Category Archives: 7 Star Movies

Angel Face Review

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It’s time for one of those films that has quite a few messy dynamics in it. The main character is certainly not someone that you can root for and in noir titles that is often the case. The real trick is to make the film enjoyable in spite of the protagonist being someone you are rooting against. Fortunately the film is able to pull this off and so that’s why I would say this is a good title. It has a lot of suspense and of course it never hurts to throw in a courtroom scene. I always enjoy seeing those.

The film starts off by introducing us to Frank who is a pretty good ambulance driver. He has bigger dreams but right now this is where he’s at. He has a girlfriend who works with him named Mary but Frank is still not satisfied and as always he heads out to get super drunk and throw a pity party. He happens to see a girl named Diane there who he previously met on a routine house call. Surely this is coincidence that she is at this bar now too right? She doesn’t even need to ask him to lie to his girlfriend because Frank does this right out of the gate. He is intrigued by this mysterious lady and is immediately ready to throw everything away for her. This may be more true than even he suspects as Frank is now thrown into an absolute whirlwind of scandal and controversy. He may live to regret his decision.

So there’s really no reason to feel bad for Frank here. He opened the door to have an affair with Diane right from the start. There was no reason to lie to Mary while he was at the diner and messing around. In fact, since he and Mary clearly had plans, he shouldn’t have been wasting away at the diner in the first place. He should have been getting ready to go home and have a good time with her. The fact that he didn’t shows just how much he took her for granted right from the start. Yeah I was definitely rooting against this guy from the start. Honestly even if it had been a much longer seduction I wouldn’t have had any sympathy for the guy but he really didn’t seem to have any respect for Mary.

Meanwhile Mary was a much better character. I was glad that she was able to see through Diane’s little deceptions and call her out right from the start. Now that was a good scene and Mary also made the right call in not chasing after Frank. Honestly if you find out that your boyfriend is basically getting ready to cheat or has already done so, then it’s just time to cut him out. Now Mary allowing Frank’s friend to be the rebound guy is a bit much though. It feels like this other guy was way too desperate to be with her the whole time. It doesn’t quite sit right with me as Mary is basically settling and this guy doesn’t mind being the second choice. It doesn’t exactly make either of them look all that good.

Finally with Diane, she makes for a reasonable antagonist. She’s clearly a character who is used to getting what she wants. When she doesn’t, heads begin to roll. There is really nothing that would be considered as going too far for her. She’s just going to keep on plunging ahead and it’s also why you don’t feel bad for her either. I wasn’t sympathetic to nearly any character in this film because they all looked bad in one way or the other. I would say my favorite character was her attorney in the end as he was the only one not letting things get personal and he was just ready to cash in his check. Yeah none of those Noir scandals for this guy.

The ending to the film is definitely satisfying after everything that happened. As always Frank looks like an absolute chump but it makes sense. He’s really not ready for what’s going on and I don’t think that he ever will be. This guy lets his guard down constantly and that’s why he’s always getting himself into traps. Then of course we had the long courtroom scene which was really good. It was fun seeing the case being laid out and both sides trying to corner the other. It’s why I always tend to enjoy court scenes in any movie. They’re just well written and this one was no exception. Due in part to the film’s short run time there is also not a whole lot of downtime here. Something’s always happening and you’re never bored.

I guess at most you are typically waiting for the romance scenes to end since you are rooting against it anyway. You know that the whole thing isn’t very organic and can’t possibly end in a positive way. So you’re waiting for the next big event to happen to the characters and the story really doesn’t disappoint you there. Typically I am always an advocate for a film being as long as possible and I still standby the fact that any good film will be even better if it’s longer but I can always appreciate a short title as well. This one had solid pacing throughout so the length worked out well.

Overall, Angel Face is a pretty fun movie. It’s got a good story to it that keeps your attention the whole time and a climax that is quite fitting for the characters. Now you may be wondering how a film filled with so many tragic events could be fun but it’s because you need to think of every character as an antagonist. Then it all works really well. If anything I’d have been upset if the characters escaped this with an outright happy ending because it would not have felt deserved at all. This was the only ending that really fit for such a film and I can definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for a quick title to check out. The runtime is not very long after all.

Overall 7/10

The Mark of Zorro (1974) Review

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It’s time for another Zorro film, the masked hero gets to ride once again! In this case I’m moving backwards a little bit here as I’m used to the newer version. This one still manages to hit all of the right notes though. It’s a pretty fun film overall and while I would not call it the definitive Zorro film, I didn’t really have any big issues with it either. I would say it accomplishes the goals that it set out to do and ultimately makes for a movie that I could basically recommend to anyone. The short run time also means that it always has a very fast pace going on.

The film starts off with Zorro leaving the swordsman academy because he has been receiving some distressing letters about his home. So he heads off to see what’s going on, although I’m not sure exactly who sent those letters or what they were really about. When he gets there, he’s shocked to hear about what people are saying about his father and seems to have no clue on the current state of affairs. So I was a little puzzled by this but either way at least it got him to go on the move. When he sees how the whole area is being overrun by powerfully corrupt officials, he decides to put a stop to this. When in costume as Zorro, he punishes the bullies and shows the weak that they have a chance. When in his human form, he sows discord among the villains and plays up his wimpy personality. It’s the ultimate dual identity.

I always like to see Zorro in his human form because he does a really good job of making sure that absolutely nobody likes him. Well, I suppose the exception would be Quintero’s wife but everyone else finds him just utterly repulsive. The villains don’t take him seriously and his father is supremely disappointed. It definitely goes a long way to showing just how good his acting skills are. It also can’t be easy for Zorro to purposefully be looking this bad but he does this for the long game.

Ultimately his plan is super successful. I’d even go so far as to say it runs so smoothly that you are waiting for something bad to happen. I suppose the priest Zorro was hiding the money with gets beaten up but otherwise the plan pretty much goes without a hitch. Zorro also dispatches the fighter Esteban with relative ease in this one. The guy may have been a fighter but he was definitely not in Zorro’s league. Zorro taking on an entire army and winning with these guerilla tactics is definitely impressive. The movie really gets the tone right for this kind of classic adventure so it’s easy to have a lot of fun with the whole thing. You understand the high stakes from the start but the movie is mostly concerned with having a lot of fun.

A great number of the scenes in this film have something ready to give you a smile after all. The writing is also really good. The script is on point with all of the fun dialogue and veiled threats. It’s the kind of writing that can be hard to match in a future title for the most part but Zorro has really proven to be pretty much timeless so far. His films just do a good job of adapting to the era, or in this case it didn’t even need to adapt as the same story still works pretty well.

I will say Zorro’s father also looks really good here. He may be older but he still jumps in to help his fellow people when things get dire. You understand his disdain for his son since that is the whole point of the ruse. If there was no twist, then of course he would be right to be upset. In the final fights we even see the father take down a few of the enemies so the guy has still got it.

As for the heroine Teresa, I don’t think she gets quite as much to do as in the other films but she still does defend Zorro at the dinner table. That always takes a certain amount of guts and showing up at the end to recruit the heroes was good. She’s at least a good character even though she was always around the main villains. Her mother is not nearly as good though as she’s actively trying to cheat on her husband with whichever guy is around. Definitely not the real loyal type, I can safely say that.

The romance in the film can definitely be a bit on the rushed side though. I don’t think the movie really had any time for that considering that the main plot already needed a good amount of the runtime to cook so if I was the writer I would have cut that out entirely. I suppose with this being planned to turn into a show then you would have had more time but then you could have used those episodes to really build up the plot. At least it’s not like it’s that bad, it just feels out of place since Zorro needs to focus on saving everybody and overthrowing the dictators. That has to be his only real concern. The ending definitely goes in fast to the point where I was thinking the recording was about to cut off but this way you can really say that Zorro was fighting right up to the end.

Overall, The Mark of Zorro is a pretty fun film. It really does fly on by but it never drags on at any point. You are guaranteed to be having a ton of fun throughout and at the end of the day that’s the important thing. I would say he is significantly more interesting than all of his rivals like the Green Hornet for now. Of course all it takes is a really solid film to change that but it’s not as easy as Zorro makes it look. When you try too hard to make a film funny it can backfire and just make you roll your eyes. So you have to handle it carefully and this is easily one of the big titles I would use to show people how to make an effective action/comedy title. Regardless this is a film that I can easily recommend to anyone looking for a fun adventure.

Overall 7/10

Escape from New York 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

This is one of those films that everybody has heard of at some point. It’s a pretty well known thriller from back in the day and having New York as the main setting is always a pretty good idea. I like the idea of the story and this is probably a better way to do the prison break kind of plot than with a standard one. They could have done a little more with the concept but you’ll still have a good time here.

Basically in the future crime has gotten so bad that the world needs more space for the prisons so Manhattan was sacrificed. The entire borough is now used to house all of the criminals. It’s an open air prison without any kind of supervision or police control. The crooks are basically left to their own devices to rule or be ruled. Unfortunately, the government gets sloppy and the president’s plane goes down so he ends up crashing within the city. If he isn’t recovered in less than 24 hours, nuclear weapons will be automatically activated and the world will be doomed. This forces them to send in a guy who used to be a military hero but tuned for some reason appears to be a big criminal now. You can probably guess that there is more to this than meets the eye but he is convinced to help in exchange for a complete pardon. Can he really save the president?

The mission is stacked against Snake (The lead) in a lot of different ways. For starters the government injected him with mini bombs so if he doesn’t save the president within the time frame then he will die. Additionally, chances are very good that the president is already dead with how ruthless the place already is. The odds that he is still okay are super slim but the government won’t care and will still blow Snake up. Snake is also massively outnumbered and will have to be dealing with some really crazy odds. This is also territory that the villains are super familiar with since they’ve had to live here for many years. The situation just keeps getting worse and worse.

Still, Snake couldn’t exactly turn down the job opportunity since he was told in no uncertain terms that he would be obliterated if he said no. This is a government that sanctioned a complete borough prison after all, you can tell that they are not bluffing by any means. Snake makes for a solid lead either way. He’s clearly experiences and knows what he is doing out there. A lesser character would have been absolutely crushed early on by everything happening but he just stays on mission even as characters are blown away right in front of him. He has to put up with a whole lot and you can bet there is basically no gratitude in the end.

As for New York City itself, it really looks like a dystopian backdrop here. There is almost no power since the criminals had to try and work some greenhouse supplies to their benefit with very limited results. Any reasonable person was likely axed off years ago so you’ve only got the crazies at this point. Everyone is extremely insane but at least some are crazy in a helpful way like the cab driver. I would say he was my favorite character from the city dwellers.

He talks about things very nonchalantly but is clearly prepared like when he had the bottles ready to light on fire. He’s been around the block many times and has seen a lot of things. He is clearly scared all of the time but at least he knows a lot of people and how to get around. Even the Duke would probably have a hard time stopping him. The Duke is the head honcho of the whole operation and really calls the shots here. In any situation there will always be one figure who rises to the top amidst the chaos and in this case he was the guy. He doesn’t get to appear quite as much as you would expect though. He’s mentioned a whole lot but it’s really not until the end that he actually shows up. I’d say he live up to the hype reasonably well. You can tell that he’s a real tough character but introducing him early on could have been fun.

This film is definitely more of a thriller than a full action movie either way. Don’t expect a lot of big explosive fight scenes the whole time. Snake can clearly fight and does knock a lot of people out but for the most part this is a stealth mission. He’s got to find the president and so a lot of screentime is really in exploring the city and talking to people to gather intel. I could see this being a really fun video game with how you would explore like that. The desolate ruins of Manhattan with criminals around every corner would really be tense.

The film can be violent at times but not quite as drastic as I would have expected. The film has a fairly dark atmosphere and keeps the tension going but does so without having everything be on screen. You know the situation sucks for everybody within the prison and the film doesn’t have to beat you over the head with the implications of this. You’re curious just what life looks like on the outside but the focus is really on the jail itself which makes sense. Either way there is a ton of corruption as always.

Overall, Escape from New York is just a really interesting film and works well. You’ll be at the edge of your seat the whole time. When I say the film could have done a bit more though, it’s really that the concept of turning a whole city into a prison sounds really interesting to me. I’d like to see a bit more about how it works and that’s where having the Duke show up earlier could help. You’d have to treat the subject carefully but yeah there is a lot of potential there. Here you are really getting a glimpse of the whole thing I’d say. Like Snake you’re really just thrown in there and that does amp up the tension so in that way the decision did make sense.

Overall 7/10

The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse Review

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It’s time for a film about how crime does pay sometimes. You’ve definitely got an interesting premise here and the film has a lot of fun with itself. It’s never taken too seriously which works out pretty well for the tone. If it was too serious then the ending would definitely be real messy to put it mildly. As it sands, it makes for a fun story.

The adventure starts with Clitterhouse robbing more places. This guy may be a very well respected doctor but it’s just not enough for him. He wants to really understand criminals on a deeper level and so he measures his own heartrate and takes blood before and after each crime. Clitterhouse gets even more greedy though and decides to join an entire gang. He quickly takes down Jo and the big Rocks gang. He impresses them so much that they let him join and they even start to respect him as the leader. Their actual leader Rocks doesn’t take too kindly to this but at the end of the day what can he really do about it? Well…he’s a crook so there is a whole lot he can do about it. Clitterhouse better watch himself.

Clitterhouse’s best strength is how good he is at talking. He can always spin things in a way where it sounds most agreeable and the other characters really don’t know how to handle him. He is always a few steps ahead and that really puts him in the catbird seat here. He boldly walks up to the police to chat even while he has a bunch of diamonds. His assistant is constantly shocked at just how bold the guy can be. In a way you could also say it’s all a big bluff as half the time he isn’t really intending to do some of these things and then he just has to keep his cool. Like leaving the bag by the desk in the police station and things like that. At the very least I don’t think that was intentional.

Cliterhouse is a professional though so it takes a whole lot to really get to him. He was certainly nervous near the end but ultimately didn’t really show it and still got the best of rocks. I’d say he was most terrified at the court trial and not really for his own life. This guy was definitely a real character that’s for sure. At the end of the day he stole a lot and is definitely a criminal though. Even if it was all to write a book, I would argue that doesn’t really excuse all of the theft. So I was rooting for the cops here even if they did seem doomed the whole time. They were always one step behind.

It did make for a fun scene when they were all yelling at each other though. That was definitely some pretty good stuff. Meanwhile Rocks made for a decent main villain. He’s definitely not the smartest guy around and yet he does have some good plans on occasion. For example he did a good job of tracking down where Clitterhouse lived and getting the drop on him. Even the doctor did not expect that to happen so that was a big W on the villain’s part. Rocks may have been outshined by Clitterhouse for a while there but he was the leader beforehand so I was glad that the film didn’t suddenly make him inept or anything like that. That would have been a real stretch.

Butch was a real loyal member of the gang. He seems to mean well as far as the villains are concerned and he helped out quite a bit. You don’t forget it when a character shows up when it counts. From all of the villains he was the most likable one. Jo meanwhile is a solid villain but does not always play things very smart. Running over to Clitterhouse’s place without a plan was really not a good idea. She almost just made things worse for all of them. You always gotta have a plan when you have ties to the local mob.

As you can expect with an old title like this, the writing is definitely solid. The script is always real good and that helps turn what would otherwise be a very quiet and down to Earth movie into one that is super entertaining the whole time around. It’s hard to picture them being able to effectively remake this film nowadays as a result. You’d probably either see them trying to throw in a lot of explosions (Which in fairness could be cool) or the humor wouldn’t work as well. This kind of story all comes down to the execution after all. I’d also say it is a perfect example of how the comedy genre can step in and really provide a good assist from time to time. If you take the humor away from the film and make it super serious, it could still work but I don’t think it would be nearly as engaging. Also like I mentioned the ending would probably be far less satisfying.

Overall, this was a pretty fun film. These retro titles always have a whole lot of charm to them. The witty dialogue works real well so the humor is very effective while being low key the whole time. The pacing is good and the character cast is small so they each get a good amount of screen time and development. I don’t really have any issues with this film. It was a solid all around experience without any real downsides. If you like a solid film involving a bunch of mind games then this will definitely be a title that you do not want to miss out on.

Overall 7/10

Run Silent, Run Deep Review

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This is a film about how obsession over revenge actually can work out pretty well. In a way the film’s overall message is quite a bit different than you’d expect since you’d figure that the mission would really fail to show that this wasn’t the way to go. It’s a pretty solid movie all in all with strong writing to keep you engaged.

The movie starts with Jim being celebrated by the crew and looking forward to many adventures as their captain. Unfortunately the celebration has barely concluded when he is told by exec that his ship is being given over to a guy named Richardson. Richardson’s own ship had been sunk about a year ago in the Bungo Straits where the Japanese have been successfully dominating every match. The U.S. has clear orders to avoid that area now but Richardson doesn’t care. He’s going to avenge his crew whatever it takes. Jim is certainly not pleased with how the lives of his crew are now being risked, but what can he do about it?

This film is fairly old school so everyone goes by the book and tries not to rock the boat much. That can be a bit annoying as Jim sees Richardson breaking the rules left and right but doesn’t really do anything about it. He sees the chain of command as not being something to jump over. So for example, when he notices Richardson going for the Bungo Straits, Jim will confront him about it privately. When the men on the ship ask about this, he just tells them to mind their business and keep it moving.

Jim’s doing his best to make sure the ship doesn’t devolve into chaos and that nothing crazy happens but I would say it happens at a rather huge cost. I don’t think keeping the men in the dark is the right answer. Jim’s almost compensating too hard to really show that he’s not going to try and take the ship back by force. It takes Richardson being really sick for Jim to really do anything.

Like I said in the intro though, Richardson’s plan actually works out fairly well. Yes, the heroes do take some big shots and have casualties. They almost could have all been destroyed but at the end of the day they stopped the Japanese threat that was sinking many shots. Richardson’s crew was able to pull off the bow shot when it counted despite this usually being a last resort technique. So you could say that Jim really trained them well.

I still think Jim should have been straight with the crew though. As for Richardson, he was also hiding things a whole lot. The fact that he refused to fight the first Japanese sub and let them get away just so he could go through with his mission was also pretty rough. Ultimately it works out pretty well but you never know if that one sub you avoided could go on to murder a bunch of people. It’s a high stakes bet with other people’s lives.

Ultimately Richardson’s story ends in a way you would expect because otherwise with the amount of rules he broke, things probably wouldn’t go great there. Results aren’t often enough to make up for the fact that you’ve broken orders, particularly in the army and the navy where these things are put as a premium. If you break them then the whole system starts to fall apart after all.

So there’s a good amount of tension here and the film does go into great detail about what a submarine fight is like. We see how you have to maneuver each torpedo and set the coordinates before firing. The precise angle to lower the ship while firing to do the bow shot, etc. Fans of submarine processes will get a particular kick out of it. It’s perhaps a bit more detail than I really needed but I wouldn’t say it ever drags the film on too long or anything like that.

The writing is always really good as you would expect for an old time film like this. The characters all talk like professionals and the dialogue exchanges are always really good. While we only have two main characters, there are still a number of sailors who get dialogue and show up from time to time. They help to move the plot around even without being individually important to what’s going on. It helps to make the submarine feel alive with the world building.

I also like that the Japanese aren’t just sitting around waiting to get blown up. We see them trying mental warfare tactics midway through the film where they deliver a message in English to taunt the main characters with how many ships have been sunk and also calling out their names to show that they know a lot. They have been doing well in the Bungo Straits after all so it makes sense that they wouldn’t just be taken out so easily.

If there is any plot armor or convenience here, it’s that I have a tough time believing so many people survived the initial explosion in the first scene. When Richardson’s ship is blown up, we see a number of people on rafts hanging on. We can assume a lot of them died later on from shock and injury since Richardson keeps referring to his crew as dead and it sounds like all of them didn’t make it except for him. Still doesn’t really answer how they survived an exploding ship in the water though, that just seems incredibly unlikely especially while the enemy ships were still around and this was in the middle of the Bungo Strait.

Overall, Run Silent, Run Deep is a pretty good movie. The story itself is fairly straight forward and as the movie is pretty short. The pacing is on point though and it keeps your attention the whole way. Being on a ship/submarine can make for a pretty good background. There isn’t a lot of scenery but it also helps to keep the tension up since there is really no escape. When an enemy ship shows up you generally have to fight and if you lose then you lose your life. So the stakes are definitely pretty high there unless you are half sub and can just run away but then the whole crew gives you heat for that. It’s all about the army politics and that’s always fun.

Overall 7/10

The In Laws Review

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It’s time for a film about just how crazy a wedding can get. You don’t really know what the other family is going to be like after all and you just have to fear for the worse. This film’s pretty good, I do think it drags on just a bit as it goes on with Shelly taking way too long to get with the program but it still does have a good amount of gags and I like the general premise. Ultimately it’s enough for me to give this one a thumbs up.

The movie starts off with Shelly getting ready to finally meet the father of his daughter’s fiancé. This guy has been particularly elusive for quite a while now to the point where the wedding is going to be in just a few days. Shelly isn’t worried until his dentist patient confirms that this is a really big deal. If the father is no good then the son might be a mess as well. Sure enough, Vince is a mess who seems to be a chronic liar and now Shelly wants the marriage to be called off. Unfortunately he is quickly pulled into a giant CIA conspiracy and now he is wanted for stealing millions of dollars. Can Shelly escape this plight and protect his daughter’s future or is this an elaborate way to get him out of the picture?

Again this is a comedy so you shouldn’t take the plot too seriously. All the CIA stuff is handled overly dramatic of course and the film doesn’t mind going completely bonkers with everyone being extremely expressive. Shelly is the biggest example of that as most of his dialogue is yelling and panicking. The guy does not know how to be subtle at all so even in a crowded cafe he’ll be yelling about CIA secrets. The guy was definitely not built for this kind of mission and Vince probably should have left him out of it. I get the feeling he would have had an easier time grabbing the briefcase and ducking off on his own. That’s how much Shelly tends to hold him back.

I can definitely understand why Shelly thought the whole marriage was probably a bad idea after meeting this guy. He doesn’t exactly overwhelm you with confidence after all. I may not care for Shelly much as a character as the “normal” guy panicking about the weird one the whole time usually gets old fast, but he still had some valid points here. Ultimately he just should have stayed focused on his business and none of this would have happened to him. Of course it wouldn’t be much of a film in that case. Shelly’s best moment was definitely when Vince accused him of not being able to understand what was happening and Shelly made a speech about how he shouldn’t underestimate the average guy down the block. That was a pretty good defense.

Vince has been around the block many times and has his moments where he seems to be good at being an agent but then on the other hand he has tons of moments where you feel like he has just gotten really lucky the whole time. Vince doesn’t really panic but at the same time he’s almost constantly on the run. Yes he’s a great shot but that doesn’t help when he’s heavily outnumbered. Even to the very end of the film he only survives on absolute luck which is definitely not the best look for the guy.

The banter with Shelly and Vince can be fun. I actually even prefer that to the fight scenes themselves since those of course aren’t always being taken super seriously anyway. At least for the arguments you see where both of the characters are coming from. A title like this needs a lot of banter in order to succeed after all and I would say it works out pretty well. I also liked the CIA correspondent who shows up twice to talk about how crazy Vince is.

This works as a solid mystery because Vince has been so unbalanced throughout the film that you can’t entirely rule out the possibility that he has been leading Shelly on the whole time. Perhaps he really was kicked out of the CIA and has gone rogue to steal millions of dollars. For all Shelly knows, he is really getting himself into trouble now. Of course he ultimately isn’t able to get out once he’s so deep in anyway so it’s all a moot point. Now he just has to try and stay alive which isn’t easy as a normal citizen with no combat oriented background.

What I would do to keep the momentum up in the second half would be to probably remove the entire climax of the main characters getting captured and the near shootout. Instead switch that to Shelly finally taking the reigns. Have him take the money over to the dentist’s office and make a play like he’s going rogue. You could have Vince finally be lost as to what’s going on and then it turns out this was just a way to smoke the villains out from hiding. This way you give Shelly some kind of a big win outside of really just being along for the ride and helping out in small ways. I think that would give him more agency and could have made the ending a bit more fun. I definitely don’t buy the two of them being friends by the end the way this film ended. There were just too many instances where Shelly really could have died and Vince isn’t exactly apologetic so there isn’t much reason for them to get along. If anything, keeping it a bit antagonistic would have opened the door for some sequels with the characters pretending to be nice while the kids were there before going back to their normal selves.

Overall, The In Laws is a fun enough film. I do think they could have had a little more fun with the concept though. Instead of this all being one mission, a montage early on of Vince giving crazier and crazier reasons for why he has to cancel on appointments would have worked really well. Then you set up the main story. I also think you could probably rope the kids in a bit too by having them start to fight about some of this stuff. Even though their upcoming wedding is the main plot point, they don’t actually get to appear much at all. Their screen time is surprisingly small. Either way, this film is a good one to check out if you want some light hearted fun. It should keep your attention well enough the whole time and at the end of the day that’s the important thing.

Overall 7/10

Cover Up Review

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It’s time for a film about an insurance guy and that’s pretty fun because it’s super rare to see one in the spotlight. Yeah that made for a good story. This guy always knows when something isn’t right and makes a move on that. The sheriff dares him to try that in a small town but what he doesn’t realize is that our hero grew up in a small town so he’s really ready for anything.

The movie starts off with the suicide of a guy named Phillips. Sam has to go to the town for a routine check to confirm that the guy is dead and all. It’s supposed to be a very routine thing but when he gets to town the sheriff isn’t particularly helpful. There is no morgue report, the gun has vanished, there are no bullets, and they don’t want to even let Sam see the body. Is Phillips even dead? Sam’s going to have to go into this mystery even if it means going up against the entire town. Does he really have what it takes?

Well, the good news is that Sam’s a tough character who isn’t going to back down just because of a little intimidation here. He gets into it with Sheriff Larry on several occasions and just keeps on coming back for more. Larry is really determined to keep Sam on a short leash but this main character is not so easily deterred. No, he’s just getting started. The more Sam looks into this though, the more the suspects begin to rise. Everyone in town despised Phillips, he was unanimously agreed to be an awful person and they all agree that the town would be better off without him.

Frank is the fierce suspect here because he was going out with Phillip’s niece and the guy didn’t really seem to like the idea. Then you have Stu who just so happens to own the same kind of gun that was used to potentially destroy Phillips, once Sam managed to get Larry to show him the bullets. Stu’s daughter Anita is distraught about this and so she quickly begins to try and hide evidence from Sam as well. Then there’s the doctor but as Sam gets close there, the doctor quickly has a heart attack and dies. Most inconvenient, that’s for sure.

The weak point of the film is definitely the romance though. During this case Sam falls for Anita and in the background of a possible murder conspiracy this just doesn’t feel like the right time. Additionally, it’s hard to see how it could possibly end well once she starts hiding the facts and working against Sam. She basically says if Sam continues to do his job then they will be enemies and she really gets to work on burning the bridge during Christmas. Things work out for her so then she’s happy again but it’s just way too late by then. The fact that she was blaming Sam for just doing his job was rough.

Especially since Sam could have easily never found out the truth. He was giving his best effort which is his job, why should he be given such a hard time abut that? It just made no real sense and even less sense that they would get back together after that. Sam is definitely the most likable character here. I really appreciated that he never gave up. It’s really not easy when everyone is rooting for you to fail after all. Sam stuck to it and the company knows they have an asset in him. He may not have finished the job in the end once he learns the context but he made sure that he would know the truth before he left.

Larry makes for a solid main antagonist here but the guy can definitely be rather annoying. If he had played ball at all a bit sooner then everything would be easier for Sam. Of course, that wasn’t in Larry’s interests which is why he was getting in Sam’s way every step of the process. The banter between the characters is pretty great I have to say. Larry even goes as far as to talk slow and bring up dead topics like his cigars over and over to just be purposefully obtuse. The biggest issue is that Larry’s actually really smart so he is pretty good at dodging the questions over and over just to make things tough on Sam.

It all goes back to vigilante justice here. When you’ve got someone terrorizing a town but no legal means with which to stop him, then naturally the people are going to get more and more desperate and something is going to eventually happen. That’s just a foregone conclusion no matter how much the characters may not like it. Technically I don’t even think all of the characters knew what happened here. Some of the most influential ones did of course but even for a small town I don’t think the word totally spread to the rest of the populace.

The film also takes place around Christmas time which is pretty fun. You get to see the characters all hanging out and getting ready for happy days only to have this big controversy show up. One of the best characters was the maid/housekeeper who really liked showing off how much knowledge she had. She didn’t care what was going on, she would blurt out answers when she felt like it. It made one of her scenes in particular work really well to show that she still had one concern above even that. She was willing to put herself in jeopardy to help someone as well. Pretty much everyone in the town was super loyal and as Sam said before, they all tend to be pretty good people.

Overall, Cover Up is a pretty good film. It definitely had my attention the whole time. You’re really not sure what happened along with Sam and the film gives you just enough twists and turns where you even have to acknowledge that perhaps it really was a suicide. You just don’t really know for sure until the end and there are a good amount of suspects. Each alibi tends to be rather weak so you have to go with your gut at that point. I think the one character everyone would assume it was not would be the sheriff since that would just be way too obvious. The super obvious answer is rarely the right one after all.

Overall 7/10

Godzilla Minus One Review

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It’s time for the return of Godzilla! Japan likes to bring him back from time to time although lately we haven’t really seen any big opponents for him. This is a return to form of a more serious Godzilla film and what would happen if he really did show up. It’s a solid modern take on the Kaiju and delivers with some solid special effects. It doesn’t stand out compared to the average Godzilla film but having any Godzilla film show up is always awesome!

The movie starts with Koichi deciding to dodge his suicide bomb run and just head to an island to recharge for a bit. No way he’s dying in futility! Nobody is particularly thrilled about this but they don’t have time to convince him to be destroyed because Godzilla shows up and starts laying waste to all of them. Koichi and Tachibana are the only survivors. Tachibana escapes to parts unknown while Koichi visits his home but people are also upset at him. A suicide bomber cannot return alive, it means that they didn’t follow through. The only thing keeping Koichi together at this point is taking care of a lady named Noriko and a baby she is helping out. They are homeless after the attacks and so he lets her crash at his place. Can he redeem himself now?

A lot of the story is really about Koichi dealing with the fact that he survived and wondering if he made the right choice. He has survivor’s guilt and a whole lot of PTSD to unpack so it’s definitely not easy. I would say this also tends to be a cultural distinction here as Japan always was really big on the family honor dynamic. Koichi knows he would have died for pretty much no purpose and yet he still can’t shake the guilt because it’s what was expected of him. Defying the rules and doing your own thing is more of an American ideology and that’s where I tend to stand. To me it makes sense to keep surviving and make the rational decision without guilt but of course that’s easier said than done.

So the film keeps up this very somber tone for a long while with Koichi and it’s a bit hard to connect to. I do appreciate that he is trying to take care of Noriko though. The film can’t help but try to force a romance later on though which I thought was rather unnecessary. Having Koichi help a pure stranger out of the kindness of his heart or some kind of belief that he needed to even out the scales would have been really good. In saving her he would save himself or something like that. The romance just muddies that message a bit I’d say. At least it does take place over several years so I won’t give the usual complaint of it being rushed. It really wasn’t in this case, I just felt it didn’t really support the themes.

Noriko is a good person as well with how she takes care of the baby and everything. She also tries to move on so that she is not a bother to Koichi at all. I can appreciate that like her getting a job and everything. Her reaction times are also a lot better than Koichi’s and her instincts are sharp. She even has the best durability feat among the humans in the whole film. As a whole she is definitely a quality character, dare I say easily the best human in the film?

There are some other characters but they tend to be more on the annoying side. You have the inventor who barely knows what he is doing and who gets drunk a lot. You’ve got the young guy who is out of his depths but really wants to help. Then you have the older, more jaded guy who is ready to step up when needed. They aren’t bad but don’t do a whole lot. Tachibana was a good rival at least in that he wouldn’t let Koichi off easily but didn’t let his personal feelings get in the way of things by the end. When it was time to buckle down and do his job, he did it 100%.

Now as for Godzilla, unfortunately this is one of his weakest incarnations. That is usually going to happen when you have him up against humans though. In this case, conventional weaponry is enough to heavily damage him to the point of needing to use his regeneration. The main ships are nearly able to destroy him on their own. This Godzilla would not last for very long against someone like Orga, I can tell you that for sure. I liked the regeneration and how fast it worked, but being at the cost of his overall durability was a little unfortunate. You have to try and strike a balance of course but I don’t think this was it.

Naturally it’s all going to get a little cheesy with the humans fighting Godzilla but that’s how it goes I suppose. Whenever the power balance is drastic enough, that is going to happen. The ending actually had another cheesy event aside from Godzilla going down, but that one I was fine with. I always root for the Hollywood type ending where things go well and so this worked out really well. Why have a grim ending when you can have a happy one right? If not for that part of the ending you could argue that the costs were just way too great.

We do have a pair of cliffhangers at the end of the movie. We know most likely they will never be followed up on but I still appreciate having them in there. It’s an ending that reminds you just how doomed everyone is going to be in the future. Humanity has no idea what they have just gotten themselves into! It’s also a very realistic human setting so the odds of building some kind of Mecha Godzilla this time feel very remote.

The soundtrack is all right. The standout is definitely when they play the main Godzilla theme from the good ole days. None of the other tracks were nearly as intense. Godzilla’s new roar isn’t bad although I prefer the original one. The design itself is definitely solid on all accounts though. The Atomic Breath may take a little too long to fire and recharge but these nerfs were likely necessary to give the humans a fighting chance and even then they feel super outmatched anyway.

The writing was solid in the film and I appreciate that there is a lot going on. The graphics are definitely good all around. In general it’s just not quite as fast paced as the average Godzilla film though. It’s hard to go back to the days of not having an opponent Kaiju. Shin Godzilla did that to better effect with all of the humor throughout the film and poking fun at how everything needs a meeting. This one was going for a much more somber tone which was never really going to work out quite as well. It’s just tough to really pull that off in general but thanks to Godzilla the film is still pretty solid.

Overall, Godzilla Minus One is a pretty good film. It may not reach the usual Godzilla standard at times but that’s because they were trying to lean a bit more on the humans here. I don’t think that plot ever becomes super compelling as Godzilla steals the show without appearing for a while. So you’re left just wanting Godzilla to appear every time even when the humans are supposed to be dominating and it’s hard to really balance both ends. Still, I definitely recommend checking this one out as soon as possible. It’s not every day that we have a Godzilla film!

Overall 7/10

The Cheaters Review

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It’s time for a film about the dangers of rampant greed. Pretty much everyone in this film is either trying for money or status. Just about none of the characters are all that likable which can work out well enough for a comedic film where everyone is getting wrecked. I would say it definitely does work in this instance. The characters are all obnoxious but not outright malicious or anything like that. That’s the line you want to be careful about crossing after all and the film does a really good job on this one.

The film starts off with James being reminded that he is super broke to the point of being near bankruptcy. What had once been a vast empire of wealth has been absolutely squandered. He really did a terrible job of utilizing his assets and was too showy about buying everything. He has one chance though, a rich relative is dying and so he might be able to get a lot of money. The family is super stoked but then it turns out he has given the money away to a random girl he saw at a show once. If she can’t be located, then the family will get all of the money so they must ensure that this “Florie” character never hear about the news. That…or they could find her first to keep her in the dark.

The latter seems like an absolutely terrible idea so naturally that’s what they go with. If you ask me, that’s just a bit weird and will give her the idea that something is up. How many people actually pay attention to the newspaper right? I think if James and the others hadn’t actually done anything then this film could have played out very differently, but again that’s where the greed comes into play. They just stretched themselves a little too thin and ultimately that came back to bite them.

One big story element that intertwines with this is that Therese wants to impress her boyfriend by taking care of a poor soul for Christmas. This is apparently something that is used as a bragging chip to an extent. All the rich people are doing it, or at least so she says. So she brings in Anthony, a washed up actor who has serious drinking issues and he will stay with them for a little while. The tricky thing about this is the guy doesn’t move around much so they all tend to forget about him and he ends up overhearing a lot of juicy information. He is now a potential liability so they have to be careful or he will wreck the whole thing for them. Can they really stop him though?

Now as far as this plot goes, my hot take is it’s still good that they brought him in. Even if it was for completely selfish reasons and they didn’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts, it barely matters to me. For example, lets say someone donate a million dollars to a local orphanage and you later find out it was because they desperately needed the tax break it would get them. Well…the kids still got the money so I don’t mind that the rich person benefited from it. At the end of the day, if you do a good action, I’m glad to see it even if the action itself was not heartfelt. Obviously if it’s a scam and the orphanage did not benefit then that’s a whole other issue.

So Anthony has a nice house now and a place to rest. I would argue that this is really all that matters in the long run. Anthony isn’t the greatest character either as he is dealing with his own issues but he definitely has more of a conscience than the other characters. He was doing his best to make sure that Florie wasn’t totally left out to dry although it took him a long time to really make a final decision. Also he continues to be drunk for a long while and I was hoping he would really beat that addiction during the movie.

The writing is really what makes this film entertaining. The story itself isn’t necessarily exciting on its own but it’s fun to watch this group of amateurs try to succeed in their big plot. It’s clearly over their heads in a big way but they continue to try regardless. James has that complete confidence yet paranoia that makes for a good combination. He’s good at bluffing but definitely panics when it doesn’t work. Therese is a little too eager for outside approval the whole time and uses deceptions to try and make herself ready. That’s also not a good way to go about things.

Stephen is pretty direct about not trusting Anthony from the start so I appreciate that. He basically said out loud what the rest of the characters were thinking. Anthony was a solid wild card to throw some tension into the mix. I also liked Florie for that role, especially as she got a solid twist early on. I also think the whole idea of the uncle giving all of his vast fortune to a random show girl he met over his own family speaks volumes to the family themselves. You definitely shouldn’t take for granted if the money is coming to you or not when someone passes away. That will always be a true wild card after all right until the end.

The ending wasn’t particularly satisfying even if they were trying for an uplifting message there. It’s completely not the direction I would have taken the movie but it’s not like it wrecked everything or anything like that. It may not have been where I wanted the movie to go but it’s not particularly egregious. Just expect to shake your head the whole time.

Overall, The Cheaters is one of those films where the main characters get off pretty easy. Sure, they may not have hurt anyone directly but they were effectively trying to steal millions of dollars and especially back in the day that was a ton of money. I don’t think they really deserved to get any of the money at the end. Apologies are all well and good but it was a little late by that point. I think they should have just vowed to do better with their money. After all, did they actually learn anything by the time the film was over? I’m not sure that they did and that’s definitely a real problem here. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were to pull this kind of stunt again. Actually that would have made for a funny ending even if it might be contrived to have someone else dying.

Overall 7/10

The Asphalt Jungle Review

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Now it’s time for a pretty fun noir title. It’s definitely got its share of intrigue, drama, and emotional beats. So on the whole it’s really the definition of being an all around complete title. I tend to enjoy heist films like this that have a lot of story and planning going on in the background. You can bet that none of the characters can afford to let their guards down for even a moment or it’s all over.

The movie starts by introducing us to Doc who has finally left jail. He was there for a long time but now he is free to terrorize the world once more. He doesn’t do this with violence though, instead he goes and uses his wits. So he’s got a full proof plan to rob a bank and make 500K but he needs a team to do this and someone to come up with the funds. He meets up with a guy called Cobby who knows a rich guy named Alonzo. Alonzo says he can handle the money part but Doc doesn’t trust him. So Doc asks Dix, to keep an eye out as he’s the only one that can really be trusted. Dix is the strong man of the group and assures Doc that nobody will be messing with his future money. Now it’s time for the crew to try and strike it rich, but do they have what it takes?

In a lot of ways this might be the easiest heist for a heist film. I wouldn’t say the villains ever have any real resistance. For the most part they are really only having to worry about each other which is definitely one of the risks of being a common crook like that. They don’t exactly have the strongest set of morals and ethics right? So it’s not surprising when everything begins to crumble around them. In fact, you could even argue that it’s probably expected. They’ve all got issues after all.

Alonzo is actually dirt poor and right now he’s cheating on his wife with someone else. The guy is morally bankrupt and desperate which is a really dangerous combination. When you’ve got both of those things lined up, it definitely means that he can’t be trusted. Obviously I have no real sympathy for the guy. I mean all of these villains are crooks but this guy is definitely the worst of the bunch. He’s confident but doesn’t really have any skill of his own which is why he’s broke.

Then we have Cobby who talks a good game but only when the others have their backs turned. This guy isn’t confident in the slightest and definitely folds when the pressure is on. It was fun to see the crooked cop show up and take him out. It was interesting the way the movie presented the cop. Yes, he turned to the dark side for money and definitely made the wrong choices but ultimately he went straight once enough heat was on him. The whole ending has a speech about this as there may be a few bad cops around but the majority are still out on the beat stopping crooks every day. I thought it was an effective illustration on scale there. This cop wasn’t out murdering anybody either, he was basically not taking a law that he disagreed with all that seriously.

Still a bad thing without a doubt, yet a cut different than the hardened criminals all around him. As for Doc, I actually liked him for most of the movie. He kept his cool and always had a plan no matter what was coming up. This was a guy who could not be cornered too easily and had experience. It’s why his ending makes no real sense. I just don’t get the logic here at all of how he would take such a risk. Surely he would have the self control to wait to do anything that might delay him until he was out of the state? It all just felt like a big stretch. The film was probably going for some kind of irony or message but I wasn’t buying it. It was a weak way to get him out of there.

Then you have Dix who in a way felt like the main character. He’s a very prideful guy who takes no disrespect from anybody. He’s also honorable in his own way. The guy made a lot of bad choices and is absolutely a villain yet he doesn’t have a lot of malice like the others. He has nightmares about his past with the horses and is definitely going crazy but you feel like with the right circumstances he could be okay. Ultimately these were not the right circumstances but he did have a great shootout with Bob.

That’s probably the best scene in the film as the film was building up to the big fight between villains for a while. So seeing them all get to confront each other at the end was some good stuff. It’s a quick blink and you miss it kind of scene but when the characters have guns, that only makes sense. It’s not like these guys are bulletproof or anything like that after all. I also liked Bob. His screentime may have been a lot lower than the other characters but he made for a very imposing villain when he did show up.

I’d say one of the subtle messages here though is how the supporting cast all lost out due to the villain’s actions. The wife of Alonzo is certainly in for a rough time with her husband being taken out. The young girlfriend is also out of luck although she wasn’t very smart and was basically complicit so I don’t feel too bad for her. Then you have Dix’s girlfriend who is also going to be in a rough spot. Basically villains get the direct repercussions and anyone associated with them will fall as well. You can be sad about it without regretting it though. The villains absolutely did need to be stopped and the cops really did their job here.

The writing is strong and the pacing is good. This is the classic kind of noir title that really does the genre justice. I suppose if it’s not officially considered a noir then I may be giving it the wrong credit but the fact remains that this was good stuff. The film properly developed the characters and really got things moving. I didn’t even mind that the heist itself was fairly easy because it’s an interesting change of pace.

Overall, The Asphalt Jungle is a pretty good movie. It definitely had a solid climax with a lot of tension even if the way the mastermind goes down was definitely underwhelming to the highest degree. It just felt so out of character. I suppose anyone can have a vice but to go down like that are all of the build up and planning? I’ve never really seen anything like it, that was absolutely crazy. So you should check out this film either way and see what you think about how the ringleader is taken care of.

Overall 7/10