Category Archives: 6 Star Movies

Gifted Review

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Whenever you are born with incredible gifts there will be some temptation to use them and make a name for yourself. Sometimes you may prefer to hide them away and live as a normal person though. This film delves into that classic debate and makes for a fun drama. It goes by reasonably fast and has a lot of strengths to it.

The movie starts by introducing us to Mary who is currently being looked after by Frank. Her mother destroyed herself a while back and seemingly it was due to the pressure of being a genius who had to try and solve a math problem that was so difficult it took her whole life and was nearly unsolvable. Frank wants to make sure this doesn’t happen to Mary so he’s kept her enrolled in a normal school and tries to make sure she doesn’t spend too much time studying. It’s all going rather well until her grandmother Evelyn shows up to try and take custody of Mary. If she wins then Mary will be going to a school for the gifted and put on an accelerated track to stardom. Can Frank put a stop to the madness?

Now in terms of the debate itself, naturally it should be left up to the kid eventually but while they are so young, they can’t reasonably make that decision. For example, Mary may like studying a lot but if Frank tells her to stop then she will. Likewise if Evelyn decides to put her in a big school and encourages her to live her life studying then she will do that. Because the kid is so susceptible right now you have to make the choice and ultimately I would be more on Frank’s side. Now, I think he should have taken her to the advanced school because she was so bored in the current one but she shouldn’t need the pressure of thinking she has to succeed.

Mary should still be in a lot of extra curricular activities and playing around outside to keep her balanced. I’d say it’s clear that Frank was doing a better job of watching over her than Evelyn ever could have. As the main character it’s not surprising that he would be the best pick but I wouldn’t even say it was that close. Evelyn wasn’t around all this time and I’d say she could have found Frank and Mary sooner if she really wanted to. So from the start you have some doubts.

As for Evelyn, she makes for a good antagonist. As the villain you don’t expect her to play fair and she certainly doesn’t but she makes for a good opponent. If anything I think the film lets her off rather easy by the end. She did actively try to murder Mary’s cat and that’s really a nonstarter. From that point she went from being the antagonist who still had Mary’s best interests at heart to someone who only saw her as a tool to be famous. Evelyn lost all sympathy points from then on and I think they went a little too far in making her so unreasonable. For most of the film it was a fairly decent back and forth where you could respect Evelyn even if you didn’t agree with her. That was thrown out the window with the cat part.

Frank is a good lead but I do think he made some really poor decisions that came back to bite him here. For starters, having an affair with the teacher was absolutely awful. That’s the one thing you really can’t do, particularly when Mary is right next door. Sure, he didn’t expect her to walk in but she’s literally next door. The odds of this happening are not 0. If you have to have an affair then go to a motel or something. Considering the high stakes though Frank should have absolutely been on his best behavior and not doing anything like this.

As for Roberta, she was a nice neighbor who did her best to look out for Mary. She calls Frank out whenever he is making a mistake and also serves as a good friend to Mary. Mary didn’t exactly get along with the other kids at school so this way she at least had someone to talk to. As for Mary, she’s a decent enough kid. She does tend to overreact to things as they do but since she was smarter than most, her dialogue was also a bit better than some of the other kids you would tend to see. Would have been nice if she didn’t decide to just ditch Frank though. I know she was disappointed but cutting him out of her life was a bit disappointing.

Again, Frank could and should have been better like not blowing up at her about the weekend part but they had gotten along for so long that you think she would have given him another chance. As for the teacher, she’s okay but like Frank I have to blame her a bit for this affair as well. Having a relationship with the parent of a kid in her class is really a bad idea. I don’t see any way that something good can come out of that. It will backfire horribly every single time without fail.

Going back to Frank making mistakes though, another one is at the ending. So he catches Evelyn breaking the arrangement they had by seeing Mary in secret. He should have ran over to the judge and told him everything. Get her to move out of the place and then not even give her the notebook from Mary’s mother. I don’t think Evelyn earned that and having the judge give a complete victory to Frank would have been ideal. I think it would have been very difficult for Evelyn to have talked her way out of this one. The very fact that the foster parents were bought out should also get them into trouble for being negligent guardians.

Taking the cat to a shelter to be executed makes the whole thing even worse. I feel like a lot of characters got off easy now that I think about it. Frank should have taken them to town. Well, I suppose the important thing is that Mary’s in a good space now though. Hopefully everything will be on the up and up now as she has a good balance of being a genius and doing normal things. A sequel about her while Mary is grown up could be a good amount of fun.

Overall, Gifted is a solid film. There are some questionable decisions and moments that keep this one from being a bit better but in all you’ll still have a good time. The pacing is on point and the film has a solid cast of characters. I thought Mary’s character was handled well here and the ending should be satisfying for all parties involved. It’s a drama that never tends to get too dramatic and the writing is good so it was a well made film all around.

Overall 6/10

Divorce American Style Review

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A film about divorce is definitely something that you don’t see very often. Showing this as a comedy is also something you probably would not have expected right off the gate. Unfortunately it doesn’t work as well as it could have because both of the main characters just go away too far so by the time everything is said and done, it’s hard to see them being together again. You just can’t believe it and that’s not a good sign since they’re the main characters here. I think if they could have stayed off the rebound then this could have really worked.

The movie starts off by showing us a lot of couples having a ton of fights every night. We then cut to the main duo of Richard and Barbara who are definitely not having a fun time at the moment. They fight about everything and the rift between them is only growing larger and larger. They used to be so close so it’s a shame o see what has happened to them. They just can’t have a single conversation without something going wrong and so they end up going for a divorce but who will ultimately win? Barbara and Richard both want to keep as much of the money and assets as possible but only one can have a favorable deal.

Lets dive right into why this film doesn’t ultimately end up being as good as it should be. When the two characters split up, you figure they’ll be back together by the end of the movie. That’s just how these things go. The real problem is that you then have to make sure that both parties don’t do something they’ll regret like having an affair. Unfortunately they do, both characters immediately go back onto the dating scene and seem to be incredibly desperate. They date quickly and move on with their affairs without any delay. So as soon as that happens its just hard to look forward to the ending because they were so quick to have a moment with someone else.

If the two were really as close as all that, they should not have dated anyone even after splitting up. If you were going to have them do this then they shouldn’t get back together at the end of the movie. It all just doesn’t track well and hurts the two characters quite a lot. It even puts a bit of a damper on the humor itself because the characters just aren’t likable anymore. Maybe you should just root for the rebound characters to win instead at that point although you know they’re doomed from the start.

Now on to who was responsible for the issues. Well, it seems like Barbara was the instigator from how the film picks up. Of course we know that they’ve been having a lot of issues so it’s hard to say who really started it but from how the film makes it appear, Barbara is at fault in most of the circumstances. She’s overly critical when Richard comes in and really just keeps going at him the whole time. Richard was at least trying to ask questions about what was wrong so they could talk things over but she didn’t seem to want to talk most of the time. It takes ages to get anything out of her until Richard starts breaking dishes.

It was interesting to see that the kids even had a scorecard because of how often this happens every night so they would tally up each fight. Clearly this dynamic has been the same way for a very long time at this point. From there things only escalate as this goes into court but even then Barbara’s demands are all outrageous. Richard basically has to pay for everything even though she owns it now in addition to making the regular payments. It doesn’t seem very fair and of course this is part of the humor but throughout the film it felt like Barbara was delivering gut punches to Richard while he kept holding up the white flag.

She would act apologetic at times but it doesn’t mean much when she’s still having a blast out there. So no matter how you slice it, Richard was really getting the short end of the stick here. He’s lucky that prices were so low back then because otherwise he would have really been doomed. Seeing him order a full McDonalds combo for under $1 was crazy. It reminds you just how much prices have changed over the years. Nowadays even with the app that would probably be close to 10 bucks.

Richard was a fun character but he wasn’t without his faults either. The guy did get drunk quite often and that would put him in sticky situations like when one of his friends tried to get him to have an affair. That would have really been a bad move. Fortunately he was able to get out of that in time but he should never have been in that situation in the first place. Then later on he does break down and gets together with Nancy which was also a shame.

As for the rebound characters, both Nancy and Big Al seem decent enough but you know that they’re doomed so it’s hard to get too invested. I’ll at least give Big Al some credit for not getting involved until the divorce was actually complete. It seemed like Nancy was ready even while this was in progress which is really not a good look for her. She also seems quite well off so why even get another partner? Apparently she still likes her husband but can’t get together officially again or it would cut off her finances. Why not get together unofficially though? Seems to me like that would be easier.

The writing and dialogue is fun as always though. I always liked those old time scripts with everyone talking in such a dignified way. It’s something that you can’t really capture in a modern title. Not in the same way at least, people just talked differently back then and it was very entertaining. The humor works well in some scenes too. It’s definitely not their most entertaining picture but Richard really manages to sell his scenes. I think his booming voice definitely works well for when he’s shocked and starts yelling about it. Even the scenes where he and Barbara are fighting tends to be entertaining as a result.

I’d say the film is fairly long but doesn’t really end up dragging out. It just boils down to the fact that the romance was really on the weaker side here which ends up impacting the whole experience. This is not a film that should have had a rebound romance at all and including that in there ends up weakening the film a lot. It’s a film that should have focused more on the comedy aspect of their being single again. You know, as much as I’m glad that the kids didn’t have a big role here, it might have been better if they were fighting to impress the kids instead of focusing on the romance angle of it. That would have been an improvement.

I’d say the weakest part outside of the romance is the scene where we are introduced to the guy with a ton of kids from various marriages and the hypnosis scenes. Both of these scenes have a common factor which is that they are extremely stretched out. The best humor scenes are the ones where you’ve got a witty retort or some quick gags to run through. When you take that same gag and just keep on going it ends up losing its steam immediately and that’s what happens here. I’d have cut the hypnosis scene out entirely and for the multiple marriages guy I’d have just reduced that by about half of its screen time. Instead give more time to the friends of each main character so they can dish out more poorly thought out advice. Hearing bad advice from the friends can always be entertaining in its own right as its a test to see how gullible the leads can be.

You could also have more fun with some of the supporting characters like the two attorneys. I liked those guys right off the bat and how they knew this wasn’t personal. They may have been opponents in the court room but were still friends outside of it. It was a fun dynamic and that’s the kind of humor that the film is best on. Focus on that and you’d have a stronger experience all around.

Overall, This film certainly shows how expensive divorce can be and why you want to make sure that you’ve found the right person so you don’t have to be going trough this process. While likely not as exaggerated as it was depicted here, things can definitely go quite poorly for you if you get divorced. These two characters ended up causing each other a whole lot of damage so even once they are back together again you can’t help but feel that things will take some time to get back to 100%. If anything it’s like nothing has changed so they’re one step away from doing it all over again. Check the film out if you want some laughs and don’t have a better comedy film on the docket but you can do better than this one.

Overall 6/10

The Long, Long Trailer Review

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This is a film where the title is definitely very accurate. The whole movie involves the long trailer from start to finish and the journey along with it. That said, I thought it was a bit weaker than I was expecting it to be. The movie just drags on a bit and while it’s still a fun adventure, there is less variety than in the average comedy type movie like this. At its core that’s what the issue with the movie is. It needed more unique moments.

So the movie starts off with Nicky in the rain looking for his wife in a trailer. The whole thing looks rather odd so an older man tells Nicky to wait in his little house since it’s impossible to pass by it without being seen. Nicky then decides to share his story and almost the rest of the film is a flashback. He and Tacy had a reasonably solid marriage and things were going well but she desperately wanted to move into a trailer. Nicky was completely against the idea and I can’t say that I blame him because this does not sound like a good move. They shop around but ultimately end up going for a really small one that still breaks the bank. The trailer has a lot of things wrong with it and may even destroy their marriage. Can they overcome this vehicle?

Now it’s nice that Nicky ends up relenting so Tacy can get her trailer but he was really right and should have stuck his ground here. A trailer is a ton of work since you need to drive it around, find a place to park it, find utilities, etc. It’s not like you just have running water and a nearby town to get supplies from. It seems to me like you usually only live in a trailer as a last resort but not because you really want to be there. This is probably the first time I’ve seen a character actually want to make the change.

It makes even less sense when you consider how good the house that they were living in was. It wasn’t some run down little apartment or anything like that, it was actually a pretty solid place to live. Deciding to leave there was a big mistake. Well, they end up getting the trailer and they do their best with it, but it just doesn’t work. The whole thing shakes, you can get stuck in the mud, etc. I have to say that living in a trailer seems like even harder work than I would have guessed. There are just so many things that you have to take into account in everyday life with this.

One scene I did appreciate is how close the community apparently is. Everyone jumps up to help when Tacy isn’t feeling very well and apparently they have whole communities for the people with trailers. It’s nice to see that they’ve got some kind of support network going and honestly they probably should have just stuck with this group. I know the main two wanted some privacy so they went out again but maybe they should have just stayed long enough to at least pick up some tips and tricks.

Ultimately I have to mainly give a lot of grief to Tacy in the end though. So the heroes end up having to cross a huge mountain to get to their destination and this will be extremely dangerous. To help their odds of survival increase, Nicky lets Tacy know to toss out her random rocks that show every place they’ve been. Tacy agrees but secretly keeps them which almost results in their death. If you’re going to keep the rocks then keep them but lying about this nearly ended up being fatal for both of them. It’s easy to see how there was a lot of friction here as a result.

Now this is one of those crazy comedies where both characters will have their unreasonable moments but I think it’s fair to say that for most of the adventure, Tacy was not handling this very well. She really wanted the trailer but wasn’t going to be able to make it work. Not to say you can blame everything on her since she couldn’t have known what was going to happen. She just ended up putting them in this dilemma.

As for Nicky, well he tends to get overly emotional at times. It comes with the territory of trying to roll with these crazy schemes but he does nothing to help the tension between him and Tacy. Throwing out the rocks and running off just serve to amp things up even more. All in all I still liked the banter between the main two and the humor is what carries the film. It may not make both characters all that likable individually but the strong dialogue will ensure that they are both memorable.

Where the film falters as I mentioned is that it just feels like not much happened. Just look at the plot description that I used, it pretty much encompasses the entire film and that’s not very long. It’s all about the characters riding around in their trailer without ever making any real progress here. I suppose the drive up to the mountain was decent but in a way I just wanted some scenes outside of the trailer. So in a sense the premise itself limited the film. There just wasn’t a lot going on and it shows that there are only so many jokes you can do with a trailer.

Overall, The Long, Long Trailer is a good movie but not a very good one. There’s not a whole lot of replay value here and while the movie doesn’t drag on or anything like that, it won’t keep your interest quite as much as it should. There’s enough world building and potential here for sequels that have a completely different plot though. If you want to watch a retro comedy film then this isn’t a bad watch. As a one and done it’ll do the job even if you think it could have been better. The moral here is that the grass is always greener and sometimes you gotta be satisfied with what you have.

Overall 6/10

Bloodshot Review

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Bloodshot is one of those origin stories where not a lot of people know about him. At the very least I wouldn’t call him mainstream just yet and since the film didn’t knock it out of the park, it’ll probably stay that way. It might have done better if the trailer had not revealed the big twist early on but it’s always tough deciding what should and should not be in the trailer so I won’t blame them too hard there. I thought it was an enjoyable film, one that probably should have been longer but it was fun.

The movie starts with Ray completing another government mission. He’s proven to be one of their best warriors at this point and afterwards he goes on another mission. Unfortunately this one doesn’t go well and his wife is kidnapped and murdered. Ray is murdered shortly afterwards but is revived by a mysterious group led by Dr. Emil. Emil tells Ray that he now has superhuman abilities since his blood has been replaced by nanites. He can heal extremely fast now and can hack just about anything. Ray decides to use these abilities to locate his wife’s killer at any cost. Can he pull this off?

One annoying thing right off the bat is how Ray’s fighting style gets super sloppy after he has his powers. Remember how he was an expert government agent who would go into dangerous situations and always left with his life intact? Not anymore. Now he jumps into every single bullet and trap possible. The reason isn’t just that he’s lazy but also because he wants to strike fear into the villains. Fine, that’s fair enough but it’s still no excuse to put his abilities to their limits. He nearly does push himself too far as he gets blasted a lot. Imagine if he had actually died against the random thugs in the beginning? That would have been extremely embarrassing.

Ray’s a good character beyond that but it did make every fight annoying. Ray is a very determined guy who will stop at nothing to avenge his wife. The scene where he immediately hacks all of the tech around was very impressive and he didn’t waste any time in using his abilities. He had his priorities set from the start and nobody was going to stop him. So that’s the best quality in him and that makes for a good lead. Where he falters is in the romance angle.

The film’s romance is quite weak from start to finish. So Ray’s just lost his wife and he’s already rebounding with KT? That’s pretty bad tbh. I give characters a lot of grief even after it’s been a few weeks but we’re talking 1 day. That’s insane. It then makes the romance scenes with his wife in the beginning look worse since you realize how easy it is for that bond to be broken. All of this adds up to hurting Ray for sure.

I respect him as a great fighter and it’s always fun to see him take names but off the battlefield he struggles quite a lot. Then there’s the main heroine KT who is not on the right side for most of the film but at least there is a decent reason here. When you can’t even breath without tech support and you know that someone has direct access to it, that will always make things a little slippery. You want to be careful not to rock the boat all that much. At least she speaks up more than the others and she can fight when needed. So in the end I thought KT was solid.

Emil is your classic scientist type so there isn’t a whole lot to him. I did think his acting was funny when he has to go through a script. Emil has a lot of fun with it and so I’ll also give him credit for his determination. The guy has a goal and will do anything to achieve it, even if it means reading the same lines a lot of times. Not just anyone would be able to pull that off.

The other villains were really on the weaker side though. None of them were particularly impressive either with their designs of personalities. You had the one insane guy who likes to gloat when the opponent can’t fight back. He seems to really enjoy his part in resetting someone to a rather disturbing extent. One thing’s for sure, you don’t want to be friends with this guy. Then you have another villain who’s heart isn’t really in it but he helps the villains out anyway so I’m giving him 0 credit for that. I don’t care if you’re half hearted about it, if you’re a villain then you’re a villain. Don’t now what else to tell you on that. Voicing some doubts doesn’t help as some kind of consolation victory.

Wigans is the resident genius in the film. He does have a counterpart in the base but you could tell that guy was out of his league from the start. It’s too bad they couldn’t interact though as that would have been fun. Wigans is the kind of guy who is always talking fast to try and stay on top of the conversation and keep everyone confused. It’s fortunate that he knows how to code so well since otherwise I could see someone bumping him off. The humor works well enough here although I’d say his rival was better in that department. So what the rival lacked in skills he made up for here.

While I give the action scenes a thumbs down, the effects are solid. I always like seeing what regeneration looks like in a film and this one definitely got that down to a fine art. The regeneration looks really sharp and most importantly, practical. The nano limits are also established well and visually you can tell when the main hero is starting to weaken. You like to think he’ll be stronger for the sequel if he has to fight other powered fighters and the ending pretty much confirms that so you don’t have to worry about it too much.

Now my main issue is that one part of the film doesn’t get enough time so it’s time for the spoiler paragraphs. Skip the next two if you haven’t seen the film yet and then come back to them later on. It’s a really interesting plot dynamic so if you don’t know it yet you may want to keep it that way. Remember, skip the next two paragraphs and then you’re all set.

So we find out that Bloodshot’s whole origin here is a lie. His wife wasn’t murdered but the group have been putting fake memories into his head. They then change the identity of the person who “murdered” the wife and in doing so they have turned Bloodshot into a murder machine. It’s sort of like the Weapon X program. So the first batch of scenes with Bloodshot escaping the group and enacting his revenge was staged every time as they wanted him to escape. We see that they have been doing this for a very long time. The villains just read their scripts in the same way each time to ensure we get the same results.

It’s all quite brilliant if you ask me but my issue is that we only see the last one that works without a hitch. I think this should have been the second or third attempt. We could then get a montage of this happening more and more. The reason for that is it would help really sink in the fact that they have been manipulating him from day 1 and how traumatic that is when he wakes up. Actually seeing this more than once would have been very helpful for that reason. Not saying we need to see the whole sequence but at least good chunks of it each time.

Overall, Bloodshot may not have been a great movie but I did think it was good. It handled the origin story effectively and gets you hyped up for what could be in the universe. I think the series should stay away from the romance although that’s probably a little too late at this point. That’s one of the angles that holds it back a bit and one part of the origin should have definitely been longer. I also think you could do a lot more with the fight scenes. Don’t have Bloodshot act as a complete sponge the whole time. Yes, he can take damage but he shouldn’t be pushing it like that or he could end up losing to someone weak.

Overall 6/10

Asylum Review

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Anthologies usually aren’t the right format for me. There aren’t a whole lot of benefits that come with this style but a lot of weaknesses as a good story could be brought down by some others. Fortunately this was a rather strong collection of stories or at least a lot stronger than I was expecting. My confidence in horror films is not very high so I was expecting something pretty bad here. in the end I was impressed and this is better than most other rival titles.

The film starts off with Dr. Martin heading to an Asylum. A position has opened up and he has expressed interest in being there. The head doctor Lionel wants to give him a test first. Martin must interview with each of the patients there. This will let him get acquainted with the place and patients while also testing Martin’s skills. See, one of these guys is the actual head doctor -Starr, but the guy went crazy so now Lionel runs the place. He wants Martin to tell him which of the patients is Starr. With that, Martin heads to the rooms and begins to learn each of the stories there. Can he make the right call or will this just break him as well?

The first story involves a guy who is cheating on his wife with another lady. He figures that the only way to escape is to murder her so he takes her down to the basement and bumps her off. He’s quite thorough about it and figures that she won’t be a threat anymore while in pieces but quickly discovers that this isn’t the case. Her remaining parts are still able to move so she takes him down for the count and then scares the other girl into insanity. In the present Martin doesn’t believe that a dead person could possibly have kept moving and figures that the girl is insane.

This was a decent way to start off the batch. The story does seem a whole lot like the one in Creepshow so it isn’t very original but it does set up the atmosphere. The characters are all made to be super unlikable but of course you are rooting for the wife to get the last laugh here. Since the stories are all told from the present there is also an interesting dynamic here since you know that the person telling the story has to survive the experience. The rest of the characters aren’t quite as safe though. So, is this character crazy or was it supernatural? You will need to ask yourself that after each story.

Next up was a mysterious suit that made someone go crazy. See, this guy was a tailor but he was hard on cash at the moment because people just weren’t buying his suits or needed theirs fixed. Fortunately one guy stops in with a very expensive order one day. He’s a bit eccentric though and tells the guy to only work on the suit at night and to follow a ton of instructions. The tailor follows most of them rather well but gets greedy and does prick the suit once. Unfortunately the client isn’t as rich as he acted and apparently has nothing to pay with. This leads to a scuffle and the suit actually becomes alive. The tailor is now scared out of his wits and has been driven insane.

Definitely a good second story and one of my favorite ones. It reminds me of why you need to ask for cash up front or you are likely going to be swindled. Otherwise you end up with the client suddenly not having the money when you were counting on it. It seems a little less scary than the other stories though so it’s hard to see how this would make the guy so insane. I mean, it’s weird to have a glowing suit that’s actually alive I guess but it’s not too crazy. Still, it made for a fun segment.

In the third story we have a girl who previously suffered some kind of crazy episode. Her brother has taken her to his big mansion so she can rest. The lady is rather upset though because the doctor’s orders are fierce and include her having to take a mandatory nap every day while it’s still bright and early. Fortunately her twisted friend Lucy appears and says they can run away together. The main character just has to beat her pills addiction. Unfortunately it appears that Lucy was not actually real and the main character is just really insane as she bumped everyone off.

I would say the main thing holding the story back is that it feels obvious that Lucy is not real from the start. Of course the twist could be that she is real but otherwise you think that the main character really is crazy. In the first two stories you don’t think that necessarily but here it’s hard to believe that there was anything supernatural going on here. It ends up just being sad for the victims who weren’t able to do much here. I would end up putting this as the weakest story out of the bunch.

Finally you have another story with the doctor as the antagonist. His name is Dr. Byron and he is a genius in just about every field but now wants to focus on mannequins. He figures that he has solved the mysteries of the soul and can throw one inside the doll. It’s a rather impressive invention if possible but it all seems rather crazy. Nobody would believe any of this but what’s ominous is that they can make for an exceptional fighting force if they’re real although there is a big weakness to linking your mind to a very small and very breakable doll.

Well, those were the various stories here. As you can see, this was actually a rather fun batch the whole time. The stories tended to rely more on atmosphere than being super violent or anything. The villains didn’t go too far and the asylum was a good way to connect each of the stories. It was always fun to see Martin walk into the room and get things started. I liked the guy’s absolute confidence the whole time and the way he handled himself in the climax as well. Martin demanded respect at all times and wasn’t going to just be playing games or get tested.

That said, his reactions towards the end were pretty bad. The guy is not good at adapting on the fly, I think it’s safe to say that this is a big weakness for him. I wasn’t a fan of Lionel though. The guy seems petty and unreasonable for no real reason. He really didn’t have to go so far to make everyone turn against him. Honestly if he had handled things a little more carefully then it all could have gone better for him. I did like the guy who was in charge of watching the inmates a lot though. You could tell that he was very confident at all times and it’s also impressive how he was not afraid to be alone with these guys. That puts him a cut above the rest and also gives you a reason to be cautious around him. Everyone else has gone crazy so how has he stayed sane?

The unnerving feeling in the atmosphere the whole time serves the movie well. The stories are all really solid and the writing’s good. I definitely couldn’t ask for much more about a horror film in an asylum. It’s hard to top this. The climax worked well and what was equally as important as the stories were the scenes that tied them all together. It was easy to like Martin right from the start so you were definitely rooting for him. Horror films usually have a twist at the end and even knowing that, this one was quite effective.

Of course the question is, were they all insane or was this supernatural? Most of the leads really didn’t seem like quacks but lets go through all of them. The 4th story is the easiest one because we have proof that it works. So he wasn’t crazy and there was nothing supernatural going on. The guy is just an incredible genius who pulled his plan off without a hitch. Then there’s the 3rd story with the imaginary friend. In this case the main character is absolutely crazy and there was nothing supernatural going on. The biggest evidence of this is that she still sees Lucy in the present.

In the second story I don’t think the guy was crazy and this time there was a supernatural element. The book of bringing things to life was very real and same with the vampire. So this guy should be let out of the asylum. Finally in the first story it’s a little closer but I would say the girl is not crazy and that the body parts were moving a bit as part of the supernatural. So out of the 4 stories, 2 were supernatural and only one of the 4 leads was crazy. Not great for the Asylum’s intake staff but Lionel made it clear that he didn’t care about their stories anyway and just wanted to lobotomize them.

Overall, Asylum is a solid horror film that I would recommend. It’s quite rare that I have used that sentence before so you know that this one really ended up shining above the rest. I don’t expect a remake/reboot could easily outdo this one so it’s best to leave it as a oneshot for now. A sequel would be interesting though to see what happened to everyone. I want to say that everyone’s okay but I expect they could be as crazy as ever since this place isn’t exactly trying to cure anyone.

Overall 6/10

The Lost Valentine Review

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The Lost Valentine is a very emotional story about how war can certainly turn a romance tragic very quickly. The movie deals with the aftermath of that and makes for a solid emotional story. I wouldn’t say it’s a great one but it should keep your attention from start to finish. There’s also some good detective work at play here so the plot moves quite actively.

The movie starts by introducing us to Caroline whose husband went missing during the war and was presumed dead. Since this wasn’t official, Caroline would go to the train station where they promised they would meet every year on Valentine’s. She would sit there all day and then go home. Rinse and repeat for decades. Well, one channel thinks they can get a good pay day out of this so reporter Susan is put onto the case. Her mission is to get the full story from Caroline. Susan’s not thrilled about this since she finds it boring and has a very bad first impression with Caroline’s grandson as a result. Can she turn this around and get the story or is that game over?

In a lot of ways the film could have been over after the first few minutes when Susan was badmouthing Caroline in front of Lucas. Now, they weren’t direct insults to her but she was criticizing the story and saying that it wasn’t very important. If I’m Lucas I’d shut the whole thing down right there. Hard to forget about insults like that. While of course we learn that Susan ends up finding the whole story very moving and gets into it, if you’re Lucas you would probably have a lot of doubts for a long while. Not until she actually starts doing some detective work would I think that her heart is into this.

Susan’s definitely crafty about how she gets in to get the story though. She basically forces her way into the house and from there it would be awkward for Lucas to throw her out. So you have to give Susan some points there and of course her character arc does end up working out positively. I thought it was a bit iffy how she ran back to her day job once Lucas got upset at her but since she didn’t give up on the assignment, I didn’t dock any major points off of her. Ultimately she may have been judgmental at the beginning but got to be a good character by the end.

As for Lucas, well he’s a solid character as well. He does well in his physical therapy job and even had the time to write a book as well. Unfortunately he is the kind of guy who reads too much into a situation and quickly jumps to the wrong conclusions. A romance drama like this will always have that one big misunderstanding moment, but this one felt very forced. (Okay, most of them feel forced) Lucas decides to be rather rude to her as a result which shows that he wasn’t as cool with being “just friends” as he should have been. Additionally, lets say that it wasn’t a misunderstanding…she had hinted that she was together with someone earlier. Even his parents and grandmother knew that but told him to go over to try and win her over. So what’s with the big personality shift here? I thought he was way off base.

With Susan just coming off another relationship so this was a rebound and Lucas being like this, I can tell you that I was not a big fan of this romance. It just didn’t end up working well for me at all. Since it’s a big focus that does hurt the film to an extent. The romance with Caroline was a lot better as she never rebounded and stayed loyal with visiting the train station all these years. She’s definitely the kind of person you’d want to be friends with. Caroline does a lot of volunteering in her spare time as well and just ends up being a very solid character. Her husband was also great as we see him in the flashbacks saving various characters. There were several times where he could have escaped and saved himself but each time he took the high road and did what he could to keep everyone safe. Now that’s what I call drive and determination!

As always you can count on the friends of the main characters to give the worst possible advice at all times though. This is pretty much a staple for the friends to be bad in romances though. You’ve got Susan’s friends telling her to just marry the guy she’s not super interested in because he’s a good guy. I mean…it’s nice that they’re trying to be supportive but you never want to “settle” on someone just because they’re not bad. I don’t think that’s a good way to build a long term relationship. Then you have Lucas’ parents and Caroline saying it doesn’t matter if Susan already has a boyfriend, just assume he’s not the right one and try to win her over. I suppose the game’s not over until she’s married but if someone’s taken then I’d say 9 times out of 10 it’s time to move on and think about someone else. Or just be okay on your own, you can still be quite content that way.

Overall, The Lost Valentine is a good film. I wasn’t a fan of the main romance but the writing is still good and the characters are reasonable. The movie is fairly short so you have to move through things at a fairly rapid pace. That does mean that the romance doesn’t have a lot of time to develop but at the same time you don’t want things to drag out either. I’d say the balance was good enough and you do feel happy for Caroline to have some closure at the end. She had definitely gone through a lot so this way she got to have some happy memories at the end. The flashbacks were also good to give the story more depth, honestly that may have even made for a stronger film if we had stayed in the past the whole time. Would have been a more tragic ending though.

Overall 6/10

The Mysterious Strangler Review

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The Mysterious Strangler is a film that really goes by the books without trying any big twists. As soon as the main character starts to get very obsessive about his work you have a feeling where this is going. If only he could have stayed strong right? Well, that was never going to happen but it feels like the film almost forgot to start including the actual strangling. So we get a speed run near the end but most of the film was rather low key.

The film starts with a man named Styles being murdered for the crime of strangling a lot of people. He says that he didn’t do it even as they hang him. We then jump 20 years into the future where a writer named James wants to prove that the guy was innocent after all. There was no real evidence to support that Styles committed the crime aside from a lot of circumstantial evidence that kept on adding up. Superintendent Burk thinks that this is madness since it’s a 20 year old cast but lets James continue his investigation. Shortly afterwards the murders start up again though. Why would they start up again after 20 years like this? It is quite alarming and now the main characters must find the culprit right away.

With the murders back up you have to assume that either the original murderer is still out there or this is some kind of copycat. Either scenario would work well enough when you think about it but the timing next to James’ investigation is a big thing to note. If James had started doing this to try and help his theory that would have certainly been a crazy twist. Unfortunately the cops are often too late to stop the strangler from taking his victims down so there is a bit of a body count by the end.

The writing is solid enough. I liked the dialogue between the characters and it always has a very mature feel to it. The characters address each other respectively and know what is going on the whole time. They’re all professionals after all and even the corrupt security guard has a lot of bravado to him. James has nobody to blame but himself for expecting this guy to come in handy as a witness later on. Why would the cop ever admit to helping him break into a grave when that crime would put him out of a job? James definitely was lacking a bit of situational awareness there.

Randomly we see that the prison and asylum are both rather crazy. At prison they’re just casually beating everyone to death and in the Asylum they handle James very roughly and even force him to eat some porridge in the most disturbing scene in the film. The climax definitely goes from 0-100 really fast with the twists too so the film wasn’t really holding back to end things. The way one character jumps through a window is even unintentionally funny. There’s no real reason for all the urgency and running at this point but I suppose it just couldn’t be helped.

For the cast here, they are all okay at best. James is a very obsessive main character who absolutely wants to be right and is quick to go into threats You can’t really trust the guy all that much. He’s also so completely convinced that Styles is innocent without having any real evidence on hand so in a way isn’t he just the opposite extreme of everyone saying that Styles was guilty? James is also quick to break the law to further his own ambitions, so you definitely want to keep an eye on him.

As for Burk, he was my favorite character here. The guy may not have bought into the theory at all but when the murders started he did take the whole thing very seriously and jumped right on in. His ego didn’t stop him or anything like that, he was just determined to solve the mystery and put an end to all of this. He even did his best to try and convince James that he wasn’t crazy which was considerate of him. You couldn’t ask for much more from the superintendent.

There’s also a very mild subplot where James’ partner wants to marry James’ daughter. The main character really has no time to think about this but is upset that he was basically the last person to find out about this and wasn’t even told directly. That’s a pretty valid complaint I suppose since you’d think they would have mentioned it a bit sooner. Oh well, better late than never I suppose. I don’t think James would have taken it super well in any event.

There’s quite a few random dancing scenes in the movie as well. This all leads up to the dancers being the main victims of the Strangler and I’ve noticed that they seem to be the targets of the villain quite a bit. At least recently it seems like I’ve seen a few films where the villains head after the dancers. I suppose they figure that these are easy targets but the scenes can last a while where you feel like the plot is frozen. It would be better to skip the performances and we just see the Strangler running around.

While played seriously, there are two murders that almost appear to be part comedy. One is when a fire is started so the guard runs in and quickly gets taken out. You’d think he would have been a little more cautious considering where he was. Then you had one of the girls who was baking some bread and kept on singing so she never heard the Strangler until he approached. The cops had just arrived to check if he was there but she was super dismissive and knew that nobody had appeared.

Also, I should note that the Strangler only has one good arm. You’d think that this would make it a little easier for the victims to take him out but unfortunately they still end up getting crushed by every trick. I thought that was a little crazy, you mean to tell me that nobody thought to trip him up or do something? A one armed villain can’t do nearly as much as someone with two arms, that’s just basic addition right there. I know that this is an old horror film where the victims can’t do much of anything but I’d have liked to see some of them fight back.

Overall, The Mysterious Strangler is a fairly run of the mill film and compared to most titles in the genre it’s quite good. The mystery at least gives it a little more depth than the others even if the culprit is clear from the start. I mean as soon as you hear the summary and recognize the main actor you probably know something’s about to go down. That’s probably the issue with being so well known I suppose. The film stays classier than most Hammer productions though and never gets too violent. The movie’s also short and should keep your interest the whole time so I wouldn’t call it bad. Put simply, this isn’t a great film but it’s good enough to warrant a watch if you need to pass some time by.

Overall 6/10

Ready or Not Review

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

Hide and Seek was always a lot of fun as a kid. The apartment’s not huge or anything but it was still fun finding a place to hide and seeing how long I could last. In a mansion I feel like the game would always take a very long amount of time, especially since you could keep moving around. Turns out that this makes for a very solid film premise. So much so that you forget this is a horror film half the time. I kind of thought of it as a comedy/thriller the whole time and I’d say that’s a complement to the film. This one ended up being better than I would have expected.

The movie starts with Alex getting ready to marry Grace. He’s super rich and so his family make a big deal about the whole thing. None of them seem to like Grace very much but she doesn’t mind. After all, she’s going to be marrying Alex so he’s the only one that matters now and he is super rich too so she’ll have a lot of things to keep her busy. That night there is one last tradition now that the two have been married. Grace just needs to play a little game with the family…hide and seek. The rules are simple. The family will try to murder her at all costs and she just has to survive until Dawn. Easy right?…..

Right away you can tell that this family is absolutely insane. It’s also a premise that’s very bonkers but also exciting. To add a bit more context here, it’s not like they try to murder the bride every time, or else they wouldn’t be such a big family. See, the tradition is that they have to play some kind of game and usually it’s one that is quite harmless like Old Maid. The only game that is life or death is Hide and Seek. Also, it’s a game that the family really doesn’t want to lose. Why? Because if they don’t murder her by Dawn then they will all die as foretold by the prophecy. Grace is initially at a disadvantage because she doesn’t know about these stakes but she quickly finds out the hard way.

Now your first question is probably why Alex didn’t tell her this right? The short answer is because he’s a chump and easily the worst character in the film. The long answer is that he was worried she wouldn’t marry him when she found out how insane this whole thing was and perhaps a small part of him believed the curse that they would all die if he didn’t show up with her. I’m sure the greedy part of him figured that a different game would be chosen and so her life wouldn’t be at risk anyway. In that case I wonder if he ever would have told her, or at leas the would have waited until it actually happened.

As Alex spits out these excuses in short order you can casually throw them all to the side. None of this blocks the fact that he’s an awful person and there’s no excuse for putting Grace in this mess. He looks absolutely dreadful throughout the movie and even if he’s not one of the active participants trying to murder her for most of the movie, he’s still the worst character here. So many excuses and so little time.

Grace does well to keep it together the whole time considering how unexpected this is. It takes her a little while to figure out what’s going on but once she does, Grace proves to be a very resilient fighter. She takes on a lot of injuries, including a particularly painful one with the screw, but keeps on going. By the end she’s nearly lost her voice with how frantic the whole thing has become. She thinks fast at the very ending too and also has a solid last line. Ultimately I don’t think she’ll be considering marriage again anytime soon but this experience will certainly have made her stronger.

The rest of the family are all insane. Don’t let some of their calm attitudes and personalities fool you. They may be joking around but they’re all trying to murder Grace so that means they are just cool about doing this. Not a very good look for them if you think about it. The first one here is Daniel and at least he has a bit more of a conscience than the others. He doesn’t actually want to murder Grace but at the same time he isn’t brave enough to openly go against it. So he just makes sure that he’s useless in the chase which indirectly does buy her some time. By the end I had him as one of the best characters.

He certainly puts in more of an effort than the rest of these guys and deserves some level of credit for that. All of these characters are guilty to an extent just for participating though. Then you have Charity who is the exact opposite of Daniel. She is eagerly doing her best in this hunt because she wants to stay in the family no matter once. She hints that she had a rather rough upbringing and so becoming rich was the best things that happened to her. She is more proactive about this than just about all of the other characters to be honest.

Tony is really one of the ringleaders here as the father. He believes they have to follow the rules absolutely although he does relent to using the security cameras to cheat once it’s been a while. So in that sense he is willing to break the rules once it’s convenient. Becky is a little more sympathetic to Grace’s plight but at the same time she is certainly aiming to murder her so it doesn’t mean much. That’s why to some extent you almost prefer the ones who are openly trying to get Grace because the ones who talk tough about how they feel bad aren’t doing anything about it. It doesn’t make them any better, just worse for being half hearted. Daniel’s really the only exception to this as he actually helps out with his meddling.

Helene is the oldest one here and definitely the most ruthless. She absolutely has no qualms about taking Grace down and even thinks they should get Alex to do it as it’ll help him see the light. It’s quite twisted logic but it shows how far down the rabbit hole she is. Helene definitely is insane by this point. Then you have Fitch who doesn’t even seem to take anything seriously. He is still trying to take Grace down though so he’s the perfect example of a character who seems nice enough but has no problem being a murderer so he’s just as bad as the others. You don’t get any points for acting nice.

Finally Emelie is the klutz of the group. She keeps on murdering other people by mistake even when aiming for Grace. It definitely makes for some humorous scenes. Emelie really has a hard time not murdering people by mistake which could be useful in some contexts but of course it isn’t very handy for the villains here. At least it gives them one weakness.

As a part comedy/parody the film has a whole lot of fun with this premise. After all, it’s just a game for the family and most of them treat it like that. Down to how nonchalant they are about the whole thing and people dying. We see a graveyard filled with bodies so while it’s apparently been a while, it’s still often enough for this to have all accumulated over time. It’s disturbing but also very interesting.

Now even if it is for laughs, the film can be quite violent. Some characters are lucky enough to die quickly while others get stuck in an elevator, get shot by an arrow but keep staying alive, etc. These guys can’t catch a break and Grace took some heavy injuries as I said. I think the tone helps it not feel so bad at times but the movie definitely was not afraid to get violent at times.

The mansion makes for a good backdrop during the hide and seek game. I rather enjoyed it and the place certainly does look fancy. There’s also a very catchy tune that plays when they start the hide and seek game. It helps to set the atmosphere here and when the song plays you know that something’s about to happen. Visually the film is also really impressive as every moment stands out. It just feels very professionally done. The film also has some twists near the end of the movie which should catch you on guard. It’s also possible that you’ll have seen through them but they were executed well either way.

Overall, Ready or Not is surprisingly a good film. The writing is on point and the film really keeps you engaged throughout the whole game of Hide and Seek. Towards the end we get so many “climax” moments that you really don’t know how things are going to end. It’ll keep you guessing that’s for sure and you probably won’t forget the hide and seek song anytime soon. This is the kind of film where a sequel would be different but as part of the parody angle I could see her trying to marry another rich guy and get thrown into a new scenario. Might come off as a bit forced though and I wonder if a sequel could match this one. I feel like the premise would be easy to mess up. Either way, if you don’t mind the violence then I would recommend checking this one out.

Overall 6/10

The Expendables Review

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

This is definitely a film that you had to have seen around a lot back in the day. It got quite a bit of promotion because of how many big names it was grabbing. The concept was always solid as well with all the action going on. Well, the film lives up to the hype pretty well for the most part although if you’re watching some specific characters then you won’t be in luck here.

The movie starts with Barney’s squad of Expendables saving some hostages and destroying the terrorists. One of their members (Gunner) goes too far with this though and Barney is forced to take him off the team. He then receives a new mission for the team by the mysterious Mr. Church. The group has to head to Viena where there is a lot of strife going on right now. The people are suffering as a group of rogue American forces have conspired with the King to take the place over. The heroes have to take out General Garza which should effectively stop this movement in its tracks. If they do that they things can finally go back to normal. This is an extremely difficult mission though where the heroes will be heavily outnumbered. Can their band really take out a whole army?

The film starts off with a lot of action right off the gate which is good. I also liked how for once the heroes didn’t just drop their guns when the villains took a hostage. I’ve mentioned in the past how this is always a bad idea and the characters here seemed to know it. In general the Expendables are very reluctant to drop their guns which is good. If you do that then the villains can just take out the hostage and your group at the same time. We also got the “traitor” fairly early on with Gunner. Cracking immediately was not a good look for him although apparently it just tends to happen to guys who are in the field for too long.

We get the best scene in the film very early on though as Barney gets his assignment from Church and then Trench shows up. Both Church and Trench don’t really do anything for the rest of the film which is unfortunate but it was such a fun scene to have the 3 of them in the same room like that. The banter and hype levels in that scene where through the roof. It was only one scene but you could already see a solid dynamic between the characters.

That’s really one of the biggest strengths of the film. The characters all have big egos and are top notch in their respective fields. Only the best of the best can be Expendables and if you are in a position where you’re a rival or working for Church then you’re at that level too. So there’s a lot of tough talk throughout the film and it works well. The banter here is very strong and the writing is definitely on point. I don’t think the film would be nearly as good without that. Even the villains talk tough to each other the whole time. In this movie, everyone can talk tough and everyone can fight hard which makes for a good balance.

Then of course there is a lot of action throughout the movie as well. The gun fights don’t hold back and we also get a lot of close combat battles as well. The film never really runs out of explosions and fighting. The highlight fight would probably be Yin taking on Gunner since that felt like a real boss fight. Of course seeing the heroes beating up on the random minions is cool too and all but it’s always nice when you have a villain who can really fight back as well. The characters all have different fighting styles too which works out well so it’s not all the same kind of action scene throughout.

The movie has some decent themes as well. They may not be super memorable or anything but they work well enough with the scenes. Expendables is a film that moves fairly quick so you’ll be at the end of the film in no time. There isn’t a whole lot of down time between action scenes either. So as long as you’re enjoying the hype of all these characters looking so good then you’re definitely going to have a blast here.

While the movie is very intense, I would say a lot of the action is very stylized so it’s not too bad. It’s much more like John Wick than Halloween for example. So most of the scenes are over quick and I wouldn’t say they dwell on the violent scenes. The only scene that was a bit much is when Sandra is tortured by the villains through waterboarding. I definitely could have done without that as that’s always the kind of grit I’d rather the film just skips. We know these guys are villains and don’t really need to go any further than that. It hurts the film’s momentum a bit there.

That’s really the only issue I had with the film though. Beyond that you’ve got a fun cast and lots of action which is always a good combo. Barney works well as the main character and clearly has a lot of experience here. Without him getting the group set they probably would have been in for a rough time. You also get the impression that he is the glue that keeps the team together. He’s always got a quick comment ready to defuse any situation as needed. That’s not something that just anyone could do.

Christmas is a solid right hand man as well. I like his confidence and he may be the only character who surpasses Barney in that aspect. Christmas really isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and may be the best close quarters fighter in the group aside from Yin. You can always count on Christmas to get in there and get the job done. He also has the best working relationship with Barney and their banter is a lot of fun.

Now, if you are a fan of the Expendables as a team then you may be disappointed that quite a few of their members don’t do much. Aside from the main two who spend most of the film without the rest of the group, the only ones to do much of anything are Gunner and Yin. The rest are saved until the climax where they help out but the film is nearly over by then. For Yin, he’s a solid fighter but I was surprised that he wasn’t a bit stronger.

The whole time you figure that he is absolutely going to crush his opponent and instead he’s on the losing side. Perhaps that’s not so bad but as his first big fight you just expected him to do better. I suppose martial arts aren’t as handy when you’re fighting someone who is already an expert fighter in their own right but I still thought it would go down a bit differently.

As for Gunner, well I definitely didn’t like him. The guy completely cracked and the first thing he thinks to do is to join the other side? Nah, I don’t want someone like that on my side. That means you can absolutely never trust him again and so that really means that he’s an absolute liability. Once you go traitor you don’t really go back so easily.

As for the heroine Sandra, well she gets a lot of credit for being so tough under pressure. Ultimately she never betrays her ideals and also stays home until the very end. It may have been wise to leave but now she can proudly tell her people that she was here from start to finish. It was definitely not an easy journey either. The villains really gave her a tough time here. As for the villains themselves, well Garza got better by the end but he’s really not smart at all. The scene where he starts to give a big speech while surrounded by the other villains was a really horrible idea and you can immediately tell how that’s going to go.

As for Monroe, well he’s your classic villain leader who just wants a lot of power. Not much to say about him and I can’t say that I liked the guy at all. Posturing is all good and well to an extent but beyond that you need more of a big plan to stay in power. Even if things didn’t go great for the Expendables he still would have been doomed down the line.

Oh yeah there’s also a small romance subplot where Christmas finds out that his girlfriend is cheating on him. It feels like an extremely random subplot to be sure and that should have definitely ended the romance right away. There wasn’t much of a good excuse either. In their line of work the Expendables probably shouldn’t start a romance anyway since it might end badly though. At that point you should probably just fly solo because it’s such a dangerous profession.

Overall, The first Expendables film is pretty fun. It’s nice to get the nonstop action here as the heroes all show their stuff. I look forward to Church and Trench getting bigger roles next time though. They had the best scene here so imagine what they can do with some real screen time? The rest of the Expendables squad needs to get more action next time too though because you could really say that over half of this film is just the Barney and Christmas show. The others really got the shaft for the vast majority of the film.

Overall 6/10

The Boy With the Green Hair Review

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Green hair may not sound like a big deal to you but in this film it is a very grave matter that causes the whole town to go crazy. The film sometimes takes itself a little too seriously here. The main character could have been better too but ultimately it’s a nice enough film that you should have fun with. In the end the main message here is that you have to watch out for peer pressure.

The movie starts with a kid being found by the police in a rather distressed state. He is completely bald and can’t seem to talk at all. They send in for Dr. Evans to see what’s up here. Evans is good with people in general and figures out how to get Peter to talk a bit. Evans does this by using an ice cream and some food he had ready for dinner. Peter begins to tell him a story about what happened here which takes up the rest of the film. See, Peter is an orphan whose parents died in the war. Peter was bounced around from home to home until he finally got to stay with Gramps.

Gramps is a very nice man who did his best to cheer Peter up. His only mistake here was that he didn’t have the heart to tell Peter that he was an orphan. Peter goes through school rather normally but people are still talking about war and he’s concerned. One day he wakes up with green hair and even meets a bunch of orphans in the woods. They tell him that he must stop the wars and Peter is unsure of what to do. The whole town is after him to get rid of the green hair and Peter isn’t sure of whether he can even get the message out to end the wars.

Now this plot takes you rather deep into the movie but I felt like I had to include the green hair part since it’s in the title. Surprisingly the green hair doesn’t come in until we’re almost halfway through the film though. A lot of the film is really Peter getting used to daily life and helping out Gramps. I wouldn’t say Peter is overly spoiled or anything but he hasn’t exactly had a stable living environment in a long time so you can certainly see why it is difficult for him to even get used to normal activities. He’s not exactly a happy camper but that’s where Gramps comes in.

Gramps has to be the standout character here because every scene is really him trying to make life happier for Peter. Gramps is absolutely an optimist and even has some fun stories. Early on we get a story involving Gramps being invited to the castle and shenanigans ensue. I thought for a minute there that the film was going to be filled with these skits of imaginary events but this was the only one. An odd way to start with the song and all though.

Then the film gets a little more serious once the green hair plot starts but almost to an extent where it feels out of place. At first nobody even notices the green hair and I thought this was intentional as the plot would be that it’s a big deal to Peter but nobody else cares. Well, it was just a delayed reaction because then everyone notices and starts panicking left and right. Who’d have thought that the green hair would be such a big deal right?

It all feels like a big overreaction. Chasing Peter around may make sense for the kids since they’ll do anything but once the adults also start weighing in on how Peter should shave his hair off and all, you find that a bit hard to believe. In large part this is because Peter was running around telling everyone to stop fighting wars and all..but he’s just a little kid. I wouldn’t even say he was being too aggressive about this. He wasn’t doing any protesting or yelling, the kid was just running around town talking to everyone. Usually the adults would probably just assume that he would get bored after a while and stop. So the reactions here didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Then there’s the scene with the kids in the woods. Personally I’m assuming that they’re all ghosts although I forget if the film makes that explicit. Otherwise..a bunch of orphans are just hiding out in the woods? I dunno if I can buy that one. Of course they tell Peter that he has to use his green hair as a symbol to change the adult’s minds and bring about peace which is great and all, but again you don’t feel like having green hair is going to have such a big impact.

The scenes with the kids are both so somber too. It doesn’t really match with the rest of the film which I would still consider to be rather lighthearted. By the time we get back to the present, I also don’t feel like this should have traumatized Peter nearly as much as it did. It was all a bad experience of course but to be so silent and distressed, I just thought things would be worse. Fortunately Evans did well so the characters still have a happy ending.

Evans also deserves a lot of credit here. His role is rather small but he does come through when it counts. Without him Peter would still be completely depressed. Evans also gave it to Peter plainly at the end. He didn’t pretend to believe the fantastic story or anything and just told him that he didn’t believe it. Evans still gave him a pep talk and made everything work out though. The police called up the right man for the job here.

Overall, The Boy With Green Hair is a decently good film. I think it could have been a little bit better if the whole green hair part was handled a little differently. The reactions are just all too extreme and it also takes a while for the green hair to kick in. I don’t think Peter should have cared about how his hair looked as much or the rest of the town to be honest. If they’re so nervous of the anti war message that a kid can take them down, then they really ought to prepare more or just switch sides. If the main character had been adult then these plots may have worked better like the job having a no green hair policy or something and that would be the dilemma about spreading the message. If you’re up for a decent slice of life adventure though then you should check this one out.

Overall 6/10