here to worry about any of that stuff. She is going a bit too far in this quest to prove herself as she needed to really let the Herdmans know how these things were going to play out. There are times to move forward but there also have to be times for accoutability.

That’s probably where the film is roughest. The Herdmans just get away with way too much and the adults are always too afraid to confront them. The film shows us that the Herdmans absolutely have it rough and nobody would envy their situation. At the same time, in life you always have choices on whether you do the right thing or the wrong thing. The Herdmans continually chose to do the wrong thing and so at that point there are consequences.

I was glad that the film kept the center of Christmas about Jesus Christ. The Pageant remained Christian based the whole time which is a good thing and so that was a good touch on the film’s part. When you’re watching a film about Christmas, you never know if you’re going to get the true meaning of it here or something about Santa Claus instead. The Pageant may not have been their best one with all the drama but the film would try to have you believe otherwise.

The film goes by fairly quick since there is a lot going on. Ultimately it makes for a fun film so that’s the important thing. Even if I had my reservations, there isn’t really anything here that would dramatically hurt the movie. If they ever did a sequel, I could see that winning though as I think Beth would do a better job of keeping everyone in check.

Also she may be more likely to talk tough to the town. While her mother didn’t back down, she could still be a bit evasive and too polite when talking to the cabal of teachers. She needed to take a more aggressive approach if you ask me and that would have worked out well. A small town like this is always going to have a decent amount of gossip and it’ll stop if you shut it down decisively. Beth may be timid as a kid but she was quickly growing up as the film went on. These circumstances basically require that this will happen in time. Ideally the other adults will have softened up after this success though so maybe Beth won’t even have any opposition.

Overall, This was a pretty good movie. It can definitely be a little cheesy so you’ll probably cringe at some of the Herdman moments but for the most part it’s like a time capsule. This will remind you of a tv special from the 90s or something like that. The film’s messaging is good and ultimately the Herdmans get the redemption arc. The town doesn’t have to worry about bullies anymore so things can go smoothly. It’s a fine Christmas title to check out for the new year.

Overall 6/10

Write Before Christmas Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a rare ensemble cast Hallmark film. This one has a whole lot going on with the different plots which naturally means there will be some plots that are stronger than others. I do think it ends up being weaker than the average Hallmark title but is naturally still a really good film filled with solid writing and good character work as you would expect.

The movie’s main character is Jessica who decides to write some cards to different people who have helped her in life. This includes a big time singer, a lady who taught her music, her aunt, and her brother. These letters end up helping everyone out and they all begin moving forward with their own character arcs. Meanwhile Jessica was going to be in for a rough Christmas with her getting dumped by the boyfriend but now she has met a new guy who may end up being her prince charming.

So lets get the obvious issue out of the way, the romance here is a pure rebound. Jessica has only just broken up with this guy for about a day or so before she is already getting with the next one. The relationship falling apart came as a shock to her so she shouldn’t be completely over it just yet. There was clearly a little hesitation here with how she didn’t immediately say yes to the proposal but it doesn’t really change things. She still shouldn’t be moving on this quickly and she barely even knows the guy.

Getting carried away with the Christmas spirit has its limits after all. I did enjoy her as a character though. She is really invested in Christmas and is the type of person who will always be having a lot of fun. Jessica also has a supportive friend at the music shop where she works and it always helps to have someone to vent to. From all the characters in the film, Jessca had the most fleshed out plot which makes sense.

When we get to the inevitable misunderstanding, I would also say that her situation was slightly more understandable. Her guy should have stood his ground and not been taking photos of the girl that was assigned to him as a blind date a while back. Sure he was doing his job but this girl was already shown to be crazy like when she humiliated him in the diner so he needed to cut off contact at that point. Meanwhile he walked in when she was joking with her ex boyfriend about getting the ex discount. Yeah…not the best conversation to be having.

Well things worked out but the romance wasn’t very strong anyway. Both characters could stand to be a little more mature about they handle these things. If something looks sus, you need to just walk over and start asking questions. If your worst fears are realized, well then it’s better to know now rather than finding out later right? Just walking off is the worst possible action you could make because now you will never know one way or the other what was really going on. You can suspect stuff, but won’t have that confirmation.

Meanwhile in the first subplot with the brother, he falls for another army worker over there. He does his best to flirt with her and while the attempts are mainly shaky, it ends up working out. It’s a harmless enough plot but just doesn’t have a whole lot of connection to the main story outside of the letter. Additionally it’s just too fast for much development.

Another plot is Jessica’s aunt meeting the guy who walks a dog next door. She just lost her husband two years ago and he lost his wife 3 years ago so they start flirting and it looks like things are gonna be happening. I don’t have to go into detail on why this is a crazy rebound right? I thought the dog was nice though so it was good to have a wholesome animal having fun here.

Then you have the music guy who was in a slump for a while. Jessica’s letter allows him to regain his confidence and go back to making new songs. He actually doesn’t get a romance plot but I guess there was no room for one. It was nice that he even got to play his next concert nearby where Jessica could hear him. I actually thought he was going to be the one to play matchmaker but that’s not how it went down.

So this was an ambitious one with so much going on. Generally I think the film would have needed to have been longer to have really given all of these plots the screentime that they would have needed. Still, it did well enough with what was going on and the writing was good as always. While the stories may have been rushed, they will still keep your attention.

The film still succeeds at the most important factor for any movie which is that it was fun. Watching this title is enjoyable and you feel the festive vibes. If you can block out the rebound nature for a minute, it’s also just nice to see everybody having a good time. If you ever enter into a relationship, you want it to be filled with fun and whimsy like this. I would like to see Hallmark tackle more non rebound romances as well but for now this will have to do.

Overall, Write Before Christmas has a great title. The pun was particularly inspired and the film’s plot device of the letters being sent around was a good one. I generally prefer solo stories unless there is a big climax where all of the characters meet up though. Something like that would have been really cool here and I think it would have worked even if it may have seemed rushed. The film was already rushed so what’s one more scene right? While I prefer the average Hallmark film, this is still a good movie that I would recommend.

Overall 6/10

The Gathering Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a film about a man who has to come to terms with his own mortality. It makes for a fun premise, after all what would you do if you knew you only had a short amount of time to live? This should make you really ponder what you believe happens after death. For a Christian, this may be rather exciting news as you know you’ll be going to Heaven and this is just speeding up the journey. If you think you’re going to hell or some kind of a void, well then this is going to be a bit stressful. So to me that means the film isn’t going to feel as somber as it might to other viewers but the movie is still good overall.

The movie starts with the doctor telling Adam that he has up to 3 months left to live. Adam is fairly well off but it has come at a great expense. He no longer stays in contact with any of his family members. In fact, he’s on rather bad terms with just about all of them. So this is his chance to reconcile with them before the end but it will be difficult to find them all and travel to them since they are scattered across the planet. His wife Kate finds out about the plan and suggests they host a Christmas party themselves and will invite all of the kids. It’s a long shot, but maybe they will all come home.

One of the big choices in the film that Adam has to make is if he will tell the kids about his impending demise or not. He decides not to because he feels like then he won’t be able to authentically connect with them all since that would almost be like guilt tripping. You can probably debate that one quite a bit, but ultimately I do think he was probably right there. I don’t think he needs to mention that he will die as they’ll find out before long and this way they will all get to have an enjoyable Christmas with no extra worries.

A good chunk of the film is about setting up all of the characters. We see that most of the characters have really gotten their own lives and it’s not so easy to attend a party right away. Some of the characters hold grudges while others don’t. It is fun to see all of the characters finally meet up later on and they get to act like a real family, even if it was only a brief adventure.

That said, the film does take itself so extremely serious that I don’t think it made the most of this situation. I would have appreciated some more witty banter or a little injection of humor. If anything that would have helped make the family feel much more like a close knit unit instead of a bunch of strangers who came together for the holidays. In a sense the film tries a bit too hard to go for the ultra realism. I could picture this being an actual family gathering as everyone exchanges pleasantries but only in a very formal family. They needed to loosen up a bit.

I thought the film did a good job of sticking the landing though. We didn’t have the big scene where he tells everyone and they all cry and have very emotional moments with each other. Adam stuck to his plan even if it was found out by some of them and saw them all off with a smile. He can’t undo all the decisions he made in the last 20 years but he did what he could to end off on a high note. At the end of the day that’s all you really can do.

It’s why it is important to always live your best life at all times even when nobody is watching or when you think you have a lot of time left. You never know when it’s all going to end and so that is a good message on the film’s part. I did think the writing was good and the pacing wasn’t bad. This film just doesn’t have a ton of replay value though because of how dry it is. I wouldn’t be watching this one a second time but I could recommend it to someone who wants a very down to Earth film.

The different trials that go on here revolve around pride over a job, political differences with someone avoiding the draft, etc. None of them are Earth shattering and it adds to the grounded atmosphere. There are also quite a lot of characters here so the film would have been in trouble if it was trying to solve all of the issues in a single film. Instead it solves the parts that can be mended emotionally and for the rest you trust that the characters are on the right path now. It also helps that each character already has their own life going on so it’s not like anyone is in pure desperation mode. They’ve all become rather independent over the years which is at least a silver lining for them.

Overall, The Gathering is a film that lives up to the title. The whole thing is about the gathering and getting all of the characters to meet up. They put aside their petty differences and get along in time for Christmas. It was good to see the characters reconciling. It doesn’t mean that they’re all going to become best friends all of a sudden but life’s too large for small differences and pride to get in the way. So it was nice that the characters were able to succeed there.

Overall 6/10

The Legend of Zorro Review

Posted on by
Reply


When you watch a Zorro film, ordinarily you’re expecting the hero to look pretty good. Unfortunately that is not the case here as Zorro has his worst film appearance yet. The film itself isn’t bad but yeah it’s going to be a bit hard to get around that and the romance is absolutely abysmal here. Definitely one of the worst romances you will have seen in quite a while here. None of the characters look even remotely decent by the end of it.

The story starts with Zorro taking names and saving the day as per usual. Unfortunately his wife Elena is not happy with how much time Zorro spends away from the family. So they end up divorcing and Zorro gets super depressed. Fast forward to some time later and Elena has quickly rebounded with the wealthy Armand. She can now live a life of luxury with a man who will devote all of his time to her. Zorro is very jealous about this but it’s hard to defeat this guy. Zorro has become a bit of a drunk and Armand seems to be good at everything. Hopefully Armand turns out to be evil or something…or Zorro might be doomed.

I should also mention that Zorro and Elena had a kid which makes the divorce that much worse. The kid gets quite a bit of screentime and tends to be rather annoying. You have to try and watch his scenes as though the film is a complete comedy like his opening action scene where he defeats his teacher in a fencing battle. He straight up takes down a full adult and it’s meant to be real impressive. It’s more of a groanworthy scene. The fact that the kid can fight automatically makes him better than the average kid but he didn’t really need to be here.

Outside of the opening action scene which is admittedly very solid, don’t expect much from Zorro either here. The whole middle part of the film is him making a fool out of himself. Getting dunked on by Armand, allowing himself to be the butt of the joke like in the maid scene, and generally just looking very petty. He didn’t really give Elena any good reasons to go back to him. We finally get some fun Zorro action in the climax and even Elena gets a fight but it feels really late for that.

Part of the problem here is that the film has a number of plot twists to unveil but you immediately know that none of them are going to salvage Zorro’s character. Even if he doesn’t exactly know how things escalated with him and Elen so much, he should have been the bigger man and done some digging. Confront her and get to the bottom of the issue/find out if the problem is really that he is Zorro. As for Elena, the twists don’t help her at all. Lets just say it involves blackmail and then she has plans of her own but none of them really excuse her deciding to just leave Zorro in the dark.

In a perfect world they could have been teaming up the whole time. There would need to be significant changes to the plan of course but it could have worked and made both of them look good. Instead they just look really bad and Armand ends up looking a lot better. There’s a particularly embarrassing scene where Zorro is hiding behind some vegetables and thinks he has an opening so he walks over to Elena. Naturally he was not subtle and Armand caught him.

You’re going to be cringing really hard on Zorro’s behalf here. It’s crazy character assassination and I don’t think I need to go into detail on why this makes the romance really bad. Zorro and Elena’s bond was apparently weaker than you ever could have imagined for this whole story to take place. I also think to an extent the whole romance drama was added because the main plot wasn’t going to be enough to hold people’s attention. You have some drama over the states and the civil war approaching but it’s all rather boring. The villains are fairly generic and the plot just doesn’t have much life to it.

So I don’t blame the movie for putting the romance as the main focus but it absolutely could have given the characters some more dignity in the process. The film’s fight scenes are good enough where you feel like the movie should have leaned into that a whole lot more. With all of the big fight scenes this could have been an absolutely great film. Maybe actually build up to Zorro being too obsessive with sopping criminals to make Elena’s problem appear to be more valid. It’s always going to be a tough sell because he is saving lives throughout but it can be done. Maybe he starts to go too far or something.

As for the villains, well you’ve got a classic heel with Armand here. Whether he ends up being evil or not, play him up as the big antagonist. Someone who is a total jerk and taking everything that Zorro wants but without giving Zorro a way to take him down. He keeps his hands clean on the surface which makes Zorro more and more frustrated. The building blocks were all there to make this a really fun film. Then just write the kid out and you’re really all set.

Overall, The Legend of Zorro is a film that is fun to watch but you can definitely tell that it should have been a lot better. At times it does aim a little too young and goes with the easy jokes. The pacing is good though and the movie does feel like it really flies by. So you can see that there was a lot of effort put into this one, the priorities just weren’t always where they should have been. I’d still recommend checking the movie out but if you really like Zorro as a character…be warned that his appearance here is a bit diferent.

Overall 6/10

Road House (2024) Review

Posted on by
Reply

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

I saw the original Road House not too long ago so now it was time to see if the remake could win. You never really know with these things but in this case I can safely say that it wasn’t even all that close. This one was just the better film all around. It’s certainly not amazing or anything like that but just had a better time, a more fun atmosphere, and certainly a more satisfying ending.

The movie starts off by showing us how Dalton is such a feared fighter that nobody wants to battle against him. Well, it seems to be part of an elaborate scam as well but the point is that he’s good at what he does. At this point he has hit rock bottom though thanks to some dicey moments in his past. Just when he’s about to end it all, he gets invited to be a bouncer at the most dangerous club in America. Dalton agrees to take on the job but it turns out to be even more dangerous than he would have guessed. He is outnumbered and the rowdy folks have guns. Can he really protect everyone?

Now make no mistake, Dalton would be dead in 5 minutes if the villains were serious. They constantly run up to him in close quarters so he can slap away their guns or get sloppy from long range. In a hand to hand fight he can certainly mess them up but these guys have the cops in their pocket and have a ton of clout. Enough where they could have easily just made him disappear in a night instead of going through the whole show. So we’ve got a whole lot of plot armor here but it doesn’t take away from the film being pretty fun.

Dalton is one of those supremely confident fighters who always has a smirk on his face. He tries to pretend that he isn’t a big shot but it’s a rather half hearted attempt where he keeps just enough of a smirk to know that he’s not serious. He’s probably not someone you can count on as a reliable friend but he does a good job of protecting the bar. You just can’t expect him to essentially be taking on an entire town’s worth of villains trying to break the doors down.

The one time you will probably think he sold out on the heroes is when he is having a drink near the end while everyone is getting absolutely destroyed by the villains. One guy gets his head slammed into a counter, another is getting his arm broken, etc. All the while Dalton is just watching. That part didn’t really make any sense. His counterpart, Knox is on the other side beating everyone up and Dalton is just watching?

When you have a battle between two forces and each one has one alpha fighter, they have to take each other out of the equation. If one has their top fighter going up against the middle ones, then of course it is going to end very badly. I otherwise didn’t blame Dalton for wanting to leave midway because this did seem like a never ending fight that was not going to go his way.

In this film, Dalton also doesn’t have any real backup. He has to handle everything himself which isn’t easy. At first when Knox showed up I thought he was going to be the ally but it turns out that he is the most twisted out of all the villains. I suppose that first scene should have clued me in right away but I figured it was just to show how intense he was. Knox does make for a really good villain though. His accent can feel super exaggerated at times but it’s possible that he really sounds like that.

The guy is an absolute beast in battle and he can really hang with Dalton in a fight. Dalton is probably just a tad more skilled one on one but it’s close enough where the fight could go either way. No other villain is on Knox’s level here just like none of the heroes are on Dalton’s. The main villain is technically Ben but the guy is out of his depth the entire time. He comes across as really spoiled and whiny. He’s certainly not the mastermind type here.

For the heroes, unfortunately none of them really get big roles. At one point Dalton hires a guy who likes to fight a lot so I figured he would be really tough but instead he ends up getting an absolutely tiny role and never gets the big wins you would have been expecting out of him. I suppose he can still defeat the basic enemies but that’s not going to make a big difference here.

There is also the owner of the bar, Frankie but she doesn’t do much either. She talks tough and you figure she may find a way to back Dalton up but nah she just watches the whole time. I was really hoping she had some kind of trump card to show why she was so confident. Without one, it feels like she just got lucky since the villains could have bumped her off at any time. She seems to live at the bar so it’s not like it would be tough to find her.

There is also Charlie but she’s mainly just around to give Dalton a motive to keep on fighting. I don’t think it was smart to try and fight a bunch of armed adults. I know it was supposed to show how brave she was but that is definitely a point where you’re just being dumb. Her father had the right idea in escaping for that specific circumstance.

Then there is the heroine Ellie. Can’t say I was a big fan of hers. She doesn’t like violence but still decides to get with Dalton and moves so fast even he points out that this doesn’t make any sense. She is helpful in getting him to escape from the corrupt cops but I would have liked her to have been a little more helpful in the end. The romance was ultimately not all that goo and she should have had a role beyond that.

The fight scenes are interesting because the camera angles are really crazy. It felt like all of the fights were digitally altered or something with how the characters appeared. Maybe an odd frame rate? Either way there was something surreal about the fights. They were still pretty good but you didn’t really feel any of the impacts between the characters. The fights could still get rather bloody but weren’t super intense.

I’d still give the film a thumbs up for the action though. The film is very fast paced so there is always something going on. The violence can be a little over the top at times so you should keep that in mind. This is definitely not a film for younger audiences. The film’s light hearted tone can certainly make it feel that way at times but you can bet there are some violent deaths in this one.

Overall, Road House is significantly better than the original film. If you’re up for a film with a lot of action then this will be right up your alley. The deck is stacked incredibly well against the main character so you will have to expect some plot armor though. Realistically Dalton would have been dead early on in this adventure. There just isn’t anything he can do when even the cops are on the villains’ side. Still, he fights hard and does his best. The film also does show that he is rather crazy so that helps to show why he won’t just back down even when he is outnumbered. Dalton will continue fighting on til the end and I’ll be curious how the sequel plays out.

Overall 6/10

M3gan 2.0 Review

Posted on by
Reply


This movie is pretty interesting because it has a downright excellent premise but executes it in one of the weakest ways I could have imagined. The script tends to need a lot of work, the fight is basically just teased for 90% of the movie, and the final climax/ending aren’t as good as they should have been. So in that sense the movie left a lot of meat on the table, but on the other hand…I still had a good time with it. I would say it is still a good movie even if it’s not amazing.

The movie starts off by introducing us to a new robot named Amelia. She is essentially a weaponized version of M3gan who can be sent into active war zones or other places that could be dangerous. At first this looks promising but then she goes rogue and appears to want to end humanity. This forces the government to locate M3gan’s creator, Gemma. M3gan shows up beforehand to warn her that this will happen but the government shows up with threats anyway. Gemma knows she will have to stop this new threat but doesn’t want to rebuild M3gan. Will she be able to stop the new android or will she be forced to turn to her old enemy?

Naturally I like a good hero/villain teamup. It tends to make for an exciting plot and that’s the benefit of being a sequel. Long time horror fans may be dismayed to learn that the horror is mostly gone though. The intro scenes with Amelia temporarily bring back the horror with a few jump scares and vicious murders but after that this becomes a full on action movie. Fortunately I love action movies so that worked for me. This has that classic summer blockbuster feel to it.

Lets get into the negatives right away though. You are looking forward to M3gan fighting Amelia. That is pretty much the core point of this film’s plot. Despite that, they don’t really fight until the very end of the film. The first time they meet, M3gan is in the wrong body. After that, Amelia is in the wrong body and they are interrupted before they can fight. Finally we get a battle near the end but M3gan was already super weakened so it still wasn’t an even fight. They made a massive mistake here if you ask me.

We should have gotten a big fight in act 1, then the rematch down the line. It felt like that was the obvious play right? I would also say another weakness is that the writing is generally pretty weak. Lots of lines that will just make you wince or even worse, cringe. They try to write M3gan as being very direct and without shame so she tends to get more of these lines. It’s a tough balance because she also has the best lines but some of them are just being crude for no real reason. I’m hoping they can strike a better balance in the next film.

Finally one more negative would probably be the long singing sequence we get from M3gan. It’s clear this was meant as a funny joke but it’s another example of the film’s poor execution since it drags on for too long. I think it would have been funny if it was just at half the length that it was. Unfortunately that didn’t happen.

On the character side, Gemma is okay I suppose. She seems a bit passive the whole time and it feels like she isn’t properly recognizing the incoming threat here. Amelia is certainly dangerous and a bunch of government fighters even broke into her house. Deciding not to rebuild M3gan is one thing, but she should be telling Cady what is going on and getting a plan together with all of them. That would at least allow them to prep. Otherwise it feels like she is setting them up for a loss here.

At least she does get some action later on. Those fight scenes were fun and hopefully if we were to get more films, she would remain as one of the fighters. We could get a nice tag team with her and M3gan eventually. If you like Gemma’s sidekicks though, they don’t do a whole lot here. A few scenes sprinkled in but yeah I wouldn’t expect much out of them. This is not the humans’ show. In general most of the humans just look bad. We get the rich entrepreneur character who is easily seduced by Amelia.

In general the romance in the film is pretty weak. The classic villain getting seduced trick never ends up being convincing. Then we have Gemma going out with Christian but apparently, he’s not even really her type? M3gan gets some incriminating details on her searches and yeah that’s rough. Sounds an awful lot like settling and that’s a recipe for disaster. It’s not a big part of the film so I’m hardly going to dwell on it, but yeah that was a rough look for the heroine.

As for M3gan, she definitely dominates throughout her screentime. She is the most prepared out of all the characters by fault and also has way more charisma than the others. That really goes a long way here. Additionally, she can fight so at least the heroes have someone who is ready. I also thought Amelia made for a good villain. We didn’t need any grand speeches or motivations besides ending humanity. Amelia just does what she wants and that works well for an evil A.I.

The special effects are pretty good and the soundtrack was generally solid. The movie has good pacing and really flies by. I also enjoyed the tone as this movie is really just trying to give you a fun time throughout. I can always respect that. That’s why I’d ultimately say this was a good title. It just feels like a wasted opportunity since it could have easily been great.

Overall, M3gan 2.0 is what happens when you land an amazing premise but forget that you still have to execute it with care. That said, I still recommend it. You don’t get horror films that turn action like this too often. I imagine it feels like Terminator 2’s initial premise when that film was coming out. It’s a lot of fun and I would definitely check out a third film. As a franchise M3gan may not have lasted very long but I definitely will remember the character so in a way you could say that she did become a true horror icon.

Overall 6/10

It! Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s not time for that clown horror film, instead it’s time to look at a lesser known one involving a golem. It was a little better than I was expecting to be honest. The characters aren’t the best but I would say that in a way the film had a subtle sense of humor about it. It may have been unintentional but it still worked and the film ends up being one that you won’t be forgetting about anytime soon.

The movie introduces us to a disturbed man named Arthur. There’s always been something really off about him and the film doesn’t need to go into detail on this to assure you that he is someone to stay away from. He looks forward to getting a big promotion as the curator eventually but the process is taking a while. One day there is a huge fire where everything in a nearby storage area burns down except for a single golem. Arthur’s boss asks him for something to read it better with but Arthur is slow to move and the golem ends up crushing the guy.

Now Arthur can get his promotion right? Well, instead the board goes with someone else which is definitely upsetting. Arthur decides to actively use the golem as a weapon of destruction in order to clear out the competitors as well as impress his crush Ellen. Ellen seems to feel bad for Arthur and humors him to an extent but she actually likes the fancy guy from New York named Jim. Jim will definitely need to watch out now, but what can he do against a golem?

There are some parts of the film that don’t fully seem to make sense but I suppose you can fill in the blanks. For example the Golem initially seems to do whatever it wants like when it murders the curator by crushing him but then after Arthur actually activates it, the golem begins to work for him. So in the initial scenes, was the Golem working on past programming or something? Additionally, Arthur picked up the trick to controlling it rather quickly when you’d expect that he would have just been another victim.

The film tries to show that perhaps insulting the golem is what makes it made but it’s not like the original curator did that. So it’s going to be a little hard to really understand the golem’s motives. I suppose they aren’t that important. It has a fairly decent design and is definitely very powerful as shown in the bridge incident. He makes for a decent villain but of course is very slow so any fighter who is paying attention should be able to dodge the attacks.

Then we have Arthur who really looks bad here. Aside from being crazy and all, he is desperately going after a lady who is clearly not interested in him. She makes it rather obvious and while I think she could have been sterner, he’s got to take a hint. Arthur is just so desperate and controlling a golem could have easily made him rich and successful if he used it the right away. Then perhaps she would have been more interested in him.

No, instead he just thinks destroying a bridge will impress her for some reason. Ellen is rather naive though like when she gets a call from Arthur late at night saying how he desperately needs to see her. Ellen seriously considers going even if Jim was encouraging this before the twist that he would go in her place. That should have been a notion that would be impossible to her. It’s an extremely bad idea to meet anyone alone at night, particularly someone who has a big one sided crush on you.

Jim is a fun character though, albeit he could be a little overconfident at times. Meeting up with Arthur when he started to have suspicions of wrongdoing was very risky. In fact, there were several times where Arthur came close to destroying Jim. The whole thing could have gone sideways for him in an instant. I do like confidence though and that does help keep Jim higher than he would be otherwise.

There is definitely a body count in this film although the kills aren’t as violet as in other horror titles. There is a level of violence to be sure but you can tell the film is more interested in the overall premise than being a splattershow. So I appreciated the restraint there. As a result the film can actually be a good bit of fun at times. While crazy, it is fun to see Arthur dropping veiled threats and outmaneuvering everybody even when he’s rather sloppy.

The whole hiding the key in the bookshelf idea for example was so risky since someone could have checked there before and realized that the key had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He also takes super unnecessary risks in stealing artifacts from the museum before returning them. This guy is definitely not a mastermind and without the golem he would have been taken down a lot sooner. The climax is also a whole lot more explosive than I would have guessed.

Overall, It! was a little better than I expected. I do think part of the charm is in a cheesy/camp kind of way though. The film takes itself moderately serious but as long as you can have fun with it then you’ll be okay. If you are looking for a really scary film then this will not be the one for you though. Also if you’re hoping for a real romance, the movie doesn’t have much time for that either. No, it’s more about the reverse romance of figuring out if the golem is actually alive and who is controlling it. As the viewer you have all the answers and are waiting for the others to figure it out. The execution was key and ultimately it was good enough here. I have a feeling that the clown movies would not be able to compete.

Overall 6/10

Karate Kid: Legends Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to look at the next Karate Kid film. It was always a bit sad when we learned that LaRusso wasn’t going to be the main character this time around because that would have really helped to make the stakes higher an ever. That being said, the film is still good. It can be a little all over the place at times but still captures the spirit of the series and makes for a film that is easy to watch.

The movie starts with Li having to move all the way from Beijing to New York. He isn’t happy about this but his mother has wanted to put some distance from the world of kung fu after something tragic happened to Li’s brother. Li doesn’t really want to fight anymore, but he does like to keep up with his training. Well, he won’t have much of a choice now that he is in New York since a bully named Conor shows up and just starts whaling on him. The guy has a chip on his soldier because the girl he likes is the pizza girl at the shop that Li frequents and the two became quick friends. Li is going to have to defeat this guy physically in order to end this but the problem is that Conor is more powerful. Li will have to train hard.

This probably would have been enough as the main plot but you’ve also got Mia’s father, Victor who is trying to win a boxing match to pay off some loan sharks. Victor really made sure to owe money to the worst people he could have picked and now that is coming back to bite him. So you have the flip of what usually happens in these films as Li is the one teaching someone how to fight. Although the second half goes back to normal on this.

I would say what the film lacked here was more fights. For a film with karate in the title, there aren’t a ton of fight scenes here. The climax has a bunch of quick fights and one real one but before that you will just get a pair of skirmishes and that’s it. The film was definitely trying to set up a lot of character dynamics and everything but it would have been best to have embraced the action roots a little more. Not that the first films were necessarily heavy on action but you would just expect more.

The film also made a mistake on making Li a little too weak initially. I understand him not being the most powerful out there as it wouldn’t make for much of a film but Conor thoroughly dismantled him the whole time. Even in the climax of the film it felt like Li was a little out of his league. So they could have stood to make this a bit more even so the climax could be more believable. At least that’s the way I see it.

As a main character Li isn’t bad. I do think it takes him a little too long to get with the program though. It was a real rough look to see him falter in the flashback of what happened to his brother and for that to happen again in the present with another character was terrible. He also overreacted pretty hard at the San Genaro festival. Now, I do think the scene made Mia look bad regardless of her explanations later because it’s true that she looked a little too happy, but jumping to conclusions was pretty childish.

Particularly since Li knew they were just friends at that point. He really just needed to talk things out or at the very least not be petty about it. I definitely gotta take Daniel La Russo over him. As for Mia, she wasn’t bad but also on the very emotional side here. Definitely a lot of drama here like when she decides to give Li the silent treatment. I guess for a Karate Kid film you want some drama, but I was always looking forward to getting back to the man plot. I’ll give her credit for not being a jerk when Li wanted to order a stuffed crust pizza. I never knew that scene was from this movie as it tends to make the rounds with memes about how stuffed crust isn’t a real pizza.

Conor make for a fairly weak villain. He’s just way too petty the whole time. So I’m saying weak in terms of personality, he’s technically rather powerful. The guy was dominating most of his opponents. He knows how to fight hard and how to fight dirty which is a really impressive combination. You’re just not going to be able to beat someone like that. Even by the end of the film you feel like he was the best fighter of the next generation.

I would have liked to have seen more of Daniel in this film but it was good to see him get a quick fight scene. Having him get to fight Conor’s teacher would have been more satisfying though. We’d see that he still has the fighting abilities that are needed to win at the top level. Han is also solid although he’s definitely no Mr. Miyagi. He does his best to make sure that Li is ready to fight and doesn’t back down. If anything you just feel bad for Li’s mother who has some valid points about why he shouldn’t fight anymore but gets overruled throughout the whole film. I don’t feel like the characters ever really tried to hear her out.

Although she was unreasonable with spouting platitudes about not resorting to violence when Li was actively being bullied. She took a very old fashioned black and white approach to fighting when that’s just not going to cut it here. You should never be blamed for defending yourself when you’re being attacked. It also feels like the referees are a bit underpowered in this one. The villains just ignore them and go for cheap shots with the ref literally being shoved out of the way more than once. If you defeat someone using exclusively illegal moves, shouldn’t the opponent win by technical penalty victory? Maybe that’s not how it is in real life but I’d be surprised when it is to this extent.

I’d probably have cut out Victor’s plot here with the loan sharks to focus a bit more on Li. I think that would have worked out better although the boxing fight was still pretty fun. As a whole the movie is fun due to the good writing and solid pacing so it has a good amount of replay value. At the same time, it does feel like this film could have been a lot more ambitious. The way it plays out, this may as well have been made a reboot since the previous films didn’t matter a whole lot. The credits scene is also a bit weak. Not bad but I would have liked something that was a whole lot more hype. Also, you know that the two characters got serious food poisoning afterwards.

Overall, Karate Kid: Legends has a good sense of humor and is a fun action film to check out. You’ll definitely be able to feel Li’s frustration as he is surrounded by cheaters and thugs with nobody wanting to do anything about it. The pressure is on him and it’s quite intense. Still, he manages to get the job done and the ending certainly leaves room for more sequels should they want to pursue that. If you like the Karate Kid series then you definitely owe it to yourself to check this one out. You’ll probably find it to be nostalgic.

Overall 6/10

Hard Times Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a film about boxing that is not Rocky. Rocky will always be the definitive film of this kind of genre but of course there are others that also throw their hat into the ring. Hard Times is definitely more of an underground kind of fighting film though and so it doesn’t have the classic glamour and sportsmanship of the tournament battles. In these fights, you can always expect things to get ugly.

The film starts off with Speed hoping his fighter will win a match but the guy is crushed again. That’s when a man named Chaney shows up and declares that he can win a few fights. Speed watches him demolish his first opponent and realizes that this guy is the real deal. So they make a deal to be partners and Chaney gets Speed to agree to his terms of 50/50. Things are going well at first as they win some fights but Speed quickly gets greedy and starts betting more and more money. He takes loans from some dangerous sources and also keeps up his gambling habits. It will all catch up to him soon, but will he bring Chaney down with him?

Now of course gambling is a serious addiction and not something that is easy to turn away from. So I’m not saying it would have been easy but Speed definitely needed to have had some level of restraint. He was already in a rough spot before the event started and then after that he should have been feeling really lucky that Chaney won the super high bet. Instead by wasting it, he has a run in with the mafia and things only get worse from there.

I wouldn’t have blamed Chaney if had just left Speed to the mess that he created and skipped town. It was absolutely not Chaney’s fault that things went that way but of course Speed would have been murdered and it’s hard to just leave knowing that is going to happen. So Chaney takes the high road and risks his life once again. Fighting is never a joke, things can escalate in an instant and so you don’t want to do it unless you had to. Chaney is good at what he does and fight in order to make some money to get to his next destination but he’s not just fighting anybody.

Also he got very fortunate that his opponent was a class act and refused to cheat. In a battle with the mafia present, that is certainly far from a guarantee. So I give his final opponent some respect there, I don’t think any of the other villains would have held back in the same circumstance. They would cheat as much as they could in order to win any fight.

Outside of the fights, it’s not like Chaney was a super good guy though. He has an affair with a lady named Lucy for a good chunk of the film and the whole romance is as shallow as possible. Definitely not the kind where you’re rooting for the pairing. There’s no love there, only convenience on both sides and hopefully Chaney can go a bit slower when he starts fresh in the next town.

I get the feeling that Speed and his doctor Poe are going to be continuing to get into more and more trouble on their side though. Poe never kicked his drinking problems and Speed is still gambling. Chaney has given them a true fighting chance though so hopefully they can keep themselves on track. The underground circuit will always exist but you definitely don’t have to be a part of it once you have all of the money.

The fights themselves are pretty solid as well. You definitely feel the power in some of those blows and it’s not like Chaney was blowing through his opponents. He was clearly the best fighter in the movie but still had to use a lot of good strategy to win. It’s always more impressive that way as opposed to coming in and winning with a single punch which feels less realistic when you’re battling other pros.

The dialogue and writing as also pretty solid. It’s one of those films where there are certainly a lot of threats being flung around but they generally still have the villains putting on the pretense of being polite. I also liked that while Chaney may not be as book smart as some of the others, he is extremely street smart and wasn’t being pushed around by anyone. The scene where he is ready to walk away from the deal when Speed is immediately trying to scam was a good moment for example.

I think to boost the film up a little, I would have either made Chaney more likable or the doctor. So instead of all 3 characters having their vices and not making the best decisions, have one of them actually be a true professional. That character would walk away midway through the film while the other two get greedy. For Chaney you could also just get rid of the romance angle or for Poe, not introducing him as an alcoholic from the start. I think it would have worked to have made the film not quite as grim since all of the leads ere gray at best.

Overall, Hard Times does a good job of showing how dangerous boxing can be. It’s definitely not a profession that most people choose for the joy of it. You’re either poor enough where you have to take a gamble, or one of the rare few who just enjoys fighting to such an extent that the risk is worth it. Chaney likes his lifestyle of travelling the country and not having to work a standard job so to him it makes sense. Win a few fights, then leave and restart. Still not something I’d advise, but to each their own. It’s a good film and doesn’t make any big mistakes but I’d also say it’s just not the most fun title out there. It’s a bit on the dreary side even if the ending does lean as positive as it can be.

Overall 6/10

Next of Kin Review

Posted on by
Reply

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 a classic revenge thriller. You can bet that this’ll make for a pretty intense film but the whole time you are hoping that the main character will make a move. He spends way too long just being absolutely persistent in wanting proof before making a move. The problem is that when you’re dealing with really experienced villains, getting proof is not always going to be possible.

The movie starts with introducing us to Truman who is a cop but isn’t always respected by the rest of the unit. They consider him to be a guy from the mountains who doesn’t really fit in but he does his best to overlook this and just do his job. He has a pregnant wife to think about after all. Unfortunately the town is on the corrupt side with a very active mob presence and they end up murdering one of Truman’s brothers. Truman goes to the funeral where the rest of the family swear vengeance. Truman pleads with them to let the law solve this but his other brother Briar decides to tackle this himself. Now Truman has to try and arrest the mobster responsible before vigilante justice comes through.

Now of course it is best to go through the law here but we’re talking about a big member of the mafia. You’re not going to see him just show up and bring him to jail. The mafia will fight you to the death on that and odds are that they’ve got someone on the payroll within the cops. Truman basically tries the entire film to do this by the book and it feels futile at every turn. He would have really been better off helping Briar get this over with right away.

Now Briar also wasn’t very smart about this. At one point he gets all of the villains alone in a room and has the drop on them. He decides to threaten them all a bit instead of finishing them off and that was a mistake. While his main beef was with the killer and he didn’t know which of them it was, they’re all gangsters. Why not just destroy them? He could have ended the film right there. Of course they would still have other people try to get revenge and the feud would continue but I wasn’t convinced at the reasoning for sparing them. Briar is outnumbered and in enemy territory so letting them go was not a good idea.

Meanwhile Truman’s wife Jessie was unfortunately a bit on the annoying side here. She knows all about how dangerous his job is and yet she starts complaining almost immediately when the going gets tough. I thought she would be on his side and try to stay calm but she panics so much. Additionally when she is attacked, she decides the thing to do is hide in the shower with the faucet on so she can’t even hear when Truman gets into the house and is yelling for her. That means if the attackers had gotten in, she would have been completely defenseless. Not a smart move.

Like I said in the intro though, Truman is just way too passive here. Sure, he threatens the villains from time to time but they know he isn’t going to do anything. It takes several murders for him to finally take action and by then we’re in the climax of the film. It’s a better late than never kind of story here when Truman should have been taking bigger strides to avenge his brother’s murder. That is what would have really helped him to have been better here.

As for the villains, they’re fairly generic. You’ve got Joey who is quick to violence and fits right in as the gang’s number two. He gets upset when John’s son threatens to replace him on the totem pole but that guy isn’t very smart. He is completely oblivious to how much Joey dislikes him and walks into every trap. You’re basically counting the minutes until he’s doomed. John is the actual leader of the mafia and is a much more reasonable guy but also takes too long to act.

If he was more in touch with what was going on then perhaps he could have prevented any of this from happening. Instead he talks about bonds and trust but didn’t do anything to solidify them Truman certainly gave him a lot of advance warning to try and stop this and John did not make use of any of it. At that point there just isn’t much more you can do about the situation.

While Briar didn’t handle the situation too smartly at times, he was still the most enjoyable character in the film. At least he was trying to serve up justice. This is definitely the kind of film where you end up rooting for the vigilante since nobody else is really able to get results. In general though you just don’t want to be in any city where the mafia have a lot of power.

The film can be fairly violent so just a heads up on that. The kills can be rather intense, particularly the first brother who died near the beginning of the film. The overall tone is more like a classic thriller so it’s not overly dark. Especially since all of the characters know what side the others are on. There is even a comic relief character who owns the apartment that Briar rents. He gets quite a bit of screentime here to also help prevent things from getting too crazy.

Overall, Next of Kin is a good thriller but a film that can also be a bit annoying for most of its run. The main character is too passive and then the aggressive brother decides not to finish off the villains at the last second. Definitely a rough combination there. Meanwhile the villains aren’t exactly subtle here because they don’t need to be. They just run in and shoot people whenever they want to with complete immunity. When the law fails so completely like this, it’s no wonder that some characters will jump in to complete the job themselves. It’s simply inevitable.

Overall 6/10