Category Archives: 6 Star Movies

Captain America: Brave New World Review

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It’s time for the 4th Captain America film. Of course Steve Rogers is dead so in this case it’s about his successor Sam Wilson who has let go of his old Falcon persona. This is a good film but definitely one that drags out quite a bit near the middle and that’s not good because this isn’t a particularly long film in the first place. The film has a running joke which I think is even a bit meta about how Sam should have taken the super soldier serum and honestly…he should have. It would have helped quite a bit.

The movie starts off with Sam and his sidekick Joaquin taking down a bunch of terrorists and securing a package that had been stolen. He is thanked by the president elect Ross. After a timeskip, Ross has become the president and he is attempting to seal a treaty with Japan over the use of Adamantium. It is a material that may even be stronger than Vibranium and would have a whole lot of uses. Ross is trying to move on from his dark past and be the best president that he can be, but it won’t be easy. A figure from his past has appeared and is attempting to sabotage all relations with Japan. Can Ross put an end to this?

It was nice to see Ross return because I always thought he was a pretty fun character. Definitely on the gruff side and he had a tendency to do things that weren’t exactly legal but he was always fighting for his country. Now as the president Ross brings that same level of grit to the job. As the film goes on he starts to look a little shakier though. After we get through all the twists and such, I can say that he definitely made one too many mistakes here. It was still fun to root for him, but he really sabotaged himself completely.

When you make a mistake you have to deal with it. Ross decided to just ignore it and naturally that comes back to bite. So he does really good in all of the present actions but that was enough to really hurt him. Meanwhile you can also say something similar for the main villain here. This mysterious villain has a grand master plan and could have easily completed it if not for his ego. This guy really wants everyone to know that he is the one behind this plot and so naturally that leads to him being captured.

It just feels a bit absurd that a so called super genius could not find a better way to do the plan without being captured in the process. Maybe he plans to escape and that’s another plan but that’s way too risky. The villain never ended up being very impressive for me and I also thought that they really messed up his design compared to what it was in the comics. That look was 100X better than this one which is really going for more of an intentionally ugly design.

As for Sam, he does a good job as Captain America here. He certainly looks better than in the Winter Soldier miniseries where it almost felt like you were meant to root against him. Sam tries to do his best to help the country out while not becoming some yes man to a guy as dubious as General Ross. Sam’s also dealing with a lot because his old friend Isaiah goes crazy for some reason and Sam needs to figure out a way to prove his innocence.

Throughout this adventure, characters are quick to doubt him as well. The villains make fun of him, Ross compares him negatively to Steve, etc. I do think it would be good for Sam to finally get past the self confidence issues though so hopefully after this he won’t be wavering anymore. It is just tough to see that he is still just a human with tech though. It works for someone like Iron-Man who is surrounded by nanotech and that’s always been his thing. Being Captain America without the actual super strength? That’s a lot tougher.

It also does limit what the film can do in terms of fight scenes. The final battle relies on an enormous amount of plot armor and nerfing the opponent so that Sam can have a chance. It’s really hard to pull off that kind of a fight without making one party look worse than they should. As for how you solve that, well you have to give Sam some serious powers. Otherwise even fighting humans can be tough for him. He was getting absolutely clobbered by one villain near the beginning of the film. Sam is only able to win with a lucky shot near the end but effectively lost that battle. Then he has a really close shave against a guy with a gun. Yeah that guy is the head of Serpent and is skilled but is technically still just a guy.

If you’re having close shaves with all kinds of normal fighters like this then you’re not really going to be able to go toe to toe with super powered villains. Joaquin made for a good sidekick and while he is much weaker since he is a human with worse tech, he does good against the side opponents. He’s not really ready for the bigtime but the film isn’t trying to put him in those situations so it works out.

We’re introduced to a new character named Ruth here who is a former Black Widow. As a result she is fairly strong and can fight well despite her short stature. Her inclusion felt a bit random compared to the rest of the characters but it’s always good to have another fighter at the ready. This film was really trying for a more grounded approach which is why you have so many street level fighters running around here. It’s also why the climax feels especially out of left field because the power levels have such a huge jump. It’s not like it’s a spoiler to say who it is since the film was advertising him a lot but I’ll still abstain there.

So we’ve got a lot of action scenes and everything. Why isn’t the film higher? Well, the writing and action are good as always and I enjoy the general tone of the film. It just moves a bit too slowly and takes some of the war stuff more seriously than is needed. For example we get a fairly long dog fight of Sam trying to chase some jets and based on the speed we saw from him early on this should be easy. Instead the chase overstays its welcome by quite a lot and just doesn’t really get that interesting.

Towards the middle a lot of time is spent on the mystery of why people are going insane. The problem is that as the viewer you know who it is early on and Sam/Ruth find out the method for the hypnosis right away. So then the real mystery is tracking down the assailant but it wasn’t a great journey to get there. None of it is bad but I feel like there really isn’t much in the way of replay value here. You’re glad you saw the film and it kept your attention but that’s about it. I dare say the film is essentially filler in terms of future developments and even the final post credits scene is rather halfhearted. It is just so vague that it is essentially meaningless. I would have gone for something a bit more hype like actually showing a guest star.

Overall, Brave New World didn’t exactly shatter the sky in terms of hype but it is a good film. I enjoyed it and the MCU always does have a fun style of banter and action scenes. The choreography is good and I dare say that was never in doubt. It’s just a fun movie all the way but ends up being a bit more forgettable and the film also has a hard time trying to balance the fun and serious moments. I dare say it should have just leaned more on the fun and being a comic book movie. We’re pretty deep in the MCU so by this point it should be able to get as fantastic as possible. I’d also say that keeping a certain guest star around for the climax would have been a really good idea because otherwise it just felt a bit pointless. We’re getting closer and closer to Doomsday so I look forward to seeing how the next films go.

Overall 6/10

Rooster Cogburn Review

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Rooster Cogburn is one of those titles where you would have no idea what the film is about. It’s such a general name but hardcore fans of True Grit will know that this is a western right away. This title plays it very safe and ends up being a decent western title. You’ll either appreciate the subtlety it is going for or you’ll end up finding it to be a bit boring. There’s not going to be much in between. For me I thought it did a pretty good job. It’s not terribly exciting but keeps your attention well enough and also avoids some of the classic western issues.

The movie starts off with Roster taking down some more thugs but he is called into court. Unfortunately the town has decided to move in a more nonsensical direction and does not want to see Rooster murdering criminals anymore. Rooster is stripped of his badge and forced into retirement which has him feeling rather bitter. Naturally the judge and the town quickly realize that they are doomed without Rooster as a group of bandits steal some powerful nitro. The town is forced to call Rooster back in for one more adventure. Is Rooster too old to deal with these guys?

Right away you can see how absurd the town is though. The fact that they were so quick to fire Rooster was crazy. Now Rooster is no saint. The guy gets drunk way too often and has slowed down a step but it would have been nice if the town could have found some real examples to call him out on. The self defense shooting we saw at the beginning of the film was completely justified. If Rooster didn’t shoot then he would have been dead. That’s just how it worked back in the wild west and the town looks naïve to think otherwise.

Rooster was right to be sore at how he was quickly fired like this. He showed no remorse and that’s a good thing because he didn’t make any mistakes there. The rest of the deputies are so scared that none of them even want to accompany Rooster so he goes off on a 1 vs 9 kind of fight. That’s basically unwinnable to be honest.

It turns out that he won’t be completely alone though as he runs into Goodnight and a kid named Wolf. They are the last survivors after the same group of thugs stopped by their house and murdered everyone. Goodnight is certainly no big fan of violence but is no damsel and ends up joining the adventure with her gun. Wolf is a bit too young to be super helpful but is still around to cause distractions as needed.

It’s a real team effort and from here we get a lot of banter with Goodnight and Rooster. The writing is pretty solid in general and their dynamic ends up working well. Goodnight is definitely right that Rooster lets himself go too much with all the drinking and tries to help him be more introspective. I don’t think it really works as I feel like Rooster really doesn’t listen to anybody but at least he warmed up to having her around.

Goodnight has a lot of brave scenes like when she stands up to the thugs as well as saving Rooster from one shot. She’s definitely a solid heroine through and through. Wolf is okay but tends to forget how young he is and tries helping a little too much. That may not sound like a negative but sometimes you really do need to take your own power level into account or you just end up getting into a whole lot of trouble.

The villains are more on the forgettable side. There is a whole lot of infighting which helps the odds for Rooster. One of the main villains is a turncoat who used to work with the sheriff. He is an expert at explosives and helps in using the nitro. He’s clearly a cut above the rest of the lackeys but at the same time is still afraid of the main villain. The main villain really has a strong chokehold on his whole group and is always threatening or murdering them. He really never stops.

There is a decent amount of action here as we get several fight scenes. They’re all handled well but it feels like the villains have a whole lot of plot armor at times. Rooster and his crew get the drop on them initially but don’t end up picking off a single one. Yes, Rooster’s first shot was a warning one since he is trying to take them in alive but after that he should have been landing direct hits. These guys are all dangerous murderers after all and Rooster has always ignored the town’s orders before. It felt like too many shots were just being missed.

I suppose that’s a factor in all westerns though. This one just felt like it stood out a whole lot though. Still we got a solid climax here and the whole film is handled well. The writing was the most important part of course and the pacing was also good. The film’s main appeal is probably for when you want to show someone a western without it being too gritty. Despite being a sequel to “True Grit” there is absolutely nothing gritty about this adventure.

Overall, This is a very safe film that doesn’t really make any mistakes. The fights are good and I liked the dynamic between the two leads. The movie could have probably given the traitor more to do which would have led up to another solid fight. I enjoyed the villain cutaways with all of the dysfunction over there but it didn’t ultimately lead to a whole lot. This film isn’t super long or anything but there was enough runtime to add on another subplot. It just doesn’t have much of a hook so the movie is good but you won’t be thinking about it much afterwards. I guess it’s the definition of a good popcorn action film.

Overall 6/10

Drop Review

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Now this was a tricky film for me to think about. I wasn’t even fully decided on how much I liked it when the movie ended. On one hand, it does handle the thriller aspects pretty well with a lot of suspense and everything. On the other hand the film’s entire plot revolves around everyone being slow on the uptake. It’s even worse when one guy is clearly tech savvy and then you have the fact that the film can be extremely cringe. It’s intentional….but cringe is cringe after all. So lets unpack this one.

The movie starts off by introducing us to Violet who had a traumatic experience with her ex-husband. Violet was able to piece her life back together after those events and is now a therapist who helps others with their problems. She has done her best to be the best single mom possible for her kid and now she is ready to get back out there and rebound with a new person. Violet simply doesn’t want to be single forever and she will be meeting up for the first time with someone that she met on an app. His name is Henry and they will be meeting as a super expensive, fancy restaurant for the first meetup. She gets there early and everything seems fine….until she starts getting some dangerous messages through wireless drops. This mysterious individual claims to have her son hostage and she must now follow all of his orders. How can she gets out of this situation?

Okay so lets address the elephant in the room. Violet should have immediately tuned the feature off. It’s not like air dropping is something that goes through no matter what. Just turn it off immediately! It takes a while before the messages mention that he has her kid so the whole film would have had to play out very differently. The film also goes out of its way to show that Henry knows how the air drops work. He explains it to Violet and even has apps on his phone that measure distance and everything. So he should have just told her how to turn it off. It’s a bit hard to get past this point since it is the crucial sticking point for the entire film. You’ll just be shaking your head the whole time. It’s not the kind of thing that would really hurt the film’s score for me but is a bit of a strike against the writing.

Well once we get past that, it does make for a decent mystery gimmick as Violet needs to find out who is sending the messages. That might sound pointless since it doesn’t change the hostage situation but I guess you could say it’s so that she can find some blindspots to contact the police. Unfortunately the villain has hacked all of the cameras so he can basically see her from everywhere. I will say that even here the film stretches some disbelief. Not so much in the hacking as we’ll say that the villain is just that powerful but that nobody talked about how he was constantly texting. There is a plot reason why this feels pretty unlikely and you would have heard something.

Thrillers tend to have a lot of disbelief attached to them but this one just felt particularly egregious. Now you have to remember that this is all happening during Violet’s first date. So that’s where the second hand cringe comes in as she keeps looking away to scan the perimeter, is super distracted, etc. Henry comes across as ultra patient with how long he hangs in there because I think most people would have given up early on. It would just be too much after a bit and nobody wants to be second fiddle in their own date. The person giving her the orders intentionally does it in a way to make her look as bad as possible.

She is still able to keep Henry interested with various tricks but that shouldn’t have been enough. Now, we do get some info on Henry about how good he is with tech and his background involves the government so he should be able to notice that something is wrong. I was actually expecting it the whole time but instead he seems to take it at face value that Violet is just kinda crazy. Surely the whole air drops thing should have been a good tipoff. Henry seems like a nice guy so I’m not going to go too hard on him but I just expected more there.

The film gives us a more explosive climax than I was expecting. It’s always nice to get some action in there even if it feels like the deck was too stacked in the villain’s favor. There was no realistic way for him to lose. Special props to Violet’s sister for hanging in there and doing her best as a babysitter. Nobody expects to have to fight for your life in that job but she pulled through and did what was needed. While the last scene in the film is for laughs and shouldn’t be taken too seriously….I did think that she deserved a bit more recognition. The joke just didn’t land tbh since Violet should be thanking her a whole lot. You’ll understand the context when you watch the film.

I really enjoyed the backgrounds and locale for the film. The restaurant looked really nice even if the food/drinks would probably not be so great. The annoying waiter would also hurt the experience there. That was one area where the film was trying way too hard to be funny. I think the humor there was the fact that he wasn’t funny so it was like a 4 layered joke but it just didn’t work. After a point it just loops around to not being funny again. At least the date being awkward makes sense in context but the waiter did not need to be here at all.

Also this may be a bit harsh but I didn’t think the backstory for Violet was necessary or even that it made a lot of sense. The villain uses it against her later on by saying that she has murdered people before and all that but when we see the context it is the biggest stretch ever. I know survivor bias is a real concept but usually that’s not mixed in with self defense. In a case like this I don’t see why Violet would have any real fears or trauma. Or more specifically, I can see it being a trauma in terms of not wanting to be near guns or being afraid to start dating again but not in any relation to taking a life. I would have rewritten it a bit to make her actually shoot the gun in which case I think it would have been a much stronger parallel. It would also establish that she is willing to take a life in order to protect her son and so to the viewer, maybe she would take more and more lives to continue keeping him safe. It’s still different since that was self defense and not murder but the way the film used this plot was a bit odd.

So in the end what are we looking at here? Is this still a good film or do all of these factors add up to make it a bad one? I was pretty indecisive throughout it all but by the end the answer became clear. This one is a good movie and so it makes it into the green. It’s not a film that I would likely rewatch on my own but I wouldn’t be opposed to it if someone else picked the movie. I also wouldn’t caution people away from watching it and may even recommend it to a fan of thrillers. I’d say the premise is better than the execution but it still got enough things right.

I also liked how the final boss started monologuing before going out. For a minute there I didn’t think we were going to have enough time for the ole speech. Even then we got another awkward conversation as Violet started trauma dumping and the villain clearly couldn’t care less but didn’t seem to know what to do in the moment except to keep eating his dessert.

Overall, Drop is a pretty memorable film and I think that is a strong point. I don’t regret seeing it or anything like that. Thrillers like this can be fun to think about what you would do in this situation. Once the orders begin coming in, it is really hard to get the upper hand again. You know that the villain isn’t bluffing after all but if you keep helping out there is still no guarantee that he will keep his word. For that reason I always think the best thing to do is to ignore the orders but obviously that is much easier said than done.

Overall 6/10

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Review

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Aquaman has returned for the big sequel. This one’s definitely taking a bit of a different approach from the first as it goes for the buddycop genre this time. It’s a pretty good idea since the banter tends to be fun but Aquaman himself tends to hold that back. Ultimately this one’s a bit of a roller coaster with a lot of ups and downs but by the end I’d still say it was a good film.

The movie starts off by showing how Aquaman has been a terrible ruler to Atlantis. He has let the council walk all over him and finds himself bored with all of his official duties. What he doesn’t realize is that Black Manta has been taking this time to work on a plan to destroy the ruler. Manta is working with a mysterious villain in the shadows who has been granting him great technology and physical abilities. Aquaman will need to find a way to track this guy down before his plan can succeed. The only way to get around this is to team up with his old foe…the Ocean Master!

Ocean Master, aka Orm is definitely the best character here. It’s easy to see how he would have been a great king. He has the right temperament for it and also has a lot of experience and general knowledge. It makes sense since he was raised to take the throne from birth after all. Now to balance this out the film does show that Aquaman is the stronger fighter. Still, it’s not by a wide margin and Orm tends to outshine him in all other categories. If the series had kept going it would be interesting to have had Orm be the main villain again. Have him make a play for the throne, not because he is crazy but because he thinks that Aquaman will be the downfall of Atlantis. Additionally more screentime for him would not be a bad thing since Orm is also responsible for all of the film’s funniest moments.

I mentioned earlier that the banter doesn’t match some other titles and none of that is Orm’s fault. He dominates in every scene that he has with the exception of Aquaman tricking him into some gross humor. Yes, Aquaman is one of the weakest parts of the film. I can’t say that I’ve been a big fan of his portrayal over the years and this may be his most drastic one yet. The guy can’t really handle any serious conversations and constantly thinks with his muscles. He gets the two of them into trouble many times and never grows into the ruler that he could be. You just wouldn’t want to be friends with this guy.

I would argue that he doesn’t have much of a character arc here because I don’t think he would handle any of the situations differently in a future film. With solid writing you could probably get around that but this isn’t really the film for that. The humor tends to miss most of the time and relies on more crude humor than I’ve seen in a long while. The movie even has to repeat the worst jokes more than once in case the audience didn’t get it.

The movie can have some decent humor like Manta toying with one of his minions or Orm subtlety insulting Aquaman but it does tend to get overwhelmed by the negative moments. The worst jokes are what keeps this film from having real replay value because you just wouldn’t want to go through it all again. It’s the type of movie that will do its best through Youtube shorts for the best moments.

There is definitely a lot of action in the film but not too many fight scenes. The two best fights in the film are when Aquaman fights Manta in round 1 and then the 2 v 1 against him in the climax. I wanted to see more of that because those fights were bright and fast paced. You really get to enjoy the choreography there and feel the intensity of the battles. The film nearly gives us one more but chooses to end the climax on more of a gag this time. It’s a decent gag but personally I wanted to see the big villain get to fight. Based on the hype he was getting, that would have been a really epic showdown.

The general action scenes don’t work as well because of how many involve being underwater. It’s been many years and films still have yet to make underwater fighting all that much fun. Without a place to land and pivot, fight scenes don’t have the same depth. There tend to be a lot of giant encounters as well so you’re not getting much choreography there. I still appreciate having the action of course but will always prefer fight scenes. The special effects were pretty solid all around though. I’m glad they kept in the shockwaves for all of the big power attacks because that’s still the best way to show off super strength.

Black Manta is the main villain for most of the film and definitely does a good job there. He constantly makes sure that his underlings are following his lead. He’s not looking for sympathy or anything and is just focused on his big revenge mission. He comes close to taking out Aquaman on different occasions and honestly should have the edge most of the time since his heat laser can take out just about anyone in a single shot.

Stephen is a particularly weak character though as he just seems wishy washy the whole time. He knew from the start that he was joining the villains by working for Black Manta. It’s way too late in the game to be having second thoughts about that and I certainly didn’t take them seriously. I would have preferred for Manta to take him down at some point.

Manta has another much more loyal subordinate but she ultimately doesn’t get to do too much. Of course there is Manta’s partner from the shadows who is really solid but ultimately doesn’t get to do a whole lot here. Aquaman’s supporting cast get to show off their powers a bit but for the most part this is the Orm and Aquaman show on the heroes side. If they ever made an Orm solo title that could be a lot of fun. The stakes by the end of the film are high enough where I dare say we should have seen some guest star appearances but I suppose everyone might have been busy.

Overall, How much you enjoy the film will probably depend on how much you enjoy Aquaman and the humor style of the film. If you enjoy them both then this will probably be an elite film because the rest of the film’s fundamentals are sound. If you don’t enjoy them, then you are counting on the action being enough to get you through this. Hopefully if we get another Aquaman film someday the humor style will be a bit more mature. At the very least you don’t want scenes that really make you cringe like some of the moments here. Just try to focus on the fights and Orm showing why he should be the proper king of Atlantis.

Overall 6/10

Greenland 2: Migration Review

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Greenland 2 is one of those films that will make less and less sense as you watch it but that’s okay. The main purpose of the film is just to let you have some fun with a bunch of action scenes. In fact I dare say it beats the first film. It does run a little long though. The runtime isn’t even that long technically but the pacing starts to die out as the main characters run into trouble after trouble. They really can’t go 5 minutes without having some kind of bad luck.

After the events of the first film, the world is in a really rocky spot. Almost all of humanity has already been wiped off the map and the survivors aren’t doing so well with the crazy amounts of radiation everywhere. There is really no escape….except for one last chance. A perfect oasis that was near the initial blast zone. If you can reach this place, you will be completely safe and will not have to worry about anything. Does such a place even exist though? It sounds almost too good to be true and often times places like that are just a way to give hope to those who have lost it. We’ll see if the journey ends up paying off this time.

What really sets the adventure off is when the island that the heroes are on begins to erupt as a volcano was dormant under it. So John and his family go on a long journey but right away I have to say that he was the only one looking good here. So his wife Allison is big on trying to do the heroic thing and having a clear conscience through what is a really tough situation. No problems on that but she takes it to very dangerous levels to where she would doom everyone. The concept here is called suicidal empathy.

For example we are shown at the beginning of the film that the emergency shelter is already at the breaking point. They only have enough food for maybe 2 weeks left and everyone is crammed in like sardines. John has been trying to find some food and materials for a long time but there has been no luck. The air outside is poisonous so they have to all wear air masks and everything. Well, another group has sent out a distress signal. The problem? The group has dozens and dozens of members within it. A group vote is held and Allison puts in enough pressure to win the vote. So now the shelter will have to accommodate an extra 50 people and there simply aren’t the resources for it.

The one guy who opposes this is treated like an antagonist throughout the film but his points really made sense. At that point you are just dooming everyone and Allison keeps this up throughout the movie. At one point everyone is running for the last 3 life boats. The first two end up toppling because too many people tried to go into them. The heroes manage to get onto the third boat and the driver explains that they have to go or their ship will topple over too. Despite this? Allison still says they should let everyone on, knowing that it would doom them all.

She just wasn’t a very practical character. Unfortunately I would say that she is realistic as a lot of people would feel the same way, no matter how bad of an idea it is. There is a time where you can still feel empathy but have to move on or everyone will be dead. She never really recovered from that showing. Still, it’s not like Allison is a villain or anything, she just ends up being an annoying ally.

Then we have the son, Nathan. He’s the classic teenage character who is just really bored. He wants adventure and so he goes outside even with the poison air everywhere because he can’t stand being cooped up. It makes him seem rather selfish but also short sighted. He could have easily spread some viruses throughout the shelter which is the whole reason why only one person is allowed outside and has to be thoroughly detoxed each time. Nathan also has a tendency to panic all the time. At one point they all have to cross a bridge but he keeps yelling about how he won’t and he’d rather just stay and die there. This is life or death, you have to cross the rope even if it’s hard.

Sure it may be easy to say that from behind the screen but I stand by it. Nathan was always slowing them down quite a bit. I’d have cut him some slack if it was because of the insulin issue but aside from a passing mention at the start, that stops being a thing. So as long as it’s just a fear that Nathan has to get past, I have to blame him 100%.

So John is really the best out of the main characters. I really liked the pragmatic government character but he technically doesn’t last very long. John is at least trying to save his family throughout and is actively sacrificing his safety in order to do that. He’s a good hero and that’s really all you need in order to make a quality character. John gets to show off his expert gunman skills as well during the movie. Without him the family would have had no shot.

I’ll give the film props for also completely changing the film’s location early on. We are at the emergency shelter just long enough where you think that a bunch of those characters are going to be sticking around during the movie. Despite that, they are all removed from the story after the heroes leave the base. That was pretty unexpected for me and I thought that it worked. Having a really small cast of just the main 3 characters was a good idea.

The action was also consistent and never let up. While I do think the film began to drag on just a tad bit by the end, I can’t say that it was uneventful. We got several gunfights and a whole lot of running around. It did feel like the film was perhaps being a bit too ambitious at times though. A lot of focus was put on the atmosphere being poisonous but it felt more like an empty threat because there were many times where the characters would be without their helmets and it wasn’t really a big deal. Then it turns out that the sacred land near the crater has no poison at all. In fact that somehow became the biggest oasis on the planet.

It’s not a plot hole as the film very explicitly talks about how we don’t really understand any of this because humanity isn’t really in a position to study it. It’s just a bit convenient. I don’t really see how this land would not have been destroyed by now. Yes, an army is protecting it but with the whole world seeking shelter, that just wouldn’t last long. This isn’t a story that will hold up too well so the important thing is to just have fun in the moment. That is something that the movie is good at.

I was skeptical going into this film because I never thought that Greenland would really need a sequel. It felt like this would just be stretching a premise past the breaking point. At least by making it involve the rest of the world and an actual war, that made things pretty eventful. The writing is also good and most of my complaints about the characters being annoying are not the kinds of things that would actually lower the score of the film. Same with the inconsistent world building and such. They’re elements that are fun to make fun of and note, but don’t actually hurt my enjoyment of the movie.

Overall, Greenland 2 is definitely a good film. I won’t call it a great one or anything like that but I wasn’t bored. The movie kept my attention all the way through and there weren’t any parts that took me out of it because I thought the writing was super bad or anything. The ending is definitely pretty weak though. That’s one thing the film could have done better with because it just isn’t satisfying. It’s the kind of ending that feels standard in a bad way and also heavily limits the potential of a third film.

Overall 6/10

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Review

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All right if someone asked me if I could survive 5 nights at Freddy’s I would definitely say yes. The animatronics are slow and clunky so that’s not a problem. If they asked me if I could survive 5 more nights? Well now that’s getting tricky. The monsters in this film seem to be considerably more powerful than in the first film although I would say that they are still under the average horror title. For that reason nobody in this film is really putting up much of a fight most of the time.

The film starts off with Mike trying his best to forget the events of the first film. He figures the best way to do this is to gaslight Abby into thinking that he will fix the old robots when he doesn’t plan to. Then on the side Mike is trying his best to fix Vanessa from all of her childhood trauma but Mike doesn’t really have the temperament for such a journey. Eventually his plans fall through and Abby runs back into Freddy’s to bring her friends back while Vanessa heads over for some closure. Unfortunately they both end up bringing something far darker back into the world. And yes…there are now two Freddy’s locations.

This is definitely one of those films where everyone looks pretty bad which is what the villains are able to capitalize on. For example in the first flashback scene we see how William wasn’t exactly subtle in grabbing one of the kids to destroy but even when another kid notices, nobody wants to help. The adults are painfully oblivious and almost go out of their way to ignore the situation. Then once it all happens, we see how the media blamed this on the kid who died. Now that was crazy and it sets the stage for how this is a world without a whole lot of empathy. Everyone is just looking out for themselves here and they don’t want to stick their neck out.

The fact that this happened before the other 5 murders is also crazy because it really shows how William was allowed to do whatever he wanted to do. Now in the present, we’ve got a number of plots going on. For Abby’s, well I feel like she looks really bad here. She wants to bring the robots back since some of them had her friends from the beyond but even in the first film it was always a 50/50 chance at best on if they were actually the kids. Usually they were the evil demon robots so she is risking everyone’s lives for a small chance. Not a smart thing to do.

Abby definitely shouldn’t have been going to Freddy’s by herself. Then we have Mike who comes across as really annoying the whole time. He gets upset with Abby when she notices that he’s been lying a lot and that’s on him. Then even after Vanessa has saved his life on multiple occasions and saved Abby, he still tells her off. There are some things like a life debt which should not be so easily broken. Certainly not in this manner. Mike really needed to lock in more.

He got one good scene where he actually fights one of the animatronics but that’s about it for him. Then we have Vanessa who is dealing with the most issues right now. William is still attacking her through dreams which she just barely manages to survive through. It feels like there is only a matter of time before she falls to him unless she can find a way to destroy him forever. Of course that is not going to be easy.

Then Vanessa has to deal with the new villain of the movie, The Marionette. Unfortunately a gun isn’t going to do a whole lot to this thing. She definitely should have told Mike more about what was going on but I still tend to place more of the blame on him for not taking the news well at all. With the stakes this high, there is no time to be falling apart at the seams.

The Marionette makes for a pretty strong villain. She leaves more of an impact than a lot of the different Freddy creatures and for now I would say she was more impressive than William as well. She has a good amount of space and can basically take control of someone’s body which is a really big deal. I suppose that the name is quite fitting.

On that note, the main Freddy crew don’t get to do quite as much here. They threaten the humans a whole lot and are always on the move but don’t technically produce a whole lot of results. More often than not they are foiled at the last second. The body count is a bit smaller than you may have initially guessed. Also unless you are a hardcore fan you will have some trouble differentiating the designs between the new ones and the old ones even when you see them back to back.

The film does go all in on the jump scares though. There is a lot going on at all times and the characters act super suspicious the whole time. There’s a new night guard named Michael for example who seems ominous the whole time. He’s constantly grinning and seems to know a whole lot about Freddy’s. They’re going to want to keep an eye out for him. So the film knows how to be scary.

Then on the other hand it also has some funny moments. I liked the cab driver who was always ready to break the ice. There’s also a mean science teacher who is a complete antagonist but does a really good job within the role like when he “accidentally” broke a girl’s toy. This guy has clearly been in the game for a long time. The film certainly leans harder on horror than comedy but handles both genres rather well.

The writing and script are certainly not realistic but you can put that to the same camp. The film also still keeps itself from being too violent. It’s maybe a little more violent than the first one but I would say that it was close. There is less focus on all the kids who got murdered from the first film which is a good thing. I would also say that the film’s story is a lot more interesting now that it is embracing all of the crazy characters. It was sad that Golden Freddy didn’t show up but I guess the film was getting rather packed.

There are quite a few clffhangers in the film too which sets up the third film nicely. First up we already have a main villain, then a returning villain shows up, and then a hype message which might signal a third one. In theory it’ll be hard for the heroes to stop these guys next time because there is no longer any kind of an off button. Physically these creatures are mainly still robots so you can mess them up but that requires no tripping or panicking which is rare.

For the next film I would like to see some more action though. One issue I have with this one is that the animatronics all tend to look very slow aside from the Marionette and just don’t seem to be a huge threat. Mike takes one out extremely easily in one scene and it feels like that would work on any of the others as well. So I feel like the next film needs to show them actually fighting and moving a bit quicker to make things scary again.

Overall, I definitely wouldn’t be eating at Freddy’s but the film does a good job of staying scary while adding in a lot of story this time around. The concept of Freddy’s is definitely an intense one. I am glad that the series continues to reign in the violence and doesn’t go for a ton of grit. It would be nice if we could go one film without children being among the fatalities though. This time it was brief and then it was over at least but we don’t need to retread the plots. Since this one hints at a much larger threat looming, it may be time to call in the government. Some may say that would be jumping the shark but I think it would be hype!

Overall 6/10

Sniper 2 Review

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

It’s still pretty crazy to think that the Sniper series has gotten so many movies. It just never seemed like the kind of franchise to break out in that way but hey that means more action scenes for me. This may seem surprising but the second film actually beats the first one. This one just jumps right into the action and doesn’t try to be as gritty as the first one. The heroes have a job to do and they just get right on it.

The movie starts out with Thomas being recruited by the army for one last mission as a sniper. He points out that he was let go because he lost some fingers in the first film but the army explains that they have nobody better. (Translation: They found someone expendable to put in a crazy dangerous mission!) So Thomas is sent abroad for the latest assassination and this time his partner is Jake. Jake was also a really good sniper but he ended up murdering one of his teammates and so he was taken to jail. If he clears this mission, he can get a pardon so that’s the incentive but Thomas has to be careful. This still might not be someone that he can really trust. That’s a tough doubt to have when you’re in a life or death situation.

Now what some may not like here is that a good chunk of the film actually has absolutely nothing to do with Thomas doing any sniping itself. They take down the main target really quickly. A lot of this ends up being running away from an enemy sniper. So you’re sort of flipping the script here. Thomas finds out that the government has been using him once again so now he has to help Jake get someone out of enemy territory but it won’t be easy. The enemies have a powerful sniper of their own who is really good at making high pressure shots.

There may be some issues where you have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit but that is normal for a thriller. The biggest instance of this absolutely has to be when the characters hijack a bus and then run through a bunch of cars. They break away to run from the enemy soldiers but you don’t see how they could have possibly escaped. Jake is captured quickly so we see that every soldier stops searching even though they knew that they were chasing two guys. Thomas just hides around the corner and nobody goes on to check. Seems a bit farfetched right?

In general you were always going to have a hard time trying to find a way for the two soldiers to go into a super urban environment, bump someone off and then escape. That’s hard to do and so the film doesn’t always make a convincing case for it. Still, the pacing is always good and this is a very explosive film. Someone is basically always shooting at the main characters here. Ultimately Thomas makes for a pretty good character here as well.

I thought the subplot about him not being able to see well would be a bigger deal but surprisingly that plot doesn’t matter after the opening shot. He is basically able to shoot and fight normally. He isn’t the kind of guy who talks too much and just gets the job done. That works pretty well for the main character and his experience really came in handy here.

As for Jake, well I can’t say that I liked his plan. It’s the kind of plan that usually has a 99% chance of failure. Somehow he was able to pull it off here thanks to plot armor and all but that doesn’t make it a good one. He was still a good ally to have and was much better than the spotter from the fist film. Jake is an actual professional who could hold his own in comparison. During the climax he takes down a ton of enemy combatants on his own.

The most annoying character has to be the guy that they are trying to rescue. He’s one of those classic pacifists who talks about how war is bad and everyone who participates in it is terrible. Yeah war is a bad thing of course but not every combatant is in on it. Thomas is here to try and make the world a better place and Jake is actively trying to save this guy. There are times when violence is necessary for the greater good and the absolute stance on how it’s bad is always a bad thing. Sure enough, this guy comes around by the end but it’s a bit late for that. It’s just such an obvious thing to realize that it shouldn’t be an actual twist or anything.

The main heroine here is Sophia and for most of the film I figured she would be the traitor. She is quite helpful and knows the best places to snipe from and where the villains will be at their weakest. Without her the main sniper duo would have had a much tougher time of it. Sophia ends up being a pretty solid character. Definitely someone who is taking an active role in this conflict as opposed to just sitting around watch. This whole adventure is happening in her country after all.

There isn’t much to Sniper 2 beyond being an action title so how much you enjoy it will depend on how much you like that premise. I don’t think it’s inherently a bad thing to be hyper focused like this. For the most part the film isn’t throwing a ton of twists at you and the formula follows a lot of what happened in the first film. When you see the plot description of the film you can guess a lot of what will happen from there. Not every individual twist but the general flow. The character cast is very small as well. If you’re watching for some good gunfights then you’ve come to the right place.

Overall, Sniper 2 is the definition of a classic action film. I thought the execution was pretty good to that end and had a good time watching the film. You won’t be bored or anything. The film can get violent at times but not nearly as much as the first one. This is more nonchalant about the battles so it doesn’t dwell for too long on any one scene. Naturally if you don’t enjoy films about war time situations and fights then you should skip this one but then there wouldn’t have been much to save it in general. I’m not sure I really see any future Sniper films improving further on the formula here but I’ll still be curious to see how they turn out.

Overall 6/10

War Hunt Review

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This is one of those films that really gets into the nitty gritty of how war can really change a person. The soldiers involved in this war are really brought to the brink with one of them completely cracking. Although the film leaves the door open on if he was already broken before the term even started or if the service just widened the gap here.

The film takes place near the end of the Korean war. They are all hoping for peace but in the meantime the US army is tasked with making sure that they don’t lose any ground and that Korea really feels their muscle. Each day without a peace treaty is supposed to feel painful. The main character here is Loomis and he has been assigned to a new squad. Everything seems normal at first, except for on guy named Endore. He routinely goes outside at night on solo missions and seems a little off. Loomis quickly finds out that he is going around murdering enemy soldiers…but what can he do about this?

Now you may be wondering what the issue is. Well, there’s a big difference between taking down enemy soldiers mid combat vs seeking them out at night for private executions. Especially with the war winding down. Endore even runs around their dead bodies for some kind of weird ritual and the whole thing seems crazy. Unfortunately the only advice Loomis gets is to stay away from Endore. Yeah…that’s not very helpful now is it? It’s not like Loomis is a captain after all so he doesn’t have much power.

Adding onto the previous issues is the fact that he ends up twisting his foot and is out of action for a bit. Loomis completely froze up during his first fire fight and had to be saved by Endore. Things really couldn’t get much worse for the lead. Meanwhile there is a kid named Charlie who shows up by the camp. Loomis tries to be friends with him but Endore gets in the way as he doesn’t want Charlie to be having any fun. He seems to be training him as a future soldier of war.

It’s all a rather grim state of affairs. Even when the war is just about over, you still have more characters dying. It’s a mix of letting their guards down and just the tough luck of war. Until things are actually resolved, there is always going to be some danger. The captain did his best to stress this but it still didn’t result in a perfect outcome. You definitely can’t say that the film was trying to glamorize the war at all.

This movie is fairly quick so it all goes by rather quickly. After all there is only one-two main fights here and most of it is about the characters just trying to survive. At one point the Koreans launch a fairly big offensive where they just start bombing everything. They unleash massive amounts of firepower while Loomis and the other soldiers have to hunker down. It’s a tough mental battle as well because you don’t know when the enemies will run out of ammo and stop firing.

I think this probably would have been enough story to fill in the plot but I suppose adding in the crazy soldier helped to add more explosive drama in. It’s really hard to deal with a villain on your side during war time. There just isn’t any time to worry about that. The captain did good in taking decisive action when he had to. Loomis was yelling at him to stop and all but that was a moment of kill or be killed. I don’t believe there was any time to waver there even if it did result in another death. It was regrettable but his hand was forced at that point.

It just would have been nice if they could have saved the kid as well. I don’t think the orphanage life would have been great but Loomis was right that it would still be worlds better than trying to survive in the middle of nowhere on a war torn path. At least the kid would have had a chance and could have learned how to be a kid after that was stolen away from him. Letting Charlie remain in the wilderness definitely added onto the tragedy of the story. Made this into a full on sad ending rather than being ambiguous.

I was surprised that Loomis didn’t really have a big final scene though. After he froze during the first battle, I kind of thought that he would be the one to land the final shot. Show that he was now ready for what war entailed and that could be the mixed message about how war changes everyone in some way. Instead he was mostly helpless at the end anyway. I know it was a tough moment so I’m not trying to blame him too much but he really never got to step up.

Overall, I would definitely recommend War Hunt. It’s a pretty good film. It’s intense without being exploitive or anything like that. You can understand the grim tone and what has happened to the characters without the movie having to go all out in spoon feeding the answers to you. I would also say that the short length of the movie helps prevent it from dragging on. I don’t think you would have benefitted much from an extra 30 minutes as it would have really just been more detailed moments for the plots you already had at the ready.

Overall 6/10

That Thing You Do! Review

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It’s been a little while since I’ve seen a concert type film. This one does a good job of keeping the music front and center for the experience. You might be worried that the drama will overtake the music but that never happens in this case. You’ve got quite a few characters walking around and while the leads may not be the most likable, for the most part they aren’t terrible people either. Some are definitely better than others though.

The film starts out by introducing us to Guy who works at his father’s appliance store. His real passion is in music but he has to make ends meet. One day, a local band loses a member when he breaks his arm so they go to recruit Guy. Guy can’t pass up this opportunity and the group performs better than usual. This is actually due to Guy messing up the song and playing a lot quicker than the normal tempo. It was a fortunate mistake because the group become local celebrities over night. Their fame continues to grow as they are even signed by a big time company. Will this fame end up corrupting the group? Sometimes when fame hits this quickly, it has a tendency to tear folks apart.

For most of the movie the group is actually fine though. What you see are the cracks that begin to form. Jimmy is a little reluctant about all of these opportunities from the start after all. He feels like this is not following his artistic vision and does a lot of complaining. Even when they are filming a commercial for a big budget movie, he is still upset the whole time. There is no real pleasing him as he only wants to create records.

Jimmy is big on being a musician so it’s fine that he wants to make more music but it does feel like he’s taking the other opportunities for granted. Even nowadays it feels like musicians have to do a lot of things beyond just making music if they want to remain relevant for long. He needed to play ball more but things really escalate when his romance plot doesn’t go well. He was dating Faye for over 2 years but was apparently not planning on taking things further.

That always feels like a waste of time though. Why date someone for a long period of time when you’re not planning to get married in the end? I don’t think you should even date anyone if you’ve crossed off the idea of marriage. Obviously you can’t really know how things will end when you first start dating but the door should be open to the possibility. Then if that door closes at any point, you’ve gotta end things as quickly as possible. In this film it may have been one way but even if you have a relationship where both people are just in it for kicks, it’s going to be a bad idea. It just makes the whole thing futile and pointless.

Meanwhile for Faye, it was definitely a tough situation for her. She thought that things were going well the whole time and didn’t notice that Jimmy had withdrawn. I wouldn’t really put any fault on her there because it’s incredibly hard to discern that. In a way you never truly know another person so those kinds of twists and changes will usually be unexpected. I will say that I do judge her a bit on the rebound though. After a big relationship like that, you really need to just wait for a while before getting right back into the hunt. Rebounds in general are never a good idea because you’re running on pure emotion by that point.

As for our lead Guy, well he doesn’t do too well at the romance game either. He seems distracted by girls initially but his main passion is music. So he naturally needs to be with someone who is really interested in the business. Otherwise those relationships aren’t going to work. If he has fully picked music, then there’s nothing wrong with that, but he should know his limits and not pursue other things. He was always a good sport about tackling all of the musical gigs and leading the group though. When it comes to the band, he was second to none.

Then we have Lenny who mainly serves as the goofball of the group. He is always running around and causing a stir. He’s really good at being in the band but he really wants a girlfriend already. He spends his off hours always looking for one and flirting with everybody. That’s not usually a good sign for a long term relationship so how his plot ends is not really going to be a surprise to anybody. He worked well for the dynamic and seems like a decent friend but he’s not going to be the guy you can count on.

Finally we have Mr. White who was a really good manager. He clearly knew his stuff and pushed the group to succeed. He deserves a lot of credit because he kept it real with each of the members the whole time. Mr. White was cordial and treated them all like professionals while keeping up his boundaries. When Jimmy crashes out, White calmly reminds him of the contract and pushes forward from there. I was glad that he didn’t retreat at all. He’s seen this many times after all so this is just business as usual. You always want to have a boss like that.

The main song gets played a lot so you definitely hope that it’s a good one. I thought that it was reasonably catchy. It’s not exactly the kind of tune that I would be listening to but I wouldn’t be in a hurry to turn it off if it happened to be on the radio. The song is basically passable is what I’d say and that’s not a bad position to be in.

This film mainly excels with the good dynamic between the main characters. They all get along well and it’s nice to see them succeed even if I may not love any of them as individual characters. You do end up feeling bad for the original member who broke his arm though. We see that he got a job at the appliance store but he really missed out on what would have been a fun adventure all because of a little accident. That’s about as tragic as it gets.

Overall, This film shows that the life of a band can be really glorious but also incredibly short lived. It’s not the kind of gig that tends to go on forever after all. You have to enjoy it while you can and then go from there. You hope that the characters saved up enough money to be set for the rest of their lives although we do get epilogue notes for each of the characters. If you like a classic story about bands and enjoy the atmosphere then you’ll certainly enjoy the film. It does a good job of exploring that environment.

Overall 6/10

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension Review

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This is one of those films that is incredibly bonkers. There is a lot going on and the cast is intentionally huge to the point where you will have a hard time remembering all of them. The film even takes time at the very end to have each member of the cast do the slow hype walk as you try to remember what some of them contributed to the adventure. I always like a good parody type film and this one is good fun. I do think that the long length does start to take a bit of a toll by the very end though. So it might be a bit of a mixed bag by the very end but it certainly does a lot more right than wrong.

The film starts off by making sure that you really understand who Banzai is. He’s a world class scientist, a genius inventor, a really good musician, he has ties to the president, etc. This is basically the most important man in the world and everyone respects him greatly. He has now found a way to access the 8th dimension and so he is even more popular now. Unfortunately this breeds jealousy as another scientist had come close to doing this a while back but didn’t perfect it. He now intends to steal Banzai’s invention.

More importantly though, going across dimensions has resulted in some aliens getting loose. These guys had been in a war between alien factions and Banzai’s invention will allow all of them to get free and turn the tides of battle. Banzai will have to keep the invention safe, keep humanity free from the crossfire, and stop the evil aliens from causing any destruction. This may sound like an insurmountable task, but this is Buckaroo Banzai we’re talking about. He’s got this!

One thing to keep in mind here is that the film rarely takes itself all that seriously. It’s not a total slapstick fest or anything like that but at no point do you really think that Banzai is in danger. He can be tied up or getting zapped and yet he still has absolutely unbounded confidence in himself. That’s what you want to see from a leader though and the way he’s nonchalant about it adds to the humor. He makes for a good main character.

Now the romance he is involved with is not quite as good. See, he meets a girl named Penny who is the twin sister of his wife who died previously. Naturally that means any romance here would be absolutely ill advised and one of the worst possible rebounds you could do right? I don’t see how the film could even try to pursue this romance and yet it does. That was definitely a rough plot and while it doesn’t take up much of the focus, Penny is around a lot. She is integral to the plot which means getting kidnapped at least once. So even if the romance isn’t at the forefront, you’re thinking about it a lot.

The enemies are a little more on the forgettable side though. Since they look like humans, you’ll barely even think of them as aliens. They’re basically just like Star Trek villains. Nothing wrong with that but you don’t feel a lot of personality out of them. For such a crazy film, the villains are rather ordinary. In a way that’s one of the “jokes” which doesn’t work for the film which is that the story itself is played deadly serious. This whole alien war going on and these aliens trying to steal tech and attacking the humans? You don’t really care about any of it. You just want to see what crazy thing Banzai is going to do next.

So the drams isn’t really the film’s strongest aspect. The soundtrack is really nice, the humor is good, the special effects are fun, etc. The film excels at quite a lot of things but the story itself has to be the weakest aspect here. It’s just not all that compelling and is really just the device to show off what Banzai can do. If anything, for that reason I think they should have made the story a little less serious. Maybe give more time to Banzai’s team. They all get to do different things but as a result they don’t stand out much either. Focusing more on them or even giving the band a few more songs could have worked.

Alternately, I’d say make the film a bit shorter. Take away maybe 20 minutes and I think it would work a lot better. There are very few films that can make it almost 2 hours without losing steam unless it is an action based film. Making the pacing even more rapid would help quite a bit and then the middle wouldn’t drag much. Still, I can say that the film does have a lot of replay value because it does start really strong and the more you see it, I expect you will catch more and more subtle gags in there. This really could have been made into a whole franchise and I think it would have worked out well. There was a lot of potential here even if I think the film didn’t quite achieve all of it.

There is also a cliffhanger ending here but you can say it’s also just here to poke fun at the usual sequels. There’s a whole villain organization all of a sudden and these guys really mean business. It’s a bold way to end the film even if it is in a comedic way though. I thought it worked out pretty well and the film’s soundtrack helped with that. The whole scene is nice and catchy. This helped the film to end on a high note.

Overall, When you finish this film you’re probably going to feel a little tired. There’s a whole lot of content crammed into the film and that’s a good thing for the most part but usually it is hard to keep churning out good gags for a long enough period to make this all work. I would say even this film ends up faltering as it goes on. Even if it might drag out a little bit, I would still recommend watching the film just because of how crazy it is. I always appreciate when a film is really bonkers but treats everything within the film as being normal. I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a film that feels a bit different. You like adventure and comedy? Watch this one asap!

Overall 6/10