Category Archives: 6 Star Movies

The Goodbye Girl Review

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It’s time for a rom-com that’s definitely got a good amount of drama in it. One of the main messages here I would say is to be careful who you decide to date because things can easily move sideways. Ultimately the film is entertaining and you’ll have a good time but you can’t really buy into the romance considering how much both characters hated each other for a while there. Well, mainly it was on Paula’s side towards Elliot but he didn’t really help matters.

The film starts by introducing us to Paula who has had a rough time of things. She and her husband divorced so now she takes care of her daughter Lucy by herself. She meets a guy named Tony who seems all right except for the fact that he is already married but Paula makes the terrible decision of getting with him too. Inevitably he ditches her shortly after. Additionally, he ends up renting out Paula’s apartment over to his friend Elliot. Paula has to vacate the place immediately and well she’s not happy about that. So when Elliot moves in, Paula decides not to move out. Can these two manage to get along?

Now both characters are jerks to each other for a while there but I will say I am a bit more sympathetic for Elliot here. The guy actually did pay for the apartment for several months in advance so yeah he does own the apartment. legally. The whole time Paula is giving him a ton of attitude but he’s actually being very tolerant since he really could have her kicked out. At the end of the day he is a good guy who doesn’t actually want to kick her out mainly because of the kid. I do think he’s restrained a whole lot so as not to make things tough for Lucy.

Yeah during the movie he retaliates a whole lot but I can’t blame him for that. Additionally he was expecting to have the place to himself so he could do whatever he wanted and now he basically has roommates. Paula starts giving him a ton of different house rules right out of the gate. Elliot quickly comes up with his own rules, some of which are a bit much I’ll admit. The morning yoga with burning incense comes to the top of my mind. Playing the guitar during the night isn’t a big deal if you ask me though.

Basically he’s trying for a reaction at times and Paula makes it really easy since she has a big reaction to everything. As for Paula, she’s been through a lot so you feel bad for her. You’d expect her to be a little less aggressive to be honest since she doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on here though. If she ever gets Elliot really upset he could really just kick her out since their whole temporary agreement isn’t legally binding in any way. She’s certainly been jaded by the men in her life but it has also removed her tactical experience. Every time Elliot messes with her she reacts in the wrong way, it’s almost funny how badly she is losing the battle initially.

Lucy is used as a contrast here where we see how she isn’t bothered by anything that he does. Elliot playing guitar through the night? Lucy doesn’t notice. Elliot starts chanting in the morning? Lucy notices but doesn’t care. Every single time Paula looks to Lucy to have a comrade in arms who is really upset but Lucy has already fallen asleep again or doesn’t really care. So Lucy does well I would say. She’s also very reluctant about having another man in the house and I don’t blame her since the last ones have all struck out. In that way I’d actually say she is being more sensible as well. The whole roommates to lovers thing just seems like a weak foundation for a romance if you ask me. Both of them are just charmed in the short run to have someone nice to talk to but that’s about it. It’s probably why Paula has been running through relationships.

Now I should say for a romance like this where both people are fighting, there are ways to make this work. Basically you can’t have either character go too far with how much they dislike each other. You establish that part of it is a defense mechanism and for the most part there should not be any prior baggage. Part of why this one doesn’t work is because for Paula at minimum this is the third guy. The squabbling romance works better when it’s an initial romance. Additionally it just doesn’t feel like there is any reason for each character to fall for each other because of all the bitterness here. I would say Elliot does put in most of the work here though. While Paula is still being rather rude and petty at times, Paula does his best like helping out with expenses and not intentionally messing with her. Aside from his early trolling with the yoga, he typically doesn’t start any of the fights. It still doesn’t make the romance work any smoother but I can at least say it’s not quite as fast as some other movies where it happens immediately.

As for each character’s individual plot, Paula is trying to become a dancer again but the problem is that she has been out of the game for too long. She’s gotten a bit too old and dancing is really a young person’s game. Ultimately she tries and it doesn’t work out which does make sense. It’s hard to compete with other dancers who have been doing this their whole life. When that doesn’t work she tries other jobs like being a car salesman but things don’t go too well. She is trying so you have to give her some credit there, it’s just tough to really get into a job sometimes with no prior experience at the ready.

Meanwhile Elliot’s definitely got a tough road here as well. He is an aspiring actor about to finally get his big role but the problem is that the director’s kind of a hack. He wants to butcher a production of Richard III by completely changing his character and personality. All of Elliot’s previous training and rehearsing has completely gone down the drain now. I’d be upset if I was him as well. Unfortunately the director does have way more power than the actor in this case. He tries to make the best of it and ultimately does get a few concessions from the director.

Overall, The Goodbye Girl is a film that’s fun enough. It tend to land more on the comedy than the romance though so the first half ends up beating the latter. It’s actually a decently long movie so at least there is plenty of time for the fun comedy before things get serious. With films like this it is always inevitable that the main two are going to get together no matter how improbable it is. You’ll be rolling your eyes a bit at all of that but the banter before then is handled well. I’d say the writing is on point as well and so this is a movie that I can recommend.

Overall 6/10

Joe Kidd Review

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Time for another Western type title. It’s always fun when you see Clint Eastwood on the poster because you know that the main character is about to be really fun. He really doesn’t put up with a lot from anyone and the film starts off really strong with the opening scene. I’ll admit that after that the plot isn’t super interesting though. You’re mainly just watching for the action scenes and to see the main character talking tough to everyone. Ultimately it makes for a good watch though and does beat the average western in the genre.

The film introduces us to Joe who is in prison and is just about ready to get out. One of the other prisoners makes the mistake of messing with him and gets his lights knocked out for the trouble. Joe’s bail has been paid by a guy named Harlan who is looking for another guy named Chama. There is a pretty big dispute going on and so Harlan and his posse are getting ready to take down Chama’s gang. Joe doesn’t care about any of this and is ready to get home but it turns out that his neighbors/friends were beaten and murdered by Chama’s men. So now Joe has a stake in all of this and is ready to set out. Is everything as it seems though?

One thing I will say from the jump is that neither Chama or Harlan are particularly heroic. This film is more about the grey in between as both groups have their share of secrets and issues going on. It means that in a way you just need the lesser of two evils to win or you need Joe to destroy them all. I just don’t think the film gives you enough reason to care about either side. To me they both seem super corrupt. I would say Harlan’s group is more villainous ultimately since they are picking fights and using force to take what they want. Chama’s group are mainly like the resistance but Chama was ready and willing to let everyone in the Church get murdered because he figured as the figure head of the group he had to live.

A very selfish gesture all the way through. He gets called out on this and tries to do better but yeah to me this was basically a gang fight. Ultimately Joe gets his revenge on what happened to his friends and then takes out everyone in his way. The most notable moment of the climax was definitely when he rode a train through the enemy base and started shooting. That was pretty fun in large part because it was so unexpected. It’s not every day that you see someone bring a train to a gun fight right?

The action scenes are on point as always. There aren’t quite as many as you would expect but they are always handled really well. As expected Joe is also a pretty fun main character. The romance here was definitely on the very weak side and that’s the weakest aspect of Joe’s character since he moves so fast on this. He is great in all other areas though. The guy has confidence and there is one fun plot where one of the villains is constantly picking fights with Joe and always gets humbled. It’s crazy how vast the skill difference is between them but that’s why Joe is a legendary figure while this guy is just some nobody.

I’ll give some good kudos to the preacher at the church that was taken over by the villains. Sometimes in these things the preacher will make a big deal about not being able to help since peace is the way to go but there’s nothing preventing you from using some good ole self defense. In this case that means getting Joe a weapon so he can fight back when he doesn’t have one at one point. So getting him the weapon was a great idea and it also meant that the inhabitants had a new lease on life. Without Joe they would have been absolutely doomed.

While the end of the film may not have been super strong since the romance was super weak but it did have a nice callback to the opening scene that was really good. Someone takes a big punch that was absolutely deserved considering how useless the character was during the whole film. It’s also a moment that shows how Joe isn’t going to be forgetting anything. When it’s time to make a move or get revenge for a slight that happened earlier, he’s going to keep it in the back of his head until it’s time. I like to think he was waiting for this moment throughout the whole movie and he probably was. The punch had to feel good. Once again, he was just a really fun lead character.

Overall, Joe Kidd is a pretty fun film. The film is mainly carried by Joe himself but that’s probably why the film is named after him. That was always going to be the film’s focus and it’s not a bad idea. A great main character can really take you very far. Even when the plot isn’t quite as sturdy, if the main character is good enough then it barely matters. That’s just the way that it goes. So I would recommend this one. It’s fairly basic as far as western films go but that means you can enjoy pretty much all of the usual ropes in this kind of title. There are a lot of betrayals and twists running around but at the end of the day Joe just needs to tackle anyone who gets in his way.

Overall 6/10

The Bad News Bears Review

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Whenever you think of the Bad News Bears you figure you’re in for one of the toughest teams on the block. What you don’t realize is that they aren’t delivering bad news…they are the bad news! Now there’s a twist if I’ve ever heard of one right? It’s a comedy film that can be pretty fun at times but ultimately doesn’t quite do enough to get much higher than that. It will keep you entertained but won’t be a film that you’re clamoring to watch again. One playthrough is really enough for this one.

The film starts with Morris being paid to coach a kid’s baseball team. He’s not really interested at all but the money’s good and that’s what counts. He intends to give this the minimum amount of effort so he keeps on drinking all day and generally not being very helpful. What makes him even less interested is that nobody on the team even knows how to play. They are all scrubs and they even lose the first game by over 20 points. Still, the disrespect is just too much and so Morris decides that he’s going to turn this team into a bunch of winners. Is he really doing this for them though…or for himself? That’s the tough question here.

So most of the comedy here is in how bad the team is of course and how over the top Morris is in terms of being a completely inappropriate coach. It tends to work most of the time which is what keeps the film in the green. Morris has a lot of fun facial expressions the whole time and the subtle bits of character humor also work really well. Then when his competitive spirit gets going, you still have fun because of course he doesn’t know how to handle success well. I would say the film tends to ride or die based on how much you enjoy his character.

I’d say a weakness of the film tends to be the ending and any moment where it tries to take itself too seriously. The movie can’t quite handle these moments. For example, at one point Morris and Amanda have a big fight. She wants to hang out with him and at least develop a small bond but he shoots her down. Mainly the problem here is that he’s way too rude and goes too far. From that point on there is no way you can root for him to win or do well as a coach. It’s understandable that he doesn’t want to create any bonds right now but she is a child and he could have handled that a million times better. I just had no respect for him after that scene, he was just awful.

If I was Amanda I probably would have ditched the team after that tbh. Good luck winning without a pitcher! She has all of the leverage in this dynamic and ultimately she still does get injured with how hard she was playing. She’s easily one of the most likable characters here and I felt like things didn’t go great for her. Then you have the rival Kelly who is a delinquent but knows how to play so they let him on the team. He is actually very good and along with Amanda is a huge reason on why they go far. So what do the rest of the teammates do about this? They get upset at him and basically cause a bunch of trouble for no reason.

I don’t think they were justified in any way and come across as a bunch of jerks. I’ve never liked when a bunch of characters turn on someone without even giving the character a chance. At least talk to him and explain why you are upset instead of becoming all passive aggressive and sulking the whole time. That doesn’t help anyone. It’s just blowing a bunch of hot air at that point. Yeah that’s not a good thing to do. So everywhere I look, there are reasons to root against the team.

Then the kicker is the climax as we get the teamwork message. It is worth sacrificing your chance at winning the championship if you can get everyone having fun. The main problem with this kind of message is that most people don’t have any fun when they lose. In fact, if you lose the championship and you are the reason why your team lost, then you’re going to feel absolutely lousy. Morris should have had the weaker kids start early in the first inning so they could play before benching them. I just disagree with the theory on its face.

It’s selfish to sacrifice everything when the championship is something that is so hard to obtain in the first place. Again, the kids weren’t very grateful or anything so maybe it works out anyway but it was still annoying to watch. The whole second half of the film is kind of annoying come to think of it. Even the opponent coach hits a kid and gets off without any real consequences. He’s back to laughing and feeling good about himself by the end because he’s winning and there’s nothing the heroes can do about it. Sure you could say the family leaving are some consequences but I’d rather he have gotten punched or something.

So maybe the most direct way to put this is that the film had a bit of a mean streak to it. It was funny during the early comedic moments of everyone messing up and looking terrible but once the film got serious, it would just go too far. The film needed to have a little more restraint the whole time and personally I would change the ending. Not necessarily to a big win or anything like that but I wouldn’t have made the team effectively throw the match.

Overall, The Bad News Bears brings bad tidings to its viewers by the end. It’s entertaining enough where I could still say that it is a good movie, but certainly not a very good one. I wouldn’t be in a rush to rewatch this film and I have to hope that the sequels stick the landing a bit better. Just lean a bit more into the comedy and I’m sure you could do a lot with a Baseball title like this. I do have a good time with sport films after all and Baseball is the kind of sport that should translate well into a movie with so many characters running around.

Overall 6/10

Ghostbusters Afterlife Review

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All right it’s time for the next Ghostbusters adventure. An adventure that will absolutely shake you to the core. Well, that’s the idea at least. It’s a good title, still not reaching the heights of the original but you feel like we’re getting back into the swing of things here. It mainly decides to drop the humor in place of being a fairly serious title and works well. I think it will be able to get even better as the series goes on.

The movie starts with one of the classic Ghostbusters being taken down for the count by one of the ghosts. Poor guy never stood a chance! This means that the house is now empty though so due to his will, his daughter Callie gets to live there now. The timing is good since she is super broke and has to take care of two kids. The house is definitely in bad shape but that still helps with the bills. What Callie doesn’t realize is that she’s now living right in the middle of a giant concentration of ghosts and ghouls. Will she be able to knock the stuffing out of them?

So like I said there is definitely a trade off in tone here. The film wanted to go all in on establishing some real stakes and thrills here. It works although without the humor the film can sometimes just be a tad dull. That’s my only real issue with the film so for the most part it is pretty solid. It’s just a side effect of the kids being main characters the whole time since there’s not a whole lot that you can do with them for the most part. You also have to accept that they won’t be doing a whole lot when it comes time for action.

Of course you have the Ghostbuster guns though which helps to even things out quite a bit. For the most part the ghosts here aren’t too fierce until we get to the last one. The climax is actually rather great. I won’t go into details here but the stakes are pretty high because this ghost is able to resist the lasers to an extent. Yes, even when they cross the 3 energy blasts, this ghost keeps on fighting. That’s pretty much unheard of for this series so I was impressed and that’s the kind of energy I need to see from these villains. It does make you think that the Ghostbusters are going to need some power ups soon though.

The ending sets up the next film really well and gets you hyped for what is to come. It’s the ideal way to end the film because you always want to end strong. It’s even more important than the start after all. The soundtrack was also good as we do get the classic theme to play in this one. I definitely appreciated that and this one has a lot of fun referencing the original film so that was pretty cool. The world may always forget the kind of help it is getting in the background but the Ghostbusters will always be the secret MVPs out there. The extra touch of all the Youtube videos being super grainy is fun.

The best parts of the film always have to do with the old characters and the references though. When it comes to the main characters, they aren’t great. First you have Phoebe who has a hard time expressing her emotions and so she doesn’t have many friends. She meets a kid named Podcast and so they hit it off. Phoebe is still more on the socially awkward side but she is improving by the end of the film. I’d expect some good progress in the sequel. Meanwhile it’s admirable that Podcast has his own podcast and is so dedicated to the craft. He’s a nice kid and he did his best to keep Phoebe from being alone so that was cool.

Trevor is mainly crushing on Lucky the whole time and he never really seems to stand a chance for the most part. It was funny when he would get teased about this. It’s fairly weak as far as romance plots go but there’s not much time put to this plot at all so it’s not that bad. I tend to enjoy Lucky’s character more than Trevor’s as she is always punking him with different pranks. That was a lot of fun. The best was probably when she gave him a jacket to wear before saying that it was actually her boyfriend’s. Trevor really needs to start thinking of comeback lines and fast!

Gary and Callie have their own little romance plot going which feels way too fast and all but as characters they aren’t bad. Callie is doing her best to support the family even with resources being tight. You can appreciate the struggle and she is doing her best. Meanwhile Gary may be a super irresponsible teacher but he’s always got a quick wit about him and is funny. He supports the kids from the start and does good the whole time. Without him things would definitely be a lot different. It’s not like most of the ghosts can be defeated with physical strength or anything but at least he can give direction. Without him the kids would really just be scrambling a lot.

On the whole you still don’t care a ton about the humans here but the adults definitely surpass the kids. The special effects here are solid. The film doesn’t get to show off much until the end but the climax works. The monsters are a bit more on the forgettable side though. The only real solid one is the final boss. I didn’t care for the eating ghost and the Mini Marshmallows were too weak to really do anything. So you are watching the film more for the vibes than the villains.

Overall, Afterlife does a good job of bringing the series back to its roots and it does get me hyped for the next film. What you really need to do is have the characters get trapped in a haunted house or something and have to fight the ghosts. Even just focusing on the adults against more powerful ghosts could really work in here. It could be something like Men in Black. Either way though, I think you’ll have a good time if you check this film out while waiting for the next one. The writing is solid and it’s just a well made title even if it can be a bit slow at times.

Overall 6/10

Rollerball Review

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This review is of the 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

It’s time for a dystopia film that also doubles as a sport title. A rather bizarre one at that but the whole movie has a bit of an odd vibe to it. Everyone is so far gone that nobody even realizes how crazy the whole setup is and it’s a grim reminder at how anything can seem normal after it has been the status quo for a while. So just be careful out there.

So the film takes place in the future where there is one sport that unites the world, Rollerball. Basically you have 2 teams of 10 players take the field and the goal is to grab the ball that is fired into the arena and jam it into the opponent’s goal area. Everyone wears rollerblades and is armed with diamond studded knuckles. 3 members of each team use motorcycles to drive around the place. There are penalties that are loosely enforced but you are still encouraged to use whatever means are necessary to get the ball and win. Victory is everything and so this is a sport where you can and will lose everything.

The main character here is Jonathan and he has become a global sensation. This becomes a problem for corporate because part of the point of the game is team spirit. The game must always be larger than the individual person and there seems to be some kind of conspiracy about keeping individuality away in general. So they want Jonathan to quit but he refuses and now corporate is going to play hard ball. They will cause him to leave the game even if it means through death. Can he defy these guys?

The first question you’ll probably have here is why anybody even plays the sport to begin with. Sure, competitiveness and adrenaline will cause you to do a lot of crazy things but playing in a sport where your only realistic outcome is either death or a gruesome injury? Maybe if the alternative is being homeless or something then that’s what you would do but the film doesn’t explore this desolate future too much outside of the game. We see that the rich people have nothing to do in general beyond the game though. They go to the forest and burn down trees for fun, otherwise they just laze around all day. It feels like the world has become empty and that’s a very interesting angle but a lot of it will end up having to be headcanon.

The other question is why are Jonathan’s teammates so slow on the uptake? We see that as early as the semi finals the other teams barely even care about the match anymore. They are focusing on just murdering all of the players. It makes sense as a strategy because then there is nobody to defend the goal. At one point 3 of them team up to execute Jonathan’s friend and it’s not like they’re hiding this fact. Jonathan retaliates by murdering one of them and so the cycle continues.

The problem is how oblivious the other players are. There’s one scene where we see one of the players reach for the ball as if this is a normal sport. He’s promptly thrown into the wiring and murdered. Did the guy not see what was happening all around him? Almost every player loses because they were oblivious like this. Look, if there are no penalties and there is unlimited time, then it makes sense that you have to take out the other team. At the very least you need to practice active self defense so you aren’t just taken out of the picture right away.

Jonathan did good in not bowing to corporate here. The whole thing seemed suspicious and so he decided to stay in the sport all the way to the end. He gave them ample opportunity to explain their position and they never did so at that point he just had to do his own thing. Jonathan was quick on the uptake which I was glad about. At one point they tell him to go in the Helicopter and he will be driven to the game so instead he takes the bus with the team. We all know that if he went into that Helicopter then he would have never been seen again.

His own fame helps protect him a little bit as the company decided not to just murder him in the streets since it would be a big controversy. I think the company may have been overthinking things though because with how brainless the masses were the whole time, they might have barely noticed. They seem to be worried that Jonathan will end up leading some kind of revolution or something but that doesn’t seem likely yet. In fact, their attempts are only making it way more possible since they are attracting so much attention.

So the actual world building was a bit underdeveloped I’d say but the game itself was interesting. While they don’t do a deep dive into the rules, you can quickly understand the fundamentals here. It can be annoying to see the games unfold with everyone acting like NPCs but the matches are handled well. You can see just how dark this future is without the film being downright exploitive about it. I thought the violence was handled well enough and didn’t go too far.

Overall, Rollerball is a decently good movie. I had a solid time with it but you do get the feeling that corporate got real sloppy on this one. It should have been a really easy win for them here but they got overconfident and in the end that was their downfall. They could have had the first girl be a little less obvious about following orders, instructed the wife to be more subtle, bumped Jonathan off with a decent cover story, etc. The ending ends up being satisfying either way though and it was the right way to wrap things up. While we don’t get all of the answers, it does help to keep in a good amount of mystery.

Overall 6/10

Comedy of Terrors Review

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This movie’s pretty funny at first but starts to just barely overstay its welcome by the end. Fortunately that’s when things wrap up or that could have been tricky. I’m always up for parody type titles like this though. You ca recognize how the scenes would have played out if it was serious and then enjoy how it goes instead. It just starts to run out of gags and so it replays them instead.

The movie introduces us to Trumbull who is a super corrupt guy who doesn’t like his wife Amaryllis and only married her so he will have control of the funeral company once her father dies. In the meantime business is slow so he has to work with his partner Felix to murder people for the coffins. It’s slow work though and in the meantime the amount of money that they owe is only getting larger. So at this point the only thing to do is bump off the landlord so this way they don’t have to pay rent. This guy will be tough though. His name is John and he’s known as a very persistent guy who never goes down to the point where he is a pseudo immortal. Can they overpower him?

In a way there’s a lot going on which is why the first half is really good but gets shaky later on. For example I enjoy the banter between Trumbull and Amaryllis. There’s just so much bad blood here and you get the feeling that Trumbull was probably a really bad actor when he asked for her hand in marriage. Somehow it worked out but now he doesn’t even pretend. She tries to get together with him several times and he can’t stand to even look at her. So he drinks and drinks to try and speed up his own demise. The script is fairly clever here and the burns can be funny. It’s the best dynamic in the movie.

Trumbull is also the most charismatic character in general so you always want him to be on screen. Unfortunately when Amaryllis is by herself, her only gag is about how bad her singing voice is so the film repeats this gag many different times. Her character is ultimately used only for fanservice aside from that so there just really isn’t much left for her. You’re rooting for her to get away from Trumbull but not to fall into a rebound romance or anything like that.

Meanwhile Felix is Trumbull’s hapless associate. He has always liked Amaryllis but of course that would be taboo. He talks a good game but always goes along with Trumbull’s orders and is a complete accomplice. I can’t say that I felt all that bad for him. He needed to stand up for himself more and so even if he might feel like a character who needs sympathy, I couldn’t muster much up for him. If you want a sympathetic character then John is your guy. He’s just minding his own business when the main characters keep trying to murder him.

John’s making an honest living and while he may be a stern landlord, he’s not doing anything illegal. You’re rooting for him every time the guy is able to resist the clutches of death. Again this is a gag that might be played up a little too much but I was glad that he never called it quits. This is not your average human and he even had some sword skills.

I can also say that the film has a fun climax with a whole lot of twists and turns. There’s a ton of activity within those final minutes where no character is particularly safe. It ends things in a very satisfying way that makes the rest of the adventure stay as fun as it was. If the ending was bad then it probably would have had a rough ripple effect on the rest of the movie. At the end of the day the ending will always be key for this reason.

The film’s cast is rather small but the film’s not super long or anything like that so it’s balanced pretty well. The character with the least to do was definitely the father since his only role was really to be completely out of his depth and not sure what was going on. You always felt bad for the daughter who saved him from being poisoned many times but he never understood so he blamed her for stealing the medicine. Probably should have found a way to get that cleared up at some point….

If there was something I could have added to the film aside from a larger variety of jokes, it would be to have had some kind of a big final fight with John. That could have been fun and you could have used the immortality for a lot of fun gags. Like they keep murdering him with more and more elaborate traps/weapons and he just keeps on getting up. I did like their extended fight of him trying to get out of the coffin and their sealing it up. Something like that but as a full on comedy fight.

Overall, Comedy of Terrors is a film that has fun with a lot of gags. It could have used more material to really make this a hit but in the end it was still good. I would safely be able to recommend this one. As long as you’re looking for some good humor then there is really a good amount to enjoy here. It’s also not a bait and switch by any means as the first seconds start you off with some gags right off the bat. They seriously wasted no time here which I thought was rather impressive. Although I am glad that they didn’t keep up with the super speed effects and comedy sounds as that would have been a little too much. The film excels with the subtle comedy where everyone is a bit off but they are all technically acting serious. I find that to be a lot more effective.

Overall 6/10

Finger of Guilt Review

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All right it’s time for a Noir title with pretty good atmosphere and an engaging plot. There is something that holds it back though and that’s the main character. He really didn’t handle things all that well here and really dug his own grave at times. That makes it so that the villain’s plan feels rather convenient as it just should not have worked at any point.

Reggie is a guy who wants to have a good Hollywood career but he has no self control. The guy got into a big fight and ended up losing his job the first time around because he was messing around and had an affair with his boss’s wife. Not a very smart move right? Then after that he finally got married to the daughter of another person he’s working for but at least this time that doesn’t mean he was cheating. The problem? Letters have started coming in from a lady who claims to have been going out with Reggie. He denies it but his wife is taking this very seriously and is worried at this point. Reggie has to set this straight but part of him wonders if maybe this is real and he just forgot.

So this is where the story loses me a little bit. Every time this kind of mystery happens, the main character starts to wonder if maybe he’s crazy. Maybe somehow he did have a secret relationship with someone and forgot about it. You can see how crazy that is right? These characters get gaslit so easily and it doesn’t make any sense. You know if you did or didn’t do something and there’s no way someone should ever be able to convince you otherwise. It’s just really convenient for the villains.

Meanwhile, Reggie looks awful once he goes to confront her. For starters he is immediately flustered and even goes as far as to try and hide the picture of him that was on her desk. This just made it very easy for her to walk in and point out to the wife that he hid it for some reason. Odd behavior if they’ve never met before right? Reggie walked into her traps constantly. Then the worst part was when he decided to make the rumors true by actually cheating on the wife with this lady.

I feel like the film really skims past this when it’s an extremely big moment. Literally he just gets drunk and decides to get together with her. Later on he said it’s because he wanted to test how far she would go if it was an act but that’s just an excuse. Of course she would go far because it just makes her story better and better. This guy really did not think things through and so later on when he’s upset and complaining about how he did nothing wrong….it’s not true because he did. This guy has no self respect or decency about him. It just ends up all being a big mess.

This is a Noir mystery and part of the fun is in seeing how things will play out so I won’t go too far into the twists but what I can say is that the villains are super lucky here. Their plan just shouldn’t work in any sane universe. Usually in a film like this you would have the mysterious lady blackmailing Reggie which is what gets him to respond but that doesn’t happen here. She never asks for money or anything and just sends him letters so that he can’t report this to the police. So all he had to do was tell the wife that the person sending letters is lying and that’s it. It only became suspicious initially because he decided to try and hide the letters instead of immediately telling his wife about them.

Then later on, all he had to do was say that the lady was crazy and move on. Instead he takes her out to a bar without telling the wife and she catches him. It’s crazy misunderstandings like this that happen time and time again in the movie. There’s always someone walking in at the perfect moment to hear something and then the situation gets worse. Once the mystery is unraveled and we get to the actual villain, Reggie has just been compromised too much by that point.

The actual main villain is also super petty and whiny. There’s nothing much to like about that character at all. This may be starting to sound rather negative but basically it’s just that the character cast is really weak. Fortunately a Noir mystery is about much more than the characters. The writing and tension means that this is still a good title, just be prepared to be rolling your eyes a whole lot throughout the movie. You just can’t feel bad for the main character at all.

Overall, Finger of Guilt is a good movie but Reggie really makes things too easy. I would argue that the villains’ plan was about as flimsy as it gets. It revolves around a ton of very convenient things happening and Reggie handling them all in the worst way possible. The writing is still good otherwise but the whole thing doesn’t feel very plausible. At least we do get a little action in the end as they manage to squeeze in a fight. I wasn’t really expecting that at such a late point in the game so it was a pretty interesting way to go. I feel like I spent most of the review talking about Reggie because he’s so awful but it’s also because the plot of the movie is very straight forward particularly when I’m not really talking about the twists. It’s him trying to figure out what’s going on while also going insane the whole time. I would have given him a sadder ending to wrap things up to be honest. Even though she was one of the villains, the mysterious lady was a lot more likable than the protagonist.

Overall 6/10

Safe 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

All right it’s time for a classic action thriller kind of a film. That said, it does take a while to get going so you would actually think it’s more of a tragedy drama for the first half. Once the two main characters are united then we are in business with a lot of big action scenes though. I liked how the film had a ton of different players and factions involved which helped make the whole thing feel very grand but on the other hand the film just doesn’t stand out a lot. So it was good but I think a lot of it is gonna be fairly forgettable pretty soon.

So first up we have the plot with Luke. He used to be a cop but stuff happened and now he competes in underground boxing fights. Unfortunately his opponent was really weak so by mistake he won the fight with a single punch when he was supposed to lose. So the mafia retaliates by murdering his family and have decided to make his life a living hell until he destroys himself. Luke does his best to hang in there but they are true to their word and keep murdering anyone he talks to. Just when he decides to check out, he notices shady figure chasing after a little girl and decides he needs to help her first.

This takes us to our second main character, Mei. Mei is a super math prodigy with a photographic memory for numbers. She never forgets a number once she has seen it and so the villains want her so she can remember debts and their books. This way there’s no real evidence and it also makes shaking down the local businesses very efficient. Mei doesn’t want to do any of these things but she has no real choice and in the meantime they also use her mother as leverage although she dies early on and Mei finds this out. Still, what can a kid really do? One day she is able to make a break for it and then she bumps into Luke.

The idea of bringing the two characters together is pretty fun so I give the film credit there. Additionally, it’s not just one generic mafia group running around. We have the Russians, the Japanese, and then a corrupt group of cops who play ball with both of them. It helps keep things interesting because the different villain groups get in each other’s way in addition to the heroes trying to stay away from them. Ultimately Luke may even need to team up with one to stop the others and buy some time to get out on top.

I don’t think the film fully takes advantage of this angle though. I would have liked some more actual fights between them. We have the climax but for the most part each group does move on their own. The best scene of the groups actually interacting in a way was when both of them were on the line with the corrupt cop at the same time trying to outbid each other. That was really fun and is exactly the kind of interaction that I’m looking for here.

This is one of the few films where the actor playing Luke isn’t running around beating 20 guys with ease and showing off more martial arts. Luke can fight here but he’s not some kind of master level black belt. He’s a bit more humble this time around. I would have liked to have seen more action scenes to be honest but the ones that we got were fun. At the end of the film it’s heavily implied that he would have actually lost to his opponent so Mei had to step in. I think she made the right call there. Luke’s a fun lead and he does a good job but he doesn’t always make smart decisions. There are so many times in the film where realistically he should have died but the villains didn’t finish the job. In some cases it was intentional which is fine but in others we’re talking a bit of plot armor here.

It’s also why the first half isn’t as fun though. I was ready for the exciting chase scenes and all, not watching Luke just be super depressed as the villains mess him over and he doesn’t do much to stop them. What I thought was a real shame is that at the end he’s given the chance to avenge his family and doesn’t. Look….I know they’re going for the hero play here but Luke’s no hero and the way his family went out practically begs him to avenge them. I think he really should have taken the villain out, he’s come too far to stop now. Not anything drawn out mind you, it’s not like he should become a villain or anything. Just go in with a quick gunshot and then it’s all over. That’s absolutely what should have happened if you ask me.

Meanwhile Mei is a fun character. A lot of times the kids in these films can be annoying but she was actually helpful at times and she was also quick on the uptake. She knew that giving the villains too much info would mean that she was expendable so she did her best to strategize. She helped Luke out in the fights and in general wasn’t a burden. So she’s definitely got a thumbs up in my book as a quality character and I could see the two of them being a good duo in a future sequel.

While the film wasn’t always firing on all cylinders, the ending is pretty fun. For a film like this you do want some kind of happy ending and it’s even slightly sequel bait you could say. I think a sequel for this film would go over fairly well. The writing is on point and while the first half is slow, the second has good pacing. It does have to struggle a bit with utilizing all of the characters though. I was looking forward to seeing more action from Alex. He doesn’t really do anything until the closing minutes but apparently he’s a really top tier fighter. The scene of him taking down a whole squad was super impressive. The way he goes out is funny but he should have gotten another fight or two. This is where I go back to the issue of the film not properly utilizing all of the factions. Alex and the Mayor should have had a bigger role which could have led to more fights.

Overall, Safe is a good film. I have my share of issues that keep it from being pretty good like the really slow beginning. The film can also be a bit violent and torture happens but in general it’s got a fairly light tone. The film doesn’t dwell too much on the darker elements which is good. I’d also say it has good replay value because of how much is going on at all times. There’s a lot to absorb and at the end of the day it can be pretty fun. I’d recommend checking this out if you’re looking for an action title you haven’t checked out yet.

Overall 6/10

Invisible Invaders Review

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It’s time for a sci-fi film where the aliens decide to finally take out humanity. Trust me I knew this day was coming because humanity definitely was never going to last long against aliens. Aliens are more resilient, skilled, and just generally trickier than humans. These guys are invisible though which makes it even tougher. It’s a good movie with a fairly cheesy ending but on the whole I had a good time here.

The movie starts off with a scientist dying. After that, he suddenly appears in the house of another scientist and explains that his body is being reanimated by an alien. These aliens give the Earth 24 hours to surrender before they take over. The humans don’t believe this of course and so they don’t do anything. After the 24 hours pass, the aliens begin shooting up all of the national landmarks and overwhelming the humans. There doesn’t seem to be a way to stop them because the invisibility means they can get into any secure location or snipe people at will. So America puts all of their hopes on two scientists, Penner and Lamont. Only they can hope to save the day but will they find a solution in time?

Now the humans are rather lucky here in that the aliens have no real weapons. See, apparently Earth’s atmosphere is rather toxic to them so they have to stay invisible and use sabotage to take the edge against the human. Sabotage is in itself still a very good tactic so we shouldn’t underestimate it but that also means it is their only win condition. If the humans can find a way to make them visible then they will be able to end this in a snap. A hard, but achievable task.

Unfortunately one of the scientists is super annoying. Lamont is one of those guys who throws in the towel immediately and complains a whole lot. Seriously this guy is just a nuisance and he goes as far as to start destroying equipment all over the base while he has a tantrum. It’s one thing to figure you have no shot but it’s another to make sure of it like this. He wanted to force a surrender and while the other characters let him off easy, I would have considered that as a complete betrayal and kicked him off the squad. You can’t have someone like that putting you in danger. He never recovered from that.

Penner is actually a good scientist who tries hard the whole time. Even when things look bleak, he continues to fight hard and holds his own. It’s not an easy thing to do but he still does it. He lives up to his reputation as one of the biggest geniuses in the country and ultimately he takes a lot of risks of his own. Then you have the main heroine Phyllis who does her best to assist. She may not be making inventions but she watches over the crew. Mainly the tough part for her is having to deal with some flirting when everyone should have their minds on business. You’d think that they would with the stakes this high right?

The main guy who likes her is Bruce. So he’s from the army and is the one in charge of protecting the scientists. This sometimes means making some hard calls like when he has to murder someone who was in the way. Phyllis gets mad at this but I was 100% on the soldier’s side. She was right there and yet she acts like there was another way. It’s clear that this guy had lost his marbles and he even threatened to shoot the heroes. So Bruce took him out first and saved all of their lives. I don’t get how you can possibly discount that. It’s what happened after all and it’s not like Bruce enjoyed his mission there.

Bruce also takes a whole lot of risks later on as he keeps testing out the weapons on the aliens which results in his having to go out onto the battlefield alone. He’s nearly choked to death on one occasion and barely escapes with his life the other times. So he’s a good guy that doesn’t hold back on his missions. He accomplished his mission and yes there was a body count but it was as a last resort. He was surprisingly weak in a fist fight when one of the other guys went crazy later on though. I expected him to be a lot stronger as a soldier so he really needs to his the gym at some point.

As a final note, the aliens in these invasion films really aren’t very smart sometimes. There’s no reason to even bother giving Earth demands when there’s no chance that they could be met. Instead, use the element of disguise and deal some damage quickly. Wirth all of the aliens being invisible they could launch the ultimate first strike and blow up so many installation all at once that humanity won’t know what do . Plus if they were smart about it, people wouldn’t even be able to guess that it was aliens so they could use these tactics for an extremely long time. Humanity only stands a chance because of plot armor.

Overall, The Invisible Invaders is a good movie. I think it could have stood to be a little more exciting though. Most of the film is about the characters talking things over and trying to find a weakness. The actual confrontations are pretty rare and considering that the aliens are fully sentient, we could have had more hype dialogue with them. Maybe see more of the other governments as well and what they are doing to counter the alien threat. We see that for the most part everyone is getting wrecked but couldn’t some others adjust? These aliens are basically just guys with guns without the invisibility working so if you monitor the entrances and exits you can see when someone shows up and pop them. Well I suppose that’s for more of a thriller film. Either way I would recommend the movie. It’s a quality feature with good writing and pacing so you can’t go wrong there.

Overall 6/10

Woman in Hiding Review

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It’s time for an old noir thriller. I felt like this one was a bit weaker than the average Noir title thanks to the main character in a lot of ways although it’s not like the main villain was all that great either. So it’s a team effort there but at the same time it is still a good movie which is the important part. There’s enough to enjoy here without issues and it will keep your attention.

The film starts off with Deborah deciding that she is through with Selden. The guy basically never comes by to see her. It’s apparently been over 6 months since he effectively ghosted her so she’s going to move to New York. Selden makes some weak excuses but she won’t have any of them. She knows deep in her heart that she has made the right move and settling for this guy would be doing herself a disservice. Her father has everything set up and so she goes home to get ready to pack. Unfortunately Selden runs in later on and explains that her father tripped and died in a crazy accident. He’s also back in love with her so she quickly marries him. Unfortunately this was part of his plan and now he owns the mill.

He threatens her to not leave him or try anything or he will take her down for good. So Deborah waits until night fall to make a break for it but gets into a sabotaged car and crashes. This does allow her to fake her own death but Selden is too prepared and stays on her tail. Surely switching states and names would be enough right? Well she meets another guy that she falls for and what she doesn’t know is that there’s a reward out for her. Uh oh……

So as you can probably guess I have quite a few issues with Deborah in particular here. She just seems way too easy which how she falls for these men. In fact the entire plan only works because she’s always falling in love so easily. (Which as we know when you fall in love too easily then the feelings aren’t all that deep) I don’t get how she let herself marry Selden after it was clear that he didn’t care about her the first time. I won’t fault her for not realizing that he murdered her father since that’s a lot more obvious for the viewer than the character but what she should have definitely realizes was that he just wanted to run the company and she was a means to an end. The fact that she never even suspected that makes her look absolutely terrible.

It took actual proof in front of her face that he was cheating on her for her to finally see the light. Then, in the days before internet you’d think it would be easy to stay out of hi gaze once you’re out of town right? Well it could have been easy if she had kept to herself and not taken chances but starting to like another guy? Cmonnnnnnnn, it just shouldn’t work that fast. She falls into every trap and just makes this adventure a whole lot harder than it needs to be.

I didn’t even like the second guy either. So Keith is someone who just wants to have a good time and he likes her but the guy isn’t the best at listening. Deborah basically spells out the situation to him but he chooses to sell her out anyway. I have to imagine that deep down part of it was for the money but either way it’s a bad look because she had warned him several times that she was being pursued and was obviously terrified. Somehow he took that in the other way to mean that she actually was crazy and the guy over the phone was the one who could be trusted.

He put her in so much danger that I don’t care how sorry he was about it afterwards, there’s no way I can picture her staying with him after that. You’d think that she would be completely traumatized at that point and would prefer sticking it out on her own. Meanwhile the main villain wasn’t the smartest either. He could have handled the situation with Patricia so much better if he wanted to keep the company. Additionally if he wanted to stop Deborah in the opening scene there were much better ways to do it than sabotaging a car and hoping that she didn’t survive. There are so many ways that the plan could have backfired even outside of the way that it backfired in this plan. The guy just wasn’t smart.

Speaking of characters making mistakes, we’ve also got Patricia who makes a lot of mistakes. So Selden nearly murders her in the opening scene and ditched her for money immediately yet she continues to like him for no real reason. It’s clear that he is just using her and that he’s insane but later she tries to act shocked about it. There’s no way you can believe her and I don’t see how she can even believe herself. It just makes her look even worse. If you’re going to be a backstabbing villain then you have to own that but trying to play it both ways and gain some sympathy will never work.

So in the end, what keeps this from being a stronger Noir title is that I didn’t really like any of the characters. They were all really annoying the whole time and kept on holding each other back. Deborah should have escaped easily once she made it out of the car, Selden never should have let it get to that point, Keith never should have sold her out, and Patricia should have never thought that she could trust Selden. They all kept on making mistake after mistake which was annoying but at least the core story was still engaging. This is a thriller that keeps you wondering what will happen next especially sine it’s hard to guess what the characters will mess up next.

Overall, If this sounds like your cup of tea then you should check it out. There’s always room for more thrillers out there right? If this sounds like it might be a bit of a slog, then it’s time to shift gears back onto a more iconic one. At the very least this film will remind you that if you intent to hide or fake your death then you need to really stay out of the limelight entirely. That absolutely means no falling in love for a while I’m afraid.

Overall 6/10